Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Most entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking negatively about competitors, and can’t resist making derogatory statements about them to their own team, investors and even to customers. As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition.

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Competition Entrepreneur Patents Custom 107

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

Yet many of you are telling me that we are all missing big opportunities by not recognizing the unique challenges faced by startups in developing countries , where infrastructure is lacking, and talent is not so concentrated. Competition is not always a bad thing, and the real purpose is often to make the world a better place.

Capital 138

Capital Marketing Ideas Venture Capital 138

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

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 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” 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. Call this “price signaling.”

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Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

Competition. And the reality is that if you have no competition it will likely be perceived as a negative, not positive. And the reality is that if you have no competition it will likely be perceived as a negative, not positive. Here’s some thoughts on the competition slide and also how to talk about it: Competition.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

But LA-based performance marketing agency MuteSix didn’t wait that long to build its business around scaling DTC brands. They also have a very smart and efficient approach to creative development that was critical to helping us scale,” she wrote. (If What can you tell us about MuteSix as an agency? The key takeaway?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Mostly it’s because your marketing campaigns suck. Or more directly – they are likely narcissistic resuscitations of your newest features or bragging points that nobody but your marketing team and your mom care about. But mostly they’re thinking, “Will my audience even care about this topic?”

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

SoCal CTO

APRIL 25, 2017

I've removed the two words that described the market - otherwise this is verbatim. I'm working on a start up idea in the XXX market with my partner and we are currently looking for full stack developer to join us as a technical co-founder. I've written before about having an Initial Conversation with a Potential CTO.

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Email Startup Develop Development 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2022

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. According to Tim Cook at Apple, there are over 34 million registered developers in 2022.

Develop 138

Develop Development Platform Mobile 138

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2021

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content.

Marketing 139

Marketing Startup SEM Blogging 139

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. Developing O&O (owned & operated) businesses (outside of YouTube).

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Custom 366

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Thus began my marketing campaign. Competitive (Athlete: skier & rowed at Princeton, hates losing at everything she does). Having been at Battery Ventures for 5 years earlier in her career has given her the investor vantage point and years of seeing booming markets and contracting ones. And the contractions always come back.

Venture Capital 408

Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

I recommend you read Fred Wilson’s recent blog post about the need for a well articulated business strategy before pushing a particular business model. Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market.

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Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2020

Traditional marketing may be adequate for linear growth, but it likely won’t catapult you to Amazon’s unicorn status , or make waves in the business world. For example, I usually hear about an aggressive marketing budget, with a plan to penetrate a few big retail chains, and some videos to catch your attention on YouTube.

Marketing 170

Marketing Startup Examples Custom 170

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. What excites me about this space is that there’s so much low-hanging fruit.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Tech.Co

MAY 9, 2024

We also offer some advice for writing your application, to make sure your proposal is as competitive as possible. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) 🔎 Want to browse the web privately? Learn more about the SBIR grant, and how to apply here.

Outsource Development 207

Outsource Development Technical Review Research Writing 207

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

And we wanted a head of global marketing. When Ethan was considering leaving Google we talked about it. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. Because I knew that Ethan was on to a powerful idea and one in which he had developed huge competence and domain knowledge in. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

We have made 5 online video investments in total – some we will talk about later this year. The point isn’t to “build a business on YouTube” but rather to use YouTube as a marketing platform to build a video business that works across many platforms. I’ve written about that, too.

SEM 150

SEM Content Platform Acquisition 150

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

Competition 122

Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. According to Tim Cook at Apple, there were over 20 million registered developers in 2018.

Mobile 126

Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 26, 2017

Since that time the speed at which companies have developed both technologically and from a business perspective has been nearly as staggering as the 760 mph system itself. Since its inception, HTT recognized that creating a market around a mode of transportation that had not yet been created would take a movement.

SpaceX 100

SpaceX Design Technology Competition 100

Berkonomics

AUGUST 16, 2018

Markets and competitors change. Over the years, I have often heard the complaint from CEO friends that they have become so swamped by the demands of their growing businesses that they feel themselves further and further from the center of their industry, no longer at the forefront of information and competitive development.

Marketing 120

Marketing Demand Media Entrepreneur 120

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

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

Serial entrepreneur, venture investor and startup accelerator pioneer Brad Feld has notoriously mocked traditional marketing throughout his career. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. If you have $hitty products, the marketing is impossible. Trada – Guerilla Marketing In Action.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Last week, the University of Southern California 's Viterbi School of Engineering announced that it had established a new, business plan competition, the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition ([link] specifically aimed at students in the engineering school. Why a business plan competition, and why in engineering school?

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content.

Marketing 107

Marketing Invest SEM Startup 107

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. I’ve raised in boom markets and when everybody thought the Internet was a fraud. If you haven’t read my post about that, you should. I get approached about clean tech or biotech periodically – I don’t focus on these.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Berkonomics

APRIL 9, 2020

If it takes eighteen months to get a new product out the door and into the market, and if a product’s gross margin is ten dollars but the corporate overhead is a million a month, it will take the sale of 67,000 more units to break even than if it were to take only six months to market. It’s all about fixed overhead and efficiency.

Competition 156

Competition Sales Marketing Product 156

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. Most often at the earliest point in the life of a startup, the dominant need is certainly to produce product to get something in the market, get funding, etc. Gap closed, right? Probably not.

Fractional CTO 225

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2019

This approach, popularly known as “ glocalization ,” means you have to design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market in which you operate. But it does mean that you think about the global implications at every step of the process: Pick your company and product names carefully.

Marketing 94

Marketing Patents Offshore Startup 94

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2010

and listening for about 90 seconds. for two minutes talking about why I think people wrongly obsess about their number of Twitter followers and had a nice little debate about it with Guy. Think about the creative tension. (If you’re interested you can watch my comments by fast forwarding to minute 31.25

Acquisition 287

Acquisition Develop Development Conference 287

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2016

Most entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking negatively about competitors, and can’t resist making derogatory statements to their own team, to investors, and even to customers. As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition.

Competition 62

Competition Entrepreneur Patents Custom 62

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2023

In reality, resource constraints should be seen by startups a competitive advantage, by forcing them to develop new markets, and to think differently and act differently than existing players. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. Rethink or reframe the challenge. Marty Zwilling

Resource 112

Resource Ideas Competition Entrepreneur 112

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I've previously addressed the role of a CTO in early-stages in my post Startup CTO or Developer. It specifically answers the first questions about role and how it changes as the company matures. for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build? How will we find and interview developers?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

Some will be quick to chalk about “personal branding” as gimmicky or manipulative. It is simply the most important way to proactively control your career development and how the market perceives you. That was fine with me – the market is the market. That was the market. It is neither.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385