Tag: Product

Create A Team With Complementary Strengths

This article originally appeared June 18, 2015 on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Tumblr blog, featuring XSeed Partner Alan Chiu.

“Winning teams pull together people with complementary strengths,” emphasized XSeed Capital Partner Alan Chiu (MSx ‘11) in a recent entrepreneurship talk at Stanford School of Engineering. Chiu shared advice for how engineering and business

Entrepreneurs: Beware Of Pursuing The Next Big Thing [Cough] IoT [Cough]

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

Up until about 12 months ago, we heard every week from new startups focused on big data. Entrepreneurs were patting themselves on the back about catching a huge tailwind of market momentum and seemed surprised that we were worried that

How To Succeed In Product Management

This article originally appeared April 18, 2015 on the Stanford Graduate School of Business Tumblr blog, featuring XSeed Partner Alan Chiu.

What does it take to be a product manager?

XSeed Capital Partner Alan Chiu (MSx ‘11) kicked off his Stanford GSB talk, “Career Pathways in Product Management,” by first exploring the definition

Here’s How To Nail Product-Market Fit

This XSeed blog was written by Partner, Alan Chiu, and originally appeared on VentureBeat.

At XSeed Capital, we invest in seed-stage startups that are often still searching for the right product-market fit. As they start to see the tantalizing evidence of something compelling, they need to decide what to include in the product, and, just

How To Attack A Crowded Market — And Come Out On Top

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

In a previous article, I described many unappreciated risks in competing in a crowded market. This article explains when to try and how to succeed in attacking a crowded market.

Research has

Is Competing In A Crowded Market Worth The Gamble?

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

One of the first things venture capitalists consider when they see a new pitch is, “How crowded is the market space in which the startup wants to compete?” If the investors express concern that the market is crowded, this should

The Most Common Mistake In SaaS Sales Strategies

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

Life is good: You’ve got an enterprise SaaS startup that is getting a lot of buzz. You have scores of customers, and some of them look ripe for upgrades which could deliver a 100% increase in bookings. Your VP of

The Path To Software Success Starts With A Data Roadmap

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

LinkedIn and other companies draw hundreds of millions of users every day in large part thanks to their ability to acquire, transform and leverage many types of data. The use of a data roadmap, which is a disciplined way to

How To Survive A Failed Product Plan — And Come Back Even Stronger

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

In a previous article, I argued that great startups solve large, and even more importantly, immediate pain points for customers by positioning products more like a pain killer and less like a vitamin. This is the essence of product/market fit:

Easing Market Pain: How To Position Your Products For Success

This XSeed blog was written by Venture Partner, Jeff Thermond, and originally appeared on Forbes.

Whenever I talk to a startup CEO, the conversation moves quickly to the company’s growth rate for bookings and revenue. Too often, they’re not what the entrepreneur had hoped for. I want to offer a few thoughts on why that