crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Alright then. Hangover from New Years eve is gone these past few days. The last long weekend of the holidays is done. And now, once again, we turn our gaze lovingly back to our business, our customers, and our team. As managers, we are so focused on the moment at hand, the task that needs accomplishing, the strategy that needs executing, the data that needs analyzing, that we often neglect to take time to simply reflect.

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Small Business Startup Oregon Lean 77

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Raising venture capital at any stage of company growth requires tremendous effort from entrepreneurs. Admittedly, our industry tends to celebrate these financings a bit too much — it’s gasoline for the car and not the destination, after all — but it’s still a difficult, sometimes lengthy process for which founders deserve some recognition. But because of that time-intensiveness and difficulty, entrepreneurs can often feel they’ve been pulled too far away from growing their businesses — i.e., th

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Businesses always seem to take longer to succeed than an entrepreneur expects. Seth Godin once said that overnight success in startups takes about six years, and Seth is an optimist. Thus we all look for shortcuts. Execution shortcuts would be hidden strategies to achieve the endgame sooner, without losing 40 to 60 percent of the financial potential along the way.

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YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 5, 2015

'by Gareth Cartman , Director of Digital Marketing at Clever Little Design. Advanced technology, social media, CRM software, and other tools are changing the way companies market their brand and products. While the manner in which companies and consumers interact is changing, there are some tried-and-true approaches to marketing that should never be abandoned.

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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

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 5, 2015

'I try to respond to all of my emails. I’ve always been like this – it’s just part of my value system. I used to be annoyed by other people who don’t, but I let go of that emotion a long time ago. But I still try to respond to all of my emails. A big hint, which is the reason for this post, is to ask specific questions if you want a real response.

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YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 5, 2015

'The answer to that question, for a number of us, is a sad yes. Early last year we highlighted 10 professions that were in danger of becoming extinct as technological advances made them obsolete, with jobs such as the travel agent, call centre operator or even the postal worker are becoming increasing irrelevant in the marketplace. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but with the onwards march of technology (such as in the areas of automation and artificial intelligence ), more jobs are on the

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Artificial Inteligence Technology Global Operations 155

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 5, 2015

'by Jake Villarreal, co-founder and president of Match Relevant. If you had a magic button that could immediately fill your company’s open positions, would you push it? It’s not such a far-fetched idea, especially as new social search platforms crop up and change the way companies find people. Although emerging technologies make it easier to connect with talent, you still need a strategic plan to land the highest-quality candidates available.

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The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Forbes have published a list of the 7 Cs to guide you in 2015 : Centre yourself. Be curious. Be courageous. Be candid. Be competitive. Instil character. Embrace change. All good advice, but for me ‘be courageous’ is the most interesting on the list. The article expands on the point thus: 3. Be Courageous. The definition of courageous tells us that it is a quality of mind and spirit that enables us to face difficulty, danger and pain without fear.

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Demand Conversion Partner Networking 110

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 5, 2015

'I love thinking about career paths and how people get from A to B. It''s my favorite thing to teach as well--and I''ll be giving a class at Startup Institute this Tuesday night about it. They''re a career accelerator, which is a pretty neat concept--doing what YC and Techstars do for startups, but for your career. Anyway, 2015 marks a couple of big career anniversaries for me.

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Albuquerque New York City New York Venture Capital 99

SiliconHills

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Pivot Freight, which relocated from Arizona to Austin last year, announced Monday that is has received $2 million in seed round financing. Rob Taylor also joined Pivot Freight as its CEO. He previously served on the founding leadership teams of both TrueCar and BlackLocus. He met the Pivot Freight team when he served as a […] The post Pivot Freight Lands $2 Million in Financing and New CEO appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Start Up Blog

JANUARY 5, 2015

'The way in which all financial wealth is built, time immemorial is this: Find a way to make money when you are not in the room. This formula has never actually changed. All the traditional investments fit this definition. Property, Rents, Dividends, Interest, Equity and even creating a startup which becomes bigger than us. Essentially, we need to invent more than 24 hours in a day through the labour of others.

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Dividend Equity Revenue Startup 88

SiliconHills

JANUARY 5, 2015

'The Central Texas Angel Network, one of the country’s most active angel investing groups, named Claire England as its new executive director. An Austin native, England, who previously served as director of global expansion for Tech Ranch, has a long history of supporting local startups. She also previously served as executive director of RISE Austin […] The post CTAN Hires Claire England as New Executive Director appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Hiring Texas Austin Networking 78

Mucker Lab

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Microsoft created the “modern” role of product manager 25 years ago, and the job holds an aura of myth even today. Two-and-a-half decades later, the role of product manager is still misunderstood and ill-defined, and the most important qualities in a product manager are often overlooked. As a result, startups are missing out on valuable opportunities to improve their product, teamwork, and efficiency, not to mention chances of success.

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SiliconHills

JANUARY 5, 2015

'By LAURA LOREK Reporter with Silicon Hills News Today, people expect a website design to be beautiful but they also want functionality. That’s where John Roescher and the team behind Handsome saw an opportunity. They launched Handsome, a web app and mobile design studio, in late 2011 in Austin. “All you are is what your […] The post Handsome Helps Tech Startups with Branding and Product Design appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Design Product Austin Startup 75

Bryce Dot VC

JANUARY 5, 2015

'I wasn’t planning to write this post. My plan was to send a private email to a few friends that they could share with a few of their friends. And I did that. On Jan 1 I sent the following note to a handful of people I’d discussed this idea with in the past: Finally put the site up @ indie.vc. . Not planning to make a bunch of noise publicly but feel free to share with anyone you think is a fit or could help get the word out. .

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San Francisco Cap Table Non-Compete Distribution 56

Rob Go

JANUARY 5, 2015

'I did a fair bit of speaking at Universities in the last few months of 2013. In Nov and Dec, I think I gave guest lectures or spoken at events at HBS, MIT, BC, Harvard College and attended a capstone event for an entrepreneurial program for Duke undergrads. These frequent interactions with students has gotten me thinking about the topic of starting companies in college.

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Startup Programming Search Venture Capital 48

Mike Michalowicz

JANUARY 5, 2015

'Show Summary . Public Speaker, Corporate Trainer and Leadership Coach, Robb Braun, joins Episode 9 of the Profit First Podcast. Robb explains the importance of having motivational work environment and how to get your employees engaged. Our Guest. (Mike Michalowicz & Robb Braun). Robb Braun is an accomplished Public Speaker, Corporate Trainer and Leadership Coach on a mission to empower business leaders to create work environments that foster employee greatness – motivation, loyalty, p

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Start Up Blog

JANUARY 5, 2015

'As we are now in 2015, midway through the second decade of the new millennium, I thought I’d reflect on shifts I am seeing in culture, commerce and technology. Many are counter intuitive to what we might read in Business Insider or Buzzfeed. It’ll take you about 12 minutes to read and it will be worth the effort. The first thought is pretty obvious.

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Technical Review Startup Australia Artificial Inteligence 73