SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either. Even with these, you will have paper-tested your MVP, but the reality is that customers will not be able to assess the value to them until they actually use it. The real reason to build an MVP is to do early tests of key Startup Metrics for the business.

Technical Cofounder 338

Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

With information overload due to the Internet, you need to find your customers, rather than assume they will find you. That first burst of customers via word-of-mouth or a viral video won’t sustain your growth. Let me assure you that companies without marketing plans don’t get the attention of either investors or customers.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

They had a viral promotional technique that encouraged your friends to download their app to watch a video they posted and a channel (Facebook) that was trying to grow its video audience. I was talking with a colleague once about how videos go viral. Look at Viddy & SocialCast. But it wasn’t to be. Underbelly.

SEM 379

SEM Viral Marketing Widget 379

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2017

In the early days this is expensive because the logistics & warehouses are amortized over a small customer base but with scale this infrastructure and the technology that drives it becomes a powerful moat and hard for new entrants to compete. MakeSpace is building the exact same systems but in reverse. years of software development.

Technical Review 268

Technical Review Los Angeles Software Review Artificial Inteligence 268

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 20, 2018

Here are three easy steps that online business owners can take to win back customer trust in 2018: 1. Customers Demand SSL Reassurance. Boasting an SSL certificate is one of the easiest, yet most effective, ways to earn customer trust. Get Your Website SSL Certified Already! Google Rewards SSL Verification.

Customer 200

Customer Technical Review Security Internet 200

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

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

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.

Management 322

Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322

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

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

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

They know how to capitalize on social media, viral marketing, events, and the new tools of the trade. 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. They are always ready to move on to the next big opportunity as markets change.

Angel Investor 267

Angel Investor Social Media LLC Viral 267

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2021

Viral marketing” and “word-of-mouth” are tools of disciples in business today. Social contracts give customers the feeling of self-affirmation that they are smart and knowledgeable enough to make informed selections. Emotion, rather than logic, drives disciples. Don’t underestimate their value and potential.

Marketing 317

Marketing Social Media Affiliate Viral 317

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

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.

Startup 283

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

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. Save your viral campaign and major inventory buildup for later.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

I tell people that they need to blog about their industry to drive customers and not blog to their egos to drive their peer group to their blogs. We spend a lot of time trying to get people focused on building products that have viral components and why that has to be measured and constantly tested.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) How much money will your business generate from each converted customer? What does the business do?

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

They don’t know if they should move to social networks for lead generation, branding, customer loyalty, or for direct marketing and e-commerce. Read everything you can about viral marketing. I suspect that a good part of the problem is that startup and small business owners still don’t know where or how to start.

Social Media 289

Social Media Small Business Media Technical Review 289

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Content can go viral – the highest quality stuff is shared. You can ask them to come and watch your videos at your owned & operated websites (O&O) where you can make higher margins as well as ask directly for more meaningful customer information such as Facebook connections, Twitter oAuths, email addresses and the like.

Video 339

Video Technical Review Distribution Aggregator 339

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 4, 2025

With the explosive rise of TikTok marketing , brands have a golden opportunity to pivot towards more engaging and dynamic customer interactions, making it an indispensable tool in today’s digital strategist’s kit. This unique dynamic allows even newcomers to achieve viral success.

Video 95

Video Marketing Audience Social Media 95

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about price during customer development interviews. This is often B2C because the value is in quantity of customers, and there’s 100x more consumers than businesses. $1/mo simple enough to be self-service). . $1/mo simple enough to be self-service). Think: GoDaddy).

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

4 times / 100 means if a customer uses your app frequently (say 10-20 times / day) then they are crashing nearly every day. Customer Acquisition. At the highest level you’ll obviously want to track how many customers your adding every month (and for some businesses that have hit scale this is measured on a daily basis).

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 11, 2011

I recently had the pleasure of spending an hour with Jon Steinberg, president of Buzzfeed , a company who focuses on helping media companies make their content go viral. But of course we also focused on making content go viral. I guess this video won’t go viral, then! Good comment community = viral blog.

Viral 354

Viral Video RSS Audio 354

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Instead, I want to look at how they've integrated themselves with Facebook and particularly how they engage users to help viral spread. Later in this post, I'll talk about some of the downside of how they've made this viral. I'll explore a few of the social interactions that help with viral growth. Too Much Social Interaction?

Viral 331

Viral Startup Networking Social Network 331

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Instead, I want to look at how they've integrated themselves with Facebook and particularly how they engage users to help viral spread. Later in this post, I'll talk about some of the downside of how they've made this viral. I'll explore a few of the social interactions that help with viral growth. Too Much Social Interaction?

Viral 323

Viral Startup Networking Social Network 323

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

It created viral buzz because other fans saw the email address and wanted to know how they got it. Customer Feedback - Chamillionaire regularly seeks public feedback from his fan base. He would occasionally give away free music in exchange for email addresses. This was in the 90′s. He was trailblazing.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Los Angeles Norway Audience 356

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. Look at the rapid adoption of Groupon, LivingSocial or Instagram as proof of how rapidly businesses can grow through viral means. The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Consumer value Once Jamie realized that he could not only sell tens of millions of dollars of home security cameras he also realized that he could get customers to sign up for a monthly subscription to keep the videos in storage in the cloud and review them after the fact. so he went on.

Security 247

Security Los Angeles Silicon Valley Video 247

VC Cafe

MARCH 16, 2025

In addition to search, shopping and customer support are changing too. Conversational commerce is rising with AI chatbots and voice assistants becoming integral to customer journeys. Personalisation is increasing across the board. Few free growth channels remain, and incumbents often own or clog the major avenues.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review B2C Generative AI IPO 78

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

" In Building Your MVP as a Non-Technical Startup Founder , I mentioned that before you build your Minimum Viable Product (MVP), you need to be really clear on your purpose.

Algorithm 264

Algorithm Metrics Viral Venture Capital 264

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2020

In this day and age of social media sharing, it’s possible to reach millions of viewers if your video goes viral. If you manage to get your video marketing strategy right, you can reach hundreds of thousands of viewers within a few days — viewers who could potentially become customers. Final Thoughts.

Video 246

Video Marketing Social Media Mobile 246

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

TikTok even has its own viral hashtag: #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt , which is a one-stop shop for the weird and wonderful products brands sell on the platform. By installing the TikTok Pixel on its website, Nolan Bros was also able to create a custom audience to retarget users who had browsed a product page in the past 180 days but not converted.

Customer 102

Customer Viral Audience Campaign 102

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2021

There are increasing efforts in the industry to create MVPs to validate your app, make it go viral, and collect customer feedback with minimal investments. On top of cashing in on emerging opportunities, it allows for greater customization of the interface by utilizing a simple crypto API for easy access.

API 158

API Java Ruby Software Developers 158

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

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 161

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 161

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 8, 2023

Customers will be even more comfortable with the introduction of voice commerce, another unicorn of the online shopping experience. Sustainability is the Queen In 2023, customers have become even more environmentally conscious, as recent statistics prove. TikTok and Influencers One viral video on TikTok can reach 1.5

eCommerce 185

eCommerce Technical Review Software Review Analytics 185

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

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. Save your viral campaign and major inventory buildup for later.

Business Model 120

Business Model Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

There is nothing viral! But it is even more rare for a company to do that while also scaling its revenue at such an impressive clip and with no paid customer acquisition. Ah, but Bird doesn’t have network effects! Anybody can launch a scooter service! Not really.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Los Angeles Technical Review 256

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 17, 2020

Building a lasting and fruitful relationship with your customers is all about trust. Videos are viral in nature, and within the right marketing strategy, they can spread through the internet like wildfire. and customer testimonials. and customer testimonials. Share happy customer stories with a testimonial video.

Video 150

Video Software Review Startup Audience 150

View from Seed

AUGUST 30, 2016

This can include location, industry, customer target market, and business goals. Referrals (generating direct customer referrals and new revenue channels with fellow local business owners). What customer retention strategies are working best for other florists? Next-Gen Networking. How do you create an infinite loop?

Social Media 185

Social Media B2B North America Media 185