SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc.

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

As an advisor to new business owners, I’m accustomed to seeing primarily the simple traditional product pricing strategies , usually driven by competitor prices, or cost plus a reasonable margin. I often wonder whether you as the entrepreneur have worked as hard on your pricing strategy as you have on your innovative solution.

Pricing 145

Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. What stage? I hustled.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? Should I trust my instincts for founders and products or should I be more focused on the market size or business plan? Because entrepreneurs often went to lawyers at their earliest stages to get their company registration done. I asked for intro’s from entrepreneur friends. What stage? I hustled.

Startup 361

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Of course these are great places to network with other investors, meet great entrepreneurs and keep your connections strong with senior execs at larger companies like Yahoo!, Products that ship late and place entire companies under serious stress. And there’s conferences. Oh, the conferences. Web Summit. Fortune Brainstorm.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Invest Press Startup 374

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2012

The median VC exit price for deals is $70 million (FLAG Capital via Bryce.VC). There is a mythology amongst some LPs (funds that invest in VCs) and some VCs that “entry price doesn’t matter – only investing in the absolute best entrepreneurs.” So entry price matters a lot. ” That’s b t.

Startup 323

Startup Technology Venture Capital Santa Barbara 323

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions. She was everything I was looking for in an entrepreneur to back. She had previously acquired UrbanSpoon.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. This post was prompted by an email exchange I had with a young entrepreneur. I was interested in learning more.

Startup 360

Startup Venture Capital Invest Slides 360

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Most technical entrepreneurs focus hard on building an innovative product, but forget that an elegant solution doesn’t automatically translate into a successful business. Defining the right business model requires the same diligence as designing the right product, but the approach and skills required are different.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently. Back then VentureHacks didn’t exist. million.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. I have had this discussion with many a first-time entrepreneur. Is it one product line or multiple?

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

This was an audience of mostly first-time entrepreneurs. It is great for entrepreneurs and great for VCs. So here is what I have been telling entrepreneurs privately for the past 6 months. But that doesn’t mean that people are paying rational prices as investors based on intrinsic value. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Launched by Karen Rodgers O’Neil, a longtime marketing executive, and Daniel Perrone, a serial entrepreneur and technology executive whose previous company, BroadMap, was acquired by Apple; The Shed hopes to take the rental model that Home Depot has turned into a billion dollar business line and take it to the masses. .

Startup 285

Startup Product Demand Los Angeles 285

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

With the appearance of do-it-yourself services on the Internet, entrepreneur curriculums at every university, and a wealth of new books on the subject, the need for expensive consultants and business advisors has also been mitigated. The need to build a new million-dollar factory for each new product is gone.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Outsource Development 162

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. So I asked Ethan to build his product first and then we would fund.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Great entrepreneurs are able to think on their feet, and are always prepared.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Startup Sales Customer 134

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Each of these can go astray as follows: Your product or service hits unexpected snags.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Berkonomics

JULY 6, 2017

In 1994, (I know a long time ago), I invested over a million dollars into a company whose entrepreneurs had a vision that I bought into for many reasons, not the least of which was that I had industry experience and understood the need. Surprisingly, many entrepreneurs immediately respond. Back to 1996.

Competition 266

Competition Research Summary Pricing 266

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2012

There are many ways to project the value of a company for purposes of pricing an investment, but all rely upon the revenue and profit projections of the entrepreneur as a starting point. Sound Idea (basic value, product risk) $1/2 million. Prototype (reducing technology risk) $1/2 million.

Invest 321

Invest Startup Email Competition 321

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2020

Even if you ignore all the hype around crowdfunding, there can be no doubt that it is a real alternative for entrepreneurs to achieve visibility and funding today. Product pre-order model. With this model, a startup pre-sells their product early, at a cheaper price, in exchange for a pledge.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Satisfaction Equity 129

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2019

He is regarded by many as the number-one authority on virtual staffing and personal outsourcing, and is himself a successful entrepreneur based in the Philippines. I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Be flexible.

Outsource Development 121

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Summary 121

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. They have created two internal technology “products&# and wanted to figure out how they could turn their services business into a product business that could be financed. This team is talented.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

However, many people are not aware that prior to entering academia, Steve was a wily and creative marketing entrepreneur. And then they said one thing that most marketers go their whole career never hearing, 'Listen Steve, price is irrelevant, it is speed that matters.' We had been pricing our graphics cards to be a low-cost provider.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Jim Semick: I’ve been launching and managing software products for 15 years now, going back to when you and I worked together at Expertcity before it was acquired by Citrix. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

Sometimes I even say, “I will change price / terms if I need to. Your job is to offer a price (or terms) and walk. If you get to the end of the road and turn right and they’re not following you then you know you offered a price that was too low. In that case my price was too low even for him. I prefer not to.

Pricing 305

Pricing Startup Examples Writing 305

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

I recognize that entrepreneurs tend to substitute vision and passion for formal processes, but using no discipline or process in building something new is a sure way to spend money, rather than see any return and build a self-sustaining business. Technologists building cool new platforms, just because they can, won’t find investor interest.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

In case you don’t know – as VCs we have have 2 sets of customers: LPs (limited partners) who invest money in our funds and entrepreneurs (who we in turn give money to and help support them in building businesses we hope will be valuable). Who else is going to tell a VC if he got a bad reference from an entrepreneur or fellow VC?

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

socalTECH

JULY 10, 2019

We spoke with CEO and co-founder Spencer Price to learn more about the company. Spencer Price: Halla is the only software company to dynamically profile human tastes so we can help people make better choices. Spencer Price: That's a fair question. Spencer Price: It's a bit of a circuitous route. What is Halla?

Pricing 113

Pricing Startup North Hollywood Platform 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

It seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and get rich these days. It’s really a multi-step process, with the first step getting you from an idea to a viable product, and the remaining steps creating a sustainable business. Attend trade shows and network to find the right players and pitch your product.

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Plan to deliver a family of products, rather than a one-trick pony. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Entrepreneur 129

Entrepreneur Resource Metrics Customer 129

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

If you have or are thinking about a business in the video space you’ll enjoy hearing from Gregg but even more broadly this is a great conversation for entrepreneurs, investors or industry analysts. Your goal is to increase the top end of the funnel (more people using the free product) and increase the rate of conversion to paid.

Startup 303

Startup Venture Capital Pricing Writing 303

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2020

As a startup advisor, I see many aspiring entrepreneurs whose primary motivation seems to be to work part time, or get rich quick, or avoid anyone else telling them what to do. Yet, for those with more realistic expectations and the right motivation, the entrepreneur lifestyle can be the dream life you envisioned. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Organization Customer Custom 126

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 22, 2011

For me it is a useful shorthand for a very clever set of product features that in my mind would be hard to remain a stand-alone business or themselves to generate enough revenue to justify the company’s existence. Just sending messages is a utility product and Apple killed that, not me.” . Sure, it’s intended to shock.

Company 295

Company Companies Gogii Google 295

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

This is probably because many founders are product or technology people. The mistake many startup people make is they hire a “sales person&# to go out and talk with customers so they can do what they’re good at which is building product or “running the company.&# Sales people are a different breed, you say.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 4, 2014

If you could share one startup lesson with a young entrepreneur, what would it be? So I ask prospective new entrepreneurs, ''What is it specifically that you can bring to the industry?'' Do you have any specific advice for entrepreneurs who might be considering starting a venture with a loved one? How have you made it work?

Entrepreneur 187

Entrepreneur Startup Social Media Advertising 187

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

The company aims to have its first product approved by European regulators by 2023 and notching commercial sales by 2025. These products don’t get at the full potential for cellular technology according to Daan Luining, Meatable’s chief technology officer. ” For Meatable right now, price remains an issue.

Chief Technology Officer 261

Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261