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. Solicit funds from friends and family.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 12, 2024

Part of the reason this value is taking longer than expected to emerge is due to operating costs. Moreover, these costs increase exponentially with the size of the data sets that algorithms process. Meanwhile, 41% of companies consider the high costs involved in ML experimentation to be the main challenge they face.

Technical Review 167

Technical Review Cost Artificial Inteligence Analytics 167

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

For example, my dictate that entrepreneurs need to find a “ painful ” problem to solve (such as high cost, low productivity) to attract customers, doesn’t really account for many successful startup businesses today, including top social media platforms, dating sites, and new fashions. All of these tend to override cost and usability.

Customer 432

Customer Social Media Dividend Technical Review 432

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. Viral marketing costs real money, and your support staff and hosting systems cost even more. Bypasses intellectual property as not worth the cost.

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

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

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

DECEMBER 5, 2021

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. It usually implies an opportunity to win big, like a lottery, or experience something sensational, like an incredible video or free product. Develop viral content.

Viral 348

Viral Marketing SEM Campaign 348

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

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

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

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

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

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

In my experience as an employee, up to an executive, in large companies as well as small, I’ve found that people who are consistently negative and complain are a big constraint on productivity, as well as the most difficult management problem that most business leaders face. The result is a positive and productive work environment for all.

Employee 371

Employee Salary Hiring Stock 371

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

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. Viral marketing costs real money, and your support staff and hosting systems cost even more. Bypasses intellectual property as not worth the cost.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments. Status of the solution. In addition, manufacturing and inventory levels will be reviewed.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Products that can be easily produced and sold via multiple channels, including the Internet, are more easily scaled world-wide. This reduces the cost of customer acquisition, allows easy upgrades for service and new features, and improves customer loyalty in the face of new competitors in the market.

Merger 386

Merger Acquisition Software Review Social Media 386

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2022

Startup investors tell me they invest in a new venture with a higher caliber of people, rather than the product or service, and I agree. In my role as a business advisor, I see successful businesses most often emerging from great teams rather than great products. It’s a small cost to prevent a long-term loss.

Hiring 337

Hiring Technical Cofounder Cofounder Retention 337

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

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

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? Start by building just enough of your product to get early CAC and CLV signals (they won’t be perfect). Apply costs to each channel.

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

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. Technology limited to a single product is seldom enough for a business. Take a hard look at the alternatives.

Technical Review 391

Technical Review Intellectual Property Early Stage Global 391

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

As a simple example, the Wal-Mart website now shows shoppers more products that they may like, based on previous purchases. It’s now more intense than ever, with the cost of entry going down, and new players easily able to join the fray from anywhere in the world. One thing hasn’t changed in the business world – competition.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

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. Don’t forget a viable financial model of costs, margins, customer acquisition, and break-even.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2022

Here are a few specifics on how to be part of the solution, without the costs, rather than part of the problem: Put a personal face and address on your site; don’t hide behind an “info” email address. But that is just the beginning of the opportunity to provide or take advantage of the new power and tools on the Internet.

Technical Review 342

Technical Review Customer Social Network Software Review 342

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

Everyone knew these had potential, but had not demonstrated success to date due to infrastructure and support requirements, or cost constraints. Many investors and big companies are putting money into this space or adding it their product line today. Typical valuations range from 3x-5x revenues.

Artificial Inteligence 436

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Valuation Startup 436

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. Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. Almost anyone can start a company today on a shoestring budget, following these cost-cutting recommendations: Establish a solid legal structure for your business.

Cost 405

Cost Entrepreneur Burn Rate Social Media 405

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

That blurb, and the following examples, were all generated from GPT in only a few seconds, at a cost of less than one penny. Product descriptions and listings require tedious editing to make them engaging - especially after the fortieth one. Are you a founder or CEO or head of product? You might be surprised how many there are.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Houston America 295

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

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 19, 2024

This strategy not only cuts costs but also helps in planning for the future, keeping your startup ahead in competitive markets. With this insight, companies can tailor their products to deeply connect with customers. Observing their marketing strategies, product releases, and pricing helps predict market changes and react promptly.

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Startup Differentiation Social Media 145

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

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 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2021

These may be people who can’t afford existing products due to income levels or location, but need the solution. The most disruptive products are ones that never existed before, and no forecasts are even available to size the opportunity. Look for sizable customer populations unattractive to incumbents.

Non-Compete 394

Non-Compete Technical Review Forecast Social Media 394

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2022

They have become a by-product of innovation rather than the cause of it: Conglomerates grew from industrialization, not innovation. Many countries have learned to make products cheaper and better. Customers today demand products and services personalized or tailored to local needs with embedded quality of life services.

Artificial Inteligence 315

Artificial Inteligence Offshore Merger Technical Review 315

TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

Other common scenarios that we’ve seen: Scaling and new markets: Your company and product are established, and now you’re scaling or going after new markets. Our goal is to build a decent understanding of your business, your product, and your technology. We then review the answers with the technical and product teams.

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review Architecture 260

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Plan to deliver a family of products, rather than a one-trick pony. Even a great initial product, with no follow-on, won’t keep you ahead of competitors very long. A smarter risk is to build a plan, with associated greater resources, that will put you in position to expand your product line and keep one step ahead of competitors.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304