A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 12, 2014

'This article was originally published on the WP Engine Blog. Calm your freneticTL;DR twitchy-Twitter-brain for five minutes, and let some Chinese philosophy wash over you. Thirty spokes join in one hub In its emptiness, there is the function of a vehicle Mix clay to create a container In its emptiness, there is the function of a container Cut open doors and windows to create a room In its emptiness, there is the function of a room Therefore, that which exists is used to create benefit That wh

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Laos Technical Review Startup Engineer 279

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Boris Wertz. Image credit Flickr. A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. Id reached out to him not because I was looking for information on how to pitch an investor, but because of the nature of his investment portfolio: of the six st

Venture Capital 90

Venture Capital Founder Angel Investor Portfolio 90

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Sponsored by VISA Business Friends tell you what you want to hear. Advisors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you dont need the advisor anymore. In that sense, you should think of an advisor more like your mentor who has done all he can. You always need the friend. Also dont confuse a business advisor with a business coach.

Small Business 261

Small Business Founder Exit Strategy Matching 261

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 12, 2014

'by Blake Menefee, co-founder of the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs. If your startup has an amazing platform, product, or software, youre probably in the process of staking out big enterprise clients to target. Everyone loves your product, but thats not enough. Too many pitches to big brands result in an executive saying she cant be sure the startup will be around in the future.

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Merger Cofounder Startup Sales Cycle 265

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

AUGUST 12, 2014

'This post originally appeared on the Crew blog. The more time I spend working on my startup, the more time I seem to be spending in my inbox. Running a startup is pretty much synonymous with sending lots of emails Ive realized (especially when youre not the person writing lots of code). The more emails I write, the more rules I come across for how to write them, too.

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Email Entrepreneur Web Startup 167

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 12, 2014

'by Neil St. Clair, CEO of  AlleyWire. Im here to tell you a story about sacrifice. Normally I preach on video storytelling: How to Tell a Meaningful Story on Video or  3 Steps for Successful On-Camera Interviews , for example, but I want to step back and reflect as a founder. Im offering a cautionary tale for both current first-time founders and those thinking of stepping up to the entrepreneurial plate.

Entrepreneur 220

Entrepreneur Boston California New York 220

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 12, 2014

'by Ronn Cordova, VP of Franchise Development at The Maids. Youve always dreamed of being the boss, but do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? If so you should consider the following before starting a business: 1. Can you deal with risk and insecurity? If you are flexible, able to handle unpleasant surprises, and willing to wade into the unknown, you stand a good chance of navigating entrepreneurial waters.

Entrepreneur 196

Entrepreneur Employee Community Business Plan 196

Up and Running

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Is your workplace a positive one? Here are some ways to make sure your employees love coming to work every day. . When it comes to managing your employees, one of the most important things you can do for them involves setting the right tone at work. Weve all heard some of the horror stories about terrible jobs or bad managers, and the one thing each of these stories has in common was the negative workplace environment.

Africa 145

Africa Employee Email Management 145

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Defamation - the act of damaging the reputation of someone through slander or libel – can be serious business, but when it comes to the Internet things can get a bit fuzzy. And considering the way that words are so casually thrown about on social media, the danger of getting into legal trouble can be very real. We’ve already seen cases whereonline news sites have been sent cease and desist letters and forced to take down articles containing alleged inaccuracies that may have thr

Reputation 157

Reputation Social Media Internet Community 157

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Jure Doler is CMO and co-founder ofFieldoo, theworlds largest football (soccer) network, connecting over 150,000 players, agents and clubs. Football (or soccer, as some of you may know it) is one of the most powerful global industries. Football transfers in particular are growing year by year, both by quantity and revenue. In 2013, FIFA, the worlds governing football body, oversaw 12,309 international transfers with a combined transfer compensation value of $3.7 billion.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Government Global Web 136

VC Adventure

AUGUST 12, 2014

'The typical “successful” venture portfolio is often described as having the following outcome: 1/3 of companies fail. 1/3 of companies return capital (or make a small amount of money). 1/3 of companies do well. Fred Wilson , for example, described this a few years ago: I’ve said many times on this blog that our target batting average is “1/3, 1/3, 1/3″ which means that we expect to lose our entire investment on 1/3 of our investments, we expect to get our money back (or maybe

IRR 133

IRR Portfolio Distribution Venture Capital 133

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Nihar Sawant is the co-founder of Expojure. This post originally appeared on his Medium blog. If you are follower ofEric Riess Lean Startup Methodology then you must have heard the term Minimal Viable Product. Before beginning with any task, it is better to start with small things rather than directly jump on the big picture. This approach not only helps you to use your resources wisely but it also helps you to save time.

Cofounder 135

Cofounder Lean Web Founder 135

VC Adventure

AUGUST 12, 2014

The typical “successful” venture portfolio is often described as having the following outcome: 1/3 of companies fail. 1/3 of companies return capital (or make a small amount of money). 1/3 of companies do well. Fred Wilson , for example, described this a few years ago: I’ve said many times on this blog that our target batting average is “1/3, 1/3, 1/3″ which means that we expect to lose our entire investment on 1/3 of our investments, we expect to get our money back (or maybe m

IRR 122

IRR Portfolio Distribution Finance 122

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 12, 2014

'It’s a common refrain that theprocess by which apps are found or discovered is broken.Discovery and hence download volumes are driven more than anything by ‘app store placement’ and by being ‘featured’, both of which seem to be more down to the whim of Apple and Google than the merit of the app. Whatwe need is an equivalent of Google’s Page Rank , but for apps.

Mobile 92

Mobile Networking Startup Developer 92

Mike Michalowicz

AUGUST 12, 2014

'The business deal you dont do will never kill you. Just because you can, doesnt mean you should. You grow by saying no. The post The Business Deal You Don’t Do appeared first on Mike Michalowicz.

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ConversionXL

AUGUST 12, 2014

'This is the second of a two-part series on mobile conversion. In the first part , we described the most common usability mistakes made in mobile commerce sites and apps, and how to fix them. In this part, well discuss the frontiers of mobile commerce: trends were seeing in user tests that may fundamentally change eCommerce. There are an almost limitless number of small usability gotchas that need to be identified and gradually refined in mobile commerce.

Mobile 99

Mobile eCommerce Design Analytics 99

Early Growth Financial Services

AUGUST 12, 2014

'Guest post contributed by Rodney Steele of Dinsmore Steele. Businesses are created every day to fill a void in the marketplace with either a product or a service that hopefully generates revenue for its creators. In theory it sounds exceptionally easy — but it isnt. However, each and every company starts the exact same way. If you think about it, every company that has ever been created was at one point a startup.

Revenue 41

Revenue Employee Founder Management 41

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 12, 2014

'In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community  in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly  activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and well take notice.

Netherlands 107

Netherlands Nigeria Design Community 107