Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Cash is the fuel of every startup. Your burn rate is the rate at which that money is being spent, and allows an estimate of how long you can go before refueling (runway). That refueling is when you will need more investment, or when you will break even and begin that steep profitable growth curve. Investors also look at your burn rate to see how efficient and effective you are at running the business.

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Burn Rate Startup Salary Equity 232

deal architect

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

From MIT Technology Review: “"Customers are coming to us and saying 'I'd like a Watson,' " says Stephen Gold, IBM's director of worldwide marketing for Watson. Eventually, that might be possible, but first they need to have the right data.

Technical Review 218

Technical Review Technology Customer Marketing 218

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

I mentioned a couple of weeks back that I am reading Clayten Christensen’s new book, Innovators DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. I’m still really enjoying it, and I now have a second major takeaway. As I wrote last time, the first take away was that to a large extent innovation is a learnt skill that can be self taught. The new insight is that the skills of a good innovator – associative thinking, questioning, observing, experimenting and networking are very different to

Founder 144

Founder Framework Portfolio Networking 144

Diego Basch

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

Those of us who work in software live in a world of lean practices. We are encouraged to prototype, fail fast and iterate. We have seen software-based companies go from an idea in a kid’s brain to a billion dollar business in the time it would have taken him to get a college degree. Of course, those are the outliers on the positive side. For every extremely successful software project there are a large number of failed ones that we’ll never hear about.

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Developer Software Engineering Software Software Developers 60

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Lack of confidence in your self, your product, and your startup is a surefire recipe for disaster. At the other extreme, too much confidence or arrogance can kill you just as fast. It’s always painful when a startup fails, but as a mentor to founders I would hope that you can learn from these failings and not stumble on the same issues: “Business plans are for dummies.

Sweat Equity 238

Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Startup Viral 238

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

The Single Most Important Word In Any Business This content from: Duct Tape Marketing. I want to ask you to take a little test. Go out and grab five or six of your best customers and pose this question to them: What’s one word you would use to describe how you think about our organization? The ability to capture and hold one word in the mind of your intended market is perhaps the most telling measure of marketing success.

Metrics 64

Metrics Software Developers Software Development Campaign 64

deal architect

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Maybe because of my books the last few years, but I have become much more aware of a large community of developers, musicians, authors, SAP Mentors, Oracle Aces. They share a common trait – they are not entrepreneurs or employees.

Community 250

Community Employee Developer Entrepreneur 250

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

The days when you locked and loaded your career in school, and then blasted away down that same narrow path the rest of your life, are gone, never to return. Career survival today requires thinking and acting like an entrepreneur starting a business, staying nimble and resilient, willing to pivot, and supersensitive to the market realities of supply and demand.

Cofounder 271

Cofounder Startup Demand Networking 271

Diego Basch

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

If you go to college in the US, after graduation you’ll start receiving requests to give money to your university. Given that universities in the US are businesses (usually run very efficiently), I always wondered what would motivate alumni to donate. There are many worthwhile causes in the world (e.g. hunger, malaria, preventable diseases). Why choose a school that may use your money to build a world-class swimming pool or running track?

Argentina 55

Argentina Silicon Valley Software Engineering .Net 55

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

This is part of an ongoing startup advice series where I answer (anonymized!) questions from readers, like a written version of Smart Bear Live. To get your question answered , email me at asmartbear -at- shortmail -dot- com. Ambitious Sailor writes: How can a former navy officer with twelve solid years of overseas defense contracting experience convince a tech startup to hire him as their business guy?

Hiring 230

Hiring Washington Startup Matching 230

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

by Vickie Milazzo, author of “ Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman “ In the business world, we’re often advised to network. Interested in changing careers? Network! Need to attract some new clients? Network! Wish you had a knowledgeable mentor? Network! The fact is, networking is a valuable and effective tool that can enrich and advance your career… when you use it properly.

Networking 232

Networking Social Media .Net America 232

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

I have a certain friend who called me a while back, all excited about his latest revelation. “What if you could go to a web site and find all the recipes you could make today, with just the ingredients you already have in your kitchen? I’m going to start a website to offer this service!” I’m sure you all realize that there could be quite a distance between a great idea and a great startup.

Due Diligence 244

Due Diligence Startup Search Engineer 244

deal architect

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Read this post by Joe Konrath, and you will think that relations between book authors and publishers make those between spouses and mother-in-laws look cordial:) I have had a less tempestuous relationship with my publisher for two reasons: a) As.

Technology 199

Technology 199

David Teten

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

We are excited to announce that as of November 30, ff Venture Capital closed on a $27 million fund, ff Silver. TechCrunch broke the news and Betabeat also covered it. Our investment philosophy – part of what makes us successful – is our search for sustainable long-term growth areas. Our fund’s strategy is to look past the popular momentum and search for new areas of untapped growth potential.

Venture Capital 141

Venture Capital Portfolio Search 141

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Recently graduated? Not sure how to handle your own finances? You’re not alone. Many college graduates are saddled with credit card debt, crushing study loans and sustained unemployment after graduation – coupled with poor financial literacy and management, can potentially mean financial doom down the road. You can avoid all this by careful financial management – all you need to start with is by setting a budget.

Finance 215

Finance Management 215

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

If you startup is your dream, why would you want to think about an exit? It’s going to be so successful and so much fun that you don’t need to think about what comes after. Wrong. There are two very real and practical reasons why you need to plan an exit: Outside investors want to collect their return. Remember that equity investments are not like loans with interest.

Exit Strategy 241

Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering IPO Startup 241

deal architect

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

I am excited to welcome LumenData to the past and present gallery of innovators and disruptors who sponsor this and the New Florence. New Renaissance blog. LumenData is a Product Development and Services firm, focused on Enterprise Information Management. They.

Product Development 199

Product Development Developer Management Product 199

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

I expect many of you have read at least one book on Steve Jobs and Apple since Jobs’ death. If you, like me, grabbed and consumed a copy of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, I have a recommendation for you. Go buy a copy of Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired–and Secretive–Company Really Works by Adam Lashinsky. It’s much better, much more interesting, and in many ways, more revealing.

America 133

America Conversion Email Entrepreneur 133

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

I love Lego. As a child I used to build almost anything with these little plastic toy bricks, and I bet many of you did too. You’d think that Lego was an American invention, but did you know that it first started as a range of construction toys in the 1940s designed by Dane Ole Kirk Christiansen? These stackable, interlocking toy blocks are now so popular with children that teachers are using them in classrooms to teach students as part of class curriculum.

Design 196

Design 196

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2012

Being an entrepreneur these days requires an understanding of a thousand topics, many of which don’t even exist today in traditional learning vehicles, like schools and textbooks. The Internet and its information wave have changed everything – it’s the problem, with constant change, and it’s the solution, if you use it to navigate quickly and self-educate.

Entrepreneur 233

Entrepreneur Internet Social Network Matching 233

deal architect

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

I was at a restaurant recently which had an every day/all day 2 for 1 happy hour. And it occurred to me how bars and telcos share a common trait: awkward hours for convenient pricing. Well this restaurant – Chili’s.

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Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

I love getting post board meeting emails that are retrospectives from execs in the meeting. This one came a week ago from Jeff Malek, the CTO and co-founder of BigDoor. They’ve been on a tear lately and are in the process of a massive set of Q1 launches for new customers. . We had a solid board meeting, but I suggested they were being too casual about a couple of things, including communication about what was going on.

Cofounder 130

Cofounder Email Founder Customer 130

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

There’s a daily deal site for almost everything – from generic ones like Groupon and Living Social , to those that focus on a niche like CouponTrade and DoggyLoot. But here’s one with a heart: Social Goodies ( www.socialgoodies.com ), launched last May, is a daily deal site that aims to benefit non-profit and charitable organizations.

Cofounder 189

Cofounder Web Business Model Demand 189

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

When we started NextView Ventures, we deliberately took time during our first offsite together to define a shared sense of “Ethos” which we are going to use as guiding principles in building our firm. All five of them (Authentic, Blank Canvas, Golazo, Invited Guest, & Tribe) we’ve listed on our website since it went live a little more than a year ago, and my partners in recent blog posts have discussed in more detail two qualities of our Ethos, Invited Guest and Golazo.

Portfolio 114

Portfolio Seed Stage Venture Capital Partner 114

deal architect

FEBRUARY 18, 2012

For a while, the annual Leadership Forum in Mumbai was the IT equivalent of a pilgrimage to Mecca – you had to go at least once in your career. But, last week’s event came and went without a whimper. It.

Leadership 199

Leadership Offshore Global Technology 199

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

You just spent a lot of time, effort and money creating an e-mail campaign. But when you sent it out, a ton of people unsubscribed, you received complaints and no one purchased your new product. It was a failure. But don’t despair! Use this opportunity to learn from your mistakes, and to create a more [.].

Campaign 113

Campaign Product SEO Email 113

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Social networking giant Facebook launched Facebook Timeline last December as a new way for people to share their (entire) lives online. Perhaps people are just resistant to any kind of change; there are entire Facebook groups dedicated to sharing their hate for Timeline. But for those of you who actually like or don’t mind it, there are various apps you can use to improve your Timeline profile.

Customer 172

Customer Social Network Web Networking 172

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

I don’t plug a lot of videos on this blog — how many video’s are all that relevant to creativity and innovation? This is the exception, I have one I’d really like you to watch, after you read this Jay Leno style “set up” Growing up in anti-communist America the world was black and white. [.].

America 131

America Video Government 131

deal architect

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

This is one in a series of periodic posts to recognize articles, blogs, books, videos interviews I think are worthy of sharing. The category A Rare Medium Well Done says it nicely This time it is Sam Fuld of the.

Video 186

Video 186

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

Forty first in a series of weekly posts by myself and Nicholas Lovell of Gamesbrief which answer the fifty questions you should ask before raising venture capital. We expect the series to run for a year after which we will collate the posts into a book. You can find the rationale behind the series here , and the list of questions here. We welcome your comments on any and every aspect of what we are doing. —————————————.

Venture Capital 123

Venture Capital Revenue Metrics Security 123

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

There are many issues that keep entrepreneurs and small business owners up at night, but amongst the most pressing must be financial ones. The recently released Small Business Barometer from Western Union Small Business Payments gives us an interesting insight into financial matters faced by small businesses. According to the survey: Worrying over revenue generation (46-percent) and positive cash flow (17-percent) keep small business owners up at night, 55-percent report forgetting to invoice a

Small Business 164

Small Business Revenue Customer Sales 164

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

When we started NextView Ventures, we deliberately took time during our first offsite together to define a shared sense of “Ethos” which we are going to use as guiding principles in building our firm. All five of them (Authentic, Blank Canvas, Golazo, Invited Guest, & Tribe) we’ve listed on our website since it went live a little more than a year ago, and my partners in recent blog posts have discussed in more detail two qualities of our Ethos, Invited Guest and Golazo.

Portfolio 100

Portfolio Seed Stage Venture Capital Partner 100

deal architect

FEBRUARY 18, 2012

On New Florence Talk about rapid implementation The Crunchies awards Flying Men over Manhattan “The Hacker Way”.

Technology 186

Technology 186

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. Home. About Me. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Final Close: The Story Behind NextView’s Own Fundraise. February 21, 2012. We recently completed the final close of NextView Ventures, LP and we’re excited about both our progress to date and our plans for the future.

LP 100

LP Seed Stage Silicon Valley Limited Partner 100

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

By Brentt Taylor. Everybody sets financial goals. From the wealthy Fortune 500 CEO to the homeless beggar on the street, having goals when it comes to money is ubiquitous, because quite simply, money is an important part of our lives. Whether your ambition is to retire a millionaire, or to put your children through college, or make enough money to pay the bills this month, your financial goals help drive you and define you.

Finance 164

Finance Management Web Developer 164

Life Beyond Code

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Once I attended a conference where a serial entrepreneur was sharing his advice on what works now. The people in the audience were employees from high tech companies who wanted to be entrepreneurs. The speaker shared a lot of things that were counterintuitive but lot of it was plain bad advice. The speaker was very passionate and also totally believed in what he was sharing.

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Vesting Audience Revenue Software 117