Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. Market penetration. Customer acquisition cost. Let me try to clarify the rules, and what it takes to win at this game. First of all, a definition.

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Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2020

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. What if you need to change your market size and volume projections? What if your customer acquisition cost assumptions have to change?

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Startup Pricing Sample Customer 123

InfoChachkie

JULY 26, 2010

Entrepreneurs can emulate de la Guerra’s strategy and make their adVenture appear far larger than reality and thus increasing its influence and market reach while discouraging competitive threats by creating an industry alliance. This last category proved to be especially lucrative. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

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Entrepreneur Santa Barbara Startup Conference 168

socalTECH

JULY 21, 2014

We spoke with Scott Painter , CEO and founder of the company--and already a successful serial entrepreneurs--about the journey from startup to public company, lessons learned, and his advice to CEOS who might be thinking about an IPO for their own company. Your thoughts on the IPO process and how it relates to those entrepreneurs?

Truecar 209

Truecar Entrepreneur Southern California .Net 209

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

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Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

And we wanted a head of global marketing. RedBeacon went on to sell to HomeDepot in what was considered a very successful acquisition on all sides. But Ethan had left by the time of the acquisition. We generally have a policy to only fund entrepreneurs once the first version of a product has shipped or it near to shipping.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing. When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable. But of course Google eventually became the massive winner in this category.

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Advertising Invest RSS CPC 284

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

We sat down with Scott Morrow President of Curatemedia, to hear more about the firm's strategy and the thinking behind the acquisition and new investment in the firm. For additional verticals, we'll expand that through additional acquisition or through organic sites launched internally. What verticals are you thinking about?

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Content Demand Sites Media 165

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? I didn’t sleep much back then.

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Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

socalTECH

JULY 24, 2009

Helping entrepreneurs succeed. Binary Pulse Technology Marketing (www.binarypulse.com). An on-line community for entrepreneurs. Cox Communications - Orange County - Looking for Product Marketing Manager. inspired with entrepreneur Aaron Ross at our next meeting, on July 28th in. They include: Sponsors.

SoCalTech 100

SoCalTech Orange County Southern California Westlake Village 100

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. Brett Rossman: ConsumerTrack is a performance-based, online marketing company. What is ConsumerTrack all about?

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Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2015

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. The way to start is with a sample financial model, freely available from many sources on the Internet, such as this one from Entrepreneur.

Startup 103

Startup Pricing Sample Customer 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

I challenge any entrepreneur, for example, to define the difference between "seed-stage" and "early-stage" financing. Most investors won’t touch a first-time entrepreneur at this stage. Ron Conway , of SV Angels, and Reid Hoffman , LinkedIn's founder, are names often mentioned in this category.

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding 104

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2009

Helping entrepreneurs succeed. An on-line community for entrepreneurs. Binary Pulse Technology Marketing (www.binarypulse.com). Binary Pulse Technology Marketing (www.binarypulse.com). Cox Communications - Orange County - Looking for Product Marketing Manager. Silicon Valley Bank (www.svb.com). Think Glendale.

SoCalTech 100

SoCalTech Orange County Southern California IP 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

This is the fourth article in a series on what it takes to be a great angel investor (and why this should matter to entrepreneurs). Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment. Total disruption on the funding market? This is actually the norm.

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Invest Angel Startup Marketing 283

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The firm is initially focusing on the Los Angeles market, and connecting people with fun, interesting classes, activities, and more in the local area. We break it down by a number of vertical categories, including Indulgent--all about food, wine, and alcohol; Active--outdoor athletic endeavors; and Creative, which is arts and crafts.

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Startup CTO Coach Activity Software Review 271

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

where entrepreneurs share their stories. 63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of By mario on May 2, 2012 in Features , grid. Free Corporations For First-Time Entrepreneurs. Right now they’re setting up 500 free corporations for first time entrepreneurs. Here are 62 63 Los Angeles entrepreneurs we can be proud of.

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Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

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.”

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Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs try to do things on the cheap. there may be major competitive changes in the market that makes your next funding round hard (e.g. Google suddenly makes your product category free). - They can fund a deal if necessary and valid at the time you present an acquisition target to them.

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Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2017

We bring value to those small guys who can't compete against a $60 million marketing budget. Really, we're the sales and marketing arm of those companies. You have to make sure your cost of acquisition, retention rates, and conversion metrics are all in place. We went a little too fast, and took on too many categories at first.

Startup 174

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 174

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

One of the fastest growing startups in Southern California in recent years was Hautelook, which went from just an ideas to a huge, $270M acquisition by Nordstrom only X years later. Hautelook was able to help define--and conquer--the online flash sales category, in record time. Tell us a little bit about your background?

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Southern California Startup Customer Custom 200

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. Market penetration. Customer acquisition cost. Marty Zwilling First published on Young Entrepreneur on 02/18/2013. First of all, a definition.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 106

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Good entrepreneurs are all about managing change, but too many forget that they have to change themselves as their dream evolves from a startup to a scalable business. Many entrepreneurs gave grown to prefer the relative quiet and isolation of their garage, and their ability to set their own schedule.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with financial projections, not wanting to commit to numbers they can’t deliver, and having no clue what investors might consider reasonable. Most entrepreneurs, with no experience, believe that they can make good money with lower margins than competitors. Gross margins greater than 50%. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Equity Entrepreneur Venture Capital 97

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with financial projections, not wanting to commit to numbers they can’t deliver, and having no clue what investors might consider reasonable. Most entrepreneurs, with no experience, believe that they can make good money with lower margins than competitors. Gross margins greater than 50%.

Equity 99

Equity Venture Capital Invest Pricing 99

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Ten Tech Entrepreneurs Who Are Putting LA on the Map. Tech startup accelerators dot the landscape, feeding investments into the waiting arms of the nation’s most intelligent and driven entrepreneurs. Miller was even honored as an Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” for 2011. Follow PandoDaily: Search.

Technical Review 75

Technical Review Entrepreneur Riot Games Southern California 75

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. Market Size. It’s ok to target a small market and you can probably build a niche business that is extremely valuable to you as an individual.

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Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2014

As someone with a good view of the mobile ad market, are there any things you think about at the industry level? They''re starting to look at more advanced conversion funnels, LTV analysis, and we''re seeing an overall maturity of user acquisition techniques by big buyers. One big new category for us is data and targeting.

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Startup Mobile Advertising Organization 196

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? They hired a marketing team to promote their products more broadly. If there was strong market demand for their product then this investment might pay off handsomely. This is precisely why large Internet categories often produce “winner takes most” outcomes.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

This entry focuses on how you can minimize your cost per customer acquired by systematically establishing the infrastructure necessary to track the results obtained from a variety of online and offline marketing vehicles. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2017

In emerging markets and the developing world, access to banking, capital, and financial resources is fare more difficult than here in the U.S., Shivani Siroya: Tala is a data company that is working in emerging markets. What we've developed, is an Android app that allows us to open up financial access to customers in emerging markets.

Startup 100

Startup Santa Monica Customer Custom 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. Never cold.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

It was especially fun for me because we got the chance to talk about the VC industry and how entrepreneurs should think about the VC industry in addition to discussing deals. We discussed whether investing in the second largest player in a category makes sense given that Groupon is 10x the revenue, 3.5x the funding and market coverage.

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Clearstone Venture Capital ReachLocal Google 236

InfoChachkie

JULY 20, 2015

Six outstanding entrepreneurs have created this sweet flavor of success in one of the most beautiful places on earth – Santa Barbara, California. As Emmy Award winning comedian Bill Grundfest aptly points out in this video , entrepreneurs should seek the intersection of the things they enjoy doing and the tasks which will make them money.

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Santa Barbara Startup Sales Entrepreneur 100

socalTECH

JULY 5, 2017

There were lots of things we did around investment and acquisitions. Shaan Sethi: I think the medical market is quite different from traditional apparel. However, the medical apparel space is, for all intents and purposes, a multi-billion dollar replenishment market. I was in the consumer, retail space.

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Web 2.0 Equity Legalzoom Capital 100

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Whats interesting is that Ive been seeing opportunities to use social marketing for businesses that typically target Time Poor audiences. I also read - The Difference Between Apple and Microsoft Marketing that tells us: Apples marketing is designed for Time Poor buyers, while Microsofts is designed for Time Rich buyers.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150