Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. A sample of three views is adequate. If your investor is unknown, or peers offer no positive attributes, take it as a red flag.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

When a product is truly unique and demanded a retailer willingly promotes and sells it en masse in part because it does get margin on the good but also because it brings customers in the door who spend on other products. Ariel understood her customer?—?the So Why Does This Matter? the modern buyer of home products?—?better

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

I’ll even send you a free sample of my own business plan via email, if you drop me a note. A few thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a successful business, or for that $1M investment you expect the plan to entice. You really need a business plan for you own efforts, even if external funding is not a requirement.

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2013

Secondarily, it will be required by potential investors to validate how much money you need to get started, and how much return they can expect on their investment. Start with a “sample” business model, available in generic form or customized for specific industries, from many sources on the Internet.

Startup 101

Startup Sample Summary Pricing 101

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

One of our core tasks was “market analysis,&# which consistent of: market sizing, market forecasts, competitive analysis and then instructing customers on which direction to take. The problem of amplification: The problem got worse as the data flowed out to the “bulge bracket&# investment banks. Nobody was surprised.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

I’ll even send you a free sample of my own business plan via email, if you drop me a note. A few thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a successful business, or for that $1M investment you expect the plan to entice. You really need a business plan for you own efforts, even if external funding is not a requirement.

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Secondarily, it will be required by potential investors to validate how much money you need to get started, and how much return they can expect on their investment. Start with a “sample” business model, available in generic form or customized for specific industries, from many sources on the Internet.

Startup 91

Startup Sample Summary Pricing 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2015

Investors invest in people, more than ideas. Skip the background story and customer pitch, which every investor has heard all too often. Smart Shark Tank presenters have done their homework on each investor, and customize their sample product or anecdote for each. Grab investor attention in the first couple of minutes.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Sample Ideas Customer 106

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. Here is a sample of the reading list for the course that gives you a flavor for just how modern and practical this course is. And that leads me to today’s post.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2010

I’ll even send you a free sample of my own business plan via email, if you drop me a note. A few thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a successful business, or for that $1M investment you expect the plan to entice. You really need a business plan for you own efforts, even if external funding is not a requirement.

Startup 91

Startup Funding Sample Writing 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2011

Secondarily, it will be required by potential investors to validate how much money you need to get started, and how much return they can expect on their investment. Start with a “sample” business model, available in generic form or customized for specific industries, from many sources on the Internet.

Startup 94

Startup Sample Summary Pricing 94

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

Marketing is considered an art by many individuals because it requires keen insight in how to approach a product, service, or brand, and how to effectively deliver those things to customers. Consumers and businesses want to be engaged to how the good, service, or product relates to the customer or how the product will benefit them.

Advertising 69

Advertising Training Customer Custom 69

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2012

Last week, Pasadena-based Punchcard (www.punchcard.com) launched its mobile apps, which help local retailers provide rewards to loyal customers. It provides consumer rewards, and on the merchant side, it allows them to identify local customers and reacquire them by pushing them offers and incentives to come back. What is Punchcard?

Southern California 245

Southern California Idealab Startup Customer 245

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Here is how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer). What is the timeframe of return on investment?

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2010

We learned from our customer base that 75 percent of the people who make a purchase at one of our sales are purchasing those brands for the first time. We even have brands using us to test new products coming out in the future, to see if they will resonate with their customer base. What is all that funding going towards?

Sales 224

Sales Email Startup Sample 224

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. A sample of three views is adequate. If your investor is unknown, or peers offer no positive attributes, take it as a red flag.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2017

For example, a recent bad customer review online can easily convince a business leader that customer support is their biggest constraint to growth, when in reality a much bigger problem might be poor lead generation or lack of marketing. Many business decision makers prefer sample customer stories to data. Narrative bias.

Examples 60

Examples Sample Summary Study 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2016

Investors invest in people, more than ideas. Skip the background story and customer pitch, which every investor has heard all too often. Smart Shark Tank presenters have done their homework on each investor, and customize their sample product or anecdote for each. Grab investor attention in the first couple of minutes.

Startup 57

Startup Entrepreneur Sample Ideas 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Here is how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer). What is the timeframe of return on investment?

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

Here is just a sampling of the latest terminology and lingo that I gleaned from Dave, and from some additional research on the Internet, that I think every entrepreneur should know, who may be looking for funding now, or down the road: Micro-VCs. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M. Series-seed round.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Seed Funding Incubator 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. A sample of three views is adequate. If your investor is unknown, or peers offer no positive attributes, take it as a red flag.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2011

Here is just a sampling of the latest terminology and lingo that I gleaned from Dave, and from some additional research on the Internet, that I think every entrepreneur should know, who may be looking for funding now, or down the road: Micro-VCs. For VCs, early-stage means customer revenue is less than $10M. Series-seed round.

Startup 92

Startup Funding Seed Funding Incubator 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Here is how and why it works, including a customer-centric quantification of the benefits. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Explain how you will make money and who pays you (real customer). What is the timeframe of return on investment?

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 19, 2015

Instead of paying upfront for expensive software and customized solutions, businesses can now realize cost advantages by purchasing scalable cloud services. Critical software programs for accounting, email, and productivity are just a small sample of the cloud services that are available to small businesses in today’s world.

Competition 40

Competition Technology Social Media Tips 40

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Death By Competitive Analysis - Steve Blank , March 1, 2010 Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product. How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents? In response he sent me a competitive analysis.

Startup 150

Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

And the broader question of whether VC’s will continue to invest in the Twitter ecosystem. Current round: $3.35mm in Series A by TomorrowVentures (Eric Schmidt’s personal investment vehicle), Saban Ventures, Founder Collective, SK Telecom Ventures. Customer are primarily large media companies (publishers) and their media agencies.

Venture Capital 214

Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

socalTECH

JANUARY 26, 2010

If you notice, if you dig into the market, lots of the 10G switch manufacturers and high end server guys are all looking to attack that market, because the big banks and investment trading houses tend to be a great beachhead for new technology. What that gives our customers, is a great edge in performance. Why do you need that?

Networking 124

Networking Startup Design Customer 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2018

Unfortunately, most of the entrepreneurs who contact me for guidance only seem to work on strategic issues when they are in a crisis, such as losing a major distributor or being swamped with customer complaints. Investors, for example, usually want short-term profit distribution versus re-investing for the future.

Tips 51

Tips Metrics Sample Statistics 51

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

That refueling is when you will need more investment, or when you will break even and begin that steep profitable growth curve. As a rule of thumb, investors expect each investment round you get to last at least a year to 18 months. Which would you bet on? For obvious reasons, you need to keep your burn rate low.

Startup 92

Startup Outsource Development Development Team Review Equity 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2012

The format of an NDA is simple, and you can download a sample from my website. An NDA is highly recommended before you talk to a similar company about a joint venture, white labeling, or any investment options. The line between competitor and partner is a fine one these days. Prior to patent application. Period covered.

Startup 97

Startup Patents Sample Ideas 97

socalTECH

JUNE 5, 2012

We'd make 500 samples, and about 150 would be picked up by consumers, who became huge evangelists for the brand. Who introduced Allison to me because of my background with Crosscut, having invested in ShoeDazzle, and seeing all of the social, commerce, and apparel opportunities here arise.

Startup 182

Startup Commerce Design Media 182

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2013

The format of an NDA is simple, and you can download a sample from my website. An NDA is highly recommended before you talk to a similar company about a joint venture, white labeling, or any investment options. The line between competitor and partner is a fine one these days. Prior to patent application. Period covered.

Ideas 92

Ideas Demand Patents Entrepreneur 92

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

I was interested in the opportunity, because although the firm had been around for some number of years, they had an interesting product, great customers, and the legal market is a massive market. That makes it a profitable project, and they are now looking at a true return on their investment. It's all delivered over the web.

Legalzoom 164

Legalzoom Startup Template Sample 164

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 24, 2011

The format of an NDA is simple, and you can download a sample from my website. An NDA is highly recommended before you talk to a similar company about a joint venture, white labeling, or any investment options. The line between competitor and partner is a fine one these days. Prior to patent application. Period covered.

Patents 90

Patents Sample Ideas Entrepreneur 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2011

That refueling is when you will need more investment, or when you will break even and begin that steep profitable growth curve. There’s tremendous leverage in learning to use Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, and how to Google for sample contracts and the latest tax changes. Always make sure you’re putting the money in the right place.

Startup 92

Startup Outsource Development Development Team Review Equity 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2019

Significant differences will confuse your customers, and open the door to imitators and scam artists. A sample agreement is available for free download from my website. Later, good intellectual property can be worth millions when your company valuation is set for investment purposes, or when the company is acquired or sold.

IP 93

IP Invest Patents Social Media 93

InfoChachkie

MAY 9, 2011

The resulting credibility will help you establish future business development and customer relationships. Your pitch will be far more compelling to prospective customers and business partners when you have physical evidence of your partnership with a BDC. Do Not Relinquish Press Release Capabilities.

Outsource Development 170

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Press Technical Review 170