Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

For example, Mark McClain, cofounder and CEO of SailPoint Technologies , created an employee growth culture resulting in growth of forty percent a year, with more than $100 million in revenues. Maintaining business momentum requires constant analysis and vigilance for market and technology changes, as well an internal focus on optimization.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2023

Technology is so key to every business these days that experienced business-smart but non-tech entrepreneurs are feeling deeper and deeper in the hole. Startups succeed most often when the founding partners know how to build and run a business, rather than how to build and run technology.

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TechEmpower

AUGUST 14, 2023

Startup founders make decisions on a daily basis – significant decisions that will have lasting impact on their business. Actually, many startups need two kinds of technical advisors. We’ve talked about this before in Startup CTO or Developer. No good innovator turns down advice! And Maybe You Need Two! innovation

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2022

Successful startups seem to follow similar paths to greatness, and unfortunately all too often that path leads them back down the hill much faster than they went up. By definition, most startups begin as a result of some innovation in product, process, or service. Consider MySpace and Webvan. Geographic expansion.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2021

Thus, based on my experience as an entrepreneur as well as a startup investor, there are indeed situations where a non-disclosure is highly recommended, and others where the potential good far outweighs the risk. Here are the key considerations from my perspective: Dealing with known or trusted investors and advisors.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2022

Perhaps sparked by the recent pandemic, I’m seeing a new era of the entrepreneur, with startups springing up all around. Problems will occur in every startup, simply because you are stepping into uncharted territory. Whether you are charting new territory for pricing models or technology, there is rarely a perfect solution.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. Outsourcing your core competency does not work.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2022

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. In today’s marketplace, junior staffers are often the most intimately connected to the market, technology, and the customer network.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2021

But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves. Work at home to fund your startup. Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2022

One of the biggest myths in the business world is that startups are no place for Baby Boomers, that aging generation born between 1945 and 1964. They couldn’t possibly understand the new social media culture, new technologies, or have the determination to beat their younger counterparts in the market. Member of the Advisory Board.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2023

Artificial Intelligence has been the technology right around the corner for at least 50 years. One of the problems about disruptive technology is that disruption doesn’t come with a memo. Others look at the same technology and recognize at that instant the world will no longer be the same (e.g. This year we’ve invented one more.

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The Startup Magazine

NOVEMBER 20, 2024

Enter the world of startups: dynamic, problem-solving enterprises equipped with the tools and creativity to transform elder care. From cutting-edge monitoring technologies to accessible reporting platforms, startups are stepping up to safeguard the well-being of nursing home residents and redefine the future of elder care.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2022

Existing technologies have been “commoditized” globally. New emerging manufacturing technologies (e.g., New goldmine of innovations and technology. Most of their new claims to innovation are acquired through mergers and acquisitions from the entrepreneurial pipeline. Competitive advantages are rapidly vaporizing on these.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2022

That challenge is a major business opportunity, as well as a risk, for startups. Market your solution and user benefits, not the mysterious technology behind it. The bad news for startups is that your company can lose big if it’s caught in the middle. There are others, like Norton LifeLock , acquired in 2017 by Symantec for $2.3

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The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

Startups are the most vulnerable considering they are limited in terms of the resources needed to invest in robust cybersecurity systems. Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki from Pexels Going beyond hiring security guards, it’s also important for startups to implement the right strategies that prevent attacks through their physical assets.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

In my experience, the Silicon Valley startup model, focused on disrupting established industries, has treated the USA well and created some great global businesses. It has played almost no role in the emergence of current non-US bred startups, including Alibaba in China, Waze from Israel, Paytm in India, and many more.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 20, 2022

How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? I just had coffee with Anthony, a friend who was just hired as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a large company (30,000+ people.) But this is the first time he was the CTO of a company this size. Lessons Learned.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

Even in this age of globalization and virtualization, the geographic area where you choose to live and work can still make or break your startup business. On the other hand, if you are into solar technologies, there is probably an advantage to being in Arizona or a similar location. get the attention of the market they choose.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2021

If you are the first to deliver this, your startup might be the next Google! Technology environment savvy. There are already many examples of startups edging into this space. Just think of the fertile ground all this opens for startups!

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. Here are ten of the key questions that apply equally well to the world of startups and entrepreneurs, as they do to large organizations.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. Marketing is everything these days.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

Of course it helps to have innovative technologies before you start building a business. If you have been working alone, perfecting your idea, with no new business track record, your best strategy is to license the technology to a company or team with real business startup experience. Commercialization requires infrastructure.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. Stable and friendly work environment.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain. Neither breakthrough technology nor maximum features will assure that “if we build it, they will come.” It’s time for a new startup model. How far behind is your startup? Nail the solution.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

As a logical and data-driven business advisor, I have long focused on facts, technology, and quantifiable pain in guiding entrepreneurs. Other startups use technology to provide personalized products to all customers. Build positive relationships with potential customers.

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Customer Social Media Dividend Technical Review 432

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2021

Startups may be quicker to adopt innovations, but there are clearly some large problems than can only be solved by companies with large resources. These days, with markets and technology changing so rapidly, it’s impossible to verify an innovation before taking it to market.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2021

Some get stuck in a rut and get run over by competitors with new technology, like Eastman Kodak, and others get pushed into a crisis, like Apple did, before they reinvent themselves into a new market. Use that same technical and business expertise that served you well on this startup to find the next opportunity.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2020

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. Passion, optimism, and determination are necessary but not sufficient to assure a successful startup. Most startup projects require special skills and a motivated team.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

These approaches allow your startup to grow more rapidly, save costs, but costly mistakes can lead to business failure. Some entrepreneurs view their outsourced employees as temps, or as a cheap way to staff the company during its startup phase. Utilization and personal growth of virtual employees is not my problem.”

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TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Are specific technologies or platforms involved in your project? Do they have experience with the technologies involved in your project? Although noteworthy, working with large corporations differs remarkably from working with startups. Or is your project a clean slate? Do you anticipate scale issues presently or in the future?

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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.” Be sure to include this in your “elevator pitch,” which you must always deliver as a prelude to your technology features. The best way to do this is to reference actual data from a recent similar startup success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

In my experience as an angel investor to startups, goodwill disagreements are perhaps the most common reason that you will fail to close interested investors as an entrepreneur. This is the reason that many new startups offer freemium services, and prioritize attracting a large following above making a profit.

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Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Angel Investor 368

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Every one of you business owners I know periodically introduces new products and services to sustain growth, fight off competitors, or take advantage of new technologies. Don’t count on these as short-term solutions to a growth problem. If you go this route, make sure your solution is strategic.

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Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

On the other end of the spectrum, technology startups also really need this mentality, since the rate of change there is rapid, and competition is so intense.

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