Sat.Aug 08, 2009 - Fri.Aug 14, 2009

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WTF is Traction? A 6-Step Relationship Guide to VC

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks. Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to invest. Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue.

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Touching the Hot Stove – Experiential versus Theoretical Learning.

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and what's changed since.

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Revisiting the Software Design Manifesto (and whats changed since then) My recent article on technical debt and its positive uses generated a fair bit of controversy. One of the topics that raised heated debate was whether I had conflated technical design with product design , because I made the admittedly counter-intuitive claim that sometimes good technical design actually leads to increased technical debt.

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How to Compete Against Open Source Competition

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Startup Marketing Advice, “Failure,&# Things I Learned the Hard Way, and more… Why “Luck&# is a Terrible Marketing Plan for Your Startup → How to Compete Against Open Source Competition Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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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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Angel Funding Advice

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and the best spokesperson for Tech Coast Angels that I have met to date), Tom McInerney (TGM) and Jarl Mohn (who invests on his own “account&# and whose track record is tr

Ireland 291
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Reversing Unintended Consequences From Regulation is Critical to Restoring Small Company IPO’s

Pascal's View

I liked the Friday, August 7 Wall Street Journal editorial, Washington vs. Silicon Valley , but it does not go far enough. In Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, and other innovation centers across the country, entrepreneurs and their backers (who are not limited to venture capitalists) are all keenly aware that Washington’s addiction to enacting hasty, one-size-fits–all financial regulation will continue to have far-reaching unintended negative consequences for the U.S. economy: “… Sarbanes-Oxley

IPO 28

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Introducing the Lean Startup Cohort subscription program

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 8, 2009 Introducing the Lean Startup Cohort subscription program Over the past few months, I have been engaged in another customer discovery exercise with passionate early adopters of the lean startup methodology. I am now ready to move into the customer validation phase. This idea is the brainchild of several venture-backed startups that participated in the lean startup workshops.

Lean 102
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WTF is Traction? A 6-Step Relationship Guide to VC

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC&# – the outline is here. You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks. Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to [.]. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capital.

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Links for 2009-08-10 [Digg]

VC Cafe

Fantasy football - WAGs. Footballers have enviable lives, they earn mega-bucks playing the game they love, they win the adulation of their fans and they also get hold of incredibly beautiful women. Check out this gallery of the hottest WAGs.

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Proposed International Tax Reform Carries Serious Negative Unintended Consequences for U.S. Companies and Damages U.S. Global Competitiveness

Pascal's View

The accounting firm KPMG recently issued a public policy alert with respect to new international tax regulations that were introduced in May for Congressional consideration. According to the report: Under existing U.S. tax rules, companies may defer paying taxes at rates as high as 35 percent on most types of foreign profits so long as that money remains invested overseas.

Global 31
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100% of Zero is Still Zero!

Small Business Force

In the early growth stages of your company, don't be overly concerned with the percentage of equity you retain. By either setting too high a valuation and/or making sure you keep controlling interest , you might do so at the detriment of being able to get the right staff and early capital you need to get the business growing. The name of the game is how much the equity is worth, not how much you have.

Vesting 32
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Angel Funding Advice

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and [.]. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice.

Hosting 299
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How much does Google really know about you? | Seth Levine

VC Adventure

Web 48
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Wall Street Journal Opinion Column: Don’t Strangle Venture Capital With Miles of Red Tape

Pascal's View

The Wall Street Journal published a combined version of my letter to the editor in response to the Washington vs. Silicon Valley editorial of August 7 with letters from Harry Edelson (another First Boston alumnus from the ’80’s), and Ryan Phillips (whom I do not know). My blog post of yesterday is a longer version of the letter that I sent to the editor.

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The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part IX: Entrepreneurship in.

Steve Blank

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (22) E.piphany (6) ESL (7) Family/Career (21) Market Types (9) Marketing (17) MIPS Computers (1) Rocket Science Games (7) Secret History of Silico

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1 Twitter Tip You Can Fix Straight Away

Both Sides of the Table

How do your friends, colleagues or admirers find you on Twitter? One of the obvious ways is to click on “Find People&# on Twitter and search for your name. But one of the oversights for many people is that they list their Twitter handle as their name making them very hard to find in Twitter [.]. Tags: Social Media social networking Twitter.

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To the Entrepreneur, Cash is Almost As Important As Breathing (But Only a Close Second)

Small Business Force

Business Master QuickTip - Cash Generation Cash flow, its generation, its conservation and, overall, its management is the single most important discipline an entrepreneur must learn to be truly successful. And of these, cash generation is the most important. From day one, it is the lifeblood of the business and will and should be at the forefront of, virtually, every decision an entrepreneur makes regarding it.

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Setbacks in White House and DHS Organizational Responses to Securing Critical Infrastructure—a Troubling Trend?

Pascal's View

Organizational challenges and governance questions appear to be gaining the upper hand in faltering efforts by the White House and DHS to address America’s cybersecurity. Last week two respected leaders in the cybersecurity realm, Melissa Hathaway of the White House and Mischel Kwon of the Department of Homeland Security Computer Emergency Response Team (DHS CERT), announced their resignations.

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1 Twitter Tip You Can Fix Straight Away

Both Sides of the Table

How do your friends, colleagues or admirers find you on Twitter? One of the obvious ways is to click on “Find People&# on Twitter and search for your name. . But one of the oversights for many people is that they list their Twitter handle as their name making them very hard to find in Twitter Search. (e.g. if I listed msuster as my name rather than Mark Suster).

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What We Must Learn from Asia

Both Sides of the Table

I run a monthly meeting called the VCA that represents the majority of Southern California venture capital firms. My goal is to bring in informative speakers who stretch our collectively thinking on topics that will influence our investment strategies and use it as a way for us to share our experiences in ways that I [.]. Tags: SoCal Stuff Start-up Advice VC Industry.

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What We Must Learn from Asia

Both Sides of the Table

I run a monthly meeting called the VCA that represents the majority of Southern California venture capital firms. My goal is to bring in informative speakers who stretch our collectively thinking on topics that will influence our investment strategies and use it as a way for us to share our experiences in ways that I hope benefit the Southern California technology ecosystem.

Asia 188