Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2012

It’s a long way from an entrepreneur’s “idea” to a working product with a real market and paying customers. A necessary intermediate step for proof of concept, credibility with potential investors, and communication with your team, is a working prototype. Building a prototype should be an early and high priority task for every startup. A prototype doesn’t need to look great, or be built to scale, but it better accurately translate your vision into something real and tangible.

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Startup Database Early Stage Distribution 242

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2012

It seems that the dark days of the recession are nearly behind us. Businesses in a variety of sectors are bouncing back, strengthening the job market and economy right along with them. While businesses across the board are seeing a positive shift, there are several sectors that are doing considerably better than others, and we’ve identified them here.

Iowa 167

Iowa Technical Review India United States 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. Illustrations by FAKEGRIMLOCK. You can pre-order it starting today. It's been just about two years since Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits released their self-published book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development (you can see my original review here ).

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

ReadWriteStart

MAY 10, 2012

Learning to code is becoming the key skill for anyone who wants to launch a tech startup, or even just get a job working at a hot tech company. That may seem intimidating, but programming is not some monumental skill that only specially gifted people can learn. Really, it it isn't all that different from learning to speak another language. If you can pick up the rudiments of Spanish or French in a couple of weeks, how hard could it be to get started with Ruby On Rails?

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Ruby Developer San Francisco Silicon Valley 137

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

David Teten

MAY 9, 2012

We are in the midst of two great disruptions to American business: the internet’s ongoing disruption of most traditional industries: finance, healthcare, retail, finance, fashion, etc. the shift of America to a majority minority country by 2050. Any company that aspires to maintain a leadership position needs to position itself to exploit these two macro trends.

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Venture Capital Programming Accredited Investor New York 154

YoungUpstarts

MAY 10, 2012

Everybody knows Steve Jobs. Icon, innovator, brilliant entrepreneur and creator of “insanely great” products, Jobs was the founder and CEO of Apple. He created fantastic products like the Macintosh computer, iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone and iPad, founded Disney beating Pixar Animations, and opened the much lauded Apple Store. Jobs’ death on 5 Oct 2011 at the age of 56 due to pancreatic cancer has been one of the most talked about death in recent history.

Software Review 145

Software Review Technical Review Open Source Leadership 145

ReadWriteStart

MAY 8, 2012

Have you thought about joining a startup, but have no idea what you could possibly offer? Perhaps you are looking forward to graduation and want to pick some skills that will help you work for a startup when you leave school. Maybe you want to change your career and get into the exciting world of tech startups, but do not know what it takes to succeed in that type of high-pressure environment.

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Boston Massachusetts Startup Ruby 124

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 11, 2012

Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 11, 2012

Fact: Thanks to the new crowdfunding legislation, it will soon be easier for any entrepreneur trying to build Instagram for Cats to raise $10 million than it is for an experienced investor to raise a fund to invest in the next 25 new businesses as well as support their growth with strategic advice, help with hiring, PR, business development, and connections to future capital.

Latvia 110

Latvia Fiji Arizona SEC 110

www.readwriteweb.com

MAY 10, 2012

ReadWriteHack. ReadWriteWeb. Channels. ReadWriteStart. ReadWriteBiz. ReadWriteEnterprise. ReadWriteCloud. ReadWriteHack. ReadWriteMobile. ReadWriteHack. Home. Archives. RSS. Twitter. Facebook. Bye, Bye Waterfall: 5 Steps to Implement Responsive Web Design. By Travis Sheppard / May 10, 2012 06:05 AM / View Comments. Tweet. Congratulations, you’ve finally convinced the powers that be that your next Web-design project needs to be responsive.

Web 76

Web Design Software Review Widget 76

ReadWriteStart

MAY 10, 2012

Not long ago, serial entrepreneur and founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council Scott Gerber offered his prescription to Fix Young America. In short, Gerber believes entrepreneurship can cure a lot of what’s wrong with the American economy. Yesterday on Salon.com, those ideas came under attack as an Occupy imposter - instead of representing American’s youth, the post contended, they’re shills for “the most noxious aspects of the bipartisan status quo.

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Technical Review Software Review America Channel 131

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

MAY 10, 2012

Visiting with Mike Bott, General Manager at The Brandery accelerator in downtown Cincinnati, you actually see what the “Front End of Innovation” looks like — two or three people, over-caffeinated and urgent, clustered around a couple of basic desks working out the details of a business plan, or creating a brand new product. Due to the training they’ve been given at the accelerator, they know a bit about innovation process, branding and fund raising — and the focus i

Technical Review 90

Technical Review Salary Management Conversion 90

Up and Running

MAY 8, 2012

As a small business owner, you may never see the need to grow your company so that you have more than a few employees. Or maybe you never plan to hire even one employee. So, does this mean that you will never have to develop a training plan? Probably not. Even if you never hire a single employee, at some point you may need to hire a contractor to take over a few tasks or to help with a project.

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Programming Technical Review Employee Hiring 71

www.readwriteweb.com

MAY 10, 2012

ReadWriteWeb. Key Trends. Location. App Stores. Real-Time Web. Internet of Things. Mobile. Structured Data. Top Topics. privacy. google. ipad. facebook. apple. twitter. apps. Channels. ReadWriteWeb. ReadWriteStart. ReadWriteBiz. ReadWriteEnterprise. ReadWriteCloud. ReadWriteHack. ReadWriteMobile. Jobs. Reports. Online Communities. Big Data. The Social Layer.

HTML 69

HTML Technical Review Software Review Semantic 69

thebarefootvc

MAY 8, 2012

Brad Feld wrote a fantastic post today entitled Too Many Seed Investment Choices. It’s a post that’s been circulating in my head as I’ve met with companies over the past 6 months. The best VCs are the ones that balance their optimism, vision and enthusiasm for startups with realism based on very real constraints (the primary one being his/her own time, but also includes market development and exit timing).

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Venture Capital Syndicate Syndication Bandwidth 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2012

It’s Wednesday late afternoon. I’m aboard Delta flight 1833 from Cincinnati (actually, Northern Kentucky for what it’s worth) to Los Angeles. I had a very enjoyable day in Cincinnati meeting many local entrepreneurs, angels and accelerators. I was here to see one of our LPs (limited partners are the people who invest money in VC funds) called Fort Washington.

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Houston Dallas Los Angeles Chicago 364

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2012

As we recover from some tough economic times, more and more people seem to be turning to entrepreneurship as an alternative to traditional employment. I applaud this trend, but caution all of you thinking this direction to approach entrepreneurship with your eyes wide open. It is not for everyone, as the entrepreneur’s path is fraught with challenges.

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Entrepreneur Restful Leadership Revenue 308

deal architect

MAY 8, 2012

A journalist called me a few weeks ago about a vendor we all know. He was puzzled why this vendor's marketing kept talking about their cool new projects – when his research showed him it was a small part of.

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Marketing Software 236

The Startup Toolkit

MAY 8, 2012

(Note: In this post I’m talking specifically about tech startups, and especially non-sales-driven tech startups). Clever landing page tests and interviews can tell you whether an idea is bad , but not whether it will work. There’s still a big leap from “problem exists” to a product that delights while fitting into someones life and being able to attract new users.

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Bootstrapping Technical Cofounder HTML Dividend 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2012

I recently spoke at the Blue Glass conference on the topic of marketing. I’ll write up some thoughts in a blog post format soon. I’ve been spending time looking at marketing conversion metrics at portfolio companies lately. We’ve been testing things like: How do Facebook “Likes” perform relative to FB ads that drive you directly to a web page.

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Marketing Metrics Campaign Portfolio 297

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2012

If you haven’t had a failure, you aren’t pushing the limits. If you are really an entrepreneur, you are a risk taker and less cautious by nature, so failures should be expected. Wear you startup failure as a badge of courage. Don’t go after failure, but embrace it when it does happen and grow from it. People who are afraid of failing should not become entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur 275

Entrepreneur Agile Partner Founder 275

deal architect

MAY 7, 2012

I picked up Time and BusinessWeek in the mailbox yesterday and they both had unflattering China covers with words like lies and corruption. With our elections and their leadership transition coming up, Chen Guangcheng and Bo Xilai will be household.

China 225

China Leadership Global Technology 225

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 8, 2012

This is part of an ongoing startup advice series where I answer (anonymized!) questions from readers, like a written version of Smart Bear Live. To get your question answered , email me at asmartbear -at- shortmail -dot- com. Embarras de Choix writes: I have a startup with thirty paying customers. We’ve been bootstrapping up to this point. I think there’s a big opportunity to raise money, but also I could continue as I have been.

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Bootstrapping Hiring Engineer Web 231

YoungUpstarts

MAY 10, 2012

Launching a startup is no small feat; if you’ve got one in the works, surely you know there’s plenty of hard work and a very real possibility of failure ahead of you. But you can stack the odds in your favor by taking advantage of all of the great resources available to startups these days, including a vast library of helpful readings. We’ve compiled this list to share what we believe to be some of the most important books for startups of any kind.

Startup 224

Startup Lean Silicon Valley Open Source 224

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2012

In the beginning all businesses are just people playing out an idea. It’s never the other way around – there is no idea so big that it doesn’t need people to make it succeed. Investors know this, hence the saying “Bet on the jockey (founder), not the horse (idea).” A great jockey is a great role model. Like it or not, everyone looks to the entrepreneur as the jockey role model in a new business.

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Startup Leadership Founder Entrepreneur 267

deal architect

MAY 7, 2012

on the innovation blog A Pharmacy – in your abdomen Next-gen warship The TechStars Accelerator Southwest’s new “Evolve” interior The “Laugh” Scientist The fastest growing – and dying - industries.

Technology 225

Technology 225

Agile VC

MAY 10, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. Home. About Me. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Farmeron – Why SaaS for Cows is Incredibly Exciting. May 10, 2012. Farmeron announced the closing of its $1.4M seed round today. NextView is thrilled to have co-led this round along with our friends at SoftTech VC and Farmeron’s existing investors 500 Startups, Seedcamp, and TAG.

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Silicon Valley Cofounder Seed Stage Syndicate 223

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2012

If you’re like most college students (or most other people, for that matter), chances are good that you spend more time on Facebook than you do on LinkedIn. But if you’re concerned with furthering your career (and you should be), it’s time to switch over to a more professional network. We share 20 great reasons why you need to be spending your time on LinkedIn much more than Facebook, and we hope they motivate you to make a change for the better.

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Social Media Networking Search Hiring 216

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2012

Any entrepreneur with a vision can postulate a new business, but it takes a collaboration of many people to make it a success. Today the complexity of forces required for success include multi-disciplinary skills, competencies, and experiences in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Entrepreneurs who embrace the “lone wolf” approach usually live to regret it.

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Startup Agile Global Cost 248

deal architect

MAY 10, 2012

Gavin Davidson of NetSuite summarizes a major contrast I will see between SapphireNow in Orlando on Monday and SuiteWorld in San Francisco on Tuesday. "Normally when you attend a user conference hosted by a major ERP vendor, it’s quite a.

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San Francisco Hosting Software 210

Feld Thoughts

MAY 9, 2012

When you support a family member in need, you’re doing the right thing. The community you are part of is counting on you, and fulfilling your obligation to them is part of being a member of that community. What happens, though, when you help someone you don’t know? What happens when one community deliberately seeks out someone who needs a leg up and attention and support and reaches out – with no possibility of reciprocity?

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San Antonio Montana Cofounder Community 167

YoungUpstarts

MAY 7, 2012

Business ventures build on top of one another like Lego towers — they don’t spring Athena-like from the foreheads of entrepreneurs, no matter what some may claim. Anyone with a strong idea, a lot of luck, and even more hard work can succeed in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. But they need to intently study the victories and mistakes of their predecessors before embarking on any sort of entrepreneurial journey.

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Entrepreneur Cofounder Washington Bangladesh 208

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2012

Entrepreneurs have to know when and how to say ‘no,’ and be good at delivering the message. All startup leaders are besieged with requests for their time, attention, talent, money, or influence, and sometimes even good requests won’t fit into the time and energy you have available. Startups require focus, so you need to say ‘no’ to some things, in order to do the important things well.

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Entrepreneur Startup Cost 241

deal architect

MAY 9, 2012

on the innovation blog BAM: Baseball Advanced Media The Titanic and technology Street Pothole App Top 25 Technology Books Ecofurbished Electronics A hotel in the heart of VC country.

Technology 186

Technology Media 186

For Entrepreneurs

MAY 7, 2012

Summary: Illustrates graphically why churn is a huge problem a SaaS company gets larger. It also looks at a very surprising factor that can massively accelerate SaaS growth: negative churn. (This article is applicable to any recurring revenue business, not just SaaS.) Introduction As a SaaS company becomes larger, the size of the subscription base [.].

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Revenue Business Model Startup 167

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2012

Social food journal Burpple officially launched earlier this week: the iOS application – currently available on the App Store for free – is positioned as a way to remember, organize and explore your food moments with friends on the mobile phone. But if Singapore-based Burpple sounds similar to Foodspotting , it does. Both mobile applications lets you share food photos with your online networks, but work somewhat differently.

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Singapore Silicon Valley Cofounder Social Network 196