Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2022

In my experience as a business advisor, most organizations, large and small, struggle to keep up with the pace of change and competitive forces today. A question I often get is how to transform that overall team into a smooth-running machine that will keep up with the pace of market change, and competition in today’s world.

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Competition Resource Startup Organization 136

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2023

As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition. Every business area has competition and every customer has alternatives, so a smart entrepreneur needs to acknowledge these as a positive in defining a big market, and position the features of a new solution in this context.

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Competition Entrepreneur Patents Customer 111

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2020

They are attracted to people who agree, but may not be able to help. I find that many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their own idea that they can’t stop selling it to potential partners. Evaluate their problem-solving ability in the context of your business.

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Competition High Tech Startup Social Media 174

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

In time, the plan will be to also help individual consumers (clients) build their own profiles that can be applied to any bookings they make with a particular salon, and maybe potentially elsewhere, too, marketplace style.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. She took an operating role helping run Citysearch and Urbanspoon. Leadership is about recognizing your next generation of talent and helping lift them up.

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Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Differentiation is still a key requirement for a successful startup rollout, and but it must be sustainable to keep ahead of new competition. In my view both of these numbers have come down recently. A good example is Dominos Pizza “We’ll deliver in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free!”

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Freelancers and consultants have to demonstrate results, without training and mentoring, so they can help you more quickly and probably at a lower total cost. Career hiring has traditionally focused on potential, but you need results now. This lets you evolve your strategy with the market.

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Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

You help them prioritize their objectives and review the results. If you hire truly talented people you end up definitionally with a lot of competitive peers who will inevitably jockey for resources and control. Extremely talented people are ultra competitive. You set direction. You hire great people. You course correct.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Competitive (Athlete: skier & rowed at Princeton, hates losing at everything she does). Operating experience (Helped run parts of CitySearch & UrbanSpoon, tons of product management experience, Board of Hatch Labs which helped spawn Tinder). Investment experience (5 years a VC at Battery Ventures).

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Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Trust, which today has announced a $9 million financing (Upfront is an investor), is a platform designed to help make the most of marketing investment by providing both analytics and a community of likeminded executives to share what’s working, and what’s not, across platforms.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

But we believe it is equally compelling to help existing businesses better compete with their online brethren. On the one hand you can view their local stores as a competitive disadvantage because eCommerce companies can sell products with no physical retail stores. Take for example retailers.

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Startup Competition Examples Invest 331

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

btw: xitca-web (bench code not including dependencies) does not do 2,3,5 and still remains competitive in micro bench can be used as a reference. tew_cta text="Want to learn how TechEmpower can help make your web application faster?"] Context and use case determines how you optimize your code. Follow us on Twitter for regular updates.

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Framework TechEmpower Java Paramount 410

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

I presented the deck below – which was prepared with the great help of Upfront Venture’s Principal Jordan Hudson – at Dave McClure’s must attend event called PreMoney with much more data and narrative than I had in my blog post. I saved it mostly for LP discussions that I had over the past year.

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Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

It should help some entrepreneurs to better access early-stage capital and should allow some angel investors better access to deal flow. Social proof can be helpful. AngelList Syndicate leads don’t take any fees on the investment, which should help with returns. They will have to help get the next round done.

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Venture Capital Invest Course Technical Review 356

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. So I often work with teams to get them to codify the key things they do well that the competition does not. The first post covered the topic of “P” or pain.

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Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

I have no incentive to do so other than to help those reading the WSJ piece better understand how I believe most insiders think. They perceive it as a place that is well connected and very helpful given the level of services they provide. Especially in an industry where so many investors do so little to actually help.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

” For starters OpenTable had an advantage in that the restaurants back then needed an IT system to help with table management (the restaurant layout, table configurations, etc.) and there was certainly less competition from everybody pitching local merchant solutions. That is what we set out to solve at MyTime.

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Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

Berkonomics

JANUARY 11, 2018

But sometimes there is a barrier, an impossibly high cost not considered, a social backlash never thought of, or competition already covering the idea that is unknown to the originator. Strategic thinking: Board members who ask: “What is the competitive landscape?” Which leads us to the second class of creative board thinking….

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Company Companies Ideas Competition 243

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. Nice sweep!

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CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

It’s human nature to try and be helpful to others. In many instances this help is genuine, well-meaning and productive. Most of us like to help create connections between people for whom an introduction, we believe, would be mutually beneficial. I find over-introducers are often motivated by their own self currency.

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Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2022

One of the things I’ve learned over my years as a business mentor and investor is that life isn’t fair when it comes to succeeding in business.

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Help Mentor Paramount Technical Review 130

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). To be clear – I’m not saying huge successes make a VC less likely to be helpful to you – I’m just saying it’s not a guaranteed predictor.

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Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Competitive sportswoman. Kara on one side of the table showing me market sizes, competitive dynamics, product roadmaps, pricing plans for physical products with COGS and gross margins. She helps write press releases. Remember, it’s about Lines, Not Dots. I first met Kara 5 years ago. Stanford MBA. Showing me designs.

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Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

If I’m covering a company can I get evidence of what the competition is doing so the story is balanced? They basically help companies get sold and help buyers determine which companies to buy. You can imagine the press release, “New innovative model allows us to do audits differently than the competition!”

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Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

It’s building a product that is substantially differentiated, and, as Bill Gross, one of the most prolific tech entrepreneurs of our era says, “ It needs to be 10x better than the competition ” (because if you shoot for that then in competitive markets you might achieve 3x.

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Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Los Angeles-based nonprofit XPRIZE --which runs prize competitions to help advance technology and solutions to world problems--said on Tuesday that celebrity Pharrell Williams has won the top prize in its latest "Visioneering 2019" annual gathering.

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Competition Los Angeles Design Ideas 164

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

A narrow scope doesn’t help your case either. Competition for your new hydrogen fuel auto engine is not limited to other hydrogen auto engine offerings, or even other autos. Prior recognition and visibility in the target market is invaluable from a competitive perspective. Investors check connections.

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Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

It’s why in this article I advise that people “market today not futures” because you don’t want your playbook in the hands of the competition. You help them on stories, act as a source, develop real relationships, read their stories and eventually when you have news they’re more willing to have a conversation.

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Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. In addition to helping manage the board Chris also helps represent the interests of the angel investors / common stock holders. Assigns tasks. Assign away.

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Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

. ” Sean is somebody widely respected in Silicon Valley (although he now lives in SoCal) for having helped many early-stage companies go through major growth periods by quantitatively testing features with audiences to help diagnose what led to growth. Well, you have to do that, too. I endorse the growth hacking culture on teams.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

No amount of tracking when she read your deck is going to truly help you get inside her head so those benefits are oversold. Summary: Send the Deck Pitch decks are sales & marketing decks and like in any sales activity, any great sales person assumes his or her competition will eventually get their deck. A deck is a deck.

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Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

TechEmpower

AUGUST 7, 2023

Increasing competitive advantage? A CTO can help you find the right answers. Instead, they should consider a Fractional CTO who can help close the gap. Bottom line – if you recognize this gap, then reach out to get a slice of a CTO who can help bridge the gap. What does it mean to be a CTO for a startup? It might be.

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CTO Hire Develop Development Fractional VPE 260

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Linktree leads the space, securing a recent $45 million Series B raise to build out e-commerce features, but Beacons boasts competitive creator monetization tools with just a $6 million seed round in May. We decided to go with this model because we really want to have a relationship where we help the creators really make money.

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Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Of course it’s a competitive market so MCNs competing for top talent not only compete on rev share to talent but also to services that they provide talent. Provide tools for creators that help them build viewership (the average Maker video producer is getting several 100% increases in viewership in the first year of working with us).

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Networking Media Content Customer 366

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

And while the grocery delivery market has become increasingly competitive, Hall argued that Good Eggs stands out thanks to the quality and breadth of its products — 70% of its products are locally sourced, and it often delivers them within 48 hours of harvesting. Image Credits: Good Eggs.

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Southern California Orange County San Diego Commerce 318

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

” Bill Gross, who is one of the Godfathers of the Internet, once told me, “ If you don’t design a product that is 10x better than the competition then you’ll never build anything truly big or amazing.” ” That’s what we’ve set out to build at MakeSpace. 10x the experience. I’m long NY.

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Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2023

Being prescriptive can help people get to the right outcome faster. Don’t demotivate people by setting expectations too high, or become non-competitive by accepting complacency. People expect leaders to step up and take charge of driving a decision to closure, especially during crises.

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Help Framework Statistics Startup 94