Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Successful entrepreneurs understand the difference between a good business relationship with more people and having more friends. In fact, the focus on social networking platforms, starting with Facebook, has destroyed the meaning of the word friend and even changed it from a noun to a verb.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2016

As a startup advisor and investor, I find that more and more entrepreneurs avoid using the term “profit” in pitching their new venture. My view is that the purpose of every business is to make a profit, as fuel for growth, sustainability, and social impact. The best business models benefit social needs as well as business needs.

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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. Here is my adaptation of his engagement principles for all the aspiring entrepreneurs I advise: Learn to adopt an outsider’s perspective.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Things change so fast these days in business that your first priority as an entrepreneur is to stay current, by talking to customers, peers, and experts. Smart entrepreneurs overtly plan every month to re-sync their vision and objectives with newly-learned market realities. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/06/2016.

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TechCrunch LA

JUNE 3, 2022

After all, Glossier’s founder and CEO Emily Weiss is very, very far from the first entrepreneur to profit off of our desire to look good. 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

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs still believe that “if we build it, they will come.” It is search engines, web content, blogs, social media, e-mail direct, on one of many mobile-phone approaches? Every entrepreneur needs a strategy, and some metrics to measure what’s working and how much it costs. For good content, less is more.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2016

I found this illustrated well in a new book I just finished, “ A Paperboy’s Fable ,” by a young entrepreneur and writer Deep Patel. Although just seventeen years old, Patel has some great insights that I can extrapolate for every aspiring entrepreneur to answer the most common question I get as an advisor and mentor – “Where do I start?”

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2016

Today, in this age of pervasive social media and two-way communication, the focus needs to get beyond demographics into personalities. The challenge for every entrepreneur and every business is to understand the pragmatics of identifying and reacting to what their customers love and what they hate.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2014

zettabytes by the year 2016. Virtual living: the rise and growing dominance of social media. As an entrepreneur, what steps can you take to help your business not only survive the data hurricane, but to thrive under these new and challenging conditions? Big Data Christopher Surdak entrepreneur information wave startup'

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2016

Many entrepreneurs assume that everyone will love their solution as much as they do, so they tune their marketing focus based on their own needs and wants. Include mobile-app support and new social-media channels. Incorporate social consciousness into your message. Word-of-mouth is an inadequate strategy.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2016

As an active angel investor myself, I understand how the process works, and I see the disappointment in the eyes of entrepreneurs who approach angel groups for funding and often get turned away for not being timely or prepared in the minds of potential investors. Highlight existing presence on the Internet and social media.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2017

exabytes per month at the end of 2016, of which half was video. Virtual living: the rise and growing dominance of social media. As an entrepreneur, what steps can you take to help your business not only survive the data hurricane, but to thrive under these new and challenging conditions?

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2017

This data comes from sensors, social media posts, digital pictures and videos, purchase transactions, everywhere. Social media and web data. Social media postings and e-Commerce transactions are just a couple of the sources of external data that are of great interest to many companies. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for that disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to Gallup. Many entrepreneurs forget that the growth phase may be your tightest squeeze on cash. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 07/22/2016.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

It’s equally easy to go online and incorporate your new entity, register some intellectual property and have some fun with social media for marketing and interacting with customers. Here are the key principles I recommend as an advisor to many entrepreneurs: Start your business in your own home.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

I’m a strong proponent of new entrepreneurs starting with a big vision, and believing anything is possible -- but I’m also a pragmatist who believes in factoring some realism into any plan. Entrepreneurs who expect funding at the idea stage are usually disappointed. Entrepreneurs have learned that there are no rewards without risk.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2016

I meet many entrepreneurs with a real passion for their new idea, but unfortunately they don’t all realize that passion is necessary but not sufficient fuel to turn their idea into a successful business. Use social media and live customers to eliminate any reality distortion in your internal perception of value.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2016

With the pervasive and instant communication of social media and the Internet, businesses can no longer hide behind the mask of their own hype, either inside the company or outside. I believe these steps are especially critical to the success of entrepreneurs who are rolling out new businesses today.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2016

After listening and working with hundreds of entrepreneurs, I have heard many focused only on their next million dollar idea, but very few make any money from an idea alone. Both groups are missing the essence of an entrepreneur – the business focus. Every entrepreneur needs ideas and the focus on building a great solution.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

Unfortunately, many passionate entrepreneurs read this initial surge as success, and charge ahead with more of the same passion, leading to a series of potential pitfalls that can quickly jeopardize the health of the entire business. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 08/13/2016. That’s a win-win combination for everyone.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

Most people have heard of Foursquare for local nightlife and Airbnb for rooms, but other nationally recognized sources for local services are still hard to find, including social media, local news, advertising, and event calendars. Isn’t it time that you joined this age of the entrepreneur? Anyone can do it.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2016

In addition to funding, the good news is that all of these provide aspiring entrepreneurs with an opportunity to perfect their marketing pitch, get some valuable target customer feedback and improve visibility to other funding sources. While all this is definitely a boon to entrepreneurs, it does come with its own set of challenges.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2017

Every good entrepreneur learns to pivot, and learn from that experience, but never see failure. Mark Zuckerberg started Facemash as a dating site for Harvard elite, but found success only after morphing it to Facebook social media for all. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/20/2016.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Many entrepreneurs are so passionate about their new startup idea that they can’t believe any intelligent being, investor or customer wouldn’t react just as excitedly after a quick introduction. Indeed, all entrepreneurs have to start at the beginning with passion for an idea. Repetition is the key to getting people’s attention.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2016

Most entrepreneurs I know are so passionate about their new idea that they are surprised when family and friends don’t line up to invest in their new venture. The reality is that investors, including myself, believe that the entrepreneur is more key to business success than the idea. Talking loudly is not enough.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2016

Customers today extrapolate their relationships not only from personal contact, but from every aspect of their interface with your company, including web site and social media interactions, access to peer reviews, as well as the actual services experience. New media shapes and reflects the customer experience.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2016

Most new entrepreneurs have great ideas, and many are highly skilled in building their solutions. Feedback on engagement should come from multiple sources, including social media reviews, peer reviews, and executive interviews. Entrepreneurs and team members who genuinely care for each other relish their engagement with others.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2016

I heard it again yesterday from a technical entrepreneur who should know better than to believe the old “ Field of Dreams ” sports fantasy movie theme in today’s Internet information overload environment. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 12/07/2016. “If we build it, they will come.” Reward success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2018

I have added my own insights, based on my experience advising and working with entrepreneurs and startups: Pay for results, rather than pay for work. Use of collaborative and other social media platforms. In startups, and even corporate environments, I see the spread of collaborative social platforms such as Slack and Trello.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2016

With today’s interactive social media and the real-time Internet, both customers and employees see inside your company easily, so you can’t hide your real company culture. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 08/19/2016. Thus in every business, big or small, culture can make or break your success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2016

On the other hand, if you are a new entrepreneur, a well-written and complete business plan demonstrates that you understand the issues and have a real plan for execution. When Facebook first started looking for investors, there was so social-media market. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 04/15/2016.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. In that context, I offer you my latest collection of popular investor-to-entrepreneur terms and concepts. Frothy is good for entrepreneurs. Seed-round investment.

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socalTECH

APRIL 21, 2017

Georg Richter: For the five years before I started the company in January of 2016, I was at Guthy Renker, which is one of the largest and biggest direct marketing companies in the world. You can get orders at a low cost in the beginning using things like social media. How did you get into this? That's a big mistake.

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Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

On your birthday, something special happens on social media: you receive hundreds of likes and well wishes from friends, family, high school classmates and people you haven’t talked to for years on Facebook. And while this has been the standard for years, one startup is hoping to personalize the birthday wishes even more.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2016

Entrepreneurs don’t realize that this burden is actually costing them over $200 billion in repeat sales, according to a recent study by the W. Today’s generation is accustomed to relationships via social media and texting, as long as social protocols are honored. Carey School of Business. Provide training and empowerment.

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Eric Greenspan

JANUARY 24, 2016

Like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre use rap lyrics, Seth and I use social media instead. We would relaunch the company in 2016 as the new entity and get all our ducks in a row. It was done in a matter of minutes and the new company was finalized and I took full control on January 1, 2016. I was really excited.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Many entrepreneurs are so focused on finalizing their innovative product or service that they procrastinate on the formalities of forming the requisite new company until later. Building a business plan is a discipline every entrepreneur needs to learn early, required or not.

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