Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2023

For example, it has long been widely accepted that one of the primary causes for entrepreneur failure in new startups is that many give up too soon. It takes effort and homework to find productive relationship channels, such as industry conferences, connections to experts, and key customer relationships. Find what works for you.

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Startup Satisfaction Technical Review Ideas 121

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

Nowhere is this more apparent than working in a startup where you are definitionally under-resourced and trying to make big accomplishments in compressed periods of time. Saying “no” often to people who want to divert you from your mission becomes obligatory if you want to make progress. That’s why focus is critical.

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Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2023

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. You have to clearly understand what you want to achieve before you are likely to achieve it. Be a great resource for others.

Social Media 94

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

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. If you don’t believe in your bones that you’re amazing then it’s no wonder you don’t want to sell them on making the investment.”

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

My recommendation is that you plan to pivot your business on a regular basis, at least once a year, even before you see specific negative symptoms indicative of change in the market you thought you knew so well. Yet if you think back to when your business started, you capitalized on change as your opportunity.

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Customer Custom Activity Study 126

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2013

.” It is one of the easiest pieces of advice to give as it is almost always valuable if entrepreneurs follow it as a guideline. Done quickly while you rush to the next toy is a disaster. Yet I promise you this is what many businesses do. Else you suck regardless. So what you choose to do, do well and go deep.

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Course Resource Social Media Design 368

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

As part of UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Lecture Series, serial entrepreneur and noted venture capitalist Mark Suster recently shared his advice with a large crowd of emerging entrepreneurs. If you haven't already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. Start – It’s The Only Way You Will Know.

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Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2020

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. Socaltech has partnered with Sutton Capital Partners with their Recurring Revenue Conference for several yars. Two lessons learnedand relearned!

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Capital SoCal Southern California SaaS 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 30, 2019

Every year, at the end of the year, we share some reflections on the past year from our readers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, sponsors, and others in the local technology community. What was the biggest news for you/your company this year? What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

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SoCal Southern California Startup Venture Capital 140

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2020

Successful entrepreneurs often start with a “random” idea, but they quickly focus their efforts and follow a “system” to organize their startup and maximize the clout of their activities. You have to clearly understand what you want to achieve before you are likely to achieve it. Be a great resource for others.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 126

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

That’s why I caution my aspiring entrepreneur clients against proclaiming to investors that they are a great “idea” person. Finally, implementation requires a commitment of real money and other resources that can’t be written off so easily as an idea ahead of it’s time. Don’t assume you can outsource the implementation decisions.

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Ideas Writing Examples Outsource 126

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 25, 2018

They soon learn that they are entrepreneurs who will launch a magical venture that involves a restorative meal, a communal celebration and reassurance that better days are ahead. Depending on your child’s age, you can either overtly or subtly communicate the various start-up lessons described below as you share Stone Soup with them.

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Entrepreneur Startup Resource Ideas 153

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences.

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Startup Conference Email Venture Capital 322

Tech.Co

MAY 25, 2018

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur, technology has served you well. In fact, for the most part, all you need is a laptop and Wi-Fi connection. Fortunately, the Startup of the Year program aims to make it easier for founders to connect with resources. They created a space where you can follow your dreams.

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Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Please help me congratulate him by Re/Tweeting this post (and following him if you don’t already). Smart founders use this extra resource to their advantage. I think it’s great for some people because it really does give you some solid benefits: board exposure / experience. Just ask Rob Bailey.

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Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

Every entrepreneur wants to hear “yes” during the fund-raising process but I would argue that being too risk averse and not pushing hard enough and be willing to hear a “no” is what holds back many people from “yes.” When somebody has to tell you no, the potential investor must: Feel discomfort of letting you down.

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Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2020

As a business advisor, I listen to many of you entrepreneurs talking about achieving your dreams, but too few of you have structured that dream, and can express it in a set of specific goals, with a timeline for getting there. As Yogi Berra once said, “If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else.”

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Writing Startup Summary Activity 139

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

I recently wrote a piece about how Entrepreneurs Should be Respected, Not Loved. The corollary to this rule is “decision by indecision.&# This is one of my favorite lines to remind entrepreneurs because it is the sort of garden variety mistake that is so common in everyday life. Let me give you some obvious examples.

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Startup Entrepreneur Resource Venture Capital 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2019

If we build it, they will come ” may have worked as a movie theme for Kevin Costner, but as an investor, I tell entrepreneurs a great solution is not enough. Successful businesses require innovative people, who have built an abundance of innovation capital, to win support and resources for their ideas.

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Product Ideas Resource Capital 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2018

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. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

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Incubator Startup Resource Seed Funding 87

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. Of course that website isn’t completely up to date but it’s a great resource for seeing the overall picture. Calls are changing but not dying.

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Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In essence, as a contractor, you are a consultant who is competing regularly for new work, and you constantly have to differentiate your offering from other candidates, including price. In fact, thinking like an entrepreneur is a good strategy today for success, even if you are currently in a long-term employment situation.

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Startup Outsource Development Competition Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Then there is the EIR (entrepreneur in residence) who is usually at a VC for a temporary period of time and other individuals such as venture partners or operating partners. While this post is written about raising venture capital (which I always remind entrepreneurs IS a sales process) the lessons can be applied to any sale or biz dev deal.

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Venture Capital Sales Entrepreneur Startup 308

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

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. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

Incubator 106

Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

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. The 20-minute video of my presentation is here if you’re interested. You can of course view the presentation in SlideShare above or download it directly for free here.

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Marketing Course Pricing Networking 361

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

You can now take advantage of this wisdom directly as Brad has now published it for everybody in a fantastic new book, “Startup Communities.” ” Put simply, if you care about building a successful tech community outside Silicon Valley you should read this book. There are two reasons you need local capital.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Press San Diego 378

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

If I can help you avoid some of my first-time mistakes it would be a victory. You need some guidelines to make decisions. My general rule is that it’s good to be stealth in the early days while you’re building your product and testing your market. “ We need to learn from doing, by trial-and-error.

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Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

After all, you didn’t really need a recruiting department when half of your companies were shutting down and the other half were laying off massive amounts of staff. Other firms like Google bring massive resources to design or engineering and as as corporate VC can offer things normal VC firms can’t offer.

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Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Please help share this widely so that more women become aware of this important resource that is being run nationally. LA Female Office Hours.

Venture Capital 256

Venture Capital Examples Screening Help 256

InfoChachkie

JUNE 27, 2011

I recently answered the question “ What are good ways to raise your children to be entrepreneurs? ” I believe that you cannot teach someone to be an entrepreneur, but that you can teach entrepreneurs. If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Entrepreneur 270

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Resource 270

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 24, 2011

There has recently been a common theme among the entrepreneurs I have interviewed and the conferences I have attended: despite the relatively weak state of the world economy, now is a great time to create a high-tech startup. You don’t really buy servers anymore…the tools are all open source. Basically, everything is free.

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Company Companies Startup Study 257

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

But there are a lot of things that become norms in the VC industry that always drove me crazy from entrepreneur’s side of the table. Translation for any first time entrepreneurs can mean one of: a. In the VC industry you can’t take daily actions. That’s not you or you’re dead. Obviously.

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Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Java 297

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

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. A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give.

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Incubator Startup Help Resource 98

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2010

As a startup entrepreneur you’ll have many demands for your time. Especially if you start to have a degree of success or build a high public profile. Everyone will want you to speak at conferences. Service providers will want to get to know you. Hope you understand.&#. I feel the same way.

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Startup Venture Capital Writing Conference 305

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. 9) I believe that entrepreneurs who are driven by a compelling mission that is not based on making lots of money have a much higher propensity for success. This clearly helped you establish credibility in the early days of lynda.com.

Entrepreneur 245

Entrepreneur Training Startup Web 245

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

If you haven’t already subscribed yet, subscribe now for. 9) I believe that entrepreneurs who are driven by a compelling mission that is not based on making lots of money have a much higher propensity for success. . This clearly helped you establish credibility in the early days of lynda.com.

Entrepreneur 245

Entrepreneur Training Startup Web 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

Blogging is one of the best ways to do this and build a brand, even before you have a product or service. In this age of relationships, you, the entrepreneur, are a very important element of your new brand, and it’s never too early to start marketing the value of your expertise, insights and ideas.

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Blogging Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media 110