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

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

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. Idea management. Ownership.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

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

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. The idea was that in the late 90’s you couldn’t separate out your business strategy from your IT skills and assets.

Startup 378

Startup Framework Slides Coach 378

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. Idea management. Ownership.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2015

It’s more about the quality of the execution, rather than the quality of the idea. 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.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Entrepreneur Tips 97

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Meanwhile, Beacons takes 9% of sales from its free version , and 5% from its $10 per month version, which offers more customization, integrations and analytics. If a creator or celebrity were to sell personalized videos on Cameo , they’d lose 25% to the platform. Image Credits: Snipfeed. With its $5.5

Platform 286

Platform Commerce Tips Tool 286

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

And while this might sound to the inexperienced person like a sensible idea – it is not. Often it is a good idea to have a junior PR person in your company to interface with whatever PR firms you work with. You’re the coach, mentor, cheerleader. Other B-round scaling issues?

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

We are judging how well you are coached on stage. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. I like to hear their passion for the idea. And non-conventional ideas. It’s where you get to test your ideas in the marketplace of people who see many similar ideas.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2021

Authors Adrian Gostick and Chestor Elton, with their deep backgrounds as executive coaches and organizational consultants, recommend some simple methods, consistent with my own beliefs, to reduce the pain of uncertainty, and increase productivity, in your teams and employees: Make it okay for them to not have all the answers.

Marketing 148

Marketing Coach Startup Product 148

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

For many, it’s hard to make the switch from that top-down order-giving culture, and it’s hard to find the time to recruit and coach the new team members you need to scale the business to success. You need them to make a personal commitment to customer service, improved quality, and change to improve the future.

Startup 147

Startup Customer Custom Ideas 147

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2022

I expect questions about how a business works, or what are best practices, but I really can’t help you with removing doubts on your abilities, or providing a sure-fire idea and formula for success in business. In my view, business leaders are not “idea people,” but people who drive a given idea to business results.

Capital 114

Capital Coach Satisfaction Ideas 114

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

The short story is that he received 400+ responses and goes through how he categorized/vetted the responses: 300 Didn’t Fit – Outside expertise/interest, pushing for immediate funding assistance, too many ideas (not focused), looking for sales agents. Some weeks might end up being pretty much full-time on a single startup (e.g.,

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

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. Idea management. Ownership.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

We are judging how well you are coached on stage. I like to debate with them how they will land customers and how they deal with the press. I like to hear their passion for the idea. And non-conventional ideas. I don’t think they serve investors well. They are terrible predictors of success for investors.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2022

The hard part is providing the leadership required to align and motivate all the constituents and players – from engineers, to investors, vendors, and ultimately customers. Great entrepreneurs are not just idea people and then managers, they are extraordinary leaders. Focus more on collaborating with others, rather than competing.

Coach 114

Coach Framework Entrepreneur Tool 114

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

For leaders today, the success factors include a progressive, open attitude to new ideas and processes, wherever they may come from. Coach for productivity, performance, and creativity. The traditional once-yearly look-backward performance paradigm has to be replaced by daily or weekly coaching focused on a career roadmap ahead.

Coach 132

Coach Satisfaction Startup Organization 132

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2012

Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. A mentor’s aim is to teach you what to do and how, in specific situations, unlike a coach who helps you develop your generic skills for deciding what to do and how. The mentor helps the entrepreneur fill an experience gap, and a coach helps fill a skill gap.

Mentor 95

Mentor Coach Startup Ideas 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Here are the key reasons that I recommend that aspiring leaders focus on people before process: Customers judge the business by the people quality. 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.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them? I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It!

Marketing 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs I know still believe that that their great idea will carry the startup, and they may even minimize their own value, especially if they have introvert tendencies. Yet most investors agree that the “idea” is worth nothing alone, and it’s the entrepreneur execution that counts. Remember the rule of one.

Startup 132

Startup Tips Ideas Social Network 132

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2012

Not every idea can, or will, be a winner. This should include at least the key elements of idea generation, prioritization, prototyping, commercialization, and measurement. Successful innovation turns ideas into money, to enhance customer value, and thus shareholder value. Training and coaching. Idea management.

Coach 98

Coach Ideas IP Sales 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2020

Team members must be engaged and enabled to do the job – that means aligned, equipped, coached, supported, and valued for the work and changes ahead. Give special attention to traits that fit your specific customer context, or a higher purpose you espouse, such as a focus on the environment.

Coach 159

Coach Resource Summary Metrics 159

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2013

Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. A mentor’s aim is to teach you what to do and how, in specific situations, unlike a coach who helps you develop your generic skills for deciding what to do and how. The mentor helps the entrepreneur fill an experience gap, and a coach helps fill a skill gap.

Mentor 101

Mentor Coach Startup Entrepreneur 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2022

If you aren’t yet adapting to the market and your customers, you are falling behind. I define business agility for my consulting clients as the ability to change your business rapidly to meet customer and environmental changes, with minimal organizational disruption and cost. New blood and new ideas are keys to agility.

Competition 148

Competition Metrics Demand Customer 148

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2022

A design mindset is not product-focused - it’s solution focused and action oriented towards creating better customer experiences and value. By understanding experiences, you will better understand the needs of people around you, including your customers and partners. Focus on creating a benefit for the customer.

Design 106

Design Coach Ideas Organization 106

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2010

What is the idea behind the Tech CEO Network? John Morris: The whole idea is to help inventors, particularly but not limited to inventors at local universities, recruit qualified CEOs to their team. John Morris: I think it's trying to make a decent connection with customers, and trying to assess the size and viability of the market.

Networking 215

Networking Research Startup USC 215

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2018

Too many entrepreneurs I know still believe that that their great idea will carry the startup, and they may even minimize their own value, especially if they have introvert tendencies. Yet most investors agree that the “idea” is worth nothing alone, and it’s the entrepreneur execution that counts. Remember the rule of one.

Ideas 59

Ideas Marketing Startup Social Network 59

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2011

Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. A mentor’s aim is to teach you what to do and how, in specific situations, unlike a coach who helps you develop your generic skills for deciding what to do and how. The mentor helps the entrepreneur fill an experience gap, and a coach helps fill a skill gap.

Mentor 98

Mentor Coach Ideas Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2015

The hard part is providing the leadership required to align and motivate all the constituents and players – from engineers, to investors, vendors, and ultimately customers. Great entrepreneurs are not just idea people and then managers, they are extraordinary leaders. Focus more on collaborating with others, rather than competing.

Product 103

Product Coach Framework Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

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. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. investors invest in people, not ideas) Effective and timely go-to-market.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

If you can’t provide a memorable customer experience, your startup won’t survive very long these days. You now need more than loyalty from your customers -- they need to be your best advocates. Here are some key ideas to get you started: It all starts with the right people on your team. Lost customers provide the best input.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Startup Coach 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2011

Not every idea can, or will, be a winner. This should include at least the key elements of idea generation, prioritization, prototyping, commercialization, and measurement. Successful innovation turns ideas into money, to enhance customer value, and thus shareholder value. Training and coaching. Idea management.

Coach 93

Coach Ideas IP Sales 93

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2013

The hard part is providing the leadership required to align and motivate all the constituents and players – from engineers, to investors, vendors, and ultimately customers. Great entrepreneurs are not just idea people and then managers, they are extraordinary leaders. Focus more on collaborating with others, rather than competing.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Coach Framework Tool 101

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

While I do agree that many attributes of a good entrepreneur, such as curiosity, confidence and determination, are largely determined by early-life experiences, a good education is critical in understanding the elements of creating a business and wooing customers. It’s important to go well beyond the passionate idea stage.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 149