SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 14, 2016

The most obvious, is to drive sales. We also wanted access to development resources, and we have our product team here, the engineers and designers, all based in Santa Monica. Of course, we have competitors. Of course, there are follow up emails, but during an event is the next big chunk. It's a marketing experience.

Sales 100

Sales Santa Monica Startup Orange County 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

There’s an old joke in software development, “How much time does it take to design software?” ” Answer: As long as you have scheduled for the design phase. Design with no constraints becomes a research project. Not funny, “ha, ha” but pretty apropos. CEOs are time-driven creatures.

Software 344

Software Startup Design Course 344

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

” Of course I agree with this. At times I wanted the engineering team to produce features to support our sales efforts to I occasionally leaned on them a bit. Of course by the next quarter if I felt ripped off I could advocate for 7% or maybe ops requirements needed to be upped to 20% for one quarter. I did this.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. Many of us learned about substitute products in undergrad economics courses. Here are some ideas of what I believe matters.

Product 296

Product Course Custom Customer 296

Tech.Co

JUNE 22, 2021

This, of course, is potentially game-changing news for Shopify users. With the new program, publishers will be able to include links in articles, videos, and other forms of content to send readers to products from any of Shopify's merchants — whether they're Kim Kardashian, or a local jewellery designer. Considering Shopify?

Marketing 177

Marketing Buzzfeed Guide Platform 177

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

The company of eight was engaged in web design, hot at the time. And here were over a million users, with no apparent value to the web designers, except as a community of friends with similar interests. Of course we took all of these. I promised to come see him at his office the very next week.

Sales 149

Sales Web Design Web Entrepreneur 149

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2020

Designed to put automation in the hands of all data workers-from line-of-business users to skilled analysts and data scientists-the human-centered platform transforms how businesses leverage their data assets, optimize their processes and upskill human talent to generate workforce efficiencies, top-line growth and optimize costs.

Southern California 140

Southern California Technical Review Platform Organization 140

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 28, 2013

How do you judge a company’s prospects, if a corporate business-to-business sale has to be your game? Just to be up front, as an investor, I am allergic to companies which rely on making potentially huge sales to corporate clients. The great advantage of the B2B market is the potentially huge size of revenues from just one sale.

Startup 214

Startup Sales Product Custom 214

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. As a business advisor and investor in new startups, I see how difficult it is to make any process work, no matter how well designed, if the team is dysfunctional.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2021

Of course, we would all like to have a magic list based on more definitive tracking of many real startups over time. Big gorillas with deep pockets find it hard to scale products that are designed or produced to order. I’m always looking for evidence of early startup characteristics that might be predictors of long-term success.

Startup 170

Startup Study Journal Sample 170

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2022

Of course, growth is implied in that equation, and is also required for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. You might sell one of two of your widgets for $1 million each, entering profitability immediately, but then die because you can’t grow sales at that price. Design a product or service that you can sell.

Platform 118

Platform Snapchat Startup Course 118

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Custom 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

Managing marketing metrics and the sales pipeline. Follow-up is required for every sales lead, a pipeline built, and a sales process documented, with training for new reps. Lack of follow-up after a sale can cost you more customers than poor service or poor quality. Maintaining professional relationships.

Ideas 122

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup IBM 122

Berkonomics

APRIL 30, 2015

Of course money motivates. But how about listing the basics for designing an excellent incentive compensation program? A sales commission plan should reward a salesperson with a combination of salary and commission up to the expected level of performance, often called a quota. What a title. But there is more to it then this.

Design 120

Design Competition Pricing Sales 120

Tech.Co

JUNE 28, 2021

Of course, neither this original mission statement, nor its current one, actually reflect how Facebook profits as a business — it primarily sells adverts to users. The company mission statement is, of course, a way to seize attention externally, and focus team members on the end destination.

Startup 104

Startup Ideas Venture Capital Course 104

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

It wasn’t so much that I wanted to “rise to the next level” as I wanted to be able to lead at a higher-level by having time to spend thinking about how to really propel the business forward rather than always having my nose buried in a spreadsheet or having to lead all of the big sales campaigns. Then my CTO quit.

Startup 372

Startup Organization Course Design 372

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 8, 2021

Six years ago, the company had proved that its reactor design could sustain plasma indefinitely — meaning that once the switch is flipped on a reaction, that fusion reaction can continue indefinitely. Now, the company said, it has achieved the necessary temperatures to make its reactors commercially viable.

Technology 354

Technology Artificial Inteligence Google Orange County 354

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

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2017

Since this number is budgeted and pre-authorized, managers tend to focus upon other things such as sales, marketing and product development issues. So the company turned the ship, slowly it seemed, as R&D worked to develop an appropriate product using the base of the original design. Time slipped; fixed overhead continued.

Venture Capital 243

Venture Capital Product Resource Marketing 243

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Of course, it’s never quite that simple, but I really like the authors outline of the six key building blocks that have driven Amazon growth since their early days, to keep their current market value hovering around a trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers. They find more and better owners and builders.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Custom Customer 123

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

Of course much of it is conflicting. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. As with any sales campaign you need to: Qualify your buyers early so you focus your scarce resources on people likely to buy your product. .

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 10, 2013

Open to potential career pivoters and professionals of all levels, the panel consisted of the following panelists, whom entered their positions from backgrounds ranging from business to engineering to design. Jay Stakelon , VP Product Design, Fullscreen. At Fandango, they examine ticket sales and trends over time. For example?

Product 87

Product Fandango Design Startup 87

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2019

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. As a business advisor and investor in new startups, I see how difficult it is to make any process work, no matter how well designed, if the team is dysfunctional.

Coach 94

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2015

Managing marketing metrics and the sales pipeline. Follow-up is required for every sales lead, a pipeline built, and a sales process documented, with training for new reps. Lack of follow-up after a sale can cost you more customers than poor service or poor quality. Maintaining professional relationships.

Ideas 115

Ideas Startup IBM IBM 115

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

For six years before that he was at Siebel who was the market leader in CRM before Salesforce, and he has both a masters in product design from Stanford and an MBA. He spent nearly five years at each of Salesforce.com and Oracle and was an Area VP at Salesforce leading sales efforts at some of the largest clients that Salesforce.com has.

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 11, 2010

I’ve seen that in courses and in design specs many times, and it’s a HORRIBLE IDEA. Of course, improving customer satisfaction is a goal, but the system would drill down to specific issues such as knowledge of store layout. For automotive sales associates, the rewards were prizes, trips, etc.

Satisfaction 167

Satisfaction Examples Course Technical Review 167

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

Of course, you will want to work out the specifics of how you plan to work together with the advisor once it becomes more formal and adjust accordingly. This might be technology, marketing, sales, operations, international expansion, etc. Maybe it’s knowledge of the players and dynamics of the mobile ad ecosystem. That’s great advice.

CTO Coach 241

CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

million wearables are expected to be shipped worldwide this year, with a rate tripling more than last year’s sales. The NYFW has seen several brands and leading designers collaborating on creating these wearable smartwatch accessories that definitely stood out and hit the catwalk. Photo courtesy of CNET via Pinterest.

Design 86

Design Technology Mobile Google 86

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

The design could hint at what Lime wants to do with its retail store branding. As for what will happen at the store, Fifth Wall’s Adam Demuyakor tells me “There will be deployment of scooters, charging of scooters, and some sales of apparel and accessories that are related.

Santa Monica 221

Santa Monica Startup Technical Review Education 221

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

The vision part is fine, but successful entrepreneurs have found that the extreme uncertainty of a new product or service usually requires many course corrections, or “pivots” to find a successful formula. I agree with Eric’s summary of the top ten types of pivots to consider: Zoom-in pivot. Channel pivot.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Platform Custom 102

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : SocialStay is: "An easy to set up & manage mobile platform designed for the hospitality industry. We have built SocialStay for scale so I think the ‘chasm’ is both a function of time and sales. You don’t need much… But what you do need is sales. It drives revenue & engages guests."

Startup 233

Startup Design Mobile Social Network 233

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

But of course it’s hard to advise people that they should do PR without a guide to how to do it on the cheap or how to do it at all. I’m generally not a believer in too much PR until you have a product built or at least well designed. When to start PR? What do you do when you have finally raised seed funds?

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2019

Of course, growth is implied in that equation, and is also required for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. You might sell one of two of your widgets for $1 million each, entering profitability immediately, but then die because you can’t grow sales at that price. Design a product or service that you can sell.

Snapchat 74

Snapchat Startup Course Yahoo 74

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

You want to send just enough to get the meeting (and of course a great deck sells better than a long email) and not so long that you don’t leave a chance to wow the person in your actual meeting. These are artifacts of a sales process designed to get you back in front of the VC and have further engagement.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

We just knew that we were onto an idea that no one had thought of and we had better be in the press first because, of course, there is a first-mover advantage. Number one is sales. Life is sales. Business development is sales. Winning customers is sales. Getting press is sales. Raising money.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

It is of course why immigrants power so many successful businesses in the US and why we need to embrace them. While still owning the business he now does $60 million in annual sales built from nothing. The distinctive design of his packaging. As the son of an immigrant myself, I am a sucker for an immigrant story.

Entrepreneur 415

Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Product 415

Eric Greenspan

APRIL 9, 2013

The prominent operating system, Windows, has recently taken a huge risk with a shiny new interface and a radical new design, but how many of us wanted it? ” Another issue that has plagued Best Buy’s image is the add-on sale that became a focus at the register. Per course: $9.99. Do we even care?

Pricing 229

Pricing Course Technology Screening 229