TechCrunch LA
APRIL 5, 2022
We’re all guilty of it: sometimes, even when we’re not looking to move, it’s fun to look at home listings on Zillow just to see what’s out there. If that sounds weird to you… I don’t blame you, but I also recommend watching more HGTV. However, if this sounds like a fun way to procrastinate after you’re done playing the Wordle, Quordle, Globle and Heardle for the day, you’re not alone.
Berkonomics
APRIL 28, 2022
Finding your needle in the haystack. There is so much information being shot at us daily via social media streams that we should monitor and control that which pertains to our business – and do so with some level of expertise. Start with a simple tool. There are tools to inform you when your company name or personal name is mentioned. Google Alerts can be set for any parameter and then be set to deliver your results daily or more often using Google.com/alerts.
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Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 17, 2022
As a long-time business advisor and angel investor, I’m a believer that “two heads are better than one” in building a new business. Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.
Tech.Co
APRIL 11, 2022
In February, ecommerce platform Etsy revealed that a record fourth quarter had earned them $717.1 million in revenue and added 10 million active buyers. Etsy also hiked its transaction fees by 30%, raising the costs to sellers from 5% to 6.5% on each sale. Now, those sellers are responding. Starting today, they're going on strike for a week in protest of the price change, which they say is just the latest in a series of decisions that have squeezed the small-business sellers who depend on the Et
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Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.
TechCrunch LA
APRIL 26, 2022
Many grocery delivery startups begin small, in one city, building up locations to cater to a certain neighborhood. Food Rocket has taken an unconventional route, striking a funding deal with Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. that puts its 15-minute grocery delivery service in more than 14,000 Circle K convenience stores and Couche-Tard locations. We first met the Chicago-based company and its founder and CEO Vitaly Alexandrov last year when we reported that Food Rocket launched in the Bay Area , goi
TechCrunch LA
APRIL 18, 2022
The alternative protein space is hot, hot, hot as evidenced by both the number of companies developing products and the venture capital going into the space. Investment into alternative proteins, for example, plant-based meats and dairy substitutes was $5 billion in 2021, according to both the Good Food Institute and Crunchbase data. The latest company to attract venture capital is Nowadays , a company founded in San Francisco in 2020 as a Public Benefit Corporation by Max Elder and Dominik Grab
Southern California Tech Central brings together the best content for technical professionals in Southern California from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Berkonomics
APRIL 21, 2022
We think of media advertising as either paid or free – placed by paying a fee or by a PR firm or by you at no placement cost, especially when you provide editorial content beneficial to the publisher. But now there’s new media…. But this new era of Internet advertising has given rise to two more forms you should know and use in addition to the two traditional types above.
Berkonomics
APRIL 14, 2022
If we never advertised, we’d never sell anything. Right? Perhaps right, but there are three major types of advertising, some requiring large outlays of cash, some not. The types of advertising. First, you can advertise your brand so that people recognize it when they see it in later materials. Second, you can make a call to action, using an ad to bring people to your place of offer, buy your services or product, or take advantage of a special incentive.
Berkonomics
APRIL 7, 2022
How I didn’t follow my own advice. Years ago, I led a deal and invested in a company that looked like it had lots of promise to disrupt the women’s clothing industry with special algorithms and an online store. But something had bothered me from the very start – unsalable inventory. An entrepreneur makes a claim that stretches comfort. You see, women’s clothing is subject to fashion changes so frequently that inventory becomes obsolete quickly.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 16, 2022
Every entrepreneur and business leader I know realizes that it takes a dedicated team to build and run a successful business, and nurturing that team is one of your most important priorities. 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.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 15, 2022
Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. Entrepreneurs looking to innovate need to understand the execution challenge if they expect their startup to carve out a profitable niche in the marketplace, and keep innovating to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyone thinks they know how to make their innovation into reality, but I can’t find much deep research on the subject.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 23, 2022
Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. Then they are surprised to see productivity and creativity take a big dip. What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 11, 2022
New entrepreneurs are always looking for a shortcut in getting their venture story and plan across to investors, and closing on the funding they need. An effective tool I see used more and more, as a prelude to a more detailed business plan, is the Business Model Canvas , first introduced by Alexander Osterwalder back in 2008. It forces you to bridge the gap between idea and execution.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 9, 2022
Starting and running a company is a team effort. Yes, it takes a leader (entrepreneur), but you can’t do it alone, without a team. Maybe only you and a co-founder comprise the team at first, to provide key skills, back you up, and test your ideas. As the startup grows, the team has to be able to really push you in making growth decisions, rather than you pulling them along.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 30, 2022
In my experience as a business advisor and angel investor these days, I seem to more frequently hear from entrepreneurs and business owners with “can’t-fail” or “get-rich-quick” ideas. In my view, these are the least likely to succeed, partially because the people behind them have the wrong expectations and traits. The instant gratification approach just doesn’t work in business.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 1, 2022
The entrepreneur’s challenge is to effectively communicate their value proposition, not only to customers, but also to vendors, partners, investors, and their own team. Especially for technical founders, this is normally all about presenting impressive facts. But in reality facts only go so far. Stories often work better, because humans don’t always make rational decisions.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 2, 2022
Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. In fact, businesses need to adapt even more completely to the changes in the buying and social behavior of consumers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. Today’s customer buying dynamics are all about “user experience,” according to Brian Solis, in his classic book “ What’s the Future of Business?
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 22, 2022
Even entrepreneurs who have built many startups, or sold their last one for millions of dollars, know they make occasional people leadership mistakes. They know leadership is all about managing their own complicated, illogical, and fallible human foibles, as well as the people they depend on. These can trip up even the best, often at the cost of more than a good night’s sleep.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 8, 2022
Most people agree that entrepreneurs have to think differently and take risks to have much chance of building a successful business. Yet I have found that serious entrepreneurs usually go way beyond these platitudes in their actions and thinking, and often won’t volunteer their real views, for fear of alienating “regular” people, and being branded a fanatic.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 10, 2022
Most of the entrepreneurs I have met are smart, but many are not always wise. That means they may show great insights into a new technology that has marginal business value, their passion may motivate team members more than customers, or they may allow themselves to be pulled over the ethical line in their success drive. Wise leaders are authentic, timeless, and enduring.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 25, 2022
One of the first harsh realities that every entrepreneur has to learn is that most of the things that are critical to startup success are outside of their direct control. Just because you dream it and build it, doesn’t mean they will come – that encompasses not only customers, but also investors, partners, team members, and even your own family. They won’t come if they don’t trust you.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 24, 2022
The good news is that a recent Kauffman Early-Stage Entrepreneurship (KESE) Index shows the highest level of new business activity recorded in the last two decades, and the cost of entry at an all-time low. The bad news is that it’s still a jungle fight for survival for entrepreneurs of all ages and demographics, with over 80 percent not having access to bank loans or venture capital.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 29, 2022
Most of you business owners I know are looking forward to the day when your product, team and processes begin to mature, and your business growth keeps tilting upward as you scale. You expect to relax a bit, and relish in the success that you see coming. Unfortunately, without your proactive efforts to counter predictable market challenges , early growth can quickly stall.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 27, 2022
It’s always been tough to start a new business, even when the bottom line was just making a profit to stay alive. A few years ago, a second focus of sustainability (“green”) was added as a requirement for respectability. Now I almost always hear a third mandate - social responsibility. Entrepreneurs are now measured against the “triple bottom line” (TBL or 3BL) of people, planet, and profit.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 20, 2022
In my experience, the right team culture is critical to every business and startup success, so every business leader wants to know how to create it. In reality, I’m convinced that none of us can “ create culture ” directly, but we can create an environment where the desired culture emerges. You do this by driving values, letting values shape behavior , and the behavior defines the culture.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 13, 2022
After many extended coaching sessions with entrepreneurs and small business owners, I’ve found myself wondering if my value-add was anything more than you could get by self-coaching. Of course, my years of experience in business gives me insights that you might not yet have, but I’ve found that the major value from coaching comes from getting you into the right mindset.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 4, 2022
The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 3, 2022
Whether you are trying to motivate your team, close a deal with a customer, or get funding from an investor, a casual conversation is usually a waste of your valuable time. These result is a founder who is always “too busy,” but never seems to get the business done and the team moving. All real business is conversations focused on creating results. Shawn Kent Hayashi, in her classic book “ Conversations That Get Results and Inspire Collaboration ” makes my point very well as she outlines the top
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 6, 2022
It seems like every entrepreneur and business owner I meet is highly focused on fast growth to a large business, and becoming the next unicorn. They don’t realize the running a large business brings a whole new set of problems, and may not be all that much fun, compared to their small business role. If you enjoy your role today, I believe it makes more sense just to keep it that way.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 18, 2022
How many times have investors heard startups start their pitch by touting that their technology is “disruptive?” What entrepreneurs forget or don’t realize is that most customers are wary of all technology, educating the market on new technology is expensive, takes a long time, and people buy problem solutions rather than technology. Investors will likely wait for more traction.
TechCrunch LA
APRIL 5, 2022
Following a successful launch into Walmart stores last year, sexual wellness startup Cake is expanding its mainstream presence into Target. The move is buoyed by a $2.5 million bridge round to bring its total funding to date to $8.3 million. Los Angeles-based Cake raised $4 million in funding last year when it made its national retail launch into Walmart.
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