Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

So what happens when production is reduced by 99% and distribution bends to infinity? Video production & distribution is becoming much more programatic. That would be like selling physical consumer products and deciding not to sell at Walmart. That is the definition of Disruptive Technology. MSN & AOL.

Company 339

Company Companies Technical Review Content 339

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." It is almost never the case that you are building an MVP to "show" to an investor the product itself.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. But on the other hand if you have a product with a very high gross margin (software, virtual goods, etc.) I believe in integrated products. I love using Yelp’s mobile product.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 14, 2013

It allows your products to be available to the international fashion market and an online launch can be done for much less money than opening a traditional brick and mortar store. You can launch your products on an established marketplace or you can create your own marketplace. What type of person will buy your products?

Commerce 93

Commerce Social Media Design Startup 93

socalTECH

DECEMBER 2, 2019

One example, is pigweed. That's why, for example, in the state of Arkansas, as of May 28th, you can't spray Dicamba. I went to college at K-State, and then I started with a little Internet development company, W3 Design, which became USWeb Los Angeles. How far along are you now with the product? We're on year two now.

Startup 197

Startup Examples Long Beach Software 197

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Tech.Co

MARCH 9, 2020

Efficiency and Productivity. Work When You're Productive. Designate a Work Area . Efficiency and Productivity when Working from Home. But, extended periods of working from home can risk having a negative effect on productivity. And that can have a notably negative effect on their productivity and even morale.

Tips 157

Tips Software Review Study Email 157

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

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!” They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2010

By Mahesh Raj Mohan Writing a business plan can be a difficult process. Even if you know your product/service suite down cold, understand the strengths/weaknesses of the competition, and have built pro forma financials that are sane. you still have to write the plan for a particular audience. What does that mean?

Writing 97

Writing Summary Ideas Research 97

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success. If your last company was Apple, Blackberry, AdMob or JAMDAT and you have some experience in the sector then I know that your product will have your experiences baked into it. Another example.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS San Diego 267

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

In today’s economy it is counter productive because the best employees have options.” Of course I can’t write every press release for the company nor would I want to. I wanted to lead by example, make my points and then I hoped that the founder would think about how to do this himself the next time.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

Another factor that impacts a patent’s value is its type, of which there are essentially two: utility patents and design patents. Utility patents generally offer more protection than design patents and are thus usually more valuable. Design patents make up the majority of non-utility patents.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Back to regular writing this week so check back in. Richard coincidentally cites Mike Yavondite’s Qiigo as an example; Mike was a guest on TWIVC later that day. Mike built a white label product that let large publishers leverage text based ads by building their own marketplace rather than using Ad Words. 37:00-40:30).

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. ” ( as I did very early talking in favor gay marriage - it seems that if you’re an NFL player you don’t have this same latitude , for example. But more to the point.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

At Amplify I can truly say they take the value-add approach to another level by leading by example, demonstrating what hard work and dedication truly mean while exposing their founders to influential experts and industry change makers. Amplify’s close mentoring is by design. And they do all this in the span of four intense months.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2011

Jimmy Hendricks: Our lead product is a white label, daily deal product. We've got three core product centers; the online contests that drive traffic, the daily deals that drive revenue, and then we are also looking at a marketplace product for online communities that want to sell deals, but don't want them as daily deals.

Platform 263

Platform Training Software Review Advertising 263

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

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. In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites, for example, cost a million dollars to set up. The cost of entry has never been lower. Personalize a simple web site.

Startup 100

Startup Commerce Sites Blogging 100

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

For example, Trina Spear from Figs, which you know as a hometown favorite, has done amazingly well in terms of rethinking apparel and that space. The key thing in figuring out how to design this kind of event and content, is you want to be able to provide really practical advice, and make sure you bring in people who tell it like it is.

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. Some more on metrics design and quantification. How can you practice timing?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 2, 2014

For example, a startup may hire you as an accountant, but you may also be asked to do social media marketing content gearing towards finance for the company blog. Now, you’re handling payroll and doing writing as well. You may even discover that you enjoy writing more than crunching numbers. The list could go on and on.

Startup 102

Startup Social Media Writing Google 102

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

They spot opportunities that aren’t being met and the design products to meet these needs. So I had written this whole series the week of Thanksgiving but virtually every day I wake up and see examples. They realized that they were selling a bunch of cool products but none that had enough economic value.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Customer 306

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2013

I’m largely talking about whether to use an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and to some extent, how much to rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers or write your own application components. For example, IaaS providers will give you raw infrastructure like compute and storage resources.

SaaS 90

SaaS Framework Resource Google 90

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 11, 2010

This month’s big question is Examples of Big Impact from Technology and I’ve taken it as an opportunity to go back and look at the elements of different projects that I’ve worked on over the years that have had a big impact. I’ve seen that in courses and in design specs many times, and it’s a HORRIBLE IDEA.

Satisfaction 167

Satisfaction Examples Course Technical Review 167

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

Our first set of products started rolling out in May, and are a set of travel guides for children. It helps get of how hard it is to send a postcard nowadays, where you have to look for a postcard at a kiosk, write out that postcard, find a stamp, and all sorts of other stuff. What have you learned so far about the mobile market?

Guide 232

Guide Framework Mobile Startup 232

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2014

We''ve also had a pretty wide range of check writing in terms of amount. My background, is I''ve been designing and developing accessories for the top carriers in the country, companies like Sprint and Verizon, as well as others. We feel that we can really help with manufacturing and bringing products to market.

Seed Funding 220

Seed Funding Santa Monica Funding Startup 220

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 8, 2015

Computers are designed to complete tasks, and even the most advanced AI is designed to learn only the information needed to better complete their task. For example, AI has been designed to play Atari games better than humans. Production Efficiency. A fear is that AI will one day gain the intelligence to rebel.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Design Examples Writing 40

socalTECH

JUNE 13, 2011

An example, was my iPod, which I had but no longer was using because I had a new iPhone, basketball sneakers I had but never really fit me. There were lots of people very intent on the execution of the product, really looking into the details of design and flow. We have a really good team that brought this site up.

UCLA 256

UCLA Startup Ideas Help 256

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I promised I would write this post with some thoughts and ideas on the topic. Here's an example of that kind of email. Hire a Product Design Lead First Nailing that elusive technical co-founder I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2011

It turns out that HTML5 was designed for the web, and there are plenty of tools designed around it which are really fancy. The Like button is a good example. Howard Marks: What happened with Zynga is a great example. Flash is not a game programming language, and actually started as an animation tool.

Activision 217

Activision Platform Startup Mobile 217

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. I like to use the example of a company I backed called MakeSpace because it’s such an easy an obvious market to understand. Market Size. MakeSpace provides physical storage. Let me be very direct.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 26, 2012

Miselu’s seeks to “innovate products to create the next generation of musical experiences,” according to their statement on their website. Neiro is the first example of that mission with much much, more to come,” explains a delighted Groesche. Yes, that is bold. What are your next moves?

Press 100

Press Ideas Product Activity 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

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. Customize your website using one of the tools above, selecting one of the standard templates for design and layout. Personalize a simple web site.

Commerce 99

Commerce Startup Sites Tool 99

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2009

I am someone who likes to interact with my Representatives and Senators, by way of writing letters, emailing, and what not. When I was listening, I made a point to try to do that, but when I did, I found I had to go to twenty sites to find the information I needed--whether that was to write a letter, send an email, or whatever.

Startup 100

Startup Writing Southern California Email 100