A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Consulting can be a great way to fund a startup or make a bunch of cash. It’s easy to start; Just pick an hourly rate and jump in. But someday soon you’ll notice there’s only so many billable hours in the day, and you’ll be tempted to expand. Maybe hire an employee for $30 per hour and re-bill them at $60. Easy money, right? Unfortunately the math doesn’t work that way.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 5, 2011
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. Nor do they exist in the investors of early-stage companies. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. My first startup was no different.
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Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Contrary to what most of you might guess, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the last few years is not Gen-Y young upstarts, but Baby Boomers in the 55-64 year age group. In fact, according to a study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, these Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom. Some people are calling entrepreneurship the ‘new mid-life crisis’ for the 76 million-strong demographic once thought to be over the hill.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 11, 2011
A quote from Chapter 1 of my book “Steve Jobs is explaining one major reason for the iPhone ’ s success —Apple ’ s ability to integrate hardware and software engineering: “ We realized that almost all — maybe all.
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
Startup Lessons Learned
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Lean Startup Machine is the brainchild of Trevor Owens, Josh Horn, and Ben Fisher, a hackathon-style competition where teams come together on a Friday evening and build a brand new startup – by Sunday. It’s an impossibly short amount of time. To make it more difficult, unlike your standard issue hackathon, the judging on Sunday is not just about who can make a cool-looking prototype.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
In my ongoing quest to get you good transcripts of the wonderful interviews we’ve done in the past, I present you with one amazing interview here with Tom McInerney – a friend, co-investor, former entrepreneur turned angel investor and “wizard of Oz&# behind the scenes at the uber hot startup Klout. What is wonderful about this interview is that I got Tom on the record on: what angels look for and how they work?
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Genuine VC
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
Evaluating a startup as a prospective employee is tough, especially when you compare to VCs. Venture capitalists have an information advantage – startups are required to be fully transparent about everything before a VC invests in it during weeks if not months of diligence, but prospective employees are limited to just a few questions they ask during a series of interviews with only a few people at the company.
crowdSPRING Blog
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
One of the great joys of doing the web series This Week in VC every week is that I get to spend time with great people debating the issues of our day including how our industry is evolving as well as insights into how companies got started, got their initial traction and dealt with adversities. “But Mark, isn’t it one big time suck?&#. Oh, yeah.
OnlyOnce
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
The Three Functions of a Management Team. After my quarterly Return Path exec team offsite last week, my team and I were rehashing the day’s conversation over dinner. Was it a good day or a bad day? An upper or a downer? We concluded that the day was as it should have been – a good mix of what I will now articulate as the three main functions of a management team.
ReadWriteStart
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Early stage education technology startups can now apply for Startl 's second annual accelerator program. The program offers ed-tech startups a three-month residency in New York City and an opportunity to work with the social venture Startl and the tech accelerator DreamIt Ventures. The program involves mentorship from marketing, business development, brand building, and customer acquisition experts, all with a special emphasis on the education technology industry.
VC Cafe
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
VC investors rely heavily on referrals, but what should a non US startup do when looking to raise funding in Silicon Valley? I found a question on Quora that relates to European startups, but found that some of the advice may be very relevant to Israeli startups as well. How best can European startups land VC funding in the US / Sillicon Valley? Jussi Laakkonen , CEO & founder of Applifie, summarized it well: We recently raised our seed round at Applifier and it was led by a silicon valley s
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak
FEBRUARY 11, 2011
In my previous post, Why Leave A Six Figure Salaried Career For Online Entrepreneurship , I wrote about the various business ventures I have tried and tested over the years. One of those ventures was the creation, establishment, growth and sale of an e-commerce business. In this post, I want to lay out the details involved in how I first realized the opportunity, the formation of the business idea, the search for my supplier, the establishment and growth of the business, problems encountered an
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
This article originally appeared on Silicon Alley Insider. A few months ago I wrote a post called “ Invest in Lines, Not Dots.&# It was my investment philosophy that observing teams’ performance over time was far more insightful than reacting to how good of a product demo they do, how good they present Powerpoint slides or how great tech blogs say they are.
Steve Blank
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
For its first few decades Silicon Valley was content flying under the radar of Washington politics. It wasn’t until Fairchild and Intel were almost bankrupted by Japanese semiconductor manufacturers in the early 1980’s that they formed Silicon Valley’s first lobbying group. Microsoft did not open a Washington office until 1995. Fast forward to today.
VC Cafe
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
by Tomer Tzach, CEO, Zoara.com. As a VC turned CEO of start-up, I’ve had the privilege of being exposed to both sides of the coin. So when our company recently decided that we were ready to initiate VC talks, ready to get some funding to take us to the next level, I was surprised by some of the reactions we were receiving. While some VCs that I met seemed to be rightfully bullish about everything that had to do with eCommerce, some seemed to be missing the point.
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
The first collection that my handbag company charm and luck ever designed was gaming-themed. Inspired by my partner’s love of bridge, we created beaded bags with a variety of gaming themes – the Blackjack bag, the Four Slots bag, one shaped like a die, and so on. Before we even did our first trade show or contacted salesrooms, I was able to secure an appointment with a Las Vegas-based chain which had many stores in casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and airports throughout the United Sta
deal architect
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Cowboys Stadium which hosted the SuperBowl puts most data centers to shame with its slew of HP servers and Cisco routers. Its giant screens and luxury suites make even the most elaborate home theaters look pedestrian. This is the future.
Software By Rob
FEBRUARY 11, 2011
Photo by The Consumerist. The process of opening a credit card merchant account is like getting an enema with a rusty potato peeler. It’s something you don’t really want in the first place, and the longer it drags on the more you regret doing it. This was the situation I found myself starting almost a year ago today (applying for a merchant account, not getting an enema).
VC Cafe
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
You’ve discovered the next big thing, and you feel you planned everything from concept to market entry. In the coming months you will make a multitude of decisions that will define the fate of your new company, and as an experienced startup consultant, I have seen the best and worst of cases. Below I briefly describe my experience with two of my clients, both of which faced the kinds of decisions that make or break a startup.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
You can’t win as an entrepreneur working alone. You need to have business relationships with team members, investors, customers, and a myriad of other support people. That doesn’t mean you have to be a social butterfly to succeed, or introverts need not apply. It does mean that you need to look, listen, and participate in the business world around you, and network through all available channels, like business-oriented social networks online (LinkedIn), local business organizations (Chamber of Co
deal architect
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
The Nasscom Leadership Forum, an annual fixture in Mumbai is on this week. It exudes a bullish tone after a subdued one the last couple of years. But while there is plenty of talk of innovation at the event, the.
Feld Thoughts
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
I’m at the end of day three of another very intense, but enjoyable and satisfying week. I’ve been in Seattle the past two days and am headed to LA for the next two days before finally making it home after being on the road for the past two weeks. As I was getting ready to go to bed in order to wake up in time to make my 6:40am flight, I was rolling my one remaining priority for the week around in my head.
ReadWriteStart
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Sponsor. Startups can be incredibly innovative, but sometimes the pitches can sound incredibly repetitive: "The Mint.com for X" or the "open source alternative for Y" or "Z, but viral." Even more frustrating - when these good ideas just linger as "coming soon" pages for products that never seem to manifest. That's the impulse behind the Random Startup Generator , a gentle reminder from the folks at the blogging startup Fireplace who built the generator as a reminder that "execution is key.".
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
Willingness to take a risk is the hallmark of a serious entrepreneur. That’s why one of the first questions that potential investors ask is “How much of your own money, and friends and family, have you put into the new business?” If you won’t risk yours, you won’t get investors to risk theirs. A while back I read the book “ When Turtles Fly ” by Nikki Stone, an Olympic champion, which explains this well.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
This continues a series of columns from practitioners I respect. The category "Real Deal" describes them well. This time it is Steven Skinner who is VP of Cognizant’s Retail and CPG Practice. Previously, Steven served as a Strategy Partner in.
Feld Thoughts
FEBRUARY 5, 2011
On Wednesday and Thursday I spent two awesome days with my long time friend Martin Babinec (the founder of Trinet), his partner at Upstate Venture Connect – Nasir Ali – and about 1000 members of the Upstate New York entrepreneurial community. Martin and I first met around 1991 when we were both building our first companies. We were participants in the inaugural Birthing of Giants class sponsored by Inc., Young Entrepreneurs Organization, and the MIT Enterprise Forum.
crowdSPRING Blog
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Some months back I wrote a post about how, as entrepreneurs, we have much to learn from our kids. Lots of you chimed in about your own experiences and about how much you, too, have learned about business from children. Well, as I was pondering what to write about this week, our family dog, Epee´ wandered over to lick my hand and it occurred to me that her small gesture of affection and loyalty was something that I could learn from.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
If you are going to be a real entrepreneur, it’s important that you know yourself well. After all, you won’t have a direct manager charged with giving you feedback, and your direct reports probably will be afraid to tell you what they really think. In any case, your skills, talent, knowledge, personality, and strengths are your best assets as an entrepreneur.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
On the New Florence blog Technology at the SuperBowl The “Skin Gun” The IBM Centennial The Korean focus on smart appliances More book publishing innovation.
Feld Thoughts
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
My friends at Fitbit are hiring a director of marketing. If you, or someone you know, wants a director of marketing job in a fast growing, well funded company in San Francisco, go take a look at the job spec and apply. There is a ton of hiring going on in our portfolio right now at all levels. We have a bunch of companies that are growing head count 100%+ in 2011 – much of it driven by revenue growth (vs. just a new financing).
ReadWriteStart
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
Six months after the launch of its early-stage investment fund, 500 Startups is announcing its accelerator program, a three to six month program that will give early-stage startups funding, a workspace, and access to a vast network of mentors. That network is thanks, no doubt, to its founder, angel investor Dave McClure. Coverage of today's announcement by 500 Startups is bound to use a variety of descriptors for McClure, but I'll settle with this one: huge cheerleader for startups.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
It’s great to dream big, but your startup needs a laser focus in the beginning to get market and investor attention. Google did it with search engines, Apple did it with a personal computer, and even Wal-Mart did it through low prices. A business plan I saw a while back to combine all the good features of several popular social networks on one site does not do it.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 10, 2011
on the innovation blog New Life for the Palm WebOS “Content Mills” A bank or an Apple Store? The Universal Flu shot? Miami’s New World.
Rembrandt Communications
FEBRUARY 7, 2011
Finally! Your new small business is up and running, and you put up the “Open” sign. The only problem is, no customers are waiting to buy your products and services. What do you do? Small Business Public Relations to the Rescue! It’s time to build buzz by contacting the media, posting SEO press releases, using [.].
Feld Thoughts
FEBRUARY 6, 2011
The creative Do More Faster blogs and movies are getting better and better. Here’s one called Kentrepreneur 1.0 from Snopsize that doubles as an application to TechStars. Awesome. Kentrepreneur 1.0 from eoin corrigan on Vimeo.
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