crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'I visit Facebook.com each morning to type “birthday!” onto friend’s profiles as appropriate. Earlier today I also noticed a post from a friend celebrating his 5th wedding anniversary. “One of the best decisions I ever made” was a partial description of the nuptials. Made me think – what are the most important decisions I’ve made in my life thus far?

Technical Review 107

Technical Review Lean Product 107

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 3, 2014

There has never been a better time to be an engineer, with companies feverishly competing to recruit the best and brightest. But while some engineers may be motivated to work for the highest bidder, most are driven by something more intangible, according to VisionMobile survey data: They want to change the world. Each year LinkedIn measures the most in-demand Silicon Valley startups , a window into the employers that engineers think can do more than help them pay their mortgage.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Software Review Startup Engineer 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.”. Galileo Galilei. One of the great things about teaching is that while some students pass by like mist in the night others remain connected forever. I get to watch them grow into their careers and cheer them on. — Its been three and a half years since I first designed and taught the Lean LaunchPad class and lots of water has gone under the bridge since then.

Lean 272

Lean Silicon Valley Customer Development Incubator 272

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

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Business partnerships have traditionally been agreements to drive more transactions than either company could do alone. The new paradigm, driven by disruptive technologies, cloud-served supercomputing, and the new generation of young adults with global empathy, is partnering and giving something now for a competitive advantage in the future. An excellent example is the initiative by Elon Musk and Tesla Motors to give away all their patents, to infrastructure providers and even competitive car m

Partner 251

Partner Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Cloud 251

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'by Markus Wilson, co-founder of Phink TV. Video content is in demand and the rising amount of videos viewed by people every day means that this type of content is becoming an ever increasing effective tool to stand out in search engines, engage social audiences, and sell products and services. It is, however, a noisy environment out there, so you are going to need a good idea that’s well executed if you’re to make the best impact!

Video 178

Video Marketing Cofounder Social Media 178

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'After spending most of the day at littleBits yesterday, I finished it with an annual tradition that is one of my favorites. At 6:45pm Amy and I met Joanne Wilson , Fred Wilson , Matt Blumberg , and Mariquita Blumberg at Marea for dinner. Fred and I are both on the board of Return Path , the company Matt has been running since he co-founded it in 1999.

Columbus 126

Columbus Conversion 126

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Michael Caccavale is the CEO Pluris Marketing. In today’s deluge of messaging platforms – digital, direct mail, email, social media, mobile and so on – standing out from the crowd is a challenge that keeps marketers up at night. The playing field is huge, consumers are in the driver’s seat and savvy marketers are constantly iterating their practices to reach consumers in new ways.

Marketing 138

Marketing Social Media Web Mobile 138

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'How successful would small business owners in the U.S. say they are, if you asked them? Here at Palo Alto Software, we are always interested in helping people succeed in business. That’s why earlier this year, we wrote a white paper on the state of small business in the first quarter of 2014, based off of the survey that we conducted of nearly 400 small business owners.

Small Business 112

Small Business Metrics Software Business Plan 112

Mike Michalowicz

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'If you have ever had an employee need harsh criticism, you know just how difficult a task it can be. Most people don’t like to dish out criticism, which is a good thing, but as entrepreneurs, there is sometimes no way around it. But there is a right way and a wrong way to give harsh criticism to employees. And your mission is to make doing it the right way a priority!

Employee 112

Employee Leadership Conversion Entrepreneur 112

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Paul Graham published his latest essay this week. It takes the form of advice to college students about starting companies and as usual there’s lots of good stuff. The section that stood out for me was this: So this is the third counterintuitive thing to remember about startups: starting a startup is where gaming the system stops working. Gaming the system may continue to work if you go to work for a big company.

Startup 106

Startup Founder Partner Product 106

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Random story that I recounted recently to someone the other day. It''s super interesting to go back and trace connections and relationships that led to new opportunities. If nothing else, it serves as a good reminder that every thing you do now is an investment in the future. In 2009, I was introduced to Havi Hoffman. She was working as a developer evangelist at Yahoo!

Chad 104

Chad Cofounder Early Stage Community 104

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'If it’s not working, change something. As a business owner it’s your job to keep watch over your company’s health. As such, you should regularly be asking ‘is what i’m doing working?’, regardless of whether you operate an architectural firm, a waste management facility, or a cafe and especially if you’re not seeing results.

Management 96

Management Lean Audience Business Plan 96

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Innotech Austin, the largest information technology conference in Austin, will hold its Beta Summit to showcase six of the area’s hottest startups. To attend, you must register, but you can use the discount code “JULY.” The event will take place in Room 8AB at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15th at the Austin Convention Center. Bryan […] The post Innotech Austin’s Beta Summit is Back appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 95

Austin Technology Startup 95

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Have plans? Need funding? Lending is picking up. It’s finally getting a little easier for small businesses to obtain the funds they need to invest in and grow their operations. Statistics from a variety of sources indicate a gradual loosening of lending to small businesses around the country. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), for one, reported in January that in its most recent survey, only four percent of small-business owners said that all their credit needs were not bei

Small Business 84

Small Business SBA Cleveland Early Stage 84

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'AdBm Technologies closed on $1.3 million in funding led by the Central Texas Angel Network. Other investors included Green Park & Golf Ventures as well as the Houston Angel Network and the North Texas Angel Network. “AdBm, a portfolio company of the Austin Technology Incubator’s Clean Energy Incubator, also recently announced a successful test of […] The post AdBm Technologies Lands $1.3 Million in Funding from CTAN and Others appeared first on SiliconHills.

Technology 79

Technology Houston Texas Incubator 79

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'The Ultimate Tutorial to Add Inbound Marketing Into Your PR Strategy written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Kelly Marsh – Enjoy! photo credit: Gavin Llewellyn via photopin. Inbound marketing has become a popular strategy for a number of things including for being the best startup PR strategy.

PR 67

PR PPC Marketing Social Media 67

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'What is the cost of customer acquisition? That’s one metric a lot of entrepreneurs with the latest, greatest invention overlook. Just because you create a great website or product doesn’t mean people will use it. You’ve got to market it. And Silicon Hills News, with a tech-savvy central Texas readership, is a great way to […] The post Silicon Hills News Creates a Geek Calendar for 2015 appeared first on SiliconHills.

San Antonio 71

San Antonio Texas Acquisition Austin 71

Jeff Hilimire

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Venture Atlanta is by far my favorite startup event of the year. It’s the largest culmination of entrepreneurs and investors in the Southeast. Each year the list of presenting companies gets better and this year is certainly no exception. Fortunately, David Cummings put a list of the companies on his blog , so I grabbed them and listed them below.

Atlanta 34

Atlanta Georgia Early Stage Video 34

SiliconHills

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'Datafiniti, a data search engine, relaunched 80legs, a service platform for web crawling and processing web content. The Austin-based startup reports that the “relaunch makes 80legs simpler and easier to use, complete with a new back-end design that helps the platform crawl with increased power, speed, and reliability.” The new features for 80legs include the […] The post Datafiniti Releases New Version of 80legs Web Crawler appeared first on SiliconHills.

Web 68

Web Austin Engineer Search 68

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'by Abby Perkins, Managing Editor at Talent Tribune. Think HR only matters to large companies and corporations? Think again. Start-ups and small businesses need HR, too. In fact, start-ups and small business often have more of a need for dedicated HR personnel than larger organizations. The only problem? Human resources is an expensive investment that not every small business can afford.

Startup 173

Startup Hiring Software Review Small Business 173

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'You get people to sign up for your free SaaS trial – great! Trouble is, a significant percentage of users sign up for the trial, log in once, and never come back. You might as well have burned the money it took to acquire them. The reality is, you’ll never retain all of your customers & some of those reasons you can’t control: Not the right fit for their needs features or price wise.

Product 120

Product Metrics Analytics Retention 120

Up and Running

OCTOBER 3, 2014

'These metrics are not the only ones worth tracking, but they will get you off to a good start! Subscription businesses are everywhere these days. From the predictable to the downright weird , you can seemingly subscribe to anything. Subscription businesses are hot because of their recurring revenue model. And, while there are pros and cons to running a subscription business , the financial benefits tend to be great.

Metrics 96

Metrics Churn Rate Forecast Revenue 96