SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 396

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 396

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I think that mindset is useful to remind entrepreneurs that it is a shared journey and capital (whether active or passive) is a part of your success and your ability to access it when you need to and for the amounts you need is a very critical differentiator between successful companies and unsuccessful one.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. How will you differentiate from these? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Developer 384

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 384

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

It turns out it actually takes time to build a high-growth business with differentiated intellectual property and roll out large, enterprise-class marketing solutions. Working with early-stage teams : coaching, mentoring, setting strategy, rolling up sleeves: 9/10. 5 years ago. Sourcing high-quality leads : 9/10.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As an early-stage VC I love this phase. You start out with vision, you must adapt and have intellectual honesty once you stare at your data and know where your true sources of differentiation and value are. As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20 percent of the total, and partition the total equity based on each co-founder’s correlation to each variable. Obviously it should be amended later, as roles are more clearly defined, and execution proceeds.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20% of the total, and partition the total equity based on each cofounder’s correlation to each variable. A friend or family investor thus might get 20% of the equity, even with no business activity contribution.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 28, 2010

Yesterday, I met with someone at the early stage of a startup. In fact, my belief is that most startups should either be looking for a marketer or a web developer as they likely need to be differentiated in terms of marketing or should have complexity in their development. Especially for an early-stage startup?

Los Angeles 167

Los Angeles Web Development Web Developer 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010

Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. New “up-and-comer” VCs focus on early-stage companies. VCs are finding that they don’t need the “large” funds of $100M to $500M to support a portfolio, if they focus on early-stage startups.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Early Stage Venture Capital Startup 215

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20% of the total, and partition the total equity based on each co-founder’s correlation to each variable. A friend or family investor thus might get 20% of the equity, even with no business activity contribution.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

I would say the norm for many early-stage companies is somewhere between 6-10 in-person meetings per year. The earlier stage the more likely it is 10 meetings and the later stage the more likely it is 6. Ask for short conference calls. In either case it is very helpful to have a series of 30-45 minute calls in between.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

What in your product is truly differentiated in the market to solve this problem (where do you believe you’re strong against the competition in functionality or delivery). It’s why in early-stage teams I personally invest in strong teams not in strong product strategy. why did they buy?

Technical Review 401

Technical Review Startup Business Model Non-Compete 401

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

Still, if you’re a business leader and your developers haven’t asked you these questions, look for a Fractional CTO to help navigate the critical early stage of development. How will you differentiate from these? The innovator/developer relationship needs to be a conversation. What are your key Startup Metrics ?

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO CTO Hire 520

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 29, 2016

Ironically, though, many early stage cyber security companies initially target their offerings to the Fortune 500 and look to move down market to SMBs much later in their product life-cycle – and, sometimes not at all. And this is certainly true in the cyber security sector.

Differentiation 100

Differentiation Security Intellectual Property Non-Compete 100

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Have a reasonable attitude about your early-stage valuation, and don’t get too hung up on it.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

I’ve heard investors ask about sustainable technical differentiation for companies that you put on the customer/market risk end of the scale. are much more differentiating than technology. What is your perspective on ‘sustainable technical differentiation’ for customer/market risk companies?

Vertical 167

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 167

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

I’m very pleased today to announce that I invested, on behalf of GRP Partners, in Burstly alongside Rincon Venture Partners , an early stage VC in Southern California whith whom we love to work (and were our co-investors on RingRevenue ). Burstly is attempting to provide a better, more transparent way to promote your product.

Mobile 282

Mobile Management Southern California Application Development 282

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 14, 2022

While certain aspects of setting up a startup can be exhilarating, especially in the early stages of the business, there are also plenty of bumps along the road, big and small. If the name is already taken, add an adjective or verb to differentiate it from other similar names. Image Source.

Startup 173

Startup Early Stage Naming Public Relations 173

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

Silicon Valley 309

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 309

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

So most early-stage VCs have started to evaluate investment opportunities with an imaginary benchmark in mind: can this company become a $100 million opportunity? A great product is always the foundation but a clear distribution strategy becomes essential to cut through the noise.

Churn Rate 168

Churn Rate Viral Acquisition Cofounder 168

Version One Ventures

APRIL 30, 2013

In the software space, it is commonly accepted that barriers to entry are no longer created by patents or by tech differentiation alone, but by superior traction in the marketplace. It feels like we are still in the early stage of the hardware revolution. For example, Softtech and True Ventures funded FitBit.

Venture Capital 128

Venture Capital Software Review Incubator Startup 128

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 3, 2011

As we know, this space is a very competitive one; Fetch Plus differentiates itself from the rest by targeting companies with holdings, focusing on developing tools necessary for these companies’ holdings to efficiently and effectively build and scale their social media footprint through different networks for engaging fans.

Social Media 187

Social Media Media Management Application Development 187

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

In the end I know the only true differentiator in venture capital is the company you keep. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded. I can try to be as smart as possible on market trends, industry dynamics and so forth. It’s the people who want to work with you.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Performance accountability processes.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2020

Google crawlers can differentiate good links from bad ones and determine the relevancy. When you are already juggling several tasks at the early stages of web development, focusing on the content and content quality may not rank high in your list of priorities. Content Duplication or Spinning Helps in Short Term.

SEO 147

SEO Semantic Web Development Engineer 147

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

If none of these five items is a clear differentiator in your case, a logical approach would be to assign each an equal weight of 20% of the total, and partition the total equity based on each co-founder’s correlation to each variable. A friend or family investor thus might get 20% of the equity, even with no business activity contribution.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

VC Cafe

MARCH 20, 2011

The company was one of the five winners at Seedcamp Tel Aviv 2011 , an early-stage micro seed investment and mentoring programme. Indeed this tool is one of the key differentiators between Wibbitz and its competitors (e.g. SundaySky ) and will help it to scale.

Web 87

Web Video Cofounder Early Stage 87

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 25, 2023

While platforms like Instagram offer a great starting point, the key to differentiation lies in the age-old strategy of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 7- Differente from the competition Photo Credit: Chris Gerbig The key to success for a new e-commerce business owner would be to find something that differentiates from the competition.

eCommerce 143

eCommerce Omaha Entrepreneur SEO 143

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

And while there is a narrative that most LPs only want to invest in the long-standing Silicon Valley brands that have existed for the past 40 years, there is evidence that many LPs understand that it is possible for new entrants in our industry to stake out grounds of differentiation.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital LP Silicon Valley Marketing 150

Hunter Walker

MAY 17, 2024

It’s also not an accident that, upon stepping back from being Textio’s CEO, I’ve built a sizable exec coaching practice working largely with early stage founders. It’s not an accident that I started out in academia or that I have coached kids’ sports for so many years. HW: nerd processor, your weekly newsletter , is great!

Cofounder 131

Cofounder Founder Technical Review Seattle 131

YoungUpstarts

MAY 11, 2016

Complementary domains” simply means differentiating the url through the top-level domain (TLD), while keeping the domain name itself static. Complementary domains give businesses the ability to maintain more control over their brands and create a better experience for their customers.

SEM 100

SEM Los Angeles Software Review Naming 100

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2024

Biggest Takeaway: While significant progress has been made in AI, we are still in the early stages of its development. The future of AI lies in developing models that can understand the context and differentiate between right and wrong answers.

Fractional CTO 91

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Marketing 91

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2017

Carefully describe their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the key drivers of competitive differentiation in the marketplace. This gives the assurance that if management executes well, the company has substantial profit and liquidity potential. Don’t just list competitors. market research). Demonstrate barriers to entry.

Venture Capital 129

Venture Capital Business Plan Technical Review Private Placement 129

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Competitors & Alternatives and your core differentiation. You should also be reviewing your cash flow forecasts to understand how much money you need to take your business through its early stages. In addition to “the problem”, the pitch contains an overview of the following: Solution. Target market.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

Up and Running

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Is it differentiated from other products in its competitive set? And one question that many startups overlook at the early stages of formulating their business plans: do you have a well-reasoned, effective, and budget-savvy marketing plan? Is there a well-defined, sustainable market for your product?

Marketing 142

Marketing Technical Review SEO Hosting 142

VC Cafe

APRIL 8, 2011

What started originally as how can VCs differentiate themselves to stand out, quickly became an Entrepreneur’s wish list from its VCs. Help with recruiting – Finding and helping interview candidates is invaluable, especially in the early stages. Several entrepreneurs asked: Not just the what but the why.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Due Diligence Hosting Harvest 101