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. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. 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

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2024

Sales incentives play a critical role in motivating employees. Definition and Importance of Sales Incentives Sales incentives are bonuses and rewards employees receive to inspire and improve their work performance. Companies find that implementing sales incentives boosts morale and improves overall productivity.

Employee 158

Employee Sales Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 158

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Focus on collecting customer references.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

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.

Advisory Board 368

Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. They are too busy with the “crisis of the moment” to focus on follow-ups that may save a major customer, close a partner deal, or solidify a process that isn’t working well. Customer retention. Here are a few: Business networking.

Technical Review 333

Technical Review Startup Software Review Retention 333

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. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2020

Sales Professional. The best sales people in any company are highly focused, and self-motivated by the commissions they can earn by closing a few big deals. Investors don’t fund entrepreneurs offering services, since these don’t scale, don’t have large margins, and need just a customer contract to start.

Startup 410

Startup Angel Investor Social Media LLC 410

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

But ops & customer support is another 17-20% of revenue and arguably you couldn’t run the business if you took that away. Sales and marketing has been 30%+ basically forever, though undoubtedly Airbnb has enough brand recognition and loyal customers that if you turned off marketing spend then revenue would drop but not to zero.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

I suggest looking for painful problems to solve, rather than “easier to use” or “nice to have” solutions, for customers with money. Customers line up to believe and buy from people who are viewed as leaders or experts relative to a specific solution. Collaborate with customers to tune your solution.

Merger 386

Merger Acquisition Software Review Social Media 386

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

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 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 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. 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

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

APRIL 11, 2020

Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers. It’s tough for an elephant to be agile.

Startup 424

Startup Bandwidth Distribution Agile 424

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. Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.” Employees will lose focus on their work.”

Startup 337

Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337

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. Customer support chasm.

Technical Review 375

Technical Review Startup Dilution Early Stage 375

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

In other words, inventions are necessary but not sufficient to create real value for investors and customers. You need a viable business model and customers. Investors expect proof that your invention can be manufactured in volume, and can justify a sales price at least double the cost, to a large customer set that has money to spend.

Technical Review 391

Technical Review Intellectual Property Early Stage Global 391

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 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. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

You alone will never find enough hours in a day to keep with all the challenges of sales, support, and scaling the business, in addition to developing and delivering your solution. With information overload due to the Internet, you need to find your customers, rather than assume they will find you. Survival requires regular updates.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

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

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

Is Cupid’s arrow missing your customers right now? Do customers love the way you communicate? How to Mend Your Broken Heart Over Lacking Sales! How does it relate to your sales plan and business overall? Maybe you want to send them to a specific article, newsletter sign-up form, sales representative, or something else?

Software Review 264

Software Review Database Public Relations Audience 264

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 19, 2024

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. This helps prevent excess inventory and shortages, boosting operational effectiveness and customer happiness.

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Differentiation Social Media 144

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

APRIL 18, 2021

Contact key vendors and existing customers. This will cover the technology, the current state of development, and customer satisfaction. If the product is in customer hands, expect some customers to be interviewed. Sales and marketing strategy. All need to know who will be there and what you expect.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Angel Investor 380

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

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

OCTOBER 3, 2021

His focus is primarily on improving the results for traditional sales professionals, but I’m convinced that the same principles are equally critical for entrepreneurs selling their startup to investors, strategic partners, and customers. These attributes include the following: Specific moment-in-time indication.

Elevator Pitch 313

Elevator Pitch Technical Review Boston Sales 313

The Startup Magazine

JULY 24, 2024

Another major factor is the seasonality of sales. You can explore Amazon ecommerce fulfillment services to improve customer satisfaction and streamline operations. By using FBA, your products become eligible for Amazon Prime, which can significantly improve sales.

Cost 166

Cost Technical Review Software Review Stock 166

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2021

Don’t forget to add all pesky “overhead” costs, with fixed elements, like rent, insurance, and administration, and variable elements, like delivery, customer support, and commissions. If you expect payment in 30 days, many customers will stretch this period to 45 days or even 90. This difference will kill your profit margin.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Finance Startup Salary 379

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 159

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Operations 159

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Most of the machines were custom-built to crack a specific code, and increasingly used a new ERA invention – the magnetic drum memory to process and analyze the coded texts. Sales in their first fiscal year were $1.5 ERAs systems were designed to solve problems defined by their Navy code-breaking customer.

Minnesota 317

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 317

The Startup Magazine

JULY 11, 2024

With all the fierce competition in the hospitality industry, running a restaurant or takeaway now requires more than just excellent food and customer service. By tracking sales data, hospitality businesses can quickly identify which food and drink items are selling well and which are less popular with their customers.

Software Review 158

Software Review Analytics Technical Review Software 158

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 20, 2024

Source: Pexels Source: Pexels Customers Can Always Find You The great thing about having a solid online website is that you will have a constant online presence. An up-to-date website also ensures that your customers can access what they need when they need it. When you do, you’ll simply need to hire a web design agency.

Small Business 165

Small Business Software Review Campaign Technical Review 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2021

Idea people must surround themselves with people who build momentum and get things done, including production, marketing, finance, and sales. Some entrepreneurs have an abundance of passion, but are short on the realities of customer needs, market trends, and financial constraints. The ability to make timely and fact-based decisions.

Entrepreneur 341

Entrepreneur Angel Investor Partner Software Development 341

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. Exposure to customers, incumbents, and competitors all drive success. Being close to your customers, your vendors, or even your competitors can make all the difference. Finding talent and financing isn’t the only hurdle to overcome on the road to startup success.

Las Vegas 309

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 309

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

Sales Professional. The best sales people in any company are highly focused, and self-motivated by the commissions they can earn by closing a few big deals. Investors don’t fund entrepreneurs offering services, since these don’t scale, don’t have large margins, and need just a customer contract to start.

Angel Investor 267

Angel Investor Social Media LLC Viral 267