Sat.Nov 30, 2013 - Fri.Dec 06, 2013

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How DogVacay Literally Saved my Thanksgiving

Both Sides of the Table

'Without DogVacay my Thanksgiving would have been ruined. That’s a fact. And I’m not an investor. I just had to tell this story. It’s a great one about entrepreneurship, friendship and the collaborative economy that is helping families in need across the world. The Background. Every year my family meets in San Diego for Thanksgiving.

San Diego 344
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Enterprise Adoption Laggards?

deal architect

'The pace of technology innovation continues to accelerate - New Florence just had a record month of posts. But innovation without adoption = duds. This Harvard Business Review article and the graph from it below show technologies are getting adopted.

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How much does it cost to build the world’s hottest startups?

The Next Web

'Could $100,000 and the right developer skills make you an overnight billionaire? How much does it really take to build a product like Twitter or Instagram? With mobile development agencies and product incubators on the rise and more corporate “labs” spinning out each day, there’s no shortage of talent to help you build the next great Web or mobile app.

Cost 168
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From Loyalty Programs To Fan Clubs, A Paradigm Shift

YoungUpstarts

'by Aneace Haddad, CEO & Founder, Taggo. Loyalty programs have not changed much since the first airline loyalty cards took off more than 30 years ago. Sure, lots of features were added over the years. Co-branded cards were invented, combining a Visa, MasterCard or American Express payment brand along with a retailer or airline brand. CRM became more sophisticated, resulting in detailed monthly statements and targeted direct marketing.

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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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We’re looking for entrepreneurs to join us at Forward Partners

The Equity Kicker

'As I’ve written before here at Forward Partners we work with entrepreneurs to help them launch and scale their companies in two different ways. About half our investments are in companies at true startup stage – i.e. founder + idea, nothing built – and half are in slightly more mature companies, up to late seed stage when there are maybe 5-10 people in the company.

Partner 117
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How To Compete In A Commoditized Market Like Hosting, Should Yaro Start A Blogging Service And Is Buying A Podcast A Growth Strategy

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

'Subscribe to this Podcast in iTunes. Welcome to Everything Entrepreneurship with Walter and Yaro , episode #8. This episode we focus on Q&A, with Colin Gray from ThePodcastHost.com asking us about his podcast hosting service and how it could be a viable business when hosting is so commoditized. Jared Easley from StarveTheDoubts.com sent me an email asking whether you could … Read the rest of this entry » The post How To Compete In A Commoditized Market Like Hosting, Should Yaro

Hosting 83

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[Singapore] Westin Returns, Sets Up In Central Business District

YoungUpstarts

'It’s been over a decade since Westin left Singapore’s shores; the hotel chain sold off its two properties – The Westin Stamford and The Westin Plaza – to Swissôtel and Raffles Hotel in 2002, after the brand’s own acquisition by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in 1998. But its aggressive expansion in Asia Pacific – over 40 properties in recent years, with another 20 in the pipeline – meant that a return to Singapore, and one of the world’s

Singapore 140
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Boston Unicorns

Seeing Both Sides

'Last week, I used Aileen Lee''s excellent TechCrunch article on Unicorns as a jumping off point to analyze the role of the MBA in creating these unusually valuable companies. This week, I want to take a local lens and analyze these special companies that have been created in Boston. As was the case last week, I was ably assisted by HBS 2nd year MBA student Juan Leung Li.

Boston 55
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When Customers Make You Smarter

Steve Blank

'We talk a lot about Customer Development, but there’s nothing like seeing it in action to understand its power. Here’s what happened when an extraordinary Digital Health team gained several critical insights about their business model. The first was reducing what they thought was a five-sided market to a simpler two-sided one. But the big payoff came when their discussions with medical device customers revealed an entirely new way to think about pricing —potentially tripling their r

Customer 323
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Millennials got Mail: 6 ways to successfully target the ‘always connected’ generation through email

The Next Web

'Toss around the term “Millennial” in your favorite search engine and it brings up perceived characteristics attributed to the generation. There’s the how-to on working with them, why not to hire them, how they are narcissistic and selfish (yet still love/rely on their families), and most of all, their “always connected” obsession. The U.S. age group varies according to source, but the generation is roughly composed of those born between 1981 and 2000, according to Pew Research.

Email 141
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A Keyne Way To Coach Employees And Improve Performance

YoungUpstarts

'By Bruce Hodes, author of “ Front Line Heroes “ I have run my own business and coached employees for years but the whole notion of calling meetings between employee and manager “progress meetings” is something I learned from Wayne. Wayne is the president of Keyne Insight, a firm dedicated to identifying and proving the concepts of execution management.

Employee 140
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San Diego Startup Spotlight: Breadcrumbs

Business Plan Blog

'The San Diego startup ecosystem is growing, along with the resources available to entrepreneurs. Mentor programs, co-working spaces and meetup events over the past few years have increased at an exciting rate. The Startup Garage is going to cover monthly startup events and interview entrepreneurs to showcase the exceptional talent in our local area.

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Don’t Limit Your Startup Marketing To Social Media

Startup Professionals Musings

'Entrepreneurs and startups often ask if they should use social media for marketing, digital media, or traditional media. The answer is yes to all, and the challenge is how to choose how much of each, and how to integrate them for maximum impact and the least cost. None should be considered mutually exclusive to any other. The place to start today is if your company only uses traditional media for marketing, or no marketing.

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So why did Amazon preannounce PrimeAir?

deal architect

'Jeff Bezos showed off to Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes the planned drone based home delivery while playing coy about availability. Om Malik and others speculate why the “pre-announcement”.

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Talented Women: Please Do Not Quit.

YoungUpstarts

'by Sr amana Mitra, founder of One Million by One Million . Five years ago, a good friend of mine hanged herself. I had coffee with her the day before. She was married to a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who ran a couple of major companies and had a brilliant career. She did not work. But on the surface, they had everything. I knew both of them well.

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San Diego Startup Spotlight: Breadcrumbs

Business Plan Blog

'The San Diego startup ecosystem is growing, along with the resources available to entrepreneurs. Mentor programs, co-working spaces and meetup events over the past few years have increased at an exciting rate. The Startup Garage is going to cover monthly startup events and interview entrepreneurs to showcase the exceptional talent in our local area.

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7 New Business Facts Of Life For Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

'Startups are the corporations of the future, so I have long believed that entrepreneurs who study existing corporate models, rather than ignoring them with disdain, will likely profit from the exercise. In today’s fast-paced world, that means recognizing early and capitalizing on the changes that are bringing many big companies to their knees, before that company is yours.

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An era of great un-consolidation

deal architect

'During my fireside chat at the HfS Blueprint event this week I pointed out the proliferation of outsourcing options in the last few years – digital agencies, mobile ecosystems around Apple and Android, a variety of cloud IaaS providers, crowdsourced.

Cloud 220
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5 Tips Guaranteed To Establish Your Personal Brand

YoungUpstarts

'by Brian C. Haggerty, founder of Brian Haggerty Speaks and author of “ Put That Cell Phone Down and Look Me In The Eye “ In business, your reputation is everything. You may have graduated first in your class, have earned a great many degrees or certifications, but if you lack the fundamental traits of character to establish a solid reputation, all of that is meaningless.

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Corporate Perks Will Doom Your Entrepreneur Dreams

Gust

'Image via ExecutiveSky.ch. I hear many executives and professionals in large corporations talking about their dream of jumping ship, and starting their own company. What they don’t realize is that the longer they wait, the more big-company habits they are acquiring, which will make their eventual decision harder and entrepreneurial efforts less and less likely to succeed.

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7 Benefits For Startups Joining The B-Corp Movement

Startup Professionals Musings

'More entrepreneurs want to be socially responsible these days, but fear a negative impact on profits, growth, and the ability to find an investor. In the short run, there are real costs associated with the “triple bottom line” of maximizing profit, people (social), and planet (environment). But very quickly, it is becoming obvious to startups that the value and satisfaction exceeds the costs.

Vermont 254
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Hackathons. Not exactly Hunger Games.

deal architect

'When I read this Alicia Liu post a couple of weeks ago, I liked her assessment of vendor sponsored hackathons Corporate-sponsored hackathons are all-win for the sponsoring company. They get a big influx of fresh ideas, and developers working themselves.

Developer 207
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[Event] Crowdsourcing Week Global 2014

YoungUpstarts

'After a successful debut last year , Crowdsourcing Week will be returning for its second edition. The annual week-long global crowdsourcing conference will take place in Singapore on April 7-11, 2014, and will see an expanded lineup of events that will convene many of the luminaries from around the world who are shaping the future of the growing crowdsourcing movement.

Global 163
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Business Bah Hum Bug! Are You Turning Into A “Scrooge”?

Rembrandt Communications

'Ah yes. It’s that time of year when holiday goodies show up at the office, and the smell of pine and gingerbread is in the air. There is a multitude of peace and goodwill, right? As an entrepreneur, you know that this is often far from the truth. It’s more like a mad rush to […].

Sales 154
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The Old Ways Of Social Media Marketing Are Broken

Startup Professionals Musings

'Isn’t it frustrating to think you understand something new in business, like marketing with social media, only to realize that the landscape changed while you were looking at other priorities? For example, it used to be that marketing via social media meant buying banner ads on Facebook, or buying a position on search engine results, or sponsoring some blog entries, but these doesn’t work anymore.

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Standing Tall

deal architect

'Every month the New Florence blog averages 50 to 60 posts. 2 a day is not bad. But November out did its peers with 90 posts. December looks just as promising. In 2005, when this blog started the whole year.

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How To Find Good People

YoungUpstarts

'by Sean Blanks, marketing director of www.cartridgesave.co.uk. As hard as it is to hear, you can’t do it all. To get where you want to be, you’ll need a team of talented experts to help. But finding them is not easy. We’ve compiled a guide of our top tips learnt over the years to recruit the best people: 1. Don’t delegate recruitment. We believe in the concept “A hires A and B hires C”.

Hiring 159
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5 experiences commerce websites should replicate from the Apple Store

The Next Web

'Tom Wentworth is the Chief Marketing Office at Acquia , where he is responsible for global marketing strategy and execution. Whether you’re an Android or iOS user, we’ve all probably made our way into an Apple store at some point. After pushing past the suspiciously friendly blue-shirted door greeters, the in-store experience is actually quite pleasant.

Community 163
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The Best Entrepreneurs Relish But Manage Conflicts

Startup Professionals Musings

'Many entrepreneurs are not prepared for conflict, or actively avoid it. Their vision, passion, and focus are so strong that they can’t imagine someone disagreeing, much less fighting them to the death. But the reality is that startups are composed of smart people, with emotions as well as intellects, working in close proximity under much pressure, so conflicts will occur.

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The danger of linear thinking

deal architect

'I am seeing clients come up to end of 3-5-7 year SaaS and outsourcing deals I and others helped them with. And I often hear things like “routine renewal” or “let’s re-bid with a slightly different group of vendors than.

Cloud 191
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Risk Avoiders Are Opportunity Missers: 10 Excuses Business Owners Make

YoungUpstarts

'by Tom Panaggio, author of “ The Risk Advantage: Embracing the Entrepreneur’s Unexpected Edge “ It’s time to open a second retail store branch — and you fully intend to — but you’re not quite ready yet. You found a possible location but it doesn’t seem perfect, and besides, you’re not sure if the local marketplace conditions are right. Maybe next year would be better.

Florida 159
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US startup valuations reach ten year highs

The Equity Kicker

'Venturebeat reported yesterday that US startup valuations have reached ten year highs. You can see from the charts above that median valuations have been increasing at all stages from seed through to Series D or later. Series A valuations have increased more slowly than other Series’ which shows that there is a bit of a squeeze at this level, but suggests the ‘crunch’ isn’t that dramatic.

Valuation 162
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With so many new top level domains launching, what should your strategy be?

The Next Web

'The process of choosing a domain name is not unlike that moment in your teens or early 20s when you decided to get a tattoo. Yes, we’re going there, but stick with this for a moment. Those of you who’re inked, think back to the process leading up to that decision. You labored for hours about what exactly to get. What best defines you? What sort of message do you want to convey to the world about your person?

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What is the difference between a vertical and a horizontal market?

Gust

'A vertical market is one in which all of your customers are in one particular industry, regardless of where in the food chain they are. For example, the site Noodle.org is a vertical search engine for the education industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a kindergarten class, an Ivy League college, or an adult education polka dancing course, it covers its industry top to bottom.

Vertical 136
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The Power Of Trust In Business

YoungUpstarts

'By August Turak, author of “ Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks: One CEO’s Quest for Meaning and Authenticity “ Sooner or later every executive realizes that 99 percent of the people she depends on for success don’t report to her. The success of every CEO depends far more on vendors, stockholders, board members, regulators, politicians, strategic partners, the financial community, the media, and customers than it does on the relatively small number of paid employees

Dividend 158
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Turnstone Decks Out My Kansas City House

Feld Thoughts

'It’s been a blast to have a house in Kansas City. I’ve made a bunch of new friends from it and have been able to participate in the radical growth of the startup community there, especially in the KC Startup Village where my house is located. I’ve gotten to experience Google Fiber first hand and also helped mentor a neat startup called HandPrint who has been living in the house for the past six months.