The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 5, 2025

Your goals might include increasing market share or maybe launching a new product. Investing in employee development is not only going to boost their morale but also enhance their skills and productivity at the same time. Use this information to tailor your products, interactions and your services as well.

Software Review 147

Software Review Technical Review Retention Campaign 147

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. He had a track record of taking small teams and growing them into successful product lines.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Investors and partners now look only for a framework of your business essentials, within the context of your opportunity, solution, and financials. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Building your public image and presence should start even before product development, through your website, logo, and blogging.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

First of all, I will admit that there is some risk involved with talking to any potential investors, even with an agreement, just as there is risk in all the elements of your plan, product and market opportunity. Discussions with potential strategic partners. Product details in the public domain can never be patented.

Non-disclosure Agreement 399

Non-disclosure Agreement Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 399

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

Investors, partners, team members, and customers implicitly value or devalue a startup based on the leader’s physical presence, emotional identity, social skills, intellectual agility, moral values, and past performance in the domain. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact. Focus on talent and people growth.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2023

For example, only a few people today still think of Amazon as an online provider of books and related goods, now that they have exploded their business world-wide into every product arena, added web services (AWS), television and film production (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), a bricks-and-mortar grocery chain (Whole Foods), and more.

Partner 350

Partner Operations Metrics Leadership 350

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Sure, we built SaaS products before the term even existed but at 31 it was hard to delineate reality from what all of the monied people around us were telling us what we were worth. In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. Until we weren’t.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

View from Seed

APRIL 6, 2021

You have unbounded curiosity for emerging trends, a love for experimentation, and you’re always eager to dive into new products and technologies before others do. However, you will serve as a co-pilot on deals with all four partners, across the geographies we cover. You will be based in the NYC office. About NextView.

Technical Review 317

Technical Review Software Review Seed Stage Cofounder 317

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2023

In fact, that feeling of autonomy makes everyone more productive, more loyal, and feel valued. This also applies to key customers as well as strategic partners. Solicit partners with complementary strengths. Position challenges as future growth opportunities. Extend your reach globally with adaptations to new cultures.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Partner Matching Channel 277

TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Given this diversity, it's important to be selective in the development services company with whom you choose to partner. Ensure that you investigate the designers' past work, samples of their work product, and their process. Quality of Work: The end product should not only look good but function as expected.

Software Developers 297

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Software 297

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 4, 2024

Use Contracts to Your Advantage Whether you’re hiring employees, working with vendors, or entering into agreements with partners, contracts are essential. For instance, non-disclosure agreements ( NDAs ) can protect confidential business information, and service agreements can clarify terms of service with clients or partners.

Intellectual Property 119

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Entrepreneur Limited Liability Company 119

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments. Status of the solution.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

Are you preparing to expand, take your business in a new direction, or take on new partners? Other common scenarios that we’ve seen: Scaling and new markets: Your company and product are established, and now you’re scaling or going after new markets. We then review the answers with the technical and product teams.

Technical Review 260

Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review Architecture 260

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

If the company has been around for more than a couple of years, and still has no product or revenue flow, there better be a good explanation. If it’s too early for customers, make sure you understand exactly when the product ships, how detailed is the rollout and promotion plan, and how many times these plans have changed.

Technical Review 436

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2020

The second is a preference for product over strategy. Pretotyping is about what to do before the minimum viable product. Doing it well bakes into the system a preference for hypotheses rather than opinions; fast experiments rather than big plans; and testing ideas and strategies, not just products and technologies.

Technical Review 369

Technical Review Taiwan Technology Design 369

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

Many investors and big companies are putting money into this space or adding it their product line today. In the last couple of years, Nest's smart thermostat has put IoT in the “real” category and Amazon's Echo product accelerated the industry forward toward AI as able to deliver real value to consumers.

Artificial Inteligence 436

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Valuation Startup 436

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

For example, I believe Bill Gates would have failed without his partners Steve Ballmer and Paul Allen. I recommend a trial run with an experiment or MVP (minimum viable product), at full price and cost, before the big bang launch, risking your investment money and a major time commitment. Needed help can be your biggest burden.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2022

It started with an email survey on your last stay at their hotel, but now includes requests for online product reviews, to social media input on the design of future products. Partner with others to create unique solutions that might benefit your brand, product, or solution. Mix and blend; don’t invent.

Customer 267

Customer Technical Review Social Media Partner 267

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Product descriptions and listings require tedious editing to make them engaging - especially after the fortieth one. Are you a founder or CEO or head of product? Go through your product right now and look for empty text boxes. Each one represents a great opportunity to make your users more productive and happier.

Generative AI 297

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Houston America 297

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Investor due diligence on a startup is not a mysterious black art, but is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. Know your partner well before you get married. Marty Zwilling

Technical Review 345

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 345

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

As small companies, neither startup could afford to extend their product alone, but through creative leadership, we were able to negotiate a win-win strategic partnership for a joint product. Ability to up-sell customers with related products. Bundling and product integration to create new solutions. You can do the same.

Partner 434

Partner Non-disclosure Agreement Intellectual Property Non-Compete 434

VC Cafe

MARCH 7, 2025

Mazal tov Orly Shoavi and team ClarityQ GenAI Product Analytics on emerging from stealth with a $3.7M seed round to apply AI to digital product usage analysis! NEW APPOINTMENTS Big congrats Iren Reznikov on joining Vintage Investment Partners as a Partner! EXITS Congratulations Tomaso Zambelli , Raymond W.

Israel 103

Israel Stealth Taiwan ChatGPT 103

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. Background Questions Let’s start with some background questions about the business and product. Are there other founders, business leaders, partners, or administrators? Wireframes?

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO CTO Hire 520

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. Now comes the reality check.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2020

Get support from credible industry groups and partners. Products that can be easily produced and sold via multiple channels, including the Internet, are more easily scaled world-wide. Develop a product line and add alternate channels. Focus on a solution that is scalable world-wide.

Merger 386

Merger Software Review Acquisition Social Media 386

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Too many relationships never advance beyond this stage, resulting in poor communication, no cooperation, low trust, and low shared productivity. This is a productive working relationship where one party, more knowledgeable and/or experienced, takes an active role in fostering the advance of the other. Workship - Mentor.

Business Model 339

Business Model Developer Entrepreneur Partner 339

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. They rarely highlight their marketing and relationship skills , even though, in my experience, these are more often the key to success in business than product skills.

Silicon Valley 284

Silicon Valley Technical Review Leadership Metrics 284

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2023

Should they go after high-tech nerds for partners, or professional technologists? The right answer for a good business partner today is neither of the above. Startups succeed most often when the founding partners know how to build and run a business, rather than how to build and run technology. Are you there? Martin Zwilling

Technical Cofounder 260

Technical Cofounder Technology Management Entrepreneur 260

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2021

There you can connect with thousands of potential executives and partners, or find a planned meetup in a city near you. Most founders are product guys. Also, trusted advisors and experienced investors should be polled for good candidates. Craft an operational plan and make it work.

Exit Strategy 407

Exit Strategy Leadership Founder Networking 407

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments. Status of the solution.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2021

The key to understanding value propositions is in building interviews that are based on a set of hypotheses (about the problem, the stakeholder and potential solutions to be explored) and data to be captured while using minimum viable products (just enough “product” to increase the efficacy of a conversation and increase the speed of learning).

Curation 353

Curation Technical Review Lean Australia 353

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

It takes more than one person to build a business, so the lone entrepreneur, without support from any visible team, advisors, partners, or potential customers, will not attract investors. Surrounded by the right people and track record. Of course, previous successes provide more direct evidence of a network of the right people.

Intellectual Property 278

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Early Stage Venture Capital 278

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2025

Michael later served as a group partner, managing director, and CEO of YC. Also, try using your competitors’ products. Launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) quickly: Aim to get something into users’ hands within two months, regardless of the initial state.

Cofounder 88

Cofounder Silicon Valley Technical Review PR 88

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

Outside partners and channel impacts are complex. Of course, you need work with partners and channel to quantity their costs and contributions and normalize total results. What if someone sees an ad, visits a web page, watches a video, downloads a brochure, responds to an e-mail, and finally buys a product?

Acquisition 250

Acquisition Cost Customer Sales Cycle 250

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

How they see you deal with and talk about peers, partners, team members, and customers tells them what the real rules of conduct are for customer service. It’s a core process that must be up and effective when you deliver your first product or service. Don’t forget recognition for accomplishment and efforts.

Technical Review 385

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 385

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2022

These have helped them build trust and confidence among team members, and effectively sell their message to partners, investors, vendors and customers. Don’t wait for competitors to force the need for better products, lower prices and better customer service. This applies to suppliers and business partners as well.

Leadership 317

Leadership Founder Startup Networking 317

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

Start by building just enough of your product to get early CAC and CLV signals (they won’t be perfect). Finally, review the numbers with your partners. cto , infotech , innovation , product , project , saas If you can demonstrate that your CAC and CLV numbers work as expected, then you’ve proven you can make money.

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260