Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

One thing I have learned the hard way in business is that implementing new ideas is usually much more difficult than conceiving the idea in the first place. That’s why I caution my aspiring entrepreneur clients against proclaiming to investors that they are a great “idea” person. For example, I have a friend with a Ph.D.

Ideas 126

Ideas Writing Examples Outsource 126

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2012

But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his book titled " Social Media Metrics."

Social Media 98

Social Media Metrics Media Startup 98

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

I'm going to be looking at aspects like: Things to consider before building your MVP Features often overlooked when documenting an MVP for developers Understanding important metrics you want to measure Risks and challenges in developing an MVP. Have you conducted Problem, Solution and Feature Interviews with customers?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

27:45 Eric: The thing that is supposed to fail fast is your bad ideas, not your company. 48:30 Vanity metrics. 52:00 Actionable metrics. 57: 00 How do you rectify company mission and customer demand. 48:30 Vanity metrics. 52:00 Actionable metrics. Most people are working on failing ideas. 34:00 Imvu.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2021

The entrepreneurs I see are always talking about “disruptive innovation” ideas, but the plans I read are more often linear extensions of a current hot offering, like one more social network with the best of Facebook and Twitter, one more dating site dimension, or another “must-have” accessory for smartphones.

Ideas 117

Ideas Entrepreneur Netflix IBM 117

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

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. The idea of “going deep” with customers has always shaped how I think. I found myself in violent agreement with Fred’s blog post(s).

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2010

But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his recent book titled " Social Media Metrics."

Social Media 84

Social Media Metrics Media Satisfaction 84

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

I have often thought that creative endeavors where one has a quick turn-around between idea and realization of one’s work as one of the more fulfilling experiences in life. And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2012

A startup begins with a great idea, but all too often, that’s where it ends. Ideas have to be implemented well to get the desired results. That’s why investors invest in entrepreneurs, rather than ideas. Your value chain consists of customers, partners, vendors, internal systems, and your own team.

Ideas 94

Ideas Startup Summary Competition 94

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Obsess About Customers, Not Colleagues Or Competitors. “We We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”. You can be customer-focused or competitor-focused.

Tips 279

Tips Startup Framework Customer 279

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

But we do it anyway, because we believe that the short-term metrics probably aren''t indicative of the long term.”. Yet, like container shipping tycoon Malcom McLean , Bezos felt that his idea was so “obvious and compelling,” he had to take the leap. We know this is a feature that’s good for customers. Let’s do it.’” .

Tips 223

Tips Framework Metrics Cloud Computing 223

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

I’m convinced that this “me too” or incremental thinking is one of the key reasons that ninety percent of new startups fail, and most of the investors I know won’t sign non-disclosure forms, since they claim to hear the same startup ideas over and over again. Marketing should begin even at the idea stage.

Startup 162

Startup Metrics Ideas Entrepreneur 162

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. They might be ideas they hatch internally (via a Foundry) or a founder who just left SpaceX and raises money to search for an idea. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

JANUARY 30, 2014

What happens to careful planning, sure-fire metrics, quality test scenarios, market research, a good business plan – all in place before pulling the trigger of a new opportunity. Email readers, continue here.] They want to know that their money is not just being thrown at an idea that will become a trial by fire – literally.

Artificial Inteligence 189

Artificial Inteligence Startup Metrics Ideas 189

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

They can talk with passion about their innovative new idea, and ask lots of questions, but never seem to really get started. The challenge we all have as business founders is to move from the idea stage to a real business. Set target date milestones and metrics to gauge progress.

Ideas 99

Ideas Slides Writing Startup 99

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Creating a new product in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that you know what’s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer. So, I’ve developed the three-step dance in order to help form a repeatable method of how to create a great company from an early idea.

Product 156

Product Customer Custom Ideas 156

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. Guide to Evaluating Startup Ideas - Tony Wright dot com , May 27, 2010 A great developer I once worked with was kvetching at lunch one day.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

While Google and Facebook will buy “acquihires” (at least as of Dec 2011), many acquirers hate the idea of buying companies that aren’t profitable. As I like to say, “If you’re really on to an enormous idea then other people in the market are going to spot that and want to compete with you. Internet scale.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2019

Is your marketing focus product-centric or customer-centric ? With a wealth of products now available, customers look for the most memorable experience , not just the best product. Amazon is very customer-centric, but it can make all the difference in retail as well as online. Status factors are more important than demographics.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Metrics 85

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2021

But very few are talking about how to measure your results and return on investment (ROI), and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Social media is the realm of public opinion and customer conversations. If you don’t have a clear idea of why you are there, anything you measure will be useless.

Social Media 127

Social Media Media Metrics Satisfaction 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2020

It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Innovative technologies have no value until they are turned into solutions to real customer problems. Idea management. Build and manage a pipeline of ideas.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2016

As a small business and startup advisor, I find that entrepreneurs often love to talk about their latest idea, but not their execution. Like most investors, I’m convinced that success in business is more about the plan and the person than the idea. Sets goals and milestones, with metrics to track progress.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Metrics Ideas 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

Entrepreneurs are people who dream up new ideas, and then commercialize them into new businesses. Most people believe that the hard part is coming up with the idea, and the easy part is turning it into a business. Don’t assume anything until you have done market research and listened to real customers.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Innovative technologies have no value until they are turned into solutions to real customer problems. Idea management. Build and manage a pipeline of ideas.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

And NOT even because they give until death refunds if a customer is ever dissatisfied with a purchase. He says he cares most about “focusing on customers for life”. He reminded us many times that he is not perfect and 86% of ideas fail. Noah has what I believe he called “Thank You metrics”. His email list is everything.

Metrics 87

Metrics Email Startup Technical Review 87

SoCal CTO

APRIL 1, 2009

So you can see that Entrepreneur (60) LinkedIn (15) Metrics (16) SEO (15) Company (141) are all considered highly relevant to the term "startup." You can see that he talks about: Marketing , Metrics , Customer and Social Media more than most. As the site runs, it will get better at finding great content.

Southern California 150

Southern California TechEmpower Technology Council Metrics 150

TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

This isn’t just our opinion - our startup metrics prove it! So instead, we fill it with a completely custom blurb, written just for him: Hello! Thanks to his custom blurb, instead of closing his browser and feeling inadequate for the rest of the day, Mark completes his bio and becomes a happy customer.

Generative AI 295

Generative AI Artificial Inteligence TechEmpower Tips 295

InfoChachkie

JUNE 2, 2014

Warning: Kelsey''s idea will make you ask yourself, "Why didn''t I think of that?". The gowns are then dry cleaned and readied for the next customer, in the spirit of the emerging sharing economy in which goods are communally used multiple times. We keep our eye on a handful of metrics, but we’re focused on customer satisfaction.

Design 208

Design Customer Custom Satisfaction 208

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. While I’m a huge believer that sales bonuses should always be uncapped, I think capping PBW’s is a good idea.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2020

I agree with the classic book by Ros Taylor, “ Creativity at Work: Supercharge Your Brain and Make Your Ideas Stick ,” which outlines some key psychological impediments to creative business thinking and change: Just use the data metrics. Creative ideas are the outliers, and tend to be eliminated first, rather than evaluated fully.

Metrics 157

Metrics Demand Statistics Sales 157

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

Frame the way you want to change the world, and make it about the customer. It can start by setting aside twenty minutes in a weekly meeting to explore new ideas for making things better, and then following through. Carve out unstructured time for team members to focus on ideas. Decide what to measure and create metrics.

Develop 135

Develop Development Startup Metrics 135

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” One customer is not traction, and beta tests with a thousand customers at no cost don’t count. Average transaction size and revenue per customer.

Startup 121

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

What happens to careful planning, sure-fire metrics, quality test scenarios, market research, a good business plan – all in place before pulling the trigger of a new opportunity. They want to know that their money is not just being thrown at an idea that will become a trial by “fire.”. What happens to careful planning?

Artificial Inteligence 156

Artificial Inteligence Metrics Ideas Email 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2013

But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Jim Sterne, who has written many books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his book titled " Social Media Metrics."

Social Media 102

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Metrics 102

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

What metrics are going to be the key startup metrics and how do we get those metrics without too much cost? In addition to networking, I would suggest that formal learning is a great idea. Make sure you are continuously looking at the business and customers. Get in front of customers as often as you can.

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2022

If you aren’t yet adapting to the market and your customers, you are falling behind. I define business agility for my consulting clients as the ability to change your business rapidly to meet customer and environmental changes, with minimal organizational disruption and cost. New blood and new ideas are keys to agility.

Competition 148

Competition Metrics Demand Customer 148