Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2022

Communication and writing skills are required. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Startup Platform 126

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

Even if your plan seems simple and intuitively obvious to you, writing it down and having it reviewed by experienced friends will moderate your passion and assure you that all key elements are addressed. Define key metrics to measure progress and success. Use comparable metrics for managing team member results.

Social Media 98

Social Media Metrics Media Tool 98

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

I'm going to be looking at aspects like: Things to consider before building your MVP Features often overlooked when documenting an MVP for developers Understanding important metrics you want to measure Risks and challenges in developing an MVP. It should be a fun evening with lots of interesting conversation. What's going to go wrong?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 21, 2021

But Sarandos doubled down on his defense of the special, writing an internal email that “content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.” The leaked information in question appears to be some internal metrics on “The Closer” that appeared in a story by Bloomberg , which reported that Netflix spent $24.1

Netflix 300

Netflix Demand Content Hollywood 300

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I I think I’m better at the product stage of a business and helping with strategy, marketing, pricing, feature sets and so forth than I am at evaluating later-stage businesses based on financial results and business metrics and priced accordingly.

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

Create a written plan, with target milestones and metrics. I have found that the process of writing down your idea, with a plan for implementation, and reviewing that plan with a business advisor, will force you to learn and acknowledge the real requirements for implementation.

Ideas 126

Ideas Writing Examples Outsource 126

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2020

Put it behind you by setting your own realistic metrics for success and happiness. Then write them down. By writing these goals, you add validity to each target and create a mental desire to see them fulfilled. Be prepared to experiment. Build the courage to “think different.” Take action now.

Entrepreneur 123

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Writing Metrics 123

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2013

Communication and writing skills are required. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

Social Media 101

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

Even if it’s only a few PowerPoint slides or typed paragraphs, writing something down is the first step toward making it real. Always write in the future tense, what you will do, and name yourself as the key person responsible. Set target date milestones and metrics to gauge progress.

Ideas 99

Ideas Slides Writing Startup 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2022

For example, instead of quick slide presentations, teams at Amazon write six-page memos to lay out ideas in narratives to be read in silence at the start of a meeting. Make sure they are seen as based on metrics, and belong to the performer. Jeff Bezos believes strongly that setting high standards has been the key to Amazon's success.

Coach 145

Coach Slides Social Network Metrics 145

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2019

Communication and writing skills are required. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

Social Media 79

Social Media Media Invest Tool 79

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. We get at least a dozen at the TC offices every week, which is why we write about books so often around here these days. Startups either get three dozen term sheets or none at all, since every firm is walking around with the same frameworks and metrics in their head.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

41:00 Transitioning from software to writing. 48:30 Vanity metrics. 52:00 Actionable metrics. 48:30 Vanity metrics. 52:00 Actionable metrics. 40:05 What happened after Imvu. 42:20 Did agile development influence you? 43:20 The inception of Lean Startup. 46:18 iOS Vs. Android. 46:50 Engines of Growth.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2022

Don’t be afraid to write down what you expect, and what you are willing to commit to. This simply means making it standard practice in your new startup of building a paper trail of contracts (no verbal contracts) between partners and vendors, customer transactions, and internal processes with team performance metrics.

Startup 116

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Writing 116

socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For those not familiar with the writing process in Hollywood works, fill us in? We saw that there were a lot of talent discovery programs out there, such as screenwriting fellowships, labs, film festivals, workshops, and writing competitions. That's been our focus, on centralizing talent discovery on the platform.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The other thing that struck me, is because it is only men, they tend to write with lots of testosterone. Their writing style, even for a mainstream publication, is they write with lots of testosterone. They write about the transmission, the brakes, and the suspension, and that creeps into all of their evaluations of cars.

Truecar 204

Truecar Writing Edmunds Sites 204

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Keep control by writing every check personally, and manage receivable and payables tightly. Smarter entrepreneurs don’t wait for a crisis to drive change, by defining key milestones and metrics for tracking progress. Don’t underestimate your own value as customers arrive, establishing a line of credit, and borrowing against inventory.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Customer Custom 131

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Whenever you write your deck and send it out I think you should actually think to yourself, “my competitors are probably going to read this one day and this will be forwarded widely” and if your response isn’t “so what!”

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Competition 239

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2017

Communication and writing skills are required. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

Social Media 66

Social Media Media Tips Platform 66

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. In fact, they are probably in such a hurry to give you money that they don’t want you to waste time writing anything down and passing it along to new investors. Clemson University professor William B.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Technical Review Writing Slides 100

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

You likely are writing your first one of these. For example, if you are trying to determine viral coefficient (see Startup Metrics ), then the focus should be around those aspects of the MVP. So, I promised this founder to do a post talking about how you go about create specifications of your MVP. Don't stress over format.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. They told you, “Yeah, man, I’ll gladly write the first $250,000. I believe in company metrics that are publicized and can be used as company motivation and creating a unified sense of purpose.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

In a funding round with 1 or 2 VCs and 15-20 angels or 4-6 seed funds if you gave every investor you financial information and performance metrics your proprietary information would increase in its probability of leaking out. We are doing what we do – writing larger checks and playing an active role at the company.

Venture Capital 352

Venture Capital Seed Funding Email Blogging 352

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

You are writing about the essentials of business. Any thoughts on my recent post Startup Metrics ? The Startup Metrics post is a good example of what I call “holocognics.” Startup Metrics discusses what a Startup needs to consider before “going live.” And how it relates to what you are talking about in [link] ?

Startup 150

Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

I’ve seen you write a $10 million check before. He called me 15 months later excited to show me his metrics and wanted to talk about his A round. But why am I so lucky that you’ll let me in? Of course I ask more politely that than. But I always ask. “I don’t understand. You have a big fund. Is it plausible?

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 8, 2017

Use strong communication and writing skills. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

Social Media 58

Social Media Media Platform Tool 58

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

seed and they are writing $1.25m of it you can expect them to require a board seat) The competitive landscape (If you have several sources of capital you can likely politely decline the board request or can grant them a seat but ask for it to be “common appointed” and those revokable if you need in the future). But it’s quite rare.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2012

Communication and writing skills are required. In additional to strong journalistic writing and storytelling, you need business acumen, strategic thinking and planning, and the ability to do the right research. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different. Find the right tools to analyze the ROI.

Social Media 95

Social Media Media Startup Tool 95

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Put it behind you by setting your own realistic metrics for success and happiness. Then write them down. By writing these goals, you add validity to each target and create a mental desire to see them fulfilled. Be prepared to experiment. Build the courage to “Think Different.” Take action now.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Startup Writing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Writing down key parameters will force you solidify the specifics, and mentally commit to them. This is the point where you must manage to metrics, work on the culture of the organization, and look for partner-based growth. Some dreams sound great, but may not yet be viable or proven with today’s technology.

Ideas 94

Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Alain Theriault, better known as StartupCoach , tells entrepreneurs that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start by writing a cook book (business plan), you work in the kitchen for a while, you learn some tools of the trade, you experiment with a few recipes, you test on willing clients. then you can start writing a recipe.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a company you need to invest in ROI calculators (spreadsheets) that are easy for sales reps to plug in basic customer metrics and pop out with an expected benefit. And the only way to do that is to help them calculate the ROI (return on investment) of using your product.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2019

Don’t be afraid to write down what you expect, and what you are willing to commit to. This simply means making it standard practice in your new startup of building a paper trail of contracts (no verbal contracts) between partners and vendors, customer transactions, and internal processes with team performance metrics.

Startup 91

Startup Entrepreneur Metrics Writing 91

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

Joey Flores: For starters, we're smart enough not to believe anything until it is in writing. We had some investors very interested but wanted us to validate some metrics, so we spent time building things to prove those metrics. How did you know they were serious? We had a lot of reasons we had to do a lot of things.

Software Review 100

Software Review Startup Metrics Content 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary. They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. That’s your metric to see if you have their attention. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

We spent a lot of time talking about what type of company we wanted to create, how many employees we’d eventually have, whether we would take funding, our lifestyle, and a dozen other things that had nothing to do with writing software. Semick: We’re a very metrics driven company, and we have been from the beginning.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115