Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Let me assure you that a business plan and product plan are two different things (I have personally written several of both). 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.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Berkonomics

JUNE 4, 2015

When I hear a company pitch a business model which I believe has the potential to acquire a customer once, and keep the customer paying for a multi-year period without further marketing expense, my ears perk up. The key calculation is the cost of customer acquisition, compared to the gross margin contribution of the customer.

Acquisition 120

Acquisition Custom Customer SaaS 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly. This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Funding 125

Funding Startup Ideas Equity 125

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

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. Pitch a rational plan for expansion and growth.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

The same goes for business deals that fail during acquisitions or when it is time for you to retire. Back in the early days of the personal computer, Bill Gates and Microsoft were widely recognized and having the strongest technical culture, as well as a commanding marketing presence. Make sure they have the tools to support them.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Social Media Entrepreneur Startup 147

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2015

Here are eight key points that I believe should be taken from the show by every startup founder looking for investors in real life, across the range of venture capitalists, angel investors, or even friends and family: You will be judged first as a person, then by your idea. Personalize your presentation, if possible, for every investor.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Sample Ideas Custom 106

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Skyler Lucci is co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based HeyTutor (www.heytutor.com), a startup which has created an online platform which connects and matches students with in-person tutors. 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

JULY 22, 2020

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly. This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Startup 148

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 148

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

He actually had pitched me on this several years ago, when I was in a middle of another project. Girish pitched me on the idea for Thrively, and I loved the idea. Jon Kraft: We just launched our public beta, and essentially what we''re doing now is lots of testing of different customer acquisition channels.

Help 252

Help Idealab Activity Startup 252

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2017

If you are proposing a merger or acquisition, or simply seeking an investor for your business, the process is the same. This may seem intuitively obvious, but as an angel investor, I have heard hundreds of new business pitches that focus heavily on the product, but don’t tell the rest of the story. Temper your emotion with data.

Social Media 58

Social Media Coach Invest Media 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2016

Here are eight key points that I believe should be taken from the show by every startup founder looking for investors in real life, across the range of venture capitalists, angel investors, or even friends and family: You will be judged first as a person, then by your idea. Personalize your presentation, if possible, for every investor.

Startup 57

Startup Entrepreneur Sample Ideas 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2015

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. Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers.

Ideas 115

Ideas Startup IBM IBM 115

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are the darling of many Big Dumb Company (BDC) product marketing and customer support executives. Created by consultants to generate additional fees, such scores attempt to rate a company’s overall customer satisfaction. The higher your company’s NPS, allegedly the higher your customer satisfaction.

.Net 182

.Net Satisfaction Entrepreneur Custom 182

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 24, 2013

This is the most important role because this person graduates a company from startup to viable long-term business. Awesome, now you know it works, so you need a lot more customers to become an actual business. Thus, you need to enable new ways to create a scalable customer acquisition process.

Hulu 111

Hulu Startup Social Media Organization 111

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are the darling of many Big Dumb Company (BDC) product marketing and customer support executives. Created by consultants to generate additional fees, such scores attempt to rate a company’s overall customer satisfaction. The higher your company’s NPS, allegedly the higher your customer satisfaction.

.Net 168

.Net Satisfaction Custom Customer 168

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 18, 2015

Founded a series of successful startups resulting in IPOs and acquisitions. Was the VP of Technology at eHarmony where he built personality-matching technology. Join us at REACH NeXT and Apply To Pitch or buy tickets if you’d like to attend and see some of the most brilliant & pioneering minds in tech. Have a startup?

eHarmony 40

eHarmony Oracle Acquisition Startup 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2016

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. Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers.

Ideas 53

Ideas Startup IBM IBM 53

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2015

It wins through better distribution, logistics, inventory management, warehousing, customer support, merchandising, cross-selling and ultimately on price & scale. And let’s say this – they use zero technology today and I have yet to meet a single person who loves their self-storage provider. Are the dinosaurs worried?

Ideas 150

Ideas Startup Technical Review Pricing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2012

For the average person, you don't want to deal with what kind of packaging you need to buy, having to go to the post office, figuring out who pays for it, how much it costs, and so on. I read everything online I could about customer acquisition, marketing, design, and coding, and every part of the business I could.

Startup 236

Startup Education Acquisition Funding 236

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2013

The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. Successful entrepreneurs already have a visible network of trusted suppliers, potential customers, partners, and even investors. Listens before answering questions. Networked and connected.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Course Patents 109

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly. This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Startup 73

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 73

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2012

The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. Successful entrepreneurs already have a visible network of trusted suppliers, potential customers, partners, and even investors. Listens before answering questions. Networked and connected.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Course Patents 117

Eric Greenspan

OCTOBER 29, 2009

It’s a fun company, but customer acquisition is the biggest challenge we face. We have 34,000 customers already, but we need more more more. Throughout the day, I typically refresh our new customer tracking to see how many new customers have been booked for the day. This week has been amazing.

Blogging 100

Blogging Email Yammer Doc 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly. This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Startup 67

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 67

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, still in the idea stage, professional investors will only tell you to come back later when you have traction (customers and revenue). Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly. This is the exit stage for the entrepreneur, and for all earlier investors.

Startup 93

Startup Funding Venture Capital Ideas 93

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

They know her personally and know she cares about her constituencies even if she has to make tough trade-offs from time-to-time. I’ve heard directly from top executives that Jeff Bezos (in my opinion the most talented person in the tech industry) has received his fair share of VC coaching in the early years. Shame on you.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Even an extraordinary engineer or product lead who have built a breakthrough product aren’t guaranteed success unless they can get access to capital, get much needed press to drive low-cost customer acquisition and persuade fickle business leaders to join their company and help them shape their businesses beyond tech innovation.

Mentor 150

Mentor Venture Capital Marketing Product 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2010

The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. Successful entrepreneurs already have a visible network of trusted suppliers, potential customers, partners, and even investors. Listens before answering questions. Networked and connected.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Angel Technical Review Course 96

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

This person had been introduced to me several times by angels and I was told that I’d be the perfect seed investor. Imagine the “typical&# deal – somebody comes into a VC’s office, they’ve never met, they’re highly referred by a friend and they’re pitching a product demo and a PPT.

Startup 360

Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 9, 2014

Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle framework “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” Simon Sinek If your customers believe in your mission, then they’ll warm to you and listen to what you offer and how. Happy customers tend to spend more, more often and tell their friends. This is where the Golden Circle comes in.

Startup 78

Startup Design Custom Customer 78

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

His key quote is, “there are a couple things in this particular post that don’t work for me personally (every VC is different!). And when you finish the demo you can bring in the other important components such as competition, team, customer acquisition strategy, etc. Who are your key customers? Mobile app?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The 11 Harsh Realities Of Being An Entrepreneur - OnStartups , November 1, 2010 There's always talk about the end game in the form of an acquisition, funding announcement, or eventual flame out. took some notes on some great things to do in pitches and some things to avoid. Your First Iteration of an Idea Will Be Wrong.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Frank Addante

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Before you waste your time with a business case, sales pitch, or SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Why should the customer pick you over a competitive or do-it-yourself solution? Personal: My family will be safe if we get a flat tire. Seems simple?

Ideas 45

Ideas Mobile Sales Product 45

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Along with Selling (see Be Like Sam ) and Networking (see Making Stone Soup and Personal Pitch ), negotiating is a vital startup skill. Once he proved his negotiating skills, people from all over the company brought him significant acquisitions for him to negotiate. the lobby, customer training rooms, etc.).

Startup 221

Startup Pricing Entrepreneur Email 221