September, 2009

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You’re most vulnerable right after you win a deal

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Start-up Lessons.&#. Recently I wrote a blog post about how I hated losing, but I embrace it. My starting line with every entrepreneur is that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned from F’ing it up on my first business. I even put that in the the preamble to my Start-up Lessons outline.

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Can You Trust Any vc's Under 40?

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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My story and support for the Founders Visa

K9 Ventures

In the past few days there has been a lot of discussion on the topic of a Founders Visa. The credit for starting this fire goes to Paul Graham from Y Combinator , who wrote a great essay titled The Founders Visa in April 2009. Brad Feld (Brad is an advisor to K9) from the Foundry Group was instrumental in keeping the flame alive by posting about it on his blog ( The Founders Visa Movement ) in September.

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The Most Challenging Part of Becoming a Freelance Developer.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Announcing the “Micropreneur Academy Product Showcase&# Micropreneur Spotlight: Online Mind Mapping Software ThoughtMuse → The Most Challenging Part of Becoming a Freelance Developer Software Development 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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Business Week Report on “Radical Future of R&D” Misses Critical Capital Markets Link in Innovation Ecosystem

Pascal's View

The cover story of the September 7 issue of Business Week reports on the “ Radical Future of R&D “, focusing on the internationalization of research and development led by global corporations such as IBM and Hewlett Packard. The magazine includes a story written by Adrian Slywotzky , “How Science Can Create Millions of New Jobs.” Mr.

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Digital Family Summit

SoCal CTO

Just a quick note that I'm going to the Digital Family Summit on Wed around online communities. Hope to run into some people there.

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The Customer Development Manifesto: The Startup Death Spiral (part.

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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Support the Startup Founders Visa with a tweet

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, September 19, 2009 Support the Startup Founders Visa with a tweet Its been an exhilarating first day here in Washington DC for the Geeks on a Plane tour. We met a number of policy makers from the White House and State Department, and had a solid Startup2Startup all about government policy and entrepreneurship. After a full day of talking, debating, thinking, and strategizing, we feel about read to take some good old-fashioned action.

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Why A Link from TechCrunch Will Not Make You Rich | Software by Rob

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Why “Luck&# is a Terrible Marketing Plan for Your Startup Announcing the “Micropreneur Academy Product Showcase&# → Why A Link from TechCrunch Will Not Make You Rich Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Brand Measurement: Analytics & Metrics for Branding Campaigns

Occam's Razor

One of the ultimate excuses for not measuring impact of Marketing campaigns is: "Oh, that's just a branding campaign." Admit it, you've heard it. I suspect you've even used it liberally!! : ). Before we go any further I must clarify that I love branding campaigns just as much as the next guy. I love campaigns that Visa runs.

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Washers, dryers and secret sauce - why naming your technology is important

BeyondVC

Our washer and dryer was on the fritz today, and as I started to do some research on large capacity stackable units I started to get overwhelmed with all of the new terminology and features. After all, isn’t a washer a washer and a dryer a dryer. How many different combinations and features could there be? As I dug deeper I found myself thinking about these appliances less from a consumer’s viewpoint and more from a marketing one and appreciating how these various companies could make a commo

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Most Startups Should be Deer Hunters

Both Sides of the Table

This post is part of my series “ Startup Lessons &#. Elephants, Deer and Rabbits – Some thoughts on start-up segmentation. Nearly all of the mistakes I made at my first company I fixed by the time of my second company. This is the only mistake I repeated twice and it is a mistake that I see many, many companies make. I know that this advice won’t apply to every possible startup – but I think it applies to many.

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Let's Fire Our Customers

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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Don't be the Ice Cream Glove

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, September 3, 2009 Dont be the Ice Cream Glove I have a new post up today on OReilly Radar , called " Is your product an Ice Cream Glove or a Snuggie? " It is based on two videos I normally use in workshops - each of which contains an important entrepreneurship lesson for all of us. Heres an excerpt: For those that haven’t watched it, I’ll give a brief recap.

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Announcing the “Micropreneur Academy Product Showcase” | Software.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Why A Link from TechCrunch Will Not Make You Rich The Most Challenging Part of Becoming a Freelance Developer → Announcing the “Micropreneur Academy Product Showcase&# Micropreneurship If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Really Simple Syndication

Eric Friedman

3 years and 1 day ago I wrote a introductory post about RSS. Since that time a lot has happened with RSS, but I keep referring back to that post. In fact, it became a presentation I did a few times both within my last company (to teach everyone about using a feed reader and staying up to date with clients) to outside at technology events. I don’t think I have referred to any post more than the guide to RSS and it still works even though its 3 years old.

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Lower values, higher risks? Or a paradise for investors? - Startups.

Tim Keane

'Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. Home. Archives. Profile. Subscribe. « Are Investors Being Unreasonable? | Main. | Does the world need "tough" entrepreneurial coaches? » September 17, 2009. Lower values, higher risks? Or a paradise for investors? I'm just reading a post  from Wisbusiness.com  by Joe Kremer of the Wisconsin Angel Network.  (WAN is a trade group of angel organizat

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Are MBAs Necessary for Start-ups or VC?

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I had to laugh a bit reading it.

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Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners.

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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Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (and a request for help)

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 28, 2009 Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (and a request for help) There are only two opportunities left this year to see a Lean Startup presentation in the US - for free. In order to make those events the best they can be, Id like to ask for your help. This Wednesday, Ive been invited to give a lecture as part of Stanford Universitys Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar.

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Development Through Self Empowerment

thebarefootvc

While in Rwanda, I went on long drives, for it’s the only way to see this beautiful country. Some roads are paved but many are not — one day, it took us 10 hours to travel a little over 200 kilometers on a bumpy dirt road winding through the hills. Along those drives I’d get diverse glimpses into local life, from the suburbs of larger cities to bustling villages to remote standalone houses.

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Starting up for a social good – The Feast Kitchen Event 2009

Eric Friedman

On October 2nd 2009 I will be participating in an event called The Feast Kitchen where startups will get to present their ideas for social good. These are companies (some non-profit some for profit) trying to make the world a better place. I have two tickets to give away and invite anyone interested in attending the chance to win tickets by simply letting me know in the comments, a tweet(use hashtag #feastongood ) or a blog post why you want to attend.

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Want To Know More About the Future of Internet TV?: Let’s Look to Korea

abovethecrowd.com

[Follow Me on Twitter] We are clearly at a very important point in time when it comes to Internet video, especially video that is served to your television, but over the Internet (also known as “over-the-top” Internet video). Christmas of 2009 and Christmas of 2010 will mark the point in time that Internet menus began [.].

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Don’t drink your own Kool-Aid (surviving TC50)

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons”. Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. Worth a read on how to maximize the traffic that comes to you site since much of it will be fleeting.

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The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

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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Gov 2.0 Summit wrap-up

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 15, 2009 Gov 2.0 Summit wrap-up I had an incredible time at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington DC last week. Ive never seen such a mixed crowd of entrepreneurs, vendors, and policy makers all in one place. There was quite an exchange of ideas. I was thrilled to be included. I promised to post the slides for my highly abbreviated version of the lean startup presentation, so here they are.

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The Daily Beast’s Foray into E-Books

thebarefootvc

Today, The Daily Beast announced a joint venture with Perseus Book Group, with Tina Brown noting that there is “a gap between online writing and full-length books that [is] no longer being fully met by a dwindling market for magazines.”. The effort will utilize Daily Beast writers to publish books of 150 pages or less on a shorter cycle than traditional publishing houses.

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Your on-line presence is more than your Web site

Andrew Payne

Five or ten years ago, your Web site was your entire on-line presence, simply because there wasn’t any other place to deploy content and functionality. Today, that’s not the case at all: with the proliferation of platforms (Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.), embeddable content, widgets (video, Flash, etc.) and access methods (desktop, mobile, game system, large screens) your on-line presence is much more than just what’s on the Web site.

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Words of widsom from my youth

Altgate

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Seeking CTO in Boston for Healthcare IT startup Popular Posts → Words of widsom from my youth Posted on September 6, 2009 by fnazeeri I’m preparing for a presentation in about a month at the University of Michigan. It’s a speech on entrepreneurship to a few hundred students, faculty and others.

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A Tale of Two Pitches

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Many people agreed and added that even the best sales meetings are also discussions and not pitches. A few weeks ago I sat through two very contrasting presentations and wrote this blog post right afterward.

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Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type (part 4) « Steve Blank

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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International tour about to begin

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 14, 2009 International tour about to begin For my international readers: are you in Washington DC, Paris, Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, Malmo, or even Oulu, Finland? Then youll have a chance to come discuss the lean startup live and in-person. (Whats that you say? DC is actually not a separate country? Fascinating.

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Serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence at HBS

Seeing Both Sides

When I was at Harvard Business School (HBS) in the early 1990s, entrepreneurship was an afterthought. When I joined the venture-backed Internet start-up Open Market in the spring of 1995, I was one of only a handful of graduates that joined a start-up out of business school (at a fraction of the salary of my classmates, I might add!). Today, the entrepreneurship department is the largest department at HBS.

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ACORE REFF West Conference Keynote Abstract, September 30

Pascal's View

This coming Wednesday I will be speaking at the REFF West conference in San Francisco about the capital markets crisis and its impact on American innovation. Given the recent upwelling of popular press articles heralding the return of IPOs, my views, which are supported by newly released long-term statistics,are likely to generate some discussion. An abstract of my remarks follows: The capital markets crisis has put an entire generation of American emerging growth companies at risk.

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ProfessorVC: Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct

Professor VC

ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Thursday, September 24, 2009. Survey says VCs invest on Gut Instinct. Nope, the above quote isnt from Richard Dawson on Family Feud, but similar to a headline that caught my attention on the front page of the business section of the San Jose Mercury News this morning. Not that it was surprising, but that it would be news worthy of this placement.

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I met with an investor, what happens next?

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&# Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some advice on how to do that was covered in this link – Getting Access to a VC. This post covers the day after. I spoke about the topic on Fox Business News yesterday in a great session with TechCrunch50 winner RedBeacon and will post it along with my other VC Videos when Fox puts it on their website.

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