Gust

AUGUST 12, 2012

The product plan tells your developers what to build, and the marketing team what to market. Equally important, marketing and sales people should be able to identify benefits and marketing strategies, set prices, and validate a business model. Development and rollout. Market research.

Product 150

Product Business Plan Differentiation Business Model 150

Gust

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

Assign probabilities to active customer sales efforts, just as sales managers do in quantifying a salesman’s forecast. Since NewCo has developed 10 online tools and a fabulous web site over the past year, how much would it cost another company to create similar quality tools and web interfaces with a conventional software team?

Valuation 187

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation NPV Intellectual Property 187

Gust

DECEMBER 14, 2014

For example, more customer leads are predictive of more sales revenue later. Overall, every entrepreneur should be concerned if they don’t regularly feel stretched beyond their comfort zone, meaning mastering the art of execution if you are mainly creative, or developing creativity if you are mainly process driven.

Entrepreneur 189

Entrepreneur Founder Revenue Startup 189

Gust

FEBRUARY 2, 2014

Smith is a legend among MBAs because he developed the hub-and-spoke delivery concept in a business case at Harvard Business School. During his ten-year tenure, Apple’s sales increased from $800 million to $8 billion. The company now has more than 160,000 employees and revenues of $44 billion. John Scully, former CEO of Apple.

Entrepreneur 175

Entrepreneur Salary .Net Revenue 175

Gust

OCTOBER 21, 2011

This metric doesn’t have to be a sales or revenue figure, of course (although those are my personal favorites); but it does have to be something solid that shows you’ve got something people want. This is a core concept in the “ultra-light” school of startups, but is important for nearly all early stage development philosophies.

Early Stage 79

Early Stage Metrics Audience Revenue 79

Gust

NOVEMBER 22, 2011

Of course, growth and development are really a continuum. At this stage, your startup better be selling a commercial offering, have price and cost validated, with significant customer sales and a real revenue stream. Funding sources specialize in certain growth stages. Lesser amounts remain in the angel realm. Growth stage.

Venture Capital 171

Venture Capital Investment Bankers Angel Investor Initial Public Offering 171

Gust

JUNE 10, 2012

Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars. Sales and marketing costs. We all know how much costs have come down on computer hardware, computer software, printers, PDAs, high-speed internet access, servers, and security measures.

Cost 139

Cost Burn Rate SEM Startup 139

Gust

JUNE 24, 2012

Make sales and customer service friendly. Develop marketing messages based on their values. People will pay a premium for what want, so you need to accurately tune and relate your offering to their values, needs, and wants. Maybe your shopping bags need handles, or your employee attire needs adjusting.

Marketing 136

Marketing Database Social Media Media 136

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2011

I urge all entrepreneurs to consult and develop a good working relationship with a qualified startup lawyer. Sales contracts accounting for significant revenue. I’m reluctant to give legalistic disclaimers, but in this instance, I do need to emphasize that the material in this article is legal information , not legal advice.

Intellectual Property 139

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Delaware Stock 139

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Such comparisons can only be made for companies at the same stage of development, in this case, for pre-revenue startup ventures. Marketing/Sales Channels/Partnerships 0-10%. The company needs some additional work on building sales channels and partnerships (80% of norm). Marketing/Sales/Partnerships.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Gust

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Obviously, a frantic reaction to someone else’s move will damage the way your biz dev, sales, product managers, engineers, PR people, and strategy teams interrelate. They’re relaxed. Your customers should feel the same way. It reinforces processes. And that’s hard enough to get right already!

Product 70

Product PR Matching Engineer 70

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

We agreed that there were two significant proof points that she needed to achieve in order to demonstrate a high likelihood of success: price point and sales traction. Because I left each investor meeting with a plan for my company’s growth, investors were able to measure my actual metrics developed over time against my initial projections.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital Finance Early Stage .Net 163

Gust

NOVEMBER 25, 2012

In sales terminology, the mechanism by which a company delivers it product to customers is called the sales channel or distribution channel. Every entrepreneur faces the challenge in developing a product of deciding when to pivot and when to persevere. Channel pivot.

Silicon Valley 187

Silicon Valley Architecture Startup Channel 187

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Perhaps surprisingly, the components are NOT the traditional coding/business pieces; nor are they even coding/UI/business/sales, or whatever. This is where you find the superb Rails coder, AND the world-class information architect, AND the consummate sales guy, AND the persuasive biz dev gal, AND the brilliant CFO.

Coder 147

Coder Web Startup Salary 147