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 125

Artificial Inteligence Customer Technical Review Operations 125

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Finding a customer for your product in the Department of Defense is hard: Who should you talk to? Looking for DoD customers How do you know if they have money to spend on your product? How do you get their attention? It almost always starts with a Program Executive Office.

Programming 249

Programming Customer Portfolio Government 249

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. It’s just a market. What happened?

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

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.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 295

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. Entrepreneurs tend to look for big changes and big markets when seeking disruptive opportunities, when the opposite may be more effective.

Non-Compete 394

Non-Compete Technical Review Forecast Social Media 394

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. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. Conflicting visions won’t work.

Partner 385

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

They couldn’t possibly understand the new social media culture, new technologies, or have the determination to beat their younger counterparts in the market. Pew says the Boomer demographic is the largest mainstream pool of experienced talent in the market today, and will be for the foreseeable future. Manage customer service.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Often, despite your passion and expectation, customers don’t immediately see the value and need that you see, and you have no idea why the initiative is stuck , and what could be the real customer issue or fix. Customers won’t buy what they can’t find or don’t understand. Customers need supporting approvals to fully benefit.

Product 354

Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

In other words, inventions are necessary but not sufficient to create real value for investors and customers. So what do investors look for in qualifying you for that million dollars you need to take your invention from your garage to the market? You need a viable business model and customers.

Technical Review 391

Technical Review Intellectual Property Early Stage Global 391

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. Marketing and sales chasm. Marketing costs can be a deep hole.

Technical Review 375

Technical Review Startup Dilution Early Stage 375

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In addition to locking in his leadership position in electric vehicles, he has also used his patents to negotiate faster growth in his market. Even the best solutions require marketing to survive. With information overload due to the Internet, you need to find your customers, rather than assume they will find you.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

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 go-to-market strategy.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 19, 2024

Success often hinges on careful strategic planning and adapting to market shifts. Entrepreneurs need to define their market niche and craft effective competitive strategies to counteract competitive pressures. Startups must tackle challenges from scarce resources to changing customer needs proactively.

Technical Review 135

Technical Review Startup Differentiation Social Media 135

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

JANUARY 3, 2021

As a starting point, I like the Wikipedia simple definition of innovation as “the application of better solutions to meet new requirements or market needs.” 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.

Technical Review 431

Technical Review Leadership Operations Networking 431

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. Instead, they search and pivot until product-market fit is found. How Venture Studios Work.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2022

You may feel good when that first burst of customers arrives, but don’t assume that “ word of mouth ” and those early adopters will grow your business to match your dreams of success. In these days of global competition via multiple channels, you need continuous marketing to find more customers. They won’t find you.

Technical Review 355

Technical Review Social Media Channel Flash 355

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2021

As a business consultant, I often have to remind small business owners that their marketing needs to be more interactive, versus the traditional “ push ” model, where you broadcast your message to as many people as possible. Motivate customers to participate and engage. Marketing must be everyone’s top priority.

Customer 420

Customer Marketing Social Media Campaign 420

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2021

Every business I know is intimately familiar with outbound marketing, or pushing your message out to customers through email, newspaper, and television advertising. Only a few really understand the process and value of inbound marketing, for pulling customers to your brand. Don’t just monitor – engage customers.

Customer 431

Customer Marketing Social Media Channel 431

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

It is required today for new innovation strategies, analyzing markets for new opportunities, and organizational changes. 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

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

Even when they have talked to multiple developers or development firms, we’re often the first to ask basic questions like “Who are your customers?” Who are the customers? Can you provide specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, and what the system will do for them? will you leverage?

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO CTO Hire 520

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.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. Every business and brand has unique requirements to fit into their market environment. Leadership brand development.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

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

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. 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. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

As a long-time mentor to entrepreneurs, here is my collection of smart risks that investors and I look for in new startups: Focus on a tough customer problem rather than a fun technology. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers. Customers like leaders, not followers.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

They look at your track record, industry leadership, marketing energy, moral values, and peer relationships. Back in the early days of the personal computer, Bill Gates and Microsoft were widely recognized and having the strongest technical culture, as well as a commanding marketing presence. Brand recognition was the key.

Valuation 368

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 368

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

Offer free solutions to bring in more customers. Don’t get caught in the myth that you shouldn’t worry about monetization until after you have a large customer base. Viral marketing costs real money, and your support staff and hosting systems cost even more. Dreams may motivate your team, but customers expect real solutions.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2021

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. Some of us are proud to be technologists, while others love marketing or team building.

Leadership 435

Leadership Marketing Developer Entrepreneur 435

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2020

That doesn’t mean that entrepreneurs should ignore business and market realities, under the assumption that success is a random phenomenon. Don’t forget to consider customer alternatives, like trains versus airplanes. Find a recognized billion dollar and growing market. Check for intellectual property barriers in your way.

Technical Review 434

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Internet 434

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures: The Business Model Canvas – to write down all the hypotheses about a new business; Customer Development – a process for testing those hypotheses outside the building; Agile Engineering – to rapidly build minimal viable products to test product/market fit.

Customer 427

Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 427

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

That’s a tall order, especially when your business culture has to fit into the myriad of international and local cultures that are part of every market these days. This is where the culture of the startup has to adapt to the cultures of the markets served. In the classic book, “ Fish Can’t See Water ,” Kai Hammerich and Richard D.

Dilution 355

Dilution Startup Merger Flash 355

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

APRIL 9, 2023

Many business leaders I meet in my consulting practice are frustrated by the challenge of getting their teams working together, increasing engagement, and tackling market change requirements. Building this culture requires that everyone is recognized for their contribution, see setbacks as learning opportunities, and celebrate wins together.

Social Media 294

Social Media Global Campaign Leadership 294

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2022

by Donna Cutting, who is a globally-recognized guru on employee culture and optimizing customer service. In my experience, a healthy team is a prerequisite for a thriving business, innovation to meet market needs, and high customer loyalty. Emotional stability. Environmental safety. Intellectual stimulation.

Technical Review 353

Technical Review Cofounder Employee Global 353

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.

Artificial Inteligence 286

Artificial Inteligence Technology Leadership Business Model 286

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. It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. Then they are surprised to see productivity and creativity take a big dip. Employees will lose focus on their work.”

Startup 337

Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337