Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 19, 2015

Computers and the Internet have now brought in a new era that relies on data to make profitable business decisions in the competitive environment. Below is a full explanation of how small businesses can leverage technology to earn a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Cloud Services. Social Media Automation Tools.

Competition 40

Competition Technology Social Media Tips 40

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

The subject of raising money is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. You will realize much more from the ultimate sale of your business even if at a considerably lower price than if splitting the proceeds with investors.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Capitalize on the multiplier moment.

Customer 146

Customer Custom Startup Course 146

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? Every sales person with a bit of street history will resonate with this question. After all, you have a paying relationship with these resources, and asking for help is not considered a daunting request.

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2016

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers. A startup must gain balanced traction.

Capital 58

Capital Startup Education Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

Also, investors from the super-hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston), probably won’t assume anyone outside their domain has the savvy and resources to make it happen. billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. Today, Silicon Valley is the consumer and enterprise software capital of the world.

Technical Review 123

Technical Review Oracle Software Review Ideas 123

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Berkonomics

AUGUST 23, 2012

By carefully recognizing and focusing upon the very core of the business, these CEOs are allocating their scarce cash resources to hire the best talent they can find to support that core business, and then reaching out to partners, independent contractors, and other small businesses to provide all other functions.

Patents 159

Patents Training Resource Advertising 159

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. I believe that over capitalizing companies too early often favors the VC.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

To grow faster businesses need resources in today’s financial period to fund growth that may not come for 6 months to a year. The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. Have easy access to capital by investors who are committed to building businesses at Interent scale. Internet scale.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Capitalize on the multiplier moment.

Customer 124

Customer Custom Startup Course 124

Berkonomics

MAY 29, 2014

Included in a business plan are financials, competitive landscape, marketing plans, and projected sales to name a few. Assists you in raising capital. In addition, it helps you focus your ideas and determine how to best manage your available resources including capital, cash, and people. assess past performances.

Startup 166

Startup Guide Help Mentor 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2019

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers. A startup must gain balanced traction.

Startup 97

Startup Education Customer Custom 97

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Government customers abundantly waste both of these assets by negatively impacting a startup’s cash flows while causing it to spend unnecessary time participating in laborious approval processes and elongated sales cycles. This is nearly impossible to quickly determine when the sales process is rigidly defined by arbitrary rules.”

Startup 207

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Sales 207

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “ Time is the Enemy of all Deals.&#. For many businesses you should keep your costs low & your capital raises low until you discover whether you are really on to a big idea where there is market demand.

Help 303

Help Startup Competition Framework 303

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

Also, investors from the super-hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston), probably won’t assume anyone outside their domain has the savvy and resources to make it happen. billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. Today, Silicon Valley is the consumer and enterprise software capital of the world.

Startup 97

Startup Technical Review Oracle Software Review 97

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

While firms define platforms differently, let’s just say they are the services that a VC offers outside of investment capital and partner time on boards or providing intros. Examples of VC platform services include: recruiting, marketing, design support, inside sales reps, consulting, accounting services and so forth.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Platform Startup Resource 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 30, 2012

The first purpose of a strategy is to organize and reallocate your resources to increase return on the amount of money invested in your startup to-date. Capitalize on strengths and opportunities. Show that your business can build the necessary products and services rapidly and achieve economies of scale with minimum capital and labor.

Startup 99

Startup Competition IP Patents 99

InfoChachkie

MAY 11, 2015

Government prospects abundantly waste both, by negatively impacting a startup’s cash flows while causing it to spend unnecessary time participating in laborious approval processes and elongated sales cycles. It is downright criminal to lose a hard-fought sale because of crony capitalism.

Startup 100

Startup Sales Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2013

Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers. A startup must gain balanced traction.

Startup 117

Startup Education Customer Custom 117

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. The best CEOs realize that they must transition from being individual contributors to team builders and adjudicators who settle conflicts of “resource allocations.” As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

This post will be perhaps a bit longer than usual, but certainly of great interest for those with interest in or have need for more capital… This stage is critical to many businesses and a passing option to others, depending upon the capital efficiency of the enterprise. For you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 174

Venture Capital Invest Class Entrepreneur 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 27, 2016

For a software startup, a patent can be the intellectual property providing the key competitive advantage, or it can be an expensive non-defensible bureaucratic nightmare -- or both. Rather than protection, this can be seen as a tax on innovation. Patents are counter to open source initiatives and free software.

Patents 53

Patents Software Review Software Technical Advisors 53

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Draw Your Ideas - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 16, 2010 I saw Jack Dorsey give this talk at The 99% Conference last month. Through advertising or direct sales, these sites harvest intent. Consultants Don’t Pivot, Founders Do - Steve Blank , May 13, 2010 Consultants can help startups leverage their limited resources.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2017

From my perspective, projecting financial returns is part of the homework every business person needs to do in sizing customer opportunity, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value, before expending their own resources in a highly risky venture. For investors, it’s more of a credibility and intelligence test.

Pricing 57

Pricing Startup Entrepreneur Invest 57

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is. I’ve been there.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2015

We love capital efficiency until we love land grabs until we abhor over funding until we get huge payouts and ring the bell for more funding until we attract every non-VC on the planet to invest in startups until it crashes and we start the cycle all over again none the wiser. ” I believe firmly in capital efficiency in the early days.

Funding 150

Funding Venture Capital Startup Marketing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

The first purpose of a strategy is to organize and reallocate your resources to increase return on the amount of money invested in your startup to-date. To capitalize on strengths and opportunities. Patent protection is no guarantee, but it does improve the chances of building businesses that have a sustainable competitive advantage.

Startup 92

Startup Competition IP Patents 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2015

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Capitalize on the multiplier moment.

Customer 101

Customer Custom Startup Course 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2015

Also, investors from the super-hubs (Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston), won’t assume anyone outside their domain has the savvy and resources to make it happen. billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. Today, Silicon Valley is the consumer and enterprise software capital of the world. The list goes on and on.

Startup 109

Startup Technical Review Oracle Software Review 109

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2012

Bloom’s “ The New Experts ,” that today’s customers are armed with three lethal weapons – instant access to information about every potential purchase, immense choice, and real-time comparison of competitive prices. Clear a path for them, see what they come up with, provide resources, and support them. Your keep-or-lose moment.

Customer 93

Customer Custom Startup Competition 93

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion I actually believe crowd-funding is best used after seed capital or venture capital. It’s why in this article I advise that people “market today not futures” because you don’t want your playbook in the hands of the competition. Should any money go to PR at all?

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

But I would posit that in order to sustainably build great products in an intensely competitive industry with skills shortages – people management is one of the most critical soft skills organizations need. – while the other might want a quick sale and pocket some bucks while the tech market is hot.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340