ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

They do more of the same with less, often lowering quality and customer satisfaction. Companies in this category add features when customers desire greater value. Their recommendations derive from sales and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) for the companies in their study: ( Image source ).

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 5, 2015

Agile was created as a way to enable greater productivity and responsiveness in the software industry to changing customer demands. With that in mind, the key tenets of agile development from the 2001 Agile Manifesto include: Satisfying customers through continuous, early delivery. Harnessing change to improve product.

Agile 100

Agile SCRUM Nashville Software Developers 100

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

In 2001 companies IPO’d very quickly if they were working, by 2011 IPOs had slowed down to the point that in 2013 Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures astutely called billion-dollar outcomes “unicorns.” We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

We went “nuclear&# and slimmed down to 33 people (yes, I know, still large by today’s standards but this was 2001), raised $10 million and we built a real company. I learned everything I know about startups in these lean years: 2001-2004.

Warrant 333

Warrant Germany France Cost 333

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 10, 2017

Launched in 2001, it is the world’s sixth most popular website regarding overall visitor traffic. We’re all experiencing the rise of a growing number of cloud applications coming through sales, marketing, HR, operations or finance to complement centrally designed, legacy IT apps, such as ERP, data warehousing or CRM.

Government 104

Government Technical Review Asia Japan 104

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had previously raised VC in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. I thought, what would I do if I was trying to sell to a customer. My blog was wiped out. Page 3: Competition.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet Viral San Diego 274

YoungUpstarts

MAY 14, 2014

Chances are, when you come across these situations in your daily life, you chalk them up to customer service slip-ups, leadership breakdowns, personnel issues, and poor communication. We put the customer first.” Watch out for individuals who spout platitudes while leaving customers unsatisfied. The feel-good tagline spouter. “We

Employee 168

Employee Leadership Customer Naming 168

YoungUpstarts

MAY 19, 2014

There’s no place for hipster lingo, inside jokes about customers, snarky tweets. Oh, and Northwestern Mutual has been in business for over 157 years and is worth $25 billion in sales. It trivializes the gravity of bad behavior and normalizes superior attitudes toward customers and, often, coworkers. Here’s how: 1.

Employee 160

Employee Leadership Balance Sheet Chicago 160

Up and Running

DECEMBER 14, 2016

See Also: How and Why to Collect Customer Email Addresses. MailChimp is ideal for the startup and small business customer that needs to grow an email list with industry-leading tools and best practices. See Also: 13 Ways to Make Customers Desperately Want to Open Your Emails. Your customers are not one size fits all.

Email 60

Email Small Business Marketing Campaign 60

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 21, 2014

There’s no place for hipster lingo, inside jokes about customers, snarky tweets. Oh, and Northwestern Mutual has been in business for over 157 years and is worth $25 billion in sales. It trivializes the gravity of bad behavior and normalizes superior attitudes toward customers and, often, coworkers. Here’s how: 1.

Employee 174

Employee Balance Sheet Leadership Chicago 174

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

Once again, we led each of these rounds at slide deck stage and helped land the first handful of customers to accelerate path to product market fit and their Series A rounds. This means more collaboration with the Fortune 500 and more go-to-market experience as our portfolio companies navigate their path to first customers.

Advisory Board 79

Advisory Board Stealth Cloud Virginia 79

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Just ask anybody who was trying to close funding the fateful week of September 11, 2001 or even March 2000. Three reasons: There is a relative valuation between the price a VC pays and their expectations of what it will exit for in an IPO or trade sale. The deal was done in late 2007.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

Huge structural under-employment in much of the country and full employment in some niche tech markets where it’s impossible to hire developers, designers or sales professionals. An obvious example is Google who may have gotten less market attention if there would have been 8 well-financed competitors during the 2001-2005 timeframe.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Ben's Blog

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

“We would have won, but the other guys gave the deal away” – “The customer selected us technically and thinks we are the better company, but our competitor just gave the product away. Anybody who has ever run an enterprise sales force has heard this lie before. If you hear this lie, try to validate this claim with the actual customer.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Churn Rate Engineer Employee 78

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 21, 2017

It could be studying entrepreneurship in school or it could have been working with a government contractor or maybe someone had a sales job. 1 – Medical Device Sales. As a sales representative I noticed that the promotional efforts for Plastic Surgeons were held by a few large firms that overcharged. Sales Account Manager.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Investment Bankers PR Social Media 48

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 7, 2014

If your most experienced salesperson has great sales numbers but bullies the shipping department every time he/she needs an order rushed, or if you have an employee who clients love but who often misses internal targets, those transgressions must have consequences despite these employees’ successes in other areas.

Leadership 145

Leadership Employee Metrics Hiring 145

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 17, 2015

The promise is your brand, and, as the recent Volkswagen scandal showed us, it can be destroyed quickly if a company isn’t living up to the standards its customers expect. Others become arrogant; the fast growth convinces them that their customers will always be there. But with fast growth, that promise can be diluted.

Canada 28

Canada Dilution America Employee 28

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

In this time, building a successful business meant building a company that had paying customers quarter after quarter. It did not mean building a startup into a company to flip or hype on the market with no earnings or revenue, but building a company that had paying customers. They taught you about customers, markets and profits.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 14, 2015

These are management, sales and marketing, customer service, production/manufacturing, operations and safety. For example, employers must consider employees’ safety in sales and marketing when travel is required. The other potential hazard is employee interaction with customers.

Employee 100

Employee Startup Texas Social Media 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. Ariel understood her customer?—?the This is an age-old marketplace tension where leverage often determines the value captured.

Curation 296

Curation Differentiation Los Angeles Channel 296

Austin Startup

APRIL 27, 2019

voice of their customers and talk them off the ledge that negative reviews wouldn’t tank their overall sales. There were only around three retailers in the US that offered customer reviews on their websites. Then almost all of our customers went out of business. and negative?—?voice

B2C 51

B2C Austin Cofounder IPO 51

ConversionXL

JANUARY 8, 2021

After reading, you’ll be well equipped to better both your customers and yourself. What does it take to build products your customers love to use? Published in early 2001, Positioning remains as relevant and actionable now as it was then. It’s full of counterintuitive insights. Hooked by Nir Eyal (2008). – Nir Eyal.

PPC 134

PPC Marketing Lean Differentiation 134

Software By Rob

MARCH 17, 2010

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Free Website Feedback, Custom Card Designs, Finding Good Domain Names, and more… Paying the Price of Success → Joel on Software is Shutting Down. Long Live the King.

Software Review 39

Software Review Software RSS Software Developers 39

YoungUpstarts

MAY 26, 2014

When it comes to trust, you must ask yourself two questions: 1) Does your external market, your customers and shareholders, trust you? Customers must trust that your product or service is authentic and robust enough to withstand the immediacy of today’s media. We increase accountability, passion, and effort. PILLAR 4: Taste.

Analytics 160

Analytics Forecast Agile Cofounder 160

Up and Running

DECEMBER 24, 2018

One key fact: You have eight seconds to convince investors or customers that you’ve got something worth hearing about before they zone out, tune out, or check out. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, his hook was: “What if you could put a thousand songs in your pocket?” The 8-second countdown. This was unheard of.

Elevator Pitch 91

Elevator Pitch Silicon Valley Audience Employee 91

Mucker Lab

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Most brilliant “Internet of Things” ideas are quicksand for capital unless you have the branding, vertical integration and customer lock-in that Apple achieved. Low switching costs and built-in product “half-life” demolish customer loyalty. Apple had the foresight to launch the iPod, iTunes and the Apple Store all in 2001.

Vertical 60

Vertical Widget Distribution China 60

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

The startup didn’t work out, but I found ways to be around it, whether it was on the sales side in Goldman for a few years. You’re going out to acquire customers. So this has always been our most significant focus area, whether in 2022, 2021, or 2001. . So they acquire customers with very little pocket expense. .

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Car sales in China went from 1 million in 2001 to 14 million in 2011. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' Beijing’s VC’s primarily invest in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications segment.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 267

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 25, 2015

” When the number comes back over 100%, my next question is “Do your customers pay monthly or annually, up front or in arrears.” Sure, every now and then something magical happens (very high price point, very low cost of customer acquisition, zero churn), but that’s a serious edge case.

Finance 70

Finance Bootstrapping Acquisition Revenue 70

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 18, 2013

When the products you sell are also available from thousands of other vendors at the same or lower prices, how do you differentiate your business and convince customers to buy from you? Smart companies surprise their customers when customers least expect surprises. Some customers respond with a thank-you note or a question.

Small Business 117

Small Business Netherlands Retention Marketing 117

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers. I learned how to integrate customers into our product development process.

Venture Capital 285

Venture Capital Software Review Hiring Stock Options 285

Feld Thoughts

JULY 23, 2015

In addition to getting paid $10 / hour (which quickly taught me that if I worked more hours, I got paid more money) I received a 5% royalty on gross sales of the two products I wrote (PC Log and PC Economics). Customers went out of business right and left. In 1983 the oil business was booming and Petcom was growing quickly.

Saudi Arabia 70

Saudi Arabia Dallas Coder Denmark 70

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 19, 2016

I began my career at McKinsey and when the Internet bubble burst in 2001, I made a shift towards online software (ASP at the time). From then on, I remained convinced that SaaS was a much more efficient model, for both ISVs and customers — although many people remained skeptical on the viability of the model for a long time.

API 48

API Silicon Valley Europe Differentiation 48

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 27, 2016

When brainstorming a name for a new venture, zero in on the promise you want to make to your customers. But most importantly, we wanted it to immediately convey our promise to our customers. When customers hear a made up word or a generic business buzzword, they don’t know what to think.

Naming 48

Naming PR Entrepreneur LLC 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Car sales in China went from 1 million in 2001 to 14 million in 2011. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' Beijing’s VC’s primarily invest in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications segment.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 159

Duct Tape Marketing

JULY 19, 2017

That innovation has to be built into the core of how you serve your customers. When I looked around for other examples like that I started seeing them everywhere, of companies that weren’t so much innovating in the product as innovating around the product and by doing so really helping their customers get more value from the product.

Technical Review 41

Technical Review Kansas City Software Review Product 41

Up and Running

JULY 21, 2016

If you want to own your own gym or fitness center, you’re probably trying to figure out how you’re going to bring in customers, and keep them. Luckily for you, there are multiple things you can do to win over your customers. Focus on providing epic customer service. If so, you’re on the right track. The same is true vice versa.

Revenue 60

Revenue Retention Advertising Differentiation 60