Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. Of if your VP Sales isn’t complaining about marketing she’s trying to get the function reporting to her. And then there’s product management.

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Building a company and selling are all about gaining commitments.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Startup Sales Customer 134

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 4, 2022

As a startup advisor and investor, I’ve met many aspiring entrepreneurs, and I often get asked the question, “I have a great idea for a startup – do you agree that it real potential?” If you are dreaming of an opportunity to get rich quick, the entrepreneur route is not for you. You enjoy building relationships as well as products.

Entrepreneur 121

Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Sample 121

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2017

You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process. Every aspect of your business must be about sales.

Sales 82

Sales Entrepreneur Customer Custom 82

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. Your first idea about where pain resides is nearly always wrong.

Sales 106

Sales Entrepreneur Customer Custom 106

socalTECH

JULY 24, 2014

We spoke with Nikolaus Kimla , the CEO of Pipeliner CRM, to learn more about the company, its move here, and its software. Tell us about Pipeliner CRM? The people we spoke with told us that CRM sucks, and sales people have to use this software, but don''t like to use it. That''s what it''s all about.

Sales 229

Sales Startup Software Customer 229

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2020

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Startup Summary Product 124

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 28, 2015

One of the reasons I know way more about online sales taxes than I ever thought I would is due to Rincon Venture Partners’ investment in TaxJar , one of the leaders in this emerging space. Almost every online seller will have a sales tax deadline this upcoming January. Your Sales Tax Compliance Checkup.

Sales 100

Sales Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 100

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. Use freelance and work-at-home to reduce payroll.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. I don’t think this is the job.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital CTO Coach Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. So a better question than asking about the quality of an idea, is asking about the quality of your plan to implement the idea. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost.

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

I’d like to talk about Crocodile Salesmen in 3 scenarios: 1) when YOU are selling (or someone on your team), 2) when you are trying to recruit a sales person. You learn much more about how other people think when you’re asking. But how to apply “listening&# in a sales meeting? Nobody likes that.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2021

As an entrepreneur mentor, my mission is to foster the attributes in you as a startup founder that I believe will lead to success. For example, I worked with an entrepreneur a while back who was clearly intelligent, had a great idea, and communicated well. I sometimes find entrepreneurs who highlight that their strength is “ideas.”

Entrepreneur 136

Entrepreneur Ideas Examples Mentor 136

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2023

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Building a company and selling are all about gaining commitments.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2014

Most technical entrepreneurs I know demand the discipline of a product specification or plan, and then assume that their great product will drive a great business. Serious investors, on the other hand, look for a professional business plan or summary first, and hardly ever look at the product plan.

Product 101

Product Entrepreneur Summary Activity 101

InfoChachkie

JULY 4, 2011

Man or woman, the tactics deployed by Sam are applicable to any sales situation and can be put to use by any salesperson, irrespective of their gender. He is so confident in his green eggs and ham product that he cannot help but smile. He continues smiling and deploys a rudimentary sales technique. Sam-I-Am Lessons Learned.

Sales 219

Sales Entrepreneur Startup Product 219

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

A good entrepreneur is not necessarily born a good salesman. In my view, every entrepreneur has to be a great salesman to succeed (among the many other required skills), so you should take a hard look at these points: Dust off your moxie. Don’t hope that a miracle will happen and your products and services will sell themselves.

Sales 105

Sales Entrepreneur Mentor Customer 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. Then they are surprised to see productivity and creativity take a big dip. Employees will care only about work they create.”

Entrepreneur 97

Entrepreneur Training Sales Technical Review 97

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

A while back I wrote a bunch of posts on Sales & Marketing and have been meaning to get back to that theme for a while. Even if you don’t have “direct&# sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale&# including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business development. You learn by asking.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. I see you were involved in the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur effort at the Montgomery Summit this year, tell me a little about what that is all about?

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In my role as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that most have the technical challenges well understood, but many are a bit short on some basic street smarts , or basic business realities. It starts with documenting and communicating a real purpose and mission in terms everyone can get excited about.

Entrepreneur 173

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). There is a lot to say about retaining control. For those of you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2021

You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process. Every aspect of your business must be about sales.

Customer 136

Customer Custom Sales Social Media 136

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

If one entered between 2009-2015 he or she is no doubt in the “hazard” phase where one need to be careful about thinking he know more about the industry than perhaps he do. No – I’m not talking about YOU – everybody is doing it. I know we spoke about it this week. 10 is the new 3.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. But through nearly a decade of startups I learned that sales comes down to three essential elements: 1.

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey). Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. There is no free lunch.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

As a startup advisor in this age of the entrepreneur, I see many more startups, but innovation is still hard to find. Whether we are talking about startups or corporations, innovation requires a leader who can inspire others to step into the unknown. An entrepreneur looking for a sure thing will never innovate.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

I agreed to do the interview because the story was about what other companies can learn rather than about airbnb in particular. If you have information about a situation that has gone terribly wrong don’t cover it up. The most tempting thing for inexperienced entrepreneurs to do is to attack the press.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2019

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers.

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 97

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. But the narrative in the press about Al Gore was that he was a smarmy know-it-all. They wrote about his verbal fumbles. Before that he was a US senator.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. The best entrepreneurs focus on details.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire Sales 286

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

It was about the founder of Sriracha sauce, David Tran, displaced from Vietnam when the North’s communists took power. Was this the latest Chinese product to take off in the US? He was driven by wanting to provide a great product. How much could the new generation of entrepreneurs learn from that? What did it mean?

Entrepreneur 415

Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Product 415

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Building a company and selling are all about gaining commitments.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Sales Startup Customer 106

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

One of the most common questions that entrepreneurs who meet me for the first time like to ask is, “Do you miss being an entrepreneur? If you’ve taken the roller coaster ride that is a startup – you know what I’m talking about. On Being an Entrepreneur. This post originally appeared on TechCrunch. Long hours.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Ideas 384

InfoChachkie

JUNE 30, 2014

Entrepreneur and noted investor Brad Feld unwittingly echoed Franks approach to marketing when, during a discussion with me , he declared, " …companies should… focus on building amazing products. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. Hurry Up And Stop Marketing. Poor Franks Got Yelped.

Marketing 193

Marketing Software Review Product Social Media 193