Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2021

Today’s customers are overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information, so making a decision is a challenge. You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process.

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Customer Custom Sales Social Media 136

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 15, 2016

Friday, August 19, 2016 -- Design Mornings - Design Thinking for Sustainability. Experience the magic of the design thinking process as we re-design sustainability in LA. education/design-mornings-design-thinking-for-sustainability/los-angeles/28036. General Assembly. See https://generalassemb.ly/education/design-mornings-design-thinking-for-sustainability/los-angeles/28036.

Design 100

Design Tips Education Los Angeles 100

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

“Twenty years ago, if you started a brand, your first hire, outside of a designer, would have been a salesperson,” Murthy told TechCrunch. More people are focused on the beginning of the product lifecycle; very few are focused at the end.”. Buyers then can bid on the goods. “We’re That’s our vision.”.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

I actually really enjoyed many of the points Muhammad made about marketing in general and I found myself nodding through the entirety of the article except for it’s core premise. I believe growth hacking is about all of this. I’d like to make the case that the article is wrong. I’d strongly encourage you to read it.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2020

Attracting the right customers is the key to success in business, whether you have a new startup or a mature enterprise. For example, Xerox tried to broaden the use of "xerox" as the standard term for "photocopying" to extend their existing customer segment into office automation and all kinds of computing.

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Customer Custom Technical Review Examples 123

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2015

Today’s customers demand more than a good product; they expect a great customer experience. A few companies are leading the way, including Apple with their iPad and iPhone, offering irresistible stores with friendly experts, elegant packaging, and customer service that never ends.

Design 61

Design Product Customer Custom 61

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 29, 2022

Authors Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Oglivie have created a framework for creation of a new product or service – one worth spending at least a cycle of time for review. From their book, “Designing for Growth,” they iterate a four-question matrix, each with steps for creation through launch. Then let’s design it so it will wow.

Design 156

Design Framework Ideas Customer 156

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

I recently wrote about my philosophy of minimalism that “ less is more &# with the mantra “when in doubt, leave it out.&#. I’ve had a long-standing rule of thumb in product design, which I call “design for the novice, configure for the pro.&# I started saying this back in 2001/02, long before the era of Web 2.0,

Design 325

Design Startup Web 2.0 Tips 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

And even then Microsoft has substitute products as anyone who has taken Econ 101 will tell you. The “competition slide&# of your investment deck is such a great opportunity to talk about how you’re positioned (premium product vs. economical product? It is a great place to talk about your future roadmap.

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Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2019

Today’s customers are overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information, so making a decision is a challenge. You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process.

Customer 107

Customer Custom Sales Social Media 107

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

Chris Dixon wrote a blog post last week titled, “ Techies and Normals &# in which he defined “Techies&# as people who are not just “early adopters&# but also have more of a geeky, technical, product bent. They use products because the products solve a need they have. He is both. Blah, blah, blah.

Product 348

Product Startup Design Blogging 348

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. When Ethan was considering leaving Google we talked about it.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 24, 2020

Divergent, the Los Angeles-based startup aiming to revolutionize vehicle manufacturing, has cut about one-third of its staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended startups and major corporations alike. “This was about making the company as totally weatherproof as possible,” Czinger said. The company’s No.

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Startup Technical Review Outsource Development Platform 251

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2020

So why do I see some many funding requests for products along these lines? The hurricanes in the Gulf, the wildfires in California, and the monsoon floods around the world, all suggest that real opportunities for change are needed in climate control, forest management, and building design. When the world gets smaller.

Customer 167

Customer Custom Startup Outsource Development 167

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 6, 2011

I’m going to take that thought out into the field and validate it with my customers." I’ve spoken to dozens of customers, I have a validated customer persona, built an MVP to test key behavioral hypotheses, and the data doesn’t back what you’re saying." " One was an enterprise software product.

Customer 227

Customer Custom CTO Coach Startup 227

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

less than 18 months from when the company was created so I thought it was probably a good time to weigh in on the questions I get asked most frequently and why we’re so excited about Bird. How could Bird really be worth the reported $2 billion valuation that I read about in this press? The company has done zero paid marketing.

Santa Monica 256

Santa Monica Funding Startup Course 256

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features.

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Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2020

Based on my experience, survival and success are both about doing the right things , and not about doing everything. Yet if that leaves you with no documented business plan or unclear strategy, most investors and even customers will walk away. Prioritize your tasks ahead of helping others with theirs.

Product 123

Product Startup Tips Entrepreneur 123

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. Here is where I see this really play out: Product Management. Most CEOs fancy their own product skills and like to weigh in on priorities. I did this.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

I saw him on stage at the event talking about how he used social media to engage audiences. And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever. Five-and-a-half years ago I first met Chamillionaire at a tech conference in LA.

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Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2019

I’m more convinced that technology merely enables disruption, and changing customer interests and needs really causes it. Other companies keep the focus on their customers, and seem to thrive on disruption, much less survive. They make it their top business priority to understand, anticipate, and gratify customers’ needs.

Customer 54

Customer Custom Technical Review Design 54

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? I’m not saying that lawyers were my screening process – simply that they knew about deals early on and they had voted with their time and pocketbooks so I knew I had a degree of filtering. What stage?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

When the Los Angeles-based startup Maslo launched its first product in early 2018 , the company was focused on a direct-to-consumer tool designed to encourage mindfulness and self-awareness through a machine learning enabled avatar that would respond to individual’s inputs. Image courtesy of Maslo.

Coach 113

Coach Artificial Inteligence Product Services 113

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

In today’s totally interconnected world with its abundance of information, choices, and marketing, how your customers buy has drastically changed. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur, a marketer, or a salesperson, it’s time to look beyond how you sell, and focus on how your customers buy.

Customer 94

Customer Custom Social Media Startup 94

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

Online job and career sites still seem to be in another decade, when it comes to both design--and user friendliness. Can a startup gain a foothold in the competitive market by designing the right UX and user experience to make a job and career site for everyone? Starting on the employer side first, we put a big emphasis on design.

Design 174

Design Sites Cornerstone OnDemand Startup 174

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 22, 2019

Sarah Paiji had the idea to launch the eco-friendly refillable cleaning supply retailer Blueland after hearing about the abundance of microplastics in the water she was using to dilute her child’s baby formula. The answer she came up with is Blueland, a new line of cleaning products that launches today.

Design 161

Design Patents Los Angeles Ideas 161

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2022

This approach, popularly known as “ glocalization ,” means you have to design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market in which you operate. What all this doesn’t mean is that you should roll out your product in every country at the same time. with demands for new products and services.

Patents 106

Patents Offshore Startup Demand 106

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2021

Start the product design process by thinking about what a historian in the future would look back on as the one big thing that changed everything. This idea helps to distill down the most important things to make or sell in a product. Amazon uses this technique internally for all new product design efforts.

Entrepreneur 158

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Design 158

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

After operating in stealth mode for about two years, First Resonance , a company founded by former SpaceX engineers, is finally showing the world their software toolkit designed to let manufacturers make things using the processes employed by their former boss.

SpaceX 248

SpaceX Tool Los Angeles Design 248

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

There has always been tension between CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies and the retailers who sell their products to consumers. If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it.

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

InfoChachkie

MAY 27, 2013

Last week, Divshot turned a simple April Fool''s Day joke into a marketing coup, generating nearly 6,000 Tweets and over a thousand Beta customers. The team''s ability to drive significant customer interest without spending a dime on marketing was one of the reasons Jim Andelman and I invested in the company. Don’t Over Sell It.

Customer 195

Customer Custom Template Startup 195

SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 -- People are talking about your products. How can sentiment analysis impact the direction of your product development? Innovative companies are using new tools and techniques to capture the voice-of-market to help drive their product roadmaps. Do you know what theyre saying?

Product 100

Product Design Tool Marketing 100

Eric Greenspan

MAY 29, 2010

Using social media to increase your company’s touch and reach with each of your customers may be the most important reason to jump in to this game changing strategy. Social media can help bridge a long standing gap between customers and the companies they trust with their hard earned cash. 40,000) to join me on Facebook.

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Social Media Customer Custom Media 214

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 14, 2019

Customers can already place an order for the Tesla Model Y, a mid-sized crossover SUV that won’t go into production until 2020. A disclaimer on the order form states that “production is expected to begin late next year.” During the presentation, Musk didn’t mention that customers could order the Model Y.

Startup 237

Startup Los Angeles Pricing Design 237

TechEmpower

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Enhancing Front-End Product Search We also developed a front-end search tool that revolutionized the way users search for products. Even if certain categories aren't predefined in the database, users still receive relevant product suggestions. cto , infotech , innovation , product , project , saas

Generative AI 346

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Tool Knowledge Base 346