Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2019

Elon Musk via Flickr by TED Conference To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra that you can’t quite put your finger on, like Ryan Seacrest is searching for on American Idol. Be delightfully authentic and honest.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Social Media .Net Conference 103

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

It’s good advice; the theory being that entrepreneurs can discover the flaws in their business models sooner, make course corrections and move in a more favorable direction. In my case as a young software entrepreneur, I had a different approach: Fail Locally, one customer at a time.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

On why you should be an entrepreneur, “A lot of people do what they have to do. So it was my great pleasure to host Chamillionaire on This Week in VC this week talking marketing, entrepreneurship, old media and, of course, music. In his early career he realized the importance of email lists. This was in the 90′s.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2018

I was recently with an entrepreneur and talking with him about his fund raising process. And my specific response that I recommended was to say, “I can send you our standard data pack but honestly I have too many other firms asking for customized data and we simply can’t send each person custom reports. Want to read more?

Funding 217

Funding Newsletter Venture Capital Email 217

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2022

Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra that you can’t quite put your finger on, like the judges are searching for on American Idol. But the entrepreneurs that have it, including Elon Musk and Richard Branson, seem to be able to effortlessly get team members, investors, and customers to follow them anywhere.

Entrepreneur 139

Entrepreneur Social Media Startup .Net 139

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Others send investors email and business plans in all uppercase or no punctuation.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

Of course there are people who are great at getting things done, but haven’t had an original idea in their life. Great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, are great at both. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Some struggling entrepreneurs are totally event driven.

Activity 133

Activity Startup Ideas Technical Review 133

Berkonomics

APRIL 6, 2017

Of course, you have a vision for what you will do to change the world. First, if your vision is limited and you will be happy with a successful local dry cleaning enterprise or small restaurant around the corner, you are not the target for this effort to help entrepreneurs build great businesses that change the world.

Entrepreneur 256

Entrepreneur Course Resource Email 256

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? I thought I’d talk a bit about the differences I’ve experienced between being an entrepreneur & a VC – you know, from “both sides of the table.&#. On Being an Entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

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. In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). billion email accounts. THE FULL STORY.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 25, 2021

Of course, there are external risks that cannot be controlled or predicted but can be planned for as well – natural disasters, sudden political or economic events that rattle the entire economy, and more. Market risk is constant and should be of greatest concern to any executive or entrepreneur. Mitigating market risk is not easy.

Competition 156

Competition Marketing Class Product 156

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2014

As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Others send investors email and business plans in all uppercase or no punctuation.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Angel Social Media Patents 107

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Fallacy: Startup ventures tend to evolve, especially after you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. What matters is how effectively you change course after each mishap. Grant Exclusivity.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. This post looks at the implementation details of HTML 5 video.

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

So what’s an entrepreneur to do to get his new business noticed these days? Today’s platform is built of people, including yourself, followers, and contacts, who can amplify your message through social media and spread it to your target customers. Make your customers your platform. Using the platform to expand your reach.

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. Others send investors email and business plans in all uppercase or no punctuation.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126

InfoChachkie

MARCH 3, 2011

In the spirit of the “land grab” mentality of the day, we emphasized usage of our screen sharing technology with no thought applied to how we would convert such users into paying customers. We then sorted these email addresses by company and initiated targeted sales campaigns wherever we identified a critical mass of users.

Customer 162

Customer Custom Technical Support Startup 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2013

Of course there are people who are great at getting things done, but haven’t had an original idea in their life. Great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, are great at both. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Some struggling entrepreneurs are totally event driven.

Ideas 110

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 110

Berkonomics

JUNE 14, 2018

If you have been in management or an entrepreneur long enough, you will have experienced the gray area of decision-making where ethics, the law, your needs and expediency all collide. friend who teaches a graduate course in entrepreneurism at a local university. we_are_wat we_are_watching_you. Gray area decisions.

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Course Entrepreneur Customer Custom 226

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2017

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra that you can’t quite put your finger on, like Ryan Seacrest is searching for on American Idol. These moments are always being transformed into options to be explored.

Entrepreneur 66

Entrepreneur Social Media .Net Startup 66

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2022

Every entrepreneur and business leader I know realizes that it takes a dedicated team to build and run a successful business, and nurturing that team is one of your most important priorities. by Donna Cutting, who is a globally-recognized guru on employee culture and optimizing customer service. Emotional stability.

Technical Review 141

Technical Review Mentor Social Media Custom 141

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2012

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. These moments are always being transformed into options to be explored.

Entrepreneur 112

Entrepreneur Social Media .Net Startup 112

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2012

I had a very enjoyable day in Cincinnati meeting many local entrepreneurs, angels and accelerators. In the age of Skype, email, cheap telephony and collaboration tools it’s all too easy to sit in your office and connect with people remotely. It’s how you gain customer insights. It’s Wedneday. I mention this for a reason.

Press 364

Press Course Startup Email 364

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2012

These days every new entrepreneur understands that an innovative product or service is necessary, but not sufficient, to start a business. You have to build a web presence with marketing content to get visibility above the 300 million other new websites created last year, and attract the customers you need. Widgets and badges.

Examples 93

Examples Content Marketing Entrepreneur 93

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As noted in Pour and Stir Part I , the key to the successful execution of this strategy is managing the following equation: The cost to acquire a customer < lifetime value of a customer. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. This is equivalent to being handed a free customer for every ten customers you acquire.

Custom 164

Custom Customer Advertising SEM 164

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021

It’s a story of how people handle unusual situations when selling to the top – an executive of a prospective customer. Email readers, continue here…] Our CEO then returned to the restaurant and met with the chef to have him list all the ingredients from the meal the executive was eating. First, my friend’s story….

Sales 156

Sales Conference Startup Course 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2022

Many of you business leaders I work with, and entrepreneurs I mentor, have a great strategy and an innovative solution , but struggle with building and motivating the team necessary to run your business. Of course, listening alone isn't enough. This created a connection with both his team and customers.

Mentor 108

Mentor Social Media Coach Customer 108

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. The first post & the full outline if you click the link.)

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Funding 261

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 4, 2014

If you could share one startup lesson with a young entrepreneur, what would it be? So I ask prospective new entrepreneurs, ''What is it specifically that you can bring to the industry?'' How has this reality impacted your customer acquisition strategies? Kutay graciously shared his multi-decade entrepreneurial journey with me.

Entrepreneur 187

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Resource 187

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

It’s what life was like as an entrepreneur. But this is nothing like the stress of being an entrepreneur. What’s it really like being an entrepreneur? You probably follow some high-profile entrepreneurs on Instagram and Twitter and see conference pictures of them in Davos, Mexico, Monaco or wherever.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The surest sign a fund-raising process has stalled is when you aren’t getting follow-up meetings or hearing from the VC or hearing from friends that they got a phone call or email asking about you. Of course there’s no exact number of VCs you should meet?—?these Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC).

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. Here’s the thing: entrepreneurs who aren’t at all of our private meetings really didn’t know what do think about the situation. It sure wasn’t when I was a first-time entrepreneur.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

Of course, we are speaking of increased valuation of your company when we speak of “wealth.” Especially if you are in the early stage of growing a business, these five risks can and often do derail entrepreneurs before realizing the riches of a great exit. So, let’s examine them and mitigate them. Make you wealthy someday.

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

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. This is the easiest one for most entrepreneurs. But most good entrepreneurs do this naturally.

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2011

To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. These moments are always being transformed into options to be explored.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Tips Social Media Startup 108

Berkonomics

JULY 8, 2021

And it happened again in early 2008, as CEOs reported the first evidence of order slowdowns and issues with customer payments – right before the ‘great recession.’. Many of us are locked in the daily grind of our business, and default to managing events and reacting to incoming stimuli, such as emails and internal requests for assistance.

Organization 156

Organization Email Startup Training 156

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2010

Of course there are people who are great at getting things done, but haven’t had an original idea in their life. Great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates, are great at both. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Some struggling entrepreneurs are totally event driven.

Ideas 95

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 95