Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2016

In my role as a business advisor, I often see well-meaning entrepreneurs try to be everything to everyone, which results in many things done poorly, and few totally delighted customers. These days, the whole business experience is often more important than the product. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell.

Customer 94

Customer Custom Design Oracle 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2016

Aspiring entrepreneurs who struggle in a corporate environment often can’t wait to start their own company, only to find that relationships are even more critical and volatile there. The message here is not to use the public personas of leaders and entrepreneurs as the model for building and maintaining your business relationships.

Entrepreneur 56

Entrepreneur Oracle Outsource Development Mentor 56

socalTECH

APRIL 18, 2014

Todd Davis: I''m a veteran of Oracle, and had been CEO of an equipment finance company for the construction industry globally. I think we have phenomenal product experience, specifically in the bulk material industry. Matt Brinker, our VP of products, comes from the construction industry, as does Rich Haus, our VP of Sales and Service.

Mobile 133

Mobile Startup Oracle Los Angeles 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.” And so do entrepreneurs who are quick to pivot to new businesses or to sell in an acquihire. Some entrepreneurs can make a dent in a smaller world.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Start by selling, yourself - OK not by “selling yourself&# but but selling, yourself. This is probably because many founders are product or technology people. The problem is that in an early stage business there probably isn’t a perfect fit between your early product and a customer’s needs.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

I know because many entrepreneurs I spend time with I can tell are in their own brains when we’re meeting rather than trying to understand what my position is. You’re in sales mode. They are seldom productive. I probably will jump in with a few questions about their industry and start a discussion.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2013

Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Focus means starting with a problem that is painful, rather than a technology, and showing how you can solve that problem better than anyone else. Simplify product scope.

Startup 103

Startup Competition Technical Review Oracle 103

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Think of it kind of like running a national chain of restaurants and occasionally stopping in to wait tables to have a more intuitive sense for your processes, work conditions and the quality of your products. I then spent time with the VP Product Management to understand his functional roadmap and his perception of what customers wanted.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Effectively, when an organization uses our product, the can scale any subscription service with ease. We are looking at a market which is primarily mid-level, where they are too big for using Quickbooks as their solution, but they''re not big enough to use an Oracle or SAP. Where''s the sweet spot for your product? READ MORE>>.

Startup 159

Startup Oracle Customer Custom 159

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

To build applications we needed databases (Oracle), browsers (Netscape), servers (Sun Microsystems), storage (EMC), security (Semantic), application servers (Apache), caching software, load balancers, hosting facilities, programming languages and methods, CDNs, DSL equipment, Wifi routers and so forth. Co-Working Space. Venture Capital.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Capital Funding 390

socalTECH

AUGUST 24, 2009

We spoke with the firm's CEO and co-founder, John Hanna : How'd you end up starting the company, and what is FunnelSource all about? I needed a change, and wanted to start a new company, and came to L.A. I'd used every CRM tool out there--Oracle, Siebel, PeopleSoft--you name it, I've used it. Lots of people do ask that question.

Oracle 145

Oracle Sales Startup Screening 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2010

A lot of first-time entrepreneurs think that a brilliant solution is the most important ingredient in building a successful business, but it's only one of many important elements. Execution: Execution - the hard task of turning ideas into products that people will buy - is what separates successful entrepreneurs from dreamers.

Startup 91

Startup Oracle Entrepreneur Ideas 91

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 14, 2016

How did you start the company? Ryan Costello: I started out as an event producer in Washington DC. So, we started with a restricted access system, so that when I sent out an electronic invitation, you couldn't just forward that invitation to get on the list. That invitation was hard coded for you.

Sales 100

Sales Santa Monica Startup Orange County 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 1, 2009

This post highlights some of the reasons why the market is moving again and what entrepreneurs should do about this. M&A has shown some spectacular results including Zappos to Amazon for $928million , Sun to Oracle for $7.4 When you start to visualize your own portfolio exits your checkbook becomes more available for new deals.

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Social Network 255

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

How did you start NativeTung? I realized we had to build our own for the social network, and after we started buildling the technology in-house, and months and months of trial and error, we figured it out. From there, I left to start by first startup, Aphiniti, which raised capital but ended up undercapitalized and closed down.

Startup 133

Startup Technical Review Social Network Content 133

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

Obviously they wish they would have figured this out a bit more quickly, but as a young team I personally cut them a little bit more slack than I would if it were Oracle, for example. The obvious starting points to think to yourself are: Has something happened that fundamentally affects my customers or partners? Never Blame the Press.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

I know many super experienced entrepreneurs who don’t understand the basics of how fund size and age can affect them so I thought it was worth establishing a baseline. In a world of The Funded, VentureHacks and entrepreneur blogs this kind of informations spreads like wildfire. Let me explain: 1. And they don’t.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Invest 265

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 20, 2012

Always looking to provide the very best for our community so that you may learn and grow as a startup or entrepreneur, Bill Gross is one of the best experts we could provide. A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill started several companies prior to Idealab. which made a natural language product for Lotus 1-2-3 called HAL.

Idealab 84

Idealab Tech Coast Angels CalTech Startup 84

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 30, 2012

All it takes is an email address to start receiving our exclusive deals for sports tickets to your favorite teams in your city. Everything happens in the browser (no software to download) and the finished product looks amazing on large screens! Crowd Seats is the only Group Buying/Daily Deals site for sports fans. Gold Sponsor. .

CalTech 91

CalTech Company Companies Idealab 91

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2009

This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. If you haven’t spent time over there you should.

Entrepreneur 338

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Google 338

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2017

Every new business or product owner wants to attract the broadest possible audience, so they are prone to adding more features, multiple sales channels, and appealing to every demographic. Thus one of my key messages to entrepreneurs, as a business advisor and angel investor, is “focus.” Customers want a solution from you, not many.

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Competition Customer Custom 63

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Everyone in the outside world is talking about how great you are but internally you know that your sales aren’t ramping, your product isn’t shipping on time, you have doubts about the quality of your code, you’re not convinced you’re doing a good job on marketing – whatever. You’re stressed. Not so fast.

Startup 327

Startup Sales Class CIO 327

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really. I will start recruiting soon. I’m in Seattle this week.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2010

First, I believe that Seesmic has an excellent product – especially the web version of their product and that having another senior and experienced exec like Loic Le Meur would be great for Twitter. I said this many times publicly before it ever started happening with Tweetdeck and Seesmic. No, I don’t think so.

Acquisition 287

Acquisition Develop Development Conference 287

SoCal Delicious

OCTOBER 8, 2012

Tech entrepreneurs and executives from Silicon Valley are moving south and buying up luxury homes in the Los Angeles area. Andrew Frame, a 30-something entrepreneur who founded Internet-telephone company Ooma, bought a contemporary four bedroom in Bel Air for $5.5 More than 600 tech start-ups have sprung up in L.A.

Los Angeles 44

Los Angeles Software Review Technical Review Journal 44