Marty Zwilling
Marty Zwilling is the Founder and CEO of Startup Professionals, a company that provides products and services to startup founders and small business owners. Marty has been published on Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Gust, and Young Entrepreneur. He writes a daily blog for entrepreneurs, and dispenses advice on the subject of startups to a large online audience of over 225,000 Twitter followers. He is an Advisory Board Member for multiple startups; ATIF Angels Selection Committee; and Entrepreneur in Residence at ASU and Thunderbird School of Global Management. Follow Marty on Twitter @StartupPro.
Latest
How to Balance Business Risk Versus Opportunity
There is no real business opportunity without risk. Serious entrepreneurs know that, but too many “wannabes” still fall for that elusive dream of a get-rich-quick scheme with no risk.
8 Ways to Tell if Your Startup is Ready to Innovate
What sparks paradigm-shifting innovation in any business? It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible.
8 Key Questions to Expect in Investor Due Diligence
If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask.
Entrepreneurs Should Rollout Local But Plan Global
New entrepreneurs who want to survive, and optimize the growth of their startups, need to think globally, and act locally, from day one. This approach, popularly known as “glocalization,” means you have to design and deliver global solutions that have total relevance to every local market in which you operate.
8 Startup Gaps That Will Frustrate Funding Efforts
Too many people still believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and people will throw money at you. Fundraising is indeed brutally tough at all stages, and the seed funding is the hardest to find.
Don’t Be Fooled by All the Hype for Crowd Funding
The new hot topic for entrepreneurs the last couple of years is crowdfunding, which is anticipated to at least supplement, if not replace, the slow and mysterious process of current Angel and venture capital investors. The problem is that crowdfunding means something different to everyone, and even I have been confused by the different ways the term gets used.
6 Key Marketing Do’s and Don’ts for Your Startup
Marketing is everything these days. You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late.
Freelancers are the New Entrepreneurs for Services
You don’t need to invent an innovative product to be a real entrepreneur. Self-employed services specialists are just as important, and most often operate remotely (from anywhere in the world) in this age of the Internet. Many of these new entrepreneurs were regular employees a few years ago, focused on a skill specialty. They are not the generalists required for new product startups.
8 Tips on How Much Money to Ask for from Investors
Startups ask me “How much money should I ask for?” The simple answer is the absolute minimum amount you need to make your plan work.
Startups Need to Embrace Zero Paid Media Marketing
The power and influence of paid media advertising, including print ads, TV commercials, radio, and even online digital campaigns is waning, in favor of unpaid earned and owned messaging from your website, social media, key market influencers, and existing customer word-of-mouth. But startups need to remember that even zero paid media doesn’t mean that marketing is free.