Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2022

In my role of business advisor to startups, I often recommend these to increase initial brand identity and market penetration. With the rate of market change today, and the advent of worldwide competitors, you need every strategy you can muster to keep up, and respond quickly to new threats.

Marketing 119

Marketing Social Media Mentor Conference 119

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Mostly it’s because your marketing campaigns suck. One of the masters of this in the startup technology world is Flurry.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

While you all recognize that reacting to weak market signals is critical to staying in business and staying competitive, I find that many don’t have the skills and focus to trigger change decisions on a timely basis. Sometimes premonitions are real, especially if backed up by employee and customer input.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Custom 162

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Since 2009 we’ve been in an unequivocal bull market. For what ever reason we’re wired to have amnesia during the run up and prescient memories of how we ‘knew it all along’ as soon as the slide begins. Once you understand both sides of the cycle you start to recognize signs of behavior during each phase.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 2, 2013

I've had several Startup CTO Consulting sessions recently where it became apparent that the Founder needed help with the business and product as much or more than the technology. Then we discussed how they could go about finding this startup business advisor. Then you search for the people who were in marketing there early on.

CTO Coach 259

CTO Coach Mentor Startup Technical Advisors 259

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I believe the Maker Movement and hardware startups with limited resources are made for each other. In today’s fast moving market, the basic product development cost and time are critical to survival. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find.

Startup 159

Startup Tool Design Demand 159

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement. Each one incrementally sounds like a good idea, yet collectively they end up punishing undisciplined teams. That channel deal that you thought would take no times ends up burning scarce calories.

Resource 415

Resource Startup Product Ideas 415

TechCrunch LA

MAY 29, 2019

This is like talking about the NBA and the value of its sponsorships and broadcast rights as if that is the entirety of the basketball market in the US. Los Angeles-based PlayVS (pronounced “play versus”) wants to become the dominant platform for amateur esports, starting at the high school level. Delane P. :

Startup 204

Startup Coach Competition Los Angeles 204

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

Hamet Watt , a Partner at Upfront Ventures, and the co-founder of bLife, MoviePass, and NextMedium, is reportingly launching a new startup studio in Los Angeles. Details on the new startup studio--which came to light at Upfront's annual conference, the Upfront Summit--have yet to be formally announced. READ MORE>>.

Southern California 113

Southern California Startup Conference Los Angeles 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Enjoy that first video interview at an industry conference, or the newspaper story which enhances your startup visibility and credibility. Even with the perfect product, your customers won’t even know you exist without marketing. Appreciate the media accolades and peer success feedback.

Startup 118

Startup Satisfaction Custom Customer 118

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

Understanding “The Funding Angle” I sit at enough board meetings to hear conflicting advice given to entrepreneurs about how to handle PR and announcements at startups. In stead of doing my typical big long post with 10 PR tips (like I did there), I’m going to break them up into individual (I hope more digestible) chunks.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Final startup grind from msuster. And the folks at Startup Grind have been kind enough to invite me to present this morning in Mountain View on the topic.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 9, 2013

I spoke this past week at the LeWeb conference in London, which was a superbly well run event with a very quality production team. Why is Collaborative Consumption Becoming a Hot Trend for Startup Companies? Declining prices & margins in a small market is much less interesting. Network Up. Prices down. But what else?

Marketing 361

Marketing Course Pricing Networking 361

socalTECH

JULY 10, 2012

Huntington Beach-based AnyMeeting , which provides free web conferencing and online meeting services, is announcing this morning that it is aiming at large "network marketing" firms with a new program. AnyMeeting said it already has signed up such firms as Ambit Energy, Southwestern, Stella & Dot and USANA as part of the new program.

Networking 206

Networking Tech Coast Angels Marketing Pasadena Angels 206

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 17, 2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 -- Red Herring Americas Conference. On May 21-23, 2012, Los Angeles will play host to the Red Herring Americas Conference, an exclusive gathering of regional leaders and small, innovative startups in the technology industry. See [link].

Conference 100

Conference Los Angeles Platform Marketing 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 16, 2012

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 -- Red Herring Americas Conference. On May 21-23, 2012, Los Angeles will play host to the Red Herring Americas Conference, an exclusive gathering of regional leaders and small, innovative startups in the technology industry. See [link].

Conference 100

Conference Los Angeles Platform Marketing 100

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 15, 2012

Monday, May 21, 2012 -- Red Herring Americas Conference. On May 21-23, 2012, Los Angeles will play host to the Red Herring Americas Conference, an exclusive gathering of regional leaders and small, innovative startups in the technology industry. See [link].

Conference 100

Conference Los Angeles Platform Marketing 100

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2018

This year, we're sponsoring the Recurring Revenue Conference (www.recurringrevenueconference.com), presented by Sutton Capital Partners. Jon Ferrara: I firmly believe that Service is the New Sales and that the Sales starts after a customer buys. Is there anything you wish you'd done differently when you first started Nimble?

Custom 166

Custom Customer Conference Social Media 166

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually a COO title at a startup is an ego thing. CEO’s run things.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2012

I recently wrote about the 12 tips to building successful startup communities. I lived in London from 1997-2005 and for 6 of those years ran my startup based out of London. It was a strange contrast for me having grown up in Northern California where failure seemed to be a badge of honor. I remember this lesson well.

Startup 350

Startup Ideas Education Class 350

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. I know I didn’t. To the contrary.

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. It is to out friend.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2023

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.

Organization 92

Organization Incubator Startup Resource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

As the rate of change continues to increase in business and technology, the more I’m convinced that marketing is the primary key to success for a new venture. Yet I find that many technical founders don’t feel they need it at all, or at best point to one person on the team who is marketing.

Marketing 71

Marketing Tips Technical Review Social Media 71

InfoChachkie

APRIL 1, 2013

How did a small, open source software company from Finland capture billions in market share from Oracle? Marten began his story by explaining that MySQL was originally founded as a research project and how it was a nascent startup for nearly a decade before he joined the team. I started helping them with strategy in 2000 and then.

Oracle 229

Oracle Startup News Press 229

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2023

Startups succeed most often when the founding partners know how to build and run a business, rather than how to build and run technology. A great technical LinkedIn profile is a good start, but not enough to assure success in your environment. A business startup is not an academic environment, or a big company research organization.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Technology High Tech Startup 104

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2019

The Alliance is following the classic start-up trajectory: transition from the big idea to your beachhead product offering. What new technology area, startup, service, or app did you find most interesting or useful this year, and why? The start-up has developed kinetic energy based, long-duration energy storage solutions.

SoCal 140

SoCal Southern California Startup Venture Capital 140

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

Raising capital for a female-led startup can be very diffiult--which is what Justine Lassoff and Melinda Moore found out when they started their own company, LovingEco, in Los Angeles. We actually started the organization in 2013. She, as well as several other, wonderful female investors, will be at our upcoming conference.

Help 224

Help Entrepreneur Capital Startup 224

Xconomy

JANUARY 11, 2019

Sears, the nation’s first “everything store,” is teetering toward bankruptcy after years of stagnation as industry leaders prepare to gather in New York at the National Retail Federation’s annual conference.

Artificial Inteligence 105

Artificial Inteligence Commerce Startup Conference 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Many of you have read or at least know the primary thesis of “ Crossing the Chasm &# the seminal book on marketing your products to mainstream consumers by Geoffrey Moore. It influenced a generation of tech marketers. We all intuitively know this curve now but we don’t all market effectively to it.

Marketing 294

Marketing Custom Customer Technical Review 294

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

I wrote a version of this post four years ago but given the hectic nature of today’s tech markets I thought it was worth revisiting and updating. As the day approached I noticed that there was a conference in LA that I wanted to attend. ” So I didn’t go to the conference. I was furious.

Conference 369

Conference Startup Century City Email 369

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

First of all, I will admit that there is some risk involved with talking to any potential investors, even with an agreement, just as there is risk in all the elements of your plan, product and market opportunity. The same is true for people who may approach you at networking events or industry conferences. Build trust first.

Ideas 159

Ideas Tips Technical Review Patents 159

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. An experienced Board can give them credibility, as well as advice on the many pitfalls of starting a new company. Remember that people make a business, more often than a product.

Startup 142

Startup Technical Review Equity Entrepreneur 142

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2021

Los Angeles-based Canoo, an electric vehicle startup which has announced a number of futuristic looking vehicles--but has yet to deliver one to the market--is now under SEC investigation, according to a number of reports.

Conference 113

Conference Acquisition Los Angeles Report 113

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. I did a lot of M&A deals in those spaces, and had some earlier, startup stage experience. How did you end up joining March Capital?

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2020

Startups succeed most often when the founding partners know how to build and run a business, rather than how to build and run technology. A great technical LinkedIn profile is a good start, but not enough to assure success in your environment. A business startup is not an academic environment, or a big company research organization.

Competition 174

Competition High Tech Startup Social Media 174

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

When second place isn’t good enough because we live in winner-take-most markets. This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It The desire to be better than anybody else in one’s field. Zuckerberg.

Competition 394

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394