Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

I plan to write a series of posts on the topic. Equally, I plan to write for the benefit of investors and independents, too, to offer some tips on how can you get the most out of the boards on which you sit. I’m open to lobbying via Twitter (I’m msuster ) which order to write them in and/or if you think I’m missing a topic.

Startup 204

Startup Writing Framework Summary 204

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2021

Executive summary glossy. Pitch your company, not your product. Disciplining yourself to write down the plan is actually the best way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. Net out the problem and your solution in the first 30 seconds. Written business plan.

Entrepreneur 156

Entrepreneur Tips Funding Startup 156

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

They look at the following high level definition of Lean: and they interpret that as write up an executive summary with your ideas and hand it to developers to build. What's going to go wrong?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2016

They are everything you could hope for in a team: Hard working, committed until the end, product-centric, loyal, frugal and importantly — very warm and sincere people. Please read Greg’s summary of the GOAT story for a better understanding of entrepreneurial grit, stick-to-it-ness, pursuit of one’s passions and second chances.

Venture Capital 199

Venture Capital Summary Writing Funding 199

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. He wanted to get input from me on what he's doing, and he wants to begin to ask developers what it would take to build his product. Me : Product definition, use cases, feature list, wireframes, comps, really whatever you have.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability.

Startup 142

Startup Capital Resource Research 142

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

MARCH 8, 2010

Since it’s already written (and since I promised not to republish on my blog other than a summary) if you’re interested please have a read over there. Summary notes and then I’ll extend: Should you blog? Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. And don’t blog drunk.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2010

By Mahesh Raj Mohan Writing a business plan can be a difficult process. Even if you know your product/service suite down cold, understand the strengths/weaknesses of the competition, and have built pro forma financials that are sane. you still have to write the plan for a particular audience. Hi, I’m writing this plan because.”

Writing 97

Writing Summary Ideas Research 97

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

You see, investors invest in people, before they invest in ideas or products. Here is a summary of some key items to think about as an entrepreneur before approaching friends, family, or even fools: Don’t be afraid to ask, carefully. Communicate the risks, and write down the agreement. Show some incremental value along the way.

Invest 135

Invest Technical Review Startup Ideas 135

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2010

I’ve been loving the product even if it sucks up some of my time. I stumbled upon the Question, “ What-is-the-motivation-behind-writing-public-reviews-and-tips-as-on-Amazon-Yelp-Foursquare-StickyBits-etc &# and took the bait. Or let’s face it – writing lots of answers on Quora.

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Writing Content Sites 294

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2019

If you want people to invest in your idea, then my best advice is first write a business plan, and keep it simple. This means writing at the level of an average newspaper story (about eighth-grade level). The one-page Oprah plan is a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment. It won’t work.

Tips 96

Tips Entrepreneur Writing Content 96

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 20, 2013

So I thought I’d write a piece on how not to suck when you give a presentation. They bring your product to life. Establish the persona of the person who would be using your products. Tell us what their life is like without your product – how they struggle. Show some energy! They are human and touch emotions.

Slides 399

Slides Startup Conference Writing 399

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. Do the best you can to measure the success of your product in quantifiable terms. In an early-stage business where your product is less developed the business case might be higher level.

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever. It always started the same way – a founder would ask for an intro because they figured he could help with promotion.

Conference 150

Conference Slides Social Media Summary 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. He’s thoughtful about markets, investors, products and is always very well reasoned in his arguments. I think you’ll really enjoy this video , but as always I have summary notes for those with less time.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. Value Prop Twitter Style : AngelList is the productization of raising startup funding. AngelList is the productization of that. These days, thanks to code and community, we can productize almost any process done by humans. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

Paige is a gifted communicator and my summary does not do him justice. He offers a number of worthwhile tips and tricks that I was not able to capture in the textual summary, so the 14-minute audio file is well worth your time. What follows is a summary which paraphrases Paige’s responses. Click here to listen to the Audio File.

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? How does the product solve a pain? What are related products/companies? What product, market testing have you done so far, if any? Do I have to write up the overview? Who's the customer? Are there specs?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

This overview (executive summary) needs to include: Product and Business What is the product? How does the product solve a pain? What are related products/companies? What product, market testing have you done so far, if any? Do I have to write up the overview? Who's the customer? Are there specs?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

Here is my edited summary of their ten principles, which I like and may convince you that you don’t need a business plan at all, or at the very least will help you write a better one later: A new venture is a means, not an end. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability.

Startup 143

Startup Capital Resource Research 143

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. Link has a summary of his argument plus a great video). Everything we were taught pre-Internet is still relevant.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 10, 2013

Can I Just Show You One Thing That Doesn’t Work in Your Product? For companies that have products I can use on a regular basis I often save up a mental queue of all the things I think could be improved in the product. ” I would put the product feedback into the same bucket as the open questions about the business.

Startup 312

Startup Course Summary Product 312

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2019

If you want the whole deck you can find it on SlideShare but I’ve written up a short summary with commentary below. These have the benefit to VCs of not cross-collateralizing returns and to LPs of being able to know the underlying asset before they write the check. But there are clear pro’s and con’s. Want some context?

Venture Capital 292

Venture Capital Capital Startup Funding 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2015

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story a while back “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article on this subject, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” Executive summary glossy. Pitch your company, not your product. Written business plan.

Startup 104

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Slides 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Professional investors and even customers invest in people, rather than just a product.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

I think you'll enjoy hearing him, but if you're in a rush check out the summary notes below. As a courtesy if you enjoyed his write-up please check out his startup company, ChannelStack. Is a completed product necessary to get funding? Mark comments on the importance of being able to ship product.

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 284

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

(functional workgroups vs. product workgroups). Or if you’re pinched on time the summary is below and the time coding can help you watch a brief snippet on topics that interest you. 8:17 How did you decide to go with either shrinkwrap or web only product? 41:00 Transitioning from software to writing.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

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

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Simply put – I’d be in search of a VC who had an intuitive sense of my product, my customers, my organizational issues, my competitors, etc. Most VCs are book smart. EQ and Team Leadership? Nail on the head.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2014

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story last year “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article a while back, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” Executive summary glossy. Pitch your company, not your product. Net out the problem and your solution in the first 30 seconds.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Slides 108

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. Feedback isn’t always an excuse – and often sales people can provide the best feedback to your product teams.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

In today’s economy it is counter productive because the best employees have options.” Of course I can’t write every press release for the company nor would I want to. But if my honest assessment is that they need a new CEO, need a better designed product, or similar – I will say so. In Summary.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up. But, in fact, I would rather have an executive summary than a pitch deck. And I would rather, even before the executive summary, have something to play with (a demo)…” It falls in the category of show don’t tell.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

Blogging is one of the best ways to do this and build a brand, even before you have a product or service. Develop an efficient and effective writing style. I see too many investor pitches, and even executive summaries that ramble on for many pages without a clear message.

Blogging 110

Blogging Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media 110

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. Back to regular writing this week so check back in. TWIVC Summary – Richard de Silva. Mark and Richard go on to talk about platforms, timing, and simple reiterative product design.

Capital 265

Capital Venture Capital Veoh Startup 265

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Summary Version. Before this South Korean wonder spread across the globe I had written about a trend in global audiences that exists when the costs of production are nearly zero and the costs of distribution are also nearly free. think Amazon) and therefore hits with high production costs were more suited to the medium.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380