Steve Blank

AUGUST 19, 2013

'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

Venture Capital 302

Venture Capital Startup Lean Philadelphia 302

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2013

'Smart people only visit and buy from credible and memorable websites. In the past, if your startup had a website presence, the company was credible by definition. In today’s world, a website is necessary but not sufficient for credibility. Dreamers and gamblers have found out that if the website isn’t validated as credible, it’s probably a scam, and everyone loses.

Startup 263

Startup Affiliate Advertising Technical Review 263

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 19, 2013

'You have a great idea for an app or a startup but you have have absolutely no programming skills. You can either search for a technical co-founder who shares the same vision – which is a lot harder than it sounds – or look at outsourcing to a competent and affordable agency that can help you put something together (but without the soul).

Ruby 160

Ruby Missouri Web Development Virginia 160

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Last summer, Amy and I spent a long, wonderful lunch in Paris with Cliff Shaw and Christy Clark. Cliff is CEO of Mocavo , a company that went through Techstars that we’ve funded, and I deeply enjoy our friendship, even though we don’t see each other that often. I remember our lunch with great pleasure, so when Christy and I had a brief conversation about her reaction to Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur , in encouraged her to write a guest

Startup 174

Startup Software Review Partner Colorado 174

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

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

'What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists.

SBIR 316

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 316

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 22, 2013

'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!

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 20, 2013

'Yesterday, Techstars launched another accelerator, this time focused entirely on connected devices. The newest accelerator, based in New York City, is called the R/GA Connected Devices Accelerator. R/GA is part of Interpublic Group of Companies, one of four global ad holding companies, and is the most award-winning agency in the digital world today.

New York City 134

New York City Cofounder Technical Review New York 134

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

'Mikita Mikado is a software engineer and entrepreneur from Belarus, now based in San Francisco. He is the co-­founder and CEO of Quote Roller and PandaDoc. His passions are business process automation, surfing, and his new baby girl Maya. ?. Sales are the bloodstream for most businesses, and tech startups are no exception. It’s always better to be earn money, not just raise it, as money you earn doesn’t dilute your ownership and reassures your investors.

Belarus 137

Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

Start Up Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

'In what seems like a century ago I built and launched one of the first peer to peer websites – rentoid.com. In order to build the site, I outsourced the coding on a site called oDesk. This site and others of its ilk are a great entrepreneurial equaliser – for they reduce the barriers to entry. Not just in terms of price for the services, but also by allowing non techies gain access to techie services.

Moldova 83

Moldova HTML Europe Web Development 83

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 20, 2013

'by Aaron Hollobaugh, VP of Marketing & Communications at Hostway Corporation. Search Engine Optimization is the primary plan for helping draw people to a website, but if every business is doing it, is the playing field really tilting in anyone’s favor? Here are some more suggestions for making a website site more attractive: Social Media, Used Strategically.

SEO 141

SEO Technical Review PPC Social Media 141

SVPG

AUGUST 21, 2013

'I should have written this article many years ago. Starting around 2004 and 2005 I began seeing an increasing number of teams moving to Agile, and of course the first thing they needed was training and often some coaching. However, more often than not, I had to go into these companies after the training and try to clean up the mess that the trainer left behind.

Agile 61

Agile CTO Hire Software Developers Software Development 61

The Next Web

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly, a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The company is one of the largest VC–backed startups in Southeast Asia, having raised over $60 million in funding. . This is the first of a four-part series that will provide insight into starting, building, and funding a company across Asia.

Asia 127

Asia China Japan Startup 127

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2013

'With much of the global economy back on track, now is a great time for young businesses. As trends begin to head in the right direction, businesses that make smart decisions today will see considerable results over the coming years. Here, we take a look at five ways to keep your new business on track. 1. Put content on the web. No matter what industry you’re in, the internet is a space for you to take advantage of.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Early Stage Business Plan Global 69

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 18, 2013

'from Matt Peterson, President and CEO of eFileCabinet. Finding effective solutions for managing business data is one of the biggest obstacles businesses encounter in reducing costs, improving service, increasing productivity, and meeting regulatory requirements. Here are some tips to better manage your documents: 1. Consistent Folder Structures. Most businesses have a large problem with staying consistent with the way folders are named and structured.

Management 140

Management Retention Utah Software Review 140

SiliconHills

AUGUST 18, 2013

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News TechStars Austin will introduce its inaugural class Monday night, August 19th at 6:30 at Capital Factory. Announcing its first Austin program in May, TechStars has reviewed applications from more than 850 companies and chosen ten. Filament Labs build patient tracking and compliance software around mobile health, behavior […] The post TechStars Introduces Its First Austin Class appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 102

Austin Software Review Mobile Programming 102

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 22, 2013

'What is a Request for Proposal (RFP). If you decide to outsource your website/mobile development to a third-party service provider you will want to put together a good RFP with your CTO before approaching potential vendors. An RFP is a document that provides the information that a developer would need in order to provide you with a proposal for the cost, timeline and details of your development project.

Web Development 55

Web Development Web Developer Fractional CTO 55

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 19, 2013

'How to Deliver Extreme Value Through a Collaborative Sales Process written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Today’s sales process must be bathed in collaboration. The idea of a “sales process” is not a new one, most sales people either figure something out that works and it become the de facto process for them or their organization hands down and trains around a specific method or moving a lead from inquiry to close.

Sales 66

Sales Technical Review Reputation Technical Support 66

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2013

'This story is part of Bplans’ “How I Did It” series—true stories of real businesses getting started, solving problems and finding success. Read the previous story here. Alan at NewMedia Website Design : “When we started NewMedia Website Design we decided to work for free… That is, to do some free sites for influential people in the book biz, as well as for people we have known for years and years.

Investment Bankers 69

Investment Bankers Customer Networking Software Engineering 69

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2013

'I have a saying that I employ as a powerful metaphor at every startup with whom I work – “beware of shiny new objects.” It is one of the easiest pieces of advice to give as it is almost always valuable if entrepreneurs follow it as a guideline. Yet sadly most startups have “shiny object” obsessions. In today’s uber-connected, social media, everything-is-public, people tell you there’s killing it with these new features, investor & mentor whiplash &#

Bandwidth 368

Bandwidth Social Media Portfolio Video 368

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

'Every Tech Startup Needs a Chief Technical Officer. Many entrepreneurs of successful tech-based companies do not come from tech backgrounds. However, the biggest mistake that a non-tech entrepreneur launching a tech business is to neglect bringing on a tech savvy co-founder on the management team. This is like a bakery or restaurant launching without a chef.

CTO Hire 55

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Architecture Cofounder 55

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

'What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Healthcare (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists.

Startup 296

Startup Venture Capital Lean Early Stage 296

deal architect

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Ever since I researched these topics for The New Technology Elite, I have continued to marvel how complex technology supply chains have become: a) The need to demand forecast and plan for launch of several million units or just a.

Technology 268

Technology Forecast Management Demand 268

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2013

'Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. It’s here that entrepreneurs must shift their thinking from tactical and operational, to strategic and managerial.

Management 273

Management Startup Entrepreneur Revenue 273

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 20, 2013

'This is the third article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap and COC: a new metric for cancellations. You can’t read an article about SaaS metrics without running into LTV — The L ife t ime V alue of a customer. Meaning, the gross revenue you expect to get from a customer over its entire lifetime.

Retention 262

Retention Metrics Bandwidth Revenue 262

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 21, 2013

'I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the unsung hero of many start-ups: the other founder. A lot has been written about the founder/CEO and her growth and evolution as a company grows. But little is written about the (nearly omnipresent in my experience) co-founder – the #2, behind-the-scenes partner who teams with the founder/CEO from the very beginning to build the company.

Cofounder 45

Cofounder Founder Part-Time VPE Portfolio 45

deal architect

AUGUST 20, 2013

'This snarky comment in a Seattle Times blog summarizes the stability and security concerns people continue to have about cloud computing “With the three largest cloud software companies (Amazon, Google, Microsoft) in the U.S. all having glitches in the same.

Cloud 246

Cloud Seattle Security Software 246

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2013

'Most startups, and many big businesses, still don’t have a clue on how to use social media productively for marketing their business. They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches.

Social Media 256

Social Media Media Product Conversion Ratio 256

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 19, 2013

'I’ve talked openly about the five month long depressive episode I went through earlier this year. If you missed it, I encourage you to read my article last month in Inc. Magazine titled Entrepreneurial Life Shouldn’t Be This Way–Should It? Depression is a fact of life for some entrepreneurs. My depression lifted near the end of May and I’ve been feeling normal for the past few months.

Community 190

Community Startup Search Technology 190

Rembrandt Communications

AUGUST 21, 2013

'Time to Jumpstart Sales Now How do you get new customers to your site? Do you rely on your tech team and search engine optimization (SEO) to get people to your site? Are you just posting information on your site, telling people about it and hoping for the best? How is that working for you? […].

Customer 171

Customer Public Relations SEO PR 171

deal architect

AUGUST 19, 2013

'I was part of a group of analysts Gartner started hiring in the mid 90s to expand their business applications coverage. It launched the Administrative Application Services (AAS), Customer Relational Management (CRM), Integrated Logistics Services (ILS), and several vertical ones.

Vertical 236

Vertical Hiring Management Customer 236

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2013

'In building successful businesses, I find that creating a new and innovative product or service is usually the easy part. The hard part is providing the leadership required to align and motivate all the constituents and players – from engineers, to investors, vendors, and ultimately customers. Great entrepreneurs are not just idea people and then managers, they are extraordinary leaders.

Entrepreneur 253

Entrepreneur Leadership Framework Matching 253

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 23, 2013

'by Mitchell Rigie and Keith Harmeyer, authors of “ Smartstorming: The Game-Changing Process for Generating Bigger, Better Ideas “ Summer is rapidly coming to a close. Labor Day, which typically heralds the (unofficial) end of summer, is early this year. That means even sooner than usual, we’ll have to make the annual transition from laid-back, low-pressure August to nose-to-the-grindstone, time-to-get-serious September.

Product 179

Product Advertising Campaign Management 179

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 18, 2013

'Confessions of a Drupalvangelist. Anyone who’s been around me for the past 6-12 months has been inundated with my evangelism of eCommerce in general and Drupal + PHP. This is actually a bit strange for me, as a 20+ year software industry professional, I’ve spent most of my time in the world of extremely sophisticated software tools and languages – several of the startups I’ve worked at and/or launched were based on software tools to build software, so I’ve been in

Software Developers 22

Software Developers Software Development PHP Silicon Valley 22

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 21, 2013

'Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. The Lean Startup Conference was founded four years ago to bring together real entrepreneurs who have applied Lean Startup techniques and have useful advice to share with each other. Last year’s conference was no exception: speakers talked about their direct experience with practices you may need help implementing—things like metrics, feedback, and experimentation.

Lean 167

Lean Louisville Startup Metrics 167

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Most of the young entrepreneurs I know are classic proof of the old adage that people tend to overestimate what they can do in a short period, and underestimate what they can do over a long period. They become frustrated when they are unable to build their startup in a weekend, and give up way too soon when the path to real success seems to be interminable.

Entrepreneur 250

Entrepreneur Early Stage Startup Management 250

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 22, 2013

'For founders trying to look for the right location to base their startup, the choice may not be as obvious as it seems. While Silicon Valley may seem to be the most obvious place, it may not be the one most suited to your needs. Sure, Silicon Valley – the world’s largest entrepreneur and startup ecosystem – boasts the most number of mentors as well as being a strong wellspring of early stage funding, it’s also one fraught with the most risk.

Silicon Valley 168

Silicon Valley Singapore Startup Early Stage 168