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How to find that first big customer

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

But this was 2002 when AdWords was affordable and I had no competitors, so you can’t repeat that — it doesn’t matter how I did it. Maybe you worked there or a co-founder or investor has some juice). It’s rarely true that your first customer will be big. It wasn’t true for me either. I didn’t.

Customer 231
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On Bubbles … And Why We’ll Be Just Fine

Both Sides of the Table

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I know that most people who are close to them tend to deny their existence, as we saw in the great housing bubble of 2002-2007 and the dot com bubble of 1997-2000. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too. That happened a lot in 2002 and again in 2008.

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An Open Letter to Startup Founders Everywhere in a Time of Crisis

David Cohen

Founders, I’m talking to you. I’ve seen past crises, cycles, and downturns as an investor and as a founder. You are the engine of our future, after all. By 2002 the NASDAQ had fallen by nearly 80%. Because we know that this is the time for founders everywhere to step forward, not backward. March 30, 2020.

Founder 174
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How much does it cost to build the world’s hottest startups?

The Next Web

Founder Kevin Systrom launched Instagram with 25,000 beta users on October 6, 2010; two years later, the app continues to see massive growth, recently reporting 150 million active users. Luck, timing and social engineering are bigger components than most entrepreneurs care to imagine,” adds Werdelin. 3) Facebook. 6) Pinterest.

Cost 168
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IBM: Where Corporate Responsibility is Not a Trend, but a Lifestyle

Austin Startup

Let’s circle back to Latinitas’ first interaction with IBM, back to our start in 2002. We thank IBM Customer Architect and Master Inventor Janani Janakiraman, Software Engineer Karen Siles (now a Latinitas board member!)

El Paso 59
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5 Steps To Strategy Tuning Through Machine Learning

Startup Professionals Musings

Ming is the former chief of staff and strategy advisor to co-founder Jack Ma for over a decade, and outlines five key steps for automating decisions today as follows: Log and use consumer behavior and product transaction data. Apply machine-learning for real-time software decisions.

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Making Decisions in Context

Austin Startup

Kalanick, former investor BFF turned highly disappointed by founder behavior. Usually the founders duke it out among themselves as to titles and responsibilities and relative shareholdings. If you are the lead founder, if behooves you to sort all this out and get started with a clean organization. How about your Investors ?