Discussion Topics

Key Tests of a Turnaround Process In turning around a startup there are key tests you must pass to achieve success. Here’s a list of tests: Is the core business viable? If the basic business won’t work then no amount of funding or strategy will save it. Do the team…

Best Practices for a Turnaround There’s an old saying, ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’. A turnaround is not only a crisis but also an opportunity to rebrand, redirect, and reposition the company. Here are some best practices for working on a business turnaround. View each turnaround as…

How To Turnaround a Business Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing. A business turnaround is just like any other aspect of running a business. Here are some key steps in running a turnaround program for your…

Hiring a Turnaround CEO In many turnaround situations, you’ll need to hire a new CEO. Here are some key points to consider when hiring: Track record — look for someone with a proven track record in turning around businesses. Cash management — needs to monitor cash on a daily basis…

Stages of a Turnaround Process There are several stages in a business turnaround. Consider these phases for your startup: Assessment: This phase determines the crises and their impact on the business. This can include both internal and external factors. Triage: This phase sorts through the potential strategies to recover the…

Key Strategies To Turnaround a Business To turn around a business you must take action early and not wait till it’s too late. Here are some key strategies to take to turn around your business: Assess the situation. Review the market to see if the company is still competitive in…

Signs the Startup Needs a Turnaround Here are some signs your startup needs a turnaround: You’re close to breaching loan covenants. The financial performance is still below expectations. The startup’s revenue and profitability are below the industry average. Cash flow continues to be a problem. The startup has been running…

Business Turnarounds A business turnaround is taking a company that is underperforming and modifying its operations and strategy so that it recovers financially. Startups who are candidates for a turnaround are not doing well. They suffer from a lack of leadership, focus, strategy, or execution.  Consider these steps in a…

Data Models A data model is a visualization of the data showing the structure, rules, and relationships for how it works. Here’s a list of key data models to consider for your data program: Concept — shows at a high level the overview of the data blocks and what they…

Data Terms To Know In working with data there are key terms used in the industry. Here is a list of terms to know: Data governance — a set of rules and procedures for managing data for integrity, regulatory and security purposes. Data warehouse — a central repository for all…

Data Sources for Monetization In a startup, there are many sources of data to draw from for monetization. You can capture primary data from your own systems. Consider this list for gathering data from your startup: Start with your customer database or CRM. Review the webforms that capture inbound user…

Key Factors in Building a Data Business In building a data business here are some key factors to focus on: Provide high-quality data that provides value to the customer. Low-quality data commands a lower revenue rate. Look for data that others don’t have. The more unique the data the higher…

Using Data To Increase Sales The market for data continues to grow providing an opportunity for startups to increase revenue by monetizing their data. Consider these points for monetizing your data: Sell your data directly to other companies.  This could be customer behavior, customer preferences, market data and more. Be…

Five Business Models for Linked Data Linked data is structured data that is linked to other data making it more useful for searches and queries. A wiki site often holds linked data sets. Here’s a list of five business models around the use of linked data. Subscription revenue such as…

Business Model Examples for Data There are several business models used for monetizing data. Here are some of the more commonly used ones: Brokerage — this model matches data providers for data users for a fee. There are thousands of data sets available and many of them are not easily…

Building a Data-Driven Business Model A data-driven business model can accomplish a number of goals such as increasing brand awareness, understanding the customer better, and improving products and services. Here are the key steps in building a data-driven business model: First, determine the outcome of the business model. Find clarity…

Data Monetization Requirements Monetizing data requires several key components. Here’s a list of components needed to monetize your startups data: Ability to acquire the data — the more you can source your own data versus relying on others the more valuable your data will be. Ability to store the data…

Data Business Models There are several ways to approach data monetization. Here are four approaches to consider for your data: Basic content — this business model provides raw or analyzed data that can be used as is.  An example is a customer list with contact information. One can sell this…

Data Strategy In monetizing data for your startup, you’ll need a data strategy. Here are the key components of a data strategy: Identify the problem to solve — the problem must be specific enough to indicate the type of data needed to present a solution. Store the data — you’ll…

How To Monetize Your Data There are several business models for monetizing data. Consider these models for your startup: Mining your own data — this business model takes your own startups data and uses it to provide new services and products for the business. This could be creating a resource…

Data Monetization Models There are several data monetization models for startups.  Sources of data come from a large network of customers, in depth content, or heavily trafficked websites. Consider these for your startup. Data as a service — takes data generated by the startup and makes it available to other…

What Is a Data Strategy and Why Is It Important A data strategy is a comprehensive plan to use data to drive business decisions. You can use it to monetize data to achieve your business goals. Data strategy has four components: Story — it tells the goals of your business…

UX Design UX design provides the experience the user encounters when using a product. This is different from the user interface which is simply how the information is rendered to the user. The UI consists of the typography, color palettes, and navigation. The UX is the customer journey with the…

Product Engagement Metrics Product engagement is a key metric to track as it can predict revenue growth and churn rates.  To track product engagement metrics consider the following: Build tracking metrics into the product that captures user activities. Capture key metrics such as number of active daily/weekly/monthly users. Capture trial…

Product Data Product data refers to the data about a particular product or generated by that product.  This is separate from version control which tracks each version of the product and the features it contains. Product data refers to the brand name, product description, schematics, source code, cost to build,…

Pre-Seed Product Work In the early stages of the startup, before the product is designed and launched, there’s product management work to be done. Consider these points for the pre-seed stage product work: Focus on the problem the customer has. Understand it very well.  Don’t get your heart set on…

Product Management Best Practices Product management is an ongoing process of analyzing the market and monitoring customer needs. Here are some best practices for implementing product management at your startup: Focus on your customer and not your product. If every discussion with a customer starts with your product then you…

Product Experience Best Practices Product experience is the customer’s journey with the product from adoption to trial to ongoing usage.  This is separate from the customer experience which includes interactions with the company including buying the product, training, support, and more. The better the product experience, the better the overall…

Product Differentiation Features In product development, there are several types of features. These include basic requirements, nice to haves and differentiators. The basic requirements are table stakes.  All products in the space have those features and customers expect them to be there. These are must have features. Then there are…

Before Product Development Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing. To ensure you are developing the right product for your target customer ask these questions first: What are you losing customers over? If customers choose another product…

Product Challenges There are many challenges in developing, launching and maintaining a product.  Here’s a list of challenges to consider: Choosing what product to build. Look for customers with unmet needs and build for them. Choosing your ideal customer. The ideal customer is the one you chose with unmet needs….

MVP Mistakes In starting a business there comes the time to build the minimum viable product. The most common mistake is planning a grand vision for the initial product. The MVP will be much smaller than the vision. MVPs often gather customer feedback on the usefulness of the product but…

Minimize the MVP Many founders brainstorm a grand vision for their product. While vision is a must have, realize you’ll need to start small. Raising too much funding early in the business will cost the founder unnecessary dilution. In building the MVP think minimum and not maximum. Keep the team…

What Is Product Management Product management drives the development, launch, and ongoing support of the product. Here’s a list of duties and responsibilities: Research the market and customers for the proposed product. Identify the customers’ key care abouts and pain points.  Size the potential market for the product.  Develop a…

Product Roadmap The product roadmap lays out the vision of the product at a high level. It shows where the product is going and what must be done at each stage. It’s a visionary goal to share with potential investors and customers. In building your product roadmap consider the following:…

Product Management Tools Product management requires many skills and tasks to complete. There are tools that help accomplish these tasks. Here’s a list of tools to consider: User tracking and analysis – there is embedded software that tracks and analyzes user behavior.  This tells you what part of the product…

Product Management Skills Product management requires several skills to succeed. Here’s a list of skills to consider: Communication skills — the product manager communicates verbally and in writing with prospective users, customers, developers, and management. This comes in the form of planning the product, gathering feedback on the current version,…

Product Management in the Launch The product manager plays a key role in the launch of the product. Before the launch the product manager prepares sales and marketing. This includes product training, competition analysis, and website content. The goal of the launch is to establish an initial set of customers…

How To Recover From a Bad Investment If you invest long enough you’ll make a bad investment. Here are some causes for a bad investment: Overpaying for the startup through too high a valuation. Making a snap decision on just a few factors such as the team or the market….

How To Manage Retaliation Retaliation is when a manager takes adverse actions against a whistleblower. This could be in the form of termination, reduction in salary or loss of benefits. Retaliation laws make it illegal for a manager to retaliate against an employee who blew the whistle. This includes potential,…

How To Keep Your Job After Whistleblowing Keeping your job after whistleblowing can be a challenge.  Consider these steps to protect yourself: Retain an attorney to advise on the legal ramifications. Keep notes about calls, meetings, actions, and any retaliations from managers. Keep a copy of your performance reviews, work…

Best Practices for Whistleblowers Many people have become whistleblowers. Here’s a list of best practices based on their experience: Find a lawyer before you become a whistleblower. Choose one carefully after proper research and one that works on a contingency basis. Maintain anonymity throughout the case and for as long…

What You Should Know About Whistleblowing Whistleblowers provide information to the authorities to help stop fraud. Here’s what you need to know about whistleblowing: There are multiple laws around whistleblowing so you should know the relevant laws for your situation. Whistleblowers are portrayed as downtrodden outcasts by the media which…

How To Report Fraud Fraud sometimes arises in the startup world. Here’s how to report fraud should it happen to you. If you discover fraud don’t pay any more money into it. Collect the relevant information and documents. This includes names of the suspected perpetrators and their contact details. Any…

How Do Whistleblower Laws Protect You Whistleblower laws protect those who report fraud, waste, and abuse to the authorities. Here’s a list of cases of protections provided to federal employees: Disclosures made to those engaging in bad acts. Employees motive for reporting the bad acts. Disclosures made while the employee…

Filing a Complaint With the SEC The Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC oversees the securities industry in the US. Here’s a list of sources of fraud related to securities: Ponzi and pyramid schemes in which funds collected from one investor are paid to another investor with no actual investment….

Claiming Whistleblower Status There are three Whistleblower programs, False Claims, SEC Whistleblower, and IRS Whistleblower. One can file multiple claims under each of the programs. One must file within a time limit of the act of fraud which in most cases is 10 years. Some IRS and SEC claims require…

Team by Stage of Funding At each stage of funding the startup will need a team to accomplish the goals. Here’s the team configuration at each stage: PreSeed – Founder and technical cofounder. The early-stage team needs someone building it and someone selling it. Seed — Founder and technical cofounder….

Success Rate by Stage of Funding The success rate of startups declines as one moves from seed to Series A and so forth. Success is defined as a successful exit for the investors through an acquisition of the company. Here’s the rate of success of startups at each stage of…

Primary Work by Stage of Funding At each stage of funding the startup team takes on a new set of tasks. Here’s the primary work at each stage: PreSeed — Define the market and identify the target customer. The early-stage team researches the market and talks with potential customers about…

Investors by Stage of Funding Each stage of funding brings a different set of investors. Here’s a list of investors to pursue by stage. Pre-Seed — Founders fund their initial startup research and market development. It’s too soon to take outside funding for what is not yet a formed business…

Boards and Advisors by Stage of Funding Each stage of funding brings a different set of advisors and board members. Here’s a list of advisors and board members to pursue by stage. Pre-Seed — Informal advisors and board members. They provide domain knowledge about target industries. Seed — Informal advisors…