Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2022

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. Vendor costs are subject to change, customers are fickle, competitors come out of the woodwork and the economy can take a downturn. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sample Customer 147

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2015

Most entrepreneur that fail are quick to offer a litany of constraints that caused their demise – not enough money, time, customers, or support from the right players. The result, called resourcefulness, allows entrepreneurs to create opportunities in the face of scarcity. Let your constraints drive innovation.

Resource 98

Resource Entrepreneur Competition Startup 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

In my experience as an angel investor to startups, goodwill disagreements are perhaps the most common reason that you will fail to close interested investors as an entrepreneur. If you are the entrepreneur or owner, every potential investor takes a hard look at you. Quality of your technical and business teams.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Social Media Entrepreneur Startup 147

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. where Tony Wright suggests charging right now.

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

Based on traditional research, getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers. If you are an entrepreneur not using this model, it may be time to consider a pivot. Private club model. Front-of-the-line model. Network model. Marty Zwilling

Startup 117

Startup Pricing Customer Custom 117

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2023

In reality, based on my experience as a startup advisor and investor, these constraints lead the best entrepreneurs to the most innovative solutions and new markets otherwise overlooked by their peers and competitors. People respond to positives, such as new growth, versus problems implying costs and loss of customers.

Resource 111

Resource Competition Outsource Development Startup 111

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Entrepreneurs often must take counter-intuitive, contrarian positions in order to succeed. As noted in Entrepreneurship Is A Compulsion , entrepreneurs often view the world from a slightly different vantage point, rejecting the oxymoronic term Conventional Wisdom. . That’s logic.”. Lewis Carroll, from Through The Looking Glass.

Entrepreneur 230

Entrepreneur Software Review Allegis Metrics 230

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

One or more of the following parameters are viewed by most investors as traction indicators, but good entrepreneurs are often creative and define their own to supplement these: Start with sales to-date for a priced offering. One customer is not traction, and beta tests with a thousand customers at no cost don’t count.

Startup 121

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2020

Based on traditional research, getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers. If you are an entrepreneur not using this model, it may be time to consider a pivot. Private club model. Front-of-the-line model. Network model. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 168

Startup Customer Custom Netflix 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2020

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The ideal business model is to establish a direct-to-consumer service that enables you to bill the customer directly. This freemium model has been used for years by web apps. Offer premium services after user is hooked.

Mobile 126

Mobile Develop Development Platform 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2020

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. Vendor costs are subject to change, customers are fickle, competitors come out of the woodwork and the economy can take a downturn. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 123

Startup Pricing Sample Customer 123

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Constance Curtis: I have been a successful entrepreneur for the past thirteen years. At that time, I didn't know it would cost me $14,000 to hire my own personal matchmaker, and leaving my first meeting when I learned that, and being an entrepreneur, I realized I had identified a huge problem. How did you start the company?

Startup 203

Startup Entrepreneur Southern California Netflix 203

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Nearly every entrepreneur has heard the refrain, "Get back to me when you have some traction,” while seeking funding. Five broad sources of independent, third-party validation are: Customers, Partners, Distributors, Industry Experts and other Stakeholders. However, not all ventures are mature enough to generate paying customers.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital RSS Customer Custom 265

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2015

Every entrepreneur is quick to tell friends and potential investors about his or her vision of changing the world, about all the customers who have expressed an interest, and about all the other investors who are lining up to get a piece of the action. Is your customer-acquisition rate accelerating? Margins should be increasing.

Acquisition 100

Acquisition Entrepreneur Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers.

Startup 115

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2010

Many entrepreneurs think that risk is just an “occupational hazard” that can be minimized or eliminated by a smart businessman. Here are some simple examples of “good” strategic risks that you should be working on: Deliver an innovative solution to a painful customer problem. That way of thinking is simplistic and wrong.

Entrepreneur 97

Entrepreneur Pricing SaaS Competition 97

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

. - 500 Hats , July 30, 2010 Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 Customer Development Checklist for My Web Startup – Part 1 - Ash Maurya , February 16, 2010 How-to learn about angel/vc term sheets - Gabriel Weinberg , June 28, 2010 Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write and 9 Tips To Get Started - OnStartups (..)

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers.

Startup 113

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers.

Resource 64

Resource Metrics Entrepreneur Customer 64

InfoChachkie

MAY 12, 2011

It was a great precursor to being an entrepreneur. You don’t need to go to business school and you don’t have to have an MBA to be a great entrepreneur and in some cases it (an MBA) can dull your entrepreneurial instincts. " "I’m a really big fan of Freemium. "Yes (laughs)!

Pepperdine 234

Pepperdine Startup Santa Barbara Class 234

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

I was mentoring some graduate students at a local university recently, and I sensed again that profit seems to be a dirty word these days to many aspiring entrepreneurs. I’m certainly not a fan of customer rip-offs, but even non-profits have to be cash-flow positive, or have deep pockets, to help anyone for long.

Pricing 66

Pricing Customer Custom Advertising 66

InfoChachkie

MARCH 1, 2011

In such cases, a Freemium solution might be the appropriate initial market foray. To learn how to not launch a Freemium solution, see Making Freemium Customers Pay. Deliver the maximum utility to your customers, balanced by your product’s complexity and the time required to get it to market. _. A Valuable Brand.

Product 232

Product Marketing Sales Customer 232

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2015

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. The way to start is with a sample financial model, freely available from many sources on the Internet, such as this one from Entrepreneur.

Startup 103

Startup Pricing Sample Customer 103

Tech.Co

MAY 31, 2023

Launching and growing a startup is one of the biggest missions an entrepreneur can undertake. Business tools — from customer relationship management ( CRM ) platforms to accounting software — help to save startups time and money by automating key processes and maximizing efficiency. While Hide.me

Tool 128

Tool Startup Software Review Technical Review 128

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2015

One of the quickest ways to become an entrepreneur these days is to develop and publish a smartphone app. The ideal business model is to establish a direct-to-consumer service that enables you to bill the customer directly. This freemium model has been used for years by web apps. Offer premium services after user is hooked.

Startup 98

Startup Platform Pricing Netflix 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2014

Obviously, it must be grounded by the characteristics of the market and customers you choose to serve, the pricing model of existing competitors, and a strategy you believe is consistent with your future products and direction. It’s great for customers, but not for startups, unless you have deep pockets. Freemium model.

Startup 114

Startup Pricing Customer Custom 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2015

According to many experts , getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers. If you are an entrepreneur not using this model, it may be time to consider a pivot. business model entrepreneur startup subscription' Private club model. Front-of-the-line model.

Startup 106

Startup Customer Custom Netflix 106

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Every new entrepreneur soon realizes he or she has some big ones, but very few figure out how to use these them to their advantage. I believe that the resourcefulness to turn constraints into competitive differentiators and new opportunities is a trait that separates the great entrepreneurs from the “wannabes.”

Startup 57

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Outsource 57

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

In his premier film appearance in the blaxploitation send-up “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” Chris Rock inadvertently addresses a key pricing challenge faced by most entrepreneurs. When we launched GoToAssist, we offered our customers the option to brand the customer-facing webpages with their logo and brand colors. per month (i.e.,

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2013

Obviously, it must be grounded by the characteristics of the market and customers you choose to serve, the pricing model of existing competitors, and a strategy you believe is consistent with your future products and direction. It’s great for customers, but not for startups, unless you have deep pockets. Freemium” model.

Pricing 116

Pricing Product Customer Custom 116

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

One or more of the following parameters are viewed by most investors as traction indicators, but good entrepreneurs are often creative and define their own to supplement these: Start with sales to-date for a priced offering. One customer is not traction, and beta tests with a thousand customers at no cost don’t count.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 106

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 20, 2020

We are observing that users who switch to our premium plan are seeing their credit score rise even higher than those on the freemium plan. Customers might be cutting their cable to same some funds, but they're not cutting Netflix or Disney Plus.

Netflix 203

Netflix Platform Report Services 203

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

The same should be true of an entrepreneur who is attempting to secure money from sophisticated investors. 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. It’s not.”

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Most entrepreneurs think that risk is just an “occupational hazard” that can be minimized or eliminated by a smart businessman. Here are some simple examples of “smart” calculated risks that you should be working on: Deliver an innovative solution to a painful customer problem. That way of thinking is simplistic and wrong.

Pricing 103

Pricing SaaS Competition Social Network 103

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2016

According to many experts , getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers. If you are an entrepreneur not using this model, it may be time to consider a pivot. Private club model. Front-of-the-line model. Network model. Do your homework before jumping in with both feet.

Startup 56

Startup Customer Custom Netflix 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2011

Most entrepreneurs think that risk is just an “occupational hazard” that can be minimized or eliminated by a smart businessman. Here are some simple examples of “good” calculated risks that you should be working on: Deliver an innovative solution to a painful customer problem. That way of thinking is simplistic and wrong.

Startup 98

Startup Pricing SaaS Competition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2012

You can innovate in technology, markets, and customers, but inventing a new business model is a bad bet. It implies setting up a store in a location where potential customers are likely to be, with products and services on display, being sold at some multiple of cost to cover the overhead and realize a profit. Shopkeeper model.

Startup 95

Startup Customer Custom Summary 95