Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. They like a solid product, well defined pricing, good references to sell against, a clear quota and well defined competitors. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2020

Porter proposed his Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment which I think makes even more sense today. Every existing business, as well as every startup, needs to reassess their product or service in the context of these five forces: Intensity of competitive rivalry. Way back in 1979, Michael E.

Competition 151

Competition Startup Framework Pricing 151

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2022

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Competition 133

Competition Patents Resource Invest 133

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 26, 2010

Competition. And even then Microsoft has substitute products as anyone who has taken Econ 101 will tell you. And the reality is that if you have no competition it will likely be perceived as a negative, not positive. And the reality is that if you have no competition it will likely be perceived as a negative, not positive.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Slides Competition Education 313

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero-coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

Pricing 156

Pricing Sales Examples Tool 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. They like a solid product, well defined pricing, good references to sell against, a clear quota and well defined competitors. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers. My first startup was no different.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. That year, some of you will recall, the first digital cell phones were released to the market, smaller, cheaper and priced with roaming plans that made it no premium cost to carry these digital phones to cities far from home. There is no competition.”

Competition 266

Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

In case you hadn’t noticed, the key elements of a competitive advantage for your business have changed as businesses move online, and your domain is instantly global. As a business advisor, I have to recommend even to established companies that they review and revamp their competitive strategy now, even if it appears to be working today.

Competition 142

Competition Software Review Social Media Customer 142

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2019

Don’t bash the competition. Every investor knows how vulnerable a new startup is to competitors, so investors always ask about your sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. That says you are competitive today, have a real barrier to entry, and the potential to remain ahead of the competition for a long time.

Competition 120

Competition Patents Resource Invest 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

You need to first create a compelling product. Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. You need product / market fit. Product / market fit is everything. ” True.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

When they look at buying your company they often think in terms of “how long will it take until I earn back the profits to pay for my acquisition price?” They have have raised $2-3 million, built a product that has some amount of market traction and got to annualized revenues of around $1 million. ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I have stated previously that I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. There is no competition.” Bell’s competition was the written message, doing nothing, the telegraph and old fashioned word of mouth.

Marketing 247

Marketing Competition Research Summary 247

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Competitive sportswoman. She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions. She speaks about ethical sourcing of eco-friendly products. Stanford MBA.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. Convertible debt is an investment that “converts&# into equity in the future usually at a discount to your next funding round price and sometimes has a “cap&# (maximum price).

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The path I went down after a few years was to hire more process driven people and devolved more daily operational ownership to people running individual functions such as product management, sales management, finance, etc. Over time I realized I was a bit of a bottleneck in pricing and I didn’t add significant value.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2010

Let me start with Professor Christensen’s definition: “An innovation that is disruptive allows a whole new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to consumers with a lot of money or a lot of skill.&#. They offered a product that didn’t even try to compare with Siebel.

Startup 376

Startup Framework Marketing Customer 376

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Energica to hit the brakes on production of its battery powered machines that can reach top speeds of 168 mph. Before the health crisis shutdown most of Italy, Energica had already seen larger demand for its high-performance e-motos, with a price range of $17,000 to $23,000.

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. Feedback isn’t always an excuse – and often sales people can provide the best feedback to your product teams. This includes presentations, ROI calculators, competitive analyses and so forth.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Berkonomics

JULY 19, 2018

Dell’s response would be something like “Quality custom computers more quickly than the competition.” And in this company example, both quality and speed are the critical factors in competitive advantage. Its reputation is based upon fast food in a minute, with quality that is acceptable but not discernibly above the competition.

Competition 226

Competition Examples Customer Custom 226

Berkonomics

JANUARY 26, 2017

The rest of the purchase price was concocted from a brew of zero coupon bonds (where the face value is many times the invested amount until the reduced cost bonds mature thirty years later), and borrowing using the target company’s accounts receivable and other assets as collateral for a loan to purchase the company. What power!

Pricing 120

Pricing Sales Tool Equity 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Every one of you business owners I know periodically introduces new products and services to sustain growth, fight off competitors, or take advantage of new technologies. The cost of any new product these days must include education and rollout marketing, perhaps equal or greater than the development costs.

Product 141

Product Services Technical Review Artificial Inteligence 141

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2023

In this context, even “satisfied” is only a “meets-minimum,” and does not put you ahead of your competition. With pervasive access to social media, customers no longer differentiate poor product repair and replacement from a poor shopping experience or customer usage satisfaction. This results in more profits and growth for you.

Competition 109

Competition Services Customer Custom 109

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point. Sound Idea (basic value, product risk) $1/2 million. Strategic relationships (reducing market risk and competitive risk) $1/2 million.

Invest 321

Invest Startup Email Competition 321

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

OPEC (the organization of petroleum exporting countries) is a cartel that was set up in the 1960′s and represents the interests of the 12 biggest oil producing countries in the world with the goal of increasing prices of oil, a good supplied in limited quantities to a world that had insatiable demand for the product.

Hulu 292

Hulu Technical Review Content Advertising 292

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2011

We are an offer-based platform that allows users to negotiate the price they buy and sell tickets for, on the secondary market. Wes Brodsky: The ticketing industry, since its inception, has been on a fixed price model. For example, at an event, say at the Staples Center, of the 20,000 seats they might have four or five price groups.

Ticketmaster 253

Ticketmaster Pricing Sales Activity 253

Berkonomics

JULY 4, 2013

But for most, the true sign of success and potential for even more is in the landing of a major account, one that validates the pricing, quality and competitive advantages of a company’s offering. One day a sixteen wheeler full of returned product drove into his loading area.

.Net 235

.Net Resource Competition Customer 235

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I spoke about the need of the CEO, CTO and head of Products to be in the same location. If you’re an entrepreneur, all else equal you prefer convertible debt because the deal is priced at a later stage when you’re worth more. Yes, that was the value that we actually returned as opposed to the value of Ulta. Great exit. -

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

Berkonomics

JUNE 30, 2011

Dell’s response would be something like “Quality custom computers more quickly than the competition.” And in this company example, both quality and speed are the critical factors in competitive advantage. Think of McDonalds. We will soon examine the entire gamut of pricing structures, but start with this one.

Competition 197

Competition Examples Pricing Customer 197

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2023

Porter proposed his Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment which I think makes even more sense today. Every existing business, as well as every startup, needs to reassess their product or service in the context of these five forces: Intensity of competitive rivalry. Way back in 1979, Michael E.

Competition 88

Competition Startup Framework Pricing 88

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

Avoid a simple pricing mistake which could sink your startup. Vendors often respond by discounting their prices at the 11th hour, in the hopes a lower price will spur a purchase. However, if you never offer price discounts to anyone, you can resist all such requests by deferring to your company “policy.”

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Leaders have found that keeping everyone on top of changes in technology, competition, and customer demands is critical to success. Make your service deliver process “happy.”

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99