Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

In case you haven’t noticed it, the rapid evolution of do-it-yourself (DIY) facilities for developers, including 3-D printers, SketchUp and makerspaces such as TechShop , have scaled down the cost of prototypes and hardware design by an order of magnitude. These ideas can grow quickly into real products.

Ideas 61

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Education 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2020

Many platforms, such as IndieGoGo , allow startups to solicit funding commitments from non-professional investors in exchange for a pre-defined reward or perk, such as a T-shirt or other recognition, but no ownership in the company. The crowd gets the satisfaction of helping, with minimal risk, and no expectation of any high return.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Satisfaction Equity 129

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. 3) Attempt To License An Idea. Fallacy: As discussed in Spilling The Beans , ideas are worthless, while skillful execution is priceless.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Jason Nazar

JULY 1, 2016

Entrepreneurs often lament big companies, but most of us hope we’ll create just that. Add in public company demands, lawsuit targets, & millions of customers to continually satisfy, and you have to have great respect for those doing it well. Decisions that take entrepreneurs an hour, often take months at large companies.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Company Companies Outsource Development 55

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea. The trusted leader.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company. So I naturally spend much time with the companies in which I invest helping them: recruit. figure out roles.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2018

Ahead of the conference, we sat down and spoke with Kevin Anderson , co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Appetize (www.appetizeapp.com), a rapidly growing developer of point-of-sale software, on the topic of customer service. That's a huge different, and we've prioritized that as we've grown the company. We're continuing to grow.

Customer 113

Customer Custom Services Conference 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Dan Tamkin: I was brought in by some of the venture capitalists and angels behind Unified Dispatch, after I did a prior company turnaround at Computer Motion, the first medical robotics company, where I had been CFO, and which had just been sold. The original company found that getting IVR deployed was actually very hard.

Outsource Development 190

Outsource Development Startup Outsource Altadena 190

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea. The trusted leader.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2020

I’m sure you have all seen entrepreneurs and startups with great ideas that never seem to live up to their potential, while others with more mundane solutions seem to take off quickly and never slow down. Initially, you may be able to do everything in your startup, including product development, marketing, and shipping orders.

Startup 123

Startup Outsource Development Entrepreneur Outsource 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. That’s why investors say they invest in people (bet on the jockey, not the horse), rather than the idea. The trusted leader.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

Chris Tragos: The tree founders of Jetpack, myself, Kevin Woolery, and Marc Brown were all working on the publisher side at Spin Media (Editor's note: previously Buzznet) I was running sales, development, and operations, and looking at all these RFPs that came in. Why don't those companies serve publishers that well?

Buzznet 100

Buzznet Outsource Development Design HTML 100

socalTECH

MARCH 15, 2013

Forsblom is now in Los Angeles and San Diego, and reinventing himself with a mobile application company called TenFarms (www.tenfarms.com). Nils Forsblom: TenFarms is a mobile app developer. What we do, is I identify things and start defining features around ideas. It was the guy we'd outsourced as CEO.

Mobile 233

Mobile Southern California Startup Outsource Development 233

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2014

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. Almost anyone can start a company today on a shoestring budget, following these cost-cutting recommendations: Establish a solid legal structure for your business.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Commerce 104

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC. Rinse & repeat.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Otherwise you will find yourself a year later being no closer to a product that you were yesterday, with no idea why. Funding process.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Steve Gilison worked as a market researcher and product manager at a startup where my company, TechEmpower , did the software / web development. I have about 11 years in the technology sector including roles doing market research, sales and product development. My focus has been marketing strategy and product development.

Los Angeles 179

Los Angeles Product Angel Startup 179

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 9, 2014

Traditionally, these between a rock and hard place problems have been solved with a limited pool of expensive options – usually associated with long contracts and high billables for “MBA quality” work. What if you could combine the flexibility of outsourcing with the quality level of highly skilled strategists?

Outsource Development 105

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review Outsource 105

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2018

For this morning's interview, we caught up with Elizabeth Cholawsky , the new CEO of Santa Barbara-based HG Data (www.hgdata.com), which develops software which helps marketers and salespeople understand the "technology stack" of their potential customers and prospects. For those who aren't familiar with HG Data, what does the company do?

Santa Barbara 113

Santa Barbara High Tech Outsource Development Startup 113

socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2014

One of the biggest areas where the cloud is transforming business is in small and medium sized businesses--where suddenly, companies are able to leverage software which wouldn''t be available, or are too costly for them to implement individually, but where the cloud access suddenly makes it affordable and easy.

Startup 160

Startup El Segundo CTO Hire Outsource Development 160

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2015

Many platforms, such as IndieGoGo , allow startups to solicit funding commitments from non-professional investors in exchange for a pre-defined reward or perk, such as a T-shirt or other recognition, but no ownership in the company. The crowd gets the satisfaction of helping, with minimal risk, and no expectation of any high return.

Venture Capital 108

Venture Capital Angel Satisfaction Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2012

I tell them that if their idea or solution is technology intensive, they clearly need technology strength on the team. If you already have some technical people on board, like software developers, and need a new manager, you supply the candidates based on credentials, and let them do initial interviews and make recommendations.

Technical Review 92

Technical Review Technology Startup Outsource Development 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Otherwise you will find yourself a year later being no closer to a product that you were yesterday, with no idea why. Funding process.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

companies should… focus on building amazing products. I recently spoke with Brad about his approach to guerilla marketing and how he instills eclectic marketing tactics in Foundry Group’s portfolio companies. Chris is the CEO of Gnip , a Foundry Group portfolio company. If you have $hitty products, the marketing is impossible.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2014

We caught up with Lee Essner , the President of Jukin Media, to learn more about how the company thinks it has figured out how to make a business round viral videos. That''s where the traditional media companies--the morning shows, the news clips shows, the ad agencies--can see what is viral and trending, and can license it directly from us.

Media 235

Media Content Startup IP 235

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2012

A business plan is an “outward facing” document for external investors, or for C-level executives within your own company. The product plan tells your developers what to build, and the marketing team what to market. Enough detail is required so that someone else can build it without you (outsourcing). Development and rollout.

Product 92

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2011

I tell them that if their idea or solution is technology intensive, they clearly need technology strength on the team. If you already have some technical people on board, like software developers, and need a new manager, you supply the candidates based on credentials, and let them do initial interviews and make recommendations.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Entrepreneur Outsource Development Outsource 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Otherwise you will find yourself a year later being no closer to a product that you were yesterday, with no idea why. Funding process.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

A business plan is an “outward facing” document for external investors, or for C-level executives within your own company. The product plan tells your developers what to build, and the marketing team what to market. Enough detail is required so that someone else can build it without you (outsourcing). Development and rollout.

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

InfoChachkie

MAY 5, 2016

When I published This Remote Working Experiment Failed And Succeeded on the Wall Street Journal last year, I had no idea it would generate so much social media attention. To gather hands-on remote team building advice, I sought out two companies that have done it: TaxJar and FastSpring. We use Flowdock to chat daily.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Santa Barbara Email Outsource Development 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Otherwise you will find yourself a year later being no closer to a product that you were yesterday, with no idea why. Funding process.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Where did the idea for the event come spark from? While watching a Mixergy interview I was so inspired by Andrew Warner really grilling his interviewees asking them exactly how they started that it inspired me to ask myself what is the one panel I wish I had when I first launched my company in my late teens. Really amazing!

Mixergy 70

Mixergy Outsource Development Outsource Conference 70

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 12, 2014

A combination of the two called Hybrid 3D printing can be the answer for smaller companies to produce higher quality products than 3D printing does, but also have a cheaper alternative to traditional manufacturing. The problem is, local manufacturers do not market their products and services and causes a lot of unknown factors to develop.

Design 84

Design Platform Patents Outsource Development 84

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 2, 2012

He and his company, Rocksauce, make sure to add high quality design back into each of the apps they create. I joined ranks with an Austin App developer, taking the role of Creative Director and setting up their design team and process. What makes Rocksauce Studios different from other mobile app development companies?

Design 94

Design Mobile Web Design Outsource Development 94

Jason Nazar

MAY 2, 2016

Ideation & Protecting Ideas. Pick a company name and check any potential trademark infringements on Trademarkia or KnowEm. Vet your idea with the idea checklist. Protect your ideas when sharing them with others by using an NDA. Open your company bank account. Recommended. Identity and Branding.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Startup Google Mentor 40

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 13, 2013

App developers are coming up with new ideas daily to make our lives easier. Your chores can be outsourced through Porter. The nuts and bolts of our tech company is that CMS in the middle, the connection engine. That’s the only thing that is outsourced. TechZulu: What is Porter? How long has Porter been around?

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Mobile Startup Los Angeles 87

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2010

In my opinion, real pain points for most people do not require a new user interface for Facebook, a new programming platform for app development, or even the Apple iPad. Here are some key drivers that should lead you to a fundable idea: A business crisis. So why do I see some many funding requests for products along these lines?

Startup 82

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Course 82