Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

The recent pandemic was a strong signal for change, and I see most of you entrepreneurs and business owners responding to the business changes required and new opportunities presented. Here are some key strategies that I recommend to prompt you when changes to your business may be required: Look for a changing customer sense of value.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Customer 162

Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Live Shopping is an integral part of the “social commerce” phenomenon – a general term for ecommerce experiences within which customers don’t even have to leave social media platforms to buy items – but other tech companies like Meta, as well as TikTok, have struggled with it in the US and Europe so far.

Social Media 148

Social Media Startup Commerce News 148

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2020

Hidalgo recommends a focus on engagement stage indicators including customers by channel, conversion ratio, and cost per revenue. You need to track what content is resonating with your prospective customers, through metrics including submit rate by content offer, elasticity, velocity, cost, and ultimately revenue by content program.

Marketing 174

Marketing Invest Demand Metrics 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. Present a viable exit strategy for investors to cash out.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Decide early where and when money will come from, set some milestones and metrics, and work to a plan, or be caught short. Customer support is more than handling exceptions.

Sales 165

Sales Customer Custom Social Media 165

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 10, 2011

The venue was lined with vibrant and inviting decor, a spacious loft style presentation room, and plenty of mini-workstations for the motivated and social entrepreneur; a great setting for the presentation at hand. Metrics-Guided. Overall, I really enjoyed Binetti’s presentation as well as the feel of the event.

Startup 86

Startup Santa Monica Los Angeles Custom Development 86

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2009

Los Angeles-based Image Metrics (www.image-metrics.com) recently landed a $6.5M, Series B funding round for the firm's facial animation products. I was introduced to Image Metrics a year before I joined, and was helping them along. We presented at SIGGRAPH this year a demo of a character we called Emily. I fell in love with it.

Metrics 100

Metrics Startup Sales Newsletter 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2023

New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head. Mature your business processes and customer base. Secure your company’s sustainability through multiple revenue streams and customer sets, and solid core business processes. Anticipate customer and valued-supplier reaction to any change.

Startup 99

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 99

Berkonomics

MAY 20, 2021

Another is to fail to complete a contracted service for one customer and to do so multiple times, until many customers begin screaming for attention, drawing away all available talent from new, income earning tasks. You will surely be able to identify an example of time bankruptcy that you have experienced in your past or present.

Resource 156

Resource Outsource Development Metrics Customer 156

TechEmpower

OCTOBER 9, 2023

This presents businesses with an opportunity to enhance their search functionalities for both internal and external users. Precision and Recall Metrics: Define a process to assess the precision (the relevance of retrieved documents) and the recall (how many of the relevant documents were fetched). Strive for a balanced outcome.

Generative AI 346

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Tool Knowledge Base 346

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

I'm presenting Making Sure You Are Ready to Begin Building Your MVP next week at Coloft ( Details/Registration ). Have you conducted Problem, Solution and Feature Interviews with customers? See Investors, MVPs and Evidence of Traction. Have you Documented Your MVP for Your Developer s?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

In addition to the right words, be sure you present the right body language. Develop metrics to monitor work intensity. Work intensity could be anything from number of meetings in a day, to number of production line emergencies, to number of angry customers during a shift. Let that be part of their job satisfaction.

Satisfaction 108

Satisfaction Metrics Competition Examples 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2021

New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head. Mature your business processes and customer base. Secure your company’s sustainability through multiple revenue streams and customer sets, and solid core business processes. Anticipate customer and valued-supplier reaction to any change.

Startup 173

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 173

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. Once you build it, they will now ask you about the key metrics that they need proven in order to see if you really are a good investment. " Once you have the metrics defined, it focuses your effort.

Technical Review 338

Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

And NOT even because they give until death refunds if a customer is ever dissatisfied with a purchase. He says he cares most about “focusing on customers for life”. Noah has what I believe he called “Thank You metrics”. For every new marketing idea presented to him he asks himself, ‘How will that affect email growth?’

Metrics 87

Metrics Email Startup Technical Review 87

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

Over the past several years, I've done lots of presentations around a wide variety of topics. Many of the factors are not obvious and include building mystery to drive margin, why boring B2B companies often win but are challenging in other ways, how bootstrapping wins, integrating metrics from the start and many other similar lessons.

CTO Hire 175

CTO Hire Startup Metrics eHarmony 175

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Board meeting gets scheduled Nobody thinks too much about it until a week or two before Management team has a last-minute scramble to pull materials together Management is super focused on its daily work of … winning customers, signing biz dev, shipping product … so this prep is a last minute “fire drill” and is seen as a slight distraction.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. They present a convincing story that every entrepreneur has the same potential, but most get sidetracked and bogged down by their technology, competitors, and internal organization. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Customer Custom 123

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

This should be an iterative process with advisors and customers providing feedback on the product. For example, if you are trying to determine viral coefficient (see Startup Metrics ), then the focus should be around those aspects of the MVP. You likely are writing your first one of these. Don't stress over format.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

SoCal CTO

MAY 18, 2010

Some good ones already from May: "Authentic" is dead - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , May 3, 2010 Phrases that should be retired include - “Putting customers first” You Actually Did This? Steve Blank , May 6, 2010 Great presentations from Xobni and Dropbox on how they have gone about building their business.

Startup 150

Startup SaaS Metrics Patents 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

Plan to spend a couple of months on this effort, and then allocate at least 50 percent of your time presenting and selling it the first year. These relationships must be nurtured over time, balanced against your personal life, and grow to include major customers, competitors, and potential acquirers.

Startup 94

Startup Ideas Metrics Entrepreneur 94

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

after all you aren’t presenting this at TED. There are a million ways to make graphics lighter or resize your file without a huge impact on the quality of the slides?—?after What should be in your deck? What should not be in your deck?

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

These show a focus on the business elements required for success, and metrics for ensuring accountability, management control, and feedback along the way. Founders who present themselves as a lone entrepreneur may develop an innovative solution, but building a business requires a team. Emphasize the value and skills of your team.

Ideas 140

Ideas Entrepreneur Equity Resource 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Organization Coach Invest 124

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. As companies get this initial customer feedback on their product they start to have to ask harder questions about unit economics: How much does it cost us to acquire a new customer?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Another is to fail to complete a contracted service for one customer and to do so multiple times, until many customers begin screaming for attention, drawing away all available talent from new, income earning tasks. You will surely be able to identify an example of time bankruptcy that you have experienced in your past or present.

Resource 176

Resource Outsource Development Metrics Customer 176

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

And now without further ado I present the Spotlight: LA Tech Winter Companies: Spotlight Companies. We make it trivial to quickly aggregate and monitor your key metrics in real-time! Custom ad deals and partnerships. Followed by a FREE cocktail and apps reception for all attendees. SuperDemo: Bill Gross.

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. Prepare your marketing story for customers and investors. Start by developing an “elevator pitch,” that you can deliver in thirty seconds to hook a potential customer or investor.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Decide early where and when money will come from, set some milestones and metrics, and work to a plan, or be caught short. Customer support is more than handling exceptions.

Startup 107

Startup Sales Customer Custom 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

I love the enthusiasm, the boundless energy and the sense of possibility that comes from having an idea that hasn’t yet been beat up in the marketplace of competing ideas, customer contracts, VC skepticism, jaded journalists or fickle consumers who are on the The New, New Thing. The full financial details and metrics were in the deck.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Metrics Startup Sales 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

Who are the customers? Please be able to provide me with a few specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, what the system will do for them. What are your key Startup Metrics ? How does it address the customer scenarios from the start? So what are the questions I’m likely going to ask?

Software Development 292

Software Development Develop Development Startup 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2018

They want to grant deserving customers special concessions, or fix a broken process, but are convinced it may cost them their job, or find that no one above them seems to care. If these still exist in your organization, they are huge red flags and you can be certain that you are losing your best employees as well as customers.

Startup 62

Startup Organization Customer Custom 62

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

The image of a self-proclaimed expert who can generate a report, make a great presentation, and leave you to do the implementation, is just not attractive when you don’t have a staff, and you are already overloaded with the crisis of the day. Adopt a project-based revenue model with metrics. Use social media for more visibility.

Social Media 56

Social Media Software Review Customer Custom 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2019

In this era of rapid change, you can’t afford to stop learning, or you will find that your competitors, your customers, and your team, may soon be following someone else. Most people agree that leadership is primarily a set of behaviors that capitalize on relationships and a current market and customer understanding in a complex world.

Tips 97

Tips Mentor Coach Metrics 97

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Use metrics to support judgment in decisions. Metrics should be seen as guides, helping to direct and support good behavior, but not absolute measurements of good or bad judgment and wisdom. Metrics are necessary to acquire knowledge and turn it into action. What gets measured gets done.

Develop 103

Develop Development Coach Metrics 103

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 23, 2013

is highly-advanced, developed hand-in-hand with existing enterprise customers including NBC Universal, The North Face, Virgin America, RedBull, WetSeal, and Warner Bros Studios, adding greatly to the value of such a product. We’re talking real-time metrics here, ladies and gentlemen. PromoJam 2.0

Platform 99

Platform Metrics Social Media Marketing 99