Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2019

Image via jisc Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” Fix something that’s broken.

Startup 80

Startup Ideas Competition Demand 80

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

I can’t change who your board members are so let me offer some thoughts on how to make your interactions with your board more productive. But I find that the more informed your board is and the more you’re staying on their radar screen the more effective they’ll be for you.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Tech.Co

AUGUST 16, 2017

Finding potential customers continues to be a huge challenge not only for established marketing and sales teams but also for startup executives and solo entrepreneurs. You need to find lead gen tools that will convert leads, fill your sales funnel, and increase your revenue effectively. Your registration comes with 60 credits.

Tool 79

Tool Startup Help Template 79

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? People often ask me why I started blogging. It really started simply enough. I’ll bet your customers, business partners or suppliers would love similar. Who are your customers, partners or suppliers?

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2013

One of the first questions that I get from many entrepreneurs is “How should I set up my company to minimize my setup costs, tax liabilities, and risk of lawsuits?” If you aren’t so sure, need something fast, or need to keep your costs low, then an LLC is the best legal and taxable entity to facilitate your startup.

Startup 93

Startup Tips Examples Guide 93

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2017

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” This is the traditional realm of computers.

Ideas 55

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 55

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 128 in 2012 (compared to 675 in 1996). Loss of control.

Startup 89

Startup Entrepreneur Report Summary 89

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 9, 2013

This is especially true in startups where speed matters and where there is a need to constantly calibrate direction and where these decisions can have existential outcomes. Should you increase your burn rate by adding 2 senior hires who will help you ship faster or sell more but then have less time for fund raising? Or firing people.

Course 413

Course Funding Help Marketing 413

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans take too much time, are inaccurate, and rarely add value. The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

socalTECH

JULY 16, 2012

Jeremy Gocke: With Fliptu, we're aiming to fix the disjointed media and product discovery process for consumers and brands. What Fliptu does, is it enables brands to sync and import all of their social media accounts into a comprehensive, single display. Does this look like a Facebook page, or is this a separate site?

Social Media 268

Social Media Media Social Network Seed Funding 268

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Behind most great startup success stories is a long list of mistakes! But rather than dwell on the failures, I’ve tried to extract from them a list of practical action items that will improve your survival probability. Every startup mentor has his favorite list of basic strategies to avoid pitfalls, and I’m no exception.

Tips 102

Tips Help Startup Blogging 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2012

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone to wake up and answer website email requests. Great startups are getting ahead of the game with “anticipatory customer service,” like providing smart phone access to product and account data to head off complaints. Respect your customer’s view of usability.

Custom 97

Custom Customer Services Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. These days, with Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new SEC regulations, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

Startup 99

Startup Report Equity Resource 99

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

As a business consultant and angel investor, I often ask for your own assessment of marketing ROI , or customer acquisition cost (CAC). While I realize that a high level of certainty in these numbers is an elusive goal, the value of doing the work, and benchmarking your business against competitors is well worth the effort.

Custom 100

Custom Customer Acquisition Technical Review 100

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2011

Well, you shouldn't have to be -- or at least, that's the premise behind Payoff.com (www.payoff.com), a new startup launching today. I built up the company, the Walz Group, with partners. In 2009, I teamed up with my partner, co-founder Eden Warner. So, we set up to start up the company.

Startup 197

Startup Ideas Southern California Social Network 197

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2013

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” This is the traditional realm of computers.

Ideas 99

Ideas Startup Competition Demand 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2011

They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control. companies made the IPO transition in 2009, out of thousands of startups. Disclosures of information.

Startup 94

Startup Entrepreneur Report Summary 94

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 16, 2014

We recently sat down with Luc Berlin, co-founder of Miigle, a SoCal startup that has an aggressive global mission to bring entrepreneurs together from around the world. We followed up with Luc to see just how he’s been managing the entrepreneurial waters. The quintessential problem that every startup has is one of visibility.

SoCal 104

SoCal Southern California Startup Platform 104

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

Brands didn’t advertise their web pages they advertised “AOL Keywords.&# If you were a newly minted, venture-backed consumer Internet company you had to have a deal with AOL to reach your customers. By the mid-nineties we had the World Wide Web, which gave us a standard way to publish web pages using HTML.

Social Network 297

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Web 297

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2013

Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. These days, with Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new SEC regulations, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

Startup 95

Startup Report Equity Resource 95

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2014

Sponsored by VISA Business Running a small business as an entrepreneur is a never-ending challenge of new products, customers, competitors, and an unpredictable economy. This week is National Small Business Week in the US, so it’s a good time to celebrate your successes, and allow the rest of us to acknowledge your dedication and innovations.

Startup 92

Startup Tips Satisfaction Entrepreneur 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2013

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone has to wake up and answer website email requests. Great startups are getting ahead of the game with “anticipatory customer service,” like providing smart phone access to product and account data to head off complaints. Respect your customer’s view of usability.

Custom 89

Custom Customer Services High Tech 89

Eric Greenspan

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Well, I caved and signed up. How they knew anything about us is beyond me, but that is where we got started. I told them I’d be happy to sign up if that rating was increased to an A. Your BBB has formed a strategic alliance to help save you money in your everyday costs starting immediately.

Santa Barbara 265

Santa Barbara Technical Advisors Email Technical Review 265

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

It was an online community like CompuServe and eventually started offering people dial-up access to the Internet for a monthly fee. Brands didn’t advertise their web pages they advertised “AOL Keywords.&# You couldn’t pick up a magazine in the 96-99 timeframe without seeing AOL Keywords advertised everywhere.

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

I have been watching ProductPlan for several years, as the founders are both friends and pillars of the Santa Barbara Startup Community. Greathouse: We’ve known each other for a long time but let’s start with the basics for my readers. I have always worked on early stage products. Semick: They are.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 15, 2010

We’re staring to get the hang of how to divide the show up into talking about deals but also talking about issues for entrepreneurs during funding. In terms of topics we spoke about: - Do VC’s send your presentations around to other people if they don’t fund you? short answer: very, very rarely. But it does happen.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Redpoint 285

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control. IPOs in 2008, the market was up to a still trivial 159 in 2011. Disclosures of information. Loss of control.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Startup Report Summary 95

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2011

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” This is the traditional realm of computers.

Startup 92

Startup Ideas Competition Demand 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2011

Often I find that experienced investors scan ahead to the management page of a business plan, even before they read the product description. These days, with Sarbanes-Oxley and all the new SEC regulations, an MBA does not begin to cover the accounting, process, and tax knowledge needed to steer a company’s finances.

Startup 93

Startup Report Equity Resource 93

socalTECH

DECEMBER 19, 2012

There are lots of sites, with different codes to choose from, some of which are expired, some of which are for product that you aren't buying. We've taken that whole search process and turned it into one button in your shopping cart. Ten or twenty seconds later, you have your answer. and around the world.

Google 233

Google Pasadena Commerce Southern California 233

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Pitching stories and getting your name out to various companies and editors requires a lot of work. TechZulu catches up with the founder of Assignmint, Jeff Koyen, as he talks about Assignmint, freelance, and LA startups. I built the product I wanted, as a writer, editor, and as a publisher.

Journal 90

Journal Startup Writing Media 90

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 2, 2011

One of the beautiful things about the Internet is endless amount of websites designed and dedicated to those who like to be the first to know and share information. is a virtual directory of new startups that takes information flow a step further than the static website. Founded by Nick Frost Startupli.st Startupli.st

Help 85

Help Sites Design Social Network 85

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2012

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” This is the traditional realm of computers.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Ideas Competition Startup 102

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 19, 2011

Colony’s presentation is intriguing (and worth a watch if you have a few minutes) because I love to see when informed people make arguments that are different than you ordinarily hear (and different from my own views). Then the unintended consequences started cropping up. He’s right about this. It was wonderful.

Web 355

Web HTML Mobile Social Network 355

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. The size of the document should be based on your style, but 10-20 pages or slides are usually more than adequate to outline even a complex business.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 109

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

After weeks of StartupDemo submissions we are now ready to announce the participating startup companies for the StartupDemo event being held at Wokano Sept. We took great consideration for every startup company that applied. We took into account innovation and entrepreneurship, style and appeal, originality, community, and value.

Company 106

Company Companies Web Evite 106