Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

Journalists write stories that have an appeal to readers whether the accusations have merit or not. His product auto-posted a testimonial from Dave Morin into Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg called the tactic “lame.&# Never Blame the Press. The most tempting thing for inexperienced entrepreneurs to do is to attack the press.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Creating awareness for your brand and products is one of the lifebloods of technology startups yet in a world where so many companies are being created it becomes difficult to rise above the noise. Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2020

I suggest that the following key reasons from Glei for how the habit of frequency fosters both productivity and innovation in general, apply especially well to an entrepreneur starting a new business: Frequency makes starting easier. Frequency fosters productivity. A successful startup needs to be a daily task, with consistent focus.

Startup 173

Startup Writing Blogging Ideas 173

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. I pointed out the fact that they only ever talked to the press when the had an announcement and that it was a continual process.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Are you cynical about their chances in the market just because they seem to be hot in the press and that bugs you? Albert Wenger from Union Square Ventures wrote a great post the other day that reminded me I’ve been meaning to write about this topic. That plus great press & it’s working on some level.

Startup 313

Startup Press Writing News 313

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I know I can’t be in every deal and I know that the easy part of being a VC is writing the first check in a deal. And when the press releases and the attaboys wear off it still comes down to real work. Products that ship late and place entire companies under serious stress. I don’t. Co-founder discontent.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). My general rule is that it’s good to be stealth in the early days while you’re building your product and testing your market. It’s a buggy product but pretty damn cool.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. If you use a publisher, they may add more visibility with press releases and book-signing events.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

It has even gone so far that we now have evocative headlines in the tech press such as “ Buy or Die ,” which is what got me thinking about this post. But the press (and I suspect many of the senior execs of these companies) don’t really explore the corrosive downside of these acquisition. Woo the press.

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

In today’s economy it is counter productive because the best employees have options.” I recently was reviewing a press release for a company in which I’m an investor. I told him that I thought the press release was crap (I think my words, exactly). It’s counter productive. ” My response?

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid. In London when founders failed they were ostracized in the press and culturally I believe it became harder to raise capital.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Then fans would be tasked with writing their own stories, submitting them to the Realms of Ruin universe by minting them as NFTs on the Solana blockchain. If the authors are inviting fans to write fan fiction about a universe they created, who owns the derivative works? Another unabashed proponent of fan fiction is N.K.

Writing 196

Writing Outsource Development Technical Review Examples 196

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". So naturally, we started getting all this product awareness, right?

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

InfoChachkie

APRIL 16, 2012

By conceptualizing, selling, gathering feedback and then developing a product, startups achieve success more quickly and economically. This was exactly the approach Steve took when he self-published Four Steps via Café Press, at the behest of his then star pupil, Eric Ries , Co-Founder of IMVU and the author of The Lean Startup.

Startup 229

Startup Class Press Custom Development 229

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. It could be a product quality problem, or a major customer complaint on Twitter. Even the most experienced executives write down what they need to say, and practice for every event.

Media 118

Media Tips Social Media Startup 118

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

.” If you don’t read any more of the post, the summary lesson learned for entrepreneurs is this: Product-centric founders often over-intellectualize their communications and therefore fail to sell their concepts to the masses. This does not mean you shouldn’t solve big, complex problems or write complex code.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions. She speaks about ethical sourcing of eco-friendly products. She helps write press releases.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

Every tech or major news journal in the country is preparing to write their Snap, Inc (creators of Snapchat, Spectacles, etc) stories and many of them seem to want a “How does it feel to have missed this investment story.” I love this product & the community I’ve formed there. Mostly kidding. Another firm funded them.

Snapchat 214

Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

We had scrambled to get a product to market, built our first website, rapidly hired a technology team, raised our seed round of capital ($1.5 We started building 4 products so that our end-to-end, supply-chain services would be complete (MVP? We listened way too much to what the press said. We had 6 term sheets in no time.

Startup 310

Startup Press Venture Capital Journal 310

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

companies should… focus on building amazing products. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. If you have $hitty products, the marketing is impossible. Instead of focusing on marketing as an activity… integrate it into (your) products.”. We have never done a press release.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

I’ve tried over the years to write many times about the realism of the downsides of being an entrepreneur because there is a complete cognitive dissidence between what you read about yourself in the press and what you feel internally about where you’re at in the journey. Of course that’s true.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

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. How can you show “traction” on a product that just launched? CEO transparency. It almost sounds uncontroversial. Are tacking.

Startup 417

Startup Course Venture Capital Writing 417

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. So imagine what it’s like to be a supplier to Walmart. Sound interesting?

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. Putting their expensive educations to good use, they aptly named their novelty product a "MouseDriver". So naturally, we started getting all this product awareness, right?

Newsletter 133

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 133

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

As Brian Solis is fond of saying, “PR stands for public relations, not press release.&# That’s right. I started with the hosted version and then migrated to an installed version so I could use Google Analytics and some other products. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 8, 2015

A while back when I was reading the press I saw a quote from Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins that was simple, yet profound. I liked it so much I wrote it down and tried to think about what it meant to me and I promised myself I would write about that one day.

Startup 150

Startup Press Writing Help 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

This is a post I’ve been dying to write for 18 months. I invested in LA-based Gogii , one of the fastest growing, most exciting mobile social networking companies you’ve never heard of and maker of a product called textPlus. OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about?

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most newspapers are written at a third-grade reading level, White House press releases average a fourth-grade reading level and the New York Times is easily digestible by the average fifth grader. What does your pain reliever look like, how is it implemented by the customer and what future products do you expect to roll out?

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. Many times they also pick up product and tech, too. Often times you find the CEO who really just likes to do product or tech. If you run product then it’s easy – VP Product. But I ran product management.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 26, 2012

Press, Pause, Play ‘s message of mediocrity is one that musical hardware device maker of this year’s SXSW, Miselu , plans to overcome. Miselu’s seeks to “innovate products to create the next generation of musical experiences,” according to their statement on their website. What are your next moves?

Press 100

Press Ideas Product Activity 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. We’ve just been biased by our narrower view from “people like us” and the tech press who are in our same demographic. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO).

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2018

I suggest that the following key reasons from Glei for how the habit of frequency fosters both productivity and innovation in general, apply especially well to an entrepreneur starting a new business: Frequency makes starting easier. Frequency fosters productivity. A successful startup needs to be a daily task, with consistent focus.

Startup 57

Startup Writing Blogging Entrepreneur 57

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. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. ” I know it sounds obvious.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

Of course when you think about it it’s kind of obvious but when people make snap judgments about information they hear about companies or read about in the press they often don’t take the time to start to consider the details. Is it one product line or multiple? They hired a marketing team to promote their products more broadly.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227