Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. Extremely talented people are ultra competitive.

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Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.

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Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

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

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

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you. Competitive (Athlete: skier & rowed at Princeton, hates losing at everything she does). Startup CEO experience (Founded P.S. XO along with my good friend Soleil Moon Frye. She rolls up her sleeves and helps get tasks done rather than just directing people.

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Venture Capital Startup Outsource Development CitySearch 408

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

Of course this can be done and of course I am a big proponent of the rise of startup centers across the country as the Internet has moved from the “infrastructure phase” to the “application phase” dominated by the three C’s: content, communications and commerce. ” But I think this misses the point.

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Company Companies Startup Snapchat 369

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. A business startup is not an academic environment, or a big company research organization.

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Competition High Tech Startup Social Media 174

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.

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Competition Patents Resource Invest 133

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.

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Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 194

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2022

He lived the philosophy that companies must be paranoid in order to survive, and continually disrupt their own markets to prevent overrun by competition. Start small and move quickly to test new approaches that can be scaled up later, with an understanding that some will fail. Be proactive rather than reactive to market change.

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Competition Metrics Demand Customer 148

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 22, 2014

It’s a fantastic startup that has had a amazing impact on society. It’s not just about people like me who can (and do) turn up in nearly any city in the US and immediately book a ride. They were a little too fierce in their competitive practices against Lyft to sign up drivers. Is Uber evil? They don’t care.

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Press Journal Startup Training 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2014

I hope to publish that deck and a full write up in the next 10 days in partnership with Dan Primack at Fortune (if my write up doesn’t suck, I guess ;-)). Of course the concentration of capital in growth firms and the intense competition to fund the best deals leads to some risks. Startup Lessons'

Venture Capital 362

Venture Capital Capital Startup Writing 362

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

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2022

In my experience as a business advisor, most organizations, large and small, struggle to keep up with the pace of change and competitive forces today. A question I often get is how to transform that overall team into a smooth-running machine that will keep up with the pace of market change, and competition in today’s world.

Competition 136

Competition Resource Startup Organization 136

Berkonomics

JULY 3, 2024

There is nothing quite as thrilling in business as igniting a startup and watching it blossom. Especially when starting a company with personal savings or money from relatives and friends, early signs of success are intoxicating. Dave Berkus The post Startup intoxication! Do you ignore the warnings of experts?

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Startup Hollywood Writing Press 156

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 11, 2021

Photo by Vanna Phon on Unsplash Customer acquisition is the lifeblood of many startups from e-commerce to gaming to marketplace companies, among others. Most of these startups spend the lion’s share of their marketing budget in today’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snap, TikTok and so on because?—?no no surprise?—?that’s

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Product Platform Advertising Acquisition 424

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

Now we tackle the more difficult and subjective task of placing a value upon those startups that don’t fit into that mold. For those of us who’ve invested in early-stage companies, especially technology startups, we have confronted a universal problem. There is nothing wrong with changing the five tests to meet individual needs.

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Invest Startup Email Competition 306

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.

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Startup Venture Capital Layoffs Resource 269

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 Social Network Activity Ideas 156

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.

Tips 168

Tips Startup Coach Networking 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2022

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. A related “red flag” in a business plan is a missing competitive analysis section, or a short paragraph that essentially says, “this product has no competition.” Fix something that’s broken. Marty Zwilling.

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Ideas Startup Tips Competition 145

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.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). Lower costs to start a business (95% reduction), many more companies created & funded by angels / seed. Seed funds now represent 67% of all funds being created now, which is up 100% from 6 years ago. more than 5 years ago?—?and

Venture Capital 398

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Seed Funding 398

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2021

I’m fully convinced that both inspiration and perspiration are always required in a startup. Those at the other extreme don’t look up from the grindstone long enough to notice whether all their work is producing sweat equity or just sweat. Starting a business may be fun, but it’s not easy. Start even before the product is ready.

Startup 160

Startup Patents Competition Social Network 160

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

Our 3rd fund began investing in March 2009 (raised in 2008) and our 4th fund started in April 2012 so this fund will naturally begin investing around March / April 2015. Our investment strategy has always been to do predominantly Series Seed & A round deals, which makes up > 85% of our first investments. I don’t know.

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

leadership, mentorship, competitiveness, communications, relationship-building?—?and Kara said “no” because she wanted to start her own company, which she did and I backed. In any job you either find leadership opportunities for your best people BEFORE they ask or other people start asking them to become leaders somewhere else.

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I work with a lot of startups. I start to notice when bad behavior creeps into the system as a whole. 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. I have said so for years.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved.

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2020

Every startup and every new business needs a unique selling proposition (USP) to get people’s attention these days, and make it stand out in the information overload we all see. I’m looking for the “hook” right up front, or I lose interest quickly, just like every customer and investor these days. Do include some quantification.

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Startup Education Ideas Customer 166

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

Successful startups seem to follow similar paths to greatness, and unfortunately all too often that path leads them back down the hill much faster than they went up. Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to start watching these things more carefully from the very start. Geographic expansion.

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Startup Web 2.0 IBM IBM 142

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

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. Overnight, guest use of the room cell phones dried up and hotels were left with expensive switches, phones and chargers unused. In this case, the competition was not from a company but a new technology. There is no competition.”

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Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. He would pick up stuff from your apartment and bring it to storage for you and he could save money by having that facility be off site. And could we then compete?”

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Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable. First to market, for example, is not normally a sustainable advantage for startups. Startup team with experience and connections is this domain.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2021

Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. How many times have you actually made up work to keep an idle person busy? Build entirely new business models and systems.

Startup 164

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Competition 164

Startup San Diego

AUGUST 31, 2023

The Startup San Diego team caught up with the 2022 Startup Week Heavyweight Pitch competition winner and Startup Incubator Program Alumni, James Hamet, Founder and CEO of Vistim Labs, to find out how the startup has been doing since the victory and their plans for the future.

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Incubator Competition San Diego Startup 115

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

These things outside your control do happen, but based on my years of experience as a startup advisor and angel investor, I still see too many strategies leading to failure that are inside the entrepreneur decision realm. I certainly agree that starting a business is fraught with risk, and none of us get it all right the first time.

Startup 124

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 124