Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

For example, many investors I know tell me they look for business plans that allocate the largest portion of a requested investment to marketing, but most often see the top “ use of funds ” to be further product or service development. Allocate resources to handle bumps along the way. Solicit complementary partnerships and alliances.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses. Don’t forget to focus on the value of you and your team.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

The best CEOs realize that they must transition from being individual contributors to team builders and adjudicators who settle conflicts of “resource allocations.” We have well financed competitors whom despite competing with we respect deeply and when you see your competition launching in many markets it’s tempting to follow suit.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

I will suggest to you as a business owner and entrepreneur that focus on certain key behaviors will drive innovation without waiting for the next competitive crisis: Be outspoken in communicating proactive required change. If your business hires only to fill existing openings, it is falling behind, and ripe for competitive crisis.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2012

Bloom’s “ The New Experts ,” that today’s customers are armed with three lethal weapons – instant access to information about every potential purchase, immense choice, and real-time comparison of competitive prices. These are the transactions that require far less investment and will create far more profitable revenue.

Customer 93

Customer Custom Startup Competition 93

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

I do think the way we work with companies is a little different from other programs, in that we view it much more like the wasyI personally think about investing and venture capital. That is, once you invest in a company, you''re a shareholder, and you help that company for the course of its life.

Incubator 187

Incubator Southern California Startup Ideas 187

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. We both made personal investments in the company. I think in the end it’s helped us build a better product because we are resource-constrained.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

Bloom’s “ The New Experts ,” that today’s customers are armed with three lethal weapons – instant access to information about every potential purchase, immense choice, and real-time comparison of competitive prices. These are the transactions that require far less investment and will create far more profitable revenue.

Customer 88

Customer Custom Competition Metrics 88

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2017

With the latest advances in software technology, it’s no longer cost-prohibitive for business entrepreneurs, who can’t yet afford a human resources department, to take advantage of analytics tools. Bigger organizations should invest in the new “big data” tools. Use data analysis and metrics to measure for results.

Tool 53

Tool Entrepreneur Statistics Metrics 53

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Consultants Don’t Pivot, Founders Do - Steve Blank , May 13, 2010 Consultants can help startups leverage their limited resources. friend of mine asked me to chat with a startup he’d invested in. think his strategy is essentially the Ron Conway strategy , and at his rate ("34-ish investments" in 1-2yr?) Here’s why.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

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. Amnesia sets in and we get back on the merry-go-round.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

What would it take in investments to acquire and retain traffic to support these businesses? After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value). Competition.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Yet, when you are pitching to investors, this has to be balanced by generating enough profit to keep the venture thriving, growing, and providing a healthy return-on-investment (ROI) to investors. Highlights a sustainable competitive advantage. Facebook, for example, invested nearly $350 million before turning cash-flow positive.

Customer 19

Customer Custom Acquisition Entrepreneur 19

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 25, 2008

We give visibility to the location, status, and history of resources in healthcare. We change the paradigm, and we only do an entire institution, the entire hospital or enterprise--every square foot--anywhere resources can travel. But, we're not focused on an exit--we're focused on profitability, which is a key metric for management.

Startup 113

Startup CTO Hire Resource Venture Capital 113

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. The team has stated it and has built metrics around key goals for future success. You need product / market fit. why did they buy? It is about product.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. Company grew by more than “400% each year” for past few years [assume growth metric = revenues]. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

As a startup founder, you won’t have the marketing resources or brand recognition to appeal to all consumers. Sustainable competitive advantage. As an entrepreneur, make sure you understand your direct and indirect costs, staffing requirements, margins and metrics to make sure these elements are in place.

Pricing 100

Pricing Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Looking ahead at the next decade I am excited by what I believe will be viewed as one of the best and most rational investment periods for venture capital due to seven discrete factors: 1. Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2015

Yet I can’t remember the last time any entrepreneur asked me to assess personal potential, despite the fact that most investors will admit they invest in the person more than the product. These people are the ultimate chess players in the game of startups, always looking to be two or three moves ahead of the competition.

Startup 106

Startup Incubator Entrepreneur Metrics 106