Sat.Jan 14, 2012 - Fri.Jan 20, 2012

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50 Best Twitter Chats For Business Students

YoungUpstarts

Twitter isn’t just a fun way to keep in touch with friends and follow your favorite celebrities; it’s also an incredibly valuable tool for marketing, branding, customer service, and business education. These days, few big businesses operate without a Twitter presence, and more and more business gurus, CEOs, and teachers are flocking to the site to share their expertise and inspiration with young professionals like yourself.

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Crowdsourcing: a 7+7 Primer (Pt. 1)

crowdSPRING Blog

We write often about small businesses and startups and lean approaches to marketing and other business functions. Mid- to large-size companies can also benefit from the lean methodology and one way to do so is by actively leveraging crowds of workers: designers , software engineers , testers , writers , customer support people , customers, market researchers , and dozens of other groups via the Internet.

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Cracking The Code: BlablaCar - Travel Revolution

Cracking the Code

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Monday, January 16, 2012. BlablaCar - Travel Revolution. Some countries in Europe may have lost their AAA ratings, but they have not lost their appetite to innovate and create new online services. Blablacar is one such example of innovation: with a fast growing community of 1.6m members in France ( www.covoiturage.fr ), the UK ( www.blablacar.com ) and Spain ( www.

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The open API secret

Start Up Blog

The biggest flip the technology age has done on the industrial era is the open API. For the uninitiated, an open API (Application Program Interface) is a word used to describe sets of technologies that enable websites to interact with each other. It is also a system where web companies ‘open up’ their platform for external non affiliated software developers to create applications on.

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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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Management Debt

Ben's Blog

When you base your life on credit. and your loving days are done. checks you signed with love and kisses. later come back signed insufficient funds. —Funkadelic, Can You Get to That. Thanks to Ward Cunningham, the metaphor technical debt is now a well-understood concept. While you may be able to borrow time by writing quick and dirty code, you will eventually have to pay it back—with interest.

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Entrepreneurs & Leadership: The Key is Not to Improve Weaknesses

Growthink Blog

When I was a kid I played ping pong quite a bit. We had a ping pong table in my basement and I would play a lot with my dad, my brother and my friends. I was always a good athlete, and have pretty good hand-eye coordination. So that, combined with a lot of practice, made me pretty good. In fact, I actually won a bunch of local ping pong tournaments at my school and the town recreation center.

More Trending

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Do VC’s with “Operating Experience” Add More Value

Rob Go

In a prior post about what it’s like to be a VC I made the claim that even if an investor has operating experience, that experience gets stale after a few years. This led to the following question in my comments: “You mention that operational skills begin to decline 2 years into the job. If this is true, then it follows that VC GPs can only add limited operational value.” I have lots of thoughts on this, so I thought I’d expand with a full post.

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7 Ways to Avoid a Poor First Impression in Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs are all about firsts, and the most important is you making a great first impression – on investors, customers, new team members, and strategic partners. Poor first impressions can be avoided, but I’m amazed at the number of unnecessary mistakes I see at those critical first introductions, presentations, and meetings. The key message here is “preparation.

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Life post-SOPA?

deal architect

I had couple reminders over the last few weeks of how messy attributions and permissions already are – so what about life if SOPA passes? a) My book editors went through and highlighted several quotes from articles which exceeded 50.

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The Sentiment of SOPA/PIPA is Fine, the Mechanisms are Flawed

Andrew Payne

It isn’t often that you see the MPAA on the defensive. Their recent release about the SOPA/PIPA blackout, Chris Dodd said: “It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users

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Your Office Space is the Face of Your Startup

Genuine VC

Your office space is the face of your startup. Not only does it communicate an outward message, but like a face, a startup office provides insight into what’s going on underneath the surface. A startup’s space tells a story to everyone who is involved with a company spending time there: founders, employees, investors, and (potential) [.].

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10 Hiring Shortcuts No Young Company Can Afford

Startup Professionals Musings

Every startup with any traction quickly reaches a point where they need to hire employees to grow the business. Unfortunately, this always happens when pressures are the highest, and business processes are ill-defined. At this point you need superstars and versatile future executives, yet your in-house hiring processes and focus are at their weakest.

Hiring 235
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Our Third Jobs

deal architect

I have written before about “customers as workers”. In their 2007 book, Revolutionary Wealth, the Tofflers called it our “Third Jobs” - “the unnoticed work we do without pay for some of the biggest corporations”. Back then, they may have.

Customer 246
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The Sentiment of SOPA/PIPA is Fine, the Mechanisms are Flawed

Andrew Payne

It isn’t often that you see the MPAA on the defensive. Their recent release about the SOPA/PIPA blackout, Chris Dodd said: “It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users

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How to Develop Your Fund Raising Strategy

Both Sides of the Table

Raising money is hard. And when you’re relatively new to the process it’s easy to be confused by the process. There is all sorts of advice on the Internet about how to raise capital. Of course much of it is conflicting. I’ve raised money as a “hot company” and I’ve raised capital when no one would return my phone calls.

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[Infographic] Small Business And Marketing

YoungUpstarts

When you’re a small business and marketing budgets are pitiful, options can be limited. Most small business owners tend to look towards leveraging the power of social media and online marketing to generate sales leads. Here’s an interesting infographic from the folks at Submit Graphics made for SEO.com that looks at how small business owners approach online and social media marketing.

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The Consumerization of Enterprise Tech. The Enterprising of Consumer Tech.

deal architect

SAP has hired Julie Roehm as an SVP of Marketing. I don’t know the lady and think it is unfair that the stories about her border on tabloid reporting. But it is an interesting move for SAP to hire someone.

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UT TTO Official Resigns Due to Ties to University Startups

Campus Entrepreneurship

Trouble on the technology transfer front from the University of Texas. I will have to learn more, but here is the one line pitch — uber successful California biotech researcher Richard Miller is lured to Texas to lead the way as the first commercialization chief, but quickly runs into conflict of interest issues for being too entrepreneurial! From Kirk Ladendorf at the Austin Statesman.

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3 Quick Tips to Improve Your Copy

Rembrandt Communications

Are you an entrepreneur handling every aspect of your new, small business? If so, you are probably writing all of your marketing materials and Website copy. While you may not be able to afford a professional, search engine optimization (SEO) copywriter yet, there are some things you can do to improve your copy… and they [.].

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[Infographic] The Silicon Valleys Of The World

YoungUpstarts

It’s difficult to supplant Silicon Valley as the hotbed of technology and innovation – our previous infographic looked at comparing Silicon Valley with New York – but that’s not stopping other parts of the world from building their own centers of entrepreneurship and technological innovation. Here’s an infographic – made by the folks at Gist.com – that shows some of these up-and-coming hotspots, ranging from Germany to Mexico, to Nigeria and closer to ho

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First lot of book reviews

deal architect

Books go through waves of reviews – executives, media, US readers, international readers. You appreciate them all because people take the time from their busy schedules to read, then provide feedback. Over the last couple of weeks I have received.

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Focus on Outcomes, Not Organization

Feld Thoughts

I had a great breakfast meeting at the Cambridge Marriott with Michael Schrage , a research fellow at MIT yesterday morning. We had never met before and I loved the conversation – his brain was bubbling with ideas that are relevant to many of the things I’m interested in, he challenged some of my thinking, and we had a deep and awesome conversation about open source hardware, makers, and MakerBot.

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Best Job Boards for Recruiting Startup Engineers

David Teten

One of our portfolio companies asked me this week, “Do you all have a list of job boards your portfolio companies have had great success with in recruiting high quality engineers?”. The unemployment rate for quality computer scientists/engineers in the major cities right now is zero; everyone who’s not pursuing his/her own startup can easily get a good job.

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Do You Stand Out From The Crowd?

YoungUpstarts

by Murray Newlands , is CEO and founder of Influence People. Let’s face it — there are a lot of people out there going after the same opportunities. Whether someone is on the Internet, at a conference, or at the office, you want your reputation, work and all of the aspects of your self-presentation to make you stand out from the crowd. In the short-term, it will get you into a lot more conversations, which will open doors.

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A Rare Medium Well-Done

deal architect

I am introducing a new category of periodic posts to recognize articles, blogs, books, videos interviews I think are well executed. I appreciate the compliment when people tell me I am a prolific writer. Actually, I am a much more.

Video 186
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Infographic: What the Heck is an LLC?

ReadWriteStart

The kind folks at Intuit have posted this infographic on their blog this week that describes what a limited liability corporation is and how it stacks up to other kinds of corporate entities. It couldn't come at a better time for my family, as my wife is considering expanding her own business and wants to investigate her options. LLCs are great if you want to limit the amount of bookkeeping you have to do and if you don't mind paying self-employment taxes.

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Colorado Senator Mark Udall Opposes PIPA

Feld Thoughts

On Saturday, Colorado Senator Mark Udall publicly opposed PIPA. I’ve been talking to Mark and his team for about a month about this and I’m incredibly proud of him for taking a stand on this issue. I’ve been a supporter of Mark’s for many years and his willingness to listen to his constituents, think about and understand the specific issues, speak his mind, and take a leadership role continues to impress me.

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[Infographic] A History of Disruptive Innovations In B2B Marketing

YoungUpstarts

B2B (business-to-business) marketing may not be as sexy as consumer marketing, but increasingly many technology startups are looking at disrupting this space. If you’re a startup – or a B2B marketer – that is looking at seeing how you can make your mark in B2B marketing, this infographic may interest you – A History of Disruptive Innovations in B2B Marketing , which looks at breakthrough technologies and processes that has impacted B2B marketing professionals over the yea

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More innovation

deal architect

On New Florence The Atlantis prepares to become a museum piece CES: Year of the Ultrabook KO-SU mobile education Google Search, plus Your World.

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The 30% Factor

Life Beyond Code

Every worthwhile project comes with varying levels of resistance throughout the lifecycle of that project. If you are one of those that can overcome this resistance, not just once, but throughout the lifecycle of the project, you will see the project through completion. On the other hand, if you are one of those people that can’t seem to overcome the resistance at a particular point in the project lifecycle, you will abandon the project.

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IAP at MIT

Feld Thoughts

One of the magic special things I remember about MIT is what happens during January. It’s called IAP – Independent Activities Period. Rather than classes, students can do whatever they want, including go home and sleep for the month (which I did a few times). There are lots of events, seminars, and short courses (day, week, month) on campus covering a wide variety of topics.

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[Singapore] YES No Longer – ACE Replaces YES! Startup Scheme With ACE Startups

YoungUpstarts

In a press conference today, the Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE) as led SPRING Singapore announced the overhaul of the Yes! Startups (or Young Entrepreneur Scheme for Startups) scheme , which will be replaced by a new initiative called ACE Startups. The newer scheme, aimed at helping to generate a more entrepreneurial mindset in Singapore, will see financial support for entrepreneurs at a similar level to Yes!

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More New Renaissance

deal architect

on the innovation blog The Intel/Qualcomm faceoff CES: The New Car Show Move over Bellagio! Stephen Hawking turns 70.

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Seven Reasons to Become a Founding Entrepreneur ? AGILEVC

Agile VC

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. Home. About Me. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Seven Reasons to Become a Founding Entrepreneur. January 18, 2012. I think there are tons of reasons to be a founding entrepreneur… some good, some bad, some ultimately inconsequential. Being a startup founder isn’t for everyone ultimately, in fact it probably isn’t for most people.

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Little Startup Makes It To the Big Stage, the Super Bowl

ReadWriteStart

There comes a time in the life of any startup where the founders look at each other, let out a sigh of relief and say, "we're going to make it." Startup founders and their first employees work countless hours making sure the product is functioning, helping clients and customers and responding to mini-catastrophes that crop up all over the place like wild fires during the Santa Ana winds.

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FitDesk Pedal Desk – Exercise While You Work

YoungUpstarts

Screw ergonomics – the latest trend in work or office equipment could be one that also keeps you fit and healthy. Enter the. " href="[link] target="_blank">FitDesk Pedal Desk , a unique stationary exercise bike that also combines a uniquely-designed desktop for your laptop, so you can work (or play) and exercise at the same time. The patent-pending. " href="[link] target="_blank">FitDesk Pedal Desk not only offers a firm grip for your laptop, but also provides a convenient arm rest for upp

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