Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2015

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Doing business is a human process.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Organization Startup Pricing 117

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2022

As an advisor to entrepreneurs and a technologist, I’m happy to report that the tide may be turning, and we are experiencing a new era of opportunity for entrepreneurs, and a new appreciation of the power of the digital world. In his classic book, “ Digital Context 2.0: Norton, Ph.D., Context-comfortable consumers – 27 percent.

Social Media 107

Social Media Tool Google Yahoo 107

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

Gates’ call is being met by startups and public companies hailing from everywhere from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv, London to Los Angeles, and Berkeley to… um… Chicago. The company aims to have its first product approved by European regulators by 2023 and notching commercial sales by 2025.

Chief Technology Officer 261

Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2015

For example, if it’s getting harder to charge a price premium for the product you’re marketing, or others are offering your subscription service for free, it may be time to start thinking in a new box. Another example is seeing substitute versions of a product, like eBooks, for a low price displacing hardcover books. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur eBook Metrics Startup 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. If you want to drive up the demand for your core product, one smart tactic is to drive down the price of all complementary products.

Mobile 126

Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 8, 2011

I concluded that it is an effective tool for leveling the playing field between sophisticated investors and emerging entrepreneurs. I have subsequently recommended the book to number of students as well as emerging entrepreneurs, all of whom expressed positive feedback. . We decided to do it in a way that was accessible.”.

Venture Capital 224

Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur Blogging 224

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2016

I’m sure all of you know one or more of the 200 or more young companies that are currently valued at one billion or more by investors and stockholders. What every entrepreneur is asking me these days, is “How do I get to be a unicorn?” When top tier investors compete for a piece of the action, the price can go up exponentially.

Company 100

Company Companies Startup Statistics 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2022

One of the big questions that every entrepreneur struggles with is how much funding they should request from investors in the first round. Here is where projections of cost, pricing, volumes and cash flow are critical. If you ask for more money than your company is now worth, no investor will bite. Marty Zwilling.

Funding 121

Funding Startup Equity Invest 121

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle).

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2022

For example, if it’s getting harder to charge a price premium for the product you’re marketing, or others are offering your subscription service for free, it may be time to start thinking in a new box. Another example is seeing substitute versions of a product, like eBooks, for a low price displacing hardcover books.

eBook 111

eBook Metrics Examples Startup 111

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. Entrepreneurial lawyers like Don Lee , Dave Young or Ted Wang are good at sussing out which entrepreneurs are high potential. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle).

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2020

As an advisor to entrepreneurs and a technologist, I’m happy to report that the tide may be turning, and we are experiencing a new era of opportunity for entrepreneurs, and a new appreciation of the power of the digital world. In his classic book, “ Digital Context 2.0: These are typically decision makers, shoppers, and early adopters.

Social Media 131

Social Media Startup Tool Google 131

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2019

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Doing business is a human process.

Organization 128

Organization Startup Pricing Custom 128

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Just ask former big brand companies, like Blockbuster, Kodak, Lehman Brothers, and Sears, what happened to them. Competitors tend to focus on price and other variations to existing offerings. Rather than rely only on linear thinking, the best entrepreneurs are always looking to offer in parallel a more dramatic new alternative.

Examples 99

Examples IP Acquisition Social Media 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2012

You have probably heard plenty of times that being an entrepreneur is a risky business, and investors talk all the time about reducing the risk. Here is my own priority list of key risk drivers that every entrepreneur and every investor should evaluate and minimize in starting a business: Team experience and depth risk.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Examples Social Network Marketing 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2020

One of the big questions that every entrepreneur struggles with is how much funding they should request from investors in the first round. Here is where projections of cost, pricing, volumes and cash flow are critical. If you ask for more money than your company is now worth, no investor will bite. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 135

Startup Equity Invest Funding 135

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2023

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. The most elegant products have the highest price tags, thus limiting market size.

Case Study 89

Case Study Custom Customer Study 89

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. I spoke about how Amazon Web Services deserves far more credit for the last 5 years of innovation than it gets credit for and how I believe they spawned the micro-VC category. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. I believe that. Fair enough. and profits!

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Topics we covered: B2B Companies You haven’t seen the full extent to how the correction is going to affect you. In a bear market executives are paid to: consolidate the number of contracts and renegotiate prices. Other companies have only seen a slight decline and may be expecting demand to return to normalcy later in the year.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. The most elegant products have the highest price tags, thus limiting market size.

Case Study 174

Case Study Startup Custom Customer 174

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2019

Richards--a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in a number of technology companies here, including NTI Group (sold to Blackboard), Internships.com, MP3.com, Now we have a thousand large companies into it, and if you name a big company, they're a customers of ours, from Starbucks to NASA.

Content 193

Content Social Network Coach Help 193

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2015

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. If you want to drive up the demand for your core product, one smart tactic is to drive down the price of all complementary products.

Startup 98

Startup Platform Pricing Netflix 98

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2013

You got to keep the name of the new company – ecomom. We didn’t do so well in that category in the past. I don’t think we can fund in that category, Jody. I didn’t so much want to see a baby products company make money as I wanted to see you succeed. And how to think about being an entrepreneur.

Venture Capital 406

Venture Capital Study Writing News 406

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. I explain in the video what happened in my first company (e.g.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

What I want to talk about today is one of the insider baseball discussions of our industry this past week: The odd fact of the $500 million financing round completed just before the company sold for a B. ” In this week’s discussion with entrepreneurs I think the word impending wasn’t used often enough. Let me explain.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2020

As an angel investor, I see plenty of startups focusing on building an innovative product, but I’m looking for the few who are also leading with an exponential growth strategy, to put them in the category of the next Amazon or Google. Let your highly motivated customers be your best marketing advocates for new customers.

Marketing 170

Marketing Startup Examples Custom 170

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

This happens when the company has been making steady progress but hasn’t built enough “ proof &# to raise its next round of financing from external investors. If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 1, 2010

Many firms do it in a way that can be more detrimental to entrepreneurs. There are positive benefits to the right VCs being involved early – especially if your company or the economy hits bumps in the road. How this works: I try to set a price that feels like a fair balance between GRP and the company.

Seed Funding 298

Seed Funding Funding Venture Capital GRP Partners 298

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). BuildOnline (the company I founded) has just announcement plans to be more aggressive in growing in the US. Let me not bury the lede.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

The company was founded by Bong Koh, a former EIR at Prism VentureWorks and venture capitalist at Advanced Technology Ventures; he also co-founded ibeatyou. We break it down by a number of vertical categories, including Indulgent--all about food, wine, and alcohol; Active--outdoor athletic endeavors; and Creative, which is arts and crafts.

Startup 271

Startup CTO Coach Activity Software Review 271

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

Hautelook was able to help define--and conquer--the online flash sales category, in record time. We caught up with Brett to understand how Sole Society spun out of Hautelook and Nordstrom, what the vision for the company is, and how he's applying what he learned making Hautelook one of the fastest growing companies here to the new company.

Southern California 200

Southern California Startup Custom Customer 200

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2011

The venture capital business itself is going through an even more fundamental change than just the entry of a new category at the earliest stage. That’s certainly good for our industry in terms of future returns for investors but I would argue also for entrepreneurs. But … Downsizing Venture Capital. The Coming Brick Wall.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Capital Cloud Computing Marketing 289

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

70–80% of the costs of most startups are employee costs so what you’re really talking about when a company is unprofitable is that they are growing their staff ahead of their revenue. I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective? I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective?

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2014

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. Doing business is a human process.

Startup 91

Startup Organization Pricing Custom 91

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Others, like Guy Kawasaki , have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent enhancements or omissions that can kill your deal. Many companies, including Patagonia and Zappos, have used their social focus to enhance their business, but highlight financial return when talking to investors.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256