Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. We focused together on improving our sales methodology, our training and our comp plans.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

Fund raising. But it’s critical for your business, for you as a leader and people who excel at fund raising have an extreme advantage over those who do not. As a VC I also have to fund raise every three years and these posts 100% apply to VCs raising money, too. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising.

Funding 236

Funding Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 236

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” Widen your search to include companies with products peripheral to yours, where extension of their product would seem logical, especially if you plan to be successful early in making sales into their market.

Competition 189

Competition Slides Sales Ideas 189

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

Fund raising is hard for everybody. Fund raising is like a funnel where you need a bunch of potential leads in the top end and only a few will reach the bottom. Start Early The single biggest mistake founders make is waiting until they have too little cash in the bank before fund raising. It sounds like a lot of work, I know!

Funding 238

Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Competitiveness - One attribute that I believe most VCs look for in entrepreneurs is competitiveness. If you stumble on to a really good idea believe me it will get competitive really quickly. I know that people who aren’t competitive always find competitive people slightly distasteful. I had to say it.

Competition 296

Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Last week, the University of Southern California 's Viterbi School of Engineering announced that it had established a new, business plan competition, the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition ([link] specifically aimed at students in the engineering school. Why a business plan competition, and why in engineering school?

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. This is the fund raising perspective from both sides of the table. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. Three rules in sales: Why buy anything? Fund raising is bloody hard. Executive Summary. Create scarcity. Why buy me?

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

Today, a startup that is doing this in the specific area of distressed property is announcing a round of growth funding to ramp up its team and expand its business. The funding is being led by QED Investors; Founders Fund, Susa Ventures, Navitas Capital, and Prudence Holdings also participated.

Sales 282

Sales Demand San Diego Funding 282

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. Assume competition and assume within the buying organization you have enemies. Why Buy Me?

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

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 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2023

In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. It’s up to you to clear the way.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Sales/Marketing.

Sales 102

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

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

JULY 30, 2010

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.” This concept applies equally well to convincing investors to fund you, employees to join you, or customers to buy from you. Establish the competitive playing field early.

Competition 92

Competition Entrepreneur Startup Customer 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision.

Education 151

Education Customer Custom Sales 151

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 19, 2011

CapLinked , the online platform for private investment funded by members of the “ PayPal Mafia “—announced that it is launching a worldwide pitch competition for entrepreneurs to present their business ideas to a panel of all-star judges from Idealab, Rincon, Rapidfire, and Actarus. says CapLinked CEO Eric M.

Competition 70

Competition Idealab Slides Startup 70

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Rolf Winkler wrote a piece in the WSJ about A16Z’s returns in which he says they “lag behind Sequoia, Benchmark and Founders Fund.” Scott Kupor of A16Z responded with a comprehensive overview of valuation methodology in a post that while accurate feels more targeted at sophisticated Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in funds.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Invest Funding Competition 264

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Forecast sales-volume expectations. This should always be a “bottoms-up” commitment from your sales team, not your own optimistic guess.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale. So by offering convertible debt you can avoid a price discussion in the same way that angel investors sometimes do in order to win competitive early-stage deals.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

It takes a long immersion in the marketplace for someone to be a true insider, understand the subtleties of the competitive landscape, recognize the people who are true assets (independent of titles), and look through the propaganda of technical collateral and PR campaigns. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2023

In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. That context needs to be set before your sales pitch or background story makes any sense. You can’t afford that competitive disadvantage. Before you start, make sure you understand your own objective. Martin Zwilling.

Tips 123

Tips Writing Startup Summary 123

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Idea people often don’t get funded as entrepreneurs, because a new business is all about results, not just ideas. In my experience, competition is the biggest challenge here. This work requires market feedback, managing trials, and working with the sales team as well as developers. Enablement: provide support and human capital.

Activity 108

Activity Satisfaction Metrics Startup 108

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

Crowdfunder , the Los Angeles startup led by CHance Barnett, has launched another crowdfunding event aimed at the local industry, saying Wednesday that it has launched CROWDIMPACT LA , a pitching competition which will award $20,000 in a top prize to a winning social enterprise company.

Startup 215

Startup Competition Demand Los Angeles 215

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2023

There are no guarantees, but various studies have found that entrepreneurs who create a good plan generally double their chances of securing funding and building a successful business. Your idea may be technically right, but without a business plan, it could be dead right, which is not the result anyone is looking for.

Startup 102

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 102

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

MARCH 3, 2023

It allows all members of your team, including marketing, support, and sales, to size and build the business plan processes they need to find customers, deliver, and maintain grow the business. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. Executives, marketing & sales, financial projections, and funding.

Product 112

Product Summary Activity Entrepreneur 112

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2014

In fact, the average spent by Inc 500 companies for sales and marketing expense continues to hover around 10% of overall revenues. Concentrate elsewhere on the near-term marketing activities (which are also expensive) for this round of funding. Find partners and channels which are complementary, and not directly competitive.

Marketing 102

Marketing Funding Social Media SEM 102

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

The funding, a Series C, will be used to continue expanding Boulevard’s product and engineering teams and to build out more tools targeting an ever-wider set of users in the bigger wellness and beauty sector (those product additions are typically big — it most recently added a whole new payments feature). Focusing on the U.S.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. It’s up to you to clear the way.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Startup Sales Customer 134

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. Have sales bonus plans based on more than just sales targets. These can’t be the main event – sales are sales after all – but can help shape good behavior. Sales Startup Lessons'

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

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. Call out your top competitors, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantage, including patents, trade secrets. and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 20, 2018

These are your candidates, because they are companies already absorbing much or all the marketing expense necessary to make sales of your invention. They will be more willing to pay a royalty fee if your product gets them to market earlier or is protected by patent to create a barrier to their competition. So, there you have it.

IP 136

IP Product Equity Tool 136

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And just for measure, VC’s fund less than 2% of all deals they do investigate. For you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266