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

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 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

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. Commit to a major customer. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2021

Every entrepreneur with a new technology tells me that his innovation will be industry-disrupting, meaning that it will render the existing technology obsolete, and create a new market. I suspect that several of these will surprise most entrepreneurs as being counter-intuitive to their thinking.

Non-Compete 394

Non-Compete Technical Review Forecast Social Media 394

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

From my consulting with entrepreneurs in Europe and other countries, I’m convinced that we all could benefit from adapting to meet their environments. The distributed model draws on a diverse pool, helps manage costs, and captures regional insights and focus necessary to win local customers.

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

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

In fact, I often have to tell aspiring entrepreneurs that their inventions have zero value, at least not until they are put in the context of a business plan, with qualified people committed to executing the plan. 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

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Most are founded and run by experienced entrepreneurs that have previously built companies and who understand the difference between theory and practice. The studio’s internal team builds the minimal viable product, then validates an idea by finding product/market fit and early customers. How Venture Studios Work.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 21, 2025

Entrepreneurs entering this field should consider adopting environmentally friendly technologies to stay competitive. Entrepreneurs can position themselves advantageously by staying abreast of these opportunities, contributing to environmental goals and business profitability.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Government Operations Demand 144

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. I was in it for the love of working with entrepreneurs on business problems and marveling at technology they had built. Steve Jobs still walked from his house on Waverly to the Apple Store on University Ave.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2020

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? Check for intellectual property barriers in your way. Martin Zwilling.

Technical Review 434

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Internet 434

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

As a long-time mentor to new entrepreneurs and business owners, I have noticed that many no longer associate more fulfillment and satisfaction with more money, power, and success. It seems that fulfillment to these new entrepreneurs is all about changing the world and legacy.

Business Model 432

Business Model Entrepreneur Cost Customer 432

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Entrepreneurs that are not listening, not engaging, and not changing are destined to be left behind even in the best of times. Today’s customers are much more proactive in going online for the latest information, rather than simply reacting to the “push” messages that businesses traditionally use to drive commerce.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

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. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them?

Marketing 353

Marketing Technical Review Social Media Technology 353

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. 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.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2023

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Even busy entrepreneurs need to schedule regular and predictable times which will be devoted only to working and interacting with the team. Be compulsive about scheduling time for your team.

Leadership 318

Leadership Technical Review Technical Cofounder Development Team Review 318

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

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

OCTOBER 12, 2022

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. No entrepreneur can build a business alone. Constantly strengthening your network of relationships.

Leadership 317

Leadership Founder Startup Networking 317

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2022

Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. 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. Customer support chasm. Product development chasm.

Technical Review 375

Technical Review Startup Dilution Early Stage 375

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

Every entrepreneur I know has their favorite excuse for a previous failure – an investor backed out, the economy took a downturn, or a supplier delivered bad quality. In that spirit, I offer my perspective on ten common startup failure sources that rarely get admitted by entrepreneurs: Choose to skip the written business plan.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

In my experience as an angel investor to startups, goodwill disagreements are perhaps the most common reason that you will fail to close interested investors as an entrepreneur. If you are the entrepreneur or owner, every potential investor takes a hard look at you. Quality of your technical and business teams.

Valuation 368

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 368

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

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

Jane specializes in helping female entrepreneurs develop authentic, compelling brand identities through the power of goddess archetypes. During their conversation, Jane explained how businesses can use archetypes to craft an engaging brand storytelling strategy, ensuring their messaging resonates deeply with their ideal customers.

Customer 67

Customer Charlotte Southern California Hiring 67

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2023

In my role as an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often find founders who have such conviction and passion for their new idea, that they can’t believe anyone could challenge it. They bristle quickly when investors or even potential customers raise issues with real value, competition, risk, and sustainability.

Technical Cofounder 341

Technical Cofounder Founder Cofounder Mobile 341

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. 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.

Technical Review 345

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 345

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2022

Today more than ever, the evidence is clear that business people need to find and communicate a purpose that goes beyond making a profit, in order to ensure customer engagement, as well as your own, and drive results in the marketplace. As you grow, so will your team and customers. Driven to reduce personal hardship and suffering.

Technical Review 357

Technical Review Green Social Media Lean 357

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

Perhaps sparked by the recent pandemic, I’m seeing a new era of the entrepreneur, with startups springing up all around. Based on my own mentoring and investing experience, the best entrepreneurs are pragmatic problem solvers. Listen to your customers to arrive at acceptable and marketable solutions.

Startup 338

Startup Technical Review Restful Partner 338

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2022

Some entrepreneurs forget that talking is not communicating. Then, hopefully, come customers, distribution channels, and going public or merging with an attractive buy-out candidate. From an entrepreneur perspective, here are the key barrier-to-understanding elements: Unclear frame of reference. Stereotyping and biases.

Semantic 342

Semantic Technical Review Retention Distribution 342

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. For additional growth, most companies expand the product portfolio to cater to more customers, and sell more to existing customers. Consider MySpace and Webvan.

Dilution 355

Dilution Startup Merger Flash 355

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. by Donna Cutting, who is a globally-recognized guru on employee culture and optimizing customer service. Emotional stability.

Technical Review 353

Technical Review Cofounder Employee Global 353

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

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Whether you are a business professional in a big company, or an entrepreneur with a startup, innovation is a key strategy. 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.

Artificial Inteligence 286

Artificial Inteligence Technology Leadership Business Model 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2021

Confidence and self-esteem are critical to your success as an entrepreneur, or any business role. On the other hand, most business professionals and the customers we all need in business recognize that professionals with a healthy self-esteem will always be more resilient, creative, listen better, and treat others with respect.

Leadership 435

Leadership Marketing Developer Entrepreneur 435

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 21, 2023

Remember you are pitching to investors, not customers. Some entrepreneurs seem to think that their product pitch is also their investor pitch. Investors don’t need to know the implementation details of your patent or customer support plan. An obvious effort to keep talking after the time limit won’t save your day with investors.

Technical Review 369

Technical Review Elevator Pitch Angel Investor Matching 369

NZ Entrepreneur

DECEMBER 16, 2024

Youre setting up an invaluable digital space to connect with customers, showcase what you offer, and establish your brand. Your website, on the other hand, is fully yours and can be optimised to engage customers more directly. Quick Question Guide: Are most of your customers in New Zealand or overseas? Starting a website?

Naming 86

Naming New Zealand Software Review Social Media 86