Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Yet it is the one element that too many entrepreneurs focus on only as an afterthought. Every entrepreneur assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. Even great products need great marketing “content” to fuel the ascent of their online message. Then write it down.

Content 146

Content Newsletter Competition Writing 146

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

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2010

I call it the entrepreneur thesis. I’m not talk about the age old debate amongst investors whether you back entrepreneurs, markets or products (or as people like to hedge – product / market fit). It’s entrepreneurs I back. It’s what I call the “entrepreneur thesis.” So what is the “entrepreneur thesis?”

Entrepreneur 321

Entrepreneur GRP Partners Venture Capital Invest 321

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? You’re writing a freaking blog post! I do what I wish all entrepreneurs would do. ” Brilliant!

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

You don’t need to invent an innovative product to be a real entrepreneur. Self-employed services specialists are just as important, and are a growing part of this new “ age of the entrepreneur ” that I discussed last week. Many of these new entrepreneurs were regular employees a few years ago, focused on a skill specialty.

Entrepreneur 89

Entrepreneur Services Product Search Engine Optimization 89

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". According to John, "So, we, we sent.(an an email) to about 35 people.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

To be a great entrepreneur you really do need talent. You need to be great at something: technology back-end, front-end design, usability, sales, marketing, quantitative analysis, leadership –> whatever. You have to build a product that people really love. DJ’s couldn’t help but want to play his records.

Entrepreneur 398

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

I want to invest in entrepreneurs that have the capacity to be number one at whatever they are doing, and do it within our skill base, which is direct-to-consumer. We want to have startups we can get productive or generating revenue pretty quickly. So, now, as a VC, I swore I'd never treat entrepreneurs like those VCs treated me.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 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. They spot opportunities that aren’t being met and the design products to meet these needs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Customer 306

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2010

I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.&# If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11. There’s one attribute (coming soon) that I need to have in order to write a check but I don’t believe is vital for success.

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Startup SaaS ASP 267

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

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. This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code. Most Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs I know are more like Al Gore.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

You don’t need to invent an innovative product to be a real entrepreneur. Many of these new entrepreneurs were regular employees a few years ago, focused on a skill specialty. They are not the generalists required for new product startups. Writing specialists. We are becoming a society of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Services Search Engine Optimization Startup 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

Every startup needs access to capital, whether for funding product development, for initial rollout efforts, acquiring inventory, or paying that first employee. Most entrepreneurs think first of bank loans as the primary source of money, only to find out that banks are really the least likely benefactors for startups. Crowdfunding.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Capital Startup Funding 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2023

Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Many entrepreneurs are finding their “secret sauce” these days by combining a strong purpose with a good business opportunity. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free.

Framework 95

Framework Customer Custom Tips 95

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 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. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk takers.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2012

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 92

Product Outsource Development Competition Outsource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

Finding your sweet spot as an entrepreneur needs to start with a meaningful personal purpose that is also a business opportunity. Many entrepreneurs are finding their “secret sauce” these days by combining a strong purpose with a good business opportunity. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free.

Tips 174

Tips Framework Customer Custom 174

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. So I agreed to offer my current thinking on the economy and what it portends for the VC industry & fund raising for entrepreneurs. The housing market is not recovered : Sales in existing homes in the US fell 27.2%

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 298

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. We were based in London.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As a startup, you as the entrepreneur are the brand, the brand builder, and the major lead generator.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Media Guide Customer 126

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

If you are one of the new age of entrepreneurs who hates the thought of doing a business plan as a first step in starting your new venture you will love this message. No entrepreneur can survive as an island. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability. Marty Zwilling

Startup 142

Startup Capital Resource Research 142

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2012

It’s a well-accepted axiom in the investor community that entrepreneurs learn more from their failures than their successes. It’s always more productive to focus on making your offering successful, rather than killing your competitors. Never write something you wouldn’t want to come back to you. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 97

Tips Entrepreneur Startup Ideas 97

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). My general rule is that it’s good to be stealth in the early days while you’re building your product and testing your market. You need some guidelines to make decisions.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I divided success into the phases of venture capital and 18 months into writing my first check here was my view (details on each in the link above). “I think the best VCs help drive exits alongside their entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

The firm has largely flown under the radar, but it has been investing in startups applying innovations in automation, artificial intelligence, computer vision, computational biology, material sciences and robotics to industrial products and processes for the past two years. Marcus has a long background in angel investing and company creation.

Los Angeles 126

Los Angeles Artificial Inteligence Invest Angel 126

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 16, 2013

Turn on your phone and look at the productivity folder. Something to write your notes, another to set reminders, and one that does both. You’ll be more productive within three weeks time. We discuss productivity, emails, communication, and the dynamics of the team. We’ve been there. We’ve all been there.

Product 99

Product Email Ideas Organization 99

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2015

It’s good advice; the theory being that entrepreneurs can discover the flaws in their business models sooner, make course corrections and move in a more favorable direction. In my case as a young software entrepreneur, I had a different approach: Fail Locally, one customer at a time. I became an entrepreneur by default.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Writing Southern California 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As a startup, you as the entrepreneur are the brand, the brand builder, and the major lead generator.

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Guide Customer 113

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. Why does that matter?

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After college Joanne worked for 4 years in retail apparel at Macy’s where she initially managed sales reps on the floor and then worked as a buyer of clothing. This is where she first developed sales skills. She doubled her salary by going into sales. to $12m in sales. “A lot of sales is innate.

Startup 311

Startup Venture Capital Sales Entrepreneur 311

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

Hint: He was an entrepreneur. A Writer Is Someone Who Writes. A writer is someone who writes, not someone who goes about telling their friends that they are “a writer”. The same is true of entrepreneurs. These would-be entrepreneurs are best classified as Wantrepreneurs, as discussed in Entrepreneurial Enterviewing.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153