YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2014

'by Stephanie Gioia, Director of Consulting at XPLANE. “Brainstorming” is a dirty word these days. It conjures up images of people shouting out ideas, getting hit by unreliable bolts of “a-ha” lightning, and touchy-feely groupthink. We know that the original tenants of brainstorming, developed by Alex Osborn in the 1940s, were somewhat flawed. Social scientists and researchers can point to concepts like free riding, groupthink, framing and anchoring as detrimental to the creative process.

Portland 180

Portland Design Search Developer 180

The Next Web

JUNE 17, 2014

'Everyone has an accelerator nowadays and Microsoft is no different. At its Global Startup Day event in San Francisco today, the company that Windows built put 11 companies on stage to present their company for VCs, journalists and analysts. General Manager of Microsoft Ventures, Rahul Sood took the stage and talked about mentoring companies from around the world to bring “creativity, engineering and business together.

Global 166

Global San Francisco Startup Engineer 166

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2014

'By Elton Rivas, co-founder of KYN. Starting a company a few years ago was a lonely enterprise. The path was simple, yet fairly indirect and organic. It started with an entrepreneur with an idea for a new product or service gathering funds from personal savings, obtaining money from a friends and family round and soliciting help from anyone and everyone to get the idea off the ground.

Cofounder 162

Cofounder Incubator Programming IPO 162

The Next Web

JUNE 17, 2014

'Do you know what your dev team is working on right now? I bet the answer is a million different projects, all with varying degrees of importance. It’s easy to accidentally overwhelm your development team, but crucial to operations to prioritize so all the work gets done. To find out how the most successful entrepreneurs were managing, I asked a panel of 10 founders from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question: What system do you use in your company for routing tech complaints/ti

Web 151

Web Operations Entrepreneur Founder 151

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

ConversionXL

JUNE 17, 2014

'Most conversation about social media strategy sucks. Write compelling headlines, use interesting photos, follow “influencers” Pfffft… what a crock of s**t. I’m going to blow the doors wide open on why most social media marketing strategies are garbage & why even the halfway decent ones still aren’t nearly as effective as they could be.

Social Media 128

Social Media Media Marketing Database 128

The Next Web

JUNE 17, 2014

'Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder of audience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups grow internationally. At some point in time, your marketing or PR team will decide it’s time to host an event. A startup party is a great way to get your brand name out there, meet new customers, and celebrate your survival in the fast lane.

Social Media 147

Social Media New York PR Hosting 147

Up and Running

JUNE 17, 2014

'The hit HBO show “Game of Thrones,” which has fans enthralled over the fight for the Iron Throne, averages 14.2 million viewers per episode, and has been lauded as the network’s most popular show ever. With a growing cast of 250+ actors, “Game of Thrones” costs about $50-60 million to produce each season, and is now airing in 75 countries.

Reputation 119

Reputation Washington Employee Hiring 119

ConversionXL

JUNE 17, 2014

'Most conversation about social media strategy sucks. Write compelling headlines, use interesting photos, follow “influencers” Pfffft… what a crock of s**t. I’m going to blow the doors wide open on why most social media marketing strategies are garbage & why even the halfway decent ones still aren’t nearly as effective as they could be.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Marketing Database 126

Mike Michalowicz

JUNE 17, 2014

'“That’s the ugliest sunset I have ever seen!”. Now, that’s a line you don’t hear everyday! Yet there is no doubt that you have seen many sunsets in your lifetime. Sure, like most people, you have probably said, “That is the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen,” but you have most likely never said it was the “ugliest” one. You may even wonder why on earth anyone would ever find a sunset to be ugly in the first place!

Sales 116

Sales Product Customer 116

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 17, 2014

'The Martian by Andy Weir is the best book I’ve read in a while. I consumed it in the last 24 hours. But first, here’s what I woke up to this morning. No – I’m not on Mars. But Mark Watney was. And while Mars is a lot more desolate than Homer, Alaska, I disconnected from the human race several times right in the middle of a work week because of the amazingness of this book.

Alaska 107

Alaska Engineer Video 107

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 17, 2014

'Henrik Werdelin, co-founder of Barkbox a subscription ecommerce service for dog owners wrote a great post on Medium detailing The 6 counterintuitive ways Barkbox grew to a 100m business. It’s a great read combining high level thoughts about approach (be the place to hang even if users aren’t buying) with tactical specifics (be very active on Instagram).

Revenue 102

Revenue Customer Social Media Cofounder 102

Up and Running

JUNE 17, 2014

'When you train employees to do tasks you usually do, you can move on to other things knowing the work is in good hands. How can I feel more comfortable delegating important tasks to my employees? Delegating tasks to others allows time for you to manage your business, and relieves the pressure of having to do everything. Effective delegation increases the productive output of the company, and allows the organization to prosper.

Oregon 89

Oregon Employee Small Business Business Plan 89

ConversionXL

JUNE 17, 2014

'Most conversation about social media strategy sucks. Write compelling headlines, use interesting photos, follow “influencers” Pfffft… what a crock of s**t. I’m going to blow the doors wide open on why most social media marketing strategies are garbage & why even the halfway decent ones still aren’t nearly as effective as they could be.

Social Media 79

Social Media Media Database Channel 79

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 17, 2014

'Many entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley believe that the financial services industry in the United States is “ripe for disruption. ” The basis of this argument is really two fold. First, they believe that the current offerings from the financial incumbents are lacking. They would argue that credit card fees are too high, that there is a lack of true competition amongst American financial institutions, and that the ACH process is borderline asinine.

Finance 83

Finance Silicon Valley Madagascar China 83

Tim Keane

JUNE 17, 2014

'Starbucks announced this week that it is partnering with Arizona State University to make an undergraduate education available at a steep discount to 135,000 US employees who work at least 20 hours a week. Workers will be able to choose.

Employee 68

Employee Arizona Partner Management 68

ConversionXL

JUNE 17, 2014

'Most conversation about social media strategy sucks. Write compelling headlines, use interesting photos, follow “influencers” Pfffft… what a crock of s**t. I’m going to blow the doors wide open on why most social media marketing strategies are garbage & why even the halfway decent ones still aren’t nearly as effective as they could be.

Social Media 69

Social Media Media Marketing Database 69

Austin Startup

JUNE 17, 2014

'Besomebody, a diverse, global, social community and passion platform, has closed a $1 million seed funding round from The E.W. Scripps Company, a 135-year-old entrepreneurial media company based in Cincinnati. The distribution of the funding is linked to the company meeting key milestones.

Distribution 67

Distribution Global Community Media 67

Rob Go

JUNE 17, 2014

'In my last post about raising seed vs. jumping straight to A, I received a good comment from Chris Woods that my analysis neglected to include the impact of option pools that are created at each financing round. It was a good point, and one that is worth touching on with a dedicated post. In almost every financing round, there is an important stipulation in the term sheet that talks about the employee option pool that will be created in tandem with the financing.

Option Pool 65

Option Pool Dilution .Net Term Sheet 65

Cracking the Code

JUNE 17, 2014

'Short interview on Bloomberg by Caroline Hyde on the sharing economy and the London ecosystem during the London Tech Week. It was fun!

Cost 54

Cost Venture Capital Portfolio 54

Bryce Dot VC

JUNE 17, 2014

'“The most indicative metric of a community’s health is the cross-pollination of stakeholders. Etsy sellers buy from other Etsy sellers, Kickstarter creators back other Kickstarter creators, and Meetup attendees start new Meetups.

Metrics 40

Metrics 40

Early Growth Financial Services

JUNE 17, 2014

'This guest post was contributed by Chinwe Onyeagoro, CEO and Co-Founder of FundWell. Monitoring The 4 Cs We all know the importance of health and wellness when it comes to our bodies and minds. We take regular steps — exercising, eating well, and managing stress to prevent major health issues and maintain quality of life. We recommend applying this same focus when it comes to your small business’ financial health.

Small Business 38

Small Business Cost Cofounder Metrics 38

Steve Blank

JUNE 17, 2014

'“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”. Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince. For six and a half years I served as a public official on the California Coastal Commission. Since it’s been a year since I resigned, it’s time to tell a few stories about what I learned as a Coastal Commissioner. Each and every month I learned something new about human nature, deception and greed.

California 295

California Southern California Los Angeles San Francisco 295

Version One Ventures

JUNE 17, 2014

'Last December, we published our thoughts on the healthcare market in a VentureBeat article: “ The health-tech booster shot: bringing health care into the 21st century.”. That was December 2013, and digital health funding for the year exceeded $19B with 195 venture deals (where over $2M was raised). These numbers were up 39% compared with 2012, and a staggering 119% compared with 2011.

Demand 157

Demand Artificial Inteligence Venture Capital Lead Generation 157