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.

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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.

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Entrepreneur Competition Customer Custom 72

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.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Editor's note: All this week, and into the start of next year, we'll be featuring reflections on 2018 from notable investors, entrepreneurs, and others from Southern California's technology community. You'll be able to browse all of those contributions here. What was the biggest news for your organization in 2018?

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Startup Press Commerce Southern California 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Kevin sold his last company, Santa Barbara-based Graphiq, in July of 2017 to Amazon, but has a long history of successful companies, including founding DoubleClick.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Unless you are a serial entrepreneur with a string of successes behind you, you need a business plan to convince investors that you can build a business out of the dream that has been driving your passion to change the world. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

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Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2019

exabytes per month at the end of 2017, of which more than half was video. As an entrepreneur, what steps can you take to help your business not only survive the data hurricane, but to thrive under these new and challenging conditions? Make strategic versus opportunistic decisions. Accelerate: speed is life in this new world.

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Technology Social Media Startup Entertainment 97

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. Their mindset is that everyone should be an entrepreneur if they want to be, that's their mantra.

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Startup Platform Commerce San Diego 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

San Diego-based Wildfire Systems , led by startup veteran Jordan Glazier , has developed software which product referrals and automatically transform them into trackable links across email, text messaging, chat, and social messaging. We automatically add tracking and point those product references to e-commerce merchants.

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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.

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Entrepreneur Competition Press Mentor 56

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.

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Tool Entrepreneur Statistics Metrics 53

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

Most entrepreneurs relish being their own boss, but find the transition to “ownership thinking” to be more difficult than anticipated. Incidentally, if you never thought of yourself as being an A-Player employee, you probably will struggle even more in the competitive entrepreneur world.

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Entrepreneur Customer Custom Competition 54

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

Entrepreneurs are people who dream up new ideas, and then commercialize them into new businesses. Yet, in my experience as a mentor to entrepreneurs, the majority of failures I see are related to starting and growing the business, not developing the solution. Most experts agree that a great team is more important than a great product.

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Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

As an angel investor and business advisor on new ventures, I expect to see five-year financial projections from every entrepreneur. Does this entrepreneur understand the basics of business costs in the selected business domain, growth dynamics, and the competitive environment?

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Pricing Startup Entrepreneur Invest 57

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. Schedule and run the necessary sessions to update strategic product offerings, processes, and marketing programs. Marty Zwilling Published by Xerox Small Business Solutions on 04/06/2017.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2017

Many startups and entrepreneurs I advise still default to growing their business via the traditional top-down, order-taking culture. I’m convinced that you can’t stay competitive that way with today’s customers, and today’s employees. Constant debates and re-analysis of data are the enemy in a fast-moving and competitive marketplace.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2017

Every opportunity is global, but so is the competition. Traditionally, businesses have yearned for consistency, as a lever tor productivity and cutting costs. Products and services must be updated continuously; not one major annual upgrade. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/29/2017.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 21, 2017

What's wonderful about this new fund, is we literally started in April of 2017. The fund has been about two years of development with Peter Warnoe, who is a serial entrepreneur who is very famous in the Nordics. Lars Tvede has written fifteen books on entrepreneurship, is a serial entrepreneur himself, and has been uber-succcessful.

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Southern California Startup Venture Capital Invest 133

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

I was mentoring some graduate students at a local university recently, and I sensed again that profit seems to be a dirty word these days to many aspiring entrepreneurs. Every business needs to develop a revenue model even before a product. Price based on product costs plus margin. Low product price, but support is extra.

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Pricing Customer Custom Advertising 66

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.

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Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2017

As a startup advisor and investor, I’ve heard and seen hundreds of pitches from entrepreneurs, and the majority of founders are convinced that if you will just give them an hour or more time, you will love their business. Skip the fill words and fuzzy phrases, like better, cheaper, easier to use, or more productive.

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Startup Education Ideas Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2017

Even though I love technology, I always cringe when an entrepreneur starts an angel investor pitch to me by touting his new technology. In reality, new technology alone is often assigned a negative value, as startups push out alpha and beta products earlier and earlier in the competitive rush. Focus on user pain points.

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Technology Customer Custom Marketing 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.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

For example, in a new book, “ If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat! ,” Leonard Sherman, executive in residence at the Columbia Business School, suggests that you should stay out of the competitive dogfight and continually redefine the game on your own terms. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 02/01/2017.

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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. Assign innovation projects to production organizations. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 11/18/2017.

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Ideas Framework Summary Organization 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2017

I hear it all the time as an angel investor, but I also see that same naïve or cavalier attitude come back to haunt entrepreneurs once they really get out in the marketplace. Define both hard data and soft (anecdotal) metrics on the new solution, as well as on the productivity of you team.

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Metrics Resource Startup Training 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2017

Is seen by customers as a competitive edge. Improves your team motivation and productivity. This makes everyone in the company more engaged, more responsive, and more productive. It takes a strong and adept business leader and entrepreneur to make the right tradeoffs. The opportunities are endless.

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Customer Custom Statistics Pricing 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. Whats the relationship of this company to Gary Winnick? I have a Ph.D.

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Content Startup Mobile Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2017

With every business being global in scope and always-on, a phone-in service available in a local time zone during work hours only, is not competitive. No customer enjoys being blasted by irrelevant banner ads, and they don’t have time to sort through all the noise of products out there searching for an audience.

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Customer Custom Services Social Media 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 24, 2017

More than ever, businesses need to take full advantage of automation, data, and analytics to run their business more productively and competitively. Don’t be one of the many small businesses I see that crawls along at a snail’s pace, and ultimately gets stepped on by the competition. Keep your eye on the data and the analytics.

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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. Thus one of my key messages to entrepreneurs, as a business advisor and angel investor, is “focus.” Realistically characterize the competition.

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Entrepreneur Competition Customer Custom 63

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”). Products too expensive for the market won’t succeed, and prices too low will leave you exposed. Finalize your channel and marketing strategy.

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Product Pricing Startup Customer 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2017

In my view, the gig economy is a key driver to the current boom in entrepreneurship – every professional and consultant is actually a solo entrepreneur. One question I often hear from solo entrepreneurs, and she addresses directly, is “How do I set the right price for my services?” Know your competitive value.

Pricing 68

Pricing Entrepreneur Mentor News 68

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2019

A large portion of your competitive advantage and your potential value to investors is the size of your intellectual property portfolio. When someone says Intellectual Property (IP), most entrepreneurs think only of patents. Select it well – marketers will tell you that you will be selling your name, more than your products.

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IP Invest Patents Social Media 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2017

In my own work as an advisor to many entrepreneurs and startups, I see many who are focused on that single big disruptive innovation that will change the world. Design your invisible competitive advantage. Remember that every specific competitive advantage is temporary – every product or service becomes a commodity over time.

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Startup Metrics Organization Ideas 81

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2017

I have found that the most successful entrepreneurs and business executives have an impressive work ethic, and they surround themselves with a team of comparable commitment. Business is more about people than product. These will provide the competitive edge you need with customers and less-focused team members.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2017

Ironically, the most common desire I hear from entrepreneurs selling wholly online, is the need for their entry into retail, as the next step in their growth strategy. 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.

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Customer Custom Technical Review Summary 52