Design Invest Outsource Development Sales 
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 26, 2012
The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage the rollout, and maybe even pay themselves a salary. Early customers and contracts in progress add value. Every customer contract and relationship needs to be monetized, even ones still in negotiation.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 26, 2020
To be clear, I define a product specification as the technical definition of your product, to be used for development and testing purposes, with a quick business summary for context. Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans.
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Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
Chief Sales Officer (VP Sales). What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers. See this anecdote by Steve Blank on how a hotshot sales executive can sink your startup.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 27, 2011
The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 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 for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 30, 2011
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. It’s the whole basis of my investment philosophy, which I call “ The Entrepreneur Thesis.&#.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 16, 2009
They spot opportunities that aren’t being met and the design products to meet these needs. He asked each sales / biz dev person to call customers and tell them they had to change their contracts. I just knew that our sales sucked wind and we were burning through tons of cash. We were SMOKING cash.
SoCal CTO
JANUARY 5, 2011
Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. -
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