Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Equally, I encouraged entrepreneurs to spend time getting to know their future VCs early because getting a feel for your chemistry is far more important than how the VC is ranked in some survey. Equally, I encouraged entrepreneurs to thoroughly reference check their VCs – you’ll learn much more from this than anything else.

Entrepreneur 330

Entrepreneur Marketing Venture Capital Hulu 330

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

As a logical and data-driven business advisor, I have long focused on facts, technology, and quantifiable pain in guiding entrepreneurs. I now offer the following additional guidelines for how to attract customers and position your product: Find the latest social trend, or even create it.

Customer 173

Customer Custom Social Media Technical Review 173

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience. I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. This article originally appeared on Inc.com. question in sales.

Sales 393

Sales Startup Resource Customer 393

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2023

With interactive social media and video everywhere, everyone needs to feel they have a relationship with their leaders, and every brand needs leader personification for customers to relate. Here is my adaptation of his engagement principles for all the aspiring entrepreneurs I advise: Learn to adopt an outsider’s perspective.

Customer 140

Customer Custom Social Media Metrics 140

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2020

With today’s interactive social media and the real-time Internet, both customers and employees see inside your company easily, so you can’t hide your real company culture. At the same time relationship perceptions have become the biggest drivers to customer loyalty and employee engagement. Maintain a customer-centric focus.

Guide 124

Guide Social Media Organization Customer 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2020

I’ve noticed that most young entrepreneurs are more socially conscious today than ever before, which is a great trend. The idea has four principles guiding and underlying every business: Higher purpose. Entrepreneurs and startups are all about innovation, in business principles as well as in products and services.

Guide 128

Guide Capital Entrepreneur Course 128

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Most of the time, I’m all about providing encouragement and inspiration to entrepreneurs. They need it and they deserve it, because entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy. Or your customers tell you what they need. The question of defensibility is one of the toughest for an entrepreneur to answer.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Sample Guide Ideas 174

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Creating a gerat company in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that the entrepreneur knows what’s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer. The first step : Involve potential customers early. The third step: Reiterate and return to customers for comments.

Company 229

Company Companies Startup Customer 229

Berkonomics

MARCH 30, 2012

Many of those investors, individual and institutional, are still licking those wounds; and as a result, investors today want to see a working business model, and customers that are willing to spend good money for your specific solution. Crowd Funding: The Internet is at work here, especially for obtaining early stager seed money.

Funding 192

Funding Entrepreneur Startup Invest 192

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 8, 2011

You must make the same type of basic probabilistic calculations when guiding your adVenture. You may develop a winning product that customers are willing to buy, but all is for naught if you do not have the cash to execute your plan and deliver upon your product’s value proposition. Be like Huck. Seven Card Entrepreneurial Stud.

Startup 207

Startup Entrepreneur Competition Guide 207

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2021

Therefore, the least you can do is take advantage of some of the self-assessment tools and guides around, like the classic book “ The Entrepreneur Equation ,” by Carol Roth, which highlights personal characteristics and skills required. That should indicate that a lot of entrepreneurs get more than they bargained for.

Entrepreneur 169

Entrepreneur Startup Statistics Guide 169

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

The concise guide is here. You need to segment your audience and find a way to get your highest quality customers over to O&O (owned & operated) inventory where you can get higher CPMs, sell merchandise and capture more customer information. You can earn the right to ask for customer information and remarket to them.

Hollywood 374

Hollywood Content Yahoo Java 374

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

I recognized this as I was reading the classic book, ” The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need ,” by Anthony Iannarino, who is an international sales leader and expert on optimizing results. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Diagnosing and understanding the customer problem.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Startup Sales Customer 134

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2022

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.

Customer 122

Customer Custom Social Media Technical Review 122

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 22, 2016

We had a spirited discussion regarding a number of issues related to blowing past $10M in annual recurring SaaS revenue, in front of a sold-out crowd of about 400 entrepreneurs. Near the conclusion of our discussion, I asked each CEO to name any non-obvious metrics by which they guide their businesses. Share and Enjoy.

Customer 124

Customer Custom Cornerstone OnDemand Metrics 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the business model.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Customer 113

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 4, 2014

If you could share one startup lesson with a young entrepreneur, what would it be? So I ask prospective new entrepreneurs, ''What is it specifically that you can bring to the industry?'' How has this reality impacted your customer acquisition strategies? Kutay graciously shared his multi-decade entrepreneurial journey with me.

Entrepreneur 187

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Advertising 187

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 29, 2010

Entrepreneurs should maintain a like level of enthusiasm when operating their adVentures. Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs tend to be more optimistic than the general populace. However, as described in Are You An Entrepreneur? Strategic planning at a startup is guided by entrepreneurs’ innate optimistic pessimism.

Entrepreneur 193

Entrepreneur Course Startup Ideas 193

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2014

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver memorable experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers. An unhappy team member can’t create an engaged customer.

Customer 106

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 106

InfoChachkie

JUNE 16, 2016

Entrepreneurs create their own jobs, why shouldn’t they also create their own degrees? As described in Should Millennial Entrepreneurs Skip College? most young entrepreneurs benefit greatly from the college experience. Custom Wharton Degree. This list is intended to cover non-obvious courses relevant to entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur 145

Entrepreneur Class Course Writing 145

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 29, 2010

Entrepreneurs should maintain a like level of enthusiasm when operating their adVentures. Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs tend to be more optimistic than the general populace. However, as described in Are You An Entrepreneur? Strategic planning at a startup is guided by entrepreneurs’ innate optimistic pessimism.

Entrepreneur 185

Entrepreneur Course Startup Ideas 185

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2013

Some entrepreneurs forget that talking is not communicating. Then, hopefully, come customers, distribution channels, and going public or merging with an attractive buy-out candidate. From an entrepreneur perspective, here are the understanding barrier categories: Unclear frame of reference. Stereotyping and biases.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Technical Review Guide Mentor 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2013

As I visit the websites of many startups, as well as more mature businesses, I still too often see a “contact” page offering nothing but a sterile form for customers to submit, never to be heard from again. Customers are not all like you, and they have choices, so a “one size fits all” customer service is no longer a viable option.

Social Media 99

Social Media Customer Custom Media 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2013

Some entrepreneurs forget that they can’t use people the same way they use technology to build a startup. Unfortunately, startups are not one-man shows, so entrepreneurs need to study leadership as much as they study technology. Otherwise, customers and investors will see new initiatives as merely change rather than progress.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Technology Startup Guide 92

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

He was a life-long entrepreneur and the first business he created out of college (actually, he founded it while he was at Caltech) was a company that manufactured high quality audio speakers. He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2013

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver memorable experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers. An unhappy team member can’t create an engaged customer.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2013

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Startup Social Media 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2020

The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Effective team leadership, or leadership inside the box, is really only half the challenge that every entrepreneur faces.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Resource Startup Guide 126

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2012

When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is if most of your potential customers don’t know about it. The marketplace is a war zone.

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Mentor Activity Guide 110

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2012

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone to wake up and answer website email requests. That’s just not sufficient to hold today’s fickle, less loyal, and ready to jump customer. I found a good summary of these new expectations in a book just published by Micah Solomon, “ High-tech, High-touch Customer Service.”

Customer 97

Customer Custom Services Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

I recognized this as I was reading a new book, ” The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need ,” by Anthony Iannarino, who is an international sales leader and expert on optimizing results. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Diagnosing and understanding the customer problem.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Sales Startup Customer 106

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Too many entrepreneurs I know still believe that that their great idea will carry the startup, and they may even minimize their own value, especially if they have introvert tendencies. Yet most investors agree that the “idea” is worth nothing alone, and it’s the entrepreneur execution that counts. Remember the rule of one.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Social Network 109

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage Angel investors. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. boomers entrepreneurs gen-x gen-y startups'

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review Report 106

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2012

As I visit the websites of many startups, as well as more mature businesses, I still too often see a “contact” page offering nothing but a sterile form for customers to submit, never to be heard from again. Customers are not all like you, and they have choices, so a “one size fits all” customer service is no longer a viable option.

Social Media 91

Social Media Customer Custom Media 91

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2014

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Social Media Technical Review Startup 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

It requires a team effort, or at least the ability to build trust and confidence among key players, and effectively communicate with partners, team members, investors, vendors, and customers. Smart entrepreneurs always balance the risk with facts, when they have them, rather than their gut. Be a role model and guide others to excel.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur News Ideas Resource 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2014

Traditionally, the majority of entrepreneurs have been logical thinkers, problem solvers, and pay attention to details. Of course, the best solution would be a new wave of so-called whole-brain thinkers, but this term is usually reserved for Einstein and Picasso, and no entrepreneurs that I can name. Creativity is the key word here.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Guide Social Media Ideas 104