Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Nevertheless, it’s an option that doesn’t cost you equity. Commit to a major customer.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Sure, we built SaaS products before the term even existed but at 31 it was hard to delineate reality from what all of the monied people around us were telling us what we were worth. We had nascent revenues, ridiculous cost structures and unrealistic valuations. Until we weren’t. Nobody cared about our valuations any more.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

It’s important to learn from your own mistakes, but it’s even smarter to learn from someone else’s mistakes, without paying their high price in time lost, cost, and pain. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers. Don’t get caught in the myth that you shouldn’t worry about monetization until after you have a large customer base.

Intellectual Property 436

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Viral Distribution 436

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

This alternative has been around for several decades, with the generally accepted advantage of reducing costs. Saving cost won’t help you if you can’t make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Results on commodities, including mature software maintenance, adapt well to low-cost contracting. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review 285

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property 285

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2022

In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Missions and products that are too broad confuse your team, your customers, and potential investors. Product development chasm. Marketing costs can be a deep hole.

Technical Review 375

Technical Review Startup Dilution Early Stage 375

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2020

Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. In reality, more features will more likely make the product confusing and less usable to all. Broad product offerings require too much infrastructure.

Startup 424

Startup Bandwidth Distribution Agile 424

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Years ago, it cost a million dollars for a new e-commerce site, one that you can now create for almost nothing with current tools and technology.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Finding a customer for your product in the Department of Defense is hard: Who should you talk to? Looking for DoD customers How do you know if they have money to spend on your product? How do you get their attention? It almost always starts with a Program Executive Office. So I wrote one. phone book.

Programming 249

Programming Customer Portfolio Government 249

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Status of the solution.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2021

I’m sure all you accountants will agree that fixing the mistakes listed here does not require rocket science, but I’ve seen them so often that to be forewarned is to be forearmed: Failing to factor in fixed costs when pricing. Always use a break-even analysis to measure what volume and price are required to offset total costs.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Finance Startup Salary 379

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

I recommend a trial run with an experiment or MVP (minimum viable product), at full price and cost, before the big bang launch, risking your investment money and a major time commitment. Look for validation from your mainstream customers. Paul Allen was the technical visionary, Test the viability of your business parameters.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. Product development. For a great idea person, the product details keep changing for the better, but nothing ever gets finished. Customer retention. More customers are lost to apathy after the sale than poor service or quality.

Technical Review 333

Technical Review Startup Software Review Retention 333

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

I suggest looking for painful problems to solve, rather than “easier to use” or “nice to have” solutions, for customers with money. Customers line up to believe and buy from people who are viewed as leaders or experts relative to a specific solution. Collaborate with customers to tune your solution.

Merger 386

Merger Acquisition Software Review Social Media 386

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

In other parts of the world, innovators often need to develop both the ultimate product or service, as well as the enabling infrastructure that underpins it. Silicon Valley’s conventional model is to integrate local experienced engineering, product development, and marketing people for the big push.

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Airbnb convinced travelers to part with 100% of their booking cost up front and then they pay out the required amount to hosts when the stay actually occurs. The straight cost of revenue line is only ~25% of revenue implying a 75% gross margin, assuming you were looking at this in a simplistic revenue / COGS / gross profit manner.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2020

One of the harsh realities for most product entrepreneurs is that they have deal with hiring and firing as their company grows, and they have no experience or idea where to start. Thus you don’t need to invent an innovative product or technology to be a real entrepreneur. Staffing Professional.

Startup 410

Startup Angel Investor Social Media LLC 410

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Especially if you are a first-time business owner, the payback for this initiative is well worth the effort and cost. Unfortunately, I see too many new entrepreneurs who let their passion for a new idea or invention blind them to the stark realities of customer need, opportunity size, or pricing and cost implications.

Advisory Board 356

Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. Building the product may be the easy part of your startup challenge. Experience and connections in your business area. Textbook knowledge and academic degrees don’t count here.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

With social media and smart phone apps, real product information spreads at astounding speeds. Business agility is defined as the ability to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently. An agile business doesn’t wait for their current product line to fail, before planning some enhancements. Continually watch for new opportunities.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 19, 2024

Startups must tackle challenges from scarce resources to changing customer needs proactively. This helps prevent excess inventory and shortages, boosting operational effectiveness and customer happiness. This strategy not only cuts costs but also helps in planning for the future, keeping your startup ahead in competitive markets.

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Startup Differentiation Social Media 145

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the business model.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

According to an old Harvard Business Review article, many people in history, famous for their inventions, like Thomas Edison, were entrepreneurs who only later were remembered as inventors of the products they commercialized. In other words, inventions are necessary but not sufficient to create real value for investors and customers.

Technical Review 391

Technical Review Intellectual Property Early Stage Global 391

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2021

It takes a long time and lots of effort to overcome existing momentum, and both investors and customers want to see results on a small scale in their lifetime, before they line up to join the movement. Look for sizable customer populations unattractive to incumbents. Consider Apple’s move into music, telephones, and watches.

Non-Compete 394

Non-Compete Technical Review Forecast Social Media 394

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

It’s important to learn from your own mistakes, but it’s even smarter to learn from someone else’s mistakes, without paying their high price in time lost, cost, and pain. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers. Don’t get caught in the myth that you shouldn’t worry about monetization until after you have a large customer base.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

So instead, we fill it with a completely custom blurb, written just for him: Hello! That blurb, and the following examples, were all generated from GPT in only a few seconds, at a cost of less than one penny. Now that AI is here to help, every textbox is an opportunity to help a customer through the challenge.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Houston America 295

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? And how much will it cost to win them? Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) How much money will your business generate from each converted customer?

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value.

Analytics 303

Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Status of the solution.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. It’s hard to recover from a tarnished image.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2022

If your product is highly innovative, and speed to market is critical, you won’t get it right the first time anyway, no matter how cautiously you plan. These are the environments where you really need extended planning to ensure proper positioning before launching the product. But Lonnie L.

Marketing 302

Marketing Technical Review Cost Product Development 302

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Most business professionals I know have been conditioned to think of inflation as highly negative, driving up their costs, and reducing customer buying. I see it as an opportunity to find new ways to attract customers , make long-needed changes to improve productivity, and lower your own costs of doing business.

Technical Review 239

Technical Review Revenue Social Media Cost 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2023

Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. In reality, more features will more likely make the product confusing and less usable to all. Broad product offerings require too much infrastructure.

Startup 287

Startup Bandwidth Distribution Agile 287

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. You and the customer have to be on the same side.

Sales 348

Sales Startup Bootstrapping Technical Review 348

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2022

You may feel good when that first burst of customers arrives, but don’t assume that “ word of mouth ” and those early adopters will grow your business to match your dreams of success. In these days of global competition via multiple channels, you need continuous marketing to find more customers. They won’t find you.

Technical Review 355

Technical Review Social Media Channel Flash 355

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

This perspective looks at the business as the product, competing for the customer’s attention against a whole shelf of competitors. In this view the product features, cost, and support are the key to success. The Technician’s Perspective asks: “What work has to be done?”

Technical Review 341

Technical Review Social Media Startup Internet 341