Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Summary: Send the Deck Pitch decks are sales & marketing decks and like in any sales activity, any great sales person assumes his or her competition will eventually get their deck. Competition isn’t won or lost by your marketing decks?—?it’s it’s won by how you innovate and by how you execute. A deck is a deck.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Focus on activities rather than results.

Startup 161

Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

While you all recognize that reacting to weak market signals is critical to staying in business and staying competitive, I find that many don’t have the skills and focus to trigger change decisions on a timely basis. Establish and evaluate metrics at multiple levels. Investigate broader implications of disruptive events.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Custom 162

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. You spend the months influencing the influencers. Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 135

Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Facebook’s winning strategy was a laser focus on increasing active user counts and time spent online. Less is more.

Startup 144

Startup Social Media Metrics Custom 144

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

There are of course many Seed VCs who take board seats, don’t over-commit to too many deals and try to help with “company building” activities to help at a company’s vulnerable foundations. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way. So in a way it’s self selecting. We aren’t going to win every great deal in LA?—?there

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Today’s world is full of metrics leading to business growth, including customer logins, revenue per customer, retention, and average solution price. Facebook’s winning strategy was a laser focus on increasing active user counts and time spent online. Less is more.

Competition 65

Competition Social Media Metrics Custom 65

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Of course, that’s both the good news and the bad news for aspiring entrepreneurs, since it means more competition, and the business landscape is changing faster than ever. Networking no longer is primarily a face-to-face serial activity. Over 600,000 new businesses were created in the last year, or over one per minute of every day.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

prefer instead to divide it according to the mindset of users: whether or not they are actively looking to purchase something (i.e. Klout Puts Metrics Into Social Media Management - Tim Berry's Blog - Planning Startups Stories , May 21, 2010 I really like klout.com for three good reasons: 1.) Do fewer structured activities.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 1, 2021

For example, in a conflict over the right branding logo , it may help to understand who and how the ultimate decision will be made, including key elements driving the decision, such as targeted customers and competition. Demonstrate active listening in a neutral location. Don’t let it be just a conflict over graphic design.

Activity 145

Activity Organization Examples Satisfaction 145

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2023

In the same way, great entrepreneurs and company leaders should no longer rely on faceless and nameless processes to drive business strategy and innovation to stay competitive. You need to look at everything through fresh eyes, continually ask questions not usually asked, and actively listen to contrary views.

Customer 140

Customer Custom Social Media Metrics 140

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site ( over 200 active ), or another dating site (now over 2500 in the US alone). It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Ownership. Accountability.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2013

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. You spend the months influencing the influencers. Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Product Metrics 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

I’m not suggesting that you model your startup after the complex corporate organizations you hated in your last job, but there are at least eight key functions and activities that every investor expects to find in a startup proposal with any real potential to change the world. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2014

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that absorbs resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Focus on activities rather than results.

Entrepreneur 115

Entrepreneur Resource Training Product 115

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2020

In the same way, great entrepreneurs and company leaders should no longer rely on faceless and nameless processes to drive business strategy and innovation to stay competitive. You need to look at everything through fresh eyes, continually ask questions not usually asked, and actively listen to contrary views.

Social Media 128

Social Media Metrics Custom Customer 128

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2019

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. You spend the months influencing the influencers. Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 96

Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In Rob’s spare time he always seems to be going to a boxing class or some other competitive, physical activity. By being so metrics driven we can have a lot more quantifiable and objective discussions at board meetings and at mid-point reviews. . Fight hard, yield when appropriate and always be willing to take feedback.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. The challenge is to avoid the bad risks, while actively seeking and managing the smart risks. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Resource Metrics Custom 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2012

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little though given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. You spend the months influencing the influencers. Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 91

Social Media Media Metrics SEO 91

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. Mithril is struggling to compete against ferocious competition in the growth-stage equity market. If there was a process or bidding war or something resembling a competition, he would just walk,” the employee said.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2015

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that spends resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Focus on activities rather than results.

Resource 105

Resource Startup Entrepreneur Training 105

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. And in a market with too much capacity (too many startups) the leverage was completely in the hand of buyers at M&A activity finally picked up. Today’s Normalization.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

I’m not suggesting that you model your startup after the complex corporate organizations you hated in your last job, but there are at least eight key functions and activities that every investor expects to find in a startup proposal with any real potential to change the world. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. It became a social activity.

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. The challenge is to avoid the bad risks, while actively seeking and managing the smart risks. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives.

Resource 121

Resource Metrics Entrepreneur Custom 121

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2023

We all have our favorite metric and our passion, but keeping up with real-world changes and trends seems to be always just out of reach. In my experience, all business metrics are still used too often for people management and accountability, rather than business management. Accurate measurement of the wrong things is not helpful.

Metrics 81

Metrics Demand Statistics Sample 81

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2023

I recommend you start with team building activities to strengthen trust and communicate the objectives to everyone on a regular basis. Take the necessary time to identify the most promising activities that will have the greatest impact on where your organization is right now. Use personal relationships to test buy-in.

Organization 116

Organization Activity Metrics Training 116

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

A strong vision and deep insight may get your business off the ground, but long-term success requires constant data analysis, metrics, and attention to your customer feedback. The competition will improve, the market will change, and your customers will demand more. Balance of passion with reality and customer feedback.

Mentor 133

Mentor Startup Custom Customer 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

There is no way for people to keep prices down – it’s a competitive market. We picked up activity aggressively in 2009. But it also hurts entrepreneurs – Mike asked people about what they were doing to keep prices down. It was obviously a joke and a reference to the supposed Bin 38 meeting. VC is different.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. The challenge is to avoid the bad risks, while actively seeking and managing the smart risks. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives.

Startup 115

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 115

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition. We have been able to build deep customer insights on product, pricing, service, geography, competition, etc.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Custom Customer 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

No human or paper tracking systems are a competitive alternative. Businesses must capture every business decision activity, including customer relations, in digital software so that decisions affecting the activities can be automated and optimized through machine learning. Configure every decision step into real-time software.

Artificial Inteligence 84

Artificial Inteligence Metrics Commerce Software 84

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Many risks can be managed or calculated to improve growth or provide a competitive edge, while others, like skipping quality checks to save money, are recipes for failure. The challenge is to avoid the bad risks, while actively seeking and managing the smart risks. Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives.

Startup 113

Startup Resource Metrics Entrepreneur 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

All businesses these days are too complex to be one-person shows, so you need all the complementary held you can find to keep up with customers and competition, fill your expertise gaps, and scale the market. Using metrics to measure results and commitments. Marketing your personal brand and your vision.

Startup 113

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. Relevant skills include continuous improvement of existing methods, processes and devices against a set of quality metrics.

Startup 116

Startup Training Statistics Summary 116

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. Get enough sleep so you can remain active throughout the day and evening.

Tips 100

Tips Activity Startup Product 100