December, 2014

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If You Don’t Respect Your Customers You Won’t Be Successful

Both Sides of the Table

'I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers.

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5 Lies CTOs Tell To Feel Better About Coding

YoungUpstarts

'by Jinesh Parekh, CEO of Ruby on Rails consulting shop, Idyllic Software. Hey there, you amazingly resourceful person. You’re doing everything. You’re coding, testing, fixing issues and managing people. Cheers to you! Or not. You’re the CTO. And you shouldn’t be coding. Wait. Before you berate me, I did not say you shouldn’t know how to code.

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10 Actions That Highlight You As A Business Leader

Startup Professionals Musings

'People who have been followers too long as an employee don’t realize how hard it is to be a leader. Every new entrepreneur has to initiate the right actions to be perceived as a leader in their chosen business domain by their team and by their customers, or the road to success and satisfaction will be lost along the way. Driving these actions are some basic principles that entrepreneurial leaders, such as Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and Evernote CEO Phil Libin, seem to have learned early.

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See More than 120 Speakers and Mentors at The Lean Startup Conference

Startup Lessons Learned

'Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference The Lean Startup Conference is next week--and now that we can step back and see all the speakers and mentors, we have to say: Wow. When you look through the list , you’ll see big names that we’re very pleased we landed, epic companies we really want to hear from, and people we’re particularly excited to present because they have incredible stories to share--and you won’t hear them anyplace else.

Lean 165
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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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The Best Free Apps and Online Tools for Entrepreneurs and Obsessive Collectors

Up and Running

'As we head toward the new year, you’re likely thinking about setting goals and getting things organized. To help you prep, I’ve collated a list of tools—for both web and mobile devices—that have helped me and others get things done, save time, and work more productively. I should preface this list by saying that I have not included “to do” apps primarily because everyone else does, because there are so many of them, and because they’re all pretty much variations of one another.

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Mattermark – An Example of How We Decide to Invest

Feld Thoughts

'There is a moment during the exploration of a new relationship where a switch flips and the answer is “I want to do this.” With Mattermark , I remember the moment clearly – I was at The Kitchen in Boulder with the founders (Danielle Morrill, Kevin Morrill, and Andy Sparks) and my partner Seth. I had just put a garlic french fry in my mouth (if you’ve never had them at The Kitchen, they are epic) and looked over at Seth.

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Know Your Goal And Know Your Role: Connecting The Dots To Success

YoungUpstarts

'By Danielle Tate, CEO of MissNowMrs.com. Do you know what your goal is? Is it happiness, independence, wealth or a combination of those things? The key to success is knowing your specific goal and the steps to achieving it. Waking up each morning with your goal burning in your brain will help you steer your day and life towards its achievement.

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7 Entrepreneur Traits That Let You Soar With Angels

Startup Professionals Musings

'As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Finally I realized that Venture Capital and Angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. As with most business and personal interactions, first impressions tend to become lasting ones.

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Our 2014 in review

Version One Ventures

'Just like last year , 2014 has been busy and eventful here at Version One. We added 8 new companies to our portfolio: Clio , a cloud-based practice management platform for the legal industry; Dwellable , a mobile-first vacation rentals marketplace; HandUp , a donation platform that lets you give directly to a person in-need; Mattermark , an analytics platform for investing, partnering, selling and marketing; Shippo , an e-commerce shipping solution; and 3 startups that have yet to announce th

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What Successful Freelancers Wish They’d Known from the Start

Up and Running

'The idea of starting your own business may sound daunting, but the reality is that the economic downturn has forced a lot of Americans to start working for themselves, either by setting up their own venture, or working as a freelancer. In fact, recent research predicts that 40% of America’s workforce will be self-employed by 2020. That’s 60 million people!

Cofounder 136
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MIT People Are Really Good At Math

Feld Thoughts

'I rarely read physical magazines anymore. I only read in the bathroom and most are things I forget to unsubscribe to or that Amy gives me. Today, I finished the most recent MIT Technology Review where I was reminded about the amazing MIT Science Fiction Society. As a sci-fi nut, I realized I’d screwed up by not having a lifetime membership. So, I’m now trying to figure out where to send my $260 to be a lifer.

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Entrepreneur Russ Fradin Makes More Money, Less Noise

Hunter Walker

'One of my favorite aspects of the tech industry is that behind the noise, the tweets, the press headlines, there’s a depth of operator-founders who build amazing, lasting and valuable companies. My friend Russ Fradin is one of those people and my bet is that most of the folks who read my blog don’t know Russ. He’s currently cofounder/CEO of Dynamic Signal which helps companies involve their employees in enterprise social media – he calls it an “OS for advocacy.R

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What Makes A Successful Franchisee?

YoungUpstarts

'By Brandon Moxam, Director of Brand Development at U.S. Lawns. When bright-eyed entrepreneurs set out to start their own businesses, they’re often stopped in their tracks by two obstacles: a lack of start-up capital and a lack of experience. Without proper funding and with little experience to demonstrate their credibility, it can be a struggle to achieve sustainable business growth and get their business off the ground.

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10 Innovative New Global Ways To Grow Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

'The world of marketing is changing faster than technology these days. Winning entrepreneurs have long since supplemented conventional print and video “push” marketing with digital online interactive “pull” marketing, and more recently added social-local-mobile ( SoLoMo ) to the mix. Mobile and global are driving all of these in innovative new ways to grow your business.

Global 266
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Lose Weight and Get Strong Without Leaving Your House

David Teten

'My family and I are in the process of moving to another apartment, and we are thinking through how to design it to promote movement for us and our children. At ffVC, we’ve done this with our “ fitness office ”, which has received great reviews. Both at work and at home, we’re trying to make it as easy and natural as possible for people to raise their fitness level while going about their daily life.

New York 114
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Public Relations Tips for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs [Webinar Recap]

Up and Running

'To grow a business, most entrepreneurs know that they should be implementing PR strategies. But where do you start, and what are the best approaches to public relations for an entrepreneur? For this webinar, we were joined by Jennefer Witter, CEO and founder of the Boreland Group, and author of the new book, “The Little Book of Big PR: 100+ Quick Tips to Get Your Small Business Noticed.” We recently featured an excerpt from her book, which offers even more great tips on networking f

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Oracle: Time for some respect

deal architect

'Oracle is skirting with a market valuation of $ 2oo billion. Wall Street is gushing. Whatever. I am not writing this to join their praises – I have never judged companies purely on their financial performance. I am more impressed.

Valuation 376
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Launch: The 2-Hour Audio Documentary of a Startup

Software By Rob

'I’ve just released a 2-hour audio documentary chronicling the story of building and launching my latest startup, Drip. Launch. A Startup Documentary was compiled and edited from 9 months of Skype calls between myself and my software developer, with an epilogue recorded 1-year later (about 2 weeks ago). From the honeymoon period of “green field” development to the sleepless nights of database failures, Launch captures the real-life angst of building a startup.

Audio 60
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Improving Your Sales Reps’ Performance

YoungUpstarts

'By John McGee, President of OptifiNow. According to VentureBeat, marketing automation software only has 3% adoption in non-tech companies. This is an incredible hurdle for sales professionals to overcome, but one that must be met and conquered head on for success. If a company is lacking the IT support it should have to boost marketing and sales results, the burden of filling the gaps falls on the shoulders of the individual sales rep.

Sales 182
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6 Marketing 101 Tips For Technology Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

'Marketing is everything these days. You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value

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Harvard’s Big Moves to Improve Its Startup Spirit: An HBS Student’s Take

View from Seed

'NextView Ventures is excited to welcome Dimitri Dadiomov to the team as an MBA Associate. He is currently a second year student at Harvard Business School and will be focused on supporting the early-stage startup community in Boston and its schools. He’ll work with NextView through his final semester at HBS. This is his first post to The View From Seed.

Boston 328
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What Future for Accelerators?

Both Sides of the Table

'Accelerators have had quite a good run the past 5+ years. Not just Y Combinator and TechStars but a host of other accelerators across the country. I have been involved with a high profile one in Los Angeles – Launchpad LA – and we’ve decided to make a shift so I thought this was a good time for reflection. My good friend Adam Lilling and I started Launchpad more than 5 years ago .

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Welcoming a new sponsor: Unit4

deal architect

'It is an honor to welcome Unit4 to the past and present gallery of innovators and disruptors who sponsor the Deal Architect and the New Florence. New Renaissance. blogs. Unit4, headquartered in the Netherlands, specializes in business applications for service-intense.

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For marketing early startups: Deep, not wide

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

'Watch a bunch of interviews of founders of successful companies, and here’s what you don’t hear: We tried eight different marketing channels — AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, social media, events, retargeting, SEO, guest-posting, PR, and so on. All of them worked a little bit, so together it was substantial — a trickle from each that added up to a river.

Marketing 301
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The Common Growing Pains Of Business (And How To Deal With Them)

YoungUpstarts

'Given enough time, you will see your business flourish, but ask yourself whether you (and your team) are ready to take on the new challenges. Growth in business is always the objective but is your business primed and ready for a sudden influx of new order, higher service demand, new competition, and the myriad of challenges (and pains) of the rise?

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Why You Must Kill the Time Sheet

Duct Tape Marketing

'Why You Must Kill the Time Sheet written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Ron Baker. The age old practice of billing for time is both unethical and profit robbing. photo credit: factoryjoe via photopin cc. It’s unethical because it misaligns you and client. Your goal now is to bill as many hours as possible at the highest possible rate.

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How to Divide Founder Equity: 4 Criteria to Discuss

View from Seed

'Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. Below, Lee Hower offers advice for approaching these equity discussions objectively and properly. In addition to being a co-founder of NextView Ventures, Lee was an early member of PayPal and a founding team member at LinkedIn, so he speaks as both a former entrepreneur and a VC.

Equity 315
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10 Keys To Success When Turning To Entrepreneurship

Startup Professionals Musings

'As the economy recovers from some tough economic times, more and more people seem to be turning to entrepreneurship as an alternative to traditional employment. I applaud this trend, but caution all of you thinking this direction to approach entrepreneurship with your eyes wide open. It is not for everyone, as the entrepreneur’s path is fraught with challenges.

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SAP Nation Excerpts: Chapter 1The Customer Pivot

deal architect

'Amazon has SAP Nation on the Kindle and in softcover. Over the next few weeks the book will be available in other print and eBook formats. As I have done with my other books, I plan to excerpt here about.

Customer 271
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The Unique but Powerful Way the HubSpot Mafia is Impacting Boston Startups

Genuine VC

'It’s official: now two months after the IPO, HubSpot has surpassed the $1B market cap threshold and has become that “pillar” company that the tech ecosystem long anticipated. The benefits have been touted previously : an anchor for attracting and retaining talent in Boston, as well as a breeding ground for the next set of great Boston entrepreneurs and founders.

Boston 279
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Why Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Is A Thing Of The Past And What You Should Do About It

YoungUpstarts

'by Paul Zane Pilzer and Rick Lindquist, authors of “ The End of Employer-Provided Health Insurance: Why It’s Good for You and Your Company “ U.S. companies can no longer afford to provide group health insurance to their employees. There. We said it. Consider this stark statistic: In 2013, as a group, Fortune 500 companies spent more on health insurance than they earned in profits.

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Getting out of the building…by staying in the building!

Steve Blank

'The landscape for how to turn life science and health care technologies into viable companies has changed more in the last 3 years than in the last 30. New approaches to translational medicine have emerged. Our Lean Launchpad® for Life Sciences is one of them. But a new class of life science/healthcare co-working and collaboration space is another. ———– The National Institutes of Health recognizes that Life Science/Health Care commercialization has two components: the sc

San Diego 261
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The wrongness of relativism

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

'Instagram had 13 employees when they sold for a billion dollars. Was there any startup founder who didn’t feel depressed when that happened? Yes, depressed. All those years of toil and sacrifice, the pain of scaling a complex organization and a complex product, scratching and clawing for revenue growth month after month, and you’ll never have that sort of exit, and 26-year-old Kevin Systrom did it in only 2 years, with 13 buddies, with $0 in revenue, never having had to worry about

Metrics 246
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10 Barriers To Change That Limit Entrepreneur Growth

Startup Professionals Musings

'Successful entrepreneurs are the ones who think the most creatively, not only in their initial product or service, but more importantly all through the stages of growth from startup to maturity. But even the best of them can easily slip into some bad decision habits that limit or hurt their business, due to natural human tendencies and the pressures of business challenges.

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SAP Nation Excerpts: Preface

deal architect

'Amazon has released SAP Nation on the Kindle. Over the next few weeks the book will be available in other print and eBook formats. As I have done with my other books, I plan to excerpt here about 10% of.

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Punch & Pie: How Should Co-Founders Divide Equity?

Agile VC

'I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. As a result, one of the trickier things co-founders tackle is determining the equity split amongst the founding group of individuals.

Cofounder 255