SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

He wanted to get input from me on what he's doing, and he wants to begin to ask developers what it would take to build his product. what do you mean? what format would you and the developer want that in? This should be an iterative process with advisors and customers providing feedback on the product.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

When you start your company the very first question you need to ask yourself is which kind of customers do you want to serve. Many start-ups (and even growth firms) lack this discipline and they therefore serve customers off all sizes. These are really massive customers. We knew how to land huge corporate customers.

Startup 389

Startup Customer Custom Resource 389

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2010

In billing we literally started thinking about all of the types of bills that would be generated for customers: full payment, partial payment, split payment, senior discount, student discount, level pay plan, etc. But by problem solving in a ‘top down’ manner we can be much more focused about what data we collect.

Entrepreneur 372

Entrepreneur Startup Design Framework 372

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

What did it mean? What nationality was it? So he made hand-made batches in a bucket and drove it to customers in his van. I know it’s what I look for when I want to back companies. What I learned from the article? What touched me? This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Where was it from?

Entrepreneur 415

Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Product 415

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

There’s an old joke in software development, “How much time does it take to design software?” ” Answer: As long as you have scheduled for the design phase. Design with no constraints becomes a research project. Not funny, “ha, ha” but pretty apropos. CEOs are time-driven creatures.

Software 344

Software Startup Design Course 344

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2010

I think this is a perfect way to think about the world when you’re designing your product / company. Quite honestly I see way too many company pitches that are designed for Techies but I only want to invest in products designed for Normals. They use products because the products solve a need they have. Blah, blah, blah.

Product 348

Product Startup Design Blogging 348

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

So you tell me what the future of the Internet will be? You need to segment your audience and find a way to get your highest quality customers over to O&O (owned & operated) inventory where you can get higher CPMs, sell merchandise and capture more customer information. ” Guess what, Hollywood.

Hollywood 374

Hollywood Content Yahoo Java 374

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. Steve Blank calls this “ customer development ” in which you built an initial product that is in search of “product / market fit.” This is a very important to do when you first start a company.

Sales 393

Sales Startup Resource Customer 393

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Or what she was working on. What was she doing with Soleil Moon Frye? ladies, show me what you got. Showing me designs. Talking about how to inspire moms to get their children engaged with iPads and physical activity sets customized for their kids and based in part on their digital lives. Does that work for you?”

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

The terms “CTO&# and “VP Engineering&# have such stigmas associated with what they are that I’m sure some people will feel uncomfortable with the definitions I’ve put forward. This post is designed mostly for non-technical founders. What makes a great tech team? Let’s start with the basics.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. Testing is what helps determine whether you’re really on to something.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Your customers know what they want more than you do. This week’s insight came from personal experience and from a good friend who advanced the notion of the “teacher-customer” years ago. The customer would be the first to receive the new functionality in a new release. Providing feedback to your teacher customer.

Customer 156

Customer Custom Design Conference 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. Display real customer value feedback versus value claims.

Customer 158

Customer Custom Social Media Satisfaction 158

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

Here’s why … What is Muhammad’s Argument? We’ve been doing this online marketing stuff for years and we know what we’re doing. Please don’t try to invent some new marketing term for what we do and pretend you’re smart. I believe growth hacking is about all of this. We were here first.”

Technical Review 384

Technical Review SEM SEO Marketing 384

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

What’s your objective? I certainly understand the desire to be in control, which is what you are when you earn a profit. million in revenue three years later is, “So effing what?” If you had huge customer growth but just didn’t focus on revenue that’s a different story.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

So they create a task list of all the marketing activities an organization can do: press releases, web site updates, customer case studies, blog posts, daily Tweets, Facebook fan page, attending conferences, etc. what messages are we wanting them to receive? what is the best channel to reach these people? - I love that saying.

Startup 323

Startup Press Development Team Review SEM 323

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? What is Workpop? The company recently landed a $7.9M

Design 174

Design Sites Cornerstone OnDemand Startup 174

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

We all read them to get a sense of what is going on in the world, peeling back layers of the old world in which media was too scripted. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! Understanding what lights up actions from your social campaigns and earned media is the key to improving future performance. The other major pilot customer was. Or Likes – LIKES! And so forth.

Marketing 307

Marketing Technical Review Startup Tool 307

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

which features do you believe your customers care about and where you’re try to differentiate? This is not only a way to talk about you versus your competition but a chance to reinforce two things: 1) what you see as the most important buying criteria for your customers and 2) how you believe your firm differentiates.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

A summary of what we discussed is below: Not 100% in order of the video, but close. What is the VC process? If you make it past this stage you will go to a “full partners meeting&# which is exactly what it sounds like. What is a VC looking for? Will a VC sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement)?

Venture Capital 340

Venture Capital Slides Doc Startup 340

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

What could you learn from looking at your competitors or other tech startups in a different way? But I do know that FourSquare has captured the zeitgeist of what young, mobile & social people want. But what could we learn from them today? I logged into a room to listen to music & see what the product was all about.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

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.

Customer 136

Customer Custom Sales Social Media 136

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. These collective sets of documents form the basis of what somebody looking at investing would call “financial due diligence.” It doesn’t.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

After all, that’s what tech innovation is all about. Even when they have talked to multiple developers or development firms, we’re often the first to ask basic questions like “Who are your customers?” Who are the customers? What’s their specific need/pain? What are your big milestones?

Develop 520

Develop Development Technical Review SEO 520

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

So what happens when production is reduced by 99% and distribution bends to infinity? In a network you can have a mix of content from some “celebrity” content to attract audience to shows that you product customer for the network to make it unique. Much of it already is. That is the definition of Disruptive Technology.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start-up Lessons. &# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. Here are some lessons to avoid common traps. Please remember to read my disclaimer (it’s not long) - I am not a lawyer and my advice should not substitute getting formal legal advice.

Startup 365

Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Creating a gerat company in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that the entrepreneur knows what’s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer. The first step : Involve potential customers early. The first step : Involve potential customers early.

Company 229

Company Companies Startup Customer 229

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

That is what we set out to solve at MyTime. I am stunned at the speed at which the team cranked out this application while at the same time building out an entire suite of merchant solutions to help them better manage customers. Let me know below what you think of the concept or the product. With smart phones everybody does.

Development Team Review 324

Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

RedBeacon went on to sell to HomeDepot in what was considered a very successful acquisition on all sides. And because I wanted Ethan to be able to attract a great team, build & iterate a product, test it with initial customers and refine his strategy before having to take the wrappers off of his company. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What kind of deals should I be doing? What stage? What price? So what they’re saying is: Going through Y.C. They are designed to help good companies to get access to investors but also to make bad companies look good. They know the VCs so they know what interests them. With which other investors?

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. - First Principles.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 2, 2021

But what started in the gaming world quickly spun out as the company slashed prices to $500 per month for its services. “ We were targeted to a small number of very premier customers. The pandemic also helped as artists who were cut off from their audiences began to explore alternative ways to reach fans — and make money.

Tool 315

Tool Commerce .Net Entertainment 315

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

Dev shops were too expensive and on the verge of predatory, and cookie cutter builders don’t address the designs I had in mind,” Redman said. For small businesses, the plan is to charge $297 per month for app development and customization along with any future builds, hosting, and product support and maintenance.

Mobile 250

Mobile Develop Development Artificial Inteligence 250

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? But who exactly is Gogii, what is textPlus and why are they so exciting if I’ve never heard of them? Gogii spent way more effort marketing to what I call “The USA Today market&# rather than the tech blog market. But I never gave up.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

What are you on about? Fortunately I was mostly a technology consultant, which meant that I coded computers, designed databases and planned system integration projects. It was originally COBOL and DB2 – so what? But what worries me much more is skewed data. So, where is this all coming from, Mark?

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 28, 2011

I was once asked on Quora what my idea startup team would be. But what comes after the original team? “What? So what would you look for in an ideal world? Is extraverted and pleasant and has great “bedside manner” with customers, investors, press, recruits, etc. What have your experiences been?

Startup 325

Startup Outsource Press Marketing 325