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 3, 2020

One obvious alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to switch and get real satisfaction from this lifestyle. I found some great help in outlining the elements of this process in the classic book, “ Disruptors ,” by Kunal Mehta. Be prepared to experiment.

Entrepreneur 123

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Writing Startup 123

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2016

As a small business and startup advisor, I find that entrepreneurs often love to talk about their latest idea, but not their execution. For example, Elon Musk is recognized as a visionary entrepreneur, but his fortune and his impact has come from the great companies he has built, including SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and PayPal.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Metrics Ideas 106

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

How should you become the best marketer you can be, even if you are a first-time entrepreneur or a seasoned CEO? The title of this insight helps us find a formula: LALA. Create metrics for customer acquisition, retention, conversion, reach, or anything that helps you to better understand the effects of your changes to the program.

Marketing 156

Marketing Metrics Education Resource 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2023

Every business owner and entrepreneur like you I work with wishes they could better predict product demand and sales, for managing inventory and long-term business planning. We all have our favorite metric and our passion, but keeping up with real-world changes and trends seems to be always just out of reach.

Metrics 81

Metrics Demand Statistics Sample 81

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2023

In the same way, great entrepreneurs and company leaders should no longer rely on faceless and nameless processes to drive business strategy and innovation to stay competitive. Here is my adaptation of his engagement principles for all the aspiring entrepreneurs I advise: Learn to adopt an outsider’s perspective.

Customer 140

Customer Custom Social Media Metrics 140

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2012

If you are an entrepreneur these days, or trying to grow an existing business, everyone is telling you that you need to use social media. But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. The tools to help you with all these actions are still evolving.

Social Media 98

Social Media Metrics Media Startup 98

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2021

If you are an entrepreneur these days, or trying to grow an existing business, everyone is telling you that you need to use social media. But very few are talking about how to measure your results and return on investment (ROI), and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Get attention and reach your audience.

Social Media 127

Social Media Media Metrics Satisfaction 127

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. Hire more help than helpers.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

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

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, investors – and acquiring companies – got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments. And the numbers were staggering. Microsoft paid $9.00 per registered user for Hotmail. AOL paid $40.00 Did the eyeballs suddenly disappear?

Metrics 296

Metrics Sites Advertising Web 296

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head. Set your startup health gauges and use them.

Startup 99

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 99

Berkonomics

JULY 15, 2021

Many senior managers and early entrepreneurs create their own mess with this one. The first professional senior manager that an entrepreneur hires to share the growing workload does not last more than a year. You as a longer-term senior manager may make the same mistake and suffer the same result. What is the common problem?

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Coach Metrics Startup 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs like you that I have met in my role as a business advisor are really product creators versus business creators, convinced that a great product will generate a great business. Entrepreneurs are typically focused on the big picture – creating a vision, purpose, and a long-term strategy.

Metrics 140

Metrics Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction 140

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2022

One alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to get satisfaction from this lifestyle. I found some great help in outlining the elements of this process in the book, “ Disruptors ,” by Kunal Mehta. Be prepared to experiment.

Satisfaction 153

Satisfaction Entrepreneur Writing Startup 153

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2013

If you are an entrepreneur these days, or trying to grow an existing business, everyone is telling you that you need to use social media. But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. The tools to help you with all these actions are still evolving.

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Metrics 102

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. Use metrics and data to quantify progress and return.

Startup 111

Startup Satisfaction Metrics Customer 111

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

These days, with the many Internet articles and new courses available, most new entrepreneurs readily cross the gap from lack of business knowledge to knowing, but many never make it over the knowing versus doing gap. Use metrics to support judgment in decisions. Metrics are necessary to acquire knowledge and turn it into action.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

As a new business advisor, I hear facts all the time about how hard an entrepreneur is working, but often have a hard time getting them to quantify results. Even you as the entrepreneur, who may not be getting paid at all, are tricked into thinking that if you had more hours, you could get better results.

Metrics 124

Metrics Entrepreneur Satisfaction Study 124

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2010

If you are an entrepreneur these days, or trying to grow an existing business, everyone is telling you that you need to use social media. But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. The tools to help you with all these actions are still evolving.

Social Media 84

Social Media Metrics Media Satisfaction 84

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. I was in it for the love of working with entrepreneurs on business problems and marveling at technology they had built.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio. Our software helps companies save time, improve their communication, and ultimately build better products faster. I think in the end it’s helped us build a better product because we are resource-constrained. Semick: They are.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

socalTECH

AUGUST 12, 2019

The Vinetta Project (www.vinettaproject.com), a group which is focused on helping to accelerate the growth of female-led startups, announced a few weeks ago that it is working with P&G Ventures, the internal "startup studio" of Procter and Gamble on an effort to help female-led companies in Los Angeles. What is The Vinetta Project?

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Metrics Los Angeles Help 124

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And there is so much money around being thrown at so many entrepreneurs that many firms don’t even care about board seats, governance rights or heaven forbid doing work with the company because that would eat into the VCs time needed to chase 5 more deals. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have enough resources to bootstrap our own startups, so we are completely dependent on investors to help turn great ideas into great businesses. Emphasize your real ambition to change the world, through helping the underprivileged, improving healthcare, or saving the environment.

Ideas 140

Ideas Entrepreneur Equity Resource 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2015

The best part of being an entrepreneur is having the independence to make your own decisions, the flexibility for a better work/life balance, and personal satisfaction from driving change. The road to business success is filled with challenges and frustrations that most aspiring entrepreneurs never even imagined.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Search Engine Optimization Satisfaction Social Media 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2014

Every entrepreneur I know is short on resources, including time, money, and skills. Thus I am morphing the points here, with specific focus on the entrepreneur, who would never think of themselves in the context of automobile manufacturing: Offering too many products and services concurrently. Hire real help and learn to delegate.

Entrepreneur 115

Entrepreneur Resource Training Product 115

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

As a business advisor, I meet many business professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs who are anxious to be their own boss , or have an innovative idea to start or acquire a new business. You need advisors to help you tackle tough challenges and be advocates for your potential and progress. You make decisions from data, or from the gut.

Startup 94

Startup Ideas Metrics Entrepreneur 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

Every entrepreneur I know is short on resources, including time, money, and skills. Thus I am morphing the points here, with specific focus on the entrepreneur, who would never think of themselves in the context of automobile manufacturing: Offering too many products and services concurrently. Hire real help and learn to delegate.

Startup 161

Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2021

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. New startup founders keep all the operating metrics they need in their head. Set your startup health gauges and use them.

Startup 173

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Acquisition 173

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2014

One obvious alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to switch and get real satisfaction from this lifestyle. I found some great help in outlining the elements of this process in a recent book, “ Disruptors ,” by Kunal Mehta. Be prepared to experiment.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Startup Writing 100

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 31, 2022

If you are not sure of your best fit, like many people I know, I just found help in a new book, “ The 6 Types of Working Genius ,” by Patrick Lencioni. I like his model and examples from the field to help you identify the type of work that is your forte, and will likely bring you joy and energy, rather than frustration and burnout.

Activity 108

Activity Satisfaction Metrics Startup 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2020

In the same way, great entrepreneurs and company leaders should no longer rely on faceless and nameless processes to drive business strategy and innovation to stay competitive. Here is my adaptation of his engagement principles for all the aspiring entrepreneurs I advise: Learn to adopt an outsider’s perspective.

Social Media 128

Social Media Metrics Customer Custom 128

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. Your A round?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Capital Pricing Doc 417

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

In the interests of helping you work smarter and last longer, I would like to offer my top ten list of key resource drains to avoid in early businesses and startups, based on my years of advising entrepreneurs and my own business experience: Expanding your product line too quickly for scaling. Excessive support and return activities.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122