Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2023

How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business ,” was one of the first to predict that Gen-Y would lead the charge, bounce back from the last recession, and be big winners. examines and analyses this entrepreneurial revolution to reveal critical lessons every Gen-Y entrepreneur and marketer must learn.

Capital 93

Capital Geni Layoffs Entrepreneur 93

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2010

Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company, near-shore service, or off-shore organization in China, India, or Eastern Europe. Don’t outsource your core competency. Technology level. Product or services.

Outsource Development 51

Outsource Development Outsource Software Offshore 51

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Once you prove that a substantial number of people are willing to pay more for your solution than it costs you to provide it, you can then consider licensing your underlying technology. “Learn from the mistakes of others.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. It is advice I give entrepreneurs often as I have written here on why most businesses should never raise VC.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Driven by the current pandemic, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. I see it most in the newest generation of entrepreneurs (Gen-Y), who were shocked out of entitlement into action by an economic downturn.

Geni 172

Geni Layoffs Entrepreneur Outsource 172

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists.

Tips 135

Tips Invest Startup Outsource 135

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2020

Entrepreneurs who search for real pain points, and build solutions around them, have the best chance of changing the world. As an alternative, if you are an entrepreneur looking for the next big thing, where should you look? Truly “disruptive” technologies. Some kind of natural or man-made disaster. When the world gets smaller.

Customer 167

Customer Custom Startup Outsource Development 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

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. Formalize the use of tools and information technology. Solution development and delivery.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2022

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. You should never outsource the management of your core technology.

Outsource Development 110

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 110

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

There are no “overrides” – for example, businesses don’t thrive just because they offer the latest technology, or because everyone wants to be “green,” or because their goal is to reduce world hunger. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service.

Sales 102

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

Tech Coast Venture Network

MAY 15, 2011

April 25, 2011, Irvine, Calif — Tech Coast Venture Network (www.tcvn.org) is hosting the OC Technology Influencer Mixer & Summit 2011, an historic two-day event with partners CompTIA, the world’s largest technology association, the Technology Leadership Political Action Committee and Ingram Micro.

TCVN 113

TCVN Technology AeA Press 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2014

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. Use the cloud and subscriptions for computing technology. Martin Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Commerce 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

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. Outsourcing services that could be done in-house.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2012

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone to wake up and answer website email requests. 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. Self-service needs to have escape hatches.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Services Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2013

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone has to wake up and answer website email requests. 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. This exemplary customer service is just savvy marketing.

Customer 89

Customer Custom Services High Tech 89

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists.

Startup 154

Startup Outsource Ideas Research 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

If you have a software development background like mine, Im sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. Outsourcing is defined as contracting the work to another company, usually located in a developing country, like India, China, or Eastern Europe. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 95

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. You should never outsource the management of your core technology.

Outsource Development 124

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. New technologies are everywhere today. People have seen so much that they are blasé, or actually fear pure technology. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Startup Content Media 111

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2012

Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. I see it most in the newest generation of entrepreneurs (Gen-Y), who were shocked out of entitlement into action by the recession. Focus on your core competency.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Geni Layoffs Outsource 93

Jason Nazar

JULY 1, 2016

Entrepreneurs often lament big companies, but most of us hope we’ll create just that. There’s a lot more the big folks can learn from the millions of entrepreneurs hustling each day, building something amazing from scratch. Decisions that take entrepreneurs an hour, often take months at large companies.

Entrepreneur 55

Entrepreneur Company Companies Outsource Development 55

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2011

back in 1995 meant to apply to technology product evolution and acceptance. As I was reading about it recently, it occurred to me that the concept relates directly to how investors see startup opportunities and potential success as well, at least those with technology in their offerings. Peak of inflated expectations.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Press Cloud Computing Technology 93

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

These are industries where structural impediments to technology adoption have only recently been broken down by the advent of incredibly powerful mobile devices. ” Much of this will look and feel like a Green New Deal, but sold under a package of infrastructure modernization and service upgrades that the country desperately needs.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. Because it addresses an internal audience, it can use technical jargon and assume the reader understands the technology. Enough detail is required so that someone else can build it without you (outsourcing).

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

socalTECH

DECEMBER 28, 2017

During the holiday season, our tradition over the last few years has been to post reflections on the past year and some predictions from Southern California's "movers and shakers" in the technology industry. Are there any technology innovations, gadgets, devices, software that particularly caught your eye in 2017?

Capital 124

Capital Southern California SaaS SoCal 124

socalTECH

MARCH 5, 2014

So, how do you help ease enterprise customers into the cloud--or at least, help them use cloud technology to help them with their business goals? We caught up with founder and CEO Grant Kirkwood --a serial entrepreneur and veteran of providing infrastructure to the enterprise markets--on the vision behind the company.

Cloud Computing 217

Cloud Computing Outsource Development Outsource Startup 217

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2015

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. You should never outsource the management of your core technology.

Ideas 107

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Tool 107

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

And of course the most successful technology companies: Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com [duh], Oracle, Microsoft all have loads of sales people. Many young startups are being advised not to have a professional services business and in my opinion this is a big mistake. Professional services = higher rate of successful rollouts.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2015

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 103

Startup Outsource Invest Ideas 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2013

Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. I see it most in the newest generation of entrepreneurs (Gen-Y), who were shocked out of entitlement into action by the recession. Focus on your core competency.

Startup 98

Startup Geni Entrepreneur Layoffs 98

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 111

Tips Startup Outsource Ideas 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2014

The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. New technologies are everywhere today. People have seen so much that they are blasé, or actually fear pure technology. Marty Zwilling.

Customer 99

Customer Custom Startup Content 99