Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2020

Yet if that leaves you with no documented business plan or unclear strategy, most investors and even customers will walk away. I’m a total believer in servant leadership and mentoring others, but nobody wins when you are in charge as an entrepreneur, and the business fails because you didn’t do your job.

Product 123

Product Startup Tips Entrepreneur 123

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

YOU Selling – My wise old friend & mentor, Ameet Shah, once told me after a meeting we had with clients (when I worked at Accenture), “there are two ways to run a meeting: asking or telling. Let’s assume you run a Customer Support software company. But how to apply “listening&# in a sales meeting?

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Custom 314

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

While I do fill that role at the moment, I'm a little hesitant to refer to myself as a CTO as we still haven't launched a product, acquired a single user, or turned or a penny in profit. How are we going to manage the product roadmap? What areas of the application are likely sources of scalability issues? When will key hires come on?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2020

As I was watching the investor show, Shark Tank , on TV the other night, I was struck by how quickly and how extensively the sharks focused on the background and character of the entrepreneurs, compared to time spent evaluating their products. Shares views and learns from a personal mentor. Visibly demonstrate the highest integrity.

Entrepreneur 168

Entrepreneur Mentor Metrics Custom 168

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. how to market our products and company. In the Early Days. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions. As You Start to Mature.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2022

Be sure to encompass all your constituents, especially including customers. Whole Foods , for example, has built their business with a commitment to natural and organic foods, and have a culture of loyal employees and customers, resulting in 500 stores worldwide. Relationships are key to happiness and productivity.

Product 109

Product Training Custom Customer 109

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2020

So mostly we just had to listen to customer feedback from founders, VCs and LPs. The core of the investing job of course is investing dollars into startup companies and helping as a mentor, advisor and board member on the companies in which you’ve invested. She has an amazing ethical compass with heart, compassion and drive.

Venture Capital 361

Venture Capital Startup Invest CitySearch 361

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

He shared tons of information about how how they were using marketing to quantitatively make marketing decisions at HauteLook and acquire customers for prices that were far cheaper than similar companies. Natural mentors – a desire to help. On each subsequent meeting I’d learn a little bit more. Community builders.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

socalTECH

APRIL 10, 2018

Most of our mentors are people who have been successful entrepreneurs and investors, who have been there, and understand how to get a company to the next sage. Matt Stodder: The most important thing is to understand their customers, and who they are going after. Blake Caldwell: We believe heavily in customer in customer development.

Startup 172

Startup Seed Funding Mentor Ideas 172

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2011

And he has acted as a personal mentor for Justin ever since. You have to build a product that people really love. Let me say this – whether you believe in marketing at startups or not, I think we’d all agree that you can’t have a great marketing program around a mediocre product.

Entrepreneur 398

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Blogging 398

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. This is the confirmation that your product or service fills a real need in the marketplace. Similarly, it will be very satisfying to see the productivity increases from your leadership and mentoring.

Satisfaction 174

Satisfaction Custom Customer Outsource 174

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2011

In a company’s early days, it is often the developers and product marketing team who must create the product. Later it is the salespeople who must generate revenue from the product. Assist as many bosses as you can, while retaining your own boss’s productivity as your top priority. Ask For Mentoring. Monkey See.

Entrepreneur 256

Entrepreneur Startup Santa Barbara Tips 256

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

That's funding our new product, FanMix, which is a a social media tool. The product right now is like basic Facebook, and we are updating it to a new format we think more people will want, sort of a hybrid between Pinterest and Reddit, so that you can have any combination of features between those two. We have some great mentors now.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She focused on her customer. Tracy is knowledgeable enough to talk tech and swap design & product stories with other founders, but she realized early that networking amongst this group and reading and writing in their journals would not bring her more customers. Now she had an extra $50,000 to start building out her team.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Bottlenecks to team productivity. Lack of communication.

Startup 161

Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

The confidence, energy, passion and humor that are hallmarks of Jonathan became muted in the pressures of needing to show financial successes to match one’s enormous product vision and ambitions. Do we have a heavy-touch implementation and support or a lightweight one by integrating with products that white-label us?

Startup 303

Startup Technical Review Product Blogging 303

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

There is always the next generation of workers coming of age who expect more, as well as the current generation already having the lowest engagement and productivity levels that business has ever seen. Spend more time mentoring and coaching your team. The future of work is definitely changing, accelerated by the current pandemic.

Tips 159

Tips Satisfaction Coach Mentor 159

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Everyone in the outside world is talking about how great you are but internally you know that your sales aren’t ramping, your product isn’t shipping on time, you have doubts about the quality of your code, you’re not convinced you’re doing a good job on marketing – whatever. You’re stressed. WTF!! ?? !!

Startup 327

Startup Sales Class CIO 327

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Custom Customer Entrepreneur 143

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2022

In my own experience as a startup advisor and mentor, I find that entrepreneurs who can’t attract and maintain a highly motivated team rarely even get off the ground. There are many ways to add levity to a tough challenge, and engaging the team occasionally in some fun activities will work wonders for your team’s productivity and motivation.

Examples 145

Examples Mentor Activity Product 145

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. You finally need to start planning your product roadmap a bit further than your 2-week sprints so that the rest of the organization has a chance to preplan for new features.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 1, 2020

In our personal lives we’re having to change our routines and figure out how to remain productive?—?often It goes without saying that if you find yourself in a really negative headspace PLEASE reach out to any trusted mentor, friend or family member. He produced a very detailed analysis of his customer base and which would be affected.

Demand 279

Demand Guide Custom Customer 279

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2021

In my role as advisor and mentor to many new entrepreneurs, I often find myself suggesting that they think bigger. Ideas to improve the usability of an existing product, or ways to extend its audience, are not likely to be unique to you, and difficult to win over competitors. Be prepared to ship a minimum viable product and pivot.

Startup 162

Startup Metrics Ideas Entrepreneur 162

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

It has a huge impact on productivity, as well as morale and loyalty to the company. In this age of interactive social media, your culture image quickly spreads to customers, and determines their loyalty. Trust causes the brain to release oxytocin, which stimulates productivity and raises motivation. So, how do you build trust?

Claremont 172

Claremont Mentor Study Startup 172

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2022

Yet I find, as a mentor and outside consultant, that many of you focus only on working conditions and compensation as the key factors determining team engagement , health, and productivity. by Donna Cutting, who is a globally-recognized guru on employee culture and optimizing customer service. Emotional stability.

Technical Review 141

Technical Review Mentor Social Media Custom 141

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2021

Most entrepreneur that fail are quick to offer a litany of constraints that caused their demise – not enough money, time, customers, or support from the right players. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. Subtraction leads to simplicity, better usability, and easier education of your customers.

Startup 164

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Competition 164

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2020

In my role as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I find that most have the technical challenges well understood, but many are a bit short on some basic street smarts , or basic business realities. With information overload due to the Internet, you need to find your customers, rather than assume they will find you.

Entrepreneur 173

Entrepreneur Patents Startup Technical Review 173

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Run great meetings (don’t be a productivity drain on the company). Once you’ve been around for a few years, attracted some great people, landed real, paying customers and raised venture capital you’ve likely got a talented team around you. But when they start to meet and exceed your expectations it’s magic.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Startup Sales Custom 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

It also has to be said that bad apples on teams bring down productive even if that person is individually a superstar. Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. Neither is very strategic nor in the best interest of either set of customers that VCs have (portfolio companies & LPs).

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2021

But privately, as a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I see mindsets and attributes that may be equally critical to success, but are not readily admitted, for fear of being too wacky. Don’t look to customers for breakthrough ideas. You now have many bosses, including partners, investors, and customers.

Entrepreneur 171

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Demand Custom 171

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 7, 2013

If you use the mentor-driven model that we pioneered at TechStars, you get entrepreneurs who are deeply connected with the broader entrepreneurial landscape. For early stage entrepreneurs seeking funding, building their product and formulating their product / market fit, an Accelerator is a great alternative.

Incubator 238

Incubator Startup News Entrepreneur 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Of course, some balance is required.

Coach 128

Coach Mentor Organization Startup 128

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Every entrepreneur and every business I meet in my consulting and mentoring role has great intentions of bringing real innovation to the market, yet I find that most ideas are merely small extensions to existing solutions. Both fail to look first at what customers really need, and are willing to pay for.

Startup 146

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Ideas 146

socalTECH

JULY 17, 2013

Los Angeles has always been a major market for launching products, and in the era of e-commerce has become highly attractive for its large consumer population, a technology-savvy population, and affinity for new products and services. Bryan Burkhart: It''s just a natural place for us, because we serve so many corporate customers.

Legalzoom 165

Legalzoom Los Angeles Startup Commerce 165

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

Today, with the Internet and social media, if you aren’t visible in a positive way to everyone, including customers, your leadership efforts will be lost. You need to be visible in marketing efforts, viral videos, and interactions with key customer segments. Build relationships with known business leaders.

Mentor 145

Mentor IBM IBM Social Media 145

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2021

Others are really marketers out to make money fast, and believe that they can entice customers to any offering. You will usually find the Innovator entrepreneur in the “lab” of the business working on their invention, recipe, concept, system, or product that can be built into one or many businesses. But none have any lock on success.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Framework Mentor Web 134