Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. You need to listen to your product team, watch your competition and work hard on determining whether you’re truly providing value to your customers. It’s where the truly innovative separate themselves from the pack.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2019

In fact, this article was driven by a startup press release I saw a while back, highlighting a startup’s “geo-fencing technology” as a new basis for discount coupons. Many entrepreneurs fear giving away their very best insights, strategies, or tools via social media – it might diminish the demand and the profit. Marty Zwilling.

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 97

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. The press around the Parachute Home Hotel itself was worth the effort of having created it. Get Physical!

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Check for positive or negative news articles, press releases, relationships, and support of community organizations.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

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. When Fred Wilson funded Twitter I guarantee you it wasn’t obvious that it was a billion dollar idea. Far from it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

You can press a button, and it scans the social media chatter and organizes highlights aroundyou, of relevant conversations around a particular location and particular time. Ali Khoshgozaran: Before we started the company, me and my partner had participated in the USC Viterbi startup competition. How did Tilofy come about?

USC 236

USC Southern California Organization UCLA 236

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.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Of course you need to discount any investor competitive positioning, but local investment group leaders will quickly tell you the strengths and terms of active investors in your area. Check for positive or negative news articles, press releases, relationships, and support of community organizations.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

How could Bird really be worth the reported $2 billion valuation that I read about in this press? While this reaction to such a valuation is understandable, to anybody who has seen the meteoric rise in consumer demand and actual revenue the valuation is much less surprising and may turn out to be quite conservative.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

In fact, this article was driven by a startup press release I saw a while back, highlighting a startup’s “geo-fencing technology” as a new basis for discount coupons. Many entrepreneurs fear giving away their very best insights, strategies, or tools via social media – it might diminish the demand and the profit. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

Jason Nazar

JULY 1, 2016

Add in public company demands, lawsuit targets, & millions of customers to continually satisfy, and you have to have great respect for those doing it well. I’m all for having a healthy respect for competition, but large company employees are often childishly obsessed about what their counterparts are doing.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Company Companies Outsource Development 55

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

In fact, this article was driven by a startup press release I saw recently, highlighting a startup’s “geo-fencing technology” as a new basis for discount coupons. Many entrepreneurs fear giving away their very best insights, strategies, or tools via social media – it might diminish the demand and the profit. They will call you back.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

It’s not clear that there was big customer demand for some of these products yet entrepreneurs were egged on by VCs to “take the money&# and try and push the market. I recently read this anecdote in the press (withholding company name because I actually really love the concept). It seemed to be purely speculative.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

InfoChachkie

JULY 2, 2012

In addition to his reputation as a showoff, Reggie was renowned for deriding his teammates in the press and initiating clubhouse fights. Temperamental Superstars – These individuals episodically perform at a high level, yet they constantly demand a high level of managerial attention to assuage and reassure their oversized egos.

Startup 182

Startup Class RSS Statistics 182

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

In fact, this article was driven by a startup press release I just saw today, highlighting a startup’s “geo-fencing technology” as a new basis for discount coupons. Many entrepreneurs fear giving away their very best insights, strategies, or tools via social media – it might diminish the demand and the profit. They will call you back.

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2013

If he says, “I hate demanding customers,” counter his negative thoughts with a positive image: “At least we have customers – how many of our competitors wish they had the backlog that we do?” You can’t survive with that kind of help in today’s competitive environment. Redirect the conversation. Transfer responsibility. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Startup Press Coach 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

Structured data asset creation works in on demand in real-time across multiple data sets Including web, e-mail, internal databases, documents, and media. Customers Include: Reuters, Associated Press, , Dow Jones, Ask.com , healthcare companies, and major investment banks and hedge funds. Competitors: InformationBuilders , DataWatch.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2012

If he says, “I hate demanding customers,” counter his negative thoughts with a positive image: “At least we have customers – how many of our competitors wish they had the backlog that we do?” You can’t survive with that kind of help in today’s competitive environment. Redirect the conversation. Transfer responsibility.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Press Coach 104

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

In many cases, you can stand firm on price by demonstrating that your overall cost is lower than the competition. For instance, offer phone support to a demanding customer, rather than lower-touch and less-timely email or chat. This point is nicely illustrated by Albert Oaten, VP Market Development at SecureDocs.

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

All the confusion you hear from friends or read in the press is related to this nuance that early investors demand prorata rights and sometimes fight like hell to maintain them (Facebook problem) and sometimes prefer not to take them (overvalued company that they perceive isn’t doing as well as new investors coming in think).

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

People who believe the former believe that you should see the market demand before too many people know you’re “in market.” As a VC I of course want you to come see only me because that means I have no competition and have time to properly get to know you. I think there’s some truth in this.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

InfoChachkie

MAY 19, 2011

Relinquish Press Release Capabilities. Although necessary, “stepping stone” approach of initially utilizing smaller VARs to enter new geographic markets can become problematic as your business grows, because large VARs often demand uncontested, broad, multi-country coverage. Allow the Other Side to Draft the Agreement.

Outsource Development 193

Outsource Development IP Technical Review Entrepreneur 193

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. When you account for competition for talent, the difficulty of retention, the cost of living and the difficulty of rising above the noise – there are many advantages of staying put.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Frank Addante

JUNE 19, 2006

The world’s most demanding enterprises, such as Ticketmaster, Fox Sports/MSN, Intuit and Williams-Sonoma turn to StrongMail for their critical customer communications. because they are so focused on being better than their competition. Why do I need yours? Why do I need it now? > Most companies can answer #2 (Why do I need yours?)

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Web 2.0 Outsource Development 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

Not what you read in the press. Press the flesh. GroupOn, Living Social, AdMeld, Gilt Group, Demand Media, ShoeDazzle, Tumblr, FourSquare, etc. We tend to be more excited about things that we read in the press and/or articles being forwarded to us by our peers. You need to create a sense of competition.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Whatever the biggest, most challenging, most demanding, most important job we had at L90, I always turned to Tim. He went from recruiter to IT manager to technical sales… Then, he did such a great job in sales that we had to build up more infrastructure for our ad-serving and email delivery platform to support the increased demand.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Creating Incremental Strategic Value - Ask the Angels , June 17, 2010 We can easily overlook the level of demand pull when we are assessing strategic value. Just because a product has a patent, deep complexity and an obvious competitive advantage does not mean that it can fly by itself into the market. Which button do you press?

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

Jody soon met with Dave McClure who ended up immediately writing a check as a placeholder investment and offering help to get EcoMom press coverage. It could be a bubble or better balance of supply and demand. AngelList has introduced new competition and competition in any industry is always good. I argue the opposite.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

DataSift = platform for companies to develop cost-effective applications using this Twitter data to gain advantage relative to their competition. Twitter is not replacement for Facebook (or vice versa) and while it is competitive it is mostly competing for: user time, brand dollars and 3rd-party development resources.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307

Berkonomics

AUGUST 30, 2018

It did not hurt that Apple always seemed to trump the competition in design of the product and the product’s user interface too. The moment of truth: Facing the “no decision” competition. My “way too early” story. A week later, I again traveled across the country to the property to meet with the same team and the general manager.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Pricing Design Product 120

Berkonomics

AUGUST 18, 2011

After all that great press, I realized that the industry just was not ready for such a leap, giving up authority to a computer, even if at least one major airline had successfully done so. We could not argue with the money, even if we were right and all other managers desperately wanted to keep the wonder machine. So we removed the system.

Artificial Inteligence 214

Artificial Inteligence Pricing Design Product 214