One of the toughest and yet most important questions you will be asked by savvy potential startup investors is “What is your sustainable competitive advantage?” Yet many entrepreneurs, maybe in their passion for their new product, gloss over this one, or even announce that they have no competition.
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Martinzwilling voted on the following stories on BizSugar
Investors Look for These Six Competitive Elements
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4671 days ago
America’s Entrepreneurial Innovation Needs Help
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4672 days ago
The innovation engine that powered the U.S. economy over the last century seems to be slowing down and dying, threatening not only local opportunities, but the economies all over the world. The $30 billion trade surplus in advanced technology products that America enjoyed just one decade ago has no
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Experience the Magic of Startup Team Collaboration
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4673 days ago
It takes a great entrepreneur with a great vision to start a business, but it takes a collaboration of many people to make it a success. That’s where leadership comes in as a key ingredient, to drive the collaborative process to make the whole team better than the sum of the parts.
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Your Startup Technology is Like a Banana
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4674 days ago
Technology is like a banana. Yes, you heard me right, a banana. Just like technology, a banana has very distinct phases. Understanding these phases and taking action on them could be the difference between your company being king of the jungle or being caged in a zoo scraping flattened Junior Mints
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Limit an Investor Pitch to 10 Pages and 10 Minutes
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4675 days ago
As a member of the local Angel group selection committee, I’ve seen a lot of startup presentations to investors, and I’ve never seen one that was too short - maybe short on content, but not short on pages! A perfect round number is ten slides, with the right content, that can be covered in ten minu
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10 Questions To Shape Your Startup Strategic Plan
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4676 days ago
Deciding to be an entrepreneur is a lifestyle move, and should be part of a long-term strategic plan. You shouldn’t be making this decision just because you are mad at your boss, you would like to be rich, or someone else thinks it’s a good idea. In these changing times, if you already have a start
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Quotes From Entrepreneurs To Dodge Accountability
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4677 days ago
Everyone seems to like the aspect of being an entrepreneur that goes with “being your own boss” and “able to do things my way.” But sometimes they forget that this kind of freedom comes with a price of personal accountability. Accountability means “the buck stops here,” and “all the failures are mi
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Universities Skip Basic Business Survival Skills
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4678 days ago
Made Hot by: Cathode Ray Dude on June 10, 2011 12:52 am
I’m sure that every one of us who has been out in the business world for a few years can look back with perfect hindsight and name a few college courses that we should have taken. What’s more disconcerting to me is that I can name a few that weren’t even offered!
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Entrepreneurs Need to Learn to Be Good at Sales
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4679 days ago
A good entrepreneur is not necessarily born a good salesman. In fact, they are often the opposite, more focused on building things rather than selling them. Yet, in today’s world of information overload, marketing and selling skills are critical to the success of every startup.
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Ten Ways To Get Ahead of the Pack at Your Startup
Posted by martinzwilling under StartupsFrom http://blog.startupprofessionals.com 4680 days ago
Everyone knows that that startups are risky, but they also expect that the job will be exciting and potentially very lucrative (think early employees at Microsoft and Google). Yet we have all heard stories about the high turnover, unstructured work environment, lower base pay, and unpredictable exp
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