Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2022

In my role of business advisor to startups, I often recommend these to increase initial brand identity and market penetration. With the rate of market change today, and the advent of worldwide competitors, you need every strategy you can muster to keep up, and respond quickly to new threats.

Marketing 119

Marketing Social Media Mentor Conference 119

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Great marketing is required to generate revenue and grow every business, especially new businesses which have no brand recognition nor loyal customer base. I also look for a commensurate portion of the plan describing the specific innovative marketing deliverables, beyond the traditional marketing items.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

socalTECH

MAY 24, 2017

Los Angeles-based mobile location data provider Factual announced on Wednesday that it has named Brian Czarny as its new SVP of Marketing. Czarny was most recently SVP of Marketing at Telesign, and also has served as VP of Marketing and Product at Symplified, in addition to stints at Webroot and MessageLabs.

Marketing 113

Marketing Mentor Los Angeles Mobile 113

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2020

Harry was gracious enough to invite me back so this past week we recorded an episode discussing the current market environment. Nobody will be immune because in a bull market executives are paid to “innovate” so they sign software contracts and run projects. If you’re a clear “market winner” like Stripe, Robinhood or Airbnb.

Venture Capital 263

Venture Capital Marketing Startup Writing 263

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Why is it that only the most successful entrepreneurs , including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson, admit to having a mentor and actually use them? Obviously, I’m a big fan of business mentors based on my own experience, since I have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the relationship.

Mentor 95

Mentor Coach Metrics Entrepreneur 95

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2022

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive.

Mentor 154

Mentor Technical Review Coach Slides 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2022

Dini, tied together several threads I have often seen in my own experience of mentoring and helping aspiring entrepreneurs. In business, entrepreneurs hunt for new innovative solutions to problems, new ways of beating competitors, new markets, and new customers. They build businesses as their lifestyle, not as a job.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Marketing News Slides 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2023

Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who think the most creatively, not only in their initial product or service, but more importantly all through the stages of growth from startup to maturity. Sales people tend to remember the latest product when selling to clients, not the one best for that customer. Tricked by recency.

Marketing 119

Marketing Metrics Demand Statistics 119

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. What happened? People were building.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2022

Your role is to provide this enablement, through listening to their needs, and providing personal coaching and mentoring as required. Relationships are key to happiness and productivity. Jeff Bezos , founder of Amazon, attributes much of his success to building a motivated and enabled team.

Product 109

Product Training Customer Custom 109

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). I call this “marketing futures.&# You need some guidelines to make decisions.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

I think you’ll learn more in watching the 20-minute interview that Troy Carter and I did than you will in most tech interviews because he cuts down to the raw essence of what it takes any product to be discovered and nurtured and the power of being able to connect the right emerging artist with the right influencers in a market.

Mentor 150

Mentor Venture Capital Marketing Product 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. As an investor, I sometimes see CEOs who negotiate to send their VP of Marketing to talk.

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2013

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

Mentor 102

Mentor Startup Coach Entrepreneur 102

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2015

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive.

Product 99

Product Mentor Startup Technical Review 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2012

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

Mentor 94

Mentor Coach Entrepreneur Press 94

socalTECH

APRIL 15, 2015

According to the firm, the new fellowship program will help mentor vice president level managers of growing LA startup, to help those leaders grow. The company said it will help mentor those leaders in areas such as business development, marketing, engineering, and product management. READ MORE>>.

Help 100

Help Mentor Develop Development 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2020

As I was watching the investor show, Shark Tank , on TV the other night, I was struck by how quickly and how extensively the sharks focused on the background and character of the entrepreneurs, compared to time spent evaluating their products. Shares views and learns from a personal mentor. Visibly demonstrate the highest integrity.

Entrepreneur 168

Entrepreneur Mentor Metrics Customer 168

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. Rethink or reframe the challenge.

Resource 112

Resource Ideas Competition Entrepreneur 112

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Every startup mentor has his favorite list of basic strategies to avoid pitfalls, and I’m no exception. Most startups I know have “refined” their target market several times during their rollout. Make marketing and sales a priority. Every new startup needs to fight the urge to get the product out, and then start selling it.

Mentor 100

Mentor Startup Social Network Patents 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Customer Custom Entrepreneur 143

socalTECH

JUNE 28, 2021

Belkin said that students at Portal Schools will be embedded in the Belkin campus, and will gain access to internships and on-site mentoring with Belkin teams in various divisions including engineering, industrial design, creative design, product management, marketing, communications, sales, and more.

Belkin 100

Belkin Los Angeles Class Mentor 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

As the rate of change continues to increase in business and technology, the more I’m convinced that marketing is the primary key to success for a new venture. Yet I find that many technical founders don’t feel they need it at all, or at best point to one person on the team who is marketing.

Marketing 71

Marketing Tips Technical Review Social Media 71

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2023

If you are one of these, you may be missing win-win opportunities to incrementally expand existing markets, create new ones enabled by new technologies, or do good for society in this new age. Begin with a perspective on improving the current market reality without needing to disrupt what is. Seek innovation with non-disruptive value.

Capital 142

Capital Netflix Resource Customer 142

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2022

For example, with a strong background in traditional marketing, you may reposition yourself as a digital marketing expert, with a much better opportunity. Launch a personal marketing plan for visibility. Build a personal marketing plan, as you would for a new product, including regular highlight reports, progress, and results.

Social Media 125

Social Media Summary Startup Mentor 125

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

For example, I’m an introverted product guy who doesn’t care so much about building the personnel relationships needed to keep a motivated team. If tracking the market and reality checking are not your thing, you may need a partner who can fill that gap. No matter how strong your solution is today, it will change tomorrow.

Mentor 133

Mentor Startup Customer Custom 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2021

Every entrepreneur with a new technology tells me that his innovation will be industry-disrupting, meaning that it will render the existing technology obsolete, and create a new market. Entrepreneurs tend to look for big changes and big markets when seeking disruptive opportunities, when the opposite may be more effective.

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Entrepreneur Marketing Customer 157

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2015

Every entrepreneur with a new technology tells me that his innovation will be industry-disrupting, meaning that it will render the existing technology obsolete, and create a new market. Entrepreneurs tend to look for big changes and big markets when seeking disruptive opportunities, when the opposite may be more effective.

Marketing 102

Marketing Technical Review Entrepreneur Customer 102

socalTECH

JANUARY 8, 2019

Techstars operates startup accelerator programs, generally geared around three month periods where startups get help with shaping up their business model, working on honing product-market-fit, connecting with mentors, and otherwise moving those startups closer to funding or launch. READ MORE>>.

Startup 113

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Funding 113

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2018

Most of our mentors are people who have been successful entrepreneurs and investors, who have been there, and understand how to get a company to the next sage. They really have to have an understanding of why their product exists, why their project exists, who the market is for their product. That was Startup Next.

Startup 172

Startup Seed Funding Mentor Ideas 172

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Much has been written about this subject in the world of manufacturing, stemming primarily from the 1990’s work by Taiichi Ohno, called the Toyota Production System (“Lean”). Lack of communication.

Startup 161

Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2016

According to Startup Next, it helps startups prepare for accelerators and seed investment, using mentors and other founders to help startups with pitches, and puts them through a series of weekly seminars around pitching their company, market sizing, finding product/market/fit, and other topis.

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Startup Angel Mentor 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

Based on my own experience mentoring real entrepreneurs and likely candidates, there are at least eight categories of non-starters. In today’s world, with a pervasively connected and constantly updated Internet knowledge base, online self-learning is always available and more productive. Irrational fear of failure or embarrassment.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Knowledge Base 153

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2017

Leaders who are able to optimize these find multipliers of 20 percent up to nine times the average productivity. Organizational silos, limited spans of control, and too many layers of management can dramatically reduce the productivity of even your best people. As a role model, what you practice is more important than what you preach.

Product 58

Product Startup Guide Framework 58

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. Pivot early, as required, to tune your features and marketing to meet the market and technical realities.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2021

As a mentor, I’m regularly frustrated by people who try to cover their lack of confidence with ego and arrogance , rather than working on the base issue. Some of us are proud to be technologists, while others love marketing or team building. Everyone sees your energy applied more productively, and has the urge to help.

Mentor 174

Mentor Satisfaction Competition Marketing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

For example, if you have a proven product, real revenue, a big potential market, and are ready to scale up the business, every investor will be interested. For investors, this is the idea stage , where you may have a great idea, but no plan, product, or customers, and probably no success record in this business domain.

Funding 125

Funding Startup Ideas Equity 125