Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2022

In my experience as a business advisor, most organizations, large and small, struggle to keep up with the pace of change and competitive forces today. A question I often get is how to transform that overall team into a smooth-running machine that will keep up with the pace of market change, and competition in today’s world.

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Competition Resource Startup Organization 136

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2021

With the advent of the Internet, social media, and instant communication via texting, customer expectations for service, as part of their entire customer experience, have changed. They expect you to be there, to know their history as a customer, and to treat them with priority and respect.

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Customer Custom Social Media Design 171

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2020

Most entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking negatively about competitors, and can’t resist making derogatory statements to their own team, to investors, and even to customers. As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition.

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Competition Entrepreneur Patents Customer 125

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2013

To bring that ability to name your own price on products, Los Angeles-based Greentoe (www.greentoe.com) recently launched, allowing consumers to name their own price to retailers of everything from electronics to baby products. Joe Marrapodi: GreenToe is a name your own price marketplace for products. What is Greentoe?

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Pricing Product Help Sales 273

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.

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Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2023

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. I say again, customers buy solutions, not technology. Look for customer willingness and ability to pay.

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Customer Custom Social Media Technology 110

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

Yet, as a business consultant, I often find minimal focus on improving employee engagement and assessing their customer-facing performance. For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees.

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Customer Custom Technical Review Metrics 147

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers.

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Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2022

Be sure to encompass all your constituents, especially including customers. Many leaders do this today by supporting and promoting a higher-level purpose, beyond profits, such as helping the disadvantaged, sustaining the environment, or Conscious Capitalism. Foster collaboration rather than competition.

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Product Training Customer Custom 109

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2019

Most entrepreneurs are quick to assert to potential investors that their product or solution will kill the competition, but unfortunately your opinion alone is not enough to convince most experienced investors. A competitive advantage to a non-problem or tiny niche is not interesting to investors.

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Competition Patents Startup Customer 86

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

As I talk to many of you in my role as business advisor, I still often hear the concern for maximum return to the business and stakeholders, more than a passion for sustainably enriching the lives of your customers and team. This applies to your own team, as well as customers. Make every customer experience memorable.

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Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2019

Every entrepreneur believes that their product or service is memorable, and that every customer will quickly see the advantage over competitors. Yet true product differentiation in the eye of the customer is rarely achieved. Quantify the difference for your customers.

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Product Customer Custom Examples 124

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2019

While starting a new business always involves tackling many new challenges, I’ve personally found myself reluctant to ask for help. Thus, in my consulting with entrepreneurs, I always encourage them to get more comfortable asking for help. Of course, there are good ways and bad ways to ask for help.

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Help Entrepreneur Course IBM 123

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2014

Los Angeles-based online advertising technology developer OpenX Technologies said this morning that it has launched a new product, the OpenX SSP (Supply Side Platform). OpenX said that such customers as YP, TVGuide.com, and the New York Observer are already using the product.

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OpenX Product Advertising Demand 159

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2020

Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Building morale is not a one-time task.

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Product Examples Mentor Activity 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

They forget that adapting their company and themselves as their customers evolve is the key to long-term survival. Think of Blockbuster and Toys ‘R’ Us , both of whom missed customer changes and the move to online. Create an overt strategy to react to emerging customer trends. Remember when you were a startup?

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Customer Custom Examples IBM 143

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Freelancers and consultants have to demonstrate results, without training and mentoring, so they can help you more quickly and probably at a lower total cost. Today you need that budget for market fluxuations, pandemics, and product updates. Thus they feel more fulfilled, more productive, and more in control of their lives.

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Competition Startup Demand Training 168

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2018

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based Catalog (www.catalog.cc), a startup developing artificial intelligence software to help independent visual artists scale their content production efforts, announced it raised $1.5M To bundle all of these components requires you to have customers with similar needs. in a seed funding round.

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Help IP Content Google 133

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2020

They are attracted to people who agree, but may not be able to help. Even if your company doesn’t sell high-tech products, like Zappos sells shoes, having and using the right technology in the business, for distribution, marketing, and customer support, can easily make the difference between winning and losing in today’s high-tech world.

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Competition High Tech Startup Social Media 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2019

Image via Flickr by jardenberg Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. Educational. Make sure your paragraphs are short.

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Customer Custom Marketing Tips 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Every entrepreneur assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. The eye is just as important as the mind when it comes to customers.

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Content Newsletter Competition Writing 146

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Most entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking negatively about competitors, and can’t resist making derogatory statements about them to their own team, investors and even to customers. As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition.

Competition 107

Competition Entrepreneur Patents Customer 107

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either. Non-specific terms, like better usability and low cost don’t incite customers to action these days.

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Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either. Non-specific terms, like better usability and low cost don’t incite customers to action these days.

Competition 93

Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

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.

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Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

As an advisor to new business owners, I’m accustomed to seeing primarily the simple traditional product pricing strategies , usually driven by competitor prices, or cost plus a reasonable margin. Here it is important to monitor customer feedback, as you may find one of these services could be a revenue source in itself.

Pricing 145

Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

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.

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Competition Startup USC Southern California 104

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Good Eggs says that in the past year, revenue has grown to the nine figures (more than $100 million), hired more than 400 employees and nearly doubled its customer base. We are excited to partner with their team to help drive future growth and expansion.” Image Credits: Good Eggs.

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Southern California Orange County San Diego Commerce 318

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

com) � backed by local investors Rincon Venture Partners and Bonfire Ventures�is helping to solve that problem, with its career pathing software designed for helping employees at large enterprises figure out what's next. It helps you figure out what you can do in a business, what roles are available, what might be my future here.

Help 100

Help Southern California Startup Technical Review 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Los Angeles-based Enrou (www.enrou.co) thinks it has a way--by connecting people with products that also help support international development and causes, via its own online marketplace. Ann Wang: Enrou is an online, content driven marketplace for products in developing communities around the world. What is Enrou?

Commerce 140

Commerce Help UCLA Organization 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2019

After working in business at all levels, and consulting to entrepreneurs for years, I’m still surprised to see so many situations where things that should be easy are painful to customers, and lead to customers hating your business. Accelerating worldwide competition and financial upheavals are undermining established market positions.

Customer 83

Customer Custom Demand Examples 83

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

Michael Chasin: LawKick.com is essentially a marketplace that makes it easier than ever to find legal help. How the website works, is the client goes to the website, and indicates what they need help with. Michael Chasin: The most challenging part of any startup is getting in front of people, and finding customers. READ MORE>>.

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Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Production.

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Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2022

Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Building morale is not a one-time task.

Examples 145

Examples Mentor Activity Product 145

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 30, 2019

The company used its overdraft protection service and money management display to shift customers’ focus away from the total balance that their account would show by giving them a sense of how much was actually left in their accounts once debits were included in their statements.

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Company Companies Startup Tips 262

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. If your solution alleviates a high level of existing pain, customers more readily change.

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Product Case Study Customer Custom 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Much has been written about this subject in the world of manufacturing, stemming primarily from the 1990’s work by Taiichi Ohno, called the Toyota Production System (“Lean”). Lack of communication.

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Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161