YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 12, 2015

by Todd McDaniel, Vice President at Dynavistics Inc. With the changing of the seasons, your collection strategies may need to be changed. The time of year can alter how apt and able your customers are to pay you. The biggest seasonal factor for collections is vacations and holidays. During the summer months, more than half of Americans take vacation days and collections may slow down while customers’ personnel are on vacation or even while your collectors are out of the office, but there a

Software Review 165

Software Review Software Developers Software Development Software 165

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 12, 2015

I’ve long held the opinion that scaremongering about teenagers’ use of social media is more a reflection of parents unease with a new medium than anything else. There is, of course, good and bad in everything and teenagers do make mistakes and hurt themselves on social media but that’s true in the offline world too and not a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Social Media 89

Social Media Media Technical Review .Net 89

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

I once showed a company to another VC for an investment we were syndicating. This investor loved the team and thought the solution they were building was compelling. Ultimately, this firm passed because they couldn’t get comfortable with the “market size” given that they were a big fund and only targeted $1B+ opportunities. Similarly, I remember years ago when I was looking at the series A investment in a company called Lumos Labs.

Seed Stage 245

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 245

deal architect

AUGUST 12, 2015

BusinessWeek has a nice article on Keith Block, Salesforce President “He’s asking software designers to build more products aimed at specific industries, and he’s developed a more rigid, aggressive sales strategy meant to answer any question a big client could.

Software 228

Software Design Sales Developer 228

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

AUGUST 12, 2015

As a startup investor in this age of the entrepreneur, I see many more startups, but innovation is still hard to find. The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site ( over 200 active ), or another dating site (now over 2500 in the US alone). Startups which display real innovation, such as alternative energy sources and new medical treatments, are still rare.

Intellectual Property 209

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Metrics .Net 209

deal architect

AUGUST 12, 2015

90% of the companies which were on the Fortune 500 list in 1955 no longer exist or are no longer independent. Most of us are loyal to brands so why that much churn? Because companies do incredibly stupid things to.

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214

deal architect

AUGUST 12, 2015

There has been plenty of scorn about the scolding Oracle’s CSO delivered to her customers for “reverse engineering’ its code to test for security vulnerabilities. While Oracle, as usual, comes across as the “bad guy”, it is challenge most large.

Security 188

Security Engineer Customer Software 188

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2015

Maybe you’re working from home doing freelance work, or you started your own business and don’t have an office space. Perhaps you’ve been working remotely for a company, so you spend a lot of time in your living room. In any case, no matter how hard you attempt to keep a productive home office, it can be hard to stay focused at home with the distraction of your comfortable bed, TV and Netflix, and various gadgets so easily accessible.

Product 122

Product Cloud Mobile Management 122

deal architect

AUGUST 12, 2015

Infor just announced its acquisition of GT Nexus. I like it because it is not just a simplistic business network where you order paper and pencils and then burden those suppliers with the costs of running the network. GT Nexus’s.

Software 183

Software Acquisition Networking Cost 183

View from Seed

AUGUST 12, 2015

I once showed a company to another VC for an investment we were syndicating. This investor loved the team and thought the solution they were building was compelling. Ultimately, this firm passed because they couldn’t get comfortable with the “market size” given that they were a big fund and only targeted $1B+ opportunities. Similarly, I remember years ago when I was looking at the series A investment in a company called Lumos Labs.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Marketing Angel Investor Term Sheet 120

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 12, 2015

(Guest post by Mahbod Moghadam ). Rappers want to be venture capitalists, venture capitalists want to be rappers: it is a tale as old as time. It totally makes sense, cause both rapper and VC are not actual professions – they are both kinda what you tell friends and family members you’re doing when you’re unemployed. Also, in both fields, appearance is everything.

Silicon Valley 112

Silicon Valley Founder Product Media 112

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2015

Dealing with email is something I have become an expert in out of necessity. While it’s out of control, it’s a chore that is wired into my work in a deep way that, regardless of the explosion of real time communication channels, will likely continue to be the least common denominator for communication for the next 100 years. That is one of the reasons why I’m interested in seeing the projects that come out of the Context.IO App Challenge , a long-format online hackathon that I’ll be

API 111

API Portfolio Channel Email 111

Growthink Blog

AUGUST 12, 2015

Over the past few weeks, I have had the good fortune to speak to many executives and entrepreneurs about how the “ Humans ” in their companies grapple with data and information technology to improve critical work processes and business results. These processes include “New School” ones like formulating, launching, and managing multi-channel digital marketing campaigns - i.e. simultaneously advertising on Google AdWords, Bing, Facebook, and LinkedIn - and then utilizing various forms of re-target

Analytics 83

Analytics PPC Retention Campaign 83

YFS Magazine

AUGUST 12, 2015

Are you feeling wound up, stressed out and confused by the lack of shares for your content on your company website or blog?

Social Media 97

Social Media Sales Media Marketing 97

Mike Michalowicz

AUGUST 12, 2015

Of all the questions I ask, the one that gets the most lies in response is “What do you want?” I found that very few entrepreneurs really know. The most common responses (lies) are more money, more freedom, more something. When I hear the first answer an entrepreneur gives me to this question, I then ask them “Why do you want that?” Some look puzzled, others give an answer that digs a little deeper, and yet others say “Because I just do” keeping us trapped in a circuitous discussion.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur 78

YFS Magazine

AUGUST 12, 2015

It is vital that you treat your employees with respect and dignity if you want to have a successful business.

Employee 98

Employee Retention 98

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2015

Recently, Palo Alto Software CEO Sabrina Parsons hosted a webinar for our Bcast members on how to use LivePlan to create a better business plan, pitch your idea to investors, and track your business. As a successful small business owner, Sabrina wanted to show off how LivePlan’s many features can help boost your business. LivePlan can help you create a better business plan, and then transfer the important parts of that business plan into a short, successful pitch to show to investors.

Forecast 87

Forecast Video Business Plan United States 87

Mucker Lab

AUGUST 12, 2015

(Guest post by my partner, Erik Rannala). There have been rumblings recently that the traditional VC model could be in danger of extinction, threatened by more contemporary investment sources such as crowdfunding and super angels. While it’s true that the early-stage landscape is changing, VCs are hardly on the demise, nor are professional VCs losing ground to crowdfunding and angels.

Venture Capital 65

Venture Capital Early Stage Matching Partner 65

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 12, 2015

Be Less Busy And More Productive written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Tony Crabbe. I think a lot of entrepreneurs fall into the trap of being busy and calling it being productive. Busy is really easy – productive is really hard. Busy is checking email, reading Facebook and listening to podcasts.

Product 57

Product Social Network Social Media Technology 57

Jeff Hilimire

AUGUST 12, 2015

I was always sort of against listening to books on tape, simply because I enjoy actually reading a book. And not actual books. No, in fact when I receive an actual book from someone as a gift, if I decide I want to read it, I just buy it on the Kindle. Carrying around an actual book to me feels like carrying around a record. Like, a music record. Like this: Where was I?

Audio 56

Audio 56

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 12, 2015

It's not very meaningful to look just at "private" funding, or to even call that "VC" -- you have to look at the total funding picture.

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Brandanew

AUGUST 12, 2015

Needless to say, it takes a lot of effort to build a brand that people trust. The degree to which you need consumers to trust you, may also depend on the purchase involvement and the kind of products. You will probably buy a packet of biscuits without thinking too much. But will you buy baby food from a company that you do not trust? You need to establish a consistent track record as a quality manufacturer or service provider to earn this trust.

Customer 151

Customer Startup B2B Retention 151

ConversionXL

AUGUST 12, 2015

So what’s this all about? Unicorns, Useful Best Practices and Optimisation Experts — all rather rare and mystical beasts. And this quote encapsulates everything I’m going to talk about today: “Stop copying your competitors — they may not know what the f they are doing either”- Peep Laja. So what’s the problem? The uselessness of ‘best practice’ as a tool for correctly predicting what the outcome of a test or change will be.

Engineer 90

Engineer Search Design Hiring 90