Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2015

“Scope creep” (or feature creep) is an insidious disease that kills more new business solutions than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. Founders who constantly give in to changes will get more until the startup breaks. Final features approval event.

Technical Review 104

Technical Review Product Software Review High Tech 104

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 3, 2018

Hoping to beat back the tide of bad contracts, bad code and bad actors, Sagewise , a new Los Angeles-based startup has raised $1.25 million to bring to market a service that basically hits pause on the execution of a contract so it can be arbitrated in the event that something goes wrong.

Software Review 159

Software Review Outsource Development Services Technical Review 159

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2014

In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. Communicate the risks, and write down the agreement.

Startup 106

Startup Funding Technical Review Ideas 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2011

“Scope creep” (or feature creep) is an insidious disease that kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. Founders who constantly give in to changes will get more until the startup breaks. Final features approval event.

Technical Review 96

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 96

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Guy’s latest book, Enchantment , was released in March of 2011, to overwhelmingly upbeat reviews. Of the 225 customer reviews currently posted on Amazon, over 90% are highly positive. I enjoyed the book as well, as evidenced by the review I wrote at the time of its release, which you can read HERE. It wasn’t the Guy fan base.

Santa Barbara 262

Santa Barbara Technical Review Social Media Startup 262

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2012

“Scope creep” (or feature creep) is an insidious disease that kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. Founders who constantly give in to changes will get more until the startup breaks. Final features approval event.

Technical Review 75

Technical Review Startup Software Review High Tech 75

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

I started out as screenwriter, went into local television, ran ad sales in the west for AOL and joined Facebook in the companies very early days. With that as a start it rarely feels burdensome. Tony: I personally am torn by choices around Networking Events in Los Angeles – you can go to something almost every night.

Startup 225

Startup Los Angeles Social Network Twiistup 225

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. But today I want to give you advice on how to decrease your odds of failure in a startup.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

In my experience as a business advisor, one of the best ways to get all of these, is to publish a book on the technology, the journey, or some relevant lessons learned. In addition, the discipline of producing it, like writing a business plan, will help you immensely in understanding the key elements that drive you and your business.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I attended events. I think my mentality to banker pitches was best summed up in this article about Y Combinator in which Paul Graham apparently made the following quotes. start-ups are overvalued. How good they were at follow up.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

As a starting point the board is intended to have legal and financial responsibilities to a few key constituencies: shareholders, debt holders, creditors, employees, government and major parties with whom the business operates. And of course we help with business development introductions and with fund raising events.

Startup 217

Startup Technical Review Equity Report 217

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). I attended events. Before I tell you the reasons I’m concerned about investment banking intros, I should start by saying I think bankers are enormously helpful for entrepreneurs in raising money. start-ups are overvalued. I hustled.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. The start of marketing is figuring out a market need and a way to solve that need better than anybody else.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

I even wrote about my experiences attending Web Summit , something I rarely ever write about. There is simply no way that an event grows from 400 people to 22,000 in 4 years without doing some things right. The founder of the event, Paddy Cosgrave, smartly responded to the critics in a post I just read this morning.

Web 150

Web Conference Technical Review Class 150

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2011

In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. Communicate the risks, and write down the agreement.

Startup 98

Startup Technical Review Ideas Entrepreneur 98

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

The first-ever Silicon Beach Fest attracted more than 2,000 attendees from LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara, New York, Toronto, and London to celebrate LA startups and entertainment with panels, parties, pitch fests, hackathon, and beach games: volleyball, basketball and surfing lessons in Santa Monica and Venice on June 21-23, 2012.

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I always start my answer to this question with, “you’d have to be a pretty big baby to complain about being a VC.&# When I was running startups I felt like a horse with blinders on because I was super focused on the content management market and ignored many other markets. Then I spent many years as a startup CEO.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

If you are a leader at a startup and you are reading a business book, you are not closing customers, raising capital, improving your product, or spending time with your loved ones. The short version of my review is: “Enchanting? At the beginning of the index, Guy writes, “I hope Robert Cialdini checks this index.”

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

If you’re not familiar with the term it’s basically trying to help all of us who are deluged with technology to find ways to cope with the masses of information without having it ruin our lives. Let me start by saying I’m a huge business book cynic. You’re on the DS (deferred startup) plan.

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. I'm a huge fan of this innovation. and Half.com.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

We All Know That Dollars into Venture Have Gone Up … As a starting point, we know that the dollars into venture have steadily rebounded to pre great-recession levels, with just under $30 billion committed to US technology venture capital in 2015. That’s money that fuels our startup ecosystems.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 8, 2009

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that funding is something you do in “funding season,&# some mythical 2-month period when you’re ready with a great Powerpoint deck and you hit up all of the VC’s at the same time so that you can quickly raise money and get back to the job of building a business.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital Guide Startup Technical Review 309

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. Communicate the risks, and write down the agreement.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Ideas 109

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2012

Tech Reporters: These individuals will write and edit informative and practical articles on a range of topics including Startups/Entrepreneurs, Gadgets, Mobile Tech, Tech in Entertainment, Gaming, Apps & Software, productivity, and cover breaking tech news. Take a look below and give us a shout.

Technical Review 71

Technical Review Software Review Writing News 71

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down mid way). And a great product starts with the founder. Their name alone is enough to get meetings set up. Existing tech or industry executives - Do you have strong relationships in your industry? I get that.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2010

I’ve talked about how Twitter is a new form of RSS (curated RSS), it’s a a new form of IM / SMS , it’s a place where business is conducted and it’s a place where advertising will drive leads due to the link sharing nature of Twitter. I started reading Brad’s “term sheet&# series.

Social Network 347

Social Network Networking Blogging RSS 347

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

I’m sitting at my computer now at 9.00pm writing this – which is an hour earlier than I normally write (there are about 8 women at my kitchen table having a book club (aka excuse to drink wine & gossip so I’m locked in another room writing. They could start to form an opinion. I enjoy that.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

It’s unbelievable how often start up founders stifle their company from growing by not knowing how to effectively communicate their brand. In order to prepare for TechCrunch Disrupt 2012 I reviewed company bios via the official site and read taglines that said “cool” rather than what the company does. 1 Pre Planning.

Press 97

Press Startup Technical Review Email 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2010

This insidious disease kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. The solution is to do the right job up front on requirements, document and approve specifications, and have the toughest person you know do the project management.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Software Review High Tech Writing 51

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2010

In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. If you set around quietly waiting for someone you know to offer you money to fund a startup, you will probably have a long wait. Communicate the risks, and write down the agreement.

Funding 93

Funding Technical Review Startup Ideas 93

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. People get too worked up over the word. Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# Perhaps this will trend up massively but historical data doesn’t bode well. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

I finally got around to writing it having read Fred Wilson’s post about what a CEO does. Matt Blumberg, who runs one of Fred’s portfolio companies, Return Path, follows up with an additional three : Don’t be a bottleneck (make sure you aren’t holding up people’s work). Selling the company.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Customer 319

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

event I did last fall. Ive not found that much use for LinkedIn to help my blogging, but Im starting to think about this. I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. We have been using LinkedIn for both sourcing recruits and reviewing backgrounds for recruits.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 1, 2011

In this interview, we catch up with an amazing TechZulu Spotlight alumnus, Joey Flores, CEO of Earbits , a hand-curated music discovery engine that allows its bands and artists to advertise and promote their own material, events, announcements, contests, whatever. When I started, I was one of the only people signing up affiliates.

Startup 80

Startup Design Advertising Search Engine Optimization 80

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

Natalia not only wants to increase the number of women in investment, but bring more people in total to help startups and other businesses get the capital they need. In addition to our seminars, we issue out a qualification application for women entrepreneurs for our signature event, the Pitch Summit.

Mentor 84

Mentor Invest Entrepreneur Startup 84

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2010

The concept comes from a Stephen Covey book called “ First Things First ,&# which is a worthwhile book ( Wikipedia overview here ) but if you haven’t read his seminal book “ 7 Habits of Highly Effective People &# you should start with that. It’s as good as it gets in personal productivity / life reflection.

Slides 374

Slides Email Entrepreneur Startup 374