Sat.Jun 13, 2015 - Fri.Jun 19, 2015

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Do Less. More.

Both Sides of the Table

We are experiencing a frenetic time. I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. For entrepreneurs there’s too much money sloshing around. One would think entrepreneurs would never want less available cash – until such time as their competitors ridiculously and unnecessarily all raise $50 million in the name of a “land grab” thus mak

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How To Start A Startup – For Busy People

YoungUpstarts

by Andrea Martins, co-founder of GreenSocks. Have you ever fallen in love so passionately with someone or something that you find yourself addicted to their every tweet, video or Facebook update? I have, thanks to Sam Altman, the President of Y Combinator. Not that I fell in love with Sam himself. He may have been named by Silicon Valley thought leader Paul Graham as one of the five most interesting startup founders since 1979, but Sam’s curious penchant for wearing t-shirts over long-sleeve shi

Cofounder 213
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5 Shortcomings Of A Visionary And How To Compensate

Startup Professionals Musings

It seems like every entrepreneur I meet these days is quick to proclaim themselves a visionary, expecting that will give more credibility to their startup idea, and improve their odds with investors. In reality, I’m one of the majority of investors who believe that startup success is more about the execution than the idea. Thus, unless the visionary highlights a cofounder who can take the vision and execute, I assume the worst.

Cofounder 205
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Free Webinar: How to Build Your Brand

Up and Running

Do you want to learn how you can get big brand value on a small business budget? What can you do to increase customer loyalty, and get the recognition your business needs? Discover what a brand is, why it matters, and how easy it is to create one for your business. If you completed our Big Brand Challenge (it’s ok if you haven’t yet), then your brand is ready to conquer the world!

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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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Why Successful People Focus on the Bottom End of the Funnel

Both Sides of the Table

Business leaders have many tasks to accomplish and prioritizing stuff can be hard. Yesterday I wrote about the need to “ do fewer things, more often ” in which I described that frenzied world we live in and why the shiny objects and distractions stop us from living up to our true potential. Today I’d like to give that advice in more tangible terms and with a framework to think about your tasks – the funnel.

LP 329
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5 Privacy Tips For Startups

YoungUpstarts

By Janis Kestenbaum , a partner in Perkins Coie. Startups have bigger concerns than privacy, or so they think. Many startups have learned that being young and small does not keep them off the radar screens of privacy regulators, and they can be vulnerable to costly investigations. Privacy issues that come to light in the course of the due diligence process for an acquisition can also threaten their valuation.

More Trending

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How to Use Your Business Plan to Track Your Progress and Exceed Your Goals

Up and Running

My favorite quote on business planning is when former president Dwight D. Eisenhower said: “The plan is useless; but planning is essential.”. What I’ve always taken from that is the importance of keeping a plan live; reviewing it, and revising it. The core concept of my work on lean business planning is that cycle: plan-run-review-revise. One of my favorite quotes from what I’ve written previously is “The value of a plan is the decisions it causes.” All of which brings me to the sub

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SAP Nation 2.0: The Bigger Story

deal architect

I am writing the sequel to SAP Nation to update it for the launch of S/4HANA. I analyze the launch and also delve into the history of next-gen products in enterprise software over two decades to provide some perspective on.

Software 254
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Changing Your Company Name? Here’s What You Need To Know.

YoungUpstarts

By Herman Yau, CEO of Tend. Thinking about changing your company name? It’s a daunting task, and requires more than a new set of letters. Changing your company name is usually synonymous with a rebrand, and always requires market awareness to keep customers, investors and even employees on the same page. At Tend, we underwent a name change to support our future vision of enabling the world to “tend” to their loved ones.

Naming 160
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How to Use Email Tracking to Dramatically Ramp Up Sales

Duct Tape Marketing

How to Use Email Tracking to Dramatically Ramp Up Sales written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. It’s no secret that email marketing metrics offer great insights. They let you learn from your customers’ behavior and steer your marketing ship accordingly. But how do you find the best strategy for connecting with customers and prospects directly?

Email 51
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5 Ways Small Business Owners Can Save on Healthcare Finances

Up and Running

Personal and financial freedoms are two selling points that may have convinced you to become a small business owner. Each day you have the freedom to work as hard as you want to grow your company. You don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself about day-to-day decisions. However, with that freedom comes obligation to employees (and possibly family members) who look to you to provide them with financial security.

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5 Questions VCs Never Answer, Answered by a VC | #BOSSOI

View from Seed

Editor’s note: Local tech media company BostInno (a division of the American City Business Journals) hosts an annual Boston State of Innovation conference. Leading up to the event, they published an article listing questions VCs never answer , as submitted by the community. These are all worth asking … and therefore worth answering. . I was recently asked to sit on panel with my fellow VC peers and some top entrepreneurs from the Boston tech community.

Boston 235
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Social Media Marketing Should Not Be Used Alone Today

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs and startups often ask if they should select only social media for marketing, or stick with digital media, or just count on 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 competitive mutually exclusive to any other.

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Radical UI

deal architect

In the last few weeks, I have had a chance to visit Oracle UX design lab, talk to Infor’s design agency and interview folks about Fiori for my sequel to SAP Nation. I also had a chance to see a.

Design 220
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Playing Startup

Agile VC

I’ve observed what may be an emerging trend, at least in some startups, that I find somewhat unsettling. It has an impact at an individual level, a company level, and an ecosystem level. This is not an easy topic to discuss without coming off like a jerk or a crusty old dude, so I wanted to share two quick stories about my own career below. But I think it’s important to discuss, particularly given today’s heady environment for startups.

Startup 219
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10+1 Buzzwords : Content Marketing Definitions That You Need To Know

Brandanew

Yes, content marketing is all about telling your existing and potential customers how your product or service can make a big difference in their lives without sounding like a desperate door to door salesman. It is not just about jotting down a few lines on how to use something or what it does but building strong relationships with your growing audience.

Viral 205
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6 Challenges In Going Public Through The Backdoor

Startup Professionals Musings

With the uptick in the economy, as an active startup mentor, I’m seeing a new surge of entrepreneurs and startups, with the commensurate scramble for funding. There just aren’t enough Angel investors and VCs to go around. Thus I’m getting more questions on new mechanisms, like crowd funding, or going public through the backdoor as a reverse merger. A reverse merger is the acquisition of an already public company (usually a dormant shell) to avoid the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process and cos

Merger 210
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Founder Superpowers: Areas Where Top Entrepreneurs Can Be Truly Exceptional

View from Seed

Ask any VC what they look for in an investment opportunity, and they’ll tell you that the people are at the top of their list. Extraordinary companies can’t be built without extraordinary entrepreneurs , especially at the earliest stages. I’d argue that successful founders must actually possess a superpower to make the nearly impossible task of getting a startup off the ground become a reality.

Founder 200
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How about something for what we have already invested in?

deal architect

Both sides like to tweak each other. Both like to harangue customers for new revenue. Customers however fume that stuff they have paying maintenance for years cannot seem to get much attention. So I was pleased when reader Tan Ah.

Revenue 197
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Dealing With The Most Difficult People And Conversations At Work

YoungUpstarts

by Andrea J. Lee, author of “ We Need To Talk: Your Guide to Challenging Business Conversations “ “We need to talk.”. What is it about those four little words that strikes fear into the heart of the bravest business person? It happens all the time everywhere. People avoid the most difficult conversations, usually because they simply aren’t good at them having never learned how to do it effectively.

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7 Ways To Illuminate Your Business Leader Blind Side

Startup Professionals Musings

Every business leader has blind spots which limit their effectiveness and success, but due to ego, over-confidence, or deferential subordinates, many live totally in the dark. Some are smart and humble enough to assume that they don’t know what they don’t know, but lack an effective process for shining a light on their blind spots. Both are equally surprised by their every setback.

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3+1 Social Media Time Management Tips For Your Brand

Brandanew

A quick Google search on “social media time management” will leave you with a flurry of options and key steps to follow through for high efficiency. A lot of those details and pointers are sometimes very sketchy. Because they rely on underlying assumptions that may not hold true for your brand culture. Coming from another culture or location, you already know that may just not work for and you may be on a different S-curve of Social Media growth.

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Playing Startup

Agile VC

I’ve observed what may be an emerging trend, at least in some startups, that I find somewhat unsettling. It has an impact at an individual level, a company level, and an ecosystem level. This is not an easy topic to discuss without coming off like a jerk or a crusty old dude, so I wanted to share two quick stories about my own career below. But I think it’s important to discuss, particularly given today’s heady environment for startups.

Startup 188
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How To Run A Thriving Side Business Without Damaging Your Career

YoungUpstarts

Nearly 6.8 million Americans work at least two jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The advice to moonlight or start a side gig may point to a struggling economy, job losses or a way to simply bolster your earning potential and learn new skills. Regardless of why you want to launch a side business, there are issues to consider. Protecting your day job and ensuring high productivity can lead to burnout without the right processes and tools in place.

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If You Get All Your Information On The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem From HBO, You’re Screwed

Feld Thoughts

This is the best quote I’ve seen all week. It’s from Greg Sands post on TechCrunch titled The Real Silicon Valley. . Greg is a long time friend and co-investor. I’m on the board with him at Return Path and he’s on the board with my partner Ryan at VictorOps. Along with my partners, we are all LPs in Greg’s fund Costanoa Ventures.

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What Value Does Social Media Create For Your Brand?

Brandanew

Many clients that I speak with are brilliant business minds. And while they usually know something about social and content, they often do not have specialized or dedicated resources. I am not counting the countless interns who are digital natives using Tinder and do not understand the difference between professional and personal usage. There are no shortcuts to ten thousand hours of practice, really.

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43 lessons growing from $0 to $1+ million in revenue, twice

The Next Web

I realized the other day that we’ve grown from $0 to $1 million with two separate products (HelloSign and HelloFax). This happened a long time ago, but I was recently reflecting on the lessons. I found a lot of growth truisms to be false. We’ve learned a lot. Some lessons were painfully won, which is why I may sound strongly opinionated about them. They also may be slanted towards B2B products, but I wouldn’t discount them if you’re not in that space.

Revenue 131
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Contracting The Right Accountant For New Businesses

YoungUpstarts

Contractors are those who operate via their own professional companies, and are similar but not the same as a freelancer. The main difference is that a contractor is bound by a contract. The distinction is subtle but those in the field, and their accountants, need to know what these differences mean, such as a difference in tax brackets and IR35 legislation.

Software 165
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Speak at The Lean Startup Conference 2015

Startup Lessons Learned

What follows is a guest post by Kirsten Cluthe, the new Editorial Director of The Lean Startup Conference. Kirsten is leading our program development and speaker selection -- curating a four day, multi-tracked, 2000-person event. With a career that’s spanned from the music industry to General Electric to the Olympics, Kirsten brings deep event programming experience to the Lean Startup team.

Lean 125
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Porsche Creates Magic Not Just For Cars But For Brand Storytelling

Brandanew

It doesn’t matter if you’re a LeMans fan, or moved by the brilliance of Porsche’s 1-2 in Hulkenberg (loaned from @ForceIndiaF1 only for a weekend) or Webber (displaying true @AussieGrit). The 17-time champion and brand Porsche has reinvented itself on multiple occasions and LeMans was no coincidence. It was years of motorsport excellence.

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How to name your startup

The Next Web

No one knows the value of a great domain as much as a startup. That is why some of the most successful new startups shell out upwards of $500,000 for a category killer premium name. But where does that leave everyone else? According to Wakefield Research, 52 percent of people would change their name if they had a chance to. Naming a startup is often an exercise in frustration.

Naming 131
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6 Tactics To Overcome Counter Offers When Sales Recruiting

YoungUpstarts

by Eliot Burdett, co-founder and CEO of Peak Sales Recruiting. When recruiting elite sales talent, nothing can be more debilitating than making a poor offer of employment. Once time, money and hearts are invested in a particular candidate, losing them to a counter offer can be devastating. Great employees are hard to find, highly sought after and almost always gainfully employed.

Cofounder 159
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Techstars and UP Global Join Forces to Support the Entrepreneurial Journey

Feld Thoughts

Today Techstars announced that it has acquired UP Global , including the organization’s Startup Weekend , Startup Week , Startup Next , and Startup Digest programs. This is great news for entrepreneurs everywhere. Both organizations have a deep seated community-centric ethos that aims to accelerate the pace of innovation through community-focused, entrepreneurial-led business creation.

Global 123
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Ashlina Kaposta, The Decorista, Talks Business Of Blogging And Personal Brand Myths

YFS Magazine

In this MOO Mentor Series episode we reveal behind the scenes business tips, how to conquer the business of blogging and tips on how to design your personal brand. This week, YFS Magazine talks behind-the-scenes business with entrepreneur Ashlina Kaposta, creator of The Decorista, a household name in the world of interior design. In this episode learn how Ashlina conquered the business of blogging, marketing tips and how to design your personal brand.

Design 118
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How I setup an online course worth $100k

The Next Web

I’m sick of hearing from friends that their online course costs more money to run than the revenue it’s generating. Or that they have to shut their course down because the ongoing fees are much higher than the price they charged members in the first place. Or that they want to create an online course, but have no idea where to start, so they stay stuck in the “oh s**t, I’m really overwhelmed” stage.

Revenue 130
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Work Smarter (Not Harder) To Simplify Business Processes

YoungUpstarts

by Lewis Robinson. Business processes are often mired in unnecessary details and procedures. Business owners who take the time to create business plans easily identify when it is time to trim the fat in their daily processes. There are several tips to know where to simplify business processes: Regular workflow and employee performance reviews. Tighten process and scheduling systems.

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