March, 2023

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Are you still flexible enough to be coached?

Berkonomics

Why should we ask this question? As an early-stage investor, the first test for me is whether “my” entrepreneur is flexible in both the plan and execution of their vision (since from experience almost everything about a business plan changes over time), and whether that person, no matter what age or experience, is coachable. Doctoral theses have been written on this subject.

Coach 156
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7 Ways To Elevate Your Team Connection And Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. But fortunately, team building is a skill that can be learned and practiced, for those willing to put in some effort.

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1st Mondays March 2023 Recap & Pictures

Startup San Diego

The post 1st Mondays March 2023 Recap & Pictures appeared first on Startup San Diego.

San Diego 103
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How this company is using VR & AR to enhance the age-old interior design business

StartUp Beat

Decorilla leverages VR & AR tech to let interior design customers walk around a room design that doesn't exist yet. The post How this company is using VR & AR to enhance the age-old interior design business appeared first on StartUp Beat.

Design 40
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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

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Where is your personal finish line? ?

Berkonomics

Here is one very personal question. “Have you figured out what you want to have, or to be, when you reach the end of your personal run in this business life?” It is a fair question to ask. Most of us work in our businesses, either as managers or owners, and rarely step outside to think about how this will end in a perfect world. Investors call this discussion “exit planning” and of course they include themselves in the discussion.

Course 156
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Things going right? Control your euphoria!

Berkonomics

One thing a senior manager can count on is that someday, something will go right, very right. Well, after all the disappointments, pressure and outright failures, this is NEWS. So, we tend to go overboard a bit. As a member of the board, I’ve received calls on weekends, at night and texts at hours I didn’t even think existed – from CEOs who couldn’t control the euphoria.

Guide 156

More Trending

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8 Entrepreneurship Principles For Anticipating Change

Startup Professionals Musings

Aspiring entrepreneurs who rely only on traditional learning vehicles (teachers, classrooms, and risk-free practice) are doomed to failure in anticipating change today. Either they are never really ready to commit, study an opportunity until it has passed, or fail with tools and techniques from a bygone business era. The Internet and the current information wave have changed everything.

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8 Signs Of A New Business Initiative And Not A Hobby

Startup Professionals Musings

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I recognize that entrepreneurs tend to substitute vision and passion for formal processes, but using no discipline or process in building something new is a sure way to spend money, rather than see any return and build a self-sustaining business.

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7 Secrets To Positioning Competition For Constituents

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking negatively about competitors, and can’t resist making derogatory statements to their own team, to investors, and even to customers. This approach only makes these important constituents question your integrity, intelligence, and your understanding of business basics. Pointing out flaws in others does not give you strength.

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8 Elements Of Ownership Thinking And Startup Success

Startup Professionals Musings

If you feel trapped in an unsatisfying and limiting role as a business professional, I urge you to assess your own interest and level of ownership thinking as a means of enhancing your career or growing your own business. I have personally worked as an employee of large businesses, as well as a partner in new ventures, and found the latter to have more potential for satisfaction.

Startup 111
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8 Lessons For Entrepreneurs On Pitching To Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

As an advisor to entrepreneurs and active angel investor, I often get questions about the realism of the Shark Tank TV series, compared to professional investor negotiations. The simple answer is that with all the staging of TV lights and billionaire investors, it’s nothing like Silicon Valley. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons.

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Every New Venture Needs A Product And A Business Plan

Startup Professionals Musings

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan. Is it any wonder why so few entrepreneurs ever find the professional investors they seek?

Product 112
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8 Indicators Of The Innovation Focus In Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Every organization I get asked to help these days seems to realize that innovation is required on their part to survive and thrive in this age of constant change. Their challenge to me is how to integrate innovation into the thinking and process of every team, and measure the “ risk versus reward ” of resources expended. They also want to know how they stack up to competitors.

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5 Tactics To Ensure Your Solution Is Customer Driven

Startup Professionals Musings

Technical entrepreneurs love their technology, and often are driven to launch a startup on the assumption that everyone will buy any solution which highlights this technology. Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. Don’t create solutions looking for a problem , since investors ignore these, and customers other than early adopters will be hard to find.

Customer 110
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7 Benefits Of Working Consistently On Business Values

Startup Professionals Musings

Most of the young entrepreneurs I know are classic proof of the old adage that people tend to overestimate what they can do in a short period, and underestimate what they can do over a long period. They become frustrated when they are unable to build their startup over a weekend, and give up way too soon when the path to real success seems to be interminable.

Startup 109
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9 Communication Risks That Jeopardize Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Every business communication you initiate, both internal and external, involves some risk to your credibility, has legal implications, and may impact your relationship with peers. Most of these risks are rational and reasonable, but in my role as business consultant, I still see many experienced professionals and leaders initiating high-risk communications which come back to haunt them.

Coach 109
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8 Strategies To Maximize Team Trust In Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

As I have learned through my career in business, as well as years of business consulting, team trust in each other, as well as management, is critical to the long-term success of every venture. It is key to employee engagement, a positive culture , and the productivity necessary to survive and thrive in this rapidly changing worldwide economy which challenges every business today.

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6 Metrics On How Well Your Business Is Driving Demand

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. Even those things that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow, as the market matures, the culture changes, and competitors appear with new solutions.

Metrics 102
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9 Distinct Leadership Styles You Find In New Ventures

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs inherently understand that they have to be the initial leader of their startup, but often they don’t have the experience or the training to know where their leadership competencies lie, or how to build a leadership team. For new entrepreneurs, leadership development efforts may be more valuable for achieving startup success than business skills development.

Startup 96
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5 Considerations For Driving Growth In A New Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Both have worked. Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $1 trillion. Twitter showed no focus on revenue in the first five years, but was able to parlay 500M users into a $53B public company, and now growing revenue.

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Startups Can Be Socially Mindful And Still Make Money

Startup Professionals Musings

I’ve noticed that most young entrepreneurs are more socially conscious today than ever before, which is a great trend. Unfortunately, some are so focused on this principle that they forget that every business, even nonprofits, have to practice the basic principles of capitalism (build a business model to make money) to cover their costs to do good things another day.

Startup 92
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5 Business Leadership Styles To Avoid For Real Impact

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the keys to your success as a business professional and leader is your ability to nurture relationships and select associates who have the attributes to help you build your career or lead a team, rather than people who will never challenge you or may be looking out only for themselves. I have concluded as a business advisor that the right people are better than the best strategy.

Tips 89
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5 Ways A Startup Benefits From Dual Partner Strengths

Startup Professionals Musings

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea. Thus, unless the visionary highlights a cofounder who can take the vision and execute, I assume the worst.

Startup 82
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The New Interim Executive Director of Startup San Diego, Lisa Barnhouse

Startup San Diego

The post The New Interim Executive Director of Startup San Diego, Lisa Barnhouse appeared first on Startup San Diego.

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Well, now we know how bankers control our business lives!

Berkonomics

Let’s get right down to it. Your banking relationship can be like a great marriage or a bad trip to the DMV. In most cases it is strictly your choice. But the results of that choice will reverberate for what could be years. Yes, we will spend a moment reviewing the SVB-Signature Bank crisis that recently left many of us losing sleep. But we will do this in the context of our decision-making and protection of our businesses.

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7 Strategies For Accelerating Growth In Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

The military has long recognized that machine guns are force multipliers for rifles, but businesses have been slow to capitalize on this concept. Sometimes all the planning in the world isn’t enough for business survival, when things change as fast as they do today. Every business, especially startups, needs all guns blazing quickly on every opportunity or insight into the market.

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7 Considerations In Choosing A Startup Funding Source

Startup Professionals Musings

Too many entrepreneurs tell me they are looking for an investor, and can’t differentiate between venture capital (VC) investors versus accredited angel investors. They argue that the color of the money is the same from either source. They fail to realize that the considerations are quite different for each, which can make or break their investment efforts, and ultimately their startup.

Startup 98
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How will you ride the next wave?

Berkonomics

“Re-imagining” our lives The world is experiencing a new era of re -imagination , in which virtually all our old ways of doing things are being uprooted by new, more efficient and more widely available methods of accomplishing old tasks. We collaborate using Zoom, Teams, Salesforce, Yammer, Skype, GoToMeeting, Fuze and hundreds of other tools not available to the last generation of whiteboard, personal meeting or teleconference users.

Mobile 156
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7 Specifics Show How Startups Are All About Execution

Startup Professionals Musings

In my experience with entrepreneurs, there seems to a wealth of self-proclaimed “idea people” who aspire to start businesses, but only a few who are willing and able to dig in and get the job done. All the great ideas in the world won’t make a business, if the ideas never get implemented. Only rare great entrepreneurs, like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, have proven to be both.

Startup 155