Sat.Oct 25, 2014 - Fri.Oct 31, 2014

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The Audacious Plan to Make Electricity as Easy as WiFi

Both Sides of the Table

'When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24. That was three months ago this week. Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning.

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The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of Software Patents

Startup Professionals Musings

'I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The good news is that a patent can scare off or at least delay competitors, and as a “rule of thumb” patents can add up to $1M to your startup valuation for investors or M&A exits (merger and acquisition). The bad news is that patent trolls (non-producing companies that make their money from licensing patents) can squeeze the lifeblood out of unsuspecting entr

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Book: Innovating Women

Feld Thoughts

'Suddenly, there’s a lot of constructive conversation about women in technology and entrepreneurship. I’m glad, as there is a continuous mess of sexism, misogyny, hatred, anger, specious assertions, and general weirdness. This mess is from men to women, from women to women, from men to men, and from women to men. Basically, there’s gender equality in the awful parts of this.

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Digital.NYC: The First Ecosystem Hub

Gust

'On October 1st, 2014, after more than two years of partnership and development, Gust proudly joined the Mayor of the City of New York and IBM in announcing the launch of Digital.NYC , NYC’s new official hub for tech and startups. In the first 36 hours, mentions of the hub were viewed more than 42 million times on social media, and over 100,000 pages on the site were perused.

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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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When Does a Private-to-Private Merger Make Sense?

Both Sides of the Table

'I’m pretty on record as saying I don’t think many private-to-private tech mergers make sense. They are often done from a position of weakness. Something in both companies isn’t working, which is why they come together. I often don’t believe in the therm M&A because in my experience mostly A works. But of course there are always exceptions.

Merger 296
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Answer These Ten Key Questions To Beat Competitors

Startup Professionals Musings

'Change is hard. I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. In both cases, it’s easy for them to become frustrated and give up, since most have never been trained in change management, and don’t even know what questions to ask.

Metrics 271

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Cornell Tech Company: Agronomic Technology Corp (Part 1), Guest Post by Deb Eichten

ithacaVC

'Cayuga Venture Fund recently closed an investment in a company called Agronomic Technology Corp (ATC). The underlying tech was developed at Cornell (like many of the companies in the CVF portfolio). Completely unrelated to CVF’s investment, Deb Eichten, who is on the staff at Entrepreneurship at Cornell, recently interviewed the founders of ATC.

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What to Do When You Need a Disaster Loan

Up and Running

'In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, handmade decorations of encouragement hang from a tree overlooking some of the wreckage. When disaster strikes in your area and your business is affected, what’s next? For many small businesses, the future can be extremely uncertain. During the process of rebuilding, most small business owners will ask themselves if it’s time to apply for a disaster loan, or if that is a viable option for them.

SBA 83
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Entrepreneurs Work On The Business As Well As In It

Startup Professionals Musings

'Over 25 years ago, Michael E. Gerber wrote a best-selling business book called The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. The E-Myth (“Entrepreneurial Myth”) is the mistaken belief that most businesses are started by people with tangible business skills, when in fact most are started by “technicians” who know nothing about running a business.

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Querium and Sapling Learning Sign Strategic Partnership

Austin Startup

'Querium Corporation today announced a strategic partnership with Sapling Learning, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., to provide mobile-ready review and preparation platform for the Texas STAAR Algebra 1 End of Course assessment. Under the agreement, students in more than 1,200 school districts will have access to the Querium “Step-by-Step” performance assessment program designed to assist mastery of concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

Texas 76
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Born Global or Die Local – Building a Regional Startup Playbook

Steve Blank

'Entrepreneurship is everywhere, but everywhere isn’t a level playing field. What’s the playbook for your region or country to make it so? ———-. Scalable startups are on a trajectory for a billion dollar market cap. They grow into companies that define an industry and create jobs. Not all start ups want to go in that direction – some will opt instead to become a small business.

Global 335
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Here’s How to Do PR on a Budget

Both Sides of the Table

'Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In that article I talked about how PR drives: recruiting, employee retention, biz dev deals, funding and even M&A and that often “attribution” to your PR activities is unknown.

PR 319
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The Fitness Tracking Ghetto

Bryce Dot VC

'This morning, like nearly every morning for the last 5 years, I stepped onto my Withings scale. I’ve been traveling the last few days and I’d added a couple pounds over that time. Interesting. On my walk to the office this morning I tapped the button on my Nike Fuelband, which I’ve also worn nearly every day for the last 3 years. This morning’s tap was to check the time, but the band also measures my various movements throughout the day and presents that back to me in th

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Escape From Corporate America - Be An Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

'According to several recent reports , job satisfaction for employees is at an all-time low. An online survey published earlier this year found that nearly two-thirds of the respondents were not happy at work. One obvious alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to switch and get real satisfaction from this lifestyle.

America 250
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[Infographic] Leadership Styles Around The World

YoungUpstarts

'Workplace cultures differ around the world, and not surprisingly, leadership styles tend to also vary as shaped by the different cultural norms in a particular society. From autocratic style management to more egalitarian ones, there are specific overarching philosophies that drive leadership styles in different countries. Even in the Western world, leadership styles can differ.

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Bootstrapping Organic Growth Makes Startup Sense

Gust

'Image via Flickr from Food For Thought album. When someone asks me for the best way to fund a startup, I always say bootstrap it, meaning fund it yourself and grow organically. Bootstrapping avoids all the cost, pain, and distractions of finding angels or VCs, and allows you to keep control and all your hard-earned equity for yourself. Despite all the focus you hear on external investors, over 90% of startups today are self-funded.

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The Greenshoe = how to repay all those that helped along the way.

Scalable Startup

'How is it that so many people associated with startups reap the financial benefits, yet others just as close get no financial upside This is a source of frustration among many people in the startup sphere. Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one.

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4 brands that built empires without traditional advertising

The Next Web

'Franklin Morris is a Senior Writer for Rackspace Digital—the digital marketing infrastructure specialists. The mom-and-pop shop on the corner probably doesn’t rely on traditional advertising (television, print, billboards, etc.) to bring in customers. Neither does your favorite local burger joint. But most iconic brands have hired an ad agency at some point on their upward journey.

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Essential Steps To Consider Before Launching An Online Store

YoungUpstarts

'by James Woodgate, PR and marketing manager at Simtech. Ecommerce is one of the leading business trends nowadays for millions of vendors willing to get the most out online without investing a fortune. As online markets are constantly growing in their popularity, you can see more and more merchants moving their businesses into the Web. If you have a traditional brick-and-mortar venture, but wish to increase your online sales dramatically or take your business activity to the next level, then it&

eCommerce 145
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Is Your Content a Treat?

Rembrandt Communications

'BtoB Content Strategy That Makes Your Customers Want More Happy Halloween! Soon, the streets will be filled with witches, goblins, zombies, and ghouls screaming “Trick or Treat!” It’s a fun statement, but it can also refer to your content. For instance, when was the last time you reviewed your content to see if it’s actually […]. The post Is Your Content a Treat?

SEO 133
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The Trap of Relative Value

Feld Thoughts

'Yesterday, at The Calloway Way event at MIT , I ran into Joe Caruso. I’ve known Joe for a while – we met through Techstars Boston, where he’s been a great mentor and very active angel investor. He had just read my post on being uncomfortable with the phase of the current cycle and told me an anecdote from the great Internet bubble of 2001 that I hadn’t heard.

Valuation 143
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Do you think like an entrepreneur?

The Next Web

'Ilya Pozin is a serial entrepreneur, writer, and investor. He is the founder of online video entertainment platform Pluto.TV, social greeting card company Open Me, and digital marketing agency Ciplex. Entrepreneurs are a breed of their own. While many people fantasize about breaking free from their 9-to-5 to be their own boss, few people actually follow through.

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The Greenshoe = how to repay all those that helped along the way.

Scalable Startup

'How is it that so many people associated with startups reap the financial benefits, yet others just as close get no financial upside This is a source of frustration among many people in the startup sphere. Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one.

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8 Ways to Create Real Customer Loyalty

Up and Running

'Loyal customers will frequent your business time and time again. No matter the size of the business, customer loyalty is incredibly important. Repeat customers spend up to 67 percent more than new customers. Plus, it’s up to ten times more expensive to try to attract new customers than it is to keep the ones already doing business with you. If you’re looking for real ways to create and keep up customer loyalty, consider implementing a few of these strategies. 1.

Customer 139
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What’s Old Is New Again

Feld Thoughts

'I know I’m getting old. I remember in 2007 when the idea of a super angel appeared, where successful entrepreneurs were suddenly angel investors making 10 or more seed investments a year. This was a “new” innovation that was celebrated with much fanfare. Between 1994 and 1996 I made 40 angel investments with the money I made from the sale of my first company.

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5 free and effective publicity tools to boost your crowdfunding campaign

The Next Web

'Johnathan Leow is the author of “The Crowdfunded Kit.” If you want your crowdfunding campaign to really succeed, it’s not enough to raise funds from your family and friends – you’ll want to have wider coverage in the media. Almost every campaign that’s raised over $100,000 needed some sort of PR to get to that level of funds. You could go the traditional route of PR by paying an agency to do it for you if that’s not your area of strength (assuming, of course, that you have the finances to affo

Campaign 155
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Which books would you recommend to a VC analyst-associate?

Gust

'The Business of Venture Capital. Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies. Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur. Mastering the VC Game. A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms. Term Sheets & Valuations. A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Term Sheets & Valuations.

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The Complete Guide to SBA Loans

Up and Running

'What is an SBA Loan? The U.S. Small Business Administration was created in 1953 to help Americans start, build and grow their businesses. As an independent agency of the government, the SBA partners with both public and private organizations to deliver its services, including loans. An SBA Loan is not a direct loan from the SBA itself. Rather, it is a loan that has been made by a commercial lending partner, but that the SBA has guaranteed for these partners and that has been structured accordin

SBA 126
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Boulder Shouldn’t Municipalize Its Energy Utility System

Feld Thoughts

'I’ve sat in the background and expressed my opinion privately on the energy utility municipalization issue in Boulder. It’s been one where the debate and exploration so far has been much more emotional, at least in my opinion, that rational. Beth Hartman recently reached out to me with an extremely clear point of view that parallels mine.

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Entrepreneurs: Fear doesn’t have to paralyze you

The Next Web

'Jason SurfrApp is the founder of IWearYourShirt and author of Creativity For Sale. Want to read more of his writing? Go to MoreJason.com. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself over the years, it’s that I’m not afraid to put myself and my ideas out there. For some of you reading this, you’re the complete opposite (and that’s okay!). The crazy thing about fear is that we aren’t born with it.

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Where would I go to invest in startups or emerging companies?

Gust

'The first question you need to ask is “What country are you in?” and the second is “Are you an Accredited Investor by that country’s standards?” If we’re talking about the US and you are NOT at the Accredited level ($1 million in investable assets, or $200,000 annual income), then for the moment you are actually not allowed to invest in privately held startups (emerging public companies, Read more >.

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One Big Small Business Mistake: Not Giving Employees Business Cards

Up and Running

'The Business Card Scene in “American Psycho” – Copyright Lions Gate Films. I once worked for someone who wouldn’t print business cards for employees, not even on a case-by-case basis. The reason – I was told – was that no one did it anymore. Everyone used LinkedIn. The thing is, this employer still had their own business card and still regularly handed it out when meeting potential clients.

Employee 119
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NewCo Boulder: Open House Tour of Innovative Companies in Boulder

Feld Thoughts

'Forget those business conferences with long speeches and boring panel discussions. On November 18, Boulder’s most innovative businesses will open their doors to the public to celebrate Boulder companies who drive the networked economy. NewCo Boulder is a city-wide event that takes you right into the corporate offices of over 40 of the most innovative and successful companies around Boulder, offering attendees a tour rather than a company description packet.

Colorado 137
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Choosing the right location for your office

The Next Web

'This post is brought to you by Staples. We have everything your business needs to Make More Happen every day, including furniture solutions for any workspace. Founders, when they’re first starting out, will work anywhere and everywhere — coffee shops, home offices, the library and even park benches. When you’re ready to scale; however, you’ll need more than your willpower and laptop; you’ll need an office that accommodates your rapidly growing team, sustains productivity and fosters creativity

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Help Detained USA Citizen In Abu Dhabi

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

'This is a departure for this blog. While there is a direct connection to creativity and innovation it is essentially a press release written by concerned leaders in the creativity and innovation international community. One of our own, Dr. Robert Alan Black, has been detained in Abu Dhabi. The details are below. My request is that if you are so moved, please contact the offices of your elected officials.

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Digital.NYC: The First Ecosystem Hub

Gust

'On October 1st, 2014, after more than two years of partnership and development, Gust proudly joined the Mayor of the City of New York and IBM in announcing the launch of Digital.NYC, NYC’s new official hub for tech and startups. In the first 36 hours, mentions of the hub were viewed more than 42 million times on social media, and Read more >.

New York 102