Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

This is why I loved Brad Feld’s recent post about the “ illusion of product / market fit.” I have written about the deceiving nature of early successes before – in particular in the SaaS or B2B world leading to a phenomenon called “shelfware.” ” If you didn’t read it I recommend it.

Product 150

Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

However, just as Uber pushed its way into recalcitrant East Coast cities because of intense customer demand, the TMP marshaled a critical mass of the University''s resources due to tireless student activism and the resoundingly positive feedback (and donor dollars) from the parents of TMP graduates. Techpreneurs.

Santa Barbara 258

Santa Barbara Technical Review Startup Venture Capital 258

InfoChachkie

MARCH 9, 2019

Successful serial entrepreneurs know that their relationships are valuable assets worthy of careful nurturing – employees, investors, customers and suppliers are loyal to entrepreneurs they trust and trust is built on honesty and integrity. Don’t assume your customers will properly divine your intentions – they probably won’t.

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Startup Netflix Entrepreneur Metrics 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I should note that my friend Brad Feld has written a new book on the subject that I would recommend if you want the bible on the topic. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. Mentorship.

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Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2010

Well Brad Feld, who recently visited us in LA , quoted Mark Pincus in saying, “be the CEO of your own job.&# So to bring solutions you need to be the CEO of your own job. our staff are not yet seeing customer success or they’d be feeling better. I’m up to my eyeballs in problems.

Slides 342

Slides Help Ideas Venture Capital 342

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Beyond that, I want lots of conversations with experts, users, customers, VCs, partners, etc. NDAs or Other Protection So you decide you want to be able to share with experts, users, customers, VCs, partners, etc. You really should go read Brad Feld's Implied Suspicion Versus Implied Trust.

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Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Beyond that, I want lots of conversations with experts, users, customers, VCs, partners, etc. NDAs or Other Protection So you decide you want to be able to share with experts, users, customers, VCs, partners, etc. You really should go read Brad Feld's Implied Suspicion Versus Implied Trust.

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Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

The final clip is Fred & I talking about whether “the best product wins” and my assertion that the bias in today’s Silicon Valley dominated tech world there is probably too much emphasis on tech at the expense of how to sell, implement and service customers. Blogging is like Venus Fly Paper.

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Venture Capital Startup Writing Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. On December 3rd Brad Feld wrote a one paragraph blog post titled “ Raising Venture Capital &# in which he linked to my blog.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

If you think of Pinterest, one of our customers, every time content is pinned or re-pinned, an email is generated to let users know that is happening. Sendgrid started in Summer of 2009 at TechStars in Boulder, and we've now grown dramatically to 100 employees and 60,000 customers. Jim Franklin: Sendgrid is a cloud-based email service.

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Email Startup IP Newsletter 157

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. Instead of making a few dollars per sale and hoping for thousands of sales, you sell to only a few customers, and charge much higher rates.

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Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. You might be surprised why this is the case. In response he sent me a competitive analysis. And it made me sad.

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Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

Step 1: The Person, Not The Firm – As Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson make clear in their book Venture Deals , entrepreneurs should identify specific venture partners, rather than target firms as a whole. If this is the case, offer to make a meaningful introduction to a potential customer or partner of one of their portfolio companies.

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Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

We have about 8500 customers there, but only a small percentage have built great communities that took off, and the rest floundered. That's why we built FanMix, to solve our own problem, and help our SocialEngine customers to promote their own sites. The other amazing thing, is getting access to people like David Cohen and Brad Feld.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

InfoChachkie

JULY 30, 2012

Central Desktop’s angel was amusing without alienating potential customers. Be Authentic, Not Synthetic – In a recent interview I conducted with Brad Feld , co-founder of TechStars and partner at Foundry Group, he summarized the foundation of quality marketing: “Just be you. A company has a personality.

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Marketing Conference RSS Angel 209

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

Brad Feld and I were discussing the topic at lunch at the most excellent Glue Conference this week in Boulder. I’ve made every excuse to myself in the past, “I can’t fire him now, he owns the customer relationships and it’s a crucial point in our sales process.” So I have been reluctant to weigh in again on the topic publicly.

Startup 335

Startup Technical Review Framework Entrepreneur 335

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

One of the biggest turn offs for investors are founders who don’t know the basics of their business, especially their market and customer. They have to know their industry, know their customers, and understand what it takes to make their customers happy.”. Failing to do their homework is never a good color on anyone.

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Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

Assistly “Multi-channel customer support and management service&# – this is another industry I love and I specifically love the team at Assistly. They have done 3 startups in the customer support space and one that wasn’t. I spent a bunch of time with Co-founders Alex Bard and Gary Benitt. What was I thinking?

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

You fish where your customers are. “What you see&# is a brilliant marketing & strategy initiative that has gotten some of the hardest to acquire customers on to our platform and not just downloading but using our application every day for hours on end. This is a team that from day one knew where the puck was going.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

They were grateful for the extra money as their launch was overwhelmingly successful and they had to rapidly hire staff to support customer demand. Brad Feld at Foundry Group also invests in seed deals (this is a great post worth reading on Brad’s views of seed deals). I’m not the only VC who feels this way.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2021

Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. To be an effective negotiator, I agree that you first need to quickly identify and adapt to your opponents negotiating style.

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Funding Startup Entrepreneur Customer 131

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

In VC there are the obvious people including Bijan, Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Josh Kopelman and Bryce Roberts. And when you finish the demo you can bring in the other important components such as competition, team, customer acquisition strategy, etc. Who are your key customers? I’m sure there are many more.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2020

I saw these addressed well in a new book, “ The Startup Community Way ,” by Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway. Of course, ultimately you must appeal to real customers to survive. Many of you are convinced that it’s all about finding investors, but my experience indicates that the critical resources needed go far beyond money.

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Resource Startup Capital Mentor 131

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

And Brad Feld. When you’re doing biz dev deals or customer deals you need to start with a list of the things that you think could go wrong or that you want to protect against. The agreement they sent said, “we may offer your services to our customers.&# This went unnoticed by the CEO and the lawyer.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2019

Image via Pixabay Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. To be an effective negotiator, I agree that you first need to quickly identify and adapt to your opponents negotiating style.

Entrepreneur 80

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Funding 80

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 4, 2013

Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. Brad Feld entrepreneur investor Jason Mendelson negotiation startup' Don’t work so hard at winning the battle that you lose the war.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Startup Customer Custom 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2017

Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. To be an effective negotiator, I agree that you first need to quickly identify and adapt to your opponents negotiating style.

Entrepreneur 58

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Funding 58

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2012

Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. To be an effective negotiator, you first need to quickly identify and adapt to your opponents negotiating style.

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Funding 99

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

My favorite is by Rand Fishkin and is here and others by Fred Wilson ( here ) and Brad Feld ( here , who if he’s reading this just threw up a little in him mouth – all are worthwhile. You should start by getting out and talking directly with customers as Bieber did.

Entrepreneur 398

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2011

Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. To be an effective negotiator, you first need to quickly identify and adapt to your opponents negotiating style.

Startup 93

Startup Entrepreneur Customer Custom 93

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this. I’ll bet your customers, business partners or suppliers would love similar.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving. Look at what Brad Feld has done for Boulder. But it did take Brad as a public spokesman, consummate networker and successful VC to help create legitimacy to let David’s ideas flourish.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2011

I love reading Eric Reis, Steve Blank, Clay Christenson, Brad Feld and others. The next generation takes the baton from their patriarch’s achievements and learn how to do better distribution, how to win over large customers, how to scale manufacturing, how to develop a niche market and be known as best-in-class in that niche.

Class 334

Class Writing Web 2.0 Offshore 334

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

What the entrepreneurs were really saying is, “I don’t want to take a lower valuation now, while I don’t have customers or a full team. If you really want a deep dive on anti dilution better that you go read Brad Feld’s post on the topic. .” I think both points-of-view were a bit naive.

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The Scene Will Kill You - Brad Hargreaves , November 7, 2010 If you’ve taken a deep dive into tech startups, you know about the scene. How to Enchant Your Customer - How to Change the World , November 23, 2010 I love to do business with small businesses—in-store, online, for myself, for others, for pleasure, for work—it doesn’t matter to me.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , January 10, 2010 Developing new startup ideas - Chris Dixon , March 14, 2010 Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images - Code as Craft , July 9, 2010 jQuery Plugin: Give Your Characters a NobleCount - The Product Guy , March 23, 2010 How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378