Investor Connect Podcast

Pre-Seed Product Work Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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...

Gamification For Your Product Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Gamification is adding game techniques in a software product to increase user engagement. The content inspires the user to continue engaging with the product. Consider adding these gamification techniques to your product: Set up goals for the user to ac...

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Barry Etra, President of Keiretsu Forum, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Keiretsu Forum is a global investment community of accredited private equity angel investors, venture capitalists, and corporate institutional investors. With over 2,000 accredited angel investor members dispersed throughout 53 Chapter cities on 4 continents, Keiretsu...

Product Management Best Practices Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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...

Product Experience Best Practices Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 mo...

Product Differentiation Features Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 t...

Product Adoption Steps Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Product adoption is the process of increasing the customer's awareness of the product so they try and then buy the product. Product adoption increases revenue and retention and reduces churn. There are six stages of adoption as follows: Awareness -- the custom...

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 because you don't have a specific feature then this is worth putting into the product...

In this week's episode of Investor Connect, Hall T. Martin engages in a discussion with a startup representative from Indochina. The entrepreneur expresses their funding aspirations, aiming to secure between $500,000 to $1.5 million, with a deadline set for securing a lead investor by March. They highlight the importance of conducting thorough due diligence walkthroughs and leveraging existing inv...

Product Research Practices Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Most founders talk to ten or twenty prospective customers and then start building their product. It takes a minimum of fifty customer discussions to understand the problem and how to solve it. If you know the space and come from the industry you'll be in a...

Product Lifecycle Management Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. The product goes through various stages over the life of the product. So the role of the product manager will vary throughout the lifecycle of the product. Here's a list of stages to consider: Planning -- the product manager spends time with customers an...

Product Challenges Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 o...

MVP Mistakes Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 produc...

Minimize the MVP Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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....

In this episode of Investor Connect, Hall T. Martin discusses the challenges of fundraising with guest Scott. Scott shares his struggles in closing deals for his startup, highlighting the common issues of finding a lead investor and facing shifting goalposts from potential investors. He explores the difficulties of meeting investor expectations regarding product development and traction. Hall prov...

What Is Product Management Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 t...

Product Roadmap Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 follo...

Product Management Tools Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 yo...

Product Management Skills Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 for...

Product Management in the Launch Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 a...

How to Raise Funding 17 In this episode, host Hall T. Martin engages with Sherry, a seasoned professional supporting startup fundraising efforts in Austin, Texas. Sherry shares her background working with Elemental Accelerator and Green Biz, shedding light on the startup scene in Hawaii. The discussion touches on the challenges and opportunities in smaller markets compared to major startup hubs li...

What Is a Certified Fraud Examiner Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. A certified fraud examiner (CFE) is a professional with credentials in fraud detection, deterrence, and prevention. A CFE performs fraud examinations and reviews compliance. They gather evidence, capture statements from the persons involved, genera...

How To Recover From a Bad Investment Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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. Failing to pe...

How To Manage Retaliation Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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 whis...

How To Keep Your Job After Whistleblowing Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing. 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...