Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts. Are we in a bubble?”

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

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. These experts will curate the information, point to the best sources, and summarize implications for you.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 174

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 174

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. Making late or poor choices will cost you time, money, customers, and may cost you your business. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 104

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2020

The Internet and the current information wave have changed everything. The Internet is the problem, by facilitating constant change, and it’s the solution, by providing an absolutely current view of customers, trends, and best practices. The act of communicating and writing enhances learning.

Social Media 127

Social Media Startup Education Entrepreneur 127

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. And fifth: Competitive risk. . Second: Market risk. . Will the public respond in numbers to buy, license or rent your offering?

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. It makes customers feel special, and gives you the opportunity to highlight your broad experience and credentials.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Are you working with or selling to a particularly important competitor to your target customer? Dropping that name will often immediately draw a response if the decision maker is curious or particularly competitive. Let me reinforce this: never reveal competitive information to gain access or advantage.

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. Making late or poor choices will cost you time, money, customers, and may cost you your business. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. The funding rounds will also build customer confidence and they’ll help journalists feel air cover in writing your more important pieces when you brag about customers, traction, revenue or whatever. But first you need to know about Reg D filings.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

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)? That chart has information on it. I am a VC. I hand out money.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. And fifth: Competitive risk. Second: Market risk. Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service?

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

Obviously you should have somebody that helps you research journalists, gets you meetings, pitches stories, helps prep you for interviews & helps make sure your writing is cogent. You need somebody who is helping push out information on what is up-and-coming in the company. In a startup this is a mistake.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Since this document is outward facing, it is important to keep the terminology and tone consistent with that of your customer set, investors, and business partners. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. Current and past titles don’t convey this information. Marketing, sales, and customer experience.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Dipping: As a decision maker you rely on information being passed to you by the people who report to you. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. But as a CEO you can’t rely solely on this information.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2017

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. To get to the core of what’s relevant to customers, you need to know them well. Helping customers discover new ways to solve common problems can quickly build you a loyal following.

Content 67

Content Marketing Newsletter Writing 67

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

If you are looking for funding and customers for your new business, you need to identify your “unique selling proposition” (USP) right up front, in 30 seconds or less, to differentiate yourself in today’s information overload. Investor and customer attention spans are short, and both will write you off quickly.

.Net 73

.Net Examples Customer Custom 73

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2020

For example, if I were to have a room full of bouncing balls, we couldn't share that today because of the amount of information involved. The win is we don't have to exchange all that information. If you have a bunch of bouncing balls, they all bounce identically, and you don't have to exchange information.

Platform 168

Platform Startup Examples Web 168

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. Selling at smaller retailers will net you fewer customers and higher margins.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2014

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. To get to the core of what’s relevant to customers, you need to know them well. Helping customers discover new ways to solve common problems can quickly build you a loyal following.

Startup 103

Startup Content Newsletter Writing 103

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. “My desire for this “Opposing Views Reader” is related to my concern about information cascades. In general, we seem to be building too many positive re-enforcement systems on the web.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2020

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Contact information should always be included.

Writing 125

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 125

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2012

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. To get to the core of what’s relevant to customers, you need to know them well. Helping customers discover new ways to solve common problems can quickly build you a loyal following.

Content 99

Content Startup Newsletter Writing 99

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

It’s building a product that is substantially differentiated, and, as Bill Gross, one of the most prolific tech entrepreneurs of our era says, “ It needs to be 10x better than the competition ” (because if you shoot for that then in competitive markets you might achieve 3x. How do people drive SEO growth?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2009

Twitter is the new CRM (customer relationship management) channel. The volume of Tweets is enormous and growing at a rapid pace so tools are emerging to help brands manage this information. Twitter, by contrast, started as an open platform where people let anybody see what they were writing.

Social Network 235

Social Network Writing Tool Startup 235

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2015

The Internet and the current information wave have changed everything. The Internet is the problem, by facilitating constant change, and it’s the solution, by providing an absolutely current view of customers, trends, and best practices. The act of communicating and writing enhances learning.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Social Media Startup Education 102

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. She helps write press releases. Soleil is paranoid about leaking design & product information because she’s been burned.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. So naturally we’re pushing for him to drop critical information when their paths cross organically. Rob does it.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2015

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 105

Startup Entrepreneur Writing Ideas 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2012

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. A good investor can do a lot to help a company, but can't make customers buy products.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Startup Writing Competition 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2011

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. To get to the core of what’s relevant to customers, you need to know them well. Helping customers discover new ways to solve common problems can quickly build you a loyal following.

Content 94

Content Startup Newsletter Writing 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2016

The Internet and the current information wave have changed everything. The Internet is the problem, by facilitating constant change, and it’s the solution, by providing an absolutely current view of customers, trends, and best practices. The act of communicating and writing enhances learning.

Entrepreneur 61

Entrepreneur Social Media Startup Education 61

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2009

FreedomSpeaks is a startup developing a business around connecting people with information about their political representatives, and also enabling organizations and others to do the same. I am someone who likes to interact with my Representatives and Senators, by way of writing letters, emailing, and what not. Jason Kiesel: Yes.

Startup 100

Startup Writing Southern California Email 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2011

There was a real opportunity for me to arbitrage the last decade and a half of my experience in the Internet, and apply that to a products company, and to get some real competitive advantage. Having a strong presence online and strong, positive word of mouth in a relevant audience is a real competitive advantage.

Web 225

Web Social Media SEO Media 225

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2010

After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your business case, your million dollar product idea, and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. A good investor can do a lot to help a company, but can't make customers buy products.

Technical Review 90

Technical Review Writing Competition Tips 90