View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. At NextView, for instance, one of our more popular posts centers on atypical seed rounds to know. Today, we wanted to share some basics of another source of capital: venture debt. What is it, and how should founders think about it? As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth.

Term Sheet 263

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 263

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 30, 2015

By Nikole Haiar, Director of Marketing at Hostway Services, Inc. Depending on what industry you’re in, your businesses may be under legal obligation to ensure its corporate information, as well as its customer data, remains secure. One such piece of legislation is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which outlines rules to help retailers protect credit and debit card details.

Cloud 142

Cloud Security B2B Database 142

Up and Running

APRIL 30, 2015

Most people think that writing a business plan has to be hard. I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it’s possible to write your initial business plan in less than an hour. After all, you’re always thinking about your business and the strategies you’re going to use to grow, so getting those ideas down on paper shouldn’t be hard—it can even be an enjoyable experience.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Lean Channel Sales 120

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 30, 2015

by Eliot Burdett, co-founder and CEO of Peak Sales Recruiting. Interviewing sales candidates can be extremely difficult since even a subpar seller is trained to tell people what they want to hear. Many candidates look great on paper, only later to turn in lackluster performances. Since the cost of bad hires is enormous for a company’s bottom line, it is critical for those that are in charge of hiring to “get it right.”.

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Sales Cofounder B2B Hiring 158

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

Up and Running

APRIL 30, 2015

Time is a lot like money, with one important difference. While we can choose to save or spend both of them, we just can’t make more time. What would you do if you had more time? How would you spend it? How can the way you spend your time make you a happier, more successful business person? Join us on Wednesday, May 6th at 10:00am PST for a fun, laid-back webinar with Lara Galloway, author, speaker, and business coach for entrepreneurs, where she shares: 5 things you do that are wasting yo

Management 99

Management Product Michigan Entrepreneur 99

The Equity Kicker

APRIL 30, 2015

I’ve just read YC Partner Jessica Livingston’s Subtle Mid-Stage Startup Pitfalls. The whole post is a great cautionary read, but I want to elaborate on one of her pieces of advice: Don’t for a second be in denial if things are going badly or growth is flat. If you’re vigilant about diagnosing problems like these, you’ll be more likely to nip them in the bud.

Metrics 92

Metrics Revenue Hiring Partner 92

Berkonomics

APRIL 30, 2015

What a title. Of course money motivates. But there is more to it then this. Salaries or hourly wages must be within reasonable limits set by the industry and matched by the competition, both regionally and for the same job classification. But more difficult is the sticky issue of employee incentive compensation. I find that this is an area much more often the subject of a CEO phone call, a roundtable discussion, or a board compensation committee meeting.

Stock Options 83

Stock Options Salary Employee Stock 83

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 30, 2015

Are Paid Content Distribution Platforms Cost Effective? written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Creating great content is only one aspect of digital marketing. In order for that content to be effective you need an audience, you need eyeballs and traffic. Generate enough traffic and that content will drive a steady uptick in conversions and a return on your marketing budgetary spend.

Distribution 51

Distribution Cost Social Media Viral 51

Early Growth Financial Services

APRIL 30, 2015

One question everyone asks is what investors look for when deciding whether or not to fund a startup. Having a high-caliber team with a good track record and a clear value proposition are givens. But the bottom line is that it comes down to the numbers. VCs are looking to make investments that pay off big. That means you need to develop credible financial projections that demonstrate the viability and future potential of your target market and clearly spell out how investing in your business wil

Developer 45

Developer Marketing Startup 45

Up and Running

APRIL 30, 2015

Every single day, people throw away colossal amounts of paper, ink, plastic, metal and other reusable materials. That’s just the way many see the consumer cycle, but these substances need not end up on a landfill. Over the past two decades, “going green” has become much more than a simple quasi-environmentalist mantra, or a slogan for some local youth’s neighborhood cleaning initiative.

Green 93

Green Differentiation Naming Operations 93

Early Growth Financial Services

APRIL 30, 2015

• Is it time for you to raise outside capital? • What are your best financing options? • How much should you raise? • What do you need to do to show investors you’re ready for their investment? In this presentation, David Ehrenberg, Founder and CEO of Early Growth Financial Services (EGFS), explores the facts—and fiction—of fundraising.

Founder 37

Founder Finance Revenue Developer 37

Seeing Both Sides

APRIL 30, 2015

There is a bias against solo founders in Startup Land. The conventional wisdom is that being an entrepreneur is so difficult that you shouldn't embark on it alone. Many of the top accelerators, like Techstars and Y Combinator, won't accept founding teams that have solo founders. Jessica Livingston , the lesser-known co-founder of Y Combinator, put it well in a Wall Street Journal article a few years ago: “We believe being a single founder is one factor that makes it more difficult to succeed… [b

Cofounder 37

Cofounder Founder Portfolio Entrepreneur 37