Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Marketing is everything these days. Marty Zwilling.

Marketing 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Many questioned whether it could survive under the fail whale, inevitable competition from Facebook, founder fighting, fights with 3rd-party developers let alone become a revolutionary business that could make money. Periodically we do portfolio reviews to evaluate whether we have enough diversified risk across the fund. Far from it.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. One who wants to commercialize his product and start charging while the other prefers to not charge.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. He’s thoughtful about markets, investors, products and is always very well reasoned in his arguments. West Coast”).

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most newspapers are written at a third-grade reading level, White House press releases average a fourth-grade reading level and the New York Times is easily digestible by the average fifth grader. What does your pain reliever look like, how is it implemented by the customer and what future products do you expect to roll out?

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. Rinse & repeat. It takes options off of the table. You have a hunch.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2019

If you listen primarily to the popular press, you could easily be convinced that all successful startup businesses are built by one smart person, such as Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, or Jeff Bezos at Amazon. Solo or autocratic entrepreneurs usually don’t survive, due to required skills and a workload far beyond the capacity of a single human.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Technical Review Ideas Tool 94

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2019

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Marketing is everything these days. Marty Zwilling.

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 97

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

OCTOBER 10, 2016

By popular acclaim, San Diego-based Echo Laboratories founder Eugene Cho claimed top honors, and a $15,000 check, for his two-minute presentation last week in the 10th annual “Quick Pitch” competition, hosted by San Diego’s Tech Coast Angels. Crowd Gathers for San Diego Tech Coast Angels “Quick Pitch” Competition.

Tech Coast Angels 40

Tech Coast Angels Technical Review San Diego Software Review 40

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features. They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2012

A tweet by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on August 9th caused a stir in the tech scenes. ” Matt Ocko also revealed to Silicon Beat that they have been getting a lot more press inquiries due to the number of deals they were doing. Strong Network, Operational Experience and Technical Background. Big Data Shift.

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Entrepreneur Oracle Software Review 74

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Marketing is everything these days. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

InfoChachkie

MAY 19, 2011

Relinquish Press Release Capabilities. In some instances, it will be appropriate to grandfather ongoing payments due regional distributors for their past performance. Craft terms which ensure you will not beholden to the BDC with respect to your ability to subsequently deploy and profit from jointly developed technology.

Outsource Development 193

Outsource Development IP Technical Review Entrepreneur 193

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. Tags: Tech Market Analysis VC Industry.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

How could Bird really be worth the reported $2 billion valuation that I read about in this press? People said this about Ring (which went from startup to selling to Amazon > $1 billion in around 5 years), Facebook, YouTube, Airbnb, Uber, Twitter, Instagram and many other great behemoths of the technology industry. Not really.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. In fact, this article was driven by a startup press release I just saw today, highlighting a startup’s “geo-fencing technology” as a new basis for discount coupons.

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I suppose I should have imagined that this line would get more press than all other comments combined. Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# If you are interested the Vimeo is here. I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Just like the sky scraping investment banks of Wall Street, the technology industry tends to be a sausage party. pitch and technology competition at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, I couldn’t help but feel like it might be a hall of crickets with a few passionate women warming the front row.

Conference 77

Conference Startup Technical Review Software Review 77

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces. But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit.

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , June 18, 2010 The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. 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.

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. If you use a publisher, they may add more visibility with press releases and book-signing events.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

AeA Los Angeles Council

JULY 7, 2008

Approximately 50 executives from the worlds of technology & venture capital piled into the dining hall on June 30th to listen to Dr. Mark Drapeau speak about "innovation" and its sister topic, "STEM education." Innovation in the end is about creating products, but largely the federal government doesn't make products; it buys them.

Education 45

Education Technical Review Research Web 2.0 45

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Photo by Hope House Press - Leather Diary Studio on Unsplash It’s also true that there will be tough moments in your company’s journey where you will want to be able to carry people behind the tough decisions you want. This is part of a broader series on Board Meetings. But what are the KEY ISSUES management is grappling with.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

But more broadly it got me thinking to one of the biggest mistakes tech executives get into in the first place. Here’s my thoughts on improving your relationships with journalists and as a by-product improving the coverage that they afford you: 1. Don’t put in the time to getting coverage until your product rocks.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

As with any sales campaign you need to: Qualify your buyers early so you focus your scarce resources on people likely to buy your product. ” These are people with whom there is a likely match for your product or service. I get approached about clean tech or biotech periodically – I don’t focus on these.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366