Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2012

A while back, I wrote about the value of Michael Porter’s Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment, and using every opportunity to highlight and emphasize your relative advantages, whether they be price, features, or bargaining power. Exceed customer expectations. Continuous customer service innovation.

Customer 104

Customer Custom Startup Organization 104

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2010

In the book, and in his popular lecture series, he says you can do it yourself, and outlines five steps to success, which I have adapted a bit for startups as follows: Analyze existing media, social media, and your demographics. Get to know the five W’s of these and others – who, what, where, when, and why. Pick your fit.

Social Media 95

Social Media Media Startup Blogging 95

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2023

Either could improve the statistic that half of startups fail within the first five years. You probably realize that the leading edge is very near the bleeding edge, where only early adopter customers dare to tread. On the other hand, if you wait for competitors to get there first, you may be left in the dust with no customers.

Startup 135

Startup Entrepreneur Statistics Course 135

Berkonomics

APRIL 14, 2016

And that includes potential customers as well as executives and employees. I recently sat in on a roundtable meeting in which the executive of a company stated his goal as “educate the world.” To be fair, he followed a bit later with a goal of thirty million dollars in revenue in five years, which got my attention.

Education 120

Education Metrics Course Resource 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2022

Assess customer demand. Do customers really need what you want to do, or might they see it as “nice to have?” What do you envision your business looking like in five to ten years? Education and training roadblocks. What resources do you have, skills and functions, and what do you do best? Visualize the future.

Startup 115

Startup Resource Training Ideas 115

socalTECH

JUNE 10, 2013

Those representatives help educate providers on products, and deliver value to those offices. The size of the market and the spending there was appealing, and also the fact that we already had customers. Dan Gilman: The value we add for them, is talking with representatives is education for them.

Marketing 231

Marketing Software Education Startup 231

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

It also starts with a good summary of the intangibles, summarized as the five rules of relevancy, by Mark Zawacki: A startup needs to be relevant and stay relevant. This is not the total opportunity out there, and not the total target market, but the subset of customers who have and will spend the money you need to cure their pain.

Startup 97

Startup Education Customer Custom 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

Most customers today won’t pay you five times the cost of alternatives, just because yours is “green.” A responsible entrepreneur promotes both loyalty and responsible consumption by educating consumers so they can make more informed decisions about their purchases, based on ecological footprints, and other sustainability criteria.

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2022

What entrepreneurs forget or don’t realize is that most customers are wary of all technology, educating the market on new technology is expensive, takes a long time, and people buy problem solutions rather than technology. How many times have investors heard startups start their pitch by touting that their technology is “disruptive?”

Startup 89

Startup Technical Review Technology Social Media 89

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2014

However, one of the biggest beneficiaries of that boom-- TaskUs (www.taskus.com) has been far lower profile--but has grown from only five employees three years ago, to over a thousand employees today who are helping behind the scenes to power those startups. What caused you to rethink your business and pivot the business three years in?

Startup 231

Startup Technology Outsource Santa Monica 231

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Startups should begin by selecting just a few of the vast array of social media offerings out there, and customize based on results. Get to know the five W’s of these – who, what, where, when, and why. Assess your target customer demographics. Identify your target customer and create customer profiles.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2022

The focus of this tool is to help you discover your top five strengths and learn how you can use them to excel and perform at a higher level. Jones, a professor Emeritus in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, who specializes in the areas of school counseling and career counseling and development.

Guide 126

Guide Tool Mentor Help 126

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

If you are looking for funding and customers for your new business, you need to identify your “unique selling proposition” (USP) right up front, in 30 seconds or less, to differentiate yourself in today’s information overload. Investor and customer attention spans are short, and both will write you off quickly.

.Net 73

.Net Examples Customer Custom 73

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2020

Either could improve the statistic that half of startups fail within the first five years. You probably realize that the leading edge is very near the bleeding edge, where only early adopter customers dare to tread. On the other hand, if you wait for competitors to get there first, you may be left in the dust with no customers.

Entrepreneur 121

Entrepreneur Startup Statistics Course 121

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2020

As we move forward, we are hoping to personalize that relationship as much as possible, based on life events, and provide a customized experience. It's good if you can help five to ten people, but it's better if you can help five to 10 million people along their financial path, and have a greater impact.

Content 124

Content Social Media Startup Artificial Inteligence 124

socalTECH

OCTOBER 27, 2008

San Diego-based Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a provider of engineering and other services, announced today that it has signed a $300M, five year contract with the U.S. Department of Education. SAIC has approximately 44,000 employees serving both the Federal Government and some commercial customers.

Outsource Development 100

Outsource Development Software Development Develop Development 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Assess customer demand. Do customers really need what you want to do, or might they see it as “nice to have?” What do you envision your business looking like in five to ten years? Education and training roadblocks. What resources do you have, skills and functions, and what do you do best? Visualize the future.

Startup 94

Startup Resource Training Ideas 94

socalTECH

APRIL 11, 2013

I don''t know if you''ve heard, but it''s actually tough for music teachers, tutors, and others to truly find enough customers to pay their bills and keep them involved in their passions. Five or six years ago, when we started, Amazon was crushing it, and Zappos was crushing it. Who''s your ideal customer for this?

Startup 260

Startup Education Study Ideas 260

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

We''ve build some evolutionary technology for Microsoft customers, so they can move forward and distribute their computing into the cloud, or use whatever future technology on their roadmap might ask them to do. I then spent the next ten years in the Far East, spending five years in Hong Kong, and five years in Singapore.

Startup 198

Startup Yahoo Software Education 198

socalTECH

OCTOBER 21, 2014

Nanxi Liu: We started the company in the summer of 2012, with five totally random people. Explain how five strangers all ended up starting a company together, exactly? Zach had built one of the top ten education apps in the App Store, and after they started talking, Zach also decided to drop out of college and join as a co-founder.

Social Media 178

Social Media Media Startup Culver City 178

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 31, 2022

Shared electric scooters came onto the scene five years ago with a promising vision of getting people out of cars and onto greener modes of transportation. One study from 2021 found that e-scooter users in Paris are mainly men aged 18 to 29, have a high educational level, and usually jump on a scooter for travel time savings.

Los Angeles 257

Los Angeles San Pedro Santa Monica Study 257

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

We've now been operating for five months, and have become the leading web service for mobile fundraising in the country. What kinds of customers are using your service? We've gotten over 80 paying customers in our five months we've been deployed. I'm a serial entrepreneur, and have started five companies.

Mobile 162

Mobile Web Startup Customer 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

It also starts with a good summary of the intangibles, summarized as the five rules of relevancy, by Mark Zawacki: A startup needs to be relevant and stay relevant. This is not the total opportunity out there, and not the total target market, but the subset of customers who have and will spend the money you need to cure their pain.

Startup 117

Startup Education Customer Custom 117

InfoChachkie

MARCH 9, 2019

Successful serial entrepreneurs know that their relationships are valuable assets worthy of careful nurturing – employees, investors, customers and suppliers are loyal to entrepreneurs they trust and trust is built on honesty and integrity. Don’t assume your customers will properly divine your intentions – they probably won’t.

Startup 100

Startup Netflix Entrepreneur Metrics 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Single-purpose beats generic One our biggest beliefs about Ring and frankly many of the other companies we’ve backed in computer vision ( Nanit for baby monitors, Osmo for kids education & games, Density for people counts) is that focused computer vision beats generic use cases.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2012

Montgomery, which does a great job of laying out specifics, but also starts with a good summary of the intangibles, summarized as the five rules of relevancy, by Mark Zawacki: A startup needs to be relevant and stay relevant. That means educating targeted supporters is key, even before you start to sell. A startup must gain traction.

Startup 99

Startup Education Customer Custom 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

It also starts with a good summary of the intangibles, summarized as the five rules of relevancy, by Mark Zawacki: A startup needs to be relevant and stay relevant. This is not the total opportunity out there, and not the total target market, but the subset of customers who have and will spend the money you need to cure their pain.

Capital 58

Capital Startup Education Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

The focus of this tool is to help you discover your top five strengths and learn how you can use them to excel and perform at a higher level. Jones, a professor Emeritus in the College of Education at North Carolina State University, who specializes in the areas of school counseling and career counseling and development.

Tool 125

Tool Mentor Help Education 125

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2019

Most customers today won’t pay you five times the cost of alternatives, just because yours is “green.” A responsible entrepreneur promotes both loyalty and responsible consumption by educating consumers so they can make more informed decisions about their purchases, based on ecological footprints, and other sustainability criteria.

Startup 93

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 93

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 19, 2016

Our core business is around a glam bag program, a monthly subscription which costs $10 a month, which delivers a themed,curatated makeup bag containing five full size or deluxe samples from top beauty brands. Corey Weiss: It is critical that you surprise and delight your customers, month over month, by. It's all about self expression.

Commerce 100

Commerce Content Sample Yahoo 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2019

What entrepreneurs forget or don’t realize is that most customers are wary of all technology, educating the market on new technology is expensive, takes a long time, and people buy problem solutions rather than technology. How many times have investors heard startups start their pitch by touting that their technology is “disruptive?”

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Technology Startup Social Media 87

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

To organize my thoughts, I found a new book, “ Burn the Business Plan ,” by Carl Schramm, who speaks from experience founding five companies, working major corporate roles, and being an active venture investor. The real value of a college education is in learning how to learn, since markets and business models are changing so fast.

Startup 72

Startup Entrepreneur Incubator Guide 72

socalTECH

MAY 28, 2013

The customer gets a great price, and the retailer gets both a new customer and a new sale. You can walk into any audio/video store, including Best Buy or Home Depot, and negotiate with the sales or customer service representative. We''re now in five categories, and we''re looking into computers and video games next.

Pricing 273

Pricing Product Help Sales 273

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. Thus customers and partners rely more and more on personal engagement with people. New technologies are everywhere today. Make it an enjoyable experience.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Startup Content Media 111

socalTECH

DECEMBER 6, 2019

Sometimes, the call is quick and easy five minutes, sometimes we have to ask a lot of questions to make sure we have everything we need. I've been very focused on customer experience and solving problems, for everything from homeowners to large organizations. We take as long as necessary to find that contractor. READ MORE>>.

Startup 100

Startup Encino Los Angeles Ventura 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2015

Assess customer demand. Do customers really need what you want to do, or might they see it as “nice to have?” What do you envision your business looking like in five to ten years? Education and training roadblocks. What resources do you have, skills and functions, and what do you do best? Visualize the future.

Startup 109

Startup Resource Training Ideas 109

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2014

After that I worked for five years in at Cisco working on consumer networking and enterprise networking. We see our customers as people who are concerned about water consumption, are not happy with controllershat are difficult to understand and manage, and basically are clumsy. I worked in the industry for ten years.

Demand 258

Demand Startup Southern California Marketing 258