Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

VC funding. We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. The industry did that in 2007.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

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. You don’t have to be a heavily funded later stage startup to get access to “big data,” customer analytics, and metrics dashboards. Marty Zwilling

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media News 104

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And as a result of this there are now very robust secondary markets where founders and seed-funds alike are selling down their ownership long before an ultimate exit. If we wanted to we could have sold > 2x the fund easily in the secondary markets with significant upside remaining. of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Commit a source of internal or external seed funding. There is no point incubating an innovative new venture if you don’t have the funds to launch and expect quick self-sustaining revenue. Don’t let early success dilute your focus, or demand that the new venture quickly meet your mainline financial and growth metrics.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Customer 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

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. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” Companies and cooks who rest on their laurels don’t last.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

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. You don’t have to be a heavily funded later stage startup to get access to “big data,” customer analytics, and metrics dashboards. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Build your business with minimum outside funding. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Resource Metrics Customer 129

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

For example, if you are working on a great social networking idea to replace Facebook, and need funding, you probably won’t find any interested and focused VCs or angel investors in Arizona, where I live. Exposure instills the fear and urgency you need to deliver the right competitive solution. Exposure is another key ingredient.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Oracle Software Review Ideas 123

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. Create company measures for success that go beyond financial metrics. You manage what you measure so be careful about having too narrowly defined of performance metrics. And importantly we’ve had revenue. Sales Startup Lessons'

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2021

The basic alignment framework of strategy, customers, people, and processes hasn’t changed, but the pace of technological, competitive, and social change has increased at an amazing rate. Re-evaluate processes as they are today and set metrics to better represent the new sales, operational, and service needs.

Social Media 143

Social Media Startup Framework Course 143

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

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. (validate your business model) Continuous improvement. Don’t stand still. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!” Companies and cooks who rest on their laurels don’t last.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

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. It is tacit knowledge. And the only way to do that is to help them calculate the ROI (return on investment) of using your product.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

Then, he'll need to patent it and create a plan to show opportunity, competition, and financial projections. Create a written plan, with target milestones and metrics. I have tried to convince him the general idea alone does not make a business. His challenge is to focus on one market, with a specific design, cost, and price.

Ideas 126

Ideas Writing Examples Outsource 126

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses. Show that you have to ability to move the ball forward.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

Competition is fierce. His fund is > $500 million and I guaranfuckingtee he ain’t calling me if that company is crushing it. You have a big fund. I offered to fund the seed round of a guy I’ve known for years. He opted for two big VC funds up North who split $1.5 ” That’s precisely it.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on. This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting. How does control start to change at the B-round of funding?

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Build your business with minimum outside funding. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Startup 115

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 115

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

In today’s highly competitive ad environment, both content and data are kings. We’ve worked with lots of startups at different points in the funnel, starting from the ground up and working with them through various rounds of funding, all the way through acquisitions, including two by unicorns. The key takeaway?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

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. Distinguish growth opportunities from survival efforts, and make sure they are adequately funded, rewarded, and measured.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. No investor wants to wait that long for his payback, or fund the years of waiting. Competition and sustainable advantage. Asserting you have no competition is not credible.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

I will suggest to you as a business owner and entrepreneur that focus on certain key behaviors will drive innovation without waiting for the next competitive crisis: Be outspoken in communicating proactive required change. Allocate funds for intrapreneurship and acquisitions. Set metrics and rewards specifically for innovation.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. No investor wants to wait that long for his payback, or fund the years of waiting. Competition and sustainable advantage. Asserting you have no competition is not credible.

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

For example, if you are working on a great social networking idea to replace Facebook, and need funding, you probably won’t find any interested and focused VCs or Angel investors in Arizona, where I live. Exposure instills the fear and urgency you need to deliver the right competitive solution. Exposure is another key ingredient.

Startup 97

Startup Technical Review Oracle Software Review 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2017

What metrics should you use to measure success? Define both hard data and soft (anecdotal) metrics on the new solution, as well as on the productivity of you team. That means you must know the current state of competitors against the same metrics, before you can assess progress or success.

Metrics 58

Metrics Resource Startup Training 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Build your business with minimum outside funding. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Startup 113

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 113

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

Vanity metrics will make you feel good about site traffic of SEO over conversion rate or purchases of your product will get more attention than retention. So many CEO’s just carry on being … CEO’s → fund raise, get media attention, attend conferences, hire staff, “set direction”, whatever. You get a lot of traffic — not always results.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Build your business with minimum outside funding. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Resource 64

Resource Metrics Entrepreneur Customer 64

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I remember just a decade ago in 2003 when we all laughed at how dumb people in the 90′s were talking about the race to “capture as many eyeballs as possible” before your competition. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.”

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

New business owners are often quick to spend outside investment funding, and quick to delegate money management to accountants in the business. Manage the business with metrics and goals. Business objectives need to be quantified and measured to assess progress and positioning against competition.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. For example: If you were to invest $41 million into a company (and one could assume that you owned between 33-50%) then the company is worth $82-123 million at funding.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. Remember that investors fund people, more than ideas. Financial projections and funding. Executive team.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process. But having no process does not make you more competitive.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107