YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'By Scott Tarlow, founder, president and CEO of Success Systems. For any business, revenue matters. For a startup, sustained revenue is of paramount importance: a paucity of sales in one month could lead to bankruptcy the next. To prevent disaster, it’s essential for startups to lock down a big client as soon as possible. Big clients have the wherewithal to make large, timely payments and have reputations outsized enough to give your company lasting credibility.

Security 147

Security Bankruptcy Startup Revenue 147

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Are you looking for resources to build your app, or your website? Do you need help expanding the functionality of your website, or improving the design? Are you wondering which web hosting service to use, or which programming language you need to learn, or what’s important to look for when hiring a software or web developer? The first-ever Bplans #askadeveloper Tweet Chat is your opportunity to get free consultation from a professional computer programmer on any of your programming-relate

Programming 98

Programming Web Oregon Software Developers 98

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'This is the fourth article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap , COC: a new metric for cancellations , and The mistake of 1/c in LTV. Its tough for a growing SaaS business to ascertain whether or not it’s truly profitable. Here’s a way to do it. First model: EBITDASM When Rackspace was scaling quickly, they had an interesting metric they called EBITDASM to answer the question: “Are we truly ‘spending

Metrics 238

Metrics Revenue Flash Later Stage 238

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Workday likes to call its customers Citizens of the Cloud. Listening to a customer executive panel at Rising, I think they could easily rename them as Jedi Masters of Complex Change Kevin Ledford of Chiquita described a corporate HQ move.

Cloud 218

Cloud Customer 218

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

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'The name “investment bank” somehow always sounded like a place where I could deposit my investments, and maybe even earn a little interest. Then I learned that these banks really negotiate investments and collect fees on the transactions, sort of like commercial banks do with loans to businesses. None normally work for or provide funds for early-stage startups.

IPO 205

IPO Silicon Valley Private Equity Initial Public Offering 205

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'The keynote this morning by co CEOs Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri was a study in contrasts. There were plenty of reminders of the complex world we live in. Mike McNamara, CEO of Flextronics, talked about his 30 country, $20+.

Cloud 207

Cloud 207

Mike Michalowicz

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'You’ve probably heard terms like “minimal viable product,” “split testing,” “multivariate testing,” along with countless other market growth strategies. Millennial entrepreneurs have modernized all these approaches in an effort to get their businesses running and selling fast. Hyper fast. The challenge, of course, is how do you build an infrastructure fast enough to support the wave of business?

Entrepreneur 128

Entrepreneur Cloud Hosting Startup 128

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'There is a competitor that you should be scared of. And that competitor is… Drum roll. Status Quo. Yes, status quo is a competitor that is more powerful than your most powerful competitor. Status quo as you are aware is for your prospect or your target audience to do nothing or continue to do what they are doing without being touched by what you are offering.

Audience 108

Audience Customer Product 108

Mike Michalowicz

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'What was a good idea then may not be a good idea now. Take partnerships, for example. Many first timers go in 50/50 expecting both partners to be all in, all the time. It doesn’t always play out that way. Better said, it rarely plays out that way. Regardless of the circumstances, even if things are hunky doory, it is a good idea to revisit your operating agreement to make sure all partners have a clear understanding of what they committed to.

Operations 119

Operations Partner 119

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Let’s face it: The internet is a noisy, cluttered place. Just when you think the market couldn’t possibly bear another cat video from Buzzfeed, another one goes viral. The sheer chaos and clutter of the internet creates something of a quandary for business owners and marketers who need to make their content stand out ; it’s tough to create a corporate site that generates the same sort of buzz that animals that look like Vladimir Putin do (for obvious reasons), but that doesn&#

Curation 96

Curation Social Media Viral Campaign 96

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News Eight companies pitched to a crowd of more than 100 potential partners, investors and others at the Co-founders Meetup at Capital Factory Monday night. Jason Brown, a game designer with many Microsoft games to his credit, is working on games to help autistic children interact. From moving […] The post Interesting Ideas at the Co-Founders Meetup at Capital Factory appeared first on SiliconHills.

Cofounder 102

Cofounder Founder Austin Partner 102

Lightspeed Venture Partners

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Using Bitcoin for sending money between countries seems like a no brainer; because the costs are so low, there is the potential for huge savings for immigrants sending money home. But, as I wrote about in GigaOm this past weekend, Bitcoin isn’t yet ready to serve as a replacement for world wide remittance. Read the full article at GigaOm: [link].

Cost 87

Cost Startup 87

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Two Central Texas technology companies are presenting at FinovateFall 2013 in New York today and tomorrow. FinovateFall 2013 is a two-day showcase of cutting-edge financial and banking technology innovations from startups as well as established companies. Akimbo, based in San Antonio, presented today. Toopher, based in Austin, will present on Wednesday.

New York 87

New York San Antonio Texas Austin 87

Start Up Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Sometimes it seems like it’s web bubble time all over again… or is it just me… or is it just Aziz ? In any case this made me laugh, and I hope it brings a smile to your face too. A big HT goes out to Mr Brim.

Startup 75

Startup Web Entrepreneur 75

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Two Austin digital design and marketing firms have merged. SpaceCraft and Element Creative have joined forces and will operate under the management of SpaceCraft CEO Adam Moore and Element CEO Dan Isaacs. The merger allows the company to expand, improve their products and provide great customer support. SpaceCraft makes software to creative websites for small […] The post Spacecraft Merges with Element Creative appeared first on SiliconHills.

Merger 54

Merger Austin Software Operations 54

Start Up Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'The uber observant Ross Hill sent me an email with a comment from my spaceship orbit video I did with Raul a little while ago. Which we both agreed was worth its own blog post. ‘Just some yellow rope’ – read the dialogue below between Raul and a commenter on youtube. There are two clear points for me here. Be like Ross – pay attention.

Video 73

Video Email Startup 73

practicetrumpstheory.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'The following is an excerpt from my book: Running Lean. Can you imagine Steve Jobs asking you what you would have been willing to pay for an iPad before it launched? Sounds ludicrous right? Yet, you’ve probably asked a customer for a “ballpark price” at some point. Well, that’s just backwards. Think about it for a moment. There is no reasonable economic justification for a customer to offer anything but a low-ball figure.

Customer 57

Customer Lean Design Channel 57

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Why Marketers Should Care About The Context-Driven Sale written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Enjoy this guest post form Mike Volpe, CMO of HubSpot. During our HubSpot’s annual marketing conference INBOUND 2013, we unveiled Signals , a freemium sales product that gives sales reps the tools they need to make their conversations with prospects and leads more relevant and contextual.

Sales 62

Sales Social Media Marketing Media 62

Jeff Hilimire

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'As I embark on founding a new company , I have become very aware that technically I haven’t done this since 1998 when I started Spunlogic with Raj. We grew Spun to about 75 people, sold it to Engauge, and then I worked at Engauge until we sold it a few months back to Publicis Group. And while I certainly helped lead Engauge and felt like I was able to help steer the ship, I wasn’t a founder of Engauge (though I was part of the founding acquisitions).

Founder 61

Founder Cofounder Acquisition Mobile 61

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'SpaceCraft announced today that it has merged with one of Austin’s leading digital design and marketing firms, Element Creative.

Design 59

Design Marketing 59

Tim Keane

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'If you use dropbox, look at this Dropbox Security Add-on - Viivo.com. Very cool.

Security 68

Security 68

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Extra Lucrative Conversion Advice. Home. Blog. Conversion Optimization Services. Website Analysis. Conversion Research. About. RSS. It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. Tweet. Tweet. I feel like “conversion rate optimization” is in 2013 what “social media marketing” was in 2009. Most startups fail.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Early Growth Financial Services

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Originally published in ReadWrite. The controversy over Marissa Mayer’s decision to ban telecommuting at Yahoo just won’t go away. Mayer said the move was necessary to foster collaboration at the struggling new media giant, but what about startups? Is remote working right for very young companies? Are there particular issues to watch out for?

Media 43

Media Founder Startup Entrepreneur 43

firstround.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'First Round Capital. The Review. Plusstartup. Jobs. The Review. Product and Engineering. How to Go From Google Engineer to First-Time CTO. Marketing. Product and Engineering. First Round Capital. Design. Management and Company Building. -->. How to Go From Google Engineer to First-Time CTO. Author: Ian Langworth. Date: September 4, 2013. Ian Langworth started his career as an O’Reilly author and software engineer at Google.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire Engineer Software Review Part-Time VPE 52

Scalable Startup

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Run iOS Apps in the Browser – App.io. via Run iOS Apps in the Browser – App.io.

20

20

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'by David B. Goldstein, co-author of “ Creative You: Using Your Personality Type to Thrive “ You can’t outsource creativity. You are creative whether you think so or not. There is no opposite of “creative.” There is no single special type of creative person. There are many types of creative people and we all have our own creative styles.

United States 220

United States India Washington Government 220

scalablestartup.berkeley.edu

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'by Evangelos Simoudis, Ph.D. , Senior Managing Director at Trident Capital. Board advisors can be an essential asset for any budding startup; however, there are important criteria to consider as you select candidates for this crucial role. 1. Roles and Responsibilities. Advisors have a less “official” position with a startup. They can be easily changed, and the number of advisors each startup can appoint is not limited in any way.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board San Francisco Startup Bandwidth 40

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'I try hard to get 7.5-8 hours sleep every night. I’ve been doing that for the 2-3 years since I read Kurzweil’s Transcend and various other books and articles which stressed the benefits of getting enough sleep and the dangers of not. I’ve just now finished watching Russell Foster’s Ted talk Why do we sleep? which makes many of the same points.

Restful 134

Restful Entrepreneur 134

Business Plan Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'What You Need to Know About Obtaining Venture Funding. First and foremost, venture capital firms want to see an entrepreneur with passion and vision. Unfortunately, this usually isn’t enough to get them opening their pocket books. Some venture capital firms will have narrow criteria for the types of companies that they invest in while other will adopt a more broad portfolio and invest across many sectors.

Intellectual Property 53

Intellectual Property Venture Capital Equity Business Plan 53