Berkonomics

MARCH 10, 2010

Your customers know what they want more than you do. Find one to teach you. This insight came from personal experience and from a good friend who advanced the notion of the “teacher-customer” years ago. Together we would work out solutions in the form of new functions, new controls, new reports, and new safeguards.

Customer 149

Customer Custom Design Conference 149

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Your customers know what they want more than you do. This week’s insight came from personal experience and from a good friend who advanced the notion of the “teacher-customer” years ago. The customer would be the first to receive the new functionality in a new release. Providing feedback to your teacher customer.

Customer 156

Customer Custom Design Conference 156

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. that’s where the customers are. But if you ask anyone in the ecosystem of customer acquisition?—?founders, no surprise?—?that’s founders, marketers, investors?—?and

Product 424

Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 15, 2012

Thursday, June 21, 2012 -- Design and Innovation Showcase. Innovative industrial design can give your company competitive advantage in the marketplace by catering to both utilitarian and aesthetic requirements of the customer. Connect with CONNECT.

Design 113

Design Competition Networking Customer 113

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

Customer 158

Customer Custom Social Media Satisfaction 158

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Competitive sportswoman. Kara on one side of the table showing me market sizes, competitive dynamics, product roadmaps, pricing plans for physical products with COGS and gross margins. Showing me designs. She talks about creative design of websites and physical products – in our case – stickers. Stanford MBA.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2013

We''ve put a spin on this, where you can use your own personalization or custom designs for your own Bluetooth headset, just like you would create a personalized case for your smartphone. I got a lot of pushback--none of them wanted to change their designs, and no one thought anyone would wear a flower. This is a crowded market.

Startup 241

Startup Slides Orange County Design 241

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Online job and career sites still seem to be in another decade, when it comes to both design--and user friendliness. Can a startup gain a foothold in the competitive market by designing the right UX and user experience to make a job and career site for everyone? cornerstone employment work listings jobs design workpop'

Design 174

Design Sites Cornerstone OnDemand Startup 174

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 30, 2014

In order to support all of these teams, there are several on-campus startup competitions every year, from the Silicon Beach USC competition to the New Venture Seed Competition, with prize funds to help build the companies. The post HipTraveler | Taking Startup Competitions by Storm appeared first on TechZulu.

Competition 104

Competition Startup USC Southern California 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

and there was certainly less competition from everybody pitching local merchant solutions. I am stunned at the speed at which the team cranked out this application while at the same time building out an entire suite of merchant solutions to help them better manage customers. That is what we set out to solve at MyTime.

Development Team Review 324

Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2022

As a business advisor, I strongly believe that continuous innovation and design thinking are the keys to long-term viability and success. A classic survey of design professionals shows strong agreement, but 92 percent expressed some lack of confidence in their organization’s design vision.

Design 106

Design Coach Ideas Organization 106

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 25, 2011

A customer story can't just be interesting or results-oriented. Before beginning customer success stories or case studies with a new client, I ask a LOT of questions of my marketing contacts - well before ever talking to one of their happy customers. How are they different from the competition? It also needs to sell.

Case Study 162

Case Study Study Customer Custom 162

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

As a business advisor, I strongly believe that continuous innovation and design thinking are the keys to long-term viability and success. A recent survey of design professionals shows strong agreement, but 92 percent expressed some lack of confidence in their organization’s design vision.

Design 97

Design Coach Ideas Organization 97

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

The second is that the retailers were constrained by their high costs of local real estate and service staff relative to the costs of centralized warehouses where goods could be stacked high, sorted by robots, managed by RFIDs and then shipped via overnight to eager, cost-conscious customers across the US. 10x the experience.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

If you had huge customer growth but just didn’t focus on revenue that’s a different story. And when you’re looking at even earlier-stage companies (as VCs do) you might be even more focused on customer growth than revenue growth. million in revenue three years later is, “So effing what?”

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

As an EV venture, Energica is located in the famed Italian motor valley and positions itself similar to its neighbors — Lamborghini, Ducati, Ferrari — in offering a merger of sleek design and elite performance. The venture is also one of the few e-motorcycle companies drawing engineering tips from competition.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

socalTECH

MAY 11, 2011

The firm notably has Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as an advisor and serving as its chief game designer. There is lots of competition in this area for serving retirement homes. So I actually started a graphic design company out of college, and got lucky with the web taking off at the right time. This is my third company.

Study 252

Study Startup Design Tips 252

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

Competition 110

Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 110

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2018

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Social Media Training 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

This post is designed mostly for non-technical founders. They care about the quality of what is build more than they care about end customers. As you head into the phase where you’ve had real customers paying real money for a period of time you’ll have a whole new set of issues. In summary.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. Quora is one of the better designed new products of the past few years in my opinion. Rinse & repeat.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2016

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Social Media Training 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience continues to decline. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 29, 2022

From their book, “Designing for Growth,” they iterate a four-question matrix, each with steps for creation through launch. What is? What if we could do it better, do it in a new way, do it to attract new customers, do it to distance ourselves form the competition? Then let’s design it so it will wow. What wows?

Design 156

Design Framework Ideas Customer 156

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 13, 2012

However, at most startups, competitive advantages are derived from a combination of invention and innovation, as described more fully in Inventor Or Innovator – Which Are You? Startups often out-maneuver their larger rivals by changing the key parameters upon which competition has historically been based. The Berkoff Blastoff.

Startup 198

Startup Competition Activity Class 198

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Startup 154

Startup Training Customer Custom 154

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

I tell people that they need to blog about their industry to drive customers and not blog to their egos to drive their peer group to their blogs. If you are early in a platform (Zynga to Facebook, AngryBirds to iOS, Maker Studios to YouTube) you catch a major marketing wave where acquiring customers and growing revenue is exponential.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. As companies get this initial customer feedback on their product they start to have to ask harder questions about unit economics: How much does it cost us to acquire a new customer?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. And because I wanted Ethan to be able to attract a great team, build & iterate a product, test it with initial customers and refine his strategy before having to take the wrappers off of his company. I think it’s a beautifully designed site and product.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

Founded in January 2010 by Stephen Hood (ex-Delicious head of product), Dave Baggeroer (Stanford’s Institute of Design), and Josh Whiting (ex-senior engineer at Delicious and Craigslist). Customer are primarily large media companies (publishers) and their media agencies. Competition: Pingg, MyPunchbowl, TinyPrints , PaperlessPost.

Venture Capital 214

Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. Talking to real customers is the best way to keep your inspiration alive, as well as the best way keep on track with changing trends and future innovation ideas. Watch that patent provide a real barrier to competitive entry.

Satisfaction 174

Satisfaction Customer Custom Outsource 174

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

It makes it easier to persuade others to join you, it alerts other angels & VCs that you’re a company to be on their radar screen, it helps potential customers know that you may be worth doing business with and it builds you up to announce other milestones down the line. Should I Bundle it With More Juicy News?

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Fortunately I was mostly a technology consultant, which meant that I coded computers, designed databases and planned system integration projects. One of our core tasks was “market analysis,&# which consistent of: market sizing, market forecasts, competitive analysis and then instructing customers on which direction to take.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Whether you are an entrepreneur starting a new business, or a corporate executive seeking to revitalize a mature business, the challenge is the same – to become the obvious choice within the hearts and minds of your customers, your employees, and your chosen communities. Assemble the best team to assimilate and design what is needed.

Customer 167

Customer Custom Satisfaction Marketing 167

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

Patents held by startups generally have a limited ability to reduce competition. Another factor that impacts a patent’s value is its type, of which there are essentially two: utility patents and design patents. Utility patents generally offer more protection than design patents and are thus usually more valuable.

IP 256

IP Patents Companies Company 256