Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. File at least a provisional patent and one or more trademarks. Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. Keep thieves away (protect it).

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2015

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance. An international brand will command higher prices and additional customer demand.

Patents 106

Patents Startup Offshore Demand 106

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. Any startup with no patents, trade secrets, or other secret sauce is very high risk today. Prepare your marketing story for customers and investors. Implement a strategy for growth and improvement.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2017

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance. An international brand will command higher prices and additional customer demand.

Marketing 54

Marketing Patents Offshore Startup 54

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance. An international brand will command higher prices and additional customer demand.

Entrepreneur 97

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Offshore 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2012

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost. Present a sustainable competitive advantage.

Startup 113

Startup Patents Template Competition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now. Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms. What are your specific marketing and sales plans?

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2012

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance. An international brand will command higher prices and additional customer demand.

Marketing 104

Marketing Startup Patents Offshore 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! Every startup needs both a business plan and an investor presentation, completed before you formally approach any investors.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2015

Passionate entrepreneurs tend to talk on and on about their disruptive technology, their intent to change the world and free services, but if a business can’t provide quantifiable value to real customers, the dream will likely turn into a nightmare. Skip the sales pitch and avoid preaching. Build up for the punch line at the end.

Startup 104

Startup Summary Patents Examples 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2011

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance. An international brand will command higher prices and additional customer demand.

Entrepreneur 103

Entrepreneur Patents Offshore Startup 103

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most sophisticated investors ignore them, focusing their attention on an entrepreneur's pitch and presentation materials, financial forecast and executive summary. What does your pain reliever look like, how is it implemented by the customer and what future products do you expect to roll out? Distribution and Sales.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2014

These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. It allows all members of your team, including marketing, support, and sales, to size and build the business plan processes they need to find customers, deliver, and maintain grow the business. Provide details on the business model.

Product 101

Product Entrepreneur Summary Activity 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2010

Recognizing this is as much about culture as about language, ensures an understanding of regional motivators, cultural taboos and local customs – so that your solutions are ideally designed and marketed to deliver value that has genuine local relevance. An international brand will command higher prices and additional customer demand.

Startup 89

Startup Patents Offshore Demand 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2016

These requirements must be based on market analysis, expert input, and existing customer feedback. It allows all members of your team, including marketing, support, and sales, to size and build the business plan processes they need to find customers, deliver, and maintain grow the business. Provide details on the business model.

Product 55

Product Startup Summary Entrepreneur 55

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2015

Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. File at least a provisional patent and one or more trademarks. Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. Keep thieves away (protect it).

Ideas 104

Ideas Mentor Resource Entrepreneur 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2014

Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. File at least a provisional patent and one or more trademarks. Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. Keep thieves away (protect it).

Ideas 107

Ideas Mentor Entrepreneur Resource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. File at least a provisional patent and one or more trademarks. Pitching” is the insider term for presenting your product idea to people who could conceivably buy it or fund your efforts. Keep thieves away (protect it).

Ideas 56

Ideas Mentor Resource Product 56

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

Barry Lieberman: My backgruond is about 35 years in technology, business development, and sales and marketing. I built my own company around marketing services, and have been around business development, marketing, custom service, and sales, and also on the consumer side of technology, a little bit a mix of the two.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach Startup Pasadena Angels 100

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. Who is leading your patent filing program?

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Metrics Startup Sales 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2013

Scan the Internet for existing patents and some “credible unbiased third party” data that confirms there is really a market for a solution resulting from your idea. Just because you or your friends think it is a great idea or great technology, that doesn’t mean that a large number of customers will buy it. Marty Zwilling.

Ideas 106

Ideas Startup Summary CalTech 106

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. Why Lawyers Don’t Run Startups - Steve Blank , May 27, 2010 Startups need to have a great lawyer, accountant, patent attorney, etc.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2012

Scan the Internet for existing patents and some “credible unbiased third party” data that confirms there is really a market for a solution resulting from your idea. Just because you or your friends think it is a great idea or great technology, that doesn’t mean that a large number of customers will buy it. Marty Zwilling.

Ideas 97

Ideas Summary Startup CalTech 97

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

Developing their business directly through partnerships with sports teams, Crowd Seats has the ability to get larger discounts on potentially unused ticket sales to provide value for the fans, teams, and venues. They also gave a quick tour of the dashboard that clients would be using to customize their now mobile ready sites.

Technical Review 94

Technical Review Idealab Startup Mobile 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 7, 2011

Scan the Internet for existing patents and some “credible unbiased third party” data that confirms there is really a market for a solution resulting from your idea. Just because you or your friends think it is a great idea or great technology, that doesn’t mean that a large number of customers will buy it. Marty Zwilling.

Ideas 104

Ideas Entrepreneur Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2011

So, do take time to get to know your partner and their country and its customs. Even a trusted manufacturer generally employs numerous subcontractors and this can easily lead to unauthorized copying as well as loss of intellectual property rights, despite patent protection. Relationships have to be built one-by-one in each country.

Startup 91

Startup Offshore Patents Outsource Development 91

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 18, 2013

The 10 startups presented a mix of innovation for consumers and enterprise with some sure to please twists. The Black Tux online tuxedo rental, which is reinventing the customer experience in the antiquated $10B+ tuxedo rental and sales industry. RocksBox , a new discovery and sales channel for designer fashion jewelry.

Class 100

Class Startup Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Jonathan Simkin: I was actually in high school when I decided I'd either start a company when I graduated, or go into patent law. This opportunity sort of just presented itself, because I knew every student hated buying books and there was no easy way to od it. I chose Harvey Mudd because they have a general engineering degree.

UCSD 185

UCSD Course Startup Sites 185

Jason Nazar

MAY 2, 2016

If you are inventing or creating a product, understand patents and register for one at the USPTO. Choose an email system to connect with customers ( Constant Contact , MailChimp , Sendgrid ). Set up a collaboration method for business documents, spreadsheets and presentations ( GoogleApps ). Recommended. Choose a tax year.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Startup Google Mentor 40

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2009

Once you get to 300-500 customers, it blows up, because it was never intended to scale. Our future is looking very bright--in the last two months, we've signed up more customers than we ever had before. We're much more interested in providing technology to people already with a customer base, than generating our own customer base.

IP 165

IP Pasadena Angels Pasadena Los Angeles 165

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

ABSA Jewish Entrepreneur of the Year – WINNER (This award was actually presented by Gill Marcus) – (Annex.13). We are in the process of integrating into various point of sales and providing prefunded vouchers for the unbanked. A member of the Young Presidents Organization YPO – since 2003. So we bring business to banks.

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2010

Have you patented it? How will you generate awareness and close sales? Today's guest blog is by Akira Hirai, founder of Cayenne Consulting, a firm that helps entrepreneurs prepare for the fund raising process by developing strategies, business plans, financial forecasts, and presentation materials. His website is [link].

Startup 91

Startup Oracle Entrepreneur Ideas 91

Tech.Co

MARCH 1, 2018

And while that cliché has been said about everything in the Lone Star state for years, it rings particularly true for the hottest startups showcasing their big innovations at SXSW Startup Night 2018 presented by the Kauffman Foundation and TechCo. Think of looking at a dot graph of your business sales in virtual reality.

Startup 79

Startup Mentor Platform Help 79

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 20, 2012

We have been holding off on this announcement for quite a bit and now we can officially announce Bill Gross of Idealab as our SuperDemo presenter. In college at the California Institute of Technology, he patented a new loudspeaker design and formed GNP Loudspeakers, Inc. Custom ad deals and partnerships.

Idealab 84

Idealab Tech Coast Angels CalTech Startup 84

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

– Digital Messaging Infrastructure Company (incubated by Addante and Associates, LLC) Age: 25 - 29 (present) Time Period: 2002 - present My Role: Founder High Point: TBD Here is a summary of my experiences to-date with StrongMail: 1. StrongMail Systems, Inc. Relaxing 2. Incubation 3. Go-to-Market 5. Spam Changes Everything 6.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40