Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Let me not bury the lede. I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). I am taking the lead from GRP and we also invested alongside a number of friends including Dave McClure, Dave Tisch, Ben Smith (Merchant Circle), Brian Lee (ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom), Jason Calacanis, Evan Rifkin, Jennifer Lum, Jay Weintraub and a whole host of other angels.

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Southern California San Francisco CTO Hire SEM 359

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One.” The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Equity 258

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

by Michael Houlihan, coauthor of “ The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built a Bestseller “. It’s official: Email, texting, and social media are no longer just helpful supplemental business tools. They’ve taken over the whole game. Yes, technology has made many aspects of modern living more convenient and “connected,” but the pendulum has swung too far.

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Social Media Technical Review Non-Compete Email 263

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Yes, there are Lean Startups even in the United States federal government. I know this is an unpopular thing to say, since it sounds so patently absurd. But I've seen the teams with my own eyes and witnessed their results first hand. For my take on how this is possible, you can see my previous post on Lean Government here. Today, I'm excited to share the latest round of startups that are being run by the Presidential Innovation Fellows program.

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Fractional CTO Government Technical Review Analytics 158

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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. My rationale is simple: everything goes wrong and only great teams can respond to competitors, markets, funding environments, staff departures, PR disasters and the like. Final startup grind from msuster. How you build out your team in the first few years can have a huge impact on the trajectory of your company.

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Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Most entrepreneurs have learned that it’s almost always quicker and easier to get cash from someone you know, rather than Angel investors or professional investors (VCs). In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. You see, investors invest in people, before they invest in ideas or products.

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Technical Review Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Due Diligence 273

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

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Social Media Small Business Technical Review Design 106

www.kalzumeus.com

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Kalzumeus Software. Patrick McKenzie (patio11) blogs on software development, marketing, and general business topics. Blog. Greatest Hits. Standing Invitation. Start Here If You’re New. About. What The Rails Security Issue Means For Your Startup. Posted on January 31, 2013. by Patrick. in security , startups. January has been a very bad month for Ruby on Rails developers, with two high-severity security bugs permitting remote code execution found in the framework and a separate-but-related

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Security Software Review Ruby Startup 101

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Most people think that the Peter Principle (employee rises to his level of incompetence) only applies to large organizations. Let me assure you that it is also alive and well within startups. I see startup founders and managers who are stalled transplants from large organizations, as well as highly-capable technologists trying to start and run a business for the first time.

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Non-Compete Management Founder Startup 210

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

“Policies are organizational scar tissue. They are codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again. They are collective punishment for the misdeeds of an individual” With excerpts like that, you can be sure that “ Rework ” by founders of 37Signals Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson isn’t an ordinary book on entrepreneurship.

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Software Review Software Developers Software Development Hiring 150

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I like this video from OnlineMBA.com. And here’s the intro for it, quoted from that site: There’s no question that women are making large strides in U.S. business and technology fields. Today’s generation of women professionals are more likely than any other to found, lead or advise a major U.S. firm. But while women continue to secure increasingly high-level leadership positions, there are still some glaring imbalances.

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Technical Review Incubator Leadership Equity 112

om.co

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

About. Twitter. Subscribe. Om Says. About Me. Om Malik is the founder of GigaOM. He is a venture partner at True Ventures. Om is the author of Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist. He has been blogging for over a decade and in the past held various staff writing positions at Forbes.com , Red Herring and Business 2.0. He also has contributed to the Wall Street Journal and the Economist.

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Founder Conversion Distribution Silicon Valley 80

Babbling VC

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

I just received the Nexus 4 from Google last week as I felt it was time to get to know Android a bit. I'm so accustomed to the iPhone that I felt technology may be passing me by on iOS. I had played with various devices running different flavors of Android in the past. I wasn't impressed. What basically made me feel that it was time to change my mind was the raving reviews the Nexus 4 was getting.

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Technical Review Software Review Software Restful 73

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Have you ever wondered why some startups are able to land funding while so many others struggle to do so? What is it about those startups that were able to attract not only the attention of venture capitalists, but also make them rip out their checkbooks and fall over themselves signing them? Is it a great business plan? An ace team of business types and star programmers?

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Private Equity Thailand Incubator 164

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

“Content marketing” refers to creating information (content) that has value to others. The creator of the content ultimately wants to sell a product or service to prospective buyers who benefit from the content, but the goal of content marketing is rarely to sell directly. Instead, the goal of content marketing is to encourage people to read and perhaps engage with the content, and to begin developing a relationship with the person or entity that created that content.

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Small Business Marketing North America Distribution 94

SVPG

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

The term "pivot" is probably one of the most overused and abused terms in today's product teams. If you're not familiar with the concept, see Your Business Plan Is Wrong. As I work with different teams I find the term used in so many different ways. Mostly the different uses of the term are pretty harmless. It is often used as a synonym for "change.

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SCRUM Java Ruby Product 66

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Youre reading Radical Transparency — a blog brought to you by the team at Keen IO. Michelle Wetzler. Engineer, arranger, communicator, amateur photographer. Follow @michellewetzler. How I negotiated my startup compensation. Tweet. August 21, 2012. Hi, I’m Michelle. I recently left my job as a technical consulting manager and joined my best friends and my fiancé, Kyle, at Keen.io (I wrote about that here ).

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Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

by Tony Alverez. The last thing any business owner wants to worry about is whether the point-of-sale (POS) system is working. For a seamless POS experience, it’s important that you choose a good system, and that you maintain it properly. By proactively maintaining both the hardware and the software as outlined below, you can avoid the headache caused by malfunctioning hardware and software. 1.

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Software Review Software Sales Employee 140

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

In 2012, in partnership with Stanford University , U.C. Berkeley and NCIIA , Jerry Engel and I first offered the Lean LaunchPad Educators Class. The class was designed to teach educators (and the adjunct entrepreneurs that support them) the Lean LaunchPad approach (Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) for teaching entrepreneurship.

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Delaware Lean Entrepreneur Advisory Board 297

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Entrepreneurship is more about building a business than inventing a product. It’s more about the quality of the execution, rather than the quality of the idea. Most importantly, it’s more about being a proactive leader who connects to customers and the team deeply, rather than a bright light that struggles to be seen amidst the glare of a million other bright lights.

Entrepreneur 274

Entrepreneur Conversion Technology Partner 274

deal architect

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

In my post So you want to be a (Big) Data Hero I highlighted several examples of impressive payback from projects around predictive maintenance of railcar wheels, hurricane tracking, crop insurance, water leakage etc. As I continue research on my.

Technology 255

Technology 255

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

We looked at all the products in the space and thought, “We can do it better.” So we did. – most founders It’s a common refrain, and I suppose this is what all founders should think! After all, if your product is inferior in every way to even one incumbent product, why do it at all? Still, this is always an invalid “idea” for a business.

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Distribution Differentiation Lean Restful 267

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

We all know the value of a good business card – it’s still one of the best tools for networking and marketing. But the business card has been around for over 100 years and it’s seen little innovation aside from the use of uncommon materials such as aluminum or plastic, or the implementation of QR codes to redirect recipients to an online webpage.

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Ohio United States Networking Design 200

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 2, 2013

A common misconception I often hear in the startup world is that non-profits are easy and safe, since they don’t have to pay taxes, and they don’t have to make a profit for their shareholders. In reality, from the feedback I get from non-profit executives, exactly the opposite is true. Technically speaking, in the United States, a non-profit corporation or association is one which has been exempted from Federal income taxes by meeting the criteria set out Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue C

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Revenue Startup Africa United States 262

deal architect

FEBRUARY 2, 2013

You could take the title of Guy Kawasaki’s new book APE – Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, and replace Author with so many other creative disciplines. BusinessWeek, this week, had a section on Designer as Entrepreneur leading off with Yves Behar as.

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Entrepreneur Design 249

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

'In 2012, in partnership with Stanford University , U.C. Berkeley and NCIIA , Jerry Engel and I first offered the Lean LaunchPad Educators Class. The class was designed to teach educators (and the adjunct entrepreneurs that support them) the Lean LaunchPad approach (Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) for teaching entrepreneurship.

Delaware 189

Delaware Lean Entrepreneur Advisory Board 189

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

We all know that communicating with your associates, customers and team members is a key to success, but with taxes, events, monthly meetings, and everything else going on at your organization right now, your communications efforts may be lagging. Here are three, key questions to ask yourself to help stay on track with your business [.].

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Customer Public Relations PR Small Business 196

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Being a good entrepreneur means being able to effectively convince an investor that you have a great idea, persuade partners that your approach is right, and convince potential customers that the solution is right for them. If all your ideas are intuitively obvious to everyone, you probably aren’t thinking outside the box, or don’t really have the next big thing.

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Analytics Audience Conversion Business Plan 251

deal architect

FEBRUARY 4, 2013

This continues a series of columns from practitioners I respect. The category "Real Deal" describes them well. I first met Art Mesher in 1995. We were both freshmen Gartner analysts and in class and bars he would passionately talk about.

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YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Small business sentiment on the economy this year remains skeptical, according to a new survey of 600 small businesses by Alibaba.com , Vendio and Auctiva. While many are generally optimistic about their own opportunities with nearly half of respondents expecting to see revenue growth this year, only 37-percent of them expect the economy to improve in 2013.

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Small Business Social Media Government Revenue 177

Gust

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Robert Jordan image via HowTheyDidIt.com. Entrepreneurs are a notoriously stubborn (some say confident) group of people, so I see many of them making the same mistakes that predecessors have made. Thus I’m convinced that it’s useful for all of you to step back from time to time, and listen to some sage advice from people who have been there and enjoyed success.

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Jordan Entrepreneur Green Hiring 185

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Anyone who works with entrepreneurs will tell you that all are different. Some are really inventors, who view the challenges of building a business as a necessary evil. Others are really marketers out to make money fast, and believe that they can entice customers to any offering. Some just want to change the world and make it a better place. But none have any lock on success.

Entrepreneur 242

Entrepreneur Incubator IPO Framework 242

deal architect

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Ed Bott has a nicely done review from of the Surface Pro – lots of things which caught my attention – 2 lbs weight, stylus, 5+ hour battery life, DisplayPort connector, Touch cover. I had considered waiting for it as.

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YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

If you’ve stepped into any of coffee chain Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf ‘s 51 outlets recently, you may have noticed a point-of-sale marketing promotion that seems just that little bit out-of-place there. It actually promotes the use of Samsung TecTiles , the first business implementation of the company’s Near Field Communications (NFC) technology in Southeast Asia.

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Singapore Asia Campaign Mobile 174

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Last May, I shared the news that long-time Lean Startup advocates Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits were working on a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur featuring illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. That new book is about to hit bookstores everywhere. I was honored that they asked me to write the foreword, and with their permission I'm posting an excerpt below.

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Lean Entrepreneur Agile San Francisco 167

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Innovations comes in many forms and different parts of the economy are adapting to it differently. This post covers difference between a group of students and a group of industrialists and includes a video of the future work environment in 2025. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

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Video 166