May, 2012

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Smart Entrepreneurs Plan Multiple Rollout Iterations

Startup Professionals Musings

The traditional mode of starting a company is to plan a serial process, where you complete only once all the steps, leading to the “big bang” launch of the company. I strongly recommend a dramatic departure from this model, called “planned iteration,” where you assume you won’t get it right the first time. This idea was well articulated by Paul Graham in an old essay, called “ Startups in 13 Sentences ” in which he talked about “making a few people really happy rather than making a lot of people

Agile 230
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A new field guide for entrepreneurs of all stripes

Startup Lessons Learned

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. Illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. You can pre-order it starting today. It's been just about two years since Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits released their self-published book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development (you can see my original review here ).

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Recruiting Software Developers By Showing Up With Pizza

Feld Thoughts

Once again we are in a zone where hiring software developers is incredibly challenging. The market is fully employed and while there is some movement between companies, great developers tend to be decided to what they are doing for a while, especially in an entrepreneurial context. Last night I was at Angel Boot Camp in Boston. It was a dinner for about 50 angel investors – a mix of experienced ones and new ones – organized by Jon Pierce.

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Developer Bootcamp Teaches Regular Folks To Code - and Maybe Get a Job at a Startup

ReadWriteStart

Learning to code is becoming the key skill for anyone who wants to launch a tech startup, or even just get a job working at a hot tech company. That may seem intimidating, but programming is not some monumental skill that only specially gifted people can learn. Really, it it isn't all that different from learning to speak another language. If you can pick up the rudiments of Spanish or French in a couple of weeks, how hard could it be to get started with Ruby On Rails?

Ruby 137
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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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A framework to think about pricing seed, angel, and venture capital rounds

This is going to be BIG.

How do you price a round? Its one of the most often asked questions and yet I've never seen a great answer given. It seems to me that the most important factor in pricing your round isn't your progress or your idea. It seems to come down to two things: 1) How much do you want to raise? 2) Supply and demand of capital willing to invest in your company.

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Venture Capital Access Program launches to aid women and diverse entrepreneurs

David Teten

We are in the midst of two great disruptions to American business: the internet’s ongoing disruption of most traditional industries: finance, healthcare, retail, finance, fashion, etc. the shift of America to a majority minority country by 2050. Any company that aspires to maintain a leadership position needs to position itself to exploit these two macro trends.

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The leap from employee to entrepreneur – Small Business Spotlight

Up and Running

It’s never easy to leave a stable job to launch a startup. But sometimes circumstances align and a budding entrepreneur just knows that the time is right to make the leap. Ben Lamson and Sulaiman Sanni, WeDidIt cofounders. Sulaiman Sanni and his partner Ben Lamson were both working for Meltwater Group, a large, well known Software as a Service company, Su as a social media consultant and Ben as a sales manager.

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Twitter Link Roundup #129 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

crowdSPRING Blog

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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In Boston, a School to Learn How to Work at a Startup

ReadWriteStart

Have you thought about joining a startup, but have no idea what you could possibly offer? Perhaps you are looking forward to graduation and want to pick some skills that will help you work for a startup when you leave school. Maybe you want to change your career and get into the exciting world of tech startups, but do not know what it takes to succeed in that type of high-pressure environment.

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Want to Know Difference Between a CTO and a VP of Engineering?

www.bothsidesofthetable.com

Home. About Me. Start-up Advice. Raising Venture Capital. Angel Topics. Entrepreneur DNA. Sales & Marketing. Negotiations. Both Sides of the Table. Entrepreneur turned VC. Want to Know Difference Between a CTO and a VP of Engineering? I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart.

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How VCs, Accelerators, and Coworking Spaces Put Communities in Buildings vs. Buildings in Communities

This is going to be BIG.

I'll bet you don't know where the Center of NY's Tech Community and Center of Creativity is. Give up? It's in the Financial District--right at 55 Broad Street. It says so right on their website. In fact, it is "well-known internationally as the original home of New York's technology community.". I'll bet you didn't know that--mostly because it never was.

Community 119
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6 Reasons Why Startup Prototypes Attract Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

It’s a long way from an entrepreneur’s “idea” to a working product with a real market and paying customers. A necessary intermediate step for proof of concept, credibility with potential investors, and communication with your team, is a working prototype. Building a prototype should be an early and high priority task for every startup. A prototype doesn’t need to look great, or be built to scale, but it better accurately translate your vision into something real and tangible.

Startup 242
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Social Reputation and Our Online Future

Lightspeed Venture Partners

'The emergence of companies like Getaround, Airbnb and even Yelp are examples of ways that we as consumers are using technology to get more comfortable doing everything from sharing recommendations to letting someone rent our car for a few hours. While the technology is the enabler for these movements, social reputation plays a key role in their adoption.

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Twitter Link Roundup #130 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

crowdSPRING Blog

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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10 Secrets of Successful Crowdfunding - From Scott Steinberg

ReadWriteStart

With the recent passage of the JOBS Act, crowdfunding is about to get even hotter. Serial tech entrepreneur, speaker and consultant Scott Steinberg , author of The Crowdfunding Bible , explains how to make crowdfunding work for your startup. Steinberg, CEO of TechSavvy Global , answered ReadWriteWeb’s most pressing questions with these 10 insights into successful crowdsourcing: ReadWriteWeb: Are particular types of tech startups better suited for crowdfunding than others, and why is that so?

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Breakthrough or Broken Head? — Gonzeaux #4

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

Visiting with Mike Bott, General Manager at The Brandery accelerator in downtown Cincinnati, you actually see what the “Front End of Innovation” looks like — two or three people, over-caffeinated and urgent, clustered around a couple of basic desks working out the details of a business plan, or creating a brand new product. Due to the training they’ve been given at the accelerator, they know a bit about innovation process, branding and fund raising — and the focus i

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Let's Not Go Overboard Now That Facebook Is Public

Babbling VC

YOU are not Marc Zuckerberg. I, too, am not Mark Zuckerberg. Only he is celebrating becoming a millionaire (no, billionaire) overnight. Well, technically, he is just collecting his due after eight years of hard work. Whether he deserves it or not is a whole other story and not something I am getting at. What I am getting at is that he is a one in a million story.

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On Human Capital & Venture Capital

thebarefootvc

Brad Feld wrote a fantastic post today entitled Too Many Seed Investment Choices. It’s a post that’s been circulating in my head as I’ve met with companies over the past 6 months. The best VCs are the ones that balance their optimism, vision and enthusiasm for startups with realism based on very real constraints (the primary one being his/her own time, but also includes market development and exit timing).

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To Be Successful You’ll Need to Shake Hands and Kiss Babies.

Both Sides of the Table

It’s Wednesday late afternoon. I’m aboard Delta flight 1833 from Cincinnati (actually, Northern Kentucky for what it’s worth) to Los Angeles. I had a very enjoyable day in Cincinnati meeting many local entrepreneurs, angels and accelerators. I was here to see one of our LPs (limited partners are the people who invest money in VC funds) called Fort Washington.

Houston 364
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Is Now the Time to Hire MBAs?

Ben's Blog

First they hate you, then they love you, then they hate you again. What the f*ck do it take for a gangsta to win? —The Game, Don’t Need Your Love. Conventional wisdom among smart technology entrepreneurs says not to hire people with Masters in Business Administration (MBAs) into startups. Aaron Patzer, founder of Mint, expressed the sentiment well when he said: “ When valuing a startup, add $500k for every engineer, and subtract $250k for every MBA.

Hiring 78
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Could You – Should You – Fund Your Startup With Credit Cards?

ReadWriteStart

When it comes to financing a brand-new startup, most founders find themselves stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. While some lucky startups attract angel investors or have access to money from friends and family, the vast majority are on their own, at least at first. That’s why it’s so tempting to use credit cards to jumpstart your business.

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Think Twice Before Starting a Company

Rob Go

I sent a tweet out last week that resulted in some healthy debate: “three years ago, I was telling everyone I met to start companies. These days, I’m telling everyone to think twice” Of course, it’s not fair to give general advice like that. But what I meant was, 3-5 years ago, when I met someone who was thinking about starting a company, my bias was one of action.

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Why Facebook is Killing Silicon Valley

Steve Blank

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win… John F.

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Which is better: Many customers at low price-point or few at high price?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

The results of a serendipitous live experiment were recently published as guest posts on this blog. Sacha demonstrated the benefits of selling many copies of an eBook at a low price, while Jarrod pointed out the advantages of higher prices, bringing in more revenue with 1/6th the number of units sold. The ensuing discussion swirled around the merits of selling more units (i.e. maximizing reach) versus selling more expensive units (i.e. maximizing per-unit profitability).

Customer 320
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What to do About that Chip on Your Shoulder?

Both Sides of the Table

I’m fond of saying that I look for entrepreneurs that have a chip on their shoulder. That they have something to prove. That they’re not afraid to stick their noses up to the establishment. I have always felt this way. It’s something I kind of seek out. I guess my thoughts are that if you’re part of the country club you have a vested interest in protecting the existing order and that disruption happens more from those that are on the outside wanting to change the rules.

Vesting 336
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How to Succeed in Living the Entrepreneur Lifestyle

Startup Professionals Musings

As we recover from some tough economic times, more and more people seem to be turning to entrepreneurship as an alternative to traditional employment. I applaud this trend, but caution all of you thinking this direction to approach entrepreneurship with your eyes wide open. It is not for everyone, as the entrepreneur’s path is fraught with challenges.

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Is Entrepreneurship for Everyone?

ReadWriteStart

Not long ago, serial entrepreneur and founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council Scott Gerber offered his prescription to Fix Young America. In short, Gerber believes entrepreneurship can cure a lot of what’s wrong with the American economy. Yesterday on Salon.com, those ideas came under attack as an Occupy imposter - instead of representing American’s youth, the post contended, they’re shills for “the most noxious aspects of the bipartisan status quo.

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IT at the crossroads

deal architect

Larry Dignan at ZDNet summarizes a nugget from a Forrester analysis of Business/IT perspectives Sure there’s collaboration between the business and IT on back office (46 percent said there was cooperation), but sales and marketing, R&D and product engineering lagged.

Engineer 281
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9 Deadliest Start-up Sins

Steve Blank

Inc. magazine is publishing a 12-part series of excerpts from The Startup Owner’s Manual , the new step-by-step “how to” guide for startups. The excerpts, which appeared first at Inc.com , highlight the Customer Development process, best practices, tips and instructions contained in our book. Feedback from my readers suggested you’d appreciate seeing the series posted here, as well. ———– Whether your venture is a new pizza parlor or the hottest new so

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I think bootstrapping might be impossible for non-programmers

The Startup Toolkit

(Note: In this post I’m talking specifically about tech startups, and especially non-sales-driven tech startups). Clever landing page tests and interviews can tell you whether an idea is bad , but not whether it will work. There’s still a big leap from “problem exists” to a product that delights while fitting into someones life and being able to attract new users.

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Marketing Presentation from Blue Glass Conference

Both Sides of the Table

I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing. I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon. I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. We’ve been testing things like: How do Facebook “Likes” perform relative to FB ads that drive you directly to a web page.

Marketing 297
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6 Tips to Max Your Business Problem Solving Skills

Startup Professionals Musings

If you can’t solve problems and enjoy it, you won’t make it as an entrepreneur. By definition, an entrepreneur is the first to undertake a given business, and firsts never happen without problems and people frustrations. The toughest problems are people problems, like personnel issues, but there are tough operational problems as well, such as vendor delays.

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5 Ways to Bootstrap Your Startup

ReadWriteStart

The conflicting (frequently unsolicited) advice startup entrepreneurs too often hear is enough to make you tune it all out. Either you’re told that you need to go big and grab all the angel or VC money you can get your hands on, or that you should start small, do it on your own, and retain control of your company. But bootstrapping a startup is not easy, requiring discipline and fortitude, as well as ingenuity.

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Big Data: of You, You and Me

deal architect

I read a fascinating article in New Scientist (sub required) which cites several academic projects to profile us based on social network data. These include: a) Work by Lars Backstrom, a researcher at Facebook, showed he could locate 2/3rd of.

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How do I stop “analyzing” and pick between two good choices?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

This is part of an ongoing startup advice series where I answer (anonymized!) questions from readers, like a written version of Smart Bear Live. To get your question answered , email me at asmartbear -at- shortmail -dot- com. Embarras de Choix writes: I have a startup with thirty paying customers. We’ve been bootstrapping up to this point. I think there’s a big opportunity to raise money, but also I could continue as I have been.

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Eight Mobile Apps Every Writer Should Have

YoungUpstarts

If you’re tired of your Moleskine and think that Microsoft Word is for laughable tech dinosaurs, consider going mobile with your writing. With non-verbal communication becoming the norm in today’s fast-paced, tech-forward world, there are many new tools designed to help you get the most out of your writing time, and, indeed, your words. If you’re struck with inspiration when you’re on the go, at least one of these eight essential apps should be available at your fingertips.

Mobile 210