Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Custom 142

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

They are the classic case of the Innovator’s Dilemma because they fundamentally can’t innovate on their product and can’t lower costs or their business craters. They have high-priced property and zero innovation. And it’s easy to run circles around them as our product differentiation shows.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. I have seen really great product people espouse the death of the business plan. Do so at your peril.

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 22, 2012

Founded over a year ago, Stacksocial’s CEO Josh Payne , found the task of sifting through page after page in the hunt for software daunting and decided something had to be done. Not only do they get their intended program at a reduced price, they also get a chance to try out some new stuff for almost no additional cost.

Software 84

Software Web Design Pricing Course 84

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2015

Few investors these days have the time or patience to read a full business plan, so a better way to catch their eye is with a tightly written and well formatted two-page executive summary. I see too many executive summaries that are simply heavy-duty customer pitches, or lightweight visions of the future.

Summary 101

Summary Patents Technical Review Competition 101

Tech.Co

AUGUST 16, 2017

Finding potential customers continues to be a huge challenge not only for established marketing and sales teams but also for startup executives and solo entrepreneurs. Pricing: Valet – up to 1000 leads/month, $49. Pricing: Essential – for growing startups, $37/month. Customer Outreach Solution – Mailshake.

Tool 79

Tool Startup Help Template 79

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2014

Sponsored by VISA Business If you have a unique product or service, and you are not selling it around the world on the Internet, now is the time to start. Now the price is closer to $100 if you are willing to do the work yourself. You probably want at least a home page, product page, order page, and contact page.

Startup 100

Startup Commerce Sites Blogging 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings and verify that you are not a scam, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, and suppliers expect to find contact information. Two months later they still didn’t have a web site, and didn’t have a customer. Websites do take time to get done right.

Web 76

Web Startup Sites Design 76

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. Sales is simply defined as income from customer purchases of goods and services, minus the cost associated with things like returned or undeliverable merchandise.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2018

It’s hard to be successful in any business when your customers can’t find you, or they find you and still can’t figure out whether your solution works for them. Use plain language (no acronyms) on the first page and every page, to emphasize customer benefits, as well as product features. Skip the hyperbole.

SEO 53

SEO Tips Newsletter Statistics 53

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Having paying “Customers” is what makes the cash register roar. An entrepreneur having low self worth is the number one deterrent for a potential customer not buying into what you are selling. Using your service or owning your product isn’t why a person buys, it’s the experience your customer will have.

Custom 85

Custom Customer Marketing SEO 85

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

socalTECH

MAY 26, 2011

The way brighter makes that dental care more affordable, is it empowers consumers to find dental benefits, and allows them to compare that by price and reputation. Donnelly is a large, yellow page publisher, and we found that one of the largest categories in the Yellow Pages is dentists. As you know, we sold Business.com to R.H.

Startup 249

Startup Pricing Southern California Networking 249

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. One customer is not traction, and beta tests with a thousand customers at no cost don’t count. Free and freemium products need a solid base.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Custom Customer 106

socalTECH

JANUARY 23, 2009

The new product--aimed at schools and libraries--combines a digital SLR camera and a special cradle to scan up to 700 pages an hour in high resolution scans. Atiz said it now has approximately 500 of the firm's products in place worldwide. Pricing on the firm's new product was not released. READ MORE>>.

UCLA 100

UCLA Los Angeles Google Pricing 100

socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2010

The store allows in-page transactions, and never redirects them to another site, keeping them captive and leveraging impulse buys. Plus, we provide all of the back end fulfillment--it's soup to nuts--from manufacturing, to fulfillment, to customer service. We have some minimum price points for every product they might want to sell.

Van Nuys 191

Van Nuys Tech Coast Angels Startup Web 191

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

Much effort and study has been expended to determine how a web site can better convert its visitors to paying customers. The good news is there are more than a few ways to improve the chances a visitor will become a customer. . This is a great way to engage customers on a first visit and start working towards a sales follow-up. .

Sites 40

Sites Search Engine Optimization Technical Review Web Development 40

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2008

Mediaplex, the technology division of online advertising firm ValueClick, has ventured into the behavioral targeting arena, with a new product, the firm said yesterday. The division of Westlake Village-based ValueClick said that its new product will allow advertisers to segment their qualified customers, based on prior activity on the web.

Westlake Village 100

Westlake Village Advertising Web Examples 100

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 22, 2016

Less than a month ago, Snapchat opened custom on-demand geofilters to everyone. Industry news was excited, but for how amazing of a product they are, custom Snapchat geofilters have remained stunningly under the radar. So what’s exciting about this new product? This product is literally too good to pass up.

Custom 40

Custom Customer Snapchat Design 40

Tech.Co

JANUARY 3, 2022

For example, a smaller business with $10-20,000 in monthly revenue will only need to spend a monthly $25 on FinMark's product, while a business that makes over $1 million will be spending $2,500 a month on FinMark. As for their business model, Grifin doesn't rely on any kind of monthly fee from their customers. If they spend $23.95

Startup 200

Startup Invest FAQ Examples 200

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. They have created two internal technology “products&# and wanted to figure out how they could turn their services business into a product business that could be financed. This team is talented.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Now the price is closer to $100, if you are willing to do the work yourself. Here are the key steps for a personal home-based business website selling a few products (as an alternative to Ebay): Go online to reserve a website domain name. This costs nothing, and allows you to safely collect money from customers all around the world.

Commerce 99

Commerce Startup Sites Tool 99

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. He told me that there were a core group of inner Digg users who could control what got on the front page.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2013

Now the price is closer to $100, if you are willing to do the work yourself. Here are the key steps for a personal home-based business website selling a few products (as an alternative to Ebay): Go online to reserve a website domain name. This costs nothing, and allows you to safely collect money from customers all around the world.

Sites 78

Sites Commerce Startup Tool 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2015

Image via Flickr by SideWages.com These days every new entrepreneur understands that an innovative product or service is necessary, but not sufficient, to start a business. Of course, there is a plethora of “experts” emerging out there, who are anxious to lead you down that path, for a large price. Curation, the most efficient content.

Blogging 105

Blogging eBook Content Web 105

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 18, 2011

3) How has your role as the senior Tech Leader at the Rubicon Project and eHarmony influenced SteelHouse’s product roadmap and go-to-market strategy? How does SteelHouse enable its customers to leverage the existence of these various consumers? The whole Silicon Valley culture, I learned at Oracle.”.

eHarmony 204

eHarmony Media Oracle Commerce 204

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 7, 2013

CapLinked also netted in new customers such as Thomson Reuters, Sun Capital, and Equity Partners, NextView Ventures and crowd-funding service AI Verified which will take advantage of its iPad compatibility, bulk uploading, and reporting tools. Challenge the status quo.

Mobile 91

Mobile Report Pricing Tool 91

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2017

Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings and verify that you are not a scam, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, and suppliers expect to find contact information. Two months later they still didn’t have a web site, and didn’t have a customer. Websites do take time to get done right.

Web 62

Web Startup Sites Design 62

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2013

These days every new entrepreneur understands that an innovative product or service is necessary, but not sufficient, to start a business. You have to build a web presence with marketing content to get visibility above the 51 million other new websites created last year, and attract the customers you need. Win with engaging contests.

Content 114

Content Marketing Startup eBook 114

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I recommend a pitch deck with about 10 slides backed up with a written business plan of approximately 20 pages, both containing quantified answers to the following key questions. Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

I can’t change who your board members are so let me offer some thoughts on how to make your interactions with your board more productive. Nothing drives me more bonkers than board members who want to hold dissertations on 409a valuations, product feature minutiae or spend 30 minutes on how many people they know that they can introduce you to.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Home prices are slowly coming back, and consumer spending reached a new high of almost $11 billion in May 2013. The continuing rise in the price of fuel, combined with the ongoing evidence of global warming, has highlighted the need for alternative energy sources, and green products. Venture capital firms raised $4.1

Startup 86

Startup Tips Venture Capital Demand 86

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2013

Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings and verify that you are not a scam, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, and suppliers expect to find contact information. Two months later they still didn’t have a web site, and didn’t have a customer. Websites are a big job and take time.

Web 99

Web Startup Sites Design 99

socalTECH

MARCH 22, 2012

The company also made quite an impression with its viral video --which you have to watch to appreciate--of CEO Michael Dubin extolling the virtues of the company's products, and panning overpriced, expensive razor brands. We somehow got on a conversation about shaving, and he mentioned the price of brand name razors.

Dollar Shave Club 210

Dollar Shave Club Startup Pricing Sample 210

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

According to most experts , business traction is evidence that somebody really wants your product. It’s business momentum, independent of whether you have a product delivered, proven the business model, or significantly penetrated the opportunity. Customers and investors alike measure traction by your formal advisors.

Metrics 57

Metrics Funding Startup Custom 57

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

But then your customes start using your products, your competitors come out with new offerings and your business partners decide to launch a similar product rather than working with you. Did you know that their original product wasn’t a video camera? They were product and cost focused. And then the BIG pivot.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Startup Google Yammer 291