InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

In order to drill down on how entrepreneurs can leverage social commerce sites without alienating their potential customers, I spoke with industry expert Albert Wilson, who heads up Affiliate and Marketplaces for Deckers Outdoor Corporation. John Greathouse : Albert, thanks for taking the time to chat.

Entrepreneur 210

Entrepreneur Commerce Sites Social Network 210

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. You can either find customers for your solution or you can find solutions for your customers.

Sales 139

Sales Training Startup Customer 139

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. You can either find customers for your solution or you can find solutions for your customers.

Sales 106

Sales Entrepreneur Customer Custom 106

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. Tracy studied SEOMoz and several other online sources of SEO tips. Sam is the managing director of Launchpad LA and we were about to pick our 2012 class of entrepreneurs. She focused on her customer. More on that later.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Eric provides many examples of potential and real application areas that are ripe for predictive analytics, but my view is that smart entrepreneurs can extrapolate these to hundreds more, just waiting to be tapped. Online, everyone wants to know which ad each customer is most likely to click. Investment risk management.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Social Media Study Guide 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Optimize the total customer experience.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2023

In this age of interactive social media, your culture image quickly spreads to customers, and determines their loyalty. Everyone knows and admires the leaders , including Google and Zappos, but most entrepreneurs have only a fuzzy idea of what to do to get there. Invest in employees’ career and personal growth.

Claremont 101

Claremont Mentor Study Startup 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Eric provides many examples of potential and real application areas that are ripe for predictive analytics, but my view is that smart entrepreneurs can extrapolate these to hundreds more, just waiting to be tapped. Online, everyone wants to know which ad each customer is most likely to click. Investment risk management.

Startup 99

Startup Social Media Study Guide 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. These resources often include a cash investment, as well as office space, and consulting.

Entrepreneur 113

Entrepreneur Funding Startup Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Applied research is still primarily scientific study, seeking to solve practical problems, but doesn’t yet focus on a commercial product. It’s still considered high risk for investment, since manufacturing and quality issues are likely. Thus the best entrepreneur strategy for funding is to build solutions, not technology.

Resource 102

Resource Ideas Funding Research 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. What you don’t realize is these famous investors only deal with entrepreneurs who sold their last company for a $100M dollars or more.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2021

I often hear the popular notion that successful entrepreneurs are built from a single heroic insight or a single innovation. Hoque’s great insights on how to transform businesses in this age of creativity, innovation, and sustainability are based on his serial entrepreneur experiences, as well as his study of Eastern philosophies.

Ideas 158

Ideas Entrepreneur Study Product 158

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

In this age of interactive social media, your culture image quickly spreads to customers, and determines their loyalty. Everyone knows and admires the leaders , including Google and Zappos, but most entrepreneurs have only a fuzzy idea of what to do to get there. Invest in employees’ career and personal growth.

Claremont 172

Claremont Mentor Study Startup 172

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2022

I was shocked to read an old Gallup study that indicates only 13 percent of employees worldwide are actively engaged at work, and more recent data shows only a small change in the right direction. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Nobody likes a downer, especially for a boss. Start today.

Examples 145

Examples Mentor Activity Product 145

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. I once met with an entrepreneur who had developed a new algae strain to cure world hunger and make him rich.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to prefer to fail their way to the top, rather than do some research and learn from the successes and mistakes of others. In general I try to focus on the positives and tell entrepreneurs what works, but sometimes it’s important to reiterate the common things that simply don’t work.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Satisfaction 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Jeff Bezos is one of the world’s most admired entrepreneurs, primarily because of his humble style and his growth from a regular person background to a current net worth in the neighborhood of $200 billion dollars. It allows investors to come into alignment with customers. Focus relentlessly and passionately on the customer.

Slides 137

Slides Customer Custom Satisfaction 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2015

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. These resources often include a cash investment, as well as office space, and consulting.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review Equity 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2017

More recently, the desire for extra income has become the key driver in new startups, according to a 2015 study. Being called a lifestyle entrepreneur should be a point of pride, not an insult. Of course, even lifestyle entrepreneurs want to be happy, and want their business to be “successful.” According to William R.

Entrepreneur 69

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Course 69

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2019

There are lots of resources available to entrepreneurs in the industry, but they are not necessarily that easy to access, whether that's deep insight into how to work with the government or with NASA, or how to work with the big primes, we felt that we could help create that resource. Mattt Kozlov: Yes, it's a three month format.

Southern California 124

Southern California Startup Entrepreneur Los Angeles 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2014

Perhaps sparked by the recent recession, I’m seeing a new era of the entrepreneur, with startups springing up all around. Based on my own mentoring and investing experience, the best entrepreneurs are pragmatic problem solvers. Listen to your customers to arrive at acceptable and marketable solutions.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Mentor Technical Review Satisfaction 102

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Some people find this elitist?—?I It doesn’t.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Applied research is still primarily scientific study, seeking to solve practical problems, but doesn’t yet focus on a commercial product. It’s still considered high risk for investment, since manufacturing and quality issues are likely. Thus the best entrepreneur strategy for funding is to build solutions, not technology.

Help 165

Help Research Startup Funding 165

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

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. If your solution alleviates a high level of existing pain, customers more readily change.

Product 95

Product Case Study Customer Custom 95

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

As an entrepreneur, I understand your passion when pitching your solution to investors and customers, but passion alone won’t make one more technology pitch stand out above all the rest. Investors tell me that they invest in people, more than products. Thus it behooves you to highlight your message with a bit of storytelling.

Startup 145

Startup Competition Customer Custom 145

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

What Cham rarely tells people – he’s both private and humble – is that he started making some small co-investments with me in tech firms starting with Maker Studios where he was one of the earliest investors. This past year he even decided to attend burning man (photo below) to get a sense of what that was all about.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

On a regular basis, I am approached by entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. A business plan may be a small investment to get a shot at that opportunity.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. Most top tier VCs return about 3x invested capital and outlier funds (the best of a vintage) might return 6-8x. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

As of today, I will have published an article here for entrepreneurs and startups every day for the last 1001 days, since I started Startup Professionals Musings near the close of 2008. Here are ten key messages that I would like to leave you with: I continue to gain respect for entrepreneurs. I’m sure you know what I mean.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Blogging Social Media 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2011

Rose, who has been described as "the Father of Angel Investing in New York" by Crain's New York Business, and a "world conquering entrepreneur" by BusinessWeek. He chairs New York Angels, one of the most active angel investment groups in the country, which has invested over $60 million into nearly 70 companies.

Invest 88

Invest Angel Venture Capital Entrepreneur 88

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

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans take too much time, are inaccurate, and rarely add value. These platforms, and every investor who uses them to find entrepreneurs, expects to find a good business plan posted. Clemson University professor William B.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

InfoChachkie

MAY 20, 2013

According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. I became acquainted with Tige, when I was researching examples of exemplary online customer service. Being an entrepreneur) can be a really good thing for ROL.

Entrepreneur 235

Entrepreneur Startup Software Engineering Technical Review 235

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As noted in Pour and Stir Part I , the key to the successful execution of this strategy is managing the following equation: The cost to acquire a customer < lifetime value of a customer. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. This is equivalent to being handed a free customer for every ten customers you acquire.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

And investing in content companies won’t return money! But audience size and consumption is massive and growing plus; Study Innovator’s Dilemma ( my cheat sheet here ). Watch out for an investment announcement from me here soon. It’s the reason I invested in Maker Studios and they’re on a tear.

Hollywood 374

Hollywood Content Yahoo Java 374

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Eric provides many examples of potential and real application areas that are ripe for predictive analytics, but my view is that smart entrepreneurs can extrapolate these to hundreds more, just waiting to be tapped. Online, everyone wants to know which ad each customer is most likely to click. Investment risk management.

Social Media 70

Social Media Study Guide Examples 70

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2020

I was shocked to read an old Gallup study that indicates only 13 percent of employees worldwide are actively engaged at work, and more recent data shows only a small change in the right direction. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Nobody likes a downer, especially for a boss. Start today.

Product 129

Product Examples Mentor Activity 129