Thu.Sep 18, 2014

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When VCs Play Defense

Both Sides of the Table

'Somehow the world seems to be spinning faster these days than just a few years ago. The frantic pace of technology cycles, the amount of tech news, the blogs, the conferences, the demo days, the announcements, the fundings, the IPOs. It’s exhausting. Perhaps unsustainable. It got me thinking about the advice that I often give to new VCs. For years I saw myself as the new guy in VC but then you wake up one day and realize that 50% of your peers have been doing it for less time than you and

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The Market Is Hot for Code Climate, NextView’s Newest Investment

Genuine VC

'When Chad Pytel introduced me to Bryan Helmkamp , CEO/Co-founder of Code Climate , I knew that I had to pay attention. Chad is the CEO of thoughtbot, a consulting firm that makes web + mobile apps for early-stage startups. The two companies had been working together for a while, especially as both are deeply embedded within the Ruby on Rails developer community, with a strong following for their respective offerings.

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Culture Isn’t Everything: 3 (Other) Traits Vital To Your Business’s Success

YoungUpstarts

'by Zvi Band, founder and CEO of Contactually. It’s something of a startup cliché: a bunch of 20-somethings in hoodies huddled around the built-in beer tap in their office, eating pizza while they take turns playing pingpong. It’s the culture of startups, and it’s what you imagine when you daydream about working at Facebook. But while a culture of pingpong, beer, and pizza sounds really appealing, it’s not enough.

DC 182
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Do You Have What It Takes to Provide Stand-out Customer Service?

Up and Running

'Almost all businesses have a customer-facing aspect to them. Restaurants have waiters and cashiers. Boutiques have shop assistants. Software companies have project managers, sales people, and sometimes whole customer service departments. Even B2B companies need a point-of-contact to provide solutions. Often, these employees will mean the difference between a company that is perceived in a positive light, and a company that appears not to care.

Customer 113
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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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Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

'This week. On the phone … Me: So, you raised venture capital? Him: Yeah. We raised a seed round. About $1 million. Me: At what price? Him: It wasn’t priced. We raised a convertible note. Me: With a cap? Him: Yes, $8 million. Me: Ah. I see. So you did raise with a price. It’s just a maximum price. You’ll find out the minimum when the next round is raised.

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Low-Impact

deal architect

'When you write books about the technology industry you fret about the time it takes to go through the publishing and printing stage. Given the dynamic nature of the business you know job changes, M&A, product announcements are inevitable, and.

Software 278

More Trending

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Learn Online This Fall

Startup Lessons Learned

'Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. Boost your entrepreneurship skills without getting out of the building this fall. With an online course from Stanford and a series of webcasts from the Lean Startup Conference team, you can learn a lot from your desk in the coming months. First up: We’re excited to announce that Bob Sutton is joining as a speaker at this year’s Lean Startup Conference.

Lean 165
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Where Are The Potential Business Investors — And What Do They Want?

YoungUpstarts

'by Kristen Gramigna, Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay. Securing the capital you need to start and grow a business is no small feat — especially if you’re running a startup venture that hasn’t yet established the financial and credit history that most traditional lenders require of a small business owner before they’ll lend. Though you’ve likely heard of other businesses who’ve grown with the help of private investors, the trick is often identifying who are these people are — and what they c

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Introducing our latest investment: Shippo, simplified shipping for small e-commerce sites

Version One Ventures

'Shipping is a huge pain point for smaller e-commerce stores. They don’t process enough volume to grant them bulk discounts from the major providers. It’s hard to find smaller courier companies to work with. Prices aren’t transparent and negotiating as a small business is next to impossible. Shipping is one of those unsexy, not-often-talked-about areas that is critical to an e-tailer’s bottom line.

API 151
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Why be an entrepreneur

The Equity Kicker

'I just read this on a great post about the paradoxical traits of entrepreneurs : Creating something from nothing and watching other people use it, love it, and share it is simultaneously the most empowering and humbling feeling. The satisfaction that comes from watching numbers climb as you tweak and improve your product is indescribable. The exhilarating triumph you feel each time you solve an unsolvable problem is your very own version of winning the lottery.

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Could Bitcoin Fund Your Business?

Up and Running

'Bitcoin is slowly but surely nosing its way into the mainstream world of business. About a year ago it was only accepted by a handful of hipster coffee shops and a few artisanal food trucks. Today, huge websites like Overstock and Expedia have hopped on the boat – and the list is always growing. A constant hum of activity bubbles under the surface of this mainstream emergence, as thousands of entrepreneurs compete to take advantage of a new and exciting market.

Security 107
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Open Angel Forum #10 in Boulder

David Cohen

'It’s time to take a quick look back at companies that have presented at Open Angel Forum here in Boulder so far. There have been 9 events. Companies that participated have gone on to raise well over $100M and have over 400 employees. Pretty awesome. The full list of companies that participated in the past is at the bottom of this post. Now it’s your turn!

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Innovate In A New Way

Mike Michalowicz

'Walt Disney has been quoted saying, “I believe in being an innovator.” And you know what? So do I, and you should, too! Innovation is the classic strategy for being successful in business. Typically you find what frustrates you, then you set out to fix it. By all means, do that! But there is another way to bring about innovation – by watching other people break the rules.

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Five for Friday

Start Up Blog

'Starting this week my posts on Friday will be 5 cool things to read, listen to or watch over the weekend. So here it is the inaugural 5 for Friday. Enjoy! 1. Podcast with Kevin Kelly: Best podcast I’ve heard in a while – 3 part series with polymath Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine. Here he is hosted by Tim Ferris.

Hosting 78
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Introducing our latest investment: Shippo, simplified shipping for small e-commerce sites

Version One Ventures

'Shipping is a huge pain point for smaller e-commerce stores. They don’t process enough volume to grant them bulk discounts from the major providers. It’s hard to find smaller courier companies to work with. Prices aren’t transparent and negotiating as a small business is next to impossible. Shipping is one of those unsexy, not-often-talked-about areas that is critical to an e-tailer’s bottom line.

API 68
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Embrace the right to pivot!

Berkonomics

'Plans don’t often work as devised. We are not always smart about the market or the product. Great teams are not bound by their original product or marketing plan. Greatness finds one definition in management’s ability to “pivot,” or change the plan in reaction to its early response from the marketplace. Investors celebrate teams that quickly find the flaws in the original plan and reallocate resources in another direction before more wasted effort.

Green 70
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Nominate Someone for CTO of the Year

Austin Startup

'Nominations are still open for the Austin Information Technologist/CTO of the Year. Below is information about the process and award. CTO’s won’t submit a nomination themselves, so we ask a member or team close submit the nomination for this worthy candidate by end of day October 1st.

Austin 67
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Startup Pitch Decks That Will Get You Funded

Early Growth Financial Services

'How do you put together a pitch deck that impresses investors? What goes in one anyway? And how can you make maximum impact when you’re giving the pitch? Marc Phillips, Managing Director at Arafura Ventures, Jim Fulton, Partner at Cooley LLP, and EGFS COO Sirk Roh, covered all that and more in our recent webinar: Startup Pitch Decks That Work. If you missed the webinar, here’s my slide-by-slide take of the highlights.

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Why Online Reviews Are Almost As Good As Actual Referrals

Duct Tape Marketing

'Why Online Reviews Are Almost As Good As Actual Referrals written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. It’s guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest post is from Jason Keeler – Enjoy! As a business owner, there isn’t much better than a good referral. It shows that you’re doing something right, and that your customers think highly enough of you as a partner to tell other people in their circle about their great experience

Kansas 72
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Hitchhiker's Guide to Boston's Start-up Scene

Seeing Both Sides

'Every September, I give a presentation at Harvard''s i-Lab to provide a guide to the Boston start-up scene. Students from around the world descend on Boston every fall to attend the amazing universities, but often fail to venture outside the ivory tower and explore the local start-up scene. This guide is an attempt to inspire students to do just that.

Boston 50