Sat.Feb 11, 2012 - Fri.Feb 17, 2012

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How to find that first big customer

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. Freshman Salesman writes: I’ve read somewhere in your blog about how you had a very large organisation as the first customer for your software.

Customer 231
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It’s a Big Step from Engineer to an Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

Every engineer who has invented some new technology, or is adept at creating solutions, believes that is the hard part, and it should be a short step to take that solution to market as an entrepreneur. In reality, that short business step embodies far more risk, and a poor technology solution is not near the top of most lists of common reasons for business failures.

Engineer 261
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How Websites Are Changing And Why This Is Good News For Small Businesses

YoungUpstarts

by Jessica Shailes. If you’re a start-up, one of the first things you may be thinking about is getting a website – it can be one of the most confusing and time consuming parts of starting a business. Where do you start? How much should it cost? What functions should your website have? How much information should be on it? Do you need to be involved in social media etc etc etc.

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Twitter Link Roundup #120 – 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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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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Learning JavaScript With Code Year

Feld Thoughts

Six weeks ago I saw a tweet about a new thing from Codecademy called Code Year. It promised to teach you how to code in 2012. I signed up right away and am now one of 396,103 people who have signed up as of this moment. Like a good MIT graduate, I’ve procrastinated. When I was an undergrad, I liked to say things like “I want to give all of my fellow students a four to six week handicap.” Yeah – I was the dude that blew off too many classes at the beginning of the semester

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7 Dumb Leadership Mistakes Smart Managers Avoid

Startup Professionals Musings

Many professionals in business, from startups to multi-nationals, assume that team leader or executive is an appointed position, and the skills come with the title. In reality, leadership is best demonstrated while not in a position of authority, and is a skill that must be sharpened every day of your life. Most experts agree that leadership, as perceived by people around you, is more about behavior than it is about specific skills or knowledge.

More Trending

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Jeremy Lin is Asian

This is going to be BIG.

There, I said it. Oh, so you had noticed. Great. then at least we're all starting on the same page and I don't need to explain half the story to you. Don't know who he is, besides that? Well, he's the Knick point guard who dropped 38 on Kobe Bryant the other night. And also Asian, yes. A Harvard grad--all listed 6'2'' of him. So who cares, right? Well, people did care--at least they used to, but not in the right way.

Matching 113
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The Challenge Of Developing A Software Startup

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

I’ve been working on CrankyAds.com now for over a year, although there have been a few start-stop sessions, so it hasn’t been exactly all-steam ahead during that time. Developing software is a lot of fun, when you have the people who can make your vision a reality.

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The Startup Clock Starts When You Incorporate

Startup Professionals Musings

The official start date for your startup is the date you incorporate the business. This is obviously important for tax purposes, but may also dramatically influence how potential investors, customers, and competitors look at you. My rule of thumb expectation is that it should take two months to set up the legal entity, six months to finalize the business plan, and by the end of the first year have a prototype product ready for customers.

Startup 225
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Working On the Business Easier Said Than Done

The Entrepreneurial Mind

Entrepreneurs face a difficult challenge in how they should be spending their time as a business grows. The dilemma is commonly referred to as needing to "work on the business rather than work in it.". Typically, entrepreneurs are heavily involved in working directly with their customers during the startup phase. They do much of the work necessary to generate revenues.

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The End of the Mexican Road

Both Sides of the Table

Negotiations. We all think we’re good at them. Most people aren’t that good. For many the idea of negotiations is “let’s split the difference 50/50.” In some situations this is the right answer. In many cases it’s not. I learned many of my negotiation techniques through experience. But I did read a couple of books on the topic that were useful: 1.

Mexico 305
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Who Dares Wins – The 2nd Annual International Business Model Competition

Steve Blank

Alexander Osterwalder and I spent last week in Salt Lake City, Utah as judges at the 2 nd Annual International Business Model Competition , hosted by Professor Nathan Furr , and his team at the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. The idea of a Business Model competition first emerged when I realized that Business Plan writing ought to be taught in English Departments – as they’re the best example of creative writing entrepreneurs will ever do.

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Why not more on enterprise software?

deal architect

While the feedback to The New Polymath was overwhelmingly positive, I was a bit surprised what prompted some of the negative comments. A few software companies bitched about the Salesforce case study. More than a few outsourcing firms complained about.

Software 244
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10 People Who Will Drain Energy From Your Company

Startup Professionals Musings

Every organization, no matter how small, has one or more people who are quite simply obnoxious, and they drain energy from everyone and can strangle your company. Sometimes they are also intellectually brilliant, or closely related to the boss, so there is no easy way out. In fact, they may even be the boss. So if you find this article taped to your desk, it may be time to look in the mirror.

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A Choir of Angel Investors Sing Different Parts

Genuine VC

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Just as often, however, we’re investing alongside individual angel investors who are participating in the round as well. Angel investors come in many shapes and sizes, however. And it’s not always easy to recognize the pros and cons of taking money from individual investors, or how to even seek them out in the first place.

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What Corporations Can Learn from Coworking Spaces

YoungUpstarts

By Liz Elam, founder/curator of Link Coworking. I don’t have anything bad to say about my time in Corporate America. I will tell you that I now enter my work day excited to go greet my members and provide a place for them to get their work done, whatever it maybe. I like to call myself a Curator and I’ll tell you why – it’s because I’m a keeper of a collection.

Curation 184
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What happened to us?

deal architect

In the hundreds of interviews in the upcoming book were a couple of especially fascinating ones with Don Graham, CEO and Vijay Rajandran, Chief Digital Officer of The Washington Post Co. Not about political coverage but how the Post has.

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Every Entrepreneur Needs a Mentor, but not a Critic

Startup Professionals Musings

The dictionary definition of a mentor is “an experienced and trusted advisor,” or “leader, tutor or coach.” The definition of a critic sounds similar, “a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis.” The big difference, of course, is that a mentor looks ahead to help you, while a critic looks backward to tell you what you did wrong. We can all learn from both of these approaches, but in my view the mentor is far more valuable than a critic.

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Link Post (weekly)

Venture Chronicles

70% of Companies Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter | social crm | Social Media Consulting – Convince & Convert. tags: blog twitter research. Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch | Fast Company. Love this. tags: blog culture strategy leadership. Get Satisfaction Wins An App Award – Articles – AppAppeal. tags: blog. Bijan Sabet • Why Facebook Connect shouldn’t be your only sign in option. tags: blog facebook.

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10 Economic Concepts Everyone Needs To Understand

YoungUpstarts

Whether you work as an economist or you try your best to ignore the bad financial news and your bank account, economics is at work in your life. It’s affecting your trips to the grocery store, your loan applications, and your paycheck, so you’d better at least try to understand some of the basics and most-used phrases. Knowing these concepts will benefit you whether you’re 18 or 80 and will help you be a better, more informed consumer and employee.

Demand 174
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SAPs small ball

deal architect

With spring training just around the corner I was talking to a friend about how the Rays and other modest city teams have learned to rely on “small ball”. (If you have seen Rays players like Crawford, Upton, Jennings on.

Software 231
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Entrepreneurs Due Diligence on Investors Is Smart

Startup Professionals Musings

Due diligence should always be a two-way street. A while back, I published an article on “ Startup Due Diligence Is Not a Mysterious Black Art ,” describing what investors do to validate your startup before they invest. Here is the inverse, sometimes called reverse due diligence, describing what you should do to validate your investor before signing up for an equity partnership.

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You Can’t Motivate People

Feld Thoughts

I’m sitting on my balcony on the ninth floor of a hotel overlooking Miami Beach thinking about motivation. Specifically, mine. I’m deep into writing the first draft of Startup Communities and – with Amy – decided to plant myself in a warm place for two weeks as I finished up this draft. We got here late Monday night. Today is the first day I wrote any words on the book.

Miami 148
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Are You Committing the Seven Deadly Sins of Business Transformation?

YoungUpstarts

by Mohan Nair, author of “ Strategic Business Transformation: The 7 Deadly Sins to Overcome “ Every day millions of Americans arrive at work filled with low-level dread and resignation. Since the recession hit (or perhaps before), they’ve been overloaded, overstressed, and overwhelmed. The typical workday is a marathon of rushing from one task after another, with few breaks between these bursts of effort, and even fewer words of thanks from equally frantic managers and coworkers.

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What tech can learn from the Grammies

deal architect

I have not watched the Grammies in years, so I felt like Rip Van Winkle at the start with acts like Bruno Mars and Adele. Those names looked vaguely familiar – from the iTunes receipts that my kids kindly charge.

Naming 225
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Presenting Your Case to Investors is Rarely Free

Startup Professionals Musings

If you are new to the startup space and Angel investing, you probably don’t realize that some groups of Angel investors charge entrepreneurs a fee to pitch to their groups. This practice has caused a rousing debate among key players, with some calling it a scam, and others defending it as necessary to cover expenses. Jason Calacanis, a well-known entrepreneur and Angel investor, opened the debate a while back in a strongly-worded article on his blog which attacked the practice on ethical grounds

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A Choir of Angel Investors Sing Different Parts

Genuine VC

We at NextView Ventures often invest in a startup’s first round alongside other funds; either seed stage focused ones like ourselves or larger traditional firms. Just as often, however, we’re investing alongside individual angel investors who are participating in the round as well. Angel investors come in many shapes and sizes, however. And it’s not always easy to recognize the pros and cons of taking money from individual investors, or how to even seek them out in the first place.

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[Singapore][Event] Startup Weekend Singapore 2012

YoungUpstarts

Startup Weekend Singapore is back! If you’re not familiar with Startup Weekends , it’s a conference- and workshop-type event where a creative and highly motivated bunch of people get together for 54 hours to come up with great startup ideas. First started in July of 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, the movement has since spread across the world.

Singapore 162
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UI the Good, the Bad and the Scary

deal architect

In The New Polymath, I was generous to the auto industry for innovating UI “with new approaches involving haptics, voice, and location.” Reading Consumer Reports over the last year, I may have been premature. The MyFord Touch interface in particular.

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Compromise vs. Problem Solving

Feld Thoughts

I spent all day Sunday at Silicon Flatirons’ Digital Broadband Migration Conference. This is a key national conference held in Boulder at the intersection of technology and public policy with a particular focus on the Internet. This year’s conference subtitle was “ The Challenges of Internet Law and Governance.” I was pondering something all morning that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

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Are you Really Ready to Use Social Media?

Rembrandt Communications

As a small business owner, you are probably inundated with news about the latest, social media trends. There is facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and more. Do you have this feeling that you should get involved with it but just aren’t sure? Well, here are… 3 Ways to Know Whether or Not You Should Get [.].

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[Review] Corporate Entrepreneurship

YoungUpstarts

How do companies like 3M, Apple, Google, Xerox, Siemens and Grameen Bank continually generate game changing products and services? What can large organizations do to retain talent while building innovative cultures? The answer? “ Corporate Entrepreneurship: How to Create a Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit Throughout Your Company “, which is also the title of a book by Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Robert D Hisrich and Claudine Kearney.

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The Never Ending Bowl

deal architect

After 22 years of marriage, I thought I had heard every Irish expression there is. This breezy weekend, my born-in-Ireland wife, Margaret went “It’s coming in like Auld Segosha”. Fortunately, she keeps a Hiberno-English dictionary at home. I am always.

Ireland 186
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Startup Summer Colorado

Feld Thoughts

One of the fun projects I am involved with is Startup Colorado, a community focused initiative to spur new company creation in Colorado. One of Startup Colorado’s most promising projects is Startup Summer. Startup Summer is an immersive summer program offering the opportunity to work as a paid intern for a Boulder/Denver startup and attend a variety of evening events, including a weekly seminar series on entrepreneurship.

Colorado 137
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Visiting DC and the Case Foundation

David Teten

I’m visiting Washington, DC, this week and will attend a HBS Club of Washington, DC, lunch this Thursday at The Case Foundation. Michael Smith and Derek Holt will discuss The Case Foundation and Startup America and the role these organizations are playing in social entrepreneurship. Specifically: Michael Smith will discuss: -Case Foundation mission and what makes it unique (and successful)?

DC 128
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[Infographic] How To Build A Dependable Workforce

YoungUpstarts

This may not come to you as a surprise, but 53-percent of job applicants list some sort of untruth on their resumes. That’s not even talking about what they choose NOT to list. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, it’s up to you to take certain steps when it comes to your hiring process so as to weed out the lemons… before they ruin your business.

Hiring 157