Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

It was a pleasure to write them myself. Yes, long before Yelp or any similar service. And now, of course, UberSocial, Bill’s latest project. I brought up the fact that I find many larger companies abusing the patent system to slow down smaller competitors which is actually anti competitive. Overture (Goto.com).

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

Of course, we are speaking of increased valuation of your company when we speak of “wealth.” Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to compete in the marketplace? Email readers, continue here…] Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service?

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2021

In my view, practical business courses in school are better than an advanced degree or MBA. Of course, working for a startup is not like running one, but it will give you a feel for the lifestyle implications, the mindset required, and how things look from the inside out. Write a business plan for your first startup.

Satisfaction 135

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Startup Mentor 135

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I As a starting point I have to believe the founder has the attributes of an entrepreneur that matter most to me : Tenacity, resiliency, inspiration, perspiration, attention-to-detail, competitiveness, decisiveness, risk tolerance and integrity.

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

But if there is nothing wrong with you then please don’t let early rejections alter your course. Let’s say you have built a SaaS company where a large part of the early revenue comes from a few big customers or a large part of the revenue is services based vs. software based. What to do about that chip on your shoulder ?

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

It’s hard enough building a valuable product or service in competitive global markets without spending time on unproductive tasks. I know some will read this as an indictment of all introductions and of course it’s not that. I find over-introducers are often motivated by their own self currency.

Innocal 255

Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

In more than a decade of writing about the Internet and tech-enabled businesses I’ve learned that mobs don’t do nuance well. The crypto in cryptocurrency is of course referring to cryptography on the ability to encrypt your transactions so they can’t be modified after they have been written to the blockchain.

Course 280

Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? ” Of course not. They sell accounting services.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. 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.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2014

I’ll try to get write-ups shortly but for now here is an overview of my interview with Nanea Reeves – President and COO of textPlus. In the clip below we spoke about the benefits of sending product team members (including engineers) to meet customers as well as all hands taking part in customer service calls.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Blogging RSS Organization 315

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Each of these can go astray as follows: Your product or service hits unexpected snags. 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. Your customers and competition make unexpected moves.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

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. How could it be when they always have “schlocky” ads or PSAs (public service announcements). Online text book rental service. Online radio music service.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. This revenue share comes after the YouTube split.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Dont give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost wont help you if you cant make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 95

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Throughout all of this we saw a tinkerer, a problem solver and a completely obsessed leader who was competitive and wanted to win.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2015

But of course customers will have to do some technical work to migrate products and will lose DataSift functionality that Twitter / Gnip does not possess directly. Never mind that Twitter in writing specifically asked us to build this re-syndication product with them and that every step of the way encouraged us to build out the service.

Platform 150

Platform Course Customer Custom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2016

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Don’t give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost won’t help you if you can’t make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 53

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 53

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2021

How I Shifted from Just Counting Calories to Supercharging My Fitness Workouts This is part of a weight loss and fitness improvement series that I’m writing to share how I went from 222 pounds and unable to bike more than 20 minutes on a Peloton to 153 pounds and running 8–12 miles / day in just 18 months. On May 31st the competition ended.

Startup 302

Startup Screening Competition Training 302

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

” Much of this will look and feel like a Green New Deal, but sold under a package of infrastructure modernization and service upgrades that the country desperately needs. . An estimated six to ten million homes still receive drinking water through lead pipes and service lines,” the White House wrote in a statement.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. Of course if I’m not ensconced in deep, thoughtful work then by all means I answer the call. About six months ago I signed up for a service called PhoneTag run by Jamie Siminoff. I got rid of voicemail.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. My partner, Brian McLoughlin , attends almost all Financial Services conference, makes a number of investments in the space and has relationships across the sector.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Defy Ventures runs business plan competitions and has people like us who attend and give business advice and feedback. Catherine (Cat) Hoke founded the program in 2010 and launched the business plan competition in 2012. He has a business that will provide sanitation services to clean your public garbage & recycling bins.

Writing 150

Writing Startup Design Training 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. Market Size.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

I must admit I discuss this very frequently with portfolio companies but hadn’t thought to write about it. Although the carriers made a lot of money initially by selling dial-up Internet services, customers never took their software because, well, it sucked. PR Malloy (@diddly_do_indy) June 13, 2015.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Aspiring creators learn by connecting with top web filmmakers and YouTubers on a topics specific to the web: developing a web series, producing web series, writing for genres like comedy & sci-fi, directing, editing, camera, Kickstarter funding, show hosting, distribution, and marketing. How does it work? Take us through your features?

Web 93

Web USC Course Guide 93

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Packaging, pricing & discounts – In the early days of my first company we always had “list prices&# we quoted to customers and of course we were always willing to negotiate based on who the client was, how important the business was to us, who the competition was and how well the deal was negotiated. Ditto the CFO.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

Be visible online and to traditional media, volunteer to lead, write guest posts for others, be responsive, give stuff away, and provide many ways to communicate. Engage your customers through blog comments, product reviews, and personal customer service. People are more distracted than ever, and competition has never been greater.

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Open cloud led by Amazon with their AWS services drove total operating costs down by 90%. With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. This led to an explosion in startups. The Blurring of Investment Lines.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Of course I have. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. I don’t write about LA but I write from LA. This article originally ran on TechCrunch. I’m in Seattle this week. Can’t list them all.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. But make it competitive.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

Be visible online and to traditional media, volunteer to lead, write guest posts for others, be responsive, give stuff away, and provide many ways to communicate. Engage your customers through blog comments, product reviews, and personal customer service. People are more distracted than ever, and competition has never been greater.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

Thus, you have negotiating leverage as long as a legitimate, competitive threat exists. Your commitments to investors must be significant enough to compel them to write you a check. What matters is how effectively you change course after each mishap. Puffery works in marketing, so I will deploy it when I promote my startup.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

But of course all of these things are intertwined. Obviously you need to be mentally flexible enough to spot if your instincts were wrong and a change of course is necessary. Of course it’s great to bring in outside experience to complement your team but it must be done judiciously. Know what you believe is important.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. Using that, and a partnership model where we go into schools and partner with them to provide SAT and ACT service, we've been able to build up a private tutoring service from basically nothing. That's a big part of it.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. If you give away your product or service to the first 10 customers, that’s a good learning experience, but it’s not real traction. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.”

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

And of course in my 700 are people like Bill Gates and Barack Obama, neither of whom follows me just yet Asymmetric works both ways. is already providing these kinds of insights to the celebrities that use its system including Serena Williams, Paris Hilton, Linkin Park and, of course, Kim Kardashian (with her 8.2 That’s normal.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307