Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2020

Your concept has to be understood by customers and investors in 30 seconds or less, and everyone needs to immediately see how awesome it would be, or that they would be nuts not to have it. I’m looking for the “hook” right up front, or I lose interest quickly, just like every customer and investor these days.

Startup 166

Startup Education Ideas Customer 166

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Message delivery must be customized for each investor. It takes more than one person to build a business, so the lone entrepreneur, without support from any visible team, advisors, partners, or potential customers, will not attract investors. Registered patents and other intellectual property. Expert in your chosen domain.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors a few years ago to give away their battery patents, to infrastructure and competitive car providers, without transactional agreements. Another partnering model example is the IBM Watson Group $1 billion investment to share cloud-based development and super-computing tools.

IBM 131

IBM IBM Startup Examples 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. It allows all members of your team, including marketing, support, and sales, to size and build the business plan processes they need to find customers, deliver, and maintain grow the business. Provide details on the business model.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Excuse the typos and cleanup -- I’ve been too busy to finalize.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Message delivery must be customized for each investor. It takes more than one person to build a business, so the lone entrepreneur, without support from any visible team, advisors, partners, or potential customers, will not attract investors. Registered patents and other intellectual property. Expert in your chosen domain.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

As an example of a good resource, I enjoyed the classic book, “ Idea To Invention ,” by Patricia Nolan-Brown, that does a great job on the key steps. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. File at least a provisional patent and one or more trademarks.

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

Overall I like the principles in the classic book “ Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival ,” by Robert F. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Set milestones and meet them. Ownership.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors a few years ago to give away their battery patents, to infrastructure and competitive car providers, without transactional agreements. Another partnering model example is the IBM Watson Group $1 billion investment to share cloud-based development and super-computing tools.

Startup 124

Startup IBM IBM Examples 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Excuse the typos and cleanup -- I’ve been too busy to finalize.”

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 30, 2012

This is the origin of the “solution looking for a problem” and “if we build it, they will come” syndromes, which result in surprise and frustration waiting for funding, and waiting for customers that don’t materialize. Business strategy allows you to change customer perceptions and responses to your product or service offerings.

Startup 99

Startup Competition IP Patents 99

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

Are funds available to invest in student businesses? Ask: How many patents were filed by students and faculty during each of the past five years? How active (and helpful) is the technology transfer office, as measured by the number of patents licensed by alumni and students annually.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Class Patents 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Let me be quick to say that a plan doesn’t have be a book, and probably should start as a “pitch deck” of maybe a dozen slides which cover all the right bases. Since this document is outward facing, it is important to keep the terminology and tone consistent with that of your customer set, investors, and business partners.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. It is not helpful to you for funders to love an idea that does not fit the criteria for their investing capability.

Software Review 106

Software Review Funding Startup Seed Funding 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. Non-specific terms, like better usability and low cost don’t incite customers to action these days. Thought leadership position in your market and customer set.

Competition 93

Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

This is the origin of the “ solution looking for a problem ” and “ if we build it, they will come ” syndromes, which result in surprise and frustration waiting for funding, and waiting for customers that don’t materialize. Business strategy allows you to change customer perceptions and responses to your product or service offerings.

Startup 92

Startup Competition IP Patents 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2014

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. The same is true for filing patents, registering trademarks, and filing copyrights. Work out of your home, and keep your own books.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Commerce 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2017

Amazon offers a multitude of books with free ideas, such as “ Small Business Ideas ,” and “ Business Ideas: 100 Starting Points to Make Money.” Of course, there are no guarantees, but if can find an independent sizing of the market opportunity, your job of convincing customers, and investors, will be much easier.

Ideas 74

Ideas Social Media Startup Customer 74

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2016

By profit, I simply mean offering a product or service to customers for a price that exceeds the total costs associated with the solution, thus providing some basis for recovering sunk costs and generating a return for stakeholders. Solve a painful problem for customers who have money to spend.

Entrepreneur 58

Entrepreneur Ideas Pricing Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

According to the Angel Capital Association , at least 300,000 people have made angel investments in the last two years, totaling $24 billion in the U.S. Angels are most interested to help you scale the business, once you have real customer traction and ready to break out. These are all accredited investors who risk their own money.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2012

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. It is not helpful to you for funders to love an idea that does not fit the criteria for their investing capability.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2014

Message delivery must be customized for each investor. It takes more than one person to build a business, so the lone entrepreneur, without support from any visible team, advisors, partners, or potential customers, will not attract investors. Registered patents and other intellectual property. Expert in your chosen domain.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Angel Social Media Patents 107

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. Here is how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Exit strategy.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2014

These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. It allows all members of your team, including marketing, support, and sales, to size and build the business plan processes they need to find customers, deliver, and maintain grow the business. Provide details on the business model.

Product 101

Product Entrepreneur Summary Activity 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2011

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. It is not helpful to you for funders to love an idea that does not fit the criteria for their investing capability.

Software Review 98

Software Review Funding Seed Funding Startup 98

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

The Startup UCLA Accelerator Is About Entrepreneurship Not Investment Returns. Check out the inaugural Startup UCLA companies, as self-described, below: Accelsor – Accelsor simplifies custom website creation into a single step by eliminating the prototyping and coding stages. It also won a number of key patents bit.ly/RiJCFI

UCLA 47

UCLA Invest Startup Class 47

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2017

Your concept has to be understood by customers and investors in 30 seconds or less, and everyone needs to immediately see how awesome it would be, or that they would be nuts not to have it. I’m looking for the “hook” right up front, or I lose interest quickly, just like every customer and investor these days.

Startup 58

Startup Education Ideas Customer 58

InfoChachkie

MARCH 1, 2012

Despite the book’s shortcomings, it contains a number of insightful lessons for budding entrepreneurs. Of the 100 business “lessons” articulated in the book, I highlight a few below that I feel are the most relevant and impactful for entrepreneurs. Some of the examples are patently obvious (e.g., (i) Book Verdict.

Tips 259

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Product 259

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Excuse the typos and cleanup that I’ve been too busy to finalize.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Even if you have an hour booked, the advice is the same. Here is how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Exit strategy.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2015

An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors to give away all their patents, to infrastructure providers and even competitive car makers, without transactional agreements. Another new partnering model is the IBM Watson Group $1 billion investment to share cloud-based development and super-computing tools.

Startup 100

Startup IBM IBM Examples 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2016

These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. It allows all members of your team, including marketing, support, and sales, to size and build the business plan processes they need to find customers, deliver, and maintain grow the business. Provide details on the business model.

Product 55

Product Startup Summary Entrepreneur 55

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Excuse the typos and cleanup that I’ve been too busy to finalize.”

Entrepreneur 119

Entrepreneur Technical Review Statistics Startup 119

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2010

Yesterday I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. It is not helpful to you for funders to love an idea that does not fit the criteria for their investing capability.

Software Review 95

Software Review Startup Seed Funding Funding 95

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2018

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. If you haven’t yet finalized the business model, cost projections, and customer segments, you aren’t ready for investors. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Excuse the typos and cleanup -- I’ve been too busy to finalize.”

Funding 62

Funding Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 62

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2018

An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors a few years ago to give away their battery patents, to infrastructure and competitive car providers, without transactional agreements. Another partnering model example is the IBM Watson Group $1 billion investment to share cloud-based development and super-computing tools.

Competition 60

Competition IBM IBM Startup 60

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2014

An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors to give away all their patents, to infrastructure providers and even competitive car makers, without transactional agreements. Another new partnering model is the IBM Watson Group $1 billion investment to share cloud-based development and super-computing tools.

IBM 100

IBM IBM Startup Examples 100