Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

It’s important to learn from your own mistakes, but it’s even smarter to learn from someone else’s mistakes, without paying their high price in time lost, cost, and pain. Viral marketing costs real money, and your support staff and hosting systems cost even more. Bypasses intellectual property as not worth the cost.

Intellectual Property 436

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Viral Distribution 436

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk. If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term.

Partner 385

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Years ago, it cost a million dollars for a new e-commerce site, one that you can now create for almost nothing with current tools and technology. The cost of social media done well is low. Marty Zwilling.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2021

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. At any rate, “buzz-worthy” and “viral” are marketing illusions that cost big money to create, and these are only the beginning. Marty Zwilling.

Viral 348

Viral Marketing SEM Campaign 348

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

It wasn’t so many years ago that starting a new e-commerce business on the Internet was a complex custom development project, usually costing a million dollars or more. Almost anyone can start a company today on a shoestring budget, following these cost-cutting recommendations: Establish a solid legal structure for your business.

Cost 405

Cost Entrepreneur Burn Rate Social Media 405

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2022

Focus is required to resist adding a few more neat features, made possible by the new technology, which in fact make the product more complex to use, impossible to test, and very expensive in time and cost. Lots of people still believe the major cost of a new product is development. Marketing costs can be a deep hole.

Technical Review 375

Technical Review Startup Dilution Early Stage 375

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

The cost of any new product these days must include education and rollout marketing, perhaps equal or greater than the development costs. Don’t forget to address the risks and cost of doing nothing. Marketing costs will continue to increase. Customers won’t buy what they can’t find or don’t understand.

Product 354

Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

It’s important to learn from your own mistakes, but it’s even smarter to learn from someone else’s mistakes, without paying their high price in time lost, cost, and pain. Viral marketing costs real money, and your support staff and hosting systems cost even more. Bypasses intellectual property as not worth the cost.

Intellectual Property 312

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Investor Viral 312

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

Investors may not be called co-founders, but they always get equity, commensurate with their share of the total costs anticipated, or share of the current valuation. Less dependence or startup success, or more cash compensation, generally means less equity assigned. Amount of venture funding provided.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Employees are still too often thought of as a commodity, to be acquired “just in time” for the lowest cost, and managed as a disposable asset. With the latest advances in software technology, it’s no longer cost-prohibitive for business entrepreneurs, who can’t yet afford a human resources department, to take advantage of analytics tools.

Analytics 303

Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Business agility is defined as the ability to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently. Business agility is simply to ability and intent to make small changes, on a daily basis, to penetrate new markets, add new revenue streams, reduce costs, and prune out products that are no longer carrying their weight.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Zappos, for example, has earned global accolades for their strategic “ Zappos dollars ” peer-to-peer recognition program, where employees share low-cost, high-frequency rewards with each other. Some experts have estimated that the cost of keeping the wrong person for a given organization can be up to fifteen times his or her annual salary.

Employee 371

Employee Salary Hiring Stock 371

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2021

Most of these are easy to avoid if you do your homework up front, but can cost you dearly if you get sucked in. If you feel confused by conflicting time zones, differing currencies, and up-front costs, it’s time to run the other way. Use the common sense suggestions to avoid the pain: Decoy investor scam.

Technical Review 371

Technical Review Due Diligence Non-disclosure Agreement Term Sheet 371

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Years ago, it cost a million dollars for a new e-commerce site, one that you can now create for almost nothing with current tools and technology. The cost of social media done well is low. Marty Zwilling

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

The distributed model draws on a diverse pool, helps manage costs, and captures regional insights and focus necessary to win local customers. Silicon Valley’s conventional model is to integrate local experienced engineering, product development, and marketing people for the big push. Manage risk – don’t just “move fast and break things.”

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Airbnb convinced travelers to part with 100% of their booking cost up front and then they pay out the required amount to hosts when the stay actually occurs. The straight cost of revenue line is only ~25% of revenue implying a 75% gross margin, assuming you were looking at this in a simplistic revenue / COGS / gross profit manner.

North America 401

North America IPO Prospectus Europe 401

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For example, “We just patented a new battery technology that will cut your smartphone charge time and cost in half.” If possible, quantify these in non-technical business terms, such as dollars saved or replacement costs over time. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Description of the business entity you plan to form.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? And how much will it cost to win them? Apply costs to each channel. And most importantly, how does it make money? How will you convert them? We need to make sure we have these numbers.

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2020

New smartphone apps cost only a few thousand, if you have the programming skills. Choose projects with financial resources within your reach. These days, you can build a new e-commerce website to sell home-made wares for a few hundred dollars.

Technical Review 434

Technical Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property Internet 434

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2021

Recognize that you can never control the precise sequence and time line, and list some key costs and risks. Before you start your business, think hard about your vision for fulfillment, and write it down. Assess your position and progress on a regular basis.

Business Model 432

Business Model Entrepreneur Cost Customer 432

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2022

Universities and other R&D groups have created a large number of new inventions and innovations, mostly lying dormant on the shelves of our researchers and labs, waiting to be commercialized by aspiring entrepreneurs, with minimal up-front costs for licensing. The cost of entrepreneur entry is at an all-time low.

Artificial Inteligence 315

Artificial Inteligence Offshore Merger Technical Review 315

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2022

Here are a few specifics on how to be part of the solution, without the costs, rather than part of the problem: Put a personal face and address on your site; don’t hide behind an “info” email address. But that is just the beginning of the opportunity to provide or take advantage of the new power and tools on the Internet.

Technical Review 342

Technical Review Customer Social Network Software Review 342

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

Everyone knew these had potential, but had not demonstrated success to date due to infrastructure and support requirements, or cost constraints. For many years, startups featuring all-electric vehicles fell into this stage of the business lifecycle.

Artificial Inteligence 436

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Valuation Startup 436

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

This is a trap of the past to be avoided at all costs. He succinctly outlines the key behaviors that I believe every business leader must focus on, to drive innovation without waiting for the next competitive crisis: Avoid the assumption that current gifts will keep on giving.

Framework 402

Framework Engineer Leadership Revenue 402

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Costing $250,000 ($3.2 Each ATLAS I cost the NSA $1.3 ATLAS II cost the NSA $2.3 Goldberg , which followed, was another room-sized special purpose machine – a comparator with statistical capabilities – that took photoelectric sensing and paper tape scanning to new heights. Another similarly sized system, Demon , followed.

Minnesota 318

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 318

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Even non-profits need revenue to cover their costs, and continue to provide services. Great team members may take more time to find, and cost you stock options, but a qualified and highly motivated team that stretches your budget is a good calculated risk. Risk is more manageable with subscriptions and even freemium pricing.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2022

They point to several key trends in organizational cultures and working practices that can boost output, cut costs, and give employees more freedom. An exception is the classic book by Alison Maitland and Peter Thomson, “ Future Work: Changing Organizational Culture for the New World of Work ,” which offers some real insight on this subject.

Cost 313

Cost Stock Options Cloud Differentiation 313

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2022

It’s a small cost to prevent a long-term loss. Some of the companies with the best team cultures, including Zappos , even go so far as to offer new employees $2,000 to quit after the first week on the job if they don’t feel a fit with the team assigned. Give priority to attitude over experience.

Hiring 337

Hiring Technical Cofounder Cofounder Retention 337

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2023

With the current low cost of entry, nimble competitors appear quickly and seize the high ground of your existing customers and potential. The initial larger cost in time and dollars is only the beginning. In many business domains today, the market seems to change about every ninety days. The first-to-market advantage doesn’t last long.

Startup 287

Startup Bandwidth Distribution Agile 287

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2021

Yet, even with these alternatives, market disruption is rarely predictable – it’s obvious only in hindsight.

Non-Compete 394

Non-Compete Technical Review Forecast Social Media 394

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

Considering Cost-effectiveness: While evaluating news article APIs, consider their pricing structure relative to the provided services. Examine factors such as cost per request or subscription fees against what you need for your specific application or website.

API 150

API Technical Review Technical Support Software Review 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

Investors expect proof that your invention can be manufactured in volume, and can justify a sales price at least double the cost, to a large customer set that has money to spend. The value is tied to infrastructure outside your control, such as a pervasive network of fuel stations, trained service facilities, and new government regulations.

Technical Review 391

Technical Review Intellectual Property Early Stage Global 391

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2023

There are obviously pros and cons to working remotely , including productivity, costs, as well as balancing work and personal lives. A related culprit is the growing child-care cost, which burdens mothers in their prime child-bearing years. Millions have bowed out of the labor market. Fewer births mean fewer workers later.

Non-Compete 282

Non-Compete France Japan Technical Review 282

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Don’t forget a viable financial model of costs, margins, customer acquisition, and break-even. For example, when you think about distribution channels, revenue streams, or the relationship with the customer, ask customers what they expect.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

Wessel also summarizes the costs and potential impacts of creating and building your startup in secondary markets, usually meaning not in Silicon Valley or one of the other super-hubs: It takes longer to raise money. It’s very important.

Las Vegas 309

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 309

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Ask yourself, “If I were an investor, would I support this effort, given the costs and promised returns?” Will my proposed change actually achieve the desired outcome? It’s important to separate optimism and dreams from market realities. Just because Google sales hit $1.5 billion in 4 years doesn’t mean any other startup can do it.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2023

Some team members may get results, but at the high cost of damaging team morale and destroying the goodwill you and your team have accrued with others. The leadership capital, and other costs to support square pegs is a huge startup resource drain. Any other action will drive them to a lower category. Steamrollers.

Employee 267

Employee Leadership Cofounder Matching 267