[VIDEO] @georgedeeb at @RedRocketVC Discusses Consistent Problems Across Startups With @renata_sandor at @MeetAdvisors

Red Rocket's George Deeb had the pleasure of sitting down with Renata Sandor at Meet Advisors to talk about the consistent problems he sees across the hundreds of startups he has met over the years.  Hint:  you can bet that not enough focus, skills or budget around proof-of-concept marketing is at the top of the list.


George Deeb, Managing Partner at Red Rocket Ventures from MeetAdvisors Videos on Vimeo.

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Accelerate Your Business With Proof-of-Concept Marketing Budget

It is a sad, but familiar, story in startup land. An entrepreneur raises a limited amount of funds, plows it entirely into building out their product, and has no gas left in the tank for driving users to the site once the product is complete. Then they go out hat-in-hand to the venture community looking for additional growth capital, without achieving the proof-of-concept required by the venture investors (in the form of initial user adoption). Hence, leaving them out-of-luck with the VCs and scratching their head, trying to work out how to raise sales and marketing monies to achieve their proof-of-concept.

Read the rest of this post in The Next Web, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

The 1,024 Types of Salespeople--Hire the Right One!

Hiring good salespeople is one of the hardest things a company has to do.  Typically, companies need to go through three salespeople, in order to find one successful one with long-term closing power.   This hard fact can take its toll on early-stage companies, that have limited budgets, can only afford small teams and can’t afford to make any mistakes which will result in revenues getting delayed down the road.  Hopefully, the below categories of salespeople, will help point you in the right direction of which type you should hire for your business.

Read the rest of this post in Forbes, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

Look Closely at These 4 M's Before Investing in Startups

Recently, I was asked to judge a startup competition.  As I was filling in the evaluation questionnaire, I noticed that the questions being asked revolved around four topics, all starting with the letter M: market, model, management and momentum. That is an elegant way for all of us to think about evaluating startups.

Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

Lesson #202: Writing a Book is Hard. Writing Your Second Book is Harder!!

I published my first book, 101 Startup Lessons--An Entrepreneur's Handbook, back in late 2011.  I am excited to say, even three and a half years later, it continues to be a best seller in the Google Play store in its entrepreneurship section.  That first book took me seven months to write.  I had excess time on my hands, coming out of the sale of my last business in 2010, and the world was my oyster, in terms of a wide range of business topics I could be writing about.

But, as more and more people read the book (and blog), more and more clients approached Red Rocket for services (which filled up the excess time on my hands issue).  And, after you have already written 101 Startup Lessons, coming up with ideas for the second 101 startup lessons became even more challenging.  But, thanks to our clients with lots of unique business challenges, that helped give me creative fodder to plow through the second set.

So, after three and a half years (not seven months), I am excited to say, that with this lesson #202, the second set of 101 startup lessons is now complete.  Like last time, I plan to publish it for distribution in Amazon, Google, iTunes and elsewhere for easy download to your e-readers.  That will take us a few weeks for my publisher to make that possible.  In the meantime, you can find the full list of "Startup Lessons #102-#202" in the full index link on our website.

Thanks for all of your continued readership.  I couldn't have done it without your inspiration!!

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

Lesson #201: What is an Entrepreneur? The Ultimate Definition.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an "entrepreneur" as: "one who organizes, manages and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise".  Really?  I am left completely underwhelmed, as this definition falls short at so many levels.  So, for the 30,000 people that are searching Google each month for the definition of what is an entrepreneur, this post is for you.

A RISK TAKER

The primary thing the above definition got right was the concept of an entrepreneur being a risk taker in business.  Often times they are investing their savings, taking out loans or quitting safer corporate jobs to take a flyer on an unknown adventure, where the odds of success and long term financial gains are very low (although they don't fully appreciate that at the time, and are typically very bullish on their idea).  Despite the 1 in 10 odds of building a long term winner, they follow their gut and gear up for the long road ahead, hoping for a long-term payday down the road.

A VISIONARY

Creativity and innovation ooze out of the pores of an entrepreneur.  They see things in ways most other people do not see them.  They are not focused on the now, they are focused on the tomorrow.  They are looking for solutions to today's problems, that can better drive revenues, lower costs, buid a better product or improve customer experience in the future.  This is true whether the person is launching a brand new startup or is a Chief Innovation Officer inside a major corporation, as entrepreneurs can come in all shapes and sizes.

A LEADER

It takes really special skills to line up co-founders, employees, investors, clients and partners to rally around a very risky undertaking.  A person with terrific communications and sales skills that can sell their vision to the people that will help to make it a success.  Let's call this being the Cheerleader in Chief for the company.  Entrepreneurs typically suffocate with the thought of being buried doing one small role inside a big small company, where they prefer to lead, than follow the leadership of others.

A PITBULL

If you run at the first bit of headwind you experience, entrepreneurship is not for you.  Good entrepreneurs know that building startups is two steps forward and one step back, the entire way.  When they are staring over the edge of a financial abyss, as capital for next week's payroll is not available, they buckle up and find a way.  That said, sometimes entrepreneurs can be persistent to a fault, and they need to be smart enough to know when "enough is enough", and to take the learnings from one failed startup to succeed in their next.

A SUPERHERO

I have always said running a startup company is materially harder than running a big company, despite the fact enterprise CEO's make millions of dollars a year, and most early stage executives are unable to draw a salary.  A startup executive needs to be a good jack-of-all-trades, not afraid to jump into the details, rolling up their own sleeves and making it happen.  And, whether that is doing glamorous tasks, like pitching clients or investors, or menial tasks, like changing lightbulbs, they really do it all, instilling confidence and creating enthusiasm in their wake.

So, dust off your capes, climb to the top of the nearest skyscraper (e.g., your startup idea), and take the leap!!  With a little bit of luck, an aerodynamic suit and your team of fellow superheroes, you just might defy gravity and see your success take flight.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.