Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2020

I’m sure you have all seen entrepreneurs and startups with great ideas that never seem to live up to their potential, while others with more mundane solutions seem to take off quickly and never slow down. Define success metrics, and measure progress regularly. Look for tools to automate and simplify strategy execution.

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Advisory Board Agile Social Media Metrics 308

Up and Running

MAY 20, 2014

In an industry that lauds performance metrics to constantly track progress, there’s something fluffy about a professional degree that is not a prerequisite for anything. As a lonely entrepreneur, it’s often hard to find mentors in the real world. There is a tendency in the start-up community to be skeptical towards MBAs.

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Entrepreneur Advisory Board Silicon Valley New York 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2020

More importantly, I look for entrepreneurs and owners like you who are not afraid to hold themselves accountable for the success of the business. Every investor can recite examples of passionate entrepreneurs who seek funding for a worthy cause, like feeding the hungry, without a real business case for who will pay.

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Jeff Hilimire

APRIL 8, 2015

Outline the goals and metrics both parties care about. Advisory Boards. When it comes to advisory boards, I’m a big fan. When it comes to advisory boards, I’m a big fan. But, I think an entrepreneur needs to be careful about how and when they create an advisory board.

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Advisory Board Cofounder Metrics Community 28

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

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Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

What metrics do we use to see if we learned enough in Customer Discovery ? I gave my boilerplate answer, “I’m a product guy and I tend to invest and look at deals that have measurable revenue metrics. Dave McClure has some great metrics…” It was an honest but vaguely unsatisfying answer. As for #3. I agree completely.

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YoungUpstarts

APRIL 7, 2013

By Ingrid Vanderveldt, Dell’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence. They’re using metrics that are often unworkable in the current business environment, causing growing businesses to look elsewhere for capital and increasingly towards alternative forms of financing. Ingrid Vanderveldt serves as Dell’s Entrepreneur in Residence.

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Advisory Board Entrepreneur Portland Oregon 249

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 13, 2013

Larger companies such as IBM and SAP that had enterprise-wide deployments would offer some solutions around these pain points, but entrepreneurs claimed that these were not sufficient, and that the emergence of the Web and server technology made some of the legacy software inefficient, inadequate and obsolete.

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Advisory Board Cloud Venture Capital Vertical 70

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.

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Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

If youre interested in being part of my "customer advisory board" for this presentation, please get in touch. Eric, if youre looking for any help as a "customer advisory board", Id love to do anything I can to help. I would love to be on your advisory board. And thats where the call for help comes in.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2016

In reality, that’s the definition of a successful startup these days, so every aspiring entrepreneur should take note, as well as every existing corporate executive. I like their seven step approach, which I have paraphrased here for entrepreneurs as follows: Pull together a great multi-functional team. A dream is not enough.

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Intellectual Property Advisory Board Metrics Leadership 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, I’m always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. At the startup entry level, most entrepreneurs find little need for Profit and Loss statements and Income statements – they know all the key transactions.

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Advisory Board Startup Revenue Finance 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Many entrepreneurs scare away potential investors by claiming that their technology represents “truly disruptive technology.” Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections.

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Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

All companies that This Week in Startups’ audience of entrepreneurs, company founders, and marketers would be interested in. It contains the story of your property, mission statement, sponsor benefits, demographics, marketing plan, goals, media opportunities, advisory board, and the sponsor fees.”. Source ).

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Audience Social Media Email Ruby 139

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Many entrepreneurs scare away potential investors by claiming that their technology represents “truly disruptive technology.” Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

Unfortunately, your personal assessment that you have traction probably won’t be convincing to potential investors and partners, so it’s important that you create and track your progress against some metrics. Define metrics on customer feedback and user counts. Assemble a credible inside advisory board and partners.

Advisory Board 199

Advisory Board Technical Review Metrics Business Model 199

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

In 2007, BusinessWeek named Ries one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech and in 2009 he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

When they found out, they questioned my decision-making and me as an entrepreneur. How to recognize when it’s time to pull the plug on your startup idea, and why founders can’t operate afford to operate in a vacuum were the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Meanwhile, the investors thought we were dead.

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Columbus Entrepreneur Ohio Cofounder 245

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Establish a customer advisory board. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Customer Lean Continuous Deployment 131

Gust

AUGUST 5, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Many entrepreneurs scare away potential investors by claiming that their technology represents “truly disruptive technology.” Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections.

Business Plan 182

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 182

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Many entrepreneurs scare away potential investors by claiming that their technology represents “truly disruptive technology.” Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections.

Business Plan 186

Business Plan Exit Strategy Sweat Equity Intellectual Property 186

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

When they found out, they questioned my decision-making and me as an entrepreneur. How to recognize when it’s time to pull the plug on your startup idea, and why founders can’t operate afford to operate in a vacuum were the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Meanwhile, the investors thought we were dead.

Columbus 120

Columbus Entrepreneur Ohio Cofounder 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2009

pbWorks (formerly pbWiki) was one of the first companies that ever invited me to join their advisory board. pbWorks (formerly pbWiki) was one of the first companies that ever invited me to join their advisory board. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Audio San Francisco Video Continuous Deployment 118

Growthink Blog

JANUARY 16, 2012

The so famous and always timely Gandhian creed of “be the change you seek in the world” is never more relevant than when it comes to what entrepreneurs must do to get better in order to lead profitable enterprises and to fulfill on the mission and promise of their organizations. The sessions were painful. They were discouraging.

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Advisory Board Leadership Metrics Business Model 76

Austin Startup

MARCH 2, 2019

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

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Advisory Board Cofounder Greece Bootstrapping 51

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

should the test subjects be part of the customer advisory board? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. Lean Startup Circle - a mailing list of dedicated and helpful entrepreneurs. Bring your questions.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Thats why some entrepreneurs are trying another approach to product launches: marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory. Thats why some entrepreneurs are trying another approach to product launches: marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each cycle was punctuated by a meeting of our Business Advisory Board (BAB). Leading up to a pivot, each cycle, despite our best efforts, the metrics werent good enough. A pivot is a classic strategy maneuver for entrepreneurs, chess players, and ballerinas alike! Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Every experiment has to be evaluated based on a single standard report of 5-10 (no more) key metrics. Any team that creates an experiment must monitor the metrics and customer reactions (support calls, forum threads, etc) while the experiment is in-progress, and abort if something catastrophic happens. It promotes rapid iteration.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment 133

The Next Web

JULY 8, 2013

In the last few months we’ve been seeing great growth in 3 key metrics: The number of websites signing up and using the system. Adopt faster, understand the needed set of skills and surround yourself with smart people that have done it before (advisory board is my preferred option). Entrepreneur Insider'

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Advisory Board API Cofounder PPC 128

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

Don’t boomerang founders If you have specific metrics you look for in early stage companies. When I was fundraising if I heard “I’d like to invest when you get to $X in revenue” and their metrics weren’t disclosed up front, I often thought of the investors as chickens and I always heard it as a “no”.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

www.rocketwatcher.com

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups Product Marketing for Startups About Speaking Contact Email Posts Startups Product Marketing Messaging Social Media Commentary Uncategorized Marketing Metrics 101 for B2B Startups 13. Rocket watcher b2b marketing metrics View more presentations from April Dunford.

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B2B Metrics Marketing Startup 42

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 6, 2018

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

Founder 51

Founder Cofounder Software Review San Francisco 51

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Announcing EIGHT new mini-books and eBooks by Master Entrepreneur, Dave Berkus , just released by The Berkus Press. Creating metrics. New forms of metrics for your business. BUILDING GREAT BOARDS. How to construct an effective board. Advisory boards. How to pay board members. STARTING UP!

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Advisory Board Small Business Investment Bankers Liquidity Event 67

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

It has been awesome, flattering, and humbling to see that post went viral and has been seen by so many thousands of people — mainly aspiring entrepreneurs — and has been translated into many languages. Use them as a sounding board for corporate development issues. Advisory boards never amount to much.

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Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

Does it hurt ‘anti-pattern’ entrepreneurs? Next, I would push ‘anti-pattern’ entrepreneurs to remove the convenient (and often true) excuses for not warranting investment. I know we romanticize the LGBT entrepreneur making an app for the LGBT community, but too many of our ideas are “ghettoized” and not seen as “big ideas”.

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Venture Capital Advisory Board Greece Cofounder 60