Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. IPOs dried up.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

There’s too much PR and too many tech blogs and too many newsletters and aggregators and Twitter summarizers to even try to catch everything that’s going on and equally there’s so much noise that it becomes harder to be heard. But honestly 10 extra hours in the office each day we would be there is way more productive.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

The invite-only event was attended by 300 of the area’s best tech leaders, founders, product managers, designers, developers, investors, engineers, salesmen and women, and more, all of whom are hard at work in consumer tech. Half our portfolio is consumer. On Tuesday, July 21, we hosted the first-ever Boston Consumer Tech Summit.

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Not because they’re all operating in stealth or pre-product – in fact some already are earning $1m+ in revenue per annum. And my sense is the trend carries outside of our portfolio these days. Most of the startups we’ve backed at Homebrew don’t rush to announce their funding.

Technical Review 117

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 117

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

I need to give credit for the topic to PR Malloy who Tweeted me this question. I must admit I discuss this very frequently with portfolio companies but hadn’t thought to write about it. PR Malloy (@diddly_do_indy) June 13, 2015.

PR 150

PR Early Stage Software Naming 150

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 20, 2014

PR can do wonders for your startup or small business, but not all strategies have proven to be effective. Below, 16 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) share the one PR strategy they think all startups and small businesses should stop using, and why. Over-the-Top Self-Promotion. Press Release Avalanches.

PR 145

PR Small Business SEO Warrant 145

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

50 Beautifully Simple Portfolio Websites For Your Inspiration – crowdspring.co/18GaqJP. A Web Designer’s Guide to Choosing Product and Business Names | Vandelay Design Blog – crowdspring.co/18Ga1qJ. 50 Beautifully Simple Portfolio Websites For Your Inspiration – crowdspring.co/18GaqJP.

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Design Media 100

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 17, 2013

“As a founder, your job isn’t to make a great product. It’s to build a great team that makes great products.” Startup PR Tip: To Get Press, Don’t Pitch Your Product – [link]. Startup PR Tip: To Get Press, Don’t Pitch Your Product – [link]. Quora – [link].

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Technical Review 94

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. I would call their portfolio companies and ask how helpful or not they’ve been. look at their portfolio list. Connections? EQ and Team Leadership? Nail on the head.

Portfolio 364

Portfolio Chicago Sales Incubator 364

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 9, 2014

With IPO Hopes Fading, Square And Box Face Reality Of Commodity Products | TechCrunch – crowdspring.co/1rWbako. 23 Inspiringly Beautiful Portfolio Designs – crowdspring.co/1mVP03W. 33 Spectacular Package Designs for Product Branding | SpyreStudios - crowdspring.co/1fr1Ogt. ” – crowdspring.co/1j0HTod.

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2011

If you think it’s location-based services / find out where your friends are at while you’re out – let’s talk about whether we need to incorporate that into our product. I logged into a room to listen to music & see what the product was all about. To ignore FourSquare would be dumb. But I saw turntable.fm

Startup 313

Startup Guerilla Silicon Valley Portfolio 313

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

How To Build A World-Class Design Portfolio | Co.Design – crowdspring.co/1uDPSu7. How to Effectively Communicate With Different Brain Types – crowdspring.co/1riIUvZ. 9 Twitter Chats on Marketing | Heroic Search – crowdspring.co/XuWOyO. Kevin Spacey’s Top 3 Tips For Better Storytelling (in marketing) – crowdspring.co/1mlpPJt.

Social Media 91

Social Media Small Business Design Media 91

Feld Thoughts

JULY 12, 2018

Over the past 25 years, I’ve invested in many startups that sell products to large enterprises. One of our portfolio companies recently engaged with an industry analyst for the first time with a very disappointing outcome. Many of these companies end up either creating or helping to create a new category.

Warrant 73

Warrant Technical Review PR Portfolio 73

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2014

10 Massively Successful Minimum Viable Products – crowdspring.co/1mVcFD5. 7 Rules of Perfect Portfolio Websites – crowdspring.co/YTR0jA. The ROI of Blogging: What the Groove Blog is Worth to Our Startup – crowdspring.co/YUXa2r. Passion Alone is Not Enough to Open a Business – crowdspring.co/YVlAZA.

Social Media 97

Social Media Small Business Design Media 97

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 16, 2014

What Influences People To Buy Products or Services? What Influences People To Buy Products or Services? How To Use Portfolio Theory At Your Startup | by Chris Yeh – crowdspring.co/1jkfmFu. Knockoff products … an increasingly growing problem at Amazon – crowdspring.co/1g5t0By.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

View from Seed

DECEMBER 7, 2020

The media world is notoriously difficult to navigate from the outside, and working with PR agencies can be even more of a black box. I frequently fielded pitches from founders and tech-oriented PR agencies, and to be honest, I auto-deleted most of them. PR pitches can hurt to read because more often than not, they’re impersonal.

PR 177

PR Early Stage Founder Differentiation 177

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

Nicole most recently comes to us from SmartBear Software , where she was responsible for the launch and marketing for an entire product: overseeing activities like PR, creative, content creation, and social media engagement. We want to help founders both inside and outside of our portfolio with the things which we think matter most: 1.

Portfolio 120

Portfolio Boston PR Social Media 120

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2014

These 44 Apps Will Make Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners More Productive – crowdspring.co/YGV8Dp. These 44 Apps Will Make Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners More Productive – crowdspring.co/YGV8Dp. 7 Rules of Perfect Portfolio Websites – crowdspring.co/1ytzvGO.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

By contrast, Staples closed down some underperforming facilities but increased its workforce by 10% during the recession, mainly to support the high-end product categories and services it introduced. Use that intelligence to inform product portfolio and investment choices.”. Where do your consumers fall?

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

Because market is such a broad topic, I’m restricting these lessons to PR marketing (as opposed SEO, SEM, product marketing, etc.). My general rule is that it’s good to be stealth in the early days while you’re building your product and testing your market. It’s a buggy product but pretty damn cool.

Early Stage 380

Early Stage Stealth Marketing Startup 380

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

You can always tell during this discussion whether the entrepreneur has logged into their products, talked to their customers, read all the news stories and gotten all of the back channel info on the competition. Let’s talk about your product or let’s look at your financial projections.

Entrepreneur 286

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Cofounder Early Stage 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

Think of it kind of like running a national chain of restaurants and occasionally stopping in to wait tables to have a more intuitive sense for your processes, work conditions and the quality of your products. I then spent time with the VP Product Management to understand his functional roadmap and his perception of what customers wanted.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

7 Ways to PR your Personal Brand on a Budget written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Make the best use of the tight resources you have with these 7 best practice tips to PR your personal brand on a budget: 1. You don’t need to hire an expensive PR firm to get some traction with this. Get Media Coverage.

PR 68

PR Social Media New Zealand Ireland 68

Haystack

JUNE 5, 2018

Stepping back, it’s interesting to see this cultural shift among larger companies who are comfortable with these co-branding scenarios, which actually may provide better PR and future opportunities to add to their portfolios. And yesterday, another feather in the cap — GitHub. 4/ “Readjust Your Comps” With GitHub price at $7.5B

Acquisition 71

Acquisition Azure Open Source Seattle 71

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 26, 2015

Strategies to Build a Fun Work Culture That’s Also Productive crowdspring.co/1F6S299. How to Simplify SEO, PR, and Social Collaboration | Convince and Convert crowdspring.co/1JPSPDh. Get Discovered With a Knockout Portfolio crowdspring.co/1IYi7Pw. The Importance of Case Studies in a Design Portfolio | Tips crowdspring.co/1Go5XLZ.

Small Business 48

Small Business Design Guinea Social Media 48

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

I’ve primarily seen quantitative analytic techniques used in origination , filtering , and in portfolio company recruiting , but technology can be used throughout the nine steps of the private company investing process: The 9 Steps of the Private Company Investing Process. 8) Accelerate portfolio company value. 9% (1 / 12).

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 10, 2013

“Working in 90-minute intervals turns out to be a prescription for maximizing productivity.” How to Set Yourself Up for a Productive Day | by Michael Hyatt – [link]. How to Set Yourself Up for a Productive Day | by Michael Hyatt – [link]. Creative product packaging – [link]. .” [link].

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 4, 2023

A campaign should only be used if your product has a “viral” quality to it. It also allows entrepreneurs to create awareness around their product or service and provides an opportunity to engage a larger audience of potential customers. The crowdfunding act itself becomes a marketing strategy.

Startup 141

Startup Campaign Cofounder Venture Capital 141

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

You’d think that no one could recreate a product so sophisticated and advanced as space rockets, right? With enough resources, products can always be copied. It’s tough to compete on product alone and you’re likely to see diminishing returns. It helps them audit existing content portfolios (blog posts, landing pages, etc.)

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Non-Compete Audience 109

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Here’s how to keep your team productive during the holidays. Whether it’s planning a New Year’s Eve soiree or buying gifts for family members, employees may experience productivity dips when the holiday season is in full swing. See Also How to Be Productive, Even During Downtime. and leave at 3 p.m. and leaving at 5 p.m.

Employee 134

Employee Product Ratchet Demand 134

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

One of the things I discuss the most with the portfolio companies I’m involved with is that “you manage what you measure.”. I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. I’m a big believer in product stability & performance before adding too many features. You Manage What you Measure.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Up and Running

JUNE 16, 2014

They’re the PR and the security. A simple online search should reveal your investors interests as well as the portfolio of companies that he/she has invested in. I’m personally 70% management, 30% product […] If I feel a priori that the CEO can’t cut it I’m highly unlikely to invest. Investigate your investor’s portfolio.

Exit Strategy 91

Exit Strategy Advisory Board Business Plan Portfolio 91

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

How much is it worth investing in cultivating and enforcing an IP portfolio ? Later stage companies have some additional concerns: What favorable impact could IP have for PR, marketing and investor relations purposes, or as an attraction to potential acquirors? Creating product mock-ups , wireframes, etc. Easier said than done!)

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2013

Design Tips for Building an Exquisite Portfolio - crowdspring.co/1gqnM0o. Product Showcase Websites: 30+ Beautiful and Attractive Examples - crowdspring.co/1gqoBGj. 8 Strange Rituals of Productive Writers | Copyblogger - crowdspring.co/1gqqPWg. Cartoon Fundamentals: The Secrets in Drawing Animals | Vectortuts+ crowdspring.co/H1ycW8.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

A Guide to Designing a Portfolio Website - crowdspring.co/HarwpQ. Ever – crowdspring.co/1bjsecN. 20 Tumblr Blogs For Inspiration - crowdspring.co/1auNagO. What is Swiss Style Typography? 1stwebdesigner - crowdspring.co/1bPbmvs. Square, Airbnb and why experience really is design | GigaOM - crowdspring.co/1bWhIcy.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 3, 2016

Each VC has their own take on which services to provide and mostly they’re free but some smaller VCs charge portfolio companies for use of these services but usually at a cheap cost. Examples of VC platform services include: recruiting, marketing, design support, inside sales reps, consulting, accounting services and so forth.

Portfolio 150

Portfolio PR Partner Early Stage 150