Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

The world keeps changing, and visible business strategies that worked well in the past, including being the premium brand or low price producer, simply don’t get the customer loyalty they once did. Today, customers are looking for real relationships, a memorable shopping experience, and satisfaction of a higher purpose.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Today’s customers demand more than a good product; they expect a great customer experience. A few companies are leading the way, including Apple with their iPad and iPhone, offering irresistible stores with friendly experts, elegant packaging, and customer service that never ends. Experience using the product is only one stage.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Thousand Oaks-based wireless network equipment provider Xirrus appears to be on a roll in signing up education customers, saying Wednesday that it has signed up Wasatch High School, located in Utah, as its latest customer. Xirrus is the latest startup of Xircom founder Dirk Gates. READ MORE>>.

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Education Thousand Oaks Custom Customer 140

socalTECH

JULY 29, 2010

Los Angeles-based Invested.in , the online fundraising site run by Alon Goren, is powering a new effort to help educators raise money for educational programs from the BizWorld Foundation. Tags: investedin fundraising nonprofit bizworld entrepreneur startup education. READ MORE>>.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. They are devastated when their business growth never starts or stalls, and they have no idea how to get it moving again.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

Everyone knows that startups are risky, but they also expect that the job will be exciting and potentially very lucrative (think early employees at Facebook and Google). The truly indispensable person in a startup is a problem solver, because every startup has plenty of problems. Educate yourself one notch up.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

They forget that adapting their company and themselves as their customers evolve is the key to long-term survival. Think of Blockbuster and Toys ‘R’ Us , both of whom missed customer changes and the move to online. Create an overt strategy to react to emerging customer trends. Remember when you were a startup?

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Customer Custom Examples IBM 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2023

Every startup and every new business needs a unique selling proposition (USP) to get people’s attention these days, and make it stand out in the information overload we all see. I’m looking for the “hook” right up front, or I lose interest quickly, just like every customer and investor these days. Do include some quantification.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2021

Most entrepreneur that fail are quick to offer a litany of constraints that caused their demise – not enough money, time, customers, or support from the right players. Every startup needs to think hard daily about what problem or challenge is holding back progress, what really matters today, and what entirely new possibilities exist.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2012

I recently wrote about the 12 tips to building successful startup communities. I lived in London from 1997-2005 and for 6 of those years ran my startup based out of London. It was a strange contrast for me having grown up in Northern California where failure seemed to be a badge of honor. I remember this lesson well.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2019

Image via Flickr by jardenberg Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. To get to the core of what’s relevant to customers, you need to know them well. Educational. Visually appealing. Great content is conversation.

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Customer Custom Marketing Tips 93

TechCrunch LA

JULY 23, 2019

On Tuesday, Haptik announced it has acqui-hired Convrg, a Los Angeles-based startup that develops chatbots, to serve customers in North America. The startup had raised only a “small seed round” prior to today’s announcement, Vaish said, declining to reveal any financial details. 60% of all software is bought in the U.S.,

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2022

In fact, I believe the majority of true entrepreneurs are not interested in this new role, and jump ship quickly by hiring an experienced CEO or merging with another company, to start their next entrepreneurial effort. With a startup, everything is an experiment. Spend more time on the future than today.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2023

The Internet is the problem, by facilitating constant change, and it’s the solution, by providing an absolutely current view of customers, trends, and best practices. It requires an attitude of self-education, versus an assumption that someone else will provide the education. Building a new business is not rocket science.

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Social Media Startup Entrepreneur Education 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term. Thus you should do the same or more due diligence on educational background, previous work, and references.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2023

When I heard a friend and business mentor say, “Your startup won’t fail if you don’t quit,” I realized that every entrepreneur should adopt “never give up” as their mantra. Either could improve the statistic that half of startups fail within the first five years. So why do most startups fail?

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2012

You hear a lot of talk these days about the importance of customer satisfaction, but customer loyalty is the real win. A satisfied customer is necessary, but not sufficient, to be a loyal customer who will come back repeatedly, refer their friends and family to you, and be faithful even when your price is not the lowest.

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socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2013

A few weeks ago, the University of Southern California announced a new startup incubator, the Viterbi Startup Garage ([link] backed by such notable investors as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the United Talent Agency. What''s the mission behind the new startup incubator? That''s basically how the program come about.

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Incubator USC Startup Artificial Inteligence 233

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2014

Los Angeles has been in the midst of a technology boom over the last few years, with many of high profile startups growing in the area. We spoke with Bryce Maddock , founder of TaskUs, about the company and how it has been providing the manpower behind a lot of LA''s technology startups. So, what is TaskUs?

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2021

Startups are the corporations of the future, so I have long believed that entrepreneurs who study existing corporate models, rather than ignoring them with disdain, will likely profit from the exercise. That means if your new startup doesn’t plan for continuous innovation, the company may never reach corporate status. Globalization.

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Marketing Startup Entrepreneur Social Media 135

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2020

One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item. Trade equity or services for startup help.

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Funding Startup Equity Examples 174

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Ten years later, in the 1930s, the overhead projector debuted to display material for the whole class to see all at once, followed by the launch of the Scantron grading system in the 1970s to speed up the standardized testing process. Innovative? Yes, for their time. Powerful for learners? Not really.

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TechCrunch LA

MAY 23, 2019

Fika invests roughly half of its capital exclusively in startups headquartered in LA, with a particular fondness for B2B, enterprise and fintech companies. In total, more than $60 billion was invested in LA startups in 2018. “It’s still really underserved from a capital standpoint,” Zhuo said of the LA region.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2022

How many times have investors heard startups start their pitch by touting that their technology is “disruptive?” 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.

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Startup Technical Review Technology Social Media 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

For example, I believe that Starbucks surprised most people by proving that they could take a commodity business, a coffee shop, and make it a worldwide profit winner, just by justifying premium pricing with a quality product, the right locations, personalized service, and appealing to the professional customer personas.

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Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. To get to the core of what’s relevant to customers, you need to know them well. Educational. The eye is just as important as the mind when it comes to customers.

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Content Newsletter Competition Writing 146

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2023

Even customers, while they all want the next big thing, want it to happen with minimal new learning. I believe these principles, paraphrased here, should be adopted by every entrepreneur struggling to accomplish innovation in a startup in any market: Innovation can come from anywhere in the organization. Marty Zwilling

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Artificial Inteligence Google Startup Organization 114

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 28, 2020

MarketerHire , a Los Angeles-based startup backed by a slew of executives from some of the city’s hottest startups, launched its new service matching freelance marketing experts with open jobs listed on its platform. . Brands can typically fill their open positions in as little as 48 hours, the company said. “As

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Marketing Services Netflix Company 265

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2014

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. People buy from people, and in a startup, you are the brand.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2021

While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision. I found many of these in the classic book “ Great From The Start: How Conscious Corporations Attract Success ,” by John B. A startup needs to find a voice relevant to its ecosystem.

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Education Customer Custom Sales 151

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision. I found many of these in the classic book “ Great From The Start: How Conscious Corporations Attract Success ,” by John B. A startup needs to find a voice relevant to its ecosystem.

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Startup Education Custom Customer 97

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2018

As part of the lead in to the conference, and as a part of our sponsor relationship with the conference, we're running a series of interviews with speakers from the conference about their experience in the area of recurring revenues, customer service, and similar topics. We respond very quickly to all of our customers. Kevin Anderson.

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Custom Customer Services Conference 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2012

New product startups rightfully begin with a heads-down focus on creating the ultimate product – whether it’s a new technology, a new look and ease of use, or a new low-cost delivery approach. Customer centricity is far more than providing excellent customer service, although that’s a step in the right direction.

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Customer Custom Startup Pricing 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Often, despite your passion and expectation, customers don’t immediately see the value and need that you see, and you have no idea why the initiative is stuck , and what could be the real customer issue or fix. Customers won’t buy what they can’t find or don’t understand. Customers need supporting approvals to fully benefit.

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Product Services Technical Review Artificial Inteligence 141

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 16, 2020

Its round will be used to speed up its growth through strategic hires and partnerships, according to UNest. Ksenia Yudina initially founded the company to provide financial planning and services to lower- and middle-class families looking for ways to start saving for their children’s education, she said.

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Services Capital Draper Education 235

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2019

To better understand exactly where EV technology is today, we caught up with Caradoc Ehrenhalt , the CEO and founder of a Los Angeles startup, EV Safe Charge (www.evsafecharge.com), to chat a bit about his view of where EV charging technology today. Caradoc Ehrenhalt: EV Safe started when I got an electric vehicle, for the environment.

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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.

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