More importantly, the people behind them come from every sort of background.

How successful a business will be is not easy to predict. Only 30 percent of seeded startups manage to obtain further funding.

It is therefore critical to understand what makes a startup succeed. No one wants to end up in that 70% without the funds to build a successful business.

What Makes a Successful Startup?

For a business, the end result depends on having the right ingredients.

Being in the right place at the right time helps. Hard work and teamwork are also key.

But the most critical component is to give the world something it hasn’t seen before. Your idea, product, or service has to stand out.

It is possible to learn from trial and error how to make a business unique. Yet this also comes with the risk of learning things the hard way.

Instead, consider the success stories below. These examples give insight into why some startups grow while others wither.

These are real-life examples of how all the ingredients for success come together. They offer invaluable data for any new startup.

34 Successful Startups to Learn From

Airbnb

Encourage word of mouth

The first in our list of successful startups is AirBnB.

Recommendations play a huge role in business, and also in society. Many day-to-day conversations are about things people love, things their friends should try.

This is the form of free advertising that AirBnB used to find its success. It provided a service that people loved.

As a result, their customers wanted to share AirBnB with others. Word of mouth was more valuable to AirBnB’s business than any other form of advertisement.

Uber

Solve a problem

Finding and flagging down a taxi is frustrating. There may be no taxis nearby, they might not see you, and they might choose a different passenger instead.

Uber saw that situation and founded a business aimed at fixing that problem. Customers loved that startup for making their day easier.

Now Uber is providing its service in cities all over the world. 93 million people use Uber because it found a problem to solve.

37Signals

Experiment With Variety

Like so many other businesses, 37Signals made web applications. What set it apart was its dedication to making a variety of simple and focused apps.

37Signals went from a cash-strapped startup to having a fleet of useful apps, both free and paid.

That experimentation eventually led to the Basecamp app. This app became so successful they named the company after it.

Only by experimenting with many different apps did they finally find success.

Whatsapp

Focus on the Product First

Whatsapp wasn’t conceived of as a business. Jan Koum and Brian Acton put their energy into making the product first.

Only later did they think about a company. This was how Whatsapp became so successful.

Their revolutionary product created their startup, not the other way around. Whatsapp was the first mobile messaging app that could compete with SMS.

In 2020 this user-friendly app had revenue in the area of 5 billion USD. Not bad for a business started in 2009.

PureStorage

Look For The Need

As IT technologies grow, so too do the industries that support them. Like a house supported by a foundation, IT technology is built on data storage and analytics.

Pure Storage used that need and based its business around providing that foundation.

Its business produces flash drives with a storage capacity of 250 terabytes. It also makes the software that connects these drives to the cloud.

This means incredible speeds of data transfer for virtual servers.

Pure Storage provided a high-demand product for the IT industry. Doing so won them the title of “Innovation of the Year” from The Wall Street Journal.

Stripe

Do It Easier

Sometimes the service or market you want to break into is already well-established. As was the case with the payment services.

Stripe made its mark by making the process of payment easier. They focused on giving small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs an easy way to collect payment over the internet.

No more cash needed, no need to handle clunky cards. Even the process of fraud protection was made easier with machine learning.

Now Stripe works with widely known brands. These include Airbnb, Booking.com, Lyft, Shopify, Salesforce, Target, and DoorDash.

Robinhood

Include Everyone

The stock market is an intimidating thing and exceedingly complex. In the past, few people participated in it.

Those that did might have even hired someone else to do it. Robinhood entered the arena with the motto “investing for everyone”.

What had once been a difficult activity was now cheap and affordable. Everyday people could now trade stocks with the best of them.

Robinhood is now worth $11.2 billion and is rushing to hire in order to keep up with its own growth.

Groupon

Digitally Upgrade

Our grandmothers used to clip coupons out of a newspaper or magazine to save some money. Groupon took an old-style solution and launched it into the 21st century.

Now, without the risk of papercuts, users can access an almost unlimited number of deals. No other ‘coupon’ business can compete against this successful startup.

Houzz

Fill The Gap

Houzz’s future founder and co-founder, Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen wanted to renovate their home. They grew frustrated with how few online resources were there to help.

That gap was an opportunity. Using a small group of fellow parents they built an empire.

Now their marketplace/community/directory services company has more than 40 million users. It employs a thousand people and is worth $4 billion.

Airtable

Empower Your Customers

Airtable was founded in 2013 to do something that seems simple. It combines spreadsheets with an online database.

Founders Andrew Ofstad, Emmett Nicholas, and Howie Liu knew what their customers wanted. So they made a sophisticated productivity tool that they could share.

The database was easy to access for all. Their customers could now create workflows and share them with each other.

Their customer’s efforts now pushed the business toward success.

Kaltura

Tailor Your Business

Kaltura ensured its success by giving customers an experience tailored to their needs. It’s an open-source video platform that hones in on enterprise, education, and media.

It offers specific features and functions designed to meet the demands of each sector it caters to.

More than 300,000 organizations use Kaltura. This includes Groupon, Bank of America, Harvard, and HBO.

Atlassian

Build A Driven Work Culture

This software company is well known for its business software. Its products are designed so teams of all sizes work faster and better.

But that isn’t what made it successful. Atlassian is a company people love to work for.

It encourages a positive work culture. That same culture is what they promote in their business software.

A mission-driven work culture significantly improves performance.

Instagram

Fuel Your Startup In Your Freetime

Instagram wasn’t designed through exhaustive R&D and market research. Two guys made it on the weekends.

Originally named Burbn, it was born in 8 short weeks. Its founder, Kevin Systrom, built the entire thing during his free time.

Instagram is now a household name rivaling any social media platform.

Mailchimp

Make Your Brand Known

Since 2001 Mailchimp has been handling email marketing automation successfully. Multitudes of businesses use it to deliver billions of emails each day.

This wasn’t achieved overnight. Mailchimp worked tirelessly to increase its brand name year by year.

It used online and offline approaches to secure media coverage and internet traffic. Now Mailchimp generates $700 million every year.

GitHub

Apply customer feedback

Github provides a web-based hosting service for developers. As its business grew, so too did requests from its customers.

Github found its success by listening to customer’s feedback on how to improve.

The first request was for private repositories, safe places to store code where it can’t be seen or stolen. Github listened and provided those repositories.

Github is well known for perfecting its products by listening to customer feedback.

Epic Games

Keep Building

Founded in 1991, Epic games created the Unreal, Gears of War, Shadow Complex, and Infinity Blade games series.

In 2017 it became a household name with its insanely popular Fortnite Battle Royale game. It used that momentum to keep building.

It leveraged its newfound popularity to secure more investments. Then it expanded its Unreal Engine offerings, branched into e-sports, and launched its own online game store.

Epic Games used their first success to push their company to many more victories.

The Honest Company

Be The Face Of Your Brand

Jessica Alba founded The Honest Company in 2011. It produces green hygiene and cosmetics for children.

She personally promoted her products by using them at every opportunity. Whenever possible she used her time to communicate face-to-face with customers.

Though one might not have the initial fame of Jessica Alba, her strategy can work for everyone. Personally promote your brand through example and customer interaction.

The Honest Company succeeded with that approach in Silicon Valley. Iconiq, Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners all are investors in its success.

Taboola

Give Your Customers Control

Taboola stands out among successful startups. Though there are other content-discovery platforms, Taboola excels.

It provides recommendations based on what the customer is currently viewing.

Not only that, but the users can customize those suggestions themselves. Taboola puts its customers in control of the process.

With a revenue of $100 million and only 120 employees, Taboola has one of the highest revenue rates per employee in the world.

Doordash

Connect Groups Together

Since 2013 Doordash has had only one goal, to connect restaurants to their customers.

Four Stanford students with experience from Facebook, Square, Vevo, and eBay put their expertise to use. They built a digital bridge.

Now, this food delivery service is connecting millions of hungry customers to restaurants. Its service reaches all across the United States and Canada.

This startup now operates in 4,000 cities and delivers for more than 340,000 stores.

Slack

Try Something Different

Slack could be the most successful side project in history.

Its founder, Stewart Butterfield actually wanted to make a game. It had been his dream for decades.

During those decades, he created a side project, Flickr. That side project became so successful that he sold it to Yahoo for a fortune.

At that point, he realized it was his side projects that would make him successful, not his dream.

Following the success of Flickr, he created his next startup. Slack was born and is now a billion-dollar business communication tool.

It is proof that sometimes we need to set aside our long-term goal and try something else.

Square

Use What People Already Have

Square started as an idea when its future founder, Jim Mckelvey tried to make a $2000 transaction. The sale didn’t go through because the seller couldn’t accept credit cards.

So he and co-founder Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) combined their efforts to provide a solution. That fix was Square’s first product, “The Square Reader”.

This device used what everyone already had, a cell phone’s audio jack. Using what was already in everyone’s possession is how Square found its success.

BrightInsight

Do The Busy Work

Biopharma and MedTech companies are overwhelmed with data. They have data about patients, drugs, and devices.

This all needs analyzing, storing, and using. It is a massive amount of time-consuming work.

That’s where BrightInsight comes in.

It has become the go-to for healthcare providers swamped by information. BrightInsight’s success comes from handling the busy work so others don’t have to.

Angry Birds

You Only Need One

The creator of Angry Birds tried many times before they created a game that hit it big. Big enough to start a business with, big enough to create a franchise around, and big enough for a movie deal.

The lesson is that even if you fail many times, you only need to succeed once.

Voxy

Niche Can Be King

This mobile app is built to help Spanish speakers learn English with tiny, daily lessons. Voxy stays focused on its target audience – Spanish speakers.

By focusing on one market Voxy has polished and perfected its offering. Now its presence in the market is huge, with over 3 million users and $15 million secured funding.

Linkedin

Network

Reid Hoffman had worked at SocialNet and PayPal. During his time at these businesses, he made many contacts and friends.

In late 2002 he used his network to recruit a team of old colleagues. By May 2003 that team had designed and launched LinkedIn out of his living room.

He once again pulled from his vast network of contacts to find customers. 350 of his personal contacts were the first to create profiles on the site.

Though it had slow growth at first, by the end of the year it had attracted the attention of Sequoia Capital. From there it obtained the venture capital it needed to become the success it is now.

WeWork

Even Tiny Opportunities Add Up

WeWork, one of the most valuable startups in the world, almost didn’t exist.

Originally, Adam Neumann sold padded baby clothes called Krawlers from a small office in Brooklyn. The building had more space than his Krawler’s needed.

He saw a tiny opportunity to make some cash on the side. He and his co-founder leased that extra space at a cheap rate and opened a green co-working space.

Soon enough, that co-working space became a company worth selling. With the money they gained, they founded WeWork.

WeWork exists because they took the opportunity to make use of a little surplus office space.

Lyft

Keep Expanding

Lyft had an uphill battle to success. Its main competitor, Uber, was already well established.

Lyft’s only hope was to spread its service as wide as possible. Founded in San Francisco in 2013, it expanded to more than 30 US states within one year.

In 2014 Lyft drew attention from investors like Alibaba, Third Point, Horowitz, and Founders Fund. The total investment was $250 million in venture capital.

Since then, Lyft has continued its expansionist business model. It is laying the groundwork to spread to international markets.

Lyft has gone a long way from its roots in San Francisco.

Netflix

Invest in Research

Founded in 1997 by Mark Randolph and Reed Hastings as a media service provider.

The business has changed over the years. It went from a DVD mailing company to a digital media provider.

But one thing stayed the same. It cares about customer’s demands.

It dedicates massive resources to customer research. This information helps it to provide the most user-friendly experience possible.

Studying its consumers has paid off. In 2018 the company earned over $20 billion.

TechCrunch

Be High-Quality, Be Consistent

TechCrunch played a huge role in making blogs a legitimate form of journalism.

Its massive base of loyal readers was only possible because it put out consistent, high-quality content. Subjects included everything in the tech and business world.

That regular addition of great content resulted in enormous growth and brand awareness.

Eventually, TechCrunch created the CrunchBase database. More than half a million startups and entrepreneurs utilize it.

Confluent

Create A Template For Others

Confluent is an event streaming platform. It allows easy access to many types of data in real-time.

As an example, it allows users to buy groceries in an app. Then right away it alerts store workers to gather the order together for pickup.

But Confluent can be used for many situations and many types of businesses. The template is useful in many situations that require streaming of data.

Zenefits

Be the Organizer

HR departments and managers have a huge amount of data to keep track of. Hiring, salary, and insurance records to name a few.

Zenefits is a company designed to manage that information for other businesses.

They use cloud-based software that provides easy access, storage, and organization of data. It is accessible from anywhere on the globe.

Founded by Parker Conrad in 2013, Zenefits went from an unheard-of startup to a giant worth $650 million in one year. One of its many Silicon Valley investors is Andreessen Horowitz.

ByteDance

Diversify Globally

This tech company, founded by Yiming Zhang, manages many different content platforms. Toutiao, a popular news aggregator in China, and TikTok are two of its platforms.

Its success lies in focusing on global growth and diversifying its products to reach further afield.

Even now ByteDance is attempting to expand into the United States. It is recruiting from companies like Facebook and Snapchat.

Calm

Consider Your Customer’s Health

Calm has made its mark on the world by staying focused on its customer’s wellbeing. This business is a global health and wellness brand founded by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew in 2012.

It has apps for health, sleep, meditation, and relaxation in both the App Store and Google Play store. Its apps have achieved over 50 million downloads.

It also creates audio content specifically for mental fitness. Its content strives to improve even serious health challenges.

Stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression are all tackled by its products.

Khan Academy

Inspiration Can Come From Anywhere

The last one of these successful startups is Khan Academy.

Sal Khan got a backhanded compliment from his cousins while tutoring them. They said they’d rather see him online than in person.

That simple statement could have so easily been ignored. Instead, Sal Khan used it to inspire a tutoring empire.

He started by creating short YouTube clips teaching subjects like biology and art. Soon the video tutoring took off.

He quit his job and now employs more than 100 people. This experience is proof that even an insult can be the idea that makes you a success.

Learning From Successful Startups

Success comes from a diverse range of circumstances and backgrounds. But all successful entrepreneurs had to face a learning curve to find success.

There were problems that needed solutions, processes to improve, and goals to meet. To overcome these challenges, all the successful startups above needed a long-term vision.

They had to budget their time, manpower, and resources for the long haul. They also had to avoid focusing on quick revenue.

To help a startup thrive, it’s vital to look at success stories like these and learn from them. Apply the lessons from them and soon you might even be listed among them.

If you enjoyed reading this article on successful startups, you should check out this one about startup consultants.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like IT outsourcing companies in the USA, financial projections for startups, startup advice, startup press kit examples, nearshoring, Berlin startups, types of investors, share options, London startups, gifting shares, best startup books, and IT outsourcing services companies.

The post The Most Successful Startups You Could Learn From appeared first on TMS.

A well-executed pivot can be inspiring to witness. This successful business strategy has helped dying corporations rise from the ashes. Pivots can have dramatic and highly profitable effects for small businesses too. These kinds of changes could be just what your customers are looking for.

Business pivots involve a measure of risk. They require a balance of boldness and planning. The key is to keep part of the business stable support and part agile and moving. The most successful companies achieve this with bold, lateral thinking maneuvers.

Pivots help online businesses adapt to changing circumstances. They are key to making the most of a recovering economy. This type of maneuver has been successful for many different classes of businesses.

Pivots can be a shift in:

• target customer
• market segment
• distribution channel
• pricing strategy
• overall industry

Business pivot examples

Netflix

Netflix is a great example of an online business pivot. Today viewers associated Netflix with binge-watching consecutive seasons of the original Netflix series. The mainstream app Netflix has become a staple in most homes these days.

Viewers easily forget that a few years back Netflix was the service that delivered DVDs to your mailbox.  Netflix saw the writing on the wall for DVD viewing. Gradually the platform added a streaming service. Today many consumers no longer own a DVD player but are accustomed to streaming video on their phones, computers, and other devices.

While implementing this change the old DVD by mail service provided stability to the company. Gradually this service became a much smaller portion of the company’s service. Netflix saw a changing market and adapted.

What is more, Netflix saw the need for ever-changing and a wide variety of content. So they pivoted to add a production company and provide a large portion of the content available. Netflix is an outstanding example of Pivoting to take advantage of emerging markets and tech-driven consumer demand.

Twitter

Originally dubbed “Odeo”, the startup platform was designed to provide accessibility to podcasts. Today it is used as a microblogging platform. It is a favorite for idea dissemination, news, and entertainment. Twitter is widely known and used today. It has become a part of political and social history.

The original version was quickly adapted when Apple launched iTunes. Twitter morphed into a platform to allow people to say what they were doing in real-time. Twitter as we know it launched in 2006 and has become an indelible part of the political and social landscape.

PayPal

PayPal of course started as a method of processing payments. It gained wide recognition as the preferred method of processing payments for eBay.  PayPal developed as a brand and product that could stand independent of eBay.

This was a vital change. eBay has gradually drifted out of mainstream use but PayPal has continued in strength.

It was originally dubbed “Confinity” and designed to “beam” payments. It expanded the use of PDAs like the Palm Pilot. PayPal managed to adapt to the world of smartphones and online banking. It is still a preferred method for money transfers worldwide.

PayPal has performed other pivots and expanded into the world of banking alternatives. PayPal has continued to dominate an increasingly competitive industry of personal money transfer services.

Play-Doh

Today a company called Play-Doh is well known and a part of many childhood memories. Many people fondly remember the aroma of opening a new can of Play-Doh.

Few people realize that this beloved item was originally launched in the 1930s as a wall cleaner. The cleaning product was dubbed “Kutol”. Designed to clean coal heating soot from walls, Kutol experienced a decline in sales as gas heating grew in popularity.

The company actively searched for a new revenue stream. They found a teacher had been using the product for arts and crafts classes. The release of the old product under the new brand Play-Doh in multiple colors. Play-Doh is now owned by Hasbro and is distributed worldwide.

This bit of history is a great example of thinking outside the box. New product development is costly and time-consuming. Re-envisioning existing products and services could be a successful way to Pivot your business.

Nintendo

Nintendo has reinvented itself many times over the years. Earlier in the 20th century, Nintendo was dabbling in a variety of industries including hotels, ramen noodles, and vacuum cleaners.  During the 1980s it ventured into the gaming business that it is famous for today.

However, entering the game industry was not the last pivot Nintendo made. The company has continued to adapt and capitalize on new technologies.

In the 1980s the outstanding success of Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers launched Nintendo past competitors like Atari. Nintendo has continued to pivot according to market and technology changes most recently with the Switch.

Groupon

This startup launched in 2008 introducing the new concept of daily deals. Groupon experienced explosive growth. Most consumers don’t realize Groupon actually got started in 2008 as a consumer activism site known as The Point in 2007.

The Point started the tipping point concept that required enough people to sign up to meet the tipping point. Eventually, that concept morphed into the daily coupon deals that are the Groupon we know today.

Western Union

Western Union was one of the world’s largest telegram service companies. It sold over 200 million telegrams in 1929.

Telegrams quickly lost their market share as the telephone became a standard feature in American homes.

Western Union was able to pivot and secure a new niche as a money wire service. Today Western Union continues to play a key role in the money transfer industry.

Android

Android launched as a cloud-based platform to store photos. It also aimed to interface smart cameras to PCs.

Within a couple of years, they were acquired by Google. Android made a well-timed strategic pivot. They saw market potential and launched into the mobile phone and device market.

Instagram

Instagram started out as the online company Burbn that allowed users to check in at their favorite spots. It also allowed them to share photos.

This endeavor started as a  part-time project for Co-Founder Kevin Systrom to learn to code.

As it became clear that the most common feature was sharing photos, Systrom saw greater potential. He streamlined the app and dubbed it Instagram. 2 years later Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion.

Starbucks

Starbucks was founded in 1971 and started out selling espresso makers and coffee beans. By 1982 Schultz had traveled to Italy and returned with a completely new vision in mind. Starbucks pivoted from a coffee roaster to mimic the Italian espresso bar cafes.

Over the years Starbucks has continued to strategically pivot.

It still roasts and sells coffee beans from around the world at its locations and retail partners. Starbucks pivoted to expand the coffee shop on every block.

Further adapting to changing and expanding markets, Starbucks left the European cafe concept behind and moved on. Starbuck found new success in adding drive-through locations as well.

Honda

Honda is known as one of the most successful motorcycle companies. It launched in the US in the 1950s with the intention of competing with Harley Davidson. Americans weren’t particularly drawn to the look of the small Japanese bike. It also wasn’t very comfortable for those long Route 66 rides.

Eventually, Honda was able to pivot to a profitable US market. Honda executives discovered that a few US customers were using the bikes for an unconventional purpose: off-road motorcycling. Honda found a way to pivot to a unique market by selling its bikes through Sporting Goods retailers. In effect, HOnda created a previously non-existent market.

IBM

IBM was known as a personal computing giant.  The PC changed all of that in the eighties and nineties. IBM no longer had the stronghold in the market.

IBM chose to make one of the boldest changes ever seen. They halted their core business, changing tactics towards providing IT consulting services. IBM managed to adapt and maximize its best customer relationships. They are now known not as a computer company, but for providing IT consulting services for large organizations.

Ending thoughts on these business pivot examples

It is imperative the companies act decisively when executing a business pivot. These famous examples show the success that could result from decisive actions. From Twitter to Play-Doh these examples show what happens when a company is strategically pivoted in a new direction.

Whether your company is the latest app or a brick-and-mortar location, the secret to long-term success is remaining agile. Always be ready to up your game. Be open to what could be the next success model.

If you enjoyed reading this article on business pivot examples, you should check out this one about IT outsourcing failures.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like financial projections for startups, startup consultants, startup advice, startup press kit examples, nearshoring, Berlin startups, types of investors, share options, London startups, gifting shares, best startup books and risk management process.

The post Famous business pivot examples that you should know of appeared first on TMS.

Not every failed startup is a failure. That sounds like a contradiction. But even a failed startup contributed in some way. Some made innovations in certain areas that benefited other people or companies. Other failed startups were able to return some money to their investors.

What are the reasons then that so many startups do not blossom into a stable full-grown company? Finding out what the real reasons are in each case is not easy. Still, analyzing afterward what happened and reading the related reports can be very insightful.

This article created by our team at TMS looks at 27 examples of famous startup companies and analyzes the reasons for their failure.

Failed startups examples

Quibi

We’re going to start the failed startups list with one big oops that bit the dust lately. Quibi was founded and led by a group of knowledgeable and experienced executives. They raised a staggering $1.75 billion. Their product, short-form, serialized video content, failed to attract a large audience. All that, despite the lavish, large productions they put out.

Some of the United States’ leading business people were at the helm of Quibi. Quibi launched their app in April 2020, right at the beginning of the Corona pandemic. It was to cost $5 monthly or $8 per month without ads.

At the time of the premiere, the U.S. and many other countries had entered lockdown for health reasons. But that was not the root cause for Quibi’s failure. From the beginning, the project was doomed to fail. Still, many large media companies had invested money in Quibi.

Quirky

The next startup failure we present in this article is Quirky. The company intended to be a platform where professionals could meet to develop needed ideas. It started in 2009 and soon collected $169.5 million in capital. Besides the money, they earned a partnership with GE. On top of that, CNN featured Quirky in 2012.

But in 2015 the company could not continue by itself and sold for $4.7 million. That Quirky at first failed, was due to the business model and a product that performed poorly. By bringing out too many products in a short time, the revenues were too low. The quality of the products was mediocre and they were difficult to manufacture.

Layer

The total funding amount for Layer Inc. was $44 million. The company’s objective was to develop an open cloud service for the communication sector. The idea was to use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to create a flexible, expandable service network. The idea and technology behind the idea were solid and had great potential.

Despite the innovative idea and sound funding, Layer closed its doors in October 2019. The communication industry in the 2010s was very competitive and Layer Inc. was not able to compete with its rivals.

Initially, the company grew very fast. The investors wanted quick money and pressured Layer to grow faster. The competition consisted of large established companies like Intercom. The final product was not as reliable as hoped and did not compare with the other products on the market.

ScaleFactor

ScaleFactor was an accounting and finance software platform. It had the backing of $100 million from different investors. The promise it made to its customers was that it would automate all their bookkeeping needs.

In a Forbes interview, CEO Kurt Rathmann blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the failure. This sounds like a plausible explanation. However, ScaleFactor was in trouble at an early stage, long before the pandemic appeared.

In the technology business, it is common practice to claim that business is going well, even if this is not true. The capital investment firms behind these startups encourage this pretense. The tech industry is extremely lucrative. It is possible that, in time,  large investments would see a return.

The problem with ScaleFactor was that its focus was on costly marketing strategies. The development of a product that met the needs and expectations of customers was not a concern. Various former employees confirmed that this was the case. When customer numbers began dwindling, executives attempted to cover up the problem.

Homejoy

Homejoy was a platform that, at a fixed rate, connected independent professional cleaners with clients.

This plan started with funding of $38 million in 2013. The expectation was that this large investment would see a return in time. You might think this is a product market fit issue, but it’s not.

After its start, Homejoy grew fast. Within half a year, it had branches in 30 cities. To attract customers, the services were offered at a discounted rate. This made the growth stage expensive.

Three problems led to the downfall of Homejoy. The first problem was the costly promotional offers during the initial growing phase. Secondly, the expansion was too forced. The rapid growth did not help the company to stabilize. And finally, the independent cleaning contractors did not receive the needed training.

Yik Yak

YikYak’s start was very promising but as you might have guessed by now, it didn’t do well since it’s on our list of startup failures.

It offered an anonymous message posting platform aimed at the local community. It became very popular at college and university campuses nationwide. Starting with a capital of $74 million, Yik Yak’s value soon grew to an estimated $400 million. Not long after this, Square purchased Yik Yak for about $1 million. Snapchat also launched its app and gained a large part of the market.

With millions of users, it had great potential to bring in a lot of money. The strategy was to do that by taking away the thing that made it so popular in the first place, anonymity. In essence, they wanted to turn it into a platform similar to Facebook and force users to make a profile.

After that things got worse. Due to cyberbullying, threats, and other inappropriate content, many campuses banned the app. The app never offered a group chat feature. On top of this, Yik Yak was not consistent in publishing engaging content.

Beepi

On paper, the idea behind Beepi looked encouraging. Beepi wanted to become a P2P platform for buying and selling used cars. Beepi started at a time when this kind of online marketplace had great potential. At startup, Beepi was able to raise $60 million in a Series B funding round.

In 2017 Beepi decided to close its doors. It had been in business for more than four years. At first, used car dealer DGDG was one of the candidates to take over Beepi, but the negotiations failed.

Beepi is a classic example of a good idea that failed because it was poorly executed. The company wanted to grow too fast and spendings were not realistic. At some point, the company spent about $7 million a month in salaries alone, of which top executives took a large part. This careless spending led to the demise of Beepi.

Arivale

Arivale was a revolutionary idea that ultimately ended up being a failed startup. It pioneered the field of scientific wellness. Genetic testing was used for personal coaching to benefit the client’s health. With an employee count of about 120 people, it collected $52.5 million. At its peak, it boasted some 5000 customers.

After four years, Arivale suddenly announced its closure, much to the surprise of the customers and employees.

The problem behind the failure was that the cost of the service was far higher than the price of the service. At the time that Arivale started, the technology was still in its infancy. Much research was still needed to lower the cost of the procedure. All the time that the company was operational, it was running at a loss.

Shyp

Shyp was a VC backed shipping company, as the name might give it away. They claimed that contracting their services was as simple as two taps on a smartphone. This line attracted the attention of the New York Times, who covered an article about Shyp. This in turn attracted the interest of some large investors. Shyp raised $62.1 million.

The slowdown in the number of customers led to the collapse of Shyp. As a result, the company grew faster than the number of shipments. Although aware of the problem, the company failed to adjust its course. The mentality to grow at all costs is what led to Shyp’s going down.

Anki

Established in 2010, Anki was a robotics and artificial intelligence startup. It aimed to combine robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) into children’s toys and games. This would result in programmed toys that could intelligently adapt to the environment. Besides that, it would make a considerable contribution to the field of AI and robotics.

Anki failed to celebrate its tenth anniversary and closed in April 2019. Quite surprising, considering that some of the smartest brains were working there. They had also obtained $182 million in venture capital.

The Anki products themselves were of good quality and were performing well in the market. Competitors were unable to produce anything similar. This being the case, the $300 price tag was very modest.

According to the long-term prognosis, Anki would never have survived. Even though it sold more than 1,500,000 units, it was not enough to keep the organization running for another year.

Lytro

Lytro collected a total amount of $215.8 million in funding. The technology company developed a camera that was able to refocus images after capture. The depth and light-field technology behind image enhancement were later used in virtual reality.

The Light Field imaging technology never gained popularity with photographers. So Lytro changed its focus to virtual reality. The goal was to engage large production studios to fund the Immerge camera project.

The products that Lytro brought to market were not of the standard that they promised. Reviews stated that the image quality was very poor and that the product was useless for professional photographers. The main reason for the downfall of Lytro was the failure to recognize the need for a good quality product.

Hollar

Hollar was an online dollar store that launched in 2015. As venture capital, they raised more than $75 million. Some five years later Hollar announced the closure of the shop due to financial problems.

Hollar made it known that it was looking for a buyer. Five Below acquired it and took over some of the employees and other assets. By selling many articles at a time, Hollar was hoping to reduce shipping costs. Yet, those hopes never came true, causing the shop to never break even.

Peppertap

Peppertap is another one of these startup failures. Unlike others that are established in Silicon Valley, this one was an Indian company based in Gurgaon. Backed by $51.2 million, it set up a grocery delivery service in 2014. To revolutionize grocery shopping at the lowest cost, it partnered with many local shops. The result was rapid geographic expansion.

There are also some drawbacks to their approach. For this idea to work, it requires seamless integration of the local shops with the mobile app. This was not the case. To attract many customers, and to keep them, Peppertap offered large discounts. Although this built customer loyalty, Peppertap lost money on every order. Thus, the funds ran out.

Jawbone

In this list, Jawbone is one of the biggest failed startups. This electronics company gathered $930 million in venture capital. Jawbone produced Bluetooth speakers, headsets, fitness trackers, and so on.

Cracks in the company’s success started to appear in 2016. This was when they stopped producing and selling their fitness trackers. In the end, they had to sell the remaining stock to a reseller.

Experts say that it was overfunding that led to the company’s demise. It caused the values of the company to appear higher and more stable than it was in reality. It must also be noted that Jawbone’s products did not meet the standards of the competition.

Exec

This house cleaning service offered their services by iPhone or internet. Apart from cleaning, the employees would do any kind of errand. In the first fundraising round, Exec obtained $3.3 million. In the end, Handy bought it for $10 million.

According to the company’s executives, only 30% was spent on overhead costs. The main cost was the salaries of software engineers. Of the $25 per hour, 80% went to the errand-runner. The remaining 20% kept the company running.

But mistakes made by employees and refunds made to customers quickly consumed the profits. If you too have large costs with your software engineers, check out what we can do, and maybe we can help you get your software development costs at a reasonable level.

Videology

Created by Scott Ferber, Videology had a total funding of $201 million. He started the company in 2007. The goal was to get advertisers to place ads on digital platforms to reach their target audience. It also offered the tools to measure the video’s efficiency.

Videology is an example of an idea that was too far ahead of its time. The industry at the time was not able to incorporate the ideas. Videology in turn was not able to adapt to the industry and ended up a startup failure.

Another problem relates to Google and Facebook changing their advertising policies. They no longer allowed outside companies to buy ads. All advertisements had to be purchased from Google.

Sorabel

Sorabel was an Indonesian fashion e-commerce startup. At the beginning of 2019 growth seemed to be steady. The future looked very bright and the prognostics were that it would be profitable. Yet, Sorabel is now in administration and seeking a new investor.

The Covid-19 pandemic ended the company’s Series C round of fundraising all of a sudden. At that moment negotiations with a Chinese investor were in their final stages. The interruption of the negotiations cost Sorabel some $30 million.

Sorabel never had a large amount of money on hand, never more than six months’ worth. The lack of this cushion turned out to be fatal. When the pandemic hit it was not able to move as swiftly as other similar shops. Zilingo, for example, began selling personal protective gear after the outbreak.

Laurel & Wolf

Laurel & Wolf is an online design marketplace. Backed by $35.8 million in funding, its goal is to make professional interior design available and accessible.

Laurel & Wolf has always presented itself in a positive and marketable way. But by the summer of 2018 more and more negative reviews started to appear on the internet. Generally, the complaint was that products arrived damaged, or not at all. Because of unfavorable attention, a large number of designers left the platform. Many other Laurel & Wolf employees were also dissatisfied with the company.

The bottom line is that Laurel & Wolf ventured into a business that was new to the internet. They may have been ill-prepared for difficulties with employees and the operational costs.

Tutorspree

Tutorspree nicknamed itself the “Airbnb for tutors”. It received funding from Y Combinator in 2011 to get started. In total it received $1.8 million from various large investors.

The Tutorspree founders had limited experience in the education industry.  And they hardly allowed themselves time to get acquainted. The tutoring market is complicated and very competitive. Complications include seasonality and geographic limitations. After the tutor and student establish contact, it is very easy to bypass the intermediary and avoid paying fees.

Doppler Labs

Doppler Labs’ major product was ‘Here One’. Here Ones are wireless earphones with built-in microphones. In the beginning, Doppler Labs expected to sell 100,000 Here Ones. They were able to gather $51.1 million to launch the product. In the end, they only sold a disappointing 25,000 earphones.

The earphones were new and had some outstanding features that made them unique. Somehow, Doppler Labs failed to bring those features to the attention of the customers. Besides the marketing issues, the product showed some technical issues. Due to release delays, Doppler Labs missed out on the crucial holiday season sales.

In the meantime, the competition released the AirPods, which had a battery life of five hours. Here Ones only lasted two.

Vicis

The Vicis football helmet company started in 2014. It came about as a spinoff from research performed at the University of Washington. A team of experts, ranging from engineers to medical experts, designed a special helmet. This helmet consisted of various special layers that would mitigate the impact. The helmet was able to lower the chance of concussions.

To finance the company’s startup more than 400 investors contributed a total of $85 million. According to the New York Times, Vicis failed to gain a market share in the competitive sports gear market.

The focus of attention was on stealing market share from others. The skewed focus took attention away from Vicis making a profit in its own strength. Vicis was not able to take customers away from established helmet producers.

Call9

Call9 provided medical equipment and help by video chat for nursing home residents. It managed to raise $34 million as startup capital. This amount was insufficient to expand the business and cover the high costs of running a health-care business.

Call9 provided professional medical advice through their app. Using different platforms, Call9 doctors could assist local nurses. In this way, unnecessary and costly emergency room visits could be prevented.

According to insiders, there was a problem between the company’s executives and the biggest investors. The lack of funding led to the downfall of Call9.

99Dresses

The 99Dresses founder noticed that high-end designer clothing items were often hardly worn and then left in the closet. She decided to develop a virtual closet app. The app offered secondhand and inter-trade items.

99Dresses was a platform for trading fashion items between users. The company made money by charging a value-based fee on every transaction. As venture capital, it raised $105,700.

Despite the good intentions of the founder, 18-year-old Nikki, 99Dresses’ business model was not successful. Nikki had no experience and no background in the tech business. For one year she managed to cover the weaknesses. But then technical and financial problems led to the shutting down of the website in 2014. In conclusion, the website did not bring in enough money to keep the business going.

This isn’t a big crash like the other failed startups that you’ve seen so far, but it’s one that is more grounded and close to what the majority of new entrepreneurs would try.

Rethink Robotics

Rethink Robotics worked to improve robotics in the production environment. The company started to develop their own previous work, Baxter and Sawyer. These had been launched in 2011 and 2015 respectively. The amount collected for this spinoff was $150 million.

The first problem was the product itself (product market fit issue). Rethink was not able to adapt Sawyer or Baxter to the needs of the production market. It did find some application in education, training, and research. Now, the robotics market is entering the era of robotics (cooperative robotics).

Rethink was not able to make it through the first years of its existence and establish itself. On top of that, the company was not able to find a large investor to take over the business.

Cherry

Cherry was a car wash service. Customers could park their car anywhere and request the service online. Cherry received $5.25 million in funding.

Cherry was not able to attract enough bookings, though. This would be very difficult because car owners only need a limited number of car washes a month. The only way for Cherry to survive would have been to attract more customers. Or they could have offered other automobile-related services or products. Either way, their business model didn’t work.

Wonga

Wonga was a British company that offered short-term loans. This is a classic example of the rise and demise of a startup. It had an interesting idea and there were enough investors to support it. At the end of the month, many people are a little short on cash. So Wonga offered small loans, at high interest, to help customers make it to the next payday.

It is little surprise that most borrowers had difficulties paying back their loans. This brought the credit provider into big trouble. Stories started to appear in the media that many Wonga customers could not pay off their loans. As a result, the authorities became more strict in regulating the company’s activities.

Besides the government actions, Wonga had to pay out large amounts in compensation. In the end, £10 million was injected to keep Wonga afloat.

Aria Insights

The last one in this failed startups list is CyPhy. The total funding amount was $39 million.

CyPhy was an American drone company. Later they changed their name to Aria Insights and started to develop specialized and advanced drones. Their most famous plane was the PARC (Persistent Aerial Reconnaissance and Communication). Its most interesting feature was its long flight time. It was able to stay in the air for days, instead of hours.

The reasons that it failed are many and complicated. A major factor was the departure of founder Helen Greiner. A change in leadership affects the direction and continuity of a company. The risk is also that new management only comes in to fill their pockets and leave again.

Likely, that was not the sole reason. Another reason could be the change of focus from drones to AI systems.

Ending thoughts on these failed startups

The success of a startup is not guaranteed by having venture-backed money on your hands. The business world is changing all the time. So any company that is unable to keep up with these changes will likely fail. It does not make a difference if it has large investments behind it.

Many former market leaders came to an end because they were unwilling or unable to innovate and change. Reading and understanding the market is as important as having financial support. Everyone is aware that 2020 has been a difficult year for businesses. Hopefully, 2021 will present more opportunities for startups to bring new products and services to the market.

This article showed many examples of startup companies that failed. By learning from these failures, new businesses can avoid making the same mistakes. They gain valuable insights and are ready to adapt when necessary.

If you enjoyed reading this article on failed startups, you should check out this one about startup failure.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like financial projections for startups, startup consultants, startup advice, startup press kit examples, Berlin startups, types of investors, share options, London startups, gifting shares, best startup books, and risk management process.

The post Want to Talk About Failed Startups? 27 Companies That Went Under and Why appeared first on TMS.

At present numerous companies have been transforming their businesses into SaaS companies, which has saturated the market. Thus to be at the top of this market requires keeping ahead of the rapidly increasing competition.

For this reason, it’s necessary to examine the key measurable SaaS metrics and to understand their meaning and importance.

Learn below more about this topic in this article created by our team at TMS.

Why Is Data So Important for SaaS Businesses?

The SaaS economic model is unique, in that with the help of SaaS software, all you need is an account and you can commence.

You might not need to download any software, because most SaaS software is web-based, you can access them easily with only your browser and without add-ons.

The contemporary SaaS business model relies on relatively small regular revenue streams, generated via individual sales, which is why SaaS can experience marketing and sales challenges.SaaS companies are heavily dependent on future revenue, and therefore it’s important to retain client, because income is spread evenly across a large period of time. Learning how to correctly utilize this method can contribute to a very successful business.

The key metrics all revolve around generating future growth. and are important for all SaaS business owners to understand. Mastering metrics such as customer lifetime value, customer acquisition costs, and churn rates can give you a major advantage against the competition.

The 14 Most Significant SaaS Metrics and KPIs

Unique Visitors Per Month

The metric of monthly unique visitors is the total amount of individual visits your website gets monthly. Thus if someone visits your site on multiple occasions, they will be only considered as one individual visitor.

On the other hand, if the same visitor uses a different device or a different browser, they will be counted as another unique visit. This also if the user decides to clear their cookies in between each visit to your site.

This metric is really helpful, as it shows how much traffic your website receives monthly. Every company needs unique visitors to gain an improved reputation and traction. Generally, a better reputation and more traffic lead to increased sales. So if you want to really expand your business, you’ll need to gain an increasing number of unique visitors every month.

Explaining the Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is an essential SaaS business metric. It refers to the number of visitors who come to your website and actually buys your product/service.

The conversion rate is really simple to measure. For example, if your business gets 500 visitors every day, and 5 of these users convert, your conversion rate will be 1%. Knowing your conversion rate is crucial, as it allows you to improve your orders, based on user data, as well as keeping track of your website’s performance. Knowing the number of users who buy your product, enables you to decide whether more optimization is required, or if you need to do additional research on the way that the buyers use your product.

Going over Monthly Recurring Revenue

SaaS business investment is done upfront, so your product needs to be fully functional before you can start attracting customers. This means that you will need to make more significant initial investments. The SaaS business plan also does not allow upfront payment by your customers. Instead, you’ll be receiving small amounts from monthly subscriptions, so you’ll have to change your financial model.

These subscriptions will eventually provide you with consistent monthly revenue. However, you will have to survive long enough to make it to that stage. However, this model does have many advantages.

The Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) allows every SaaS company to concentrate on the present, rather than on the future. Likewise, this is the metric that enables you to track your company’s momentum as it continues to grow. As a result, by tracking your company’s MRR, you can encourage your management team to focus on the present and immediate goals.

Customer Churn

The customer churn rate calculates how many customers you’ve lost within a given period of time. This is a truly important SaaS metric, that you should be tracking on a daily basis, as it can help you prevent the failure of your business.

The customer churn rate gives you an idea of the number of customers that continue to buy your product or services, and you can track customer retention within a certain time period.

If your SaaS company has a high customer churn rate (which is usually any double-digit number), then it’s a warning signal that you need to re-evaluate your product. You can conduct a few surveys so that the customers can inform you of any possible complaints. Fixing your product is paramount because you don’t want to spend a great deal of money on marketing if you can’t retain your customers.

The Importance of Revenue Churn

The Revenue Churn is a metric to help you understand how much profit your SaaS business has lost during a certain period of time, usually caused by discontinued subscriptions. Knowing the revenue churn enables you to make certain management decisions along with your team. Of course, the aim is to reduce the churn and increase the revenue.

This churn indicator is even more helpful than the customer churn because the revenue churn is much more accurate. For example, if your SaaS company offers different prices depending on the number of subscriptions your customer buys, the customer churn is inaccurate.

For example, if one customer generates more profit than others, and that customer decides to stop buying your product, the revenue churn rate will change immensely, whereas the customer churn changes little.

Predicting Churn: Customer Engagement Score

If you could predict which customers will stop doing business with you, then your support team could step in to help them and make sure that they continue as customers.

To predict a churn, you should track your website or app to check if users are making use of the key features of your product.

Ideally, you’ll have different scores depending on the feature. If you have a social media platform you should consider different levels of engagement. For example, you could consider someone uploading a picture to be far more engaged than someone who’s simply logging in. The more engaged a user is, the less likely they are to stop using your app or website, which is important for continued revenue.

So, if you sold your SaaS product to 1000 people, and one hundred of them are using it, then your customer engagement score would be low. If 900 of them are actively using it, obviously your score would be much higher, and that can predict much information about your subscriptions.

Unraveling Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA)

This SaaS metric is the average amount of money that you receive from each customer. The Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) is the amount of profit you get from each account. It’s usually calculated every month or every year. It is sometimes called Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) or Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC).

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) metric is the average sum of money that is paid by your customers. This metric provides you with a fairly accurate idea of your company’s growth.

There are a few different formulas that you can use to calculate the CLV. You could use the amount of money you spent to acquire the customer and possibly add in the service you provided for each customer as well as the profit margins. Your finance team will be able to help you keep track of these calculations.

If you’re new to this metric it’s best to focus on the simple details. As a SaaS company owner, you should gather your average subscription length and multiply it by your average monthly revenue per customer (ARPC).

It would be ideal to include the support and acquisition costs, to check if the customer brings in any long-term profits, although this might be overwhelming, so, you should use a simpler version at first, and move on as you grow.

Lead Velocity Rate

The Lead Velocity Rate is another crucial metric for your SaaS business. This measurement is especially important for startups. Your Lead Velocity Rate tells you the number of successful leads on a monthly basis, which is used to measure your pipeline development. In other words, it is the number of potential customers that you’re trying to convert into actual customers.

This metric is done in real-time, which is particularly helpful, as it allows you to predict your potential profits and overall growth. It is also more important than the monthly revenue growth because focusing on your LVR goal helps you make long-term calculations and potentially achieve great results

Activation Rate – An Essential Saas Metric

The Activation Rate is probably the most important SaaS metric of them all. The activation is the moment that your customer acquires the true value of your product, and it demonstrates the efficiency of your customer acquisition, which gives you a clear idea of the productivity of your spending.

The moment of activation is different for each product. To find that exact point, you will need to check a great deal of analytics on users’ behavior while using the app or website. However, When you do find the point of activation, you can take advantage of it to beat the competition.

As a general rule, higher activation rates mean better efficiency, and the greater likelihood of users continuing to use your product, as well as providing you with an estimated revenue.

Knowing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The CAC is the amount of money that you’ll spend on converting a visitor into a paying customer and is one of the highest costs of running a successful SaaS company..

Marketing is really expensive, especially if you make a bad marketing choice and slowly witness the profits becoming losses. CAC shows you how much it costs to bring in new paying users, and how much money they will bring to your business.

Using CAC along with CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) can be extremely helpful, enabling you to guarantee your business model stays viable.

Using the Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Most of the aforementioned metrics are financial. However, the NPS allows you to get an idea of the value that your users receive from your product. It is also known as User Satisfaction.

The NPS is a simple number, so you can easily compare your business with the competition. Using the NPS can help any SaaS company find out what the customers really think, so if necessary you can improve your product.

Going over Cash Burn Rate

The Cash Burn Rate is a metric useful for gauging the amount of money that your company uses to keep itself afloat. It reveals the speed and efficiency of your cash flow, as well as how much more capital might be needed to continue operations.

As a whole, the CBR shows how much cash you are using in a given period of time. This is essential for calculating the cost of your business’s overhead and operations. The “cash burn” is affected by factors such as the location of your business, or your market ideology (sales-led VS product-led).

Keeping an Eye on Cash Reserve

Of all the KPIs, the cash reserve is the most straightforward measure. It is the total amount of money that a SaaS business has in reserve at any given time.

A SaaS company needs a large initial investment and resources to create a great product. So, the founders of any SaaS company should always avoid overspending, otherwise, survival will be difficult in the current market.

Using SaaS Metrics to Make Better Growth Decisions

There are two really important factors when running a SaaS business:

• Acquiring paying customers
• Retaining their custom

So with this acquired understanding of the metrics, it’s important to start using them. As a CEO, you also need to know when it’s time to take new action or when it’s time to continue with the current methods.

All the above-mentioned information should help you understand when is the right time to act, and when a certain business route is inadvisable.

Ending thoughts on these important SaaS metrics

If you want to have a successful SaaS company, you simply need to follow a certain formula. The SaaS industry is all about making a good product and finding customers who are willing to return to it regularly and pay each time.

There are many other SaaS metrics to help you measure your progress and success, but the crucial ones are those listed above, and they will no doubt help you with your own business. You can apply such metrics in all kinds of industries, and remember to set out benchmarks for yourself to keep striving towards success.

If you enjoyed reading this article on SaaS metrics, you should check out this one about SaaS development.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like SaaS pricing models, SaaS vs PaaS, SaaS startups and go to market strategy.

The post The Most Important SaaS Metrics You Should Follow appeared first on TMS.

This article created by our team at TMS explores the best new consumer and enterprise SaaS companies of this year.

It’s wonderful to observe the sheer volume of available imaginative SaaS solutions on offer to help steer organizations to progress, with artificial intelligence becoming possibly the most important factor to enable advancement.

Here’s a list of the best SaaS startups to keep an eye on

CoSchedule

The first in our list of SaaS startups is one that you may have seen over the years. Established in 2014, CoSchedule has more than 9,000 customers and is utilized in more than 100 nations. The administration is where advertisers can make guides, plan, team up, and advance ventures to improve advertisers’ occupations.

As CoSchedule originator Garrett Moon uncovers, the startup’s rapid advancement is because they use the one-metric-that-matters (1MTM) system while developing the item. For CoSchedule, 1MTM took hold of center and control, thus the item rapidly gained momentum by explicitly focusing on traffic and crowd.

NapoleonCat

You’ve probably heard about social media management tools such as AgoraPulse or HootSuite, but there are other similar platforms worth special attention. NapoleonCat, a Warsaw-based company, has developed a complete set of social media management tools. It’s flagship product, the Social Inbox, allows you to manage different social media interactions from all major social media platforms. 

The tool’s other functionalities include Auto-moderation that will help you filter out and automatically handle generic, repetitive comments and messages, Publishing and Scheduling, advanced Analytics, and Reporting. Definitely a must-have for all social media managers.

Speechly

Alexa and Siri are two famous digital voice assistants which are real applications of artificial intelligence. Speechly is a Helsinki based startup entering their world of digital voice assistance. It specializes in natural language understanding and speech recognition which assists users to express more complex questions and intentions.

The outcome is improved client experience, an enhanced degree of consistency, and an instinctive voice UI. Speechly is ideal for online business stores that need to support shopping through voice UIs.

Assurance Software

In 2018, Assurance Software emerged from its parent organization, Sungard Availability Services, when Sungard sold Assurance Business Continuity Management Planning (BCMP) programming business to private equity financial investor Resurgens Technology Partners.

Audubon, Pa.- based Assurance Software today assists organizations with building up a progressive management strategy, including business impact analysis, incident management, catastrophe recuperation management, and revealing.

Machine Labs

Client maintenance and continuous orders are normal productivity goals and they require clever database marketing and segmentation. Machine Labs offer a flawlessly planned, AI-controlled product that has the ability to supercharge your eCommerce advertising.

Having experienced their first round of seed financing (and making sure about speculation from any semblance of Scottish Enterprise and Techstart Ventures), Machine Labs is one to watch in 2020.

Adverity

Adverity helps promote offices, brands, and online business retailers to improve conversions using data in order to make better advertising choices. They also encourage correspondence among organizations and their clients to aid in mutual understanding.

9Lenses

9Lenses is a SaaS powerful digital diagnostic device startup that encourages business specialists to flourish in an information-driven market. It is a proficient platform that empowers business associations to oversee considerable amounts of data to bring improved results.

KnowBe4

KnowBe4 gives Security Awareness Training to instruct clients to manage IT security issues identified with phishing, engineering, and ransomware assaults. KnowBe4 experienced a 178% development during the year observation period.

AcademyOcean

Established in 2016, this startup helps different SaaS organizations create courses for clients to instruct them about the product. These courses comprise organized exercises, which incorporate writings, recordings, pictures, and tests. They are intelligent, and clients receive an endorsement when the course is completed.

FutureFuel

FutureFuel is a student loan repayment organization focused on battling debt. They have an advanced platform that makes debts simpler to control. The originator and CEO Laurel Taylor expects that the organization will shave $30 billion off understudy obligation in the U.S by 2021.

Tego

Tego is a premium application and security gadget useful for location tracking your friends and family. It is great for young women, children, and adults who are traveling.

The application will progressively send the area of the targeted individual to 11 of their friends and family through an application or work area interface. In the event of a crisis, a client can alert his companions with the click of a button.

ServiceNow

ServiceNow has practical experience in IT service management (ITSM), IT operations management (ITOM) and IT business management (ITBM). It offers constant correspondence, joint effort, and asset sharing covering IT, HR, security, client care, programming improvement, offices, field administration, and legitimate endeavor needs.

Improbable

Improbable is a games innovation organization that attempts the ongoing cutting edge interaction through virtual universes of remarkable scale, constancy, and lavishness. The SpatalOS lets designers emerge from the constraints of ordinary calculation, permitting multitudes of servers running in the cloud to recreate universes far bigger and more perplexing than any single server could.

Cumul.io

Cumul.io is a secure reporting module within a user’s platform. Its cloud analytics assist with arranging and imagining the information to increase knowledge at minimal expense. Their solution includes more than 40 information visualization types as a few geospatial representations.

On account of the simplified capacity, organizations can utilize these visualizations to make profoundly intelligent and useful dashboards with only a couple of snaps. Knowledge gathered from these dashboards can be shared broadly with associates and colleagues to upgrade joint effort, or with clients to make the brand outstanding.

Infinity

Infinity is an ultra-adaptable and adjustable project management apparatus that organizes your workspace precisely as you desire. Project management programming is a serious field, with vast amounts of available devices, but, Infinity is a startup with a great deal of potential because it uniquely offers complete adaptability.

Infinity authors wanted to provide a PM device that would adjust to everybody’s needs, particularly regarding limit and customization.

Setapp

Setapp is a subscription administration for Mac applications created in 2017 by Olesandr Kosovan, the author and CEO of MacPaw. It packages together more than 140 distinctive applications for Mac. A large portion of the applications are related to profitability. They incorporate Ulysses for composing, MindNode for conceptualizing, AnyTrans for record move, and others. Subscribers are charged $9.99 per month.

Setapp has more than 30,000 paid clients and proved to be very useful after the launch of Apple Arcade and Apple TV+  as the membership benefits of Setapp are very similar.

CallHipp

SaaS startup CallHippo offers a virtual telephone arrangement intended for a variety of businesses searching for a practical arrangement for virtual telephony. The contribution assists organizations with purchasing nearby help numbers and cost-free numbers from more than 50 nations, as indicated by the Newark, Delaware-based organization.

CallHippo began in 2016 and allows clients to record calls for future reference, line calls, share voice documents, and apply information examination to the calls. CallHippo programming can likewise incorporate an assortment of outsider arrangements, including Slack and some CRM frameworks.

Whyse

Trying to understand networks can be intense. Sharing data effectively requires structure and the outcome can be confusing. Significant data can be lost in the chaos, but, Whyse guarantees to provide a secure base to the information on your locale.

Whyse organizes knowledge so that your community can receive meaningful feedback with its structured and easily navigable platform and receive a database of common knowledge.

Abydos Technologies

This company focuses on web solution development. They act for businesses to provide specialized services in software development and data processing. Their designers and developers guarantee success for their clients and they have an excellent record of meeting budgets and deadlines.

Freshservice

Freshservice is the customer service department of Freshworks, and offers an engaging IT desk service solution for clients.

Sweet Analytics

Sweet Analytics is a SaaS system that connects marketing platforms for retailers. It enables clients to analyze customer data with its unique personalization tools, therefore enabling improved customer service and product targeting.

Clumio

Clumio is a secure service platform that guarantees to protect the data of clients. Its software provides exemplary data backup and recovery. It enables clients to eliminate the cost of employing  3rd party backup software and guarantees to meet even the most demanding companies’ data storage requirements.

Squibler

Squibler is an advanced programming application that empowers authors to deliver content very quickly. The organization has seen consistent development from a steady progression of clients who value their inventiveness and this is likely to continue.

Coupa Software

Coupa is a cloud-based platform for business spend management. It offers a complete package of budgetary applications for business spend management, including procurement, invoicing, costs, and sourcing.

factoHR

factoHR is a smart hire-to-retire solution that handles all daily and recurring operations to streamline and simplify HR tasks. This software provides all the necessary functions like payroll, attendance, leave, expense, time tracking, etc., to empower your organization’s managers and employees.

Its separate mobile application and ESS (Employee Self Service) portal allow the employees to access the required data and tasks whenever they need. All these features together remain helpful in managing employees in the distributed working environment in an effective and productive manner.

Blippar

Blippar is an innovation organization gaining practical experience in augmented reality, computerized reasoning, and PC vision. It has a drag and drop platform that enables swift and easy application of augmented reality campaigns.

Since 2011, Blippar has been pushing the limits in AR and has helped many companies and organizations use AR/AI to develop client commitment and increment deals. Blippar’s innovation has been used by well-known brands, such as PepsiCo, Porsche, Nestlé, L’Oréal, GSK, General Mills, and Procter and Gamble.

Spider Guard

Spider Guard helps new businesses and tech organizations manage their information and data by taking control of their information security and protection responsibilities.

Buy Me A Coffee

You might have seen the “buy me a coffee” messages quite often online, but have you ever thought that this company could be one of the SaaS startups we’re featuring here?

Neither did we, but they have an interesting and simple business model that works.

Buy Me A Coffee is a beneficiary tool that enables artists and other clients to receive praise and monetary assistance for their work.

Buy Me A Coffee helps authors, musicians, craftsmen, creators, photographers, and other creative people to receive gifts from their fans.

The tool also enables fans to investigate the list of creative artists and choose who they want to support.

CompStak

CompStak is a system centered around Commercial Real Estate (CRE), which provides exact listings of comparable rentals from this year to last.s The SaaS works on a crowdfunding model and is a useful resource for property specialists, speculators, dealers, and appraisers.

Chatvisor

This customer support software is designed to improve customer relations. It enables the company to co-browse which provides the customer’s perspective. This way, problems can be quickly foreseen and solved. Recordings are also available to be perused and analyzed.

Their Messenger Marketing chatbot manufacturer offers the opportunity to converse through your business’ Facebook channels.

Clearbit

Five-year-old Clearbit creates business intelligence programming that enables the organization to assist firms analyze and process client data to improve business goals and customer service.

Aeroleads

This firm provides software that enables you to obtain email addresses and phone numbers for businesses and obtain business leads from Google, Yahoo, Yellow Pages, Craiglist, Twitter, and Merchant Circle.

Sophos

Sophos provides business-grade cybersecurity that protects homes and businesses from being hacked. They organize security, encryption, danger management, and cloud security.

Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the Jungle are a media and tech company that specializes in improving work conditions for everyone so that employees feel more fulfilled in their work environment. Among other services, they offer apps that improve the recruiting process for candidates and potential employers.

Shiperd

Shiperd is a logistics startup that simplifies and reduces the cost of shipping, thereby improving productivity. The application gives shippers and exporters full control over their shipments and highlights ongoing tracking and mechanized bidding.

Boastcapital

Boastcapital is a SaaS software that computes your qualifying research and development (R&D) ventures and offers unique tax credit automation. Their software and engineers will ensure that you receive all the credit you can possibly be entitled to.

Xactly

Xactly is a sales performance management company that promises to optimize your sales. They guarantee to reduce risk, boost sales and productivity, and control costs to their clients’ benefit.

Soundsuit

Soundsuit, another one of these SaaS startups that we’re featuring, takes care of the music used by businesses. For example, in cafes, restaurants, gyms, retail stores, hairdressers, or any other business that uses music to enhance the customer and employee experience. Soundsuits digital assistant will create the perfect playlist, especially for your business profile.

Reward Gateway

Reward Gateway is a third party Human Resources company that takes all the stress out of rewarding your employees. They provide all the perks, rewards, products, and tools to the company’s employees to keep them happy and fulfilled in the workplace, which improves productivity and resilience for businesses.

Customer SuccessBox

Client SuccessBox gives B2B SaaS organizations an opportunity to experience customer success management at the highest level. Their technology is cutting edge and completely proactive to improve customer experience and guarantee their return business.

Lobe

The last one of these SaaS startups is Lobe. It is a unique deep learning software that uses AI to imitate the workings of the human brain in processing data and creating patterns to make decisions. They are committed to simplify deep learning and make it accessible to everyone. They have been recently acquired by Microsoft so Lobe is able to access all their resources.

Ending thoughts on these Saas startups

The Saas market is constantly expanding, so it’s important to stay abreast of the current trends and developments, especially in the AI field.

If you enjoyed reading this article on SaaS startups, you should check out this one about SaaS metrics.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like SaaS vs PaaS, SaaS pricing models, SaaS development and go to market strategy.

The post SaaS Startups and Companies That You Should Keep an Eye on appeared first on TMS.

Each type has its own benefits, thus it is crucial to recognize the main differences between these three, to understand what is appropriate for your business.

In this article created by our team at TMS, we will explain in more detail what you need to know about Saas, PaaS, and IaaS.

The Main Differences Between Saas, PaaS, and IaaS

These are the three main categories when it comes to cloud computing, which is

the practice of using a network to host, manage, and process the data online. These services use different servers to host this data. It allows companies and businesses to provide customers with online services of varying types.

Each model of cloud computing has its pros and cons, thus recognizing which model is the right fit for a company is important. IaaS, also known as “the public cloud”, has been growing rapidly. PaaS is more focused on developers and has a more niche appeal. SaaS is the most common service and it rents software over the Internet.

Saas, PaaS, and IaaS are simply terms to describe the ways that cloud computing is used for business proceedings.

• SaaS allows the software to be accessible over the Internet from third parties.
• PaaS provides tools and platforms that are available on the Internet.
• IaaS offers cloud services – storage, payments, networking, virtualization.

To understand them better, we can compare the three terms to types of transport.

IaaS is like a leased car. You don’t own it, but you can upgrade or change cars whenever you wish.

PaaS is more like a taxi where you tell the driver where you want to go, but you don’t drive the car yourself.

SaaS could be compared to public transport with pre-set routes and combined rides with other people.

Examples of SaaS vs. PaaS vs. IaaS

SaaS: Google Apps, Dropbox, Salesforce, Cisco, Concur, GoToMeeting, Slack

PaaS: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos

IaaS: Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine, Magento 1.

Let’s take a look at the main differences between the cloud computing models.

SaaS: Software as a Service

Cloud application services, or software as a service, or SaaS, is the most common type of cloud computing that businesses use. They deliver the applications over the Internet and are managed by third-party vendors. You can run the software directly through the browser and don’t need to download anything.

SaaS is incredibly easy to use and manage, and it’s also highly scalable. You can use it on several devices and don’t need to install it; rather, you can deploy it easily to your team or employees. It’s a great way to manage and coordinate global teams of freelancers or employees.

The advantages of SaaS:

• You don’t need to install anything, as you have it readily available on your browser. The only thing you need to do is sign in. Also, there are mobile apps available.
• You can use the software from any device, and you only need to log into your account from the device.
• All your staff or associates will be able to use the software without the need to download it. All staff will be able to sign in and use the software.

The disadvantages of SaaS:

• You have no control over the infrastructure that the software runs on. If there’s an outage, you’re dependent on it.

PaaS: Platform as a Service

It’s not easy to define PaaS with a sentence or two; think of it as a tool to develop applications and products online. It can be middleware, database management, or analytics. It allows developers to build custom applications online without the need to deal with data serving and storage.

The great advantage of using PaaS is that developers can easily deploy large applications without the need to download or buy the related infrastructure. Instead, everything can be done online – servers, databases, operating systems, and more. Examples of PaaS are Heroku, Google App Engine.

The advantages of PaaS:

• It gives the administrators a lot of control over the platform software and the applications that are built with the platform.
• These cloud services often allow and support multiple programming languages, which gives developers the chance to work on several different projects.

The disadvantages of PaaS:

• You only control what’s being built over the platform, and if there’s a power outage, it will take the software with it.
• There may be unpredictable charges, especially as the service continues to grow.
• You have less flexibility and less customer control.
• You might need basic coding knowledge to get the most out of PaaS.

IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service

IaaS are services that include pay-as-you-go storage, networking, and virtualization. The cloud computing provider will usually provide and manage the physical infrastructure, which includes the servers, the storage, and more. The customer, on the other hand, manages nearly everything else, including the operating system, virtual machines (VMs), or containers, and the other applications that might be used or middleware.

We can compare IaaS to running applications in your own data center. The main difference is that your IT team doesn’t have to deploy, configure, and maintain the physical equipment that your applications use. This allows businesses to get the equipment and services on the premises with reduced on-site resource expenditure.

The advantages of IaaS:

• Lower or no expenses on hardware infrastructure, including structures such as servers, storage, networking resources, and similar. You won’t need to invest in expensive infrastructure as a business.
• Good scalability. This is particularly true of cloud-based solutions, which allow access to the additional resources for scaling your apps.

The disadvantages of IaaS:

• IaaS isn’t necessarily the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO), and your team will still have the majority of the tasks when it comes to managing the associated IT.
• IaaS costs can be unpredictable. The easy scalability makes IaaS desirable, but you can also expect higher-than-usual Users sometimes forget to shut down instances, which can result in larger costs.

Ending thoughts on SaaS Vs PaaS Vs IaaS

The truth is that each cloud service is appropriate for different businesses. Each cloud computing service has its own pros and cons, and you can simply choose the service that best suits your needs. With IaaS, you gain more control over the applications and the processes, but you will have to keep in mind the higher costs and unexpected fees that might occur.

SaaS, on the other hand, is by far the most popular type of cloud computing service. You can use cloud-based applications without the need to manage the infrastructure.

PaaS is the best for developers who don’t want to spend extra on the needed platforms to complete projects. However, this option, too, comes with some disadvantages.

In the end, each business should consider what exactly they need and make an informed decision. You will need to consider the company’s business goals before choosing the service you need. Here are some of the most common business goals that cloud services cover:

• For companies that need out-of-the-box services like CRM (even CRM for Gmail), email, collab tools, then it’s best to choose SaaS.
• If you need a platform for building software products, then you should go with PaaS.
• If you need a virtual machine, go for IaaS.

If you enjoyed reading this article on SaaS vs PaaS, you should check out this one about SaaS metrics.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like SaaS pricing models, SaaS development, SaaS startups, and go-to-market strategy.

The post SaaS Vs PaaS Vs IaaS and Which Model is Better for You appeared first on TMS.

However, movies for entrepreneurs can be a source of motivation. An incredible film can invigorate your psyche, improve creativity, inspire innovation, and give renewed energy to your work.

Motion pictures are an amazing source of encouragement for many. Movies for entrepreneurs have the ability to challenge cutoff points, push understandings, and promote positive feelings.

The best business people occasionally need inspiration and motivation.

Learn below more about this topic in this article created by our team at TMS who loves working with entrepreneurs to take their business to the next level.

Must watch movies for entrepreneurs

The Founder (2016)

The first in this movies for entrepreneurs list is the story of the popular fast-food restaurant. McDonald’s is one of the most famous fast-food chains in the world, and this film depicts the true story of Ray Krok (played by Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman who stumbles upon a family-run fast-food hamburger business. He realizes the potential and convinces the owners, the McDonalds brothers, to spread their business wings nationally. The film’s themes cover opportunism, work ethics, winner-takes-all mentality, greed, and betrayal. The story of McDonald’s would have obvious interest for entrepreneurs.

Steve Jobs

Michael Fassbender portrays the life of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. This film is directed by Danny Boyle and screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. The biographical film is constructed around three of Apple’s product launches and offers insight into Job’s personal and professional problems as these launches take place. It is a fascinating glimpse inside the life of one of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs.

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Many organizations like their employees to watch this film for inspiration. This film is based on a true story of Chris Gardener (Will Smith) a single parent of Christopher (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith). Gardener will do anything to bring his family back from a state of destitution no matter what circumstances come his way.

Joy

A quote from the movie that sums up its purpose and inspiration is: “We got here from hard work, patience, and humility. Don’t think the world owes you anything because the world owes you nothing.”

This film covers the life of Joy Mangano, designer of the Miracle Mop and Huggable Hangers, who overcomes many obstacles to achieve business success.

The Social Network (2010)

Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network portrays how Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin created Facebook while studying at Harvard and how they were later sued by two fellow students who claimed they stole their idea. The film explores Zuckerberg’s single-minded determination to succeed at all costs, including friendship and loyalty, and would likely appeal to would-be entrepreneurs to give them insight into how Zuckerberg has achieved his vast empire from a simple idea.

Moneyball

Moneyball is a 2011 American biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller and written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. The film is based on Michael Lewis’s 2003 nonfiction book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team’s 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane’s attempts to assemble a competitive team.

In the film, Beane (Brad Pitt) and assistant GM Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), faced with the franchise’s limited budget for players, optimized a player lineup of undervalued talent by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players. Columbia Pictures bought the rights to Lewis’s book in 2004.

Becoming Warren Buffett

With a net worth of over $70 bln, Warren Buffett is truly a one-of-a-kind billionaire. The legendary investor still lives in his modest home in Omaha.

At 86 years old, he drives to the office every morning to manage Berkshire Hathaway, the fifth-largest public company in the world. But more surprising than his humble lifestyle is his moral core. The same principles of decency and integrity that helped him pile up a fortune led him to give it all away in the largest philanthropic donation in history.

Becoming Warren Buffett chronicles the evolution of a boy from Nebraska who became one of the most respected men in the world, and the heroes who helped guide him along the way. By allowing access to his life and never-before-released home videos, Buffett offers a glimpse into his unique mind to help us understand what is truly important when money no longer has meaning.

Something Ventured

Apple. Intel. Genentech. Atari. Google. Cisco. Stratospheric successes with high stakes all around. Behind some of the world’s most revolutionary companies are a handful of men who (through timing, foresight, a keen ability to size up other people, and a lot of luck) saw opportunity where others did not: these are the original venture capitalists.

All were backing and building companies before the term ‘venture capital’ had been coined: companies that led to the birth of biotechnology and the spectacular growth in microprocessors, personal computers, and the web. SOMETHING VENTURED uncovers the ups and downs of the building of some of the greatest companies of the twentieth century and the hidden dramas behind some of the most famous names in the business.

The Intern

A retired 70-year-old widower, Ben (played by Robert De Niro), is bored with retired life. He applies to be a senior intern at an online fashion retailer and gets the position. The founder of the company is Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), a tireless, driven, demanding, dynamic workaholic.

Ben is made her intern, but this is a nominal role – she doesn’t intend to give him work and it is just window dressing. However, Ben proves to be quite useful and, more than that, a source of support and wisdom.

Risky Business

A suburban Chicago teenager’s parents leave on vacation, and he cuts loose. An unauthorized trip in his father’s Porsche means a sudden need for lots of money, which he raises in a creative way.

The Call of the Entrepreneur

Tells the stories of three entrepreneurs: A failing dairy farmer in rural Evart, Michigan A merchant banker in New York City A refugee from Communist China Reverend Robert Sirico, author of The Entrepreneurial Vocation, joins Michael Novak, George Gilder and other experts in exploring how entrepreneurs shape our world.

Beer Wars

Jerry Maguire

While this is principally reviewed as a lighthearted comedy, Maguire’s purpose promotes the significance of having your own dream and staying true to that vision, regardless of whether anyone else sees it that way.

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

This film focuses on the early years of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, two extraordinarily famous entrepreneurs, and the creation of their equally famous mega-companies, Apple, and Microsoft. It obviously would have great appeal for all those interested in startups and how they can become mega-companies.

Startup.com

Startup.com is the ideal film to portray the rise and fall of what’s become known as the Dotcom bubble in the late 90’s. The narrative film follows a promising startup, GoWorks, during this period and explores the themes of the power battles, rivalries, friendship, greed, and legal challenges associated with the Dotcom bubble.  I.

Catch Me If You Can

This movie is based on the real-life adventures of an extraordinary con man, Frank Abagnale, played with great skill by Leonardo DiCaprio. Whilst swindling is obviously not recommended for entrepreneurs, the themes that are useful are creative and critical thinking, and having the confidence and self-belief that ultimately leads to success.

Office Space

This revenge comedy movie explores the corporate culture of the late 90’s and by doing so, promotes an entrepreneurial career path, rather than working for “the man”. The useful themes are workplace connections and culture, leadership, greed and insightful observations on modern corporate life.

The Aviator

Howard Hughes, played by  Leonardo DiCaprio, was a world-famous CEO, movie executive, business visionary, who loved to fly and set flight records. This film features his early career from the late 1920s to the 1940s.

He struggled with many personal and legal issues, however, the themes that will interest entrepreneurs are his determination, ambition, goal setting and vision.

Glengarry Glenn Ross

Starring Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, and Alec Baldwin. Glengarry Glen Ross depicts the high-pressure situation of real estate sales reps during a difficult season. Themes that may inspire entrepreneurial spirit are competition, manipulation, persuasion, ambition, and dissatisfaction as a motivation for success.

Rogue Trader

The film is a true story depicting the life of Nick Leeson (played by Ewan McGregor) and his role in the 90’s downfall of Barings Bank, a merchant bank that became reliant on stock market speculation. The film’s themes explore how real money became abstract, and rank opportunism became the motivation for banks and stock markets during this period.

The Big Short

This is a story about two finance experts who were able to predict the instability and collapse of the US mortgage market in the mid-2000’s and profit from it, against all odds. It was directed by Adam McKay, and it features Oscar-worthy performances by Christian Bale and Steve Carrell. The audience becomes familiarized with the intricate, corrupt, and flawed world of subprime mortgages and credit in a way that the layman can appreciate and understand.

Thank You For Smoking

“Thank You For Smoking” is not the most obvious choice in this list of movies for entrepreneurs, but we assure you that it’s worth its runtime. This film is a great satire that explores the ideas of media spin in the tobacco war. As a comedy, it is designed primarily to entertain, but doesn’t miss out on making some pointed observations, and could be seen to have a few lessons in crisis management and corporate communication.

Ending thoughts on these movies for entrepreneurs

Movies based on entrepreneurial concepts can give you an idea of how to set goals and be determined to see them through as well as offering an entertaining couple of hours.

If you enjoyed reading this article about movies for entrepreneurs, you should read these as well:

• The most innovative Berlin startups to watch this year
• Impressive startup press kit examples to use as inspiration
• What’s the Difference Between Share Options and Shares

The post The most inspiring movies for entrepreneurs (Must watch) appeared first on TMS.

This article created by our team at TMS, will compare product owner vs product manager, and analyze two questions: What skills does a product owner require, what are their tasks? What skills does a product manager require, what are their tasks?

About Product Managers

Product managers have a long history; they can be traced back to the 1930s. when Silicon Valley companies such as Hewlett Packard started employing product managers. Their role was mainly to manage products, but with additional responsibilities.

Product manager roles have changed significantly in the last 40 years, quickly moving towards being software organizations.

The Role of Product Management

Today, the role of product management is to strategically drive the development, market launch and give constant support to improve a company’s products. A product manager has a clear vision about the product, its future, and its place within the market. They follow the latest market trends while identifying new market opportunities.

They help to identify new projects, products, along with managing teams who will work on these products. Some other product manager roles include:

• Tracking the market and the competitors
• Attending the iteration demos and standups
• Supporting sales
• Budgeting tasks
• Envisioning the long-term
• Customer care
• Supporting the solution-delivery team

Product Owners

A product owner is needed regardless of whether there is a product manager or not. A product owner works closely with delivery teams and stakeholders to ensure that the products roll out in a timely fashion. They listen to the product manager’s vision and translate it into a workable proposal.

Product owners will coordinate between stakeholders and the project team. They assist the development team from start to finish of the product as well as define the product backlog and manage it.

Here are some of the most crucial roles of a product owner:

• They create actionable user stories that will help the development teams.
• They take care of the analysis and make sure that the project meets the requirements.
• They consult with various parties involved in the project: the product manager, stakeholders, clients, and implementation teams.
• They groom the work in the backlog and prioritize it.
• They are involved in testing efforts for the product.
• They review the development and document story details.
• Attend meetings
• Accept the completed user stories and ensure the work is fit for the project.

The product owner needs to be customer-oriented; keeping up to date with the latest trends within the marketplace is crucial.

They value the product and how it fits the customers’ needs. They not only identify the customer roadblocks but find solutions for them.

Product Owner vs Product Manager

This article will further examine the similarities and differences between product owners and product managers.

Both the product owner and product manager play a crucial role in the development of a product. A product owner has to follow the trends and customer feedback to devise and communicate a concept to the development team. It is the role of a product manager to develop a strategy to make that project a reality.

The main differences are:

• Product managers are team-orientated. They need to make sure that the team delivers a high-quality product while sticking to deadlines.
• Product owners are customer-orientated. They’re responsible for market research, gauging and measuring customer requirements and creating a vision for the product based on the data.

Product owners must truly understand the requirements of the customers and the market. Aftermarket research and learning the customers’ needs they then communicate the data to the team. They create product backlog stories and work together with the manager to write user stories and gather customer feedback.

Product managers manage their teams and participate in Scrum meetings. There, they sketch out the requirements for the team and establish a long-term vision. They oversee the team making sure they meet their goals on time.

At the highest level, the differences are minimal.

• Product managers are more strategic, as they focus on the product’s vision, the objectives, and the market.
• Product owners are more tactical, as they engage with the teams they use the strategy to manage the tasks effectively, verifying that the products meet those requirements.

Why Is There a Need For Both Product Manager and Product Owner?

Companies wonder whether to hire one or both. Studies show it is advantageous to hire both a product manager and a product owner.

Greater Efficiency

Companies hiring both a product manager and a product owner become more efficient by producing more products and enhancing the whole process.

With both in place, the development teams can have a clearer idea about the requirements, enabling the team to focus to a greater degree.

Consistency

Since the communication between the stakeholders and the development teams is clearer, both product owners and product managers ensure that the development and feedback are consistent.

This enables the company to create the final product perfectly.

Ending thoughts on the product owner vs product manager discussion

Although the two terms are often interchangeable, with the help of this article, you’ve learned the differences between product owner vs product manager.

Both roles are essential for the organization. The owner will make sure that the product fits the market and the requirements, while the manager is responsible for directing the development teams.

They both work towards the same goal, yet, there are some differences between the two that can’t be ignored.

If you enjoyed reading this article on product owner vs product manager, you should check out this one about product manager salary.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like best product management books, product manager interview questions, product launch checklist, product manager skills, chief product officer and product manager vs project manager.

The post Product owner vs product manager (what’s the difference?) appeared first on TMS.

A product manager also needs to create a list of critical points that need to be fulfilled before the product gets launched. This means creating a product launch checklist that will help determine when the product is ready for release. This article created by our team at TMS provides an exemplary product launch checklist.

This is not an exhaustive product launch checklist. The criteria will inevitably vary from product to product and the company will differ. Nevertheless, it should be a good indicator of what you need before the launch.

Feel free to use this product launch checklist as a template, then add your ideas, which can increase your sales potential exponentially.

The product launch checklist

Step 1: Writing a Positioning Statement

The first and possibly the most important step with product development is knowing your potential customer base. This statement will change and affect your entire development and planning, so take your time to analyze the market and identify your competition as well as your product goals.

A good product positioning statement should aim to answer these three key questions:

• Who will use the product?
• What does it do?
• How and why is it different from the rest?

You can go even deeper and devise a more detailed strategy that will make your branding more unique.

• Exactly what segment of your target audience will likely buy your product?
• What will your brand name be?
• In which category does your product stand?
• How does the product differ from the rest in this category?

Step 2: Your Media Plan

Knowing how to advertise and market your product in the media is an important part of your launch. The product will only be launched once, so devise your media plan meticulously and aim for maximum impact.

You’ll need to know how to communicate your product to the media. It’s important to clearly and concisely convey how your product is different so that the customers know exactly what they’re getting. Define your unique selling points.

Step 3: Build Your Audience

You must also build up your audience to spread the word. Normally, you can’t go “viral” without an audience.

It’s crucial that your audience is prepared for the launch. You can communicate with your potential customers about their needs and wants, and plan your launch based on their feedback.

You need to create some momentum for Day 1, by building the “hype” around your product, to increase your chances of having a good launch.

This vital preparation will ensure some guaranteed sales from the beginning and these satisfied customers will spread the word about your product even further.

Step 4: Amplify

The next step is to amplify your launch, which means reaching out to people who can help you advertise the product.

Ideally, they should be active influencers within the product’s domain. Find out who they are, then create a list of 25-500 potential influencers who can help your launch. To know who should be your influencers, you need to know who will be your customers.

Once the list is complete, contact your influencers and ask whether they would help and provide an incentive for them to be interested in the product?

Step 5: Share Your Messaging

This step can seem challenging, but it doesn’t have to be. You need to get your pitch across, and not everyone will agree with your ideas at the start, including your coworkers, customers, prospects.

Start with people who might be slightly more forgiving and give you some leeway. If these can be persuaded that the plan is decent, you can then contact the executives and pitch them your idea. Ask questions, and gather as much intel as possible, which will serve you well at launch time.

Step 6: Define Your Go-To Marketing Strategy

Your marketing strategy is a crucial part of the planning. Is it the funnel strategy, or the flywheel strategy?

No matter which one you choose, it must be completely organized and every little detail is taken care of. To prevent a messy launch, you can use a template that will help define your strategy.

This step also takes into consideration what you’ll use to promote your content and get it through the awareness, consideration and purchase decision stages. Planning the content is important, but making it happen is more challenging.

Not all content for launch will be organic. You’ll likely need to amplify your organic marketing with paid ads from Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn. Determine the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and track how your content is successful.

Step 7: Beta Testing

Beta testing should be the next step of the product launch checklist. Create a list of affiliates and send them your product so that they can review it. The importance of feedback at this stage is crucial to help you determine your next goals. Make sure it’s easy for these affiliates to review by including a swipe copy for blogs and social media.

This stage will help you learn more about how the product is received without launching it, which eliminates the risk of a quick, premature launch.

The next step should be an internal product release, which is another testing period where your teams will be able to test the product and give you feedback. If they find some technical bugs or errors, you’ll have ample time to eliminate them before launch.

Step 8: Building Creative Assets

Creating an effective launch product also entails building creative assets that to use during launch to drive customers to your conversion funnel.

Write a captivating launch message; make sure that it’s clear and comprehensible and also remember to write email copy to be seductive, build your emails newsletters, and prepare social media posts you’ll need. Plan ahead.

Additional assets include site pages, videos, forms, social posts, and emails that you will use to attract new customers and increase your sales from the start.

Step 9: The Pre-Launch Check

Now you need to make sure everything is set to complete your launch.

• You have a set release date and you have communicated it to everyone involved and everyone that needs to know.
• You have your legal documentation ready – the customer contracts, terms & conditions, regulatory and legal documents are all in place.
• The sales team knows all about the product and its specifications and how it works. They are prepared to conduct demos and they know how to effectively answer all of the questions that might arise during launch.
• The customer support team is also ready for the launch, and they know how to answer the questions about the product.
• Everyone else in the team is ready to handle the launch and answer any PR questions or other queries – the executives, marketing, customer support, development, manufacturing, HR, accounting, compliance and everyone else that might be included in the product launch.
• You have a plan ready for tracking the user behavior and to analyze the key metrics that come from the tracking.

Step 10: The Launch!

The launch day should be suited to the customers’ needs, and it’s better to start the launch in the morning and to soft-start it 10 minutes earlier to make sure everything is in check.

You can make the launch a big occasion, even if it’s not a staged launch. Check-in with the first few customers and ask them personally about how the launch is going for them.

Remember to send a quick thank-you note or a letter to every customer that attends; an automated thank-you message is the least, but still acceptable.

Step 11: After the Launch

Even after the launch is officially over, there is still work to be done, for example:

• Plan for future communications, including creating a broader PR plan and planning everything.
• Follow-up testimonials. Ask the customers what they think about the product after a month or so.
• Collect feedback and constantly improve the product.

If you enjoyed reading this article on product launch checklist, you should check out this one about product manager salary.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like product owner vs product manager, best product management books, product manager interview questions, product manager skills, chief product officer and product manager vs project manager.

The post Follow this product launch checklist and not miss a thing appeared first on TMS.

You’ll be expected to prove your knowledge at an interview with the employer. Knowing the product manager interview questions and what to expect can significantly boost your chances of success.

Expect to be asked about your management skills, your experience of working in the field and your prioritization skills. Both technical and communication skills are important as well as knowing how to work with and coordinate different teams. Motivation, determination, resilience, and resourcefulness are all welcome attributes.

This article created by our team at TMS will examine the product manager interview questions you can expect to encounter.

Why Does It Matter to Know these Product Manager Interview Questions?

You can expect the employer to ask you why you think you are the right person. Your skills, experience, and personality traits will be under scrutiny. Some additional questions tend to appear more often in these interviews.

These interviews can be tough to pass, especially for high-growth companies or those focused on innovation. You might have to display your overall knowledge of the market, your business sense, and your decision-making abilities.

Interview preparation can be the difference between failure and success. Going in with a “wait-and-see” attitude can sometimes help you feel relaxed, but without preparation, the likelihood of success is reduced.

10 Product Manager Interview Questions That You Should Know About

What does a product manager do?

This question can be difficult because there are so many project manager “definitions”. Most companies have a product manager, but the roles are rarely the same.

You will need to display your knowledge of this particular company here and make sure you fit the criteria.

What tells you that a product is designed well?

There is some scope for being subjective in answering this question. Almost every product manager has different methods and the final products are always different.

However, the same priorities usually apply throughout development. When you’re asked this question, make sure you discuss the importance of aligning the product and the business’s priorities.

This shows that you’re well aware that you’ll need to work within the company’s requirements and respect their priorities.

How does one determine what the users need?

Knowing what customers want is one of the crucial aspects of the job. This allows them to make informed critical decisions that will define the product’s features.

This question will unearth how well you understand deep user insights. You’ll also need to prove that you understand the techniques that are used to discover the needs of the users.

Conducting proper research is key, but analytical skills are vital for understanding the gathered data.

How would you describe our product to someone who wanted something similar, only $20 cheaper?

This question aims to determine whether the candidate understands the importance of marketing and research. For example, knowing how the product is better than the rest also means knowing all about the competition and good communication skills are also valuable here.

For example, you could say something like: “You’re getting a $100 worth of features for just $20 more. Other products don’t sync to their smartphones and don’t offer the same control functions. Our users love it, and they don’t need to contact customer support.”

That’s just an example, but it shows how well you need to understand your competition.

Tell me about a time when you had to prioritize tasks.

One of the primary concerns of product managers is prioritizing tasks. This question will tell the interviewer whether you have the right prioritizing skills needed for the job and if you have any experience dealing with a job on this scale. Do you fulfill the demands on you? Are you the right person for the job, who will prioritize tasks correctly?

How would you improve our product?

Something is inviting about knowing the answer to this question. The interviewer needs to know exactly what you will bring to the table.

Plus, it shows that you did the necessary research and know exactly how to proceed with the job. The business will only care what you can do for them, and the skills you name in the CV need to be backed by your actions and abilities.

Be positive about this, and say that the product is already great, but there are possible opportunities for change. Then be specific about your proposals; the more specific you are, the better you demonstrate your knowledge.

How would you figure out…?

This job requires an analytical mind for interpreting and evaluating data. Independent thinking and resourcefulness are required, and that’s what you’ll have to demonstrate for this question.

Good research is beneficial and being able to present the appropriate data can help you convince stakeholders and win their minds.

How do you manage a new product launch?

It is important to display your orientation towards teamwork and be as specific as you can while mentioning how you would accomplish the launch with your team. They’re looking for the following answers:

• With team effort
• Timelines should be mentioned
• Discuss how you would track the progress

Here’s an example:

“My launch plan is developed in coordination with the development teams, support and testing, and product management. I look for advice from stakeholders to schedule a launch date and when the product is to be delivered. As the launch date approaches, I hold weekly meetings with everyone concerned to ensure everything is going to plan. I make sure we are staying on track following the plan.”

Can you describe a scenario where you failed as a product manager? And what did you learn from it?

It’s important to be factual, and you will have to discuss something specific and tangible, something that is material to the results of the product or service. For example, how you failed to identify the right customers for the product, or how you launched the service or product too early for the current state of the market.

Or, that you failed to differentiate in a market that’s so saturated and vast. Perhaps the pricing model was wrong, or you priced the product incorrectly. Maybe you failed to provide a good onboarding system where you lost customers, or maybe there was no marketing team to get the word out or to improve your sales.

Think about this for a moment, however, be prepared for this question, so you do have something to mention. It is very important to know and speak about what you learned from it, and how you are a better product manager as a result.

How would you convince a customer to buy our product instead of a competitor’s?

You will need to demonstrate your marketing skills for this question. You must show that you understand the importance of branding.

Make sure you also understand the importance of goals, vision, milestones and the marketing department. Remember that everything revolves around sales.

When discussing branding, try to convey that a product should be the reflection of a company’s values. You’ll need to know what the company’s values are, and how the product fits those values.

Product pricing is not the only factor. The product should be valuable to the customer and encourage loyalty, so branding is crucial, and you should be able to specifically discuss its importance.

A solid answer to this question would be that you understand the importance of designing products that feel and show the values of a company, and that they are an extension of those values.

Ending thoughts on these product manager interview questions

Knowing the product manager interview questions can increase your chances of landing the position. The interview is one of the last steps of joining the company. You’ve done well to come this far, now make sure you cross that final line.

Remember that no two interviews are the same, and it is not guaranteed that these questions will always appear in interviews. However, you can expect something similar as these types of questions will reveal whether you are the right person for the job.

Some other tips to increase your chances of acing the interview include: be clear with your answers. Display creative problem-solving skills, research strategies, and willingness to collaborate with other people.

If you enjoyed reading this article on product manager interview questions, you should check out this one about product manager salary.

We also wrote about a few related subjects like best product management books, product owner vs product manager, product launch checklist, product manager skills, chief product officer and product manager vs project manager.

The post Product manager interview questions you should know appeared first on TMS.