Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). Most people totally advise against stealth. Be careful about this advice.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

Many believe that entrepreneurs are born, not made. While I agree that successful company builders usually have a natural inclination to be entrepreneurs, a good education helps polish that apple. We can all point to examples of successful entrepreneurs who dropped out of college, but still went on to make a big impact.

Technical Advisors 90

Technical Advisors Startup Course Entrepreneur 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. If you don't have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 162

Technical Advisors Tips Startup Equity 162

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

In my business of mentoring new entrepreneurs and advising small company owners, I recognize that most don’t start as experienced leaders, and most don’t realize that people leadership is a primary key to their future success. Building a business is not a one-person job, and leading by edict rarely works today.

Develop 124

Develop Development Technical Advisors Satisfaction 124

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2011

One of the biggest complaints you hear from both entrepreneurs and investors in Los Angeles, is the lack of a credible, visible startup accelerator in the Los Angeles area. We caught up with Erik to hear more about MuckerLab, and its efforts to grow the Los Angeles technology ecosystem. Erik, thanks for the time.

Technical Advisors 176

Technical Advisors Startup Southern California Los Angeles 176

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. If you don''t have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Entrepreneur Equity Ideas 75

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

She told us about why so many Los Angeles investors are supporting the company and gave us an overview of what PartySlate is all about. About five years ago, I had a chance to use Houzz, which I'm sure you've heard of. I feel strongly, that if you're going to do this, you need to be technical, or have a technical co-founder.

Technical Advisors 100

Technical Advisors Technical Review Metrics Startup 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

As a self-made entrepreneur and former chairman of Diamond Resorts International, he asserts that the five biggest companies by market value today, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple, aren’t really tech, but hospitality companies. I just finished a new book by Stephen J. Focus on reputation over brand.

Technical Advisors 82

Technical Advisors Artificial Inteligence Customer Custom 82

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

Danielle goes through some commentary from Bill Gurley, Fred Wilson and Marc Andreessen about burn rate and then goes on to discuss her own burn rate and others publicly weigh in. We’re going to start aggressively spend money on marketing our product. But what IS the right amount of burn for a company?

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Len Short is truly an online marketing pioneer, heading up marketing at Charles Schwab, AOL and then (PRODUCT)RED. Before his career moved online, Len worked on major marketing campaigns for credit card companies and rolled out MCI’s highly successful “Friends and Family” marketing campaign.

Google 220

Google Technical Advisors Technical Review Equity 220

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2018

While spending years in a big company as an employee and an executive, I heard many people talking about jumping the corporate ship, dreaming of being an entrepreneur, and totally in charge of their own destiny. I’m not saying success is rare, but the list of famous entrepreneurs who started their career in a big company is small.

Startup 52

Startup Technical Advisors Entrepreneur IBM 52

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X&# or not. If you’re thinking about joining as the director of marketing, product management manager, senior architect, international business development lead, etc. Let’s face it.

Startup 418

Startup Technical Advisors Venture Capital Santa Monica 418

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. If you don't have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 80

Technical Advisors Startup Equity Ideas 80

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I recently filmed a show for This Week in Venture Capital in which I talked about how to prepare for a VC meeting: whom you’ll meet, who should attend from your side, what materials you should bring and how you should run the meeting. So why would I have talked so much about the deck in my post? I funded them 8 weeks later.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

I wrote this conundrum and the need to take charge of how the market define your skills in my much-read blog post on “ personal branding.” ” If you don’t create the message about yourself, the market will. And if you want to be a CEO one day you need the messaging to reflect that.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Startup Venture Capital IP 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2011

Our own subsidiary, of a major technology company, started to repair and service competitive products in order to maintain our own technical staff and service capabilities. A successful sales person wanted to become more familiar with the international market and requested a transfer to the Latin American sales group, based in the US.

Startup 90

Startup Technical Advisors Sales Examples 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2010

Our own subsidiary, of a major technology company, started to repair and service competitive products in order to maintain our own technical staff and service capabilities. A successful sales person wanted to become more familiar with the international market and requested a transfer to the Latin American sales group, based in the US.

Technical Advisors 48

Technical Advisors Sales Startup Coach 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Based on my experience advising new entrepreneurs as well as more mature businesses, I recommend the following strategies for building business momentum, while still optimizing the limited resources of every small business: Find more customers that like what you do best. The company has since gone public, and is still a market leader.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Like most mature markets, the legal profession is highly segmented with respect to the services provided and markets served. It is surprising how often entrepreneurs forget this simple fact. Your lawyer is a trusted advisor, but in the end, you run your business, your lawyer does not.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

I often talk with entrepreneurs who are kicking around their next idea. When I hear entrepreneurs say that they’re kicking around ideas with friends I ask, “have you legally registered a company?&# I know it sounds crazy because you’re talking about friends or colleagues here. Research your market.

Startup 365

Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” We had people hearing through the grapevine that we were about to raise money and new investors started calling us to get in on the deal. If you remember your history the market crashed the next week. Any deal.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

About Frank Addante > (from the Silicon Valley Business Journal) Twitter Updates follow me on Twitter Blog Archive ► 2010 (2) ► June (1) Part II: Optimized for Profitability ► February (1) Get Out of the Office! Go-to-Market 5. I decided that I was going to consult/advise a few companies and relax for a bit.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Frank Addante

MAY 15, 2006

About Frank Addante > (from the Silicon Valley Business Journal) Twitter Updates follow me on Twitter Blog Archive ► 2010 (2) ► June (1) Part II: Optimized for Profitability ► February (1) Get Out of the Office! I am extremely passionate about what we accomplished at L90 in a short period of time with very little resources.

Advertising 40

Advertising Startup Chief Technology Officer Technical Review 40

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

You attend five customer meetings together over a two-week period and after each meeting you replay the results in the office about what it meant. The CEO weighs in with his perspectives, the head of product management disputes his conclusions and the marketing VP has a different take. What about call centers?

Technical Advisors 335

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Offshore Startup 335

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

About an hour ago he thought he was invincible. Unicorn has become part of our lexicon in a sickening way and will no doubt become part of the history we tell about how things got so out of control again. I explained in slow words about some of the companies we’ve backed in the past that became worth more than $1 billion.

Technical Advisors 150

Technical Advisors Startup Writing Blogging 150