Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

So that we’re speaking the same language I would define “exclusive” as a period in which your company is prohibited from doing business with certain customers or business partners, which is why many incorrectly assume this is necessarily bad. Why Exclusivity Matters to Your Customers or Business Development Partners.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

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. Rationale: My company is small, I am super busy and I am not a lawyer. No one has heard of you, your company or your solutions.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Every school recognizes the power of “hands-on” work to help you develop your own ideas into a business. Universities have the links you need to patent attorneys, prototyping companies, investment groups, as well as a wealth of peer talent to round out your team and share the work. Take advantage of free startup programs and mentors.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. Early customers and contracts in progress add value.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Patents Outsource Development 98

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Outsourcing your core competency does not work. Running a new company cannot always be a consensus-driven process, especially when hard decisions need to be made that affect everybody’s lives. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Now you can match a big company with worldwide reach for a few thousand dollars. The bad news is that many are already doing it, with competition growing, so the longer you wait, the less chance you have of getting there first. Create a business plan online, but don’t wait for funding. Both are wrong.

Startup 108

Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media Outsource Development 108

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Outsourcing your core competency does not work. Running a new company cannot always be a consensus-driven process, especially when hard decisions need to be made that affect everybody’s lives. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Many entrepreneurs are paranoid about the partnership approach, and think that M&A is only an alternative for large companies who are flush with cash. Building through internal development, or organic growth, makes the most sense when you have a core set of skilled internal resources. Add basic partner contracts or alliances.

Acquisition 88

Acquisition CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

Outsourcing your core competency does not work. Running a new company cannot always be a consensus-driven process, especially when hard decisions need to be made that affect everybody’s lives. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2013

A good many startups I know have been “successful” over a couple of years in overcoming the challenges of starting the business, including incorporation, services development, funding, and setting up operations. It’s important to stand up to competition and wear your reputation on your sleeve. Streamline management costs.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

Many entrepreneurs are paranoid about the partnership approach, and think that M&A is only an alternative for large companies who are flush with cash. Building through internal development, or organic growth, makes the most sense when you have a core set of skilled internal resources. Add basic partner contracts or alliances.

CTO Hire 91

CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development Resource 91

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

Venture capital is in the process of its own creative destruction with new market entrants and new models of innovation at the precise moment that our industry itself is contracting. I will argue that LPs who invest in VC funds will also need to adjust a bit as well. When I built my first company starting in 1999 it cost $2.5

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software Capital Startup 334

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2012

A good many startups I know have been “successful” over a couple of years in overcoming the challenges of starting the business, including incorporation, services development, funding, and setting up operations. It’s important to stand up to competition and wear your reputation on your sleeve. Streamline management costs.

Startup 94

Startup Outsource Development Sales Social Media 94

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 25, 2016

It is no secret that the number of private companies with valuations in excess of one billion dollars has skyrocketed since the start of 2014. The inevitable outcome will be the collapse of the weakest companies, while those with sound underlying business models will be recapitalized with reasonable valuations.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Invest Venture Capital 100

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). Competition analysis.

Product 92

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 92

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2014

For example, I once worked for a small software company selling a sophisticated enterprise workflow solution. It provided an industry-leading graphic development interface, but was not so strong on modeling and simulation. As a result, we shared in capturing a new high-end market, without major new marketing or development.

Startup 103

Startup Outsource Development Examples Customer 103

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. Many great ones don’t thrive in the early phase of a company where the sales is more consultative or evangelical. Sure, you need to be competitive on price.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2019

We slowly realized that Microsoft’s value went far beyond his technical contributions, due to his connections with key software developers and relationships with hardware manufacturers who could make the PC revolution universal. In a very real sense, we funded him, and he superseded even IBM.

IBM 87

IBM IBM Ideas Technical Review 87

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2011

There is lots of competition in this area for serving retirement homes. So I actually started a graphic design company out of college, and got lucky with the web taking off at the right time. This is my third company. What's his role with the company? How is the firm funded? But, we never were looking for funding.

Study 252

Study Startup Design Tips 252

Tech.Co

MARCH 8, 2018

Fortunately, for those headed to SXSW, Startup Night SXSW 2018 , presented by the Kauffman Foundation and TechCo, will be filled with investors from a multitude of industries who are looking to discover and fund startups building the latest solutions and tech innovations. Lisha Bell, Deal Flow Lead for Pipeline Angels.

Technical Review 70

Technical Review Startup Software Review Entrepreneur 70

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 3, 2015

Hire professionals to handle the details of company formation paperwork when you first start up. To make sure your IP is protected — As I’ve written before, failing to develop an IP strategy, including a plan for protecting your IP as well as avoiding unwitting infringements of someone else’s, is a huge mistake. Banking Relationship.

Startup 40

Startup Outsource Development IP Outsource 40

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2018

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based Catalog (www.catalog.cc), a startup developing artificial intelligence software to help independent visual artists scale their content production efforts, announced it raised $1.5M in a seed funding round. The funding was led by Moonshots Capital, and also included Techstars and Luma Launch.

Help 133

Help IP Content Google 133

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). Competition analysis.

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2011

A good many startups I know have been “successful” over a couple of years in overcoming the challenges of starting the business, including incorporation, services development, funding, and setting up operations. It’s important to stand up to competition and wear your reputation on your sleeve. Streamline management costs.

Tips 92

Tips Startup Services Outsource Development 92

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important. Funding process.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Executives from large companies have sometimes long forgotten how to do this (“My people will contact your people to work out the details.”). Others hire consultants, or outsource much of the real work. Instead, set long-term business objectives and develop a framework for the trajectory your team needs to get there.

Startup 103

Startup Entrepreneur Template Mentor 103

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. Early customers and contracts in progress add value.

Startup 108

Startup Invest Patents Outsource Development 108

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2010

To kick off our first interview for the year, we've got an interview with Kevin Strong , the CEO of Laguna Beach-based FutureDash (www.futuredash.com), a developer of technology for the home energy monitoring market. We built that to 50 people with funding from a VC in Ireland closely connected with the European company.

Startup 140

Startup OCTANE Outsource Development Google 140

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2010

Taking other people’s money to fund your startup changes your life in ways you cannot predict. Doubtful, unless I already know them really well, know the company really well, and have some spare cash. At the very least (or perhaps it’s the very best), they ask me how to get ready for funding. What do they need to do?

Outsource Development 93

Outsource Development High Tech Outsource Startup 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2012

Executives from large companies have sometimes long forgotten how to do this (“My people will contact your people to work out the details.”). Others hire consultants, or outsource much of the real work. Instead, set long-term business objectives and develop a framework for the trajectory your team needs to get there.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Startup Template Mentor 94

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. Many great ones don’t thrive in the early phase of a company where the sales is more consultative or evangelical. Sure, you need to be competitive on price.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316