socalTECH

NOVEMBER 1, 2016

Los Angeles-based movie streaming service FandangoNOW , the recently launched on-demand video service from Fandango, is now included on the VIZIO SmartCast app, the two companies said this morning. FandangoNOW launched in March of 2016, and came out of the acquisition of on-demand movie service M-GO in January. READ MORE>>.

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Fandango Hulu Demand Google 100

Tech.Co

MAY 6, 2022

Now, it's dramatically expanding capacity in another area, fulfillment, with the acquisition of Deliverr. It's the biggest acquisition in Shopify's history. In the end, the benefit to the merchants who use Shopify is an easier, streamlined, and dependable way to get their products into buyers' hands. Shopify is paying $2.1

Networking 123

Networking Press Newsletter Startup 123

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. Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price.

Pricing 123

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 123

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Customer Custom Entrepreneur 143

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

Obviously, there’s a huge demand for it, and it shouldn’t be this difficult to access high-quality convenient hair solutions.”. The other side of the business is a new monthly subscription service for stylists that helps them market their handcrafted wigs, beauty and other digital products and services.

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Tool Customer Custom Marketing 179

Xconomy

AUGUST 16, 2016

A recent Wall Street Journal article that raised the possibility of Biogen as the target of another huge pharma buyout cited the lack of productivity as a major driver of M&A in the pharmaceutical industry. The industry can only go so far with growth through hyper-inflated pricing and mega-M&As.

Product 40

Product Journal Venture Capital Demand 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

There has always been tension between CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies and the retailers who sell their products to consumers. 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.

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

I recommend a trial run with an experiment or MVP (minimum viable product), at full price and cost, before the big bang launch, risking your investment money and a major time commitment. The focus of key leaders has to change from driving innovative initiatives to replicating repeatable processes and tuning the overall product cycle.

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Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Tapping into a growing consumer interest in higher quality, and more traceable food, it saw an opportunity to build a platform to link up producers to the consumers, restaurants and grocery stores that were buying their products. Xu says that overall, demand from consumers has dropped off considerably compared to a year ago.

Startup 249

Startup Platform Software Los Angeles 249

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

Image via Pixabay As a mentor to many small business owners, I always caution them that you can never relax completely, just because your initial solution or product set appears to be getting traction, and the market buzz is positive. Control costs and adjust prices to maintain your margin.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

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. Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 116

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. How profitable is my product or service? As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

socalTECH

MAY 8, 2015

In a world awash with on-demand startups, Los Angeles-based Serviz (www.serviz.com) stands out--not because of the market segment it is tackling, but because it was founded by two, very experienced serial entrepreneurs-- Zorik Gordon and Michael Kline. Our vision is really to become the premier provider of on-demand home services.

Services 100

Services ReachLocal Demand Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. But Ethan had left by the time of the acquisition. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Is it one product line or multiple? For example, if you sell your product through a third-party reseller who charges 30% of any sale then your COGS will be 30% of revenue (assuming no other costs of sales). They used the money to hire a bigger tech team so they could roll out their second product line.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2014

To get some insight into how those names are changing--we caught up with Steve Banfield , SVP and GM of Registrar Services over at Rightside (www.rightside.co) -- which is in the midst of spinning out from Santa Monica-based Demand Media. Steve Banfield: What will become Rightside has been part of Demand Media. READ MORE>>.

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Demand HTML Web Media 231

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. Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price.

Pricing 105

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 105

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Steve Blank via Flickr by jdlasica I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right.

Startup 98

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 98

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

When they look at buying your company they often think in terms of “how long will it take until I earn back the profits to pay for my acquisition price?” They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In the short term you need customers to find you at any price, and in the longer term you need revenue, profit, and return loyalty. 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.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

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. Prices begin to decline quickly. The first customers are early adopters who are the least price-sensitive. Unfortunately, the mainstream customers who can really drive revenue care more about price.

Pricing 52

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 52

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." It is almost never the case that you are building an MVP to "show" to an investor the product itself.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2012

Few people in the technology world are unfamiliar with the huge rise in the popularity of the photo sharing service Instagram, which was topped off by a $1 billion acquisition of that company by Facebook just a few weeks ago. How does pricing on the photos work? To make it easy, we set the prices. It hasn't been an issue at all.

Startup 153

Startup Pricing Sites Acquisition 153

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2019

Of course, nothing is totally free, and I have heard the horror stories of relatively small companies finding thirty or more employees spending most of their time scanning and using social media for promotions, or engaging high-priced consultants who never seem to be able to show any real return for all of their efforts.

Social Media 99

Social Media Media Tool Startup 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Customer 113

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2013

About seven years ago, I was asked to step in to lead a roofing and building integrated PV products company. Basically, what we did was develop products which were roofing products for residential homes. Also, contained within those products, were traditional solar products. That literally gave you a solar rooftop.

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Equity Invest Marketing Product 234

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Although the offer was gratifying, it was clear to the Founders that this windfall would ultimately fall far short of the value that could be created by productizing the technology and generating substantial user adoption. The key is to determine if your company’s solution is a feature, a point solution product, or a platform.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Acquisition Pricing .Net 124

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Although the offer was gratifying, it was clear to the Founders that this windfall would ultimately fall far short of the value that could be created by productizing the technology and generating substantial user adoption. The key is to determine if your company’s solution is a feature, a point solution product, or a platform.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Acquisition Pricing 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2017

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Startup 64

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 64

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

We Create Demand for California's Technology Companies. and international patent and trademark procurement - IP Litigation - IP Licenses and Agreements: distribution, development, joint venture - Intellectual property aspects of mergers and acquisitions. Backing Southern California's next great technology companies. Think Glendale.

Southern California 113

Southern California Tech Coast Angels IP Orange County 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2012

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Startup 118

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 118

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He eventually applied his lessons learned in these experiences when he founded Zag, a company that helps consumers buy cars over the Internet at pre-negotiated prices with nearly 4,000 dealers across the country [disclosure: my firm GRP Partners is an investor in Zag]. The consumer product they’ve created is called TrueCar.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Success demands testing the solution early and quickly in the market, then iterating to get it right. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Startup 114

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 114

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

By that time, I had figured out the cadence of pricing for hotel rooms, and had been traveling back and forth between LA and San Francisco for three or four days each week. Plus, prices were starting at $180. We became Amplify's first investment, and first exit, and went from concept to acquisition in eight months.

Startup 100

Startup Los Angeles Mobile Pricing 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

While this reaction to such a valuation is understandable, to anybody who has seen the meteoric rise in consumer demand and actual revenue the valuation is much less surprising and may turn out to be quite conservative. As I like to tell people who ask about Bird, “consumers have literally voted with their feet.” Is Bird really defensible?

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Learning experience includes: on-demand online video tutorial courses, live video-conference workshops, as well as individual online consultations, live workshops, and group programs. Mike Tringe earned his BA in History and Science from Harvard, and his MFA in Film Production from USC. Who are its founders? How does it work?

Web 93

Web USC Course Guide 93