Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2022

Yet as I mentor entrepreneurs around the country, crowdfunding still seems to be one of the least understood approaches to startup funding, with more myths than accredited angels and professional venture capital investors combined. Product pre-order model. Startup equity model. Donation good-cause model. Interest on debt model.

Accredited Investor 352

Accredited Investor Startup SEC Equity 352

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

These things outside your control do happen, but based on my years of experience as a startup advisor and angel investor, I still see too many strategies leading to failure that are inside the entrepreneur decision realm. Finish the product before marketing begins. No startup can afford to do these serially.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Even though the color of their money is always green, all startup investors are not the same. 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. It’s no fun for either side.

Technical Review 345

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Offshore 345

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

Valuation 466

Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

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. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup. Reducing Startup Risk.

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

In my experience, the Silicon Valley startup model, focused on disrupting established industries, has treated the USA well and created some great global businesses. It has played almost no role in the emergence of current non-US bred startups, including Alibaba in China, Waze from Israel, Paytm in India, and many more.

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2023

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. The only real alternative is to find a cofounder who can build and lead the team, while you focus on the product. Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail.

Leadership 318

Leadership Technical Review Technical Cofounder Development Team Review 318

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2021

It takes an effective team to attract and serve a community in business these days. With real-time online reviews and feedback via the Internet, and instant relationships via social media, a voice from the top that is inconsistent with what is heard from the firing line defines a dysfunctional and noncompetitive company for today’s customer.

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Developer Startup Social Media Internet 387

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2022

I have found it to be more productive and effective to lead with the model that no meetings will take an hour, and may be done in as little as five minutes. 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. Marty Zwilling.

Elevator Pitch 386

Elevator Pitch Technical Review Dividend Leadership 386

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Juggling multiple responsibilities and ensuring productivity can be challenging without effective time management strategies. Avoid Multitasking Multitasking may appear beneficial but often leads to decreased productivity and increased mistakes.

Management 158

Management Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 158

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2021

Many product innovations come from quality improvement focuses, like the Japanese Kaizen initiative. Startups may be quicker to adopt innovations, but there are clearly some large problems than can only be solved by companies with large resources. Innovation must be driven top down by visionary leaders.

Technical Review 431

Technical Review Leadership Operations Networking 431

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

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 4, 2025

The Edtech market is expected to grow by 16% between this year and 2029, providing a great deal of opportunity for startups. One EdTech startup from Colorado is leading the pack when it comes to long-term impact. To date, much of the growth of the EdTech sector has focused on technology that enhance student learning.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Management Software Review Colorado 100

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

In Q3 of 2024, AI-related startups landed $19 billion USD, which equates to 28% of total venture dollars. The rise of startups in the pet care space A recent analysis of veterinary services in the US showed that the number of graduates from existing vet colleges will be enough to meet demand through 2035.

Artificial Inteligence 93

Artificial Inteligence Engineer Software Software Engineering 93

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 22, 2024

Delays can make or break a startup. In the fast-paced startup environment, where every customer counts, delays can quickly spiral into lost opportunities and tarnished reputations. Startups often juggle multiple priorities with limited resources, making it easy for delays to creep into operations.

Artificial Inteligence 143

Artificial Inteligence Customer Technical Review Operations 143

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

For example, my dictate that entrepreneurs need to find a “ painful ” problem to solve (such as high cost, low productivity) to attract customers, doesn’t really account for many successful startup businesses today, including top social media platforms, dating sites, and new fashions.

Customer 432

Customer Social Media Dividend Technical Review 432

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 14, 2024

The order is important because I fell in love with the product before I even knew about the company, and the hustle of its founder/CEO Sandro Roco. I was working at a venture-backed apparel startup for 4 years and saw the power of building digitally-native brands through Facebook and Instagram (TikTok was still nascent).

New York City 110

New York City Hockey Stick Distribution Angel Investor 110

Steve Blank

JUNE 20, 2022

He previously cofounded several enterprise software startups, and his previous job was building a new innovation organization from scratch inside another large company. And more importantly it wasn’t clear which, if any, of those groups were actually continuously delivering products and services at high speed. His challenge was to.

CTO 368

CTO Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

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. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Performance accountability processes.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 21, 2025

Additionally, constructive and future-oriented feedback motivates employees to synchronize their objectives with the organization’s vision, helping to create a workforce that is not only satisfied but also highly productive and aligned with company objectives.

Software Review 104

Software Review Technical Review Employee Agile 104

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Labor rates are lower in some countries, but culture and language match are the real keys to productivity. Hire and train your own managers for internal and external work projects.

Cost 346

Cost Philippines Bandwidth Cofounder 346

TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Ensure that you investigate the designers' past work, samples of their work product, and their process. Although noteworthy, working with large corporations differs remarkably from working with startups. Quality of Work: The end product should not only look good but function as expected. cto , product , saas

Software Developers 297

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Software 297

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. In fact, this article was driven by a startup press release I saw a while back, highlighting a startup’s “geo-fencing technology” as a new basis for discount coupons.

Marketing 353

Marketing Technical Review Social Media Technology 353

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. Make sure everyone accurately posts their role with your startup on social media profiles, resumes, and references. Status of the solution.

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

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? Most founders are product guys. The CEO must focus on key management team hires and assume a few mistakes which need to get fixed.

Exit Strategy 407

Exit Strategy Leadership Founder Networking 407

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

According to an old Harvard Business Review article, many people in history, famous for their inventions, like Thomas Edison, were entrepreneurs who only later were remembered as inventors of the products they commercialized. Technology limited to a single product is seldom enough for a business. Lock in your sustainable advantage.

Technical Review 391

Technical Review Intellectual Property Early Stage Global 391

VC Cafe

MARCH 16, 2025

Mention that you do “Consumer tech” as a startup founder and you’d be limiting your funding options to one third of the venture capital funds (in Israel that figure is probably closer to 10%). Until now, consumer tech was perceived as a risky binary investment. But don’t just take it from me. The potential is HUGE.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review B2C Generative AI IPO 78

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

This isn’t just our opinion - our startup metrics prove it! 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.

Generative AI 297

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence Houston America 297

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

With social media and smart phone apps, real product information spreads at astounding speeds. Bureaucracy can appear quickly in startups as well as large companies. An agile business doesn’t wait for their current product line to fail, before planning some enhancements. They don’t realize that business as usual is gone forever.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

VC Cafe

MARCH 7, 2025

Israeli tech funding remained stable in February, with 25 startups raising a total of $588 million and two new unicorns minted: Dream and Augury. 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! in Feb, U.S.

Israel 103

Israel Stealth Taiwan ChatGPT 103

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2025

So I thought it’s a good time to share the video where lists are the key learnings from YC on how to start a technical startup: Start with a strong technical co-founding team: You need two to four co-founders with at least 50% engineering background. Also, try using your competitors’ products.

Cofounder 88

Cofounder Silicon Valley Technical Review PR 88

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Unfortunately, for startups entering a regulated market following this advice this might not be the optimum path. And why was Bill’s advice of staying away from Washington flawed for startups? These barriers to new innovative startups are called economic rent. Regulation What’s regulatory capture? Why is it bad? In the U.S.

Washington 319

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 319

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 4, 2024

Whether it’s a logo, product design, software, or a unique business process, safeguarding your IP is essential to maintaining a competitive edge and protecting your business from theft or unauthorized use. These can range from intellectual property theft to employee disputes, contract disagreements, or product liability issues.

Intellectual Property 119

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Entrepreneur Limited Liability Company 119

The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 10, 2024

In a fast-paced digital world, staying productive on the go has become more than a convenience—it’s a necessity. Whether working remotely, traveling, or handling a packed schedule, mobile productivity tools can help balance tasks effectively and efficiently. Choosing the right power bank depends on your device’s power needs.

Mobile 166

Mobile Product Cloud Security 166

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Finding a customer for your product in the Department of Defense is hard: Who should you talk to? Looking for DoD customers How do you know if they have money to spend on your product? Today, a new class of startups are attempting to sell these products to the Defense Department. But startups? So I wrote one.

Programming 249

Programming Customer Portfolio Government 249

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. In fact, that feeling of autonomy makes everyone more productive, more loyal, and feel valued.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Partner Matching Channel 277