Up and Running
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Sixty percent of small business owners and managers say their biggest human resources challenge is finding skilled talent. Heavy competition for workers with specialized skills doubles the difficulty budget crunches impose on recruiters. Some companies with deep pockets are offering generous transition packages to lure workers away from competitors.
ConversionXL
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'“ I have too little traffic to test; hence, I can’t do conversion optimization. ” I’ve heard this a lot. B t , I say. You can do conversion optimization on any website – even on sites that have so little traffic that a split test would take 2 years to run until statistical significance is reached. You might not be able to run tests, but you can still optimize.
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Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Six months ago Upfront Ventures announced its first Partner hire since 2007 – Greg Bettinelli. I wrote about him here. More importantly, he has just announced his first investment – he led a $7 million investment in Deliv – please read about it on Greg’s spiffy new blog. It’s been a really exciting time for me personally to be able to see a partner come in with the energy, enthusiasm and new ideas that remind me of myself 6 years ago.
deal architect
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'In a world where we are bombarded with a relentless stream of emails, slides, webinars, it is so nice to get a crisp, rapid update on product “delta” In April, I wrote “There is something very reassuring when Stan Swete, Cloud Computing, SaaS'
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 Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'An underutilized, but valuable resource, every startup should investigate is a formal or informal connection to your alma mater, including any local university. These resources are definitely not limited to students, since every university seeks out and needs the real world exposure and experience of entrepreneurs who already are active in the real world marketplace.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'The recession is hitting the economy hard, and a study is finding that it’s impacting attitudes on entrepreneurship quite differently across different generations. According to a recent American Express OPEN® Ages Survey, Generation Y entrepreneurs are actually more risk adverse after experiencing their first-ever economic downturn (just 56% say they like taking risks, down from 72% in 2007), while those from the Baby Boomer generation’s appetite for risk have remained somewhat unch
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Nothing is more magical than appreciation and recognition and these are the driving forces for any employee working in an organization. The working class needs appreciation, and it is how employers can show their employees the concern towards them. It is a morale booster for employees as they would be certainly more involved if they believe their superiors acknowledge and appreciate their efforts.
deal architect
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'During the joint Salesforce/Workday call yesterday afternoon Marc Benioff said We both offer phenomenal solutions, but those solutions are better when they work together. And that''s what customers want. They want that integration. They want partnership. They want vendors to.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Shopify is kicking off its fourth annual Build A Business Competition , and has teamed up with some of America’s well-known entrepreneurs to help new shop aspirants build and grow their business. Leading names include Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks, Shark Tank), Tim Ferriss (author of “ The 4-Hour Workweek ”), and Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library, Vaynermedia), who will act as mentors and provide crucial business advice to help participants along the
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Yesterday Yesware announced that Battery Ventures led a $13.5m round that we participated in. A few days ago Xconomy wrote a great article about the very first Yesware board meeting on April Fools Day, 2011. When I reflect on the journey of Yesware over the past 2.5 years it’s a pretty awesome example of a company going from a seed investment with three founders (Matthew Bellows, Cashman Andrus, and Raj Bhargava) to a rapidly growing 40 person company.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'by Linda Allen, Bluefire PR. There are tons of good reasons for choosing the eco-friendly route. And believe it or not, most of them benefit you. The New York Times interviewed Dan Mishek , managing director for Vista Technologies, a company that specializes in providing plastic products for equipment manufacturing. Mishek said his company spent $450,000 on new technology in 2011.
The Equity Kicker
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Brett Martin, founder of @sonar, has written a gut-wrenching post about the lessons he learned from the failure of his startup. First the background: For those unfamiliar, Sonar Media Inc. was a mobile app created to help make the world a friendlier place. Our mobile app buzzed in your pocket when friends were near and ushered in a new wave of “ Ambient Social Networking ” companies.
SiliconHills
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News In the ongoing discussion about how Austin stacks up against Silicon Valley, which sometimes feels like a promising adolescent boy eyeballing how he might turn out relative to his all-star older brother, Capital Factory’s Josh Baer said something that should have been definitive: “Silicon Valley is a […] The post The State of Austin’s Tech Scene appeared first on SiliconHills.
OnlyOnce
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'The Boomerang Club, or How to Quit Your Job, Part II. My post last week on How to Quit Your Job has generated about two dozen comments as well as a really lengthy thread on Y Combinator’s Hacker News. My various replies to comments are worth summarizing here – this is a reprint of my comment on Hacker News: First, my post was not intended to be general advice to employees of all companies on how to handle a situation where they’re starting to look for jobs.
Berkonomics
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Not all companies are successful. The end game can be a failure of the business. In fact, many angel investors or venture capitalists look for and respect the lessons learned by entrepreneurs that have survived a failed business. The key question is how did the entrepreneur fail? And then: What lessons were learned from the failure? One VC calls this entrepreneur one who “has seen the movie before” and spends time questioning the entrepreneur on lessons learned, often praising the person for
SiliconHills
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Rackspace has just launched programs for information technology professionals looking for training on OpenStack. The San Antonio-based company founded OpenStack, the standard open-source operating system for cloud computing. Now Rackspace has launched an online training course and four new classroom-based courses for OpenStack. It has also established a training partner program with New Horizons Computer […] The post Rackspace Launches OpenStack Training Programs appeared first on Silicon
ReadWriteStart
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted unanimously today to regulate the ride-sharing industry. It will now be covered under a new business category called “Transportation Network Companies.” Under this decision, previously unregulated independent operators such as Lyft, InstantCab, Uber, Sidecar and others will now have a new set of rules to conform to, including: Submitting to criminal background checks.
SiliconHills
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'By ANDREW MOORE Reporter with Silicon Hills News Have you been trying to cut back on Gluten? If so, you’re not alone. According to The NPD Group, 29 percent of Americans are either quitting or trying to avoid gluten-containing foods. Finding a steady diet of gluten free meals – or even healthy meals for that […] The post A Slice of Silicon Hills Eats Gluten Free with PrepDish appeared first on SiliconHills.
The Startup Lawyer
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Standard seed financing terms have moved beyond the boundaries of the Bay Area, but they haven’t completely reached all parts of the globe. Of course seed investors should look to protect their investment, but some seed investors (whether in Dallas or Denmark) may look at your startup as a ‘distressed investment’ and seek terms that […].
SiliconHills
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Mu Sigma, a global data analytics company, announced Thursday plans to open an Analytics Center in Austin with 300 employees. The Chicago-based company reports the center will have 300 “decision scientists” plus support staff. It will have a “Delivery Center, Customer Lab and Innovations Lab.” The center will open in October and will complement Mu […] The post Mu Sigma Opens Austin Analytics Center with 300 Employees appeared first on SiliconHills.
Duct Tape Marketing
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Why Your Small Business Needs a Content Marketing Mission Statement written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Thursday is guest blog post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Joe Pulizzi - Enjoy! Did you know that 94% of small businesses (less than 99 employees) use some form of content marketing to grow their businesses?
Early Growth Financial Services
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Financial projections are essentially made-up numbers that have nothing to do with your real business—they’re just another hoop that you need to jump through to satisfy investors, right? Wrong. Your financial model is your startup road map. Just as you wouldn’t hop into your car without your GPS to head off into the unknown, neither should you proceed with your business without going through the exercise of creating your financial model.
Jeff Hilimire
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'“I very frequently get the question: ‘What’s going to change in the next 10 years?’ And that is a very interesting question; it’s a very common one. I almost never get the question: ‘What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?’ And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two — because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. .
Mike Michalowicz
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'I have clarity on my life’s purpose. I wake up every morning knowing it. I go to bed every night thinking about it. It took me about 40 years of life to find it (I’m 42 now). It took most of my 30′s of earnestly seeking it. And I suspect it will take the rest of my life to refine it and master it. My Purpose. I have defined my life’s purpose: To inspire, teach and guide every person I can, to blossom into their authentic, genuine selves.
SiliconHills
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Cinegif, an Austin-based startup specializing in animated graphic technology, has just received $500,000 in angel funding. The investors included the Baylor Angel Network and the Houston Angel Network and its Halo Fund. Cinegif plans to use the funding on sales and marketing for its cloud-based Graphics Interchange Format, known as GIF, marketing platform.
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