Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Even with advantages that independent startups can never hope to match, including brand recognition, customers, financial capital, and distribution, I don’t often see the entrepreneurial passion for innovation, agility, and team perseverance exhibited by new startups. A documented business plan for the new venture is critical here.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Custom 143

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2023

These haven’t changed much over the years, but still seem to be often overlooked by business professionals and leaders in their haste to keep up with peers, competitors, and customers in today’s volatile environment. Check yourself by documenting your own results on a daily basis. Timely follow-up on customer and team member requests.

Startup 121

Startup Satisfaction Technical Review Ideas 121

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2023

Obviously, the business of business has been around a long time, with many “best practices” well-defined and well documented, so creativity that ignores these is usually not a good thing. Sales people tend to remember the latest product when selling to clients, not the one best for that customer. Not always to good effect.

Marketing 119

Marketing Metrics Demand Statistics 119

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2022

Resurgence begins when entrepreneurs and top executives stop trusting only themselves, and build a coalition with customers to see what is and isn’t working. Real change demands new goals based on new market realities. Reinvent the vision for change. Doing more of the same to stop the bleeding doesn’t work.

Course 127

Course IBM IBM Social Media 127

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Crowdfunding to gauge demand is not recommended, since failed campaigns don’t usually recover later.

Startup 151

Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2017

His title “ The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World ” characterizes the challenge of demanding attention from a new generation of consumers who want what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. Ask why it should be, and why customers should care. Want control?

Marketing 82

Marketing Demand Startup Custom 82

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2020

In addition to personal focus, I find that the best entrepreneurs build and demand a culture of focus and excellence in their team, their investors, and even their advisors. Documented business objectives and a timeline. Anything less will lower your credibility with investors, and confuse potential customers.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Startup Patents Resource 126

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2015

The instigators are all well-intentioned – executives talk to potential customers who “must have” a few more things; or the technical team edicts some “technically elegant” options that they can’t resist adding before release. Here are five basic rules to live by: Document the requirements. Lock down the sign-off authority.

Technical Review 104

Technical Review Product Software Review High Tech 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2020

Obviously, the business of business has been around a long time, with many “best practices” well-defined and well documented, so creativity that ignores these is usually not a good thing. Sales people tend to remember the latest product when selling to clients, not the one best for that customer. Not always to good effect.

Metrics 157

Metrics Demand Statistics Sales 157

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. Technology, architecture, and feature descriptions.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

Don’t get me wrong, it’s always great to see that first surge of customers, but that’s just the beginning of your work. With the real data from that surge, you need to take a hard look at business model realities, cost of customer acquisition, inventory costs, and other key metrics. Ramp up your communication efforts and vehicles.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Custom 86

Berkonomics

MAY 2, 2013

These include ensuring the continued health of the organization, setting the moral compass for your stakeholders, providing for succession by training and documenting, leading the effort in compliance of regulations and safety needs, and … elimination of all possible bottlenecks that impede the efficiency of your organization.

Organization 222

Organization Demand Satisfaction Training 222

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 27, 2023

As part of the latter deal, Amazon employees and cloud customers will get early access to the technology. This means it can handle inputs of around 75,000 words, so businesses can submit huge reams of documentation for Claude to analyze. GPT-4, which is only available to ChatGPT Plus customers, has a context window of more than 32,000.

ChatGPT 139

ChatGPT Artificial Inteligence Training Startup 139

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2013

The instigators are all well-intentioned – executives talk to potential customers who “must have” a few more things; or the technical team edicts some “technically elegant” options that they can’t resist adding before release. Here are five basic rules to live by: Document the requirements. Lock down the sign-off authority.

Technical Review 110

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 110

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business. Although the major crowd funding sites today, including Kickstarter and Indiegogo , don’t technically require a business plan, they do demand essentially the same information in a project format.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2015

Your biggest or only customer dumps you. Your Plan B should always include a diversification plan you can implement quickly, as well as an emergency “right-sizing” plan to weather the gap to some new customers or services. Document the ultimate goal, so people can work backward as well as forward.

Startup 58

Startup Demand Entrepreneur Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2021

Of course, this passion must be backed up by documented evidence and logical arguments, not just loud talking and arm waving. Innovate to meet future demands you foresee. How potential partners, investors, and customers see you is critical to their ultimate support and acceptance of your proposal and your solution.

Startup 162

Startup Entrepreneur IBM IBM 162

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2023

Personal regular communication is best, rather than some nebulous written mission document. Too many teams I know live in constant fear of unjustified reprisals and repeated demands. More transparency and openness from company executives on customers, competitors, and business results is key to engagement, loyalty, and trust.

Satisfaction 108

Satisfaction Social Media Coach Training 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs and business owners, I rarely find someone who doesn’t proclaim that the business world is changing rapidly, with new technology, new customer expectations, and new cultures. Others still routinely have phone hold queues for customer contact that can last up to an hour, with no alternative options.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Custom Customer Startup 84

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

Prepare a pitch deck to document and share your plan. Validate your solution with a prototype and real customers. You need something real that investors and customers can touch and feel. Most investors expect a minimum viable product (MVP) sold to at least one customer. Ideas are not enough to gauge business potential.

Funding 73

Funding Social Media Slides Platform 73

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2018

They want to grant deserving customers special concessions, or fix a broken process, but are convinced it may cost them their job, or find that no one above them seems to care. If these still exist in your organization, they are huge red flags and you can be certain that you are losing your best employees as well as customers.

Startup 62

Startup Organization Custom Customer 62

socalTECH

OCTOBER 29, 2008

Pasadena-based Central Desktop, a provider of on-demand project management and collaboration software, has rolled out new social networking features on its site. Central Desktop said the idea is to "deepen customer-to-customer" engagement within its platform.

Social Network 100

Social Network Networking Pasadena Tool 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2011

The instigators are all well-intentioned – executives talk to potential customers who “must have” a few more things; or the technical team edicts some “technically elegant” options that they can’t resist adding before release. Here are five basic rules to live by: Document the requirements. Lock down the sign-off authority.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012

The instigators are all well-intentioned – executives talk to potential customers who “must have” a few more things; or the technical team edicts some “technically elegant” options that they can’t resist adding before release. Here are five basic rules to live by: Document the requirements. Lock down the sign-off authority.

Technical Review 75

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 75

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2013

In fact, the actions required to start and run a business are well documented, the subject of many books, and taught in college courses across the land. The vision has to be documented and communicated in a way that makes it vivid to every member of your team, your customers, and your investors. Show extreme customer focus.

Ideas 110

Ideas Organization Entrepreneur Custom 110

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2019

Resurgence begins when entrepreneurs and top executives stop trusting only themselves, and build a coalition with customers to see what is and isn’t working. Real change demands new goals based on new market realities. Reinvent the vision for change. Doing more of the same to stop the bleeding doesn’t work.

Course 85

Course IBM IBM Social Media 85

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 23, 2013

Thus, startups must quickly determine which prospects are most likely to purchase in the near term and focus their energy on delivering these prospective customers an incredible experience. The reason we previously offered our customers the option of a Pilot was to secure their business more quickly.

Sales 215

Sales Outsource Development Metrics Resource 215

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. I suggest you use social media, blogging, crowdfunding, or documented research to quantify a real demand from people who can afford it, and don’t have a better alternative already out there.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

When the business starts to scale, you need documented processes and people with the right skills and training who can do the right work without you. Now you have real customers who can quickly turn off hundreds of potential customers if you ignore their feedback. Trust your gut, and ignore naysayers.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2012

In fact, the actions required to start and run a business are well documented, the subject of many books, and taught in college courses across the land. The vision has to be documented and communicated in a way that makes it vivid to every member of your team, your customers, and your investors. Show extreme customer focus.

Startup 96

Startup Ideas Organization Custom 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2016

I’m not suggesting that any startup needs to demand perfection, but I do recommend that all learn and follow common business practices from the beginning. I’m not suggesting that formal legal documents are always required, but agreements without some paper or email trail are easily forgotten or misconstrued.

Startup 62

Startup Patents Entrepreneur Writing 62

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2014

Obviously, the business of business has been around a long time, with many “best practices” well-defined and well documented, so creativity that ignores these is usually not a good thing. Sales people tend to remember the latest product when selling to clients, not the one best for that customer. Not always to good effect.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Metrics Demand Statistics 113

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Originally, you had a lot of government customers, and were just starting out with a few commercial customers. Our strategy was twofold--one, was to go out and get brand name customers, and to translate their content to such a high quality, with no human oversight, that they'd be willing to post that on the internet.

Software Review 145

Software Review USC Content Tech Coast Angels 145

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2014

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. Technology, architecture, and feature descriptions.

Product 101

Product Entrepreneur Summary Activity 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2015

Resurgence begins when entrepreneurs and top executives stop trusting only themselves, and build a coalition with customers to see what is and isn’t working. Real change demands new goals based on new market realities. Reinvent the vision for change. Doing more of the same to stop the bleeding doesn’t work.

Startup 102

Startup Course IBM IBM 102

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

In fact, the actions required to start and run a business are well documented, the subject of many books, and taught in college courses across the land. The vision has to be documented and communicated in a way that makes it vivid to every member of your team, your customers, and your investors. Show extreme customer focus.

Ideas 91

Ideas Tips Organization Entrepreneur 91