Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2021

Sometimes entrepreneurs are so focused on making change happen for customers that they forget that continually changing themselves and their company is equally important. Seek out customer trends before they become an avalanche. Don’t stop doing the in-depth communication with customers that brought you initial success.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Institutional Investors 417

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2021

Too many CEOs today like to talk, trust their gut, but fail to listen to their team or the customer. Great CEOs humbly invest the time and energy to walk the halls, travel to customers, and hold regular employee meetings, with real listening. Manage the conflicting demands of leadership.

Leadership 340

Leadership Framework Demand Employee 340

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 go-to-market strategy.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2020

The distributed model draws on a diverse pool, helps manage costs, and captures regional insights and focus necessary to win local customers. Even consumers here in the US are demanding a more responsible approach. Even consumers here in the US are demanding a more responsible approach.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Indonesia Venture Capital Global 312

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Use free e-commerce software and services like PayPal before building an expensive customized solution. Finally, use customer feedback or promotions to attract more and more customers with less and less effort. Generate revenue around the clock.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Software Review Internet Revenue 312

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Look for validation from your mainstream customers. No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2020

Self-demanding beats boss-demanding every time. Focus on the customer for repeated success. The basic premise is that if a startup expects paying customers to use its products or services, it should expect no less from its own team. Sometimes repeat entrepreneurs forget that they must acquire new customers.

Technical Review 324

Technical Review Entrepreneur Due Diligence Business Model 324

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them? You need to clearly convey what makes your startup the only choice for your customers.

Marketing 353

Marketing Technical Review Social Media Technology 353

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 22, 2024

When customers are left waiting for updates, responses, or resolutions, their trust in your business erodes. In the fast-paced startup environment, where every customer counts, delays can quickly spiral into lost opportunities and tarnished reputations. Teams waste time manually sharing information instead of focusing on customers.

Artificial Inteligence 108

Artificial Inteligence Customer Technical Review Operations 108

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 19, 2024

With millions of businesses launching annually, the competitive field is becoming more complex and demanding. Startups must tackle challenges from scarce resources to changing customer needs proactively. These systems apply complex algorithms to parse sales data, forecast demand trends, and manage stock levels efficiently.

Technical Review 119

Technical Review Startup Differentiation Social Media 119

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels.

Technical Review 345

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 345

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience. Relationships are a function of customer culture.

Technical Review 321

Technical Review Social Media Media Matching 321

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

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. The sooner you face these issues, the more success you will garner from investors and customers.

Advisory Board 356

Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Airbnb’s availability as a marketplace and its aggregation of substantial consumer demand has actually meant certain forms of lodging have been newly built or converted into rooms for the primary purpose of listing on Airbnb.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. Taking on equity investors to fund your company is much like getting married – it is a long-term relationship that has to work at all levels.

Technical Review 310

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 310

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

I’m sure you have all noticed how today’s customers have changed the way they shop, but I still find, as an advisor and consultant, that many of you aren’t sure how to deal with the new mode, or are still waiting for things to get back to the old normal. Convenience is in the eye of the customer, not your company.

Demand 315

Demand Customer Dividend Curation 315

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2022

It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. In today’s marketplace, junior staffers are often the most intimately connected to the market, technology, and the customer network. Again, you get what you demand and reward. Employees will lose focus on their work.” Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.”

Startup 337

Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In other words, how do you recognize the challenges that really need your leadership , versus the less critical demands that seem to always bubble to the top? Customer feedback in the form of online reviews and poor customer service is often rationalized as unreasonable expectations or one or two crazy individuals.

Leadership 301

Leadership Founder Salary Demand 301

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

While this approach appears to cost more on the surface, it often actually costs you less, when you consider the hidden costs of rework, poor customer satisfaction, employee management, and training required. Direct customer-facing non-technical roles should be the last ones outsourced. Startups all need that flexibility.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Employee 308

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers. In my view, every startup in today’s world would do well to adopt a management system with the same key objectives: Start with a customer-obsessed business model.

Global 308

Global Marketing Technical Review Algorithm 308

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Technical Review 249

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 249

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

An empty textbox, demanding to be filled with a concise, compelling summary to impress potential employers is daunting. So instead, we fill it with a completely custom blurb, written just for him: Hello! 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

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

While these investors, and early customers, will always argue that they found you, I’m convinced that there is no substitute for aggressive networking on your part. Ability to relate aspirations to customer needs. You need to show insights to real customers and their needs, that get beyond your passions and projections.

Silicon Valley 284

Silicon Valley Technical Review Leadership Metrics 284

The Startup Magazine

MAY 3, 2024

As a versatile ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics caters to a variety of business needs, supporting everything from sales management to customer interactions. Its modular nature allows for customized setups that can grow with your business, providing an infrastructure that adapts to both current needs and future expansion.

Early Stage 149

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Operations 149

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2020

The resulting entity will gain complementary skills, economies of scale, new customer sets, and hopefully a larger growth opportunity. According to National Venture Capital Association statistics , only 16% of venture-backed startups recently used this alternative, due to high liability concerns, demanding shareholders, and high costs.

Exit Strategy 376

Exit Strategy Startup Private Equity Equity 376

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In the short term you need customers to find you at any price, and in the longer term you need revenue, profit, and return loyalty. Although his focus is naturally on bigger companies, I contend that his recommended strategies apply equally well to entrepreneurs and startups: Demand a mindset of deep thinking for the long term.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Merger Social Media 312

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

Put yourself in the shoes of Mark Liu, chairman of TSMC: Do you view China as more of a competitor or customer – and why? The goal is to meet its local chip demand by 2030. Do you think China can credibly catch TSMC (without an invasion of Taiwan)? Why or why not? Discussion Questions. What’s the first thing the U.S.

Technical Review 407

Technical Review Taiwan Technology Silicon Valley 407

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2020

In the rush of a startup, it’s tempting to start spending the money you expect any day from a rich uncle or a major new customer. Many entrepreneurs have destroyed a strategic alliance, an investor relationship, or lost a key customer by jumping in with harsh words after a bad day at home or at the office.

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence Silicon Valley 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2020

Of course, most of you expect that raising money will be difficult, as well as staving off competitors, and handling that occasional toxic customer. What you don’t expect is to feel out of control , or to always be fighting the many demands for your time. Cheaper in the beginning can be more costly in the long run.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Due Diligence Startup Acquisition 306

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2023

These haven’t changed much over the years, but still seem to be often overlooked by business professionals and leaders in their haste to keep up with peers, competitors, and customers in today’s volatile environment. Timely follow-up on customer and team member requests. Loners need not apply. Find what works for you.

Flash 303

Flash Angel Investor Technical Review Social Media 303

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience. Relationships are a function of customer culture.

Technical Review 247

Technical Review Social Media Media Matching 247

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2022

Customers today demand products and services personalized or tailored to local needs with embedded quality of life services. Scaling is done first by customer alliances through social media, and later by distributed joint ventures and coopetition. The new corporate model is a distributed entrepreneurial model.

Artificial Inteligence 315

Artificial Inteligence Offshore Merger Technical Review 315

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2023

Self-demanding beats boss-demanding every time. Focus on the customer for repeated success. The basic premise is that if a startup expects paying customers to use its products or services, it should expect no less from its own team. Sometimes repeat entrepreneurs forget that they must acquire new customers.

Technical Review 229

Technical Review Due Diligence Business Model Demand 229

The Startup Magazine

JULY 24, 2024

You can explore Amazon ecommerce fulfillment services to improve customer satisfaction and streamline operations. Amazon charges fees for storage and fulfillment, but many sellers find these costs worthwhile due to the increased sales volume and customer satisfaction.

Cost 145

Cost Technical Review Software Review Stock 145

Rembrandt Communications

SEPTEMBER 1, 2022

Your phone rings, online purchases flood your inbox, and you hire more people to keep up with the growing demand. When was the last time you reviewed everything going on at your business including your website content, sales funnels, customer service processes, delivery materials, social media, online analytics, and more? Money flows.

Sales 246

Sales Social Media Analytics Public Relations 246

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2020

That demands the right combination of tactical urgency and strategic patience, but there’s no question we have to move with alacrity on this right now. Warfighters Need to Be Demanding Customers. Demanding customers provide ruthlessly candid feedback, which was never a problem with the Special Operations community.

Artificial Inteligence 291

Artificial Inteligence Technology Agile Architecture 291