TechCrunch LA

JULY 29, 2020

” The new financing from Humana will go to support Heal’s geographic expansion, product development, and sales and marketing, Desai said. We continue to see high levels of customer satisfaction and improved health outcomes when care is delivered in the home.

Services 244

Services Invest Demand Los Angeles 244

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

But today a startup that’s tackling a different aspect of the market — addressing the supply chain that subsequently turns the wheels of the bigger food distribution machine — is announcing a big round of funding as it continues to grow. The funding is coming from a wide mix of investors. and Canada.

Startup 249

Startup Platform Software Los Angeles 249

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2018

Every entrepreneur wants to hear “yes” during the fund-raising process but I would argue that being too risk averse and not pushing hard enough and be willing to hear a “no” is what holds back many people from “yes.” These are similar to the pipeline reviews I used to do with sales reps when I was a CEO. however hard to hear?—?resonated.

Funding 189

Funding Software Review Entrepreneur Venture Capital 189

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

I now observes the fund raising process as a profession. This is the fund raising perspective from both sides of the table. Fund raising (as is much of life) is a sale – pure and simple. Three rules in sales: Why buy anything? Fund raising is bloody hard. Executive Summary. Create scarcity. Why buy me?

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision.

Education 151

Education Customer Custom Sales 151

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

Today, one of the companies that is supplying produce and other items both to consumers and other services that are in turn selling food and groceries to them, is announcing a new round of funding as it gears up to take its next step, an IPO. Source tell us it is now between $400 million and $500 million.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2011

This morning, Pasadena-based Perfect Market (www.perfectmarket.com) announced a new, $9M round of funding for the firm's technology, which is used to help publishers monetize their content. Congrats on funding. It's some of the kinds of things Demand Media does, except, for the newsroom. We know what people are looking for.

Marketing 232

Marketing Funding Content Writing 232

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. Forecast sales-volume expectations.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Last year at this time, SpotOn was on the brink of announcing a $60 million Series C funding round at a $625 million valuation. But the company says its offering extends beyond traditional payment processing and point-of-sale software. Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E financing that values the company at $3.15

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2015

Los Angeles-based HelloTech (www.hellotech.com) wants to be the service that you refer all of your friends and family to, instead--by offering up low cost, on-demand, in-home technical support. First and foremost, it's an on-demand, in -home technical support service. I think the big challenge is going to be customer acquisition.

Demand 100

Demand Technical Support Startup Seed Funding 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Startup Sales Customer 134

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 21, 2019

A Veblen good does not adhere to the traditional laws of price and demand. As shown in the accompanying graph, below a certain price, the price/demand dynamics are consistent with conventional products – higher prices result in a lower demand. Fashion companies usually ramp production, as demand increases.

Demand 160

Demand Pricing Product Equity 160

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2023

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. Executives, marketing & sales, financial projections, and funding.

Product 112

Product Summary Activity Entrepreneur 112

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

An impressive number of new VCs have been created – most of them with new seed funds. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. Work with customers on business cases (for internal use) and ask for case studies (for you to publish in marketing).

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2017

New entrepreneurs are always looking for a shortcut in getting their venture story and plan across to investors, and closing on the funding they need. The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities.

Funding 57

Funding Startup Activity Customer 57

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

To grow faster businesses need resources in today to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. They don’t want high burn rates but they will never fund slow growth. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

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. Budget time and dollars for each.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

If it’s so important to investors, perhaps you should be using traction to measure your own progress, independent of a need for additional funding. I like his set of action items, and have added a few of my own for measuring early traction leading to growth: Turn initial customer goals into measurable traction metrics.

Metrics 57

Metrics Funding Startup Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

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 106

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2019

New entrepreneurs are always looking for a shortcut in getting their venture story and plan across to investors, and closing on the funding they need. The canvas is a visual chart with elements describing your value proposition, structure, finances, and customers, to help companies identify and align business activities.

Activity 100

Activity Customer Custom Resource 100

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 12, 2018

Both programmers, the two reconnected after doing stints as custom developers during and after college, and then when they were developing tools for their families’ businesses as residential contractors in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. You may have leverage when you DO need to fund raise. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2022

Most startups and investors I know don’t have unlimited funds, so the first question they should ask and do ask today, is “When is your company going to be profitable (self-sustaining)?” You might sell one of two of your widgets for $1 million each, entering profitability immediately, but then die because you can’t grow sales at that price.

Platform 118

Platform Snapchat Startup Course 118

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision.

Startup 97

Startup Education Customer Custom 97

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. Executives, marketing & sales, financial projections, and funding.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2018

In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 98

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Sales Startup Customer 106

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. It still amazes me that some entrepreneurs seem totally at a loss on this question, or customer retention rate, or even margin expectations. Every startup demands logical changes along the way.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Look for validation from your mainstream customers. No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

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 25, 2015

As we went from a small band of missionaries hell bent on making our idea a reality, raising capital, getting press, and selling to customers – we were all having fun. We built a business with $36 million in bookings and real customers who relied upon our service.

Demand 150

Demand SaaS Startup Sales 150

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

Clean, safe and reliable natural gas company Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) has established $1 million innovation fund in partnership with Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) , to speed the development of clean technologies to meet current global energy needs and become a sustainable energy source. Win-win model.

Incubator 80

Incubator Los Angeles Southern California Funding 80

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got a very large international order, and we found the demand on this was exceptional, not only here in the U.S.,

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

Yet all too many succumb to the pressures of survival, driven by demanding investors or a cutthroat competitive environment. When customers don’t appear as fast as the Founder projected, and cash runs short, everyone on the team starts to worry about losing their job. Big bad investor interference. Misunderstood pivots.

Startup 128

Startup Social Media Organization Entrepreneur 128

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

The company recently raised a round of funding from Santa Barbara-based ScOps Venture Capital. 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. What is HeyTutor? Here's the reason why.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. The first thing you are trained on, is to qualify customers and figure out if they need upright or inverted microscopes. We got a very large international order, and we found the demand on this was exceptional, not only here in the U.S.,

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100