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Building Your MVP as a Non-Technical Founder

SoCal CTO

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either. And the back-end is something that a non-technical founder can manage. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending.

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7 Due Diligence Checks On Your Idea To Save Some Pain

Startup Professionals Musings

Some analysis and due diligence along the following lines should be performed on every idea, as a reality check, before committing your efforts and other people’s money to building a business: Look for places where competitors are few. Don’t forget to consider customer alternatives, like trains versus airplanes.

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If You Don’t Respect Your Customers You Won’t Be Successful

Both Sides of the Table

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. You’d be very wrong. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had.

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6 Due Diligence Goals When Vetting Business Partners

Startup Professionals Musings

You need to do the due diligence to make that decision before you sign away your equity. As a former startup investor, I was often involved with due diligence on founders, and I felt that founders should do the same on co-founders, as well as investors. The same benefits also apply to a joint venture.

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How to Know When to Sell vs. When to Market to Customers

Both Sides of the Table

This is final part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. You know exactly when you want to sell to this customer and presumably it’s this quarter! Which customers to target: Elephants, Deer or Rabbits ? Unique Selling Proposition.

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6 Due Diligence Concerns Before Outside Contracting

Startup Professionals Musings

Leading edge technology software and manufacturing require constant course corrections and iterative restarts. Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced. Internal services, like marketing and accounting, are more manageable and have less customer visibility. Marty Zwilling.

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How To Prepare Your New Venture For Investor Scrutiny

Startup Professionals Musings

This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. Some entrepreneurs do very little to prepare for due diligence, assuming all the talking has already been done, and the business plan and results to-date tell the right story. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors.