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

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. You need the very best to maintain a competitive edge, and get the satisfaction you want for you and your team members.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. 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 ;-). VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

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. The reality is that a journalist who’s writing a story about you – a relatively unknown entity – wants to hear directly from the founders and/or the CEO.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2017

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. If you want to connect with customers, put aside your writing formalities. Then write it down. Lacks a sales angle. Your language doesn’t have to be perfect.

Content 67

Content Marketing Newsletter Writing 67

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks. Current and past titles don’t convey this information. Marketing, sales, and customer experience. Project revenues, costs and investment needs.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2014

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. If you want to connect with customers, put aside your writing formalities. Then write it down. Lacks a sales angle. Your language doesn’t have to be perfect.

Startup 103

Startup Content Newsletter Writing 103

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2020

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Contact information should always be included.

Writing 125

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 125

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2012

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. If you want to connect with customers, put aside your writing formalities. Then write it down. Lacks a sales angle. Your language doesn’t have to be perfect.

Content 99

Content Startup Newsletter Writing 99

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2009

FreedomSpeaks is a startup developing a business around connecting people with information about their political representatives, and also enabling organizations and others to do the same. I am someone who likes to interact with my Representatives and Senators, by way of writing letters, emailing, and what not.

Startup 100

Startup Writing Southern California Email 100

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2012

Tech Reporters: These individuals will write and edit informative and practical articles on a range of topics including Startups/Entrepreneurs, Gadgets, Mobile Tech, Tech in Entertainment, Gaming, Apps & Software, productivity, and cover breaking tech news. Will also report on local tech events in their respected area.

Technical Review 71

Technical Review Software Review Writing News 71

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2011

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. If you want to connect with customers, put aside your writing formalities. Then write it down. Lacks a sales angle. Your language doesn’t have to be perfect.

Content 94

Content Startup Newsletter Writing 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. If you have investors or board members that have wide relationships you can get significantly more value out of them by keeping them informed. Rob does it.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

On myfab5, people rank their favorite places instead of giving them star ratings and write bite-sized reviews instead of writing long reviews. To answer these questions you begin reading multiple reviews for multiple businesses until you feel you have enough information to make a decision.

Software Review 79

Software Review Technical Review Writing Startup 79

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.)

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

I was happy to see a real focus on preparing for tomorrow highlighted in a new book, “ Start a Successful Business ,” by Colleen DeBaise, who has made a career of studying and writing about entrepreneur challenges. These experts will curate the information, point to the best sources, and summarize implications for you.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Admittedly, that last part is an exaggeration but they were bad enough that I am writing this essay in the hopes that you will read it and not make these mistakes. Or their sales pitch?! You don’t need to list your competition in both places. Applications so bad that I threw up a little in my mouth. The #EpicNovelFail.

Tips 70

Tips Startup Statistics Metrics 70

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2023

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Contact information should always be included.

Tips 123

Tips Writing Startup Summary 123

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

We’ve had just one market since then and it could confuse one into thinking: every deal finds downstream investors, every company good or bad finds a home, you know anything at all about brazil, india, china or even saas sales, ecommerce or analytics (you know all these in a bull market). why do I write p.s.’s sometimes?

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Leverage information technology.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Leverage information technology.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2016

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. You need the very best to maintain a competitive edge, and get the satisfaction you want for you and your team members.

Organization 57

Organization Entrepreneur Satisfaction Screening 57

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Or read the quick, informative summary below the image! Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. o CPM model gave him control over the information in the acquisition cycle so he focused on that. - o Everything is for sale but it’s the price that moves the timing. He told them it was now or never.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. And when you finish the demo you can bring in the other important components such as competition, team, customer acquisition strategy, etc. But flip you must – just as in a sales meeting.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

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. The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Contact information should always be included.

Writing 109

Writing Entrepreneur Summary Email 109

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Even when your startup is a one-man show, you will soon find that you are “out of control,” unless you start organizing and writing down how and when key things need to get done. Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. Leverage information technology.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Write down the key elements of your business plan very early, and keep it current as things evolve. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Leverage information technology.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

But putting no time into anchoring your beliefs because you’re too busy executing sales, marketing, support, product & engineering is an easy recipe for leadership drift. But this should come by having your mental model of what is correct and only changing it if you can build a new model with new information. I like writing.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2016

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Contact information should always be included.

Writing 62

Writing Summary Email Ideas 62

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2010

Back at that time, I had people ask my--why would I ever want to read what other people are writing, isn't that what professional authors and journalists are for? Now, the pendulum has swung in the other direction, and user generated content is one of the things people think of most frequently online when they look for information.

Content 204

Content Startup Sites Manhattan Beach 204

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

As I naturally get asked all the time why we invested in Company A or Company B, I thought I’d just put forth my thesis in writing. I don’t intend either, Burstly has respectable and strong competition. He’s a natural leader, appropriately competitive, very customer focused and a pleasure to work with.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. This states how the proceeds from a sale or dissolution of the company will be distributed.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Tech.Co

MARCH 1, 2018

Think of looking at a dot graph of your business sales in virtual reality. They are taking data scientists’ and analysts’ understanding of their information to the next dimension. Their speech recognition software has a high level of accuracy, as though a human was transcribing the information. DatavizVR (Austin, TX).

Startup 79

Startup Mentor Platform Help 79

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Information Asymmetry - The biggest problem that presenters face in large (5+ people) is information asymmetry. Congratulations.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most board meetings are administrative updates that accomplish very little other than inform board members about the performance of the company since the last board meeting. People debate the information you put in front of them. Never put information in front of people if you don’t want it discussed.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226