Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2011

Many entrepreneurs still dream of “going public,” making billions of dollars, and playing with the big boys. They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control.

Startup 94

Startup Entrepreneur Report Summary 94

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2013

In what is a fairly unusual move, last week, Tradesparq (www.tradesparq.com), a Chinese startup in the area of B2B trade information, said it was planning on setting up its operations here in Southern California, as part of an expansion and scaling of the company. Tell us about your backers? How long has company been around?

Southern California 170

Southern California Startup SoCal CTO Hire 170

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2011

When I shoed up with a few pages of conceptual, early stage ideas around consumer finance, it was immediately captivating, and it really lined up with what he wanted to do. That's compared to other financial products, which are designed for managing money, and just feel like work. There are three main components of the product.

Startup 197

Startup Ideas Southern California Social Network 197

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2012

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Ideas Competition Startup 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2013

One of the first questions that I get from many entrepreneurs is “How should I set up my company to minimize my setup costs, tax liabilities, and risk of lawsuits?” If you aren’t so sure, need something fast, or need to keep your costs low, then an LLC is the best legal and taxable entity to facilitate your startup.

Startup 93

Startup Tips Examples Guide 93

Tech.Co

AUGUST 16, 2017

Finding potential customers continues to be a huge challenge not only for established marketing and sales teams but also for startup executives and solo entrepreneurs. You need to find lead gen tools that will convert leads, fill your sales funnel, and increase your revenue effectively. Your registration comes with 60 credits.

Tool 79

Tool Startup Help Template 79

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like the BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this Forbes article. On the other hand, your mother probably won’t read one.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2013

Great startups are getting ahead of the game with “anticipatory customer service,” like providing smart phone access to product and account data to head off complaints. Here are seven rules derived from his insights to start your thinking: Customers expect a choice of channels. Respect your customer’s view of usability.

Customer 89

Customer Custom Services High Tech 89

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

But rather than dwell on the failures, I’ve tried to extract from them a list of practical action items that will improve your survival probability. I offer these pragmatic recommendations: Buffer your funding requirements. Adapt your strategy monthly. Assume your initial strategy will be wrong. Manage your time.

Tips 102

Tips Help Startup Blogging 102

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Many entrepreneurs still dream of “going public,” making billions of dollars, and playing with the big boys. They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control.

Startup 89

Startup Entrepreneur Report Summary 89

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2013

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Ideas 99

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 99

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 16, 2014

We recently sat down with Luc Berlin, co-founder of Miigle, a SoCal startup that has an aggressive global mission to bring entrepreneurs together from around the world. TZ: In our last interview you said that you were about 25% at capacity of your original vision for Miigle. You can create your startup page in two clicks.

SoCal 104

SoCal Southern California Startup Platform 104

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

We took into account innovation and entrepreneurship, style and appeal, originality, community, and value. All that combined is what lead us to the amazing group of participating companies that follow: CapLinked lets entrepreneurs focus on what they do best, while making sure their investors always stay in the loop.

Company 106

Company Companies Web Evite 106

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2017

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Ideas 55

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2012

Great startups are getting ahead of the game with “anticipatory customer service,” like providing smart phone access to product and account data to head off complaints. Here are seven rules derived from his insights to start your thinking: Customers expect a choice of channels. Respect your customer’s view of usability.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Services Startup 97

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2012

Facebook just hit 1 billion active users globally and that was great but a new social payment application is set to make Facebook users across the world get more from their connections and even allowing companies to sell or receive payments from their pages. As we know, developers always give their product a code name. What is Zunguz?

Software Review 92

Software Review Social Network Platform Technical Review 92

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2009

Let's talk about your product first, tell us about your hardware? We use a Camera SLR camera, which works with any of our three products out there. Our first product had challenges, but we moved very quickly to change that up, and ended up with our current product, the Bookdrive DYI.

Google 100

Google Startup West Los Angeles Content 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2011

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Startup 92

Startup Ideas Competition Demand 92

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Zareh Baghdasarian: 15desks is all about managing your educational lifestyle, all the way from early education to your graduate work. Later on, when you are at a university, you might manage things like your resume and portfolio. Later on, when you are at a university, you might manage things like your resume and portfolio.

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

We will be bringing you some of the hottest startups around to give you a quick rundown about their companies and get to know the entrepreneur behind those companies. StartupDemo is an opportunity for early stage startups to showcase their new products and/or services. Be sure to tune in at 5:30pm PT. Panel speakers: Paige Craig , aka.

Social Media 71

Social Media Technical Review Mixergy Tech Coast Angels 71

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 17, 2012

What are your backgrounds? We have a great variety of skills in the team from Media, Marketing, Operations, Retail – all very focus on customer service, highlighting a product or brand in the best way for the least amount of money. What is your business model? When we heard the name – it just made sense.

Advertising 79

Advertising Services Social Network Startup 79

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

We've really set out to solve the problem we saw, which is a vast category of travel information which is not aggregated well on the web. What's your background and how did you decide to start the site? Bill Fried: I'm a serial entrepreneur. I was in advertising and marketing, working in Newport Beach on the Mazda account.

Activity 164

Activity Startup Sites Web 164

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2010

Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and technology is, but never gets around to defining the problem (investors call this the “solution looking for a problem” syndrome).

Startup 48

Startup Ideas Competition Demand 48

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Santa Barbara-based SendMeHome (www.sendmehome.com) is looking to solve that problem, with a free service to print out labels which attach to your item, and where you can register items in case they are lost. Andrew Lee: The front page is designed for people returning items, and is easy to use. How do you get those items back?

Santa Barbara 100

Santa Barbara Startup Writing Ideas 100

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Heres 5 steps to start exploring: View the "Best Of" list with 50+ essays on viral marketing, gaming, and ads » Get introduced: About this blog, why entrepreneurs and marketers recommend it » Receive updates by email or RSS feed or Twitter. Write me an e-mail and let me know what youre up to! Do this for a couple weeks!

Startup 29

Startup IP Email Report 29

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

If you care about accessing customers, reaching an audience, communicating your vision, influencing people in your industry, marketing your services or just plain engaging in a dialog with others in your industry a blog is a great way to achieve this. Who are your customers, partners or suppliers? accessibility.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Brands didn’t advertise their web pages they advertised “AOL Keywords.&# You couldn’t pick up a magazine in the 96-99 timeframe without seeing AOL Keywords advertised everywhere. If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

It’s always fun chatting with Jason because he’s knowledgeable about the market, quick on topics and pushes me to talk more about VC / entrepreneur issues. We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding. But it does happen.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. These days, with Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new SEC regulations, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

Startup 99

Startup Report Equity Resource 99

SoCal Delicious

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com. Forget the Valley—pack your bags for Google L.A.". » More.

Los Angeles 44

Los Angeles Software Review Technical Review Journal 44

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2013

Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. These days, with Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new SEC regulations, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

Startup 95

Startup Report Equity Resource 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2011

Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. These days, with Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new SEC regulations, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

Startup 93

Startup Report Equity Resource 93