Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2013

Entrepreneurs always work hard to create an innovative product or service, but often count on standard seller marketing for sales. But the reality is that sellers are no longer in charge of the customer buying process. The best way to do this is with real customer interviews. Build and deploy a revenue growth action plan.

Revenue 263

Revenue Startup Technical Review Business Model 263

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2020

Every entrepreneur I know finds it a challenge to balance the joys of entrepreneurship against a set of frustrations they never anticipated. Of course, most of you expect that raising money will be difficult, as well as staving off competitors, and handling that occasional toxic customer.

Due Diligence 306

Due Diligence Entrepreneur Startup Acquisition 306

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

We had nascent revenues, ridiculous cost structures and unrealistic valuations. In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. I was in it for the love of working with entrepreneurs on business problems and marveling at technology they had built. Until we weren’t.

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Valuation San Francisco Ratchet Liquidation Preference 466

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 25, 2023

We asked entrepreneurs, and business owners their tips on building an e-commerce business and here are the responses. #1- The expansion of e-commerce should also bring about seeing returns as a strategic lever, similar to how companies used faster delivery to drive customer experience and revenue.

eCommerce 133

eCommerce Omaha Entrepreneur SEO 133

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

When entrepreneurs silently disengage from their ventures, it can result in missed opportunities for innovation, loss of valuable expertise, and a chilling effect on the entrepreneurial spirit within communities. We asked entrepreneurs, and business owners how quiet quitting affects entrepreneurship. Here are the responses. #1-

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Entrepreneur Employee Revenue LLC 112

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. It’s what separates the true entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Hearpreneur

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

When entrepreneurs silently disengage from their ventures, it can result in missed opportunities for innovation, loss of valuable expertise, and a chilling effect on the entrepreneurial spirit within communities. We asked entrepreneurs, and business owners how quiet quitting affects entrepreneurship. Here are the responses. #1-

Entrepreneur 112

Entrepreneur Employee Revenue LLC 112

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Being an entrepreneur or business owner has its share of ups and downs. While the downs can be pretty low the ups always seem to triumph for a true entrepreneur at heart. Milestones are what entrepreneurs and business owners work towards. Once you finally reach a certain point then reflection can truly begin.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Jordan Software Review Technical Review 107

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Often the Boomer is more willing to work for equity, and easily convinced to step aside when revenues reach that next threshold.

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Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor Cofounder 368

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the business model.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Investors hate technology solutions looking for a problem, due to the high risk of no customers.

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Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2021

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are looking to the Internet as an opportunity to get rich quick, instead of a place where you can start a business you love, for very little capital and minimal technical expertise. Provide website forums to help customers solve their own problems. Generate revenue around the clock.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Software Review Internet Revenue 312

Hearpreneur

MARCH 4, 2022

Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality. When you're an entrepreneur, you have to make a lot of compromises.

Entrepreneur 128

Entrepreneur Technical Review Restful Colorado 128

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 2, 2022

In the last few days of 2021, we took some time to ask a few entrepreneurs and businesses what their biggest business accomplishments were. #1- Our membership network of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs across hundreds of local chapters nationwide feel like they belong to an entire community now.

Entrepreneur 125

Entrepreneur Jordan Employee Revenue 125

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

So you’re interested in raising capital from a Revenue-Based Investor VC. A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors (“RBI”) are emerging. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. At least 12 months of customer history, generally 20+ enterprise customers or 200+ SMB customers.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2023

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Plan for a real revenue model.

Business Model 273

Business Model Customer Angel Investor Bootstrapping 273

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 14, 2022

Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their New Year’s Resolutions around their businesses. It could be more revenue, hiring clients, or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. Beyond that, we also want to expand our customer base beyond our local market.

Entrepreneur 112

Entrepreneur Retention SEO Employee 112

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2018

Late last year we passed $100M in annual recurring revenue. That revenue is in on 75,000 customers, earned through the hard work of 500 employees across six offices on three continents. Every day, 5% of the entire online world visits a customer running on the WP Engine Digital Experience Platform.

Engineer 152

Engineer Revenue San Francisco Security 152

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Entrepreneurs that are not listening, not engaging, and not changing are destined to be left behind even in the best of times. Today’s customers are much more proactive in going online for the latest information, rather than simply reacting to the “push” messages that businesses traditionally use to drive commerce.

Agile 379

Agile Technical Review Leadership Social Media 379

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 29, 2021

Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their New Year’s Resolutions around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients, or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. Your customer is the determining factor in whether or not you succeed.

Entrepreneur 138

Entrepreneur Social Media Employee Los Angeles 138

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 1, 2023

We asked entrepreneurs to share how they will prepare for the bad economy and here is what they have to say. #1- This will keep them sustainable should revenues take a dive. That way, you can spend more time devising strategies that will continue to keep your current customers satisfied. 1- Make a budget.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review Revenue 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2021

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. You can either find customers for your solution or you can find solutions for your customers.

Sales 348

Sales Startup Bootstrapping Technical Review 348

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2014

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the business model.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor Technical Review 283

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

I asked Tsutsumi-san to write a guest post for my blog to describe his experience with Customer Development in Japan. But customers didn’t agree. This made me believe deeply in the extreme importance of talking to customers before investing time and money, something I took to my next startup. ————-.

Japan 292

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

How to Navigate the New Era of Customer Expectations written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Marketing Podcast with Jay Baer In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Jay Baer, a business growth and customer experience author, researcher, and advisor. What does that mean? [02:46]

Customer 85

Customer Indiana Framework Mexico 85

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 23, 2022

Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their New Year’s Resolutions around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. Increasing my revenue by attracting more leads is my plan for 2022.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Revenue Channel Technical Review 132

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have often been asked about Startup Funding by entrepreneurs. Here is Startup Funding, a Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs. The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Pre-Requisites of Funding.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 11, 2021

Some entrepreneurs will say the future is definitely bright but to others, some of these changes are meant to work against their expansion and business operations. We asked entrepreneurs their thoughts on the future of entrepreneurship and here’s what they had to say; #1- It's like freelancing. Photo Credit: Richard Burner.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Technical Review Social Media Bootstrapping 126

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 3, 2021

Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their New Year’s Resolutions around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. 3- Double our revenue. 1- Two fundamental goals for 2021.

Entrepreneur 154

Entrepreneur Wiki Jordan LLC 154

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2020

It’s easy to listen to that lyric and gloss over the advice within, yet successful entrepreneurs get it. Many entrepreneurs rightly see opportunity amid a crisis. Those compromises, of course, will be different for every entrepreneur and every industry, but leaders can consider them with the same angles and strategies.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Early Stage Texas 149

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2023

Technical entrepreneurs love their technology, and often are driven to launch a startup on the assumption that everyone will buy any solution which highlights this technology. Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. I say again, customers buy solutions, not technology. Neither is positive.

Customer 276

Customer Sales Cycle Social Media Viral 276

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 22, 2023

We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the 2023 trends they see in their industry and here are the responses. #1- As a result, businesses in this field should leverage technology to provide interactive, easy-to-understand educational content that can help customers make health-related decisions and maintain healthy habits.

Artificial Inteligence 124

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Entrepreneur Social Media 124

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 30, 2022

So, that’s why we are excited about 2022 because there will be more and more entrepreneurs and businesses. Here are the pivots other entrepreneurs see businesses making this year: #1- More options for solo travelers. In fact, connecting with customers and prospects is one of the most difficult tasks facing business leaders today.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 124

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 28, 2022

So, that’s why we are excited about 2023 because there will be more and more entrepreneurs and businesses. Here’s the pivot other entrepreneurs are making next year: #1- Release more studies. 3- Increase engagement with customers. In 2023 I plan to engage with my customers and social media followers more extensively.

Social Media 122

Social Media Entrepreneur Retention Finance 122

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

It drives media attention and fosters customer retention rate, which is why most companies strive to have it in their mission statement. It seeks to solve customer problems in a better and modern way and helping such companies edge the competition. One of the companies that's known for innovation is Apple. 5- Shiseido. 7- Virgin Group.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review SEO 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2022

As a startup advisor, I see too many entrepreneurs get distracted by technology or their favorite cause, and then wonder why they can’t find an investor, attract customers, or build a long-term business. Customers now put big value on experience, social impact, empowerment, and feedback.

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Customer Advertising Cost Networking 258