Berkonomics

APRIL 11, 2019

An entrepreneur pitches using a deck with no slide for competition. We have no competition.”. That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. Perhaps buyers cannot obtain attractive financing in the current market. When asked (as we always do,) the response is “This is new.

Competition 120

Competition Slides Research Sales 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

During the Q&A I was asked about how I make investment decisions in early-stage businesses. I know that sounds trite but it’s the best way I can describe my early-stage investments. If I don’t do both then it’s highly unlikely I will invest. I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. People are more demanding and have more choices than ever before.

Marketing 107

Marketing Invest SEM Startup 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Great marketing is required to generate revenue and grow every business, especially new businesses which have no brand recognition nor loyal customer base. I also look for a commensurate portion of the plan describing the specific innovative marketing deliverables, beyond the traditional marketing items.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in today’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because?—?no founders, marketers, investors?—?and Why Did I Invest in Trust? no surprise?—?that’s that’s where the customers are.

Product 424

Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2020

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. His professional background includes having held marketing-executive roles at big companies as well as startups. Email marketing. Direct mail marketing. One of these experts, David T.

Customer 146

Customer Custom Marketing Startup 146

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Mostly it’s because your marketing campaigns suck. Or more directly – they are likely narcissistic resuscitations of your newest features or bragging points that nobody but your marketing team and your mom care about. They are an investment bank that targets the technology & media sectors. It’s brilliant.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

SoCal Tech Calendar

MARCH 26, 2018

Tuesday, March 27, 2018 -- Women in the Global Markets! Governments in 119 economies carried out 264 business reforms in the past year to create jobs, attract investment and become more competitive, says the World Bank Group's latest Doing Business 2018.

WITI 100

WITI Marketing Competition Invest 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2020

Now these principles are complicated by the worldwide instant access to many competitive alternatives, indirect social and environment impacts, and the velocity of change enabled by the pervasive market move to digital. These principles include the following: Free and ultra-low cost may no longer be competitive.

Marketing 124

Marketing Customer Custom Competition 124

socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2019

This morning's interview is with Kevin O'Connor , a longtime investor and serial entrepreneur, who is now running venture capital investment firm ScOp Venture Capital. Just this past September was a year with Amazon, when I left, and we started investing in September under the new name, ScOp Venture Capital.

Venture Capital 145

Venture Capital Startup Invest Capital 145

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

San Diego-based Qualcomm said Tuesday that it is launching its second annual venture investment competition, the Qualcomm Ventures QPrize competition. According to the firm, this year's competition will provide up to $750,000 in seed funding to entrepreneurs working on mobile ventures. READ MORE>>.

Competition 154

Competition Seed Funding Venture Capital San Diego 154

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. I had been thinking a lot about this recently because I’m often asked the question of “what I look for in an entrepreneur when I want to invest?” I had invested in myself for years.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” That statement has killed more investment deals than almost any other. Perhaps buyers cannot obtain attractive financing in the current market. Well, come to think of it, this is especially true in such an instance.

Competition 189

Competition Slides Sales Ideas 189

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point.

Invest 321

Invest Startup Email Competition 321

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. It amazes me how quickly a modest success story gets replicated and any initial product / market advantages get narrowed.

Competition 296

Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

Competition 123

Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 123

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Most associates need some entrepreneurial experience before actually making investments. Ability to source information easily to help build a thesis around companies / industries / competition. And we had to then build out new marketing materials and a website. I think there are two reasons for this: 1.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. Online marketing uses techniques for driving promotion and place.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 26, 2022

At the time, the company raised $2 million, and Alexandrov said about the perceived competition, “The level of competition in this market in the U.S. Are rivals snacking on Instacart’s core grocery delivery market? locations.

Funding 246

Funding Demand Los Angeles Competition 246

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2014

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. First to market, for example, is not normally a sustainable advantage for startups. Thought leadership position in your market and customer set.

Competition 93

Competition Startup Patents Slides 93

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

Serial entrepreneur, venture investor and startup accelerator pioneer Brad Feld has notoriously mocked traditional marketing throughout his career. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. If you have $hitty products, the marketing is impossible. Trada – Guerilla Marketing In Action.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Unlike a lot of grants on this list, the competition is open to all US small businesses, as long as they have fewer than 99 employees, have been operating for at least six months, and have a FedEx business account that's been open before September 1, 2023. It's competitive though – last year 18,000 applicants competed for only 12 slots.

Technical Review 194

Technical Review Software Review Startup Competition 194

Tech.Co

JUNE 1, 2017

The cannabis industry has been filled with innovation and investment in recent years. However, federal laws still remain staunchly opposed to legal cannabis and there are more than enough politicians looking to keep cannabis from making an appearance in the market. Do you play it safe and invest in industries with less baggage?

Invest 75

Invest Competition Training Media 75

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

For example, TCA’s evaluation criteria first bullet is: A market opportunity sufficiently large to create a business that can grow to at least $50 million in annual revenues. Can you raise $750K - $1M with no future investments planned? I’m a regular reader/listener of the Frank Peters Show that talks about Angel Investing.

Invest 205

Invest Angel Tech Coast Angels Pasadena Angels 205

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

Among the participants that applied for the online competitions, only a progressed into the semi-finals. Tech.Co: Since launch, what was the most challenging part of gaining market traction? Tech.Co: What was the road like leading up to your initial pitch for the competition? Celebrate Conference in October.

Competition 103

Competition Startup Ideas Conference 103

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Either of these qualms can ultimately sidetrack your startup as not worthy of investment, so it pays to do your homework on what you say and how to communicate effectively. Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 10, 2021

Overall, Klarna is live in 20 markets, has more than 90 million global active users and more than 2 million transactions a day conducted on its platform. We’ve scaled up so massively in investments in our growth and technology, but running on a loss is very odd for us,” he told TechCrunch. “We We will get back to profitability soon.”.

Los Angeles 266

Los Angeles Funding CIO Marketing 266

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

At the Upfront Summit in early February, we had a chance to have many off-the-record conversations with Limited Partners (LPs) who fund Venture Capital (VC) funds about their views of the market. However, they have been sending VCs far more investment checks in the last ten years than they’ve gotten back as distributions.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

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

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2018

The only “sustainable competitive advantage” in business is self-awareness. For example, I once worked for a startup CEO who desperately needed money from a venture capitalist, but became totally defensive when the VC suggested that my CEO might be better in the chief marketing role, in favor of a more experienced CEO.

Competition 81

Competition Startup Examples Coach 81

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. First to market, for example, is not normally a sustainable advantage for startups. Thought leadership position in your market and customer set.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2021

Two startups won a total of $25,000 in prizes last week at the Sunstone Innovations Challenge at CSULB, a startup pitch competition involving student teams from CSU Long Beach.

Long Beach 113

Long Beach Seed Funding Startup Competition 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2013

” Most VCs view it as their responsibility to mentor, debate, cajole and generally assist with investments they make. Tomorrow I’m meeting with a senior exec who is considering joining a company in which we’ve invested. Thus, a desire to invest more locally where I think I have a competitive advantage.

Venture Capital 365

Venture Capital Marketing Santa Barbara Startup 365

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales. Economies of scale.

Organization 97

Organization Competition Startup Acquisition 97

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

Los Angeles-based dog sitting marketplace DogVacay has raised $25M more in a Series B1 funding, the company disclosed this morning, as the competition heats up for the "top dog" in the market. The funding comes as competitor Rover.com also has been ramping up its funding and marketing efforts. READ MORE>>.

Competition 166

Competition Venture Capital Startup Capital 166

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and The core of the investing job of course is investing dollars into startup companies and helping as a mentor, advisor and board member on the companies in which you’ve invested. She had all of the skills and traits we sought?—?leadership,

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361