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This is the mysterious and dreaded duediligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for duediligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors.
Social proof is defined as “looking for others to guide our decisions&# and is also one of the most important techniques in acquiring customers in your company. It influenced a generation of tech marketers. The book popularized the technology adoption lifecycle curve that originally came out of Iowa State University shown below.
If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded duediligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the duediligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.
If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded duediligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the duediligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.
Part I of this series describes the 360-review that I conducted at a growing, dynamic SaaS business which has recently graduated from the startup stage and entered the early-growth phase. One of the most compelling conclusions I drew from the reviews is that both Founders need delegate more of their day-to-day tasks.
This is the mysterious and dreaded duediligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for duediligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors.
If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded duediligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the duediligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.
There’s an article making the rounds in tech circles titled “ Growth Hacking is Bull ” written by Muhammad Saleem. I’d like to make the case that the article is wrong. they’ll flock to your channel with marketing budgets and tech prowess. I’d strongly encourage you to read it.
A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Because of the rapid pace with which Venture Capitalists review investment opportunities, they must employ pattern matching techniques which include identifying common fundraising deal breakers. Breaking The Deal Breakers.
If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded duediligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the duediligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.
This is the mysterious and dreaded duediligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for duediligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors.
This article initially appeared on TechCrunch. And of course the most successful technology companies: Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com [duh], Oracle, Microsoft all have loads of sales people. The most important way to sell a product for an early-stage business (or frankly any stage) is to have strong referenceable customers.
Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse duediligence on the investors. Investor duediligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.
A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! If an article has numerous social shares (i.e., For instance, Yelp calls out establishments which attempt to manipulate their reviews. What a bargain.
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. it's all in this article if you want the details]. In the Ad Tech world PS revenue often means providing “media services” as a value-add to using your product. This might mean helping customers buy traffic, arb’ing deals, helping with RTB pricing or trading, etc.
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. Instead of a traditional business school''s case study and textbook approach, UCSB''s Technology Management Program (TMP) emphasizes experiential learning. If you haven''t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! Organic Academia.
Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse duediligence on the investors. Investor duediligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.
I often hear the qualms of business-smart but non-technical entrepreneurs, wondering if they really have a chance in this high-technology marketplace. I tell them that if their idea or solution is technology intensive, they clearly need technology strength on the team. Outsource your technical requirements.
seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. By and large, these workers have not benefitted much from recent technology improvements available to office-based workers—think new email and workplace-collaboration technologies, or advanced sales and HR systems.
Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse duediligence on the investors. Investor duediligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan.
Guy’s latest book, Enchantment , was released in March of 2011, to overwhelmingly upbeat reviews. Of the 225 customerreviews currently posted on Amazon, over 90% are highly positive. I enjoyed the book as well, as evidenced by the review I wrote at the time of its release, which you can read HERE.
This article was originally posted in a much more concise version over GigaOm if you prefer the shorter version. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback.
I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.
Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. But now, those taking assignments have to be rated and reviewed, and have expertise in that area.
Hopefully this article and the accompanying six-minute video will help you avoid learning these mission-critical lessons the hard way. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles! Value is created through diligent hard work. Attempt To License An Idea.
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! As such, I understand the degree to which hand waving and vaporware can influence investors and potential customers. Customers Are All That Matter.
If you are a leader at a startup and you are reading a business book, you are not closing customers, raising capital, improving your product, or spending time with your loved ones. The short version of my review is: “Enchanting? If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!
I often hear the qualms of business-smart but non-technical entrepreneurs, wondering if they really have a chance in this high-technology marketplace. I tell them that if their idea or solution is technology intensive, they clearly need technology strength on the team. Outsource your technical requirements.
I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I think my mentality to banker pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. And they have access to some of the most talented technology entrepreneurs so this is a worthy goal for them.
You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Give your own customers the same consideration.
In August 2004, FastCompany published an article titled, Inside The Mind Of Jeff Bezos , written by Alan Deutschman. Although the article is informative, it is the accompanying sidebar that has remained with me over the succeeding years. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. Customers buy solutions to solve their problems.
I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I think the issue I have always had with investment bank pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. Or as the article on Y Combinator suggests, “is your accent too heavy?”
A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. However, savvy startups can leverage LinkedIn to create a customer acquisition and a churn reduction tool. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly JohnGreathouse.com articles! Businesses typically use LinkedIn to recruit employees.
According to an old Harvard Business Reviewarticle, many people in history, famous for their inventions, like Thomas Edison, were entrepreneurs who only later were remembered as inventors of the products they commercialized. Of course it helps to have innovative technologies before you start building a business.
This article originally ran on PEHub. I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. If you prefer the super short version – I’ve summarized the post in the final section.
free weekly Infochachkie articles! One is obvious, without protection, such IP might prove to be of little worth, as other companies can mimic the technology without recourse. It is often a feature or set of features which enhances the overall efficacy and value of a more comprehensive technology. Provisional Approach.
This article previously appeared in Forbes. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles! Resources Required – At high-tech startups, required resources include developers’ time and the opportunity cost associated with alternative uses of the developers’ 12-hour workdays.
If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens. My articles never appeared on Digg so I didn’t focus on it at all. But it wasn’t to be.
This article originally ran on TechCrunch. Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally.
With the advent of social media and the pervasive move to smartphones, even customers who still prefer to purchase in brick-and-mortar stores have dramatically changed their shopping habits. If you refuse to play by their rules, they have the power to easily find alternatives, and actively pull other potential customers away.
I have never felt prouder of the team & product at awe.sm ( please visit to check out our latest & be ready for our next big product announcement due out in next month or so) and yet we just brought in a new CEO to the company, Fred McIntyre. ” We had inbound M&A requests from some of the biggest names in tech.
As a business consultant and angel investor, I often ask for your own assessment of marketing ROI , or customer acquisition cost (CAC). Leaders and investors need to know if you have and are tapping into your key sources of relevant data, including web analytics, sales management data, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Not so long ago, every business assumed that the keys to success were the highest quality product, the best value for the buck, and the best customer service. Now all we hear about is providing the best “customer experience.” You have to hear your customer’s dreams, goals, passions, and aspirations.
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