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. . And fifth: Competitive risk.

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 174

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 174

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. It makes customers feel special, and gives you the opportunity to highlight your broad experience and credentials.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. Making late or poor choices will cost you time, money, customers, and may cost you your business.

Organization 104

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 104

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. The funding rounds will also build customer confidence and they’ll help journalists feel air cover in writing your more important pieces when you brag about customers, traction, revenue or whatever. But first you need to know about Reg D filings.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

They’ve created a marketplace, similar to eBay, where suppliers list their products with SKU information, availability, volume and descriptions. Ghost is not alone in developing technology focused on inventory. to develop some sweet inventory-planning software. Buyers then can bid on the goods. Last week, Syrup Tech raised $6.3

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

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. . Email readers, continue here…] Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service?

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Hiring in any new venture needs to be a structured and high priority task, not the ad hoc informal process I see in many startups that are struggling to grow: Crisis mode hiring rather than planned team growth. Making late or poor choices will cost you time, money, customers, and may cost you your business.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Dipping: As a decision maker you rely on information being passed to you by the people who report to you. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. But as a CEO you can’t rely solely on this information.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. Customers sometimes buy things spontaneously without thinking through what their actual need is. The goal is to get the customer speaking about their organization. These references make for great discussions with customers.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. It was useful because I was new to sales and as the CEO it gave me some comfort to feel more informed about how our leads where going and to know the likelihood of our hitting our quarterly goals. That always stuck with me.

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

socalTECH

MARCH 2, 2020

Croquet is developing software for collaborative applications, which has applications in virtual worlds and augmented and virtual reality. For example, if I were to have a room full of bouncing balls, we couldn't share that today because of the amount of information involved. The win is we don't have to exchange all that information.

Platform 168

Platform Startup Examples Web 168

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? That chart has information on it. I am a VC. I hand out money.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It’s a continual process. In a startup this is a mistake.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

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? And fifth: Competitive risk.

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

You help them on stories, act as a source, develop real relationships, read their stories and eventually when you have news they’re more willing to have a conversation. You need somebody who is helping push out information on what is up-and-coming in the company. It’s a continual process. In a startup this is a mistake.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

One of the hardest things to know when you’re new to fund raising is what you’re supposed to send to an investor, when and will they keep your information confidential. As a VC and former entrepreneur let me offer you some advice. This is part of a series on how to improve your fund raising game. The key is WHAT you send.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Nobody likes to hear you say, “we can’t tell you anything we’re in stealth mode&# so develop some generic talking points that don’t give anything away when you’re asked what you do. In my experience, entrepreneurs who are overly paranoid or are information hoarders rarely do well. You don’t.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 12, 2010

If I were to re-write the original post I would have taken out the section on “how to get better intro’s from VC’s&# and made it it’s own post. Once I was done writing my post and had re-read it I started thinking more abstractly about decision making. Information is part of the feedback loop.

Startup 267

Startup Venture Capital Writing Entrepreneur 267

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2014

I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Too many entrepreneurs spend big money on development, only to find out that the solution isn’t quite right. Feedback from your blog will tell you quickly whether anyone agrees with your assessment, and whether you have a customer base waiting.

Startup 101

Startup Blogging Writing Google 101

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. We have an informed point of view. I enjoy that.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Have you ever found yourself in a conversation with developers and found yourself lost or even overwhelmed with new information? In a collaborative effort, Ria Consulting, LLC and Los Angeles Net Developers Group are hosting this event on November 10th, 2012 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.

JavaScript 93

JavaScript Long Beach Java .Net 93

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2009

Twitter is the new CRM (customer relationship management) channel. The volume of Tweets is enormous and growing at a rapid pace so tools are emerging to help brands manage this information. Twitter, by contrast, started as an open platform where people let anybody see what they were writing.

Social Network 235

Social Network Writing Tool Startup 235

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2017

In today's world of web application development, speed is everything. Developers are now turning out code and releasing it live to the world in near real time--what is called DevOps and Agile development. With the rise of the cloud and Agile, it's really changed how developer are coding their websites.

Web 138

Web Startup Southern California Software 138

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

You can ask them to come and watch your videos at your owned & operated websites (O&O) where you can make higher margins as well as ask directly for more meaningful customer information such as Facebook connections, Twitter oAuths, email addresses and the like. You also need to develop an O&O (your own websites) strategy.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2013

I know that finding time is hard, and good writing is simply not what most people do. Too many entrepreneurs spend big money on development, only to find out that the solution isn’t quite right. Feedback from your blog will tell you quickly whether anyone agrees with your assessment, and whether you have a customer base waiting.

Blogging 104

Blogging Product Startup Writing 104

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. If you want to be kept informed just send me an email and let me know that you''re in, and that was it. Saying, ''Hey, we want to pay you to write a book.’

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. “My desire for this “Opposing Views Reader” is related to my concern about information cascades. In general, we seem to be building too many positive re-enforcement systems on the web.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. Developing O&O (owned & operated) businesses (outside of YouTube).

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. One key board member knows Marissa.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

Journalists write stories that have an appeal to readers whether the accusations have merit or not. Understand the Gravity of the Situation for Your Customers. So how do you know when to publicly come forward with information and when to not do so? Use it as an excuse to get a journalist to write about you.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2011

One, is with cause marketing, engaging your customers around causes; second, is employee engagement around causes, and the last is corporate social responsibility, companies working with vendors or other folks they work with, and the public in general. Ryan Scott: We focus on a couple of things. We like to call ourselves a cause integrator.

Causecast 222

Causecast Startup Content Education 222

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2015

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 105

Startup Entrepreneur Writing Ideas 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

Thus I recommend that every entrepreneur start blogging in parallel with solution development for the following benefits: Get customer idea feedback before you commit resources. Develop an efficient and effective writing style. Start building your customer community early. Start today.

Blogging 110

Blogging Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media 110

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2012

An example is Melissa Rundle, who was been writing for the industry doing FunnyOrDie type comedies. We want to provide information on how you tell a story, and how you keep people engaged. It's very content driven education, as opposed to the typical information on skills you can find on the Internet.

Web 187

Web Content Startup Education 187

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2010

Over the years I’ve been in many meetings where a group of people that I was with wanted to extract information out of a group of people with whom we were meeting and failed to do so effectively. developing a product you might like to survey prospective customers without biasing their answers. Some quick stories.

Startup 311

Startup Invest Course Research 311

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs. So I thought I’d write a piece on how not to suck when you give a presentation. Show some energy!

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399