Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2016

To win, you need to think outside the box to deliver a better customer experience, business model, and new positioning. It takes extra effort and focus on some special techniques, including the following, to get the edge you need over your competitors in customer attraction and retention: Set order-of-magnitude goals.

Ideas 103

Ideas Competition Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2016

Does your business have a visible positive strategy, or do your customers and employees still see your primary focus as closing more sales and killing competitors? Certainly that has been the strategy of many companies, and has worked in the past, but today’s customers and workers are looking for more. Market and customer positioning.

Custom 104

Custom Customer Social Media Competition 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Investors want to hear about customers with money who have a painful problem that you can solve now. Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 02/03/2016.

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2016

That’s the right place to start, but real growth and scale requires attracting customers who are not like you. Update your technology to reach new customer segments. Today’s customers want to be mobile and location sensitive. Make your offering part of improving customer lifestyle rather than just solving a problem.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Marketing Social Media 55

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. The more revolutionary the solution, the more important it is to educate customers on a solution’s existence and value.

Product 95

Product Case Study Customer Custom 95

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

Diagnosing and understanding the customer problem. This means all business people, especially entrepreneurs, need to get beyond the presentations and the experts, to actively listen to real customers. They need to ask customers the difficult questions, and really understand costs versus benefits, as well as competitive alternatives.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Sales Startup Customer 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

With interactive social media and video everywhere, everyone needs to feel they have a relationship with their leaders, and every brand needs leader personification for customers to relate. Interact with employees and customers on a regular basis. Never be too busy to talk to real customers. by Steven D.

Social Media 99

Social Media Metrics Custom Customer 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2014

zettabytes by the year 2016. This gives rise to the personalization and customization that we all want. Analytics will soon drive nearly all business decisions for any company that wants to remain relevant to its customers. Crowdsource: putting your audience to work beyond customers. Big data:” learning from the flood.

Startup 99

Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 99

socalTECH

APRIL 21, 2017

For people who send things out, it's a chance to be in front of your customer. We're working with some very large, extremely well known CPGs to help them establish that direct selling channel, and help them create a relationship with their customer. You need to understand what it means when a customer receives a product.

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Startup Product Custom Customer 145

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

However, its unique-for-the-industry monthly subscription model has helped it maintain healthy profits from its loyal customer base in 2023. You may remember it from it’s 2016 appearance on Shark Tank, where it secured $600,000 in funding from Sharks Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca. Organic milk formula product Bobbie.

Startup 195

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 195

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. A Strong Alumni Network. And we’re so glad we did!

Startup 70

Startup Competition Google Capital 70

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

His focus is primarily on improving the results for traditional sales professionals, but I’m convinced that the same principles are equally critical for entrepreneurs selling their startup to investors, strategic partners, and customers. It can be your competitive advantage over peers and existing players, and it’s fun to do.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

After reviewing her day-by-day recommendations to improve productivity in a single week, I have extrapolated her guidance to ten productivity tips specifically for entrepreneurs to regain that competitive edge: Focus on managing yourself rather than managing others. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/31/2016.

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Tips Activity Startup Product 100

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

billion company in the brutally competitive beauty industry, especially one with such broad appeal. The following year, she stepped down as CEO, and by 2016, her company filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Boohoo. Glossier’s commoditized feminism aside, it’s no easy task to launch a $1.8

Startup 280

Startup Netflix Los Angeles Innocal 280

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 31, 2015

We can’t give you a recipe for success, but here are 10 ways to lower your startup’s expenses and free up capital in 2016. If you think you are paying too much for your product or service, shop around for a more competitive price and ask your vendor to match it. Hire freelancers, temps, or college students. Take advantage of the Cloud.

Startup 40

Startup Cloud Computing Tool Pricing 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

million in funding on TechCrunch led by Harmony Partners and Upfront Ventures to double its footprint of 3 cities (New York, Chicago & Washington DC) to 6 in 2016. In just one year we captured 2% of all new customers in NYC who wanted to store household items other than furniture. It worked perfectly. Expanding to Cities.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

They bristle quickly when investors or even potential customers raise issues with real value, competition, risk, and sustainability. The best strategy here is to not to over-react or be defensive, and highlight specific value to customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 09/29/2016.

Ideas 92

Ideas Case Study Mobile Resource 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2016

Here are some guidelines for the most productive interchanges with business associates, investors, and customers: Limit your statements and answers to sixty seconds or less. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/27/2016. Time is a critical resource in these rapidly changing times.

Activity 104

Activity Resource Email Competition 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2016

Unfortunately, this approach often turns off mainstream customers, who find the result hard to use. Even worse, this “feature creep” often makes the final product late to market, sluggish and more expensive than competition. Customer requirements should be re-confirmed and re-prioritized after each release.

Product 61

Product Competition Custom Customer 61

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Lead with your intent to offer the solution free to customers. Of course, customers love free, but investors hate it. In reality, fundamental changes in technology frighten away more customers than they attract, and take longer and more money to come to fruition than any investors wants to commit. Skip the hype.

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Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

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. I believe their competitive advantage is their top on-site leadership, exclusivity, and connections to investors.

Incubator 106

Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value). But that’s harder to build in 2016 than it was in say 2005. Our centralization is their achilles heel.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2016

Peers and customers alike still expect responsiveness. Yet peers and customers notice phone calls and e-mails not returned in twenty-four hours or less. Anything less makes you non-competitive. Your willingness and your ability to tackle any challenge are the only things that customers, peers, and managers appreciate.

Startup 93

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Screening 93

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2016

They need incentives to investigate market trends and competitive actions, as well as continuous communication of the bigger picture of the business and current objectives. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 12/07/2016. Give credit.

Marketing 89

Marketing Coach Mentor Social Media 89

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2016

Write all goals in the future tense, be as specific as possible, and make an effort to raise each goal one level higher to set you above your competition. The reality is that everyone wants to help – friends, investors, even customers, but you have to take the initiative. Establish a clear visual picture of each goal.

Writing 100

Writing Ideas Startup Entrepreneur 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2016

It's a pretty diverse set of customers, who are all driven of our SaaS-based, contact engine we have created. It's a highly competitive market. We're not bumping anybody out, and there's no competition sitting in that space today. How did you get involved with the company? That's forcing health plans to step up their game.

Mobile 100

Mobile Southern California Startup Marketing 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

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? I think we're seeing our growth finally is starting to be exponential, while back in 2015 and 2016 we found we needed to have some patience.

Help 100

Help Southern California Startup Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

And there is often competition over marketing activities, fund raising ownership and the like. And in thinking about where we wanted to place our 2016 internal resource investment dollars into we began to think about which services would have the highest impact on the three edges of this triangle and we recognized it was marketing.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

First-to-market is a key competitive advantage. If they want growth and sustainability, they often increase the smart risks, meaning more risk for growth or competitive advantage. If we build a great product, customers will find it and us. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 02/10/2016.

Startup 58

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Ideas 58

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

In enterprises, performance objectives are usually tied to internal processes, rather than beating competitors, customer acquisition, and revenue growth. Corporate entities operate under strict competitive and accounting rules. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/24/2016.

IBM 85

IBM IBM Entrepreneur Technical Review 85

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2016

This confuses customers, and dilutes your marketing impact. You need a new and innovative addition to get customer attention, and stand out above competitors. Hone your definition of target customer demographics. Change competitive positioning and pricing to improve traction. Adapt to an emerging customer need or pain.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur Pricing Course Competition 57

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

I believe that the resourcefulness to turn constraints into competitive differentiators and new opportunities is a trait that separates the great entrepreneurs from the “wannabes.” If you have a great product and need customers, find a partner with many customers who needs a new product. There is still room for many more.

Startup 57

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Outsource 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

Angels are most interested to help you scale the business, once you have real customer traction and ready to break out. These are required to show that you have a defensible competitive advantage or at least a barrier to entry. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 03/02/2016.

Angel 65

Angel Startup Technical Review Social Media 65

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2017

exabytes per month at the end of 2016, of which half was video. This gives rise to the personalization and customization that we all want. Analytics will soon drive nearly all business decisions for any company that wants to remain relevant to its customers. Crowdsource: putting your audience to work beyond customers.

Startup 55

Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 55

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2016

A focus on business execution certainly includes selecting the right idea and developing a marketable solution, but it also requires selecting a viable target market, attracting customers, winning against competition, and delivering a value proposition which is attractive to customers as well as the business.

Ideas 54

Ideas Entrepreneur Custom Customer 54

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2016

Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Your display of pride in the company and respect for the customer will translate directly into motivation.

Startup 58

Startup Examples Mentor Activity 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2016

An entrepreneur has to be as adept at building a team, finding the right external partners, and finding customers, as building the solution. With the Internet and easy global communication, title and offices are not competitive advantages. Your team and customers need to see you as a stable leader, not an unpredictable tyrant.

Entrepreneur 67

Entrepreneur Startup Ideas Sample 67