Tech Zulu Event

JULY 31, 2013

It is YouTube marketing at its best. 01% conversion rate again to the people who clicked over to the website from the YouTube video, that’s 185 new customers, 185 people who would have never thought to google search for a tampon service, who will now be signing up to spend the 15 bucks a month to get tampons delivered to their door.

Dollar Shave Club 101

Dollar Shave Club Customer Custom Marketing 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2023

Even the best marketing doesn’t do it. With pervasive access to social media, customers no longer differentiate poor product repair and replacement from a poor shopping experience or customer usage satisfaction. This means real customer value emphasis in all interactions and marketing, versus low price and price concessions.

Competition 109

Competition Services Customer Custom 109

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2019

In today’s world, with a pervasively connected and constantly updated Internet knowledge base, online self-learning is always available and more productive. I know very talented inventors who have been working on the same technology for 20 years, and still want to do more research to make sure it’s perfect before selling a product.

Startup 126

Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Knowledge Base 126

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 18, 2019

Based in Los Angeles, GIGXR now owns flagship products including HoloPatient and HoloHuman, mixed reality training programs for medical schools that operate on the new Hololens 2 headset. Australia, and the United Kingdom, will continue to receive support from GIGXR for their augmented reality-influenced curriculum.

Training 100

Training Education Media Los Angeles 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2022

In reality, your customers care more about your product and service, so feedback on product shortcomings or service glitches are meant to help your business, not hurt you. You have no idea how to pivot with the latest market trends. If you never make mistakes, you are not taking enough risk to win in today’s market.

Help 131

Help Startup Entrepreneur Mentor 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

Ultimately they accept the responsibility of “the buck stops here,” meaning they live by their own decisions, and never make excuses. The best ideas for a new business are solutions to a real customer problem, rather than great ideas looking for a market. Willing and able to do a little bit of everything.

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Product Startup Activity 63

InfoChachkie

MARCH 4, 2013

Their deep understanding of their customers, an uncompromising drive to create a quality product and the courage to ignore the music industry's formulaic approach to producing hits resulted in the creation one of the top selling non-compilation albums of all time. This audience feedback allowed the band to iteratively modify their creation.

Startup 269

Startup Cloud Computing RSS Writing 269

socalTECH

DECEMBER 29, 2016

We had a great fireside chat with Brock Pierce and had a panel with Richard Wolpert, Jim Andelman, Mark Mullen, Peter Liu and Buck Jordan. Alon Goren: I am loving all of the ai products out there and use x.ai We also got the LA VC community involved as well which was a lot of fun. What's the biggest lesson you learned this year?

Invest 124

Invest Startup Southern California Conference 124

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

(That is, of course, as long as what you are selling is the absolute best in your market.) Typically entrepreneurs doubt themselves because they undervalue their offerings, but it isn’t about creating a product, setting a price and hoping people will buy. Do you buy that $4 coffee every morning because you want to spend 4 bucks.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Marketing SEO 85

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2016

He's now hard at work at a new company, Kaleo, which is tackling the enterprise, knowledge sharing market�and already has an impressive list of Fortune 500 customers. We're trying to save companies money, and increase the productivity of employees. The idea of waiting, asking, and waiting for answers is gone.

El Segundo 169

El Segundo Southern California Startup CTO Hire 169

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2018

Can you accept the fact that the buck stops with you? There are no excuses when the economy or the market changes. Experience managing projects, people, and finances is as important as deep technical product development skills. Have you really analyzed the market and competitors?

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Customer Custom 104

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

What they do with the money is add more engineers and maybe hiring a marketing person. The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. You hired a head of product for a reason. Objection Handling training.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2015

In today’s world, with a pervasively connected and constantly updated Internet knowledge base, online self-learning is always available and more productive. I know very talented inventors who have been working on the same technology for 20 years, and still want to do more research to make sure it’s perfect before selling a product.

Startup 114

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Knowledge Base 114

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

Our perspectives on the topic wax and wane with market cycles. Here’s what I believe, but won’t claim to “know” because every time I think I know something the market seems to do something entirely different. And if you’re lucky and hit product/market fit straight out of the gate – awesome.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

However, his first-hand knowledge of how software is created, tested and commercialized facilitated his execution of Microsoft’s initial strategy, in which it leveraged its operating system to create a suite of business productivity solutions. His advice is essentially, "buck up, it’s called work for a reason."

Tips 275

Tips Startup IP Santa Barbara 275

InfoChachkie

MARCH 14, 2012

You know, Jesus, a hundred thousand bucks down the drain.”. His logo, not the blank page, is what represented “a hundred thousand bucks down the drain.”. After much debate, the company agrees on their number one priority: to deliver a compelling product to the higher-education market by the Spring of 1987.

Startup 229

Startup Press Design Marketing 229

TechCrunch LA

MAY 26, 2018

just past the AMC Center) , the virtual reality game-maker Survios planted its first flag in the market for location-based gaming. But that’s still a far smaller market than the 10 million game consoles that were sold in the U.S. ” Even with the wow-factor of the experience, it may not be enough to buck industry trends.

Torrance 180

Torrance Los Angeles Entertainment Platform 180

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2013

There is nothing more exciting than finding a lucrative market that everyone else has failed to spot or target. It’s easier than dislodging well-recognized existing products, and waiting for customer change, even if your solution is better. Buck the conventional wisdom. Go on a treasure hunt and find an under-served niche.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Startup Advertising Social Media 117

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. – while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

In reality, your customers care more about your product and service, so feedback on product shortcomings or service glitches are meant to help your business, not hurt you. You have no idea how to pivot with the latest market trends. If you never make mistakes, you are not taking enough risk to win in today’s market.

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Startup Help Mentor 99

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

The basic concept has to make some kind of sense given the technical, market and competitive environment, otherwise nothing else matters. Coding, design, production, sales, finance, operations, marketing, and the like are all execution skills; and without great execution, success will be very hard to come by.

Startup 189

Startup Sales Ideas Entrepreneur 189

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 12, 2012

People skills <again> People skills <and again> Market/technology acuity (patterns of success, domain expertise). in my eight startups, I was CEO and Founder once, meaning the buck stopped with me unequivocally…the role of the CEO is so different than the role of an operating exec, they’re not even on the same planet.

Venture Capital 239

Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur SaaS 239

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2013

Aspiring entrepreneurs ask me why their great idea hasn’t sold; they talk about it endlessly, and they expect others to do the development, finance, and marketing work for them. Your solution fills a real market need. Watching the orders come in, or the product moving off the shelf, is the feedback you have been looking for.

Startup 100

Startup Patents Competition Social Network 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. Others will, too. Fred Wilson wrote a great piece on this.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2012

Aspiring entrepreneurs ask me why their great idea hasn’t sold; they talk about it endlessly, and they expect others to do the development, finance, and marketing work for them. Your solution fills a real market need. Watching the orders come in, or the product moving off the shelf, is the feedback you have been looking for.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Ideas 102

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

If your product is free, or you lose money on every one, it’s hard to make it up in volume. There is no substitute for market research, written by domain experts, to supplement your informal poll of friends and family. Remember, the buck always stops with you. Too little focus on marketing. Execution skills are weak.

Startup 100

Startup Ideas Entrepreneur Resource 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2012

There is nothing more exciting than finding a lucrative market that everyone else has failed to spot or target. It’s easier than dislodging well-recognized existing products, and waiting for customer change, even if your solution is better. Buck the conventional wisdom. Go on a treasure hunt and find an under-served niche.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Advertising Social Media Competition 101

Eric Greenspan

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Jason is another local Santa Barbara CEO and we had a great chat about Make It Work, Ring Revenue, Affiliate Marketing and life in SB. He’s a great guy and taught me a bunch of new things about affiliate marketing and his company. I will share what I’ve learned about affiliate marketing in the past few days with you now.

Santa Barbara 106

Santa Barbara PPC Blogging Google 106

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

But then you can springboard from there to your next gig and you’ll be an experienced startup employee with functional experience at sales, marketing, product or whatever roles you played.” The first job you take may not work out financially. I’ve said this to recent graduates from university.

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

socalTECH

JUNE 3, 2019

Citron previously founded and sold Mogreet, a developer of mobile marketing software, among other ventures. We've raised a couple of million bucks and business is going great. What is Pledgeling? James Citron: We firmly believe most successful businesses of the future will be the ones with the most social impact.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Software Review Mogreet Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2012

If your product is free, or you lose money on every one, it’s hard to make it up in volume. There is no substitute for market research, written by domain experts, to supplement your informal poll of friends and family. Remember, the buck always stops with you. Too little focus on marketing. Execution skills are weak.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Ideas Resource Statistics 109

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

At Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix), our VP of Product and Customer Experience led a number of teams during his seven-year tenure including Professional Services, Customer Service and Product Management. Don’t Chase The Quick Buck. The Two Pizza Rule.

Tips 279

Tips Startup Framework Customer 279

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2015

Not so long ago, every business assumed that the keys to success were the highest quality product, the best value for the buck, and the best customer service. Exactly what is that customer experience that every modern marketer is talking about, and how do you measure it? Exploit your product and service differences.

Customer 100

Customer Custom .Net Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

There is nothing more exciting than finding a lucrative market that everyone else has failed to spot or target. It’s easier than dislodging well-recognized existing products, and waiting for customer change, even if your solution is better. Buck the conventional wisdom. Go on a treasure hunt and find an under-served niche.

Tips 89

Tips Entrepreneur Advertising Social Media 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2015

In reality, your customers care more about your product and service, so feedback on product shortcomings or service glitches are meant to help your business, not hurt you. You have no idea how to pivot with the latest market trends. If you never make mistakes, you are not taking enough risk to win in today’s market.

Startup 106

Startup Entrepreneur Help Mentor 106

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

What is their market traction? So to be clear I think in the overwhelming majority of cases these are diligence calls to feel out the opportunity in which price discussions exchange hands more as a by-product of the call than the intention of the call. So is the market really colluding? How well financed is the competition?

Pricing 292

Pricing Entrepreneur Technical Review Venture Capital 292

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

My partner Greg Bettinelli is an avid sports fan who throughout his career has developed an expert understanding in online ticketing (at eBay has was a champion of the StubHub acquisition) and online marketing. Draft is a Fantasy Sports app designed for the mobile world and the busy lifestyle founded by Jeremy Levine.

Startup 150

Startup Outsource Development Mobile Southern California 150