Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2022

New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. 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.

Software Review 291

Software Review Offshore Entrepreneur Leadership 291

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.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2022

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. During today’s dynamic customer journey, consumers often find themselves at a point of indecision.

Customer 306

Customer Technical Review Social Media Social Network 306

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2020

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.

Entrepreneur 314

Entrepreneur Leadership Networking Partner 314

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. Most are founded and run by experienced entrepreneurs that have previously built companies and who understand the difference between theory and practice. How Venture Studios Work.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2021, from 280 to 360 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. The cost of social media done well is low.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Most entrepreneurs work long hours and weekends to get the job done. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

Partner 385

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

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. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it.

Technical Review 385

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 385

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Supportive co-founder and executive positions.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2023

The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Effective team leadership, or leadership inside the box, is really only half the challenge that every entrepreneur faces.

Employee 267

Employee Leadership Cofounder Matching 267

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. What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business. Employees will lose focus on their work.”

Startup 337

Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2019, from 280 out of 100,000 to 310 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2022

Every entrepreneur and business leader I know realizes that it takes a dedicated team to build and run a successful business, and nurturing that team is one of your most important priorities. Thus I was pleased to see a much more complete and broader perspective of employee support recommendations in a new book, “ Employees First! ”

Technical Review 353

Technical Review Cofounder Employee Global 353

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. 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.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Manage customer service. Marketing and sales to Gen-Y customers. Supportive co-founder and executive positions.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. 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.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. 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.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Employee 308

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2020

For best results, my advice is to think like an entrepreneur, even if you are a corporate employee. According to many studies, entrepreneurs tend to be happier , and over 80 percent of self-made millionaires are entrepreneurs. They don’t realize that customers are the source of all business payback.

Technical Review 294

Technical Review Business Model Employee Sales 294

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are looking to the Internet as an opportunity to get rich quick, instead of a place where you can start a business you love, for very little capital and minimal technical expertise. Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Generate revenue around the clock.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Software Review Internet Revenue 312

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

In the interests of helping you work smarter and last longer, I would like to offer my top ten list of key resource drains to avoid in early businesses and startups, based on my years of advising entrepreneurs and my own business experience: Expanding your product line too quickly for scaling. Make employee management a proactive process.

Technical Review 306

Technical Review Metrics Social Media Channel 306

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 8, 2021

In my experience as an angel investor for new startups, I’m always surprised by how many entrepreneurs are looking for funding without outside advisors. The sooner you face these issues, the more success you will garner from investors and customers. What you learn will apply to employees.

Advisory Board 356

Advisory Board Bandwidth Cofounder Technical Review 356

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2021

I believe that most entrepreneurs today, at least in the technology domains I frequent, still work in the business (“Technician’s Perspective”), rather than on the business (“Entrepreneurs Perspective”). The Entrepreneurial Perspective sees the business as a system for producing outside results for the customer, resulting in profits.

Technical Review 341

Technical Review Social Media Startup Internet 341

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2021

Some of the most common innovation myths that Barbee mentions or I have encountered in my work with entrepreneurs around the world include the following: True innovation can only come from R&D and geniuses. Many product innovations come from quality improvement focuses, like the Japanese Kaizen initiative.

Technical Review 431

Technical Review Leadership Operations Networking 431

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Most entrepreneurs I meet are reluctant to disclose anything about their idea to investors before getting a signed confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). Yet I can assure you that people who are paranoid, or want to avoid all risks, won’t be happy as entrepreneurs, so it’s all about balancing the risk-reward scale. Marty Zwilling.

Non-disclosure Agreement 399

Non-disclosure Agreement Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 399

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.

Social Media 328

Social Media Customer Media Employee 328

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

I hear too often from business owners and entrepreneurs that they are bombarded by so many requests and problems, that they have trouble sorting out the daily crises from opportunities with a major payback for the business. In fact, you need to carve out time every day for improving customer relationships.

Leadership 301

Leadership Founder Salary Demand 301

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

As a long-time business advisor, and an investor in startups along the way, I’m always on the lookout for an entrepreneur who is responding first to a problem in the marketplace , rather than bringing a new technology to the market, assuming it will find a problem to solve. A recurring expense was turned into a recurring revenue.

Social Media 330

Social Media Entrepreneur Revenue Internet 330

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 5, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs I know still believe that that their great idea will carry the startup, and they may even minimize their own value, especially if they have introvert tendencies. Yet most investors agree that the “idea” is worth nothing alone, and it’s the entrepreneur execution that counts. Remember the rule of one.

Startup 331

Startup Technical Review Social Network Reputation 331

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Most new entrepreneurs assume their passion will attract and motivate the right team members. Hiring before organizational structure is defined. Quick to hire and slow to fire.

Hiring 339

Hiring Matching Cost Internet 339

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

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. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it.

Technical Review 249

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 249

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 30, 2020

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs seem to prefer to fail their way to the top, rather than do some research and learn from the successes and mistakes of others. In general I try to focus on the positives and tell entrepreneurs what works, but sometimes it’s important to reiterate the common things that simply don’t work.

Technical Review 314

Technical Review Advisory Board Silicon Valley Due Diligence 314

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.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Angel Investor 380

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 6, 2024

Here you can learn some areas to focus on and what to consider as a new entrepreneur. Focusing on Customer Satisfaction As an entrepreneur, you’ll want to make sure you’re making your customers a top priority. Do so by focusing on customer satisfaction and the customer experience.

Entrepreneur 147

Entrepreneur IP Technical Review Leadership 147

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to start watching these things more carefully from the very start. This business phase is where every entrepreneur starts. A common practice is to hire local employees who know the geographic culture, even though this may well dilute the company culture. Consider MySpace and Webvan.

Dilution 355

Dilution Startup Merger Flash 355

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.

Developer 387

Developer Startup Social Media Internet 387