Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2017

Not so long ago, every business assumed that the keys to success were the highest quality product, the best value for the buck, and the best customer service. Now all we hear about is providing the best “customer experience.” You have to hear your customer’s dreams, goals, passions, and aspirations.

Custom 85

Custom Customer Product Marketing 85

Tech.Co

MAY 31, 2023

But while competition remains fierce, the advancement and accessibility of smart solutions are making it easy than ever for startups to find their feet. Business tools — from customer relationship management ( CRM ) platforms to accounting software — help to save startups time and money by automating key processes and maximizing efficiency.

Tool 128

Tool Startup Software Review Technical Review 128

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Fresh customer base. Even mergers and acquisitions (M&A) came quickly. New management skills.

Organization 97

Organization Competition Startup Acquisition 97

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 26, 2022

At the time, the company raised $2 million, and Alexandrov said about the perceived competition, “The level of competition in this market in the U.S. We are creating new habits of customers. On-demand grocery startup Food Rocket launches in the Bay Area, goes up against delivery giants. “We locations.

Funding 246

Funding Demand Los Angeles Competition 246

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Los Angeles-based cloud identity management software developer Saviynt says it saw record growth during the first half of 2020--despite the pandemic--saying it saw a 48 percent growth in recurring revenue. The company attributed the growth to "product innovation, competitive customer wins, and key partnership additions."

Competition 113

Competition Software Development Los Angeles Tool 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2018

Redland-based geographical information systems (GIS) software maker Esri announced this morning that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU), with the national statistics agency for the United Arab Emirates. According to Esri, the MOU came with the UAE's Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA).

Statistics 113

Statistics Competition Software Custom 113

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 19, 2015

Computers and the Internet have now brought in a new era that relies on data to make profitable business decisions in the competitive environment. Below is a full explanation of how small businesses can leverage technology to earn a competitive advantage in the marketplace. BPM Software. Cloud Services. CRM Platforms.

Competition 40

Competition Technology Social Media Tips 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

For example, I believe that Starbucks surprised most people by proving that they could take a commodity business, a coffee shop, and make it a worldwide profit winner, just by justifying premium pricing with a quality product, the right locations, personalized service, and appealing to the professional customer personas.

Pricing 145

Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. o Early on they hired 3 people from ACT software at once (more team hiring) on staff and supplement it with Agency (in LA worked with First Communications – good). o Put a timeframe/money – competition in the picture.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Custom Customer 304

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

That is, businesses are using APIs like crazy to stay competitive and communicate with both partners and customers more effectively. According to the team, the driving philosophy behind Mission Control was to help the world create better software. Image Credit: Wikipedia .

Software 77

Software Netflix Competition Design 77

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2020

Therein lies the advantages of free markets and competition and if we really believed it were that easy to buy off your largest competitor and be a monopolist we’d all be surfing on AOL TimeWarner portals. Customers were happy and restaurants focused on their in-store business. they just put up with the food delivery company fees.

SaaS 242

SaaS Custom Customer Technical Review 242

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features.

Organization 280

Organization Custom Customer Tips 280

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

The market is changing so fast these days, and if you are not planning a solution today for tomorrow’s customers, you may be setting yourself up for failure and don’t even realize it. There are many free generalized tools, including Google Trends , which can be used to track customer behavior in looking for things that don’t exist yet.

Custom 57

Custom Customer Technical Review Software Review 57

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Unlike a lot of grants on this list, the competition is open to all US small businesses, as long as they have fewer than 99 employees, have been operating for at least six months, and have a FedEx business account that's been open before September 1, 2023. It's competitive though – last year 18,000 applicants competed for only 12 slots.

Technical Review 193

Technical Review Software Review Startup Competition 193

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your “secret sauce,” you need to keep the work in-house. Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Management undertakes a simple exercise of calculating the increased profitability of shutting down all R&D, sales and subordinate operations, and universally notes with shock the high net profit that results – from shutting down all operations except customer service to recurring customers (as in software support operations.).

.Net 226

.Net Sales Custom Customer 226

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

For example, I once worked for a small software company selling a sophisticated enterprise workflow solution. All this was done without damaging anyone’s credibility, or stealing customers. It’s very unusual for two competitors to have exactly the same strengths – in development, marketing, distribution, or customer support.

Startup 173

Startup Outsource Development Examples Custom 173

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

He has forgotten that new technologies are perceived by most customers as causing more pain than the problems they hope to eliminate. Yet we all know that many customers delay their adoption of the latest software platform, and fancy new hardware, for a year or two until all the “kinks” are worked out of them. Marty Zwilling.

Custom 95

Custom Customer Technology Marketing 95

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy&# – it’s the rallying cry to dig deeper, get more features out the door, issue press releases citing differences and attack the competition’s weaknesses in sales presentations. A healthy respect for your competition will serve you well.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Santa Monica-based Nimble , the developer of customer relationship management and contacts management software headed by Goldmine Software founder Jon Ferrara, looks to be shifting its sights to paid, business accounts. The firm's biggest competition is Salesforce.com. READ MORE>>.

Santa Monica 213

Santa Monica Social Network Competition Software 213

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Custom 336

socalTECH

APRIL 1, 2019

com), which is developing analytics software which leverages mobile phones for data on customers. The hypothesis was, companies are in an extremely competitive environment, and it doesn't matter what company or industry they are in, it's been one of the most competitive environments we've seen in a long time.

Startup 113

Startup Culver City Competition Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2016

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. Display ads on mobile devices, including video and audio, also offer a new opportunity to reach target customers. Display advertising. Email marketing.

Custom 60

Custom Customer Marketing Social Media 60

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Consumers buying through smart phones, travelers using the new, shared economy and businesses replacing old software with modern cloud-based solutions. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. And importantly we’ve had revenue. It has been a good run.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

There were startups and a software industry but barely. In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. They wanted to build new products, solve problems that were unfilled by the last generation of software companies and grow revenue year-over-year while holding costs in check.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2021

Every entrepreneur’s first priority should be the alignment of interests across the range of constituents required for success – partners, investors, customers, vendors, and employees. If you have had to pivot from the consumer market to enterprise customers, that requires new pricing models and new sales channels.

Social Media 143

Social Media Startup Framework Course 143

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 3, 2020

Farmers is an investor in Talespin, as is the corporate training and talent management software provider Cornerstone OnDemand, and the hardware manufacturer HTC. Talespin ’s technology is a perfect fit in our suite of products, and we look forward to working together to deliver great solutions for our customers.”.

Training 220

Training Los Angeles Tool Cornerstone OnDemand 220

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

With the speed of change and volume of market feedback today, as well as the advances in machine learning, Amazon, Alibaba, and others have proven the value of software driven strategy decisions. Only smart software can plow through the volume of live data, recognizing trends, customers, and match offerings to reality.

Artificial Inteligence 84

Artificial Inteligence Metrics Commerce Software 84

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2023

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. Display ads on mobile devices, including video and audio, also offer a new opportunity to reach target customers. Display advertising. Email marketing.

Marketing 114

Marketing Invest Social Media SEM 114

socalTECH

JULY 28, 2014

In an intensely competitive area, how do you differentiate yourself and grow a company? With around a hundred employees in Los Angeles, and $40M in revenues, Fonality (www.fonality.com) --a developer of voice-over-IP phone software and systems--has managed to rise above the crowd of commodity voice-over-IP and PBX service providers.

IP 138

IP Culver City Custom Customer 138

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

Equipped with diagnostic software that can assess problems with vehicles based on their owners descriptions and service trucks that can handle most maintenance and repair work, Wrench meets fleet operators and consumers at their vehicle’s to provide servicing and repairs. Wrench raises $4 million to bring auto repairs to your door.

Demand 100

Demand Services Los Angeles Mobile 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2022

Software products and apps can be quickly wire-framed with free tools such as MockFlow , or even Microsoft Powerpoint to lay out the key screens. With a realistic prototype, you can get more accurate feedback from customers on their real need and what they might pay, before you invest millions on the final product.

Outsource Development 110

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 110

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

Eano, she said, offers competitive and transparent pricing so that homeowners aren’t surprised as a remodeling project goes on. We’re also helping these individual contractors increase the brand, and helping them with the administration and customer support side with our software.”.

Technical Review 185

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term. Is your project seen by both as an end in itself, or a means to another end? Conflicting visions won’t work.

Software Review 154

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 154

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2020

Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. Don’t create solutions looking for a problem , since investors ignore these, and customers other than early adopters will be hard to find. Customers buy solutions, not technology. Prototype your solution for customers, and discount friends and family.

Technology 127

Technology Marketing Social Media Custom 127

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Santa Monica-based Nimble , the developer of customer relationship management and contacts management software headed by Goldmine Software founder Jon Ferrara, looks to be shifting its sights to paid, business accounts. The firm's biggest competition is Salesforce.com. READ MORE>>.

Santa Monica 113

Santa Monica Social Network Competition Software 113