My Response to “The dirty secret behind the incubator boom” in #VentureBeat

by | May 1, 2012 | Angel Investor, Business Development, CEO Succession, early stage, founder, Launch, Revenue Growth, Scalability, startup, startup CEO, venture

This is great! Congrats to Mr. Dao for stepping up to this. Thx @lieslchang for forwarding. I was at that same pitch fest. This is what I call “Harvesting Youth”.

I think MVP is usually MVBS. There are so many things wrong with the current climate. I’ve written about this many times in my blog, often being called a spoil-sport. Many “mentors” are teaching young entrepreneurs the wrong things, in order to cherry pick them for their own projects. They’re being taught to recite stupid sayings like “Killing It” and “Pivot” and “Seed Round” when they’re doing none of those.

A $50K seed round? $25K?

As someone in the startup world for over 20 years it’s sad to watch what the word startup has become, sunk to. A startup is inventing, it’s UNIQUE technology, UNIQUE idea, UNIQUE deployment. A shoe store is not a startup. A startup is something to be nurtured, built, caressed, enhanced.

For the L.A. vs. Silicon Valley comparison, these mini-launches aren’t helping L.A.s reputation. There are some incredible companies growing in L.A., but way too many fake startups.

The other crazy thing going on? Now everyone says “I’m gonna learn to code”. Ridiculous.

@tomnora

 

The dirty secret behind the incubator boom

The Stanford University + Palo Alto Ecosystem

The Stanford University + Palo Alto Ecosystem

by | Apr 30, 2012 | startup CEO

I often refer to this phenomenon in my blog and my Startup Workshops presentations as my favorite case study – “Stanford Love”. Now the New Yorker has picked up on the trend. “Is Stanford Too Close to Silicon Valley?”    @tomnora  #StartupWorkshopsLA

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/04/30/120430fa_fact_auletta?currentPage=all

REPOST: The Importance of BUS DEV (from august 2011)

by | Apr 24, 2012 | startup CEO

This question has come up often recently – what is the difference between Sales, Marketing, and Business Development? What the hell is business development?  Here’s my take on it:

http://j.mp/z4QMmI

@tomnora

People often undervalue Business Development as a critical function in a startup. What is it? How does it differ from Sales, Marketing, Major Accounts? When is the company big enough to dedicate a full headcount to Business Development?

Less understood than most titles, and widely ranging in responsibilities, BusDev is the critical glue between todays sales functions and the senior management. BusDev is relationships, longer term thinking, non-revenue partnerships, communication between Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Finance if you have all of those covered.

BusDev people see the potential connections between your company and several others. They also find creative ways to do business or vastly improve business relationships, especially when they can work with BusDev counterparts at target partners. It’s like the 2 lead guitarists of 2 bands playing together going off into the corner and working on just their parts, and relationship. They’re focused on one thing. The BusDev people are also focused on one thing – taking the businesses beyond a simple linear transaction based relationship. They don’t worry about this weeks revenue or finance, etc.

In a smaller or earlier stage startup, the CEO covers most areas that have no dedicated leader, BusDev being the most common unfilled spot. Sometimes this works but often not. The problem is when the CEO is not a good match for this position – in experience, skill set or desire. It also distracts him/her from other CEO functions, and is not as impressive to the client, partners.

So, if you can afford a strong BusDev investment early, it  can be a secret weapon that ensures your long term scalability and gets you funded.

Contact me if you’d like to discuss more:  tomnora2020@gmail.com