If your startup desperately needs an investor, you may not care if the investor is a so-called “angel” investor, or a venture capitalist (VC). The money is the same color in either case. But I have found that making the right choice at the right time can have a major impact on your long-term valuat
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Martinzwilling submitted the following stories to BizSugar
7 Key Drivers to the Best Investor For Your Startup
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4409 days ago
10 Sure Ways to Get Your Plan Trashed by Investors
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4410 days ago
After struggling to create your business plan for months, every entrepreneur likes to think that their document is inspirational and will reach someone who is smart enough to see the brilliance of the idea, intuitive enough to recognize their business acumen, and enthusiastic enough to offer the mo
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5 Ways to See If Your Business Integrity is Showing
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4412 days ago
As an entrepreneur, your personal integrity is critical for getting and keeping the support of investors and team members, and your company’s integrity is critical for getting and keeping customers and vendors. But in a practical sense, what does that really mean?
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10 Mental Toughness Fundamentals for Entrepreneurs
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4414 days ago
In sports, mental toughness is defined as the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity. If anyone in business ever needed mental toughness, it’s an entrepreneur. Investors tell me that startup success is all about execution, all while facing determined competit
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10 Ways to Make Your Customer Experience Stand Out
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4415 days ago
A while back, I wrote about the value of Michael Porter’s Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment, and using every opportunity to highlight and emphasize your relative advantages, whether they be price, features, or bargaining power. But once you start selling products, all
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5 Dysfunctions That Make Your Startup Unfundable
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4416 days ago
Every investor I know can tell you at least one story about a great startup team that failed, even though it was well-funded and staffed with qualified and smart people. The reason almost always given is that the team didn’t work well together (dysfunctional). What does that really mean?
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Too Many Leaders Still Rely on Their ‘Golden Gut’
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4417 days ago
still know some entrepreneurs who boast of simply following their gut instincts, rather than listen to anyone or any data, to make strategic decisions. We’ve all worked with autocratic leaders in large companies who seem to thrive in this mode. They all forget or ignore the high-profile failures th
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Ten High Risk Drivers Every Entrepreneur Faces
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4418 days ago
You have probably heard plenty of times that being an entrepreneur is a risky business, and investors talk all the time about reducing the risk. Yet everyone seems to have their own view of key risk drivers for startups, and I’m no exception. I don’t agree, for example, that the first priority is t
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Entitlements in Business Should Never Replace Merit
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4420 days ago
Where did this pervasive sense of entitlement in our business culture come from? I’ve written about this before, but I was surprised again recently at a conference for startups when a couple of entrepreneurs started berating investors for their low rate of funding for early-stage startups. It sound
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Customer Loyalty Can Be a Startup Competitive Edge
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4421 days ago
You hear a lot of talk these days about the importance of customer satisfaction, but customer loyalty is the real win. A satisfied customer is necessary, but not sufficient, to be a loyal customer who will come back repeatedly, refer their friends and family to you, and be faithful even when your p
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