Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, it’s great to pursue a higher purpose, like feeding the hungry, but don’t forget that running any business is a hungry mouth you have to feed. For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Of course it’s a competitive market so MCNs competing for top talent not only compete on rev share to talent but also to services that they provide talent. Building direct customer relationships with viewers (who want to tune into your channels). Selling at smaller retailers will net you fewer customers and higher margins.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

Almost every online business I know (eCommerce, online software, mobile games) invests heavily in “customer acquisition” This includes investments often not properly measured (SEO, PR, Social) as well as costs that people measure more precisely (advertising, SEM, FB CPA/CPI ads). Take for example, an eCommerce company.

SEM 150

SEM Content Platform Acquisition 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

When a product is truly unique and demanded a retailer willingly promotes and sells it en masse in part because it does get margin on the good but also because it brings customers in the door who spend on other products. Ariel understood her customer?—?the So Why Does This Matter? the modern buyer of home products?—?better

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In every case, the relevant pitch needs to start by highlighting a real customer problem, then outlining a new solution, with all the features and disruptive technology.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

I see too many executive summaries that are simply heavy-duty customer pitches, or lightweight visions of the future. " Investors want to buy into an entrepreneur with a startup that can provide evidence of an ability to double customer productivity, at half the cost, with patented technology.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

Since I see many companies in their earliest days I can tell you that I’ve heard people say this about nearly every great company / market created. You can expect some strong competition, but it’s unlikely that there will be 5 great scooter companies. Ah, but Bird doesn’t have network effects! Why scooters?

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

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. And we’re so glad we did!

Startup 70

Startup Competition Google Capital 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2015

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Watch that patent provide a real barrier to competitive entry.

Satisfaction 101

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Customer Custom 101

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. Greathouse: Great products and companies that came out (of) Santa Barbara. I have always worked on early stage products. Semick: They are.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

We continue to see a ton of interest not only from great companies in Los Angeles, bu companies from all over the world and the country. When a company either has revenues, if that''s the primary metric, or if it''s a consumer application, high user acquisition and engagement, we know there is some degree of product-market-fit.

Incubator 187

Incubator Southern California Startup Ideas 187

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2016

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Watch that patent provide a real barrier to competitive entry.

Satisfaction 61

Satisfaction Startup Customer Custom 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2016

The most common channels in use today include e-commerce, direct to customer, wholesale to dealers, and value-added resellers. In other words, you may have a great new product, but no distributor penetration means no shelf space and no customers. Expect some channel conflict as a cost of doing business.

Pricing 54

Pricing Customer Custom Sales 54

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. Founders point to the great number of financial unknowns in any new business, and are reluctant to “commit” to any numbers which may come back to haunt them later. Project unit-volume and price levels.

Pricing 57

Pricing Startup Entrepreneur Invest 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2016

On the other end of the spectrum, others focus totally on building a product, assuming a great product will assure business success. In my experience, there are several key elements to this discipline, which always include the following: Staying customer-centric in all business actions.

Ideas 54

Ideas Entrepreneur Customer Custom 54

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Messenger : Rob Duva , Co-Founder, COO RingRevenue, prior Director of Customer Acquisition, CallWave. At CallWave, Colin was CTO, Jason was CFO and I was in charge of product marketing and customer acquisition. It’s these different perspectives that have allowed us to create a great product and great partnerships.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. 1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. During those same 25-years, I also made innumerable mistakes.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I called the meeting a 10/10 because we had a great 90-minute discussion in which we had great rapport. And when you finish the demo you can bring in the other important components such as competition, team, customer acquisition strategy, etc. The white board is a great way to make this happen. Mobile app?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

“it’s smart to use an impending investment valuation to drive a higher acquisition valuation” I would like to amend her statement slightly to read, “it’s smart to use an impending investment valuation to drive an higher acquisition.” Christin goes on. A nice play if you can make it.”

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2016

What they don’t realize is that about half the investment deals fail to close at this stage, including mergers and acquisitions , during the due-diligence process. Due diligence is going the next step, to meet and interview all key members of the team, visit the business location and follow-up with early customers and advisors.

Technical Review 55

Technical Review Help Innocal Startup 55

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

We want money to make some acquisitions (investors would prefer to fund M&A if they know specific deals – not to encourage bad behavior. You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). But this strategy great depends on point 3.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

His view: sometimes entrepreneurs expect too much value from the partner. We talked about who the great firms in Europe are (Index, Accel) as well as the hottest seed investors: Robin & Saul Klein. Customers Include: Reuters, Associated Press, , Dow Jones, Ask.com , healthcare companies, and major investment banks and hedge funds.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2010

First, I believe that Seesmic has an excellent product – especially the web version of their product and that having another senior and experienced exec like Loic Le Meur would be great for Twitter. And I saw a lot of this first hand in Salesforce’s acquisition of my company, Koral, which was a content management company.

Acquisition 287

Acquisition Develop Development Conference 287

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

I believe that the advertisers they started with were probably disappointed that the cost per customer acquisition was not the same as search. Those expectations were probably too high, in terms of the CPA. That will be a great low rate, but you only ran 1/5th of your schedule. Radio does work.

Google 124

Google Advertising Media Startup 124

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

However, in the world of startups, relationships that go beyond a casual acquaintance can provide your adVenture with a significant competitive advantage. This duality of Bro relationships results in circumstances in which your Bro is also your Bro Foe, as discussed at great length in Kiss of Death. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Startup 113

Startup Organization Allegis Commerce 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

If they only ever received updates then don’t expect them to be bought into tough decisions when you inevitably have the board meeting where the news isn’t positive. No great board wants you distracted with doing a whole bunch of financial analysis that is strictly for board purposes. Sometimes they don’t even know.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

I established such a relationship with a fantastic lawyer and he taught me a great deal over the 10 years we worked together. Thus, every time you submit a request to your lawyer, make it very clear when you really need a response – this will help your Legal Eagle to effectively manage his time and ensure that he meets your expectations.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

Frank Addante

JULY 30, 2007

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Advertising 40

Frank Addante

AUGUST 27, 2007

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Web 2.0 40

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Internet Advertising ASP) Exit: $112M IPO and acquisition Lesson: Think big. 6 startups = 1 IPO, 2 acquisitions, 1 failure, millions in venture capital $, hundreds of employees in cities worldwide and the building of my latest venture, the Rubicon Project - one of the fastest growing advertising companies in history. Zondigo, Inc.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2015

Like all startups you can’t be successful without a great product and Shep felt he had what the market wanted but he just needed to get noticed. He also found great marketing loopholes. Or that marketing is simply about online customer acquisition. But nevermind. He was a marketing genius. More Tesla, less Honda.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Course Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

They are, in fact, great news for traditional venture capitalists. Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. The most successful of these businesses will still need venture capital to scale their businesses. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2013

Whether you believe his conclusion or not, you can learn a lot from the lessons he offers on how to build a competitive business model today: Act small. Seek intelligent acquisitions, extensions, and directions. Plan on making strategic acquisitions to enhance your core competency, both in terms of depth and breadth.

Platform 98

Platform Tool Google Acquisition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2012

Whether you believe his conclusion or not, you can learn a lot from the tips he offers on how to build a competitive business model today: Act small. Seek intelligent acquisitions, extensions, and directions. Plan on making strategic acquisitions to enhance your core competency, both in terms of depth and breadth.

Platform 97

Platform Tips Startup Tool 97