Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. eCommerce is an enormously competitive search term. Do you have sales productivity software? By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. This is true whether your at a sales meeting or at a VC firm. This happens often is sales meetings or VC meetings. Congratulations.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). VCs, how to select a VC, etc.) Most VCs are book smart.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

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. One of the most obvious places where you see this is in sales & marketing. Ditto the CFO. I was the laggard.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2011

Actually, I think the advice in this post applies to any sales meeting also. The short answer is that by knowing the key members of the management team the VC firm can quickly identify strengths on your time and know whether you have some competitive advantage in your chose field relative to other people with whom you will compete.

Slides 296

Slides GRP Partners Venture Capital Writing 296

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. An obvious example would be in sales. By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2011

I have long wanted to write about FNAC (feature, not a company) because it’s part of my normal lexicon to push teams that present to me to think harder about where the economics in their industry is coming from. . There were two justified responses to their sale — either ‘Congrats’ or nothing at all.&#.

Email 270

Email Writing Blogging Competition 270

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. Write things down. I was working hand-in-hand with my close friend and associate Stuart Lander who was running our UK office and with one of our local sales reps.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. Write things down. I was working hand-in-hand with my close friend and associate Stuart Lander who was running our UK office and with one of our local sales reps.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

We both felt that the critical reasoning skills and writing skills were critical to our career development. Competition: Chegg (has raised $144 in debt and equity)—estimated by Steven Carpenter ( TechCrunch ) to be 10x more unique visitors than BookRenter (during peak book renting seasons) with nearly $140mm in revenues for 2010.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

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. But then you can springboard from there to your next gig and you’ll be an experienced startup employee with functional experience at sales, marketing, product or whatever roles you played.”

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

Whenever you write your deck and send it out I think you should actually think to yourself, “my competitors are probably going to read this one day and this will be forwarded widely” and if your response isn’t “so what!” Competition isn’t won or lost by your marketing decks?—?it’s it’s won by how you innovate and by how you execute.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

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. The reality is that a journalist who’s writing a story about you – a relatively unknown entity – wants to hear directly from the founders and/or the CEO.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2023

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Keep your writing voice friendly and courteous.

Tips 123

Tips Writing Startup Summary 123

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

A few years ago, I saw a classic primer on the key elements of great online content that I like, in “ Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition ,” by Michael Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com. If you want to connect with customers, put aside your writing formalities. Then write it down.

Content 146

Content Newsletter Competition Writing 146

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2016

Even in this age of videos and text messages, the quickest way to kill your startup dream with investors, business partners, or even customers, is embarrassingly poor writing. In the competitive realm of business, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Keep your writing voice friendly and courteous.

Writing 62

Writing Summary Email Ideas 62

InfoChachkie

JULY 21, 2011

3) I’ve heard some great stories about your weekend sales “boot camps.” We hired people who did not have outside sales experience. And we hired folks who had previous leadership positions and proof points of being competitive. What must a startup do to motivate you to write them a check?

Summary 246

Summary Tips Sales Entrepreneur 246

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Thus, you have negotiating leverage as long as a legitimate, competitive threat exists. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get to do a deep dive on their business model, product roadmap and competitive positioning. I have no quarterly sales targets for the first time in a decade – For anybody who’s ever been in a company with sales targets you can attest to what a fire drill the ends of March, June, September and December can be.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

In many ways I think general purpose writing & thinking skills are as valuable as math skills. We also spoke about technology systems in the perspective of global competition. The numerator (return) encourages more sales, which is fine. It’s not that I don’t believe in liberal arts, humanities and the like.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

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

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.)

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2011

In case you don’t know, “the “9-9-9 plan” would replace all current taxes (including the payroll tax , capital gains tax , and the estate tax ) with 9% business transaction tax; 9% personal income tax rate, and a 9% federal sales tax.” Salesforce for years ran a campaign of “the end of software.”

Startup 289

Startup Press Software Marketing 289

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Consider it a sales & marketing expense for them.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

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

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. They are more likely to be the “bottom end of the sales funnel” or in other words close to “point of purchase.” Try writing long reviews of a restaurant. They do both well.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I remember just a decade ago in 2003 when we all laughed at how dumb people in the 90′s were talking about the race to “capture as many eyeballs as possible” before your competition. Should I write off my $2.5 You would figure out how to monetize later. I say ring the freaking cash register. I have said so for years.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

We then walked through our sales pipeline and discussed major campaigns. Then competition. and then write down what they said on a white board (so they feel listened to) but then go around the room and call on everybody and ask, “so what do you think?&#. We started with our financial statements.

Startup 331

Startup Slides Guide Writing 331

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. Dropping that name will often immediately draw a response if the decision maker is curious or particularly competitive.

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. ” I know it sounds obvious.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

…” I’ll write soon on my views of why I believe Instagram took off as a social network and what I think comes next. The first being a competitive acquisition offer from a fierce competitor. When I write quick posts and don’t have much edit time I feel I am often misunderstood or misquoted.

Venture Capital 316

Venture Capital Pricing Social Network Acquisition 316

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 25, 2011

How are they different from the competition? You might also want to highlight certain capabilities that the competition doesn't have, speed of delivery or implementation, or responsive customer support. Going into projects, I want to understand. 1 - The client's business. What do they do, for whom and how?

Case Study 162

Case Study Study Customer Custom 162

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’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Berkonomics

MAY 29, 2014

Included in a business plan are financials, competitive landscape, marketing plans, and projected sales to name a few. Studies found that people who write plans are more likely to put their goals in action and increases your likelihood of success. assess past performances. Business Plans are not static.

Startup 166

Startup Guide Help Mentor 166