Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Cost of customer acquisition.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 25, 2015

This is why I loved Brad Feld’s recent post about the “ illusion of product / market fit.” Are our users addicted to our product? But if users don’t come back to your product directly and often I question whether you have a sustainable product / company. Not vanity metrics.

Product 150

Product Startup Metrics Technical Review 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Cost of customer acquisition.

Metrics 106

Metrics Startup Sales Statistics 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

That should make you wonder - how do you measure traction in a metric? According to most experts , business traction is evidence that somebody really wants your product. It’s business momentum, independent of whether you have a product delivered, proven the business model, or significantly penetrated the opportunity.

Metrics 57

Metrics Funding Startup Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

New product process. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it. Failure is the best teacher.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

And the first thing in marketing is to adapt your product or service to the needs of the marketplace. Create metrics for customer acquisition, retention, conversion, reach, or anything that helps you to better understand the effects of your changes to the program. Listening does no good without action.

Marketing 156

Marketing Metrics Education Resource 156

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. where Tony Wright suggests charging right now.

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2021

As a long-time business consultant and investor, especially to entrepreneurs, I recognize your sparkle of vision , to build the ultimate world-changing product. I found these maladies summarized well in a new book, “ Radical Product Thinking ,” by entrepreneur Radhika Dutt. Hypermetricemia – metrics for everything.

Metrics 133

Metrics Product Yahoo Examples 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2020

New product process. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it. Failure is the best teacher.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Traction is evidence that your product or service has started that “hockey- stick” adoption rate which implies a large market, a valid business model, and sustainable growth. Free and freemium products need a solid base. Customer acquisition cost. What does traction really mean to investors, and how much is enough?

Startup 121

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. Create an action plan with metrics. Good action plans include a listening plan, channel plan, SEO plan, and a content creation plan, with activities and metrics.

Social Media 135

Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Modern communication tools, including WebEx, Skype and video conferencing are a good start, but virtual teams remain a productivity nightmare for many companies. Virtual teams need a tool-acquisition process, training program and support contact for all technology provided. Clear objectives and metrics are established early.

Product 100

Product Startup Tool Paramount 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Many entrepreneurs never get past their first-stage focus on their innovative product, to scaling the business globally, organizing a structure to handle thousands of employees, and concentrating their focus “on the business” rather than working “in the business.” Switch your focus from product development to sales.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2019

In the interests of helping you work smarter and last longer, I would like to offer my top ten list of key resource drains to avoid in early businesses and startups, based on my years of advising entrepreneurs and my own business experience: Expanding your product line too quickly for scaling. Use multiple small orders at first.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Metrics Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2013

Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. Create an action plan with metrics. Good action plans include a listening plan, channel plan, SEO plan, and a content creation plan, with activities and metrics.

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Product Metrics 102

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Remember, investors are buying into the business, not the product. Investors are business experts, while the entrepreneur is more likely the product expert. In my experience, the team's credentials are more important than the product. Specific elements of your marketing and sales plans.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." It is almost never the case that you are building an MVP to "show" to an investor the product itself.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Berkonomics

AUGUST 7, 2014

And the first thing in marketing is to adapt your product or service to the needs of the marketplace. Create metrics for customer acquisition, retention, conversion, reach, or anything that helps you to better understand the effects of your changes to the program. Listening does no good without action.

Marketing 176

Marketing Metrics Education Resource 176

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

I recommend a trial run with an experiment or MVP (minimum viable product), at full price and cost, before the big bang launch, risking your investment money and a major time commitment. The focus of key leaders has to change from driving innovative initiatives to replicating repeatable processes and tuning the overall product cycle.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

Image via Pixabay As a mentor to many small business owners, I always caution them that you can never relax completely, just because your initial solution or product set appears to be getting traction, and the market buzz is positive. Document processes and metrics for economies of scale.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

socalTECH

DECEMBER 15, 2011

Los Angeles-based Live Nation Entertainment said today that it has acquired a provider of media metrics and analytics, BigChampagne Media Measurement. BigChampagne provides media metrics about entertainment and online audiences. Financial details of the buy were not disclosed.

Beverly Hills 154

Beverly Hills Metrics Entertainment Media 154

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. Research has confirmed that culture is a primary driver for financial performance, customer experience, and team productivity.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

Happy customers quickly become your biggest advocates, today reaching far beyond friends and family, and they make traditional marketing efforts pale in comparison for growth, loyalty, and new customer acquisition costs. Use metrics to assess needs and growth economics.

Customer 114

Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2019

Image via Pixabay Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. Create an action plan with metrics. Good action plans include a listening plan, channel plan, SEO plan, and a content creation plan, with activities and metrics.

Social Media 96

Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2020

While it was a good year for our merger and acquisition practice in the SaaS and fintech space, our most exciting news is in our merchant banking sector where we invest in and advise growth companies often for several years. One of our SaaS companies made great strides with a new product. Two lessons learnedand relearned!

Capital 100

Capital SoCal Southern California SaaS 100

Jason Nazar

MAY 1, 2016

I’ve been a part of dozens (maybe hundreds) of product launches And in each of these cases I ask my team to put together a simple dashboard of a small set of metrics for our paid and free products that let me know the success of our efforts. Paid Product Metrics. Free Product Metrics.

Marketing 40

Marketing CPC Metrics .Net 40

Jason Nazar

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

I’ve been a part of dozens (maybe hundreds) of product launches And in each of these cases I ask my team to put together a simple dashboard of a small set of metrics for our paid and free products that let me know the success of our efforts. Paid Product Metrics. Free Product Metrics.

Marketing 40

Marketing CPC Metrics .Net 40

socalTECH

MARCH 5, 2012

TestFlight's product provides iOS developers with information on an app's audience, revenue, engagement, and other metrics. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Burstly is backed by GRP Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, and SoftBank, and announced a $5.5M funding round in November.

GRP Partners 154

GRP Partners Metrics Advertising Mobile 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2018

New product process. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it. Failure is the best teacher.

Entrepreneur 64

Entrepreneur Coach Metrics Competition 64

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2015

You should be counting only those people who fit your target customer demographic and paid full price for the product or service, without any prior connection to you or the business. Is your customer-acquisition rate accelerating? Especially for free or freemium products, the rate of new signups is critical.

Acquisition 100

Acquisition Entrepreneur Customer Custom 100

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

But we do it anyway, because we believe that the short-term metrics probably aren''t indicative of the long term.”. If improperly administered, meetings become counter-productive, especially as an organization grows beyond its initial startup phase. Let Your Competitors Chase The Quick Buck.

Tips 223

Tips Framework Metrics Cloud Computing 223

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. Research has confirmed that culture is a primary driver for financial performance, customer experience, and team productivity.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Organization Coach Invest 124

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

But it is an important metric for firms in pursuit of explosive growth. Wessel measures a 39% acquisition advantage to being in-state. Tech companies see engineers move frequently, integrate their products tightly, and often find themselves acquiring or merging with counterparts. It decreases your odds of being bought.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Oracle Software Review Ideas 123

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

By being proactive, and empowering and rewarding your frontline employees for improving processes, you will enhance your business productivity and growth in both the short term as well as the long term. You need to be constantly assessing mergers and acquisitions, as well as divestitures. Build and model a high-performance culture.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. How profitable is my product or service? As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286