Berkonomics

MARCH 5, 2020

In the creation of a young company, there are five principal risks to be addressed by the entrepreneur. One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Why five risks?

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 156

Eric Greenspan

MAY 29, 2010

Using social media to increase your company’s touch and reach with each of your customers may be the most important reason to jump in to this game changing strategy. Social media can help bridge a long standing gap between customers and the companies they trust with their hard earned cash. Eric Greenspan.

Social Media 214

Social Media Customer Custom Media 214

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. Your deck should be so good that a VC asks you for permission to show it to his or her portfolio companies. What should not be in your deck?

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. Failure to include company culture in the hiring criteria. Poorly defined and executed hiring process.

Organization 104

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 104

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 12, 2015

On a micro level, you can do your part to fix tech's gender problem by recruiting people with diverse backgrounds and place them in a company culture that rewards those who challenge the status quo. Most men in the 1940's and 50's did not know how to use a keyboard and thus could not write code.

Company 100

Company Companies Santa Barbara Education 100

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. VCs (and LPs) have a vested interest in having more data, whether they want to invest in your company / firm or not.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

You should always have a steady stream of “friend of the firm&# hanging around your company. Hot company. You won’t land the big jobs unless you’re in there shaping the discussion about what the company needs, convincing them that they need you before they’re even ready to hire. Hire Fast, Fire Fast.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

Of course, we are speaking of increased valuation of your company when we speak of “wealth.” One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. So, let’s examine them and mitigate them.

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company. Yes, you could tell them in a private internal meeting but nothing builds confidence more than their buddies all telling them, “wow, you work for a great company.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

Josh Kaplan and Dee Murthy, both founder and co-CEO of the Los Angeles–based company, started Ghost in 2021 after previously working together at Four Five Group, a men’s apparel business. They’ve created a marketplace, similar to eBay, where suppliers list their products with SKU information, availability, volume and descriptions.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2020

In our business lives we’re having to deal with decisions that could have lasting impacts on our companies without any compass to guide us in the direction we’re heading . He produced a very detailed analysis of his customer base and which would be affected. you name it. But here is where empathy becomes most critical.

Demand 215

Demand Guide Customer Custom 215

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. Failure to include company culture in the hiring criteria. Poorly defined and executed hiring process.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. But issues do arise as your company grows. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact).

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2023

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view. Build a team.

Social Media 94

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 94

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. It was useful because I was new to sales and as the CEO it gave me some comfort to feel more informed about how our leads where going and to know the likelihood of our hitting our quarterly goals. That always stuck with me.

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. Customers sometimes buy things spontaneously without thinking through what their actual need is. ” In truth many companies had no idea why they actually needed Facebook Likes but there was still a pain point.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. But some CEOs then try to have more junior people in the company take the interview. In a startup this is a mistake. Some final thoughts on PR.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2021

Unfortunately the comments you don’t hear from customers, business partners, and peer leaders are the ones that do you the most damage. Evidence continues to mount that companies with trusted leaders, such as Zappos , tend to outperform others in financial results, as well as team satisfaction, by as much as three to one.

Social Media 101

Social Media Examples Satisfaction Media 101

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

One of the hardest things to know when you’re new to fund raising is what you’re supposed to send to an investor, when and will they keep your information confidential. You can make it 8–12 pages and the Title Page can say “YourCo Teaser Deck” or “YourCo Company Backgrounder”) so that it’s clear this isn’t your full pitch deck if you want.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The truth is – there isn’t a “right&# answer so for your company. And these ideas have ways of seeping into board discussions with portfolio companies as in, “have you ever thought about trying A, B or C?&# In my experience, entrepreneurs who are overly paranoid or are information hoarders rarely do well.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

Burstly, a Santa Monica based company, provides an open and free ad management platform that helps mobile application developers better monetize their inventory. As I naturally get asked all the time why we invested in Company A or Company B, I thought I’d just put forth my thesis in writing.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2012

Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. But, they could not write, and did not know what to write from the travel perspective.

Demand 240

Demand Media eHow Content 240

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Second: Market risk. Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? And fifth: Competitive risk.

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Do you have any contacts or friends within the target company? Are you working with or selling to a particularly important competitor to your target customer? Just remember, selling can be a strip–tease in which you reveal very little in the name of confidentiality, making it appear to be valuable comparative information.

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2020

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view. Build a team.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 126

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2020

For example, if I were to have a room full of bouncing balls, we couldn't share that today because of the amount of information involved. The win is we don't have to exchange all that information. If you have a bunch of bouncing balls, they all bounce identically, and you don't have to exchange information. It's all working.

Platform 168

Platform Startup Examples Web 168

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2009

Twitter is the new CRM (customer relationship management) channel. The volume of Tweets is enormous and growing at a rapid pace so tools are emerging to help brands manage this information. Twitter, by contrast, started as an open platform where people let anybody see what they were writing.

Social Network 235

Social Network Writing Tool Startup 235

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Constance Curtis: The list is a modern matchmaking company. The other option in the dating space was to hire a traditional, matchmaking company. We've taken matchmaking onto a mobile application, as a modern matchmaking company. How did you start the company? Before this, I had an event planning company.

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

I was recently approached by Fast Company to comment on “crisis management&# at startups in the wake of the Airbnb “ranksackgate&# story. I agreed to do the interview because the story was about what other companies can learn rather than about airbnb in particular. Understand the Gravity of the Situation for Your Customers.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. “My desire for this “Opposing Views Reader” is related to my concern about information cascades. I called a bunch of portfolio companies and asked them to check it out.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

John Lusk, along with his Co-Author Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company''s newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles , a New York Times bestselling book. The company''s newsletter was initially created to share their entrepreneurial journey with their family and friends. A version of this article previously appeared on Inc.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 10, 2012

He is the author of various best selling books including Practical Information Architecture, Web Dogma ’06 and Usable Usability. Reiss is the CEO of the Copenhagen-based FatDux Group ApS , an international user-experience deisng company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Reiss is a world-renowned usability expert.

Culver City 105

Culver City Design Content Writing 105

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2011

One of the firms which has been active in that area is Los Angeles-based CauseCast (www.causecast.com), run by Ryan Scott , who talked us about the company's relationship with the Huffington Post, its new efforts to provide its technology to companies interested in corporate social responsibility, and other initiatives.

Causecast 222

Causecast Startup Content Education 222

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. One key board member knows Marissa.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. Selling at smaller retailers will net you fewer customers and higher margins.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366