Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2020

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Pricing 123

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 123

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience. I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. This is a very important to do when you first start a company.

Sales 393

Sales Startup Resource Customer 393

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2014

Does it really take a few flaws to make a great entrepreneur, or are the rest of us just confused about what a perfect business person is all about? The business leader with the positive traits to calmly and patiently handle tough customers, vendors, and personnel situations, balancing all the issues, I would evaluate as a great one.

Startup 103

Startup Entrepreneur Demand Customer 103

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

There's lots of noise in the on-demand tutoring space, especially connecting people virtually, however, in my experience, it's in the best interest of consumers to get in-person, local tutoring. The reason the big players have gone the online route, is just the burden of managing those local logistics.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 116

Jason Nazar

APRIL 2, 2016

The following checklist is my comprehensive criteria for how to grade entrepreneurs. I, like many entrepreneurs, never followed directions that well. Stay attached to the problem they are trying to solve, but be flexible in the solutions to solve it ( watch : The Entrepreneur’s Dilemma ). Build a team of A vs. B players.

Entrepreneur 46

Entrepreneur Tips Organization Sales 46

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Pricing 105

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 105

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Thus, I’m more impressed with entrepreneurs who ask me to review their implementation plan, rather than listen again to their idea. In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. Even a non-profit needs income to operate.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2016

Steve Jobs was a one-in-a-million entrepreneur who seemed to violate many conventional rules of starting a business and dealing with people, yet undeniably achieved great success. As a result, I don’t recommend to aspiring entrepreneurs that they try to emulate his style as a model for their first startup.

Startup 103

Startup Entrepreneur Product Marketing 103

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2015

Does it really take a few flaws to make a great entrepreneur, or are the rest of us just confused about what a perfect business person is all about? The business leader with the positive traits to calmly and patiently handle tough customers, vendors, and personnel situations, balancing all the issues, I would evaluate as a great one.

Entrepreneur 59

Entrepreneur Startup Demand Customer 59

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2016

Entrepreneurs and startups are big believers in innovation, but sometimes they forget that innovation must be continual to assure long-term success, rather than the one big-bang idea that initiated their journey. Get the right players on board and enable them to do great things. Recognize that customers care about the whole experience.

Startup 58

Startup Organization Demand Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2018

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Customer acquisition gets harder and more expensive.

Pricing 52

Pricing Cloud Computing Customer Custom 52

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2013

We spoke with CEO and co-founder John Tabis about how TheBouqs believes there''s an opening for a modern online flower delivery service, because none of the existing players are catering to the new generation of consumers. The second big part of this, is the user experience, the brand, and the customers. What is the Bouqs?

Services 215

Services Technical Review Startup Pricing 215

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

The ideas are endless, but we need more smart entrepreneurs to implement them. Another approach is simply repurposing used items, or simply passing them down to less demanding users, like the ecoATM story with used cell phones, tablets and MP3 players. Choose Energy, and others highlighted in this recent Investopedia article.

Artificial Inteligence 79

Artificial Inteligence Resource Examples Startup 79

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Picking a VC is hard. You don’t really have much to go on to decide who would make a good fit. Reputation of firm? Of partner? Deals done in your industry? It’s a bit of all of these. and I realized that without years of experience it is tough to answer this question. Most VCs are book smart. Smart is simply not a differentiator.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2017

The pervasive Internet and mobile device access allows instant communication of new options, total sharing of customer experiences, and mass customization, on a world-wide scale. Historically, many businesses profited from the time lags between supply and demand by exploiting geography, relationships, and buying habits.

Demand 54

Demand Technical Review Pricing Customer 54

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Yet I can’t help thinking there are many predictable failures that come from a lack of basic planning.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

My friend Michael Broukhim, founder & co-CEO of FabFitFun and I recently had a catch-up meeting for 3-miles on the Santa Monica “Bird Trail” No company has ever elicited so many questions by friends, colleagues, entrepreneurs, fellow VCs and journalists as has Bird, the company that pioneered the electronic scooter as a service market.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

It's the biggest portion of our revenues at our company, and our clients include the Buffalo News, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, JDate, Spark network, and many entrepreneurs. We actually built that about a year and a half ago, and are bringing that back due to overwhelming demand. What is Deal Current? That's where Deal Current was born.

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

As an active angel investor, I’m accustomed to hearing entrepreneurs pitch their expectation to quickly create a new dominant brand, based on their disruptive technology. Whether our business is a startup or a multi-national brand, through platforms like Amazon, giant players have no special advantage.

Marketing 57

Marketing Startup Entrepreneur Social Media 57

socalTECH

DECEMBER 15, 2010

Among one of the fastest growing industries--despite what has been a stagnant economy--is Internet advertising, which has continued to grow strongly over the past two years. One of the firms poised to take advantage of that growth is Pasadena-based OpenX (www.openx.org), which develops one of the most widely used ad serving solutions available.

OpenX 242

OpenX Advertising Yahoo Pasadena 242

socalTECH

JULY 10, 2019

At the end of the day, we help retailers make smarter recommendations to their customers, which leads to better business. Spencer Price: The customer experience with e-commerce has become less and less human, as algorithms on digital platform replace human interaction. The customer is really struggling to regain their lost humanity.

Pricing 113

Pricing Startup North Hollywood Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2015

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. Be wary of crafty shysters who will flood your mailbox with official-looking mail offering to help for a fee, or demanding fees you forgot to pay.

Ideas 104

Ideas Mentor Resource Entrepreneur 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2014

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. Be wary of crafty shysters who will flood your mailbox with official-looking mail offering to help for a fee, or demanding fees you forgot to pay.

Ideas 107

Ideas Mentor Entrepreneur Resource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

Every business professional not only have to deal with their own office politics, but also with those in their customer offices, vendors, and partners. Here are his key points and mine on how to capitalize on office politics: Identify the political players and stakeholders. Learn how to keep political players comfortable.

Summary 62

Summary Product Networking Demand 62

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

To get an investor excited about another MP3 player at the time, they would have needed to play with the interface. To get an investor excited about another MP3 player at the time, they would have needed to play with the interface. Two aspects to this: You can let an investor see your product via a mockup or clickable prototype.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Startups using celebrities is such a hot topic these days that Gary Vaynerchuck , noted author and entrepreneur, has coined a new term “star-ups” for the phenomenon. For example, Ashton Kutcher not only has the most Twitter followers of any “entrepreneur” (8 million), but he has actively invested in several startups.

Startup 92

Startup Summary Examples Entrepreneur 92

socalTECH

MAY 23, 2017

Jonathan, who was Founding CEO and President of AdColony (which sold to Opera for $350 Million in June of 2014), also told us why he got back in the startup game, even though he could be just sitting on a beach in Bali after his prior success. What is AppOnboard? No one has ever been able to execute on that from a technology standpoint before.

Startup 113

Startup Southern California UCLA Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2016

If you want to explore the world of an entrepreneur, without jumping ship, this would be the way to do it. Entrepreneurs working inside big companies are called “intrapreneurs.” A reason on the other end of the spectrum would be to de-consolidate non-core functions to live or die on their own merits.

Startup 53

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Marketing 53

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2019

Is there room in the last-mile transportation industry for another player, and what are some of the issues that need to be solved to make industry a success? How is this different from the many other on-demand, last mile transportation companies out there? Josh Viner: We're different in two ways. One, is the form factor.

San Diego 113

San Diego Startup Study Los Angeles 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. Be wary of crafty shysters who will flood your mailbox with official-looking mail offering to help for a fee, or demanding fees you forgot to pay.

Ideas 56

Ideas Mentor Resource Product 56

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. Fallacy: AdVentures tend to evolve once you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

industry investors rather than VCs) a good idea for entrepreneurs. His view: sometimes entrepreneurs expect too much value from the partner. To see the video of This Week in VC click on this link. The strategy of GigaOm and where they differentiate in the market. Are “strategic investors&# (e.g. We talked about Facebook.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

InfoChachkie

MARCH 2, 2010

We loved sports and valued the cards because of the players’ achievements. Card investors seek cards which they believe will increase in value and are often indifferent regarding the players and teams depicted on the cards. Capital Cards. Our strategy was simple. We will purchase your old baseball cards.”

Pricing 138

Pricing Advertising Marketing Startup 138

Xconomy

AUGUST 23, 2016

Ideas can generate a lot of buzz and capture attention from investors and potential customers, but long-term success really depends on the capabilities of the team. FedEx began with the notion to deliver a package overnight, and Uber started with the simple idea of providing on-demand transportation. How do you build a good core team?

Ideas 40

Ideas Startup Examples Demand 40

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

We've essentially provided a customer a single interface, where they can create and analyze their international presence. In addition to that, we provide the ability of customers to review that with analytics. When you look at the industry as a whole, there are couple of well-funded players. What is NativeTung?

Startup 133

Startup Technical Review Social Network Content 133

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 26, 2016

6 Entrepreneurs share their predictions for this year’s evolution of online industries, which will be key for small businesses across the globe in 2016. For the VPN industry specifically, we will see a lot of new providers as the barrier to entry is extremely low, and demand is high. Data Security Concerns Dominate.

Commerce 40

Commerce Mobile Technical Review Google 40