Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2018

Of course, I’ll tell another harrowing story here. Email readers, continue here…] Early in the rapid growth phase of my computer software company, I hired an excellent, IBM-trained vice president of sales to further growth and begin our international expansion. Everyone but the sales VP was present as anticipated.

Training 226

Training Course Sales IBM 226

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

” Of course I agree with this. In practice it can be a fine line between sparring partner / coach and stepping over the line to brute-force persuasion. At times I wanted the engineering team to produce features to support our sales efforts to I occasionally leaned on them a bit. I did this. ” Those were the rules.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. 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. I think of VCs as coaches. The best way – of course – is to reference check.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

The show has become my best curator of which books to read (including my favorite of last year, The Accidental Superpower ) and my go to for understanding geopolitics of: Russia, Iran, Pakistan, China, India and of course the US. The best leaders I know encourage coaches to come in and are willing to listen to feedback about themselves.

Coach 150

Coach Technical Review Framework Google 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Whether it be in person, on the phone, or implied in your marketing, your people and their engagement level is the key driver of customer loyalty, advocacy, and sales growth. Here are the key reasons that I recommend that aspiring leaders focus on people before process: Customers judge the business by the people quality.

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Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2022

Of course, listening alone isn't enough. For example, Yvon Chouinard, when he was growing Patagonia , recognized a serious interest in helping the environment, and capitalized on it by dedicating a percent of sales to environmental protection. Spend time coaching and mentoring team members.

Mentor 108

Mentor Social Media Coach Customer 108

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. You can always spot these types because they can’t tell you what their revenue number for last month was or what their sales target is for next month. But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do?

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Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

Investors are human, after all Come up with a valid reason because they know in communicating with founders if there’s no reason to say “no” you can generate bad will Risk missing out on an inflection point: Investors of course are also concerned about saying “no” too early in the process when they can “hang around the rim” and see what happens?

Funding 189

Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2019

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. In the end, engagement drives customer retention, sales, growth and profit. Priority is placed on employee mentoring and coaching.

Coach 94

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 94

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

You may have raised money across multiple rounds of investors from 3-4 different VCs and of course most of them would like board seats or at a minimum board observer rights. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. how to build an initial sales organization. how to market our products and company.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. – while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

His willingness to add value wherever his coach needed him most, not only helped his teams win three consecutive World Championships, but it also allowed Bert to extend his career by making himself Indispensible. In addition to these utility roles, I also lead revenue generation: managing direct sales, business development and online sales.

Startup 222

Startup Coach Sales Entrepreneur 222

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

Of course I’m not preaching crazy, irrational spend or having Kid Rock at your next company party. The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. You can do them all yourself, of course. But at what cost?

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. This investment started with Dana Settle (Greycroft) and I each putting in $750,000 into a young company doing less than $1 million in sales and has blossomed into one of the fastest growing companies in Los Angeles if not the entire country.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

For example, in the sales silo of my former organization, it was common to point to marketing or development as the source of a sales issue, but communication across to these organizations took forever, and agreeing on a common solution was difficult. Find a coach who has a holistic view of all elements.

Sales 69

Sales Organization Entrepreneur Examples 69

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2017

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. In the end, engagement drives customer retention, sales, growth and profit. Priority is placed on employee mentoring and coaching.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Coach Organization Mentor 78

Frank Addante

OCTOBER 12, 2021

After founding 5 companies in a row, resulting in $5 billion in market value, $1 billion in sales, 2 IPOs (one on NYSE and one on Nasdaq) and raising $300M inc capital — I realized that my calling in life is to take all of those amazing experience and channel it into the next generation of impact-focused entrepreneurs.

Startup 105

Startup Case Study Ideas Invest 105

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

But, advisors, coaches, and mentors can often fill the bill. Of course, you will want to work out the specifics of how you plan to work together with the advisor once it becomes more formal and adjust accordingly. This might be technology, marketing, sales, operations, international expansion, etc.

CTO Coach 241

CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Of course, that means a new level of risk, giving up some control, and a new business plan. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Guide 96

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Good entrepreneurs can admit when their course of action was wrong and learn from it. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. They move the ball forward every day.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

Should board members therefore withdraw and not participate in corporate planning, coaching the CEO and other issues not related to the duty of care or duty of loyalty? Of course they should not. Sometimes, there will be a conflict of interest between the people representing the various shareholder classes on a board.

Class 179

Class Coach Invest Venture Capital 179

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

But of course all of these things are intertwined. But putting no time into anchoring your beliefs because you’re too busy executing sales, marketing, support, product & engineering is an easy recipe for leadership drift. Take some time to reflect on how well defined you believe your company’s sense of purpose is.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Berkonomics

JANUARY 17, 2011

Early in the rapid growth phase of my computer software company, I hired an excellent, IBM-trained vice president of sales to further growth and begin our international expansion. PM, and that the vice president of sales, presently in the air traveling to the very country where the manager was to meet him, was not to be present.

Training 136

Training Sales Course IBM 136

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Due to the language and culture issues in Europe we opted for a country structure with an MD in each country and local sales, marketing & customers support staff. This is akin in the US to having sales staff in NY, SF & LA with your HQ in one of these locations. But it wasn’t just about company structures.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Custom 319

Frank Addante

OCTOBER 12, 2021

After founding 5 companies in a row, resulting in $5 billion in market value, $1 billion in sales, 2 IPOs (one on NYSE and one on Nasdaq) and raising $300M inc capital — I realized that my calling in life is to take all of those amazing experience and channel it into the next generation of impact-focused entrepreneurs.

Startup 52

Startup Case Study Ideas Invest 52

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

We have built SocialStay for scale so I think the ‘chasm’ is both a function of time and sales. You don’t need much… But what you do need is sales. I think it takes emotional maturity that I did not have while building FUEL to be able to synthesize information from advisors take the coaching. John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A.

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2010

As a consultant working with many entrepreneurs attempting to grow their businesses either for continuity purposes or for sale I see them experience many of the same issues. Of course you’re brilliant, that’s why you were promoted. You need to transition from player to coach. Similarly, transitioning to “coach” is difficult.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Coach Study Education 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2011

Thus, it is essential to appoint a ‘head of international’ with significant hands-on experience to chart your course in the global world. He resides on the West Coast, and has long helped entrepreneurs there, as well as providing turn-around assistance as interim CEO, and International coaching.

Coach 88

Coach Screening Commerce Marketing 88

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

Examples of VC platform services include: recruiting, marketing, design support, inside sales reps, consulting, accounting services and so forth. Of course not every VC has the fund size or the fee size to build services at this scale yet many provide extremely well-regarded programs that are valuable.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

And Coach Campbell. I’ve heard directly from top executives that Jeff Bezos (in my opinion the most talented person in the tech industry) has received his fair share of VC coaching in the early years. Nothing was more heart warming than the photo of David Karp hugging Bijan Sabet after the sale to Yahoo!

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2010

Thus, it is essential to appoint a ‘head of international’ with significant hands-on experience to chart your course in the global world. He is a broad-based general manager, not just an international sales manager. ######## Today’s article is presented by one of the founders of our Startup Professionals team, Ernst H.

Coach 78

Coach Screening Commerce Entrepreneur 78

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 20, 2013

Who is the sales person? But Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich used his many years of experience to deliberate a plan that was well executed and surprised even the experts in the game, leading the underdog team to a Game 7 against the defending champions. Who has the business mindset? Who is the technical person?

Startup 94

Startup CTO Coach Coach Study 94

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 6, 2014

Plus, if she does have areas where we could coach her on improvement it would help to know that coming in.” CFOs often know the other CFOs and same for heads of sales, marketing, tech, etc. You expected no less. You can ask VCs, customers, competitors or somebody who had a similar job function in the same general community.

Startup 302

Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur Report 302

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

You can certainly get coaching from your VC on how to play the negotiations since they do it more often than you do. For one, due to the way liquidation preference work sometimes they have “flat spots&# which means that they might earn the exact same amount from a $40 million sale as they would from a $50 million sale.

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319