Katarina Lujic’s Post

If you've ever looked at your fundraising or sales messaging and said "I hate the story we're telling", it all comes back to how you're introducing your company in the first place. Long form narratives (i.e. pitch decks, website messaging, etc) are expansions of your upfront soundbite. So if that sound doesn't actually make people bite, they aren't sticking around for the full meal. I'm running back another rousing rendition of How to NOT Suck at Pitching Your Startup today, this time with HubSpot For Startups and Walter Mannino. You'll learn: 🫤 What most companies get wrong without even realizing it 🌎 The Market Size Mistake 🏪 The exact formula to position your product to the market 🧪 The exact pitch formula to get someone in 1 minute to say 'wait wait - tell me more!' Your first 60 seconds determines your next 60 minutes. THIS is the place to learn how to flip 60 into 60. The workshop keeps getting rated a 10/10 by attendees. What are ya waiting for? #BelieveTheHype #GOATtoMarket #pitchadvice

Starting a new venture is a thrilling journey, but it can also be incredibly lonely. Early-stage founders often find themselves navigating uncharted waters without a safe space to voice their concerns and fears. It’s not easy to get all the support for those in the early stages of their entrepreneurial journey. Founders need a listening ear, someone who understands the unique challenges they face and can offer guidance without judgment. Creating safe spaces for founders to share their experiences and struggles can make a world of difference. Don't hesitate to reach out if you’re a founder dealing with #SALES challenges. We’re here to listen and help you navigate sales related hurdles. To all the founders, your journey matters, and your voice deserves to be heard. Let's build a culture of empathy and support in the startup ecosystem.

All Business Development is NOT Created Equal. In business development, knowing how to separate the serious from the curious isn’t just helpful—it’s critical. It’s both an art and a science of identifying the right partners, not just signing deals. ✨ Early-stage startups: Focus less on squeezing every dollar and more on finding the right partners who will go the distance with you. The value of a strategic relationship is often greater than immediate margins. 💼 Later-stage companies: It’s a different game. Here, margins matter. You want partners who bring both value and scale to the table. A good combination of growth and financial sustainability keeps the engine running smoothly. I’ve had the opportunity to witness both the early scrappy days and the later-stage scaling efforts firsthand. Business development isn’t just about closing deals—it’s about curating the right ones for where your company stands today. Curious or serious? Partner wisely. Have I missed anything? Let me know how you're navigating the art and science of business development. basys.ai #BusinessDevelopment #Partnerships #StartupLife #Scaling #Strategy

You don't have to raise money to generate revenues. Getting your first paying customers isn't as complicated as you think. 👍 It's just about knowing: ➡ Who to message ➡ What to message ➡ How to message ➡ Where to message Come to the Sales workshop on May 8th if you want to unlock your sales funnel... You'll be happy you did! 📈

📣Calling all founders and entrepreneurs 📣 Come and join us for an enriching session on "Understanding Your Buyer Persona" hosted by our partners at HubSpot For Startups and Angel Investment Network. Explore the power of buyer personas, craft your ideal customer journey, and get ready for a Q+A session to address your queries. Our host, Anna Gordon, is passionate about connecting startups with the right knowledge, tools and network needed to scale and is a dedicated to helping startups thrive. Register now 🔗 https://ow.ly/tJAF50RSFxL and take a step towards transforming your startup journey! #founders #CRM #marketing #sales

Getting paying clients should be a principal goal for #startups. For a lot of founders, this is one of their biggest challenges. 🤔(especially if you haven’t sold before) I’m giving a free workshop next Wednesday to share the keys to getting paying customers, even if you aren’t personally comfortable “selling”! If you aren’t getting customers like you expected, you should come! You will definitely walk away with something you can use. 💯 For more than a decade, I’ve been helping startup founders, one at a time, to figure out how to connect their product: ✅ With the right market ✅ In the right way ✅ Using the right messaging. 👍 It sounds like the easy way to get paying clients, but the truth is it takes work. It’s not complicated, it’s just not easy. But if you know how to do it, wouldn’t the reward be worth the effort?  And if you don’t know how to do it, how long will your company survive? When you've created a great product/service and you're pretty certain it fills a need.... Sales shouldn’t be hard. 👍 In my upcoming online workshop, I'll share 4 adjustments that founders can make right away to improve their sales effectiveness and generate more (or any) revenues! I’ll also share key elements of the FORGE framework that I use to help founders: 💠 Recognize the 4 biggest missteps that kill startups, and how to avoid them 💠 Learn the value of unlocking customer insights the right way ➕ Overcome the 4 beliefs that might be getting in your way 😮 Join me on Wednesday, May 8th at 11AM pst and discover how to navigate the early days of your startup with confidence. Get your free workshop access here! https://lnkd.in/g5EkE85r #BusinessCoaching #Founders #StartupLife Max Shapiro Brian💥 Sparkes Sam Wong George Parrish

Underrated skill for Founders? Pitching 🏆 Product development, sales, and marketing are crucial for any startup but don't forget about a skill that can make or break a startup in its early stages: Pitching. 💎 Picture this – pitch after pitch after pitch. That's the reality for founders navigating the competitive startup landscape. Don't underestimate the power of being good at pitching. 😎 ▶ It's not just about delivering a presentation; it's about captivating your audience, securing investments, and gaining the momentum needed for success. #startup

The core reasons why a startup fails are related to their decision makers. Before starting up, they don't understand the market And when they present their products, market seems ignoring them Because that product is not solving their ICP's concerns. Build a Product which actually makes someone's life better. Then, customers will buy from you happily. Subscribe my Free Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3ybdGyO P.S., I write to make sales easier for you. Follow me at Rohit SAROJ

One of the most common terms in business (and VC) jargon is ‘red ocean’. But I think it’s sometimes misused. It’s not just about a market being crowded with existing solutions. It’s also about one where many startups are working on new solutions — even if none are on the market or have an online presence yet. This is why Eliran Keren's story is such a great example of why ideas.rip was created. Eliran, a serial entrepreneur, recognized that the interactions between SDR and Sales teams were fundamentally lacking. With the genAI revolution, the technology was finally ready, and he set out on a mission to make SDRs' lives easier and brighter. Excited about his idea, he began interviewing CROs, primarily from SaaS enterprise companies. It didn’t take long for red flags to start piling up, the biggest one being the realization that he was entering a super-red ocean in the making. The CROs were flooded with similar reach-outs, and didn’t seem to care enough about the problem… Eliran listened to what the market was telling him and made a U-turn. Often, founders working on an idea don’t realize just how crowded the space is. They might not see any strong products in the market yet, but here on the dark side 🌘, we can already see them in the making. Eliran’s full story and a sign-up link to the ideas.rip mailing list are in the comments

Was working on a project today and made an outreach that got promptly returned to me as a punch in the face 🥊 In early stage startups you gotta be able to take hits and wins in rapid succession. I sat for a couple minutes, reminding myself of that fact. Took a few deep breaths to reset my brain chemistry 🧠 then gave some thought to why their response was to punch me in the face. Apply a little empathy - to me this was an obvious win-win, why was this opportunity for collaboration treated like fierce competition? As I’m getting back to work on the project, trying to best conceptualize the market opportunity for my memo, suddenly it clicks. 💡 If that was not a collaborator, but a competitor, then that means my view of the market was narrower than it should be. What happens if I treat the competition as mutual? 🤔 They unwittingly gave me the unlock 🔓 The hits you take are part of the path to winning. Love a good punch in the face 🦾 time to square up! #motivated #competition #dailyfail