Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Shallow and superficial and racing from segment to segment in search of some take up has never been a strong strategic plan for me. I have written this up before if you’re interested – I call it Deflationary Economics. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT. INNOVATOR’S DILEMMA. He’s awesome to learn from. Business Model.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. So here are some more details ….

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

For what ever reason we’re wired to have amnesia during the run up and prescient memories of how we ‘knew it all along’ as soon as the slide begins. Once you understand both sides of the cycle you start to recognize signs of behavior during each phase. Poorly implemented this category was the definition of shelfware.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Under the heading, “The Book On Bezos,” the callout lists ten actionable and impactful nuggets of startup advice. We don’t give up on things easily. We didn’t give up.”. “ If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details…. The Two Pizza Rule.

Tips 279

Tips Startup Framework Customer 279

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2021

If you want to get in better shape and haven’t read that you might start there. I started advice with the premise that no amount of exercise or food eating plan would help with long-term fitness or weight goals unless you first had a mental plan and a set of measurements to track your progress. I want to share with you how I did this.

Coach 538

Coach Startup Guide Journal 538

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. I said both in the article but felt compelled to provide a statement up front for the skimmers.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Launchpad LA today announces it will accept applications for its third class of Los Angeles-based tech startups. But the most important metric has been the deep and lasting relationships that have been built with startups and also between senior executives. There are at least 6 incubators now being set up in LA.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Funding Startup GRP Partners 287

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. Importantly we also discussed: should startups raise small amounts of money or large? how should you organize teams in a startup? And make sure to pick up a copy of his book.

Social Media 301

Social Media Startup Metrics Media 301

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2013

Four years ago, Los Angeles-based Adly (www.adly.com) launched to much fanfare as one of the first local startups to tie into the brand-new, Twitter micro messaging platform. Walter Delph: We started primarily on Twitter, but we now work on Twitter, Facebook, and others. Others are catching up.

Social Media 237

Social Media Advertising Media Metrics 237

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I promised to do this post as a follow-up to the session to provide additional links and information. Once you build it, they will now ask you about the key metrics that they need proven in order to see if you really are a good investment. The real reason to build an MVP is to do early tests of key Startup Metrics for the business.

Technical Review 338

Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

And of course you could add up impressions by counting your the followers of everybody who had retweeted plus your own. It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! Startup Advice' End of story. End of story. Or Likes – LIKES! And so forth.

Marketing 307

Marketing Technical Review Startup Tool 307

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 5, 2013

It is most often missed assumptions about the market, the competition, the speed of adoption, or other critical metrics you’ve researched, or selected, or even just guessed at to create your plan. No-one challenged this number, and it became an unattributed source of the metric for market size for years. Starting up Raising money'

Metrics 239

Metrics Startup Marketing Demand 239

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

We built one of our companies upon forecasted metrics for a specific class of retail consumer base, but found that there wasn’t enough money in our universe to pay for marketing to create that much dedicated traffic to our site. Starting up' Email readers, continue here.] Some label this as “Bet on the jockey, not the horse.”.

Startup 245

Startup Summary Metrics Class 245

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. I can’t imagine any rational investor would sign up to that. If it’s important to you wouldn’t you discuss it up front? Your A round? Objectively.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Capital Pricing Doc 417

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2020

You don’t have to have previous startup problems to show resilience – everyone should have a story of tackling a tough challenge with minimal success, but using the failure to move on and achieve an objective. Evan Williams , for example, before cofounding Twitter, started a podcasting platform named Odeo.

Startup 173

Startup Mentor Activity Entrepreneur 173

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2013

The startup said that the new funding round brings its total raised to $1.75M. forwardmetrics forward metrics strategic planning software venture capital' Encinitas-based ForwardMetrics has just taken $1M in a seed funding round, to help companies better conduct their strategic planning. Source of the seed funding was not announced.

Seed Funding 252

Seed Funding Funding Metrics Venture Capital 252

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. Collaborate with experts and people with experience.

Startup 162

Startup Metrics Ideas Entrepreneur 162

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I work with a lot of startups. I start to notice when bad behavior creeps into the system as a whole. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” They would prefer you always move up-and-to-the-right. Again, all true.

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

In addition to being a thought leader within the Lean Startup Movement , Steve is also a professor at Stanford and Berkley. He met with the editors of the three Mac magazines that his customers read and showed them metrics that confirmed that SuperMac's boards were the fastest on the market. "I Lean Startup Lessons - For Free.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. Yet you may not be so sure where to start, and how to put it all together. Emeril Lagasse is always ready to “kick it up a notch!”

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kauffman Foundation , the numbers are here to show it. Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Establishing your brand with interactive social media.

Tips 161

Tips Startup Social Media News 161

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. .” Who else does Clayton pray for? Stay Out of Jail.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 134

Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media Metrics 134

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2022

Instead of sizing up new opportunities and actively courting every new customer, you start worrying about cutting costs, repeatable processes , and overtaking known competitors. As a consultant, I hate to see you lose that startup focus on innovation, change, and customers.

Startup 154

Startup Artificial Inteligence Metrics Netflix 154

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. Even the strongest relationships are often tested and broken by the stresses of a new startup.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

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. What's Going to Go Wrong A lot of founders don't really understand Lean Startup principles.

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. Background Questions Let’s start with some background questions about the business and product. What are your key Startup Metrics ? Who are the customers? Ads, Viral/Social, SEO)?

Develop 520

Develop Development Technical Review SEO 520

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2012

I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon. I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. Do vanity metrics matter? Hopefully I will teach myself Keynote soon and give up PPT. I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing.

Conference 297

Conference Marketing Metrics Writing 297

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. Phil Buckley, in his book “ Change With Confidence ,” provides practical answers to fifty of the biggest questions that keep change leaders up at night.

Startup 155

Startup Resource Metrics Technical Review 155

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I just had to line up behind him. We then started talking about Dave McClure. At first I was cynical about his ability to have 500 startups (or some fraction of that which is still larger than any VC has). I started to realize that Dave is able to do it because he approaches VC differently. I appreciate it. Show Notes.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Making the effort to gather metrics from the field in any form and then ignoring it, takes guts and determination – and in most cases a measure of stupidity. Starting up Positioning' On the other hand, most products or services are created in response to a real or perceived need. And most of us are not Steve Jobs.

Company 229

Company Companies Startup Customer 229

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

As a startup, you need to use your limited resources to excel at a few core things for your best customers, in order to stand out and get the momentum going. Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Customers today have adapted to a fast-moving world, and they expect every business to keep up. Less is more.

Startup 144

Startup Social Media Metrics Customer 144

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

So I promised that I would provide a follow-up after the session. This is that follow-up and hopefully it’s useful to people outside of the session as well. Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Have they considered everything?

Develop 280

Develop Development CTO Coach CTO Hire 280