Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2015

The pervasive ability and need to communicate constantly and globally through the Internet and smartphones is incenting everyone to get more out of their own assets and time, and capitalize on the idle resources of others. This new sharing economy is rapidly becoming the new business of sharing, with major winners already including Airbnb (rooms), Uber (rides), and Chegg (books).

Cuba 226

Cuba Entrepreneur Venture Capital Community 226

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2015

There’s a lot to do and plan when you’re starting a new business. But don’t neglect the marketing and branding side of things. Here are 5 clever tips to make sure your marketing and branding are as good as they can be. 1. Make Sure Your Logo is Clear and Eye Catching. Every startup needs a great logo , and it’s not an easy thing to achieve. There are lots of mundane and boring logos out there, but the best businesses have something that’s both clear and instantly recognizable.

Marketing 181

Marketing Startup Social Media Customer 181

The Equity Kicker

MAY 8, 2015

This weekend we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and in a lovely bit of history the BBC dug out this note that Churchill received from his Home Secretary when he asked whether there would be enough beer for people to celebrate!

Startup 92

Startup 92

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2015

by Fayez Mohamood, cofounder and CEO of Bluecore. Higher rates of unsubscription can prove disastrous for companies. Consider an email list of 500,000 individuals. With a moderate unsubscribe rate of 0.2%, the company is losing 1,000 people per email. At an email a week, the company is dropping more than 4,000 prospects or customers a month, a significant deficit that will require marketing to work hard to rectify with new email leads.

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Email Marketing Cofounder Mobile 160

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

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 8, 2015

Remember the first time you got a taste of something so delicious, so amazing that you simply had to have more? Had to experience the joy again? And again? This wonderful, simple animation is a meditation on human’s need to get more of what they crave. Is this what addicts come up against? The little kiwi in the story is experiencing what it means to become dependent on that which gives us pleasure.

Small Business 82

Small Business Design Social Media Startup 82

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2015

By John Enright, General Manager of Web and Application Services at Hostway Services, Inc. In the current business environment, applications are everything. Employees use a slew of apps — from those involving resource and customer relationship management to those for the financial and human resources departments — in order to complete their mission-critical tasks.

Hosting 135

Hosting Cloud Employee Programming 135

ithacaVC

MAY 8, 2015

Due diligence never has a good connotation. For companies raising money and management teams words like painful, slow, tedious, and torture come to mind. Pick your adjective. For investors, words like tedious, eye opening, boring and critical come to mind. Due diligence is critical to help VCs derisk our investments a bit. I recently read a fabulous (now that is a word you never associate with due diligence!

Due Diligence 65

Due Diligence Programming Management Startup 65

Jeff Hilimire

MAY 8, 2015

(The new Apple Macbooks. I have the one on the left – Space Gray). I’ve had the new Apple Macbook ( that I was so excited to get ) for a few weeks now, and I’m ready for my official review. As a reminder, the new Macbook (it’s not a “Pro”, and its not an “Air”, its just a…Macbook) is Apple’s latest laptop.

Design 56

Design Product 56

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 8, 2015

9 Reasons to Consider Old School Sticker Marketing written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. For over 65 years, stickers have been helping politicians get elected, building companies, establishing brands, advertising, starting conversations and increasing exposure. Yet despite being long-lasting and having a low cost per impression, not enough attention has been paid by marketers and businesses to the power of this sticky marketing tool.

Marketing 56

Marketing Social Media Advertising Warrant 56

Up and Running

MAY 8, 2015

A lean business plan does what every business owner and aspiring startup needs to manage strategy, tactics, execution, and essential business numbers. It exists for internal management, not for outsiders. It stays lean and simple with just bullet points for essentials and a collection of lists and tables. It should be reviewed and revised at least monthly so it stays fresh.

Lean 101

Lean Business Plan Forecast Technical Review 101

Early Growth Financial Services

MAY 8, 2015

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Up and Running

MAY 8, 2015

The grand opening to your business is an exciting time—and a lot of work. You might have the sign on the door and the keys for your locks, but you’re not finished. Personal responsibility is essential for any new business. Displaying products and hiring employees are the last steps in setting up shop. You probably think your main responsibility is to take care of your business.

Employee 100

Employee Stock Retention Global 100

SVPG

MAY 8, 2015

To continue on the series on team autonomy (see autonomy vs. leverage , autonomy vs. mission and autonomy vs. ownership ), I wanted to add one more important dimension to this discussion which concerns the practical implications of working on large, multi-team initiatives. First, when I say “initiative” I’m referring to those product efforts that necessarily span many teams.

China 60

China Architecture Design Engineer 60

Up and Running

MAY 8, 2015

Managing expectations can definitely be a balancing act. Managing expectations is an aspect of business that is often overlooked while establishing client relationships. When clients are not briefed at the outset, or request changes further down the line, there is a tendency to over-commit and take on more work than is really feasible. When consultants, designers, and developers do this, they may be thinking that it’s in the best interest of the relationship, but it often does more harm than goo

Management 79

Management B2C B2B Retention 79