Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. Customers buy solutions to solve their problems.

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. So I thought I’d write a piece on how not to suck when you give a presentation. Show some energy! Startup Advice'

Slides

SoCal CTO

MARCH 10, 2010

Or worse, that every potential customer should want it. In the real world not every customer is going to get overly excited about your minimum feature set. Only a special subset of customers will and what gets them breathing heavy is the long-term vision for your product. Go to a blank page.

Product

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

about their marathon 4-hour sessions to get to zero inbox or somebody else claiming email bankruptcy ( definition if you don’t know it already ). You’re writing a freaking blog post! Customer support – After my pre-breakfast meeting I had my actual breakfast meeting. But it’s mostly customer service.

Email

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. As you grow you need process-driven people. In Summary.

Startup

InfoChachkie

APRIL 16, 2012

The Lean Startup approach dictates that successful customer development is an iterative process. Eric (Ries) was a student in one of the very earliest customer development classes at Berkley. Large companies write business plans, why of course, that’s the organizing document for a startup. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. One of our core tasks was “market analysis,&# which consistent of: market sizing, market forecasts, competitive analysis and then instructing customers on which direction to take. So, where is this all coming from, Mark? What are you on about?

Statistics

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

That is the definition of Disruptive Technology. You can ask them to come and watch your videos at your owned & operated websites (O&O) where you can make higher margins as well as ask directly for more meaningful customer information such as Facebook connections, Twitter oAuths, email addresses and the like. Set design.

Company

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Talking about how to inspire moms to get their children engaged with iPads and physical activity sets customized for their kids and based in part on their digital lives. She helps write press releases. In the most perfect sense of the definition. Soleil on the other side getting out sticker packages. Showing me designs.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2011

But poly sci taught me critical thinking and writing skills that I didn’t get in my econ classes. He writes about the fabric of American life, often from the perspective of his Jewish, New Jersey roots. The book is framed in the context of Balram writing a letting to the leader of China trying to explain how India works.

Class

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while and was going to use AngelList by Nivi & Naval as the basis for my example and the perfect prompt came yesterday when I read Fred Wilson’s blog post on AngelList. If you haven’t read it you should definitely buy it – other people just like you did.

Guide

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Who's the customer? will definitely be handled. Do I have to write up the overview? How Does it Work? You need to send us an overview of what you are doing. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? How does the product solve a pain? Who are the main competitors?

CTO Hire

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Who's the customer? will definitely be handled. Do I have to write up the overview? How Does it Work? You need to send us an overview of what you are doing. This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? How does the product solve a pain? Who are the main competitors?

CTO Hire

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Many people start companies arse backwards.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

As a mentor to many business professionals and owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs, I find a wealth of innovative ideas, but often less insight on what it really takes to transform ideas into an income stream that can excite new customers into long-term business success. Test your innovation with at least a hundred customers.

Ideas

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

To be clear, I define a product specification as the technical definition of your product, to be used for development and testing purposes, with a quick business summary for context. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model. They want to see revenue to share in the return.

Product

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

So sticking to my definition of “attributes for success&# it had to be my Top 11 +1 rather than a Top 12. There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. So the whole customer development cycle is very streamlined.

Entrepreneur

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2011

Or simplifying the purchasing process for customers. A way to tell the press and customers what you stand for. This was definitely not an accident and has been the source of at least as much discussion. That’s fine. As long as you don’t care about getting any press. Almost Mona Lisa like.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

But like the company Kyriba, where we recently sold our position at above $1 billion, it took time until the revenue exceeded $100 million recurring and then the industry really competed to back this amazing company since it had scale, defensible technology and long-term, committed customers. VCs have different views and strategies on this.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

MARCH 5, 2020

One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer. Here we expand the definitions a bit to encompass businesses that are still early stage, but perhaps beyond startup.

Outsource Development

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. So I thought I’d write a piece on how to not suck when you give a presentation. One strategy I often employ.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

If you have a team of 10 people then by definition 90% of the time spent on activities is not put in by you and on a team of 100 it’s 99%. A great leader knows customers and has direct relationships with them. He seemed to never care about fans (customers) who also were happy to let the door hit his butt on the way out.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

Another mistake many consultants make is to charge by the hour, and customers lose track and lose confidence as things change. Speak to people, rather than write a document every time you want a change. Have "customers", not "clients." This is a minor semantic point, but an important one to the customer.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 6, 2018

It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising. Let’s say you have built a SaaS company where a large part of the early revenue comes from a few big customers or a large part of the revenue is services based vs. software based. Fund raising. Let me give you an example. What to do about that chip on your shoulder ?

Funding

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. One of the interesting things about being a VC is that you often see companies in transition. But your job isn’t to make every decision for him.

Startup

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write and 9 Tips To Get Started - OnStartups , September 27, 2010 "The best part of blogging is the people you will meet"- Hugh MacLeod repeating wisdom from Loic Lemeur to me at the Big Pink at 2 am in South Beach after the Future of Web Apps 2008. Why You Should Write. Why You Should Write.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2022

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive.

Social Media

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Having paying “Customers” is what makes the cash register roar. An entrepreneur having low self worth is the number one deterrent for a potential customer not buying into what you are selling. Using your service or owning your product isn’t why a person buys, it’s the experience your customer will have. Second, how to get leads.

Customer

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

I want to fail because I backed an extraordinary entrepreneur with a super-ambitious project and we were just wrong about market timing, customer adoption, competition, regulation or similar. I thought to write a bit about this because last week I was asked by Jonathan Triest to agree to a short interview for his series called Carpool VC.

Venture Capital

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2012

By definition, an entrepreneur is the first to undertake a given business, and firsts never happen without problems and people frustrations. You can definitely train yourself to be a problem solver, if you haven’t already. It’s a key skill for success in every business role, from accountant to customer support.

Tips

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

That, plus I love the space of high-customer-service, focused eCommerce for moms worried about what their kids eat & wear.&#. Starting with exclusive rights to sell celebrity chef, Tyler Florence’s, line of baby food online, SproutBaby began seeing initial traction from customer interest as physical distribution spread.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2010

And aside from having great market power (the main reason for Twitter to own the client and the customer) advertising is one of the primary reasons that I believe Twitter needs to own the client applications. It also means that the publisher (person writing the status update) can share in the monetization.

Acquisition

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I’m no great scholar on bubbles – I have more interesting things to spend my time worrying about than the exact definition , but having been around a few I have at least given them intellectual consideration. customers who paid for services often get burned.

Pricing

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2013

By definition, an entrepreneur is the first to undertake a given business, and firsts never happen without problems and people frustrations. You can definitely train yourself to be a problem solver, if you haven’t already. It’s a key skill for success in every business role, from accountant to customer support. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2010

developing a product you might like to survey prospective customers without biasing their answers. There are definitely times where a more narrowly defined question makes sense and where you want to guide the person you’re talking with to a narrow boundary to illicit a certain type of response.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2013

I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Feedback from your blog will tell you quickly whether anyone agrees with your assessment, and whether you have a customer base waiting. Cultivate early customers. Find potential partners. Build your brand and get leads today.

Blogging