Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Of course, some balance is required.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple , you should. 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. My guess is that we are likely in total agreement.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2020

The most memorable businesses, like Starbucks and Apple, no longer sell products, they sell ‘experiences’ with a product at the center. The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint.

Customer 168

Customer Custom Services Startup 168

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 123

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

As I noted in Why Most Business Books (Still) Suck , I am generally not a fan of business books. 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. Fan, Not A Fan Boy. I was not disapointed.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 2, 2014

Then she topped her explanation with: “A few days before the start, a package arrives from us at the employee’s home with a welcome letter, a copy of the CEOs book, and a giant fortune cookie, with the fortune cookie message streamer clearly visible.”. How about teaching a class in corporate culture yourself to one or more new employees?

Startup 207

Startup Email Class Examples 207

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

After repositioning the company as a developer of high-end, premium products, Steve was excited to execute a marketing campaign. However, he stopped in his tracks when he learned that the engineers had only created a single product, rather than a family of graphics cards. We repackaged them and branded them as different products.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

Turn on your phone and look at the productivity folder. Kind of like a disarrayed choose your own adventure book about your life. You’ll be more productive within three weeks time. We discuss productivity, emails, communication, and the dynamics of the team. We’ve been there. We’ve all been there.

Product 99

Product Ideas Email Organization 99

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

At the time, I was looking for a book to teach web design to my students, but figured out that one had never been written. So, I ended up writing that first book, and Bruce helped me with the research, and that was one way we got to know each other before we were even dating. When my book was published, it ended up being a big thing.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

InfoChachkie

MARCH 2, 2015

I treat each of my classes as a product that the students are paying a lot of money to consume. For instance, I assign an Ombudsman in all my classes in order to gather anonymous feedback. Thus, diligent students leave my classes with insights and tools they can directly apply to their jobs after graduation. Challenging.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Class Course Case Study 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. How profitable is my product or service? As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

One of the most influential books of my career is The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clay Christensen. Many people bandy about the definitions of “disruptive technology&# or “the innovator’s dilemma&# without ever having read the book and almost universally misunderstand the concepts. That would have been laughable.

Startup 376

Startup Framework Marketing Customer 376

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2019

Image via Pexels Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences.

Coach 94

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 94

Berkonomics

MARCH 3, 2016

These same CEOs sit in their corner offices and email the COO in the next–door office and call their VP of Sales rather than walking down the hall. One idea kept rising to the top of our list: abandoning our Class A office space which had been designed and decorated with great love. It was much more than an office.

Layoffs 120

Layoffs Ideas Email Social Network 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2011

Whatever you’re working on now, the half-life of innovation is so rapid now that your product will soon be out-of-date. In this globally connected world product leads disappear in nano-seconds. We know that if you start with ho-hum founders you’re less likely to assemble a world-class team. Is this philosophy exaggerated?

Startup 399

Startup Class Blogging Company 399

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Most VCs are book smart. In fact, book smart can be a negative. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. Neither class of people should give up easily. Smart is simply not a differentiator. Connections? Commitment.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

” Who cut you in on their bonus because even though you’re “just an sales engineer” they know you really deserved more credit for this deal. It also has to be said that bad apples on teams bring down productive even if that person is individually a superstar. Writing a book will be fun.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2017

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Of course, some balance is required.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Coach Organization Mentor 78

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Cialdini who is also author of a very well received book called “ Influence &# (which I plan to read). You should, too. (no,

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

.&# I took it to mean, “making decisions with small amounts of money (pennies) that end up making bad sense for affecting larger amounts of money (pounds, as in Great British Pounds).&# I thought of it as people who cut corners on small costs but paid dearly in terms of lost productivity on expensive staff. I Love Scrappy.

Startup 333

Startup Class Conference Product 333

socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2011

Anyone who has been in sales, business development, or just works a lot with others is familiar with contact management software--tracking who you have been talking to, when, notes, and more for sales teams. Instead, they are using Outlook's address book, and Google contacts to communicate.

Google 216

Google Tool Email Sales 216

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I say this as somebody who recruited several Harvard, Wharton and similar MBAs at my first company (the one where I acknowledge that I made every mistake in the book). Do you really think Porter’s Five Forces is going to help you figure out what feature set to launch or how to price your product?

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Thus I was happy to see a recent book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

A couple of years ago I read the popular book, “The Four Hour Workweek &# by Tim Ferriss. Let me start by saying I’m a huge business book cynic. I think too many books are written by charlatans and have too much management jargon / double speak that I can’t stand. So I don’t read too many of them.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

” If you don’t read any more of the post, the summary lesson learned for entrepreneurs is this: Product-centric founders often over-intellectualize their communications and therefore fail to sell their concepts to the masses. Or what about your sales team? Before that he was a US senator. Call on me. I know the answer.”

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2012

As Guy Kawasaki says in his book “ The Art of the Start ,” if you can’t describe your business model in ten words or less, you don’t have a business model. Avoid whatever business jargon is currently hip, like strategic, mission-critical, world-class, synergistic, first-mover, or scalable. Shopkeeper model.

Startup 95

Startup Customer Custom Summary 95

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

It was a great chance for the class to interact with the community in LA. We’ll be conducting a series of educational programes covering: fund raising, team building, product development, sales, marketing, business development and how to prioritize your time as a CEO. And of course we had, TheMan.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. Also, it’s harder to pay a $30 million pre-money value on an unproved company when you see public companies with $100 million in sales trading for less than $20 million. Can a deal get done?

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 263

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Alain Theriault, better known as StartupCoach , tells entrepreneurs that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start by writing a cook book (business plan), you work in the kitchen for a while, you learn some tools of the trade, you experiment with a few recipes, you test on willing clients. then you can start writing a recipe.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

Thus I was happy to see a new book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

The most memorable businesses, like Starbucks and Apple, no longer sell products, they sell ‘experiences’ with a product at the center. The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Competition 56

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

As Guy Kawasaki says in his book “ The Art of the Start ,” if you can’t describe your business model in ten words or less, you don’t have a business model. Avoid whatever business jargon is currently hip, like strategic, mission-critical, world-class, synergistic, first-mover, or scalable. Shopkeeper model.

Ideas 92

Ideas Startup Customer Custom 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

Alain Theriault, better known as StartupCoach , tells entrepreneurs that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start by writing a cook book (business plan), you work in the kitchen for a while, you learn some tools of the trade, you experiment with a few recipes, you test on willing clients. then you can start writing a recipe.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

socalTECH

JULY 29, 2009

If you're an expert in a certain technology--say, business process design--and have thought about publishing a book, this is a quicker, faster, and more comprehensive way to share it with the world. Instead of writing a book, we wanted to develop a platform to bring our methods to life, and scale our knowledge.

Geni 100

Geni Web Guide Platform 100