Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Everyone in the business world has heard of the old bestseller by Geoffrey A. Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Most investors and startup professionals expand this concept of focus to apply to key issues of every aspect of strategic and tactical planning in a startup.

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Up and Running

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'This has been a big year for advances in business funding. The JOBS Act opened doors for major innovations in crowdfunding , and dozens of new funding websites have popped up to address the needs of specific types of businesses. Whether you’re a nonprofit, a new small business, a high-tech startup, or an up-and-running company, and whether you’re looking for a loan or a grant or an equity-sharing arrangement, there is an option for you.

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Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'As the year comes to an end, it’s a natural time to pause and reflect on what we’ve done and where we’re headed. 2013 was busy for Version One. We made 3 new investments: Figure 1 , a photo-sharing network for medical professionals; Upverter , a cloud-based hardware engineering platform; and one unannounced investment. These new investments bring the total number of portfolio companies to 14.

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Up and Running

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Every year around this time I look forward to Steve King’s small business trends for the next year. Steve, who runs Emergent Research , is a true expert, and his insight is always valuable. And I just read his Top 10 Small Business Trends for 2014 and once again, it’s great food for thought. My personal favorite this year is this: 8. Boomer/Millennial Business Partnerships : Growing numbers of baby boomers and millennials are teaming up to start and run small businesses.

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Oregon Technical Review Social Media Small Business 69

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

deal architect

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Bumper crop of innovations from various parts of the world we don’t always expect innovation from Near Cashless Society – Sweden A decade of LeWeb – France Faber-Castell – Germany Wine “Rover” – German wine country Rail Power – Kazakhstan.

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YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'by Jeffrey Kadlic, co-founder & managing partner of Evolution Capital Partners. The great business achievers of our time have all been men and women who were not held back by false modesty or fear; they tread new paths, trail blazed solutions where none had even seen the problem yet, and never let doubt keep them from going beyond the status quo or digging beneath the current fads and facades, looking for their dreams and goals with gusto, persistence and hard work.

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YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'If you’re a business owner who’s paranoid about using cloud storage services because of security concerns, here’s a consideration for you. Bristol, UK-based Innovode Ltd has released Armor Encryption for Google Drive – Enterprise Edition as its first-ever product for the Google Apps Marketplace targeted at enterprises. With this product, users are able to securely store, edit, share and collaborate on documents with the full power of Google Docs and Apps, directly through G

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The Next Web

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Rajat Harlalka is a Product Manager with over eight years of experience in the mobile industry primarily in technology, product management and marketing role. We often see sci-fi movies portray smart devices which can interact with human characters as if they were their companion. With increasing sophistication of devices, especially smartphones, this may become a reality sooner than most expect.

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Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'A few days ago, Amy and I came up to our house in Keystone. We haven’t been here for about two months; we’ll be here through the end of the first week of January. The first few hours were predictable. We “turned” everything on. We unpacked the car. We got settled in. And I got frustrated. The Internet was slow. The Sonos wasn’t working correctly.

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The Next Web

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Brands partnering with celebrities, influencers and advocates to reach a larger and more relevant audience is not a new approach to marketing. However, where audiences are active today is continually changing forcing marketers to adapt their approach to partnering with advocates especially when it comes to connecting with teenagers online. According to Buzzfeed , 93 percent of the 13-to-18-year olds surveyed in a recent study visited YouTube once a week, while only 65 percent visited Facebook.

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SiliconHills

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'By LAURA LOREK Founder of Silicon Hills News HeroX, a platform for competitions to solve local and global problems, plans to launch its first project in San Antonio on January 15th. The project is called the San Antonio MX prize. And it’s worth $500,000. “The coolest part about it though, is that we, the Geekdom […] The post HeroX to Launch First in San Antonio with $500K Prize appeared first on SiliconHills.

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The Next Web

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. . The age-old question of whether or not good entrepreneurs are born that way, or if such entrepreneurial skill sets can be learned continues to be a debated topic. Is it fair to say some people are just not born to be leaders?

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Life Beyond Code

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'The fastest way to get attention is to point to a problem and say, “Here is the Problem.” It gets even more easier to get attention on social media if you point to problems. There is a tendency for people to gather around you to express whatever you want to call it – empathy or sympathy as the case may be. You do this a few times and getting that kind of attention can become an addiction.

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Social Media Government Media 112

The Next Web

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'David Arnoux is Head of Growth and co-founder of Twoodo , the ultimate online collaboration tool. . In the early days of Twoodo (not so long ago), we had little money to spend on acquiring new users but a huge need for users to visit, sign-up and test the first version of our website. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We read about a cool growth hack involving “commenting on blog posts” recommended by several websites.

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SiliconHills

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Apple is manufacturing its new MacBook Pro in Austin and will begin taking orders for them on Thursday. That’s according to a the tweet, embedded below, from Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. Last year, Apple began construction on 39 acres in Austin for a new campus to eventually total 1 million square feet of space. […] The post Apple Begins Making Computers in Austin appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'“So you pay yourself last?” That was the summary of an entrepreneur friend upon learning the economics of VC. Thought it was an interesting way of phrasing it, and applies more generally to one’s approach in creating value: do you pay yourself first or last? Quick primer on the way VC works: You raise a fund from which to invest. From this fund you get paid a management fee each year and then a percentage of the profits ultimately made after returning the entire initial invest

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Mike Michalowicz

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'It seems like many conversations include dialog about the weather. Too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too windy, too still or just right. There’s not much else to discuss. So why do we discuss it? Because it is something we all experience. No matter who you are talking to, they know and you know that you both have experienced some form of weather today.

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Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Download the Text Transcript in PDF (Coming Soon). Subscribe to this Podcast in iTunes. Chuck Frey has an interesting niche, one you might consider very old-school and probably because of this, not something you have thought about adding to your own business. Chuck makes money from directories. Do you remember directories? Those old style sites that list links to … Read the rest of this entry » The post Chuck Frey Explains How You Can Make An Extra $10,000 A Year By Adding A Director

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The Equity Kicker

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'I’m pleased to let you all know that Pradeep Raman has joined us as Senior Associate from Piton Capital , a VC fund that invests in marketplaces. Prior to Piton Pradeep was an entrepreneur, founding three companies in New Zealand and the UK. Our strategy here is to get into the best deals and help them towards better outcomes by offering a package of cash investment, strategic guidance and tangible operational help.

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SiliconHills

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'The Austin Chamber of Commerce has added Jack McDonald, the founder and chairman of Silverback Enterprise Group, as its chair of the board for 2014. In addition, the board named Gene Austin, president and CEO of Bazaarvoice, to serve as incoming chair-elect in 2014. “As established leaders in our business community, Jack and Gene both […] The post Austin Chamber of Commerce Names New Leaders appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Naming Austin Community Founder 63

Bryce Dot VC

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'A few weeks ago I was in a board meeting and shared a couple stories from the founding of OATV. I related some of these experiences to the current challenges the CEO of this company was facing. As I concluded, a silence fell over the meeting. That silence was soon broken by a collective “Nahhhuh! No Way! Starting a venture fund is NOTHING like starting a company!

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Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Office Not Required written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Jason Fried. photo credit: Michael W. May via photopin cc. My youngest daughter works for a tech start-up based in San Francisco. Only thing is, she’s never been to San Francisco. She lives in Spokane Washington and arrived home for Christmas this year to spend a full three weeks hanging out with her parents.

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The Entrepreneurial Mind

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Inc asked me to share my thoughts on the wisdom of cutting bait when it becomes clear that your new venture is not going to work out. You can see my column here. Tweet Facebook LinkedIn Tumblr Stumble Digg Delicious The post Don’t Let Sunk Costs Cloud Your Decision Making appeared first on Dr Jeff Cornwall.

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Cloud Cost 62

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Digital website tags play a key role in helping marketers understand consumer behavior. That’s why Invodo, the business video experts, have announced that its conversion tracking tags are supported by four leading tag management companies: BrightTag, Ensighten, IBM® Digital Data Exchange and Tealium®.

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SiliconHills

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'HomeAway announced it has raised $195.3 million through a secondary stock offering of 6.9 million shares on the Nasdaq market. The company’s stock, traded under the symbol AWAY, sold for $37 a share. The Austin-based company has become the world’s largest online marketplace for vacation rentals. HomeAway plans to use the money for general corporate […] The post HomeAway Raises $195 Million from Stock Offering appeared first on SiliconHills.

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The Startup Lawyer

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'I wrote an article for LaunchDFW titled “SAFE and SOUND? A Primer on the new YC Docs“ It’s somewhat geared towards the Dallas Fort Worth startup scene, but I believe it’s probably relevant for most of the country/world.

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Fort Worth Finance Dallas Venture Capital 54

SiliconHills

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Apollo Endosurgery has received $50 million round of debt financing from Oxford Finance LLC. Other investors in the deal for the Austin-based company included MidCap Financial and East West Bancorp. Proceeds of the term loan are being used to acquire the obesity intervention division of Allergen and for business expenses. Earlier this month, Apollo Endosurgery, […] The post Apollo Endosurgery Receives $50 Million in Financing appeared first on SiliconHills.

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YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'By Matt Anderson, Chief Digital Officer of hibu. The “Shopping Days Til Christmas” countdown is in single digits, and the busiest shopping season of 2013 will soon be a memory. If you own a retail store, now is the time to evaluate the 2013 holiday season and start thinking about how you can prepare your business in the months ahead for an even more successful holiday 2014.

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Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Resource Guide To find Angels. Are you a first time entrepreneur and looking for angel funding for your startup? It can be tricky figuring out where to find the best investors. You may think that numbers and locations are the only thing to look out for, but in reality it is best to find the angel that fits you and then your situation. As always, keep these key principles in mind while looking for, and after you find an angel investor.

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North America Angel Investor Accredited Investor Silicon Valley 40

The Startup Toolkit

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'Few founders would list RyanAir or Walmart as an inspiration (big scale at the cost of unhappy customers and staff). But knowing what you want to avoid can be a more useful guide than knowing what you want to become. It’s hard to draw action from admiring a company or founder. Let’s say you admire both Tony Hseih (Zappos) and Steve Jobs.

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Founder Business Model Sales Employee 42

OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 18, 2013

'5 Ways to Get Your Staff on the Same Page. [This post first appeared as an article in Entrepreneur Magazine as part of a new series I''m publishing there in conjunction with my book, Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business ]. When a major issue arises, is everybody at your company serving the same interests? Or is one person serving the engineering team, another person serving the sales team, one board member serving the VC fund, another serving the early-stage “angels” and anot

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