Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Her post is short & well written so definitely worth a read if you’re a startup person and want to hear some sensible views on sales. My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. However, I advocate a more nuanced approach for early-stage startup teams” 1.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. Many people start companies arse backwards. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2010

Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?&#. there may be major competitive changes in the market that makes your next funding round hard (e.g. Who started this meme?

Startup 319

Startup Venture Capital Capital Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

Often when startups who have raised venture capital need another round of financing they will turn to their existing investors to give them money before raising from outsiders. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g. They also trust VC’s to determine the right price to pay for the company securities that they buy.

Startup 290

Startup Funding Venture Capital Pricing 290

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

She was leaving IAC to start a company. Competitive sportswoman. Somehow she was always on a flight up to Seattle or San Francisco. Didn’t I make myself clear about celebrities & startups ? Turns out she’s done this startup thing before. Note: if you’re a parent please check out their website.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 11, 2010

I recently wrote a blog post about why I believe that startup teams in close proximity perform better. We know prices of deals, compensation, who’s doing well / poorly, etc. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised – I got a similar lukewarm reaction when we started Launchpad LA and that seems to be going pretty well.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Incubator Entrepreneur 285

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Shallow and superficial and racing from segment to segment in search of some take up has never been a strong strategic plan for me. I have written this up before if you’re interested – I call it Deflationary Economics. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT. INNOVATOR’S DILEMMA.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

At the time when you did a search on Lycos, Alta Vista or similar for a category such as Cars you ended up getting 9 spam results and 1 proper website to meet your needs. He said it was better than the Yellow Pages because he would provide pricing transparency. In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

For those of us who’ve invested in early stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. 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.

Invest 321

Invest Startup Email Competition 321

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.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. More experienced sales leaders seldom compete on price. It is tacit knowledge.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. I love how transparently Danielle lives her startup (& encourages other to join in) because it provides much needed transparency to other startups. Let’s set up a framework. Gross Burn vs. Net Burn.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. Or read the quick, informative summary below the image!

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

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

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

As an advisor to new business owners, I’m accustomed to seeing primarily the simple traditional product pricing strategies , usually driven by competitor prices, or cost plus a reasonable margin. I often wonder whether you as the entrepreneur have worked as hard on your pricing strategy as you have on your innovative solution.

Pricing 145

Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 23, 2012

"I started the site when I was 19. "When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. " When asked about the competition he feared most, Bill Gates is alleged to have said, "the two guys inventing away in a garage somewhere." 1) Get A Mentor. "I

Startup 268

Startup Tips CTO Coach Technical Review 268

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.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

Many funds have not performed and will start to disappear. PEHub followed up their analysis with this. It takes less to start a business these days – We all know that it takes less to start a technology company these days. He then profiled his portfolio company FourSquare who started with a very small investment.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. My first startup was no different. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. Startups are the art of the possible.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 30, 2012

I generally encourage my UC Santa Barbara students to complete their formal education before joining or creating a startup. In Michael's case, he promised his parents that he would return to school if the sales at his startup did not meet his expectations. "I Effective startup mentorship can come from unlikely sources.

Tips 247

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Santa Barbara 247

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. The start of marketing is figuring out a market need and a way to solve that need better than anybody else.

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.&#. Let’s start with the incumbents position in a market.

Startup 376

Startup Framework Marketing Customer 376

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Rarer still is the startup CEO who can make the transition effectively on their own. Unwillingness to devolve power is the bane of many management teams at startup companies. I see the problem directly at many startups I know. We moved toward more standardized pricing (e.g. This seldom works. Ditto the CFO.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

VC firms see thousands of deals and have a refined sense of how the market is valuing deals because they get price signals across all of these deals. As an entrepreneur it can feel as intimidating as going to buy a car where the dealer knows the price of every make & model of a car and you’re guessing at how much to pay.

Venture Capital 324

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Invest 324

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Let me start with a story. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy&# – it’s the rallying cry to dig deeper, get more features out the door, issue press releases citing differences and attack the competition’s weaknesses in sales presentations. A healthy respect for your competition will serve you well.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

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. You fill out the short questionnaire, lawyers submit their price quotes, and they get hired.

Help 240

Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

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

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. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. It was accept the terms or go into bankruptcy so we took the money.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

2023 hasn't been an easy year to be a startup. In fact, according to Crunchbase more than 212 startups closed their shutters in the third fiscal quarter alone – the highest number recorded in the firm's history. Yet, while many early-stage startups crumbled under the pressure, diamonds also emerged.

Startup 194

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 194

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2011

I will argue that when the dust settles, although we will have fewer firms, each type well end up more focused on traditional stage segments that cater to the core competencies of that firm. When I built my first company starting in 1999 it cost $2.5 million in infrastructure just to get started and another $2.5 Enter Amazon.

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital Software Capital Startup 334

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much. This is part of a series on a Board of Directors at a Startup.

Startup 269

Startup Venture Capital Layoffs Resource 269

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

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2009

I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. Every entrepreneur starts with an idea that they believe makes sense. So much so that you’re financial model 2 years out won’t resemble your starting model at all. They had signed up Gawker Media and the New York Post.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Startup Google Yammer 291

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And to keep up with the Jones’s it seems that Yahoo! Many buying companies price these deals on the basis of $1 million per engineer on the team for an early-stage deal.

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

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

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

As an entrepreneur and startup investor, I have helped create companies which achieved two IPOs which collectively raised over $100 million, as well as two acquisitions which totaled $385 million. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. “Learn from the mistakes of others. 3) Attempt To License An Idea. 7) Hire A Consultant.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242