Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

Finally you create and document your recipe (business plan). If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entree on customers. This means find some hungry people who would love a good dinner, and be willing to pay for it. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

What used to be an “A” round in 2011 is now routinely called a Seed round and this has been so engrained that founders would rather take less money than to have to put the words “A round” in their legal documents. If we wanted to we could have sold > 2x the fund easily in the secondary markets with significant upside remaining.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2021

If customers don’t know you exist, you can’t solve their problem, they won’t buy. Getting customer attention often takes more innovation today than solving the tough technical problems. If you can’t state clearly why your startup is the only choice, then it’s time to regroup before spending your hard-fought funding.

Technical Advisors 154

Technical Advisors Tips Marketing Case Study 154

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

When you are starting a new business, every resource is precious, including time, funding, and people. It’s always tempting to think that more product variations will satisfy more customers and lead to new sales. Daily updates from the top and documented processes are critical. Use multiple small orders at first.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

The days of lengthy, text-heavy, business plan documents prepared by expensive experts are behind us. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Early customer feedback will position your solution, and help you make pivots before critical time and money are lost. Just make sure you can fill in all the details.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Finally you create and document your recipe (business plan). If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entree on customers. This means find some hungry people who would love a good dinner, and be willing to pay for it. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2021

You continually get frustrated with your team members, customers, vendors, and partners. Even when orders are clearly on the upswing, you need more funding to cover inventory and lagging accounts receivable. Each must be documented clearly and refined regularly. It’s very frustrating. All the constituents have their own agenda.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Satisfaction Social Media 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2021

Based on my experience with startups, trust is the most valuable asset you can have, especially when asking people to step into the unknown by funding your innovation, by joining your team, or just buying your new product as an early customer. For multiple party contracts, always document.

Company 165

Company Companies Metrics Entrepreneur 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2020

Leaseville, the pioneer in the virtual lease-to-own (LTO) space demonstrated strong metrics on its new product this year and is now poised to scale significantly. With customer acquisition costs (CAC) rising significantly across most products, one company experimented with a few low-cost initiatives. Two lessons learnedand relearned!

Capital 100

Capital SoCal Southern California SaaS 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2017

“Sleeping giants do wake up,” I always say, to remind new business owners that nobody cares what you do when you are not a threat, but when you get some real traction with customers, competitors will come out of the woodwork with a vengeance. You need quantified value for customers to see, feel, and pay for.

Metrics 58

Metrics Resource Startup Training 58

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product. The challenge is to convince investors that your business will attract real customers, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses. Pivoting early, based on real customer feedback, is always cheaper than later.

Customer 59

Customer Custom Pricing Startup 59

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Like it or not, you are now entering the dreaded realm of specifying and documenting “formal business processes.” Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Funding process. Customer service and support. Develop your business plan.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

Eric is also author of the book The PayPal Wars: Battles With Ebay, the Media, the Mafia, And the Rest of Planet Earth , where he documented that experience. My cofounder and I know how hard it is to get a company up and running, and funded, to keep your investors in the loop. Finally, for CapLinked, how has the firm been funded?

Southern California 243

Southern California Entrepreneur Software Review Yammer 243

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

Finally you create and document your recipe (business plan). If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entrée on customers. This means find some hungry people who would love a good dinner, and be willing to pay for it. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Finally you create and document your recipe (business plan). If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entrée on customers. This means find some hungry people who would love a good dinner, and be willing to pay for it. Make them “feel the love.”

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. No investor wants to wait that long for his payback, or fund the years of waiting.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Like it or not, you are now entering the dreaded realm of specifying and documenting “formal business processes.” Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Funding process. Customer service and support. Develop your business plan.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on. How does control start to change at the B-round of funding? If your metric move immediate up-and-to-the-right? But it’s quite rare.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. No investor wants to wait that long for his payback, or fund the years of waiting.

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

Of course there are scenarios where a written business plan is not critical, but I haven’t seen one yet where a well-written 15-page document, or at least a 10-slide pitch, is a negative. You need funding, and plan to get it from friends and family. You need an investor, and want a document to mass-mail to everyone.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2015

You continually get frustrated with your team members, customers, vendors, and partners. Even when orders are clearly on the upswing, you need more funding to cover inventory and lagging accounts receivable. Each must be documented clearly and refined regularly. It’s very frustrating. All the constituents have their own agenda.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Satisfaction Social Media 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

The days of lengthy, text-heavy, business plan documents prepared by expensive experts are behind us. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Early customer feedback will position your solution, and help you make pivots before critical time and money are lost. Just make sure you can fill in all the details.

Startup 61

Startup Social Media News Tool 61

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process. Customer service and support. Develop your business plan.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Use a simple accounting tool like QuickBooks, get away from co-mingled funds, and you have the first business process you need. Even if you are doing the work yourself, you need to document requirements, features, metrics, and milestones. Funding process. Customer service and support. Develop your business plan.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

Why raise funds? This seems like an obvious question but you need to be clear why you’re looking to raise in order to come up with an effective game plan and determine your best funding option. And when it comes to timing, wait until you’ve come up with a working prototype and developed your product before you seek external funding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. No investor wants to wait that long for his payback, or fund the years of waiting.

Invest 74

Invest Tips Competition Metrics 74

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2016

You continually get frustrated with your team members, customers, vendors, and partners. Even when orders are clearly on the upswing, you need more funding to cover inventory and lagging accounts receivable. Each must be documented clearly and refined regularly. It’s very frustrating. All the constituents have their own agenda.

Search Engine Optimization 55

Search Engine Optimization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Social Media 55

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

It’s human nature to prioritize the metrics that get measured, so the simple act of keeping track is often enough to have a significant positive impact. Customers: A company’s only sustainable source of cash is sales, so you need to keep track of your business development efforts. His website is [link].

.Net 89

.Net Metrics Competition Template 89

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2012

introNetworks is still going strong and has some of the biggest customers in the world, like NASA and McCann World Group. We're working on how quickly we can provision servers, and what those metrics are, and it's been fantastic. We were even funded back in 2006 by Adobe, to move over to Flex. We love data visualization.

Social Media 203

Social Media Startup Tool LAMP 203

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Professional investors expect far more than an idea pitch – they are looking for a documented opportunity analysis and realistic financial projections.

Startup 155

Startup Ideas IBM IBM 155

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2020

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Professional investors expect far more than an idea pitch – they are looking for a documented opportunity analysis and realistic financial projections.

Ideas 122

Ideas Entrepreneur Startup IBM 122

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2015

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Professional investors expect far more than an idea pitch – they are looking for a documented opportunity analysis and realistic financial projections.

Ideas 115

Ideas Startup IBM IBM 115

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2016

Let me be a bit more specific on how follow-up trumps ideas for success in the key challenges of a startup, or any small business: Networking with investors, partners, and customers. Professional investors expect far more than an idea pitch – they are looking for a documented opportunity analysis and realistic financial projections.

Ideas 53

Ideas Startup IBM IBM 53