SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. I asked some of the same questions I ask in my Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions and then I get to a very common conversation: Me : Do you have specs? He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy.

Developer 354

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO Software Review 354

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

So most early-stage VCs have started to evaluate investment opportunities with an imaginary benchmark in mind: can this company become a $100 million opportunity? Early users of a product are often strong advocates and company ambassadors, while those users acquired through paid marketing channels down the road show far less loyalty.

Churn Rate 168

Churn Rate Viral Acquisition Cofounder 168

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

The father of “Growth Hacking” appears to be Sean Ellis who wrote this widely read post, “ Find a Growth Hacker for your Startup. For starters it brings a mindset to startups that not all of them have innately. If your startup isn’t committed to growth hacking you’ll never find extra-ordinary growth.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Commitment & urgency are key drivers of success in startup businesses. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. You already know it from your personal lives.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2021

When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” Word-of-mouth and viral are not long-term solutions. Planning is about preparing for the future, not predicting it.

Intellectual Property 345

Intellectual Property Leadership Viral Early Stage 345

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 7, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Small Business and Startups: Tips for Reducing Refunds - crowdspring.co/1eLxfzG. Small Business and Startups: Tips for Reducing Refunds - crowdspring.co/1eLxfzG. crowdspring.co/1l7OfAL.

Social Media 98

Social Media Small Business Design Media 98

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. I realized the Customer Development model needs to be clearer in what exactly a startup is supposed to do, regardless of the business model. But it also requires you to ask a few questions about your startup before you use it.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

All of this is according to Paul Graham, co-founder of the early-stage investment fund Ycombinator. During a presentation at Startup School at Stanford University earlier today, the prolific investor discussed the state of startup funding with a packed auditorium of students and entrepreneurs.

Angel Investor 84

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 84

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

All of this is according to Paul Graham, co-founder of the early-stage investment fund Ycombinator. During a presentation at Startup School at Stanford University earlier today, the prolific investor discussed the state of startup funding with a packed auditorium of students and entrepreneurs.

Angel Investor 83

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 83

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

Based on my own experience as a mentor and angel investor, I find that as many as ninety percent of startups fail in the first five years, despite their best efforts. It helps to advertise your new presence with a grand opening, viral video, and traditional advertising to highlight entry into the arena.

Intellectual Property 245

Intellectual Property Social Media Angel Investor Metrics 245

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Greycroft is an early-stage VC. Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” If I were a number 3-5 players I’d be looking to exit early while there’s still a lot of enthusiasm for this hot market.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Based on my experience as a mentor and an entrepreneur, if you fail on your first startup, you are about average. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Statistics show that the failure rate for new startups within the first 5 years is higher than 50 percent. Inexperienced team.

Intellectual Property 251

Intellectual Property Startup Viral Early Stage 251

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

As I look at more and more start-ups predicated on viral growth, and at the use of social marketing, its becoming simultaneously easier to understand some aspects of viral growth and still a gap in understanding whats going to be that "hook" that will grab people at the end of the day. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2013

When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” Word-of-mouth and viral are not long-term solutions. entrepreneur startup reality facts of life business' Marty Zwilling.

Intellectual Property 265

Intellectual Property Founder Startup Leadership 265

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

From there, I became the first non-founder employee at an e-commerce startup called BITSource, which was the first electronic software distributor delivering electronic volume software licenses to corporations. Earlier this year I founded a new startup called KlickFu. What are you working on now? For me, it's a matter of degree.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

Duct Tape Marketing

MARCH 26, 2021

Staples has developed a reputation in the marketing industry for being a creator of viral content. He then went on to found his own business and run marketing for a number of early-stage startups. Tim Staples is the CEO of Shareability and co-author of Break Through the Noise: The 9 Rules to Capture Global Attention.

Marketing 91

Marketing Silicon Valley Cofounder Framework 91

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2019

When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” Word-of-mouth and viral are not long-term solutions. Planning is about preparing for the future, not predicting it.

Intellectual Property 231

Intellectual Property Leadership Viral Early Stage 231

Gust

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Based on my experience as a mentor and an entrepreneur, if you fail on your first startup, you are about average. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Statistics show that the failure rate for new startups within the first 5 years is higher than 50 percent. Inexperienced team.

Intellectual Property 183

Intellectual Property Startup Viral Early Stage 183

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp, Sept 2009) View more documents from Dave McClure. Great stuff.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Salesforce.com is a startup with 76,000 subscribers (over 2.1M I also joke with Reid Hoffman that this was back in the days before he was “Reid” Reid’s an incredible entrepreneur, startup investor, and human being. Ok, now you have the context for early 2003.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

One question that keeps coming up when speaking with early stage entrepreneurs when it comes to funding, is what metrics the company needs to hit to raise seed/series A/B etc: What’s a good conversion rate? Top-line metrics are indicators of success, not the one bar to clear to raise funding for your startup.

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2010

In addition to the “green” sector, which I outlined a few weeks ago , I see biotech as one of the places where startups can always go for real opportunities. If you know a hot new startup in this area, I’m interested. There’s never been a more exciting time to be a biotech startup. How can you argue with this logic?

Startup 192

Startup Viral Early Stage Green 192

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Based on my experience as a mentor and an entrepreneur, if you fail on your first startup, you are about average. Every young entrepreneur knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Statistics show that the failure rate for new startups within the first 5 years is as high as 50 percent. Inexperienced team.

Intellectual Property 274

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Viral Early Stage 274

The Equity Kicker

JULY 9, 2014

He lists the four (paid, viral, SEO, sales – for B2B) and then ‘other’ in which he says: There’s the odd partnership, like Yahoo/Google, that can help make or break a startup – but these are rare and situational. Startup general interest Uncategorized' But sometimes it happens!

Viral 122

Viral B2B Early Stage SEO 122

VC Cafe

JULY 15, 2021

billion users for Facebook and Instagram app startups cannot afford NOT to be discovered on social media. The reality for startups is that it’s not enough to build, design and ship a great looking app – marketing and distribution are critical to success. Several startups, like Copy.ai

Mobile 190

Mobile Social Media Distribution PR 190

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

The best startups find a way to drive the market with their technology, rather than push their new technology-driven ‘solution’ on the marketplace. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle , every major new technology goes through four stages before reaching general acceptance, and that can take as long as 20 years. These don’t get funded.

Technology 228

Technology Early Stage Angel Investor Viral 228

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2017

When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” Word-of-mouth and viral are not long-term solutions. Planning is about preparing for the future, not predicting it.

Intellectual Property 160

Intellectual Property Leadership Viral Early Stage 160

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2012

When I started mentoring entrepreneurs and startups a few years ago, I anticipated that I would get mostly tough technical questions, but instead I more often hear things like “Where do I start?” Word-of-mouth and viral are not long-term solutions. Planning is about preparing for the future, not predicting it.

Intellectual Property 276

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Leadership Viral 276

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. Don’t startups exist for the same reason?

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2010

The best startups find a way to drive the market with their technology, rather than push their new technology-driven ‘solution’ on the marketplace. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle , every major new technology goes through four stages before reaching general acceptance, and that can take as long as 20 years. These don’t get funded.

Early Stage 220

Early Stage Angel Investor Viral Technology 220

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 7, 2007

I've been reading or hearing quite a bit about how startups these days don't take nearly as much capital to create as they used to. Sure, there are some fun things you can create quickly on platforms like Facebook that may get viral uptake. What used to cost $1M now takes $100K. I don't really agree that $100K is the new $1M.

Viral 150

Viral Startup Incubator Early Stage 150

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 13, 2011

When people ask me what areas I’m interested in, I often say “early” Taking meetings with entrepreneurs at these early stages means that you have to view these meetings in the right context. Sometimes, technology changes and old ideas that were before their time can be successful.

Viral 110

Viral Social Network Startup Early Stage 110

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

It’s as big of a deal as getting your viral loop working — it’s how you’re going to acquire customers at scale. The problem is, early stage sales isn’t about making money. It takes time to get the roadmap solid.

Hiring 51

Hiring Founder Viral Early Stage 51

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. Analytics spark more questions and discussion than almost any other aspect of the Lean Startup method. It provides a basic introduction to analytics as they apply to Lean Startup, including sections on what metrics to use and how to interpret them.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Rob Go

JANUARY 12, 2015

As an early stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction? Prices in the startup world are relatively high. When you are thinking about joining an early stage company, how should you be evaluating the risk of the overall company? It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.

B2B 28

B2B Early Stage Distribution Software Review 28

Gust

DECEMBER 5, 2011

The best startups find a way to drive the market with their technology, rather than push their new technology-driven ‘solution’ on the marketplace. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle , every major new technology goes through four stages before reaching general acceptance, and that can take as long as 20 years. These don’t get funded.

Technology 167

Technology Angel Investor Early Stage Viral 167