Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey). In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). In the US alone there are 30 billion inbound sales calls every year.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

Maybe they’ve hit a few set backs: They’ve struggled to raise money, they haven’t gotten press coverage or they haven’t gotten accepted to present at prestigious conferences. It ends up being a turn off to potential employees, investors, business partners and the press. It’s your job to persist.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. The opening paragraphs of that first newsletter are indicative of the captivating and accessible writing style, which eventually cultivated a huge audience. And of those 35 people.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.)

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

I said, ''Hey, listen were going to start writing this newsletter and it''s going to highlight our trials and tribulations, our failures and our successes. The opening paragraphs of that first newsletter are indicative of the captivating and accessible writing style, which eventually cultivated a huge audience. And of those 35 people.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most newspapers are written at a third-grade reading level, White House press releases average a fourth-grade reading level and the New York Times is easily digestible by the average fifth grader. What does your pain reliever look like, how is it implemented by the customer and what future products do you expect to roll out?

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. ” I know it sounds obvious.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. As Brian Solis is fond of saying, “PR stands for public relations, not press release.&# That’s right. Define your customers, partners and other relevant people to your organization (e.g. Summary notes and then I’ll extend: Should you blog?

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about? You fish where your customers are. I know this category has gotten a lot of press. Management, SVP North American Sales and SVP European Publishing.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

If you’re an early investor like I am that often means writing the first $2-3 million check into a business that previously had either survived on fumes or on a $500,000 angel round. The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. Mostly during the day I’m in meetings or doing work.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

But putting no time into anchoring your beliefs because you’re too busy executing sales, marketing, support, product & engineering is an easy recipe for leadership drift. A great leader knows customers and has direct relationships with them. The reality of most startups is about survival. Conviction. Team Building.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I have no quarterly sales targets for the first time in a decade – For anybody who’s ever been in a company with sales targets you can attest to what a fire drill the ends of March, June, September and December can be. You get on a plane at a moment’s notice because a senior customer agreed to meet you.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

I was looking for a person to head up my UK sales team. But he also used to opportunity to emphasize that he is full of stamina, works late and hard and had always performed well in his previous sales leadership roles for which he’s be happy to provide pay slips as proof. One of the people who came to see me was named Nick.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Even when you do sign-up initial customers it’s still not clear that your company will be a success and you’re still likely paying yourself under market rates. You will learn about running board meetings, setting up the ultimate financial plan, leading a team from the top, dealing with the press, raising capital, etc.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Our marquis customers are companies like Citibank and Lowe's Corporation, along with many others. We also cross into the GUI level of automation, so that a customer can interact with an application and websites as if there was someone at a keyboard. The traditional way to handle that is to write code.

Networking 214

Networking IBM IBM Pacific Palisades 214

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

They don’t show up in a calculation that says I spent $7,000 and I got X-thousands inches of press. Fund Raising – No self respecting VC would admit (even to themselves) that they are influenced by what they read about you in the press. Press matters. Just like negative press hurts. They are silent.

Press 415

Press Google Course Writing 415

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I suppose I should have imagined that this line would get more press than all other comments combined. Huge structural under-employment in much of the country and full employment in some niche tech markets where it’s impossible to hire developers, designers or sales professionals.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

I doubt they’d be willing to press harder in questioning and/or be more attuned to negative signals that the reference might be implying but not actually saying. We’re both principals in a sale. Very customer focused. They’re not going to ignore negative feedback, I’m not questioning their ethics.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

In the original version of his post, Andy writes. Nothing was more heart warming than the photo of David Karp hugging Bijan Sabet after the sale to Yahoo! It’s hard for me to imagine that an entrepreneur who was waiting to see the CEO of their largest potential customer would leave if that customer were 20 minutes late.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

socalTECH

AUGUST 3, 2009

Their relationship with you is not as important as the one they have with the people that write them checks. An example is a law firm, inside of a firm with a dozen attorneys, they are rich with relationships that they are hard pressed to share with each other. People who have great data sets, and established customer relationships.

Networking 113

Networking Startup Social Network Software 113

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - I think Robert’s right. .

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

A Writer Is Someone Who Writes. A writer is someone who writes, not someone who goes about telling their friends that they are “a writer”. Repeatedly organize yard sales in which you sold your broken toys, books you wrote and illustrated, along with overly sugared lemonade and burnt cookies. Hint: He was an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Founders read the tech press every day filled with stories about these $20 million fund-raisings by this firm and that firm and it sounds like everybody else is doing it except for you. When you read about the funding in the press it sounds like it was a walk in the park. But if you can stay in the game you can often find that one yes.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A The key is channeling what you learn when you drive onto paper for retention purposes so you have to write it down soon afterward. When I write a blog post I often see the words before I write them. These are all creative processes.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Photo by Hope House Press - Leather Diary Studio on Unsplash It’s also true that there will be tough moments in your company’s journey where you will want to be able to carry people behind the tough decisions you want. You can write this as a narrative in 3–5 key bullet points. But what are the KEY ISSUES management is grappling with.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

I was on an airplane 2-3 times / week meeting potential customers, investors, employees, business partners and the press. I stayed up late every night after a day of meetings doing email until 3am so that I didn’t feel out of touch with our product and sales pipelines. 10k in Cologne with the CEO of my largest customer.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers. I learned how to integrate customers into our product development process. We fought for every customer together.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

We provide turnkey digital messaging appliances for enterprises, service providers and software developers to send marketing, e-commerce, CRM and customer service email. StrongMail’s software ensures reliable and timely delivery of their critical customer communications. SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging, etc.)

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

That, plus I love the space of high-customer-service, focused eCommerce for moms worried about what their kids eat & wear.&#. Starting with exclusive rights to sell celebrity chef, Tyler Florence’s, line of baby food online, SproutBaby began seeing initial traction from customer interest as physical distribution spread.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

I’m looking for somebody who can sell, but not better than our head of sales. You want somebody who can raise $15 million to build out your R&D, business development and sales organizations. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story. They fund people with no customers.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2011

In case you don’t know, “the “9-9-9 plan” would replace all current taxes (including the payroll tax , capital gains tax , and the estate tax ) with 9% business transaction tax; 9% personal income tax rate, and a 9% federal sales tax.” As long as you don’t care about getting any press.

Startup 289

Startup Press Software Marketing 289

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2010

I had been selling large content management systems and storing documents for industrial-scale customers. Many of the biggest customers wanted to be able to physically walk through our data center – how could I give up something so strategic? I was dead set against it. Especially to a company that sells books!

Startup 343

Startup Technical Review S3 Services 343