Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

I find the over-introducers especially corrosive around first-time founders who often struggle with the balance of their time between tasks like building product versus tasks like speaking at conferences or meeting with potential business development partners. In many instances this help is genuine, well-meaning and productive.

Innocal 255

Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Competitive sportswoman. She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions. She speaks about ethical sourcing of eco-friendly products. Stanford MBA.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Few of your contacts will be willing to use their valuable social or political capital helping you with a sales effort, and you will definitely strain your relationship with the intermediary if not a close friend. Dropping that name will often immediately draw a response if the decision maker is curious or particularly competitive.

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Open your pitch by grabbing the investor's attention with a statement or question that piques their interest, then hit the following key bases: Definition of customer problem, followed by your solution. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. Professional investors look for the right people, more than the right product.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. As you grow you need process-driven people.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2010

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 48

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 48

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Tech.Co

MAY 26, 2020

Jeff Bezos didn't get to be the world's richest man by writing a lot of checks, and one recent way to keep Amazon's profits healthy has been to cut its affiliate commissions scheme. Since April 21, Amazon has slashed its rates across a wide range of product categories, in some cases dropping as much as 70%. The impact? commission).

Technical Review 130

Technical Review Buzzfeed News Networking 130

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2011

Gordon Gould , the co-founder of SmartPants, talks about the company and how it's applying what he learned founding ThisNext and from a long experience in the social media market to the consumer products goods area--what he describes as Brands 2.0. First, talk about what SmartPants Vitamins are? We give it to our own kids.

Web 225

Web Social Media SEO Media 225

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Investor and customer attention spans are short, and both will write you off quickly. This statement leaves no confusion in the minds of investors, or customers, of what the company does and how it is different (and better) than the competition. Building a product is not the same as building a business.

.Net 73

.Net Examples Customer Custom 73

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 2, 2014

However, if you’re looking for something new or exciting that’s not the typical 9 to 5 rat race, working in a startup is definitely something you should consider. Working at large, well-known companies definitely look great on your resume, but startups offer something very valuable: a wide set of skills beyond your job description.

Startup 102

Startup Social Media Writing Google 102

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers. Here’s what I learned.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2014

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Angel Social Media Patents 107

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Funding process.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Before this South Korean wonder spread across the globe I had written about a trend in global audiences that exists when the costs of production are nearly zero and the costs of distribution are also nearly free. think Amazon) and therefore hits with high production costs were more suited to the medium. billion views. think Apple.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Have you looked at competition? How well financed is the competition? So to be clear I think in the overwhelming majority of cases these are diligence calls to feel out the opportunity in which price discussions exchange hands more as a by-product of the call than the intention of the call. It’s called competition.

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

That includes a ten-year extension and phase down of direct-pay investment tax credits and production tax credits. Key to these redevelopment efforts will be the establishment of pioneer facilities that demonstrate carbon capture retrofits for large steel, cement, and chemical production facilities.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Funding process.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Product development process. Funding process.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 10, 2012

The team subsequently earned a coveted position in Launchpad LA's current accelerator class after winning the Crowdstart LA competition. If we hadn’t done well on Hacker News we would have needed to have some serious product/market fit discussions.". You definitely have a nice start. Hacker Downside.

News 198

News Sites Startup RSS 198

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. No carrier in their right mind wanted to cede control of the software but Apple was willing to offer its products exclusive through one carrier in exchange for not having any carrier software on the device.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

The sponsoring partner will be given feedback on what some partners don’t like about the team, the market, the product, the competition or the deal terms and that partner may have to answer back on those topics at the next partner meeting or maybe even just later that day (depending on time sensitivity of the deal). ” Guys?

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Startup Invest 150

InfoChachkie

MAY 23, 2011

Excludesivity is most salient when you are crafting an initial relationship within a particular market or product segment. Write this number down. You can constrain the degree to which a relationship is excludesive by including one or more of the following factors in the definition of excludesivity : Time – ideally less than one year.

Technical Review 183

Technical Review Marketing Sales Competition 183

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

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I’m no great scholar on bubbles – I have more interesting things to spend my time worrying about than the exact definition , but having been around a few I have at least given them intellectual consideration. If you are interested the Vimeo is here. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

If you have a team of 10 people then by definition 90% of the time spent on activities is not put in by you and on a team of 100 it’s 99%. But putting no time into anchoring your beliefs because you’re too busy executing sales, marketing, support, product & engineering is an easy recipe for leadership drift. Conviction.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. 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. So, where is this all coming from, Mark? What are you on about?

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a member of NextSpace I have witnessed Amplify in operation and it is a shop that definitely believes in good rewards stemming from hard work. Building a standout destination site for video gamers takes moxie in the highly competitive and lucrative on-line game industry. Jeff looks for these same qualities in the companies he backs.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Frank Addante

JANUARY 23, 2007

Under Process, Over Deliver So, you need to develop a product? ► 2006 (20) ► December (2) Just Say What it Is 12 Proven Guidelines for Rapid Product Development. So, you need to develop a product? There are a lot of people out there who can "write code", but very few good engineers. Build a SWAT team 3.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Develop Development Product 40

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

I’ve definitely thought to myself “take me back” multiple times. This year, it being our third year in a row conducting on site interviews and live streaming, we definitely had to ensure this year’s lineup was up to snuff with the great ongoings of SXSW. Big ups to the Twitch.TV guys for making it happen!

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

As a member of NextSpace I have witnessed Amplify in operation and it is a shop that definitely believes in good rewards stemming from hard work. Building a standout destination site for video gamers takes moxie in the highly competitive and lucrative on-line game industry. Jeff looks for these same qualities in the companies he backs.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. They became both a thought leader in the space as well as a beautifully designed product.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. When should you start a company?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Frank Addante

JULY 30, 2007

Under Process, Over Deliver So, you need to develop a product? ► 2006 (20) ► December (2) Just Say What it Is 12 Proven Guidelines for Rapid Product Development. At my current company, the Rubicon Project , our top priority is product development. How do you ensure you develop the right product?

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Outsource Development Advertising 40