Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2022

In my experience, the right team culture is critical to every business and startup success, so every business leader wants to know how to create it. Whole Foods , for example, has built their business with a commitment to natural and organic foods, and have a culture of loyal employees and customers, resulting in 500 stores worldwide.

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Product Training Customer Custom 109

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Turn Your Organization Inside Out. This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. In the first 4 years of running BuildOnline we were an “Outside In&# organization. Back then it seemed foreign.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

2023 hasn't been an easy year to be a startup. In fact, according to Crunchbase more than 212 startups closed their shutters in the third fiscal quarter alone – the highest number recorded in the firm's history. Yet, while many early-stage startups crumbled under the pressure, diamonds also emerged.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. I never built a Google-sized business but I did build an organization from scratch that grew to 120 employees in 5 countries before we sold it. I’m not a big believer in too much hierarchy.

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Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Certainly non-organic growth has its pitfalls. Fresh customer base.

Organization 97

Organization Competition Startup Acquisition 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2015

The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Most new startup founders start out by assuming they need to spread their leadership efforts evenly across all team members.

Startup 104

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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. But it only works if you observe the following principles: Never hide from your team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

As an entrepreneur, you need to avoid partnering with these people, or hiring them into your startup. It’s easy to find people in every organization rushing around from one meeting to the next, often working overtime to generate more work for themselves and other people, but rarely taking the action to close an issue or contract.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2020

If you want to make a great first impression on a startup investor or an advisor like me, don’t try to convince me or show me how busy you are. < I once worked with a cohort who prided himself on his effectiveness in helping other members of the team, even though his efforts often led to late or non-delivery on his own assignments.

Product 123

Product Startup Tips Entrepreneur 123

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 19, 2019

When the Los Angeles-based startup Maslo launched its first product in early 2018 , the company was focused on a direct-to-consumer tool designed to encourage mindfulness and self-awareness through a machine learning enabled avatar that would respond to individual’s inputs.

Coach 113

Coach Artificial Inteligence Product Services 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2022

In the classic book by Christoph Lueneburger, “ A Culture Of Purpose ,” he details how to build this new culture, and why it is becoming more instrumental in bringing about success, as well as sustainability, in organizations as diverse as Unilever and Walmart. Hire the right team. Craft your culture into an actionable plan.

Organization 143

Organization Startup Pricing Customer 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2021

For survival, entrepreneurs need to be all about accomplishing results that matter for themselves, their team, and their customers. That’s productivity. That is a huge hit on productivity. Although the authors focus has been on large organizations, I believe concepts are even more relevant to entrepreneurs and startups.

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Framework Product Entrepreneur Social Media 153

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around. On the other hand, I see teams with almost no process that are tremendously productive.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Leadership brand development.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2021

Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. I’ve extracted here some key ones relevant to startups entering the growth stage: Communication clarity is essential. Your growing team doesn’t automatically know what you are thinking.

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Startup Organization Training Entrepreneur 171

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

In both cases, their products are not generally cheaper or unique, but the mindset behind how they do what they do, and think what they think, makes them stand out. Winning organizations have a culture of no expectation of always doing what they are currently doing. Build teams with people who get things done.

Organization 119

Organization Social Media Guide Customer 119

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2023

It means that most team members and executives alike have a natural tendency to prefer killing innovations rather than implementing them. I believe these principles, paraphrased here, should be adopted by every entrepreneur struggling to accomplish innovation in a startup in any market: Innovation can come from anywhere in the organization.

Artificial Inteligence 114

Artificial Inteligence Google Startup Organization 114

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

But very quickly, it is becoming obvious to startups that the value and satisfaction exceeds the costs. To legally facilitate startups who want to give top priority to socially conscious solutions, thirty-five states, starting with Maryland way back in 2010, have passed legislation allowing incorporation as a Benefit Corporation (B-Corp).

Startup 149

Startup Organization Customer Custom 149

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Papaya is a Los Angeles-based startup with a mission to do just that. Kann teamed up with computer vision scientist Jason Meltzer, who led development for the computer vision technology behind the Roomba at iRobot, to build Papaya. It’s hoping to build on its existing technology with an extensive product roadmap.

Mobile 208

Mobile Artificial Inteligence Startup Los Angeles 208

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

I‘m convinced that the underlying points are even more relevant to entrepreneurs, with some adaptation for the realities of the startup world: A switch to survival mode. When customers don’t appear as fast as the Founder projected, and cash runs short, everyone on the team starts to worry about losing their job. Misunderstood pivots.

Startup 128

Startup Social Media Organization Entrepreneur 128

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2015

For survival, entrepreneurs need to be all about accomplishing results that matter for themselves, their team, and their customers. That’s productivity. That is a huge hit on productivity. Although the authors focus has been on large organizations, I believe concepts are even more relevant to entrepreneurs and startups.

Product 111

Product Entrepreneur Framework Social Media 111

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for startups with real products and a proven business model, ready to scale. This early stage is often called basic research , well before any specific commercially viable products might be envisioned. Commercial product prototypes. Expanding the product line.

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Resource Ideas Funding Research 102

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. In reality, it is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of the business and the team.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2020

Costa Mesa-based Givsum , which develops online software to help charitable organizations with their operations and fundraising, says it has received both new funding, as well as support, from two accelerators. Givsum is led by co-founder and CEO Shawn Wehan. READ MORE>>.

Funding 124

Funding Coach Organization Platform 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2023

The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Most new startup founders start out by assuming they need to spread their leadership efforts evenly across all team members.

Resource 107

Resource Entrepreneur Startup Guide 107

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. This is the first business process that every startup needs, that I wouldn’t expect to find for a hobby. Team building status and plan. Managing to specific goals, priorities, and a plan.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

With social media and smart phone apps, real product information spreads at astounding speeds. Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies. Every organization must constantly review its hiring practices, training, and leadership to make sure the focus is on people who are motivated, open-minded, and empowered.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Organization Social Media Entrepreneur 151

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2022

You don’t like it, millennials won’t put up with it, and current productivity levels at work continue to decline. She has lived and worked in five countries, and consulted with major corporations, as well as startups, in transforming their workplaces to be more productive as well as more satisfying. Sophie Wade.

Coach 132

Coach Satisfaction Startup Organization 132

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

Today you have funders focused exclusively on “Day 0” startups or ones that aren’t even created yet. How our VC Firms Like Ours Organizing to Meet the Challenges? We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts. The legends of Silicon Valley?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

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Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2023

Have you noticed in your startup or around your office that some people are always at work and busy, but others seems to consistently get more done? Studies of software teams, for example, show differences as great as ten to one in productivity between working team members. Define more activities as unimportant.

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Activity Study Product Email 99

Tech.Co

MAY 18, 2017

While the Bay Area hold the title of most prolific startup ecosystem , there’s no denying that California is a veritable gold mine of entrepreneurial talent. Los Angeles, for one, is not only brimming with innovative ideas, it’s also home to a wide range of unique startups that are solving the problems of the world.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2015

These people don’t seem to realize that they are hurting themselves, as well as other people’s productivity, and jeopardize the future of the company they are working for. No startup can afford that huge cost in emotional capital, as well as productivity! Use the hiring process effectively. Don’t hire them.

Product 103

Product Startup Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2023

Luckily, not all investors are looking for the same thing, so it pays to know what type of investors are most interested in what your startup brings to the table. The key is understanding how potential investors see you, and especially how they view the maturity stage of your startup. Congratulations!

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