Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

But it will be patiently deployed, waiting for a cohort of founders who aren’t artificially clinging to 2021 valuation metrics. Of course our execution against the strategy has had to change but the strategy has remained constant. discipline & focus. In 2009 we could take a long time to review a deal. By 2021 we had to write a $3.5m

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Of course, you need to show how your business will make money and provide an impressive investor return, but that should be only the beginning. Develop a personal story as a visionary and learner. Founders who present themselves as a lone entrepreneur may develop an innovative solution, but building a business requires a team.

Ideas 140

Ideas Entrepreneur Equity Resource 140

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

For a hands-on guide in developing data-driven people strategies, I found some practical techniques in the classic book, “ The Data Driven Leader ,” by Jenny Dearborn and David Swanson. Data, however, removes guesswork, biases, and anecdotal reasoning that can throw decision efforts off course.

Tool 121

Tool Statistics Entrepreneur Metrics 121

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

For example, many investors I know tell me they look for business plans that allocate the largest portion of a requested investment to marketing, but most often see the top “ use of funds ” to be further product or service development. Of course, you can’t possibly brand yourself if you don’t know who you really are.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2023

Of course, margin and profitability are important, but must be committed to adding more value to the lives of your clients, and making the world a better place. Measure progress through metrics on sales, revenue, and penetration. Develop a mindset of improvement versus defense. Define and focus on a mission to add value.

Customer 91

Customer Custom Marketing Startup 91

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Content, of course, is the same!]. We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Company grew by more than “400% each year” for past few years [assume growth metric = revenues]. Metrics: 2.5mm members, 1,000 brands, 2,500 sale events to-date.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. It’s obvious that we can be too late to these decisions of course. If — and it’s a big if of course — they can do that on the cheap, then why should an LP care at all? When should you start a company?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought. It is tacit knowledge.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Today’s higher education is responding by making more courses online and available to people outside of physical boundaries. But while universities are developing online content they are not fundamentally disrupting leaning because the method of delivery is not a new business model.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Of course, there are no guarantees, but I still see otherwise smart entrepreneurs taking shortcuts in their hiring, or jumping into business relationships based on emotion or low cost. One of the pitfalls of optimism is the expectation for early customer growth, and understating the real costs of design, development, and inventory.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Of course it happens all the time?—?especially This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting. This is not true in the majority of cases but rather when you have competition in your round and feel confident in using your leverage. If your metric move immediate up-and-to-the-right?

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Startup 61

Startup Social Media News Tool 61

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Competitor positioning and sustainable competitive advantage. Of course, these should never be in a customer pitch, but investors expect an overall strategy with specific budgets, milestones and metrics. Investors will impatiently expect a winning business model, customer segment definitions and volume projections.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2015

It was developed by Joe Abraham , who manages a portfolio of successful high-growth international companies. These people are the ultimate chess players in the game of startups, always looking to be two or three moves ahead of the competition. Of course, understanding your type and tailoring your plan is still no guarantee of success.

Startup 106

Startup Incubator Entrepreneur Metrics 106

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition.

Summary 90

Summary Writing Competition Sample 90

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2017

For a hands-on guide in developing data-driven people strategies, I found some practical techniques in a new book, “ The Data Driven Leader ,” by Jenny Dearborn and David Swanson. Data, however, removes guesswork, biases, and anecdotal reasoning that can throw decision efforts off course. Working on the wrong problem or assumption.

Tool 53

Tool Entrepreneur Statistics Metrics 53

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

If you look at the structure of the travel industry above – of course we know that the hotel industry is fragmented while the airline industry is reasonable consolidated. The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product. If you’re not successful then who cares.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I've previously addressed the role of a CTO in early-stages in my post Startup CTO or Developer. for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? How can I control costs but effectively get stuff developed?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

So while the simplest way that people often evaluate stocks is by P/E ratios (price-to-earnings), one also needs to look at other metrics such as the PEG (price-to-earnings-growth). [of of course there are MUCH more sophisticated financial tools than either of these, but PEG is a short-hand many people use]. Investors value growth.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. Semick: We’re a very metrics driven company, and we have been from the beginning. Metrics related to customer acquisition, lifetime value and churn.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. And of course the funding problem coincided with the stock market correction that took away most exit options for years to come. The Exit Problem. Today’s Normalization.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. Our first big institutional round was $16.5

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

To cap off our 6th year at SXSW and follow up on last year’s amazingly successful Trend Lounge , we knew this year had to be bigger, better, more engaging, and of course, even more fun. Margaret Francis – Heroku XL , making large-scale app development easy. Setting the Stage : The Indiegogo/TechZulu Tech Cafe.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

No, that IS NOT a competitive advantage - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 12, 2010 This is part 1 of the series: 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches. Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. Make it unique.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217