Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

The rate of new entrepreneurs increased between 2013 and 2019, from 280 out of 100,000 to 310 out of 100,000 of the adult population. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation. Early customer feedback will position your solution, and help you make pivots before critical time and money are lost.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

It’s always tempting to think that more product variations will satisfy more customers and lead to new sales. Some chaos is normal in every new business, but many wait far too long before they install metrics based on “best practices,” and fail to attack obvious bottlenecks with a vengeance. Use multiple small orders at first.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

In 2019, the company came out with its first product, Kelp Jerky, which comes in four flavors, and was a product Boyd Myers thought would be a good trial run to help people see ocean-farmed kelp in a new way. Ultimately 1,000 customers signed up, and The Kelp Burger is now the “hero product,” Boyd Myers said.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

My simple answer is that they keep their focus on customers, rather than technology. Jeff Bezos has kept his focus on customers. In my view, every startup in today’s world would do well to adopt a management system with the same key objectives: Start with a customer-obsessed business model.

Marketing 123

Marketing Technical Review Custom Customer 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

Don’t get me wrong, it’s always great to see that first surge of customers, but that’s just the beginning of your work. With the real data from that surge, you need to take a hard look at business model realities, cost of customer acquisition, inventory costs, and other key metrics.

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Metrics Startup Training Custom 86

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2019

Also evaluate the values of desired customers. In my experience, non-profits are also harder to run and grow, since money is always short, internal salaries and skills may be low, and the customer set is often driven by emotional decisions rather than financial value. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 11/15/2019.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2019

They don’t realize that they are missing out on a great opportunity for “free” promotion, as well as taking a great risk by not listening to what customers are saying, and not monitoring or responding to undeserved challenges to their reputation. Use business metrics and tools to tune your efforts. Do your homework before you begin.

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Social Media Media Tool Startup 99

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

In 2019 market conditions often are such that founders retain control of the board through the A-round, usually in a 2–1 (common to investor) ratio but sometimes it’s 3–2 (common to investor). If your metric move immediate up-and-to-the-right? I’ve outlined above why I think boards are important so I won’t repeat it here.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2019

A platform is a business model and capability that can be accessed and customized by external users. Create and practice an obsession over customers. Make sure everyone knows it’s their job to maintain empathy and exceed customer expectations. Institute deep metrics measuring all aspects of the customer experience.

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Commerce Artificial Inteligence Cloud Computing Platform 89

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2020

In the first five years, these objectives should normally include when you intend to first become profitable, a scaling strategy and target, some short- and long-term milestones, and the key performance metrics you will use to steer and manage the business. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 12/18/2019.

Technical Advisors 125

Technical Advisors Startup News Resource 125

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

Before you know it, you will have a ten-slide pitch that you can use to gauge interest from potential customers, as well as friends, family, and early investors. Set target date milestones and metrics to gauge progress. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 01-09-2019.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2019

A recent high-profile one, Theranos , the blood-testing company, had no trouble getting customers, but promised more than their technology could deliver, Another, Shyp , an early on-demand delivery platform, blamed their demise on premature scaling. Focus on existing customer retention and repeat business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Every entrepreneur and business leader believes that he or she has the full trust of their team and their customers, and in fact most do in the beginning. Define metrics to measure what you want to achieve. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 09/25/2019. Communicate clearly and often on business issues.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2019

He outlines six dimensions of a winning business strategy, with some practical, research-based steps that I like, to focus on in achieving extraordinary results: Above all, deliver an exceptional total customer experience. This requires constant study of what your customers value, what competitors offer, and your target market.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Custom Customer Competition 87

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

In my experience, the key steps I look for always include the following: Testing the idea against customers who have money to spend. Prepare your marketing story for customers and investors. Start by developing an “elevator pitch,” that you can deliver in thirty seconds to hook a potential customer or investor.

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Ideas Slides Technical Review Patents 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2019

In this era of rapid change, you can’t afford to stop learning, or you will find that your competitors, your customers, and your team, may soon be following someone else. Most people agree that leadership is primarily a set of behaviors that capitalize on relationships and a current market and customer understanding in a complex world.

Tips 97

Tips Mentor Coach Metrics 97

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Created in 2014 and acquired by Dentsu in 2019, MuteSix was recommended to TechCrunch by Rhoda Ullmann, VP Consumer at Sense, a Boston-based startup building a home energy monitor. And we’re using both our data science team and our creative team to build out and optimize on the front end around these quick metrics to get things moving.

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Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2019

Yet I find that most employees I know limit their scope of thinking to the specific role they are assigned, and rarely tune their thinking and results to the following key principles that every business owner can relate to: Connect every action to a business focus on customers. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 03/18/2019.

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Technical Advisors Startup Satisfaction Customer 75

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2019

More and more customers these days are doing their own marketing research, scanning internet reviews and feedback from friends, rather than trusting messages that you push out through advertising. Update your website to make it totally customer-focused. Provide memorable total customer experience relationships.

Marketing 94

Marketing Social Media Technical Review Custom 94