Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2015

Does it mean the right thing from a customer perspective, societal impact, maximizing business returns or personal benefit? Another article indicates that 80 percent of customers continue to base some portion of their buying decisions on their perceptions of the company’s ethics. Be a coach, rather than a dictator.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2015

In my perspective as an advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs, there are a set of basic strategies that can be applied to every startup to dramatically improve the odds of success, no matter what the business domain. Maybe more important, you need domain knowledge, relationships and lots of potential customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2015

A successful business has to satisfy customers with a strong team, by helping them solve problems, save money, or experience more pleasure. Many entrepreneurs are able to come up with a vision, but far fewer are able to hold on to it through thick and thin, and communicate it effectively and continuously to their team and their customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

That means practicing non-defensive listening to key advisors, team members and customers. Don’t hesitate to call in an experienced advisor or mentor to help. If everyone is incented to find new customers, there will be little focus on resolving problems with current ones. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t see one.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2015

Thus the burden is on you to capitalize on your strengths, find co-founders and team members to fill the gaps and find mentors and advisors you trust. Building a new business requires good leadership to develop the market, attract customers, motivate the team and conquer the unknowns.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

If you strategy and plan are not clear even to you, or constituents don’t seem to get it quickly, you can bet that potential customers also won’t get it. Investors expect to see a personal commitment, as well as team members, other investors or even customers. Do you promote a culture of teamwork, mentoring, and training?

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. So we first turned to solve the question of how to better meet the needs of our growing customer base of large brands and media companies. Mentorship.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2015

Bring in expert advisors and mentors to set initial goals, and build recovery plans. Don’t allow your startup to “fail by success,” meaning too many orders delivered and inventory required for big customers, before their long payment cycle kicks in. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 9/23/2015.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2015

Asking for early-stage money before you have customers and revenue will likely kill your credibility with real investors. Seed-stage, meanwhil e, is technically that critical period when you need funding to do solution- and business-model development, to prove that your new product or service works, before you try to sell it to customers.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

You can find a mentor, a coach, a project, or experience, to help you prepare for the role you are looking for. We got really serious after the success of that customer, who wanted to make this technology available for all of its employees across the globe. How is it your first customer was in Australia? versus New Zealand?

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2015

The founder needs to be a mentor and advisor, as well as a leader. All of these must be updated at least quarterly, based on feedback and results from customers, and communicated to the team on a regular basis. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 8/12/2015. Do you fit that mold?

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

A few are still trying to make a profitable business out of nurturing startups, but it’s a challenge to make money when your customer startups don’t have many resources to give. Mentoring and technical assistance from volunteer or paid experts. Direct seed funding, for a share of the equity, and introductions to investors.

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Tech.Co

APRIL 24, 2018

Being one small company amongst the sea of thousands of startups vying for customers, capital, and talent, the way to get noticed above the crowd, connect with that next big partner, and raise some capital is to throw your hat in the ring to compete at Startup of the Year.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

A few years ago, before the Internet was pervasive, before everyone carried a smartphone and before do-it-yourself software tools were available for free, it was difficult to reach a critical mass of new customers without spending a million dollars on a website, custom software and television advertising. The control is yours to keep.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2015

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I recognize that it’s easy to spot a dysfunctional team after the fact, but it’s not so easy to spot the right attributes of new team candidates, in the context of existing members. You need team members who will support team efforts and progress, despite customer challenges or questioning from executives.

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Tech.Co

JULY 12, 2017

The BB-8 app-enabled Droid had such a global adoption among kids and adults that it was named the number one Star Wars toy of 2015. ReplyYes is a frictionless e-commerce over mobile messaging experience: customers simply reply “YES” to buy the product and have it delivered.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 25, 2015

Based on my own experience mentoring real entrepreneurs and likely candidates, there are at least eight categories of non-starters. A business that tries to do too many things for too many markets will likely excel at none and discourage all potential customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 5/15/2015.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2015

Most successful entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, maintain mentor relationships with key advisors that they highly respect. By prioritizing customer need and value first, you will more likely achieve the satisfaction of seeing your paradigm shift become reality.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2015

The final clip is Fred & I talking about whether “the best product wins” and my assertion that the bias in today’s Silicon Valley dominated tech world there is probably too much emphasis on tech at the expense of how to sell, implement and service customers. I remember writing about online video nearly 5 years ago.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Here are the key principles she espouses, extended to leadership teams, based on my own background and mentoring new entrepreneurs: Learn to trust yourself and your team. All your competitors, investors, and customers are making the same assessment on you. Marty Zwilling First published on IvyExec.com on 9/25/2015.

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socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

I built my own company around marketing services, and have been around business development, marketing, custom service, and sales, and also on the consumer side of technology, a little bit a mix of the two. Barry was a lead mentor there at Chapman University's Launch Labs, and we paired up. How did you two connect?

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Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

I came on full-time with Startup Junkie in 2015, and haven’t looked back! It may sound counterintuitive, but startups are often tight on cash, which doesn’t make them great customers. That leads to a mentor network packed with subject matter experts in retail, food innovation, and supply chain.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2015

Every entrepreneur must effectively collaborate with many people, including internal team members, partners, customers, and investors. Successful startups occasionally see team projects as an opportunity to bring in outside experts to mentor team members, and guide them through complex issues and unfamiliar territory.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

He provided all kinds of feedback from a product standpoint, and we found a lot more mentors like that at Techstars. We were super excited to participate, Christine and I moved to New York for three months, and graduated in the fall of 2015. What that didn't do, is help the customer. At that time, it was 14 health plans.We

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 3, 2015

Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) April 29, 2015. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly. Great leaders are rare and competition for capital, people, press and customers can be brutal. I saw this Tweet recently by Scott Belsky, co-founder and CEO of Behance.

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InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2014

However, just as Uber pushed its way into recalcitrant East Coast cities because of intense customer demand, the TMP marshaled a critical mass of the University''s resources due to tireless student activism and the resoundingly positive feedback (and donor dollars) from the parents of TMP graduates.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2015

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, the most common question I get is, “I want to be an entrepreneur -- how do I start?” You have to enjoy working with people -- partners, customers, investors and more -- as well as products to start a business. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 3/6/2015.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

As a member of the advisory board for several startups and a mentor to other entrepreneurs, I’ve accumulated my own list of strategies and recommendations on where “going the extra mile” can save you from disaster or supercharge your startup for maximum growth under any circumstances. Actively listen to mentor and customer feedback.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2015

So it behooves every aspiring entrepreneur to understand their own DNA before picking a project to bet their life on, and to facilitate effective communication with all constituents, including partners, investors, team members and customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 6/10/2015.

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