Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. In all cases, don’t skip the basic training.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

Your goal must be to make every aspect of a customer interaction a joy to both you and them, starting from the shopping experience, to the sales close, to delivery and service. Use metrics to assess needs and growth economics. The cost has been far more than offset by both customer loyalty and advocacy, as well as team spirit.

Customer 114

Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2018

In my experience, finding real innovation in existing company environments is even tougher. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Training and coaching. Innovation is not a random walk into the unknown.

Entrepreneur 64

Entrepreneur Coach Metrics Competition 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2020

Implement the key business metrices you will live by. Identify the three most important metrics your business must hit every week to achieve growth goals. These will almost always be related to sales and marketing, since they must tie back to cash flow. There are also many more stories of companies that pivoted too late.

Metrics 140

Metrics Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction 140

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2016

In my experience, finding real innovation in existing company environments is even tougher. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Training and coaching. Innovation is not a random walk into the unknown.

Coach 64

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 64

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

In my experience, finding real innovation in existing company environments is even tougher. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Training and coaching. Innovation is not a random walk into the unknown.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. VCs (and LPs) have a vested interest in having more data, whether they want to invest in your company / firm or not.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2019

In the popular press, it’s easy to find articles that will convince you that companies with a good culture, such as Google, do it by lavishing perks and benefits , including some combination of free meals, trips and parties, financial bonuses, gyms, and a dog-friendly environment. What the team feels is more important than what they know.

Competition 76

Competition Coach Case Study Statistics 76

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

According to one study a while back, only 45% of founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

According to one study , only 45% of Founders plan to exit after stage one, and my guess is that less than half the remainder survive the next stage in their own company. Weinfurter, who has made the leap a couple of times himself, and spent many years consulting with other companies who have done the same.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2012

Technologists often insist that new things can’t be invented on a schedule, but successful companies seem to be able to do it on a regular basis. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Training and coaching. Accountability.

Coach 98

Coach Ideas IP Sales 98

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. In all cases, don’t skip the basic training.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2011

Technologists often insist that new things can’t be invented on a schedule, but successful companies seem to be able to do it on a regular basis. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Training and coaching. Accountability.

Coach 93

Coach Ideas IP Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. In all cases, don’t skip the basic training.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2010

Technologists often insist that new things can’t be invented on a schedule, but successful companies seem to be able to do it. Longer-term, enhanced product value begets superior company valuation through your organization’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Training and coaching. Accountability. Idea management.

Coach 49

Coach Ideas IP Sales 49

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. Rob is driven to learn.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. see When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication?

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

These outside board members spend most of the board meeting trying to reacquaint themselves with the company’s business and critical issues. These posts are not about any individual company even though they’ve all heard me say these things often. Explain and discuss company admin (10-20%). Ideal Board Meeting.

Writing 337

Writing Venture Capital Help SaaS 337