Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

profitable and companies like Amazon who chose to focus on growth > profitability were not losing money on each book sale (ie they were gross margin positive). And even when calculated correctly often CAC’s are assumed to be constant but of course they’re not. Customer acquisition cost. Gross margin positive !=

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

I never took a business course, never wrote a business plan, and never raised any outside capital. As I look back at insights I might share, I wade through the trite suggestions of ‘work hard’ and ‘treat the customer well.’ I had to be successful at my new software company. I made the sale, and paid my debts.

Startup 204

Startup Software Review UCLA Sales 204

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2020

Communications that traditionally could only be broadcast to all can now be done on a customized person-to-person level, interactively. Soliciting user-generated online feedback and reviews. Nurture dedicated customer advocates and fans. Consider advocates to be a step up from customer engagement.

Tips 124

Tips Social Media Software Review Course 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Reviewing financial & operational performance. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. Mentorship. As You Start to Mature.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

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.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

Of course, there are always exceptions, but how much added risk do you need for your startup? Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5 The list goes on and on.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Oracle Software Review Ideas 123

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Tips 104

Tips Startup Technical Review Equity 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

This is true of any buying process where a customer has to make a large investment decision on your software or when an investor must decide whether to give you $5 million. Of course stringing out the process doesn’t lead to good outcomes. These are similar to the pipeline reviews I used to do with sales reps when I was a CEO.

Funding 189

Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you. .

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2020

Analytic process automation platforms are organizing what were once patchwork point solutions that cost customers time and resources, bringing streamlined processes and the human back to the center of problem solving. ADAPT, the newest pillar of our corporate social responsibility initiative, Alteryx for Good (AFG).

Southern California 140

Southern California Technical Review Platform Organization 140

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Startup 128

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 128

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2012

But only from customers. That’s because you are not their customer. The customer are advertising agencies and brands themselves. Of course tech companies with free products don’t want to take a phone call from end users. Unless you become a paying customer you’re just a cost center to them.

Mobile 311

Mobile Technical Review Google Screening 311

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2012

Your IT Reviewer. They’ve had years of business-unit managers buying software solutions they didn’t need and that eventually become shelfware. Your business unit buyer isn’t used to negotiating software and if you won over the IT team with your prowess then you’re feeling pretty good. Not so much.

Development Team Review 293

Development Team Review Software Review Pricing Startup 293

socalTECH

OCTOBER 2, 2012

We are focused on the investment in and acquisition of software firms that are generating $2.5M These companies have built a leadership position in the market they serve, and they meet a mission critical need of their customer base. We know at a very granular level, by software sector, what a likely acquirer is going to pay.

Acquisition 168

Acquisition Software Review Technical Review Equity 168

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2014

Of course there are people who are great at getting things done, but haven’t had an original idea in their life. I was with IBM in the early PC days when Bill worked with us to provide PC DOS and other software. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Customer retention.

Ideas 108

Ideas Startup Technical Review Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2015

Communications that traditionally could only be broadcast to all can now be done on a customized person-to-person level, interactively. Soliciting user-generated online feedback and reviews. Nurture dedicated customer advocates and fans. Consider advocates to be a step up from customer engagement.

Social Media 99

Social Media Software Review Entrepreneur Course 99

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. Between this blog and reviewing applications to Capital Factory I see hundreds of pitches a year. Most were on paper and video; 20 were invited to pitch in person.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 87

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

Of course, there are always exceptions, but how much added risk do you need for your startup? Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5 The list goes on and on.

Startup 97

Startup Technical Review Oracle Software Review 97

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Of course we have to believe that there is a viable market, a differentiated product offering and a chance to build something defensible but if you do those basics right you still get crushed without an amazingly talented founder. With Ring it became your doorbell so of course you always use it when someone’s at your door.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

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. I was with IBM in the early PC days when Bill worked with us to provide PC DOS and other software. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Customer retention.

Ideas 110

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 110

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). You have a large number of startup customers (because when markets crash they have a funny way of going bankrupt quickly or cutting burn precipitously).

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. I had my sales teams telling me we needed certain features to be competitive. Rinse & repeat.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

It says that selling an airplane ticket for $500 and getting paid a $5 fees by the airlines (1% gross margin) is not the same thing as selling $500 of software that you built (>90% gross margin). billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. The top 5 players combined control less than 25% of the market.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2016

Communications that traditionally could only be broadcast to all can now be done on a customized person-to-person level, interactively. Soliciting user-generated online feedback and reviews. Nurture dedicated customer advocates and fans. Consider advocates to be a step up from customer engagement.

Startup 58

Startup Social Media Software Review Entrepreneur 58

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Good entrepreneurs can admit when their course of action was wrong and learn from it. I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. Good entrepreneurs are wrong often. obviously don’t read this as zero analysis).

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2011

Finally, we want it cheap (of course). Of course, you both need to have compatible smart phones with the software already downloaded. Here is the old standby low-end hardware-based solution, a simple business card scanner for $150, with software to synchronize the data with Outlook, Windows mobile devices and smartphones.

Technical Review 83

Technical Review Technology Software Review Social Network 83

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 27, 2012

But it’s kind of hard to say “don’t plant near the big trees” when you just completed a big sale to Microsoft building an app that they should have created and dominated. We once thought Microsoft was a monopoly on the Internet due to IE. Of course not. Where I Might Expand the Argument. Laughable now.

Technical Review 299

Technical Review Venture Capital Yammer Google 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2017

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Develop 70

Develop Development Product Startup 70

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. I was with IBM in the early PC days when Bill worked with us to provide PC DOS and other software. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Customer retention.

Ideas 95

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 95

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2015

Of course, there are always exceptions, but how much added risk do you need for your startup? Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5 The list goes on and on.

Startup 109

Startup Technical Review Oracle Software Review 109

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Startup 123

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 123

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2015

While all of this is going on you are trying to get customers to use your product, enterprises to sign contracts that don’t leave you with unlimited liabilities and landlords to take you in with limited deposits or guarantees. ” “Of course I won’t sting you. In a word – you are truly vulnerable.

Startup 150

Startup Google Software Review Snapchat 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Set expectations accordingly. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Startup 53

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 53