Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2021

Every business I know is intimately familiar with outbound marketing, or pushing your message out to customers through email, newspaper, and television advertising. Only a few really understand the process and value of inbound marketing, for pulling customers to your brand. Participate in the top social media sites for maximum impact.

Customer 172

Customer Custom Marketing Social Media 172

InfoChachkie

MAY 27, 2013

Last week, Divshot turned a simple April Fool''s Day joke into a marketing coup, generating nearly 6,000 Tweets and over a thousand Beta customers. As noted in Hacking Hacker News , the company previously dominated the mindshare of the web development community by facilitating the spread of a random posting on Hacker News.

Customer 153

Customer Custom Template Startup 153

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2011

San Diego-based Sony Online Entertainment , the developer of massively multiplayer online games, has provided details of the intrusion on the firm's systems, saying that hackers may have stolen its customer information. The revelation follows last week's hacking of Sony's PlayStation Network and other services.

Entertainment 145

Entertainment Customer Custom San Diego 145

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2010

Mehdi Daoudi is CEO of CatchPoint Systems (www.catchpoint.com), a new Los Angeles startup focused on the web site and web application monitoring industry. We're trying to make monitoring of web sites and applications sexy and simple. That's why web performance and web monitoring mean serious dollars.

Tool 232

Tool Web Startup Sites 232

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 10, 2012

The lessons learned by Divshot confirm that obtaining, and more importantly maintaining, visibility on the front page of a major social news site results from the congruence of three factors: audience, timing and engagement. No matter how you end up on the front page of a major news site, getting there is just the first step.

News 198

News Sites Startup RSS 198

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Think of these as the big upfront questions: Who are the customers? Please be able to provide me with a few specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, what the system will do for them. What are some good examples of similar sites? Examples of other brands/sites that are similar from a brand perspective?

Develop 396

Develop Development Startup SEO 396

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

The score allows online stores to see, at a glance, what their performance is with customer retention. Retention Science said its new score helps businesses predict customers are likely to churn or unsubscribe, and also provides campaign recommendations that the business can take actions on to improve its customer retention.

Commerce 242

Commerce Los Angeles Customer Custom 242

socalTECH

DECEMBER 16, 2010

According to the firm, the new product provides Web presence management to its customers, helping customers to drive their online search discovery, manage their reputation, and also manage social media marketing. Pricing on the new offering was not disclosed. READ MORE>>.

ReachLocal 222

ReachLocal Woodland Hills Social Media Media 222

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Think of these as the big upfront questions: Who are the customers? Please be able to provide me with a few specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, what the system will do for them. What are some good examples of similar sites? Examples of other brands/sites that are similar from a brand perspective?

Develop 384

Develop Development Startup SEO 384

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2010

Torrance-based LiveOffice , a provider of email archiving services, announced today that the firm is releasing a new product specifically aimed at archiving social media sites, including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The firm said the new LiveOffice Social Archive software is can capture and retain content from any public web site.

Torrance 202

Torrance Social Media Social Network Web 202

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either. Even with these, you will have paper-tested your MVP, but the reality is that customers will not be able to assess the value to them until they actually use it. We end up using WordPress a lot as the marketing front-end of our web sites.

Technical Review 338

Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

If you sell a product direct to a customer – in person or on the phone – you need to understand what their pain points are and position your product benefits against those pain points. Many, many tech companies I meet start with a set of “awesome features” and present them to me (and I suspect also to customers). Why Buy Mine?

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Vonjour (www.vonjour.com), a Los Angeles startup, has developed a cloud-based customer support and phone system which, in addition to handling all of a company''s usual enterprise phone needs--also lets employers harness employee smartphones to deal with customer support issues, make calls, and interact with customers directly from a mobile app.

Customer 133

Customer Custom Startup Mobile 133

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2013

Los Angeles-based content delivery network provider NetDNA is powering a web performance optimization service for WordPress blog owners this morning. NetDNA said that W3 Total Cache , which develops a plug-in for the popular WordPress web publishing software, is using its MaxCDN services to help its customers with optimizing WordPress sites.

Services 185

Services Blogging Web Sites 185

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2012

Los Angeles-based Invested.in , the developer of web-based software for managing crowd funding efforts, has connected its service into the popular AngelList service, saying last week that it is launching Crowdcelerator.com , a new service which uses AngelList's API to help startup companies raise funds and close their fundraising rounds.

Web 220

Web Invest Los Angeles Pricing 220

socalTECH

JULY 7, 2010

Here are eight Southern California companies and the experienced, successful entrepreneurs heading up their efforts, who haven't had any problems finding investors--or customers--for their firms. Getting lots of notice--and controversy--at Demand Media for its use of writers to create content specifically to attract web traffic.

Southern California 228

Southern California Entrepreneur SoCal Mahalo 228

socalTECH

APRIL 24, 2019

Shane Bernstein: We look at actionable data points and data metrics which are quantifiable across the web, and we qualify them and normalize that data, and sort them based on what they've done. Shane Bernstein: We're looking at things from a lot of different sites, and using big data to process them. It's a 100 percent passive pool.

Sites 240

Sites Startup Tool CTO Hire 240

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

I frequently work on networking through the social web and building new relationships that will foster knowledge gathering or business growth. A day might include a discussion with a finance partner, an investor, a customer or a fusion partner. We need to spend some time discussing what you do with the social web. Great posts.

Acquisition 170

Acquisition Customer Custom Ideas 170

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

Who are the customers? Please be able to provide me with a few specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, what the system will do for them. What are some good examples of similar sites? Examples of other brands/sites that are similar from a brand perspective? What’s their specific need / pain?

Software Development 292

Software Development Develop Development Startup 292

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

For this morning's interview, we talked with Noah Auerhahn , President of San Diego-based Extrabux (www.extrabux.com), an online site focused on providing consumers with comparison shopping combined with discount offers. For people who haven't heard of ExtraBux, what is the site all about? Noah, thanks for the interview.

USC 207

USC CPC Sites Startup 207

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

the operator of online real estate sites Move.com and Realtor.com, said today that it has acquired Threewide Corp. Move--which has major operations in Westlake Village--said the acquisition will allow it to deliver greater value to its customers. Move, Inc. , The deal was worth $13M in cash. ListHub syndicates 2.4

Westlake Village 198

Westlake Village Acquisition Sites Web 198

socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2011

The firm--which has been focusing in on musicians and bands with its service--allows customers to create their own QR codes through the site, linked to special online modules to promote those customers. ShareSquare has been in private beta for the last three months. The startup is headed by Matthias Galica. READ MORE>>.

Services 167

Services Web Mobile Los Angeles 167

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

So they create a task list of all the marketing activities an organization can do: press releases, web site updates, customer case studies, blog posts, daily Tweets, Facebook fan page, attending conferences, etc. You have a marketing department with three people. They’re tasked with doing … marketing.

Startup 323

Startup Press Development Team Review SEM 323

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

A security researcher is reporting that Pasadena-based matchmaking site Santa Monica-based eHarmony is alerting users to change their passwords, after a reported breach of customer information. The breach follows a rash of similar security issues from other web-based service providers in the last few months.

eHarmony 167

eHarmony Report Santa Monica Pasadena 167

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2012

The company's founder and CEO is Sean Broihier , who told us all about the site--and also how. Once you get that profile page, you can upload your beautiful images to our site. So, buyers will come to our site, which has all of these beautiful images from all. all of that for more than a 100,000 members.

Santa Monica 258

Santa Monica Pricing Sites Sales 258

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

Los Angeles-based CrownPeak , a developer of web content management systems (CMS), has raised $1.75M in a Series C funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. CrownPeak, which is headed by Jim Howard, develops software used by companies to easily modify and maintain web sites, without requiring web designers.

Web Design 162

Web Design Web Content Los Angeles 162

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2010

Irvine-based Local.com , the online operator of local search advertising sites, said today that it has suspended its acquisition of LEC-billed subscribers, and will focus on providing its own, credit-card local business product, Exact Match. down and $495 per month for customers who want the firm to develop keyword-based local web sites.

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Paid Search Advertising Web 150

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 17, 2021

A California-based medical startup that provides COVID-19 testing across Los Angeles has pulled down a website it used to allow customers to access their test results after a customer found a vulnerability that allowed access to other people’s personal information. Read more on TechCrunch.

Software Review 205

Software Review Los Angeles Customer Custom 205

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Irvine-based Projjix said today that it has launched a beta of a service to help consultants connect with potential customers. The startup, headed by Jim Hazboun, said its site will help Fortune 500/1000 companies find and engage consultants.

Sites 164

Sites Web Startup Services 164

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2010

We also talked about how brands are increasing driving much of their traffic to Facebook and away from their own web pages. Search leverages selective filtering via XMPP versus site indexing; only real-time search player to do so. Network of vertical focused sites: BeachMint, BeachMint, WineMint, etc.; Real-time search engine.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital Google Web Sites 225

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

Lesson: You dn’t want your customers to feel locked into using your software. It helps with sales cycles because customers know that they can switch away if they so choose. While customers will be willing to try your product, they think two steps ahead. A product manager is responsible for: Talking to customers.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

socalTECH

JUNE 10, 2011

Howard Lindzon , the CEO of San Diego-based StockTwits , has made another angel investment, this time in Embed.ly , a developer of tools that make it easier for web sites to embed content from other web sites. said that StockTwits is one of the firm's customers.

San Diego 140

San Diego Web Sites Tool 140

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2018

A major, security leak by a Southern California company, which revealed the location of every single mobile phone customer in the United States to within a couple of hundred feet, was exposed on Thursday --raising questions to how cell phone users data is being used and sold by mobile carriers. The service was taken offline yesterday.

Mobile 100

Mobile Customer Custom Southern California 100

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2010

Last week, Los Angeles-based HauteLook (www.hautelook.com), an online private sales site, scored a major round of funding--raising $31M from Insight Venture Partners. We work on behalf of brands, as a web site that has a membership base of over 2.5 Adam, thanks for the time. Adam Bernhard: We're a platform that does flash sales.

Sales 224

Sales Email Startup Sample 224

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2015

With the advent of social media and the pervasive move to smartphones, even customers who still prefer to purchase in brick-and-mortar stores have dramatically changed their shopping habits. If you refuse to play by their rules, they have the power to easily find alternatives, and actively pull other potential customers away.

Customer 103

Customer Custom Marketing Social Media 103

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

Pasadena-based Foodme (www.foodme.com) is one of the first, external startups funded out of Idealab's New Venture Group, and is looking to help connect restaurants with customers using a CPA model. We don't cannibalize their existing customers base. John Delacruz: Right now, people come to our web site and tell us what they want.

Idealab 217

Idealab Pasadena Pasadena Angels Demand 217

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2010

According to Central Desktop, ActiveWord Systems will provide a free custom version of its ActiveWords productivity tool for Microsoft Windows for Central Desktop users. ActiveWord's product automates desktop tasks such as launching programs, navigating to certain Internet sites, or automatically inserting text into software.

SaaS 160

SaaS Pasadena Web Software 160