Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

If your startup is looking for an angel investor, it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up. Or does it? Actually numbers and locations are just the beginning. The challenge is to find the right angel for your, and for your situation. Here are some basic principles: Angels invest in people, more often than they invest in ideas.

Angel Investor 255

Angel Investor North America South America Accredited Investor 255

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

There's an old adage in software development that I refer to all the time: The first 90% of development takes 90% of the time. The remaining 10%, takes the other 90% of the time. I used this when I taught software engineering. And I use it all the time now when I get the kind of message that I received: I'm looking for a web developer to continue work on my website.

Software Developers 175

Software Developers Software Development CTO Hire Software 175

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Just as the Human Genome Project aimed to crack the human code, the Startup Genome Project hopes to be able to drill down into some of the details of what it's calling the "innovation code.". The project has launched a survey to investigate "the science of startups," lessons from which it plans to incorporate into blackbox, a new seed accelerator that was created with the merger of techVenture, Cofounder Network, Founders First and Startup School.

Software Review 157

Software Review Merger Cofounder Startup 157

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners argue that you should always listen to your customers. In fact, the popular lean startup principles advocate listening to your customers and iterating early and often. But listening to customers – and responding to your customers’ suggestions by implementing all or many of them – are not the same thing.

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Customer Small Business Software Lean 111

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

Life Beyond Code

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

I am a been a huge fan of Brad Feld for a number of reasons (work, life, his philosophy etc.). So, I jumped on his new book (that he co-authored with David Cohen) immediately. I was blown away by the super high signal-to-noise ratio in the book. Do More Faster is one of the most highlighted books in my library today. It has been highlighted almost the same number of times as one of my all-time favorite books “ Leading the Revolution &# by Gary Hamel.

Conversion 107

Conversion Colorado Software Review Restful 107

SVPG

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Product Optimization is a hot topic. It can provide real value to teams. However, many people confuse optimization with product discovery. I’ve written about this earlier. Eric Ries of the Lean Startup movement also recently tried to clear up this confusion. My theory of what’s going on is that there has been an explosion of new tools to help companies with product optimization, especially A/B testing tools and services, and as tool vendors are wont to do, they have been pushing thes

Product 62

Product Analytics Design Software Developers 62

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

A year ago I blogged about one of my most common mantras that applies to sales, biz dev & fund raising alike: “ Time is the Enemy of all Deals.&#. When times are really good for fund raising many teams delay to maximize their valuation. Sometimes this pays off, other times it doesn’t. So how should you decide what to do? I thought I’d try to offer a framework for thinking about the topic.

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Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Valuation PR 303

deal architect

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

My friend Phil Fersht says: “Cloud BPO” is, simply put, really a load of nonsense in today’s environment. The core fulcrum processes of BPO are the toughest to move into the Cloud, and only the small-to-medium business sector is going.

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Cloud Software 260

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

People with a victim mentality should never be entrepreneurs. We all know the role of starting and running a business is unpredictable, and has a high risk of failure. For people with a victim mentality, this fear of failure alone will almost certainly make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’m sure you all know someone who is the perennial victim. The problem is that most of these people aren’t likely to accept your assessment, so it’s hard to help them.

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Entrepreneur Cost Startup 236

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

The Founder Institute has joined forces with StartupDigest and Udemy to offer " Startup and Go ," an onine course on the initial steps in building a technology company. "Startup and Go" is a collection of talks by Mint.com's Aaron Patzer, Evernote CEO Phil Libin, Friendster founder Jonathan Abrams, the Founder Institute's Adeo Rossi, and others. Sponsor.

Founder 156

Founder Cofounder Differentiation Hiring 156

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

At Foundry Group , we have now completely switched to Google Apps. This started in August when I decided to Try Gmail For A Week. Five months later I am ready to declare this experiment a complete success. As every day passes, I find a new magic happy thing that ties my life together better. Today it was Google rolling out a bookmark importer for Delicious.

.Net 134

.Net Email Technology 134

deal architect

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Rawn Shah just started reading my book and came across a section I title “empty calories in infotech”. One of my roughly 20 examples of low-payback spend is IT consultant travel. Rawn works for IBM’s software group, but has plenty.

Software 258

Software 258

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

I come from a high-tech software background, and only a few years ago, it would cost at least a million dollars ($1M) for a team of professionals to produce any commercial software product. Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars. Even for low-tech startups, the scope of information available on the Internet, and its global reach, has had a similar financial impact on the many other challeng

Entrepreneur 235

Entrepreneur Burn Rate SEM Social Network 235

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

What’s the Secret to Financial Independence and Entrepreneurial Success? Rich Woman’s Investor, Entrepreneur and Author, Kim Kiyosaki, Provides her Exclusive Insights. Are you tired of being strapped for cash? Is your partner supportive of your aspirations? Have you set goals to make your dreams of financial independence a reality? Well, if you are struggling with [.].

Partner 113

Partner Entrepreneur Public Relations Small Business 113

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

Congrats to my friends at Gist for being acquired by RIM. I met TA McCann, the CEO / founder of Gist at the first Defrag Conference when he took me for a pair of runs along the Denver Creek Path and it’s been a blast to work with him and the Gist team ever since. Also, congrats to RIM for picking up an awesome team that’s been thinking about and building software for the intersection of social and email since before talking about it was in vogue.

Denver 133

Denver Email Software Founder 133

deal architect

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I wrote in this post 5 years ago “Quick name some of the hottest technology and business opportunity areas around. Would you say: - Globalization - SaaS - Mobility - Collaboration - Telemetry (GPS, RFID etc) Telcos are bang in.

Government 210

Government Global Mobile Naming 210

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

Being a risk taker in business is not the same as being reckless. Nevertheless, the word “risk” has a negative connotation to most of us, implying danger and possible loss. For true entrepreneurs, risk is viewed as a positive, with its implied challenge to overcome the unknown and hitting the big return. In fact, risk is an integral part of life, as well as every business, yet so few people learn to manage it properly, or even want to think about it.

Advertising 224

Advertising Social Media Entrepreneur Media 224

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

You may have heard of the Winklevoss Brothers. They’re two of the luckiest people on the planet. They received a reported $65 million in a settlement from Facebook for essentially having an ‘idea stolen’ Latest reports are that they unhappy with the settlement terms because Facebook has recently been valued as high as $50 billion.I’m calling it Winklevoss Syndrome.

Social Network 133

Social Network Networking Technology Entrepreneur 133

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

If you are a VC and interested in human computer interaction and you aren’t going to Blur , you’re about to miss the most important and interesting HCI event of the year. If you are an entrepreneur working on something HCI related, you are also missing out if you don’t come to Blur. I’ll be there as will my three partners at Foundry Group.

Finance 123

Finance Partner Entrepreneur Product 123

deal architect

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

My barber, er hair stylist, Blanca has for 20 years called me Benny. She proudly displays a copy of my book at the entrance to her store, and must see the word Vinnie on it countless times a day, but.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2011

By Christian Arno, Managing Director Is your business tapping into foreign markets? If you haven't broken out of your domestic market, you are missing out on a big business opportunity. The idea of selling overseas is attractive to many small and medium-sized businesses. But many small business owners abandon any thought of selling abroad because they don't think they have the necessary resources.

Affiliate 223

Affiliate Marketing Social Media Germany 223

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Internships are becoming an increasingly important bridge between students' academic and work careers. Students are looking for internships, and employers, in turn, when they go to hire are looking for students who've had some sort of internship or work experience. While there are many programs that match students with internship opportunities at large, established companies - including, of course, the traditional campus job fair - it can be a challenge for small companies, startups, and non-pro

Matching 121

Matching Oregon Startup Washington 121

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Ok. You have a newsletter registration on your home page, and people have started to sign up. Great! Now, what do you do? A. Sit back and watch who signs up. B. Communicate with your new registrants right away. C. Send valuable information to your list on a regular basis. If you answered B and [.].

Registration Rights 100

Registration Rights Public Relations PR Small Business 100

deal architect

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

in New Florence HP Labs Annual Report The Progressive Snapshot Walgreens – making prescription refills a breeze The VA Innovation Initiative.

Technology 199

Technology 199

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2011

Some of these have a limit so if the link no longer works then the freebie is gone (I will try to keep up with the broken links). Here is a list of the ones I know about. Feel free to add your own freebies in the comments section: Free Gardening How To Magazine (sign up for a free National Home Gardening club) Free Issue of History Channel Magazine (when you sign up for the free membership) Free sample of Quaker® Life Bar Free sample of Maybelline® FitME Foundation Free sample of Jergens® Overni

Alaska 142

Alaska Channel Finance Internet 142

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

There's a lot of data available online - about companies, about entrepreneurs, about investors. An excellent source is CrunchBase , a free and editable directory. Crunchbase has a wealth of information, but according to Sri Harsha, that information is under-utilized. While there's a page for a company or organization, there isn't a way, in Harsha's words to see "the big picture.".

Venture Capital 118

Venture Capital API Aggregator Acquisition 118

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

You know what they say: "The best laid plans.". Over the last week, I've sat down with a handful of entreprenuers and given the same advice--to construct the fantasy model. Yet, we know very well that the most thoughtfully constructed cashflow models and hockey stick traffic predictions never come out the way we thought they would, so what's the point of making them at all?

Hockey Stick 111

Hockey Stick PR Framework Engineer 111

deal architect

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

On the innovation blog The Veterans Affairs Innovation Initiative The NASA Stardust “Growing” clothes The Boeing 747-800.

Technology 210

Technology 210

Lightspeed Venture Partners

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

'A couple of weeks ago Webtrends analyzed 11,529 Facebook ad campaigns representing 4.5bn impressions to see what conclusions they could draw. It’s worth reading their short white paper on Facebook Advertising Performance Benchmarks and Analysis. Some highlights include: Click through rates steadily increase with age up to 65. State by state CTRs are relatively flat with the exception of North Dakota and Wyoming being substantially higher than the other states.

North Dakota 108

North Dakota Campaign Wyoming Advertising 108

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

TechStars is joining forces with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to help simplify access to the growing number of accelerator programs. As part of the partnership, the Kauffman Foundation will provide TechStars with $200,000 funding to build software that can be utilized by accelerator programs. Specifically, these funds will be used to help build an application system that can be used across industries, not just within the TechStars Network.

America 116

America Programming Demand Community 116

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

I had a tough call with an entrepreneur this morning. His company raised a fair amount of seed financing but did not hit the milestones it needed to in order to raise a real round of venture capital. The product is nice but they took too long iterating and releasing a subsequent version while the market around it moved much quicker. In the process, the company ramped up too quickly before it knew exactly what the core value proposition was and to whom.

.Net 101

.Net Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 101

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

My friend Mark Dykeman sent me a new Harvard study on Creativity. It’s a shocker at one level, and at another, it’s really not. The not-finalized study (The Dark Side of Creativity, Original Thinkers Can Be Dishonest, by Francesca Gino and Daniel Ariely) claims, and quite credibly, that creative people can be dishonest — that [.].

Management 98

Management Intellectual Property 98

Lightspeed Venture Partners

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

'Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting article on the infidelity economy this week, noting that registrations for AshleyMadison , the online dating site aimed at married people, spike the day after Valentine’s Day. But nowhere near as much as they spike the day after Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It’s an interesting example of the sometimes ideosyncratic seasonality of web businesses.

eCommerce 108

eCommerce SEM Marketing Email 108

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

For this week's One Million by One Million roundtable, we started off by announcing a new deal through which the 1M/1M-Persistent Systems partnership has decided to back Indian company, OrangeScape. So the first company I want to discuss today is OrangeScape, before I move on to today's presenters. Sponsor. OrangeScape positions itself as an Application Platform As A Service (APaaS) provider, and has some marquee customers in India including Unilever, Citibank, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sterlite.

Entrepreneur 114

Entrepreneur India Silicon Valley Massachusetts 114

BeyondVC

FEBRUARY 14, 2011

I had a tough call with an entrepreneur this morning. His company raised a fair amount of seed financing but did not hit the milestones it needed to in order to raise a real round of venture capital. The product is nice but they took too long iterating and releasing a subsequent version while the market around it moved much quicker. In the process, the company ramped up too quickly before it knew exactly what the core value proposition was and to whom.

.Net 101

.Net Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 101

Rembrandt Communications

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

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