Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

Leading edge technology software and manufacturing require constant course corrections and iterative restarts. It’s hard to write a detailed specification on an evolving new service, process, or product that embodies your core competency. Don’t count on contracts and non-disclosure agreements to save you.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. ” Climate resiliency . Given the steady drumbeat of climate disasters that hit the U.S.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

The main thrust of the post is that with YouTube taking a 45% of revenue and talent taking 70% of the remaining revenue, YouTube Networks didn’t have sustainable businesses unless they invested heavily in technology as a tool to increase margin and provide defensibility. That is the definition of Disruptive Technology.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2018

A critical stage for most first-time entrepreneurs is getting their idea developed into at least a prototype to validate their technology. This process costs money, which professional investors are not willing to contribute, since their interest is in scaling a proven product and business model into a growth business.

Funding 90

Funding Technical Review Startup Research 90

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

And do I fit as a Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO ? He had a partially built product. Consider what Ryan Waggoner tells us How to Find a Technical Cofounder : When I was doing freelance development, I had about one pitch per week for an equity-only opportunity. That’s a pretty common experience.

CTO Hire 241

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. It’s obvious that we can be too late to these decisions of course. Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. In fact, they are probably in such a hurry to give you money that they don’t want you to waste time writing anything down and passing it along to new investors. You need money, and plan to do crowdfunding.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2013

Of course, this has to be in concert with a variety of visible characteristics that indicate that you as the entrepreneur have the attitude and practical skills to make it happen. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well. Allows sufficient time to find capital, including due diligence time for investors.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Course Patents 109

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

And of course we help with business development introductions and with fund raising events. I have been meaning to write this for a while as I’ve noticed that much of my board time is involved in trying to be an independent referee for founders who themselves are trying to resolve their own conflicts. What prompted this post?

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

socalTECH

AUGUST 6, 2012

Santa Monica-based Demand Media (www.demandmedia.com) has seen its share of ups and downs as one of the highest visibility technology and media companies to come out of Southern California's technology ecosystem in recent years. But, they could not write, and did not know what to write from the travel perspective.

Demand 240

Demand Media eHow Content 240

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2012

Of course, this has to be in concert with a variety of visible characteristics that indicate that you as the entrepreneur have the attitude and practical skills to make it happen. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well. Allows sufficient time to find capital, including due diligence time for investors.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Course Patents 117

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2013

And it’s the latest in a series of investments we’ve made in building out our practice as the LA technology market continues to grow robustly and attract entrepreneurs and investors. Of course – some people can be remote. He of coursed required me to lobby on his behalf as well. Jordan Hudson. Kevin Zhang.

Startup 372

Startup Course Ideas Invest 372

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). We want to have startups we can get productive or generating revenue pretty quickly. It's all about leverage.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. I have thought a lot about anonymity over the years and actually have enjoyed debating the topic with those passionate about anonymity’s benefits because of course that’s how I learn.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

He knew first hand what it was like for people to bully or make you feel self conscious due to your weight or looks or physical abilities. It was sort of an anti Secret or YikYak that become bullying platforms due to their anonymity and cruel crowd-enraged mob behavior. So he did away with it. Just make something cool. Make it great.

Social Media 150

Social Media Media Technical Review Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. Well, obviously if you knew that in advance it would be big of course that would be true.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

Leading edge technology software and manufacturing require constant course corrections and iterative restarts. Its hard to write a detailed specification on an evolving new service, process, or product that embodies your core competency. Dont count on contracts and non-disclosure agreements to save you.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 95

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

At the big consulting firms, investment banks and established large technology companies we’re taught to produce long reports, make sure that every document is perfect quality and that every possible bit of diligence has been done. It says that you need to take due care in selecting team members. Good enough isn’t.

Startup 335

Startup Technical Review Framework Entrepreneur 335

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Of course, this has to be in concert with a variety of visible characteristics that indicate that you as the entrepreneur have the attitude and practical skills to make it happen. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well. Allows sufficient time to find capital, including due diligence time for investors.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Angel Technical Review Course 96

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. Is it one product line or multiple?

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

One is obvious, without protection, such IP might prove to be of little worth, as other companies can mimic the technology without recourse. The very nature of formal IP approval process ensures that some level of vetting has been performed to assess whether the IP is infringing on another company’s technology. Provisional Approach.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. Or at least remain productive and balance all of my priorities.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2016

Leading edge technology software and manufacturing require constant course corrections and iterative restarts. It’s hard to write a detailed specification on an evolving new service, process, or product that embodies your core competency. Don’t count on contracts and non-disclosure agreements to save you.

Outsource Development 53

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 53

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

That may be a boon to dating today, but if your business is making money from apps, it seems like your success will convince users that they no longer need your product tomorrow. Regularly follow reviews and influencers in your industry. Tomorrow is never mentioned in the pitch.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). They do this because they have amazing skills at writing business plans.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2013

Yet most startups I know experience the same shock of disappointment when they first open up their website to offer their “million dollar idea” product, and nobody comes. Publish a regular blog, contribute to relevant social networks, and write a “white paper” on your technology. Put yourself on the site. People buy from people.

Search Engine Optimization 105

Search Engine Optimization Startup Advertising SEO 105

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. That changed very quickly. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 11, 2010

This month’s big question is Examples of Big Impact from Technology and I’ve taken it as an opportunity to go back and look at the elements of different projects that I’ve worked on over the years that have had a big impact. I’ve seen that in courses and in design specs many times, and it’s a HORRIBLE IDEA.

Satisfaction 167

Satisfaction Examples Course Technical Review 167

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Bill Gates once famously said that people tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the 1-year timeframe and underestimate its impact in the 10-year timeframe. I tend not to go into heat when I hear the latest buzz on the tech blogs about the latest gadgets. There is, of course, a paid version. We’ll see.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278