Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features. Our sales guys were on the front line and heard what they needed to win deals. Tim started to change our processes.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

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. - First Principles.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2012

When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. And those long contracts they want you to sign with terms that seemed more like Latin than English.

Startup 322

Startup Training Outsource Development Design 322

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I took an advanced computer course in high school where I learned to build databases in Ashton Tate’s dBase III+ and to compile my designs using a product called Clipper. I took a job in corporate finance as an intern my junior year at First Interstate Bank and I did system design on the side, as my main job was corporate planning.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review 154

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 154

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

At Silicon Beach Fest Hollywood 2012 Kevin Winston organized a panel called “How to Find and Hire a Developer”. Always have a developer do a test project before hiring them to make sure they deliver quality work. This will prove your product is worth building to you and to the developer. Ask for is code samples.

CTO Hire 81

CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop Development 81

socalTECH

JUNE 19, 2013

Ben Satterfield is the co-founder of TestFlight, an immensely popular piece of software for iOS (and now Android) which lets developers distribute beta copies of their apps to their users. TestFlight recently joined forces with Burstly (www.burstly.com) to create a suite of apps for mobile developers and publishers. What is Burstly?

Startup 262

Startup Mobile Outsource Development Tool 262

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 27, 2019

Application developers once considered their products as licensed in what would closely be allied to a single sale. Sometimes, products are designed to make all their profit upon the recurring revenues from supplies or support. Call it the Netflix effect. The case of Xerox in the early years. An investor’s early question.

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Software Review Content Netflix 120

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Steve Gilison worked as a market researcher and product manager at a startup where my company, TechEmpower , did the software / web development. I have about 11 years in the technology sector including roles doing market research, sales and product development. My focus has been marketing strategy and product development.

Los Angeles 179

Los Angeles Product Angel Startup 179

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

The short story is that he received 400+ responses and goes through how he categorized/vetted the responses: 300 Didn’t Fit – Outside expertise/interest, pushing for immediate funding assistance, too many ideas (not focused), looking for sales agents. And a big factor is how big is the Founder Developer Gap.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2012

Gene Dolgoff: After years of research and development, we have developed technology which converts two dimensional video to 3D. It was a series of different technologies we had ot develop and apply for patents on, and now that we have it, we're working on a prototype. Why turn to crowdfunding and Fundable for this?

Startup 252

Startup Sites Patents Outsource Development 252

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2014

If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills.

Software Review 107

Software Review Entrepreneur CTO Hire Outsource Development 107

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

The origins of the design that we have goes back to a company from the United Kingdom in the late 90's, and actually came out of high speed, centrifuge technology which is used for uranium enrichment. It's a fairly straightforward system design, and is essentially what Urenco developed. READ MORE>>.

Design 138

Design Training Southern California Outsource Development 138

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills.

Software Review 103

Software Review Equity CTO Hire Outsource Development 103

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

socalTECH

JUNE 8, 2009

Eric Sikola: We've got seven people full time, and all our development is offshore, our CTO is onshore, and we have people doing graphical design locally plus others helping part time. I just really felt market demanded this and it's a productivity tool that could be used by an entire organization or individual.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 Startup SaaS Report 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

We also have a managed serviecs business, where we have campaign managers and designers working on RFPs and mocks, and when a campaign is sold, will design the ad units all the way through to ad approval. At Jetpack, we don't outsource production, and we manage all of the software development within Jetpack.

Buzznet 100

Buzznet Outsource Development Design HTML 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2011

If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills.

Software Review 96

Software Review CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

But I would point out that these days there are really talented tech developers & teams everywhere. It’s a very smartly designed debenture program. It creates a feeder system of local businesses that get their first biz dev deals or sales contracts. You can read Brad’s views of how to do it in his book.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Press San Diego 378

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. Include marketing, sales, and customer rollout plans. Marty Zwilling First published on Predictable Designs on 06/10/2020.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2010

If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling. Complementary skills.

Software Review 92

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review 88

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 88

InfoChachkie

JULY 18, 2011

When you play Monopoly with your children, you can subtly underscore an entrepreneurial mindset in their gameplay which will ultimately help them develop valuable startup skills, as described below. Even though the game is hypercompetitive by design, your child will likely play with the same basic group of family and friends.

Entrepreneur 216

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Paramount 216

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

A simple differentiation is that a product plan is designed for internal use, to get the product out. The product plan tells your developers what to build, and the marketing team what to market. Enough detail is required so that someone else can build it without you (outsourcing). Development and rollout. Market research.

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2012

A simple differentiation is that a product plan is designed for internal use, to get the product out. The product plan tells your developers what to build, and the marketing team what to market. Enough detail is required so that someone else can build it without you (outsourcing). Development and rollout. Market research.

Product 92

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 92

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Back in the “heyday of the dot.com startups,” it was not uncommon to see a valuation incremented by $1M or every paid full-time professional programmer, engineer, or designer. Early customers and contracts in progress add value. Every customer contract and relationship needs to be monetized, even ones still in negotiation.

Startup 108

Startup Invest Patents Outsource Development 108

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

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.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Funding Cloud Computing CIO 100

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.

Startup 97

Startup Invest CTO Hire Cloud Computing 97

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2010

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.

Startup 90

Startup CTO Hire Cloud Computing CIO 90

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

A number of international versions were developed soon after its initial release, but America has consistently remained the bastion of Monopoly’s popularity. Monopoly is a great training ground to develop cash management skills. Just like in Monopoly, if this contract is broken, the entrepreneur can be thrown in jail.

Outsource Development 154

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Training Startup 154

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2011

This ended up developing into Visual Basic for Applications , the strategy for programmability in Microsoft Office. It helps with sales cycles because customers know that they can switch away if they so choose. Do you see product managers as a hindrance to software development? Communicating with the developers who write code.

Software Review 285

Software Review Software Blogging Startup 285

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Back in the “heyday of the dot.com startups,” it was not uncommon to see a valuation incremented by $1M or every paid full-time professional programmer, engineer, or designer. Early customers and contracts in progress add value. Every customer contract and relationship needs to be monetized, even ones still in negotiation.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Patents Outsource Development 98

socalTECH

MARCH 20, 2009

All of them are a non-issue, because we're either paying for it, or it's through a legacy contract with them through the ABCSearch side. I bought and sold domain names, did website design, and was the co-founder of another search engine, Findology, which we sold. How did you get into this business, and what's your background?

PPC 113

PPC Sherman Oaks Advertising Yahoo 113

socalTECH

MARCH 9, 2017

Veracity, which is backed by Microsemi and Frost Data Capital, recently inked a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop tools to secure the power grid. OT networks had a parallel development track with IT systems, but had primarily been focused on industrial applications. Thanks for the time today.

Networking 124

Networking Startup Incubator Orange County 124