Berkonomics

MARCH 3, 2022

should not be positioned as “cheap,” or your potential customers will question your message from the start and will be more critical of the delivered product than if offered as one or the other, but not both. If it becomes a part of your long-term sales message, there is risk that you will set expectations you cannot achieve.

Resource 156

Resource Sales Pricing Startup 156

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. I became an entrepreneur by default.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Consumers buying through smart phones, travelers using the new, shared economy and businesses replacing old software with modern cloud-based solutions. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. And importantly we’ve had revenue. It has been a good run.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

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

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Since its 2017 inception, SpotOn has been focused on providing software and payments technology to SMBs with an emphasis on restaurants and retail businesses. Image Credits: SpotOn.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Software Review Invest Acquisition 296

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

In addition to a standard tipping tool, Snipfeed allows users to sell digital goods, like on-demand video, e-books, access to livestreams and one-on-one consultations. Snipfeed is free to set up, but if you make sales, the company takes 15% — this percentage is inclusive of any transaction fees. Image Credits: Snipfeed.

Platform 286

Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

Frank Addante

APRIL 9, 2013

Selling enterprise software is completely different than selling digital ads. Unlike digital advertising, the primary goal in enterprise software is to get someone else to sell your product. Not at all, a direct sales force is the most expensive channel to take a product to market. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Advertising 59

Advertising Sales Software Platform 59

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

“The only success criteria of my startup career is whether GrubMarket can eventually make $100 billion of annual sales,” he said to me over both email and in a phone conversation. “We had to limit our daily delivery volume in some regions, and put new customers on waiting lists.”

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 29, 2011

This Black Friday we reached record retail sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, yet the merging Cyber Monday is proving to be a fighting younger brother. As customers shift online, retailers have no choice, to not only follow suit, but to adapt to their changing demands.

Customer 74

Customer Custom Advertising Demand 74

Berkonomics

JANUARY 3, 2013

Most every business can take advantage of continuing, recurring revenues from its customer base. Even though that reduced short term earnings, lease revenues over time far outweighed any combination of sale and maintenance revenues, and Xerox grew into a major company based upon its innovation and its recurring revenues.

Outsource Development 197

Outsource Development Software Review Sales Demand 197

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you. Not necessarily.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 26, 2011

This Black Friday we reached record retail sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores, yet the merging Cyber Monday is proving to be a fighting younger brother. As customers shift online, retailers have no choice, to not only follow suit, but to adapt to their changing demands.

Customer 72

Customer Custom Demand Advertising 72

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Take advantage of software tools to automate routine business functions, like taking and delivering orders. Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Automate to the max.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Case Study Software Review Startup 124

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 30, 2022

“Creators will be selling their own avatar fashion, and the ones that they’ve customized over the past couple of months. Genies has made forays into fashion before — the startup partnered with Gucci back in 2020 to give the retailer’s customers access to try on new virtual designs and to buy curated digital goods.

Geni 219

Geni Silver Lake Startup Platform 219

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. These kinds of technologies, unlike AI, don’t automate away workers.

Glendale 271

Glendale Los Angeles Startup Technical Review 271

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.Co

MAY 6, 2022

Ecommerce company Shopify supports small businesses with technology like ecommerce website builders and retail Point of Sale systems. Plus, Shopify says, “inventory placement algorithms” can predict demand in order to better route inventory. Shopify is paying $2.1 Is Shopify right for you?

Networking 123

Networking Press Newsletter Startup 123

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

For our Friday interview, we thought we'd catch up with Los Angeles-based MarketShare , the Elevation Partners-backed software provider, to hear where the firm is nowadays. Its primary goal is to focus on identifying what is truly driving demand, analytically, so that our customers can optimize their activities.

Social Media 235

Social Media Demand Activity Marketing 235

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 12, 2015

Quality” products and services should not be positioned as “cheap,” or your potential customers will question your message from the start, and will be more critical of the delivered product than if offered as one or the other, but not both. Offer “fast” when it works for you to close a sale that would not have been likely otherwise.

Resource 120

Resource Sales Pricing Demand 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

We actually built that about a year and a half ago, and are bringing that back due to overwhelming demand. But, with the economy turning south in 2008, lots of those customers went out of business. In the meantime, Groupon came along, and our media customers started to lose advertising. How do clients license your software?

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

However, Los Angeles-based Agent Ace (www.agentace.com) thinks is has a much better way to find the best real estate agent for you: software algorithms. We spoke with Mazen Fawaz , founder and CEO of the startup, to learn why the company thinks it can do a much better job of finding you a real estate agent, by digging through home sales data.

Help 258

Help Startup Sales Customer 258

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

Early in a services business there is usually no profits as the company reinvests in hiring people to grow, but by $20 million in sales the company should at least be pulling in 10% profits (if not more) depending on how much is reinvested. Often in this strategy you end up giving them the product for free and bill them only services fees.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

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. In terms of where we offer to our customers, we have 250 different areas, from early childhood to studying for an MCAT or the bar.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

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. Demand Media / Richard Rosenblatt / Los Angeles - Rosenblatt's last big win: MySpace, where he was Chairman, brokering its sale to News Corp.

Southern California 228

Southern California Entrepreneur SoCal Mahalo 228

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

socalTECH

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Jon Ferrara was co-founder of Goldmine software, a huge customer relationship management (CRM) provider which he built into a $100M business in the PC age, and is now working on doing the same thing in the age of the cloud, with another CRM startup, Nimble (www.nimble.com). Congrats on being accepted to Microsoft's Accelerator.

Startup 113

Startup Canoga Park Email Google 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2019

Take advantage of software tools to automate routine business functions, like taking and delivering orders. Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Automate to the max.

Technical Review 97

Technical Review Case Study Software Review Startup 97

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy&# – it’s the rallying cry to dig deeper, get more features out the door, issue press releases citing differences and attack the competition’s weaknesses in sales presentations. Of course they’re software. Them vs. Us.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

Xconomy

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

. “Cognitive computing,” artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced data analytics are evolving companies’ understanding of their customers in game-changing ways. The Device-Agnostic Customer Experience. Customer expectations now demand seamless and satisfying user experiences.

Artificial Inteligence 106

Artificial Inteligence Screening Google Customer 106

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2011

We caught up with Julie Schoenfeld , the firm's CEO, to hear about how the firm's offerings have evolved, an interesting comparison of the firm's software to what Demand Media is doing, and what this new funding will go towards. It's some of the kinds of things Demand Media does, except, for the newsroom. Congrats on funding.

Marketing 232

Marketing Funding Content Writing 232

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2013

However, there's a new generation of technology driven startups who are looking to apply software and technology in a way that will change how movies are made, and marketed. Darren Marble: I spent the last ten years in enterprise sales, selling enterprise software and services to Fortune 500 companies.

Hollywood 256

Hollywood CTO Hire Social Media Platform 256

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2019

Now we have a thousand large companies into it, and if you name a big company, they're a customers of ours, from Starbucks to NASA. The minute a customer hired us to deal with their transitioning employees, the first thing we could do is sayhey, it's not all bad, there are over 150 companies looking for someone just like you in your area.

Content 193

Content Social Network Coach Help 193

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. He came to work in our offices at Upfront Ventures as an EIR and immediately began building software to improve how storage was picked up, photographed, scanned and routed to a warehouse.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Inverted Software

JANUARY 2, 2019

NVIDIA also consistently downplayed the Company’s growing reliance on cryptocurrency-related sales, representing to investors that the cryptocurrency market made up little of NVIDIA’s revenue. Nvidia chocked up the decline to “the absence of cryptocurrency mining” in its earnings statement.

Class 58

Class Sales Demand Marketing 58

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2016

Take advantage of software tools to automate routine business functions, like taking and delivering orders. Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Automate to the max.

Startup 107

Startup Technical Review Case Study Software Review 107

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

Join us for a special evening with InfoWorld’s Dave Linthicum as he delves into global enterprise software trends with some of LA’s most successful SaaS and cloud computing companies. Featuring panelists from SOA Software , Edgecast and Bitium , we’ll discuss: Top priorities and challenges for today’s CIO. CTO at SOA Software.

SaaS 92

SaaS Cloud Computing CIO Web 92