Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2015

Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). New crowd funding platforms on the Internet, like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo , as well as the Jobs Act of 2012 , are expected by many to ramp up regular people’s ability to fund new opportunities and kill the need for angel groups.

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Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor IRR 218

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 5, 2015

by Nancy D. O’Reilly, PsyD, author of “ Leading Women: 20 Influential Women Share Their Secrets to Leadership, Business, and Life “. Successful women have been in the news quite a bit lately. You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that Hillary Clinton has announced her candidacy for president of the United States (which is arguably the top leadership position in the world).

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Leadership United States Audience Employee 162

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

Note: This is a long post and it’s based on reflecting on a couple of years of observations in the venture industry. It’s a work-in-progress and I expect to update and refine the content in this post a bit, especially in the next week as I prepare for a talk I’m giving at the Premoney conference in SF next week. It is published here in relatively raw form.

Seed Stage 105

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 105

Up and Running

JUNE 5, 2015

When I think of pitching, I think of presentations (unless we’re talking about baseball, of course). But, pitching can come in different forms, and one of the most common ways to pitch your business —even in our technologically advanced age—is the “pitch email.” Email is everywhere. It’s used by nearly everyone, it’s more personal than social media, and it’s less obtrusive than a phone call.

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Email Elevator Pitch Angel Investor Social Media 110

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

SVPG

JUNE 5, 2015

NOTE: This article is a narrative version of a talk I’ve given for developers at the Craft Conference and for product managers and designers at Mind The Product. In this article I’d like to discuss the root causes of so many product failures. I see the same basic way of working at the majority of companies, and I can’t help but notice that this is not close to how the best companies actually work.

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Product Agile Engineer SCRUM 72

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. The truth is that I’ve been warning about convertible notes since 2010 it was first declared that “convertible notes have won.” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note.

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Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 292

Brandanew

JUNE 5, 2015

Usually, we’ve not covered Startup case studies on the blog so far. But the increasing number of questions we get by other Startups, prompted this one. Pratilipi is also special because, even before their launch, I was taken by the concept (being a chai and book lover) that I had covered them on my personal blog (with much love!). This weekend, being a few months old now, Pratilipi shared their progress chart with some of us on Twitter (I am guessing a list of people who first blogged abou

Social Media 203

Social Media Startup B2B Channel 203

The Equity Kicker

JUNE 5, 2015

Ric Edelman, CEO at Edelman Financial Services , one of the top financial advisors in the US, recently said: I firmly believe that in the next ten years, half of all the financial advisors in this country will be gone. The reduction will come because AI and other technologies will soon perform many of the technical aspects of financial advice better than their human counterparts.

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Technology Developer Cost Startup 95

David Teten

JUNE 5, 2015

I get more requests for meetings than I can handle. I’d like to say it’s because of my great insights and dashing looks, but really it’s because we give away money for a living. As a way to try to respond to these requests, I’ve donated my time to a few charities which are auctioning off lunches and feedback meetings with me. Specifically: Congregation Ramath Orah Annual Dinner , June 7, 2015 / NYC.

New York City 86

New York City New York Business Plan Venture Capital 86

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 5, 2015

We get some cool projects on crowdSPRING. But what could be cooler than a HoverBoard? And who cooler to deomonstrate than Tony Hawk! Please don’t try that at home! Instead it might be a good time to roll into our weekly Roundup! Have a go at this week’s set of links and articles that we shared with you over the past week on our crowdSPRING Twitter account (as well as my own Twitter account ) is keyboard perfection!

Small Business 84

Small Business Design Social Media Nepal 84

SiliconHills

JUNE 5, 2015

Austin claimed the top spot in the Kauffman Index for Startup Activity nationwide and San Antonio took the 10th spot. That makes the Central Texas region a powerhouse of entrepreneurial activity. Kauffman measures the rate of new entrepreneurs, opportunity share of new entrepreneurs and startup density. Kauffman measures all entrepreneurial activity from restaurants to law […] The post Kauffman Ranks Austin No. 1 and San Antonio No. 10 for Startup Activity appeared first on SiliconHills.

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San Antonio Austin Texas Startup 91

Mike Michalowicz

JUNE 5, 2015

One. Two. There’s anything I’ll do… Three. Four. To serve the next knock at the door. Five. Six. Even if it’s outside my offering mix… Seven. Eight. Any opportunity of any type is great… Nine. Ten. I’ll repeat this process over and over again.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Sales 78

David Teten

JUNE 5, 2015

New York, NY — The Teten Family is proud to announce that we just finalized our investment in a seed-stage startup, temporarily operating under the name “NewBo” or “Peanut”. We are now looking for a dot-com domain name for our corporate website. We plan to announce the official name for the company at a brit milah Tuesday morning. Currently, at 6 lbs. 8 oz., Newbo is a lean startup.

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Due Diligence Seed Stage Startup Incubator 76

SiliconHills

JUNE 5, 2015

TechCrunch, the nation’s largest technology news site, is coming to Austin on June 23rd to hold a meetup and pitch-off event. The deadline for startups to apply to participate in the pitch-off is today. Each startup gets 60 seconds to pitch in front of a panel of judges including TechCrunch writers and local VCs. All […] The post TechCrunch is Coming to Austin for a Meetup + Pitch-Off Event appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Austin Technology Startup 75

Jeff Hilimire

JUNE 5, 2015

I’ve slowed my blogging cadence way down recently, and am struggling to make sure I post at least once a week. It’s something I want to change – 2-3 times a week is a better flow for me – but right now with everything going on, its hard to make it a priority. Side note: You’ll never hear me say things like, “I don’t have time to do that.” The reality, which we all know, is that when you say that you’re really saying, “That is not enough

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Acquisition Naming Design 47

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 5, 2015

6 Free Social Media Tools for Startups to Build a Strong Social Media Presence written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. You had a great idea, and you’ve built a viable business model around it, but getting the word around about the products and services you have on offer can prove to be quite challenging.

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Social Media Media Startup Email 56