Mon.Jun 13, 2011

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Choosing a Programming Language and Framework for Your Startup

SoCal CTO

We had an interesting presentation at the LA CTO Forum by the CTO of a startup who chose Groovy / Grails as the framework for their startup. t prompted a good discussion around how CTOs go about choosing the programming language and framework for their startup. Some common themes from the discussion: Know Where You Are Going Before you can possibly make a choice around language and framework you need to ask all the important questions that are talked about in Startup Software Development – Do Yo

Framework 330
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On the (un?)importance of design

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

We recently underwent a Cinderella-like transformation: A total redesign of the WP Engine website from despicable steaming pile of hideousness to a designed, thematic — dare I say artistic? — sleek new look. Does it matter? It must have mattered. Look how bad it was. Not only were the pages just ugly, they were peppered with database errors and CSS blowups: Just look at us now , sporting a grayscale 1950′s automotive motif playing off the “engine&# concept using the lates

Design 253
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[Review] Guide To Getting Paid

YoungUpstarts

The only thing worse than having no customers is having non-paying ones. And small businesses, with limited credit and cash flows, suffer from non-paying customers more than most. After all, it sucks doing a whole bunch of work and rack up a large number in your receivables column, but have your business go under because you can’t collect on them to pay off your own bills.

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Hiring web developers

emediavitals.com

Trending iPad Smartphones Social Media SEO / SEM Paid Content Content Aggregation / Curation Hyperlocal Tags Advertising Audience Development Design Editorial Technology Products & Resources Publisher's Playbooks Industry events Site index.

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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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The Top Nine Challenges Of Growing an Entrepreneurial Business And How To Tackle Them

YoungUpstarts

by Edward D. Hess, author of “ Growing an Entrepreneurial Business “ For many, achieving the American Dream means taking control of their destiny, quitting their 9 to 5, and opening the doors to their very own business. These brave entrepreneurial souls have shaped American enterprise, and today, they’re playing the very important role of helping to drive the nation’s economic recovery.

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Does Your VP of HR Report To Your CEO?

Feld Thoughts

A decade ago I didn’t pay much attention to the VP of HR position. Today, I view it as a key role if you are growing headcount at least 50% year over year and have more than 20 people in the company. And, title inflation notwithstanding , I prefer to call it “VP of People&# since we are people after all, not “human resources&# or “HRs&#.

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More Trending

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What's Wrong With Today's Board Meetings: Part 1

ReadWriteStart

As customer and agile development reinvent the startup, it's time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven't changed since the early 1900's. It's time. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model.

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Ignore startup history at your peril

This is going to be BIG.

It’s great to see so many first time entrepreneurs out there taking the big leap. At First Round , a lot of the companies we invest in have new founders at the helm. It’s exciting to work with them and incredibly rewarding to help them succeed. Our penchant for backing new teams also means we’re willing to meet with lots of first time founders on the way to backing that select few.

Viral 110
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The Harder They Work, The Luckier They Get

Growthink Blog

The best entrepreneurs and executives are those that are able – through both great training and great talent – to move efficiently and profitably from ideas to execution , and then from execution back to ideas and then back to re-focused execution. The entrepreneurs to avoid are those overly focused only on ideas or only on execution. Those focused too heavily on ideas don’t quickly and rigorously enough subject their ideas to the rumble and tumble of the marketplace.

SEM 110
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Mini Saga #87 – Path

Life Beyond Code

Being focused is important but one should also learn to spot alternative (and better) paths along the way. Mini Saga #87 – Path. Jim’s childhood friend Charlie was happy and surprised by Jim’s success. What Jim dreamt of doing where he ended up were totally different. Jim changed his goals multiple times, yet was brilliantly successful. Jim happily shared his secret – “I was focused on my goals but kept spotting better goals regularly”.

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Successful Businesses Build on Purpose

Up and Running

When you start a new business, you obviously start with an idea. But a critical ingredient for success is understanding your “why”. Why do you do what you do? It’s amazing how many business owners and their teams go through the motions of running their businesses on a day-to-day basis without ever understanding the purpose behind what they are doing.

Sales 75
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Change the currency

Start Up Blog

I heard a great little story today about how to overcome barriers when pitching business, changing minds or influencing in general. Changing worldviews is hard, often impossible. But there are two possible routes we can take when trying: Route (A) We can try and change peoples view on a topic- change the unchangeable. R oute (B) We can change the currency. - This route is invariably more successful because it re-directs peoples perspective.

Sales 69
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From Happiness to Panic: Entrepreneurs Set the Tone

The Entrepreneurial Mind

One of the tools I use to teach is story telling. It is not the kind of war stories that have become infamous among some of us who used to "do" and now "teach." Rather, when I am trying to bring some concept or lesson to life for my students I tend to either use experiential exercises or stories from my own or other entrepreneurs' experiences. I find that both approaches can be effective ways to make key points memorable.

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Elements of The Social Business

Austin Startup

This is a blog post I wrote for the Dachis Group blog today. In the almost two years I’ve been with Dachis Group there is one question that I’ve been asked over and over again. “What is social business?” I’m sure my colleagues have had the same experience. The challenge I have is that social business is comprehensive in nature, and therefore defies trite explanations.

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How to Attract and Retain Customers :: Small Business Marketing.

Duct Tape Marketing

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING Home About Consulting Products Programs Workshops Blog Resources Contact Subscribe by RSS Subscribe to Duct Tape Marketing by Email Small Business Week 2011 Our winners! Mon – Justin Severidt Tues – Elizabeth Frederick Wed – Denise Sheehan Thurs – Nicholas Hammernik Fri – Jennifer Nagel Books by John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – by John J

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Mind a short plug?

Berkonomics

Mind a short plug? If you like these insights, you can purchase a full hundred and one of these in either soft or hard cover, by purchasing BERKONOMICS – the book – direct from my web store just by clicking here. Soft cover $20.00 or hard cover $30.00. Optional BERKONOMICS workbook $15.00. (Makes great gifts too.) Do this now, so you’ll be ready for ADVANCED BERKONOMICS coming soon.

Web 54
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A sign that mobile payments are coming

Jeff Hilimire

Typically the cab drivers I get aren’t incredibly, how shall I put it… technologically advanced. Like, most of them have phones that I haven’t seen since the show 90210. And unless you’re in a major city, if they do have the ability to take a credit card, its the old manual left to right swipe of the card that gives the faintest possible receipt you’ve ever seen.

Mobile 55
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When You Should Still Use a Relational Database Instead of NoSQL

www.readwriteweb.com

ReadWriteHack ReadWriteWeb Channels ReadWriteStart ReadWriteBiz ReadWriteEnterprise ReadWriteCloud ReadWriteHack ReadWriteMobile International ReadWriteBrazil ReadWriteChina ReadWriteFrance ReadWriteSpain ReadWriteHack Home Archives More Articles & Blogs RSS Twitter Facebook When You Should Still Use a Relational Database Instead of NoSQL By Klint Finley / June 9, 2011 4:10 PM / 0 Comments Tweet Hacker News This post is part of our ReadWriteHack channel, which is a resource and guide for dev

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Hatsune Miku – Crazy Popular In Japan & Coming To America

Altgate

I hadn’t heard of Hatsune Miku until having lunch last week with NetProspex CEO Gary Halliwell who told me about this singing synthesizer program with a 3D hologram and concerts. But I didn’t get it until he pulled out his iPhone and showed me this Youtube video (with 7 million page views!): There are so many cool things about this. First, think of a Lady Gaga level popular “rock star&# without a rock star!

Japan 52
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Walker Twitter Highlights: June 6th – 12th

Scott Edward Walker

I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly ) and my blog-related tweets. If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here.

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500 Startups Hits the Accelerator Pedal (and Program) Again

www.readwriteweb.com

ReadWriteStart ReadWriteWeb Channels ReadWriteStart ReadWriteBiz ReadWriteEnterprise ReadWriteCloud ReadWriteHack ReadWriteMobile International ReadWriteBrazil ReadWriteChina ReadWriteFrance ReadWriteSpain ReadWriteStart All Posts Archives Featured RSS Twitter Facebook 500 Startups Hits the Accelerator Pedal (and Program) Again By Audrey Watters / June 9, 2011 9:00 AM / 1 Comments Tweet Hacker News Share Less than a year after the launch of the investment fund, Dave McClures 500 Startups is goin

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Public Service Announcement – Great Post by Chris Dixon

ithacaVC

Just read a great post by Chris Dixon called “So you want to raise seed capital… ” . Here it is. Link. Enjoy.

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America’s Entrepreneurial Innovation Needs Help

Startup Professionals Musings

The innovation engine that powered the U.S. economy over the last century seems to be slowing down and dying, threatening not only local opportunities, but the economies all over the world. The $30 billion trade surplus in advanced technology products that America enjoyed just one decade ago has now become a $56 billion deficit. More and more people, like Henry R.

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What to do When a Tech Giant Decides to Eat Your Lunch

Both Sides of the Table

An edited version of this post originally ran on TechCrunch. This version has some additional details on a portfolio company I’ve invested in, which are disclosed below. WWDC. The annual Apple event where no real hints about what products they plan to release are floated in the public domain in advance. No private head nods are given to small startup companies to help them prepare.

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Zimride: Front-end Engineer - K9 Jobs - Posterous

K9 Ventures