Remove a-players
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10 Tips To Ensure That Your New Venture Is Investable

Startup Professionals Musings

I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. No product, even with a large opportunity, is ready to scale until you can show it working, with multiple customers paying the full price, to validate the business model. Word-of-mouth does not scale.

Tips 135
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7 Modern Day Business Strategies For Long-Term Growth

Startup Professionals Musings

You may feel good when that first burst of customers arrives, but don’t assume that “ word of mouth ” and those early adopters will grow your business to match your dreams of success. In these days of global competition via multiple channels, you need continuous marketing to find more customers. They won’t find you.

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10 Keys To Enabling Your Startup For Unicorn Growth

Startup Professionals Musings

I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. No product, even with a large opportunity, is ready to scale until you can show it working, with multiple customers paying the full price, to validate the business model. Word-of-mouth does not scale.

Startup 154
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6 Reasons To Build A Working Model Of Your Solution

Startup Professionals Musings

Angel investors, like me, have long figured out that asking to see the prototype is a quick way to separate the ‘wannabes’ from serious players. With a realistic prototype, you can get more accurate feedback from customers on their real need and what they might pay, before you invest millions on the final product.

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6 Ways A Prototype Will Add Value To Your New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

Angel investors, like me, have long figured out that asking to see the prototype is a quick way to separate the ‘wannabes’ from serious players. With a realistic prototype, you can get more accurate feedback from customers on their real need and what they might pay, before you invest millions on the final product.

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Pour And Stir II – Managing Your Cost Per Customer

InfoChachkie

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
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One of the Biggest Mistakes Enterprise Startups Make

Both Sides of the Table

The most important way to sell a product for an early-stage business (or frankly any stage) is to have strong referenceable customers. How do you get referenceable customers? This article initially appeared on TechCrunch. “We want low-touch or zero-touch businesses” was the mantra. I believe it’s flawed.

Startup 403