Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)?

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media News 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2021

The founder explains that the product or service is so “buzz-worthy” that the merits will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. It usually implies an opportunity to win big, like a lottery, or experience something sensational, like an incredible video or free product.

Marketing 139

Marketing Startup SEM Blogging 139

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2021

Watching the orders come in, or the product moving off the shelf, is the feedback you have been looking for. Love that sustainable competitive advantage. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Start even before the product is ready. A business model that works. Bask in the success as it happens.

Startup 160

Startup Patents Competition Social Network 160

socalTECH

MARCH 18, 2014

near real-time automated intelligence gathering systems that scour public and private data sources like websites, blogs, social media and email to unearth information businesses can use for competitive advantage. Bitvore, led by Jeff Curie, said that it has developed a.

Software 227

Software IBM IBM Social Media 227

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

When I first started writing this blog several years ago I had less followers than you have right now. But the realist in me knew I couldn’t write daily nor could I convince you to think to check out my blog with regularity. .” From this I learned the best times to post and how frequently to Tweet a blog post.

Writing 326

Writing Buzzfeed Social Media Blogging 326

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Over 600,000 new businesses were created in the last year, or over one per minute of every day.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2010

Blogging has come a long way in the past few years, from a social release for narcissists, to today’s required vehicle for promoting your business and gaining valuable online exposure, ultimately bringing in more customers. Here are some tips I’ve gleaned from experience: Make your blog your website. Anchor blog in your domain name.

Blogging 48

Blogging Search Engine Optimization Startup Writing 48

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2013

Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. More important than finding a community, is creating one, with your blog and other social media engagement. The best communities then become your advocate. Identify the influencers of these communities.

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Product Metrics 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2022

For example, it used to be that marketing via social media meant banner ads on Facebook, buying search engine results, and sponsoring blog entries, but these don’t suffice anymore. Brands need influencers working on their behalf because they provide the third-party credibility and social proof that validates their products.

Social Media 140

Social Media Media Snapchat Platform 140

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? I am a VC.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

TechEmpower

MAY 28, 2015

As a managed hosting provider, we were able to provide the project with the same types of machines that our customers use to run their production environments. The best results were derived from a real-world environment running physical hardware. versus 1.05M).

Framework 200

Framework TechEmpower Blogging News 200

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Engaging in social media and blogging on a regular basis is a low-cost way to achieve visibility, and become the “go-to” person for that topic and the voice that people trust in your industry. population now using social media, at least 30% look at profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn before buying any product or service.

Social Media 142

Social Media Media Platform Customer 142

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. More important than finding a community, is creating one, with your blog and other social media engagement. The best communities then become your advocate. Identify the influencers of these communities.

Social Media 135

Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2022

Surdak emphasizes that the goal is to either mitigate some of the pressure caused by data growth or to put that pressure to work for you in growing your startup and remaining competitive: Focus: play to your strengths. Look for and reward quantum changes, like cutting cycle time in half, in your processes, products, and services.

Startup 126

Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 126

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

More importantly, he has just announced his first investment – he led a $7 million investment in Deliv – please read about it on Greg’s spiffy new blog. On the one hand you can view their local stores as a competitive disadvantage because eCommerce companies can sell products with no physical retail stores.

Startup 331

Startup Competition Examples Invest 331

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 authors made the point that, given the size of companies today, a single garden-variety blockbuster hardly moves the needle.

Product 40

Product Journal Venture Capital Demand 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

For example, many investors I know tell me they look for business plans that allocate the largest portion of a requested investment to marketing, but most often see the top “ use of funds ” to be further product or service development. The smart ones were already working on new features, and able to counter competition quickly.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2021

Their computers then merge your ads with search results when users search words imply an interest in your products. It pays only if a customer clicks through AND takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. Paid search engine ranking (PPC) is just buying advertising for your business.

PPC 154

PPC SEO Paid Search Search Engine Optimization 154

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Xconomy

JULY 31, 2017

It’s been a long time since tech’s biggest companies could be sorted into discrete buckets according to the products they pioneered—-Google, the search software giant; Apple, the computer and mobile device innovator; e-commerce leader Amazon; business software stalwart Microsoft; and social media engine Facebook.

Competition 64

Competition Social Media Web Commerce 64

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. It usually implies an opportunity to win big, like a lottery, or experience something sensational, like an incredible video or free product.

Marketing 107

Marketing Invest SEM Startup 107

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures. If you believe you have a market-leading position in your product space I would worry a bit less about it. This is true on all of the major tech blogs.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

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). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2011

On this blog I’m often trying to combine lessons for entrepreneurs and market commentary. I have also spent the past year talking publicly about how I didn’t believe that their were strong monetization opportunities in “group messaging&# and that people offering that product would need to find other ways to monetize.

Email 270

Email Writing Blogging Competition 270

socalTECH

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Our services range from basically any platform service to enable an entrepreneur or developer or creative, to get online with a website, or do things like set up a blog. Now, more and more, we''re extending our use cases into not just websites and blogs, but also to lots of web application use cases. So, for us, competition is good.

Software Review 238

Software Review Cloud Computing Technical Review Platform 238

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

companies should… focus on building amazing products. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. If you have $hitty products, the marketing is impossible. Instead of focusing on marketing as an activity… integrate it into (your) products.”. Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this. People often ask me why I started blogging.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

In his maiden post on the topic he wrote, “After product-market fit and an efficient conversion process, the next critical step is finding scalable, repeatable and sustainable ways to grow the business. If this isn’t part of your culture on your product & marketing teams I can assure you it is on one of your competitors.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features. They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. And you need somebody who is committed to keeping up your presence in blogs, social media and other online forums. I find this so inauthentic.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Of course it’s a competitive market so MCNs competing for top talent not only compete on rev share to talent but also to services that they provide talent. I will talk about these strategies in my next blog post. Industry averages for talent revenue shares are about 70% with top talent making even more. ” Don’t.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2019

Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. Even great products need great marketing “content” to fuel the ascent of their online message. If your content is about your specific product or service, that’s not great content; it’s marketing collateral.

Customer 93

Customer Custom Marketing Tips 93

Xconomy

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

The FDA is trying to tame high insulin prices by encouraging price competition. Under a rule change published this week, the FDA will classify insulin as a biological product. The FDA has historically regarded insulin as a drug. But insulin isn’t a chemical drug, it’s made from biological material.

Pricing 79

Pricing Competition Product Marketing 79

socalTECH

JUNE 22, 2009

Pasadena-based Central Desktop has jumped into the enterprise micro-blogging area, saying Monday that it has launched a new tool which allows companies to use Twitter-style updates within the firm's project management software. The new microblogging tool, like Twitter, also supports updates via mobile phones, using SMS. READ MORE>>.

Yammer 150

Yammer SaaS Pasadena Blogging 150