Sat.Jan 19, 2013 - Fri.Jan 25, 2013

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7 Failures of Corporate Executives as Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Mid-level or even top executives who “grew up” in large companies often look with envy at startups, and dream of how easy it must be running a small organization, where you can see the whole picture and it appears you have total control. In reality, very few executives or professional stars from large corporations survive in the early-stage startup environment.

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Amazon: The Phantom Menace

deal architect

The MIT Technology Review suggests Amazon is jumping into the advertising game to compete against Google and Facebook. Certainly plausible – advertisers would love to get access to consumer data which drives its recommendation engine. What’s interesting is how many.

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The Chinese government appears to have completely blocked GitHub via DNS

The Next Web

Reports are coming in that the social coding site GitHub has been blocked in China. While the service has seen blocks in the country before, this appears to be a much broader denial of service, affecting most, if not all users in the world’s most populous country online and offline. We first heard about the new censorship from Chinese web monitoring site GreatFire (and our own Josh Ong confirmed he couldn’t access the site as well): GitHub completely blocked in China now, including H

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Seven Lessons The Business World Can Learn from The Downfall Of Lance Armstrong

YoungUpstarts

by Bruce Piasecki, author of “ Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning ” Over the past few months, sports fans around the world have watched the downfall of the most celebrated cyclist of all time: Lance Armstrong. Just last week his televised confession interview with Oprah Winfrey — where he admitted to doping, using blood transfusions, and more — riveted the public.

New York 184
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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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Beauty Pays: Beautiful Websites (and People) Get Better Results

ConversionXL

Does beauty sell? Most people would intuitively say ‘yes’, but what evidence is there that supports the claim? In today’s article we’ll take a look at the world of beautiful people, products and design. How being beautiful has it’s upsides and sometimes, things to look out for. Welcome to the world of beautiful design, beautiful people, beautiful products, beautiful everything.

PHP 120
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Why and When to Learn to Program

Spencer Fry

I can only share with you what worked for me. Everyone learns differently. The only thing without a doubt that holds true for everyone learning to program is that you must deeply want to learn. Need to learn. If you go about passively learning then you'll get frustrated and give up as soon as it starts get tough. A few hours a week isn't going to cut it.

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[Singapore][Event] Inaugural PlugFest International Programming Competition Launches

YoungUpstarts

Tertiary students in Singapore looking to be the next star programmer or code monkey should look at the inaugural PlugFest International Programming Competition (IPC) , a programming competition targeted at tertiary students and individuals to create complete, usable web applications that utilize publicly-available datasets from the Singapore government through data.gov.sg.

Singapore 130
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7 Must Have Features If You Sell Products Online

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Tweet Last year I did a lot of online shopping, more shopping than I have ever done before. I suspect if you’re a net addict as I am, you spent more online last year than ever before too. According to Comscore, over $43.2 Billion was spent online in 2012. That’s up 15% from 2011. It’s a cliché to say now that online shopping is the real deal, and not just a fad.

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A Post Startup Execs Should Forward to Your Spouse or Partner. 12 Tips for Making it Work

Both Sides of the Table

I recently wrote a post about how to manage relationships when you’re at a startup or are busy executive. It was based on an excellent book I had just read by Brad Feld & Amy Batchelor (his wife). I had images in my brain of all of the stresses I had placed on my wife in the heyday of my startups. We once took a “vacation” in Spain with Tania’s parents but we were in the midst of an M&A transaction so this photo is how my wife & her family remember me on that

Partner 418
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SAP cloudwashes its image

deal architect

Watching the playoffs this weekend, I chuckled when I saw SAP is the NFL’s Official Cloud Software Solutions provider. Not sure how much it cost SAP but they are clearly eager to be considered “cloudy”. Since the revenues show a.

Cloud 322
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Back to Colombia: Vive La Revolución Emprendedora!

Steve Blank

My co-author and business Partner Bob Dorf spends much of his time traveling the world teaching countries and companies how to run the Lean LaunchPad program. He’s back to Bogota, Colombia this week for round two. —– Back to Colombia: Vive La Revolución Emprendedora! Lean LaunchPad Colombia starts again today in Bogota with 25 more teams of tech entrepreneurs and at 25 mentors from the country’s universities, incubators, and chambers of commerce.

Colombia 321
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Clay Collins Founder Of Startup Leadbrite, Pioneer Of The Prelaunch, And Serial Entrepreneur Shares His Story

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Tweet. Download the Text Transcript in PDF (coming soon). Subscribe to this Podcast in iTunes. Clay Collins is the founder of Leadbrite , the company behind LeadPages and LeadPlayer , two tools that are fast becoming the go-to-standards when it comes to collecting leads online with video and landing pages. This interview is epic in terms of how many things Clay talks about.

Founder 96
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Build Entrepreneur Credentials Early and Wisely

Startup Professionals Musings

Many believe that entrepreneurs are born, not made. While I agree that successful company builders usually have a natural inclination to be entrepreneurs, a good education helps polish that apple. There are people who are natural musicians, but that doesn't mean we don't try to teach them music. Of course, there's no law saying you have to go to college to start a business.

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The Most Reliable of Innovation Sources: The Calendar

deal architect

Last year I cataloged my major sources of innovation stories. We all have our favorites. Valley watchers focus on local startups. Apple and SAP fanboys hype up every burp in each of their cafeterias. Others like to scan academic papers.

Startup 270
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Don’t Underestimate the Undergraduates

Steve Blank

Jim Hornthal splits his time between venture capital, entrepreneurship and education. Jim has founded six companies, including Preview Travel, one of the first online travel agencies, which went public in 1997 and subsequently merged to create Travelocity.com as an independent company. Today he is the co-founder and Chairman of Triporati, LaunchPad Central.

Lean 282
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Every Small Business And Entrepreneur Needs The Media

YoungUpstarts

By Bruce Serbin, owner of Serbin Media, Inc. Business owners are always looking for ways to stand out from their competitors. Some people like traditional advertising while others turn to Facebook and Twitter, attempting to reach their audience through social media campaigns. While either method can be an effective marketing tool, the traditional media – daily newspapers, local and national television, radio programs and online – offer unparalleled advantages.

Media 192
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How to Protect Your Startup Founder’s Shares

Startup Professionals Musings

In reality, so-called “founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. But that’s only the beginning of the story. These shares are allocated and committed, but not really issued and owned (vested) until later.

Vesting 245
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Whats mine is mine. Whats yours is mine also.

deal architect

We all know how aggressive tech companies can be in enforcing all kinds of even minor patents. What is less discussed is the tendency of many to only grudgingly give credit to technologies they may themselves be embedding in their.

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Back to Colombia: Vive La Revolución Emprendedora!

Steve Blank

My co-author and business Partner Bob Dorf spends much of his time traveling the world teaching countries and companies how to run the Lean LaunchPad program. He’s back to Bogota, Colombia this week for round two. —– Back to Colombia: Vive La Revolución Emprendedora! Lean LaunchPad Colombia starts again today in Bogota with 25 more teams of tech entrepreneurs and at 25 mentors from the country’s universities, incubators, and chambers of commerce.

Colombia 271
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Canada’s Start-Up Visa Program

Feld Thoughts

I read the announcement today that Canada has just launched a Start-Up Visa Program. By doing so, they are saying to the world “welcome immigrant entrepreneurs – please come start your business in Canada.” It’s brilliant, well executed, and modeled after the Startup Visa movement that a number of us have been trying to get started in the US since 2009.

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Entrepreneurs Can’t Win By Pushing Their Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

True leaders realize that, by definition, the word "leader" places the leader at the front, and not the rear. Yet many, many executives try to lead through fear and intimidation. This isn’t really leading at all. It’s pushing. In startups, leading from the front means that you are not afraid to get your hands dirty, pitching in to get the job done.

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The Other Innovators Dilemma

deal architect

I like to believe, somewhat naively, my innovation case studies and talks inspire everyone. Reading this GE Innovation Barometer report, it becomes clear that innovation stories also cause anxiety and stress. I guess I have had several clues myself. Brian.

Offshore 246
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Adobe Systems Rolls Out Creative Cloud Over Asia

YoungUpstarts

Adobe Systems , a leading maker of multimedia and creativity software, brought its experience to the cloud when it launched Adobe Creative Cloud , a membership-based online cloud-based platform that allows users unlimited access to its entire suite of tools and services in the U.S. market last April. The platform was also recently made available to Australia and New Zealand, and today, the software company announced Singapore as the first of many Asian countries to get access to the service.

Asia 177
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Urban Airship Meeting Rules

Feld Thoughts

I love Scott Kveton , the CEO of Urban Airship. He and his team are building an amazing company in Portland. If you do anything mobile-related and use push notifications of any sort , or real-time location targeting , you need to be talking to them. But even more impressive is how Scott leads his company. The other day, I got an email from my partner Jason with a photo of the Urban Airship Meeting Rules posted on the wall.

Portland 190
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Don’t Let One Customer Kill Your Online Reputation

Startup Professionals Musings

These days, your online Internet reputation is your reputation. Of course, having no reputation is usually better than a bad one, but don’t wait for someone else to establish a good one for you. It’s time for every business and business person to proactively create a positive presence, before someone else puts you in a defensive mode that is hard to win.

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Excuse me, Maestro

deal architect

The numbers are in SAP’s Total 2012 Non-IFRS Revenue EU 16.3 billion Revenue from “New” products introduced in last 5 years HANA 392 Mobile 222 Cloud 456 (incl Ariba) NEW 1070 So, roughly 6.5% of revenues from “new” products. Compare.

Cloud 239
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To Inspire Your People – Purpose Must be A Priority

YoungUpstarts

by Jeremy Kingsley, author of “ Inspired People Produce Results: How Great Leaders Use Passion, Purpose and Principles to Unlock Incredible Growth “ As the leader of your team, you must clearly understand and be able to pass on the purpose of your organization and your team’s role within that organization. If you don’t know the purpose of your efforts, you certainly won’t be able to inspire your team to success.

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Do Startup Location Matters Even Matter?

Genuine VC

About a year ago, I wrote a post about how office space is the face of a startup – it communicates both an outward message and provides insight into what’s going on underneath, as the physical environment in which startup employees work inevitably match the company’s story and culture. Recently I’ve been thinking that it’s not just the space of a startup itself which matters, but that perhaps also the location of that office which matters as well.

Boston 169
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Startups Need the Right Team Mindset to Survive

Gust

Image via Facebook.com. Since the days of Henry Ford, mass production has been the Holy Grail of business, rather than build-to-order. Too many businesses haven’t noticed that we have come full-circle, where mass customization is required now to win. Customers have come to expect immediate and tailor-made responses to their needs, and the businesses that fail to deliver quickly fall behind.

Startup 180
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The missing element in Enterprise Clouds: Capex

deal architect

Listen to any IBM or Verizon or SAP cloud pitch and somewhere, somehow the old bullet “We will turn your capex into opex” will show up. The elephant in the room is “Where do that customer capex disappear?” It should.

Cloud 220
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Five Things You Can Do In The Office Today

YoungUpstarts

So it’s been a good week at the office so far – the sales team has reported some success with those new accounts, development on the new product is ahead of schedule, and there’s been no PR or customer service crisis so far. Even the plants in the corner office are finally thriving. It’s time to kick back, relax, check your Facebook feed and look forward to the weekend… or is it?

PR 170
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Do You Really Need an SEO Press Release?

Rembrandt Communications

The Top 3 Reasons to Distribute an SEO Press Release Today’s technology allows small businesses to build awareness online cost-effectively. Traditional public relations (PR) activities such as developing story ideas, talking to media members and promoting various events are important. But if you are not combining these activities with technological advancements, you are missing out [.].

SEO 157
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Evidence of Google Winning The Generational Shift Over Microsoft

Feld Thoughts

An email was forwarded to me this morning that had the following text in it (I’ve anonymized “The College” but it’s a large, well-regarded four year university.). The College is Going Google! What does this mean? How will it impact teaching and learning at The College? Many K-12 school districts are using Google Apps for Education, providing their students with access to Google productivity tools as early as primary school.

Email 167
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The Forest from the Trees

deal architect

I enjoy Chunka Mui’s work (it helps when you have spent a little time in person with an author) but I was dazzled by his Forbes piece on the broader implications of the Google autonomous car In fact, the driverless.

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[Infographic] Transforming Big Data Into Actionable Insight

YoungUpstarts

There’s been a lot of talk about big data recently, and with good reason. There’s a huge amount of data being thrown about – 2.7 zettabytes worth in 2012 alone, which included 354 billion corporate emails, 400 million tweets, 1 billion Facebook posts sent per day – that can be harnessed for insight. It’s truly a marketer’s wet dream, but only if they can turn that data into an actionable plan in terms of relevance and timeliness.

Email 162
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Canada announces new startup visa program to attract entrepreneurs starting on April 1

The Next Web

The Canadian government announced on Thursday it will launch a new program on April 1 to encourage startup founders who will (hopefully) create new jobs and spur economic growth in the country. As part of a series of transformational changes to Canada’s immigration system, the Start-Up Visa Program aims to link international entrepreneurs with private sector organizations in Canada that have experience working with startups to provide essential resources.

Canada 167