Tech Coast Venture Network

JUNE 16, 2016

If you are an actual startup you will do anything to get users – go to their house, like a missionary, sit with them and help them set up your service on their computer. They send you a link to their service. What do “playing startup” people do?

Startup 100

Startup Sample Design Services 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2011

Entrepreneurs are a notoriously stubborn (some say confident) group of people, so I see many of them making the same mistakes that predecessors have made. All the quotes come from entrepreneurs who have built and sold at least one $100 million company. You can be a leader without being the best at everything. You can play a role.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Zag Startup Sample 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2023

Every business owner and entrepreneur like you I work with wishes they could better predict product demand and sales, for managing inventory and long-term business planning. Two main contributors to measurement errors include the size of the sample and the variation in the underlying population.

Metrics 81

Metrics Demand Statistics Sample 81

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2012

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). Don’t give the product away, but make sure he has every bit of service you can provide. Sample trade show or user group. These days, the technical side may be the easy part. If you use the big “Coming Soon!”

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Pricing Customer Custom 99

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

What’s business advice helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today? When I was in college at USC, the president of the university at the time, Steven Sample, spoke to one of my classes about a book he had recently written on leadership. What’s your best financial tip for early-stage entrepreneurs? You get what you pay for.

Tips 82

Tips Entrepreneur Sample USC 82

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2010

Frank, who podcasts every week on topics of interest to entrepreneurs, angel investors, and venture capitalists, talks about mixer events, such the Open Angel Forums from Jason Calacanis, and similar entrepreneur mixers from the Tech Coast Angels--and how to best take advantage of them. Early-stage investors would get crushed (i.e.

Tech Coast Angels 145

Tech Coast Angels Networking Sample Venture Capital 145

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Their primary intended reader is a “first-time entrepreneur”, but clearly other stakeholders within the startup universe can also benefit from the book’s hands-on advice. They are both former entrepreneurs and current Partners at Foundry Group , a highly successful, early stage venture firm. The Magicians Tells Their Secrets.

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Tech.Co

MAY 25, 2018

If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur, technology has served you well. With a focus on impact investing, their efforts to drive social change are based on three key pillars: revolutionizing philanthropy, unleashing entrepreneurs and igniting civic engagement. Watch our video series at SXSW 2018 with The Case Foundation.

Startup 140

Startup Technical Review Competition Software Review 140

socalTECH

AUGUST 13, 2012

How do you make it easy for kids to learn how to be entrepreneurs--and not only learn about it, but actually go out and create a business? We spoke with Rudy DeFelice , founder of the site and a local serial entrepreneur, to hear about the vision for Kidworth and it's mission of creating millions of young entrepeneurs.

Startup 196

Startup Sample Sites Coach 196

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. In fact, most of the rich entrepreneurs you know actively turned away early equity proposals. Need to spread the risk.

Technical Review 95

Technical Review Startup Equity Entrepreneur 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2016

For too many small businesses, customer service is still seen as a “burden.” Entrepreneurs don’t realize that this burden is actually costing them over $200 billion in repeat sales, according to a recent study by the W. This means asking your support team to sample the support of competitors on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Satisfaction 56

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. It’s always such a pleasure for me to spend time with Farb because he has all of the enthusiasm and energy you love to see in entrepreneurs. Mobile gifting service. LibreDigital.

Venture Capital 214

Venture Capital Startup Design S3 214

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2013

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). Don’t give the product away, but make sure he has every bit of service you can provide. Sample trade show or user group. entrepreneur startup proof of concept business model' Marty Zwilling.

Product 94

Product Pricing Customer Custom 94

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

Here are some examples: - You ask a small sample set so that data isn’t statistically significant. It’s important to quantify the value of your product or service. who was in the sample set? Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice. How is it skewed? You ask a group that is not unbiased.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2011

Crowd-pitching is an offline event, but logically similar, which give several candidates an opportunity to pitch to a crowd of interested people for a couple of minutes, after which the crowd “votes” with some play-money to pick the best candidate, who then wins some nominal investment amount or services. Intellectual property is jeopardized.

Funding 92

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 92

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2014

Your business name should match your business in order to remind customers what services you provide. Sample potential customers. business name entrepreneur founder startup TBD' Calling your landscaping business “Lawn and Order” is appropriate, but the same name would not do well for a handyman business. Marty Zwilling.

Google 117

Google Customer Custom Sample 117

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2010

We're expanding the men's offerings, and also launching into two other verticals, gourmet food and wine, and services and experiences. However, we quickly learned that we not only were clearing their excess inventory, we were helping their business and were a service provider to the brand community, and a marketing vehicle.

Sales 224

Sales Email Startup Sample 224

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

Check out a sample demo of their Google Glass product, due to arrive in 2014 (well, it was due to arrive then). CrunchBase, a self stated free service, (with a publicly filed creative commons license which iterates the “free” usage of their data) is open source, but only on a conditional basis. .

Technical Review 74

Technical Review Startup Software Review Google 74

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2011

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). Don’t give the product away, but make sure he has every bit of service you can provide. Sample trade show or user group. These days, the technical side may be the easy part. If you use the big “Coming Soon!”

Startup 93

Startup Pricing Customer Custom 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2010

Crowd-pitching is an offline event, but logically similar, which give several candidates an opportunity to pitch to a crowd of interested people for a couple of minutes, after which the crowd “votes” with some play-money to pick the best candidate, who then wins some nominal investment amount or services. Intellectual property is jeopardized.

Funding 59

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 59

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2010

Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. Hand out copies of the slides before the presentation, with proper cover sheet, with brochures, product samples, or other marketing material you may have. Tags: entrepreneur startup investor presentation business. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 94

Slides Competition Sample Sales 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2012

Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. Hand out copies of the slides before the presentation for note taking, with proper cover sheet, with brochures, product samples, or other marketing material you may have. Solution product & technology. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 99

Slides Competition Sample Sales 99

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 10, 2011

The evening’s networking and mingling continued with the room of entrepreneurs, technologists, bloggers, technology enthusiasts, investors, and the local technology companies being showcased by Tech Cocktail. Monarch Digital Media – A full service digital media agency operating in our backyard.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Userplane Social Media Santa Monica 63

socalTECH

JANUARY 24, 2011

Who uses your service, and why? That's a small sample of some of the externalities we hope we can generate with the network effect. That's the big opportunity for us, out of home advertising, to make it engaging, and ultimately, measurable. Music is the biggest focus we have, initially. There's lots of grassroot adoption.

Startup 220

Startup West Hollywood Metrics Entertainment 220

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 21, 2012

One thing I noticed from our previous interview is that Heather is one smart entrepreneur. For a first-time entrepreneur, she is not only getting it right and getting “base hits”, but she is slugging balls out of the park! Entrepreneur Nuggets. Have a crystal clear value proposition to your potential partners.

Education 63

Education Web 2.0 Course Platform 63

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2014

Startups that sell innovative new products seem to get all the attention these days, but services may be the quicker way to larger profits and faster growth. If you think about it, services make more sense in this social media age where relationships, personalization, and interaction are king. Advisory services. Everybody wins.

Services 101

Services Startup Outsource Technical Support 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2013

Your business name should match your business in order to remind customers what services you provide. Sample potential customers. Calling your landscaping business “Lawn and Order” is appropriate, but the same name would not do well for a handyman business. Make sure the name is available.

Startup 104

Startup Google Customer Custom 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2010

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). Don’t give the product away, but make sure he has every bit of service you can provide. Sample trade show or user group. Tags: entrepreneur startup business model business. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 48

Tips Pricing Customer Custom 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2011

Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. Hand out copies of the slides before the presentation for note taking, with proper cover sheet, with brochures, product samples, or other marketing material you may have. Solution product & technology. Opportunity sizing.

Slides 93

Slides Competition Sample Sales 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Do it yourself and barter for services. There’s tremendous leverage in learning to use Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, and how to Google for sample contracts and the latest tax changes. Another one to avoid cash burn for software development is a contract for percent of future revenue.

Startup 92

Startup Outsource Development Development Team Review Equity 92

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2011

Your business name should match your business in order to remind customers what services you provide. Sample potential customers. Calling your landscaping business “Lawn and Order” is appropriate, but the same name would not do well for a handyman business. Make sure the name is available.

Company 108

Company Companies Google Customer 108

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

He returned and waited for me to sample the drink. Entrepreneurs are likewise well served to seek out and cultivate transitory relationships with service employees whom self-important professionals generally overlook, such as: waitresses, car rental agents, flight attendants and call-center agents.

Class 100

Class Southern California Startup Slides 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2011

Do it yourself and barter for services. There’s tremendous leverage in learning to use Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, and how to Google for sample contracts and the latest tax changes. Another one to avoid cash burn for software development is a contract for percent of future revenue.

Startup 92

Startup Outsource Development Development Team Review Equity 92

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2012

At the time, they were shipping out CD ROMs with 300 albums, album artwork, and three song samples each. I headed up product development to build out their portal services. I called up the CEO of a company, MusicNet one day, because I am a big music fan and musician myself, and saw what they were doing.

Southern California 245

Southern California Idealab Startup Customer 245

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

Do it yourself and barter for services. There’s tremendous leverage in learning to use Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, and how to Google for sample contracts and the latest tax changes. Tags: entrepreneur startup angel funding burn rate. Do you really need that full-time assistant, regular bookkeeper, and big-name attorney?

Startup 48

Startup Outsource Development Development Team Review Equity 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2021

Every investor has his own list, usually based on his own very small sample, or simply his gut feeling. We have all known entrepreneurs whose egos are so large that they can’t be bothered listening to any advice from friends or experts, and they insist on doing things their way. Offer customized products or services.

Startup 170

Startup Study Journal Sample 170

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2013

Every investor has his own list, usually based on his own very small sample, or simply his gut feeling. We have all known entrepreneurs whose egos are so large that they can’t be bothered listening to any advice from friends or experts, and they insist on doing things their way. Offer customized products or services.

Startup 102

Startup Study Journal Sample 102