Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Cost of customer acquisition.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Many young entrepreneurs seem to think that capitalism and making profit are dirty words.

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Cost of customer acquisition.

Metrics 106

Metrics Startup Sales Statistics 106

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2013

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Most social media outlets don’t require a subscription charge, but they certainly require an investment – in people, in technology, your reputation, and your time. Pick the right platform for your business.

Social Media 101

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2023

There are many components of an ownership thinking strategy, but here are some of the key ones from my own perspective, as a mentor and advisor to aspiring entrepreneurs and new business owners: Willing to take smart risks which lead to long-term growth. Smart business owners realize that no returns occur without some investment and risk.

Startup 111

Startup Satisfaction Metrics Customer 111

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI).

Social Media 135

Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

Based on my own years of experience in startups and big business, and more recently as an angel investor, I often cringe when I see one of you entrepreneurs missing a cue that I have seen work for many before you. A passionate entrepreneur I met a while back had found that a certain algae could be grown cheaply, and could end world hunger.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

As an investor in startups, I most often see entrepreneurs who are technologists, or at least have a real passion for a specific product. Many entrepreneurs try to do the whole job alone, or surround themselves with “yes” people, or count on family and friends to back them. Using metrics to measure results and commitments.

Startup 113

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Obviously this definition is generic, so my first recommendation is that you take the lead in defining traction metrics for your startup, and then selling your results convincingly to investors. For example, if your value-add is with first-time parents, show me a graph of how many 20-30 year-old moms have signed up each week the first month.

Startup 121

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

socalTECH

AUGUST 12, 2019

We've helped entrepreneurs raise over $225M in early stage, venture funding. Their goal is to partner in really unique ways with entrepreneurs, accelerators and investors, to create businesses and brands in new categories for P&G. We're here as a support ecosystem, to help founders build their companies.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Metrics Los Angeles Help 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2022

One of the first harsh realities that every entrepreneur has to learn is that most of the things that are critical to startup success are outside of their direct control. In my experience, trust is the most powerful tool that an entrepreneur can wield, both inside and outside of his own realm of control. Under commit and over deliver.

Startup 116

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Writing 116

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. For example, I believe Bill Gates would have failed without his partners Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day.

Search Engine Optimization 103

Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media Equity 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2013

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Many young entrepreneurs seem to think that capitalism and making profit are dirty words.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Startup Examples Satisfaction 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cashflow personally every day.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media 105

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Greathouse: Your collective experiences have clearly made bootstrapping a viable option for you, more so than might be the case for a typical, younger entrepreneur who needs more direction, doesn’t have cash discipline, etc. We both made personal investments in the company. I’m not claiming that bootstrapping has been easy.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yes, the investor may literally have said to you: "That is something I'd seriously think about investing in when you have your product built." If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product. " But the reality is that they don't mean that.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2013

One of the first harsh realities that every entrepreneur has to learn is that most of the things that are critical to startup success are outside of their direct control. In my experience, trust is the most powerful tool that an entrepreneur can wield, both inside and outside of his own realm of control. Under commit and over deliver.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Startup Metrics Writing 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

As a frequent advisor to new entrepreneurs and startups, I often hear your frustration with being treated differently from other startups by investors, on expectations for valuation , traction, and market size. Established company process rules and metrics now characterize the leaders in this market stage.

Marketing 174

Marketing Startup Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2019

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Many young entrepreneurs seem to think that capitalism and making profit are dirty words.

Startup 93

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2020

As a business investor, I look for investments where I see founders really holding their people accountable for their actions. More importantly, I look for entrepreneurs and owners like you who are not afraid to hold themselves accountable for the success of the business. You have to give them a credible plan and evidence.

Startup 113

Startup Examples Coach Metrics 113

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

In a funding round with 1 or 2 VCs and 15-20 angels or 4-6 seed funds if you gave every investor you financial information and performance metrics your proprietary information would increase in its probability of leaking out. Let me give you a real world example from this week. There is a reason for this. Is this investor on AngelList?

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2021

As an angel investor in new startups, I’ve long believed that investors invest in people, not ideas. But the magic that makes one entrepreneur stand out over others is hard to quantify – yet we all recognize it when we see it. Define and use real metrics to measure progress. billion buyout. Don’t play the blame game.

Customer 157

Customer Custom Metrics Ideas 157

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2019

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI).

Social Media 96

Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

And he showed us examples how implementing his team’s innovations directly sky rocketed company sales. Being that the theme of the night was community, it was perfect that the event was held at CoLoft , a workspace in Santa Monica that focuses on start up entrepreneurs. Noah has what I believe he called “Thank You metrics”.

Metrics 87

Metrics Email Startup Technical Review 87

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day.

Search Engine Optimization 124

Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media Equity 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2011

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Most social media outlets don’t require a subscription charge, but they certainly require an investment – in people, in technology, your reputation, and your time. Pick the right platform for your business.

Social Media 93

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Platform 93

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

So how do you use financial projections as valuation metrics when you know the odds of those being accurate predictors of the future are so very unreliable? I thought then that the best way to value a start-up is to give value to those elements of progress by the entrepreneur or team that reduce risk of success.

Startup 120

Startup Examples Metrics Marketing 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

For example, I’m even getting worried about Apple not showing the kind of innovative leaps that Steve Jobs was famous for. I find that entrepreneurs who change ahead of the times usually start with the “big” vision of making the world a better place. Set metrics and rewards specifically for innovation.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2014

Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit. How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? Many young entrepreneurs seem to think that capitalism and making profit are dirty words.

Startup 104

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Satisfaction 104

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon. Let me take you back just 10 years ago to 2005 in Silicon Valley where I returned after 11 years of living in Europe.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2019

One of the first harsh realities that every entrepreneur has to learn is that most of the things that are critical to startup success are outside of their direct control. In my experience, trust is the most powerful tool that an entrepreneur can wield, both inside and outside of his own realm of control. Under commit and over deliver.

Startup 91

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Writing 91

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2013

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Product Metrics 102

socalTECH

MAY 17, 2019

We're in the space, and leading the thought process on what needs to be combined, for example, CRM with ITSM tools, to create meaningful results that you can act on at the C-level. What's your biggest lesson you've learned as an entrepreneur? What specific problem were you seeing? What are the biggest challenges today for your company?

SaaS 113

SaaS Startup Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2015

They advocate investing in their new framework, where the Z.E.R.O. In any case, reframing the conversation from paid media marketing to the new framework requires a balance, and measurements along the way to better manage return on investment. entrepreneur marketing paid media social media startup zero' Marty Zwilling.

Marketing 100

Marketing Social Media Framework Media 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2017

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI).

Social Media 62

Social Media Media Metrics SEO 62

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. As a mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, here are my best recommendations for keeping the burn rate low, planning ahead and maintaining credibility with investors: Manage cash flow personally every day.

Startup 89

Startup Search Engine Optimization Outsource Development Social Media 89