Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media News 104

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” For now, get cooking! Marty Zwilling

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” For now, get cooking! Marty Zwilling.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. From the article: Mithril had its best moment yet last week when a portfolio company, Auris Health, sold to Johnson & Johnson for more than $3 billion — returning at least $500 million to the fund. All appears well.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

For example, many investors I know tell me they look for business plans that allocate the largest portion of a requested investment to marketing, but most often see the top “ use of funds ” to be further product or service development. The smart ones were already working on new features, and able to counter competition quickly.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought. It is tacit knowledge.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For our interview this morning, we caught up with Scot Lawrie , the President and technical Co-founder of Los Angeles-based Coverfly (www.coverfly.com), and John Rhodes , Coverfly's head of Marketing and Business Development, to learn a bit more about the early stage, bootstrapped startup focused on Hollywood script writers. What is Coverfly?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

That keeps people from pushing themselves to develop the kind of new solutions that will permanently change the business for the better, versus short-term band-aids. It’s your job as a leader to be the model high performer, quantify the team view with metrics, and expand awareness to the best outside competition and new tools.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on. This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting. How does control start to change at the B-round of funding?

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

They also have a very smart and efficient approach to creative development that was critical to helping us scale,” she wrote. (If In today’s highly competitive ad environment, both content and data are kings. “They demonstrate best-in-class expertise with Facebook and Google paid ad platforms. The key takeaway?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

These indicators are a mindset and actions that every one of us can develop and demonstrate, without any special birthright, genes, or advanced intelligence. Allocate funds for intrapreneurship and acquisitions. If your business hires only to fill existing openings, it is falling behind, and ripe for competitive crisis.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

Yet, in my experience as a mentor to entrepreneurs, the majority of failures I see are related to starting and growing the business, not developing the solution. New business owners are often quick to spend outside investment funding, and quick to delegate money management to accountants in the business.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people. Vanity metrics will make you feel good about site traffic of SEO over conversion rate or purchases of your product will get more attention than retention. So my corollary has always been “doing the right things is more important than doing things right.”

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I remember just a decade ago in 2003 when we all laughed at how dumb people in the 90′s were talking about the race to “capture as many eyeballs as possible” before your competition. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.”

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

Why raise funds? This seems like an obvious question but you need to be clear why you’re looking to raise in order to come up with an effective game plan and determine your best funding option. And when it comes to timing, wait until you’ve come up with a working prototype and developed your product before you seek external funding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. Do you now have real customers, are just starting development. Remember that investors fund people, more than ideas.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” For now, get cooking! Marty Zwilling.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

These don’t get funded, nor bought by customers. How the solution and business model work to fund the business. Competitor positioning and sustainable competitive advantage. Of course, these should never be in a customer pitch, but investors expect an overall strategy with specific budgets, milestones and metrics.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

That’s because a company’s value is a composite of all of the quantitative and qualitative factors that comprise a company: revenues, expenses, risks, growth prospects, quality of the management team, competitive advantages, strength of the intellectual property, and so forth.

.Net 89

.Net Metrics Competition Template 89

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” For now, get cooking! Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. Do you now have real customers, are just starting development. Remember that investors fund people, more than ideas.

Summary 90

Summary Writing Competition Sample 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Before you bring on partners, develop intellectual property, raise capital, or generate revenues, you need to establish an official business entity.

Startup 61

Startup Social Media News Tool 61

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

The fitness professional network develops business tools that make it easier for fitness professionals to run their businesses and keep their clients engaged between training sessions. Sergey’s diverse experience as an entrepreneur, technology consultant and software executive qualifies him to lead amSTATZ’s technology development.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. Semick: In the beginning, many of our conversations were about whether we wanted funding from angel investors and eventually VCs. I’ve been there.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. So if all I need to do is make some customer calls, interview potential employees or help with his fund-raising decks – hallelujah. Further Reading.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Develop your business plan. Product development process. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” For now, get cooking! Marty Zwilling.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2016

Identify your built-in biases and define compensating development and marketing strategies. It may be small feature extensions, packaging and distribution that can make your solutions attractive and more competitive for new market segments. Use social media and personal discussions to isolate their interests and needs.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Marketing Social Media 55

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Guide to Evaluating Startup Ideas - Tony Wright dot com , May 27, 2010 A great developer I once worked with was kvetching at lunch one day. He’d been working at a well-funded startup for about a year and had come to terms with the fact that the startup was really a pretty dumb idea. They’re deep into Customer Development ,” he said.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

Los Angeles-based Maple Media (maplemedia.io) recently announced a big, $30M funding from Shamrock Capital, to assemble a collection of mobile applications in the utility, productivity, games and entertainment verticals. A lot of what we've been looking at are the metrics. What's the idea behind Maple Media?

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153