TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2014

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology developer OpenX Technologies said this morning that it has launched a new product, the OpenX SSP (Supply Side Platform). OpenX said that such customers as YP, TVGuide.com, and the New York Observer are already using the product.

OpenX 159

OpenX Product Advertising Demand 159

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Crowdfunding to gauge demand is not recommended, since failed campaigns don’t usually recover later.

Startup 100

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 100

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

Two years after the Los Angeles-based fintech startup Dave launched with a suite of money management tools to save consumers from overdraft fees , the company is now worth $1 billion thanks to a nascent banking practice that had investors lining up. “It’s one thing to help people with budgeting.

Company 262

Company Companies Startup Tips 262

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

He did note that in the four markets where the company has gone live since launching its business in January 2019 — San Diego, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire , and Sacramento — has yielded an annualized revenue run rate of over $400 million in gross merchandise value (the total value of home sales transacted on its platform).

Sales 282

Sales Demand San Diego Funding 282

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2022

Over my many years as a business advisor and angel investor, I have become a firm believer in the opposite position, that you make your own luck , which drives business success, rather than the other way around. Passion is great, but it must be backed by data, confirming a real problem and customers willing and able to pay for your solution.

Startup 143

Startup Competition Coach Satisfaction 143

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Linktree leads the space, securing a recent $45 million Series B raise to build out e-commerce features, but Beacons boasts competitive creator monetization tools with just a $6 million seed round in May. Now, Snipfeed enters the ring with its own $5.5 ’ ” Image Credits: Snipfeed. Image Credits: Snipfeed.

Platform 286

Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2022

As an active angel investor, I still hear entrepreneurs asserting large opportunities with minimal risk and no competition. Proactive marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on one objective – to generate customers now. My conclusion either way is that they have no market, or haven’t looked.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Marketing Customer Custom 153

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Most of the venture capital firms covered in TechCrunch and other tech publications compete for a spot on the cap table of the hottest Bay Area, New York or Los Angeles companies of the moment. Competition for access to deals in the Bay Area, however, has priced many investors out of the most sought-after rounds.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Activity 211

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Marty Zwilling

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Even with advantages that independent startups can never hope to match, including brand recognition, customers, financial capital, and distribution, I don’t often see the entrepreneurial passion for innovation, agility, and team perseverance exhibited by new startups. A documented business plan for the new venture is critical here.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Customer 143

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Crowdfunding to gauge demand is not recommended, since failed campaigns don’t usually recover later.

Startup 151

Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

Based on my own years of experience in startups and big business, and more recently as an angel investor, I often cringe when I see one of you entrepreneurs missing a cue that I have seen work for many before you. For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

How can Lime differentiate its scooters and bikes from the piles of Birds and Spins filling Los Angeles sidewalks? Apparently with a physical storefront where it can convince customers of the wonders of on-demand mobility. They’ll also be throwing live events to build Lime’s hype.

Santa Monica 221

Santa Monica Startup Technical Review Education 221

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2018

As a startup advisor and angel investor, I tend to focus on the much longer list of ways your startup can fail, based on my own experience and inside knowledge from peers who you will never see highlighted on the Internet. If there is no competition, there is likely not a market. Focus on doing one thing well rather than many things.

Startup 99

Startup Competition Examples Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Project your cash burn rate to keep at least 18 months between venture capital or angel investments. That’s no fun for you, your investors or your customers. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2022

Can be a competitive advantage. Competition over salary, promotions, and position. This can cause feelings of unfairness, and initiate emotionally competitive efforts. All relationships bring increased demands for your time, and bring expectations and pressures during any changes in your life, or at work.

Startup 119

Startup Course Competition Social Media 119

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2022

Competitive advantages are rapidly vaporizing on these. Customers today demand products and services personalized or tailored to local needs with embedded quality of life services. Scaling is done first by customer alliances through social media, and later by distributed joint ventures and coopetition.

Startup 126

Startup Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Offshore 126

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 31, 2022

We decided to take a look at two cities that were at the forefront of the e-scooter revolution – Los Angeles and Paris. A survey among customers who were registered with five different shared e-scooter apps in Norway in the fall of 2021 found that in all circumstances except for night rides, e-scooters most often replace walking.

Los Angeles 257

Los Angeles San Pedro Santa Monica Study 257

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2022

Of course, growth is implied in that equation, and is also required for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. That means it solves a real problem for real customers who are ready and able to spend real money. The number of current potential customers is large and growing. Design a product or service that you can sell.

Platform 118

Platform Snapchat Startup Course 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. You don’t want to take money from friends and family, but it’s too early for angel investors and VCs. Bootstrap if you can, otherwise climb the pyramid of family, friends, angels, and VCs.

Startup 130

Startup USC Entrepreneur Statistics 130

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

When a product is truly unique and demanded a retailer willingly promotes and sells it en masse in part because it does get margin on the good but also because it brings customers in the door who spend on other products. Ariel understood her customer?—?the So Why Does This Matter? the modern buyer of home products?—?better

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

As an active angel investor, I still hear entrepreneurs asserting large opportunities with minimal risk and no competition. Proactive marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on one objective – to generate customers now. My conclusion either way is that they have no market, or haven’t looked.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Marketing Customer Custom 107

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards. This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

The startup is backed by the Tech Coast Angels and Dolby Ventures. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. After that, we had a $7.5

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

On the other hand, everyone is doing it, so that means more competition, and the market and technology are changing faster than ever before. Yet, as an angel investor myself, I can attest that many potential entrepreneurs try to take shortcuts, or ignore the realities of business. Ideas are not enough to gauge business potential.

Funding 73

Funding Social Media Slides Platform 73

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2015

If you've ever flown into Los Angeles International Airport�or pretty much any other, major airport--on a busy, holiday weekend, you might be familiar with the sometime hours long lines at rental car counters, horrible customer service, and companies looking to nickel and dime you with all kinds of add on insurance and options.

Startup 100

Startup Los Angeles Marketing Mobile 100

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

The second is that the retailers were constrained by their high costs of local real estate and service staff relative to the costs of centralized warehouses where goods could be stacked high, sorted by robots, managed by RFIDs and then shipped via overnight to eager, cost-conscious customers across the US. 10x the experience.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

The startup is backed by the Tech Coast Angels and Dolby Ventures. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. After that, we had a $7.5

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

In the Los Angeles startup world, there are lots of high profile, buzzy companies which have lots of attention and funding--but which haven''t earned a dime of revenue. We generate thousands of new customers everyday for clients such as Ally Bank, GE Capital, Transunion, and a few other big brands. What is ConsumerTrack all about?

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

We’ve had an explosion of alternate sources of financing from crowd-sourcing, angels, accelerators, incubators, corporates, corporate incubators. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. And importantly we’ve had revenue. It’s when the game slows.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

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. A little less than a year ago, we relaunched it live in Los Angeles as Serviz.

Services 100

Services ReachLocal Demand Startup 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

For our Friday interview, we thought we'd catch up with Los Angeles-based MarketShare , the Elevation Partners-backed software provider, to hear where the firm is nowadays. Its primary goal is to focus on identifying what is truly driving demand, analytically, so that our customers can optimize their activities.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

Orange County startup Beatshare --backed by the Tech Coast Angels, Pasadena Angels, Harvard Business School Angels, and Archangels, among others�thinks it's figured out the formula to make music the message in its mobile app. We worked on Beatshare at Chapman, where there was a business plan competition, which we won.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach Startup Pasadena Angels 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

We Create Demand for California's Technology Companies. Custom Insurance Programs for Technology Companies. Los Angeles-based executive search for emerging growth companies. Tech Coast Angels Fast Pitch - February 24th - UCLA. Fast Pitch Los Angeles is one of the best start up networking events of the year.

Southern California 113

Southern California Tech Coast Angels IP Orange County 113

socalTECH

DECEMBER 10, 2010

It's the source for keeping a pulse on the dynamic world of technology, reaching venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, CEOs, social media. We Create Demand for California's Technology Companies. Custom Insurance Programs for Technology Companies. Los Angeles-based executive search for emerging growth companies.

SoCalTech 127

SoCalTech Advertising Rustic Canyon Glendale 127