Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. Train and coach continuously.

Startup 154

Startup Training Customer Custom 154

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

And then they said one thing that most marketers go their whole career never hearing, 'Listen Steve, price is irrelevant, it is speed that matters.' We had been pricing our graphics cards to be a low-cost provider. The first thing I did was raise our prices.". Marketing, number one, is a service function.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

You have an open source stack, cloud services for storage, processing & management and APIs for just about anything you want. Price creep hurts investors. But it also hurts entrepreneurs – Mike asked people about what they were doing to keep prices down. We all know that. VC is different.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

How profitable is my product or service? What sized team can I afford in order to sell, market & provide service to these customers? presented pricing challenges when compared to a whole new set of offline competitors we didn’t know well. How long does it take me to pay back my original customer acquisition costs?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees. Incentives should be a combination of metrics and recognition to highlight results. Incent and reward employees who delight customers.

Customer 147

Customer Custom Technical Review Metrics 147

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” But know that unless we do gain the traction we hope for it may make it harder to price the next round as a big up round. ” Case in point: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, SnapChat. Again, all true.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

When sales fall off, you need to dig deep for the “why,” rather than just assuming the price needs to go down. It may be time to start your own home delivery service, or subscription offering, or time to acquire a struggling competitor to scale your business. Establish and evaluate metrics at multiple levels.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Customer 162

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Most often it is the time of the chief architect of the product or service you provide, or of the best developers of that product. Sometimes it is the time of the CEO, which when overcommitted, prevents others from gaining access to solve critical problems or continue the flow of production.

Resource 176

Resource Outsource Development Metrics Customer 176

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Invest CTO Coach Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Guide CTO Coach Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He eventually applied his lessons learned in these experiences when he founded Zag, a company that helps consumers buy cars over the Internet at pre-negotiated prices with nearly 4,000 dealers across the country [disclosure: my firm GRP Partners is an investor in Zag]. A location based service which incorporates social and gaming elements.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

Tara Weingarten: We had no metrics when we started, and even now, we had a big week with 1900 uniques on one day. We did a bunch of research into services like TrueCar, and how they presented things, played with those services, and so on. It's fascinating that you have some very big sponsors, even though you're a brand new site.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2021

I’m sure all you accountants will agree that fixing the mistakes listed here does not require rocket science, but I’ve seen them so often that to be forewarned is to be forearmed: Failing to factor in fixed costs when pricing. Always use a break-even analysis to measure what volume and price are required to offset total costs.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Summary Pricing 151

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

Unfortunately, a lot of networking events attract more service providers and people out of work than interesting people. And, yes, I realize that Im a service provider, but I also am a CTO for several companies. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Networking CTO Coach Angel 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

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Blogging 150

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

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CTO Coach 150

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 28, 2007

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Google 150

Google Mobile CTO Coach Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

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CTO Coach 150

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

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CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

A “warrant&# is a right, but not an obligation for a company to buy stock in your company at a future date and at a pre-agreed price. If they value your product / service they’ll buy it. If they don’t value your product / service they won’t. I believe that PBW’s should have hard metrics.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

One of his companies - Gluecode - was sold to IBM for a pretty good price. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. There are quite a few other Software Development Companies in Southern California working on open source and/or freemium business models.

Southern California 150

Southern California CTO Coach CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

For those patient enough to source great companies at reasonable prices and prepared to weather the next inevitable downturn, I believe firmly there will be economic rewards for discipline and patience. They compete on features, price and execution. Some will pay off, others will not. Everybody is now payment ready.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles 150

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

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Networking 150

Networking CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

Berkonomics

MAY 20, 2021

Most often it is the time of the chief architect of the product or service you provide, or of the best developers of that product. There are many ways to fall into this trap. But first, identify what those critical resources are in your company. And yet another way to make that mistake. Again, it’s about you at the center of this firestorm.

Resource 156

Resource Outsource Development Metrics Customer 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. What does traction really mean to investors, and how much is enough? Let me try to clarify the rules, and what it takes to win at this game. First of all, a definition.

Startup 121

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Ask them for a meeting to review your pricing strategy with you. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. Already covered.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Incubator 150

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 27, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

eHarmony 150

eHarmony CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

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MyShape 150

MyShape CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

InfoChachkie

JUNE 2, 2014

The result of her efforts is an online service that allows brides to select their bridesmaids'' gowns, within a broad range of colors, styles and price points. We keep our eye on a handful of metrics, but we’re focused on customer satisfaction. Greathouse : You have clearly come up with a compelling business model.

Design 208

Design Customer Custom Satisfaction 208

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Social Media for Service Professionals LearnTrends Speakers and Topics Accounced Tags not Folders - LinkedIn Saved Profiles Product Management for Startups in Los Angeles – S. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

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CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. If your phone app or service is free, then the number of users or downloads better be impressive and growing exponentially.

Tips 79

Tips Metrics Technical Review Customer 79