Customer Funding Sales Technical Advisors 
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. As a business adviser, I still see too many new venture founders who skimp on their marketing focus, or start too late.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 23, 2013
I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. For 1991 I was very technical and also had a lot of practical business implementation experience in technology.
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SoCal CTO
MARCH 4, 2010
I am looking for one or two startups that I can work with on their road to success as a virtual C-level officer, board member, advisor or other relationship. This is actually fairly common and I think it’s a bit challenging in that the technology roles (from technology advisor to CTO) in a startup vary widely.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 5, 2010
You attend five customer meetings together over a two-week period and after each meeting you replay the results in the office about what it meant. The conversations bleed into the sales messages the next time, they wend their way into software designs and form the plan of attach against competition. Been there.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 28, 2014
It’s what signals to existing investors how quickly their teams need to be fund raising and the level of risk the company is facing and also it signals to potentially new investors both how quickly you need to raise (ie you have less leverage if you’re in a rush) as well as how much cash you’ll need if they fund you.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. I said that was my point.
Both Sides of the Table
JUNE 27, 2011
Most people totally advise against stealth. Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. A funding announcement is a stand-alone event. Be careful about this advice. You don’t.
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