Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2023

As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition. Every business area has competition and every customer has alternatives, so a smart entrepreneur needs to acknowledge these as a positive in defining a big market, and position the features of a new solution in this context.

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Competition Entrepreneur Patents Customer 111

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

They were early to that idea: Danna describes it as “creator tools for YouTube before YouTube built them itself,” and he said they came up with the idea for Boulevard out of a joke between them. “We started obsessing about this,” Danna went on. Things then took an investigative, plainclothes turn.

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Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2021

If you are one of the many professionals still trapped between jobs by circumstances outside your control, or are about to dump the loser job you have now, you should be actively defining and starting your own business, in parallel with looking for that ideal job. Have startup efforts to highlight in job interviews.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2021

These days I see a surge of new startups as businesses seem to be recovering from the pandemic. If you are not starting one yourself, the next best thing is joining one as a partner, or as an early employee. He and I believe that these next few months are the perfect time, especially with the pandemic, for starting a new career.

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Tips Startup Coach Networking 168

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2020

Startups succeed most often when the founding partners know how to build and run a business, rather than how to build and run technology. A great technical LinkedIn profile is a good start, but not enough to assure success in your environment. They are attracted to people who agree, but may not be able to help.

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Competition High Tech Startup Social Media 174

Startup San Diego

JULY 11, 2021

USES APP TO HELP LGBTQ COMMUNITY UCSD Students Win Pitch Competition appeared first on Startup San Diego. The post WINNING CO.

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UCSD Competition Help San Diego 52

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

As a business advisor, I meet many business professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs who are anxious to be their own boss , or have an innovative idea to start or acquire a new business. Also, initiating a startup is quite different from taking over a thriving business, where the focus is on repeatable processes and quarterly profits.

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Startup Ideas Metrics Entrepreneur 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

Differentiation is still a key requirement for a successful startup rollout, and but it must be sustainable to keep ahead of new competition. Even back then, experts projected that businesses with truly differentiated offerings had only an 80% chance of long-term success, compared to ‘me-too’ companies with a 20% chance.

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Competition Customer Custom Examples 123

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

Due to the pervasive Internet, the scope of most successful startup teams today has become global. According to recent reports , these come from all the way up and down the age and experience spectrum, including up to ninety percent of the current Baby Boomers, as well as Millennials.

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Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. It didn’t add up to me. Bad morale is the enemy of any company let alone a start up.&#. Because I had started reaching out to competitor CEO’s. I figured it out.

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Startup Press Customer Custom 331

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. We spoke with Michael Chasin, the company''s co-founder, about the startup. How the website works, is the client goes to the website, and indicates what they need help with.

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Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

socalTECH

APRIL 1, 2014

An app to help exorcise possessed kids? For veterans of many a technology startup pitch event in Silicon Beach, it might not be all that far fetched, given some of the wild, wacky, and improbable startups making the rounds today looking for investors. pitch dating competition startup improbable comedian joke april1st april'

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Competition Sites Hollywood Ideas 196

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

This is smart because amazing board members can be transformative with important advice and access and can also help attract other great board members (and team members). Do you need a board when you first start you company? I actually think having a formal board can really help you. Of course it happens all the time?—?especially

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The sales professional. The financial suit.

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Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 123

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2022

It’s enough to drown any business which tries to fight it or ignore it, and it’s an opportunity to ride higher and faster than even the successes of Google and Facebook, for those startups that use it as their driving force. For startups, this is an engagement opportunity worth billions of dollars. Big data:” learning from the flood.

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Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 126

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2022

In this context, it’s time for every business, not only startups, to take a fresh look at the basics of business success. I support being socially and environmentally conscious, but you can’t help anyone else if you don’t eat. Once you have a proven business model, you need to scale the business up quickly to stay ahead of competitors.

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Startup News Framework Outsource 112

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kauffman Foundation , the numbers are here to show it. 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.

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Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2020

As an investor, I always listen carefully to what an entrepreneur says, and does not say, about competition. Every business area has competition and every customer has alternatives, so a smart entrepreneur needs to acknowledge these as a positive in defining a big market, and position the features of a new solution in this context.

Competition 125

Competition Entrepreneur Patents Customer 125

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.

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Resource Startup Incubator Seed Funding 159

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2019

Most entrepreneurs are quick to assert to potential investors that their product or solution will kill the competition, but unfortunately your opinion alone is not enough to convince most experienced investors. A competitive advantage to a non-problem or tiny niche is not interesting to investors.

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Competition Patents Startup Customer 86

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2016

One of the reasons that now is the time to be an entrepreneur is the explosion of startup assistance organizations, usually called incubators or accelerators. Most of these are non-profits, set up by a university to commercialize new technologies, or a municipality to foster business development for the local economy.

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Incubator Startup Help Resource 106

socalTECH

JUNE 6, 2012

Crowdfunder , an online site offering up a platform to help startups raise money for their firms via crowd funding, is dangling $25,000 in a contest open to Los Angeles companies. The startup contest--which accepts entries through June 20th--is having a panel of judges--including Peter H. READ MORE>>.

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Competition Startup Sites Platform 200

TechCrunch LA

MAY 20, 2021

One startup that aims to help make the process simpler, cheaper and less stressful by helping people manage the home renovation process has raised $6 million to help it grow even faster. Construction tech startups are poised to shake up a $1.3-trillion-dollar trillion-dollar industry.

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Technical Review Startup Venture Capital Software Review 185

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2023

I have found that the ability to make effective decisions is a key starting point, and a tough one to learn. Eliminate any potential penalty for disagreement and speaking up. People expect leaders to step up and take charge of driving a decision to closure, especially during crises.

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Help Framework Statistics Startup 94

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Co: What was the road like leading up to your initial pitch for the competition?

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Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 111

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

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Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 30, 2014

In order to support all of these teams, there are several on-campus startup competitions every year, from the Silicon Beach USC competition to the New Venture Seed Competition, with prize funds to help build the companies. The post HipTraveler | Taking Startup Competitions by Storm appeared first on TechZulu.

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Competition Startup USC Southern California 104

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. In the comments section a clever question popped up about whether I would have invested in myself before I became an investor. My first response mentally was, “Of course!” They choose a different path.

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Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2019

While starting a new business always involves tackling many new challenges, I’ve personally found myself reluctant to ask for help. Thus, in my consulting with entrepreneurs, I always encourage them to get more comfortable asking for help. Of course, there are good ways and bad ways to ask for help.

Help 123

Help Entrepreneur Course IBM 123

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Please help me congratulate him by Re/Tweeting this post (and following him if you don’t already). Helping be the VC “presence” at key events. Associates often shadow partners at board meetings so that they can help follow up with the company on important initiatives between board meetings. And so forth.

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Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

SoCal CTO

APRIL 25, 2017

Here is the most recent version of an all too common email inquiry from a startup founder. I'm working on a start up idea in the XXX market with my partner and we are currently looking for full stack developer to join us as a technical co-founder. Startup and Founder Backgrounds This is a cold email.

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Email Startup Develop Development 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

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Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

socalTECH

APRIL 27, 2012

Six companies started by students at the University of Southern California's Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at USC Marshall have been awarded a total of $50,000 in seed funding, after competing in the center's New Venture Seed Competition held this week. providing online tutoring. READ MORE>>.

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Seed Funding USC Competition Funding 244

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

One of the recommendations I make all the time to startup founders, is to find other founders who have tackled similar problems as yours and talk to them about how they solved these problems. My suggestion to both of them is that they should talk to founders (or maybe early employees) who have launched startups with similar characteristics.

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Startup Examples Acquisition Ideas 301

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and and of course a relentless pursuit of helping founders succeed. She took an operating role helping run Citysearch and Urbanspoon. Kara said “no” because she wanted to start her own company, which she did and I backed.

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

SoCal Tech Calendar

AUGUST 5, 2009

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 -- Start-up Accounting and Taxes. Start-ups and early stage companies face intense competition as well as strong pressure to demonstrate a real return on investment. The discussion will be practical, and will reflect on the common questions being asked by CFOs, CEOs of start-up companies.

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Startup Competition Help Invest 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2018

Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based Catalog (www.catalog.cc), a startup developing artificial intelligence software to help independent visual artists scale their content production efforts, announced it raised $1.5M in a seed funding round. The funding was led by Moonshots Capital, and also included Techstars and Luma Launch.

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Help IP Content Google 133