Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

A product plan must include the timeline and milestones involved in product research and development. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks. Development schedule and checkpoints.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Prepare an investment-grade business plan. Define some intellectual property.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

Professional investors will probe these five risk areas and make the decision to invest based upon comfort with each. One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer.

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

Thus, cast your research net beyond VC-backed companies to fully understand a school’s ability to foster viable businesses. Are funds available to invest in student businesses? Ask: How many patents were filed by students and faculty during each of the past five years? Is there a venture competition with cash prizes?

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Class Patents 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Access to intellectual property and current research. Most universities have a file of patents from project work that they are willing to license to any entrepreneur for business commercialization, with little or no cost up front. Visit the university library for access to otherwise costly business reports.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Capital Class Startup 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2012

Of course, the first one gets the patent. But patent disclosure requirements often make imitation easier, and smart technologists can work around most patents anyway. Market research is more meaningful if there is already a market and real customers. Of course, you still have to do your homework and market research.

Patents 84

Patents Startup Statistics Course 84

Berkonomics

AUGUST 31, 2023

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. But wait for the mic drop… [Email readers, continue here…] Here’s where some intelligent market research might have saved the company and my investment.

Competition 156

Competition Research Summary Pricing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2011

Of course, the first one gets the patent. But patent disclosure requirements often make imitation easier, and smart technologists can work around most patents anyway. Market research is more meaningful if there is already a market and real customers. Of course, you still have to do your homework and market research.

Startup 91

Startup Patents Statistics Course 91

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2016

My first suggestion is that entrepreneurs need to forget the old myth that all they need to do is sketch an idea on a napkin, and investors will line up to invest. The most investable ventures stem from painful needs by customers who have money to spend. Investors invest in people, often more so than in the product.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur Invest Funding Patents 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2014

A product plan must include the timeline and milestones involved in product research and development. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks. Development schedule and checkpoints.

Product 101

Product Entrepreneur Summary Activity 101

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property. Free trials don’t count.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2016

A product plan must include the timeline and milestones involved in product research and development. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks. Development schedule and checkpoints.

Product 55

Product Startup Summary Entrepreneur 55

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. Here’s where some intelligent market research might have saved the company and my investment. There is no competition.” Fast forward just a few years to 1996.

Competition 266

Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

socalTECH

AUGUST 18, 2009

In the recent surge in interest in the clean technology and energy investment area, we're constantly surprised by the number of startups in the area focused on some aspect of the industry. We have a long relationship with them, and have been funding research in their labs, and have a continuing relationship.

UCLA 159

UCLA Technical Review El Monte Startup 159

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

We've also had great advances in engaging the trust of the commercial community, with patented advances like automatic scoring of our algorithms, which predicts the quality of translations based on a one-through-five scale. Since our financials have been so attractive, there's no stress on them, and it's been an easy investment to support.

Software Review 145

Software Review USC Content Tech Coast Angels 145

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property. Having a defensible competitive advantage or “barrier to entry” is another critical step to funding, and another common stumbling block during all phases of the funding process. Prepare an investment-grade business plan. Define some intellectual property.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

Whether that''s for competitive analysis or market analysis, our product is basically able to monitor--on a very large scale--things that are important to your particular company. He ran DARPA research out of UC Irvine for almost a decade, until stepping out and focusing purely on entrepreneurial efforts. out of UC Irvine.

Orange County 245

Orange County Startup News IBM 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. For example, “We just patented a new battery technology that will cut your smartphone charge time and cost in half.” and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I have stated previously that I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Here’s where some intelligent market research might have saved the company and my investment. There is no competition.”

Marketing 247

Marketing Competition Research Summary 247

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

People tend to overvalue past investments when making forward-looking investment decisions. Just because a product has a patent, deep complexity and an obvious competitive advantage does not mean that it can fly by itself into the market. had two occasions recently to review products which had clear market leadership.

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175