Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

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. Here is my selection of ten key metrics that every six-sigma joint like GE tracks without thinking, but too many small businesses only monitor haphazardly, if at all: Sales revenue.

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Metrics Startup Sales Statistics 106

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

We have global opportunities from these trends but of course also big challenges. Of course we can’t. 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. Hot, Flat & Crowded.”

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Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Content, of course, is the same!]. Company grew by more than “400% each year” for past few years [assume growth metric = revenues]. Metrics: 2.5mm members, 1,000 brands, 2,500 sale events to-date. Competition: Gilt Groupe , Ideeli , RueLaLa (sub of GSI Commerce) , OneKingsLane , department stores like Saks and Neiman Marcus.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

But it will be patiently deployed, waiting for a cohort of founders who aren’t artificially clinging to 2021 valuation metrics. Of course our execution against the strategy has had to change but the strategy has remained constant. discipline & focus. In 2009 we could take a long time to review a deal. By 2021 we had to write a $3.5m

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Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

Of course, I have an advantage because I organize the LA CTO Forum. Of course, since you know those questions, you can just collect up the answers and provide them to your developers. How do we need to structure the systems to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition? Of course, it’s never complete. Gap closed, right?

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Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2019

Data, however, removes guesswork, biases, and anecdotal reasoning that can throw decision efforts off course. Use data analysis and metrics to measure for results. Common sense and emotionally driven decisions are sub- optimal in assessing team members. Working on the wrong problem or assumption.

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Metrics Tool Statistics Entrepreneur 98

Berkonomics

AUGUST 1, 2019

From experience and from information about the competition, a coach creates a playbook that contains detailed plans for actions or plays that the entire team must know without question and execute without pause in order to win games and advance toward the playoffs. But you know that of course. This one comes straight from football.

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Coach Metrics Training Course 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Well, obviously if you knew that in advance it would be big of course that would be true. while acknowledging that San Fran deals are often higher valuations due to increased competition amongst investors. And of course there are always outliers. Use competition to make sure you get a fair price. Here’s the problem.

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Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

Competition is fierce. Of course I ask more politely that than. He called me 15 months later excited to show me his metrics and wanted to talk about his A round. I outlined here my views on “ proprietary dealflow.” ” Semil Shah wrote in this absolutely spot on post. ” That’s precisely it.

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Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

Of course, no business wants to be the next Blockbuster , which kept charging straight ahead despite subtle clues that the Internet was changing everything. Establish and evaluate metrics at multiple levels. As times change, you may need new metrics, such as total experience, web site hits, and social media complaints.

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Marketing Social Media Metrics Custom 162

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

So while the simplest way that people often evaluate stocks is by P/E ratios (price-to-earnings), one also needs to look at other metrics such as the PEG (price-to-earnings-growth). [of of course there are MUCH more sophisticated financial tools than either of these, but PEG is a short-hand many people use]. Investors value growth.

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Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

As a starting point I have to believe the founder has the attributes of an entrepreneur that matter most to me : Tenacity, resiliency, inspiration, perspiration, attention-to-detail, competitiveness, decisiveness, risk tolerance and integrity. Of course I also have to the concept. It’s not enough to love the founding team.

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Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Berkonomics

JUNE 16, 2022

We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. There are many roads to Rio, so they say. But there is one overwhelming method of appraising the effectiveness of a business leader.

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Resource Satisfaction Metrics Course 156

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

How do we need to structure the systems to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition? What metrics are going to be the key startup metrics and how do we get those metrics without too much cost? This can take the form of a local university, online courses, going through relevant books, etc.

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CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

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.

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Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

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. You don’t have to be a heavily funded later stage startup to get access to “big data,” customer analytics, and metrics dashboards. Marty Zwilling.

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Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2021

The basic alignment framework of strategy, customers, people, and processes hasn’t changed, but the pace of technological, competitive, and social change has increased at an amazing rate. Make sure the inspiration that launched your vision isn’t lost in the course of a pivot or market change. Revisit your startup vision and values.

Social Media 143

Social Media Startup Framework Course 143

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. Focus on two or three pertinent metrics in any situation. Keeping it simple is the best course. Never be too busy to talk to real customers.

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Customer Custom Social Media Metrics 140

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Of course it happens all the time?—?especially This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting. This is not true in the majority of cases but rather when you have competition in your round and feel confident in using your leverage. If your metric move immediate up-and-to-the-right?

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. It’s obvious that we can be too late to these decisions of course. If — and it’s a big if of course — they can do that on the cheap, then why should an LP care at all? Some more on metrics design and quantification.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Berkonomics

MARCH 31, 2016

We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. There are many roads to Rio, so they say. But there is one overwhelming method of appraising the effectiveness of a business leader.

Resource 120

Resource Satisfaction Metrics Course 120

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. Focus on two or three pertinent metrics in any situation. Keeping it simple is the best course. Never be too busy to talk to real customers.

Social Media 128

Social Media Metrics Custom Customer 128

socalTECH

JANUARY 14, 2011

By linking the activities to P&L--not click rates, or cost per sale, or cost per lead, or brand awareness, which are all soft metrics--we are able to give our customers ammunition to take to their board or to finance, and prove the true effectiveness of their marketing and the true effectiveness of the agencies involved.

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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 of course the funding problem coincided with the stock market correction that took away most exit options for years to come. The Exit Problem. Today’s Normalization.

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Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

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.

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Social Media Media Product Metrics 102

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. Our first big institutional round was $16.5

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Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

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.

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Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Of course, you need to show how your business will make money and provide an impressive investor return, but that should be only the beginning. These show a focus on the business elements required for success, and metrics for ensuring accountability, management control, and feedback along the way.

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Ideas Entrepreneur Equity Resource 140

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.

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Metrics Demand Statistics Sample 81

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 1, 2021

Of course, any highly emotional and unmanaged conflict can certainly lead to chaos and a dysfunctional organization. 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.

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Activity Organization Examples Satisfaction 145

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Of course, someone with more operating experience may be brought in once the new venture has been successfully launched. Incubating is not enough; successful new ventures must be quickly scaled to stay ahead of competition and show a level of acceptance by customers as well as your financial executives.

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Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Customer 143

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

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2020

Of course, if you have investors anxious to give you money, or a rich uncle to keep you afloat, there is nothing wrong with a dedicated and full commitment to the startup, with commensurate more aggressive milestones and growth expectations. Thus I often recommend that entrepreneurs keep their day job until the startup is producing revenue.

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Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Metrics 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

Oh, and of course I shoot all of my videos at the ThisWeekIn studios which are located in the Mahalo offices. EcoMom’s metrics improved throughout this process and that’s when I decided to invest. AngelList has introduced new competition and competition in any industry is always good.

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Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Of course, you can’t possibly brand yourself if you don’t know who you really are. Proactively use metrics and customer feedback before a crisis hits, to recognize when a pivot or product adjustment is required. The smart ones were already working on new features, and able to counter competition quickly.

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Marketing Custom Customer Outsource Development 133

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

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. Focus on two or three pertinent metrics in any situation. Keeping it simple is the best course. Never be too busy to talk to real customers.

Social Media 99

Social Media Metrics Custom Customer 99