TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Hyundai Motor Group said it will jointly develop an electric vehicle platform with Los Angeles-based startup Canoo, the latest startup tapped by the automaker as part of an $87 billion push to invest in electrification and other future technologies. Canoo said it will provide engineering services to develop the electric platform.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 30, 2013

This is part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. ” We developed this at our first company and called it PUCCKA – the overall methodology is described here. The “P” stands for Pain or the reason your customer needs to implement a new product.

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socalTECH

JULY 24, 2014

Southern California has a growing number of companies in the customer relationship management area, including a fairly new company in the area, Pipeliner CRM (www.pipelinersales.com). The people we spoke with told us that CRM sucks, and sales people have to use this software, but don''t like to use it. Who are your customers?

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Sales Startup Software Customer 229

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. I believe it’s flawed.

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Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. This might mean helping customers buy traffic, arb’ing deals, helping with RTB pricing or trading, etc. Minimize Any Custom Work That Will Not Feed Back Into Your R&D. Referenceability is the lifeblood of sales.

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Software Review Software Services Company 321

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

Los Angeles-based RingDNA , which develops analytics software used for understanding the sales process and sales conversations, said last week that it raised $30M in a growth capital funding. The funding was led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (GS Growth), and also included Palisades Growth Capital and Bryant Stibel.

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Sales Artificial Inteligence Equity Web 140

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. by your customers.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. Do you hire more sales people? More developers? As CEO, do you step in?

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Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Since Arrested Development is back I thought I’d resurrect Gob Bluth’s answer when he was told he needed a “business model” – he quickly figured out that he was missing one so he asked Starla, the Bluth company secretary, if she would be his business model. My take on his argument is this: 1.

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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.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Post-sale, AI analyzes customer data to improve service and loyalty, making it a cornerstone of modern sales methodologies.

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Generative AI TechEmpower CTO Hire Outsource Development 297

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. You can always spot these types because they can’t tell you what their revenue number for last month was or what their sales target is for next month. But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do?

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Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

4 times / 100 means if a customer uses your app frequently (say 10-20 times / day) then they are crashing nearly every day. And given your stage of development you sure better at least know what your goal is. Customer Acquisition. Do you have a customer referral program? per customer! That’s not acceptable.

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Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Steve's first question was, “Who are our customers?" I) took the 300 latest cards, personally wrote a questionnaire and called 300 customers. SuperMac's main customer base were color desktop professionals. All of a sudden I now had customers telling what market, how to reach them and what applications are important.

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Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

Berkonomics

JANUARY 9, 2020

One of your employees is approached by an employee of a customer or of a supplier, stating that “It sure would be great to work in your company.” was the short reply from the hotel owner to the CEO, shocking the CEO looking for a closer relationship and future sales. The recruitment traps. State your policy clearly.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Our interview today is with Amos Schwartzfarb , the author of Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups , which comes out tomorrow, Wednesday. We caught up with Amos to learn about his new book, and to gain some tips for startup entrepreneurs on how to figure out when you're actually ready to scale your sales team.

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Sales Startup Custom Development Framework 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. He looked stunned. What lovely charts!

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Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. Some CTO’s swear that it is a huge improvement in development timeframes and doesn’t cause performance issues. They often aren’t great at planning development work. They should be setting the standards for how code is developed.

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CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

The Los Angeles-based operations and security management software service, Replicated has raised $25 million to ramp up its staffing and scale its sales and marketing efforts. As developers embrace Kubernetes, Replicated launches tools to manage its deployments. “Once we started building on that success.

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Software Tool SaaS Los Angeles 224

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Business Development - Biz Dev is hard. Enterprise Sales – The very first thing a potential customer does when you email or call to set up a meeting is Google you. So does the enemy who is fighting for the customer to choose another vendor. Customer Acquisition - I left customer acquisition for last intentionally.

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Press Google Course Writing 415

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2013

This post is about how to work with your largest customers when you’re an early-stage software company and about how you can increase your margins by selling your roadmap. For starters as a young enterprise software company you need to think about the customer segments you serve. One way of slicing customer segments is by size.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. The first of question is about qualifying your potential customers aka leads. Why Buy Me?

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Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

Upgrade’s e-commerce marketplace has two sides: one that enables consumers to choose a vetted stylist and have their wig colored or customized based on their desired look. However, although they are providing such significant value, a lot of them operate with limited funding and resources, which ultimately affects the customer experience.

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Tool Customer Custom Marketing 179

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

Palmer will head up business development, marketing, and sales for CallFire. CallFire provides telephony APIs and other services for business customers, including business texting, voice broadcasting, IVR, and other related services. READ MORE>>.

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Paramount Santa Monica Hollywood Platform 223

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 2, 2021

“ We were targeted to a small number of very premier customers. Sales, Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement. . Instead of relying on incumbent distribution platforms, customers control the audience relationship directly and maximize engagement and monetization in a way that fits with their brand objectives.

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Tool Commerce .Net Entertainment 315

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

First Principles. 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. -

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

He did note that in the four markets where the company has gone live since launching its business in January 2019 — San Diego, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire , and Sacramento — has yielded an annualized revenue run rate of over $400 million in gross merchandise value (the total value of home sales transacted on its platform).

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Sales Demand San Diego Funding 282

Berkonomics

JUNE 27, 2019

And that behavior results in leaving little time for outreach to the most critical component in your chain – your key customers. Then, what is a benchmark for customer outreach? But, do your customer know that they want? Do customers know what they want from their suppliers for future products? That’s bad behavior!

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. Markets develop for a complex set of factors that are often beyond all of our control.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

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. I was a beneficiary of this development. And I would learn customer service.

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Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

I was never into spicy foods growing up but after living in the UK for nearly a decade and having so much great Indian food around me all of the time I developed more of a taste for it. So he made hand-made batches in a bucket and drove it to customers in his van. My own fascination with hot sauces began a few years ago.

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Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Product 415

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2016

According to TigerText, it has named Kirk Kirman as President of Client Organization, heading up sales and customer support; and Kelli Castellano as Chief Marketing Officer, leading the company's marketing strategies.

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Santa Monica Organization Marketing Sales 209

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2021

Back in December, Swell Energy said it would be raising $450 million to support the development of distributed power projects in three states. It’s a project that will create solar-powered home batteries for eligible ConEd customers.

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Southern California Company Companies Glendale 237

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

“Yeah, but I’m just going to execute this [channel sales deal, international license of my product, new industry, new operating system, biz dev deal] and then it will pretty much run itself.” I’m not sure how you do all these other things and yet I think they may end up being a distraction to X.” My advice?

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Resource Startup Product Ideas 415

socalTECH

JUNE 1, 2021

Playa Vista-based iLife, a startup which is developing tools to help life insurance agents set up their own, branded "digital insurance agency", has raised $4M in a seed funding round, according to the company. iLife said the funding was led by Foundation Capital, and also include AME Cloud Ventures and Cherubic Ventures.

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Sales Seed Funding Startup Tool 113

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.) Building direct customer relationships with viewers (who want to tune into your channels). Developing O&O (owned & operated) businesses (outside of YouTube). Selling at smaller retailers will net you fewer customers and higher margins.

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Networking Media Content Customer 366

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Snipfeed is free to set up, but if you make sales, the company takes 15% — this percentage is inclusive of any transaction fees. Through Snipfeed’s referral program, creators can make 5% of sales from anyone they onboard to the platform (this comes out of Snipfeed’s commission). “We Image Credits: Snipfeed.

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Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286