Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2020

People who haven’t thought about a Plan B often don’t survive the shock. In my years of mentoring and working with startups, I’ve seen and read about some amazing disruptions, as well as recoveries, and I’m sure each of you could add your own. Most entrepreneurs start losing their agility with that first taste of success.

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Startup Entrepreneur Competition Mentor 133

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2022

People who haven’t thought about a Plan B often don’t survive the shock. In my years of mentoring and working with startups, I’ve seen and read about some amazing disruptions, as well as recoveries, and I’m sure each of you could add your own. Most entrepreneurs start losing their agility with that first taste of success.

Startup 98

Startup Entrepreneur Competition Mentor 98

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. In reality, crowdfunding has become a major startup funding vehicle, expected to reach $3.62

Startup 100

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 100

TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

Keeping up with the competition: You’re a market leader in a fast-growing field. Newer, nimbler competitors keep introducing new features before your team can catch up. Outgrowing your stack: Your tech stack was just right for your startup. What’s keeping you up at night? But what does the right team look like?

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review TechEmpower 260

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

His talk was especially intriguing, as he attended UCSB, but dropped out to start a clothing design company. As I note in Spilling The Beans , the basic ideas upon which startups are founded are worth nothing. It is the dogged pursuit of excellence that turns worthless ideas into worthwhile startups. Chaos By Design.

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Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Thus I often recommend that before you kick off your own business, you join another startup or existing business to see how things really work. It starts with documenting and communicating a real purpose and mission in terms everyone can get excited about. Intellectual property is required for a competitive edge.

Entrepreneur 173

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

It’s important to define your growth strategy, document it, communicate it to your team, and align metrics and employee rewards to target goals. Track competition to stay ahead of copycats. Thus you should never be complacent in your business about the growth you have achieved, or your loyal customer base.

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Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Startups need to build a large passionate group of fans before the campaign. Startup revenues come later.

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Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. This all got me thinking about a post on how to best work with lawyers. Many people start companies arse backwards.

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Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2020

Many experts will tell you that you can’t succeed as a part-time entrepreneur, as any good startup will require a 100 percent commitment of your time and energy. But not many of us have enough savings to live for a year or more without a salary, fund the startup, and still feed the family. Get better at saying ‘no’ to your friends.

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Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Metrics 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

They also look for entrepreneurs they know from past experience and warm introductions, or for evidence that you have previously built a successful startup, and sold your last one for maybe $800 million. Every pitch should start with a concise statement of the problem and your innovative solution.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2023

The challenge is to find the time and initiative to keep up with the information wave, and be able to curate the data into knowledge that must be learned, unlearned, or relearned. With this principle, real entrepreneurs start with a conviction that new learning will reveal flaws in existing models, leading to new opportunities.

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Social Media Startup Entrepreneur Education 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2023

Many aspiring entrepreneurs I mentor can talk at length about their innovative ideas and passions, and ask lots of good questions, but never make much progress in building a real business. In my experience, building a business is much more about getting things done than having great ideas. Follow up and finish something every day.

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Writing Ideas Startup Entrepreneur 92

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. By definition?—?I’m dot-com bonanza.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

If I Launched a Startup - The Startup Lawyer , March 17, 2010 Great advice on initial steps of setting up a Startup. Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product.

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Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team. Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team.

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CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

Now let’s talk about the basic components of a business plan. Since this document is outward facing, it is important to keep the terminology and tone consistent with that of your customer set, investors, and business partners. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. Provide details on the business model.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” Let me start with a story. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 We had people hearing through the grapevine that we were about to raise money and new investors started calling us to get in on the deal.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

After reviewing her day-by-day recommendations to improve productivity in a single week, I have extrapolated her guidance to ten productivity tips specifically for entrepreneurs to regain that competitive edge: Focus on managing yourself rather than managing others. The key problem you need to solve is managing your distractions.

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Tips Activity Startup Product 100

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

The story on Uber has been written about ad nauseam, which is why I’ve been reluctant to weigh in. It’s a fantastic startup that has had a amazing impact on society. It’s not just about people like me who can (and do) turn up in nearly any city in the US and immediately book a ride. But scandal?

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Press Journal Startup Competition 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2021

If you sold your last startup for $800 million, you probably already know how to build a business, and even conservative investors won’t worry about the quality of your next business plan. In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself.

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Sample Writing Mentor Content 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. The most common business entity used for startups is a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), which is the cheapest and simplest to manage.

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Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

Starting a new business is not an informal process, and should never be treated like a hobby between friends. Unfortunately, as a startup advisor and angel investor, I’ve seen too many ventures with great potential get destroyed or set back by legal and other shortcuts that should never have been allowed to happen.

Startup 62

Startup Patents Entrepreneur Writing 62

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2022

Outbehave Your Competition to Create Customers for Life ,” offers eight key principles for defining and managing the experience to keep it consistent and profitable: Keep every employee on stage, delivering an experience. They have to out-behave and outperform your competition. Walking the talk is the place to start.

Customer 123

Customer Custom Services Training 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2010

Yet, in today’s world of information overload and global reach, marketing and selling skills are critical to the success of every startup. In my own effort to keep up with the times, I just finished a new book by Landy Chase, titled “ Competitive Selling: Out-Plan, Out-Think, Out-Sell to Win Every Time.” Listen before you talk.

Competition 92

Competition Entrepreneur Startup Customer 92

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. We spoke with Michael Chasin, the company''s co-founder, about the startup. What''s LawKick about? That happens in just a five minute process.

Help 240

Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

There is a universal truth: fewer than one in a thousand start-ups meet or exceed their projected revenues in the periods planned. I thought then that the best way to value a start-up is to give value to those elements of progress by the entrepreneur or team that reduce risk of success.

Startup 120

Startup Examples Metrics Marketing 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2017

A large portion of your competitive advantage and your potential value to investors is the size of your intellectual property portfolio. You need all these before you start looking for funding. The company name becomes your intellectual property at the moment you incorporate your startup as an LLC or a Corporation. Trademarks.

Startup 69

Startup Patents IP Social Media 69

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 8, 2018

We all have hunches, but if we do not diligently document them, we risk losing them. His talk was especially intriguing, as he attended UCSB, but dropped out to start a clothing design company. Seth is a design-oriented entrepreneur, with little desire to document details. Find problems in the area you are passionate about.

Ideas 69

Ideas Startup Technical Review Santa Barbara 69

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2015

If you sold your last startup for $800 million, you probably already know how to build a business, and even conservative investors won’t worry about the quality of your next business plan. In fact, the process of organizing and documenting these elements is the best way to make sure you understand the answers yourself.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 109

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Many aspiring entrepreneurs I mentor can talk at length about their innovative ideas and passions, and ask lots of good questions, but never make much progress in building a real business. In my experience, building a business is much more about getting things done than having great ideas. Follow up and finish something every day.

Ideas 121

Ideas Writing Startup Entrepreneur 121

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 22, 2011

I have other areas of interest & competence such as cloud computing and document management given my background. But one theme in pervasive in all my thinking about investing in Internet-based companies: Deflationary economics. If you’re a startup and you haven’t read my summary of Clay Christensen’s seminal work please do.

Startup 386

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 386

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2022

You will be pivoting your business in your lifetime, whether you are a new startup, or a mature company like Motorola or IBM. It happens on the front end for startups to get traction, and then again later for every company as the economy, competition, and culture changes around them. Carpenter, Gary F. Gebhardt, and John F.

Course 127

Course IBM IBM Social Media 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2021

They are quick to claim the credit for things in their domain that work, but also quick to disclaim responsibility for problems that keep popping up. In today’s world, every organization needs to be in a constant state of change to stay competitive. Communication must be positive and consistent, both up and down the line.

Training 173

Training Examples Startup Social Media 173

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

They also look for entrepreneurs they know from past experience and warm introductions, or for evidence that you have previously built a successful startup, and sold your last one for maybe $800 million. Every pitch should start with a concise statement of the problem and your innovative solution.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57