Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2018

In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities. Depth in a specific business area, such as marketing or accounting, is important in understanding the internal and external processes of a business.

Startup 97

Startup Writing Coach Incubator 97

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. They worry too much about missing out on a deal. I don’t.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. SEO marketing vs. social marketing. I think of VCs as coaches. Most VCs are book smart. I call them “ VCs Seagulls.”

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

[Email readers, continue here…] My very first investment as a professional angel was in a small startup where the entrepreneur’s vision fueled my imagination in the audio market niche where I had run a business in an earlier life. As the company grew and became profitable, it became more visible to others in the market niche.

Invest 243

Invest Entrepreneur Sales Startup 243

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2016

In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities. Depth in a specific business area, such as marketing or accounting, is important in understanding the internal and external processes of a business.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 98

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities. Depth in a specific business area, such as marketing or accounting, is important in understanding the internal and external processes of a business.

Writing 111

Writing Coach Incubator Entrepreneur 111

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2019

Based on my own experience in business over the years, and current coaching efforts, I recommend a focus on the following strategies and attributes: Make your customer the center of everything you do. Now customers judge you by your visibility to them at public forums, your writing, videos, and what other public figures say.

Custom 93

Custom Customer IBM IBM 93

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

So part of playing an effective coach is helping the team to see the answer for themselves. Fred has of course been a public mentor to us all with his market-defining terminology that he popularized including “freemium” and “mobile first.” You need to invest in good markets and bad.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

25 Years of Writing Code. Adam Sroka, an agile software innovator, is a self-taught programmer with 25 years of writing code and previously combined his coding skills with his knowledge of agile and lean management techniques as a coach and technical trainer. Established In 2010 By PayPal’s First Head of US marketing.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. If you’re running sales & marketing then why not VP, Sales & Marketing? But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do?

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

I think, sometimes at an early stage, many entrepreneurs focus too much on a very small market or a niche market. The last thing, is understanding how open and receptive all of these CEOs were to feedback, coaching, and improvement. What really struck me about everyone on the stage, was how big their vision was.

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

"The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. This frugality was evidenced by the fact that everyone at Microsoft, even Gates, flew coach until well into the late 1990s. One Of The Most Important Startup Skills. "The " [Tweet this quote].

Tips 275

Tips Startup IP Santa Barbara 275

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

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. There are always flavors-of-the-month strategies or markets that are in favor in the tech startup world. This is something I try to coach against.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. By the time of my second company MySQL was a much more robust solution and worked well when you had to read a lot of information but was less performant on “write&# activities.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. What they do with the money is add more engineers and maybe hiring a marketing person. You’re the coach, mentor, cheerleader.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

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. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. ” I know it sounds obvious.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital Blogging 365

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. I hired a sales coach named Kai Krickle who helped me figure out how to close more deals.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

They write into their investment documents that they will occupy a seat on the board for as long as they are invested in the company, thinking of this as a protection for their investment and tool for them to influence growth. All other board functions are secondary. Of course they should not.

Class 179

Class Coach Invest Venture Capital 179

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. And for my own good I vowed to have relationships in China and knowledge of the local markets. This company is back on the market raising money again. Write things down. I will embrace my losses. Be gracious.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

It is never as rewarding when you’re the coach (but coaching has many other benefits. And for my own good I vowed to have relationships in China and knowledge of the local markets. This company is back on the market raising money again. Write things down. I will embrace my losses. Be gracious.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

Jonathan Lehmann: I was awarded the Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Spirit Award at UCLA, after getting amazing coaching from Matt Ridenour in our business plan development class. Obviously, once we're comfortable with that, the big challenge is marketing KarmaGoat. That was the basic, preliminary insight into KarmaGoat.

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

According to the SEC we’re not allowed to market the fact that we’re fund raising, so I won’t. I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. But you realize that you can be more helpful as a coach. And yes, I sleep better at night as a coach. And so it goes again. Paying I say!

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. These speakers help coach CEO’s on important executive decisions. Then they consider if it is a big enough market. Howard gives an example of an entrepreneur wildly overstating a market size. What is ideal board structure?

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 284

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. So I did want any rational person who wants to improve does – I hired a coach. Features don’t win or lose sales – especially in nascent markets. People are buying YOU.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Custom 316

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

My very first investment as a professional angel was in a small startup where the entrepreneur’s vision fueled my imagination in the audio market niche where I had run a business in an earlier life. I was so enthusiastic that I coached the entrepreneur to approach his mother, who invested $50,000 under the same terms as my investment.

Resource 149

Resource Startup Invest Entrepreneur 149

Frank Addante

JUNE 25, 2015

In Brené Brown’s TED talk about vulnerability, she quotes Peter Sheahan and says: “If you want a culture of creativity and innovation, where sensible risks are embraced on both a market and individual level, start by developing the ability of managers to cultivate an openness to vulnerability in their teams. We won 220 games in a row.

Coach 40

Coach Startup Ideas UCLA 40

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Executives in an enterprise usually don’t write their own memos, contracts, and certainly don’t schedule their own meetings. In a big company, you get used to having an IT team around configure your computer, a personnel specialist for hiring and firing, and a marketing team for strategy. These include: Managers delegate real work.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Startup Training Course 95

Frank Addante

JUNE 25, 2015

In Brené Brown’s TED talk about vulnerability, she quotes Peter Sheahan and says: “If you want a culture of creativity and innovation, where sensible risks are embraced on both a market and individual level, start by developing the ability of managers to cultivate an openness to vulnerability in their teams. We won 220 games in a row.

Coach 40

Coach Startup Ideas UCLA 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. It’s a market, after all. 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. The industry isn’t dying.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

You are writing about the essentials of business. I am planning right not to write a post about how startups often get SEO wrong. Sometimes we draft business plans and coach the entrepreneurs on their pitch, and sometimes we even help develop a business model. We also represent a few larger companies with international issues.

Startup 150

Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? But I think there is a down side that I see in startups that raise artificially at prices above what a normal market might value. We are judging how well you are coached on stage. What price? Good vocal variety?

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Executives in an enterprise usually don’t write their own memos, contracts, and certainly don’t schedule their own meetings. In a big company, you get used to having an IT team around configure your computer, a personnel specialist for hiring and firing, and a marketing team for strategy. These include: Managers delegate real work.

Startup 93

Startup Company Companies Training 93

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

To what extent have you been able to leverage your experiences as a brand marketer to effectively address the differing concerns of these constituents, without utterly confusing your message? Write it down…. We’re positioned well to scale.”. The key for us was realizing our primary client is the hotel management.

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

I finally got around to writing it having read Fred Wilson’s post about what a CEO does. 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. Both are basically people businesses.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Custom 319

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2011

Executives in an enterprise usually don’t write their own memos, contracts, and certainly don’t schedule their own meetings. In a big company, you get used to having an IT team around configure your computer, a personnel specialist for hiring and firing, and a marketing team for strategy. These include: Managers delegate real work.

Startup 103

Startup Training Course Examples 103

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? We are judging how well you are coached on stage. They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans. What price? With which other investors? Should I focus on geographies or industries?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 21, 2015

Jon Sperry – a highly respected dialect coach who has worked with Harvey Keitel, Sofia Vergara, and Russell Crowe – taught a Stage 32 class that was attended by members from over 40 different countries. But most do it because they want to give back. There’s a community feel even to our education. Classes with a wide geographic appeal.

Education 82

Education Entertainment Class Manhattan Beach 82