Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

During my time in Silicon Valley, I was struck by the fact that most successful entrepreneurs seemed to personally know and regularly hear from all the “movers and shakers” who had the investment capital and leadership they needed. Using metrics to measure results and commitments. Marketing your personal brand and your vision.

Startup 113

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 113

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 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. Some examples of common objections across many companies: 1. It is tacit knowledge. You can have best of both worlds.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

A winning linked focus example is to choose a higher purpose common to all cultures, such as protecting the environment, or helping the underprivileged. At every Ritz-Carlton , for example, employees are authorized to spend up to $2,000 per guest to solve any guest issue and make the stay positively memorable.

Customer 114

Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Current examples include Conscious Capitalism® , popularized by John Mackey, The B Team , founded by Sir Richard Branson, the 1% for the Planet organization, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) now available in 35 States.

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, it’s great to pursue a higher purpose, like feeding the hungry, but don’t forget that running any business is a hungry mouth you have to feed. For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2019

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 96

Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should a VC invest? It’s the only way forward in capitalism, and it’s worth every investment you can make. Mithril is struggling to compete against ferocious competition in the growth-stage equity market.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

For all the things he’s likely known for, he probably hasn’t yet built a strong relationship as an early stage venture investor (he invests often in later-stage deals where he is very respected). “… for any good investment, from Series A on, there is at least one firm to compete with. Competition is fierce.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2019

As an example, most of the people I know who have switched to shopping online don’t even mention the product, but are ecstatic about quickly finding exactly what they need on Amazon , with one-click ordering and overnight delivery, without ever leaving the comfort of their home. Believing customer retention rates remain constant over time.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Metrics 85

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

For example, I’m even getting worried about Apple not showing the kind of innovative leaps that Steve Jobs was famous for. In addition to investing in internal new innovative ideas, every successful company regularly looks outside to buy innovation, and use it to change their business. People work on what they get measured on.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

So how do you use financial projections as valuation metrics when you know the odds of those being accurate predictors of the future are so very unreliable? For example, $500,000 maximum value to each element yields either a maximum pre-money enterprise valuation of $$2 million or $2.5

Startup 120

Startup Examples Metrics Marketing 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2019

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Current examples include Conscious Capitalism® , popularized by John Mackey, The B Team , founded by Sir Richard Branson, the 1% for the Planet organization, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) now available in 35 States.

Startup 93

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2019

For example, Apple has been a master at this, developing products like the iPod and iPhone before customers even knew they needed them, creating Apple stores with a whole new shopping and support experience, and intuitive usage needing no manuals. Highlight your competitive value, not your technology.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Customer Custom Competition 87

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2017

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 62

Social Media Media Metrics SEO 62

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

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. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market. ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2013

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Product Metrics 102

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

If you invested in the first angel round of a startup company it is usually very hard to sell your stock – usually for many years if ever at all. The earlier you invest the higher the chances the company won’t work out and thus you pay a lower price than later-stage investors. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

This financial leader could well have come through the finance org at another startup or at a larger company but they often also can come from strategy consulting (Bain, BCG or McKinsey) or through investment banking (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.). We built a strong brand in the city and acquired a ton of organic traffic.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2019

For example, Howard Schultz was not the founder of Starbucks, but started his career in one of their first 60 shops. Be willing to invest in effort, before expecting results. Every business owner understands the need for making an investment first, before realizing any return or instant gratification.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Startup Satisfaction Customer 75

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2012

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little though given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 91

Social Media Media Metrics SEO 91

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2014

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Current examples include the Conscious Capitalism® movement led by John Mackey, The B Team , led by Sir Richard Branson, the 1% for the Planet organization, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) now available in 20 States.

Startup 104

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Satisfaction 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2018

Often, beneficial changes will have a short-term cost to achieve market growth or competitive advantage. Investors, for example, usually want short-term profit distribution versus re-investing for the future. Define metrics to assess roll-out progress and value. Ask for analysis and feedback based on long-term impact.

Tips 51

Tips Metrics Sample Statistics 51

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2017

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Current examples include Conscious Capitalism® , popularized by John Mackey, The B Team , founded by Sir Richard Branson, the 1% for the Planet organization, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) now available in 33 States.

Tips 55

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Examples 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2013

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Current examples include the Conscious Capitalism® movement led by John Mackey, The B Team , led by Sir Richard Branson, the 1% for the Planet organization, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp) now available in 14 States.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Startup Examples Satisfaction 98

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

We caught up with David Siemer , both an investment banker who runs Siemer & Associates (www.siemer.com) and an early stage investor here with Siemer Ventures (www.siemervc.com), to get his thoughts on the subject. You have a unique position, being both in the investment banking as well as being an early stage investor.

Southern California 124

Southern California SoCal Commerce Invest 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

We have a very sophisticated, analytics and software platform that over half the Fortune 50 are now using, to help guide how they invest in marketing and sales activities and investments. Even if they don't know how to build the model, they are able to leverage that information to make decisions.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. If you go this route, be careful to make the stakes clear: i.e., that they could lose their whole investment. Angels (invest their own money) and super angels. His best advice: take capital where you can get it.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

friend of mine asked me to chat with a startup he’d invested in. My angel investing strategy vs Joshua Schachter - Gabriel Weinberg , May 18, 2010 Joshua Schacter has a great AMA thread on HN about angel investing. it’s about measuring online influence and I’m big on metrics as a key element of business planning; 2.)

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

As an employee of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets from 1999-2003 and of the Indianapolis Pacers from 2003-2008, I learned first-hand from the likes of Rod Thorn, Byron Scott, Jason Kidd and Larry Bird about the importance of leading by example and keys to assembling a championship-caliber team. Any competition in LA? What problem do you solve?

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 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. We both made personal investments in the company. Semick: We’re a very metrics driven company, and we have been from the beginning.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

I like to use the example of a company I backed called MakeSpace because it’s such an easy an obvious market to understand. For example, if you’re going to build a travel planning website (as many, many startup entrepreneurs do) your basic research would be: How much do people spend on travel books / guides today?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Yet, when you are pitching to investors, this has to be balanced by generating enough profit to keep the venture thriving, growing, and providing a healthy return-on-investment (ROI) to investors. Highlights a sustainable competitive advantage. Facebook, for example, invested nearly $350 million before turning cash-flow positive.

Customer 19

Customer Custom Acquisition Entrepreneur 19

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

Mike Norman – WeFunder , bringing crowd investing to the world. Alex Taub – Social Rank , Twitter metrics and engagement tool. Short-lived but an epic way to cap off our interview; Shaq showed his competitive side when he hilarious tried swatting away Chris’s game controller out of his hand.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

For example it includes the following kinds of things that a CTO should be addressing, but that may not be part of the expectation, time allocation, etc. How do we need to structure the systems to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition? for a Lead Developer: How much will it cost to build what we need to build?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

No, that IS NOT a competitive advantage - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 12, 2010 This is part 1 of the series: 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches. Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. Make it unique.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217