June, 2010

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Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010

SoCal CTO

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy.

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Asking Questions More Effectively

Both Sides of the Table

The ability to ask questions effectively is one of the most important skills in business as is the ability to actively listen. Yet as important as these two skills are they really don’t seem to ever be taught in school. I wonder if more college students ought to take a journalism course for a semester or do an internship at their school newspaper in investigative reporting.

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The Pattern-Seeking Fallacy

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

What do these have in common? "This pitcher has retired 5 of the last 7 batters.". "We tried 10 AdWord variants and combination D is the clear winner.". "The Bible Code predicted the Sept 11 attacks 5,000 years ago.". "We sliced our Google Analytics data every which way, and these 4 patterns emerged.". All are examples of a common fallacy that I'm dubbing the "Pattern-Seeker.".

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The Search For the Fountain of Youth – Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Enterprise

Steve Blank

It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change. Charles Darwin. Companies have a fairly predictable life cycle. They start with an innovation, search for a repeatable business model, build the infrastructure for a company, then grow by efficiently executing the model.

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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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Ten Internet Rip-offs Any Fool Should Recognize

Startup Professionals Musings

Why are people so gullible to Internet rip-offs? One would think that with all the sad stories and warnings that have been published over the past twenty years on common ones, this problem would be largely in our past. But based on the number of victims still looking for technology or laws to protect them, we may be attacking symptoms rather than the real problem.

Internet 222
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No departments

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, June 17, 2010 No departments Big companies have departments. Startups are companies. Startups aspire to become big companies. Therefore, startups should have departments. Right? Why do companies have departments? There are a lot of reasons: ladder of advancement, sharing of best practices, functional specialization.

More Trending

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Steven Blank Kills It at Greycroft CEO Summit

Both Sides of the Table

I’m typing this from the lawn of Alan Patricof’s “Greycroft” home in East Hampton – my first time in the Hamptons. Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. We learned this weekend that it was named after his East Hampton home. We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer deve

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Outflanked, Not Outspent: The Real Story of Recruiting for Tech vs Wall St in NYC

This is going to be BIG.

You've heard the arguments before--Wall Street sucks up all the best talent in NYC and that's why its so tough to recruit here. They've been able to outspend on any good candidate and that's also why things have eased up lately--because the financial industry just isn't what it was and the jobs aren't there anymore. It's also why there's a fear that when the economy turns, so will Wall Street, and so will the giant sucking sound from the south (of Manhattan).

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Retail startups are rad

Start Up Blog

This guest post by Michael Fox. Michael is a co-founder of the design your own women’s shoe business Shoes of Prey. He blogs about the adventures of running a startup at www.22michaels.com. 5 reasons why retail startups are rad. Prior to starting Shoes of Prey , Mike Knapp and I were working at Google and were brainstorming industries that would be good for an online startup.

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Spiceworks Reaches 1M Users

Austin Startup

Spiceworks today announced that its user base has grown to more than 1 million IT professionals in 196 countries. This milestone makes Spiceworks the fastest growing and most widely used application for managing IT networks in history. In addition, its free ad-supported IT management software and community have evolved into a new type of channel that gives vendors powerful access to research, social media, ads and apps to increase sales of technology products & services.

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The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review)

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. Five Whys has its origins in the Toyota Production System. Ive written about this before in some detail, but this was an opportunity to try and frame it for a general business audience.

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Learning Leadership From The Movie 13 Days

Feld Thoughts

I don’t care what your political orientation is, if you want an awesome two hour lesson in leadership watch the movie Thirteen Days. It’s the story of the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis based on the book by May and Zelikow titled The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Amy and I watched it last night. I was exhausted from two weeks on the east coast and was having trouble speaking (Amy refers to it as “getting the dregs of Brad.

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6 Ways to Recruit Talent for Startups

mashable.com

Top Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video Google Buzz Social media Music Business Advertise Network Blippr iPhone App Mashable France MashDeck Twitter App Mobile Site Social Media Events Twitter Guide Book Facebook Guide Book Partners App Development WordPress Experts MaxCDN Content Delivery Dynect Managed DNS Rackspace Hosting Intridea About Us Submit a Tip!

Coder 60
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Multiple passes at the target

This is going to be BIG.

When Luke Skywalker had to drop a proton torpedo into a reactor vent shaft, he had one shot. Failure was not an option. Startups, on the other hand, have lots of little failures and successes over time. Growing a company is a process with lots of little iterations over time--just like fundraising. Just ask Dennis Crowely. He’s done it twice. The first time around, his meetings with Union Square Ventures didn’t result in a check—not until a little nudge got Fred thinking more ab

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Entrepreneurship is in our DNA

Start Up Blog

We are all born entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is inextricably linked to human behaviour. To explore, to understand, to invent and to embrace take risk. Risk which results in a better situation for us and our stakeholders. Knowing that we will fail, and even learning to endure, no less enjoy that as part of it. Civilisation and evolution of humans is due to our entrepreneurial nature.

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Book Review: Rework (by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson)

crowdSPRING Blog

I admire 37signals because they make simple, easy to use web applications and because of their unique perspective on business. Rework is a collection of short essays by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, focusing on doing less and embracing constraints. Jason Fried co-founded 37signals and David Heinemeier Hansson later joined the company as a partner.

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It’s Better to Beg for Forgiveness than to Ask for Permission

Both Sides of the Table

I have always believed in the saying, “It’s better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.&# It’s a way of life. It’s not about abusing situations but about knowing when to push the boundaries. It’s about knowing that the overwhelming number of people in life are naysayers and “no sayers&# and sometimes you gotta just roll the dice and say WTF.

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Don't Plan to Get Rich from Your Startup

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Late Stage Co-Founder Wanted, Screencasting Handbook Released, Triumph of the Nerds on DVD, and more… Last Chance for the Pre-Launch Discount on the “Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup&# → Don’t Plan to Get Rich from Your Startup Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place

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How to Meet VC's

Babbling VC

I've been asked the question, mostly when on panels, of how to get access to VC's. So I thought instead of giving some non-specific advice, I'd simply explain how I found the deals I've done. Maybe this will give a better idea of how to get access to and interest from a VC. Note, I am focussing more on how to get the initial meeting and shortly thereafter.

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Just What is Social CRM?

Venture Chronicles

Is social CRM a product category or a collection of strategies that social media consultants and analysts are pushing? That is the question I have been spending much time considering as of late. Clearly there are product components, most notably the customer community pieces that vendors like Get Satisfaction and UserVoice are offering (notice the Feedback widget to the left, I started my own VC community on Get Satisfaction!).

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The myth of the social customer - part 2

deal architect

Dennis Howlett blogged something I have been hearing from old publishing hands for a while now. Don't count too much on the social customer for book sales. The social customer is used to free. That customer thinks in terms of.

Customer 282
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Entrepreneurial Happiness Has Five Ingredients

Startup Professionals Musings

Building a startup is hard work for low pay, it’s risky, and it requires total responsibility to make it work. Yet, many entrepreneurs are the happiest people I know. On the other hand, I know many unhappy individuals who are always partying, have minimal commitments, and little responsibility. I suspect the real parameters of happiness have eluded these people.

Security 239
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How Many Times Should You Tweet Your Blog Post?

Both Sides of the Table

Last September I was on a panel with Guy Kawasaki talking about Twitter. He said at the time that he Tweeted 4 times for every story that he wrote. FOUR TIMES! The exact same Tweet. I couldn’t believe it. His rationale was that he found that his audience was tuning into Twitter at several different times during the day and he found that four was the optimal number to convert enough of the people reading his posts into traffic back to his website.

RSS 289
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“Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) Excellent Showing at 59 Days of Code Startup Competition → “Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup&# is Now Available in Paperback and PDF About this Blog , Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right

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Out of the cesspool and into the sewer: A/B testing trap

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Your A/B tests are trapped in a cesspool when they should be in the sewer.? Do you really care why A/B testing is analogous to unwanted liquids? Not yet, so I'd better get right to the point. On the rare occasion that it rains in Austin we get these deep puddles in the backyard. Of course it would be better if the water would flow out into the street and into the sewer, but that's not how gravity works.

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Is Your VC Founder Friendly?

Steve Blank

The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. Some VC’s get it, others may not. So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How do you figure out which VC firm is best for you? Here are five questions to consider.

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An invigorating day with Talent Management executives

deal architect

Readers know I like small, specialized services firms like appirio and Corefino. I have also been a fan of Knowledge Infusion and its work around talent management for a while, and yesterday that respect jumped multiple fold. Oh, they gave. Tags: Industry Commentary.

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How to Proactively Protect Your Online Reputation

Startup Professionals Musings

These days, your online Internet reputation is your reputation. Of course, having no reputation is usually better than a bad one, but don’t wait for someone else to establish a good one for you. It’s time for every business and business person to proactively create a positive presence, before someone else puts you in a defensive mode that is hard to win.

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Some Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News

Both Sides of the Table

Paul Graham and the folks over at YCombinator have done much to reenergize early-stage entrepreneurship and encourage the creation of many new and innovative startups including DropBox, Posterous, Loopt, Justin.TV, Scribd and many others. They also gave us Hacker News , which for me was a welcome addition for discovering tech stories. HN and Techmeme are the main two tech aggregators that I frequently skim.

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Excellent Showing at 59 Days of Code Startup Competition

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← “Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup&# is Now Available in Paperback and PDF The Warren Buffett of Websites → Excellent Showing at 59 Days of Code Startup Competition Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Human + Fallible = Love; Corporate + Sterile = Refund

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

A lovely new company/customer etiquette has emerged, and small startups are especially suited for exploiting it. I hope you're not ignoring it. Just yesterday someone explained to me what they expect from their website hosting company: I want someone else making sure the server doesn't go down. Or, if it does go down, I want someone to apologize to me.

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Suggestions for Angel Investors

Feld Thoughts

I’m on an Acela train between Boston and New York (listening to Boston’s More Than A Feeling – how recursive) on my way to the TechStars Boston 2010 Investor / Demo day. I wasn’t able to make it to Boston yesterday for the Angel Boot Camp as I was running around NYC with the CEO of a company I invested in last week introducing him to a bunch of potential customers and partners.

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IT in 2030, er 2015.

deal architect

As Gartner gets ready to celebrate 20 years of its Symposium , senior analyst Richard Hunter bravely – and somewhat somberly - looks 20 years out. “Have I mentioned that every 20 years, the world is a completely different place?

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Eight Most Underrated Startup Opportunities

Startup Professionals Musings

A few months ago, I was quoted by a Wall Street Journal reporter in an article, the inverse of this one, titled “ The 7 Most Overrated Businesses ” (I said no more traffic-driven social networks, please). Several people suggested that it might be more productive to list some positive opportunities, rather than problems, so it’s time for me to take another look into the crystal ball.

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This Week in VC with @VCMike Hirshland of Polaris Ventures

Both Sides of the Table

Here is the link to this week’s TWiVC with Mike Hirshland. I apologize for the audio quality – we did this in a rush because we found a last minute studio and recorded in San Francisco. But you can see & hear the entire interview well and I think it will be well worth your while. One of things I’ve loved the most about doing now 11 weeks of This Week in VC is a chance to have an hour-long recorded conversation with investors.

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What is a startup?

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, June 21, 2010 What is a startup? I think most people have a fairly specific image that gets conjured up when they hear the word startup. Maybe it’s the “two guys in a garage&# made famous by HP, or the idea of Jobs and Wozniack walking barefoot and shaggy through the Homebrew Computer Club. Maybe it’s the more recent wunderkinds like Zuckerberg or Brin and Page.