Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. You can always spot these types because they can’t tell you what their revenue number for last month was or what their sales target is for next month. But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do?

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

But the narrative in the press about Al Gore was that he was a smarmy know-it-all. Bush had the opposite narrative in the press. Obviously press narratives of people are characterizations that seldom match reality. Or what about your sales team? This point isn’t just about press meetings.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Press Venture Capital 370

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

This investment started with Dana Settle (Greycroft) and I each putting in $750,000 into a young company doing less than $1 million in sales and has blossomed into one of the fastest growing companies in Los Angeles if not the entire country. Disney Acquires Maker Studios f0r $500 million and with earn-out potentially up to $950 million.

Venture Capital 387

Venture Capital Downey Writing Press 387

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

.&# Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. But don’t let this information get out into the general press and don’t market more than a few months out. They come and go. You don’t.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2011

In case you don’t know, “the “9-9-9 plan” would replace all current taxes (including the payroll tax , capital gains tax , and the estate tax ) with 9% business transaction tax; 9% personal income tax rate, and a 9% federal sales tax.” As long as you don’t care about getting any press.

Startup 289

Startup Press Software Marketing 289

socalTECH

APRIL 13, 2011

Hodges was most recently Head of Global Sales at the Associated Press, and also has served at Nokia Interactive, Enpocket, and Discovery Communications. Verve develops mobile news applications for publishers, and also is the developer of the mobile Associated Press iPhone app. READ MORE>>.

Press 165

Press San Diego Mobile News 165

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

We just knew that we were onto an idea that no one had thought of and we had better be in the press first because, of course, there is a first-mover advantage. Number one is sales. Life is sales. Business development is sales. Winning customers is sales. Getting press is sales. Flip Burgers.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

Maybe they’ve hit a few set backs: They’ve struggled to raise money, they haven’t gotten press coverage or they haven’t gotten accepted to present at prestigious conferences. It ends up being a turn off to potential employees, investors, business partners and the press. It’s your job to persist.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

Our sales forecasts were revised downward – many times. I know that you keep reading about how our competitors seem to been going from strength-to-strength in the press. You’re only reading our competitor’s press releases. You need to stop comparing our internal issues with their press releases.

Startup 331

Startup Press Customer Custom 331

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers. The press don’t get your financials. Startup Lessons'

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

You need star power of entrepreneurs surrounded by star power angels & VCs who in turn get tons of press from adoring journalists who are insiders amongst this crowd of tech cognoscenti. You can monetize via Google Ad Sales before you have enough revenue to build your own sales team. Sure, you need to start with talent.

Carson 291

Carson Content Los Angeles Press 291

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. how to build an initial sales organization. Mentorship. how to evolve our management team.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Talented brand sales people? Whatever amount you’re getting out and talking with prospects, customers, employees, recruits, competitors, press, investors, potential investors … it’s never enough. Imagine the human progress you could make with 250 short, relationship-focused meetings. Recruiting.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

socalTECH

OCTOBER 23, 2009

Metagenics told Michigan's Grand Rapid Press at the time of the investment by Alticor that it had more than $200M in sales in 2008. Source of the funding was not revealed, however, Amway announced in August that it would take a majority stake in Metagenics, via its Alticor Corporate Enterprises arm.

Press 166

Press Venture Capital Report Sales 166

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

GraphEffect, which is led by James Borow, said it added Melissa Greenberg, Alexandra Press, and Mandy Majchrzak as Directors in the various offices; Greenberg was at DailyCandy, Press was at Neo@Ogilvy, and Majchrzak was at [x+1] and turn.

Press 196

Press Social Media Santa Monica Media 196

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2010

It might be a VP of Sales, Marketing or Technology. Or it may just be a junior programmer, sales rep or accountant. Sales people are normally tossed out the door when they quit their jobs. You can always tell the person that is not persuaded when they’re not engaged in the press release process. It was me.

Startup 294

Startup Press Course Writing 294

InfoChachkie

JUNE 23, 2014

Review the company''s press releases, the recipient''s LinkedIn profile, etc. It could be a significant sale to a large enterprise, the opening of a new office, a key hire or a promising partnership. BCC Email – If you don''t have your target''s email address, review the press releases issued by their company. Congratulations.

Networking 241

Networking Software Review Email Press 241

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

eBay told its users this morning that it will be offering up designer brands from independent fashion sellers on its site, which will also feature limited time and "secret" sales. Neither ebay nor BeachMint have officially announced details of the site to the press, outside of the email to users.

Press 157

Press Sites Sales Commerce 157

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

I suppose it depends how much money you’ve raised but if hiring critical staff, raising VC and streamlining your biz dev or sales is important to you then you might consider putting a small amount of spend against PR. Make sure you’re not spewing out meaningless reams of press releases. Should any money go to PR at all?

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2010

According to Docstoc, the books include titles from McGraw-Hill, Microsoft Press, John Wiley & Sons, Random House, Simon & Shuster, Barnes & Noble World Digital Library, Cambridge University Press, Barron's, Elsevier, Sourcebooks, Pearson, and others. READ MORE>>.

Doc 147

Doc Press Santa Monica Sites 147

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Local Press / Websites / Organizational Tools – New York has an amazing startup scene and the energy and momentum is palpable. And so you have great local tech press like Business Insider who covers the industry very well. Local press matters. Every city should have a “BuildIn” program.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Press San Diego 378

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Verve said that Deconstrcut Media was founded by a team of former Advertising.com product and engineering executives, and offers up a way for mobile publishers to manage their ad sales and display advertising. Verve is venture backed by BlueRun Ventures, the Associated Press, and others. READ MORE>>.

Media 145

Media Press Advertising Mobile 145

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2010

Last week, Los Angeles-based HauteLook (www.hautelook.com), an online private sales site, scored a major round of funding--raising $31M from Insight Venture Partners. Adam Bernhard: We're a platform that does flash sales. Adam, thanks for the time. We work on behalf of brands, as a web site that has a membership base of over 2.5

Sales 224

Sales Email Startup Sample 224

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

I’ve observed the following scenario in both of my companies and in countless others I’ve advised or invested in: - your company becomes moderately high profile in a few press articles. If you simply to a revenue number (say hitting $1 million in sales) and they hit it in year 1 then you’ve lost your carrot for year 2.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

Speaking at a “city tour&# in which Salesforce.com sales reps and executive management were present. We already know from Cialdini that this is even more important than your putting a link to a press articles yet how much time do you spend trying to market these to everybody? Heroes told our success stories, not us.

Marketing 294

Marketing Customer Custom Technical Review 294

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

– while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot. He felt that any time there were tech events, tech conferences or press it was always the CEO who got to attend and got his name in the press when it was supposed to a partnership. Those are the easy cases.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Berkonomics

MAY 24, 2018

Years ago, when I was CEO of my record manufacturing company in Hollywood, I happened to walk around the plant into the press room just as Bobby, one of the employees’ favorite coworkers, was offering stolen merchandise to his fellow pressmen from a bag he was carrying. A story of a CEO’s snap judgment call.

Press 226

Press Hollywood Email Organization 226

Technology Council

JULY 31, 2008

Check out the newly released August edition of the SCribe Newsletter. Catch up on the latest news, see our upcoming event schedule, or visit the Website of the sponsors that make this all possible.

Newsletter 100

Newsletter Press Tech Coast Angels News 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

eBay told its users this morning that it will be offering up designer brands from independent fashion sellers on its site, which will also feature limited time and "secret" sales. Neither ebay nor BeachMint have officially announced details of the site to the press, outside of the email to users.

Press 147

Press Sites Commerce Los Angeles 147

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Our sales guys were on the front line and heard what they needed to win deals. He decided that our largest customers would be involved in the setting of our priority lists (we did some of this internally in the early years but we saw it mostly as a sales process). The Outside In organization had a one-way flow.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

They are tasked with “getting deals done” so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. If it’s an enterprise software company you can no longer rely on tacit knowledge to win sales campaigns. B round companies need to also look for scaling opportunities.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2010

When you read the press you only read the glamorous bits. And I couldn’t help but noticing the adversity in this article on NY Times interviewing Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures : “Before the sale [of GeoCities], we were completely broke. Startups are hard. So you were essentially broke? Yes, completely.

Blogging 407

Blogging Tips Press Startup 407

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

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. I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.)

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

Very, very few founders have an easy time despite what you read in the press. Raising money is a sale and selling requires persistence and follow up. The best sales people never give up and they are politely persistent in finding new ways to get in front of target buyers. VCs suck as sales and raising money is a sale.

Funding 238

Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238