Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2019

Much has been written recently about the requirement to focus today on the total customer experience, as a competitive edge or even for survival. The challenge I hear from savvy business owners and entrepreneurs operating on a shoestring is that providing a superior customer experience costs money.

Customer 96

Customer Custom Coach Pricing 96

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 29, 2021

One customer assumed that poor usage rates at a particular station was due to a lack of EVs in the area, Terry recalled in a recent interview. Demand for ChargerHelp’s service has attracted customers and investors. It was here that she met Ellis, a career coach at LACI who also worked at the Long Beach Job Corp Center.

Incubator 287

Incubator Outsource Development Los Angeles Startup 287

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2010

Livestrong said its new MyQuit Coach iPhone application--which costs $3.99 in the Apple App store--will provide a customized quitting plan, track daily tobacco use and allowance, provide quitting facts and motivational information, plus allow users to earn badges and rewards.

Santa Monica 222

Santa Monica Coach Demand Mobile 222

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2010

In billing we literally started thinking about all of the types of bills that would be generated for customers: full payment, partial payment, split payment, senior discount, student discount, level pay plan, etc. He coached me that I had to start with the answers. I started by doing billing systems. How can I START with the answers?

Entrepreneur 373

Entrepreneur Startup Design Framework 373

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

And that person has almost certainly chosen specifically to be a startup lawyer over serving other types of customers because he or she enjoys working with entrepreneurs. And speaking of coaching, if you haven’t read Googled by Ken Auletta you should. EXECUTIVE COACHES. It’s a great read. No exceptions.”

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2015

Most importantly, it’s more about being a proactive leader who connects to customers and the team deeply, rather than a bright light that struggles to be seen amidst the glare of a million other bright lights. It’s more about the quality of the execution, rather than the quality of the idea.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Entrepreneur Tips 97

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Now the company has reframed its offering, raised a fresh round of financing and is coming to market with a refined vision for a training tool for executive coaching. “Most of the products and experiences today are one dimensional,” said Maslo co-founder Ross Ingram. Image courtesy of Maslo.

Coach 113

Coach Artificial Inteligence Product Services 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

As a CEO you never stop needing to go on sales calls (or to work the phones in telesales or customer support) and ceasing to do this as your company grows because you’re focusing on investors, recruiting, PR or whatever is a mistake. I also make visits to senior level customers of portfolio companies with which I’m involved.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

So I did want any rational person who wants to improve does – I hired a coach. Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers.

Sales 317

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 317

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2013

TeamSnap said it has acquired Weplay''s customers, technology, and online coaching resources and extensive video content as part of the buy. million customers. WePlay, which had raised $15M in funding, offered up online sports community, team management, and social components aimed at amateur youth sports teams. READ MORE>>.

SaaS 170

SaaS Coach Acquisition Resource 170

socalTECH

OCTOBER 17, 2014

According to CallFire, it donated $10,000 in credits on the service to fitkidsAmerica , a nonprofit which fights childhood obesity through after school programs and camps, in the name of its customer, Flywheel , which sent the two billionth message.

Santa Monica 187

Santa Monica Coach Activity Platform 187

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2019

Every entrepreneur and business person I know wishes he had more time for coaching all the members of his team. I often hear the excuse that coaching takes more time than simply diving in and doing the job for the other person, but is that really true? Exceptional communication is a prerequisite to coaching.

Coach 91

Coach Course Mentor Examples 91

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

If they’re not running their business then perhaps the wrong person was picked as CEO or perhaps they need more mentorship / coaching to better allocate their time. Of course they “need&# the title to convince customers, biz dev partners and VCs that they’re to be taken seriously.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. And because I wanted Ethan to be able to attract a great team, build & iterate a product, test it with initial customers and refine his strategy before having to take the wrappers off of his company. The company was called Red Beacon. So there you have it.

CTO Coach 360

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 360

InfoChachkie

MARCH 3, 2014

August Scott began her Zappos career in their customer support call center. Her positive attitude and willingness to take chances rapidly propelled her to the coveted and influential position of Coach. Several Zappos employees had mentioned "Coach" and the impact she has had on the corporation during our tour. and I loved it.

Coach 182

Coach Startup Study Customer 182

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

In practice it can be a fine line between sparring partner / coach and stepping over the line to brute-force persuasion. So he would allocate say – 20% to sales, 15% to marketing, 20% to eng priorities, 10% to customer support, 10% to ops, 20% to ‘platinum customers’ and maybe 5% directly to me as the CEO.

Startup 339

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 339

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Over time you start to figure out who you customers are and how to sell to them or how to get them to adopt your products if you’re a consumer-oriented startup.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Startup 154

Startup Training Customer Custom 154

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2021

In these days of rapid change, the pandemic, and worldwide competition, you need to make sure your entire team is customer-focused, innovative, and always looking around the corner for the next big thing. Find folks who are customer-centric and sensitive to competition. The right people will recognize the big picture.

Coach 174

Coach Activity Customer Custom 174

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We help founders through difficult moments, we help coach, we act as sparring partners, we help them resolve conflicts when they’re fighting with co-founders and we help them deal with adversity as well as successes. We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 363

socalTECH

AUGUST 1, 2013

Irvine-based PEAR Sports announced this morning that it has launched a new product that uses a heart rate monitor and your smartphone to provide customized coaching and fitness training. The firm announced a system which uses heart rate-based training to customize workouts for users, via their smartphone.

Training 147

Training Coach Equity Customer 147

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Sign up customers who are paying you money for a service you can’t 100% guarantee is going to be operational for the full period that they’re expecting. I didn’t want to disappoint my customers. People seldom understand that when enterprise customers choose your software it isn’t just a purchase order.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 29, 2019

” That’s right, ProGuides is pitching a marketplace for experienced gamers so that its customers aren’t randomly matched with some noob if they can’t game with their usual partners. “Our tagline is ‘Play with pros’ now,” says Wang.

Coach 180

Coach Seed Funding Training Platform 180

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

For example, Elon Musk says he seeks out innovations from his team by constantly asking them how they can make things better, how often they get out of internal meetings and into customer shops, and actively encouraging them to try new things. Spend more time mentoring and coaching your team.

Tips 159

Tips Satisfaction Coach Mentor 159

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 27, 2013

After that a meme developed amongst many startups (and the advisors that coached them) that, “TechCrunch didn’t matter. I mostly like to have coverage in the tech press where most of my customers (entrepreneurs) and business partners (other VCs) are. You should focused on getting coverage where your users are.”

Blogging 309

Blogging Journal Press Startup 309

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 27, 2022

I recall one of my CEO’s when I was his chairman, stating, “If you are not serving our customers, then you should be supporting those who do”. How do you frame menial desk jobs as “customer support?”. Some accounts payable invoices come from suppliers providing the company resources to serve the customer. Shout it out! .

Resource 156

Resource Customer Custom Coach 156

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Matt Stodder, the co-director of the Los Angeles program, says it is seeking companies with the right team, a minimum viable product, customer traction, and viable plan for going forward. Startup Boost says it provides guidance and coaching on such topics as product-market fit, market sizing, fundraising, and pitch development/presentation.

Los Angeles 154

Los Angeles Class Angel Startup 154

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 28, 2010

And having frameworks is a useful way to standardize your customer studies so that highly intelligent, inexperienced young people can crank out PowerPoint slides with such authority and beautiful consistency. I come from a world that if the coach wasn’t yelling at you, it meant he didn’t care. I grew up and played sports all my life.

Startup 378

Startup Framework Slides Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. Simply put – I’d be in search of a VC who had an intuitive sense of my product, my customers, my organizational issues, my competitors, etc. I think of VCs as coaches. I call them “ VCs Seagulls.” EQ and Team Leadership?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. When we recommended that Rob get a CEO coach he not only embraced it but craved it and thanked us for suggesting it.

Tips 366

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 366

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2022

Today more than ever, the evidence is clear that business people need to find and communicate a purpose that goes beyond making a profit, in order to ensure customer engagement, as well as your own, and drive results in the marketplace. As you grow, so will your team and customers. Driven to reduce personal hardship and suffering.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Coach Mentor Customer 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2020

It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Innovative technologies have no value until they are turned into solutions to real customer problems. Training and coaching. Set milestones and meet them. Ownership.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2020

It does require sensitivity and engagement with the people around you, as well as your customers. External customer loyalty and motivation used to be as simple as good customer service, but today’s customers expect more. Spend more time coaching and mentoring your team.

Coach 144

Coach Customer Custom Entrepreneur 144

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Yes, I know it’s my job as the CEO to be the coach for people and that’s fine. The company had less than $5 million in revenue yet we had a multi-tab spreadsheet doing activity-based costing on our customer service staff, operations and technology. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers?

Entrepreneur 415

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 415

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

I’ve spent hours this week reading about the firing of the head coach and personnel manager of the football team I support – The Philadelphia Eagles. His name was Chip Kelly and he came off of a very successful stint as the coach of the collegiate Oregon Ducks. This is something I try to coach against. Team Building.

Startup 281

Startup Coach Course Invest 281

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Innovative technologies have no value until they are turned into solutions to real customer problems. Training and coaching. Set milestones and meet them. Ownership.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Even if you were an “A-Player” in your previous organization (top 10-percent performer, high integrity, exceeds on commitments), you had peers and executives around you to provide coaching and keep you centered. Every business purpose must be customer-centric and even altruistic. Increase ownership thinking on business efficiency.

Entrepreneur 159

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Competition 159