Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

Even with product businesses, it’s the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market. You should start blogging about your business before you have a product, to test interest and establish your credibility. Add content regularly. Marty Zwilling>

Blogging 135

Blogging Services Search Engine Optimization Web 135

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most board meetings are administrative updates that accomplish very little other than inform board members about the performance of the company since the last board meeting. There are too many pages. Nobody knows how many outstanding shares are in the company so nobody knows what percentage Mary’s 22,475 shares is equal to.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Use this opportunity to validate their satisfaction and support for your company and your solution. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2021

If you are a young startup founder, how do you find that CEO or other executive for your “dream team” to close on funding or complement your skills to kick start your company? A great hire can make a company, but a single bad one can break it. Most founders are product guys. Communicate company values and culture.

Startup 163

Startup eHarmony Networking Guide 163

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Since Arrested Development is back I thought I’d resurrect Gob Bluth’s answer when he was told he needed a “business model” – he quickly figured out that he was missing one so he asked Starla, the Bluth company secretary, if she would be his business model. You need to first create a compelling product.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Most people will be engaged by a single-page double-sided glossy executive summary, and offer support or the right people to move forward. You really need at least a prototype product or customer to make the video come alive. Prepare a business plan 20-page document. Just talking and waving your arms doesn’t do it.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

The best businesses understand the difference and that communities are the single best advocates for others to buy your products. the customer on stage showing your product turns into an advocate or evangelist while the prospect is far more likely to be persuaded by a customer presentation than a salesperson’s pitch.

Software 234

Software Startup Tool Platform 234

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2019

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Startup 80

Startup Ideas Competition Demand 80

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

How to Deal with Electronic Distractions Of course the biggest competition you have with the attention of your board members is their mobile phones. Be super polite and not aggressive and simply make the point that you really want the most productive time from your board members. Most likely you’d be wrong.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

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

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. Include your sustainable competitive advantage. Professional investors look for the right people more than the right product.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

In most cases, I provide some combination of the following advice: Brevity - Maximum length: two pages. Hopefully this straightforward format will help you avoid overly obtuse verbiage, while keeping your executive summary to two pages. The Company. Competition. Opportunity. paper cut vs. bleeding artery)? Capitalization.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2014

Sponsored by VISA Business Running a small business as an entrepreneur is a never-ending challenge of new products, customers, competitors, and an unpredictable economy. Almost nine in ten respondents (87%) found benefits from running or working in a small company, like flexible working hours and being in control of your life.

Startup 92

Startup Tips Satisfaction Entrepreneur 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Use this opportunity to validate their satisfaction and support for your company and your solution. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

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

Southern California Edison Blog

APRIL 21, 2020

Network speeds are closely tied to an organization’s ability to stay productive and remain competitive and profitable at all times. In a world shifting to a work-from-home reality, employees using VPNs to access secure data remotely require networks with enough bandwidth to prevent slow page speeds and general downtime.

Networking 75

Networking Organization Demand Activity 75

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

They are tasked with “getting deals done” so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. Do the hard work and try to define your companies objectives and get them on paper.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 10, 2012

Although the exact sequence of events is a bit unclear, it appears that Hacker News user "lukethomas"(who is unaffiliated with Divshot) was prompted to create the Hacker News post after reading a tweet about the initiation of the company's private beta. Be Yourself - Represent yourself, not the company in your comments. Engagement.

News 198

News Sites Startup RSS 198

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Ajax was the new buzzword and many companies went overboard. People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. and the subsequent acquisition sprees of companies like Google, Yahoo!, In all of these new product and cost-focused new trends, a big problem has emerged that all of these movements have not addressed.

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If they did they would be in constant violation because VCs often see 3-4+ companies in every market that they operation. Give everybody pages of the deck they’re to cover or parts of the demo for which they are to talk. Bio of top 3 people in the company. Competition. NDAs would make it impossible to do business.

Venture Capital 340

Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on paid search results (appear on the first page of search results, right hand column, despite low SEO rank). This is NOT the same as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Cost per click (CPC).

Paid Search 90

Paid Search PPC Organization SEO 90

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. My blog was wiped out. Thus begins the venture capital dance.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2012

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Ideas Competition Startup 102

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2011

In the case of SmartyPants Vitamins (www.wearesmartypants.com), it's at the core of the company. There's a real need for what we're doing, and we're super committed to a high quality product produced here in California. Your background is Internet services  howd you decide to instead sell what seems like a more traditional product?

Web 225

Web Social Media SEO Media 225

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. Sales data needs to be correlated to advertising campaigns, price changes, seasonal forces, competitive actions, and other costs of sales. Operating productivity. Size of gross margin.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2012

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. Unlike [competition], we [differentiation].” Here are some additional recommendations to increase the impact: Describe your product or service. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 113

Startup Patents Template Competition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2017

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Ideas 55

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2019

Even with product businesses, it’s the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market. You should start blogging about your business before you have a product, to test interest and establish your credibility. Add content regularly. Marty Zwilling.

Blogging 88

Blogging Search Engine Optimization Web Writing 88

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2013

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Ideas 99

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

One of the most important questions you will be asked by potential investors is how your solutions beats the competition, not just today, but over the three to five year life of their investment. The concept is called “sustainable competitive advantage.” Our product is truly disruptive technology.” Our patent will protect us.”

Patents 90

Patents Competition IBM IBM 90

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

One of the things I discuss the most with the portfolio companies I’m involved with is that “you manage what you measure.”. Make them widely available inside the company and share your most important goals with your board. My experience has proven that even some well known companies are under-whelming in this department.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 6, 2011

Company : FindTheBest. Pull Quote: “If you are smart, competitive, hard working and passionate about what you do you will have the best experience of your life. We all make important, complicated decisions in our life and having accurate, objective data about our choices allow us to find and compare products that meet our needs.

Entrepreneur 232

Entrepreneur Competition Software Review Course 232

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I recommend a pitch deck with about 10 slides backed up with a written business plan of approximately 20 pages, both containing quantified answers to the following key questions. This is also the place to first mention patents and any other differentiators that put you ahead of competition.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Solution product & technology. Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

We’ve had just one market since then and it could confuse one into thinking: every deal finds downstream investors, every company good or bad finds a home, you know anything at all about brazil, india, china or even saas sales, ecommerce or analytics (you know all these in a bull market). Too much money too early often f s companies up.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. Here are a few thoughts to help you get started: What is your product or service? Briefly discuss who you are selling the product or service to. Who is your market?

Startup 93

Startup Competition Summary Patents 93