This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. My first startup was no different. Sales people: Are motivated by cash.
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. Our sales forecasts were revised downward – many times. It didn’t add up to me. Bad morale is the enemy of any company let alone a startup.&#. I figured it out.
This is part of a series on sales & marketing. I previously covered how early phase sales teams should be “evangelical&# and consultative in nature. As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. More experienced sales leaders seldom compete on price.
Now we tackle the more difficult and subjective task of placing a value upon those startups that don’t fit into that mold. For those of us who’ve invested in early-stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There is nothing wrong with changing the five tests to meet individual needs.
Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. My first startup was no different. Sales people: Are motivated by cash.
Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions. Specifically, 1.
I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. What makes up revenue? One of them is profitability. Operating Costs.
This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. In the comments section a clever question popped up about whether I would have invested in myself before I became an investor. My first response mentally was, “Of course!” They choose a different path.
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. Shallow and superficial and racing from segment to segment in search of some take up has never been a strong strategic plan for me. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT.
This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback. We had 4 or 5 sales reps that had been around since the early days.
If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. Many people start companies arse backwards. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes.
One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. Extremely talented people are ultra competitive.
We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact). You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.
We started with our financial statements. We then walked through our sales pipeline and discussed major campaigns. Then competition. So I changed things up and became much happier with my results. But they were in a slide and people asked you questions so it ended up chewing up 30 minutes.
It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Commitment & urgency are key drivers of success in startup businesses. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. You already know it from your personal lives.
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.
I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. I’ll start with an obvious one – I talk with the entrepreneur about competitors. You can tell if they have a deep-seated competitive spirit. You can tell if they have a deep-seated competitive spirit.
Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g. They likely are extending payments to debtors way beyond that expected payment terms and start damaging supplier relations.
2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I said both in the article but felt compelled to provide a statement up front for the skimmers.
I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people have asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team. Often I’m asked by startup CEO’s about how to best build an engineering team.
But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? People often ask me why I started blogging. It really started simply enough. Not only would it be less authentic but if you’re a startup it’s not immediately clear that other startup CEOs are your target market.
In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. It the second rule of sales, “Why Buy Me?”
I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. o Put a timeframe/money – competition in the picture.
Crowdfunder , the Los Angeles startup led by CHance Barnett, has launched another crowdfunding event aimed at the local industry, saying Wednesday that it has launched CROWDIMPACT LA , a pitching competition which will award $20,000 in a top prize to a winning social enterprise company.
It is the bane of every startups existence because it takes up so much time, it is so competitive to sign people and it feels like unproductive time because it’s not moving the ball forward on product, engineering, sales, marketing, biz dev, fund raising. Set up calls for VCs to welcome her to the team.
I generally encourage my UC Santa Barbara students to complete their formal education before joining or creating a startup. In Michael's case, he promised his parents that he would return to school if the sales at his startup did not meet his expectations. "I Effective startup mentorship can come from unlikely sources.
I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. Or on a sales campaign you’ve finally gotten your project sponsor to take you to the “executive committee&# where decisions are made and budgets are agreed.
Rarer still is the startup CEO who can make the transition effectively on their own. 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. This seldom works.
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.
TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. I started feeling panic attacks.
In case you don’t know, “the “9-9-9 plan” would replace all current taxes (including the payroll tax , capital gains tax , and the estate tax ) with 9% business transaction tax; 9% personal income tax rate, and a 9% federal sales tax.” It is simple and easily explained. Is it good policy? Probably not.
Many funds have not performed and will start to disappear. PEHub followed up their analysis with this. It takes less to start a business these days – We all know that it takes less to start a technology company these days. You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online.
Richard’s Startup Tips. As discussed in Thrill The Messenger , slightly off-color, unconventional quotes will help ensure that your startup’s voice is heard. I never get the accountants in before I startup a business. Startups are not bound by the past. Startups have few advantages. Tweet this quote].
I’m a very big proponent of the “lean startup movement&# as espoused by Steve Blank & Eric Ries. In the late 90′s I saw a dangerous trend creeping into the startup world, which was that companies were suddenly raising huge amounts of money too early in their existence. This post originally appeared on TechCrunch.
The link-in-bio business is heating up as more mobile website builders compete for a coveted slice of real estate on a creator’s TikTok, Instagram or Twitter. Linktree has been around since 2016 and has more funding than its up-and-coming competitors. Now, Snipfeed enters the ring with its own $5.5 Image Credits: Snipfeed.
Since Bill Hewlett joined with Dave Packard in 1939 to create what is today one of the world’s largest computer companies, there has been an evergreen debate as to who is more important in starting a tech company: the techie or the business guy? Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak? Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer? Jim Clark or Marc Andreessen?
In what is a fairly unusual move, last week, Tradesparq (www.tradesparq.com), a Chinese startup in the area of B2B trade information, said it was planning on setting up its operations here in Southern California, as part of an expansion and scaling of the company. Michael Kleist: We started in 2010. What is Tradesparq?
Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. – while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot. She started it with a partner, 50-50.
I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch. You’ve got to hear all of the doubters, and the world is FILLED with doubters, and still not give up.
Balance is also an extremely important factor among a founding startup team. Just like starting a company as a sole founder, it is possible to excel without a partner, it''s just a lot harder. Outside of the startup world, there is a partnership which has served humankind well since the beginning of time marriage.
The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.
Article first published as Eleven Startup Tips From Mark Cuban on Technorati. Mark Cuban is a lifelong serial entrepreneur, launching his startup career with a variety of teenage schemes, including buying and selling collectable stamps to pay for college. Mark’s Startup Tips. " Bro It Up. "It Do the work."
Does your business have a visible positive strategy, or do your customers and employees still see your primary focus as closing more sales and killing competitors? It all starts with setting the right company strategy, including these elements: Inspirational statement of purpose and direction. Competitive and leadership leverage.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the key elements of a competitive advantage for your business have changed as businesses move online, and your domain is instantly global. As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content