Hunter Walker

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Myopic groupthink kills more companies than constructive criticism ever will. When Facebook acquihired the Branch team on Monday there were some gasps because Branch founder/CEO Josh Miller had been outspoken re: Facebook’s challenges. “Awkward first day at the office,” one chuckled. Unless you picture Zuck as some nefarious King Joffrey who intends to crossbow Miller , bringing smart dissenting voices into your team is a show of strength, not weakness.

Hiring 95

Hiring Social Network Hosting Restful 95

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

'If you follow the tech media you would be subject to a lot of narrative biases that are completely off base – and this includes the value of email and phone calls. TL;DR. Tech news keeps proclaiming “phone calls are dead,” which is useful except that the data suggests the exact opposite. Calls are changing but not dying. All the data actually suggests with the growth of mobile, inbound sales calls will double from 30 billion to 60 billion in 3 years (source: Kelsey).

Mobile 339

Mobile Email Social Media Global 339

Steve Blank

JANUARY 14, 2014

'There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure?’ Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings. Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven. In late 2013 Cowboy Ventures did an analysis of U.S.-based tech companies started in the last 10 years, now valued at $1 billion. They found 39 of these companies. They called them the “Unicorn Club.”.

Business Model 330

Business Model Lean Customer Development Channel 330

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2014

'The brand new LED television is calling your name, begging you to take it home with you. You can hear the brand new video gaming consoles whispering in your ear from within their boxes. You can hear the music coming from the unplugged surround sound systems that are on sale. This is the same experience that millions of other consumers go through when simply “browsing” through an electronics store or website, which is why global sales for this overall industry exceeded in $1 trillion in 2012 , a

Search 157

Search Demand Naming Video 157

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

The Next Web

JANUARY 14, 2014

'If you’re a startup founder, how much should you pay yourself? Not very much, according to data that Compass has shared with The Next Web. The company collected salary data from 11,160 startups around the world that use its benchmarking tool. In Silicon Valley, 75% of founders pay themselves less than $75,000 per year and 66% pay themselves less than $50,000 per year, according to the data.

Salary 167

Salary Silicon Valley San Francisco Founder 167

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2014

'by Julie Miller and Brian Bedford, co-authors of “ Culture Without Accountability: WTF? What’s The Fix? “ Was 2013 a bad year for your credibility rating? If you’re honest, you might have to admit to a slip-up or two. (Maybe not on par with the most notorious celebrities and politicians, but bad enough!) Perhaps you were late more times than you would like to admit, you missed several deadlines, you told a few white lies to clients, and somehow you turned into one of the office’s to

Differentiation 157

Differentiation Reputation Leadership Naming 157

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2014

'If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably taking payments through a pre-made shopping cart that works in tandem with PayPal. This is a great way to get your business started, but as your business grows, you’re going to want to consider looking into something a little more personalized. That orange-and-blue “Buy with PayPal” button does reassure your customers that they are working with a trusted payment service, but it also makes your business look like it&

Early Stage 124

Early Stage Salary Small Business Design 124

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 14, 2014

'My Nexus 5 / Nexus 7 experience has been a winner so far. I’m 14 days into “Android instead of iOS” and I’m enjoying it a lot. Almost all of the apps I use on iOS are on Android. Most are just as good / some are better. And some of them are awesome. I’ve discovered Cover and I love it. It’s one of those things that just does what you want it to do.

Mobile 113

Mobile 113

Up and Running

JANUARY 14, 2014

'I’m a freelance writer, and freelance writing can be a fantastic job. There are so many different types of outlets you can pursue (traditional publications, online news sites, blogging, you name it) and so many topic areas to tackle you can specialize in whatever interests you—or try your hand at a mix of different things to keep it fresh. But freelancing is also a challenging job, and not for the faint of heart.

Demand 116

Demand Lean Portfolio Engineer 116

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Yesterday, as a joke, I sent Josh Kopelman the kind of text that would probably make him cringe if I had sent it by e-mail. (No, it wasn''t a pic of any kind--just a joke.). Knowing Josh, he still probably cringed, but he cringed a little bit less because we were both using Confide --a sort of Snapchat for professionals. There''s no lasting record of me ever having sent that note and he only got to look at it once before it disappeared.

Security 105

Security Venture Capital Channel Retention 105

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 14, 2014

'At Forward Partners we like to look at extreme consumers and think whether their behaviour will come the mainstream. ABC have just published news of the Pengheng Space Capsule Hotel in Shenzhen, China which is an extreme business whose behaviour will, I think, come to mainstream businesses. From the doorman, to the front desk the hotel is staffed by robots who you will also find serving drinks.

China 102

China Cost Partner 102

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 14, 2014

'A new 2014 State of Marketing Report from ExactTarget presents the results of a survey taken by approximately 2,000 marketing managers. The report contains four important insights for small businesses and startups: 1. Social remains an interesting but unproven channel. Forty-six percent of marketers claim that social is core to their business, but only 34 percent said their social marketing efforts were currently producing a return on their investment.

Small Business 108

Small Business Marketing Channel Social Media 108

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Happy new year 2014! It has been a while since my last blog post but with the new year comes new resolutions and a new design layout for Cracking-the-code. I hope you will enjoy the read Simple CAC ratio As many companies are finalizing their 2014 financial plan ( feel free to use the Accel template ), I thought it could be a good time to write a short post on the CAC ratio - a simple metric that I defined in a blog post in 2008 (time flies!

Cost 97

Cost Acquisition Customer .Net 97

Growthink Blog

JANUARY 14, 2014

'“Social proof” is a critical psychological principle that savvy business owners can use to dramatically increase sales and grow their businesses. The principle simply states that people are more likely to do something when they see others doing it. For example, after entering a new restaurant, customers are more prone to sit down and eat if they see others in the restaurant versus if it was completely empty.

Campaign 91

Campaign Advertising Mobile Customer 91

SiliconHills

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Main Street Hub announced today that it has closed on $14 million in venture capital led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The Austin-based company manages social media communications for small to medium-sized businesses in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland and Hong Kong. Main Street Hub plans to use the funding to further develop its products and […] The post Main Street Hub Lands $14 Million in Venture Capital appeared first on SiliconHills.

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Ireland Canada Austin 90

Mike Michalowicz

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Don’t ever think a small animal is harmless. Life will defend itself regardless of its size. Don’t ever think you can crush a small competitor. It will defend itself to the bitter end.

Entrepreneur 83

Entrepreneur 83

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Subscribe to this Podcast in iTunes. Walter and I have a very strategic discussion on today’s Everything Entrepreneurship Episode #14 as we look to concepts like the Blue Ocean Strategy and Disruptive Innovation as methods to carve out big profits by creating new markets. The two books we mentioned during the call were -. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create … Read the rest of this entry » The post How Blue Oceans And Disruptive Innovation Can Be Your Path To Startup Success appe

Incubator 85

Incubator Startup Restful Internet 85

SiliconHills

JANUARY 14, 2014

'WP Engine, the startup that specializes in hosting WordPress sites, announced Tuesday that it has received $15 million in venture capital from North Bridge Growth Equity. The company plans to use the money to focus on its products and customer service, according to a post by Heather Brunner, the company’s CEO, on the WP Engine […] The post WP Engine Receives $15 Million in Venture Capital appeared first on SiliconHills.

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Engineer Equity Austin 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2014

'In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business card you gave me last week. That’s just wrong. We need instant access to the most important of all resources: current contact info. Too many of us have piles of business cards scattered around the office and home, as well as additional contacts on your smartphone, iPad, Outlook, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Software Review 230

Software Review Social Network Software Email 230

SiliconHills

JANUARY 14, 2014

'San Antonio-based Rackspace Hosting has filled a top spot in its executive ranks. On Tuesday, the company announced the appointment of Taylor Rhodes, formerly its Chief Customer Officer, as its new president effective immediately. “Taylor is a proven operational veteran with outstanding strategic and leadership skills,” Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier said in a news statement. […] The post Rackspace Hosting Appoints Taylor Rhodes as President appeared first on SiliconHills.

Hosting 65

Hosting San Antonio Leadership Operations 65

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Using Your Greatness Filter to Perform at Your Best written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Last January I started a series of posts I called Recover You. They all built on the theme of actions and activities you could take to improve how you approached your work and your life. This year’s theme for the randomly dispersed posts is Greatness.

Aggregator 68

Aggregator RSS Cloud Mobile 68

ithacaVC

JANUARY 14, 2014

'I was giving some advice the other day on how to approach Series B investors in terms of valuation. Here is the hypo (all $$ amounts changed): 1. Company X raised its Series A at a pre-money valuation of $5mm and it raised $4mm dollars. 2. So the post-money valuation after the Series A was $9mm. And the Series A investors then owned 4/9s of Company X. 3.

Pre-Money Valuation 58

Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Valuation Term Sheet 58

Austin Startup

JANUARY 14, 2014

'WP Engine today announced a $15 million investment from North Bridge Growth Equity.

Engineer 82

Engineer Equity 82

Jeff Hilimire

JANUARY 14, 2014

'I’ll be praying for the widow all alone . Sewing clothes for a loaf of bread. It is not my fault that she is hungry. It’s my joy to make sure she’s fed. ~ JJ Heller, “Little Things” This lyric was shared with me by one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Daniel Roberts (check out Friendly Human, his amazing video company specializing in visual storytelling for human centric brands).

Video 59

Video Entrepreneur 59

Rob Go

JANUARY 14, 2014

'My old colleague Michael Dearing (who is an outstanding seed investor in SV btw) shared this tweet recently: “mcgd: The difference between companies who practice OKRs or equiv and those that do not is stark. n = hundreds” I’ve definitely found this to be true in my experience so far. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, OKR stands for “Objectives and Key Results” OKRs are used in some form by many companies to focus teams around specific goals, track prog

Early Stage 51

Early Stage Boston Portfolio Hosting 51

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2014

'By Sean C. Castrina, author of “ 8 Unbreakable Rules For Business Start-Up Success “ The elusive but enticing $100 start-up — consider it the Big Foot of the entrepreneurial world. Time and time again, wannabe entrepreneurs are told that the $100 start-up is possible. That by following the advice from this or that “expert” you can create a business doing something you love, and all you need is a quick and easy $100 investment.

Small Business Administration 163

Small Business Administration Advertising SEO Cost 163

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 14, 2014

'If you want to make sure your start-up fosters innovation, office design may have a larger impact than you might think. Unfortunately most North American offices and office parks have focused on cost-effective design, rather than aesthetics and function – with generic gray cubicles, and the same drab carpet, wall color, and blinds. Upgrades like adjustable desks and exercise balls can help, but innovative design entails more than ergonomic furniture.

Design 149

Design Incubator Employee Programming 149

The Next Web

JANUARY 14, 2014

'Filtered photos may be all the rage in the past, but you can’t deny the undying popularity of GIFs. In case you haven’t been on the Internet for the past two years, the Graphics Interchange Format – or GIF, for short – is a file format comprised of a series of photos strung together and looped to create the appearance of animation. It’s a phenomenon that have inspired things like Vine and Instagram video.

Email 132

Email Flash Los Angeles Marketing 132