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6 Ways To Make You An Entrepreneur Before The Product

Startup Professionals Musings

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. In fact, some totally avoid it, assuming their product or solution will speak for itself later.

Product 127
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If You Don’t Define Your Personal Brand the Market Will

Both Sides of the Table

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. For 1991 I was very technical and also had a lot of practical business implementation experience in technology. ” F**k.

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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. ” I highly recommend reading it. We want a strong balance sheet (um, ok. but that’s our firm’s money on your balance sheet.

Startup 383
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10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). My general rule is that it’s good to be stealth in the early days while you’re building your product and testing your market. Most people totally advise against stealth.

Marketing 380
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How to Handle a VC Presentation with No Deck

Both Sides of the Table

I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I would argue that this mostly consists of consumer Internet companies (although not exclusively) and it is predominantly early-stage people who are product gurus and have a mildly technical bend to them. I’m a product geek more than a spreadsheet ninja.

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Some Career Advice for Aspiring Tech CEOs

Both Sides of the Table

I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” ” My friend Ian Sigelow wrote about this last week and advised people not to take on this kind of job. Nobody sees you as a CEO since you’ve never been one?

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Think about Performance Before Building a Web Application

TechEmpower

We’ve heard this from startup founders, product managers, development team leads, CTOs, and others who see their product gaining traction, but simultaneously see performance falling off a cliff. User experience is suffering and it’s the worst possible time with the product taking off. So, why does this happen?

Web 200