Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer.

Startup 118

Startup Satisfaction Customer Custom 118

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2011

Two Los Angeles area companies focused on membrane switches and other products for the electronics, healthcare, industrial, and aerospace market, have combined and gained private equity funding. Superior Capital announced the investment Monday.

Funding 182

Funding Equity Los Angeles Design 182

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

If you want money, rather than just feedback, you need to actually design, develop, and prove that you have something worth people’s hard-earned funds before you launch your campaign. You need a polished, tested concept, not just an idea. Crowdfunding to gauge demand is not recommended, since failed campaigns don’t usually recover later.

Startup 100

Startup Equity Entrepreneur Demand 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer.

Satisfaction 174

Satisfaction Customer Custom Outsource 174

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold. Manage customer service. Software and hardware development architects and designers. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Technical Review 147

Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur Report 147

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2021

Those at the other extreme don’t look up from the grindstone long enough to notice whether all their work is producing sweat equity or just sweat. Truly satisfied customers are a joy to every business person. Starting a business may be fun, but it’s not easy. No matter how many times you’ve done it – the stresses are tremendous.

Startup 160

Startup Patents Competition Social Network 160

socalTECH

MAY 29, 2012

San Diego-based Skinit , the developer of the wrap-around, customized "skins" and protective products for electronics devices, announced today that it has expanded into hard consumer electronics cases, covers, and screen protectors. The new devices features the same ability to apply personalized graphics and designs to the cases.

San Diego 133

San Diego Screening Design Equity 133

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2023

Here are eight key insights that will help you find a productive match: Angels want equity ownership, not causes. Every angel looks to scale the business after you have funded product design, perhaps with friends and family. Angels need to see a proven business model, with a working prototype and preferably a real customer or two.

Venture Capital 106

Venture Capital Angel Seed Funding Invest 106

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

If you want money, rather than just feedback, you need to actually design, develop, and prove that you have something worth people’s hard-earned funds before you launch your campaign. You need a polished, tested concept, not just an idea. Crowdfunding to gauge demand is not recommended, since failed campaigns don’t usually recover later.

Startup 151

Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

TechCrunch LA

MAY 25, 2019

Founder Alix Peabody designed a line of female-focused canned rosé. Modsy scores $37M to virtually design your home. When will customers start buying all those AI chips? If you enjoy this newsletter, be sure to check out TechCrunch’s venture-focused podcast, Equity. Auth0 raises $103M, pushes its valuation over $1B.

Startup 223

Startup Venture Capital Newsletter Tips 223

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term. It doesn’t take long to sense someone’s real commitment, or vision and desired outcome of a joint project.

Software Review 103

Software Review Equity CTO Hire Outsource Development 103

Tech.Co

MARCH 25, 2022

By ensuring their value isn't bloated, the company will net its employees better equity over time. Instacart also launched a new set of digital tools yesterday, “Instacart Platform,” which is designed to help retailers and grocers offer faster fulfilment, get better analytics, and potentially get started with advertising.

Advertising 116

Advertising Tool .Net Google 116

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Using its proprietary printing technology, Relativity says it can slash the time it takes to develop a rocket from design to launch by up to two years. Relativity Space signs the satellite transportation company Momentus as a new customer.

Chief Technology Officer 168

Chief Technology Officer SpaceX Los Angeles Venture Capital 168

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2022

So before you quit your day job, task all your friends and investors for money, or max out your credit cards to design and build a product, I recommend that you seriously contemplate the following more basic questions: Are you prepared to adopt the entrepreneur lifestyle? How strong is your passion for people and business?

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Mentor Ideas Writing 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2019

A recent high-profile one, Theranos , the blood-testing company, had no trouble getting customers, but promised more than their technology could deliver, Another, Shyp , an early on-demand delivery platform, blamed their demise on premature scaling. Make sustainability a key design objective for every step.

Startup 88

Startup Demand Training Customer 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold. Manage customer service. Software and hardware development architects and designers. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Startup 124

Startup Technical Review Software Review Entrepreneur 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. But just putting a customer reference list in a data room?

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2013

But, more and more, technology is allowing homeowners to get on their computer, and design a solar system on their rooftop and get a quote for it. The reason for that, is one of the key capital components for solar leasing is tax equity investments, where the institutional investors can monetize those federal tax benefits.

Equity 234

Equity Invest Marketing Product 234

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Who's the customer? I'm looking for free (equity only) development, should I contact you? We can likely provide technical strategy help at little to no cost, but hard core development generally requires that you have found someone to do it for you for equity or that you have some capital available (think $50K+).

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

socalTECH

JULY 5, 2017

I moved down here to work as a large, $10 billion private equity fund with Ron Burkle, at Yucaipa Companies. We would have the design aesthetic of contemporary brands, combine that with performance-based fabrics to the like of Lululemon, Underarmor, and Nike Drifit. There were lots of things we did around investment and acquisitions.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 Equity Legalzoom Capital 100

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Who's the customer? I'm looking for free (equity only) development, should I contact you? We can likely provide technical strategy help at little to no cost, but hard core development generally requires that you have found someone to do it for you for equity or that you have some capital available (think $50K+).

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2019

So before you quit your day job, task all your friends and investors for money, or max out your credit cards to design and build a product, I recommend that you seriously contemplate the following more basic questions: Are you prepared to adopt the entrepreneur lifestyle? How strong is your passion for people and business?

Entrepreneur 135

Entrepreneur Mentor Ideas Writing 135

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2021

Here are eight key insights that will help you find a productive match: Angels want equity ownership, not causes. Every angel looks to scale the business after you have funded product design, perhaps with friends and family. Angels need to see a proven business model, with a working prototype and preferably a real customer or two.

Angel 126

Angel Funding Venture Capital Seed Funding 126

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2020

Most people I know credit Steve Job’s success to his ability to attract top technical talent, starting with Steve Wozniak who designed the first Apple computer. Financial capital – revenue, equity, debt, funding. Of course, ultimately you must appeal to real customers to survive.

Resource 131

Resource Startup Capital Mentor 131

socalTECH

AUGUST 4, 2011

We've developed technology, originally developed at YLighting, which enables us to understand that if a customer comes to a website via marketing, and a cookie was deleted, then subsequently comes back and converts, we know what marketing happened before that cookie deletion. What kind of customers are using the tool? Jeff Zwelling.

Startup 210

Startup Marketing Customer Custom 210

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2015

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer.

Satisfaction 101

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Customer Custom 101

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

Before that, I was at a multimedia design academy in high school. I've always been a mobile enthusiast, in technology and design and user experience. Eli Aizenstat: I entered into the Design Accelerator, which is an accelerator run in conjunction with the Art Center College of Design and Caltech, in the summer of 2014.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach Startup Pasadena Angels 100

socalTECH

JULY 27, 2020

Nick Hedges: Level Equity led the most recent round, have Sigia Ventures in Menlo Park, and we have DFJ Frontier, those are the main investors, but we do have a variety of other investors. A lot of them looked at what software to get rid of, and what software to keep, and every single one of our customers put us on the keep list.

Google 113

Google Santa Monica Networking Software 113

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2012

Last week, Pasadena-based Punchcard (www.punchcard.com) launched its mobile apps, which help local retailers provide rewards to loyal customers. It provides consumer rewards, and on the merchant side, it allows them to identify local customers and reacquire them by pushing them offers and incentives to come back. What is Punchcard?

Southern California 245

Southern California Idealab Startup Customer 245

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 19, 2014

Their unique “provide value to customers first” mantra sets them apart in the digital signage industry. We pushed to find out how we could add value to the business/cafe/bar owners who we consider our customers and stakeholders.” We asked if he was willing to take a pay cut for more equity. All inclusive. He said no.

Social Media 106

Social Media Startup Screening Advertising 106

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2016

That’s why all those so-called million dollar ideas I hear about as an investor don’t get me excited, and entrepreneurs find that working twenty hours a day often generates nothing more than sweat, instead of the desired sweat equity. Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer.

Satisfaction 61

Satisfaction Startup Customer Custom 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2013

How can you beat finding someone who has been there and done that, able to mentor Gen-Y, has lots of connections to people in your industry, and is often willing to work for equity alone? Customer service. Most actually have the time and inclination to help you, rather than compete with you. Angel investor.

Startup 98

Startup Mentor Demand High Tech 98

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Yesterdays’ equity round of $1.6 Sroka earlier worked at Industrial Logic,where he developed programs in test-driven development, refactoring, and object-oriented design for HP, Yahoo!, The firm says its customers benefit from closing deals faster, exchanging files securely, and being able to manage more deals at any given time.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review Bertelsmann Technology 88

socalTECH

APRIL 22, 2010

We had a chance to speak with Jerry Fitch , CEO of the firm, about the interest in the electric/smart metering market, his views on where the market is today, as well as a bit about the experience of operating as a private equity backed firm. How has your experience being owned by private equity been? Thanks for the time.

Equity 124

Equity San Diego Startup Activity 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2011

How can you beat finding someone who has been there and done that, able to mentor Gen-Y, has lots of connections to people in your industry, and is often willing to work for equity alone? Customer Service. Most actually have the time and inclination to help you, rather than compete with you. Angel Investor.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Mentor Demand High Tech 107

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

If you wait to incorporate the business until you have a product and customers, which normally has no taxable value until liquidity, it will be taxed at issuance at the current value. Co-founder and equity negotiations work best if you own all the equity. Tax status can be assigned separately to match your preferences.

Company 61

Company Companies Startup Equity 61

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold. Manage customer service. Software and hardware development architects and designers. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Member of the Advisory Board.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review Report 106