Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

Take advantage of inside and outside advisers at school. Most universities also bring in outside advisors to mentor budding entrepreneurs. Once you graduate, you can’t take that course you need, and even the advisors are gone. Some college faculty members have great practical experience. It's a huge opportunity to learn early.

Technical Advisors 90

Technical Advisors Startup Course Entrepreneur 90

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 2, 2013

Then we discussed how they could go about finding this startup business advisor. Great question and I believe that just like finding a Technical Advisor for your startup is critical, finding a good mentor is critical. These are not mutually exclusive and good mentors and advisors get into both.

CTO Coach 259

CTO Coach Mentor Startup Technical Advisors 259

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

If not, at least find someone really technical that you trust to help act as an adviser to you. If you can’t find somebody any technical resources at all through networking please consider keeping your day job.

Startup 365

Startup Technical Advisors IP Ideas 365

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

Eric Greenspan

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

I checked with our Director of Delight and she assured me we gave a full refund to both and that we formally responded to this within the required time, but the BBB website had a technical issue. Please advise. link] we have been unable to resolve this issue due to technical issues on your site and yet this remains on our profile.

Santa Barbara 265

Santa Barbara Technical Advisors Email Technical Review 265

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 5, 2014

But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. Some areas were easy because they were technical and the answer was knowable or estimate-able.

Entrepreneur 337

Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Startup Venture Capital 337

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2011

If you're familiar with YCombinator or TechStars, you know that companies also get access to a deep network of top tier mentors and advisors, who help them with a variety of things, such as product marketing, go-to-market, and funding. We're providing seed funding, office space, and put them through a three month, structured program.

Technical Advisors 176

Technical Advisors Startup Southern California Los Angeles 176

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Advisors 105

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 105

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2021

Getting customer attention often takes more innovation today than solving the tough technical problems. As a business adviser, I still see too many new venture founders who skimp on their marketing focus, or start too late. It works in fashion, real estate, and certainly in the technical world.

Technical Advisors 154

Technical Advisors Tips Marketing Case Study 154

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

I advised against the SF role because it was a bigger company and his role would be pushing paper from one side of his desk to the other. When I was CEO of my first company (where I admittedly F’d up everything before I figured it all out) we initially calculated for people how much there options were going to be worth some day.

Startup 418

Startup Technical Advisors Venture Capital Santa Monica 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2020

Include any empirical evidence--including market research or technical analysis, if that's appropriate--in order to bolster your case about why you believe you will succeed. If you don't have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. A winning product or service. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 162

Technical Advisors Tips Startup Equity 162

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. He would have found somebody technical and inspired that individual to work for equity or deferred payment. Good entrepreneurs have a penchant for doing vs. over-analyzing. obviously don’t read this as zero analysis).

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

TechEmpower

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Often this situation is characterized as a “good problem to have” until you’re the technical person who needs to solve the problem—and quickly. Well, there are a number of technical reasons for applications suffering performance issues. We therefore routinely advise leads of new projects to consider performance early.

Web 200

Web Technical Advisors Framework Technical Review 200

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2020

As an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often hear the desire to run their own company, to avoid having someone else telling them how to run the business. I strongly advise you create a separate bank account and credit card for your business, even though it is all your money. You will also need a line of credit for financing.

Technical Advisors 125

Technical Advisors Startup News Resource 125

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

Despite this technical glitch, I opted to publish our discussion, given the high-quality content of his comments. Len remains an active advisor to several startups. In this regard, I asked him to share the lessons from his early days of online marketing that remain relevant to the startups he currently advises.

Google 220

Google Technical Advisors Technical Review Equity 220

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

In these kinds of businesses I’m on the record as advising “ Ring the Freakin Cash Register.” You technically have more gas left but you never know if some unexpected circumstance causes you to run out of gas. Valuation. I wanted to call out special attention to valuation in this debate.

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2023

In my own experience with technical startup founders, I still find it hard to name one who was also good, or even interested in financials or business operations. A mistake often made by new business owners due to the unfamiliar new workload is to ignore and lose existing relationships with outside advisors as well as team members.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur Software Review 149

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Based on my experience advising new entrepreneurs as well as more mature businesses, I recommend the following strategies for building business momentum, while still optimizing the limited resources of every small business: Find more customers that like what you do best. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Most people totally advise against stealth. You always have too much technical debt, too many problems, staff members quitting, not enough capital, customer complaints, etc. In the early days you don’t really want 3 extra teams hearing your ideas and gearing up to compete before you feel you’ve got a solid head start.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2023

Include any empirical evidence--including market research or technical analysis, if that's appropriate--in order to bolster your case about why you believe you will succeed. If you don't have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. A winning product or service. An impressive team.

Equity 121

Equity Technical Advisors Funding Ideas 121

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Push hard to set up the technical reviews, the due diligence meetings, the reference calls – whatever. On the VC front, I advise other VCs I know to also be careful about over grinding. Push hard to set up the technical reviews, the due diligence meetings, the reference calls – whatever. Lawyers are like any humans.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I would argue that this mostly consists of consumer Internet companies (although not exclusively) and it is predominantly early-stage people who are product gurus and have a mildly technical bend to them. In VC there are the obvious people including Bijan, Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Josh Kopelman and Bryce Roberts.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 7, 2011

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. They don’t insist on something very narrow, with proper technical content. It is in the jargon not “technical.” Different rules around the world.

Patents 91

Patents Software Technical Advisors Innocal 91

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2020

Most small businesses I advise still rely on traditional advertising models, assuming they can create enough media “noise” to get customers attention and sway them. This is technically called “permissioned,” and it comes in two forms: implicit and explicit. You now need a personal context in your marketing to get results.

Marketing 130

Marketing Technical Advisors Social Media Media 130

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. In fact, some totally avoid it, assuming their product or solution will speak for itself later.

Product 127

Product Entrepreneur Technical Advisors Technical Review 127

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

In my business of mentoring new entrepreneurs and advising small company owners, I recognize that most don’t start as experienced leaders, and most don’t realize that people leadership is a primary key to their future success. Building a business is not a one-person job, and leading by edict rarely works today.

Develop 124

Develop Development Technical Advisors Satisfaction 124

socalTECH

AUGUST 28, 2017

He and I connected, and walked through PartySlate and what we were doing, and he immediately said he wanted to invest and become an advisor to the company. I feel strongly, that if you're going to do this, you need to be technical, or have a technical co-founder. He's based in LA. I went to Michigan with him.

Technical Advisors 100

Technical Advisors Technical Review Metrics Startup 100

Tech.Co

OCTOBER 16, 2024

While the program’s deadline is technically on November 1, we’d recommend applying in October it’s only accepting a limited number of applications. To improve your chances, we’d advise researching the grantor and focusing on how your venture’s goals align with theirs.

Technical Review 167

Technical Review Technical Advisors Design News 167

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Include any empirical evidence--including market research or technical analysis, if that's appropriate--in order to bolster your case about why you believe you will succeed. If you don't have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. A winning product or service. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 80

Technical Advisors Startup Equity Ideas 80

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 28, 2012

The team needed would consist of at least 1 non-technical business person (me) and 2 or more technical people—designer and developer. I was only able to create a team with non-technical business people and a designer. The next day, the technical team started coding away, building a cool game for developers to battle skills on.

Startup 99

Startup Technical Advisors Ideas USC 99

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2014

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. They don’t insist on something very narrow, with proper technical content. Different rules around the world. What I have described so far is the situation in the US.

Patents 100

Patents Software Review Software Technical Advisors 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Include any empirical evidence--including market research or technical analysis, if that''s appropriate--in order to bolster your case about why you believe you will succeed. If you don''t have a team on staff, then a banker is going to want to hear about outsourcing and advisors. A winning product or service. An impressive team.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Entrepreneur Equity Ideas 75

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

In my years of advising startups, and also as an occasional angel investor, I still recommend this set of best practices to prepare you for platform applications: Formalize a business entity immediately. Most solo entrepreneurs can’t show the range of experience or skills to build a winning business alone.

Platform 94

Platform Equity Invest Technical Advisors 94

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2011

Our own subsidiary, of a major technology company, started to repair and service competitive products in order to maintain our own technical staff and service capabilities. We retained legal council in Milan and were advised that we would loose if the case went to trial.

Startup 90

Startup Technical Advisors Sales Examples 90

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2012

I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. They don’t insist on something very narrow, with proper technical content. Different rules around the world. What I have described so far is the situation in the US.

Patents 93

Patents Software Technical Advisors Startup 93

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Your lawyer is a trusted advisor, but in the end, you run your business, your lawyer does not. In other words, find a lawyer who will take the time to understand the issues underlying your business and advise you how to best accomplish your objectives while minimizing your legal exposure. but They Make Great Guard Dogs. Do not do it.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124