Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Exchanging your services for services is possible with legal counsel, accountants, engineers, and even sales people.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The problem is that professional investors (angels and venture capital) want a proven business model before they invest, ready to scale, rather than early projections and product development. Exchanging your services for services is possible with legal counsel, accountants, engineers, and even sales people.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2022

Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development. Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost.

Technical Review 375

Technical Review Startup Dilution Early Stage 375

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use. Your first sales people should be consultative sellers who can fuel evangelical sales. Don’t hire “relationship management” sales people too early. Engineering is critical but it is not everything.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2013

Product development. For a great idea person, the product details keep changing for the better, but nothing ever gets finished. More customers are lost to apathy after the sale than poor service or quality. A numbing 68% of all business lost in America is lost due to lack of follow-up after the sale.

Entrepreneur 275

Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review Retention 275

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2011

Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. When I was a software development manager, I tried to get a “bottoms up” time estimate from the team, and then pad it by 50%. Sales aren’t meeting projections. But all too soon, reality sets in.

Startup 245

Startup Software Development Software Developers Business Model 245

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

During a lull in her practice she got a serendipitous opportunity to shift gears completely and ended up leading software product development teams. P.S. For more, here are detailed examples of how this mindset also sets up your sales pitch. I can see the sales pitch now. Personal authority. That's just one example!

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2013

Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. When I was a software development manager, I tried to get a “bottoms up” time estimate from the team, and then pad it by 50%. Sales aren’t meeting projections. But all too soon, reality sets in.

Founder 250

Founder Startup Software Development Software Developers 250

Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2012

Joe Dinucci, our VP of Sales, was hot on the trail of our next big order. He had just demo’d our product to his friend, the CFO of Autodesk. After seeing the demo, the CFO walked Joe over to the office of Autodesk’s VP of sales, and said to her, “I think this product might solve your sales reporting problem.”.

Forecast 299

Forecast Sales Matching Customer Development 299

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2012

Product development is stuck at that 90% mark, a key person leaves, and customers are talking but not buying. When I was a software development manager, I tried to get a “bottoms up” time estimate from the team, and then pad it by 50%. Sales aren’t meeting projections. But all too soon, reality sets in.

Software Development 229

Software Development Software Developers Business Model Product Development 229

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2009

The CEO helped identify the one key product that had huge value as confirmed via customer feedback and he built the organization around this. He asked each sales / biz dev person to call customers and tell them they had to change their contracts. I just knew that our sales sucked wind and we were burning through tons of cash.

Entrepreneur 306

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Cofounder Sales 306

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I learned how to better run a product management process. I learned how to integrate customers into our product development process. But in our first year of sales (and those were really shitty years to be selling software) we sold $2.1 I learned how to establish sales targets and how to manage a sales pipeline.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 2, 2014

More focus on customer demographics and implementing the findings into updates would probably have made a huge difference in sales. Thinking Aloud dealing with failure failure Malcolm Stewart product development product management' Don’t Make the Same Mistakes. Brands are fueled by competition.

Product 222

Product Technical Review Software Review Green 222

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 10, 2013

Website hosting, internet access and other IT products will be a part of the technological costs of starting a new business. Product Development and Marketing. A big part of your startup budget will have to be dedicated to product development and marketing. Start with a small number of employees.

Cost 183

Cost Startup Web Development Finance 183

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 26, 2010

So the early part of a technology company is about finding your hard core group of early adopters and making them passionate about your products. You need to give them advance notice of your product development or better yet let them help influence your direction. Tags: Sales & Marketing Advice Startup Advice.

Customer 294

Customer Marketing Technical Review Iowa 294

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2019

Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development. Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost.

Technical Review 255

Technical Review Dilution Early Stage Product Development 255

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. For example, a software development startup raising $250,000 from angel investors better be able to operate on $25,000 per month. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development. Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost.

Startup 254

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 254

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development. Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost.

Entrepreneur 252

Entrepreneur Marketing Technical Review Dilution 252

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

Isaac Cambron is co-founder and CTO of Zensight.co , whose pre-launch product enables sales reps to find and use their best content to close more deals. Below, he answers questions about developing products from scratch, as well as the difficult technology choices and tradeoffs CTOs must make.

Technology 334

Technology Ruby Startup Engineer 334

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

In the last decade, SaaS (Software as a Service) has become a very popular model for new software product development. The largest cost component of establishing a SaaS company is product development costs. This includes the design, development, launch, and enhancement of the SaaS application. .

Cost 158

Cost Developer Azure Churn Rate 158

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2012

There are unknowns at every turn, leading product development, attracting customers, managing cash, and dealing with human resources and office politics. The challenges stem from the simple fact that every entrepreneur is starting something new, where things are predictably unpredictable.

Advisory Board 240

Advisory Board Forecast Early Stage Product Development 240

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development. Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost.

Marketing 238

Marketing Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 238

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

The holidays are just around the corner and for many small or midsized businesses (SMBs) that means the potential for big sales. These numbers are astounding—and what would be even better is if you could turn Small Business Saturday traffic into consistent sales all year. by John Oechsle, President and CEO of Swiftpage. Not an island.

Small Business 113

Small Business Sales Colorado Technical Review 113

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

After many sales calls, early prospects showed little rush to buy it! A few of the many quotations that struck me: “Most startups fail due not to the failure of product development but due to the lack of customers”. But customers didn’t agree. All a startup has are mere hypotheses,” and. “in

Japan 305

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 305

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board Fractional CTO CTO Hire Los Angeles 365

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Great product exposure and a sales team dedicated to improving the lives of your customer base act as the face of your company. In order to truly find success this must be matched by a development team that consistently strives to deliver truly life-bettering products and services that customers keep coming back for.

Development Team Review 205

Development Team Review Security Advertising Technical Review 205

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 26, 2011

And just as my gut feel about the likely success of startups is often determined by looking at their velocity of product development and market progress of their product, so too is recruiting a factor in my assessment. Attitude over Aptitude. Only Hire A+ People. Hiring at a Startup.

Hiring 335

Hiring Technical Review Startup Framework 335

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2013

Creators of new products in environments of extreme uncertainty, startups face enormous risks. Insufficient capital, over investment, and low sales are just some of the reasons leading to this sobering statistic. In the US, about 50% of small businesses fail in the first five years. This reduces guesswork, time, money and effort.

Lean 193

Lean Technical Review North America Startup 193

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

When Sloan arrived at GM in 1920 he realized that the traditional centralized management structures organized by function (sales, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing) were a poor fit for managing GM’s diverse product lines. billion in sales in today’s dollars). Yet, you never hear who built GM to that size.

Michigan 301

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 301

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 17, 2018

Hiring = Sales. A good recruitment process has many parallels with a sales funnel. As with sales, these core reasons need to be compelling to candidates, while being as unique to you (competitive differentiation) as possible. Not sales, product development, or fundraising.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Elevator Pitch Hiring Dividend 164

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Others in that cohort included Zviki Shimon (CFO), Yair Areli (senior VP of global sales), Nir Mandel (VP of product management), and Aviv Canaani (VP of marketing). The promotion signals the importance of product development for the company’s growth roadmap.

Hiring 172

Hiring Software Review Customer Israel 172

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2017

Product development chasm. Another common chasm is never-ending product development. Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost.

Customer 191

Customer Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 191

Gust

APRIL 27, 2014

This will include the first version of many critical processes that can be split out later, including market opportunity, requirements, product definition, business model, sales process, and organization. Product development process. If you are contracting or outsourcing, this is even more important.

Startup 187

Startup Institutional Investors Angel Investor Bootstrapping 187