Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus on the mainstream customer majority.

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Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Consult with Ease: Personalize Your Customer Stragtegy Using AI written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with David Edelman In this episode of the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Edelman , a seasoned digital transformation and marketing expert.

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Customer Generative AI ChatGPT Cloud 77

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2023

Equally important is leadership in the marketplace, with customers, outside partners, and industry thought drivers. Effective team leadership, or leadership inside the box, is really only half the challenge that every entrepreneur faces. The time and energy to do both is beyond most mere mortals.

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Employee Leadership Cofounder Matching 267

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

One more key employee or one more investor will probably not turn the situation around. Is there a real customer willing to give a testimonial? Don’t be sidetracked by potential customers in the middle of a free trial, or friends of the founder. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

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 385

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 385

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 4, 2024

Use Contracts to Your Advantage Whether you’re hiring employees, working with vendors, or entering into agreements with partners, contracts are essential. Additionally, employment contracts ensure that you and your employees have mutual understanding regarding their roles and the company’s policies.

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Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Entrepreneur Limited Liability Company 119

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2022

Thus I was pleased to see a much more complete and broader perspective of employee support recommendations in a new book, “ Employees First! ” by Donna Cutting, who is a globally-recognized guru on employee culture and optimizing customer service. Emotional stability. Environmental safety. Intellectual stimulation.

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Technical Review Cofounder Employee Global 353

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Venture Studios are an “idea factory” with their own employees searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. The studio’s internal team builds the minimal viable product, then validates an idea by finding product/market fit and early customers. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup.

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Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2022

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. This commitment to hire people who think like entrepreneurs, or instill an “owner’s mindset” in every employee, should be a high priority in every business.

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Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term. Is your project seen by both as an end in itself, or a means to another end? Conflicting visions won’t work.

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2023

A common initiative I hear from business owners today is their effort to improve the customer experience. Some are doing this at the expense of employee experience , which I believe is one of the major causes of employee dissatisfaction and exit of good employees today. Responsive – empower employees to help peers.

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Employee Matching Customer Leadership 282

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

Investors, partners, team members, and customers implicitly value or devalue a startup based on the leader’s physical presence, emotional identity, social skills, intellectual agility, moral values, and past performance in the domain. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact. Focus on talent and people growth.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Early customer feedback will position your solution, and help you make pivots before critical time and money are lost. Rounding out the team with employees and freelancers. Successful startup teams today have a mix of remote employees, freelancers, and contractors.

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Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Manage customer service. They probably have arbitrated differences many times before in their lives, and know how important it is to remain calm and soft-spoken in the face of emotional customers and processes that are not working. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers.

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Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

Make sure the Business Plan and all related documents are current, synchronized, and in the hands of every key employee. This is a good time for the CEO to present the final investor charts, and answer any questions from employees. Contact key vendors and existing customers. Personnel situation is stable. Size of the market.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Angel Investor 380

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2022

These can be as simple as how to handle customer over-payments, or more complex in how to handle the choices every employee may face between conflicting customer and company interests. This is usually an excuse for not developing ethical policies and practices. Business ethics are best left to philosophers and academics.

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Software Review Offshore Entrepreneur Leadership 291

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2023

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

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Social Media Customer Media Employee 328

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2021

Only the best leaders and CEOs pay real attention to how and when people commit, how employees accept accountability, and how they win. Too many CEOs today like to talk, trust their gut, but fail to listen to their team or the customer. If your focus is on an effective culture, you are a leader.

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Leadership Framework Demand Employee 340

Women Entrepreneurs Can

JANUARY 23, 2025

Small businesses rely heavily on customer loyalty to stay competitive. But maintaining that loyalty isnt just about offering a great productits about creating an experience that keeps customers coming back. So, to help you, we will discuss a few innovative ways that you can use to improve your customer experience.

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Small Business Customer Technical Review Technology 52

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Employees are still too often thought of as a commodity, to be acquired “just in time” for the lowest cost, and managed as a disposable asset. It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value. Subjectively measuring employee engagement. Working on the wrong problem or assumption.

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Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2021

In reality, the best business process innovations usually come from regular employees on the front line of your business, just trying to do a better job and better serve customers. Thus I recommend the minimum viable product (MVP) approach with iteration, to test innovations until the product or service really meets today’s customers.

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Technical Review Leadership Operations Networking 431

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Post-sale, AI analyzes customer data to improve service and loyalty, making it a cornerstone of modern sales methodologies.

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Generative AI CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 297

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. Hiring virtual assistants for each specific project can be a lot more efficient and cheaper than hiring and managing employees. Focus on recurring revenues.

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Technical Review Software Review Internet Revenue 312

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In my experience of many years as a business founder, consultant, and executive, I offer the following list of situations that always imply a real need for people and business leadership, and have the potential for long-term positive impact to your bottom line and business success: Your business image is slipping in the eyes of customers.

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Leadership Founder Salary Demand 301

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

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 14, 2024

Brian shares insights on effective feedback techniques, the significance of employee engagement, and how to align a team around a common mission. The conversation highlights the role of training and development in fostering a motivated workforce and the importance of understanding employee perspectives through stay interviews.

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Wisconsin Cofounder Leadership Employee 91

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.

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Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2021

With real-time online reviews and feedback via the Internet, and instant relationships via social media, a voice from the top that is inconsistent with what is heard from the firing line defines a dysfunctional and noncompetitive company for today’s customer. Thus team makeup is the critical success factor.

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Developer Startup Social Media Internet 387

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2021

Some entrepreneurs have an abundance of passion, but are short on the realities of customer needs, market trends, and financial constraints. Employees are engaged, committed, and accountable. They now expect a solid documented plan, with specific goals and targets based on data. The ability to make timely and fact-based decisions.

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Entrepreneur Angel Investor Partner Software Development 341

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

You will see that I believe innovation is only one of many factors that ultimately determine your position with customers and your own legacy: Ideas are everywhere – success is all about execution. Search for customer pain rather than high margins. New customers don’t see incremental improvements.

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Artificial Inteligence Technology Leadership Business Model 286

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

The Entrepreneurial Perspective sees the business as a system for producing outside results for the customer, resulting in profits. The Technician’s Perspective sees the business as a place in which people work to produce inside results for the Technician, producing employee income.

Technical Review 341

Technical Review Social Media Startup Internet 341

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Clear, effective business documentation creates clarity in the minds of employees, stakeholders, and external partners and eventually builds trust for seamless operation. Service businesses, meanwhile, should document customer interaction procedures so all employees provide uniform standards of service across their workforces.

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Technical Review Software Review Operations Technology 158

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2022

A co-founder who has different motivations, for example maximum profit versus great customer service, will likely undermine you, take a minimal role, or leave the business quickly. In today’s economy, with more and more employees working remotely , assessing trust may seem especially difficult. Don’t ignore any big red flags.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Partner Cofounder 313

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

A common practice is to hire local employees who know the geographic culture, even though this may well dilute the company culture. For additional growth, most companies expand the product portfolio to cater to more customers, and sell more to existing customers. Product-line expansion.

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Dilution Startup Merger Flash 355

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

A few years ago, Safeway and other big retailers struggled with the growing problem of plastic bag cost and pollution, before realizing they could actually sell reusable cloth bags to customers, as a win to all. I urge you to take full advantage of business advisors, expertise within your team, and direct communication with customers.

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Social Media Entrepreneur Revenue Internet 330

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2022

People who have been followers too long as an employee don’t realize how hard it is to be a leader. Every new entrepreneur has to initiate the right actions to be perceived as a leader in their chosen business domain by their team and by their customers, or the road to success and satisfaction will be lost along the way.

Leadership 317

Leadership Founder Startup Networking 317

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Trade secrets, which may be recipes, formulas or processes, should only be disclosed on a need-to-know basis, even to employees, and then always accompanied by a CDA. If that doesn’t get their attention, it probably won’t get any customer attention either, and that’s the best feedback you can get at that stage. Marty Zwilling.

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Non-disclosure Agreement Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 399