Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

Solution development and delivery. Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

Within the startup realm, there is a big difference between having an innovative product versus an innovative business. Others take an existing product, and give it new life with a creative business model. The most competitive startups do both, all the time and every time. Creativity is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Competition 135

Competition Netflix Ideas Metrics 135

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. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)?

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media News 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

With business teams now getting back together in the workplace after primarily working remotely during the pandemic , it’s an ideal time to implement change and make sure your team is feeling a renewed sense of satisfaction, high engagement, and maximum productivity. Develop metrics to monitor work intensity.

Satisfaction 108

Satisfaction Metrics Competition Examples 108

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

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Trying to do everything is a sure way to maximize stress, lower job satisfaction, and minimize productivity. If you are a genius at invention, for example, then that is the role you should seek to keep you motivated and productive. In my experience, competition is the biggest challenge here.

Activity 108

Activity Satisfaction Metrics Startup 108

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

As an investor in startups, I most often see entrepreneurs who are technologists, or at least have a real passion for a specific product. They rarely highlight their marketing and relationship skills , even though, in my experience, these are more often the key to success in business than product skills.

Startup 113

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 113

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. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Over 600,000 new businesses were created in the last year, or over one per minute of every day.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2021

Yet even I have been known to recommend that approach, in cases where you have a highly innovative product, speed is of the essence, and no clear existing market is available. There is no substitute for talking to customers, analyzing your competition, and honing your solution to meet a target market segment.

Marketing 138

Marketing Demand IBM IBM 138

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

Solution development and delivery. Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

socalTECH

DECEMBER 20, 2017

At productboard we aim to bake best practices of product management straight into the interface, so you can improve the way you manage your products right out of the box. In the meantime, we’ll continue publishing thoughts and ideas we’ve learned from great product managers here. Why has product management be so slow to adapt?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Metrics Ideas Product 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2013

Within the startup realm, there is a big difference between having an innovative product versus an innovative business. Others take an existing product, and give it new life with a creative business model. The most competitive startups do both, all the time and every time. Creativity is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Product 92

Product Competition Netflix Ideas 92

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Remember, investors are buying into the business, not the product. Investors are business experts, while the entrepreneur is more likely the product expert. Competitor positioning and sustainable competitive advantage. In my experience, the team's credentials are more important than the product.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value.

Tool 121

Tool Statistics Entrepreneur Metrics 121

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2020

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.

Ideas 124

Ideas Venture Capital Software Review Technical Review 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. 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. not a solution looking for a problem) Be sure you have a great team. Don’t stand still.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

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

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

For example , when Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia , a successful outdoor products company, his real goal was building safe products to help the environment. Innovative technologies require iterative development, while other ideas are primarily marketing and financial. Document and communicate a solid business plan.

Startup 94

Startup Ideas Metrics Entrepreneur 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2018

New product process. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Business risks are not just development risks. Product life cycles keep getting shorter and shorter, which mandates accelerated innovation cycles.

Entrepreneur 64

Entrepreneur Coach Metrics Competition 64

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

As a business consultant, I see many different employee cultures, from exciting and motivational, to dysfunctional and non-productive. As a result of his work with clients around the world, Matt is recognized as an expert in culture change and development. They keep waiting for top management to somehow fix the situation.

Organization 116

Organization Activity Metrics Training 116

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. Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. But they want to establish a baseline in the customer’s mind of the value they will get by using your product.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. This contextual focus is critical to innovation and survival – the right product at the right time. Increase change agility.

Startup 116

Startup Training Statistics Summary 116

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We back very early stage companies and work alongside executive teams as their build their teams, launch their products, announce their companies and raise their first downstream capital rounds. We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

Within the startup realm, there is a big difference between having an innovative product versus an innovative business. Others take an existing product, and give it new life with a creative business model. The most competitive startups do both, all the time and every time. Creativity is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Company 90

Company Companies Competition Netflix 90

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. 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. not a solution looking for a problem) Be sure you have a great team. Don’t stand still.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2023

Measure progress through metrics on sales, revenue, and penetration. Look for more ways to demonstrate a competitive advantage, and partner with complementary organizations if you need strength in manufacturing, distribution, or customer support. Develop a mindset of improvement versus defense.

Customer 91

Customer Custom Marketing Startup 91

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2016

New product process. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Business risks are not just development risks. Product life cycles keep getting shorter and shorter, which mandates accelerated innovation cycles.

Coach 64

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 64

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. It won’t be a fit if there’s no real unique value prop for the product. The key takeaway?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

For example, most e-commerce platforms today offer millions of products, with a changing mix daily and a changing market, such that it’s virtually impossible to manually predict a strategy for mapping customer demographics to products displayed online. No human or paper tracking systems are a competitive alternative.

Artificial Inteligence 84

Artificial Inteligence Metrics Commerce Software 84

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

New product process. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Business risks are not just development risks. Failure is the best teacher I know. Innovation is not a random walk into the unknown. Ownership.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

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

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2019

You are so engaged in building and selling your product or service, that you “don’t have time” to focus on strategy and the next round of changes for the business to survive and grow. Highlight your competitive value, not your technology. before developing new products or carving out a new and untested space for your business.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Customer Custom Competition 87

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

Apple needs a product that jumps to the next curve. These indicators are a mindset and actions that every one of us can develop and demonstrate, without any special birthright, genes, or advanced intelligence. He didn’t wait for competitors to prove current products obsolete. Set metrics and rewards specifically for innovation.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2018

Most startups are created by one or two entrepreneurial founders, with a vision and focus on developing an innovative solution, rather than on developing people. Once this product-first, customer-second, and employee-last culture is set, it is extremely hard to change. Establish metrics on the culture, as well as the product.

Metrics 57

Metrics Startup Netflix Customer 57

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. When should you start a company?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

Solution development and delivery. Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99