Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

You need to first create a compelling product. Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. You need product / market fit. Product / market fit is everything. ” True.

Startup 401

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 401

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2019

It’s no secret that the rate of failure of new business startups may be a high as ninety percent , so we all need all the help we can get, validating the opportunity, clearly positioning against competitors, projecting financials, and planning all the necessary marketing and operating activities. Prepare a business plan 20-page document.

Ideas 126

Ideas Slides Sample Examples 126

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

How to Deal with Electronic Distractions Of course the biggest competition you have with the attention of your board members is their mobile phones. the modern executive can’t help himself or herself. Be super polite and not aggressive and simply make the point that you really want the most productive time from your board members.

Slides 275

Slides Email News Startup 275

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Xconomy

AUGUST 16, 2016

A recent Wall Street Journal article that raised the possibility of Biogen as the target of another huge pharma buyout cited the lack of productivity as a major driver of M&A in the pharmaceutical industry. The authors made the point that, given the size of companies today, a single garden-variety blockbuster hardly moves the needle.

Product 40

Product Journal Venture Capital Demand 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

I favor the more cautious approach, and would offer the following insights to help you make the right decisions: Join a startup or take a role in an existing business. Even if you are an introvert, you will find peers and experts in these groups to help, and your confidence will grow. You can’t keep all these in your head.

Startup 114

Startup Tips Coach Satisfaction 114

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

In most cases, I provide some combination of the following advice: Brevity - Maximum length: two pages. Hopefully this straightforward format will help you avoid overly obtuse verbiage, while keeping your executive summary to two pages. Competition. Any errors or omissions in the subtext are my own. Opportunity.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2019

Even with product businesses, it’s the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market. You should start blogging about your business before you have a product, to test interest and establish your credibility. Add content regularly. Anchor the blog in your domain name.

Blogging 88

Blogging Search Engine Optimization Web Writing 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2014

Sponsored by VISA Business Running a small business as an entrepreneur is a never-ending challenge of new products, customers, competitors, and an unpredictable economy. A good entrepreneur feels the incentive to offer a new service/product that no one else has offered before. Beat the competition. The cycle never stops.

Startup 92

Startup Tips Satisfaction Entrepreneur 92

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Can a startup gain a foothold in the competitive market by designing the right UX and user experience to make a job and career site for everyone? There''s a huge demand for a limited supply of employees, in particularly, there a large demand for product developers, and there''s a shortage of experienced people.

Design 174

Design Sites Cornerstone OnDemand Startup 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2012

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. I need your help in getting it to market.” Ask for time to give a full presentation, or ask for a referral to someone who can help. About 150-225 words.

Startup 113

Startup Patents Template Competition 113

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2011

Gordon Gould , the co-founder of SmartPants, talks about the company and how it's applying what he learned founding ThisNext and from a long experience in the social media market to the consumer products goods area--what he describes as Brands 2.0. First, talk about what SmartPants Vitamins are? We give it to our own kids.

Web 225

Web Social Media SEO Media 225

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Tech.Co

AUGUST 1, 2017

Once a novelty act reserved for indie band albums and curious art projects, crowdfunding is starting to play a major role in the world of startups and new products. Your campaign page should clearly highlight your track record, what you’ve already put in place to make your vision a reality, and why you are the one with the skills for the job.

Startup 93

Startup Social Media Tips Ideas 93

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. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. Sales data needs to be correlated to advertising campaigns, price changes, seasonal forces, competitive actions, and other costs of sales. Operating productivity. Size of gross margin.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Custom 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. We started building the product 18 months ago so we are in better shape than 99% of start-ups. Page 1: Market Size. $3 I hadn’t thought about the fact that he would become aware of my link. I was wrong.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

Give everybody pages of the deck they’re to cover or parts of the demo for which they are to talk. Remember that most people are visual thinkers and Powerpoint slides simply help frame the conversations. Competition. Equally likely you show your inability to listen to your team and your over dominance of conversations.

Venture Capital 340

Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2013

The crux of it is we help buyers user their network to verify suppliers, primarily in Asia and China, where we started. We''ve now reached critical mass in content, and in Asia we''re number three in the amount of information on products and suppliers online. Michael Kleist: Oh gosh, that could be pages. What is Tradesparq?

Southern California 170

Southern California Startup SoCal CTO Hire 170

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

But then your customes start using your products, your competitors come out with new offerings and your business partners decide to launch a similar product rather than working with you. Did you know that their original product wasn’t a video camera? They were product and cost focused. And then the BIG pivot.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Startup Google Yammer 291

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! If you can’t get the message across in ten minutes, more time and more charts won’t help. Solution product & technology.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 7, 2013

But a lack of competition has also lead to a lack of innovation, resulting in low customer satisfaction and frequent complaints of difficult-to-use products. Jackson added, “Their pricing and technology are hold-overs from the 1990s—it goes to show how they have been shielded from competition for too long.

Mobile 91

Mobile Report Pricing Tool 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2017

Even with product businesses, it’s the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market. You should start blogging about your business before you have a product, to test interest and establish your credibility. Add content regularly. Anchor the blog in your domain name.

Blogging 69

Blogging Search Engine Optimization Web Writing 69

socalTECH

MAY 23, 2012

How do a bunch of German moviemakers end up in Los Angeles, running a site helping studios to market and promote their films via their venture backed startup? We create a page which starts at first rumor, and engages and supports those projects. We really help them understand what their audience is all about.

Startup 164

Startup Paramount Netflix Entertainment 164

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I recommend a pitch deck with about 10 slides backed up with a written business plan of approximately 20 pages, both containing quantified answers to the following key questions. This is also the place to first mention patents and any other differentiators that put you ahead of competition.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 6, 2011

Pull Quote: “If you are smart, competitive, hard working and passionate about what you do you will have the best experience of your life. We all make important, complicated decisions in our life and having accurate, objective data about our choices allow us to find and compare products that meet our needs. How do you stand out?”.

Entrepreneur 232

Entrepreneur Competition Software Review Course 232

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

Most entrepreneurs I know are too busy creating a compelling product to give proper focus to the four phases of building a people and media platform that Hyatt says are equally critical for long-term success: Platform creation prior to launch. Building your home base with personal and product traction.

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Having a set of metrics that you watch & that you feel are the key drivers of your success helps keep clarity. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. I’m a big believer in product stability & performance before adding too many features. It has to come from somewhere.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Custom 346

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. Here are a few thoughts to help you get started: What is your product or service? Briefly discuss who you are selling the product or service to. Think again.

Startup 93

Startup Competition Summary Patents 93

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

The interesting thing about working with angels (the tech founder kind) is that they’ve all run their own startups before so there is instant resonance with what you’re going through, the issues you’ll face and how to best help. Thomas ultimately wants to see a beautiful product (it does’t necessarily have to have traction).

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

With perfect information and too much competition you pay up or they walk right down the street and get it from somebody else.” But if you take $10 on $30, $40 or even $50 G-d help you if you need to raise your next round and haven’t demonstrated amazing traction or you raise after the next correction. It forces innovation.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2015

To make this work, you need heavy traffic on your site -- probably at least a million page views per month -- which most sites never achieve in their lifetimes. It helps to understand how online advertising really works. The goal is for your visitor to be redirected to the site or product being advertised.

Advertising 99

Advertising CPC PPC Sites 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2012

Thus, I think it’s helpful to know some of the most common turnoffs that investors encounter in plowing through this stack of requests for money. An Executive Summary is a one page elevator pitch of the whole plan (may be separate from the plan), which gives an investor a net perspective on the key business parameters.

Summary 97

Summary Technical Review .Net Ideas 97

socalTECH

MARCH 22, 2012

The company also made quite an impression with its viral video --which you have to watch to appreciate--of CEO Michael Dubin extolling the virtues of the company's products, and panning overpriced, expensive razor brands. That's the one we'll mass product. We talked with Dubin earlier about the company. It's David vs. Goliath.

Dollar Shave Club 210

Dollar Shave Club Startup Pricing Sample 210

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! If you can’t get the message across in ten minutes, more time and more charts won’t help. Solution product & technology.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

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