Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2020

Should they go after high-tech nerds for partners, or professional technologists? I find that many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their own idea that they can’t stop selling it to potential partners. The right answer for a good business partner today is neither of the above.

Competition 174

Competition High Tech Startup Social Media 174

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2011

For most new high-tech products, the first customers are always “early adopters.” I see two pitfalls with any concerted focus on early adopters; first, the size of this group may not be as large as you think, and secondly, their feedback may lead you directly away from your real target market of mainstream customers.

Customer 91

Customer Custom High Tech News 91

socalTECH

MARCH 17, 2016

There has been a lot of worry recently in the high tech industry and from venture investors about "headwinds" in the technology market, particularly with valuations of "unicorn" companies dropping, investors shying away from investing in rounds, and even employees looking for safer jobs.

Southern California 100

Southern California Cornerstone OnDemand Technical Review SoCal 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Every year, we feature the year end reflections of founders, CEOs, investors, and others in Southern California's high tech community. We successfully pivoted to a flexible workplace in 2020, which includes transitioning our 70-member Customer Care team to work from home in less than a week. Harrison earned a B.A.S.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Startup CIO Southern California 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

As a potential investor, I always think of the high rate of failure of disruptive technologies, due to the longer learning curve of customers, infrastructure change consistently required, and higher marketing costs. Before you act, shut up and listen to employees, customers, and futurists.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Metrics Resource Software Review 101

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2018

For this morning's interview, we caught up with Elizabeth Cholawsky , the new CEO of Santa Barbara-based HG Data (www.hgdata.com), which develops software which helps marketers and salespeople understand the "technology stack" of their potential customers and prospects. Those are just two examples of the customers we well directly to.

Santa Barbara 113

Santa Barbara High Tech Outsource Development Startup 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2019

He offers some practical entrepreneurship lessons I most often see talking about Silicon Valley: You still need a good business plan to start. Especially in a small town, for credibility, you need to quantify your plan consistently to local leaders and organizations, as well as bankers and customers. People flock to the new.

Technical Review 107

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Customer 107

socalTECH

DECEMBER 26, 2012

For the last week of the year, we're featuring the thoughts and reflections of some of the movers and shakers of Southern California's high tech community. We were also about to build a really solid mentor network in a short period of time, pulling in about 250 CEO's and CTOs, from all backgrounds and locations.

Southern California 168

Southern California High Tech SaaS Social Media 168

socalTECH

DECEMBER 21, 2010

Last week, we announced our end-of-the-year project, which was to collect and share the opinions of some of the top influencers in Southern California's high tech community. I think Tesla qualifies as a technology company, and that it has just changed the paradigm of how we think about the automotive business and what we drive.

Truecar 203

Truecar Southern California High Tech Startup 203

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2020

Every year, we feature the year end reflections of founders, CEOs, investors, and others in Southern California's high tech community. Every news station and source has been talking about the analytics of COVID, recovery and vaccine distribution. We'll be posting these throughout the next two weeks.

Southern California 140

Southern California Technical Review Platform Organization 140

Eric Greenspan

MAY 14, 2013

So, because I’m a dad, a customer service enthusiast, product evaluator and entrepreneur, I’ve decided to build a business around it. From strollers to high tech, I will distill the best products and services and offer them to the influential Mommy Blogger community for reviews, commentary and endorsements.

Technical Review 135

Technical Review Product Services High Tech 135

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

Should they go after high-tech nerds for partners, or professional technologists? I find that many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their own idea that they can’t stop selling it to potential partners. The right answer for a good business partner today is neither of the above.

Technology 87

Technology High Tech Startup Social Media 87

socalTECH

AUGUST 20, 2010

For this morning's interview, we thought we'd talk with Los Angeles-based Sidebar (www.sidebar.com), a venture backed startup in the mobile space, to learn more about what they are up to. What is Sidebar all about? By using our analytics platform, they learn about what consumers want. So carriers are a major customer of yours?

Content 189

Content Screening Mobile Customer 189

socalTECH

JULY 24, 2017

The world of plumbing is not known for its high tech products. We talked with Ryan Kim , the company's CEO, to learn more about the company, how it spun out of Belkin's WeMo efforts, and how water usage is a huge area ripe for innovation. That's pretty staggering, if you think about it. All technology things.

High Tech 176

High Tech Belkin Platform Artificial Inteligence 176

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Of the 225 customer reviews currently posted on Amazon, over 90% are highly positive. As Guy notes in the accompanying video interview, his primary goal with Enchantment is to reach a broader audience, beyond the high-tech, startup world. It’s not clear to me I am qualified to talk about humility.

Santa Barbara 262

Santa Barbara Technical Review Social Media Startup 262

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 30, 2012

"Our business is about technology, yes. But it's also about operations and customer relationships." You can read about the variable impact of the various forms of innovation in Fast Followers. Along with Amazon, Dell was also an early pioneer of web-based customer service. . "The

Tips 247

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Santa Barbara 247

socalTECH

JUNE 23, 2011

One trend in the Southern California high tech startup market has been an increasing number of startups--and executives--who have been looking to combine their interests in business with their enthusiasm for giving back through nonprofits and causes. First, for those not familiar with CauseCast, what is the company all about?

Causecast 222

Causecast Startup Content Education 222

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

Need office or Tech Space? Custom Insurance Programs for Technology Companies. Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth (www.sycr.com) Sponsoring socalTECH's Orange County High Tech Report. www.socalip.com) Focused on high tech's unique need - Pragmatic cost-effective IP portfolio management - U.S. How about $70?

Orange County 113

Orange County Southern California IP Glendale 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2016

Should they go after high-tech nerds for partners, or professional technologists? I find that many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their own idea that they can’t stop selling it to potential partners. The right answer for a good business partner today is neither of the above.

High Tech 58

High Tech Startup Social Media Entrepreneur 58

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 27, 2012

They must compete with tens of thousands of other performers who are all pursuing the same customer dollars. At the outset of their careers, they are forced to market themselves with little to no budget and differentiate their product so that they gain adequate attention without alienating too many potential customers.

Tips 204

Tips Startup Entertainment Entrepreneur 204

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2013

Currently, social media is the least used of all customer interaction methods. They don’t know if they should move to social networks for lead generation, branding, customer loyalty, or for direct marketing and e-commerce. Read everything you can about viral marketing. What’s the problem? Start social networking with peers.

Social Media 106

Social Media Media Startup Social Network 106

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Better than Amazon''s customer experience for any brand" and "LinkedIn on Steroids.". Customer Segmentation. While it is not surprising that many of the startups associate themselves with one or more recognizable high-tech brands, the high concentration of the particular companies referenced is peculiar.

Product 208

Product Yammer Technical Review Google 208

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

For most new high-tech products, the first customers are always “early adopters.” I see two pitfalls with any concerted focus on early adopters; first, the size of this group may not be as large as you think, and secondly, their feedback may lead you directly away from your real target market of mainstream customers.

Marketing 96

Marketing News Pricing High Tech 96

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2011

Watertower has been involved in a number of high visibility exits and fundings in recent months, including Riot Games (rumored to be $400M+), Machinima, and ExtendMedia. Norton spent some time talking about his vision of where LA's future in high tech lies. Derek Norton: I'm a fourth generation Angeleno.

Riot Games 199

Riot Games Technology Los Angeles Entrepreneur 199

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

They don’t know if they should move to social networks for lead generation, branding, customer loyalty, or for direct marketing and e-commerce. Read everything you can about viral marketing. Successful people don’t wait for their kids to teach them about new technologies, or wait to be the last one on the block to try new things.

Social Media 115

Social Media Media Startup Social Network 115

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. Some will be quick to chalk about “personal branding” as gimmicky or manipulative. You’re a tech guy.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

We caught up with Gabriel to learn more about the company. From there, we learn all about the home's water usage using machine learning algorithms, by collecting data every second of the day regarding water flow, pressure, and temperature, all three of the fluid mechanical elements of the potable water system. Tell us what Flo does?

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Technology Startup Artificial Inteligence 113

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 3, 2011

And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Collaboration – Share your results, data, customer feedback, fans, etc. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

Startup 255

Startup High Tech SaaS .Net 255

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

I recently wrote a post about avoiding the “ Deferred Life Plan &# and some related thoughts about personal productivity that came from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek. Colin Kelley, the CTO of RingRevenue , left a comment in my last post about the need to “ mask interrupts &# in order to get work done.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2011

They don’t know if they should move to social networks for lead generation, branding, customer loyalty, or for direct marketing and e-commerce. Read everything you can about viral marketing. Successful people don’t wait for their kids to teach them about new technologies, or wait to be the last one on the block to try new things.

Social Media 104

Social Media Media Marketing Social Network 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2013

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. When you have invented a new technology, you need expensive models and testing, including samples for potential customers.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Technical Review Equity 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

The problem is that most people in this situation know they are stuck in the position and never try to change or to do anything about it. We were high tech at the very start of the boom. I got to experience much of the local culture and customs. My 2 biggest negatives about the book: 1.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

In this interview with #StartupsEverywhere , I talk withMichael Iseman, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Startup Junkie, about the mentorship pool, knowledge transfer, the latest happening in the ecosystem and the energy of this community within the region. Can you tell us more about Startup Junkie? 5000 list over the past five years.

Entrepreneur 70

Entrepreneur Startup News High Tech 70

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

I come from a high-tech software background, and only a few years ago, it would cost at least a million dollars ($1M) for a team of professionals to produce any commercial software product. Tags: entrepreneurial revolution startup high-tech business. Remember when you had to build a $1M factory to roll-out a new product?

Startup 50

Startup High Tech Search Engine Optimization SEM 50

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. When you have invented a new technology, you need expensive models and testing, including samples for potential customers.

Technical Review 95

Technical Review Startup Equity Entrepreneur 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2012

I come from a high-tech software background, and only a few years ago, it would cost at least a million dollars ($1M) for a team of professionals to produce any commercial software product. Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars.

Startup 102

Startup Search Engine Optimization SEM Social Network 102

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2010

Perhaps a simpler way to think about culture is to think of it in terms of how an organization makes choices, how it develops its values, its ethics, how it trains, recognizes and rewards its associates, its spirit, and not to be overlooked, how it treats its customers - both internal and external. Are there lessons here?

Organization 89

Organization Training Layoffs Journal 89