February, 2010

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73.6% of all Statistics are Made Up

Both Sides of the Table

How to Interpret Analyst Reports. The headlines in the media are filled with that latest stats. Stats sell. The stats are often quoted from the latest reports. People then parrot them around like they’re fact when most of them are complete bullsh*t. People throw them around at cocktail parties. Often when they do I throw out my favorite statistic: 73.6% of all statistics are made up.

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Enough with the "expert" guilt

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

I'm sick of being admonished that success is predicated on spending the next 10,000 hours of our lives becoming "an expert.". I'm sick of hearing about how I should be molding my life in the image of Michael Phelps or Albert Einstein, because the only thing that separates me from genius is identifying my strengths and working really really hard. I'm calling bullshit.

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It Must Be A Marketing Problem

Steve Blank

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. The first step of Customer Development is called Customer Discovery. In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. outside the building and test them in front of customers.

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Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs

www.forentrepreneurs.com

Skip to content Home Startup Help Conceiving, Refining and Validating your Startup Idea Getting your Startup Funded Building your Startup for Success Business Models Customer Acquisition & Monetization Why Startups Fail Recurring Revenue The Low Cost Sales Model Viral Customer Acquisition The Power of Free The Touchless Conversion Lead Gen Models Field Sales Channel Sales Building a Sales & Marketing Machine Intro Building the Machine Instrumenting the Machine Solving Blockage Points Re

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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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Stories of Opportunity from the First Round Capital Key Hire Wire – VP of Sales, CTO, VP of Engineering

This is going to be BIG.

A week or so ago, we launched the Key Hire Wire at First Round. We realized that there were certain open positions in our portfolio we wanted to call extra attention to. Over 1,000 senior professionals have since signed up for the mailer, which goes out on Fridays. I tried to make it a little more entertaining than your average job RSS feed. If you know of senior level business and technical professionals looking for exciting startup opportunities, they can sign up here.

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Sawyer Weighs In On Intellectual Ventures

Feld Thoughts

I have a number of friends who are patent attorneys. Some have strong negative feelings about software patents that mirror mine while others keep me entertained by arguing both sides of the situation with themselves while I sit around and listen. One of my friends – let’s call him Sawyer – has very strong negative opinions as he’s spent most of his time recently defending his clients against software patent suits including an increasing number from patent trolls (non-practicing entities).

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More Trending

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Why some people work hard but don’t get appreciated enough for that work?

Life Beyond Code

Note : This is part of an ongoing mini-research (less than six weeks each) on topics that catch my attention. At the end of this post, you will find links to outcomes of the other two (previous) mini-research projects. Over the years I have heard many young people complaining (in various flavors) that they work hard but their hard work goes unappreciated.

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Customer Development for Web Startups

Steve Blank

Customer Development is a technique startups use to quickly iterate and test each part of their business model. How you execute Customer Development varies, depending on your type of business. In my book, “ The Four Steps to the Epiphany ” I use enterprise software as the business model example. Ash Maurya , the CEO of WiredReach, has extended my work by building a model of Customer Development for Web Startups.

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Choosing Technologies for Your Web Startup (Part 2)

crowdSPRING Blog

In Part 1 of this blog series, I presented a rather dysfunctional conversation going on between software consultants and you, their client. I explained what consultants mean when they use the word “productivity,” why it gets convoluted, and how understanding this can lead you to making better choices for your company. I originally promised that in Part 2 I would go into some specific software products.

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5 Tips On How To Outsource Your Blogging

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Tyrone Shum has participated in both my Blog Mastermind and Membership Site Mastermind programs. He’s special because not only did he study the materials (which is rare enough!), he went on and has built himself a successful blog and last year launched a membership site too, so he’s a real action taker. Part of the reason he’s one of the unusual people who actually gets stuff done is because Tyrone knows how to outsource, in fact that is his specialty.

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Patents Are A Weak Measure of Innovation Activity

Feld Thoughts

After not seeing the word patent in my daily information routine for a few weeks, I saw it twice today – first in an article titled Turning Patents Into ‘Invention Capital’ (in the NY Times) and then in Region Sustains Robust Patent Production in the WSJ. Both stirred me up early this morning, but for different reasons. If you are interested in patents, I encourage you to read Turning Patents Into ‘Invention Capital’ as I’m very interested in your reaction.

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I Would Only Fund an Entrepreneur with High Integrity

Both Sides of the Table

Back in November I agreed with Nivi over at VentureHacks to do a series on the ten most important attributes of a successful entrepreneur. This is the last post in that series. This is actually an addendum to my list rather than “on&# my list. That in itself will be controversial, I know. When Nivi published the series he titled it “the top 10 things I look for before I write a check.&# As a result I felt compelled to add this final attribute because it matters a lot to me.

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Web Success = Populate & Promote

Start Up Blog

I recently saw a job posted on a web developer recruiting website. It involved some people looking for coders to make a copy of my web business and livelihood www.rentoid.com. What was interesting was the lack decorum shown in the coder recruiting process where the person said – build me a replica of this website. Here’s a screen print of it below.

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Stories of Opportunity from the First Round Capital Key Hire Wire – COO, VP of Business Development, Online Marketing Director

This is going to be BIG.

If you know of senior level business and technical professionals looking for exciting startup opportunities, they can sign up here: [link]. **Correction: Last week's CTO position at Modcloth is actually a San Francisco opportunity, not Pittsburgh. VP of Business Development, DNAnexus - Palo Alto, California In the not too distant future, everything will be determined by your DNA--your job, what retro 50's decor you'll buy, how tightly you'll slick back your hair, whether or not you can date Uma

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Texas Co-Working Right in Downtown Austin

Austin Startup

Earlier this year, Derek Williams and Paul Terry Walhus combined their efforts to launch Texas Coworking , an addition to the already growing trend of co-shared workspaces for entrepreneurs, business people and creative folk. After the continued success of Conjunctured , it’s quite clear that co-working is not only a viable solution for many, but a great means to bring everyone together under one roof and connect.

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In Spite of Avatar, The Movie Business is Dead

Growthink Blog

Nothing is more important to U.S. consumers than their entertainment choices, but are movies and broadcast TV even relevant in the new world of entertainment? Or will the convergence of content, internet, mobile applications, games and social media be the onrushing asteroids that will soon destroy the movie dinosaurs? Is it a 3-year fad, or will new technologies like 3-D keep going to the movies from being relegated to the dustbin of history like Vaudeville, the afternoon newspaper, the evening

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Cracking The Code: A funny perspective on Google innovation.

Cracking the Code

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Wednesday, February 24, 2010. A funny perspective on Google innovation. Posted by Philippe Botteri. at 6:01 PM. Labels: anecdotes. 2 comments: Brian P. said. Haha, love it Phillippe! Hope you don't mind if I reblog. 12:49 AM.

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Domain Experience Gives Entrepreneurs an Unfair Advantage

Both Sides of the Table

This is the final part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks. OK, it’s not really my final part. I started with a Top 10 list for Nivi (at VentureHacks), but I couldn’t cram it into 10 so it became a Top 11 list. I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.&# If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11.

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My Notes From The Ed Dale Internet Marketing Seminar

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Over the weekend I attended Ed Dale’s 30DC Coming Home three day event in Melbourne. Ed Dale, if you don’t know him, is one of Australia’s most well known and likable Internet marketers, who adds a uniquely Australian flavour to the industry. Currently he is most well known as one of the founders of the 30 Day Challenge , an introductory program that aims to take any person from absolute beginner to making their first few dollars online, and beyond, within 30 days.

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Open Angel Forum and The Amazing Disappearing Funding Gap in New York City

This is going to be BIG.

About a year and a half ago, I wrote that New York needed more dedicated early stage capital. Let’s look back at what has happened since the beginning of August ‘08… Betaworks raises more than $10 million in September ‘08. First Growth Venture Network formed to mentor high potential seed and early stage companies. First Round Capital makes 11 new investments in NYC, hires me to be here fulltime, and announces a new NYC office in Union Square.

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RISE 2010 Registration Open

Austin Startup

The fourth annual Relationship and Information Series for Entrepreneurs (RISE) returns to Austin, Texas, March 1-5, 2010 with five full days of free sessions covering a wide range of topics of interest to aspiring, new and established entrepreneurs in all industries. If you’re interested in becoming a host or participant, you can register online at www.riseaustin.org.

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Why You Should Re-architect Your Career to Amplify Your Strengths

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Startup Marketing Part 3: The Nine Levels of Traffic Quality Free Website Feedback, Custom Card Designs, Finding Good Domain Names, and more… → Why You Should Re-architect Your Career to Amplify Your Strengths Becoming a Better Developer , Software Development If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Enterprise software is entirely bereft of soul

deal architect

I was in a session last year with Dave Girouard of Google, when I asked him if he still believed in the statement he made 3 years prior about enterprise software. Without batting an eyelid, he asked me “Are you. Tags: Enterprise Software (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP).

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Running More Effective Board Meetings at Startups

Both Sides of the Table

Like many of you I’ve sat through my fair share of Board Meetings over the past decade. For the most part I’d call them Bored Meetings. The first 7 years I was running them and the past 3 years I’ve been attending them. Most board meetings aren’t as effective as they could be. Everyone has their own opinion on board meetings so you’ll get conflicting advice.

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No Accounting For Startups

Steve Blank

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Here’s why. Managing the Business. When I ran my startups our venture investors scheduled board meetings each month for the first year or two, going to every six weeks a bit later, and then moving to quarterly after we found a pro

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Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs

www.forentrepreneurs.com

Skip to content Home Startup Help Conceiving, Refining and Validating your Startup Idea Getting your Startup Funded Building your Startup for Success Business Models Customer Acquisition & Monetization Why Startups Fail Recurring Revenue The Low Cost Sales Model Viral Customer Acquisition The Power of Free The Touchless Conversion Lead Gen Models Field Sales Channel Sales Building a Sales & Marketing Machine Intro Building the Machine Instrumenting the Machine Solving Blockage Points Re

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RenewData Unveils eDiscovery Acceleration Platform

Austin Startup

RenewData , a leading provider of services for the discovery, archiving, review and governance of Electronically Stored Information (ESI), today announced its eDiscovery Acceleration Platform designed to provide clients a solution that addresses the rising costs of eDiscovery and stringent litigation deadlines. RenewData’s revolutionary end-to-end platform is the industry’s first solution to expedite eDiscovery of both live and legacy electronic data without relying on significant ma

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Free Website Feedback, Custom Card Designs, Finding Good Domain.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Why You Should Re-architect Your Career to Amplify Your Strengths Joel on Software is Shutting Down. Long Live the King. → Free Website Feedback, Custom Card Designs, Finding Good Domain Names, and more… Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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The Outsourcing Famine

deal architect

IBM sent me a press release announcing their $ 362 million data center in Research Triangle Park. Too bad they did not showcase it a month ago as I could have worked it into my upcoming book. In contrast, I. Tags: Outsourcing Negotiations/Best Practices.

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The Danger of Crocodile Sales

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my series on Startup Advice. When I worked in London there were a ton of Aussies. I love working with Aussies because their outlook on life seems very similar to what I grew up with in California. Pretty laid back and non-hierarchic. I also loved learning all of their sayings. My favorite was when I guy told me to beware of Crocodile Salesmen.

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Sunk Costs: An invisible, pervasive peril

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Many of my mistakes can be traced back to a failure to recognize and appreciate "sunk cost.". The term comes from economics: "Sunk Cost" is money you've already spent and cannot get back no matter what. A " rational actor ," as economists say, will completely ignore sunk costs when making decisions because the money is gone no matter what action is taken next.

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Death By Revenue Plan

Steve Blank

In my last post I described what happened when a company prematurely scales sales and marketing before adequately testing its hypotheses in Customer Discovery. You would think that would be enough to get wrong, but entrepreneurs and investors compound this problem by assuming that all startups grow and scale by executing the Revenue Plan. They don’t.

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MyEdu Banks $5.5M Series B

Austin Startup

MyEdu , the definitive online source to increase success and save money in college, today announced $5.5 million in series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Bain Capital, one of the largest and most respected private investment firms in the world. Bain Capital has a long history of funding successful companies such as DoubleClick, LinkedIn, Princeton Review, SurveyMonkey, and The Learning Company.

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Critical Considerations for a Startup Advisory Board

Startup Professionals Musings

By Bob Arciniaga In developing the content for this article, it was very apparent this advice is not only critical for startups but for most companies. The suggestions are even more vital in a startup environment with constrained resources. A properly built advisory board can be a huge strategic advantage to any company. On the other hand, an advisory board put together haphazardly can be the biggest mistake for a company in the early stages of business.

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Setback for the social customer

deal architect

Paul Greenberg is on a crusade to educate the corporate world about the social customer. His new book, his seminar series are all aimed at that. As he is quoted in my upcoming book “Social CRM measures not just Customer. Tags: Industry Commentary.

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Entrepreneurs Don’t “Noodle” They Do

Both Sides of the Table

This is part of my series on Entrepreneurial DNA that was originally published on VentureHacks. I know this series has been running for a while (and is getting long in the tooth) – I promise it’s nearly over. I started with a “top 11″ list – only because I couldn’t fit them into a top 10. But in the end I ended up with 12.