Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2021

Perhaps you need to do more to be a role model for accountability , and provide more coaching on exactly what it means. I often think of the scope of this example in my role as mentor to a struggling entrepreneur who is quick to blame his problems on employee mistakes, or even changing customer expectations.

Training 173

Training Examples Startup Social Media 173

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. It doesn’t. The data room is where your process goes to die.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2023

Personal regular communication is best, rather than some nebulous written mission document. Of course, you should always be available and willing to coach members when requested, or share your experience and skill. People need to know what is expected of them, and they actually prefer high expectations to low ones.

Satisfaction 108

Satisfaction Social Media Coach Training 108

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2019

Attempting to make a job more challenging, as well as to improve productivity, managers may sometimes ask for higher outputs, such as 15 customer support calls per hour rather than 10. For an employee who enjoys direct people interaction, adding floor time with customers would better serve everyone.

Tips 96

Tips Satisfaction Training Mentor 96

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2012

When is it appropriate for a VC to call your customers? If you show a list of key customers or key business partners and if this list is sensitive (READ: If you don’t want VCs calling them) then you need to make it explicit with the VCs. “We are sharing with you our list of key customers / biz dev partners.

Technical Review 316

Technical Review Venture Capital Customer Custom 316

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

Any startup coach or business advisor will tell you that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start your journey by inventing the ultimate entre. Finally you create and document your recipe (business plan). If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2017

Others schedule long and exhaustive practice and coaching sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone tells the most positive and consistent story. Update reference customers, partners, and vendors. Identify and resolve any pending personnel situations.

Invest 59

Invest Startup Doc Slides 59

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. I had to understand their business requirements and document them all. I started by doing billing systems.

Entrepreneur 372

Entrepreneur Startup Design Framework 372

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2016

I saw the key ones outlined well in a recent book, “ Creating High Performers ,” by William Dann, a leading coach to experienced CEOs. Your standards for product quality, sales growth, and customer satisfaction must be documented and reviewed prior to results and performance reviews.

Coach 52

Coach Satisfaction Entrepreneur Resource 52

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Any startup coach or business advisor will tell you that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start your journey by inventing the ultimate entre. Finally you create and document your recipe (business plan). If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Make them “feel the love.”

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2017

If team members and customers can’t relate to your purpose, or don’t agree with it, your business will not thrive. It’s important to involve your team in the definition of purpose, and agree it is consistent with a viable business model, including opportunity, customer need, and a positive return. Take action and celebrate results.

Satisfaction 56

Satisfaction Customer Custom Startup 56

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

This is true of any buying process where a customer has to make a large investment decision on your software or when an investor must decide whether to give you $5 million. I spend a lot of time coaching entrepreneurs through their fund-raising processes by doing “pipeline reviews” of all of the firms with whom they are speaking.

Funding 189

Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. The key is to make decisions from data and feedback, once your business has real customers and real products.

Startup 94

Startup Entrepreneur Coach Mentor 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Most begin by doing the product development, marketing and sales alone, but struggle making the transition to hiring and coaching others, defining repeatable processes and focusing on future strategy. Now you have real customers who can quickly turn off hundreds of potential customers if you ignore their feedback.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. The key is to make decisions from data and feedback, once your business has real customers and real products.

Startup 88

Startup Entrepreneur Coach Mentor 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2017

If you want to improve your strength in this area, or need to coach your team along these lines, I recommend the following steps: Approach every problem as a positive business opportunity. At worst, it’s a learning opportunity for you and your team, which can lead to providing a better customer solution or experience. Initiate action.

Metrics 58

Metrics Entrepreneur Examples Coach 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2011

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. The key is to make decisions from data and feedback, once your business has real customers and real products.

Startup 98

Startup Entrepreneur Coach Mentor 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2018

Define and document role content and standards for performance. Practice process coaching, but not edicting decisions. Thus paying for sales volume, when you desire customer satisfaction, will not get you high performance. As your team grows, and the business pivots, communication of expectations becomes more of a challenge.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup Training Netflix 51

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2010

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. The key is to make decisions from data and feedback, once your business has real customers and real products.

Startup 91

Startup Entrepreneur Coach Mentor 91

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

You thought it was going to be as easy as just having term sheet transferred to a longer form document. But every freakin’ week there are delays in getting the lawyers to “turn around&# the documents. You can certainly get coaching from your VC on how to play the negotiations since they do it more often than you do.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

socalTECH

JULY 29, 2009

It's a very linear process, and allows them to capture knowledge and link to centralized resources that relate to a topic, including documents, pictures, files, video. a month for two Genies, and unlimited users or customers. We call this a "Genie," and you can build a Genie using Knowledge Genie.

Geni 100

Geni Web Guide Platform 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2011

Respect local customs and practices. His manager accepted his resignation and documented the case in the personnel files. Great care must be taken in dealing with different religions, customs, dress codes, foods and alcohol issues. Managing foreign exchange reserves is every bit as challenging as managing a family budget.

Startup 90

Startup Technical Advisors Sales Examples 90

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

Early-stage and first-time entrepreneurs often value advice in the full marketing mix including blogging, content marketing, positioning, branding and customer acquisition that a senior marketer has done for years. We also run internal events often where we connect entrepreneurs to share knowledge. Partner Leverage.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2010

Respect local customs and practices. His manager accepted his resignation and documented the case in the personnel files. Great care must be taken in dealing with different cultures, religions, customs, dress codes, foods and alcohol issues. Thus, when the government creates restrictions, think out of the box.

Technical Advisors 48

Technical Advisors Sales Startup Coach 48

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2022

I too often see people who are quick to make excuses, blame failures on peers or customers, or see management as the reason for their lack of productivity. Document plans and progress, with checkpoints. Be available for mentoring and coaching to others. Lack of accountability can permeate an entire organization.

Activity 109

Activity Organization Mentor Training 109

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

And you can always bring on a senior person as a mentor / coach to help guide you personally to become a better sales leader until you’re ready for somebody more senior on your team. I was able to hire the former European head of sales for the largest document management player in the world. I shot as high as I could.

Startup 327

Startup Sales Class CIO 327

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2010

They mostly understand your company, your customers, your competitors and your market but never as precisely as you do. And let’s be honest, other than money and coaching most VC’s add little value to your company strategy. It should be inline in the email rather than a document attachment. That’s it.

Startup 301

Startup Venture Capital Software Review Email 301