Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Just ask former big brand companies, like Blockbuster, Kodak, Lehman Brothers, and Sears, what happened to them. Rather than rely only on linear thinking, the best entrepreneurs are always looking to offer in parallel a more dramatic new alternative. Redefine your product to reach a new category.

Examples 99

Examples IP Acquisition Social Media 99

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. ” By that we weren’t trying to demean companies building aps, games, photo sharing, etc., Far from it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2015

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. But there are a wealth of other categories, new ones are constantly appearing, and the ecosystem is always shifting.

Startup 98

Startup Platform Pricing Netflix 98

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. It looked like every competitive analysis I had done for 20 years, (ok maybe better.) And it made me sad.

Startup 150

Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. We are experiencing a frenetic time. “Yeah, we think about going every year.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). BuildOnline (the company I founded) has just announcement plans to be more aggressive in growing in the US. Let me not bury the lede.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. It places undue pressure early in the company’s history to “do big things&# when sometimes what is warranted is more prudence.

Startup 319

Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

The Internet thus far has been monetized by display, video, and in-text advertising — but the one place every user’s eye focuses on first are photos. Tanz has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine “Young Millionaires of 2011 Special Report.” The old media companies were resistant to change.

Advertising 98

Advertising Santa Monica Startup Content 98

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2013

You are selling several successful computer video games, but notice more and more new ones popping up on smartphones. You are still providing conventional digital wristwatches while a crowd-sourced new company is offering a high-tech new version that syncs with your smartphone. The advent of new breakthrough technologies.

eBook 95

eBook Metrics Startup Examples 95

socalTECH

APRIL 14, 2010

Lolita Carrico: After I sold ModernMom last year to Demand Media and Richard Rosenblatt, which they merged into Brook Burke's company, BabooshBaby.com, I stayed with them through the transition. Those are our three biggest categories as far as sponsorship and readership. Is this competitive with Modern Mom? READ MORE>>.

Networking 230

Networking Social Media Startup Search Engine Optimization 230

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

For example, in a new book, “ If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat! ,” Leonard Sherman, executive in residence at the Columbia Business School, suggests that you should stay out of the competitive dogfight and continually redefine the game on your own terms. Use disruptive technologies to alter the value chain.

Examples 67

Examples Customer Custom Product 67

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2017

You are selling several successful computer video games, but notice more and more new ones popping up on smartphones. For example, quarterly sales on one of your most important products suddenly decreases, or your inventory across a whole category has surged. The entry of new competitors and new suppliers. Broad disruptive events.

eBook 52

eBook Metrics Examples Startup 52

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that. Fair enough. and profits!

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. 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.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

The video is only 16 minutes long and it is well worth the time. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. Facebook is about to try to dominate display ads the way Google dominates text ads - Chris Dixon , May 15, 2010 It is customary to divide online advertising into two categories: direct response and brand advertising. The Application.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

Bijan Sabet – investor & board member in some small companies you might have heard of like Twitter, Tumblr, Boxee & OMGPOP – took issue with the whole notion that you even need a Powerpoint deck anymore. First, if it’s an early stage company, I don’t need to see a powerpoint deck. I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2009

LA not only produced the obvious – MySpace – but also created the whole category of sponsored search (Overture), AdSense (Applied Semantics), Local Search (City Search), comparison shopping (PriceGrabber, Shopzilla) and lead generation (LowerMyBills). We have accomplished much yet have much work to do.

Twiistup 228

Twiistup SoCal Southern California Yammer 228

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He invented the category of sponsored search. At the time when you did a search on Lycos, Alta Vista or similar for a category such as Cars you ended up getting 9 spam results and 1 proper website to meet your needs. So he launched a company with exclusively paid search. They were a juggernaut and Google was a small company.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

So, we created a site which not just aggregates, but also organizes activities by type, category--land, sea, air--and things like competition, family, culture, adrenaline--to really narrow down the possibilities for what you're looking for. Bill Fried: I'm a serial entrepreneur. How is the company funded?

Activity 164

Activity Startup Sites Web 164

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Hale Boggs: Think of Manatt Digital Media as a one-stop shopping for digital media companies. Peter is an entrepreneur and founded and exited four digital media companies, he is going to be building with us and bringing a capability of advising and consulting digital media from startups to big brands on their digital media strategies.

Los Angeles 84

Los Angeles Media Invest Startup 84

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 was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2011

I’ve just completed an investment in Ryan Carson’s new company, TreeHouse. I’m investing heavily in Internet video. So I invested in Maker Studios , which is now the 3rd largest producer of Internet video on the web. TreeHouse is also a video company. Americans watch 5.3 Full stop.

Invest 295

Invest Carson Technical Review Education 295

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2016

That’s why today I’m so excited to finally be able to tell you about Density , a company I led a $4 million financing (2) along with Jason Calacanis (We’re teaming up on the board together! A mobile marketing company could track campaigns and then measure increases in retail traffic driven into local stores. Why Density?

Marketing 150

Marketing Course Startup Organization 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

This always makes me chuckle because in my first company we had 5 investors in our first round and we picked up 5 more before we finally sold the company. In my second company I had only 1 investor. Most companies hit a bump in the road at some point. And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Startup Invest Pricing 314