Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans. Don’t let your passion convince you that word-of-mouth and viral marketing will suffice against well-funded competitors and ever more demanding customers. Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

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!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

InfoChachkie

MARCH 4, 2013

By 2012, total sales exceeded 50 million copies and founding band member Roger Waters was cited by Forbes as the second highest paid musician of the year, pulling in $88 million. Pink Floyd recorded DSOTM after a year of writing and performing the material in front of live audiences.

Startup 269

Startup Cloud Computing RSS Writing 269

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Writing 242

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

There's lots of noise in the on-demand tutoring space, especially connecting people virtually, however, in my experience, it's in the best interest of consumers to get in-person, local tutoring. If you look at the other players, I believe, on-demand tutors will never exist. What is HeyTutor? Here's the reason why.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Fallacy: Startup ventures tend to evolve, especially after you begin speaking with pesky customers and demanding partners. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Perform China Syndrome Market Analysis.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We worked together for four years, and I ended up heading up media buying at that company, and he headed up sales. We started looking at the landscape, and as I was getting my MBA at the time, ended up writing the business plan for ConsumerTrack. Those are one of a number of factors we look at today to build our business.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

I suggest you use social media, blogging, crowdfunding, or documented research to quantify a real demand from people who can afford it, and don’t have a better alternative already out there. Writing down key parameters will force you solidify the specifics, and mentally commit to them.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

So the goal should be to have some formats that require talent who have become large in their own right and can demand rev shares of 70-90%. I would argue that the strongest visionaries have been TasteMade, who were originally running video at Demand Media. To produce content that people want to watch takes unique skills: Writing.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

We actually built that about a year and a half ago, and are bringing that back due to overwhelming demand. Jimmy Hendricks: We make a percentage of every sale. I was hired to run their tennis division, and I built our the sales division for their tennis team. How do clients license your software? It's similar to a franchise.

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

I finally got around to writing it having read Fred Wilson’s post about what a CEO does. Due to the language and culture issues in Europe we opted for a country structure with an MD in each country and local sales, marketing & customers support staff. Both are basically people businesses. It doesn’t seem fair.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Custom 319

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2019

Harris writes: “The figures, dating back to 2016, paint a picture of a company desperate to meet over-ambitious autonomy targets and one that is willing to spend freely, even recklessly, to get there. Freight railroad owner Genesee & Wyoming is considering a sale of all or part of itself, Bloomberg reported.

San Fernando 217

San Fernando Los Angeles Commerce News 217

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

TechEmpower

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

A high-performance application will be able to service a large number of requests simultaneously, staying ahead of the incoming demand so that any short-term queuing of requests remains short-term. Meanwhile, Amazon famously claimed 1% fewer sales for each additional 100ms of latency. High throughput.

Web 200

Web Technical Advisors Framework Technical Review 200

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2008

to the business of script writing, and is looking to combine a free online tool for writing scripts with matching those scripts with content producers. Using this content model, we've made two sales. Are you targeting Hollywood and existing script writing software? What's Scripped?

Content 138

Content Writing Software Review Hollywood 138

socalTECH

DECEMBER 1, 2010

We built the website The Numbers, which tracks daily and weekly box office grosses and DVD sales, and we also provider consulting services--primarily to independent filmmakers, or anybody in the industry who needs to get financial data in order to support their business plan or to make investment decisions.

Beverly Hills 164

Beverly Hills Research Hollywood Sites 164

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

In this role, Alex was responsible for developing HostPro’s shared, dedicated and managed businesses with 430 employees in sales, marketing, engineering, and product development. Contact us at sales@bitium.com. In August 1999, Micron Electronics (MUEI) acquired HostPro, and Alex became vice president of operations.

SaaS 92

SaaS Cloud Computing CIO Web 92

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. At the time he granted me permission to write about his story. The world’s best brains are on sale.

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

Expertise can be marketing, technical, financial, or sales. Providing the major funding source for an early-stage startup is a totally different dimension, but it usually trumps all the items above in demanding some equity. An important key is NOT to dodge the discussion up front, come to some agreement quickly, and write it down.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. For businesses like this, finding new ways to drive more of these high-value inbound sales calls is key. Those are the two main criteria.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Expertise can be marketing, technical, financial, or sales. Providing the major funding source for an early-stage startup is a totally different dimension, but it usually trumps all the items above in demanding some equity. An important key is NOT to dodge the discussion up front, come to some agreement quickly, and write it down.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Aspiring creators learn by connecting with top web filmmakers and YouTubers on a topics specific to the web: developing a web series, producing web series, writing for genres like comedy & sci-fi, directing, editing, camera, Kickstarter funding, show hosting, distribution, and marketing. How does it work? How many users so far so far?

Web 93

Web USC Course Guide 93

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. Market Size. It’s ok to target a small market and you can probably build a niche business that is extremely valuable to you as an individual.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

socalTECH

DECEMBER 15, 2010

For a big company, that might be through their own sales force, and for a smaller company it might be a small team which is operating the site themselves. That means that publishers can integrate our technology with other components in the enterprise stack, for example, their financial system or sales force management system, or CRM system.

OpenX 242

OpenX Advertising Yahoo Pasadena 242

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#. This states how the proceeds from a sale or dissolution of the company will be distributed. If I get demand from people after this video to do a deeper dive on term sheets we will.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Ever had a meeting with a CEO who was really short with you, demanded the answer quickly and was fidgety while you spoke? If it’s preparing for a sales, biz dev or other type of meeting it’s so easy these days using LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter to find out who knows that individual. Others wing it. It surprised me.

Slides 358

Slides Venture Capital Startup Summary 358

Jason Nazar

MARCH 22, 2011

When he had the idea for his company, he didn’t write a long business plan or try to raise money to hire an agency to build a website for him. We tend to be better at things like team building, negotiations, sales, and fundraising – which are arguably the most important skills entrepreneurs should posses.

Company 111

Company Companies Rustic Canyon Startup 111

Eric Greenspan

MAY 29, 2010

There are many signs to look for when receiving candid feedback from your customers, here’s a few examples of things Make It Work customers say and what we are doing about it: Customer (from a Delight Survey email): Why don’t you offer billing as an option, rather than require payment on demand at the end of the appointment?

Social Media 214

Social Media Custom Customer Media 214

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause. If you spend $50K on a website selling party supplies but you soon realize it's the sales of catering supplies you offer that have taken off, you will want to have a site that promotes your newfound focus.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

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

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

They will interpret affable and friendly actions as a transparent sales ploy. However, due to demand from his readership, Baum was forced to write him back into the adventure series. In addition, many people are simply not valid Bro candidates. Respect this fact and do not risk making such people uncomfortable.

Startup 113

Startup Organization Allegis Commerce 113

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 20, 2014

I’d write to my professors and say “I’m so sorry, I have this meeting or I had this phone call that I had to take.”. So, the uplift in ticket sales from having this sort of app available for any movie title playing in the theatres is instantly a positive for film distributors and studios. I was just working on the company.

Startup 91

Startup Entertainment CTO Coach Screening 91

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

So if I write you a $500,000 check into a convertible note with a $4.5 million cap I am assuming when I write the check that I will own 10% of your company. If I didn’t assume this I shouldn’t write the check because I have to get involved knowing that I might pay that price. What happens in a sale or acqui-hire?

Startup 354

Startup Pricing Equity Venture Capital 354

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Private, flash sales site focused on apparel goods (women, men and children). Metrics: 2.5mm members, 1,000 brands, 2,500 sale events to-date. Metrics: 2.5mm members, 1,000 brands, 2,500 sale events to-date.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

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. Are you looking for a Phd wireless chip designer?&#.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

Whatever the biggest, most challenging, most demanding, most important job we had at L90, I always turned to Tim. He went from recruiter to IT manager to technical sales… Then, he did such a great job in sales that we had to build up more infrastructure for our ad-serving and email delivery platform to support the increased demand.

Startup 40

Startup Email Venture Capital CTO Hire 40