November, 2018

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Designing the Ideal Board Meeting – The Board Meeting

VC Adventure

This is the 4th post in my Designing the Ideal Board Meetin g series. I hope this series so far has helped you think a bit differently about how you approach the lead-up to your board meetings. By the time you walk into the meeting you should have a clear agenda that everyone has agreed to, one or two areas of the business that you plan to dive more deeply into, prepared materials that are of a style, length, detail and consistency that efficiently and effectively brings your board up to speed o

Design 257
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Why not share your liquidity success with those who got you there?

Berkonomics

So, you are close to selling your company, and counting the profits a bit early. Well, that’s human nature. Here’s a thought for you to recall later when and if the event happens. Remember those who got you there. And for tax reasons, remember them before the closing of the deal, so that you can do so by sharing a bit of your proceeds without paying personal income tax upon those amounts.

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When Is An Idea Just An Idea?

YoungUpstarts

by Georgianna W. Oliver, founder of tour24. Entrepreneurs are funny people. They are problem solvers, and are everywhere in every walk-of-life! They are engineers, computer scientists, doctors, detectives, teachers, parents, politicians, and even your barista or Uber driver. Virtually anyone you may meet on a given day wants to solve a problem, or make the world a better place.

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How to Keep Your Job As Your Company Grows

Steve Blank

I know a change is going to come. If you’re an early employee at a startup, one day you will wake up to find that what you worked on 24/7 for the last year is no longer the most important thing – you’re no longer the most important employee, and process, meetings, paperwork and managers and bosses have shown up. Most painfully, you’ll learn that your role in the company has to change.

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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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6 Steps To Providing Exceptional Customer Experiences

Startup Professionals Musings

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Today, in this age of pervasive social media and two-way communication, the focus needs to get beyond demographics into personalities. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate.

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Top Startup Winner: Balodana

The Startup Magazine

The Startup Magazine recently featured two of the FUND Conference Top 3 Exhibitor winners, Happenstance , and Digs. We’ve saved the best for last. The top startup at this year’s FUND Conference in Chicago, Illinois was Balodana , a fashion purchasing platform disrupting the women’s e-commerce fashion industry. The event presenter, FUND, is a national connector of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and industry experts with a focus on deal flow and making connections.

More Trending

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5 Tips for Starting a Successful Clothing Brand: The Definitive Guide (2018)

crowdSPRING Blog

Many people want to start a clothing brand or clothing line. After all, how difficult could it be? The truth is that successful clothing brands become successful in part because they’re created by people who are passionate about clothing. But, a clothing brand needs more than just exquisite apparel design to create a lasting business. It needs all the trappings of a successful business as well.

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5 Communication Hacks For Startup Cofounders

YoungUpstarts

by Saeju Jeong, CEO and Co-founder of Noom Coach. Many friends who start a new business together often end up going their separate ways, leaving the company to collapse and the relationship to turn sour. However, this isn’t to say that a partnership – and new business – can’t last if handled correctly. I should know – I’ve done it.

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How to Get Funding for a Business

Up and Running

Most healthy businesses need business financing at some point. Startups have to deal with starting costs and ongoing businesses have to finance growth and working capital. Deciding to take on some kind of debt is quite common. In this article, we’ll take a quick look at the big picture, and then talk through options for funding. Financing options depend on what kind of business you have.

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5 Tips For Making Your Whole Team A Marketing Machine

Startup Professionals Musings

As the rate of change continues to increase in business and technology, the more I’m convinced that marketing is the primary key to success for a new venture. Yet I find that many technical founders don’t feel they need it at all, or at best point to one person on the team who is marketing. I believe the real challenge is make your whole team a marketing machine.

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Are Agile Innovation Methods Right for Your Team?

The Startup Magazine

Developing successful agile innovation methods can drive companies to great new heights. Wanting to avoid digital disruptions and enable better decision-making in the workplace? Then implementing agile innovation methods should be top on your list of to-dos. Taking an agile approach to project management means taking large tasks and splitting them into smaller tasks, as well as finding ways to be more innovative.

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Why Sites in High-Growth Industries Have Terrible UX

ConversionXL

If you generate a $200 million quarterly profit with an online product, your website’s user experience must be world class, right? Wrong. Your homepage can still look like the one above, which is from one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. But terrible UX isn’t a shortcoming of the cryptocurrency industry—it’s common in every high-growth industry, including, perhaps, your own.

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10 Best Cities in the United States for Startups and Entrepreneurs (2018)

crowdSPRING Blog

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. startup ecosystem for many decades. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of VC funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. Best startup city rankings have reflected this truth for a long time. But this is becoming less true today, as more and more entrepreneurs find their way across the U.S.

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Three Easy Ways Businesses Can Combat Cyber Threats

YoungUpstarts

by Marcus Harris, Software Litigator at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. Since 2003, October has been recognized as National Cyber Security Awareness Month in an effort to promote safety and security online. While October has now come and gone, cyber security remains an extremely important topic and will continue as such through the foreseeable future.

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Head, Heart, and Hands: 3 Essentials for Startup Success

Up and Running

This article is part of our Business Startup Guide —a curated list of our articles that will get you up and running in no time! Starting up a business requires a lot of different steps. First-time entrepreneurs and small business founders often feel anxious when they think about all the factors that play into getting their idea off the ground. Plus, it can seem like success or failure hinges on finding deep-pockets funders, expert mentors, ample press coverage, and other “champions.”.

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5 Barriers To Wise Delegation In Business Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

I often wonder how many more startups would succeed if their founders could master the art and science of delegation. It seems inherent in the mind of most first-time entrepreneurs that it was their idea, and they must do all the work themselves to make it happen. In my role as mentor and advisor to many founders, I consistently fail in convincing them of the power in wise delegation.

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Start Early With a Solid Product Management System

The Startup Magazine

Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? These are the questions we ask ourselves when feeling philosophical. For startup owners, similar questions need to be asked about their company – particularly the product (or service) they’re providing their consumers. Only by developing a deep understanding of the product lifecycle can a startup have the endurance necessary for long-term success, and this can only be achieved via solid product management.

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23 Entrepreneurs Explain How They Came Up With Their Business Names

Hearpreneur

The idea of exactly what your business is going to usually come first. Secondly, most often, is giving a title to your idea. What exactly is going to be the name of your business? Some people turn to their childhood for inspiration or a beloved family pet. It could be a made up word you dream of one night and feel it has the right ring to it. Even still there are some people who study foreign words for the perfect meaning behind their chosen business.

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2018 Logo Design Trends: Your Guide to Navigate Hot Trends and Avoid Fads

crowdSPRING Blog

Logo design with bright colors, creative typography, and signage mock-up by zeste/crowdspring. Small businesses and startups have to compete in an increasingly noisy world, often against large, dominant businesses. Customers who are just discovering your brand need something to remember you by, and your logo serves as a symbol of your business. A great logo will help boost your marketing.

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Six Reasons Why Startups Fail And How To Avoid Them

YoungUpstarts

by Arsalan Sajid, startup community manager at Cloudways. After spending a good amount of time researching about the benefits of having a startup, you are ready to open your own startup. WAIT! I have got a shocking statistic for you, startup enthusiasts. Almost 90 percent of startups fail within the first five years of their inception. There are a good number of published research studies that back this claim.

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How to Start a Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) Business

Up and Running

Image via TechCrunch. What’s a non-emergency medical transportation business? NEMT services help people get to pre-scheduled healthcare appointments, including doctor visits, rehab, clinical testing, follow-up exams, and more. The demand for safe and reliable public transportation for people with medical issues and disabilities, particularly in rural communities, continues to grow at remarkable rates.

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Early Adopters Are Not Enough To Assure Your Success

Startup Professionals Musings

Every technical entrepreneur is an early adopter of technology, so naturally they build things with people like themselves in mind. Unfortunately, for most solution markets, early adopters represent only 10 to 15 percent of the total opportunity, so it’s easy to get mislead on the real requirements of mainstream customers. Psychologists call this the confirmation bias.

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Home-based Startup Business Ideas You Should Consider

The Startup Magazine

Making the right career choice is a hard task, especially if you decide to cling to an already existent job market, instead of finding a way to make a fortune by being self-employed. In the present day and age, where you can work or make contacts online, there’s virtually no reason for you to leave your home. Sure, you still might have to outfit it for certain industry-specific tasks, yet, even this expense is minor when compared to the cost of renting out an office and outfitting an entire team

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Founder and CEO Revolutionize the Breastfeeding World Through her Company

Hearpreneur

Trends in the breastfeeding world are changing for the better. Noreen Sablotsky is the founder and CEO of Imalac , a revolutionary company in the breastfeeding world. The company is getting ready to launch Nurture by Imalac a nursing/ pumping bra with an attachable, hands-free breast expression system that when used in conjunction with an electric breast pump, significantly improves the quality, efficiency and practicality of milk expression.

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Google Ads Changes Affecting Small Businesses

Duct Tape Marketing

Google Ads Changes Affecting Small Businesses written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on Changes to Google Ads. Google has recently made some drastic changes to their ads program—starting with a name change, from Google AdWords to Google Ads. Some of the changes are technical, like tweaks to the interface.

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Working In Marketing As A Second Job

YoungUpstarts

Starting a business is difficult enough, but starting out alongside full time employment is incredibly difficult. However, it can be equally rewarding and can lead to you being able to take more control of your life and focus entirely on what may become your sole income. Unlike working full time in a 9 – 5 job as most people do, running your own business provides challenges, uncertainty and difficult learning curves which need to be overcome in order to succeed.

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20 years ago Raj and I started a little company together in our dorm room…

Jeff Hilimire

It’s funny how life works, isn’t it? My wife and I started dating junior year of high school, just after I convinced her to let me “borrow” her Ray Kroc presentation (we were in different classes but had both chosen Ray Kroc to do our history report on.). Fast-forward a few years later and I followed her to Charlotte, her attending Davidson College and me at UNC-Charlotte.

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5 Business Warning Signs That Signal Ethical Exposure

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on my years of experience working with entrepreneurs, I strongly believe that most of you start your business with the highest of ideals, but have no idea how many situations you will face that don’t have clear-cut answers, or raise ethical dilemmas. For example, how should you handle a cash flow crisis, where you have to choose between paying a creditor and your employees?

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Top 3 Startup Winner: Digs

The Startup Magazine

At this year’s FUND Conference in Chicago, Illinois, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. FUND is a national connector of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, and industry experts with a focus on deal flow and making connections. The startups ranked most highly by investors and startup enthusiasts in terms of scalability and longevity received votes on how well they connected with investors.

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SAP and Qualtrics: Experiences matter, but how much?

deal architect

My daughter, Rita is about to embark on what she calls a Gap Quarter. I don’t want to steal her thunder as she plans to blog about it but it is a play on a Gap Year and what us.

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Becoming a Great Leader, No Matter What Field You’re In

Duct Tape Marketing

Becoming a Great Leader, No Matter What Field You’re In written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Jason Kander. Podcast Transcript. Since recording this interview, Jason Kander announced that he was taking a step back from political life to deal with depression and PTSD symptoms he was experiencing as a result of his tour in Afghanistan.

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7 Mistakes That Turn Your Seminar Into A Nightmare

YoungUpstarts

by Diane DiResta, CEO of DiResta Communications. It’s not enough to be a confident speaker and subject matter expert. It’s what happens behind the scenes long before the audience ever arrives that will impact the outcome. It’s all about the logistics. Here is a peek behind the scenes of why a speaker may fail to deliver a knockout presentation. These seven mistakes separate the amateurs from the pros. 1.

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How to Survive in a World of Disruption – Innovation in Large Organizations

Steve Blank

The team at Innovation Leader had me over to share some observations on how to survive in a world of disruption in large organizations. It’s worth a listen – here. 5:30: The cultural differences between startups and big companies. 8:30: Not everyone is an innovator. 9:10: Being an ambidextrous organization is the key to survival for a big company. 9:42: Apple stopped changing the world; here’s why. 10:55: The most disruptive companies are driven by founders. 11:30: How to int

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How To Change Your Customer Message From Push To Pull

Startup Professionals Musings

Traditional marketing says you have to “push” your message out to customers, over and over again, to get you remembered. A more effective approach in today’s Internet and interactive culture is to use “pull” technology to bring customers and clients to your story. You pull people in by providing new content with real value on your website at least every few days.

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Startup Opportunity: Volvo iLabX Accelerator – Capital and Mentors

The Startup Magazine

In an effort to support startups looking for capital and mentorship, The Startup Magazine is supporting Volvo Financial Services in its launch of its iLabX global innovation program for technology entrepreneurs. We encourage all startups to consider applying to this rewarding startup accelerator. Corporate accelerators are one of the best ways for startups to access capital, advice, and markets. iLabX Technology Accelerator.

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Plex: The Past, Present and Future of Manufacturing

deal architect

Plex hosted its annual Future of Manufacturing Roundtable in Michigan last week. I was actually as excited about the past and present of manufacturing I saw during the visit. They hosted a dinner at a Birmingham restaurant which used to.

Michigan 281