Wed.Sep 24, 2014

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10 Entrepreneur Approaches That Turn Off Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

'Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Others will work hard on a business plan, and then mail it indiscriminately to every potential investor they can find on the Internet. Both of these approaches are a waste of your time and theirs.

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The Double-Edged Sword – Key Business IT Risks And How To Combat Them

YoungUpstarts

'With digital technology now playing an essential role in businesses across all sectors of the economy, any company that is still working on outdated IT solutions is likely to find itself struggling to cope with the data-driven, constantly connected environment. But while embracing the latest tools can greatly increase productivity and help give firms a competitive advantage over their rivals, they are not without their drawbacks.

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The evolution of early stage investing in the UK

The Equity Kicker

'I wrote the post below for Crowdcube , one of the UK’s leading equity crowdfuding sites. It went up on their blog yesterday. _. Two developments have changed the face of startup investing in the UK in recent years. The first development is increased capital efficiency. Entrepreneurs can now achieve an awful lot with very little money. We see this all the time at Forward Partners where we invest right from the idea stage and most of the companies get a first version of their product live

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5 Suggestions To Enhance A Pupil’s Experience

YoungUpstarts

'by Marcin Gnat, blogs and media specialist for Brainly.com. The pupil experience is definitely high on the program for just about any educational institution. Word of mouth plays a large part in the promotion of schooling and any product is not any distinct. If students do not have a satisfying and positive experience, which they believe meets their needs and offers value for money, a school or university will probably detect a fall in applicants and standing.

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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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Workdays quiet leadership

deal architect

'In 2009, I wrote a blog about Parker Harris, the co-founder of Salesforce.com titled The Loneliness of a Pioneer. I wrote “.in some ways he wishes the larger vendors would be there today. There are common engineering and plumbing challenges.

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Re-organized Labor

Rob Go

'One mega trend that we’ve been excited about recently is around the ways that technology is allowing for a re-organization of labor markets. This has been a real trend since the first internet bubble (eLance, Kosmo), and is exploding at the moment. What technology has done in these markets is streamline three things. First, customer acquisition and ordering.

More Trending

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A visual guide to pitching

Version One Ventures

'There are many great articles that outline what an entrepreneur should cover during a pitch, but very few discuss how to deliver that message in a compelling manner. That’s why I wrote, “ A good story is the key to any pitch ”, earlier this year. I thought I’d revisit this topic with my visual guide to storytelling. At nearly every meeting with an entrepreneur or fellow investor, I’m asked what we are looking for when we evaluate an investment opportunity.

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New Location: How To Make A Business Move Transition Smoothly

YoungUpstarts

'As a small business owner, you obviously know how to manage a lot of details. Even so, nothing will make you feel like a novice faster than trying to move your business from one location to another. If it makes you feel better, you’re not alone. Most small businesses simply do not have the budget to afford a full time logistics coordinator. Other entrepreneurs have stood where you are standing now and, like you, they thought that moving a company couldn’t be that much harder than moving a resid

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A visual guide to pitching

Version One Ventures

'There are many great articles that outline what an entrepreneur should cover during a pitch, but very few discuss how to deliver that message in a compelling manner. That’s why I wrote, “ A good story is the key to any pitch ”, earlier this year. I thought I’d revisit this topic with my visual guide to storytelling. At nearly every meeting with an entrepreneur or fellow investor, I’m asked what we are looking for when we evaluate an investment opportunity.

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Expanding Your Contracting Business: Tips And Tricks To Smooth Out The Process

YoungUpstarts

'Summer is the busy season for contractors. Some contractors can even earn enough by working on summer projects to sustain them throughout the rest of the (slower) seasons of the year. But what if times are tight and you need to expand your brand to take on other projects? Or, what if you simply want to raise your value to potential clients by taking on other renovation and remodeling specialties (like electrics in addition to basic construction)?

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What are some of the keys to assembling a great board of directors at a company?

Gust

'There is a saying in the not-for-profit world that your board members should all fall into one or more of three categories in which they can deliver: Wealth, Work or Wisdom. In my experience, those same qualities also apply to for-profit boards: Wealth , as in investors who can write checks and help with fundraising in future rounds; Work , as in directors with specific skills who can be helpful in recruiting, business development, customer introductions, exit analyses, etc; and finally, Wisdom

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That Problem? It’s Always Been There You Just Noticed.

Mike Michalowicz

'That employee who just quit? They were giving you hints for a long time now. It took them quitting for you to notice. That client who just left you for your biggest competitor? They tipped you off multiple times. It took them leaving for you to notice. That “I can’t this anymore” moment you just had? You knew it all along. It was just now that you decided to pay attention to yourself.

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Favor Raises $2M from Silverton and Tim Draper

Austin Startup

'Favor, the app to get any local store or restaurant delivered, today announced $2M in seed funding from angels and venture capitalists including Tim Draper and Silverton Partners. With demand surging in its initial markets of Austin and Boston, Favor is leading the push for customer-centric delivery in the ‘Sharing Economy’.

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Five for Friday v2

Start Up Blog

'Ok – here are 5 things I’ve seen (not all new) which have kept me awake at night wondering about life: 1. Forget entering the Matrix, it is being built around us, right now. In fact, you’re already in it. The ever clever Cory Doctorow tells an incredible story about the world the computational cage being built around us. Watch here, it’s a must.

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Magnitude Software Secures $100M Capital Committment

Austin Startup

'Magnitude Software, a leading provider of Enterprise Information Management (EIM) software, today announced it has secured up to $100 million in capital investment led by Audax Group, a leading middle market private equity firm, and a significant personal investment by Chris Ney, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer. Magnitude Software will use the investment to further build the company through product innovation, organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

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Fresh from the SPRING: lamosca04

crowdSPRING Blog

'When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we noticed this gem submitted in this logo project. Let us start the slow clap for lamosca04. Check out more great work on lamosca04’s profile page. Nicely done, lamosca04, nicely done! Related posts: Fresh from the SPRING: LuW. 12 Questions: Meet Emanuel H?

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Think of your startup like a beach volleyball team

Jeff Hilimire

'I had the great fortune last week to be able to meet Stanford Business School professor, Huggy Rao. What an amazing guy and rest assured, I’ll be referencing him in many blog posts in the future as I have pages upon pages of notes from his talk, plus I’m reading his book, Scaling Up Excellence , which I highly recommend. He spends a great deal of his time studying successful startups to both inform entrepreneurs of best practices but also to help businesses understand how to “

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Use the Power of Positivity to Gain the Competitive Advantage

Up and Running

'Happiness can have a huge impact on your business, from the employees to the customers. The founding fathers were onto something. The pursuit of happiness matters more than ever, especially in business. To boost the productivity and performance of every employee (even the CEO) from the inside out—and the overall perception of a company by customers— get happy.

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Tool and resource list for new founders

The Startup Toolkit

'A braindump of the tools I frequently turn to for my projects. Some of these are super obvious, but I wanted to make a comprehensive list, so I put them in anyway. Others are more unusual. Analytics. Google Analytics – free and good enough for all your analytics needs. Google Keyword Planner – see how many people are searching relevant terms.

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13 Ways to Make Your Online Business an Attractive Purchase

Up and Running

'Does your online business have what it takes to attract buyers? There’s a lot to think about when you’re looking to sell. From keeping your operations smooth to scouting potential buyers, getting ready to pass along your business takes a lot of work. However, this process is easier if your company is an attractive option for potential buyers.

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The Power of Renewable Referrals

Duct Tape Marketing

'The Power of Renewable Referrals written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with co-authors of Renewable Referrals. I love referrals – you might know that already because I write about referral generation all of the time. If fact, I wrote a book on the topic. But today, I have the pleasure of introducing you to my guests for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast – Rosie Taylor, Kelly Weppler-H

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Far from Silicon Valley: From Startup to IPO?

Growthink Blog

'I had the good fortune to moderate a panel at last week''s IBA Silicon Valley from Start-up to IPO / Exit Conference. With entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, attorneys, and investment bankers from over 18 countries represented - from places as far afield as Switzerland, Singapore, and Spain (and Santa Monica and Silicon Valley!) - it was a truly international gathering.