This curriculum is based on the various questions entrepreneurs have asked me over these 64 sessions, spanning financing, positioning, customer acquisition, marketing, sales, channel, and various other early stage startup related issues.  . As usual, then, I worked with three entrepreneurs working on specific businesses.  . Then J.J. MORE >>

Yesterday Amazon announced the $775m acquisition of robotics group Kiva Systems. This is interesting because it is another move by a major internet company to vertically integrate its value chain. Amazon is currently a customer via it’s acquisitions Zappos and Quidsi , but doesn’t use Kiva in it’s home grown warehouses.). MORE >>

Marissa Mayer made her first official acquisition last week with Stamped. No doubt that strategy will include acquisitions, as Mayer proved last week when she put her first official "stamp" on Yahoo with Stamped, a New York City-based start-up founded in 2011 that lets users share things or places they recommend with friends. MORE >>

A number of investment rounds and acquisitions took place in recent weeks and it’s worth taking note. With verticals such as web, gaming, mobile and desktop software, utest has managed to tap into the vast market of companies that don’t have in-house QA teams. Innovid raised $4.1 million. uTest calcalist ]. MORE >>

The benefits of parallel customer acquisition cannot be understated. They were biased towards or against certain traction verticals. There are many verticals. The point is that you should consider all traction verticals in the pursuit of traction. up and pick the next set of verticals. First. of initial users. MORE >>