Mon.May 19, 2014

article thumbnail

Is Employee Cynicism Killing Your Culture?  Ten Strategic Ways to Re-Configure It Around Trust

YoungUpstarts

'by Forbes magazine publisher Rich Karlgaard and author of “ The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success “. In an age of cynicism and irony, Northwestern Mutual is a throwback to a more innocent time. The company is the antithesis of “cool.” It has the kind of culture in which people embrace plain suits and sincere handshakes, take pride in wearing achievement ribbons, kick off conferences with patriotic music.

Employee 160
article thumbnail

Don’t Forget Grants If You Need Early Seed Money

Startup Professionals Musings

'In the US, many entrepreneurs see grants as “free money,” since they are not loans and don’t have to be repaid. A grant is not an equity investment, so the entrepreneur doesn’t have to give up a stake in the company either. Typically they can be used to fund product development and commercialization that would otherwise require outside investors. A good place to start looking is the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, which is a lifeline for high-tech startups.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

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

article thumbnail

Tips And Techniques For Selling Your Products Online

YoungUpstarts

'You have products that you know people will want to use and enjoy, but you are not sure how to go about selling them online. The options are endless. If you have your own website, you can sell products through the site, but you will need to find a way to direct people to it. You can do that through assorted marketing tactics. Those who want to learn how to sell a product online should first find out how to market their website.

Product 153
article thumbnail

3 startups that fulfill the Leap Motion’s potential by helping others

The Next Web

'The hand-tracking Leap Motion hasn’t sparked the interest of the average person. But, in the hands of savvy startups with an eye on improving the lives and safety of others, it looks like it’s found its calling. The startups presented at the first Leap Axlr8r demo day, during which each of the teams used the Leap Motion hardware for their apps. The accelerator is put together by Founders Fund and SOSventures and based on the what was presented, we should expect more demo days from Leap Axlr8r b

Startup 163
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

Waitrose invests to make offline shopping more convenient

The Equity Kicker

'Huge range and the convenience of shopping delivered to your door are the main axes on which ecommerce businesses have sought to compete with their offline counterparts. Waitrose is now fighting back by improving the convenience of their in-store experience. They already have a system called Quick Check which allows shoppers to scan their food as they take it off the shelves and then pack it straight into the bags they will take home.

article thumbnail

New beginnings from old endings: When should you pivot your company?

The Next Web

'Carlos Eduardo Espinal is a partner at Seedcamp, an early stage mentoring and investment program that engages startups through monthly Seedcamp Events. I’ve been fortunate to have been part of over one hundred founders’ journeys from developing their initial idea to raising investor money for scaling. As such, several of these founders shared with me their stories in deciding whether to persevere with an idea, or pivot into something new.

More Trending

article thumbnail

7 Examples of the Power of Guest Blogging

Duct Tape Marketing

'7 Examples of the Power of Guest Blogging written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Guest blogging is a powerful tool. Photo courtesy of Sally Hogshead. Being invited to contribute content to an established blog is an opportunity to be introduced to someone’s network. When you share useful information and demonstrate command of a subject in this environment, it is a chance to create referrals and even clients.

Restful 65
article thumbnail

Stratasys’s “Heated Build Enclosure” Patent

Andrew Payne

'I gave a talk on patents at Bolt last month. I covered the patent process and strategy for startups, but one of my key points was: don’t get too excited about a patent until you read the claims. The claims describe, very specifically , what the patent covers. So it was interesting to hear several references to Stratasys’s 3D printer “ heated build enclosure ” patent recently.

article thumbnail

The most amazing thing about running a gaming studio

Jeff Hilimire

'This weekend I was watching a podcast of our lead artist at Dragon Army – Michael Stanley – being interviewed by Wes Wilson on Twitch. If you aren’t aware of Twitch, its essentially a Youtube-esque website that is entirely dedicated to video games. While there is some content like this interview, over 99% of the videos on the site are of people playing video games.

Video 47
article thumbnail

Fighting Through The Pain: The 7 Pain Points Of Project Management

YoungUpstarts

'by Fred Mouawad, founder and chairman at Taskworld. Starting up a functioning organization has never been so easy. Gone are the days when a team consisted of a group of individuals working all together locally with every activity being closely monitored by supervisors. The Internet has made the outsourcing of various traditional business practices a much simpler process than could have ever been imagined.

article thumbnail

Excellent Analytics Tip #26: Every Critical Metric Should Have A BFF!

Occam's Razor

'There is unlimited amount of data thrown off our digital existences. (Or to use sexy term du jour , we have big data!). Our leaders (companies, agencies, teams) have to deal with an incredibly complex landscape, and they don't have enough time. The very natural outcomes is this ask of us: "Can you make it simple? What's the one thing I should care about?

Metrics 159
article thumbnail

The ultimate time management lesson

Start Up Blog

'There’s a lot to know about time management, and even when we know it all, it’s pretty hard to implement. But if I had to impart a single thought on the subject of time management it would be this: If the years seem to be passing quicker and quicker, it is because they are. Yep, you read that correctly, each year we live is shorter than the previous year.

article thumbnail

Goodbye Party Round, Hello Piggy Round: Should Seed Stage Founders Raise From Just a Single Investor?

Hunter Walker

'You weren’t supposed to be reading this blog post. It was easier to just discuss privately with other investors, but Jason Calacanis tweeted this morning about VCs trying to take entire seed rounds , and so, here it goes. Anecdotally, over the last 3-6 months we’re definitely seeing more examples of larger early stage or multistage funds offer to do 80-100% of a company’s seed round.