Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

And, your idea is 50th social networking site of the week. Especially at the early stages. There were/are so many freakin’ ad networks / ad exchanges / ad platforms out there that LaunchBit was just undifferentiated. Here are a few reasons why an investor will reject you that has nothing to do with you.

Sales Cycle 54

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 54

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

And, your idea is 50th social networking site of the week. Especially at the early stages. There were/are so many freakin’ ad networks / ad exchanges / ad platforms out there that LaunchBit was just undifferentiated. Here are a few reasons why an investor will reject you that has nothing to do with you.

Sales Cycle 48

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Think about your own behavior: if you are like me, you hate having to deal with sales people, and greatly prefer to do your own research starting with search engines, and leveraging free trials, on-line videos, blogs, reviews, and your social network. Using low cost inside sales when the touchless conversion is not possible.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Here’s a concrete example of what I mean: when I was pitching LaunchBit, we started out as an ad network for email. I.e. it might be difficult to raise money at the early stages, because most investors in the seed space have smaller funds (esp pre-seed funds). Because my $25k check isn’t going to last long.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Hippoland

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Here’s a concrete example of what I mean: when I was pitching LaunchBit, we started out as an ad network for email. I.e. it might be difficult to raise money at the early stages, because most investors in the seed space have smaller funds (esp pre-seed funds). Because my $25k check isn’t going to last long.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Business Model B2B Email 48

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

Social: Early-stage capital efficiency, can grow very very fast, strong network effect. Very hard to pick early, need to be massive to have any chance of success. very low margin, longer sales cycle, few very big exits, hard to differentiate. Capital intensive, long sales cycle.

Sales Cycle 67

Sales Cycle eCommerce Flash Early Stage 67

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

While big ticket products might carry longer and more complex sales cycles, high-end buyers are just as lazy as the rest of us, so they use the same methods: Google, social media, and yes, their inboxes. Plus, it’s your personal network, and you probably want to have at least some control over who you’re hitting up.

Curation 42

Curation Lead Generation Technical Review Email 42

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

At the early stages of your company’s life, you cannot rely on disinterested, hired guns to define your company’s key tasks. To fully appreciate why consultants often do not fulfill a startup’s needs, it is important to understand the typical consulting engagement sales cycle. Networking (20). Sales (12).

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

Calculating an initial lead fit score will help you focus on those who might actually become sales. Determining lead interest involves monitoring a prospect’s interest in, and interaction with, your content and networks. Conversely, “latent behaviors”—like early-stage content and blog posts—earn much lower scores.

Sales 28

Sales Early Stage Sales Cycle Conversion 28

Small Business Force

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Building a business is not just about numbers.It's about how you make those numbers happen.Many early stage entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing on detailed spread sheets with myriad pivot tables and assumptions, being able to model even the most insignificant detail of their proposed business. It can help another entrepreneur.

Forecast 37

Forecast Sales Cycle Early Stage Sales 37

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 15, 2005

While the remaining small % of spend leaves room for new license spending, only a fraction of that will be even available for early stage companies. Lesson #2 is that it is important to understand the culture of each financial institution with respect to their reputation of being an early adopter, fast follower, or mainstream player.

Advisory Board 60

Advisory Board New York Dividend Sales Cycle 60

BeyondVC

DECEMBER 10, 2003

Finally, there will be software companies that have a componentized product that is easy to install which can and may be packaged into an appliance to leverage the channel sales model. Companies like Neoteris and Network Appliance fit this model. In this posting, I would like to focus on software packaged as an appliance.

Software 60

Software Harvest Sales Cycle Channel 60

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

In my case (LucidEra -- a SaaS analytics provider focusing on sales, marketing, and financial analytics), weve found that success requires not only building some best practices for analytics into our solution, but also coming up with a repeatable and scalable way to show the customer how to use the analytics and how to interpret the results.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 24, 2011

One of the cool things about being a fund that works with so many early stage companies is that bringing the whole portfolio together in one place results in a lot of collaborative learning opportunities. I thought it was going to be easy to find two developers, given that I had a pretty large network. The Meetup Ground War.

Startup 128

Startup Ruby PR Sales Cycle 128