Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 22, 2011
The most common questions I’ve gotten over the past week have been a variant of: Was SXSW worth it? Was it just one big party? Should I go next year? Why do your eyes still look so bloodshot? (And I’ve learned a new term, I arrived home with SxSARS). As you may know I outlined my rules for maximum impact at events / conferences before SXSW began.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 23, 2011
Many entrepreneurs I know feel guilty about not quitting their day job when initiating their startup, worrying about not giving their all to an employer, juggling the multiple roles, or even a legal conflict of interest. I’ll try to offer some guidelines to address these issues, but I generally recommend you keep the day job until your new company is producing real revenue.
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crowdSPRING Blog
MARCH 23, 2011
The right typeface is often the key to a great logo, graphic or web design. But there’s much confusion and misinformation about typefaces, fonts and the law. Many people do not understand the law governing the use of typefaces and fonts. Others incorrectly assume that they can freely use any typeface or font for any project. When you purchase a commercial font, you are purchasing a license to use the font software.
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak
MARCH 24, 2011
There are few words in an online entrepreneur’s vocabulary that are more seductive than Passive Income. The term is widely used by multilevel marketers and savvy entrepreneurs across the web to close sales on eBooks and training programs for one simple reason: the vision (of sitting under a palm tree while your bank account effortlessly collects money) sells.
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
ReadWriteStart
MARCH 24, 2011
This week's One Million by One Million roundtable was our 75th session, and we worked today with three entrepreneurs from the Midwest region of the United States. Our co-host for the program was TiE Midwest, based in Chicago. First up, Priyanshu Harshavat, from Evanston, Illinois, presented Socioclean , a service for cleaning up your reputation on social networks.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 21, 2011
Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a couple of years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.
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Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak
MARCH 22, 2011
Ever since I started in Internet Marketing back in January of 2008, I’ve come across a ton of Internet Marketers who teach all kinds of topics relating to growing an online business. I’ve signed up for a bunch of mailing lists and have received all kinds of info from these guys, including a bunch of Spam. At a certain point, I decided to cut most internet marketers off.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
MARCH 21, 2011
Some problems in business can be solved with money; many cannot. When you’re pitching to an investor, one of the best things you can do is to show how the important problems facing your business are those that can be solved with money, because money is what they’re providing. Even if you’re not pitching this is a useful exercise, because if you’re good at the things money can’t buy, you’ll remain competitive even when confronted by a well-funded competitor.
deal architect
MARCH 24, 2011
I got excited when I saw Dennis Howlett’s post about SAP Sustainability hints at revenue growth. For my next book I am cataloging all kinds of companies which are embedding tech to create “smart products” for their sectors and for.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 19, 2011
I’ve noticed a great tendency among startup founders to ignore the essentials of business accounting in the early stages of their startup. Just because you are not profitable yet, doesn’t mean you can skip the record keeping. In fact, just the opposite is true. When you anticipate losses for the first year or two, it is more important to properly document all expenses, including tricky ones like business travel, business meals, and your home office.
Steve Blank
MARCH 25, 2011
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part three. Part one is here , two is here. Syllabus is here. Week 3 of the class and our teams in our Stanford Lean LaunchPad class were hard at work using Customer Development to get out of the classroom and test the first key hypotheses of their business model: The Value Proposition.
For Entrepreneurs
MARCH 25, 2011
Here is the slide deck that I presented last night at the Boston Lean Startup Circle. The slide deck describes how to build a Sales & Marketing Machine that is predictable, scalable, automated, well instrumented, and cost efficient. Building a sales & marketing machine View more presentations from David Skok.
deal architect
MARCH 22, 2011
I was talking to Chris Murphy at InformationWeek recently about the theme of my next book. He talks to CIOs all the time and is on top of most mega trends in the industry. He agreed most industries are looking.
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 24, 2011
Entrepreneurs often get the advice from their lawyers and friends to always get a Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA or CDA) signed before disclosing anything about their new venture. Most investors and startup advisors I know hate them, and refuse to sign them. Who is right? Let me try to put this question in perspective. If you are totally risk-averse, then push to always get signed NDAs.
Rembrandt Communications
MARCH 21, 2011
Congratulations! You just spoke to a top reporter with a major publication, and the feature story is due out in one month… so what do you do now? Well, I’m sure you would like to yell it from the rooftops and tell everyone you know. But before you do, here are three things to keep [.].
For Entrepreneurs
MARCH 21, 2011
Many entrepreneurs have a strong suspicion that there is an opportunity in a particular market, but lack the detailed understanding of customer pain needed to design an appropriate solution. The following guest post by John Raguin, ex-CEO, and co-founder of Guidewire Software, describes how he and his co-founders tackled this problem. Recently, David Skok and [.].
deal architect
MARCH 21, 2011
While baseball spring training games beckon, over the last few weeks I have been conducting early research and interviews with some really smart folks around my next book which looks at the exciting convergence of technology consumption and production models:
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 20, 2011
By Ernst H. Gemassmer We all intuitively believe in maintaining personal and business contacts, but most of us don’t do well in this area. It takes real time and hard work to maintain contacts. Social networking can help, but a large list of online friends and followers is no substitute for a smaller list of personal and ongoing business relationships.
Startup Lessons Learned
MARCH 22, 2011
SXSW was amazing and exhausting. We'll have slides and video from our Lean Startup track posted soon. Don't forget to vote to help choose a Lean Startup SXSW Challenge winner. (You can follow the slide presentation on Slideshare here.) Next week, I travel to New York, where I'm especially excited to see the entrepreneurial renaissance that is in progress, first hand.
K9 Ventures
MARCH 23, 2011
There has been a lot of noise in the Valley lately about how most seed stage deals are now being done as convertible notes. In fact, PG from Y Combinator has proclaimed that that it is how things will be going forward. That might well be so, but I for one am not a fan of convertible notes. I may be well be in the minority in the Valley to think this way — especially so as a seed stage investor — but I have a strong preference for doing priced equity rounds for funding companies at an
crowdSPRING Blog
MARCH 21, 2011
I have written several posts now about ways entrepreneurs can learn from people and from the world around them. A few months ago I wrote about how much we can learn from kids (e.g. kids know how to entertain themselves) and last month I shared thoughts about what we can learn from dogs (e.g. dogs love to play). I have been looking around me and considering the things that influence my life as an entrepreneur, and also the things that inspire me to be more productive, learn more effectively, and
Startup Professionals Musings
MARCH 25, 2011
In finance, a bubble is too much money chasing assets, greater asset production and a herd mentality. In startup business plans, a bubble is too many entrepreneurs and too many investors chasing the latest “next big thing,” like Google search engine, Facebook social network, or Amazon e-commerce site. In all these cases, a bust is inevitable, and everyone loses.
David Teten
MARCH 24, 2011
Adam Neary wrote an unusually open post about his experience raising $1.1m for Profitably , a provider of small business analytics. (Disclosure: I’m a Mentor for Founder Institute. Adam was one of our star students from the first class in New York, when Profitably was just Adam, a Powerpoint, and a really amazing domain name. I also have a very small stake in Profitably from this past relationship.
ReadWriteStart
MARCH 24, 2011
StartMate , a new seed fund that has brought the Y Combinator-model of incubator program to Australia, has just graduated its first class of startups. StartMate's three-month program offers mentorship and investment to five selected startups. The program culminates in a two-week trip to Silicon Valley, which the startups are now in the middle of. And like most incubators, StartMate culminates in a Demo Day, one in Sydney and one in Silicon Valley, where participants in the program get an opportu
Up and Running
MARCH 24, 2011
Tweet I’ve been working with the team at Palo Alto Software on a series of videos to help you with business planning. This video is about what a business plan is and isn’t. Transcript. So what’s a business plan? How do you do one, how do you get one done for you? Let’s talk about what it isn’t. It isn’t some damn document that you acquired over the Web to get over some hurdle that you had to have a business plan.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 21, 2011
If there’s a jobs startup within 2000 miles of NYC, I will see it. Everyone sends me startups in this space because of my experience with Path 101 and my passion for helping people with their careers. I feel terrible, because I hate these meetings and couldn’t be less interested in this space. I love helping entrepreneurs and want to add value, but I just can’t help but say the equivalent of “RUN!!
David Teten
MARCH 23, 2011
I’ll be one of 3 speakers at the Founder Institute this coming Monday evening, along with Jeff Stewart, CEO, UrgentCareers, and prominent NY angel/entrepreneur; and Graham Lawlor, founder, Ultra Light Startups. Each of us will be presenting on Best Practices in Startup Research. You can see a preview of my slides here: [link]. When: Monday, March 28, 6:30pm.
ReadWriteStart
MARCH 22, 2011
Women 2.0 announced today that, thanks to its success, its Founder Labs pre-incubator program will become its own, separate organization. Moreover, the program will expand from its current San Francisco location to New York City, with the first east coast program set to begin in May. Founder Labs has been a core piece of the Women 2.0 mission: that is, to increase the number of female founders of tech startups.
Up and Running
MARCH 22, 2011
Tweet Writing for the Harvard Business Review, entrepreneur Scott Anthony offers Nine Ways to Test an Entrepreneurial Idea. I like his list. Some are obvious, and some are surprising, all are useful. Here are my five favorites. This is all quoted directly from the original, but I’ve cut down the explanations. Talk to a prospective customer to get their perspective.
This is going to be BIG.
MARCH 24, 2011
I've written a bunch about Hashable and I use it more now than I ever have before--for one simple use case: sending you my business card. Carrying around business cards is an archaic waste of time, yet adoption of Hashable for solving this is going slower than I'd expect given it's usefulness. The problem is that the people who know about Hashable, even a lot of the people who use it, identify it with the introductions feature.
David Teten
MARCH 22, 2011
Back in December, Richard Kane, President, Harvard Business School Club of New York , asked me if I’d like to chair the newly-formed Harvard Business School Angels of New York. I was honored to be asked, and we’ve now launched our organization and are accepting applications from early-stage companies seeking funding. You can read more about us at our current website.
VC Cafe
MARCH 20, 2011
Guest post by Alon Hillel Tuch. Crowdfunding is a new way to gather support for creative projects and entrepreneurial endeavors. With the advent of modern social networking (and sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), we are more connected to our extended network of friends and supporters than ever before. At RocketHub, one of the world’s largest crowdfunding platforms, I have seen hundreds of projects raise funds and awareness via this new form of micro-patronage.
abovethecrowd.com
MARCH 25, 2011
[Follow Me on Twitter] “People get ready, there’s a train a comin’” - The Impressions From Zacks via Yahoo: Mark Vickery, On Thursday March 24, 2011, 4:58 pm EDT “BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (NasdaqGS: RIMM – News) beat its fiscal 4Q EPS estimates by 2 cents per share, but missed slightly on quarterly revenues and [.].
Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook
MARCH 21, 2011
I keep a close eye on Grant McCracken’s postings, his insights on culture are always fascinating. Grant is the author of Chief Culture Officer, and I’ve alluded to him here before. He recently made some interesting comments about the fallout of hiring Barbara Lippert as “curator of pop culture&# at the ad agency Goodby Silverstein. [.].
VC Adventure
MARCH 24, 2011
Ever hear of this start-up called Color ? They launched a social photo sharing thing yesterday. And raised $ 41M. Oh wait. Everyone has heard of Color by now (and has an opinion about it; re: their capital raise, I’d refer you to a recent post on that subject ). What I want to talk here isn’t the Color business, the financing or how much it paid for Color.com.
VC Cafe
MARCH 22, 2011
TokBox , a US-based video chat startup, raised $12 million in Series C funding from DAG Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital last November, after going through a significant pivot. TokBox essentially stopped developing its consumer facing product, instead focusing on Open Tok, its video chat API , as its core business. We had a chance to conduct a short interview with Ian Small, CEO of TokBox to find out how the pivot decisions were made.
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