Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. Of if your VP Sales isn’t complaining about marketing she’s trying to get the function reporting to her. Marketing of course often feels the opposite.

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. Is it one product line or multiple? ” The Details.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Buckley said the company decided to launch its efforts in Los Angeles, because it was a market where Postmates had a good penetration of delivery workers and big market. That could have an impact on retail sales that were already projected to be dismal. decline in total US retail sales this year, and a 14.0%

Sales 249

Sales Los Angeles Beverly Hills Demand 249

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on. I believe it’s flawed.

Startup 403

Startup Sales Software Review Technical Review 403

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. It the second rule of sales, “Why Buy Me?”

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Without strong PMs you build crappy products that nobody needs or that real people can’t use. Final startup grind from msuster. For the wrong reasons.

Startup 388

Startup Slides Outsource Development Sales 388

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2020

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. In fact, we now live in a buyer-led digital age, where the traditional media push-marketing efforts just don’t work.

Marketing 174

Marketing Invest Demand Metrics 174

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

Over time you start to figure out who you customers are and how to sell to them or how to get them to adopt your products if you’re a consumer-oriented startup. I’m going through this situation now with the first investment that I ever made as a VC in Invoca – (Inbound voice call), a SaaS marketing automation company.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Tech.Co

JUNE 22, 2021

Shopify is planning to strike a blow at Amazon by entering the affiliate marketing space. But, it also represents another swipe at Amazon's near-monopoly control of the affiliate marketing space. Why Would Shopify Expand into Affiliate Marketing? Put simply, affiliate marketing is big business. Considering Shopify?

Marketing 164

Marketing Buzzfeed Guide Platform 164

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Post-sale, AI analyzes customer data to improve service and loyalty, making it a cornerstone of modern sales methodologies.

Generative AI 297

Generative AI TechEmpower CTO Hire Outsource Development 297

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

It also handles the back end as well by automating the posting, sale and shipment of unsold inventory while offering immediate payment to creditworthy sellers. More people are focused on the beginning of the product lifecycle; very few are focused at the end.”. That’s our vision.”.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Berkonomics

JULY 26, 2018

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales 226

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 226

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 5, 2020

GrubMarket , which provides a B2C platform for consumers to order produce and other food and home items for delivery, and a B2B service where it supplies grocery stores, meal-kit companies and other food tech startups with products that they resell, is today announcing that it has raised $60 million in a Series D round of funding.

Technical Review 343

Technical Review Startup Marketing San Diego 343

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

TechCrunch LA

JUNE 19, 2018

She also serves on the board of Shoes of Prey, a custom shoe company currently aimed at the women’s market. Now she’s taking an ops position at one of the biggest players in the sneaker market. Along with StockX , GOAT has brought a huge amount of access and pricing transparency to resale sneakers, a billion-plus market.

Marketing 203

Marketing Sales Platform Los Angeles 203

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Quantify the market opportunity in business terms. You need both to survive.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

But LA-based performance marketing agency MuteSix didn’t wait that long to build its business around scaling DTC brands. If you have growth marketing agencies or freelancers to recommend, please fill out our survey !). Why do you think that performance marketing is the right fit for DTC?

Commerce 211

Commerce Content Marketing Startup 211

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2014

Most products out there suck so mom gets stuck with angst of wanting to have decorations, activities and chatzkies for other kids to take home. The honest truth is that we took on a little bit too much and so while we launched this beautiful experience we found ourselves without a broad enough set of products (skus) to drive repeat purchases.

Startup 296

Startup Southern California Marketing Activity 296

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. No pain usually means no sales.

Sales 139

Sales Training Startup Customer 139

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

Sales 150

Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2012

“Yeah, but I’m just going to execute this [channel sales deal, international license of my product, new industry, new operating system, biz dev deal] and then it will pretty much run itself.” They just need you to update your marketing materials. ok, I know our product isn't yet verticalized.

Resource 415

Resource Startup Product Ideas 415

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2020

Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market research data. These are also important for your product positioning in the competitor section of your business plan.

Marketing 157

Marketing Statistics Research Report 157

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2017

Your first customers for any product or service form your reference base, the important group of allies that your marketing and sales people rely upon when attempting to create buzz and make a mass market for a new product. Capture every compliment and ask if you can use it for marketing purposes.

Customer 243

Customer Custom Resource Sales 243

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2021

This is a statement that they are willing and able (and successful) at projecting market and technology turns, not just straight-line innovations. They have the courage to make bold decisions, often contrary to conventional market research. It gives a product structure and style, and makes it memorable and unique.

Marketing 157

Marketing Design Entrepreneur Ideas 157

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2021

If you are a passionate technologist , it’s easy to forget that marketing is required to sell even the most compelling solution, to cut through the information overload everyone sees today on the internet. If marketing is not your thing, then you need to find a partner or outside expert to help you.

Technical Advisors 154

Technical Advisors Tips Marketing Case Study 154

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

Marketing is everything these days. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It! Don’t fall into the marketing-speak trap. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them?

Marketing 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Every one of you business owners I know periodically introduces new products and services to sustain growth, fight off competitors, or take advantage of new technologies. The cost of any new product these days must include education and rollout marketing, perhaps equal or greater than the development costs.

Product 141

Product Services Technical Review Artificial Inteligence 141

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business 6 months. Is it one product line or multiple?

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

Indeed, two of the best funded companies in the lab-grown meat market hail from The Netherlands, where Mosa Meat is being challenged by a newer upstart, Meatable , which just announced $47 million in new financing. The company aims to have its first product approved by European regulators by 2023 and notching commercial sales by 2025.

Chief Technology Officer 261

Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261

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

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

The Los Angeles-based operations and security management software service, Replicated has raised $25 million to ramp up its staffing and scale its sales and marketing efforts. Last year, the company unveiled its tools for managing Kubernetes deployments and immediately saw sales increase.

Software 224

Software Tool SaaS Los Angeles 224

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. In sales we often call these USPs (I wrote about them here: Unique Selling Propositions ).

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

” How can businesses not incorporate information into their marketing and sales funnels? No other vendor in the market allows a single API, a scripting language and a visual query builder and it’s these and other feature sets that have seen DataSift grow at the astronomical pace it has grown at. ” Steve.

Social Media 358

Social Media Yammer Invest Organization 358

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 23, 2021

But what if we separate ourselves from that mindset long enough to search for and find sparks of success sometimes buried within our sales statistics. Can we change our thought process, alter our marketing focus, take resources from other areas if needed, and double down to back up potential winners in the making?

Resource 296

Resource Statistics Email Product 296

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2014

It is the bane of every startups existence because it takes up so much time, it is so competitive to sign people and it feels like unproductive time because it’s not moving the ball forward on product, engineering, sales, marketing, biz dev, fund raising. In fact, it’s worse than that.

Press 341

Press Startup Email Sales 341

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Energica to hit the brakes on production of its battery powered machines that can reach top speeds of 168 mph. general manager ( Stefano Benatti ) — filled more orders in the first two months of 2020 than all its sales for 2019, according to Cevolini. Image Credits: TechCrunch. In the U.S.,

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

On market segmentation I often recite my “ Elephants, Deer & Rabbits ” framework. On sales I often talk about “ Why Buy Anything, Why Buy Now, Why Buy Me ” as a tool to think about a sales process. On marketing I talk about “ Arming & Aiming ” 4. Improving startup productivity

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407