Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Social media is so pervasive in today’s world that every entrepreneur believes instinctively that they know how to use it for their startup. When it comes to social media for your business, expect a high learning curve, but rest assured it’s not rocket science. Create an integrated conventional marketing and social media strategy.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 20, 2014

Los Angeles-based FastPay , which offers up financial products specifically aimed at advertising driven businesses, said this morning that it has raised $15M in a funding round. The company''s financial products are useful to many media businesses who typically see long delays between ad impressions and actual payments from advertisers.

Advertising 157

Advertising Web Los Angeles Mobile 157

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital (TWiVC) again this week with Jason Calacanis. Bill Gross is the man responsible for the overwhelming amount of monetization on the web. Golden rule of branding for me: 1) name your company or product your URL and 2) don’t paint yourself into a corner. &# Tweet&# = corner.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Capital Google Platform 271

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Blippy (and their competitor Swipely – which was founded by Angus Davis , who has a great track record from both Netscape and TellMe, both aim to capitalize on the era of consumers living more openly ala Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla. So my gut says this will be a youth-oriented product. Read more: TechCrunch.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Capital Rustic Canyon Mobile 270

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

His work in social media, e-Learning and Performance Support has won awards and has led him into engagements at many Fortune 500 companies including Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Canada, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan, Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Fidelity Investments, Symbol Technologies and SHL Systemhouse.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Guide CTO Coach Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. Like many product managers, my background is fairly eclectic. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. Tell me a bit about your background. How did it help you?

Product 150

Product Entrepreneur Social Media Google 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2022

Through a free base product, you give the first taste of the service or game away for free, get users hooked, and then convert as many as possible to paying customers. This freemium model has been used for years by web apps. Commoditize complementary products. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier.

Develop 138

Develop Development Platform Mobile 138

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Every company and startups needs marketing experts, who are skilled and knowledgeable in the development of marketing programs, content creation, lead generation, and the utilization of social media. This world changes rapidly, and needs a professional with experience in digital and conventional media to keep up. Staffing Professional.

Startup 106

Startup Social Media Course Entrepreneur 106

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

JULY 5, 2021

Today you can start a new web site business for as little as $100, produce cheap smart phone apps, or lead the effort to tap the multitude of opportunities brought by capitalizing on our concern for dwindling natural resources. Upgrade, reuse, or recycle every product. Move physical products and services into the digital realm.

Startup 162

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Social Media 162

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

The firm, co-founded by Travis Schneider and Luke Kervin, said it aggregates and normalizes product data from fashion retailers, and allows users to find fashion products from their favorite stores. Tags: shopnation venture capital funding launchpadla fashion shopping ecommerce. READ MORE>>.

Sites 168

Sites Mahalo Santa Monica Seed Funding 168

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Last week, Santa Monica-based Tecca (www.tecca.com) launched a consumer electronics, consumer information service, backed by Fuse Capital and Best Buy. The service--currently only available on iPhone and Android--allows users to find reviews and information about consumer electronics products. What was behind that decision?

Incubator 239

Incubator Startup Web Technical Review 239

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

and Fuse Capital. The firm, which did not disclose financial details of the investment, said the digital media fund established by Best Buy and Fuse Capital are backing its launch of a product information, pricing, and shopping mobile application. Fuse said that Tecca was incubated from within the firm. READ MORE>>.

Services 188

Services Santa Monica Google Incubator 188

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2020

Every company and startups needs marketing experts, who are skilled and knowledgeable in the development of marketing programs, content creation, lead generation, and the utilization of social media. This world changes rapidly, and needs a professional with experience in digital and conventional media to keep up. Staffing Professional.

Startup 164

Startup Social Media Course Entrepreneur 164

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

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2009

For this morning's interview, we sat down and talked with Nick Desai , CEO of Global Fitness Media , which runs FitOrbit (www.fitorbit.com), an online site looking to help users put together a fitness and connect with fitness trainers. Nick Desai: Jack Steinfeld--which everyone knows as Body by Jake--is the founder of Global Fitness Media.

Media 168

Media Pricing Sites Training 168

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

Neville Spiteri is co-founder of Venice-based WEMO Media (www.wemomedia.com), a new, digital studio whose flagship product is TheBlu (www.theblu.com) an online, interactive experience focused on the world's oceans. Our focus is really what we refer to as globally shared media.

Cloud Computing 208

Cloud Computing Web Entertainment Media 208

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

Los Angeles-based Clicker Media , the firm developing online video programming guides for the Internet, said today that it has raised $11M more in a Series B investment round. The new funding was led by JAFCO Ventures, and also included prior investors Benchmark Capital and Redpoint Ventures. Series A funding round, in September.

Redpoint 145

Redpoint Guide Venture Capital Web 145

socalTECH

JANUARY 9, 2013

Chromatik has developed web and iPad applications which let musicians upload, record, annotate, and share their sheet music; record a performance; give feedback to other musicians; and much more. Miso Media. The firm has the backing of both Intel Capital and Liberty Global. Do you wish you could learn how to play the guitar?

Southern California 254

Southern California Startup Sherman Oaks Venice 254

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

Unfortunately, in my role as business advisor , I don’t see the same response to more common weak signals , like the move to phone texting instead of voice, or politics invading social media. Scan for unmet needs to match new products. New technologies drive the need for support and attachments, which could be your opportunity or loss.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Customer 162

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2021

I believe the best entrepreneurs start by finding a large opportunity, and only then use good ideas to capitalize on that opportunity. Here are some approaches that both of us recommend to get you started: Take a basic product and make it special (upgrade). Offer a no-frills version of a high-end product (downgrade).

Startup 112

Startup Ideas Examples Entrepreneur 112

socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2014

as part of that company''s Warner Media Camp accelerator. With our backend tools we can push products to the front of videos, allowing content providers to drive shopping activity. How did you get involved with the Warner Media Camp? Where is your product today? We worked together on several products previously.

Commerce 153

Commerce Content Downey Media 153

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2023

Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. It’s only been in the last decade or two, that social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, have achieved market valuations in billions of dollars (unicorn status), while clearly sacrificing revenue to gain users.

Organization 94

Organization Invest Customer Custom 94

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. So let’s be very specific: let’s assume your dream job is product manager at Google, working on the Analytics product. love to find great products and services made by entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

socalTECH

MARCH 4, 2009

Los Angeles-based Steamboat Ventures has set its sights on the celebrity web space, and is the lead investor in a new round of funding for Fanzter , which operates the celebrity products site Coolspotters.com. Coolspotters is a web site which highlights which products celebrities are buying and wearing.

Sites 133

Sites Steamboat Ventures Invest Venture Capital 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2020

Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. It’s only been in the last decade or two, that social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, have achieved market valuations in billions of dollars (unicorn status), while clearly sacrificing revenue to gain users.

Organization 173

Organization Invest Customer Custom 173

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

I interviewed Eric for an hour for - This Week in Venture Capital. functional workgroups vs. product workgroups). what is the importance of social media? what is wrong with today’s social media? 8:17 How did you decide to go with either shrinkwrap or web only product? 35:29 Why people use social media.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Woodland Hills-based FatTail , a developer of software for managing online advertising for web publishers, announced today that it has launched a new, self-serve display ad selling system called PageGage Direct. The firm's prior products were used by major online publishers and their sales teams to quote and book more traditional, direct ads.

Woodland Hills 140

Woodland Hills SaaS Advertising Web 140

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

In the interests of helping you work smarter and last longer, I would like to offer my top ten list of key resource drains to avoid in early businesses and startups, based on my years of advising entrepreneurs and my own business experience: Expanding your product line too quickly for scaling. Use multiple small orders at first.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

Demand Media / Richard Rosenblatt / Los Angeles - Rosenblatt's last big win: MySpace, where he was Chairman, brokering its sale to News Corp. Getting lots of notice--and controversy--at Demand Media for its use of writers to create content specifically to attract web traffic. com, and was CEO of Vivendi Universal Net USA.

Southern California 228

Southern California Entrepreneur SoCal Mahalo 228

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

Through a free base product, you give the first taste of the service or game away for free, get users hooked, and then convert as many as possible to paying customers. This freemium model has been used for years by web apps. Commoditize complementary products. Position yourself to capitalize on the next frontier.

Mobile 126

Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2009

Los Angeles- and New York-based PlaceVine , which operates a web-based service to connect brands and agencies to product placement opportunities in film, television, and new media, said Wednesday that it has scored a round of seed financing from a New York-based angel fund, NYCSeed. Amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Seed Funding 100

Seed Funding Funding Hollywood Web 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

What a pleasure that I got to spend an hour talking with both Om Malik (whom I’ve always respected his views) and Paul Jozefak , a venture capital partner at Neuhaus Partners in Germany (and formerly the head of Europe for SAP Ventures). Online service offering privacy certification for web sites. Total raised: $5.0mm.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

socalTECH

MARCH 23, 2009

Santa Monica-based Total Beauty Media , which operates a user-generated beauty product reviews web site, said today that it has acquired competitor BeautyRiot , and scored a Series C funding round. Tags: merger acquisition venture total capital beautyriot beauty media. READ MORE>>.

Funding 100

Funding Santa Monica Acquisition Media 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. Over the past 2.5

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Xconomy

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Poshmark , a social media e-retail company, has raised $87.5 Other investors in the firm include Mayfield , Menlo Ventures , GGV Capital , Inventus Capital , SoftTech VC , Union Grove Venture Partners , and Cross Creek Advisors. million in a Series D investment round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Social Media 57

Social Media Venture Capital Media Capital 57