Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'In my last post I pointed out that many of the media commentators who have criticized the YouTube video network companies as not having strong businesses were mistaken. The main thrust of the post is that with YouTube taking a 45% of revenue and talent taking 70% of the remaining revenue, YouTube Networks didn’t have sustainable businesses unless they invested heavily in technology as a tool to increase margin and provide defensibility.

Video 339

Video Technical Review Distribution Aggregator 339

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'I can always tell when one of my students has been in the military. They’re focused, they’re world-wise past their years, and they don’t break a sweat in the fast pace and chaotic nature of the class and entrepreneurship. Todd Branchflower took my Lean LaunchPad class having been entrepreneurial enough to convince the Air Force send him to Stanford to get his graduate engineering degree.

Lean 262

Lean Technical Review Acquisition Software Review 262

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'A key investment thesis here at Version One is that we like to invest in companies that “sell to many” over companies that “sell to few.” This preference isn’t necessarily due to market size, but rather the structure of the market: are there only a few dozen customers that might buy your product or are there thousands, or even tens of thousands of potential customers?

Fractional CTO 154

Fractional CTO Software Review Viral Sales Cycle 154

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'There is nothing quite so exciting to an entrepreneur as starting a new business venture or expanding an existing one. Following your passion and knowing that the success or failure of your business is on your shoulders alone is a great way to start each and every day. Unfortunately, business requires capital, which means you may need a business loan.

Small Business 112

Small Business Small Business Administration Finance Forecast 112

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

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Many enterprise vendors and customers view mobile UI as just another more convenient portal to their back end processes. A growing number of companies are, however, building “rich” mobile apps to get more face time with their customers and even.

Mobile 339

Mobile Technology Customer 339

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'by Mitch Wainer, CMO of DigitalOcean. In the past, expanding your technological reach required heavy financial investment, expert planning, and significant time away from the actual running of your business. For many companies, cloud providers have taken the pain out of the traditional hosting model. Cloud computing offers many compelling advantages that can be game-changers, a few of which are discussed below. 1.

Cloud 212

Cloud New York City Agile New York 212

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Today, my partners at Foundry Group and I are contributing $100,000 to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado (EFCO) to help with the Boulder Flood Relief Effort. This is our second gift to the EFCO – we previously contributed a portion of our carry across all of our funds. The floods in Boulder and the surrounding area the past week have been devastating.

Community 161

Community Colorado Angel Investor Equity 161

Growthink Blog

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Raising funding is hard. This is actually a good thing. Because if it were easy, everyone would raise money and start a business, and competition would be ferocious. Better yet, since most entrepreneurs won''t take the time to read this essay, you''ll know this insider information and have a huge leg-up on them in raising capital. So, here are 7 things you must know to raise money today. 1.

Venture Capital 131

Venture Capital Valuation Business Plan Revenue 131

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'I love being involved in magical stuff. One of our portfolio companies, Occipital , just announced their newest product, the Structure Sensor. It’s available for purchase right now on Kickstarter – they blew through their $100k goal in the first four hours of being up. But this is a “show don’t tell” classic, so take a look at the video below and prepare to have your mind blown.

Mobile 158

Mobile Portfolio Video Product 158

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Risk is really another word for uncertainty. Investing in utilities is fairly low risk, because we''re pretty sure that people aren''t going to suddenly start using twice as much electricity out of the blue (or half as much, unfortunately). Investing in startups is fairly high risk, because not only could they go out of business, but they could be huge home runs.

Venture Capital 99

Venture Capital Hiring Technology Startup 99

Start Up Blog

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'I’m about to provide you with a report of the news for the next 6 months and quite possible eternity. It’s all bad. Every story, well at least those stories that don’t include baby kissing, the back page, or the lovely human interest pieces after the weather report. If it was good news, they wouldn’t bother telling us. Their job is to leverage the most basic of human emotions, and that emotion is fear.

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Startup 98

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Marketing is storytelling. Stories help shape beliefs and also help people remember the things you want them to remember. Authentic and compelling stories help build a brand. For example, owners of the iPhone believe that each successive iPhone is much better than the model it replaces, which is not always true. Here’s a short video of Jimmy Kimmel pranking people with what people believe is Apple’s new iPhone (it’s actually the old iPhone).

North America 98

North America Thailand Marketing Social Media 98

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'The new Miss America is a real stunner. I saw the clips at a pub — they had the sound turned down. I thought, so that’s who won the contest this year — can we please get to the baseball scores? It would appear others had a different reaction. Miss New York, now Miss America, is a Syracuse native and University of Michigan graduate, her name is Nina Davuluri.

America 87

America Kansas Michigan New York 87

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'At the W Hotel in downtown Austin the focus was on the high tech region of Frankfurt, Germany on Tuesday evening. The hotel hosted the Hessen Trade & Invest event, which featured networking and speakers from the state, a Frankfurt university, Austin-based HomeAway and Frankfurt-based Crytek. John Steen, Texas Secretary of State, and 20 people […] The post Fostering Business Ties Between Austin and Frankfurt, Germany appeared first on SiliconHills.

Germany 86

Germany Austin Texas Hosting 86

Mike Michalowicz

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Believe it or not, there was a time when an aspiring entrepreneur would come up with a concept, develop a detailed business plan, prototype and refine the concept, seek a credit line from a bank, and then give it a go by bringing the concept to market. Oh how times have changed. Today, concepts are generated and tomorrow morning they are brought to market.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cloud Incubator Bootstrapping 60

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'For companies needing to assess the technical aptitude of technical job candidates, TrueAbility has a solution. The San Antonio-based company launched its AbilityScreen this week. The online platform tests the skills of Linux professionals and provides that information to companies. TrueAbility released its flagship product at LinuxCon and CloudOpen in New Orleans on Monday.

San Antonio 76

San Antonio Product 76

Babbling VC

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'For many of you, this is nothing new. I simply thought to write a post about this since I am constantly being reminded of the fact. When approaching VC''s (or incubators/accelerators/Liquid Labs) always read their website beforehand. In addition, read everything and anything else you can find out about them. Best yet, get an intro ! For the past year and a half we have received a lot of inbound interest.

Incubator 67

Incubator Channel Email Management 67

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'This article was a guest post by Bronson Taylor who is the host and co-founder of Growth Hacker TV , where the experts on startup growth reveal their secrets. Escape velocity, in physics, is basically the speed needed to break free from gravity. The idea of escape velocity also surfaces in regard to startups; David Cummings says that, “For startups, escape velocity has to do with becoming the dominant vendor and growing indefinitely.”.

Hockey Stick 69

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Cofounder Acquisition 69

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Austin-based SpareFoot is donating a month of storage to businesses, families and individuals who need temporary space because of the massive flooding. SpareFoot will pay up to $100 for the first month of self-storage rent for facilities within a 75 mile radius of Boulder, Co. The offer is good until Oct. 16th. “The images of […] The post SpareFoot Donates Storage Space to Colorado Flooding Victims appeared first on SiliconHills.

Colorado 54

Colorado Austin 54

Jeff Hilimire

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'The process for leaving Engauge and starting Dragon Army was kind of drawn out for me. It took many months to finalize the acquisition to Publicis and transition my responsibilities. So the last day, like the very last moment, really kinda hit me. The team sent me off in style on Thursday, presenting me with a miniature ping-pong table (probably six feet in length, really high-quality), signed by almost everyone with yearbook-type quotes and words of encouragement and reflection.

Acquisition 64

Acquisition 64

Start Up Blog

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Be a go giver instead. . It feels better and works better.

Startup 74

Startup 74

Early Growth Financial Services

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Published in UpStart Business Journal. If you’re an early-stage startup, odds are there are some knowledge gaps in your core team. You may be strong on the technical side or in the biz dev department, but what about financial strategy, administration, HR? Are you prepared to manage the day-to-day of your startup, from recruiting new talent to bookkeeping to financial planning?

Hiring 37

Hiring Early Stage Startup Revenue 37

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

This article was a guest post by Bronson Taylor who is the host and co-founder of Growth Hacker TV , where the experts on startup growth reveal their secrets. Escape velocity, in physics, is basically the speed needed to break free from gravity. The idea of escape velocity also surfaces in regard to startups; David Cummings says that, “For startups, escape velocity has to do with becoming the dominant vendor and growing indefinitely.”.

Hockey Stick 27

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Cofounder Acquisition 27

Mike Michalowicz

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'My phone rang this weekend and on the other end was Ed. Ed and I have known each other since the high school days. After college, I started my entrepreneurial pursuits and he started the climb up the corporate ladder. By any measure, Ed has had a very successful career. He enjoys his job and makes a good living. But this weekend, things changed. He just celebrated his 42nd birthday.

Software 123

Software Product Customer Cost 123

VC Adventure

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'I don’t need to tell you about the devastation that has rocked Colorado over the past week. The rain started and it just wouldn’t stop. I’ve lived in Colorado for 17 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. People have lived here for their entire lives and haven’t. Our house and property only sustained minor damage (and we spent a few days without power and water; neither particularly difficult compared to what others are facing).

Community 108

Community Colorado Denver Matching 108

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Why Your Competitors Are Winning written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Most markets have competition. A competitor may come in the form of a highly visible organization down the street that hopes to attract the same customers as you, with essentially the same offerings, or it may come from a seemingly unrelated source vying from your customer’s limited resources – a plumber may lose business to an HVAC contractor when someone decides to upgr

Framework 72

Framework Lead Generation Sales SEO 72

VC Adventure

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

I don’t need to tell you about the devastation that has rocked Colorado over the past week. The rain started and it just wouldn’t stop. I’ve lived in Colorado for 17 years and I’ve never seen anything like it. People have lived here for their entire lives and haven’t. Our house and property only sustained minor damage (and we spent a few days without power and water; neither particularly difficult compared to what others are facing).

Community 48

Community Colorado Denver Matching 48

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'People tell me there are over 5,000 dating sites with scientific matchmaking algorithms, but I couldn’t find one that focused on scientifically matching companies or people for business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Yet, every business expert tells me that finding good business partners is just as tricky as a good marriage, without the sex. Business partnerships come in all shapes and sizes, from finding a single partner to help you run your startup, to signing a strategic agreement with ano

B2B 208

B2B Matching Partner Algorithm 208

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'by Jason Sentell, Product Marketing Manager at Wasp. CNBC’s new show, The Profit , starring businessman Marcus Lemonis, should be required, must-see-TV for any small business owner. The show is a unique hybrid between Shark Tank and Bar Rescue. Mr. Lemonis, the uber-successful CEO of Camping World and Good Sam Enterprises, evaluates struggling, small businesses and by the conclusion of each episode decides whether or not to financially invest in the business.

Green 140

Green Balance Sheet Bankruptcy 140

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

'Flextime options and casual dress in the workplace are hallmarks of modern business—or are they? I asked ten new and successful entrepreneurs for their take on whether dress codes and set working hours are outdated or still beneficial, and this is what they had to say: 1. Outdated—Comfort Trumps Tradition. While traditional environments and policies may look nice, they don’t promote productive employees.

China 80

China Leadership Employee Operations 80