Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

The best of you train yourselves to show emotions sparingly and strategically, while the rest are convinced that emotions cannot be controlled , and are a function of culture and genetics. Write down your top 5 core values and review them often. Pressure and emotion in business is often an indication of core value conflicts.

Coach 137

Coach Training Satisfaction Mentor 137

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Don’t give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost won’t help you if you can’t make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I think many board members (including VCs) were trained 10+ years ago when life was very different and their advice often comes from an outdated lens. I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. If you believe you have a market-leading position in your product space I would worry a bit less about it.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. Sales people often blame the product.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

The fitness professional network develops business tools that make it easier for fitness professionals to run their businesses and keep their clients engaged between training sessions. We knew there’s a better personal training experience to be had, so we set out to create one. Any competition in LA? Who is on your team?

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

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. Product development process.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2009

Fonality, which is a venture-backed developer of PBX software used for replacing corporate phony systems, is in the midst of its own version of an employee morale-booster: training for the "Fonality Fight Club" and a competition refereed by martial arts expert Chris Reilly, who regularly trains fighters for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Culver City 140

Culver City Startup Training Class 140

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. Product development process. Funding process.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2014

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Angel Social Media Patents 107

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Dont give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost wont help you if you cant make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 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. Product development process.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

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. Product development process. Funding process.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. then you can start writing a recipe. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. This means find some hungry people who would love a good dinner, and be willing to pay for it. not a solution looking for a problem) Be sure you have a great team.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

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. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The path I went down after a few years was to hire more process driven people and devolved more daily operational ownership to people running individual functions such as product management, sales management, finance, etc. You need to train your staff to pause and ask questions & solicit feedback during the demo.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2016

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Don’t give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost won’t help you if you can’t make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 53

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 53

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. Write things down. I don’t want to lose next time.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. Write things down. I don’t want to lose next time.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

. “President Biden is calling on Congress to make smart investments in research and development, manufacturing and regional economic development, and in workforce development to give our workers and companies the tools and training they need to compete on the global stage.”

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. then you can start writing a recipe. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. This means find some hungry people who would love a good pasta salad, and be willing to pay for it. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

Play it in the background while you otherwise remain productive (or listen to it while you update your FB page, your call). And we hired folks who had previous leadership positions and proof points of being competitive. In real-world training scenarios (over two weeks), on the phone selling, we cut 75% of them.

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2010

I’ll confess up front that I’m a big fan of Guy Kawasaki’s humor and writing style. Back when he was writing to entrepreneurs, he published the book “ Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.” Few people are trained for either, and most depend on their gut.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Sample 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Think of it kind of like running a national chain of restaurants and occasionally stopping in to wait tables to have a more intuitive sense for your processes, work conditions and the quality of your products. It might tell you that you need better sales training or to hone your key selling messages.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. We helped the write out their requirements for a system.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

I must admit I discuss this very frequently with portfolio companies but hadn’t thought to write about it. No carrier in their right mind wanted to cede control of the software but Apple was willing to offer its products exclusive through one carrier in exchange for not having any carrier software on the device.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 15, 2013

But of course we’re all a product of both of our parents – if we were fortunate enough to be raised by two individuals. I love competition. Or just write this off as incremental improvement. He trained for marathons and ran many. Mom was an entrepreneur and a civic leader. She was (is) a bit of a ball buster.

Course 407

Course Help Writing Blogging 407

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

This is especially true for companies with expensive and complex products or services that are more consultative in nature, like insurance, financial services, home services, education and travel, etc. 9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. Who do you view as your biggest competition?

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. But what chapped my hide was that every early assignment at Accenture they divided teams, training and assignments into “technical” and “non technical.” That was the market.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission. Talk about what's different from what you offer from the many SAT/ACT/prep products and services out there already? Ramit Varma: We talk about it in two different ways.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Microsoft, meanwhile, announced a new 5,000-person group Thursday dedicated to the development of AI technologies and products that use them. General interest, awareness, and discussion about AI has waxed and waned since the field was founded in 1956,” they write ( PDF ). “We

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Technical Advisors Research 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

I wasn’t going to write about it since he had just covered the topic and echoed my point of view. At the margin you can make yourself better at sales, product design, marketing, leadership, capital raising, etc. In my bones I’m convinced that entrepreneurs are more nature than nurture although I know both are involved.

Startup 289

Startup Statistics Entrepreneur Study 289