Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2022

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. I look for evidence of the nine major elements of the model canvas, as paraphrased here from the author’s key points and how they apply to teams: Customer segments.

Funding 133

Funding Activity Customer Custom 133

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Startup 106

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2022

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.” Again, you get what you demand and reward.

Startup 134

Startup Training Sales Entrepreneur 134

Tech.Co

MAY 6, 2022

Ecommerce company Shopify supports small businesses with technology like ecommerce website builders and retail Point of Sale systems. Now, it's dramatically expanding capacity in another area, fulfillment, with the acquisition of Deliverr. It's the biggest acquisition in Shopify's history. Shopify is paying $2.1

Networking 125

Networking Press Newsletter Startup 125

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

GrubMarket , which provides software and services that help link up and manage relationships between food suppliers and their customers — which can include wholesalers and other distributors, markets and supermarkets, delivery startups, restaurants, and consumers — has picked up $120 million in a Series E round of funding.

Startup 249

Startup Platform Software Los Angeles 249

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 21, 2019

Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase “conspicuous consumption” in 1899 when commenting on the human desire to publicly display wealth through the acquisition of consumer goods. A Veblen good does not adhere to the traditional laws of price and demand. Fashion companies usually ramp production, as demand increases.

Demand 160

Demand Pricing Product Equity 160

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2015

Los Angeles-based HelloTech (www.hellotech.com) wants to be the service that you refer all of your friends and family to, instead--by offering up low cost, on-demand, in-home technical support. First and foremost, it's an on-demand, in -home technical support service. I think the big challenge is going to be customer acquisition.

Demand 100

Demand Technical Support Startup Seed Funding 100

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

“The only success criteria of my startup career is whether GrubMarket can eventually make $100 billion of annual sales,” he said to me over both email and in a phone conversation. It has made some 15 acquisitions in the last two years, including Boston Organics and EJ Food Distributor this year.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2020

Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Pricing 123

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 123

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

There's lots of noise in the on-demand tutoring space, especially connecting people virtually, however, in my experience, it's in the best interest of consumers to get in-person, local tutoring. In terms of where we offer to our customers, we have 250 different areas, from early childhood to studying for an MCAT or the bar.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Look for validation from your mainstream customers. No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. It still amazes me that some entrepreneurs seem totally at a loss on this question, or customer retention rate, or even margin expectations. Every startup demands logical changes along the way.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2019

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. I look for evidence of the nine major elements of the model canvas, as paraphrased here from the author’s key points and how they apply to teams: Customer segments.

Activity 100

Activity Customer Custom Resource 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

Its primary goal is to focus on identifying what is truly driving demand, analytically, so that our customers can optimize their activities. We have a very sophisticated, analytics and software platform that over half the Fortune 50 are now using, to help guide how they invest in marketing and sales activities and investments.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Well, even though that acquisition is still playing itself out on the field of battle, it appears quite clear that the new parent has directed its new subsidiary to abandon the lower end of the market and focus upon the larger sales, corporate customers, and major brands. Been skewered for slow customer service?

Resource 120

Resource Competition Examples Customer 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

Don’t get me wrong, it’s always great to see that first surge of customers, but that’s just the beginning of your work. With the real data from that surge, you need to take a hard look at business model realities, cost of customer acquisition, inventory costs, and other key metrics.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. Ariel understood her customer?—?the This is an age-old marketplace tension where leverage often determines the value captured.

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2019

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.” Again, you get what you demand and reward.

Training 88

Training Sales Entrepreneur Technical Review 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2023

Investors know that the fun of a startup turns into managing production processes, sales processes, and personnel in a few years. The resulting entity will gain complementary skills, economies of scale, new customer sets, and hopefully a larger growth opportunity. Investors hesitate to invest under these conditions.

Technical Review 105

Technical Review Equity Invest Startup 105

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2019

In January, Los Angeles-based Pluto TV (www.pluto.tv) was acquired by Viacom for $340M, one of the largest acquisition deals so far in the region this year. I saw that, if you build a good product that customers love, that people love to use, how you need to market it, how you need to run that project, and so forth.

Startup 124

Startup Content Demand Netflix 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 116

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. As companies get this initial customer feedback on their product they start to have to ask harder questions about unit economics: How much does it cost us to acquire a new customer?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

Investors know that the fun of a startup turns into managing production processes, sales processes, and personnel in a few years. The resulting entity will gain complementary skills, economies of scale, new customer sets, and hopefully a larger growth opportunity. Investors hesitate to invest under these conditions.

Startup 150

Startup Technical Review Equity Statistics 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We spoke with one of those companies-- El Segundo-based ConsumerTrack (www.consumertrack.com)--which is a $30M, bootstrapped an online marketing company which is driving millions of customers to big name, financial customers. What is ConsumerTrack all about? Brett Rossman: ConsumerTrack is a performance-based, online marketing company.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Pricing 105

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2017

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.” Again, you get what you demand and reward.

Entrepreneur 69

Entrepreneur Startup Training Sales 69

socalTECH

JULY 24, 2009

We Create Demand for California's Technology Companies. Custom Insurance Programs for Technology Companies. We are seeking a Product Marketing Manager, who plans, develops, and implements marketing programs designed to increase product penetration of commercial customers. A Stanford alum, Aaron wrote the book on sales 2.0.

SoCalTech 100

SoCalTech Orange County Southern California Westlake Village 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2014

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.” Again, you get what you demand and reward.

Startup 105

Startup Training Sales Entrepreneur 105

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Fallacy: Startup ventures tend to evolve, especially after you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Rely On A Public Relations Agency.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2018

Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. They steal a share of your market, slow down customer buying decisions, making it harder to close new business, and put the brakes quickly on your exponential growth. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Pricing 52

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 52

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities. I look for evidence of the nine major elements of the model canvas, as paraphrased here from the author’s key points and how they apply to teams: Customer segments.

Funding 57

Funding Startup Activity Customer 57

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2015

Los Angeles-based CurbStand (www.curbstand.com) is hoping to change that, by offering up a mobile app which connects you with the company''s network of CurbStand valet parking companies, which offers on-demand retrieval of your car, mobil payments, and on the valet parking operator side--lots of business analytics tools and reporting.

Networking 100

Networking CTO Hire CTO Coach Mobile 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Most begin by doing the product development, marketing and sales alone, but struggle making the transition to hiring and coaching others, defining repeatable processes and focusing on future strategy. Now you have real customers who can quickly turn off hundreds of potential customers if you ignore their feedback.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59