StartUp Beat

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

2017 has already witnessed a load of successful and exciting conferences, including World Domination Summit, Startup+Fest and CEO Space. It’s a competition where entrepreneurs take the stage and proceed to pitch their startup ideas and their visions for the future. Since Disrupt, we sign up about 5000 new customers a day.”.

Conference 40

Conference Startup Artificial Inteligence Competition 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2017

Most business leaders today realize that smart management of scarce resources is the key to competitive success. Leaders who are able to optimize these find multipliers of 20 percent up to nine times the average productivity. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 03/09/2017. That’s why they manage money so carefully.

Product 58

Product Startup Guide Framework 58

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. How profitable is my product or service? As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

exabytes per month at the end of 2017, of which more than half was video. 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. Crowdsource: putting your audience to work beyond customers.

Technology 97

Technology Social Media Startup Entertainment 97

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

Brands need influencers working on their behalf because they provide the third-party credibility and social proof that validates their products. by 15 million users since 2017, as young people ages 12 to 17 migrate to Snapchat and Instagram. Once someone is engaged with your product, you’ll want to get them engaged with your brand.

Social Media 95

Social Media Media Snapchat Platform 95

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2017

Every opportunity is global, but so is the competition. Evolving customer expectations and technology are the norm, forcing every company, from startups to large enterprises, to innovate quickly, despite their fear of change, uncertainty, and doubt. Get in sync with customers by frequent customer interaction.

Competition 60

Competition Customer Custom Social Media 60

Tech.Co

APRIL 24, 2018

Being one small company amongst the sea of thousands of startups vying for customers, capital, and talent, the way to get noticed above the crowd, connect with that next big partner, and raise some capital is to throw your hat in the ring to compete at Startup of the Year. A Strong Alumni Network.

Startup 70

Startup Competition Google Capital 70

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

I’m certainly not a fan of customer rip-offs, but even non-profits have to be cash-flow positive, or have deep pockets, to help anyone for long. Every business needs to develop a revenue model even before a product. It’s naïve to think you can sell below costs, and make it up by attracting more customers.

Pricing 66

Pricing Customer Custom Advertising 66

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Since this document is outward facing, it is important to keep the terminology and tone consistent with that of your customer set, investors, and business partners. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. Professional investors look for the right people, more than the right product. Skip the acronyms and jargon.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2017

I’m convinced that you can’t stay competitive that way with today’s customers, and today’s employees. It’s time to push decision making down into the organization –insisting that the people closest to the customer and the markets learn and make the decisions. Define customer value as the only path to business value.

Competition 50

Competition Organization Customer Custom 50

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2017

Entrepreneurs always work hard to create an innovative product or service, but often count on standard seller marketing for sales. But the reality is that sellers are no longer in charge of the customer buying process. The best way to do this is with real customer interviews. Don’t start from how you want to sell.

Search Engine Optimization 58

Search Engine Optimization Startup SEO Customer 58

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

founded in summer of 2017. Maybe they might be using a platform like Shopify to sell their products and power their website, and they might use Facebook for advertising, and maybe they're using paid search with Google. That makes it difficult to figure out what it costs to acquire a customer, and what a customer is worth.

Startup 113

Startup Platform Commerce San Diego 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Unfortunately, in this age of vacillating customer trends and a wealth of new competitors scratching and clawing for a piece of the action, long-term growth requires constant focus. The new strategy here is to focus on unmet new customer needs, rather than enhancing the offering you have – product, price, promotion, and place (4Ps).

Examples 67

Examples Customer Custom Product 67

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2017

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Of course, some balance is required.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Coach Organization Mentor 78

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

“We want to inspire, but we also want to be realistic and show beauty in real life,” Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss said in a 2017 interview with Inc, just as the brand had reached what Weiss herself described as “cult status.” billion company in the brutally competitive beauty industry, especially one with such broad appeal.

Startup 280

Startup Netflix Los Angeles Innocal 280

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2017

Brands need influencers working on their behalf because they provide the third-party credibility and social proof that validates their products. in 2017, as young people ages 12 to 17 migrate to Snapchat and Instagram. If you can figure out why people care about your product, you’ll have success regardless of the platform du jour.

Social Media 64

Social Media Media Snapchat Platform 64

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2018

We build products and services tied to mobile carriers. Those technologies allow us to scale and offer a superior product for customers. We bought our first company in 2017 to create this, and we rolled up a few companies to bring this vision to life. Who are your core customers? Number six are publishers.

Content 113

Content Startup Mobile Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2017

As an advisor to many new businesses, I see a host of advantages for every new business by being socially responsible today: Expands the potential customer target market size. Social contribution and sustainability are features that appeal to a whole new class of customers for any solution. Incents customers to pay a premium price.

Customer 64

Customer Custom Statistics Pricing 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

In the heat of scaling the business, it’s tempting to skip the cost and time of finding qualified job candidates, and enlist those close at hand, without paying them a competitive wage for the hard work and commitment you need. Focus on products and customers, and trust your accountant. Work hard, but work smart.

Entrepreneur 72

Entrepreneur Competition Customer Custom 72

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2017

They have forgotten that new technologies are perceived by most customers as causing more pain than the problems they eliminate. Yet we all know that many customers delay their adoption of the latest software platform, and avoid new hardware, for a year or two until all the “kinks” are worked out of them. Focus on user pain points.

Technology 53

Technology Customer Custom Marketing 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

In fact, I can condense the sum of my business experiences into eight key disciplines: Start with a total and ongoing customer focus. Don’t assume anything until you have done market research and listened to real customers. Then assume the customers will change over time, so never stop listening.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Most of the guidance you see for entrepreneurs is aimed at those who are selling a product (Apple, Tesla, Xiaomi), or selling a service (Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat). The “product” value is difficult to quantify, the costs are nebulous, and entrepreneurs have to clone themselves to scale the business.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2017

We all face pressure in our lives, but there’s nothing like that of an entrepreneur facing customer crises and the competitive challenges of a new business. Thus, here is my own reframing of the authors generalized rules into some specifics for an entrepreneur or business leader: Reframe competitive threats to opportunities.

Entrepreneur 56

Entrepreneur Competition Press Mentor 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2017

Your concept has to be understood by customers and investors in 30 seconds or less, and everyone needs to immediately see how awesome it would be, or that they would be nuts not to have it. I’m looking for the “hook” right up front, or I lose interest quickly, just like every customer and investor these days.

Startup 58

Startup Education Ideas Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

Incidentally, if you never thought of yourself as being an A-Player employee, you probably will struggle even more in the competitive entrepreneur world. Every business purpose must be customer-centric and even altruistic. Employees can be much more productive if they fully understand strategic issues and focus correspondingly.

Entrepreneur 54

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Competition 54

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2017

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value.

Tool 53

Tool Entrepreneur Statistics Metrics 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2017

“Sleeping giants do wake up,” I always say, to remind new business owners that nobody cares what you do when you are not a threat, but when you get some real traction with customers, competitors will come out of the woodwork with a vengeance. You need quantified value for customers to see, feel, and pay for.

Metrics 58

Metrics Resource Startup Training 58

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 26, 2018

Tim O'Neal: Kazhm was founded in 2017. There's a similar installer for Linux, and going beyond the workstations and into the data center, we use Ansible to push the products out to those endpoints. With all the complexity of the IT environment, how do you convince customers to add one more piece into this puzzle?

Cloud Computing 133

Cloud Computing Resource Startup Software 133

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

From my perspective, projecting financial returns is part of the homework every business person needs to do in sizing customer opportunity, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value, before expending their own resources in a highly risky venture. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 11/28/2017.

Pricing 57

Pricing Startup Entrepreneur Invest 57

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 19, 2017

Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. In fact, people lower in the organization are often closer to the customer, and have more insight into what works and what doesn’t.

Ideas 56

Ideas Framework Summary Organization 56

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2017

Yet the 2017 Office Romance Survey by Vault, Inc. She outlines the potential benefits of “workships” (work relationships) evolving into friendships and romances as follows: Improve communication and productivity. Can be a competitive advantage. Competition over salary, promotions, and position.

Startup 53

Startup Course Competition Social Media 53

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2017

Team members seem to be spending more and more time venting to anyone who will listen about the motives and actions of others, and less time introspectively focused on their own productivity and accountability. Countering drama with more emotion or violently shaking them up is not productive. hours per day distracted by drama.

Satisfaction 55

Satisfaction Coach Mentor Training 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

It’s clear things have changed for good and the need for managing remote communities of employees, customers and partners has become ever more important. In marketing materials founders often refer to their customer base as a “community”, but there’s a huge gap between having customers and creating a community.

Software 234

Software Startup Tool Platform 234

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2018

In my experience with technical entrepreneurs, they work hard on creating an innovative and elegant solution, and assume that customers will flock to them (“if we build it, they will come”). The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and the perfect customer segment. Finalize your channel and marketing strategy.

Product 55

Product Pricing Startup Customer 55

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2017

Dart and Lewis should know, since both have over twenty-five years of experience consulting with dozens of retail and consumer product companies, old and new. Old views of change rates are no longer competitive. Some may have no product at all for carry-out, with demonstrations and iPads for ordering and delivery the next day.

Customer 52

Customer Custom Technical Review Summary 52

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2017

Every new business or product owner wants to attract the broadest possible audience, so they are prone to adding more features, multiple sales channels, and appealing to every demographic. Customers want a solution from you, not many. Focus means creating a minimum viable product (MVP) first, and validating it in the marketplace.

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Competition Customer Custom 63

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2017

If it’s not an order of magnitude better or cheaper, customers usually conclude that the risk and cost of change are simply not worth the potential payback over what they have today. If your product or service is so unique and compelling that it’s able to define a whole new category, then you are the winner by default.

Netflix 54

Netflix Social Media Competition Customer 54