Sat.Nov 03, 2012 - Fri.Nov 09, 2012

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5 Tips to Alignment With New Consumer Buying Habits

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs always work hard to create an innovative product or service, but often count on standard seller marketing for sales. But the reality is that sellers are no longer in charge of the customer buying process. Reports suggest that 90% of today’s shoppers skip marketing pitches, to research online before they buy, and over 50% check user reviews before making a decision.

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Forget Presidential Politics: Here’s How We Create Jobs — And How You Can Help

Gust

As I write this, days after the 2012 presidential election, I’m probably not alone in feeling relieved that the political jeering and soapboxing that reached a feverish pitch during the seemingly endless campaign season has finally subsided. Yet amidst all the partisan cheerleading and name-calling, there has been some discussion of substance.

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People Comparison Shop, Stupid

ConversionXL

If you think people might buy your products or services without checking out the competition first, think again. Research says that on average consumers visit three websites before making a purchase. Another insight by the same study was that the more sites a consumer visits, the more money they are likely to spend. In other words, the more expensive the product, the more time people take to comparison shop.

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Small Business and Startups: End-of-Year Mishegoss, 2012 Version

crowdSPRING Blog

Around this time last year I defined for you the Yiddish word ‘ mishegoss ,’ which many of you were familiar with in spite of never having heard the term before. Yiddish is just that way – it taps into certain archetypes in our consciousness and, as a result, a phrase that we might never have heard before seems familiar, even comfortable.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

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

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Why Silicon Valley and Hollywood Don’t Get Each Other and Who Will Win the Future

Both Sides of the Table

For the past three years I have been pounding the table as loud as I can about the future opportunities in digital video. The concise guide is here. My narrative has stayed pretty simple: People in the US watch 5.3 hours of TV per day. People read for less than 30 minutes. You will not fundamentally change consumers media consumption habits. So you tell me what the future of the Internet will be?

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Entrepreneurs as Dissidents

Steve Blank

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things.

More Trending

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5 Key Ingredients of Satisfaction for Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Building a startup is hard work for low pay, it’s risky, and it requires total responsibility to make it work. Yet, many entrepreneurs are the happiest people I know. On the other hand, I know many unhappy individuals who are always partying, have minimal commitments, and little responsibility. I suspect the real parameters of happiness have eluded these people.

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Why Startup Entrepreneurs Need to Communicate More Like George Bush Than Al Gore

Both Sides of the Table

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. It is election season. So it’s tempting to think this is going to be a partisan post – it is not. I use George Bush vs. Al Gore as allegory and I’ve been using it with entrepreneurs for years to sink in a simple point about how to communicate with the market. I use it because I believe in the power of visual and memorable stories to sink into the consciousness.

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The Golden Age of the Boston Internet Entrepreneur

Genuine VC

There are a couple classic archetypes of internet/software founders, including the genius college student cooking up something quirky but ultimately disruptive in his dorm room who launches his company straight out of undergrad. But the other archetype is a thirty-something entrepreneur who, taking his experience seeing the playbook of success at larger growing startups or even “established” companies, utilizes that domain and functional expertise as unique insight into founding a company.

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DAD: at his most huggable and corniest

deal architect

Dave Duffield is not slick - he kept forgetting his notes and guest mike at the podium. But during his talk at Workday Rising he was also generous and brought up several executive guests to the stage, thanked his growing.

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10 Keys To An Accountable Entrepreneur Role Model

Startup Professionals Musings

Getting things done effectively in a startup requires total individual and team accountability. You can’t afford excuses and multiple people doing the same job. In my view, “taking responsibility” is the core element behind accountability. Many people hear responsibility as an obligation, but I hear it as “the ability to respond.” Unfortunately many people don’t have the ability to respond, because they lack confidence in themselves, or simply don’t have the skills required.

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Why “The Culture of Failure” is Imperative to Startup Communities

Both Sides of the Table

I recently wrote about the 12 tips to building successful startup communities. After a recent discussion I had with Steve Blank it made me remember that I had left off one of the most critical factors – a culture of failure. I remember this lesson well. I lived in London from 1997-2005 and for 6 of those years ran my startup based out of London.

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9 Ways To Make Sure Your Small Business Is Better Off Four Years From Now

YoungUpstarts

by Michael Houlihan, coauthor of “ The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built a Bestseller “ “Obama’s tax policies will cripple small businesses!” “Romney cares only about bankers, huge multinational corporations, and the super wealthy!”. With election coverage ramped up to a fevered pitch and blasting the airwaves 24/7, many small business owners are rightfully feeling confused and anxious over which candidate will save the day and which will rain death and destructi

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More Innovation

deal architect

On the New Florence blog The miniaturization of pacemakers and other implants How Cushing, OK affects all our gas prices A Bird’s Wing View The Mobile Payments Land Grab Always make new mistakes Cognizant Community 2012 Fail Faster at Facebook.

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7 Co-Founder Strategies That Can Be Very Painful

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs who start a company alone soon come to the conclusion that two heads are better than one – someone to share the workload, the hard decisions, and the costs. In a moment of crisis, you may be tempted to take on the first person expressing interest as a co-founder. This would be a mistake, and could easily cost you your startup. If you think about it, you should realize that not everyone is ‘ideal partner material.

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Some Quick Thoughts on Exits for Technology Startups

Both Sides of the Table

Later today I’m presenting at the annual Rincon Ventures Summit in Santa Barbara. Startup Exits: A Primer from msuster. I thought you might like to see an advance copy of what I’m going to cover. I speak privately a lot about getting an exit at a startup. I haven’t spoken publicly about it much but since Rincon asked – I agreed.

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5 Tips To Making The Most Out Of Your Small Business Saturday

YoungUpstarts

By Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation. Are you ready to shop small? On Saturday November 24 th , Small Business Saturday (SBS) will be making its yearly (since 2010) return in an effort to help drive shoppers to local storefronts and merchants across the United States. Backed by American Express and FedEx this year, promoting the event has never been easier with the free marketing materials available to download on the official SBS website , along with the chance to qualify for free online ad

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More New Renaissance

deal architect

on the innovation blog China’s architectural boom Not your parents’ cruise The human face of Big Data Paperless ProcessWorld Software AG innovation awards Pinterest Power You’ve got a Twitter, Pinterest and Gmail mashup The Robo-restaurant.

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Don’t Let the Panda Scare You!

Rembrandt Communications

Have you heard? The Panda is coming! The Panda is here! The SEO world is buzzing with the latest news from Google that they are doing yet another Panda update. Google recently stated that about three billion searches go on every day at Google so this latest update to their algorithm could potentially affect over [.].

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Forget apps and useless startups: These four African girls have created a pee-powered generator

The Next Web

What have you built lately? 14-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola have created a urine powered generator. All over Africa, young men and women have missioned across the country and arrived in Lagos, Nigeria. All they want to do is show off what they have made. Maker Faire Africa is more than your typical startup event: it actually shows off innovations, inventions, and initiatives that solve immediate challenges and problems, and then wo

Africa 168
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Top 5 Happiness Tips For Business And Sales Professionals

YoungUpstarts

by J.B. Brocato, CEO of Intense Coaching and Consulting Worldwide and author of “ A Service Provider’s Guide to Starting a Unique Business Networking Group “ These keys, while applicable to everyone in creating a life of long-term happiness, are particularly relevant to the sales professional. They provide fertile ground on which to not only increase one’s happiness, but to maximize the efficacy of one’s sales efforts. 1.

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Politically Correct

deal architect

One good thing about this long and expensive election cycle is many folks are back to the adage of “Don’t talk politics in polite company” The pilot of this flight politely announced he would not be broadcasting any results and.

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Collaborative Consumption Creates New Marketplaces (Guest Post)

VC Cafe

It would not surprise me if you had recently stumbled across the term "collaborative consumption" while roaming the World Wide Web. The Peer-to-peer movement seems to be making waves of technological. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]. It would not surprise me if you had recently stumbled across the term "collaborative consumption" while roaming the World Wide Web.

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7 Keys to Positioning Your Competitors to Investors

Gust

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates image via Facebook.com. Every entrepreneur should spend plenty of time thinking about competitors, and how they relate to your business, but you need to be very careful what you say out loud about them to your team, your investors, and your customers. What you say speaks volumes about how you think about your startup, how smart you are, and your personal integrity.

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Mother And Son Business Team Gives Tips On Running A Family Business

YoungUpstarts

We’ve all heard how there can be certain pitfalls when it comes to running a family business, and how both the family unit and the business can both be put at risk when disputes arise. Budge and Linda Collinson of Infusion Sciences should know: the mother and son both work in the same company. As they say, “Just because you love your family member, doesn’t mean you can work with them” And it certainly doesn’t help that in CEO Budge Collinson’s case, mom works for hi

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Finding Traction

Feld Thoughts

Ever since I did the American River 50 Mile Endurance Run I’ve been fascinated with ultramarathons. After struggling through the emotional fallout of the six weeks after the race , I decided that for now I’m sticking to marathons given my work schedule and general life tempo, but I’m still completely intrigued by them and the people who do them.

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Google Ventures dedicates $1.5 billion to invest in startups, expands fund to $300 million a year

The Next Web

Google yesterday held Google Ventures event and today shared some new figures. To sum up, Google Ventures is dedicating $1.5 billion to invest in startups over the next five years, boosting the size of its fund by 50 percent, from $200 million to $300 million a year. The move puts Google’s venture capital investment arm on the same level as more established corporate venture funds, which easily invest at least $300 million a year.

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How To Build A Wildly Successful Business

Mike Michalowicz

Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Pumpkin Plan , lectured in October 2012 in Philadelphia on how to build a wildly successful business. Using strategies Michalowicz learned from colossal pumpkin farmers, entrepreneurs can grow a colossal business. It all starts with selecting the right seed.

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Become An Entrepreneur In College: It’s Easy

YoungUpstarts

by Kevin Kaiser of Startup Biz Blog. There’s no reason to wait for graduation before diving into the world of entrepreneurship. College students who have a great idea and who believe that they can juggle their entrepreneurship with college should consider taking the dive. Plus, there are many ways that young college students can take advantage of skills that they have.

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Kenai – RIP

Feld Thoughts

Our beloved dog Kenai died yesterday at 10:20 am. He was at our house in Eldorado Springs with Amy and our other dog Brooks. It was sudden and unexpected – he went quickly and painlessly. He was 12. My last moment with him was the day before when I left the house to go to the office. I had my bags with me as I was heading out for an overnight trip to Oklahoma City.

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3D printing expanding through the industrial world vertical by vertical – now dental crowns

The Equity Kicker

If software is eating the world then 3D printing is atomising its factories and production centres. The 3D printing trend is less advanced than the software trend, but it’s coming. I’m writing this today having just read that one in ten dentists (I assume in the US) are 3D printing replacement crowns for their patients on-site while they wait.

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Excellent Analytics Tip #21: Convert Complex Data Into Simple Logical Stories

Occam's Razor

I love this quote from Richard Branson: Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple. Is there any place Mr. Branson's words are more relevant than our big data world ? I'm convinced that an important minor contributor to the business world being less data driven is the fact that we are not as awesome as we need to be when it comes to communicating clearly, logically and simply when it comes to presenting data.

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[Infographic] Laziness And Workplace Productivity

YoungUpstarts

We often hear how staff are often overworked in the office, but did you know that employee laziness at the workplace actually cost employers a lot of money? For example, the average worker admits to wasting up to 3 hours per eight-hour workday (and this does not include scheduled lunch and break times) on social media, socializing or just plain spacing out.

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Build It

Feld Thoughts

During the last few days in Kentucky I was asked some version of the question “how do I get started” a few times. It was usually in the context of “should I write a plan first” or “should I design a full system.” Sometimes it was in the context of “I’m having trouble raising money on my idea.” My answer was some permutation of “just get started, create something, and ship it” which of course could be simplified to “build it.

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The Platinum Pass Is About to Sell Out

Startup Lessons Learned

In the past, The Lean Startup Conference was a one-day event. This year, we’ve included a second day for workshops and startup site visit s. P lus we had so many good speaking candidates this year, we’ve just added Ignite: Lean Startup , an extra evening of talks. But wait--there's more! We're excited to partner this year with 500 Startups' Warm Gun design/UX conference and LeanStartup Machine to offer five incredible days of learning and networking in San Francisco.

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The future of recruiting in the technology industry

The Next Web

If you spend any time hanging around founder and CEO types and ask them what their biggest problem is, you’ll hear “recruiting developers, engineers and UX/UI designers”. It’s the complaint that lead us to tackle the problem with the founding of DeveloperAuction. The fact is, since LinkedIn was created (90% of revenue is from the recruiters sending solicitation emails, to the point where the average Silicon Valley developer gets 100+ recruiter emails per year), nothing new has come along i