Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2019

Most of us have blind spots in our ability to build a business, due to lack of experience, too much ego, over-confidence, or unjustified faith in a subordinate. If I suggest your technology needs validation in the market before scaling, it’s fair to ask how long and how expensive that test could be.

Technical Review

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Investors from the latest Vision Fund first reached out to Canter shortly after the company announced its last round of funding in 2019. In some ways, Nextbite couldn’t exist without Ordermark’s delivery aggregation technology. Then there’s secret shopping and review monitoring to monitor quality.”

Funding

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2019

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions from Southern California's technology industry. More in-person contact is one of my 2019 goals. We expect some big things in 2019. I remain VERY bullish on SoCal's tech community.

Capital

socalTECH

JANUARY 28, 2019

However, there is already the technology out therefrom San Luis Obispo-based Whitefox Defense (www.whitefoxdefense.com)  to both detect, and neutralize those drones. We spoke with founder and CEO Luke Fox to learn more about the company, and its technology. Explain how your technology works?

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 18, 2019

An Insider’s Perspective “Bird Zero” that are custom designed by the company There is a story arc of the electric scooter market that took the world by storm in 2018, was second-guessed late in the year and has quietly re-emerged as a powerful force of growth where few really appreciate the speed and scale of what has happened.

Santa Monica

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 29, 2020

Kleiner Perkins , one of the most storied franchises in venture capital, has already invested much of the $600 million it raised last year and is now going back out to the market to raise its 19th fund, according to multiple sources. We went out to market to LPs. — Dan Primack (@danprimack) January 29, 2020. ”

IBM

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2020

Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation. Equally bad is a full tutorial on your new disruptive technology. Investors are more interested in your solution and your business, rather than your technology. According to Gartner, the opportunity is 100 million by 2019, with 12% compounded growth.”

Startup

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Every year, we feature the year end reflections of founders, CEOs, investors, and others in Southern California's high tech community. It's been a tough year for many due to the pandemic; how have you or your company adapted to the business environment? This is my 4th market upset and in the first three I was defensive.

Southern California

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2019

Thus a key skill and focus for every aspiring entrepreneur is the ability to collaborate with others who have the complementary skills in delivering the many decisions required in business, including marketing, financial, operations, and support. Technology startups need experts more than collaboration.

Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2019

Sizing the market, projecting revenue, and calculating break-even points are critical, even for a coffee shop. Every ad, every review, or lack of one, tells a story about how much you care, and what customer experience one might expect. Don’t forget to stay a step ahead of the market.

Technical Review

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2019

A refrain I often hear from technology entrepreneurs to investors is that their product or solution is so innovative that it will cause a “paradigm shift” in the industry. Due to qualms of customers and governments, he sold less than 30,000 of the devices over the next five years.

Technical Review

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. Some dreams sound great, but may not yet be viable or proven with today’s technology. Prepare your marketing story for customers and investors. Make sure your solution is defensible and unique.

Ideas

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2019

Most entrepreneurs realize and budget for the additional costs of incorporating a business, marketing, equipment costs, and manufacturing. New manufacturers and new technology are hard to get right the first time, so you will have unusable inventory and emergency repairs. Obviously, the more detailed your business plan, the better.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2019

As a business advisor, when I bring this up, at best I will hear the defense that you are focused on the strategy of the moment, such as such as how to increase sales, or reach a new market. Highlight your competitive value, not your technology. Customers and the market don’t stand still, so your strategy can’t either.

Technical Review

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

If your strength is technology, find a partner who can complement you with marketing and financial skills. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 08/20/2019. Surround yourself with allies who have complementary skills. In business, I always say that two heads (or more) are better than one.

Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2019

We slowly realized that Microsoft’s value went far beyond his technical contributions, due to his connections with key software developers and relationships with hardware manufacturers who could make the PC revolution universal. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/27/2019. Where is this effort on your priority list?

IBM

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2019

Technology enhances experience, not impedes it. The marketing metrics covers support as part of experience. If your marketing metrics and budget ignore the fact that you have call center queues thirty minutes long, or no coverage of online reviews or social media, your customer service is not keeping up with competitors.

Customer

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

That seed funding was really to let us prove the concept and build the technology to enable returns in person at retailers, and let us figure out whether or not customers wanted to return this way, and get an idea of how to scale. We checked all of those boxes, and then went back out to market in Spring of 2017, last year.

Training

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2019

Exhibit market awareness and a drive to win. I was lucky enough to be part of a key intrapreneurial effort at IBM, the IBM PC development, which I believe was only allowed to happen due to the internal political acumen of our leader, Don Estridge. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/07/2019.

IBM

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. What happened? People were building.

Venture Capital

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Every new business dreams of growing from a startup to a global market leader in a few years, like Amazon.com, but that goal is elusive. My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/12/2019. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers.

Marketing

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

The project ultimately imploded due to a combination of factors. An emerging tech dystopia. I think NFTs are just a very new misunderstood market, and I feel that it’s really hard to step back and explain it,” said Megan Manzano, a literary agent working with young adult authors who voiced concerns about Realms of Ruin on Twitter.

Writing

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

Unit costs are important, but don’t forget about the cash flow hit, extra storage costs, and the probability of obsolete inventory due to necessary updates or pivots. It’s no secret that some people are more productive than others, due to skills, training, or commitment. Ineffective and expensive marketing campaigns.

Outsource Development

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2020

According to TheStreet , US IPO market results in Q2 2020 posted a strong bounce-back from Q1 with 58 IPOs, after a slow start due to the Covid19 pandemic. The numbers represent a 45% increase from the previous quarter’s tally, but a 14% drop from the same quarter in 2019. Market volatility usually hits public companies first.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

Smart entrepreneurs are just now starting to look at this option again, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company. The reasons are a lot more complex than the meltdown of key investment banks in the US a few years ago, so don’t expect a big change in the numbers soon, even with recent stock market rallies.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2019

In my experience as a business consultant, I find than most people still believe that technology drives business disruption. I’m more convinced that technology merely enables disruption, and changing customer interests and needs really causes it. Memorable personalization doesn’t always have to include fancy technology or high cost.

Customer

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2019

More and more customers these days are doing their own marketing research, scanning internet reviews and feedback from friends, rather than trusting messages that you push out through advertising. Inbound marketing requires that you be where your customers are, or they won’t find you or care.

Marketing

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

In my experience as a business advisor, one of the best ways to get all of these, is to publish a book on the technology, the journey, or some relevant lessons learned. Once you have a book, media coverage can come from book reviews and academic discussions, as well as from you and your customers.

Writing