InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

The entrepreneur cannot wait to show me their product via a demo. You’re the first one I’ve met who didn’t want to see our product.” I then explain that I evaluate the veracity of a product by seeking guidance from current, past and prospective users, rather than relying on a product demonstration.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

Berkonomics

JULY 13, 2023

In these past weeks, we explored the need for a tangible goal and strategies that are measurable as steps toward achievement of your goal. Here are several examples of tactics from my recent experience with companies where I serve as board member. Five tactics to support each strategy seem a fair, even if arbitrary number.

Resource 156

Resource Examples Tool Sales 156

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). For those of you who fit that description, nice work. There is a lot to say about retaining control.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Berkonomics

JUNE 4, 2020

Let’s say that your company is exactly at breakeven. Here’s the importance of that event and how it affects every productive move you make after that moment. There is amazing leverage in high gross profit margins once a company is past breakeven. That’s impressive sales leverage. Let’s use breakeven as our test.

.Net 156

.Net Sales Tool Email 156

Berkonomics

JANUARY 27, 2022

Because the first rule for raising money is to do it on good news – right when sales are increasing at an accelerating rate. Or when something happens that makes an investor think this company is about to break out. It’s human nature for investors to want to buy into a fast growing future, proven by some event in the immediate past.

News 156

News SaaS Platform Sales 156

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

But the no-longer nascent sneaker and streetwear market is a big market, with the potential to reach $30 billion in sales globally by 2030, according to a recent report by the research firm, Cowen ( cited by The Wall Street Journal , which first reported the financing). ” Money, it’s gotta be the shoes.

Commerce 255

Commerce Journal Los Angeles Research 255

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E financing that values the company at $3.15 Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led both the Series D and E rounds for the company, which says it has seen 100% growth year over year and a tripling in revenue over the past 18 months. Image Credits: SpotOn.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2023

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Building a company and selling are all about gaining commitments.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 154

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 28, 2015

One of the reasons I know way more about online sales taxes than I ever thought I would is due to Rincon Venture Partners’ investment in TaxJar , one of the leaders in this emerging space. Taxes may not be fun, but I am proud to be affiliated with a company that takes much of the pain out of the process.

Sales 100

Sales Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 100

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2017

He was just trying to collect more data for his startup on what was happening on real estate deals that the company had been referring to brokers. However, he quickly discovered the deal data the company was collecting was not just data--but a guide to the best practices on helping brokers close more deals, quickly.

Sales 145

Sales Startup Email Tool 145

Berkonomics

JUNE 25, 2020

There are several key performance indicators that help new generation company management see more clearly their progress and corporate health. You will recognize the value of these for any business, even if they have not been in common use in the past. Some of these are also applicable to non-Internet businesses. The lower, the better.

Acquisition 156

Acquisition Statistics Sales Customer 156

TechCrunch LA

JULY 16, 2020

The round was led by Greycroft, which had been following the company’s progress for years, and included participation from strategic investors like Okta Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Lincoln Property Companies, Allegion Ventures and Sentre, and included follow-on from existing investors. ”

Los Angeles 177

Los Angeles Mobile Sales Venture Capital 177

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Companies that have leveraged technology to make the procurement and delivery of food more accessible to more people have been seeing a big surge of business this year, as millions of consumers are encouraged (or outright mandated, due to Covid-19) to socially distance or want to avoid the crowds of physical shopping and eating excursions.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. My last one went out past midnight. So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? I spend tons of time each day on portfolio company issues.

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, to scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” Switch your focus from product development to sales.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Berkonomics

MAY 25, 2017

In past weeks, we explored the need for a tangible goal and strategies that are measurable as steps toward achievement of your goal. Here are several examples of tactics from my recent experience with companies where I serve as board member. Five tactics to support each strategy seem a fair, even if arbitrary number.

Resource 243

Resource Training Sales Demand 243

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 24, 2022

In one industry I know well, the dominant player with 22% market share was acquired by one of the largest companies in the technology world. Everyone, including those connected with the newly acquired dominant player, wondered what changes would affect their company and their personal lives and fortunes.

Resource 156

Resource Competition Examples Customer 156

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2021

As a long-time business consultant and investor, especially to entrepreneurs, I recognize your sparkle of vision , to build the ultimate world-changing product. I found these maladies summarized well in a new book, “ Radical Product Thinking ,” by entrepreneur Radhika Dutt. Obsessive sales – must meet revenue goals.

Metrics 133

Metrics Product Yahoo Examples 133

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. They call them “user stories.”

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary. Join a startup incubator.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

The firm has largely flown under the radar, but it has been investing in startups applying innovations in automation, artificial intelligence, computer vision, computational biology, material sciences and robotics to industrial products and processes for the past two years. Oculus, Snap, Tinder and others.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Women have made great inroads into the tech world in recent years, but there remains a long way to go before we reach a truly equitable state of affairs in workforce numbers, remuneration and product development. That data is based not just on feedback from past and current students and student outcomes, but also other channels.

Mentor 297

Mentor Training Startup Course 297

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 19, 2021

In addition to San Francisco, the company is now operating in Los Angeles. We wondered why they weren’t on DoorDash, and the reason was two-fold: a bakery has to plan production days ahead of time, and every delivery sales takes away from retail customers. Other investors include Goodwater Capital and Esas Ventures. “We

Help 192

Help Startup Los Angeles Customer 192

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions. My guess is that we are likely in total agreement.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 28, 2013

How do you judge a company’s prospects, if a corporate business-to-business sale has to be your game? If your company’s market is huge corporations, how do you convince investors you can crack the market, and how do you deliver? Email readers, continue here.] Big corporations are just slow to act.

Startup 214

Startup Sales Product Customer 214

Berkonomics

JULY 11, 2013

There is such leverage in high gross profit margins once a company is past breakeven. A ten percent increase in revenues for a company with 50% gross margin and 5% net profit before the increase would double net profit for the period with that ten percent increase in revenue. That’s impressive sales leverage.

.Net 207

.Net Sales Tool Social Network 207

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

A recurring entrepreneurial challenge is to determine the optimal price of a new product, especially absent a directly competitive alternative. Even sales reps will invoke a cost plus logic when negotiating with me on behalf of their customers. Anecdotally, it seems that SaaS products often behave as Giffen goods.

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 30, 2021

Some of those patterns help us to spot and avoid problems we have seen play out in the past, often to disastrous conclusion. I just helped an entrepreneur to consider reorganizing his young business from being a value-added reseller into a software and consulting company. Some fatal elements that might become only a near miss.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Training Invest Email 156

SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 19, 2017

For product entrepreneurs, designers, and manufacturers: the first MAKE IT IN LA event for 2017! E-commerce has quadrupled in the past decade and direct-to-consumer has become a key sales channel for products. Packaging is democratic, meaning small companies can look as good as the big guys. See [link] (more)

Customer 100

Customer Custom Commerce Design 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had. You can’t.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

TechCrunch LA

JULY 2, 2020

In the past year, it’s seen one of the most profitable venture-backed exits of any tech ecosystem (with the $4 billion sale of Honey to PayPal) and investors are minting billion-dollar companies in the region at a torrid pace. When it comes to venture capital, Los Angeles is a city on the rise.

Los Angeles 277

Los Angeles Venture Capital Capital Invest 277

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. I often answer the same way … * “First, yes, nearly every corner of our market is over-valued. By definition?—?I’m dot-com bonanza.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2021

Everyone today is looking for a knock-your-socks-off customer experience, and they know the best companies out there are already doing it. Company finds customers based on interests. The best companies do their homework and find the right customers, based on demographics, prior purchases, and expressed interests.

Customer 171

Customer Custom Social Media Design 171

Berkonomics

AUGUST 2, 2018

There are five major classes or niches a company should examine and make its own in calculating positioning in the marketplace. Companies that compete on price rarely compete against others who emphasize service or quality. There are exceptions, based upon cost of sales. The five major niches. They are: Price. Innovation.

Pricing 226

Pricing Competition Examples Class 226

TechCrunch LA

MAY 21, 2019

Over the past five years, virtual reality was the latest new thing to make or break fortunes, and the founding team behind the Korean company AmazeVR are the latest would-be dream-makers to take their turn spinning the wheel for Hollywood fortunes. There are significant economic reasons for companies to persist.

Chief Technology Officer 211

Chief Technology Officer Content Hollywood Netflix 211

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Leave the world of new computer chips and new drugs to the big companies, and people with deep pockets.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 24, 2019

And many of these actions are repetitive to a fault, contributing to boredom and ultimately to restlessness and desire for something new, in or out of the company. And it challenges each player to play again with learned skills and an incentive to beat the past score. The solution that works. There is a solution.

Metrics 120

Metrics Competition Coach Email 120