Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2020

Entrepreneurs have always believed that their product or service must show real value to customers, but today the smart ones are even able to make their marketing valuable. The days are gone when marketing was all “pushing product.” Make your content answer some unmet customer need or question without pushing a product.

Customer 127

Customer Custom Marketing Content 127

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

Chris Tragos: Jetpack is an ad platform, which I would describe as the most beautiful, best engaging, and most performant ad product for desktop, mobile, and tablet. Our business is helping those guys make more money, through our better ad product. But, you still have lots of ideas. We are primarily focused on publishers.

Buzznet 100

Buzznet Outsource Development Design HTML 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Since investors tend to invest in people, more than the idea, the personnel review is normally the highest priority item. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. Status of the solution. In addition, manufacturing and inventory levels will be reviewed. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

socalTECH

JULY 16, 2012

Jeremy Gocke: With Fliptu, we're aiming to fix the disjointed media and product discovery process for consumers and brands. I like to refer to that as the ultimate brand fan page, or to take the example from the apparel industry, where I come from, a virtual look book for a brand. What is Fliptu? The numbers tell the story.

Social Media 268

Social Media Media Social Network Seed Funding 268

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

There is nothing wrong with researching an idea yourself, getting it started yourself, validating the idea yourself and then asking people to join you.” Mark encourages emerging entrepreneurs to be bold, yet he admits that with his first startup, he boldly pushed PR before the product was ready. Number one is sales.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Since investors tend to invest in people, more than the idea, the personnel review is normally the highest priority item. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. Status of the solution. In addition, manufacturing and inventory levels will be reviewed. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

accelerator--which only inspired him to keep working on making his startup a reality and go from just an idea, to a real company. The idea for FloQast really came from the experience we had in that department, which grew to about 50 people. Mike Whitmire: It's all about product, market, fit. We have a product that people love.

Startup 124

Startup Cornerstone OnDemand Software Review Woodland Hills 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Try something like, “the product costs $X, and we sell it for $Y.” This model only works once you have exceeded about one million page-views per month, and spent maybe $50 million to get there. It’s the electronic version of a catalog and shopping cart, and today rarely involves any stock of product. eCommerce model.

Ideas 92

Ideas Startup Customer Custom 92

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2017

Robert Blatt: The first stage, in 2013, was really nailing product-market-fit. However, instead of just very rapidly scaling around that idea, we decided to really define what the business needed to look like. In 2013, Facebook local pages, Google Pages, and Yelp were not all that active.

Google 127

Google Paid Search Mobile Activity 127

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

As noted in Entrepreneurs Shouldn't Pitch Their Ideas To Venture Capitalists , most sophisticated investors place their bets on people rather than opportunities. In most cases, I provide some combination of the following advice: Brevity - Maximum length: two pages. Distribution and Sales. Opportunity. The Company.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2013

From a marketing marketing perspective, that allows filmmakers to quickly and easily promote their films through social media and build a fan base, and incentivize fans to support their films by offering access to exclusive content, livestream video chats, and production updates, as an example. Why is this important to filmmakers?

Hollywood 256

Hollywood CTO Hire Social Media Platform 256

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

Entrepreneurs have always believed that their product or service must show real value to customers, but today the smart ones are even able to make their marketing valuable. The days are gone when marketing was all “pushing product.” Make your content answer some unmet customer need or question without pushing a product.

Content 92

Content Marketing Advertising Customer 92

Eric Greenspan

APRIL 11, 2013

If you knew what your customers were thinking (and saying) about your product, service, or staff, imagine what you could do with this data. Facebook and Twitter have flourished because of people sharing ideas, content and mostly, sentiment. If they are unhappy, you can find out why and fix it. If they need more, you can sell them.

Customer 117

Customer Custom Class Services 117

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” As an investor, I would like to see one month of sales, and see how that compares to your projections. Free and freemium products need a solid base.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 106

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. So we discussed his ideas several times. So over several months I went through a few iterations on his idea.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. I’m a big believer in product stability & performance before adding too many features. You’ll have no idea when you’re off course. If you have multiple versions of your product, how many are web vs. mobile? It has to come from somewhere.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

When Sam Rosen brought me the idea of MakeSpace 3 years ago we both marveled at some obvious facts. They are the classic case of the Innovator’s Dilemma because they fundamentally can’t innovate on their product and can’t lower costs or their business craters. Growing our Product Lines. It worked perfectly.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Entrepreneurs have always believed that their product or service must show real value to customers, but today the smart ones are even able to make their marketing valuable. The days are gone when marketing was all “pushing product.” Make your content answer some unmet customer need or question without pushing a product.

Marketing 100

Marketing Content Advertising Customer 100

socalTECH

JULY 6, 2015

We recently ran into Page Howe , the Chief Engagement Officer for the.LA (www.la) domain name extension, who sat down with us and told us about why he's out making the rounds with community groups and events, promoting the use of.LA Page Howe: LA is a domain name that works perfectly for companies and brands in LA. domain name.

Social Network 100

Social Network Startup Mobile Google 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2011

When I shoed up with a few pages of conceptual, early stage ideas around consumer finance, it was immediately captivating, and it really lined up with what he wanted to do. That's compared to other financial products, which are designed for managing money, and just feel like work. There are three main components of the product.

Startup 197

Startup Ideas Southern California Social Network 197

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". It was really no longer than a page um. From 35 To 500 Readers.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

Entrepreneurs have always believed that their product or service must show real value to customers, but today the smart ones are even able to make their marketing valuable. The days are gone when marketing was all “pushing product.” Make your content answer some unmet customer need or question without pushing a product.

Marketing 106

Marketing Startup Content Advertising 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.

Entrepreneur 119

Entrepreneur Technical Review Statistics Startup 119

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. My blog was wiped out. Don’t be frazzled … this is just the way it is.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2018

Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.

Funding 62

Funding Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 62

socalTECH

MAY 7, 2012

Fine Art America handles all of the details of fulfilling sales for images. Once you get that profile page, you can upload your beautiful images to our site. You hit submit, and your images are instantly available for sale as prints on our website. I instantly had the idea that if he needed to do. things of that nature.

Santa Monica 258

Santa Monica Pricing Sites Sales 258

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I recommend a pitch deck with about 10 slides backed up with a written business plan of approximately 20 pages, both containing quantified answers to the following key questions. What are your specific marketing and sales plans? Investors invest in people more than the idea.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2011

I learned quite a bit from James, who knows more about this than anyone I've ever encountered, and who came up with the idea to start this. Those can be sales, coupon redemptions, or downloads. It's based on Likes on a page, or installs of an application. from a group of VCs and angels. It's been very effective so far.

Advertising 198

Advertising Startup Santa Monica Social Network 198

socalTECH

JANUARY 17, 2013

spent 2011 raising our seed round, which we used to build our team.and launched the product into beta about a year ago, at the end of 2011. We then spent the first half of 2012 beta testing the product, getting feedback and input to the point where we could start selling it. The platform can be divided into three products.

Mobile 197

Mobile Startup Platform GRP Partners 197

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". It was really no longer than a page um. From 35 To 500 Readers.

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 17, 2014

The Android-based product gives developers – hardware and software – open source goodness and allows others to do some DIY with future apps and products. The idea of smart-homes isn’t anything new in the world of technology. However, the idea of having an affordable smart-home is.

Startup 79

Startup Ideas Software Entertainment 79

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

I believe that many social networks confused this idea. we’re engaged in reading and discussing the ideas of those that we respect, like or are interested in. The configuration of the team was: 1 CEO, 1 Product Lead and a tech team of 6 people. But higher value product sales often require a phone call.

Advertising 284

Advertising Invest RSS CPC 284

socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2014

I kept thinking that someone would eventually come up with a hub or place you could do everything--a home page, for example, where if you were going on a trip, and you could easily load your iPad full of stuff automatically. We''ve already integrated Twitter and Facebook, and our product is in its earliest MVP, and it''s now out there.

Entertainment 206

Entertainment Startup Southern California Netflix 206