TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

It’s also a massive market — and by Danna’s estimates, still with a lot of untapped business — with Boulevard quoting figures that forecast personal care and beauty sales passing $1.4 Focusing on the U.S. trillion, and the spa sector passing $150 billion, both by 2025.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2020

Her argument is that if Uber buys Grubhub (which itself once merged with Seamless) it would mean that Uber Eats / Grubhub would control half the market and that with DoorDash the two together would control 90% of the market. they just put up with the food delivery company fees.

SaaS 242

SaaS Customer Custom Technical Review 242

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.” If in high school you got a 3.6

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2022

Do you love managing your own schedule, overcoming obstacles, starting a new adventure, facing financial risk, and relish the opportunity to change the world? Do you believe that you have an idea for a company that you can implement better than anyone, and maintain a competitive advantage? Assess customer demand.

Startup 115

Startup Resource Training Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2019

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Success is people moving from a reactive to a proactive focus on doing good. Doing good opens the door to a broader customer base.

Organization 128

Organization Startup Pricing Customer 128

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2022

Entrepreneurs and startups are big believers in innovation, but sometimes they forget that innovation must be continual to assure long-term success, rather than the one big-bang idea that initiated their journey. Get the right players on board and enable them to do great things. Hire slowly and fire fast.

Metrics 102

Metrics Startup Organization Demand 102

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. In today’s market, so much focus is placed on transacting business online. Who do you view as your biggest competition? You’re right.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

Thus, in my mentoring of potential technical entrepreneurs who have a real passion for their technology, I often recommend that they find a co-founder who can manage the marketing and execution elements of the new venture. If tracking the market and reality checking are not your thing, you may need a partner who can fill that gap.

Mentor 133

Mentor Startup Customer Custom 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2020

Entrepreneurs and startups are big believers in innovation, but sometimes they forget that innovation must be continual to assure long-term success, rather than the one big-bang idea that initiated their journey. Get the right players on board and enable them to do great things. Hire slowly and fire fast.

Startup 138

Startup Organization Demand Customer 138

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

In short, acknowledge they exist, be transparent about strengths & weaknesses and use your differences to talk about how you want to position yourself in the market. A healthy respect for your competition will serve you well. Yesterday I wrote about how to talk to investors about your competitors. When Enemies are Good.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2021

Most entrepreneurs avoid setting up a board of directors for their new business unless or until they sign up an investor who demands a seat on the board. Board members in constant conflict can kill your company more quickly than any market forces. It’s a complex competitive world out there, and learning is a full-time role.

Startup 145

Startup Entrepreneur Mentor Writing 145

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2022

Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. I don’t believe these two objectives have to be mutually exclusive. Make sure people take time to look for new opportunities.

Ideas 111

Ideas Framework Summary Organization 111

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The framework of his book has profoundly altered how I think about the technology market and affects how I thought about building my businesses and how I think about investing in venture capital. Let’s start with the incumbents position in a market. I’ve characterized it in a chart below.

Startup 376

Startup Framework Marketing Customer 376

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

When a product is truly unique and demanded a retailer willingly promotes and sells it en masse in part because it does get margin on the good but also because it brings customers in the door who spend on other products. If you can’t out-Amazon Amazon, then move on and do something else. Here are some ideas of what I believe matters.

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2018

If there is no competition, there is likely not a market. Every potentially successful product has competition, or an alternative, or customers with no interest in change. If you really believe your idea has no competition, perhaps you haven’t looked, or there is no real business.

Startup 99

Startup Competition Examples Ideas 99

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. Many VCs will have a distribution curve where they’ll do a small number of early-stage deals (say $1.5–3 In the first place they’re looking for “fit” with their firm.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

socalTECH

JANUARY 28, 2019

What were doing in 2019, is scaling the company. The last fundraising we did was use to prove out our technology, and weve now had head-to-head competition with our competitors and others in the space to prove out our technology, our unique capabilities, and our unique approach to solving this problem. Finally, whats next for you?

Startup 187

Startup Technical Review Technology Competition 187

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

And we wanted a head of global marketing. He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. What do we like about OpenTable?

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. Almost nobody believed and now look at it. Let’s just make sure we do it fairly.” Far from it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

So how should you decide what to do? There is a natural tension between wanting to have cash in the bank now versus believing that our businesses will be more valuable in the future and therefore wanting to wait. I’m a very big believer in the “Lean Startup&# principles as espoused by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.

Help 303

Help Startup Competition Framework 303

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Yet I find that few of today’s workers realize that succeeding as a freelancer requires a whole new focus on “marketing” yourself. As you know, things can change quickly, as businesses try to survive and adapt to an evolving market, so it’s better to be prepared than caught off guard. Be an advocate for change in your current role.

Startup 98

Startup Outsource Development Competition Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. Market Size. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2022

If you enjoy your role today, I believe it makes more sense just to keep it that way. You need to realize that the business role, including financials, marketing, personnel, and team building, only grows over time and your creative role is reduced. No one else can do the solution delivery like you can.

Satisfaction 92

Satisfaction Training Customer Custom 92

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Do you love managing your own schedule, overcoming obstacles, starting a new adventure, facing financial risk, and relish the opportunity to change the world? Do you believe that you have an idea for a company that you can implement better than anyone, and maintain a competitive advantage? Assess customer demand.

Startup 94

Startup Resource Training Ideas 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. I have seen bad behavior from later-stage VCs, believe me. Do investors always take up their prorata rights in later rounds? ” Some do, some don’t. Thus begins the dance.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

socalTECH

MAY 8, 2015

In a world awash with on-demand startups, Los Angeles-based Serviz (www.serviz.com) stands out--not because of the market segment it is tackling, but because it was founded by two, very experienced serial entrepreneurs-- Zorik Gordon and Michael Kline. Our vision is really to become the premier provider of on-demand home services.

Services 100

Services ReachLocal Demand Startup 100

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2011

We are an offer-based platform that allows users to negotiate the price they buy and sell tickets for, on the secondary market. The easiest way to think about it is that we're like the Priceline for the secondary ticket market. Plus, even when they do sell a ticket on the secondary market it's usually for a specific price.

Ticketmaster 253

Ticketmaster Pricing Sales Activity 253

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2015

Santa Barbara-based Ice Energy (www.ice-energy.com) has quietly been working away at developing energy storage systems to help smooth out the demand for energy on the nation's power grid. That cools the refrigerant going through the ice block, and provides cooling of the buildling, instead of air conditioning doing that job.

Southern California 100

Southern California Technical Review Demand Outsource Development 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014

There are an awful lot of Internet music services out there nowadays--how does a startup try to compete with all that noise, and do it ad-free? Los Angeles-based Radical.FM (www.radical.fm) thinks it has a new formula for Internet streaming, and can take on Pandora and others in head to head competition. Explain what Radical.FM

Startup 237

Startup Services Advertising Content 237

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2012

The following guest post is from Dan Monarko, Online Marketing Manager at The Resumator , a SaaS applicant tracking system and hiring platform trusted by many of the fastest-growing companies in the world, including: Pinterest, Tumblr, Hootsuite, Klout, Posterous, Bitly, Atari and Mashable. It’s the root of real achievement. Will to Win.

Coach 160

Coach Tips Competition Pricing 160

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 19, 2017

Many entrepreneurs still don’t understand that building a business culture today of doing good, like helping people (society) and planet (sustainability), is also a key to maximizing profit. Success is people moving from a reactive to a proactive focus on doing good. Doing good opens the door to a broader customer base.

Startup 59

Startup Organization Pricing Customer 59

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2012

It's an intensely competitive market in developing games for the iPhone and other mobile platforms, with thousands and thousands of titles competing for attention from users. How do you figure out how to get past all of that noise, and create a popular title? How do you approach this market and get above the noise?

Mobile 216

Mobile Startup Software Review Platform 216

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Success in any business these days requires a constant flow of new and innovative solutions, to keep up with changes in the market, competition, and to attract new customers. I don’t believe these two objectives have to be mutually exclusive. Make sure people take time to look for new opportunities.

Ideas 94

Ideas Framework Summary Organization 94

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

Fallacy: Startup ventures tend to evolve, especially after you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. Perform China Syndrome Market Analysis. In order to reasonably assess the size of your addressable market, you must perform a bottoms-up analysis which is based on a number of elemental assumptions.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272