Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

After many years in business, working in large companies as well as startups, I’m no longer surprised at why mature and successful companies struggle with introducing innovative new ventures as the market and environment changes. Make sure everyone comes with an entrepreneur mindset for real innovation.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Customer 143

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. The following initiatives that Chris and Tammie define for large companies apply just as directly to startups: Improve change awareness.

Startup 116

Startup Training Statistics Summary 116

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

And as I always assert, “Great companies are built in downturns. And it’s when mediocre companies get pulverized.” I remember, for example, when business intelligence swept through companies globally. When markets start to turn shelfware companies are the quickest to die. It’s when the game slows.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2020

The long-standing rule of thumb that companies have ten years between significant disruptions was reset a few years ago to five years, according to experts Larry Downes and Paul Nunes. Stroh, which details the principles and metrics to follow for fostering innovation in any organization. by Patrick J.

Startup 138

Startup Organization Demand Customer 138

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. Every startup demands logical changes along the way. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In a larger public company, it’s all about making your quarterly numbers, versus investing in strategic growth alternatives that may not pay off until several quarters later. It’s your job as a leader to be the model high performer, quantify the team view with metrics, and expand awareness to the best outside competition and new tools.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

In China, even tiny bike sharing companies now have to digitally track every bike through GPS, and every mobile interaction between a bike and a rider to compete. No human or paper tracking systems are a competitive alternative. If your business is not powered by an algorithm, you don’t have a competitive business today.

Artificial Inteligence 84

Artificial Inteligence Metrics Commerce Software 84

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2019

Institute deep metrics measuring all aspects of the customer experience. Jeff Bezos always instills a sense of urgency by demanding business plans from business leaders on how they would disrupt their own lines of business. Customer and competitive demands are rising across all sectors and experiences. Accept no excuses.

Commerce 89

Commerce Artificial Inteligence Cloud Computing Platform 89

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? Time based as in “a guaranteed right for 12 months, which can be renewed by mutual board consent” and event based “a guaranteed right until the company has raised $x million from new investors.” This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2019

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. The following initiatives that Chris and Tammie define for large companies apply just as directly to startups: Improve change awareness.

Startup 94

Startup Training Statistics Summary 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2019

In addition to quantifying the positives of the customer lifetime value metric, they address the mistakes that I see regularly in my business advisory service relative to assessing the value of customers and value, including the following: Failing to account for current customer status and stage.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Metrics 85

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

If you are one of these owners who wants to do the right thing to survive and delight your customers, but doesn’t know where to start, I am here to recommend some best practices that I see successful companies, and many startups, who have focused on this issue. It takes a well-rounded and motivated team to run a competitive business today.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Customer Custom Startup 84

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

MarketShare recently launched a rebranding effort for the company, and is in the midst of a major hiring and expansion phase. Wes Nichols: MarketShare is an analytics company. Its primary goal is to focus on identifying what is truly driving demand, analytically, so that our customers can optimize their activities.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. I see many companies that don’t make this transition well.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. There is an inherent value that any company has. I acknowledged this in the article.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

It must be written down, with measurable team objectives, validated by metrics and compared against competition. Customer-centric founders have found that interactive coaching and mentoring by experienced peers is more effective and positive in keeping everyone up to speed on trends, competition, customer demands and technology.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Startup Coach 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2017

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. The following initiatives that Chris and Tammie define for large companies apply just as directly to startups: Improve change awareness.

Startup 56

Startup Training Statistics Summary 56

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. While Google and Facebook will buy “acquihires” (at least as of Dec 2011), many acquirers hate the idea of buying companies that aren’t profitable. ” But they want to do it with leverage.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Companies with great service routinely spend 3% to 5% of salaries training team members – experienced as well as new. Make your service deliver process “happy.”

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2014

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. The following initiatives that Chris and Tammie define for large companies apply just as directly to startups: Improve change awareness.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Training Statistics 110

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2016

The old rule of thumb that most companies have ten years between significant disruptions has already been reset to five years, according to many experts like Larry Downes and Paul Nunes. Stroh, which details the principles and metrics to follow for fostering innovation in any organization. by Patrick J.

Startup 58

Startup Organization Demand Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. The following initiatives that Chris and Tammie define for large companies apply just as directly to startups: Improve change awareness.

Startup 93

Startup Training Statistics Summary 93

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. The following initiatives that Chris and Tammie define for large companies apply just as directly to startups: Improve change awareness.

Startup 94

Startup Marketing Training Statistics 94

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

They suffered in trying to live up to public perceptions and the demands to continue their successes. Every $10 million financing only puts more pressure on the founders to figure out how to hit the metrics to get to the next milestone and every company that raises $25 million puts a ton of pressure on their 10 competitors who haven’t.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It turns out that to build a successful company you ultimately need this strange thing called “revenue” that people don’t just hand you: You need to earn it. Most of this advice boils down to an argument in favor of basic planning before starting a company or raising money. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 22, 2016

Costs for advertising on Facebook are increasing, due to high demand, and their profits continue to soar. How can your company best benefit from social networking ads in 2016? The way to get ahead of the competition is to look at what they’re doing right and do it better.

Marketing 40

Marketing Social Media Social Network Technical Review 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2010

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. Failure rates this high demand a new mindset and startups are the logical place for this to happen.

Startup 78

Startup Training Statistics Summary 78

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Now, a new breed of companies is finally making it out, which has had a huge impact on valuations. There''s a huge backlog of companies trying to make it out. What''s interesting about ad-tech, is that with the exception of AdaptTV and AOL, there''s not a lot of large buyers out there for ad-tech companies.

Southern California 124

Southern California SoCal Commerce Invest 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Ongoing momentum requires a move to mainstream, or even late adopters, who demand simplicity in your base function. It’s important to define your growth strategy, document it, communicate it to your team, and align metrics and employee rewards to target goals. The company has since gone public, and is still a market leader.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. Company grew by more than “400% each year” for past few years [assume growth metric = revenues]. Founded in 2008 by Mehdi Maghsoodnia.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was an angel investor in his company, made a bunch of calls on his behalf and then I personally sent it out on AngelList. I think how hard it is for me to be hands-on with a handful of portfolio companies. I’ve had to do this with 2 companies at the same time. Through this process he raised $2 million. So I thought, WTF?

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2021

There is no substitute for talking to customers, analyzing your competition, and honing your solution to meet a target market segment. The ready-fire-aim approach makes sense here, but it should be combined with metrics to learn from feedback, and make pivots as required. There is a powerful advocate or cause driving demand.

Marketing 138

Marketing Demand IBM IBM 138