Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Every new business dreams of growing from a startup to a global market leader in a few years, like Amazon.com, but that goal is elusive. My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers. Practice continuous bar-raising for your talent pool.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Custom Customer 123

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 27, 2021

Rowe Price, Dragoneer Investment Group, and ICONIQ Growth. In all, the new $500 million round likely sets the stage for a public offering later this year or before the end of 2022 if market conditions hold. The market for home services employs more than 5 million workers in the US and represents a trillion dollar global market.

SaaS 292

SaaS Glendale Statistics Los Angeles 292

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall. These are appearing earlier and earlier in emerging companies, as well as in mid-sized and mature companies: Your original market becomes saturated. Prices begin to decline quickly.

Startup 106

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Custom 106

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

Avoid a simple pricing mistake which could sink your startup. The rewards are in the form of co-marketing dollars and commission spiffs. Vendors often respond by discounting their prices at the 11th hour, in the hopes a lower price will spur a purchase. The “D” word - Discounts. I buy my cars in December.

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 21, 2019

Other Supreme apparel sells in the aftermarket for hundreds more than their retail prices, including box logo hoodies which typically sell for between $500 – $1,000. A Veblen good does not adhere to the traditional laws of price and demand. Fashion companies usually ramp production, as demand increases.

Demand 160

Demand Pricing Product Customer 160

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2017

Have you ever noticed that some of your business owner friends get all the bad customers, and yours all seem fairly reasonable? I’m always amazed that, in my role as a business advisor, bad customers somehow seem to gang up on certain businesses. For your business to prosper, don’t associate good service only with high-price products.

Customer 89

Customer Custom Demand Pricing 89

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. Watch this 93-second clip and see if you can identify the pricing pitfall addressed in this humorous snippet. How Much For A Rib?

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

Los Angeles-based Just says it uses telematics “to reward safe drivers and reduce insurer bias” by looking at factors such as how, when and where customers drive, rather than factors such as ZIP code or marital status as most traditional insurers do. For its part, MetroMile charges customers a base rate plus a per mile rate.

Startup 203

Startup Customer Custom Los Angeles 203

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2022

Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. I can think of at least five ways that this benefits the business, as well as customers: Products in a purpose culture more readily sell at a premium price. Doing good opens the door to a broader customer base.

Organization 143

Organization Startup Pricing Customer 143

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

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

However, many people are not aware that prior to entering academia, Steve was a wily and creative marketing entrepreneur. As the VP of Marketing, Steve inherited a department of 14people that was burning $4M annually. Despite these abundant resources, the team's ineffectiveness was reflected by the company's dismal 11% market share.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Custom 271

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2019

Is your marketing focus product-centric or customer-centric ? With a wealth of products now available, customers look for the most memorable experience , not just the best product. These days, a fun shopping experience, or no-question returns, often tips the scales over extra product features or a lower price.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Metrics 85

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Even without B-Corp status, entrepreneurs are speaking out more on the positives to support business models that benefit not just shareholders, but customers, workforce, the environment, and the greater community. That’s a real competitive edge that you can use in your marketing and positioning. Doing business is a human process.

Startup 149

Startup Organization Custom Customer 149

Tech.Co

APRIL 11, 2022

Starting today, they're going on strike for a week in protest of the price change, which they say is just the latest in a series of decisions that have squeezed the small-business sellers who depend on the Etsy platform to survive. “Every demand that we have made is very reasonable. .” on each sale. What to Know.

Platform 136

Platform Startup Sales Demand 136

Berkonomics

JULY 26, 2018

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales 226

Sales Custom Customer Pricing 226

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Custom Customer Entrepreneur 143

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. It is currently is the company’s biggest customer.).

Startup 249

Startup Platform Software Funding 249

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2020

According to studies , the alternative of acquiring new customers still costs you five to seven times more than retaining existing ones. But customers today are fickle, instantly aware of every new alternative, due to the Internet and social media, and not afraid to change. Appeal to all your customer senses all of the time.

Custom 136

Custom Customer Social Media Startup 136

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

He did note that in the four markets where the company has gone live since launching its business in January 2019 — San Diego, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire , and Sacramento — has yielded an annualized revenue run rate of over $400 million in gross merchandise value (the total value of home sales transacted on its platform).

Sales 282

Sales Demand San Diego Funding 282

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Venture capitalists sometimes make an error in directing their portfolio company CEOs to push resources to the limit and scale the business to immense size quickly, all to seize market share. It was true for Amazon and other visionary companies that grabbed market share during the early Internet era. And it’s a contemporary problem.

Venture Capital 156

Venture Capital Social Media Invest Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2020

Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall. These are appearing earlier and earlier in emerging companies, as well as in mid-sized and mature companies: Your original market becomes saturated. Prices begin to decline quickly.

Pricing 123

Pricing Cloud Computing Custom Customer 123

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience. Bolton, a distinguished Marketing Educator Award winner at the W.P.

Social Media 98

Social Media Technical Review Media Services 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2022

The price of entry can be less than $10,000, so the competition is huge and growing rapidly. The ideal business model is to establish a direct-to-consumer service that enables you to bill the customer directly. Above all, don’t forget to develop a comprehensive marketing and promotion strategy.

Develop 138

Develop Development Platform Mobile 138

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. Second: Market risk. . Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? Third: Management risk. .

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 156

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

They rarely highlight their marketing and relationship skills , even though, in my experience, these are more often the key to success in business than product skills. In addition to listening, they spent much of their time communicating their vision and marketing themselves to everyone they encountered.

Startup 113

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. Online marketing uses techniques for driving promotion and place.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

There could be more demand for electric vehicles post COVID-19 crisis, believes Energica founder Livia Cevolini. One of those is greater demand for EVs after the pandemic. Before the health crisis shutdown most of Italy, Energica had already seen larger demand for its high-performance e-motos, with a price range of $17,000 to $23,000.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2022

You can even give it a more elegant name, like “market-focused reinvention,” but it won’t be graceful if you don’t take the lead. The pivot can be as simple as changing the pricing model, or as complex as moving from a product business to a services business. Real change demands new goals based on new market realities.

Course 127

Course IBM IBM Social Media 127

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 18, 2022

Things have already plunged so quickly at the signal of a recession that insiders fear a lengthy bear market could hit crypto far more brutally than expected — tearing tokens to lows far below the highs of the 2017 bull run. Without the promise of riches or with reduced interest in blockchain-based exclusivity, where will consumer demand go?

Newsletter 278

Newsletter Platform Capital Marketing 278

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2021

External investors will demand a financial forecast, but it’s equally valuable to you, even if bootstrapping. As a rule of thumb, most viable businesses need a gross margin above 50 percent, even on wholesale prices, to cover operational expenses and survive as a business. Forecast sales-volume expectations. Quantify overhead costs.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 147

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

In my case as a young software entrepreneur, I had a different approach: Fail Locally, one customer at a time. You just had to be lucky, write reasonably good code and land in an industry with some legs, and of course, treat the customer well. And I would learn customer service. In this way I learned a great deal.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2019

Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. I can think of at least five ways that this benefits the business, as well as customers: Products in a purpose culture more readily sell at a premium price. Doing good opens the door to a broader customer base.

Organization 128

Organization Startup Pricing Custom 128

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience. Bolton, a distinguished Marketing Educator Award winner at the W.P.

Services 128

Services Social Media Technical Review Media 128

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. As companies get this initial customer feedback on their product they start to have to ask harder questions about unit economics: How much does it cost us to acquire a new customer?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Custom Customer 286

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

Thus, in my mentoring of potential technical entrepreneurs who have a real passion for their technology, I often recommend that they find a co-founder who can manage the marketing and execution elements of the new venture. Balance of passion with reality and customer feedback. Pay attention to all.

Mentor 133

Mentor Startup Custom Customer 133

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

The framework of his book has profoundly altered how I think about the technology market and affects how I thought about building my businesses and how I think about investing in venture capital. Let’s start with the incumbents position in a market. So the startups tend to focus on totally new customers.

Startup 376

Startup Framework Marketing Custom 376

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 29, 2011

As customers shift online, retailers have no choice, to not only follow suit, but to adapt to their changing demands. Instant comparison gives us choice in regards to price and function rather than emotion and experience. A customized browse (or soft sell) rather than a customized product, yet still a customized experience.

Customer 74

Customer Custom Advertising Demand 74