Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2012

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 98

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Training 98

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Focusing on generative AI applications in a select few corporate functions can contribute to a significant portion of the technology's overall impact. Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI TechEmpower CTO Hire Outsource Development 295

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. No pain usually means no sales.

Sales 139

Sales Training Startup Customer 139

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2010

If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due diligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the due diligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.

Technical Review 91

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 91

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 20, 2020

Assistive robotics, on the other hand, are among one of the primary real-world tasks existing technology can seemingly address almost immediately. Vivian Chu is the cofounder and CEO of Diligent Robotics. Prior to Diligent, Chu worked at both Google[X] and Honda Research Institute.

Technical Review 134

Technical Review Los Angeles Google Research 134

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. Here are mine.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. In the Ad Tech world PS revenue often means providing “media services” as a value-add to using your product. Often your sales engineers can do the customizations without bugging the core eng team.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software Services Company 321

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback. We had 4 or 5 sales reps that had been around since the early days.

Sales 286

Sales Newsletter Technical Review Activity 286

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

The process for retailers and brands to liquidate excess inventory hasn’t changed very much, if at all, and while some retailers were able to build operational infrastructure to service the off-price channels, it continues to be a constant pain point. Ghost is not alone in developing technology focused on inventory.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

A while back I wrote a bunch of posts on Sales & Marketing and have been meaning to get back to that theme for a while. Even if you don’t have “direct&# sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale&# including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business development. You learn by asking.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

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

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

The CEO of the high-performance Italian motorcycle manufacturer offered that point of optimism, as her Modena based EV company remains closed by government decree. Before the health crisis shutdown most of Italy, Energica had already seen larger demand for its high-performance e-motos, with a price range of $17,000 to $23,000.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

New entrepreneurs, especially technical ones, are excited by early adopters, and tend to focus on their feedback, which will always suggest more product features and options. Your focus for momentum could be sales, profitability, or number of customers, but trying to keep all possible parameters growing is simply not practical.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

According to an old Harvard Business Review article, many people in history, famous for their inventions, like Thomas Edison, were entrepreneurs who only later were remembered as inventors of the products they commercialized. Of course it helps to have innovative technologies before you start building a business.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Funding Patents Ideas 156

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good time for every startup to assess the metrics, technology, and platforms they’re using to manage the business. Sales is simply defined as income from customer purchases of goods and services, minus the cost associated with things like returned or undeliverable merchandise.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

But what IS the right amount of burn for a company? Burn rate in case you don’t know is the amount of money a company is either spending (gross) or losing (net) per month. (it Conversely if you’re burning $600,000 per month (yes, some companies do) then you only have 5 months of cash left. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. No pain usually means no sales.

Sales 106

Sales Entrepreneur Customer Custom 106

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

In a bid to prevent the damage from those plumbing failures and also help save water, Los Angeles-based Flo Technologies (www.meetflo.com) has developed a water monitoring device and shutoff valve for your home, which is connected to your smartphone and its own app. We caught up with Gabriel to learn more about the company.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Technology Startup Artificial Inteligence 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

I find that many managers are expected to hire new team members primarily on the basis of technical qualifications and years of experience, rather communication ability, attitude, or previous customer reviews Remember that everyone will interact with customers, due to billing or delivery issues.

Customer 147

Customer Custom Technical Review Metrics 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2019

Too many business owners still think of “ customer support ” as an after-sale process to rectify customer problems with completed transactions. Big companies and small, from Amazon to Zappos, have set the bar high along the following lines: Business must be available when and where you are. The world has changed.

Customer 84

Customer Custom Company Companies 84

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. 1/ From vantage point of being able to see hundreds of companies, good & bad I have some advice for founders - Get to know and love "gross margin."

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

Leave the world of new computer chips and new drugs to the big companies, and people with deep pockets. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies. It always reduces risk to plan your business first.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

I pointed to several Economist articles I had read that mapped historical prices of real estate for 400 years and how on average property values grow at no more 1.5% above inflation yet in many markets in the US & Europe prices were rising at 10-25% per year. And it’s driving up prices beyond their inherent value.

Invest 299

Invest Angel Technical Review Venture Capital 299

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two?

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 13, 2009

Sales – Many publishers, including Grit, encouraged newspaper boys to create new routes and expand existing ones by aggressively selling subscriptions to non-subscribers. This pay-per-newspaper formula directly rewarded the children’s sales efforts and sparked a life-long entrepreneurial fire in generations of newspaper boys.

Web 2.0 222

Web 2.0 Web Sales Outsource Development 222

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2020

Entrepreneurial thinking in a corporate environment brings many positive career opportunities to the table, and many advantages to your company. Company people, whether employees, managers, or executives, can view customers either with disinterest or as problems. Committed to the success of the company.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Sales Customer Custom 117

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Understanding how your company will change as you move through these phases is critical if you hope to scale to a large business one day.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

Leave the world of new computer chips and new drugs to the big companies, and people with deep pockets. This source is a major focus these days, due to government initiatives to incent research and development on alternative energy and other technologies. It always reduces risk to plan your business first.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

We work with those companies, who tend to know a lot about what happens with their product in the retail sense, but who tend to lose track of what is happening with their products on the Internet. We provide analytics on the velocity of sales across their channels. How are you able to do all this?

Artificial Inteligence 140

Artificial Inteligence Startup Commerce Sales 140

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

When I was raising money for my first company we had closed a seed round in 1999 and were working on our A round. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We moved into the legal process and final due diligence in January and February of 2000.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2018

He noted that early in Salesforce’s tenure, the company changed its fiscal year to end on January 31 st , rather than the traditional calendar year end. However, it remains fairly rare within the tech world. Performance Reviews – Greater focus can be paid to employees’ annual evaluations and compensation reviews. .

Technical Review 89

Technical Review Startup Resource Organization 89

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2018

According to an old Harvard Business Review article, many people in history, famous for their inventions, like Thomas Edison, were entrepreneurs who only later were remembered as inventors of the products they commercialized. Of course it helps to have innovative technologies before you start building a business.

Technical Review 86

Technical Review Patents Ideas Journal 86

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Much has changed in the past four months of the technology startup world and how outsiders value the business. And when prices are dropping on a VCs existing companies in market, there is a substantial reduction in FOMO (fear of missing out) for new deals, which means that investors take their time in making investment decisions.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Venture Capital Statistics 150

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 product / market fit. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. Valuations were enormous relative to progress in companies. Companies with less than $2 million in revenue were asking for $50-60 million valuations and getting them. Yesterday was a Monday. Cut where needed.

Marketing 305

Marketing Venture Capital Funding Technical Review 305