Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In other words, how do you recognize the challenges that really need your leadership , versus the less critical demands that seem to always bubble to the top? Be sure to take the time yourself to keep up with leadership trends and needs. Meetings with your team seem to be non-productive.

Leadership 301

Leadership Founder Salary Demand 301

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2022

Technical skills are important, but your ability to build and nurture relationships with others is more important for leadership growth and career advancement today. Your career and leadership value can be greatly enhanced, or greatly hampered, by your participation, or lack of it, in industry forums, the local community, and global issues.

Leadership 304

Leadership Technical Review Social Media Global 304

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2022

In my experience as an advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs in business, one of the biggest failures I see is a lack of self-leadership. I define self-leadership as the capacity to set direction and make decisions, to positively drive your own performance. Leadership in business starts with making good personal choices.

Leadership 285

Leadership Reputation Venture Capital Global 285

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2023

As a business consultant and mentor to many young entrepreneurs, I often get questions about leadership challenges , and what you can do to solidify your leadership position and impact. It seems that today’s worker generation is more demanding, and less willing to accept guidance and direction from anyone with a leadership title.

Leadership 281

Leadership Agile Demand Developer 281

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2023

With today’s rapidly changing environment, I see many business leaders reverting to the “ command and control ” leadership model, in an effort to be more responsive, rather than leading with their heads and heart. I believe that a fully engaged team is the key to both productivity and agility in the face of change.

Leadership 280

Leadership Agile Demand Search 280

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

One person can build a product, but it takes a dedicated team, with strong leadership, to build a business. It’s important to define your growth strategy, document it, communicate it to your team, and align metrics and employee rewards to target goals. Build a strong employee culture focused on growth.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2020

In fact, there are a host of reasons why a non-focused startup business is more likely to struggle for survival, lose market and investor attention, and miss out on the opportunity to capitalize on their scope: Time to market is tied to the size of your offering. No startup can implement a broad strategy quickly enough to stay ahead.

Startup 424

Startup Bandwidth Distribution Agile 424

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

Successful startups seem to follow similar paths to greatness, and unfortunately all too often that path leads them back down the hill much faster than they went up. By definition, most startups begin as a result of some innovation in product, process, or service. Consider MySpace and Webvan. Geographic expansion.

Dilution 355

Dilution Startup Merger Flash 355

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

I recently found the classic sales training book “ Bootstrap Selling The Sandler Way ,” by Bill Morrison, who has 20 years in sales leadership roles, and I was amazed at how many of his sales lessons are great lessons for new entrepreneurs as well. That mentality has to be part of the culture of every startup team member from the start.

Sales 348

Sales Startup Bootstrapping Technical Review 348

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. The entrepreneurial mindset is a function of motivation, priorities, and risk versus reward, all of which you set or enable by your leadership and example.

Startup 337

Startup Technical Review Employee Hiring 337

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. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Execution leadership. Leadership brand development.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2020

This will improve your effectiveness in your current role, and give you a head start towards a future role, such as startup founder, where you are the boss. Understand both leadership and management. Train yourself to follow leadership best practices. You don’t have to be a boss to be a leader or a manager.

Leadership 380

Leadership Demand Management Founder 380

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2021

If you are a young startup founder, how do you find that CEO or other executive for your “dream team” to close on funding or complement your skills to kick start your company? Provide effective leadership. Remember that leadership is both upward, as well as downward to direct reports and employees.

Exit Strategy 407

Exit Strategy Leadership Founder Networking 407

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2022

They don’t realize that it takes more to succeed in business or a career – it takes leadership skills to get people to follow you, including peers, a team, business partners, and customers. Luckily, you can learn needed leadership skills. Celebrate small successes in your leadership efforts.

Leadership 285

Leadership Startup Networking Engineer 285

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2023

In fact, there are a host of reasons why a non-focused startup business is more likely to struggle for survival, lose market and investor attention, and miss out on the opportunity to capitalize on their scope: Time to market is tied to the size of your offering. No startup can implement a broad strategy quickly enough to stay ahead.

Startup 287

Startup Bandwidth Distribution Agile 287

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

Thus I often recommend that before you kick off your own business, you join another startup or existing business to see how things really work. Actually, building and nurturing the right team is the hard part, requiring communication, hiring, and leadership. Your leadership skills do not develop without effort.

Intellectual Property 432

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Technical Review Angel Investor 432

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 28, 2023

The pervasiveness of social networking and the Internet has caused a new focus and value on “openness,” which leads to a new element of leadership, called “open leadership.” The mantra of open leadership is “Be Open, Be Transparent, and Be Authentic.” Distributed.

Social Media 281

Social Media Media Software Review Social Network 281

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. Here are ten of the key questions that apply equally well to the world of startups and entrepreneurs, as they do to large organizations.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2023

The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Most new startup founders start out by assuming they need to spread their leadership efforts evenly across all team members.

Employee 267

Employee Leadership Cofounder Matching 267

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2021

More and more entrepreneurs are hearing about the successful graduates and investors queued behind a few well-known startup incubators, including Y Combinator, TechStars, and the Founder Institute. His tests focus on personality traits alone (ignoring your startup idea), looking for fluid intelligence, openness, and agreeableness.

Incubator 366

Incubator Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital 366

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2022

I have personally used this approach in leading startups as well as large organizations, in highly technical roles as well as business development and marketing. If you are always hard to find, too busy or unavailable behind closed doors, no leadership or mentoring relationship can work effectively.

Elevator Pitch 386

Elevator Pitch Technical Review Dividend Leadership 386

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2021

Startups may be quicker to adopt innovations, but there are clearly some large problems than can only be solved by companies with large resources. When people change, due to new leadership, new motivation, or business changes, innovations occur, which can lead to culture change, rather than the other way around.

Technical Review 431

Technical Review Leadership Operations Networking 431

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2023

This will improve your effectiveness in your current role, and give you a head start towards a future role, such as startup founder, where you are the boss. Understand both leadership and management. Train yourself to follow leadership best practices. You don’t have to be a boss to be a leader or a manager.

Management 291

Management Leadership Demand Founder 291

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies. Every organization must constantly review its hiring practices, training, and leadership to make sure the focus is on people who are motivated, open-minded, and empowered. It all starts with agile leadership. The real problem is inflexible people.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

This dual-leadership approach would have avoided the frustration I felt in a startup a few years ago where beta customers loved our software solution as a free prototype, but we couldn’t sell one in the first few months for a price that seemed reasonable for all our work and innovation. These two jobs need to be done in parallel.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

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. They look at your track record, industry leadership, marketing energy, moral values, and peer relationships.

Valuation 368

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 368

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Innovation driven by the next crisis is not leadership. On the other end of the spectrum, technology startups also really need this mentality, since the rate of change there is rapid, and competition is so intense.

Framework 402

Framework Engineer Leadership Revenue 402

TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

The explanation from software leadership is often unsatisfying or unclear. Outgrowing your stack: Your tech stack was just right for your startup. Process and Team Review It’s easy for development teams, especially startup teams, to cut process corners in the name of shipping features. Will they resent scrutiny from the outside?

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review Architecture 260

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2022

I saw a good summary of these in the classic book, “ Ethical Leadership ,” by Andrew Leigh, an expert in this area. Business ethics are more about religion than management or leadership. One of the keys to setting the right ethical tone is understanding and avoiding the myths and pitfalls of others. The reality is different.

Software Review 291

Software Review Offshore Entrepreneur Leadership 291

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and In any job you either find leadership opportunities for your best people BEFORE they ask or other people start asking them to become leaders somewhere else. Leadership is about recognizing your next generation of talent and helping lift them up.

Partner 361

Partner Management Cofounder San Francisco 361

Duct Tape Marketing

JULY 11, 2024

Beginning with the Metronome effect, In our conversation, Shannon Susko defines the Metronomics framework and explains how it can revolutionize the way CEOs and leadership teams approach growth, strategy, and execution. Key Takeaways Like a Metronome, the CEO sets the speed of things. Book your call today, DTM World slash scale. (01:03):

Framework 91

Framework Leadership Widget Metrics 91

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Peer relationships and good advisor relationships are key to any balanced leadership, especially for right-brained people. Even Steve Jobs, who relished his visionary thinking, later learned to listen to his advisors and his Board, after loosing his leadership role in the early days of Apple.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review Metrics Leadership Technology 332

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2022

Based on many years of experience in business as an executive and consultant, I have long been convinced that emotional intelligence (EQ or EI) in leadership wins over logical intelligence (IQ) every time. It is especially important for you to recognize your life’s purpose , and understand how it is driving your leadership.

Leadership 352

Leadership Partner Developer Management 352

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

As an investor in startups, I most often see entrepreneurs who are technologists, or at least have a real passion for a specific product. Here is my list of key drivers that I find critical to thriving in big businesses, as well as startups: Networking to build and maintain key relationships.

Silicon Valley 284

Silicon Valley Technical Review Leadership Metrics 284

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Providing business leadership is a challenge under the best of circumstances, but it is especially difficult in times of market and customer crises. By being proactive in response rather than defensive, your leadership is confirmed rather than questioned. Every case is a new one where prior experience won’t help you.

Leadership 305

Leadership Business Model Customer Small Business 305

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2023

I like the specifics on how to do this in the classic book, “ The Agenda Mover: When Your Good Idea Is Not Enough ,” by leadership expert Samuel B. Bacharach, Cornell Professor and cofounder of the Bacharach Leadership Group.

Technical Cofounder 341

Technical Cofounder Founder Cofounder Mobile 341

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2023

In reality, based on my experience as a startup advisor and investor, these constraints lead the best entrepreneurs to the most innovative solutions and new markets otherwise overlooked by their peers and competitors. I believe it all starts with you as a leadership role model, and the mindset and expectations you broadcast to your team.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Partner Matching Channel 277