Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2022

In school, you're taught to stretch weak ideas to reach your document page limit. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Maximizing Business Productivity. The business world expects exactly the opposite.

Class 140

Class Course Email Social Network 140

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 18, 2022

Get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday by subscribing on TechCrunch’s newsletter page. million in pre-seed investment from investors including Liberty City Ventures, Digital Currency Group and Coinbase Ventures. In tradfi, investors can specialize based on products (e.g. crash redux. Lucas and Anita.

Newsletter 278

Newsletter Platform Capital Marketing 278

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

If there are conflicts within the team, or differing views of the strategy, or evidence of missing processes and tools, the investment process will likely be terminated. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2019

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. You can cover everything you need to convey in 20 pages of text. The one-page Oprah plan is a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment. Use page breaks to separate sections.

Tips 96

Tips Entrepreneur Writing Content 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

Are you making the proper investment, and is it paying off? In my experience, your biggest challenge will be to rationalize the disparate input from your sales and marketing organizations, who each want more resources and more credit for ROI. Multiple marketing tactics seek to share attribution.

Custom 100

Custom Customer Acquisition Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

The idea actually came to him from the Yellow Pages business. He took out an ad in the Yellow Pages (it was the early 80′s, pre Internet), which cost him $1,000 / month for a half-page ad. So the Yellow Page business was always “pay for placement.&#. If it worked in the Yellow Pages, why not on the Internet?

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 22, 2011

In addition, my role as Partner at Rincon Venture Partners provided me with a business reason to invest additional time and effort into my humble blog. Correspondingly, my traffic increased nearly 3 times over the prior year, page views increased approximately 2.5 The following entries generated the most page views during 2011.

Newsletter 205

Newsletter Blogging Santa Barbara Content 205

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

As a simple example, the Wal-Mart website now shows shoppers more products that they may like, based on previous purchases. The Wal-Mart home page is customized for each shopper based on location, local weather, and the customer search and purchase history. Algorithms and data are required to compete.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Custom 142

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2020

The best businesses understand the difference and that communities are the single best advocates for others to buy your products. the customer on stage showing your product turns into an advocate or evangelist while the prospect is far more likely to be persuaded by a customer presentation than a salesperson’s pitch. And it would be?

Software 234

Software Startup Tool Platform 234

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

This was certainly the case when I invested in a small YouTube video production company called Maker Studios that recently sold to Disney for just shy of $1 billion. But if it’s a very obvious deal to a group of strong-minded & cynical investment professionals you probably need to think a bit harder as to why.

Funding 362

Funding Technical Review Ideas Startup 362

socalTECH

AUGUST 10, 2012

A digital marketing tag is typically also referred to as a page code, which customers put on their websites when they want to deploy certain digital marketing solutions. As an example, if you're deploying Google Analytics, the way you deploy it is copying and pasting a page code on your website, also referred to as a tag.

Startup 171

Startup Marketing Custom Customer 171

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2017

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. You can cover everything you need to convey in 20 pages of text. The one-page Oprah plan is a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment. Use page breaks to separate sections.

Writing 56

Writing Tips Content Summary 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2013

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. You can cover everything you need to convey in 20 pages of text. The one-page Oprah plan is a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment. Use page breaks to separate sections.

Writing 95

Writing Content Summary Entrepreneur 95

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

In school, you're taught to stretch weak ideas to reach your document page limit. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Maximizing Business Productivity. The business world expects exactly the opposite.

Course 96

Course Email Social Network Ideas 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2019

A quick scan of the Internet today will convince you that many sites are still product-centric, technology focused, and haven’t been updated for years. Customers are pulled in by differentiators that go well beyond the product, including ease of shopping, ordering, delivery, customer reviews, and personalization.

Marketing 94

Marketing Social Media Technical Review Custom 94

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2011

Scott Saunders: I spent nearly my entire career on the investment side, and in 2005 switched over to the entrepreneurial side of the world. 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.

Startup 197

Startup Ideas Southern California Social Network 197

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2012

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. You can cover everything you need to convey in 20 pages of text. The one-page Oprah plan is a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment. Use page breaks to separate sections.

Tips 101

Tips Writing Content Summary 101

socalTECH

OCTOBER 31, 2014

We have around 350 products all aimed at kids of all kinds of ages. We have an impulse activity line, combined with a party line as well, and the products developed by P.S. XO. We are moving towards creating a really exciting space, which is why we have partnered with Moonfrye to provide technology development to our core product line.

Commerce 138

Commerce Mobile Startup Product 138

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

I love good causes and social entrepreneurs, but a recent pitch to me about eliminating world hunger with a new product (harvesting algae at low cost) seemed to forget that really hungry people don’t have any money. Make the product or service come alive. Even a non-profit needs income to operate.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2021

Based on my experience, a business plan always adds value to the entrepreneur – most people can’t build a complete plan in their head, and need the process of organizing it on paper to make it consistent and complete. A business plan may be a small investment to get a shot at that opportunity. Clemson University professor William B.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Writing Entrepreneur Slides 126

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

A while back I received a frantic phone call from the CEO of a company in which I invested. He had just received notice from a major media organization that they were going to run a very negative news story. ” If people had seen the article on the home page of the news outlets website it no doubt would have been Tweeted.

Press 336

Press Blogging Journal News 336

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2011

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. You can cover everything you need to convey in 20 pages of text. The one-page Oprah plan is a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment. Use page breaks to separate sections.

Writing 104

Writing Content Summary Entrepreneur 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. The only other ways to get discovered was to have good organic search results or to get covered by a major blog site. We started building the product 18 months ago so we are in better shape than 99% of start-ups.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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. He told me that there were a core group of inner Digg users who could control what got on the front page.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2010

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. For minimum content, see my article “ Ten Tips to an Investment-Grade Business Plan.” You can cover everything you need to convey in 20 pages of text. Use page breaks to separate sections. It won’t work.

Tips 93

Tips Writing Content Summary 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

If there are conflicts within the team, or differing views of the strategy, or evidence of missing processes and tools, the investment process will likely be terminated. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

In school, you''re taught to stretch weak ideas to reach your document page limit. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Maximizing Business Productivity. The business world expects exactly the opposite.

Course 104

Course Email Social Network Ideas 104

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

Are you thematic in your investing or entrepreneur focused? (11:40-14:15). The fund is organized into sectors and each VC forms forward looking themes within sub sectors. In 2003 one of their first investments was Qiigo, Mike Yavondite’s company. The in invest in IT (Software + Internet + Healthcare). 11:40-14:15).

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

Google monetized this with AdWords (ads on their home page). I won’t belabor this – I have an investment in this space ( ad.ly ) so I’m biased. Golden rule of branding for me: 1) name your company or product your URL and 2) don’t paint yourself into a corner. &# Tweet&# = corner. He’ll pivot.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Capital Google Platform 271

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

The need for creativity extends well beyond product design. I apply visual thinking for nearly everything I do: preparing for important phone calls (I imagine my opening lines, I imagine the responses), writing keynote presentations, deciding whether or not to invest in a company, preparing for board meetings – you name it.

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

In school, you're taught to stretch weak ideas to reach your document page limit. The challenge is to communicate your idea in one page, and close the deal quickly. Throughout a career lifetime, just think of the return on that investment. Maximizing Business Productivity. The business world expects exactly the opposite.

Training 57

Training Course Email Social Network 57

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. How many adds came through organic SEO? If you have multiple versions of your product, how many are web vs. mobile? How many through affiliate deals?

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Custom 346

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

They went into full product phase over the summer, and unveiled the post-prototype, alpha, pre-beta, whatever you want to call it, at TechCrunch50. DFJ Frontier called me, saying they saw a fantastic company which they wanted to invest in a Series A, and they said they could really use you. That's where I came along.

Evite 157

Evite Startup Ideas Ticketmaster 157

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

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. provides you.

Social Network 297

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Web 297

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

They make it easy to collect investment funds, track ownership, and provide targeted updates to investors. SimplyEvents is a social media website that enables a community of members to shout out location based events and stay connected by tracking fellow friends, family, public figures, organizers, bands, artists etc. Want to Sponsor?

Company 106

Company Companies Web Evite 106

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Venture capital investments are returning to startups. The continuing rise in the price of fuel, combined with the ongoing evidence of global warming, has highlighted the need for alternative energy sources, and green products. Here is where you need a “bottoms-up” estimate from the people in your organization who have to deliver.

Startup 86

Startup Tips Venture Capital Demand 86