Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2021

Funding sources for this stage extend from grants to large private fund incubators, such as the IBM Watson initiative a while back. Product development at this stage is the process of scaling up for manufacturing and marketing rollout. Commercial product prototypes. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage.

Help 165

Help Research Startup Funding 165

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

That data--if you could just find the right piece--could be useful in a number of areas, particularly in the financial markets. Whether that''s for competitive analysis or market analysis, our product is basically able to monitor--on a very large scale--things that are important to your particular company.

Orange County 245

Orange County Startup News IBM 245

InfoChachkie

MAY 6, 2013

Paul Singh, a partner at the seed stage firm 500-Startups, effectively articulates the market forces driving this investment strategy in his Money Ball presentation. This is the "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" approach to investing. Expect such debt to include a modest equity kicker component, in the form of warrant coverage.

Entrepreneur 246

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Technical Review Capital 246

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

Today most startup investors still register with the SEC as “ accredited ” investors before they buy any startup equity in the U.S. These requirements for equity investing have been relaxed only a bit, with caveats, with recent crowdfunding changes. The growth target should be 5-10 times your initial investment in five years.

Invest 89

Invest Entrepreneur Startup Equity 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2015

Image via Pixabay.com Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales.

Organization 100

Organization Startup Competition IBM 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

Today most startup investors still register with the SEC as “ accredited ” investors before they buy any startup equity in the U.S. Since there are no bellwethers like Apple or IBM in the startup arena, your best bet is to pick one in a business area you know well. Start in a business domain you know well.

Invest 73

Invest Startup Equity Incubator 73

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales. Economies of scale.

Organization 97

Organization Competition Startup Acquisition 97

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2017

We're now one of the top five tech markets in the world, along with the Bay Area, New York, the rest of Southern California, companies in India, and places like China, Berlin, and London. They used to be 70 percent of the M&A in the market, but they're now only 30 percent. The third area, are the private equity players.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Conference Silver Lake Cornerstone OnDemand 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2012

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales. Economies of scale.

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Organization Startup Competition 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2013

The hot term these days is “viral marketing”, meaning we won’t do any marketing, but our product is so great that everyone will know about us anyway by word of mouth and through Internet social networks. Investors like laser focus on a market-need causing real pain. It’s the market, stupid.” We have no competitors.”

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Startup Social Network IBM 111

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Marketing is free or cheap because of social media. Determining the perfect moment to enter the startup market, whether by creating a company or joining an ongoing venture, is akin to timing the financial markets. Rising with the tide requires less effort, but it seldom positions you well for the market’s inevitable vagaries.

Company 257

Company Companies Startup Study 257

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales. Economies of scale.

Startup 93

Startup Organization Competition IBM 93

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2015

Funding sources for this stage extend from grants to large private fund incubators, such as the IBM Watson initiative. Product development at this stage is the process of scaling up for manufacturing and marketing rollout. Commercial product prototypes. Specialized VCs start to jump in at this stage. Business commercialization.

Develop 102

Develop Development Product Funding 102

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

It’s the market, stupid.” There is no substitute for understanding the market, and sizing the opportunity, before you climb out on a limb. “If In most cases, viral marketing only begins to work after you prime the pump with several million in real marketing over a couple of years. If we build it, they will come.”

Startup 95

Startup Social Network IBM IBM 95

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

Today you still need to be registered with the SEC as an “ accredited ” investor to legally buy any startup equity in the U.S. Since there are no bellwethers like Apple or IBM in the startup arena, your best bet is to pick one in a business area you know well. Start in a business domain you know well.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Invest Incubator 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2011

The hot term these days is “viral marketing”, meaning we won’t do any marketing, but our product is so great that everyone will know about us anyway by word of mouth and through Internet social networks. Investors like laser focus on a market-need causing real pain. It’s the market, stupid.” We have no competitors.”

Startup 98

Startup Social Network IBM IBM 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Industry & market sizing. Start with the evolution of the overall industry, market segmentation, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Avoid any statements like “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.”

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2010

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales. Economies of scale.

Acquisition 85

Acquisition Startup Organization Competition 85

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Industry & market sizing. Start with the evolution of the overall industry, market segmentation, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Avoid any statements like “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.”

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Today you still need to be registered with the SEC as an “ accredited ” investor to legally buy any startup equity. Since there are no bellwethers like Apple or IBM in the startup arena, your best bet is to pick one in a business area you know well. Begin with perhaps 5-10% of your total investment base, and be prepared to lose it all.

Startup 87

Startup Invest Incubator Ideas 87

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Today you still need to be registered with the SEC as an “ accredited ” investor to legally buy any startup equity. Since there are no bellwethers like Apple or IBM in the startup arena, your best bet is to pick one in a business area you know well. But these requirements go away with the new Crowdfunding JOBS Act just passed into law.

Startup 91

Startup Invest Incubator Ideas 91

Xconomy

MAY 30, 2016

Basically it was a restart from primarily a legal office to an office filled with people with technology and marketing backgrounds. And we started to do it more officially, take some equity in the companies, allow the faculty to have equity—but still have exclusive licenses. LN: Right, he came on a sabbatical year.

Startup 67

Startup Compton Research Technology 67

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2010

It’s the market, stupid.” There is no substitute for understanding the market, and sizing the opportunity, before you climb out on a limb. “If In most cases, viral marketing only begins to work after you prime the pump with several million in real marketing over a couple of years. If we build it, they will come.”

Startup 52

Startup Social Network IBM IBM 52

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

Industry & market sizing. Start with the evolution of the overall industry, market segmentation, market dynamics, and customer landscape. Data from accredited market research groups like Forrester or Gartner is required for credibility. Avoid any statements like “All we have to do is get 1% of the market.”

Invest 74

Invest Tips Competition Metrics 74

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. You’ve invested $1 million in building the perfect application the meet a large market need. The sales market is as pure capitalism as it gets. Imagine your visiting IBM and telling them to buy your product.

Startup 293

Startup Sales Marketing Product 293

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. Your solution? My advice: don’t.

Startup 327

Startup Sales Class CIO 327

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

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. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio? Marketing Muscle. No Dave S. =

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Has nothing changed since the early days of IBM? " 34; To which I say "we don't think we can time markets." But I don’t think so.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Brands who build pages there are not building equity in the open Internet, they’re building it in today’s walled garden. I think this fortress company knows open will win over time and I think their instincts (or the market) will lead them in the right direction. No prizes for guess who today’s AOL is. Not so open.

Social Media 274

Social Media Google Media Startup 274