Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 28, 2014
'It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. More executives, or other more creative titles are seen as a big red flag.
Gust
APRIL 27, 2014
'Software Development Process via Wikipedia. Even when your startup is a one-man show and lots of fun, a “business” needs some discipline and controls to keep it from being defined as a hobby by investors, and assure some financial return. Like it or not, you are now entering the dreaded realm of specifying and documenting “formal business processes.
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YoungUpstarts
APRIL 29, 2014
'by Shankar Ganesh, Marketing Analyst at Freshdesk. Back in 2007-08, I remember when not a week went by without Twitter going down. In fact, sometimes, the fail whale would take ages to load. The good people behind Twitter would apologize and if it was a slow news day, tech media would pick it up. People grumbled, But those were the dark ages. People went offline and “cloud computing” was just a bunch of castles in the air.
crowdSPRING Blog
MAY 2, 2014
'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!
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 Professionals Musings
APRIL 26, 2014
'Many entrepreneurs fantasize about days longer than 24 hours, convinced that their new venture could change the world, if they just had more time. They don’t realize that a more viable solution is to get more done per existing hour, rather than creating more hours. We all know at least one person who is always “very busy” and works plenty of hours, but generates few significant results.
Up and Running
APRIL 30, 2014
'Welcome to episode four of #TrackThis, my recurring webinar series with Matt Rissell, CEO of TSheets ! This episode’s topic is a big deal for my company, and that’s why I wanted to share it with you. Happy employees are more productive, and they’ll make your company better. Money spent on employee happiness is money well spent! And I hear all of the time—and as you’ll hear in this webinar, even Matt feels this way—that current company leaders who are addressing employee
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook
MAY 2, 2014
'Improv and Innovation do mix — and it’s not funny. You don’t have to be funny for Improv training to be useful in innovation. There are two things holding back more business people from pushing the Improv training button: 1.) They believe that Improv is difficult and that you need to have a funny bone, and, 2.) They believe that while Improv might be a good soft skill there is no direct and near term benefit to innovation (or other corporate goals).
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 27, 2014
'I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. I started in 2007 with a thesis that my primary investment decision would be about the team (70%) and only afterward about the market opportunity (30%). I was telling him that it was much easier when I started because there were fewer deals, life was less public and somehow the world seemed to be spinning more slowly.
Steve Blank
APRIL 28, 2014
'D.R. Widder is the Vice President of Innovation and holds the Steve Blank Innovation Chair at Philadelphia University. He’s helping city government in Philadelphia become more innovative by applying Lean startup methods and Philadelphia University’s innovation curriculum. I asked him to share an update on his work on teaching lean techniques to local governments. —-.
deal architect
APRIL 29, 2014
'With infrastructure-as-a-service enjoying a price war of sorts thanks to Amazon’s continuous price improvements, there is talk that Moore’s Law has given way to Bezos’s Law. Call it what you want but we have have had a deeper disease in.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
APRIL 28, 2014
'As the founder of WP Engine, I receive weekly emails from startups proposing a “win-win” deal. So far, approximately zero have resulted in an successful deal. Here’s the problem , and how you can change your approach to business development so that it can succeed. Distribution is the hardest thing for a young startup, defined as “getting in front of potential customers.” Large companies, on the other hand, have solved the distribution problem (proof: 100,000 payin
Spencer Fry
MAY 2, 2014
'OMG is the best way to describe how I feel right now. I’m so relieved to have finally shipped the massive update to Uncover. It’s something that we began working on in July 2013, only to release it ten months later on April 30th, 2014. Anyone who works in product development will know that ten months is an eternity. This release pressed down on us like the heaviest of weights.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 27, 2014
'Entrepreneurship is more about building a business than inventing a product. It’s more about the quality of the execution, rather than the quality of the idea. Most importantly, it’s more about being a proactive leader who connects to customers and the team deeply, rather than a bright light that struggles to be seen amidst the glare of a million other bright lights.
deal architect
MAY 1, 2014
'Oracle invited me to its Marketing Cloud event in New York City this week. While it was showcasing its growing portfolio of assets like Eloqua, Vitrue, BlueKai, Responsys and Compendium, I was as impressed with the range of conversations the.
SoCal CTO
APRIL 28, 2014
'There was a lot of passion in the room last week when I presented Working with Developers at the Stubbs Precellerator. I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. So I promised that I would provide a follow-up after the session. This is that follow-up and hopefully it’s useful to people outside of the session as well.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 28, 2014
'by Michelle Joseph, CEO of PeopleFoundry. An effective hiring plan and process is important to the infrastructure of any company. There are many steps to take when onboarding new employees. Many companies make the mistake of hiring under certain limitations such as time constraints or for new projects. This can be detrimental to the company for a number of reasons: The candidate does not exemplify the company and its goals, but will suffice for a small amount of time.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 1, 2014
'Amazon. It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. Every pitch I’ve ever seen has led to the, “Would Amazon eventually do this? And could we then compete?” type questions. But what if you could do the reverse of Amazon?
TechEmpower
MAY 1, 2014
'The latest round of our ongoing Framework Benchmarks project is now available! Round 9 updates several test implementations and introduces a new test environment using modern server hardware. Since the first round, we have known that the highest-performance frameworks and platforms have been network-limited by our gigabit Ethernet. For Round 9, Peak Hosting has provided a high-performance environment equipped with 10-gigabit Ethernet at one of their data centers.
Agile VC
APRIL 28, 2014
'I watched the first episode of HBO’s Silicon Valley last night. Yes I know I’m several weeks behind at this point, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to get into this series (still not sure actually). FWIW I’m a big fan of Mike Judge’s films like Office Space and Idiocracy, and also enjoyed his prior TV shows. But as I said to my wife, I suppose it’s a little like a doctor watching ER back in the day or a cop watching contemporary crime dramas.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 27, 2014
'by Mike Matousek, CEO and founder of Flashnotes.com. It doesn’t matter your age or experience, starting your own business and keeping it afloat is an endeavor many people don’t have the passion or drive to do. A true entrepreneur is someone who is so confident in their idea and the vision for their company – they will not allow any negative comments, events, or situations to break them or get in the way of their determination.
Feld Thoughts
APRIL 28, 2014
'While driving down Highway 36 from Boulder to Denver for a FullContact board meeting, TA McCann told me a wonderful phrase that I’ve been carrying around with me for the past month or so. “At RivalIQ , we’ve implemented ‘I Will’ instead of ‘We Should.’” I’ve worked with TA since we invested in Gist in 2009.
This is going to be BIG.
MAY 2, 2014
'I don''t drink. I mean, I consume liquid, but all of those liquids are non-alcoholic. I''m not Mormon. Nor am I an alcoholic. I have no real moral issue with reasonable amounts of drinking--and actually quite envy wine enthusiasts. It seems like a neat and interesting hobby. I just really don''t like the taste. Otherwise, I probably would drink wine.
Up and Running
MAY 1, 2014
'You’ve reviewed what a business plan is , and why you need one to start and grow your business. It’s time to dig into the process of actually writing a business plan. In this step-by-step guide, I’ll take you through every stage of writing a business plan that will actually help you achieve your goals. Whether you’re trying to raise money for your business or are developing a plan for strategic growth, a solid business plan is a key component to every successful business.
YoungUpstarts
MAY 2, 2014
'by Alicia Lawrence, WebpageFX . I had a professor in college who swore by the pick two strategy. He said that in business you want everything you do to be low-cost, delivered quickly and to be high quality but that’s pretty much impossible. He maintained that in any situation, you will only be able to achieve two out of three of those attributes.
The Next Web
APRIL 27, 2014
'Ilya Pozin is the founder of Open Me and Ciplex and is a columnist for Inc, Forbes and LinkedIn. What if everyone at your company knew your salary? Would it make your company more transparent, lean, productive, and motivated? Or would it lead to hurt feelings and foster a more toxic company culture? One of the newest company culture trends is the transparent salary, where organizations make the salaries of all employees public knowledge within the company.
Gust
APRIL 30, 2014
'The biggest change is the one that ALL serious angel investors eventually arrive at: no matter how smart or experienced you are, there are simply too many exogenous factors affecting outcomes for you to be able to pick only winners. Having now invested in over 85 startups, and finding that my personal metrics are very similar to aggregated industry ones, it is clear that (a) there is little to no correlation between my home runs and my personal favorites, and (b) angel investing done correctly
Rembrandt Communications
APRIL 30, 2014
'Boost sales and online awareness fast and cost-effectively. Recently, I was fortunate enough to be interviewed on “Black Hollywood Live’s Phenomenal Women.” I had a great time during the interview, and the host and I discussed “How to Build Buzz.” With this in mind, I thought I’d share some tips with you on how you […].
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 29, 2014
'By Larry Caretsky, CEO of Commence. If you manage your company’s sales team, you probably spend a lot of time working with your sales professionals to identify opportunities and monitoring their performance. You may focus on helping them effectively outline your company’s value proposition and discuss specific sales techniques with them. All of that is important.
The Next Web
MAY 2, 2014
'Kes Thygesen is the co-founder and head of product at RolePoint,a recruitment platform where the pipeline is driven by high-quality employee referrals. Big data. You’ve heard about it. You’ve read about it. Maybe you’re building tools that are shaping it. No matter if you’ve taken advantage of it or not, big data has the power to let you analyze success with more accuracy.
Up and Running
MAY 2, 2014
'Fundraising is hard work. It’s a simple truth that every entrepreneur knows: Getting the capital to start or grow your business is often harder than running the business itself. Or at least, it can seem that way when you’re in the fundraising cycle, with the endless meetings, pitches, and negotiations. In my experience, the most time-consuming part of the process is relationship building.
The Equity Kicker
APRIL 30, 2014
'Andy Dunn, founder and CEO of Bonobos is one of the most thoughtful startup CEOs out there. He writes thoughtfully and honestly about his experiences building Bonobos into a successful clothing business and draws out the lessons that apply to startups generally. In a recent interview with Business of Fashion he said this about hiring: When hiring, it is tempting to employ someone who has done it before.
YoungUpstarts
MAY 2, 2014
'The world is changing and many things are disappearing, and along with those are a large number of professions that once was important but technology advances have made obsolete. Automation, for example, have made it possible for machines to do the jobs man used to do, and they can do it far better, cheaper and more consistently as well. What are some of these jobs that are becoming instinct?
The Next Web
APRIL 30, 2014
'Ofer Yourvexel is the CEO of WRNTY, developing leading order taking apps and sales management software. Technology replaces people – that’s a fact. The things that made our society more productive could now be contributing to its decline as humans are less in demand. But have we arrived at the point where the salesman is no longer needed at all? Let’s find out in the ultimate battle of man versus machine.
Gust
APRIL 26, 2014
'Sure! There are quite a few senior executives of large companies who are angel investors. Unless there are specific competitive or ethical issues with a particular investment, there is nothing different from their employer’s viewpoint about investing in a private company rather than a public one. The only legal issue is that they need, like anyone else, to be an accredited investor.
Genuine VC
MAY 1, 2014
'Just about fifteen years ago, Josh Schanker and I, along with our co-founders Elliot Shmukler and Tammy O’Neil Bolduc started Sombasa Media together. Our company offered a series of consumer-facing properties, including our flagship property BargainDog, which was an early e-commerce daily deals email newsletter. Over the course of a couple short years, we grew that property to more than 5 million members and 250 retailer relationships, profitably selling the company to About.com.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 30, 2014
'The start of every year is marked with “awards season” – a flurry of ceremonies celebrating the great and good that has perhaps been developed to keep everyone in an aspirational frame of mind during those dark winter months. In London cycling gets its own taste of awards season, with prizes presented at Bespoked – the UK Handmade Bicycle Show – in April.
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