Both Sides of the Table

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10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. Where Stealth is Good – There’s a lot of discussions on the web about whether startups should be stealthy before they launch or not. For early-stage consumer companies I would be careful not to market futures at all.

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The Changing Venture Landscape

Both Sides of the Table

.” * I first wrote about the changes to the Venture Capital ecosystem 10 years ago and this still serves as a good primer of how we arrived at 2011, a decade on from the Web 1.0 The biggest change for us in early-stage investing is that we now need to commit earlier. dot-com bonanza. That never would have happened 10 years ago.

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Is Silicon Valley Really Coming to an End?

Both Sides of the Table

We once thought nobody could unseat Google since all inbound traffic to the web came from them. Most large companies (tech or otherwise) have two functions that make it hard to drive the most successful early-stage innovation. Enter social media and its importance as a traffic source. Is Facebook unstoppable? Of course not.

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Is it a Good Idea to Have Ads in Tweets?

Both Sides of the Table

We’re clearly in the early stages on Twitter monetization but let me offer some views on why we find Ad.ly We’re clearly in the early stages on Twitter monetization but let me offer some views on why we find Ad.ly was the “static&# web. was the 2-way web. That was a kerfuffle too.

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11 Quick Tips to Get More Value out of Your Board

Both Sides of the Table

Early stage tech startups aren’t public companies so you don’t need to obsess with “having your books formally closed” or scheduling the board meeting only after the end of the quarter. If they need to dial in make sure they’re on a web conference and you can see them and vice versa. It happens. It is a HUGE MF distraction.

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If You Don’t Have a Discrete Hypothesis You Are Incapable of Failing

Both Sides of the Table

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. 8:17 How did you decide to go with either shrinkwrap or web only product? And there are very few people who so consistently exceed my expectations when I hear them speak.

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Brad Feld Drops Knowledge. Here’s What He Said …

Both Sides of the Table

This time frame – 2005/2006 – web 2.0 And especially if you are dealing with early stage firms where partners might have different areas of specialization but they might have a lot of connective tissue across things. Was about a billion dollars on the IPO” and “was one of the first web analytics companies.