Tue.Dec 16, 2014

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Upfront Ventures Raised New $280 Million Fund

Both Sides of the Table

'Whew! We’ve been dying to tell you all for a while that we had raised a new venture capital fund and of course given SEC filing requirements the story was somewhat already scooped by the always-in-the-know Dan Primack a few weeks ago. We raised $280 million. Our last fund was $200 million but as you may already know since we raised that fund we added new partners Greg Bettinelli and Kara Nortman and Venture Partner Hamet Watt – all of whom are busy looking at new deals for the firm

Las Vegas 396
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Public Relations Tips for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs [Webinar Recap]

Up and Running

'To grow a business, most entrepreneurs know that they should be implementing PR strategies. But where do you start, and what are the best approaches to public relations for an entrepreneur? For this webinar, we were joined by Jennefer Witter, CEO and founder of the Boreland Group, and author of the new book, “The Little Book of Big PR: 100+ Quick Tips to Get Your Small Business Noticed.” We recently featured an excerpt from her book, which offers even more great tips on networking f

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Three Reasons Why The Affordable Care Act Is Great For Entrepreneurs

YoungUpstarts

'by Rick Lindquist, co-author of “ The End of Employer-Provided Health Insurance: Why It’s Good for You and Your Company “. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is inspiring innovation. By making individual health insurance accessible and affordable, it has knocked down one of the greatest barriers to entrepreneurship. Budding entrepreneurs no longer need to worry about where they are going to get health insurance — or how they’re going to offer it to the talented people who can help them get their sta

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The wrongness of relativism

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

'Instagram had 13 employees when they sold for a billion dollars. Was there any startup founder who didn’t feel depressed when that happened? Yes, depressed. All those years of toil and sacrifice, the pain of scaling a complex organization and a complex product, scratching and clawing for revenue growth month after month, and you’ll never have that sort of exit, and 26-year-old Kevin Systrom did it in only 2 years, with 13 buddies, with $0 in revenue, never having had to worry about

Metrics 246
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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

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

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How Successful Companies Utilize Technology

YoungUpstarts

'by Jessica Oaks. It’s no secret that technology plays a pivotal role in how businesses conduct daily operations and market themselves. The most successful companies are leveraging technological advancements to their advantage by interpreting data to strategically build a customer’s purchasing experience, improving life with innovation, and increasing brand visibility via digital platforms.

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Two New Techstars Programs – Mobility/Detroit and Techstars++/Mayo Clinic

Feld Thoughts

'I’m fascinated with Detroit. When I was there in October 2012 with my partners Ryan and Jason to run the Detroit Marathon we talked about the idea of getting more involved there in some way. Jason grew up in Detroit and has lots of stories there. He goes back regularly to visit his parents and Ann Arbor where he went to school. Since we were there, I’ve read a few books on Detroit and many articles that popped up about it’s downfall along with some of the entrepreneurial activ

Detroit 145

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Target Marketing 101 [Infographic]

Up and Running

'The term “target marketing” has been around for decades, but that doesn’t mean that everyone knows what it is or how to apply it to their business. If you’re just starting out, or if marketing your business has been something that you do without fully understanding it, then getting a grasp on target marketing will be really valuable.

Marketing 139
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There isn’t much movement at the top table of the internet

The Equity Kicker

'The Washington post just published a chart showing the most popular sites on the internet over the last eighteen years. It’s too big to reproduce here, but the striking thing about it is how little movement there’s been in the top. Only 14 companies are represented in the top 5 slots over those years, and the top slot has been held by only three companies (AOL, Yahoo, and Google).

Internet 103
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7 Typical Lies Customers Tell Their Vendors

Mike Michalowicz

'About two months ago I had coffee with one of my closest friends. He was all hyped up, and it wasn’t because of the triple caffeine injected espresso. Well, maybe that was part of it. He was jittery with excitement because that morning he received the call he had been waiting for. A new customer (ahem, prospect) informed him that they had decided to proceed with the project.

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Lessons from The Instigator Experience – Interview with Srinivas Rao

Life Beyond Code

'I have known Srini for a number of years and he never ceases to amaze me with his interviews ( The Unmistakable Creative series) and the projects that he pursues such as The Instigator Experience events. Being a co-host of a few Cerebrate events in the past, I am fascinated with the concept of The Instigator Experience. I asked Srini a few questions about the lessons learned from creating and hosting the last event.

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General Assembly to Open a Campus in Austin

SiliconHills

'General Assembly, an educational instruction company focused on technology, business and design, has announced plans to open a new campus in Austin. The company plans to begin offering students in Austin classes and workshop this month. And in early 2015, it plans to offer full-time immersive programs and part-time courses in topics such as web […] The post General Assembly to Open a Campus in Austin appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 91
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Customer Service: The Difference Between Empathy and Sympathy

crowdSPRING Blog

'Most customer service teams respond to customers with sympathy. A sympathetic response could be: “I’m also unhappy with the way that product works.” Sympathy is rarely an ideal response to a customer’s problem. Instead, show empathy. Empathy allows to you be professional and caring at the same time. It also allows you to avoid becoming emotionally involved (like when you show sympathy).

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Wisegate Lands $4 Million in Venture Capital

SiliconHills

'Wisegate, a platform for information technology professionals to network, announced Tuesday it has closed on $4 million in venture capital. The Austin-based startup reported that Arcus Capital Partners led the Series B round with participation from Series A investors including Central Texas Angel Network, Atlanta Technology Angels, Golden Seeds and Cowtown Angels.

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Stop Trying to Make Your Customers Smarter!

Duct Tape Marketing

'Stop Trying to Make Your Customers Smarter! written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Waiting for a flight home from Bangkok the other week, I found myself leaving the lounge at the same time as a lovely elderly woman from Chicago. She was headed home, after being part of a two-week group tour around Thailand.

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BidPrime Opens New Headquarters in Austin

SiliconHills

'BidPrime announced it has opened its new company headquarters in Austin. The company, which has 16 employees in Austin, moved to 1301 S I-35 Suite #101. It also has offices in Seattle and Dallas. The company has grown significantly in the past two years and needed more space, according to company officials. It manages operational […] The post BidPrime Opens New Headquarters in Austin appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 76
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How Small Business Owners Can Avoid Customer Delinquencies And Get Paid On Time

Early Growth Financial Services

'This guest post was contributed by Chinwe Onyeagoro, CEO and Co-Founder of FundWell. If you have ever found yourself waiting to collect from customers who consistently do not pay you when their invoices are due, then it may be time to try something new. Waiting for these delinquent customers to spontaneously develop better habits and pay you on time is not realistic.

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Payment Data Systems Buys Akimbo of San Antonio for $3 million

SiliconHills

'Payment Data Systems, an online payments company, announced Tuesday it has acquired Akimbo Financial for $3 million. Payment Data Systems is buying the company with common stock in two tranches with up to $300,000 in cash if any liabilities are assumed. Akimbo, founded in 2010, has raised $850,000 in investment. The company, based at Geekdom, […] The post Payment Data Systems Buys Akimbo of San Antonio for $3 million appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Why we are investing in Clever

Lightspeed Venture Partners

'Today we are excited to announce that Lightspeed is leading Clever’s $30M Series B. When we first met the founders Tyler Bosmeny, Dan Carroll, and Rafael Garcia, we were blown away by both their vision for transforming education and the amazing adoption they have already achieved in K-12 schools. Clever is building a universal API layer for the education market that enables schools to quickly sign up for and deploy educational mobile and web apps from a single dashboard.

API 104