Sat.Jun 27, 2015 - Fri.Jul 03, 2015

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How to Find a Business Partner

Up and Running

You don’t have to do everything yourself—a partner can be an asset to your business. Entrepreneurs have a reputation for trying to do it all singlehandedly. In the early days of starting your business, you may feel like you’re wearing several hats—too many, in fact. For this reason, you might consider working with a business partner. Not only does having a business partner distribute some of the work, it gives you someone to bounce ideas off of, the benefit of an additional skill set, and

Partner 119
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Why petrol cars will not exist in 10 years

Start Up Blog

If you haven’t already realised, cars are no longer machines, but rolling computers. This also means that cars will move from being powered by fossil fuel engines to electric motors. It’s already started, and it is going to happen much more quickly than we anticipate. I’d go as far to predict that there will hardly be a petrol car on the road in 10 years.

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Twitter Link Roundup #276 – Patriotic Resources for Small Business, Startups, and Design!

crowdSPRING Blog

Happy 4th of July! We love the patriotism, the food, the sun, and the gathering with friends and family. We also like the fireworks. What better to celebrate this roundup then fireworks fails? Well, actually nothing is better. Have a look at the knuckleheads and the insanity they wrought with Darwin-was-right idiocy. So, Happy Birthday, America, because once again, it’s time for our weekly Roundup!

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Sales 2.0: Why Can’t Sales Be As Efficient As Online Dating?

David Teten

I’m teaching a class for Founder Institute July 8 on accelerating sales with technology. This has been a passion of mine for well over a decade, ever since I realized how inefficient sales was and how technology could be used to speed up the process. This is a core theme of my book, The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online. Sales, raising capital , looking for a company to invest in , dating – these are all different facets of the same search process.

Sales 89
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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 Management Magic of Business Planning

Up and Running

True story: As my software business began to grow, as we went from two employees to five, then 10, I discovered how hard real management is with startups and small business that grow organically. In a startup, those first few people who join feel like friends, not employees. What they taught in my MBA courses on organization and management didn’t apply.

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Leadership vs. Management

SVPG

I would argue that two of the most importance competencies in building great product organizations, indeed nearly any significant organizational undertaking, are leadership and management. Yet so few people actually consider what each of these really means. Many people just lump the two together. Some think this is what’s taught in MBA programs (it’s not).

More Trending

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Fauxmentum

Both Sides of the Table

__. faux·men·tum. fōˈmen(t)əm,fəˈmen(t)əm/. noun. when a technology startup, its investors or the market believe in robust growth rates writ large. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __.

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“Seed Is the New Series A” – Making Sense of the Confusion

View from Seed

A few weeks ago, Manu Kumar wrote an excellent post detailing the current state of the seed financing landscape. Read it – it’s excellent. I agree with most of the things that Manu wrote, and I’ve been thinking about the topic quite a bit over the last several days. One very common meme these days is that “seed is the new A.” I kind of agree, but I also kind of think that the whole phrase is confusing people.

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4 Entrepreneur Types That Survive Best In The Hunt

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs believe they are “different,” but they can’t quite understand how. They usually explain it by insisting that they are driven to follow their passion, need to be their own boss, want to get rich quick, or want to change the world. I now believe that the roots of the difference may go back more than 10,000 years, when hunting and farming became two different lifestyles.

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The Big Data of Books

deal architect

People often smirk when I say I am an author. Books are dead, are they not? Amazon had just launched a new way to reward authors for books under their Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) plans.

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Products I Love to Use

Both Sides of the Table

Every year around the holidays journalists and bloggers around the world publish “top ten” lists or “annual buyer’s guides” or similar. And every year I think about doing the same. But it’s the holidays and I usually can’t be bothered. Plus, after reading everybody else’s list it feels pedestrian to publish mine.

Product 261
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Episode 5 on Sirius XM Channel 111: Pete Newell, John Kuhn, Matt Weingart, Takashi Tsutsmi and Masato Iino

Steve Blank

My guests this past week on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM Channel 111 were: Pete Newell , managing partner of BMNT Partners. John Kuhn , who works at BMNT Partners. Matt Weingart, program development manager in the Strategic Development Office at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Takashi Tsutsumi and Masato Iino , founders of Learning Entrepreneur’s Lab in Japan.

Channel 202
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Mistakes To Avoid With A Startup Board Of Directors

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs avoid setting up a board of directors for their new business unless or until they sign up an investor who demands a seat on the board. That implies that a board of directors has no value to the founder, and is just another burden that to be assumed for the privilege of attracting outside investors or going public. In my view, nothing could be further from the truth.

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How To Use Storytelling For Your Brand

Brandanew

We’ve been urging you to use storytelling for your brands. As an authentic brand and a Startup ourselves, our aim has been to create a storyboard for ourselves too, to be discovered by our clients. This is our story, and what we have learned so far. The good thing is, you can use these insights and implement them for your own brands, and build a positive and emotional connect with your consumers.

Framework 191
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4 Pitfalls To Avoid In Pursuit Of Startup Success

YoungUpstarts

by Mark Halstead, partner at RedFlagAlert. There is a lot that can happen beyond your control as an entrepreneur but here are four common pitfalls that it’s important to avoid if you’re aiming to take your business from inception to sustainability and on to real success: 1. Failing to prepare. There is a lot to be said for seizing a moment and learning quickly from your mistakes when it comes to starting up a new business.

Startup 186
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How Entrepreneurship And Angel Investing Remove Barriers For Women

Early Growth Financial Services

This guest post by Geri Stengel was originally published on Forbes. Opportunities are growing for women to sidestep the glass ceiling and steer clear of the glass cliff, that corporate “opportunity” for leadership given to women and minorities when there is high risk of failure due to a crisis created by former leaders or because needed resources aren’t given.

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7 Ways To Turn Team Conflict Into Positive Results

Startup Professionals Musings

The best startup teams don’t shy away from some healthy friction and heated debates between team members or founders. That’s the way smart people with innovative insights make real change happen. Yet we all know that there is a fine line here, beyond which heated debates generate so much emotion and drama that the entire team becomes dysfunctional. The obvious challenge is to channel these interactions in a way that maximizes their value to the startup as positive results, without letting them s

Channel 210
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Holidays Can Be Hard

Feld Thoughts

I’m feeling fine today. But I know many entrepreneurs who aren’t. They are under intense pressure, worrying about an endless stream of things coming at them, suffering under the weight of imposter syndrome and other sources of anxiety. And, in some cases they are depressed, but trapped by our own culture which stigmatizes depression. Earlier this week Biz Carson wrote an excellent article titled There’s a dark side to startups, and it haunts 30% of the world’s most brilliant people.

Restful 148
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How To Preserve Your Company Culture After An Acquisition

YoungUpstarts

by Benoit Vialle, COO of NakedWines.com. Companies are bought and sold every day. Maybe the acquiring company is looking for a unique technology asset to round out its portfolio. Or perhaps the acquired business seeks an acquisition deal to gain access to a wider marketplace. No matter what the reason, an acquisition tends to shake things up at both businesses.

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Why you should never tap friends and family for startup funds

The Next Web

You’ve probably heard this line: “If you can’t raise money from angels you can raise from your friends or family.” In fact most young entrepreneurs raise money from friends and family, here is a quick breakdown of funding sources for startups from AngelBlog. I am writing this article to tell you from personal experience: raising money from friends and family is a VERY BAD IDEA.

Startup 131
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8 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Lead With New Work Models

Startup Professionals Musings

The new era of highly connected and interactive technology is changing not only how business employees interact with customers, but also how they interact with each other, and with their company. I am happy to see reports that young companies are in the forefront of these trends, on both the customer trends and the employee trends. Both are required to stay competitive.

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It’s Summer! Don’t Worry About SEO!

Rembrandt Communications

Happy Independence Day from Ranking Stress! It’s summer, and that means you’ll want to spend more time away from your office. But with all of the recent SEO news about the search engines changing their algorithms, you may think you need to put in more hours to study these changes and act accordingly. Well, I […]. The post It’s Summer! Don’t Worry About SEO!

SEO 122
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Cyber Thieves Take A Bite Out Of Summer

YoungUpstarts

by Andrew Bagrin, founder and Chief Executive Officer of My Digital Shield (MDS). Cyber crime is getting the Hollywood treatment again with last week’s debut of “Mr. Robot,” a new TV series that follows a cyber security hacktivist who shut down DDOS attacks by day and hacks criminals in his free time, all in the name of doing good. It’s an interesting twist in the criminal case of the week format that’s sure to raise some eyebrows.

Security 177
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How much am I worth as a freelancer?

The Next Web

It’s always inspiring to talk to people who work outside of your industry or field, especially as a freelancer. We had the pleasure of attending Freelancer Union’s June Freelancer Spark event in Brooklyn with attendees from all different industries, from writing to photography, from film production to education, and beyond. One of the most interesting take-aways was that no matter what industry you work in or years of experience you have, the problem of “what do I charge and how do I communicate

Web 131
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6 Reasons Smart Entrepreneurs Think Twice Before IPO

Startup Professionals Musings

The visibility of Google, Facebook and a few others continues to propagate the myth that the ultimate objective of every entrepreneur should be to take their startups public via an initial public offering at the earliest opportunity. Everyone thinks this is the route to become the next billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg. In reality, this option is a nightmare that can bump you out of the driver seat, dilute your equity and create a business entity you can’t control.

IPO 204
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What Scales?

This is going to be BIG.

I've got a great deal for you. It requires you to set up the operation from scratch in every city--and it probably only works in cities. There is a ton of regulatory risk. Right now the market is pretty much only high net worth individuals. Oh. You only invest in scalable businesses? Sorry, I didn't realize. I'll keep that in mind for next time. Congrats, you passed on Uber.

Cap Table 118
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[Infographic] Online Shopping Habits – Women vs Men

YoungUpstarts

If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, how do Martians and Venutians differ when it comes to shopping online? As you can imagine, somewhat differently. Men and women have rather differing needs when it comes to shopping online, whether it is about pricing and promotions, the use of mobile devices, or the kinds of goods and services they purchase.

eCommerce 176
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14 tips to manage a remote dev team

The Next Web

Managing a team of developers can be a difficult undertaking when you’re working remotely. And effectively overseeing team members working solo in different time zones all over the world, as many tech companies now do, is even more complex than having just one or two off-site freelancers. That’s why I asked fourteen members from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question: We work with a big team of developers, all remote.

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Valuation trickle down

The Equity Kicker

I’m back to the bubble question this morning. First up we had an interesting post from Fred Wilson arguing that frothy activity is restrictred to Series B rounds and later in private companies, whilst Seed and Series A and public markets are still rational. He used this chart as evidence: Second, I read Josh Kopelman’s/First Round Capital’s Open Letter to Investors from May this year which says that seed valuations are up 3x from 2007-2015 without a corresponding increase in ex

Valuation 116
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The No-Nonsense Guide to Negotiation

Up and Running

In my experience, the mere mention of “negotiation” brings about one of two reactions in people. Some grin with glee, excited to leap into discussions and meet their competitor on the battlefield. Others grimace with anxiety, shaking their head as if to say “No. Not me. Please—not me.” No matter which camp you’re in, the common truth is that in order to secure the best possible deals for your business, you’re going to have to negotiate.

Framework 115
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Get A Mentor To Become As Smart As You Think You Are

YoungUpstarts

by Jeff Carter, managing director and founder of Grand Coast Capital Group. Early in my career, I found myself bouncing from job to job, unhappy with where I was headed and unable to figure out what was wrong. I decided to seek advice from a highly successful guy I greatly admired: my dad. After determining what you’re passionate about, he said, the key to success is to get a mentor — and not just any mentor.

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A Demo Day in Telluride

Feld Thoughts

I’m in Telluride for the day. I drove from Aspen (where we are hanging out for the week) through some of the most beautiful mountains and countryside you will ever see and ended up in the magical place called Telluride. I’m here for the Telluride Venture Accelerator Demo Day. This is their third program and I’m looking forward to the day.

Colorado 115
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9 startup fads entrepreneurs need to ditch

The Next Web

From the newest social media channels to cutting-edge Web design, entrepreneurs are eager to keep up with the latest and greatest trends in the space. But at what point does this cause a startup to lose steam as a direct result of failing to differentiate themselves from the pack? To find out which trends are old news, I asked nine entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question.

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How To Do Your Own PR — 3 Tips For Startup Founders

YFS Magazine

In order to grow, most entrepreneurs need to invest in PR – though, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a financial investment that comes with hiring an outside firm or consultant.

PR 109
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Critical Decisions To Manage Your Startup

YoungUpstarts

Your first year of managing a start up business can be extremely difficult. It’s difficult because you must address so many issues at the same time. An entrepreneur must oversee employees, manage finances and keep customers happy. Your work in year one can make or break your business. Operating efficiently. To grow your business profitably, you must be efficient.

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Oracle’s Java API Suit Against Google – Five Years Later

Feld Thoughts

Five years ago, in August 2010, I asked the question Have We Reached The Software Patent Tipping Point? Oracle sued Google over a series of Java-related patents they got when they acquired Sun. My favorite line from the whole thing was James Gosling’s (who was one of the authors of one of the original patents and a key creator of Java) when he wrote The s**t finally hits the fan. “The s**t finally hits the fan… Thursday August 12, 2010.

Java 113