Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Happy official New Year’s, all. It’s that time of year where we think about new beginnings. And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. Please help me congratulate him by Re/Tweeting this post (and following him if you don’t already). What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures?

Jordan 365

Jordan Technical Review Portfolio Partner 365

deal architect

JANUARY 8, 2014

'In the Workday Predict and Prepare videocast last month, my second prediction was HR is at the cusp of an analytical revolution as it learns to leverage sensory, social and yes, plenty of HR data. I used examples like UPS.

Analytics 261

Analytics Software 261

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 8, 2014

'You know the adage about the tip of the iceberg? That actually applies to the Internet too – what many of us don’t realize is that the interwebs that we see is merely a fraction of the actual Internet. In fact, we see but only around 4% of web content (called the “Surface Web” or “Visible Web”), with the rest being the “ Deep Web “ Unlike the regular Internet where content is accessed via regular web browsers, Deep Web content is not indexed by se

Web 196

Web Internet Restful Engineer 196

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 8, 2014

'tl;dr – If you are a CEO and want to take an amazing online course about being a CEO by Return Path’s Matt Blumberg, sign up for Startup CEO from NovoEd now. Yesterday, I wrote about Rand Fishkin of Moz falling out of love with the CEO role. Today I read Jason Goldberg of Fab’s great post on his struggles as CEO in 2013 and what he learned from it.

Startup 139

Startup Portfolio Demand Audience 139

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

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 8, 2014

'By John Canfield, VP of Risk for WePay. When you are in the beginnings of starting up your business or in the heady days of growing your business, one often neglected part of your business may be the operational headaches and risks you have to tackle as you scale. In particular, if you are a platform serving many users and accepting payments on that platform (e.g.

API 168

API Matching Database Algorithm 168

David Teten

JANUARY 8, 2014

'After spending quite a bit of time in board meetings, I worked with a NYU student team earlier in 2012-13 to prepare a template for board presentations to investors. In the deck below, I include our best practices on preparing for, running, and closing up on a board meeting, including what to include in your materials. I would love to hear your feedback.

Analytics 114

Analytics Startup Management 114

Up and Running

JANUARY 8, 2014

'I wish there were a better term, but differentiator is the best I’ve got. It’s what makes you different. It’s also called your secret sauce, and sometimes your competitive edge. It goes back to the fundamental that strategy is focus. It’s very important. One good way to think of it is by imagining how somebody who knows your business would describe it quickly, in just a sentence or two, to somebody else.

Differentiation 88

Differentiation Social Media Media Small Business 88

The Equity Kicker

JANUARY 8, 2014

'I’ve just seen the trailer for upcoming sci-fi movie Transcendence (embedded below) and I can’t wait for the 18 April release date. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a movie. Transcendence is about one of my favourite subjects – the point when humans escape the limitations of our physical form, i.e. when we transcend biology.

Artificial Inteligence 87

Artificial Inteligence Technology Startup 87

Up and Running

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Paula Mottshaw, a creative freelancer, offers tips to get a quality company logo without spending a lot of hard earned startup cash. Every company needs a logo. That visual representation of your company will be on everything from pens to billboards. Just because you plan to get a lot of use out of a company logo, doesn’t mean you have to pay big bucks for it.

Rhode Island 78

Rhode Island Design Portfolio Hiring 78

Mike Michalowicz

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Remember that term “first mover advantage”? I’m sure you do. And I also suspect you realize that it is pretty much no longer relevant – at least as to how it used to work. First mover advantage meant that you had years over your competition. You invent your product, sell it to the market and enjoy years free from competition. It took your competitors that long to figure out what you were doing and how you were doing it.

Entrepreneur 76

Entrepreneur Marketing Customer Product 76

Hippoland

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Happy 2014! The beginning of this year marks 5 years since I left my cushy product job at the GOOG. . Although it sounds like a long time, these past 5 years have zoomed by super quickly. I’ve grown and changed a lot over the last few years. I’ve learned a lot of things that are important in building a company. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with all the things that you need to do or need to figure out. .

Cofounder 74

Cofounder Startup Salary Founder 74

thebarefootvc

JANUARY 8, 2014

'I just completed my annual New Year’s purge of apps on my iPhone. I test countless apps and services as market research as I evaluate new investments. Just 5 years ago, overall smart phone penetration and user “education” was a hinderance for startups looking to capitalize on this new medium. Now with the plethora of new shiny things, user ADHD and plentiful PR opportunities resulting in lots of one-hit wonders, the challenge has shifted to “stickiness” –

Customer 69

Customer .Net Venture Capital PR 69

Hippoland

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Happy 2014! The beginning of this year marks 5 years since I left my cushy product job at the GOOG. . Although it sounds like a long time, these past 5 years have zoomed by super quickly. I’ve grown and changed a lot over the last few years. I’ve learned a lot of things that are important in building a company. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with all the things that you need to do or need to figure out. .

Cofounder 74

Cofounder Startup Salary Founder 74

Babbling VC

JANUARY 8, 2014

'When it comes to payment, I have to admit that I am the first person to want to rid myself of cash first and foremost, followed by credit cards. Give me an app that I open and pay with at the click of a button and I''m golden. Now, I bet a bunch of you could point me to ten different solutions that already allow me to do this today. I can probably also name ten off the top of my head.

Naming 66

Naming Technology 66

Austin Startup

JANUARY 8, 2014

'First, getting a request for an exclusive relationship is far more of a blessing than a curse, as long as you play your cards right.

Startup 64

Startup 64

Jeff Hilimire

JANUARY 8, 2014

'“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.” John Maxwell. The CEO of the Children’s Museum of Atlanta , Jane Turner, shared this quote with me and the rest of the board over the break. If there was ever a leader that I’ve met that is equal parts optimistic, positive and realistic, it’s Jane.

Atlanta 54

Atlanta Leadership Restful Entrepreneur 54

Austin Startup

JANUARY 8, 2014

Austin 116

Austin 116

Rob Go

JANUARY 8, 2014

'It’s been a yearly tradition for me to share a semi-quantitative view into our portfolio at NextView. Three years ago, I published our first “Stroll through the portfolio” and I’ve published updates each year in January. Here are the posts from 201 1, 201 2, and 2013. What I’ve been particularly happy about over the past three years is that we have crafted an intentional strategy and stuck very closely to it from one year to the next.

Syndicate 45

Syndicate Syndication Portfolio Advertising 45

Early Growth Financial Services

JANUARY 8, 2014

'Previously published in Business 2 Community. What are the two most important questions to ask a prospective client? The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and ema

Community 38

Community Programming Sales Video 38

aweissman.com

JANUARY 8, 2014

'My house ain''t done, but it''s alright, floors ain''t level, but I ain''t some suburbanite. Who cares about bathroom tiles, straight lines and building codes and Chinese wind chimes. My house ain''t done, but it''s fine, come out here from time to time, in December for the snow and in July to watch the roses - Mark Kozelek The most insightful essay I read in the last few months is called "Unfinished, unfair and brutally difficult: What developers should steal from DayZ" over at Polygon , by Be

Media 24

Media Developer Technology Customer 24