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  1. Articles from bothsidesofthetable.com

    1-18 of 18

    1. The Scarcest Resource at Startups is Management Bandwidth

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Apr 28 2012) Marketing , Productivity

      The Scarcest Resource at Startups is Management Bandwidth When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement. It’s tempting to take on new projects, new features, new geographies, new speaking opportunities, whatever. Each one incrementally sounds like a good idea, yet collectively they end up punishing undisciplined teams. I [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster

    2. Some Thoughts about Selling at Startups

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Mar 31 2012)

      Some Thoughts about Selling at Startups Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple, you should. It takes on many of the lessons MBA programs and Corporate America have been teaching about [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   America   Mark Suster

    3. Why You Should Think Twice Before You Send That Intro Email

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Mar 22 2012)

      Why You Should Think Twice Before You Send That Intro Email Intros.They’re the lifeblood of networking – the currency of mavens. They are your route to angel money. Your entrée to sales meetings. We couldn’t live without them. But when misused, overused or abused they can diminish your personal brand, consume your valuable time and waste that of the relationships you value the most. I would [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Fred Wilson   Mark Suster

    4. Never Negotiate Piecemeal. Here’s Why

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Mar 10 2012) Productivity

      When I started my first tech company in 1999 I had pretty good tech chops and had led teams but had very little exposure to many other things that matter in a startup including sales, marketing & business development. Like most first-timers, I learned the hard way. Negotiating was a subset of every activity in [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster

    5. Everybody Wants Their Pound of Flesh (Negotiating with Buyers)

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Feb 26 2012)

      Everybody Wants Their Pound of Flesh (Negotiating with Buyers) I recently wrote a post about negotiating with suppliers called “The End of the Mexican Road.” The post talked about how to find the lowest acceptable price & terms in a deal through testing. In the post I made clear that I believe that all negotiations should seek to find fair deals where both parties [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster

    6. How to use PR Firms at Startups

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Feb 18 2012) Marketing

      How to use PR Firms at Startups If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. There is obviously no black-or-white answer, but I’ve tried everything from working a large international agency, to hiring in-house people to doing it myself. This post is a short (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Marc Benioff   Apple   Mark Suster

    7. What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Feb 13 2012)

      What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! This is part of my Startup Advice series. nike_logo I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. You are constantly faced with decisions and there is a (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Nike   Los Angeles   General Motors

    8. Should Startups Focus on Profitability or Not?

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Dec 27 2011)

      Should Startups Focus on Profitability or Not? If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! There are certain topics that even some of the best journalists can’t fully grok. One of them is profitability. I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profi (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Amazon   Facebook

    9. Why Hiring Seasoned Sales Reps May Not Work

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Dec 22 2011) Recruiting

      Why Hiring Seasoned Sales Reps May Not Work If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! A while back I wrote a bunch of posts on Sales & Marketing and have been meaning to get back to that theme for a while. Even if you don’t have “direct” sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale” including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business develop (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Oracle   Mark Suster   Microsoft

    10. 10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Dec 13 2011) Marketing

      10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups by Mark Suster on June 27, 2011 If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe via email. Thanks for visiting! I made every textbook mistake at my first startup, which is why I believe I was much more effective at my second one. I have adopted the motto “good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgment.“ We need to learn from doing, by trial-and-error. If I can help y (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   America   London   Apple

    11. If You Don’t Have a Discrete Hypothesis You Are Incapable of Failing

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Nov 27 2011)

      If You Don’t Have a Discrete Hypothesis You Are Incapable of Failing There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. And there are very few people who so consistently exceed my expectations when I hear them speak. I find myself nodding – even when the topic is one I don’t [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster   Eric Ries   Steve Blank

    12. The Controversial First Role to Hire After Your A Round

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Oct 28 2011) Recruiting

      The Controversial First Role to Hire After Your A Round I’ve thought a lot about team construction of early stage companies. I was once asked on Quora what my idea startup team would be. I wrote the following: “I like to invest at the seed or A round.  My ideal team is simple: Assuming 6 people 1. 5 engineers 2. 1 CEO who doubles as [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster   Guy Kawasaki

    13. Lead, Follow or Get the Fuck Out of the Way

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Oct 22 2011)

      Lead, Follow or Get the Fuck Out of the Way Today’s post courtesy of the Dave McClure school of vocabulary. About a month ago I was meeting with a seasoned entrepreneur. After 10 minutes I felt like we were old buddies because we had both been through the trenches of startup tech land and had had similar experiences. He was recounting one of his higher [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Marc Benioff   Mark Suster   Dave McClure

    14. Understanding How Dilution Affects You at a Startup

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Oct 14 2011) Marketing

      Understanding How Dilution Affects You at a Startup This post originally appeared on TechCrunch. Dilution. Or as industry insiders call it, “taking a haircut.” Everybody knows that when you raise money at a startup your ownership percentage of the company goes down. The goal is to have the value of the startup go up by enough that you own a smaller percentage of [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster

    15. Why Email May Be Draining Your Company’s Productivity

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Sep 28 2011)

      Why Email May Be Draining Your Company’s Productivity Email. Ah, email. That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. I’ve taken to saying, “Email is our personal to-do list that anybody adds to – whether they know us or not.” I was lamenting it tonight when I saw the most brilliant response Tweet by Andrew Hyde  “inbox = tetris getting zero [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster   Tim Ferriss   Andrew Hyde

    16. Why Your Startup Doesn’t Need a COO

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Sep 13 2011) Marketing

      Why Your Startup Doesn’t Need a COO It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster

    17. The Problem with Collecting Logos at Startups

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Sep 1 2011) Funding

      The Problem with Collecting Logos at Startups Collecting logos. It seems to be all the fad in the startup and VC world these days. VCs are paying up at enormous prices to say that they have GroupOn, Facebook and Twitter on their roster irrespective of whether they really venture funded them or bought in late stage. And entrepreneurs are working hard to make [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Hollywood   Mark Suster   New York

    18. Explaining FNAC: Feature, Not a Company

      Explore bothsidesofthetable.com (Aug 22 2011) Marketing

      Explaining FNAC: Feature, Not a Company FNAC. I first heard the term from Chris Fralic at First Round Capital. Feature, not a company. Click this link if you want to see the video – for some reason the image link isn’t working. It has always stood out in my mind. Whether something is a feature or a company is clearly subjective. [...] (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Mark Suster   First Round Capital