Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2019

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. Good marketing is not rocket science.

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 97

Berkonomics

JULY 26, 2018

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales 226

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 226

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Forecast sales-volume expectations.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2023

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Here are the major elements of the best product plans: Market requirements section. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment.

Product 112

Product Summary Activity Entrepreneur 112

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Imagine the room in which several graduate business school student groups have gathered, tasked with coming up with an idea for a business plan competition. Where’s your bottleneck in production or sales or development?” “If you could invent a solution, what would it be?”. A thought exercise. Then I’d advise them to visit the CEO.

Startup 156

Startup Ideas Customer Custom 156

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 But for now, it’s a startup its investors believe is on solid footing in its home market. “As Focusing on the U.S.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s recent book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. Good marketing is not rocket science.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint. Your competition is global, so today’s customers are demanding world-class service. Set the expectation for continuous improvement.

Customer 106

Customer Custom Startup Competition 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. Good marketing is not rocket science.

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Every one of you business leaders I know struggles with the competing demands of finding and keeping employees motivated and satisfied, versus building and enforcing a set of repeatable processes that work. People-centric leaders realize that the right motivated and accountable people are their real competitive advantage.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2014

Most technical entrepreneurs cringe when they finally realize that marketing is still king, despite the power of technology, and they are up against competitors who have a hundred times their spending power. The cost of entry to market on these is low, and marketing leverage has very little to do with the size of your budget.

Marketing 101

Marketing Startup Case Study Resource 101

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. Relevancy for an early-stage company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service.

Education 151

Education Customer Custom Sales 151

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. There is no black magic involved in predicting the future, if you use these four simple steps, with my basic rules of thumb to keep you on the right track: Determine your margin on sales. Forecast sales-volume expectations.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 147

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

MAY 31, 2020

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Here are the major elements of the best product plans: Market requirements section. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2020

The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint. Your competition is global, so today’s customers are demanding world-class service. Set the expectation for continuous improvement.

Customer 168

Customer Custom Services Startup 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I found some help from marketing coach David Newman’s new book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. Instead of asking themselves “How and when will this generate sales?”

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103

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. Or that we’ve invested in a company where there is no market demand. Them vs. Us.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 19, 2015

Image via Flickr by socialautomotive Most technical entrepreneurs cringe when they finally realize that marketing is still king, despite the power of technology, and they are up against competitors who have a hundred times their spending power. The first step is to create the perfect online marketing message.

Marketing 56

Marketing Case Study Resource Social Media 56

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. Eugene Cho: I saw this market opportunity when I realized that the larger microscope companies, like Nikon, Olympus, and so on were really only focusing their efforts on high end systems, which cost $200,000 plus. How did you start the company?

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 13, 2016

In one industry I know well, the dominant player with 22% market share was acquired by one of the largest companies in the technology world. Forgotten about selected vertical markets within the niche? Yet, there are constant examples of new entrants into a niche that grow, prosper and sometimes even become dominant. Refuse to engage?

Resource 120

Resource Competition Examples Customer 120

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. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Berkonomics

JULY 9, 2011

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales 222

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 222

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Today’s pace of change in the market and in technology is unprecedented. Customers demand more engagement and flexibility. Leaders need direct and open team communication.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. Eugene Cho: I saw this market opportunity when I realized that the larger microscope companies, like Nikon, Olympus, and so on were really only focusing their efforts on high end systems, which cost $200,000 plus. How did you start the company?

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

Its primary goal is to focus on identifying what is truly driving demand, analytically, so that our customers can optimize their activities. We have a very sophisticated, analytics and software platform that over half the Fortune 50 are now using, to help guide how they invest in marketing and sales activities and investments.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Apparently with a physical storefront where it can convince customers of the wonders of on-demand mobility. As for what will happen at the store, Fifth Wall’s Adam Demuyakor tells me “There will be deployment of scooters, charging of scooters, and some sales of apparel and accessories that are related.

Santa Monica 221

Santa Monica Startup Technical Review Education 221

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 22, 2016

Social networking continues to be a superior force in marketing, especially Facebook. Costs for advertising on Facebook are increasing, due to high demand, and their profits continue to soar. Top 3 Important Facebook Marketing Trends to Watch and Emulate. According to emarketer.com , Facebook earns 65.5 That was $15.5

Marketing 40

Marketing Social Media Social Network Technical Review 40

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

And what upsets people is that there are different quantities of those components available in the economic marketplace; and the law of supply and demand is pretty good about consequently assigning a value to them. How excited am I likely to be when I see a plan for a new generation of buggy whip, or another me-too social network?

Startup 189

Startup Sales Ideas Entrepreneur 189

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2022

Of course, growth is implied in that equation, and is also required for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. You might sell one of two of your widgets for $1 million each, entering profitability immediately, but then die because you can’t grow sales at that price. MySpace wasn’t ready for this, and it soon faded.

Platform 118

Platform Snapchat Startup Course 118

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

Yet all too many succumb to the pressures of survival, driven by demanding investors or a cutthroat competitive environment. Suddenly “closing the sale,” no matter what is required, takes precedence over the grand team vision of changing the world. Misunderstood pivots.

Startup 128

Startup Social Media Organization Entrepreneur 128

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

Every startup demands logical changes along the way. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses. Competitors, like the market, never stand still as you disrupt their space. Equity investors realize that they won’t see any real return until an exit occurs, such as a sale, merger, or IPO.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Berkonomics

MARCH 6, 2014

Imagine the room in which several graduate business school student groups have gathered, tasked with coming up with an idea for a business plan competition. Where’s your bottleneck in production or sales or development?” “If you could invent a solution, what would it be?”. Then I’d advise them to visit the CEO. Dave’s workshops.

Startup 176

Startup Ideas Customer Custom 176

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We spoke with one of those companies-- El Segundo-based ConsumerTrack (www.consumertrack.com)--which is a $30M, bootstrapped an online marketing company which is driving millions of customers to big name, financial customers. Brett Rossman: ConsumerTrack is a performance-based, online marketing company. What is ConsumerTrack all about?

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The right time to jump is a function of favorable career, personal, and market circumstances. That’s not an attractive statistic if you crave control and power. The right time to start dilemma. The control and growth dilemma.

Startup 130

Startup USC Entrepreneur Statistics 130

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

Barry Lieberman: My backgruond is about 35 years in technology, business development, and sales and marketing. I built my own company around marketing services, and have been around business development, marketing, custom service, and sales, and also on the consumer side of technology, a little bit a mix of the two.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach Startup Pasadena Angels 100