Mon.May 12, 2014

article thumbnail

The Economics of a Small VC Fund

This is going to be BIG.

'Two years ago I started a fund. For the fund to be viable, it had to be at least $5 million, but somewhere in the neighborhood of $8-10 million would have been perfect. Thankfully, that''s what I raised--$8.3 million. So how does it work? How does one make money raising a venture fund of this size? Not easily, let me tell you. The benefit comes in the upside, and it''s very back end weighted.

article thumbnail

Real Entrepreneurs Are Hunters Rather Than Farmers

Startup Professionals Musings

'Most entrepreneurs believe they are “different,” but they can’t quite understand how. They usually explain it by insisting that they are driven to follow their passion, need to be their own boss, want to get rich quick, or want to change the world. I now believe that the roots of the difference may go back more than 10,000 years, when hunting and farming became two different lifestyles.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

BUZZ Doesn’t Equal BUY: Three Factors To Look For When Seeking Stocks With Long-Term Value

YoungUpstarts

'by Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard and author of “ The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success “ Avid market watchers know that the last two months have been devastating to fast-growth Internet stocks. Twitter has lost 34 percent of its value, which comes to $8.6 billion of shareholder money. Facebook is down 16 percent and $24 billion.

Stock 157
article thumbnail

Public Closing Dinner For Gnip/Twitter Deal – #BoulderWin

Feld Thoughts

'Whenever a company gets acquired or goes public, there is often a fancy closing dinner. It’s usually at a nice restaurant in a private room. The wine is expensive and the toasts are many. The people in the room are the founders of the company, the executives, the board members, other major investors, the lawyers who worked on the deal, and the investment bankers – if any were involved.

Colorado 160
article thumbnail

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

article thumbnail

[Sponsored] Communication Is Key When Expanding Your Business

YoungUpstarts

'One of the most important things to remember when expanding a business is communication. Being able to expand your business into new markets overseas is an important milestone, and a sure sign of success. As such, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all without considering the practical issues you might face. However, international expansion can be difficult, and there are several things you will have to bear in mind.

Email 155
article thumbnail

Should your hobby be your job?

The Next Web

'Ilya Pozin is the founder of Open Me and Ciplex. Conventional wisdom says you should make your passion into your career so you’ll never work a day in your life. But what happens to your hobbies when they suddenly become your 9-5? Can you keep the fire burning for your passion when it becomes your bread and butter? Embracing your passion and turning your hobby into a career might sound great, especially if you’re burnt out in your current profession.

Web 162

More Trending

article thumbnail

5 startup ‘rules’ entrepreneurs should ignore

The Next Web

'Amit Kumar is the Head of Small Business at Yahoo. As a mentor for 500 Startups and former CEO of Lexity (acquired by Yahoo in 2013), I’m often asked how to build a successful business. In many cases the entrepreneurs, I work with are launching startups with hefty goals of changing an industry – or in some cases the world. With these types of aspirations, there are certainly rules that can help startups get there, but these rules don’t necessarily work for all entrepreneurs.

article thumbnail

$40bn wiped off newspaper ad revenues in ten years

The Equity Kicker

'In 1942 Joseph Schumpeter wrote that creative destruction is an ‘essential fact of capitalism’ Old ways of doing things need to fall aside to make space for more productive methods. Another essential fact of capitalism is that it drives an ever increasing pace of change, and we see these two essential facts coming together in the chart above which shows $40bn in revenues disappearing from the newspaper industry in little over ten years – an amazingly rapid collapse by histori

Revenue 143
article thumbnail

Where I’ll Be During Boulder Startup Week

Feld Thoughts

'This week is Boulder Startup Week 2014. If you have read my book Startup Communities , then you know Andrew Hyde was the founder of Boulder Startup Week. After a hiatus of a few years, he’s back this year as one of the organizers of BSW 2014. I’m around all week. Following are the events I’ll either be attending or speaking at. Wednesday (5/14). - 8am – 9am: Boulder Open Coffee Club. - 10am – 1130am: Startup Politics: Who Needs It : I’ll be doing a panel wi

Startup 135
article thumbnail

Why building big businesses, not just startups, is crucial to emerging markets

The Next Web

'Josef Mandelbaum is the CEO of Perion Network. In their book “Built to Last – Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” Jim Collins and Jerry Porras studied 18 exceptional companies, identifying what sets them apart from their competition. They compare the practices of these companies to the common practices that companies tend to follow. For a company to be truly great, they say, it can’t be in the business of “time telling,” but rather “clock building.

Europe 136
article thumbnail

Communication Is Key When Expanding Your Business

YoungUpstarts

'One of the most important things to remember when expanding a business is communication. Being able to expand your business into new markets overseas is an important milestone, and a sure sign of success. As such, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all without considering the practical issues you might face. However, international expansion can be difficult, and there are several things you will have to bear in mind.

Email 100
article thumbnail

Want To Dominate An Industry? Write A Book

Mike Michalowicz

'Christmas morning could have been your day. All those eager gift getters could have seen your face as they drooled over your new amazing book. Your book! Do you hear me?!??! YOUR BOOK. They could have spent the evening drinking eggnog and reading your wisdom. But alas, you still haven’t written your book. Another year down the tubes. Do you want to dominate your industry?

article thumbnail

Oracle Plans to Bring 200 Jobs to San Antonio

SiliconHills

'Oracle has announced plans to bring 200 jobs to San Antonio by 2016 in a new operations center. The deal is contingent on the approval of economic development incentives from local government. The San Antonio City Council will consider a $1 million grant for Oracle on Thursday and the Bexar County Commissioners Court will consider […] The post Oracle Plans to Bring 200 Jobs to San Antonio appeared first on SiliconHills.

article thumbnail

5 Questions For a New CEO: Raj Choudhury, BLiNQ Media

Jeff Hilimire

'This is the eleventh installment of my “5 Questions for a CEO” series. The list so far: Raymond King , Zoo Atlanta. Devon Wijesinghe , Insightpool. Mark Feinberg , Uruut. Simms Jenkins , BrightWave Marketing. Rob Kischuk , PerfectPost. Kyle Porter , SalesLoft. Brett Jacobsen , Mount Vernon Presbyterian School. Jacqui Chew , iFusion Marketing. Joe Koufman , AgencySparks.

Media 65
article thumbnail

Evolution & strategy

Start Up Blog

'Evolution itself does not have a strategy. It just lets what wins, win. If anything, it is the accumulation of a lot of in market testing. Traits, (or tactics) are tested for advantage, and those that work, keep on happening through natural selection. Nature tries everything. Nature lets things that don’t work die. We too can help our business evolve.

article thumbnail

What Influences People To Buy Products or Services? Top 10 Factors

crowdSPRING Blog

'Why do people buy one company’s products or services while ignoring the products or services of a competitor? What influences people’s purchasing decisions? Some, like Clay Christensen, argue that customers “hire” products (or services). It’s a novel theory - one that requires you to carefully listen to your customers.

Product 101
article thumbnail

Duct Tape Selling Launches This Week

Duct Tape Marketing

'Duct Tape Selling Launches This Week written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. When my first book, Duct Tape Marketing , finally went on sale I told my readers that it felt like I’d given birth. A number of women were quick to point out that I knew not of which I spoke. I’ve been careful ever since not to make the same mistake, but certainly somewhere in nature there is an appropriate metaphor to describe a book launch.