June, 2016

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Why Raising Too Much Money Can Harm Your Startup

Both Sides of the Table

Amongst the most often asked questions I get from founders is, “How much money should I raise?” Reflexively founders want to raise as much money as they can because they figure it will give them more resources, better chances of competing and a longer runways before they have to do the often painful job of asking, yet again, for money. Every time you ask for money you’re faced with the possible of feeling literally and figuratively like a failure.

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7 Attributes of An Entrepreneur's Startup Dream Team

Startup Professionals Musings

There is a common belief in the angel and venture capital community that you put your money on the best team, rather than the best idea. Thus the top priority of every entrepreneur who wants funding should be to build and highlight their “dream team” of co-founders, executives and advisers, to attract the biggest and best investors. Solo entrepreneurs rarely find an investor.

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What It Means To Be A Professional

YoungUpstarts

By Vadim Kondratiev, Head of Sales at Anadea Inc. When a project owner seeks for a software development company, they often mention in their inquiries that they want to deal with a very professional developer. They want their project to be cared of properly. But what kind of service do they actually want their developers to provide? What is the difference between a professional and an amateur attitude?

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For Here or To Go

Feld Thoughts

It’s 2am on Friday and I’m awake because Brooks the Wonder Dog is afraid of thunderstorms. His approach to them is to literally try to climb under my body while I’m sleeping, which prevents me from sleeping, which results in me watching the Brexit insanity in real time. Yesterday, we had our own US insanity around immigration as our Supreme Court voted 4-4 on the legality of Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

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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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Why Your Brand’s Social Media Impact is Low

Brandanew

I was recently talking with a prospective client and we talked through the challenges they were facing. The client had just finished their “father’s day campaign” and the social media impact on sales seemed a little disappointing. She wasn’t sure why this was the case. The gut decision to “do something on social” seemed right, but the results seemed questionable.

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Self-Driving Vehicles: The Future Always Takes Longer to Arrive (Part 1)

Agile VC

Preface: As a consumer, I am excited by the prospect of autonomous vehicles and the individual and collective benefits they can provide. As an investor, I am also bullish about the innovation wave already in its early innings around mobility and autonomy. But a realistic understanding of the potential timeline for autonomous vehicle adoption is vital to decision making as a startup entrepreneur or investor in this area. . ==.

Virginia 100

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Checklist For Becoming A More Effective Team Leader

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. But fortunately, team building is a skill that can be learned and practiced, for those willing to put in some effort.

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A Closer Look At Different Materials Used In 3D Printing

YoungUpstarts

by Gaurav Sharma, digital marketing consultant at CG Trader. 3D printing has come a long way since its inception and has made numerous contributions in the field of manufacturing and medicine. While the machine itself is something to marvel, there are a number of elements that make 3D printing possible. For instance, the software used to create 3D models and the materials used to create a physical object using the machine.

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Book: Where The Jobs Are

Feld Thoughts

A few weeks ago I had lunch with John Dearie to discuss a new non-profit he has started called The Center for American Entrepreneurship. Several friends and people I respect a lot are on the board , including Lucy Sanders (NCWIT), Troy Henikoff (Techstars Chicago), Bob Litan (Brookings Institute), Rebecca Lovell (Seattle’s Office of Economic Development), Monisha Merchant (formerly Senator Bennet’s Economic Advisor), Jonathan Ortmans (Global Entrepreneurship Network), Jason Seats (Techsta

SBA 102
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“We’ve focused on instagram and Facebook and increasingly, snapchat” -> SMB Tech Talk from 305 Fitness

Hunter Walker

This week I’ll be running a series of Five Question interviews with small businesses which were facilitated by BondStreet , a SMB lending platform (we’re investors). LocalBiz stories are really fun for me since my first high school job was working in an independent bookstore. These people are true founders and entrepreneurs just like any venture backed company.

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15 Entrepreneurs Explain What They Love About Being An Entrepreneur

Hearpreneur

Share Being in love is great. Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Waking up each morning knowing you are getting to do exactly what you love is more than most people could ever say about any “job” they have had. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality.

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What Do You Do When Your Customers Are Afraid To Shop Online?

ConversionXL

You and I may have a hard time believing it, but many people are afraid to shop online. Now, as someone who regularly makes ridiculous impulse purchases, I never second guess entering my credit card information online. In fact, I just bought a Led Zeppelin coffee mug in the time between writing and editing this article. You, too, probably regularly buy books, movies, clothes, and software online.

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Why Every Entrepreneur Needs A Startup Co-Founder

Startup Professionals Musings

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea. Thus, unless the visionary highlights a cofounder who can take the vision and execute, I assume the worst.

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Understanding Virtual Data Rooms And Their Significance Today

YoungUpstarts

by Gabriel Cabot, digital marketing strategist at Firmex, Inc. Before the advent of cloud technology and the Internet, company files had to be stored away in physical data rooms (PDRs). This required high operational costs like round the clock staff, abundant paper supplies and couriers. In addition, access to information stored in these sites was inconvenient because one had to travel to the PDR site.

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A Scaling Magic Trick

Feld Thoughts

By definition, as a company scales rapidly, it adds people quickly. There are many things about this that are difficult, but a vexing one has to do with the leadership team. Often times, the wrong people are in senior positions. The faster a company grows, or the less experienced the CEO is (e.g. a first time founding CEO), the more likely it is a problem.

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“Why give up that much equity for an amount we could raise other ways?:” SMB Tech Talk from ArtJamz

Hunter Walker

This week I’ll be running a series of Five Question interviews with small businesses which were facilitated by BondStreet , a SMB lending platform (we’re investors). LocalBiz stories are really fun for me since my first high school job was working in an independent bookstore. These people are true founders and entrepreneurs just like any venture backed company.

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Don’t go on a phishing trip!

Berkonomics

Dave’s note: Our guest author this week is Kevin McDonald, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Alvaka Networks, a network services and security firm in Irvine, California. He is a trusted technology and security consultant and public policy advisory to some of America’s most influential people and organizations. .

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5 Reasons Why Your Brand Should Have a Following

Duct Tape Marketing

5 Reasons Why Your Brand Should Have a Following written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. photo credit Very Pixel. Have you ever noticed how so many major corporations produce commercials that focus more on their brand name rather than an actual product? At first, this might lead to some head-scratching—after all, isn’t the product what they’re selling?

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What Marketers Can Learn From Kim Kardashian

crowdSPRING Blog

We’ve got some bad news. Your customers are probably ignoring you. Sure, there are an infinite number of YouTube commercials, product placements, sponsored blog content, and a whole cacophony of other messages being thrown into the interwebs by companies trying to get some brand attention on the daily, but is their target audience really seeing all of these marketing messages?

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The 5 Productivity Tools You Need As An Entrepreneur

YoungUpstarts

When you’re starting out in business, you have thousands of things to take care of. With limited resources in capital and manpower, it is the entrepreneur’s responsibility to get things done. It then becomes imperative for small business owners to be efficient in their daily tasks, in order to free up valuable time on the things that matter: cherishing first clients and growing the company.

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I hope this is not SAP Nation 3.0

deal architect

Nucleus Research just issued a report which will make SAP wince SAP’s new marketing tagline – run simple – is not only grammatically incorrect, it’s grossly inaccurate. Nucleus analyzed the experience of SAP customers and found varied – at best.

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15 Entrepreneurs Discuss Whether or Not Twitter Is Dying

Hearpreneur

Share Twitter has had its shares of ups and downs over the last few years. Every introduction of new social media platforms chip away at current banner holders like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Over the course of the last couple years co-founder Jack Dorsey was reinstated as CEO due to decline, the constant buzz about doing away with 140 has caused uproar on both sides, and every week a headline concerning stolen information is splashed across every news site.

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Using Artificial Intelligence to Humanize Management and Set Information Free

Reid Hoffman

This essay originally appeared on MIT Sloan Management Review as part of their Frontiers Essay Series. Each essay is a response to this question: “Within the next five years, how will technology change the practice of management in a way we have not yet witnessed?”. • • •. Artificial Intelligence is about to transform management from an art into a combination of art and science.

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Intel Disrupted: Why large companies find it difficult to innovate, and what they can do about it

Steve Blank

In the 21 st century it’s harder for large corporations to create disruptive breakthroughs. Disruptive innovations are coming from startups – Telsa for automobiles, Uber for taxis, Airbnb for hotel rentals, Netflix for video rentals and Facebook for media. What’s holding large companies back? Here are four reasons: First, companies bought into the false premise that they exist to maximize shareholder value – which said “keep the stock price high.

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The Problem is the Advertising, Not the Ad Blocker

crowdSPRING Blog

Media companies and publishers are mad. Like, really mad. Well, maybe more nervous than mad, but certainly angry enough to sound a lot like digital geriatrics shaking their fists at the ad blocking kids running up and down their site. Their agitation is understandable. After all, the clever little extensions that give the rest of us a faster, cleaner, less irritating web experience are eating away at ROI for advertisers and revenue for publishers.

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3 Simple Ways Productivity Leads To Your Best Self

YoungUpstarts

By Johan Gunnars, CEO and cofounder of Simpliday. What do you think of when you hear the term “self-improvement”? If you’re like a lot of people, you might imagine working your way through giant stacks of self-help books, starting an intensive new exercise regimen, or devoting more time to charitable causes — all of which are certainly worthwhile ways to improve oneself.

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Globalization 2.0Taking it Global

deal architect

I know a lot of people are upset with the UK. Lots of wealth destroyed around the world, Young Brits mad at older Brits, Scots mad at the English, Europeans upset with the Brits. It’s important to not forget something.

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The Local SEO Playbook – Your Guide to Local Rankings

Duct Tape Marketing

The Local SEO Playbook – Your Guide to Local Rankings written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Look, if you’re a local business, meaning most or all of your business comes from customers living in your community, you must get very serious about local SEO. Don’t worry, ranking locally for the kinds of things your prospects are looking for isn’t rocket science, but it does take a serious commitment to a handful of things.

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6 Principles for Personal and Business Success

Startup Professionals Musings

The startup lifestyle is known to be stressful and challenging, but it’s also meant to be satisfying and fulfilling, with you as the entrepreneur in control of your own destiny. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way, based on my many years of experience with entrepreneurs and advising startups. The business can be successful, while the entrepreneur feels like a failure.

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SlideShare: The Atomization of Seed Venture Capital

View from Seed

Recently, I shared a two-part essay on the atomization of seed venture capital rounds. You can find both posts condensed into one essay on our Medium publication, Startup Traction, here. Below, we wanted to share a high-level SlideShare with the major points. After much discussion on social following the series, we felt it was useful to underscore the major trends and takeaways.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere: Show No. 33: David Comisford and Omar Zenhom

Steve Blank

A huge lesson is to raise money at the appropriate time. We didn’t understand our value proposition. We didn’t even have a fully baked-out product. We weren’t ready. So we failed. Every time I started a business it was because I saw them as good short-term financial opportunities. In hindsight I realize none of these businesses lasted because i t wasn’t authentic.

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What Sort Of Career Can You Have If You Study IT At College?

YoungUpstarts

Information technology (IT) is a job field which offers plenty of opportunities. If you enjoy IT, and would like a change of career, the maybe you want to find yourself a job in this area. The good news is that you can complete any required study you might need to change jobs, with an online provider. This means that you can still keep your current job and fit studying in around it.

Database 100
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Part 2 of Interview with Stephan Sieber of Unit4

deal architect

This continues our interview with the new CEO of Unit4. Part 1 ran yesterday. The Unit4 brand is much stronger in Europe than in North America. What's your vision for changing that? In fairness, North America is already around 15%.

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Summer Reading List: My Top 7 Books For Creative Inspiration

Brandanew

Inspiration for your businesses and brands can come in many forms. Whether, like Steve Jobs, you move to Nainital and get your special idea. Or you sit on your couch, reading books for creative inspiration that change you life. It’s true, getting insights from people who’ve managed to see the world differently allows you to question your own stand.

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Bold Entrepreneurs Now Create New Market Categories

Startup Professionals Musings

Have you noticed that the really big startup wins in the last couple of decades have come from creating and dominating new market categories, more than just new solutions? Steve Jobs was a master new category king, by preaching the need for new thinking as he introduced the iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. Uber and Airbnb did the same for transportation and hospitality.

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Q&A: “Is it normal to hate working on the company you’re building?”

The Startup Toolkit

I’d distinguish between hating your current role at your startup vs. hating the startup you’re building. The former is normal, temporary, and has a solution. The latter is a problem. My dad used to say that the founder is the janitor. You’re liable to do your fair share of unpleasant work over the years. That’s to be expected, and it’s totally fine as long as the business is moving forward.