Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2019

With the current strong economy I’m seeing a continued resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. There is additional encouraging news for aspiring entrepreneurs on many fronts, just in case you are thinking about joining the existing ranks: Valuations of successful startups have hit an all-time high.

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TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 26, 2020

The Los Angeles startup community is joining the rest of the world in mourning the death of NBA superstar, entrepreneur and investor Kobe Bryant who was killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif., Bryant launched his venture career with partner and serial entrepreneur Jeff Stibel back in 2013, according to Crunchbase.

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TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

On Lafayette Street in SoHo, young, fashionable women lined up around the block to enter a minimalist, millennial oasis, the most perfect Instagram feed brought to life. After all, Glossier’s founder and CEO Emily Weiss is very, very far from the first entrepreneur to profit off of our desire to look good. And who cares?

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2020

I’m sure you have all seen entrepreneurs and startups with great ideas that never seem to live up to their potential, while others with more mundane solutions seem to take off quickly and never slow down. Startup success is rarely a straight-line process, so knowing where you stand at any given point is critical to success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2020

In my work with new startups, I often find people who believe that the terms “ entrepreneur ” and “ inventor ” are interchangeable. Yet I find a big difference between “starting a new business” and “creating a new product.” A good entrepreneur starts with quantifying the problem, rather than a solution looking for a problem.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Based on my experience advising new entrepreneurs as well as more mature businesses, I recommend the following strategies for building business momentum, while still optimizing the limited resources of every small business: Find more customers that like what you do best. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/22/2020.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Every aspiring entrepreneur I know is talking about the fact that there are over 2,000 billionaires in the world today, and how their innovative idea could make them one of the next ones. Most of you prefer to ignore the feedback from analysts that your chances of creating the next unicorn startup may be as low as one in five million.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. As the Preccelerator has grown, we have continually seen stronger and stronger early stage ventures, led by better and better entrepreneurs.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Partially due to the economy, but also due to longer, healthier lives and changes in job tenure, 60% of working Boomers are now expected to stay in the labor force, with real power and influence, for at least seven more years, to 2020. One new incentive is the falling transaction costs and barriers to entry for entrepreneurs of every age.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more. Budget time and dollars for each.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2020

As an angel investor, I see plenty of startups focusing on building an innovative product, but I’m looking for the few who are also leading with an exponential growth strategy, to put them in the category of the next Amazon or Google. These can easily start new trends, or capitalize on existing ones.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

As an advisor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I tell people that these platforms are an easy and low risk way to test your fit for the entrepreneur lifestyle, without jumping off the cliff. Don’t expect to rely totally on social media, word of mouth, or a personal web site. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 11/04/2020.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

It seems that most of you entrepreneurs I meet in my role as business advisor are convinced that starting a new business requires equity investors, exponential growth, and a plan to go public via IPO. If your passion is customers, you definitely will be happier as a lifestyle entrepreneur.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2020

I’m sure all of you are convinced that your new business will create the next trend and ride the wave to success, but the reality is that most startups fail , so anticipating future trends is clearly harder than it seems. Smart entrepreneurs continually test their perceptions against those of customers, outside leaders, and experts.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2021

They are quick to claim the credit for things in their domain that work, but also quick to disclaim responsibility for problems that keep popping up. I often think of the scope of this example in my role as mentor to a struggling entrepreneur who is quick to blame his problems on employee mistakes, or even changing customer expectations.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2012

Partially due to the economy, but also due to longer, healthier lives and changes in job tenure, 62% of working Boomers are now expected to stay in the labor force, with real power and influence, for at least nine more years, to 2020. One new incentive is the falling transaction costs and barriers to entry for entrepreneurs of every age.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2020

But customers today are fickle, instantly aware of every new alternative, due to the Internet and social media, and not afraid to change. Yet, as a business advisor, every entrepreneur I meet assumes that they are destined to become the next killer brand in their space, like Tesla is to all-electric vehicles, and Apple is to smart phones.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs I meet in my role as a business advisor still seem to believe networking is all about selling and convincing everyone that what you have will change the world. An even more positive form of gratitude is offering to follow-up on questions, make relevant people introductions, or pass along information.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 26, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. What new technology area, startup, service, or app did you find most interesting or useful this year, and why?

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TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 14, 2019

Meanwhile, new venture-backed companies like the superstealthy Shadows, SuperPlastic and Toonstar are all developing virtual characters that will launch via social media channels like Snap and Instagram, or on their own platforms. ” Los Angeles-based Brud is by far the most established of this new breed in the U.S.

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TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 5, 2022

From Los Angeles to Silicon Valley , a trend emerged among social media influencers and startup founders alike: move into a mansion with 10 or so collaborators, work day and night together to build fame and wealth, and hope that your new roommates do their dishes. A post shared by Collab Studios (@collabstudiosatl).

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them nearly ten years ago. They started out as that spoiled generation of kids, born between about 1982 and 2004, who had everything, and could care less about business. Their success is now vital to our success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2020

As a long-time business executive and adviser to entrepreneurs, I see a definitive shift away from customer trust in traditional business messages, and the executives who deliver them. I believe that the sooner every entrepreneur and brand builder adapts to this emerging trend, the sooner they will find success.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Today's interview is with Jo Webber , the CEO and founder of Pod.io , a startup which has developed an app to help people connect with others over shared interests. What's your background and how did you start the company? Jo Webber: We've done a seed round of $5M, which we raised earlier in 2020. What is Pod.io?

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Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 9, 2013

According to Cisco the number of connected “things” will balloon to 50 billion by 2020. 2020 seems like a decade away into space, however Motreal-based reelyActive, the winner os Startup World Competition , is doing just this. The startups software associates the identified people and “things” with their existing online data.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2017

Starting back in 2015 and throughout much of 2016 people started commenting that my blog had become a lot more political. My blog has always been a mixture of what was on my mind and a blend of venture, startup life, tech views and current society events that related to my interests: Venture, startup & tech.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. What new technology area, startup, service, or app did you find most interesting or useful this year, and why?

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Tech.Co

OCTOBER 28, 2020

The two platforms are both huge in their respective markets: By connecting TikTok's audience with small businesses online everywhere, this team-up could offer a lifeline to business owners amid a rocky economy. — Savannah Sanchez | The Social Savannah (@social_savannah) October 27, 2020. Start With a Free $300. forward.

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TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Next she took to Instagram, a new social media platform that quickly became the most effective tool in a blogger’s toolkit. Naturally, the next step in Bernstein’s evolution from blogger to businesswoman was a technology startup. Karat, a startup building a bank for creators. Last month, the product launched with $1.2

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

That’s why I caution my aspiring entrepreneur clients against proclaiming to investors that they are a great “idea” person. in Physics who talks passionately about starting a business producing nuclear powered batteries. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 02/17/2020. For example, I have a friend with a Ph.D.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 3, 2019

We caught up with Soylent VP of Marketing, Andrew Thomas , to hear how the company finally decided to embrace the nameand the frequent trolling on social mediato instead emphasize the sustainable aspects of its products, as well as the new product line, with Plants, Not People. That said, it does come with a challenge.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

Even a million users on your social media site won’t pay the bills until you sell some advertising or a premium service. Although his focus is naturally on bigger companies, I contend that his recommended strategies apply equally well to entrepreneurs and startups: Demand a mindset of deep thinking for the long term.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2021

As a business adviser, I often see entrepreneurs practicing what Tom Peters calls the “ ready-fire-aim ” go-to-market strategy to their detriment. In this age of outspoken experts and “influencers: on social media, your new fashion or cooking solutions can likely skip the traditional market planning cycle.

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socalTECH

MARCH 13, 2020

Our interview today is with Dmitri Leonov and Constantine Suychmez of Ulevate (www.ulevate.com), a startup which is combining technology with the beauty and spa industry. We're the first on the market, and it's completely insane that in 2020, everything is organic and this segment of the market is not. What is Ulevate?

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TechCrunch LA

MAY 24, 2020

One entrepreneur who’s spent time on both sides of the business as a startup founder and an employee for one of the biggest brands in athletic wear has launched a new app to try build a bridge between the physical and virtual fashion worlds. A post shared by Marc Jacobs (@marcjacobs) on May 2, 2020 at 2:08pm PDT.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2018

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them almost ten years ago. They started out as that spoiled generation of kids, born between about 1982 and 2004, who had everything, and could care less about business. Their success is now vital to our success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2017

Even though ‘big data’ has now been around for several years, the opportunities for startups seem to keep growing, just as the amount of data keeps growing. This data comes from sensors, social media posts, digital pictures and videos, purchase transactions, everywhere. Social media and web data. Global manufacturing.

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