Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2021

Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. For these reasons, I always look for an overt exit strategy in every startup I might consider for an angel investment. At minimum, you need to get an exit advisor to keep you on course.

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Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 173

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Pitchbook estimates that there is about $290 billion of VC “overhang” (money waiting to be deployed into tech startups) in the US alone and that’s up more than 4x in just the past decade.

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Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

With the current volatile economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world? These looming constraints can turn your startup dream into a nightmare, all to increase funding.

Funding 104

Funding Summary Entrepreneur Acquisition 104

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. The “span of control” for a growing tech startup is probably 6-9 people. You course correct. Marketing of course often feels the opposite.

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

Of course you now book when you want and even choose your restaurant based on availability at the time / day you want and you can book on your mobile phone at 2am or 8pm. and of course I use "we" loosely as the hard work of course was the entire MyTime team sans me]. It sounds crazy, right?

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Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

In my experience as an angel investor to startups, goodwill disagreements are perhaps the most common reason that you will fail to close interested investors as an entrepreneur. The same goes for business deals that fail during acquisitions or when it is time for you to retire. Quality of your technical and business teams.

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Technical Review Social Media Entrepreneur Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2021

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs probably have long searched for that special idea that will catapult you and your startup to success. The shortage is of people and teams who can turn an idea into a real business. You can learn to be an entrepreneur by working in a startup, talking to peers, and mentoring.

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Entrepreneur Ideas Examples Satisfaction 171

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2014

Of course it’s a universal lesson and one that I’m doomed to learn over and over. ” But I started thinking more about the role of a VC and the founding team or CEO. What about when an acquisition takes place? He told me, “Of course you’re right on facts. Startup Lessons'

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Venture Capital Course Startup Examples 346

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2010

Gemassmer Startups struggling for survival are not uncommon, due to economic changes, management problems, or product issues. If these challenges can’t be resolved by the existing team with “course corrections”, an investor will often bring in an experienced CEO to tackle the “turnaround” before or after bankruptcy. By Ernst H.

Course 48

Course Startup Software Review Custom 48

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

This can be an advantage to startups who don’t have the resources and brand awareness of mature businesses, if they understand and position themselves to win in the decisive moments of the new customer buying process. Great startups manage to continually improve the relationship through outstanding follow-on support and service.

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Custom Customer Startup Course 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2021

In my role as advisor to many startups, I try to prepare them for the inevitable bumps in the road ahead, as well as to provide practical guidance on how to build and maintain the traction needed to survive and prosper. You don’t have enough control over your time, investors, the market, or your startup. It’s very frustrating.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Satisfaction Social Media 174

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2019

With the current strong economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world? These looming constraints can turn your startup dream into a nightmare, all to increase funding.

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Summary Startup Entrepreneur Funding 121

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2020

Of course, most of you expect that raising money will be difficult, as well as staving off competitors, and handling that occasional toxic customer. The startup world is all about causing change and reacting to unknowns, so set your expectations early to deal with it. In a startup, this can be a team member, investor, or even a vendor.

Entrepreneur 122

Entrepreneur Startup Course Examples 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

If you or your team sees you as an idea person, your first task as an entrepreneur should be to find a co-founder who can deliver. Finding a co-founder is rarely a bad thing, since two heads are always better than one in meeting all the startup challenges. Communication to the team suffers, and productivity is low.

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Ideas Entrepreneur Startup IBM 122

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

Shots on Goal Being great as a startup technology investor of course requires a lot of things to come together: You need to have strong insights into where technology markets are heading and where value in the future will be created and sustained You need be perfect with your market timing. On Funding?—?Shots

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Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!” What did they actually do?

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Startup founders are known for their passion for their startup idea, and for their passion to kill every competitor. Of course, this path involves some risk, but you never get anywhere unless you take a chance. Good strategic partnerships often lead to strategic investments, or great acquisition relationships.

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Startup Outsource Development Examples Custom 173

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

I recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. It’s harmful and hurtful to the startup and those that lead it. ” Of course I agree with this. CEOs often meddle in products and dev teams hate it.

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Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And a few teams of super talented, educated and bright entrepreneurs make a few mill. If I don’t commit to millions of dollars of acquisitions I will … die?

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Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2021

We all hate to see your proposal rejected , when a bit more effort and homework could expedite your startup funding and rollout. Of course, you can find these elements embodied in many of the business plan templates and tools out there, such as the Business Model Canvas. Highlight the strengths of the entire team and partners.

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Funding Template Resource Competition 132

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

Of course, it’s smart not to stray too far from your core competency for credibility and risk reduction. Remember when you were a startup? Continually update your team with new people and technology. Use outside investment and acquisition to expand your scope. Create an overt strategy to react to emerging customer trends.

Custom 143

Custom Customer Examples IBM 143

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. Customer acquisition cost.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

Over the course of the first few months I saw a few people out on the street taking Birds and then a steady uptick in riders. Capital of course drives scale advantages and when you have “winner take most” markets it also has a way of scaring away some investors from investing in the 3–5th “me too” competitors.

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Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2020

Many startup founders I know avoid establishing a formal advisory board or board of directors for as long as possible, with the excuse that this is just another burden, or it has more risk than value to the founder. Make sure board members know your organization. You need board members who are these influencers, or know them well.

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Startup Course Equity Organization 134

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2015

when a technology startup, its investors or the market believe in robust growth rates writ large. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __. __. faux·men·tum.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Custom Customer 150

Tech.Co

JANUARY 15, 2018

Over the next few months we will work closely with the team at MVF to ensure a successful transition as the organization continues to build Tech.Co It was over 11 years ago that I saw a need to better connect startups and innovators with the communities around them so they could connect for partnerships, funding, amplification, and support.

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Media News Organization Content 175

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. Think about how you can project the voice you want, and make sure it is consistently used by all team members across all platforms used. Identify the smallest segments possible of your constituents.

Social Media 135

Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. The first few people into a startup are on a spectrum of founder vs. early employee. I've talked about this topic before in How Investors Think About Valuation of Pre-Revenue Startups.

Equity 391

Equity CTO Hire Startup Examples 391

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Let me start with the obvious baseline that most people probably know instinctively: Los Angeles is the 3rd largest technology startup ecosystem in the US. billion in venture capital to LA’s technology startups and 2014 will shatter that figure. Of course that’s not disputable. acquired Overture for $1.63

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. But Ethan had left by the time of the acquisition. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2022

In my role of business advisor to startups, I often recommend these to increase initial brand identity and market penetration. Of course, such actions are equally applicable to businesses at any stage. These multipliers also are no substitute for a highly engaged and trained team, supplied with the right tools and leadership.

Marketing 119

Marketing Social Media Mentor Conference 119

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

We are the founders of these companies, and the ideas come from our own team. We've got a very strong team of general partners, and increasingly we're getting ideas from our major partners. I've got a great team around me, and I'm not running any of the companies directly. It's a very lean-startup oriented process.

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 9, 2019

I fund startups for a living and before that I ran two software startups that I founded. With a standard tech startup I can tell you in my sleep that your two biggest cost items by a long shot are people (between 60–75% of total costs) and space (10–20% of total costs).

Product 214

Product Software Review Technical Review Startup 214

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2014

But of course there are always exceptions. We also built two very high-quality mobile apps that we were experimenting with in terms of building better customer acquisition toools. Huge congratulations to both teams. Startup Lessons Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures' And if you have kids please check out Seedling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2016

But in my experience as a startup advisor, too many entrepreneurs get stuck there, and always find excuses for not really exploring mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and alliance alternatives. Of course, they all prefer cash, but some may work for future revenue or startup equity. Acquire or merge with another company.

Startup 56

Startup Outsource Development Organization Outsource 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2018

With the current strong economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. Is your startup really ready to play in the corporate world? These looming constraints can turn your startup dream into a nightmare, all to increase funding.

Summary 79

Summary Startup Entrepreneur Funding 79

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2021

Of course, it takes both short and long-term focus to survive, but I see too many businesses fall into some common product maladies, which ultimately keep them from becoming a unicorn, or achieving the level of disruptive change they initially envisioned. Make sure your vision is clear and communicated.

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Metrics Product Yahoo Examples 133