A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 31, 2010

Every founder frets about competition from a big company, me included. We scoff at their inability to innovate and for prioritizing shareholders over customers, but still we quiver in fear. Dozens of people on Answers.OnStartups ask about it so I know I'm not alone. It always goes like this: I'm just a two-person operation with no budget. What if a huge company with a hundred software developers and a million dollars in marketing budget decides to copy my idea?

Software Review 243

Software Review Development Team Review Technical Review Software Developers 243

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2010

It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change. Charles Darwin. Companies have a fairly predictable life cycle. They start with an innovation, search for a repeatable business model, build the infrastructure for a company, then grow by efficiently executing the model.

Search 245

Search Agile Customer Development Technical Review 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2010

This insidious disease kills more good startups than any other, especially high-tech ones, and yet most founders (who may be the cause) never even see it happening. “Feature creep” (or scope creep) refers to the penchant to add just one more feature to the product before first delivery. The instigators are all well-intentioned – executives talk to potential customers who “must have” a few more things; or the technical team edicts some “technically elegant” options that they can’t resist adding b

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Software Review Database Demand 129

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, May 31, 2010 Thank you The past month has been an incredible roller coaster: #sllconf was a trending topic (briefly topping Justin Bieber before the wifi in the hotel gave out), the Web 2.0 Expo Intensive rocked, the mainstream media has started writing about the Lean Startup, and - most of all - the movement continues to grow and evolve.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

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

Austin Startup

JUNE 2, 2010

Spiceworks today announced that its user base has grown to more than 1 million IT professionals in 196 countries. This milestone makes Spiceworks the fastest growing and most widely used application for managing IT networks in history. In addition, its free ad-supported IT management software and community have evolved into a new type of channel that gives vendors powerful access to research, social media, ads and apps to increase sales of technology products & services.

Software Review 67

Software Review Technical Review Community America 67

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

Paul Graham and the folks over at YCombinator have done much to reenergize early-stage entrepreneurship and encourage the creation of many new and innovative startups including DropBox, Posterous, Loopt, Justin.TV, Scribd and many others. They also gave us Hacker News , which for me was a welcome addition for discovering tech stories. HN and Techmeme are the main two tech aggregators that I frequently skim.

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Aggregator Naming Early Stage Email 258

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business Review) I continue my series for Harvard Business Review with the Lean Startup technique called Five Whys. Five Whys has its origins in the Toyota Production System. Ive written about this before in some detail, but this was an opportunity to try and frame it for a general business audience.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 132

deal architect

JUNE 1, 2010

As Gartner gets ready to celebrate 20 years of its Symposium , senior analyst Richard Hunter bravely – and somewhat somberly - looks 20 years out. “Have I mentioned that every 20 years, the world is a completely different place?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2010

These days I see a surge of new startups as we fight our way out of the recession. If you are not starting one yourself, the next best thing is joining one as a partner, or being an early employee. Believe me, there is no better way to get the experience you need for your own venture. According to Ford R. Myers, a noted career coach, and author of “ Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring ,” many job seekers and career changers make the mistake of halting all their efforts during the sum

Search 233

Search Startup Differentiation Networking 233

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 3, 2010

This was really a fun week at TWiVC because we decided to have an entrepreneur come and talk about raising capital rather than having a VC come on. We had Farb Nivi , who is the founder & CEO of Grockit , a website that enables online group learning. It’s always such a pleasure for me to spend time with Farb because he has all of the enthusiasm and energy you love to see in entrepreneurs.

Founder 214

Founder San Diego SMS Los Angeles 214

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 2, 2010

I’m on an Acela train between Boston and New York (listening to Boston’s More Than A Feeling – how recursive) on my way to the TechStars Boston 2010 Investor / Demo day. I wasn’t able to make it to Boston yesterday for the Angel Boot Camp as I was running around NYC with the CEO of a company I invested in last week introducing him to a bunch of potential customers and partners.

Angel Investor 167

Angel Investor Boston Due Diligence Cofounder 167

deal architect

JUNE 3, 2010

Bill McDemott of SAP called ByD his “99 mile an hour fastball” that NetSuite would have to face. At Sapphire, he emphasized “ the suite always wins” suggesting most ByD would enjoy that advantage over most SaaS solutions in the. Tags: Cloud Computing, SaaS.

Cloud 150

Cloud 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2010

I’ll confess up front that I’m a big fan of Guy Kawasaki’s humor and writing style. Back when he was writing to entrepreneurs, he published the book “ Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.” It’s basically a compendium of the best blogs he has ever written on the subject of startups, and it has something for all of us.

Entrepreneur 231

Entrepreneur Non-Compete Cloud Campaign 231

entrepreMusings

JUNE 1, 2010

I went to Portugal with 4 other colleagues (3 of us presented) to help give a workshop on incubation management and on-shoring opportunities for Portuguese technology companies to the US. The UTEN program is also run through IC2 which the Austin Technology Incubator (where I work) is also under. [ Boat photo : Taken in Porto. These were the types of boats that people used to transfer port wine to different parts of the Europe and the world.

Portugal 28

Portugal Technical Review Incubator Due Diligence 28

Life Beyond Code

MAY 30, 2010

You would have seen or met people who are smart and extremely critical. They are sometimes a pain to be around when it comes to discussing some ideas with them. The moment you share an idea or opinion, they jump to find the holes in it and literally rip it apart. In most cases they succeed – at least in their mind. Very soon, you stop discussing ideas with these people because the only thing you are guaranteed is immediate criticism.

Audience 150

Audience Conversion 150

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 3, 2010

A few weeks ago I was on two panels at Google I/O 2010. The video from one of them – Making Freemium work – converting free users to paying customers is up. Don Dodge from Google is the moderator and my fellow panelists are Dave McClure, Jeff Clavier, Matt Holleran, and Joe Kraus. It’s 60 minutes long, but we covered a lot of ground. Tags: Entrepreneurship freemium google i/o.

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Video Customer 130

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2010

I have a friend who runs a nationwide “traditional” business, and business is down, like it has been for most people. I suggested that he add some social network marketing initiatives, and his answer was he is “too busy.” According to this study from last year, over 65% of existing small businesses still ignore social media for marketing, so he is still the rule rather than the exception.

Social Media 222

Social Media Media Marketing Social Network 222

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

I’m not even going to bother downloading Venture Economics data because I know it’s going to be garbage—most angel rounds aren’t tracked very well. That being said, is it me, or do more and more entrepreneurs seem to out there in the market essentially skipping the 500k-ish angel round? It’s a question I seem to be getting more and more often—why bother raising 500k if you can just grab a million or a million and a half?

Cap Table 106

Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

Life Beyond Code

MAY 30, 2010

You would have seen or met people who are smart and extremely critical. They are sometimes a pain to be around when it comes to discussing some ideas with them. The moment you share an idea or opinion, they jump to find the holes in it and literally rip it apart. In most cases they succeed – at least in their mind. Very soon, you stop discussing ideas with these people because the only thing you are guaranteed is immediate criticism.

Open Source 144

Open Source Audience Conversion 144

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 1, 2010

“In five years when you buy a computer you’ll get this.” John Underkoffler, Oblong’s Chief Scientist, at 14:20 in the video. I’ve been friends with John Underkoffler since 1984 and we’ve been investors in Oblong since 2007. Ever since I first met John I knew that he was an amazing thinker. John, his co-founders at Oblong, and the team they have assembled are creating the future of user interfaces.

Cofounder 123

Cofounder Video Founder Customer 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2010

For as long as I can remember, computer users have been complaining about the array of names and passwords required to get work done – a different unique user identification name and password are required to start the computer, email, social networks, banking, read online news, connect to the office, or check your phone bill. Computer jocks all fantasize about having one magic password or bionic finger that will eliminate the “sticky notes” that normally line the displays of avid computer users.

Startup 199

Startup Non-Compete Aggregator Security 199

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

JUNE 3, 2010

At first, this email made me laugh, but then I realized a very important business lesson was presenting itself that we should be reminded of as often as possible. It’s so important, you’re probably losing potential customers right now because of it. Here’s the story… Fran Kerr from the blog High On Health forwarded me an email from a person who decided NOT to purchase her ebook and wanted to explain why.

Audio 109

Audio Conversion Reputation Naming 109

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 4, 2010

You might recall my posts from a few months ago – Branding Secrets of the World’s Best Brands and What Can You Learn From The World’s Best Brands – about the lessons that startups and small businesses can learn from the world’s best brands. A new study recently released by Vivaldi Partners reveals some surprising facts about the most popular brands in the United States – and offers important lessons for small businesses and startups about building social curre

Small Business 95

Small Business United States Public Relations Startup 95

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2010

The TechStars Boston 2010 program finished up the other day. I was at investor day and it was awesome to see how far the ten companies came over the last 90 days, especially since I was there on the first day of the program and really had a baseline perspective. If you follow my twitter feed , you’ll notice that I’ve been posting a bunch of “Mar.gy links” from a company called Marginize.

Boston 115

Boston Programming 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2010

Most entrepreneurs tend to avoid this area of the business, and as a result are badly surprised by cost realities, and investor expectations. They seem to think that financial projections are simply invented numbers for investors, and not useful. Nothing could be further from the truth. What is a business financial model, really? In most cases, it is merely a Microsoft Excel spread sheet loaded with your cost and revenue projections for your startup, starting now in time and extending at five ye

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Angel Investor Business Model Revenue Cost 178

Austin Startup

JUNE 2, 2010

Back in November of last year, I wrote an energetic post for this site that in essence introduced me to the Austin tech scene. I was an emerging tech analyst that wanted to meet every startup in town! I wanted to hit every happy hour! My enthusiasm was a little frightening! Fast forward seven months and I’ve developed encyclopedic knowledge of the city’s coffee shops.

Austin 95

Austin Silicon Valley Caching Bootstrapping 95

Berkonomics

JUNE 2, 2010

How about incentives for employees all the way down the line and through the corporation? How do we align them to the goals and strategies of the enterprise? Obviously for the appropriate individuals, a bonus program aligned to the department’s goals is appropriate. But how about awarding stock options to all employees? . Tech companies, particularly early stage and startups, still award options aggressively.

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Liquidity Event Stock Options IPO Stock 86

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 2, 2010

And now, on the eve of TechStars Boston 2010 Demo Day, here is your weekly dose of The Founders video series. If you are going to be in Boston tonight at TechStars Demo Day, I’ll see you there! "The Innovation Lab" The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 2 from TechStars on Vimeo. Tags: TechStars the founders.

Founder 110

Founder Boston Video 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2010

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” every patent can add up to $1M to your startup valuation for investors, or for M&A exits (merger and acquisition).

Software 125

Software Intellectual Property Valuation Algorithm 125

Austin Startup

JUNE 3, 2010

Zynga announced today that they’ve acquired Austin-based social game company Challange Games. Zynga is one of the fastest growing gaming companies in history, and are the creators of the most popular facebook games including Mafia Wars and Farm Town. Challenge Games was founded by serial entrepreneur Andrew Busey, who had previously founded companies such as iChat, Living.com, Question.com, and Pluck.

Los Angeles 85

Los Angeles San Francisco Baltimore Austin 85

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 1, 2010

Many entrepreneurs and investors – especially in Silicon Valley – believe that failure is acceptable. Mark Suster writes : I prefer second time (or more) entrepreneurs. Sure, I would love to work with people who have had multiple successes. But I’m not afraid of entrepreneurs that didn’t succeed the first time. I want to work with talented people with good judgment.

Silicon Valley 84

Silicon Valley Social Media Small Business Media 84

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 4, 2010

I’ve always had a knack for quickly finding bugs. It’s not hard with most software / web services as the bugs are everywhere, but they like to emerge from the shadows when I tickle my computer. I’ve been running Outlook 2010 for a few weeks since it shipped. Now that I’m used to the new ribbon UI, I find it much improved over Outlook 2007. I particularly like the Conversations view which was long overdue (and works really well) and am amused that most of the memory leaks / shut down issues are g

Email 100

Email Conversion Web Naming 100

Life Beyond Code

JUNE 3, 2010

Remember the old adage – “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.&#. Have you ever thought what will the others do – the ones that are not tough? By sheer logic, the “not so tough ones&# don’t get going, right? Wrong! They do something else – they will find the best excuse (excluding them as a possible cause) for not going.

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Start Up Blog

JUNE 3, 2010

I had a discussion with Luke Waldren who had a very poor customer service experience from the Chef’s Hat in Melbourne. For those who don’t know, the Chef’s Hat is regardred as the premier retailer in our city for restraunters, cafe owners and hard core Foodies. They sell a range of appliances and all things related to food retailing – except for the actual food.

Lean 72

Lean Advertising Web Media 72

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

MAY 31, 2010

This week in the mail I received a package with some cool contents – These are Entrepreneur Heroes trading cards , created by Evan Carmichael , an entrepreneur from my other home, Toronto Canada. When I was a teenager, for a couple of years collecting basketball cards became a huge craze in Australia. I wasn’t into basketball so much, nor do I like to go along with the crowd, however I did like collecting things, so I was intrigued by the idea of collectible cards.

Entrepreneur 73

Entrepreneur Canada Australia Email 73

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 1, 2010

I love summertime. Amy and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Manhattan. We stayed in Soho, hung out with some friends, ate a lot, and just wandered around. Oh – and I slept 17 hours yesterday once again demonstrating that I have amazing sleeping powers. I needed it after two full days at the Glue Conference , a day at Tech Wildcatters in Dallas, and a full week of “normal work.”.

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Dallas New York Asia Boston 94