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. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. Focus on high productivity.

Startup 171

Startup Organization Training Entrepreneur 171

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

help you integrate your product with other systems making it harder for your product to be replaced by competitors. So when I meet with GRP portfolio companies that do enterprise sales I try to emphasize the following: 1. Only Work on Projects That Support Your Core Product Effort. rollout support. configuration.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software Services Company 321

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. You need a trained CFO to fill the financial gaps on your team. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. I believe it’s flawed.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2018

Ahead of the conference, we sat down and spoke with Kevin Anderson , co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Appetize (www.appetizeapp.com), a rapidly growing developer of point-of-sale software, on the topic of customer service. listen to them to iterate our product, and that's how we get buy-in from our customers.

Customer 113

Customer Custom Services Conference 113

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 22, 2014

Outsourcing can be an extremely cost-effective solution here. Not only will you avoid adding to overhead costs at this early stage, but you’ll save management time — and free yourself to focus on developing your business. At a minimum, you should engage a lawyer to draft and/or review every contract you enter into.

Startup 97

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Sales 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2010

I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. Whenever I meet a team that had a consulting firm (even a great one) build their product it’s an immediate “pass&# from me. Some CTO’s swear that it is a huge improvement in development timeframes and doesn’t cause performance issues.

CTO Hire 400

CTO Hire Fractional VPE Startup Outsource Development 400

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

No carrier in their right mind wanted to cede control of the software but Apple was willing to offer its products exclusive through one carrier in exchange for not having any carrier software on the device. Why Exclusivity Matters to Your Customers or Business Development Partners. How to Craft Exclusivity Agreements.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

I am not a government contracting expert. Government customers abundantly waste both of these assets by negatively impacting a startup’s cash flows while causing it to spend unnecessary time participating in laborious approval processes and elongated sales cycles. The Downside Of Government Contracting.

Startup 207

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Sales 207

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2014

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 107

Startup Outsource Development Training Outsource 107

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Solution development and delivery. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. Nascent startup markets are like fine wine, they take time to develop.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2013

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Training Outsource Metrics 92

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. You need a trained CFO to fill the financial gaps on your team. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 102

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 102

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

Because I am cheap and I know that car dealers are incentivized by the manufacturer to hit quarterly and annual sales goals. Thus, the value of a sale at the end of a quarter can be significant, if the sale contributes to obtaining a manufacturer''s incentive. Avoid The End-Of-The-Quarter Trou Drop.

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. You need a trained CFO to fill the financial gaps on your team. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. Looong Appendix (only for those interested in reading another story about losing a sale & key lessons): A personal story of losing a sale that haunted me for years. I was to tell noone until the contract was signed.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. Looong Appendix (only for those interested in reading another story about losing a sale & key lessons): A personal story of losing a sale that haunted me for years. I was to tell noone until the contract was signed.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2013

From a marketing marketing perspective, that allows filmmakers to quickly and easily promote their films through social media and build a fan base, and incentivize fans to support their films by offering access to exclusive content, livestream video chats, and production updates, as an example. That's great training for the startup world.

Hollywood 256

Hollywood CTO Hire Social Media Platform 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. You need a trained CFO to fill the financial gaps on your team. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 98

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2010

By Ernst Gemassmer Once you have succeeded in developing a solution and obtained initial funding, the next challenge is to penetrate the relevant domestic and international markets. In other words, you may have the best product, but no distribution means no business. Channel conflict is inevitable as you add additional sales channels.

Startup 85

Startup Outsource Development Training Resource 85

socalTECH

APRIL 21, 2017

What's the secret to creating a profitable, successful, physical subscription based business--and to do that at the scale of large, consumer product goods (CPGs) companies? It was a logical system to start offering up cloud-based systems like those we had developed. So, we build that and started offering it to the market.

Startup 145

Startup Product Customer Custom 145

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2010

Develop your business plan. This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. Funding process. Manage human resources.

Startup 95

Startup Outsource Development Writing Training 95

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

I could easily go into the board rooms of major European companies (I was based in London) and land $500k – $1 million contracts so my order book grew rapidly. We typically committed to building “missing&# features and therefore steered off of our MVP (minimum viable product). We had to do intense training sessions.

Startup 389

Startup Customer Custom Resource 389

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. Focus on high productivity.

Startup 109

Startup Entrepreneur Organization Training 109

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Most begin by doing the product development, marketing and sales alone, but struggle making the transition to hiring and coaching others, defining repeatable processes and focusing on future strategy. When you build a great solution or product, all you can think about is shipping more volume of your product to a larger audience.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

It's a fairly straightforward system design, and is essentially what Urenco developed. In the New York Power Authority contract, the use was halfway between two substations. The roadmap for the product has us going back to New York to try to get our first install. Pentadyne had the product installed in New York Power.

Design 138

Design Training Southern California Outsource Development 138

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2012

Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. Focus on high productivity.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Startup Organization Training 94

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

I keep my competitors as friends and those that didn’t choose me or my product as friends, too. I had been competing to win a contract at Thames Water, the largest water company in the UK. They were looking for a collaboration tool to manage all of their large water development projects. Quite the opposite. I move on.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2011

Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. Focus on high productivity.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Startup Organization Training 111

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Assign value to all paid professionals, as their skills, training, and knowledge of your business technology is very valuable. NewCo doesn’t have any of these yet.

Startup 108

Startup Invest Patents Outsource Development 108

Jason Nazar

MAY 2, 2016

If you are inventing or creating a product, understand patents and register for one at the USPTO. Ensure your business name is available on a wide variety of social networking websites in order to develop consistent branding ( KnowEm ). Create a sales forecasts and financial projections regularly. Recommended.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Startup Google Mentor 40

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 21, 2014

We started looking to see if we could use technology disrupt the agency business, for companies serving the performance marketing area, the cost-per-sale area. Real time bidding allows advertisers to bid on users in a particular market, who are likely to be purchasing that company''s product. It was a question of build versus buy.

Media 162

Media Advertising Startup Platform 162

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Others hire consultants, or outsource much of the real work. Instead, set long-term business objectives and develop a framework for the trajectory your team needs to get there. Too many entrepreneurs are reluctant to start the sales process, preferring to tweak and refine the product. Balance the long-term with the short.

Startup 103

Startup Entrepreneur Template Mentor 103

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Assign value to all paid professionals, as their skills, training, and knowledge of your business technology is very valuable. NewCo doesn’t have any of these yet.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Patents Outsource Development 98