Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

Some people even believe that entrepreneurs must be born with the right genes, and no element of education is relevant. In my view, the most effective entrepreneurs are those with a background of an array of real-life experiences, both positive and negative, as well as good academic and coaching activities.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Tips Writing Coach 149

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market research data. Conduct your own customized market research. Modern libraries are still worth a visit.

Marketing 157

Marketing Statistics Research Report 157

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? 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. What happened? People were building.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

Ventura-based The Trade Desk , which operates an online advertising exchange, priced its IPO late Tuesday evening, saying that it will sell 4,666,677 shares of its Class A common stock at $18.00 The company will begin trading today on the NASDAQ Global Market as TTD. and $18.00 and $16.00 per share on August 31st. READ MORE>>.

Pricing 100

Pricing Ventura Incubator Class 100

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2019

He is regarded by many as the number-one authority on virtual staffing and personal outsourcing, and is himself a successful entrepreneur based in the Philippines. I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Be flexible.

Outsource Development 121

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Summary 121

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Too many entrepreneurs think that expert external advisors are suspect, or will slow them down.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

With the appearance of do-it-yourself services on the Internet, entrepreneur curriculums at every university, and a wealth of new books on the subject, the need for expensive consultants and business advisors has also been mitigated. Social media facilitates marketing and sales. Savings here can easily reach another $10K per month.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

The recent pandemic was a strong signal for change, and I see most of you entrepreneurs and business owners responding to the business changes required and new opportunities presented. When sales fall off, you need to dig deep for the “why,” rather than just assuming the price needs to go down.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Customer 162

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

Every new business dreams of growing from a startup to a global market leader in a few years, like Amazon.com, but that goal is elusive. As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked for the magic that has made Amazon the world's most valuable brand , from a total unknown only twenty years ago.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Customer Custom 123

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2014

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market-research data. Conduct your own customized market research. Modern libraries are still worth a visit.

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Statistics Research 97

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. If the customer need is obvious and large, the calculated risk is in the quality of your solution, your team, and marketing.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Resource Metrics Customer 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

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. Marketing, sales, support, and service operations. Solution development and delivery.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 25, 2013

Someone on Quora recently asked me to answer the following question: Why Do Digital Entrepreneurs Hate MBAs? Tech entrepreneurs' consternation with MBAs does not rise to the level of loathing. As noted in Startup Advice From College Dropouts , successful entrepreneurs are often poor students.

Entrepreneur 279

Entrepreneur Technical Review Case Study Class 279

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Southern California entrepreneur Elon Musk has huge success this year, in (literally) getting commercial spaceflight firm SpaceX --based in Hawthorne--off the ground and into space, with a hugely successful set of flights to the International Space Station (ISS). and $15.00. Musk's last IPO success was electric car maker Tesla Motors.

Pricing 185

Pricing Southern California SpaceX Hawthorne 185

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Project based on your market size how many widgets you will sell in every channel. Forecast sales-volume expectations.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 9, 2013

As I outlined in my talk, I believe the greatest Internet companies created over the past 15 years have been “deflationary” meaning they are driving down the prices or goods & services. Declining prices & margins in a small market is much less interesting. Prices down. Market meet reality.

Marketing 361

Marketing Course Pricing Networking 361

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. Relevant questions include the type of business entity (LLC or C-Corp), licensing or manufacturing, sales and marketing, and staffing.

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2021

How does an entrepreneur best deal with that environment? Jeremy applies his culture shift tenants to political and generic social issues, but I have adapted them here more specifically to the business realm of entrepreneurs and startups: Establish a social contract. I saw some real insights in the classic book by Jeremy D.

Marketing 127

Marketing Social Media Technical Review Product 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2021

Every entrepreneur with a new technology tells me that his innovation will be industry-disrupting, meaning that it will render the existing technology obsolete, and create a new market. I suspect that several of these will surprise most entrepreneurs as being counter-intuitive to their thinking.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Entrepreneur Marketing Customer 157

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Most entrepreneur that fail are quick to offer a litany of constraints that caused their demise – not enough money, time, customers, or support from the right players. The result, called resourcefulness, allows entrepreneurs to create opportunities in the face of scarcity. Every entrepreneur needs to avoid locked-in ways of thinking.

Resource 112

Resource Ideas Competition Entrepreneur 112

SoCal Tech Calendar

MAY 5, 2012

Friday, May 11, 2012 -- Entrepreneur Association Conference. 15 percent discount for SOCALTECH readers. 15 percent discount for SOCALTECH readers. Use promo code: SOCALTECH. See [link] (more)

Conference 113

Conference Entrepreneur SoCalTech UCLA 113

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As a rule, creating a product that does not fit into an existing space, cannot be defined against one or more competitors, or which needs a long description to understand, will require considerably more market research, more marketing capital, and entail much more risk than one that follows an existing trend, even if an emerging one.

Marketing 120

Marketing Class Startup Research 120

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 13, 2018

As a rule, creating a product that does not fit into an existing space, cannot be defined against one or more competitors, or which needs a long description to understand, will require considerably more market research, more marketing capital, and entail much more risk than one that follows an existing trend, even if an emerging one.

Marketing 120

Marketing Class Startup Research 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2020

As a startup advisor, I see too many entrepreneurs get distracted by technology or their favorite cause, and then wonder why they can’t find an investor, attract customers, or build a long-term business. Internet disruptors make prices and margins transparent. Value to second-order customer advertisers is key.

Marketing 124

Marketing Customer Custom Competition 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

One of the hardest things about the fund-raising process for entrepreneurs is that you’re trying to raise money from people who have “asymmetric information.” VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2014

If you want the full SlideShare deck with many slides not in either post it’s in this link –> The LA Tech Market. ” It’s the most common refrain I hear from investors and even entrepreneurs these days. Has it begun to mature or is it just better marketed than in was say 5 years ago?

Entrepreneur 376

Entrepreneur Snapchat Startup Google 376

SoCal Tech Calendar

NOVEMBER 3, 2016

Wednesday, November 9, 2016 -- Disrupt Your Market to Grow Big and Grow Fast. join us at our November Entrepreneur Speaker Series event where Tom White, Director of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator at CSUN, will reveal the secrets to “Disrupt Your Market to Grow Big and Grow Fast.” Cal Lutheran Center for Enterpreneurship.

Marketing 100

Marketing Incubator Los Angeles Pricing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2013

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Product line pricing. Cost-based model. Skip it where there are many competitors.

Pricing 116

Pricing Product Customer Custom 116

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2012

These days every new entrepreneur understands that an innovative product or service is necessary, but not sufficient, to start a business. You have to build a web presence with marketing content to get visibility above the 300 million other new websites created last year, and attract the customers you need.

Examples 93

Examples Content Marketing Entrepreneur 93

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. Online marketing uses techniques for driving promotion and place.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2022

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. In my experience, the top candidates will include the following: What if you have to cut your targeted price? Pricing is always a tricky issue.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sample Customer 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

He is regarded by many as the number-one authority on virtual staffing and personal outsourcing, and is himself a successful entrepreneur based in the Philippines. I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Be flexible.

Outsource Development 138

Outsource Development Outsource Summary Training 138

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2015

Every entrepreneur with a new technology tells me that his innovation will be industry-disrupting, meaning that it will render the existing technology obsolete, and create a new market. I suspect that several of these will surprise most entrepreneurs as being counter-intuitive to their thinking.

Marketing 102

Marketing Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2023

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market research data. Conduct your own customized market research. Modern libraries are still worth a visit.

Statistics 120

Statistics Research Report Newsletter 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Unfortunately, the market is changing so fast these days that any upward climb can level off quickly, as the core business growth begins to stall.

Startup 106

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 106

InfoChachkie

JUNE 30, 2014

Too bad, as they would be well served to study Dirty Franks marketing plan, which has withstood the test of time. Franks didn''t need a sign, let alone a marketing budget. Hurry Up And Stop Marketing. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. say) ‘We’re the market leader in blah.’

Marketing 193

Marketing Software Review Product Social Media 193