Berkonomics

OCTOBER 4, 2018

Then in addition, there are the exits that returned some portion of capital, but nothing more. The entrepreneur, whether remaining to the end as CEO or not, is celebrated for his or her prescient timing, great vision and excellent execution of the plan. Sometimes the entrepreneur who believe s/he has failed the investors apologizes.

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Sales Entrepreneur Writing Invest 136

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. Do you hire more sales people? Entrepreneurs should care more about respect.

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Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Our interview today is with Amos Schwartzfarb , the author of Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups , which comes out tomorrow, Wednesday. We caught up with Amos to learn about his new book, and to gain some tips for startup entrepreneurs on how to figure out when you're actually ready to scale your sales team.

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Sales Startup Custom Development Framework 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Earlier this week, Good Growth Capital (www.goodgrowthvc.com) announced it has started looking at investments in Southern California, adding Krisztina Holly as West Coast Venture Partner for the firm. We have a soft spot for investors and entrepreneurs, who might be super-smart, but are not necessarily as experienced. READ MORE>>.

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Southern California Capital Technical Review Startup 124

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Good entrepreneurs are wrong often.

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Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. But through nearly a decade of startups I learned that sales comes down to three essential elements: 1.

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Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Thus, it is incumbent on entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into viable businesses before seeking venture funding. Entrepreneurs Are Never Stuck. I recently was sent a Tweet from an aspiring entrepreneur which said, “I have a prototype but I need funding to bring it to market. We were long on vision and short on capital.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

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Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2019

It really is possible for an introvert to succeed as an entrepreneur, even though you can’t expect to start and build a business alone. As an introvert myself, I remember worrying that I could never be comfortable giving a sales pitch, or networking to find clients. Capitalize on your strengths, and forget weaknesses.

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Entrepreneur Mentor Activity Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2021

You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process. Every aspect of your business must be about sales. This is the growth equation for a startup.

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Customer Custom Sales Social Media 136

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Forecast sales-volume expectations. This should always be a “bottoms-up” commitment from your sales team, not your own optimistic guess.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Who makes more money, entrepreneurs or venture capitalists? Jason’s comments caused me to compare my career as an entrepreneur and a VC with Rincon Venture Partners. This analysis is particularly timely, given the recent tidal wave of successful entrepreneurs who have become Angel and venture investors. The Answer: “Yes and No”.

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InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012

However, certain questions can be tricky for an entrepreneur to answer. Below are five common questions an entrepreneur will encounter when seeking venture funding. Handled appropriately, these questions provide investors a window into an entrepreneurs’ soul, which minimizes the chances of a future misalignment.

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Entrepreneur Google Invest RSS 253

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

One complaint we sometimes hear from venture capitalists visiting Southern California for the first time, is the difficulty of finding experienced entrepreneurs and executives. socalTECH.com has mined its proprietary database of high tech companies and entrepreneurs and identified just a few of the repeat entrepreneurs to watch in the region.

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Southern California Entrepreneur SoCal Mahalo 228

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Offering to reincorporate the game company as a new entity to avoid any more surprises, the entrepreneur and I negotiated 10% for my $100 thousand, with the remaining 90% for the founder. In addition, I loaned the new company $150 thousand for working capital. Our entrepreneur balked at the boldness of that statement.

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Sales Web Design Web Design 120

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

I want to invest in entrepreneurs that have the capacity to be number one at whatever they are doing, and do it within our skill base, which is direct-to-consumer. So, now, as a VC, I swore I'd never treat entrepreneurs like those VCs treated me. I love entrepreneurs. It was really the same business, but with less capital.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

TechCrunch LA

MAY 14, 2020

Co-founded by the Melbourne, Australia native Phoebe Yu and serial entrepreneur Kat Dey, ettitude sells high-end bamboo bedding made using a process she first heard about in her old job working as an exporter helping chain stores source textiles in China. ”

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Sample Startup Los Angeles Sales 184

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

(You may recall my story of the company that was forced to grow to death by a famous venture capital investor expecting massive profit or nothing, with no expectations in between.). A personal experience that relates. For some, that comfort is worth forgoing building high equity value.

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Equity Course Sales Invest 156

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for a disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to InvoiceTracker. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Startup 134

Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media Metrics 134

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued? And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way. Of course we can’t.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. You will realize much more from the ultimate sale of your business even if at a considerably lower price than if splitting the proceeds with investors.

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Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Rationale: My idea is so mind-blowingly fantastic that I must immediately spend some of my precious capital to protect it. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Grant Exclusivity.

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Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2015

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Forecast sales-volume expectations. This should always be a “bottoms-up” commitment from your sales team, not your own optimistic guess.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Sales 102

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Consistent with the statistics cited in Why Entrepreneurs Hate (Most) MBAs , the large majority of John and Kyle''s classmates accepted positions at investment banks and consulting firms upon graduation. Dear Friends, We have no income and no venture capital funding. The turning point for John and Kyle was a cover story in Inc.

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Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

Those of us in the business of calculating (guessing) this mythical peak in value often make the same mistake as our entrepreneurs. He concluded that the sweet spot for valuation was in the $20–30 million sales price range, and that many, many times more deals were completed in that range than above $100 million in valuation at exit.

Pricing 156

Pricing Invest Equity Entrepreneur 156

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. Build and use social capital. Social capital is people and connections. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. Acquire the relevant skills.

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Startup Capital Resource Research 142

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Yet as a business advisor I am convinced that making the jump from a startup to a the next unicorn takes a different mindset, and actions most entrepreneurs are reluctant to face. In my experience, here are some of the key elements of that “second-stage” of entrepreneurship: Move from small investors to major venture capital.

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Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk takers.

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Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore. Or what about your sales team? It is election season. But here’s the thing.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2018

This year, we're sponsoring the Recurring Revenue Conference (www.recurringrevenueconference.com), presented by Sutton Capital Partners. Jon Ferrara: I firmly believe that Service is the New Sales and that the Sales starts after a customer buys. You're hiring new sales and customer support team members as fast as you can.

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Customer Custom Conference Social Media 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The problem is that professional investors (Angels and Venture Capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than the more risky research and development efforts. Exchanging your services for services is possible with legal counsel, accountants, engineers, and even sales people. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2016

The reality television show Shark Tank makes for entertaining content but many of its underlying messages are potentially detrimental to tech entrepreneurs. Thus, emerging entrepreneurs should parse fact from fantasy by watching the show with an experienced business pro. According to David S. Shark Tank Distortions.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Entertainment Technical Review Ideas 100

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2018

In a study which belies the opt-cited preference for "young" entrepreneurs in the startup and venture capital industry, a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology find that the mean age of the founders of the 1,000 fastest growing new ventures in the U.S. is actually 45.0.

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Study Venture Capital Resource Sales 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

For example, quarterly sales on one of your most important products suddenly decreases, or your inventory across a whole category has surged. New entrepreneurs are notoriously great at capitalizing on new opportunities, both weak and strong. Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur eBook Metrics Examples 93

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

The company aims to have its first product approved by European regulators by 2023 and notching commercial sales by 2025. Early Stage is the premier ‘how-to’ event for startup entrepreneurs and investors. Meatable has a long road ahead of it, because, as Gates acknowledged in his interview with MIT Technology Review (ed.

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Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Sales/Marketing.

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