Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Switch your attention from product development to sales. Second-stage growth usually requires a formal sales model, an experienced and disciplined sales team, and a well-defined process to meet your new goals and demands. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

And then they said one thing that most marketers go their whole career never hearing, 'Listen Steve, price is irrelevant, it is speed that matters.' We had been pricing our graphics cards to be a low-cost provider. The first thing I did was raise our prices.". the VP of Sales the richest person in the company.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

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.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

I recommend a trial run with an experiment or MVP (minimum viable product), at full price and cost, before the big bang launch, risking your investment money and a major time commitment. I once met with an entrepreneur who had developed a new algae strain to cure world hunger and make him rich.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry. Customers today quickly get beyond these, and put a competitive priority on the experience of others, reflected in reviews and social media, and their own total experience with your sales process, delivery, returns, and support on their schedule.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Funding is depleted before customer sales ramp up. One of the pitfalls of optimism is the expectation for early customer growth, and understating the real costs of design, development, and inventory. Smarter entrepreneurs don’t wait for a crisis to drive change, by defining key milestones and metrics for tracking progress.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Switch your attention from product development to sales. Second-stage growth usually requires a formal sales model, an experienced and disciplined sales team, and a well-defined process to meet your new goals and demands. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. It freed up Ophir to grow out our sales organization, to work more closely with agencies, to innovate on product and to raise capital. They can help you with pricing.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Metrics Startup Sales 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition. presented pricing challenges when compared to a whole new set of offline competitors we didn’t know well.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Switch your attention from product development to sales. Second-stage growth usually requires a formal sales model, an experienced and disciplined sales team, and a well-defined process to meet your new goals and demands. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Switch your attention from product development to sales. Second-stage growth usually requires a formal sales model, an experienced and disciplined sales team, and a well-defined process to meet your new goals and demands. Managing business growth is more than metrics. Optimize the total customer experience.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Customers may be attracted to your marketing message, but investors look harder at the startup team, seeking superior expertise in the key areas of growing a business, product domain, financial, marketing and sales. Specific elements of your marketing and sales plans. Projected revenues and expenses over the strategic period.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

I recommend a ten-slide pitch to start, reviewed by friends and advisors, to be expanded to a ten-to-twenty-page business plan with opportunity sizing, cost and price details, competitors, marketing and sales strategy, financial projections, and resources required. Make sure your solution is defensible and unique.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He eventually applied his lessons learned in these experiences when he founded Zag, a company that helps consumers buy cars over the Internet at pre-negotiated prices with nearly 4,000 dealers across the country [disclosure: my firm GRP Partners is an investor in Zag]. Money to be used for hiring and additional product development.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is. Greathouse: Having run these groups, I know all about the inherent friction between sales and marketing with regard to lead quality, volume, etc., Metrics related to customer acquisition, lifetime value and churn.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2018

They start second-guessing their own vision, and are prone to making snap decisions suggested by someone else, in lieu of their carefully crafted processes and metrics. Your front-line team can give you direct feedback from customers, such as pricing, quality, or support problems, with suggested solutions.

Metrics 57

Metrics Entrepreneur Customer Custom 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Do you now have real customers, are just starting development. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). That’s your metric to see if you have their attention.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

Because at least while the VC spigot is open and flowing for high-potential individuals that fit a pattern that some VCs seem to favor they can access cheap capital that isn’t terribly dilutive and can use the to fund development and swing for the fences with limited focus on monetization. That leaves 99.99% of you.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

Maybe its because Im 66", but I think most clothes shopping really stinks and when was the last time that a sales person was actually helpful. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Clothes are very personal and its really a pain to find stuff thats going to look good on you.

MyShape 150

MyShape CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

As the business grows, it pays to learn how to use automated financial tools, and review the key financial metrics daily. Prices need to be reviewed to cover total costs and margin. A great vision, and the creativity to develop an innovative solution, are necessary but not sufficient to build a great business.

Startup 57

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Do you now have real customers, are just starting development. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). That’s your metric to see if you have their attention.

Summary 90

Summary Writing Competition Sample 90

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. What price will your customer ultimately accept?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

InfoChachkie

MARCH 2, 2010

There were no price guides, standardized rating systems or baseball card stores. We were happy to accommodate his request, as the money derived from the sale of the sets allowed us to purchase vintage cards via our weekly newspaper ads. Eventually, card buying speculation drove prices ever higher.

Pricing 138

Pricing Advertising Marketing Startup 138

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

And when it comes to timing, wait until you’ve come up with a working prototype and developed your product before you seek external funding. Think of it as a business development process and plan for your raise to take up to 6 months. Be careful how you price this. You don’t raise as a way to test your idea. Vendor funding.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Ask them for a meeting to review your pricing strategy with you. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. Already covered.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2014

About $37B worth of lost sales a year, worldwide. In seed stage funding, we’re often told that the investments are ultimately about the people/teams, and not necessarily the metrics. Business Culture Development Entrepreneurship Events Investment Marketing Mobile Music Social Good Startups 500 Startups Dave McClure'

Startup 111

Startup Mobile Commerce Education 111

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Do you now have real customers, are just starting development. Outline your sales and marketing strategy (direct marketing, sales channel, viral marketing, and lead generation). That’s your metric to see if you have their attention.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2010

Have you set the right price for your salad, and correctly included all costs? Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Startup Metrics Class 48