Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Start with a service you know and love. Don’t let your service be viewed as a commodity.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Start with a service you know and love. Don’t let your service be viewed as a commodity.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Start with a service you know and love. Don’t let your service be viewed as a commodity.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2013

Irvine-based Local.com , which operates a network of local business search sites, announced today that it has launched a new, mobile pay-per-call lead generation network. According to Local.com, its new network will connect consumers searching for local businesses and services with advertisers, via new pay-per-call ads. READ MORE>>.

Mobile 138

Mobile Advertising Patents Networking 138

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Start with a service you know and love. Don’t let your service be viewed as a commodity.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

socalTECH

AUGUST 22, 2013

JumpStartFund , which is based in El Segundo, opened up its service this morning to help use the wisdom of the crowd to move ideas, patents, and research from individuals, federal research labs, universities, and research organizations to the market. The site combines the crowd-voting aspect with crowd-funding elements, as well.

Research 193

Research El Segundo Incubator Startup 193

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 14, 2017

University professors, industry gurus, lawyers familiar with patent law and former executives of competitor companies are typical recruits you might consider. There is no rule as to uniformity of pay, as some advisors may be willing to serve at no cost while others are industry consultants used to receiving fair payment for services rendered.

Knowledge Base 243

Knowledge Base Guide Patents Email 243

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

With the appearance of do-it-yourself services on the Internet, entrepreneur curriculums at every university, and a wealth of new books on the subject, the need for expensive consultants and business advisors has also been mitigated. The same is true for filing patents, registering trademarks, and filing copyrights.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

What if you could go to a web site and find all the recipes you could make today, with just the ingredients you already have in your kitchen? I’m going to start a website to offer this service!” No known patents filed. Of course, you could pay a Patent Attorney a few thousand dollars to do the same search.

Ideas 97

Ideas Patents Startup Google 97

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2015

You go on to the site, put your city paris in, and you get back several results. With our service, it's very simple, you don't have to self identify until you book a flight. You can go onto our site, cruise around the site, and only when you decide to book a trip do you have to put in your credit card information and name.

Pricing 100

Pricing Sites Services Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2011

What if you could go to a web site and find all the recipes you could make today, with just the ingredients you already have in your kitchen? I’m going to start a website to offer this service!” No known patents filed. Of course, you could pay a Patent Attorney a few thousand dollars to do the same search.

Ideas 94

Ideas Patents Startup Google 94

Berkonomics

JULY 10, 2010

University professors, industry gurus, lawyers familiar with patent law and former executives of competitor companies are typical recruits to an advisory board. I sit on a board of a company with potentially valuable patents that it is exploiting aggressively.

Patents 159

Patents Knowledge Base Guide Email 159

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

You need intellectual property , such as a patent, trade secret, or process expertise that will be a barrier that you can defend. More important than a business plan may be early networking, a web site and blog, and building relationships with key industry experts. Assess your connections, both social media and financial.

Social Media 105

Social Media Writing Ideas Resource 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2022

Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Startup Statistics Social Media 109

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Steve is now in charge of Marina Del Rey-based TeleSign (www.telesign.com), which has quietly become a huge force in providing authentication services to nearly every major Internet service out there. Telesign provides authentication services for the largest web companies in the world. To learn more, we caught up with Steve.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

socalTECH

JULY 25, 2016

If you go to sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Redfin, there has been a lack of innovation in the past few years. I've been a buyer, an agent, and broker, and have gone through lots of different platforms, mediums, and sites, and it's hard to get a comprehensive picture of a home or neighborhood, without going to lots of different sites.

Startup 100

Startup Sites Los Angeles Platform 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Trademarks, copyrights and even patents can be completed online by anyone through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site for a few hundred dollars. Skip the costs of payroll, office equipment and employee benefits by using remote contract services and low-cost freelancers available online.

Startup 108

Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media Outsource Development 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2012

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost. A different message everywhere is no message.

Startup 113

Startup Patents Template Competition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I challenge them to think beyond what I call linear extensions to a current trend, such as another “easier-to-use” app for smartphones, a new dating site for pets, or another niche social network. Why doesn’t this product or service already exist?

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Ideas Resource Examples 126

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2020

Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Statistics Startup Social Media 124

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

We spoke with Jonathan about the advantages of SwoopThat over existing sites. Jonathan Simkin: What makes us unique from other sites, is we're here to help students save time, in addition to money, when they buy books. How did you come up with the web site? What's SwoopThat? You've got to find each one, and research them online.

UCSD 185

UCSD Course Startup Sites 185

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2010

What if you could go to a web site and find all the recipes you could make today, with just the ingredients you already have in your kitchen? I’m going to start a website to offer this service!” No patents filed. Of course, you could pay a Patent Attorney a few thousand dollars to do the same search. Right team is ready.

Ideas 48

Ideas Patents Startup Google 48

socalTECH

JULY 18, 2012

One way is to create your own, custom video clip which you can share via email, text message, or through a social networking site like Facebook. We spoke with Allison Dollar, Chief Strategy Officer at the company and member of the founding team, about what the company's service is all about. What is the SnapCuts service?

Social Network 246

Social Network Mobile Media Examples 246

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2021

Online dating sites usually fail because online dating usually fails. alone, the target demographic for these services is 125 million singles that are between 19 and 65. The same Online Dating Magazine estimates that there are more than 1,500 online dating services online in the U.S. In the U.S. Intellectual property is tough.

Sites 134

Sites Social Network Competition Networking 134

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2013

Even in an open space, you need intellectual property, like patents, to keep potential competitors from overrunning you. For example, many new social websites proclaim that they will offer a free service, and live on ad revenues (not likely in the first year without a huge marketing investment). Financial risk. Operational risk.

Startup 104

Startup Examples Entrepreneur Social Network 104

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2019

One of the challenges we do run into with events, is not having power on site, and not having enough power to supply a potentially large number of DC fast chargers. My background has always been inventing products, and have several patents, and I have a passion for bringing new things to life, making partnerships, like the one with Sumitomo.

Startup 243

Startup Customer Custom Entrepreneur 243

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

We recently ran into Dave Compton , Chairman and CEO of Ventura-based NetPlenish.com (www.netplenish.com), a early stage startup working on a service which will automatically re-order items for consumers. Dave gave us an overview of the service and what it hopes to do. Are you running now, or when will your service be available?

Compton 138

Compton Ventura Startup IP 138

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2010

What we've done, is for authentication, we have created a way to have a unique password to give you access to a web site very time. We also assumed over 50 pending patents, from ten different patent families. For people, alphanumeric strings are not a natural thing to remember, but images are. Yet, only four percent of the U.S.

Technology 124

Technology Web Sites Orange County 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2012

Even in an open space, you need intellectual property, like patents, to keep potential competitors from overrunning you. For example, many new social websites proclaim that they will offer a free service, and live on ad revenues (not likely in the first year without a huge marketing investment). Financial risk. Operational risk.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Examples Social Network Marketing 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2014

With the appearance of do-it-yourself services on the Internet, entrepreneur curriculums at every university, and a wealth of new books on the subject, the need for expensive consultants and business advisors has also been mitigated. The same is true for filing patents, registering trademarks, and filing copyrights.

Entrepreneur 104

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Commerce 104

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

We recently ran into Dialplus (www.dialplus.net), a company which is developing mobile applications which pull up social networking profiles from Facebook or other sites when you make a phone call to a friend. Lisa LeVasseur: We have another company, a services company we started at the beginning of last year. READ MORE>>

VentureNet 100

VentureNet Startup Mobile Technology Council 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

The elevator pitch should be the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your executive summary, your investor presentation, and the first page of your web site. Here are a few thoughts to help you get started: What is your product or service? Briefly discuss who you are selling the product or service to. Who is your market?

Startup 93

Startup Competition Summary Patents 93

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2014

The notion there is not only would be investing in the venture aspect of the business, but would help tilt the company to success by bringing shared services to help bring their products to life. We do invest directly in companies that don''t need a shared service, as long as they''re tilting their industry.

Seed Funding 220

Seed Funding Santa Monica Funding Startup 220

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

Investors are buying part of the business, not the product or service. They only want a quick overview of the product, not detailed features and patent secrets. Look how many social media ‘likes’ my site has generated.” I don’t have a business plan, but the technology is disruptive.”

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup Statistics 109

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Even in an open space, you need intellectual property, like patents, to keep potential competitors from overrunning you. For example, many new social websites proclaim that they will offer a free service, and live on ad revenues (not likely in the first year without a huge marketing investment). Financial risk. Operational risk.

Startup 89

Startup Examples Entrepreneur Social Network 89

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2014

Your business name should match your business in order to remind customers what services you provide. Your company name and Internet domain name should probably be the same, so check out your preferred names with your State Incorporation site, Network Solutions for the domain name, and the U.S. Patent Office for Trademarks.

Google 117

Google Customer Custom Sample 117

socalTECH

JANUARY 18, 2019

One of the challenges we do run into with events, is not having power on site, and not having enough power to supply a potentially large number of DC fast chargers. Anything from the chargers, to generators, to staff, and transportation of equipment to wherever it is needed. It's very exciting to me.

Startup 133

Startup Customer Custom News 133