Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2016

For too many small businesses, customer service is still seen as a “burden.” The report also indicates that customer problem experiences continue to increase, up four percent to 54 percent since the last study. These days, relationships and online reviews are key drivers for over 80 percent of new customers.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Satisfaction 56

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 26, 2016

6 Entrepreneurs share their predictions for this year’s evolution of online industries, which will be key for small businesses across the globe in 2016. As social media becomes a platform for online extremists, valid questions regarding freedom of speech, monitoring and censorship have arisen. Wireless Global Connections.

Commerce 40

Commerce Mobile Technical Review Google 40

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Tealium, a San-Diego startup that provides online advertising tag management and marketing services for enterprise customers, has raised $35 million in a growth financing deal intended to expand its technology and market reach. We help our customers weave together all the data across all of their data streams,” Lunsford said.

Customer 40

Customer Custom San Diego JavaScript 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

With interactive social media and video everywhere, everyone needs to feel they have a relationship with their leaders, and every brand needs leader personification for customers to relate. Interact with employees and customers on a regular basis. Never be too busy to talk to real customers. by Steven D.

Social Media 99

Social Media Metrics Customer Custom 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2017

exabytes per month at the end of 2016, of which half was video. Virtual living: the rise and growing dominance of social media. This gives rise to the personalization and customization that we all want. Analytics will soon drive nearly all business decisions for any company that wants to remain relevant to its customers.

Startup 55

Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2016

Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience. Relationships are a function of customer culture.

Services 54

Services Social Media Technical Review Media 54

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Does your business have a visible positive strategy, or do your customers and employees still see your primary focus as closing more sales and killing competitors? Certainly that has been the strategy of many companies, and has worked in the past, but today’s customers and workers are looking for more. Market and customer positioning.

Customer 104

Customer Custom Social Media Competition 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Things change so fast these days in business that your first priority as an entrepreneur is to stay current, by talking to customers, peers, and experts. This means regular updates are required to your business plan, marketing message, social media, and website content. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/06/2016.

Social Media 67

Social Media Metrics Startup Technical Review 67

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2014

zettabytes by the year 2016. Virtual living: the rise and growing dominance of social media. This gives rise to the personalization and customization that we all want. Analytics will soon drive nearly all business decisions for any company that wants to remain relevant to its customers.

Startup 99

Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 99

socalTECH

APRIL 21, 2017

For people who send things out, it's a chance to be in front of your customer. We're working with some very large, extremely well known CPGs to help them establish that direct selling channel, and help them create a relationship with their customer. You need to understand what it means when a customer receives a product.

Startup 145

Startup Product Customer Custom 145

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). Social media users are over 60% more likely to check email at least four times a day than those who don’t use social media. People don’t want to speak to customer service reps.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2016

You need to find the customers, rather than waiting for them to find you. With social media and conventional selling, the people with the best message get the order. Create customer advocates. Paper routes succeed best when customers recommend you to neighbors and associates. Don’t forget the marketing. “If

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Social Media Satisfaction Customer 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

Angels are most interested to help you scale the business, once you have real customer traction and ready to break out. Remember that angel investors are buying equity in your business, so they are not impressed with a customer presentation. Highlight existing presence on the Internet and social media.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Some make big mistakes, such as Webvan expanding too fast with a huge infrastructure, and Pets.com , trying to grow the business with a negative margin, under the mistaken assumption that winning customers is more important than making a profit. Actively listen to customer feedback, and don’t be a one-trick pony.

Search Engine Optimization 57

Search Engine Optimization Startup Social Media Metrics 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2016

With today’s interactive social media and the real-time Internet, both customers and employees see inside your company easily, so you can’t hide your real company culture. At the same time relationship perceptions have become the biggest drivers to customer loyalty and employee engagement. Surprises are expensive.

Company 54

Company Companies Social Media Organization 54

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

It’s equally easy to go online and incorporate your new entity, register some intellectual property and have some fun with social media for marketing and interacting with customers. Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors.

Social Media 60

Social Media Startup Equity Entrepreneur 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2016

They don’t realize that strong team engagement leads to even stronger customer engagement, which can more than double your startup revenue and growth, according to experts. For example, TOMS Shoes matches every pair of shoes purchased with a new pair of shoes for a child in need, driving engagement for employees and customers.

Software Review 57

Software Review Satisfaction Startup Training 57

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Most people have heard of Foursquare for local nightlife and Airbnb for rooms, but other nationally recognized sources for local services are still hard to find, including social media, local news, advertising, and event calendars. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/13/2016. Anyone can do it.

Advertising 63

Advertising Content Social Media Satisfaction 63

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2016

A focus on business execution certainly includes selecting the right idea and developing a marketable solution, but it also requires selecting a viable target market, attracting customers, winning against competition, and delivering a value proposition which is attractive to customers as well as the business.

Ideas 54

Ideas Entrepreneur Customer Custom 54

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

The following year, she stepped down as CEO, and by 2016, her company filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Boohoo. It’s more of a mockery,” said Isa Watson , founder and CEO of social media app Squad. Then, Amoruso started a company called Girlboss that was likened to “Linkedin for Women.” It’s not a compliment.

Startup 280

Startup Netflix Los Angeles Innocal 280

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2018

The new era of highly connected and interactive technology is changing not only how business employees interact with customers, but also how they interact with each other, and with their company. I am happy to see reports that young companies are leading the way in these trends, on both the customer and the employee side.

Startup 61

Startup Case Study Platform Yahoo 61

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

For example, early social media startup Friendster was so enamored with their early acceptance that they turned down a $30 million offer from Google, then quickly ran into money woes and tough competition. On the other end of the transaction, customer support, returns, and transportation can add up.

Startup 57

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2016

By profit, I simply mean offering a product or service to customers for a price that exceeds the total costs associated with the solution, thus providing some basis for recovering sunk costs and generating a return for stakeholders. Solve a painful problem for customers who have money to spend.

Entrepreneur 58

Entrepreneur Ideas Pricing Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

You need business partners, investors and customers. Most psychologists agree that starting from a very young age, friend relationships are critical to building social skills and lead to a balanced view of morality, integrity and right versus wrong. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 01/29/2016.

Entrepreneur 66

Entrepreneur Social Network Technical Review Social Media 66

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

If we build a great product, customers will find it and us. Great companies, like Apple or IBM, have a large customer base and quality products, so new technology along the same lines will be found. Smart startups make their intentions visible at the idea stage to test customer interest and make corrections before spending real money.

Startup 58

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Ideas 58

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their new startup idea that they can’t believe any intelligent being, investor or customer wouldn’t react just as excitedly after a quick introduction. You have to persuade the right partners to join and build the solution, the right investors to fund it and the right customers to buy it.

Ideas 56

Ideas Study Entrepreneur Customer 56

Tech.Co

AUGUST 22, 2016

The available testing options seem unable to provide a fast, private and positive experience to their customers and in a hundred-some years our healthcare system has not been able to solve the problem. With social platforms, we had to work our way up the food chain to get resolution. and Celebrate 2016. Reach out to us here.

Social Media 70

Social Media Los Angeles Startup Screening 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2016

Interact with real customers to validate passion in their feedback. Use social media and live customers to eliminate any reality distortion in your internal perception of value. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 01/01/2016. More passion may mean more opportunity, but it also means more risk.

Startup 62

Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Statistics 62

Eric Greenspan

JANUARY 24, 2016

Like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre use rap lyrics, Seth and I use social media instead. I was cool with this and we agreed that I would handle the site build out, site management, all customer facing responsibilities, all sales, marketing and operational aspects of the business except for our accounting of course. I did the rest.

Content 100

Content Blogging Burbank Course 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 30, 2016

The most common startup proposals I see are for yet another social media niche solution, or for solutions which are “all-in-one” integrations of multiple existing platforms. Never assume that a great solution will sell itself, or won’t need the help of dominant distribution channels and partners with existing customer bases.

Entrepreneur 76

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Platform 76

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

By 2016, app downloads are estimated to reach 44 billion and app-to-person messaging is seen to overtake text messaging. It is a good thing that there is an app for everything today — work, social media, games, shopping, travel, photography, and schedule of movie screenings. What’s in an app? Branding with an app.

Mobile 40

Mobile Social Media Google Software Review 40

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

When Facebook first started looking for investors, there was so social-media market. In fact, it is your job to show how the technology will be embodied in a solution that satisfies a painful customer need, what channels will be used for sales and what business model maximizes return. Minimize both.

Funding 57

Funding Social Media Startup Patents 57

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2016

In addition to funding, the good news is that all of these provide aspiring entrepreneurs with an opportunity to perfect their marketing pitch, get some valuable target customer feedback and improve visibility to other funding sources. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 02/17/2016.

Technical Review 58

Technical Review Platform Entrepreneur Funding 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2016

You need to convince family and friends, in terms they can relate to, that your idea makes logical business sense, and you have done your homework on real customers, competitors, and costs. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 08/22/2016. Vision alone rarely convinces people to invest. Demos and prototypes are key.

Funding 60

Funding Startup Ideas Slides 60

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

This is only one of the ways social media and other technologies are changing the experience of forming our views on election issues and choosing our candidates. The items are chosen based on their social media rankings among “political influencers” from both the conservative and liberal camps. See how it works here.).

Technical Review 40

Technical Review News Social Media Startup 40

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

If you wait to incorporate the business until you have a product and customers, which normally has no taxable value until liquidity, it will be taxed at issuance at the current value. Until you have a business, you shouldn’t get a web domain name or social media accounts, since these all should match and are hard to change later.

Company 61

Company Companies Startup Equity 61

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value). But that’s harder to build in 2016 than it was in say 2005. Our centralization is their achilles heel.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150