Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In today’s world, if you don’t have a web site up and running, you will not be perceived as a real company. Investors routinely go to candidate web sites to get a feel for the tone and scope of the company, as well as its maturity and offerings. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property. Marty Zwilling.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. The investor perspective is that no manufacturing or inventory implies a minimal need for capital up front.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

The same is true for filing patents, registering trademarks, and filing copyrights. Minimize investment in prototypes and tooling. Maybe you should start with an online e-commerce site, based on your favorite hobby expertise. Required legal fees now average $5K or less, compared with $20K or more as a minimum.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

These days, you can find existing patents and trademarks through Google and the US Patent Office online site without spending thousands of dollars with your favorite patent attorney. Of course, existing patents don’t stop you from innovating, but charging ahead into a wall is no fun.

Ideas 83

Ideas Technical Review Patents Startup 83

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. The investor perspective is that no manufacturing or inventory implies a minimal need for capital up front.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Universities have the links you need to patent attorneys, prototyping companies, investment groups, as well as a wealth of peer talent to round out your team and share the work. Build a web site and incorporate while in school. Initiate networking to find peer partners and investors.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2014

Among those funds is TYLT Lab (www.tyltlab.com), which recently announced a new, $20M early stage investment fund specifically focused on companies here. We spoke with Rami Rostami and Gerard Casale , who are behind TYLT Labs, and who told us a bit about their new fund, its investment criteria, and where it sees the promise here.

Seed Funding 220

Seed Funding Santa Monica Funding Startup 220

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2023

Professional investors normally like to invest only in billion dollar opportunities, with double-digit growth rates. Highly saturated domains (more than 10 existing players), such as niche social media sites, are highly risky. Is the opportunity large and growing? Are you uniquely qualified to deliver the solution?

Startup 96

Startup Education Ideas Customer 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

You may dream of developing a new silicon chip technology, but a bit of research should tell you that most disruptive solutions take billions in investment, and more time than you can afford for acceptance. You need intellectual property , such as a patent, trade secret, or process expertise that will be a barrier that you can defend.

Social Media 105

Social Media Writing Ideas Resource 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” “I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.” The best demos to investors are 30 seconds or less.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2020

For example, “I have patented a new tire that will double the wear mileage at half the cost.” Customers still buy from people, and investors invest in you and your team, more than the solution. You shouldn’t expect to get an investment commitment in the elevator, or close a customer deal in the first minute.

Sample 127

Sample Summary Startup Slides 127

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2020

Professional investors normally like to invest only in billion dollar opportunities, with double-digit growth rates. Highly saturated domains (more than 10 existing players), such as niche social media sites, are highly risky. Is the opportunity large and growing? Are you uniquely qualified to deliver the solution?

Startup 166

Startup Education Ideas Customer 166

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

These days, you can find existing patents and trademarks through Google and the US Patent Office online site without spending thousands of dollars with your favorite patent attorney. Of course, existing patents don’t stop you from innovating, but charging ahead into a wall is no fun.

Ideas 106

Ideas Entrepreneur Technical Review Patents 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site ( over 200 active ), or another dating site (now over 2500 in the US alone). Creating intellectual property, including patents, is the key to long-term value and a sustainable competitive advantage. Business risks are not just development risks.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Here are some of the key new rules I have learned by starting my own company, investing as an angel in other startups and mentoring many more new entrepreneurs over the last few years: Do incorporate a company, but keep it simple. Trademarks, copyrights and even patents can be completed online by anyone through the U.S.

Startup 108

Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media Outsource Development 108

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I challenge them to think beyond what I call linear extensions to a current trend, such as another “easier-to-use” app for smartphones, a new dating site for pets, or another niche social network. Why doesn’t this product or service already exist? Non-profits rely on philanthropists and donors.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Ideas Resource Examples 126

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

These days, you can find existing patents and trademarks through Google and the US Patent Office online site without spending thousands of dollars with your favorite patent attorney. Of course, existing patents don’t stop you from innovating, but charging ahead into a wall is no fun.

Technical Review 58

Technical Review Ideas Patents Startup 58

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2012

Santa Monica-based Fundable (www.fundable.com) is a newly launched, crowdfunding site which is headed by local entrepreneur Wil Shroter. Recently, an interesting project popped up on the site--a a 2D to 3D conversion project , from the inventor of the original, LCD projector, Gene Dolgoff. What's the next step for your project?

Startup 252

Startup Sites Patents Outsource Development 252

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” “I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.” The best demos to investors are 30 seconds or less.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

But many entrepreneurs don’t realize that Angels are also extremely discerning in the projects that they will invest in, rejecting approximately 97% of the proposals submitted to them, according to the California Investment Network. File a patent and trademarks to show real intellectual property. Marty Zwilling.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. Two founders have spent $200K of personal and family funds over a one year period to start the company, get a prototype site up and running, and have already generated some “buzz” in the Internet community.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Patents Outsource Development 98

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

plus a large settlement on patent disputes paid from Google) so Bill did well on it. Overture never built the destination site to monetize from. So when Google started pushing AdSense (ads for affiliate or 3rd party sites) they had a HUGE cost advantage. We had a big discussion about DST and why these investments.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Capital Google Platform 271

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2021

Online dating sites usually fail because online dating usually fails. This business suffers from what Paul Graham calls the ‘chicken and the egg problem‘ – no one wants to use a dating site with only a few users. It’s hard to invent and patent more “scientific” methods on how to match people. Intellectual property is tough.

Sites 134

Sites Social Network Competition Networking 134

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

If you expect an equity investment from reputable investors for your new startup, you need to know the boundaries that often limit their interest. For example, investors recognize that online gambling sites or a medical marijuana site may generate big returns but may tarnish their squeaky clean reputation.

Funding 57

Funding Social Media Startup Patents 57

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2010

What we've done, is for authentication, we have created a way to have a unique password to give you access to a web site very time. It was funded in 2006 with about $8M in investments, and we were fortunate to have the benefit of that investment in the development of the intellectual property. How is this different?

Technology 124

Technology Web Sites Orange County 124

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

What we do, is we help companies identify who is accessing their sites, and registering for their services. A real simple example, is someone comes to register for a particular web service, puts their name, and contact information into a site, and our clients asks them for a valid phone number. I was introduced to the founders.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. The investor perspective is that no manufacturing or inventory implies a minimal need for capital up front.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2013

Even in an open space, you need intellectual property, like patents, to keep potential competitors from overrunning you. For example, many new social websites proclaim that they will offer a free service, and live on ad revenues (not likely in the first year without a huge marketing investment). Financial risk. Operational risk.

Startup 104

Startup Examples Entrepreneur Social Network 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

This time I’ll use a hypothetical health-care web site company named NewCo as an example to illustrate the points. Two founders have spent $200K of personal and family funds over a one year period to start the company, get a prototype site up and running, and have already generated some “buzz” in the Internet community.

Startup 93

Startup Patents Outsource Development Web 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2012

Even in an open space, you need intellectual property, like patents, to keep potential competitors from overrunning you. For example, many new social websites proclaim that they will offer a free service, and live on ad revenues (not likely in the first year without a huge marketing investment). Financial risk. Operational risk.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Examples Social Network Marketing 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2010

There are groups like “Applied Entrepreneurship”, where discussions get animated about the value of patents, and the legality of MLMs. There are dozens of other social/business networking sites out there, some regionalized, and some are special interest boutiques.

Social Network 102

Social Network Networking Entrepreneur Statistics 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. The investor perspective is that no manufacturing or inventory implies a minimal need for capital up front.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2014

The same is true for filing patents, registering trademarks, and filing copyrights. Minimize investment in prototypes and tooling. Maybe you should start with an online e-commerce site, based on your favorite hobby expertise. Required legal fees now average $5K or less, compared with $20K or more as a minimum.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Commerce 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2019

When someone says Intellectual Property (IP), most entrepreneurs think only of patents. In reality, patents are only one of at least eight items that should be in your IP portfolio. Immediately go to relevant social media sites and grab the same name, even if you never plan to use the accounts. Social media accounts. Copyrights.

IP 93

IP Invest Patents Social Media 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” “I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.” The best demos to investors are 30 seconds or less.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

We've also had great advances in engaging the trust of the commercial community, with patented advances like automatic scoring of our algorithms, which predicts the quality of translations based on a one-through-five scale. Since our financials have been so attractive, there's no stress on them, and it's been an easy investment to support.

Software Review 145

Software Review USC Content Tech Coast Angels 145

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2014

They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Investors invest in the jockey, more than the horse. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” “I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.” The best demos to investors are 30 seconds or less.

Entrepreneur 119

Entrepreneur Technical Review Statistics Startup 119