Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

The passion has to be in the business context – meaning results oriented, customer oriented, and sensitive to competition. In many cases, experts with academic or research credentials are not good partners for a business venture. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. Passion for what they do.

Software Review 103

Software Review Equity CTO Hire Outsource Development 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Peer-to-peer networking with other startups and founders in the same stage. Health, life, and other insurance at group rates.

Organization 92

Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2014

Earlier this year, researchers at USC proved the veracity of this old adage. According to lead researcher Professor Sarah Townsend, " When youre putting together an important presentation or working on a high-stakes project. The same foundational elements that lead to a successful marriage are precursors to startup success.

Startup 257

Startup Santa Barbara Competition Journal 257

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Peer-to-peer networking with other startups and founders in the same stage. Health, life, and other insurance at group rates.

Resource 159

Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

By combining our equity investment with a tranche of venture debt, the company has avoided a larger equity round, which would have significantly diluted the Founders’ ownership share. Dollar Blend – Many venture debt lenders require that their funds be accompanied by an equity investment, generally from legitimate venture capitalists.

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2020

You need to be stimulated by easy access to many sources of learning and leadership, including universities, research, and other businesses. Apple has since capitalized on the top technical talent in Silicon Valley to stay ahead of the competition. Financial capital – revenue, equity, debt, funding.

Resource 131

Resource Startup Capital Mentor 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Perhaps because of their focus on building a large portfolio, or their competitiveness, these angels sometimes accept valuations that cause later friction while moving to VCs, or even other angel groups. It’s the right way to get money without giving up too much equity or control of your business. Marty Zwilling.

Funding 125

Funding Venture Capital Startup Class 125

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). You have to get past how great the product is to address clearly what your business rationale is, why it is different from the competition''s, and why it will succeed. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Entrepreneur Equity Ideas 75

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

The research from Wasserman and others outlines the following top ten dilemmas that every founder needs to deal with sooner or later in their career as an entrepreneur: The make money or serve humanity dilemma. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Recognize that the best people don’t work for free.

Startup 97

Startup USC Entrepreneur Statistics 97

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

Crowdfunding, on the other hand, opens the investment door online to almost anyone who is willing to bet on a new product or service with an investment, typically for a chance to be first in line for the offering, and willing to forgo any equity or management position in the company. Crowdfunding is not the best platform here.

Funding 119

Funding Startup Platform Examples 119

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 1, 2012

If you are simply interested in making money in the app space …then your first step is to start researching what kind of application you are interested in making. Niche apps can usually demand a higher price point because there isn’t much competition out there. Do Your Research. Having competition isn’t a bad thing.

Marketing 97

Marketing Startup Software Review Competition 97

Xconomy

JUNE 14, 2019

The US Federal Trade Commission wants yet more information about the buyout, and overseas, the UK Competition and Markets Authority opened a separate investigation. This past week, antitrust regulators once again delayed Roche’s planned $4.8 billion buyout of gene therapy developer Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ONCE ).

News 97

News Competition Acquisition Report 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Access to intellectual property and current research. Other project and research reports in their library are a rich source of new ideas, if you are still looking for a place to start. Other project and research reports in their library are a rich source of new ideas, if you are still looking for a place to start.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Capital Class Startup 55

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2014

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over 60 times as many companies, according the Center for Venture Research. It’s the right way to get money without giving up too much equity or control of your business.

Angel 104

Angel Funding Startup Venture Capital 104

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Peer-to-peer networking with other startups and founders in the same stage. Health, life, and other insurance at group rates.

Incubator 87

Incubator Startup Resource Seed Funding 87

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Your entry is clearly in a larger market with the potential for an equity event far beyond any of the other competitors and then a much smaller market concept wins. Your concept clearly is more developed than any of the competition. The color scheme of your pitch deck obviously will not insure you win a pitch competition.

Startup 63

Startup Competition Social Media Education 63

Xconomy

MAY 17, 2019

A lawsuit is now claiming that many top generic drug makers routinely conspired to avoid competition. During his tenure as FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb often spoke about generics as a market force that could help tame climbing drug prices. But such tools only work when companies play fair.

Pricing 79

Pricing Competition Tool Marketing 79

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

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. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. It looked like every competitive analysis I had done for 20 years, (ok maybe better.)

Startup 150

Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels. 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.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Peer-to-peer networking with other startups and founders in the same stage. Health, life, and other insurance at group rates.

Incubator 106

Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. Expect to be diluted by 20-25% with each equity round. They’re typically issued at a 10-20% discount to equity depending on the timeframe; higher range is for longer timeframes. His best advice: take capital where you can get it.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

The first thing to remember is that banks only do loans – they don’t do equity investments like angels and venture capitalists (and vice versa). You have to get past how great the product is to address clearly what your business rationale is, why it is different from the competition's, and why it will succeed. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 80

Technical Advisors Startup Equity Ideas 80

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

The research from Wasserman and others outlines the following top ten dilemmas that every Founder needs to deal with sooner or later in their career as an entrepreneur: The make money or serve humanity dilemma. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Recognize that the best people don’t work for free.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Statistics Equity Satisfaction 107

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.

Tips 100

Tips Activity Startup Product 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. It always amazes me how an entrepreneur can define his market opportunity so broadly, and then assess his competition so narrowly in the next breath. Competition and sustainable advantage. Include a current valuation estimate.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

The research from Wasserman and others outlines the following top ten dilemmas that every founder needs to deal with sooner or later in their career as an entrepreneur: The make money or serve humanity dilemma. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Recognize that the best people don’t work for free.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur USC Statistics Equity 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2012

Market research is more meaningful if there is already a market and real customers. Even banks, as well as equity investors, look more favorably on a proven business model than a new and unproven one. Of course, you still have to do your homework and market research. Learn from competitors and early adopters.

Patents 84

Patents Startup Statistics Course 84

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors. Peer-to-peer networking with other startups and founders in the same stage. Health, life, and other insurance at group rates.

Incubator 98

Incubator Startup Help Resource 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

The research from Wasserman and others outlines the following top ten dilemmas that every Founder needs to deal with sooner or later in their career as an entrepreneur: The make money or serve humanity dilemma. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Recognize that the best people don’t work for free.

Startup 98

Startup Entrepreneur Statistics Equity 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. It always amazes me how an entrepreneur can define his market opportunity so broadly, and then assess his competition so narrowly in the next breath. Competition and sustainable advantage. Include a current valuation estimate.

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2012

A 2011 McKinsey Global report says Big Data is the next frontier for innovation,competition and productivity, this could be reason the seasoned investors and executives believe these are big data days. 35+ Equity Partners on board. Big Data Shift. They say they have run Hadoop jobs and built VM farms.

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Entrepreneur Oracle Software Review 74

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2011

Market research is more meaningful if there is already a market and real customers. Even banks, as well as equity investors, look more favorably on a proven business model than a new and unproven one. Of course, you still have to do your homework and market research. Learn from competitors and early adopters.

Startup 91

Startup Patents Statistics Course 91

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

Whether that''s for competitive analysis or market analysis, our product is basically able to monitor--on a very large scale--things that are important to your particular company. He ran DARPA research out of UC Irvine for almost a decade, until stepping out and focusing purely on entrepreneurial efforts. out of UC Irvine.

Orange County 245

Orange County Startup News IBM 245

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2010

Michael is a very accomplished corporate executive in his own right having run Sega Gameworks and helped IPO EuroDisney as well as having been on the founding team of DreamWorks SKG (where he helped them raise their first $900 million in equity). Shame they didn’t like his suggested name for the company: DreamWorks SKG-MM.

Venture Capital 242

Venture Capital Mission Ventures Capital Help 242

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

The corporate entity lends itself best to the concept of “sharing” equity required by investors, and unincorporated entities don’t get funding. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104