Steve Blank

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'As our Lean LaunchPad for Life Sciences class winds down, a good number of the 26 teams are trying to figure out whether they should go forward to turn their class project into a business. Given that we’ve been emphasizing Evidence-based entrepreneurship and the Investment Readiness Level , I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when someone asked, “After we figure all this data out, should we pursue our idea based on the numbers?”.

Cofounder 325

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Liquidity Event Lean 325

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'by Tom Panaggio, author of “ The Risk Advantage: Embracing the Entrepreneur’s Unexpected Edge “ Here’s one of business’s dirty little secrets: Many business owners prefer to keep their customers at arm’s length. They’re very careful to keep every interaction strictly professional, never getting overly personal or friendly. After all, if you get too chummy with customers — or even appear too interested in or sympathetic to their personal circumstances — they might start to want more

Customer 170

Customer Technical Review Florida Cofounder 170

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'On Saturday, I read the final draft of a magnificent book by David Rose. The book is titled Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire and the Internet of Things. I’ve known David for many years. I was a huge fan and an early customer, but not an investor, in one of his companies ( Ambient Devices ) and we share a lot of friends and colleagues from MIT and the Media Lab.

Software Review 148

Software Review Internet Stock Media 148

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'We (Cayuga Venture Fund) just signed up a term sheet with a new company (Company X). No need to disclose the company name or industry for purposes of this post. Rather I want to briefly comment on the process leading up to the term sheet and next steps. First, the process: 1. We first engaged with Company X in mid August. It is now mid December.

Term Sheet 58

Term Sheet Cap Table Technical Review IP 58

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

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'I hear many executives and professionals in large corporations talking about their dream of jumping ship, and starting their own company. What they don’t realize is that the longer they wait, the more big-company habits they are acquiring, which will make their eventual decision harder and entrepreneurial efforts less and less likely to succeed. Certainly, the longer they wait, the greater the variety of excuses they will find for why now is not the time.

Entrepreneur 239

Entrepreneur Burn Rate Salary Lean 239

deal architect

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Analytics has replaced Quality as Job 1 and no wonder CEO Alan Mullaly has been rumored as a Microsoft CEO candidate As Ford rolls out the 6th generation of its iconic Ford Mustang, Computerworld reports "Historically, you didn''t want to.

Analytics 207

Analytics 207

deal architect

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'If you have ever been to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, you alternate in awe at the antiquities on display, in wonder at what else is hidden away in the storerooms and in dismay at the areas where number of.

191

191

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Barclays and Techstars are today launching a program that will give ten innovative businesses the chance to shape the future of financial services. The Barclays Accelerator , powered by Techstars, is a three month intensive program which will provide ten FinTech companies with funding and deep mentorship, supporting them on their journey to delivering breakthrough innovations.

Founder 140

Founder Programming Design Technology 140

Mike Michalowicz

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Back in 2012 a cool experiment was run, unknowingly, on readers of the New York Times. Errol Morris feigned a survey to see if readers responded differently to different fonts. He discovered that a certain font, Baskerville- specifically, was perceived as more believable by readers. The words with a Baskerville font where perceived as slightly more truthful than the identical words in five alternatively tested fonts – Computer Modern, Georgia, Helvetica, Trebuchet, or Comic Sans.

Georgia 134

Georgia New York Email Design 134

David Teten

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'I get a lot of personal training ideas from videos, but Danny MacAskill’s Imaginate (below) is useless for that purpose. Just training to do some of the tricks in this video will almost certainly kill you. Danny is the only person I’ve seen who does bike parkour. This video is impressive both from a physical training point of view and an aesthetic point of view; it has very clever cinematography.

Video 114

Video 114

The Equity Kicker

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Many entrepreneurs make an analogy between the process of building a startup and a frog cross a pond by jumping from one lily pad to another. The point being that whilst it’s important to know where you’re trying to get to the path is never straight and that often times it’s hard to see past the next step (or lily pad). Increasingly the frog/lily pad analogy applies to all companies.

Algorithm 90

Algorithm eCommerce Business Model Networking 90

SiliconHills

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'TrueAbility Monday released its predictions for hiring trends for technology workers in 2014. The San Antonio-based startup, founded in 2012, has analyzed data on more than 5,000 IT workers in the past year. It makes a cloud-based platform that evaluates the technical aptitude of IT employees by testing their skills online for job openings. TrueAbility, […] The post TrueAbility’s IT Job Prediction Trends for 2014 appeared first on SiliconHills.

San Antonio 90

San Antonio Cloud Hiring Employee 90

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Subscribe to this Podcast in iTunes. In episode #9 of Everything Entrepreneurship , Walter talks about his experiences along with his startup partner Brett Geoghegan during a five hour long “pitch day” as a finalist to enter the Startmate incubator program in Sydney. With 18 different investor-mentors to pitch to, it felt a lot like speed dating for entrepreneurs looking … Read the rest of this entry » The post What Founders Face On Pitch Day To Qualify For Startmate, Aus

Incubator 88

Incubator Programming Founder Australia 88

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'This blog post originally appeared on Gordon’s blog “Shockwave Innovations” here. It’s not innovation or company culture or a desire to win. Those are important but successful big companies have at least some of those things too. It’s nimbleness (aka – agility). Startups have a “turning radius” measured in inches whereas really big companies can barely turn around in [.].

Agile 74

Agile Startup 74

SiliconHills

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'John Engates, the Chief Technology Officer with Rackspace, has made some predictions for cloud technology trends in 2014. The cloud ushers in a new era in wearable technology. Under Armour’s late 2013 acquisition of mobile workout app MapMyFitness and Nike’s continued sponsorship of TechStars Nike+ Accelerator validates that wearable technology is heating up and here […] The post Rackspace Cloud Predictions for 2014 appeared first on SiliconHills.

Cloud 72

Cloud San Antonio Hosting Acquisition 72

Start Up Blog

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'A business plan is not a user manual. It’s not a map of a defined territory and it’s not a even a vision of the future. At best it is a contention of how we may be able to get things done. Because of this, we need realise it can and should be revised as soon as it is unproven. Yes, we should give it a chance, execute against the contention, but remember it is only as valuable as the results it generates.

Business Plan 69

Business Plan Startup 69

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'5 Tips to Appeal to Angel Investors. Often times, entrepreneurs get rejected from Angel after Angel because they neglect to understand the essential components that appeal to Angel investors. Regardless of how solid the product or service is, if an entrepreneur does not consider the following fundamentals, they’ll find it difficult to attract Angel investment: - Type of industry. - Company’s stage of development and capital requirements. - Geographic location. - Management team. - Sustainable c

Angel Investor 71

Angel Investor Exit Strategy Liquidity Event Seed Stage 71

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Why Gen Y Doesn’t Matter the Way You Think It Does written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Depending upon what research group you subscribe to the collective members of Gen Y will eclipse the earning power of the Baby Boom generation sometime around 2018. photo credit: Dell’s Official Flickr Page via photopin cc.

Social Media 68

Social Media Metrics Media Advertising 68

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'The most common mistakes digital practitioners and leaders make is to either do things in the wrong order, or to try and do too much at one time. Progress in digital marketing and analytics in either scenario becomes painful (the organization / systems / thinking is simply not in the optimal position). People become frustrated (you hire smart people, they run off to build you the Taj Mahal, meanwhile you don't have a functioning toilet).

Analytics 165

Analytics Marketing Channel Metrics 165

Jeff Hilimire

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'We really enjoyed hosting Michelle Nunn last week at Dragon Army. Hoping that more of the political candidates start getting focused on technology startups and visiting places like Atlanta Tech Village and Hypepotamus.

Hosting 58

Hosting Atlanta Technology Startup 58

Scott Edward Walker

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting articles, posts and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. Below are my five most popular tweets for the past three weeks. Cheers, Scott Top 5 Tweets Solid stuff: @kevinrose ‘s top 5 pieces of advice for entrepreneurs (via @Quora ) b.qr.ae/IV8YtQ Quora: “How do you close an angel round once you have terms with a couple of investors?

Dilution 49

Dilution Valuation Email Startup 49

Bryce Dot VC

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'“If you can’t convince yourself that your mission is important, think very hard about what you’re doing. I’d go so far as to say that a company that is not mission-oriented will have a hard time being really successful because of talent retention problems.

Retention 45

Retention 45

Early Growth Financial Services

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Originally published in Technori. “What’s the best financial decision that you’ve made for your company in the last six months?” This is the question that was posed recently to 13 members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. Here are their tips for making the best startup financial decisions. 1.

LLC 44

LLC Startup Employee Media 44

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Most board meetings are “update meetings” where management downloads its status to a group of investors. These outside board members spend most of the board meeting trying to reacquaint themselves with the company’s business and critical issues. This is hardly ideal and some simple changes could help management avoid both issues.

Advisory Board 337

Advisory Board Valuation Stock Options Seed Money 337

A Crowded Space

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'I just finished reading the last 50+ years of Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letters. . They are… epic. One of the best reads of my life. This, for me, falls into an extremely rare class of “books” which actually change the way you live your life. For me, it’s changed the way I look at my job as an investor in venture capital.

Technical Review 68

Technical Review Deal Flow Balance Sheet Down Round 68

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'by Magdalena Rogoz, a Marketing Specialist at Time Solutions Ltd. If you ask your contractors what is the most vital when it comes to dealing with businesses and organizations, most of them would probably mention trust. Having so many opportunities impose on having an appropriate amount of information. People are evaluating and making decisions based on what they know.

Salary 196

Salary Public Relations Partner Campaign 196

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Did you know advertising research has shown emotional response to ads impact consumer’s intent to buy by a factor of 3-to-1 for T.V commercials, and 2-to-1 for print? It’s also long been recognized that Atmospheric Marketing - or ”the effort to design buying environments to produce specific emotional effects in the buyer that enhance purchase probability” – has been an effective way of increase purchases for physical retail locations.

Sales 126

Sales B2B Campaign Video 126

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 9, 2013

'Over the years, we’ve seen web and mobile technology disrupt business, education, legal and many other fields as professionals adopt products that help them work more effectively and efficiently. While the healthcare industry has always been more conservative, it is now primed for change. At Version One, we have been looking intensely for investment opportunities in healthcare, believing that the leaders of this disruption will be companies that are able to connect people (doctor-doctor, patie

Canada 126

Canada Angel Investor Social Network Mobile 126