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I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. I promised to do this post as a follow-up to the session to provide additional links and information. The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either.
It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually a COO title at a startup is an ego thing. CEO’s run things.
In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. Passion, optimism, and determination are necessary but not sufficient to assure a successful startup. Check for intellectual property barriers in your way.
I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. Starting with a positive. You’d be very wrong.
If you’re interested in recruiting sales people, I wrote on the topic of startup sales people: who to hire & when – understanding the roles of Journeymen, Mavericks & Superstars. Evangelical sales – Understanding startup sales people and process. I only found out through customer meetings.
Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. The idea of “going deep” with customers has always shaped how I think. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT. My take on his argument is this: 1.
Most technologystartups seem to be funded by product people or business people. My first startup was no different. Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. Here’s what I learned in running my first startup.
The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. If you’re an early-stage enterprise startup services revenue is exactly what you need.
I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even techstartups) should be very profit focused. What makes up revenue?
It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. ” This laughable customer experience is practically parodied in real life by the popular reality TV show, “ Storage Wars.” And could we then compete?”
Business partners can be co-founders in a startup, multiple owners of an existing business, or a joint venture. You need to do the duediligence to make that decision before you sign away your equity. I was pleased to see this approach highlighted as well in a new book for startups, “ Zero to IPO ,” by Frederick Kerrest.
It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Commitment & urgency are key drivers of success in startup businesses. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. Customer Acquisition. On measurement.
For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded duediligence process, which can kill the whole deal.
Everyone seems to be in such a rush to get shacked up these days. You’ll be able to give them an update on key hires, pilot customers, key tech innovations – whatever. Swing by their offices to make it easy for them to say yes and promise not to take up more than 30 minutes for the update (and stick to it).
When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? What does the business do?
One of the largest concentrations of technical talent in Los Angeles is in Glendale, at YP -- staffed with a surprising number of Los Angeles startup vets. What''s your background and how did you end up at YP? Our whole product and technology team is about 500 people. Talk about the technology behind your operations here?
I’m a very big proponent of the “lean startup movement&# as espoused by Steve Blank & Eric Ries. In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product.
At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. First in late-stage tech companies and then it will filter back to Growth and then A and ultimately Seed Rounds. Please follow him & welcome him to Upfront!! <==
Recently, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about bringing the work back home, since costs have gone up in less-developed countries, there are issues with intellectual property, and time zone and language differences make management difficult. It’s easy to find companies in certain countries that will quote cost reductions up to 75 percent.
I’ll try to get write-ups shortly but for now here is an overview of my interview with Nanea Reeves – President and COO of textPlus. Nanea Reeves has a storied career in senior leadership roles at technology companies. Office politics – including Nanea’s experience being a woman in technology.
Nearly every successful techstartup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.
The E-Myth (“Entrepreneurial Myth”) is the mistaken belief that most businesses are started by people with tangible business skills, when in fact most are started by “technicians” who know nothing about running a business. Perhaps an innate business savvy is no longer a requirement for starting a successful business.
Most technologystartups seem to be founded by three types of people: product managers, engineers or biz dev types (MBAs and the like). Very few of them are started, in my experience, by sales people and very few early stage companies really understand sales. Here’s mine: Let me start with a few biases.
One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. They review competitors offerings and analyst reports.
According to a recent Forbes article , UC Santa Barbara''s Technology Management Program offers students a superior startup education over the University of Pennsylvania (home of Wharton), as well Harvard, Northwestern and even its acclaimed southern neighbor, the University of Southern California. Don''t go to Wharton or Harvard.
And of course you could add up impressions by counting your the followers of everybody who had retweeted plus your own. Understanding what lights up actions from your social campaigns and earned media is the key to improving future performance. The other major pilot customer was. End of story. And so forth. And so forth.
Companies that have leveraged technology to make the procurement and delivery of food more accessible to more people have been seeing a big surge of business this year, as millions of consumers are encouraged (or outright mandated, due to Covid-19) to socially distance or want to avoid the crowds of physical shopping and eating excursions.
Even though the color of their money is always green, all startup investors are not the same. Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse duediligence on the investors. Personally visit another startup funded by this investor. It’s no fun for either side.
"I started the site when I was 19. "When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. " Creating and sustain a successful startups is beyond difficult. " I recently performed a 360-Review on two Co-Founders who were the company's CEO and CTO. ."
There’s an article making the rounds in tech circles titled “ Growth Hacking is Bull ” written by Muhammad Saleem. His quip to suggest this is all a slight-of-hand, trickery dreamed up by marketing b *s is quite clever if misguided. For starters it brings a mindset to startups that not all of them have innately.
Under the heading, “The Book On Bezos,” the callout lists ten actionable and impactful nuggets of startup advice. I review these tenets with my entrepreneurial students at UC Santa Barbara at the beginning of each quarter to reinforce many of the key topics we will cover in the following weeks. “We We don’t give up on things easily.
All parties need to perform duediligence to ensure that the assumptions are correct, that neither partner has financial issues which could affect the partnership, and that the opposite partner has the skills to contribute to the partnership. Access to new technologies. Review financial statements – up to 3 years if available.
The main thrust of the post is that with YouTube taking a 45% of revenue and talent taking 70% of the remaining revenue, YouTube Networks didn’t have sustainable businesses unless they invested heavily in technology as a tool to increase margin and provide defensibility. That is the definition of Disruptive Technology.
When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. Most experienced VCs won’t push you to give up founder control at this stage of the business nor should they. Reviewing financial & operational performance. As You Start to Mature.
For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded duediligence process, which can kill the whole deal.
If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded duediligence process. Some startups do nothing to prepare for the duediligence process, assuming the people and business plan documents will speak for themselves.
Divergent, the Los Angeles-based startup aiming to revolutionize vehicle manufacturing, has cut about one-third of its staff amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended startups and major corporations alike. However, he did confirm to TechCrunch that he had to reduce staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s No.
One startup that aims to help make the process simpler, cheaper and less stressful by helping people manage the home renovation process has raised $6 million to help it grow even faster. Construction techstartups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar trillion-dollar industry.
Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.
This is part of my Startup Advice series. So I was surprised at the sheer volumes of decisions that had to be made when I became a startup CEO. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Somebody asks whether you plan to set up 401k’s and do contribution matching. This was such a guy.
seems like an unlikely place to grow one of the next billion-dollar startups in the booming Los Angeles tech ecosystem. But it’s here in the (other) Valley’s southernmost edge that investors have found a startup they consider to be the next potential billion-dollar “unicorn” that will come out of Los Angeles.
of all statistics are made up. Here’s how I learned my lesson: I started my life as a consultant. Fortunately I was mostly a technology consultant, which meant that I coded computers, designed databases and planned system integration projects. People throw them around at cocktail parties. I say it deadpanned.
Many startups fail before reaching that magic “cash-flow positive” position they have been striving for, despite seemingly reasonable financial projections. A closer analysis often indicates the cause to be a lack of diligence in handling common business finances. A startup must ensure that the payments are collected per agreed terms.
I’ve written a lot about recruiting and hiring at startups including my controversial post on whom not to hire and my rapid response to the flame war. Clearly in an enterprise customer this is unlikely. We will have to build (or buy) technology in this area.” You can rise up once you have your armaments.”
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