Sat.Oct 11, 2014 - Fri.Oct 17, 2014

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The Authoritative Guide to Prorata Rights

Both Sides of the Table

'Prorata rights are one of the most important rights of a private market technology investors and yet are seldom fully understood. They often create the biggest tensions between investors who are investing at different stages in the business. These tensions seep out in some angels or seed funds publicly or semi-privately deriding later-stage VCs for their “bad” behavior.

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6 Effective Website Design Strategies That Directly Impacts Your Business

YoungUpstarts

'by Deepak Chauhan, CEO and founder of VOCSO Web Studio. The current trends in technology dictates many things in today’s life, when it comes to businesses with an online presence website design is everything at first sight, long are the days when any type of a website could attract so much human traffic, While the current technological mind of most people is very technical to please, there are specific ways and methods of making a user friendly website to attract ever increasing traffic

Design 256
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How to Find the Time to Accomplish Anything

Feld Thoughts

'Guest Post By William Hertling – williamhertling.com (Author). William Hertling is a web strategist, programmer, father, short-order cook and the author of two award-winning and best-selling techothrillers: Avogadro Corp: The Singularity is Closer than It Appears and A.I. Apocalypse. You can follow him at @hertling or on his blog, williamhertling.com.

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Public Company Executives Rarely Adapt To A Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

'Mid-level or even top executives who “grew up” in large companies often look with envy at startups, and dream of how easy it must be running a small organization, where you can see the whole picture and it appears you have total control. In reality, very few executives or professional stars from large corporations survive in the early-stage startup environment.

Startup 258
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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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When Should Technical Founders Become CEO?

Both Sides of the Table

'Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). Much less has been said about when the technical CEO is the best person to run the company.

Founder 309
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[Review] Marketing To The Ageing Consumer

YoungUpstarts

'The ageing consumer is one of the most profitable yet untapped segment. Consider this: In 2012, there are 20 countries whose population is shrinking. By 2020, over 40% of the adult population in “ultra-ageing” Japan will be 60 years or older. Come 2050, another 25 countries will have ageing populations, the largest of which is China. With greater longevity and lower fertility rates across the globe, we will see more older and fewer younger people over the next few decades.

More Trending

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Product vs. IT Mindset

SVPG

'The role of the product organization is to consistently deliver significant new value to the business through continuous product innovation. At a startup, the product team either innovates and provides real value or the startup dies. However, in larger, more established companies, product teams very often lose their ability to deliver that ongoing value.

Product 91
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What Defines Your Company Culture?

Up and Running

'Google Headquarters has become known for it’s vibrant company culture, including such things as an Irish pub themed lounge. Company culture is a hot topic lately, and for good reason. Recent research shows that especially among younger generations, people want their employers to not only provide them with an income, but meaningful work and a positive environment.

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What investors look for in a startup

The Equity Kicker

'The post below first appeared as a guest post by me on the Web Summit Blog. ———————————– If you ask most VCs what they look for in a startup they will say great team, great product and great market. Then, if you press them for more detail most will say that for them the team is the most important (although I think they say that at least partly because it’s what entrepreneurs want to hear).

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Twitter Link Roundup #239 – Small Business, Startups, Innovation, Social Media, Design, Marketing and More

crowdSPRING Blog

'Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , we post links to posts or videos we 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 we’ve liked and shared this past week!

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Teaching Kids Programming

Andrew Payne

'Getting kids interested in programming is a lot harder than it used to be. I was lucky enough to come of age during the PC revolution. My brother and I would carefully enter multiple pages of BASIC code from computer magazines, and then play games for weeks (making our own modifications along the way). The problem now is the threshold of “interesting & engaging” has risen dramatically: today’s kids are surrounded by games and applications that have had hundreds of person y

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Sabrina Parsons, ‘Small Business Owners, Start Tracking Your Financial Metrics’

Up and Running

'Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software. The content of this article is based upon an interview conducted October 2014 with Sabrina Parsons , CEO of Palo Alto Software. For many small business owners – especially those who have turned a passion or hobby into a business – tracking metrics and numbers is a chore. If you’re not an accountant and you don’t have a background in business, or a natural affinity for numbers, you may find yourself ‘doing business’ on the fly, and perhaps,

Metrics 106
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An Alternative to Board Decks Some Seed VCs Actually Prefer

View from Seed

'Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. Included in that deck was something that caught some folks by surprise. While there was indeed a PowerPoint template to use, we also built out a proposed Google Doc to use as a direct substitute for actual slides.

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You’re a company when…

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

'2,700 days ago, and 40,000 subscribers ago, I published my 13th blog post. Feedburner said there were 50 RSS subscribers, but at least 40 of them were directories or scrapers. It was: “ You’re a real company when… ” An existential question of when a startup becomes “real.” At that time, I had decided it was when our sign went up on the building: By “the building” I mean a windowless loft of 1/14th of a small strip-mall in a cheap area of town, wh

RSS 309
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Do You Have The Commitment To Succeed In Business?

Startup Professionals Musings

'We’ve all heard the old joke “In a bacon-and-egg breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed.” This quote epitomizes the true essence of commitment. We all know at least one small business owner who claims to committed, but seems to treat the business like a part-time hobby. They don’t put personal skin in the game, and are quick to give up when things are tough.

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Take Advantage of a New Trend: Big Business Looks to Small to Innovate

Up and Running

'Sometimes it’s the smaller business that has more freedom to innovate. An increasing number of big companies are hiring small businesses to help them develop innovative products, processes and procedures. If your company is an innovator, you may be able to team up with larger firms to grow your business much more rapidly. Many small businesses see themselves mainly as competitors with larger companies in their particular industries.

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Dreaming of the next generation of clouds

deal architect

'Dreamforce this week had an even more festive feel than ever. Pennant fever gripped the town as the Giants played October ball. The Beach Boys sounded as youthful as ever during Benioff’s keynote. The many school kids invited in the.

Cloud 270
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No Business Plan Survives First Contact With Customers. 2 Minutes to See Why

Steve Blank

'If you can’t see the video click here Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development.

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Let Me Count The Ways Entrepreneurs Fund Startups

Startup Professionals Musings

'One of the most frequent questions I get as a mentor to entrepreneurs is “How do I find the money to start my business?” I always answer that there isn’t any magic, and contrary to the popular myth, nobody is waiting in the wings to throw money at you, just because you have a new and exciting business idea. On the other hand, there are many additional creative options available for starting a business that you might not find for buying a car, home, or other major consumer item.

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6 Ways To Make Your Startup More Attractive To Investors — Even With A Criminal History

YoungUpstarts

'by Catherine Hoke, founder and CEO of Defy Ventures. If you knew entrepreneur Marquis Hayes 10 years ago, you would barely recognize him today. The now successful CEO and founder of Brown Butter New York, a company that produces high-end cooking butter, was once a court-described “menace to society” whose life was overrun by drugs, gang-related assault, and armed robbery.

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Announcing Our Investment in Paintzen

Rob Go

'I’m excited to be able to unveil our recent investment in PaintZen. The company is a technology-enabled service marketplace for the home and commercial painting industry. They have gotten off to a torrid start in New York, and just announced their launch of San Francisco today. Check out more details here and here. What I think is really notable about Paintzen is that coupled with their rapid growth, their quality standards and subsequent referral activity is extremely high.

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GE: Give us your Dull, Dirty and Dangerous Data

deal architect

'Rajesh Gill, Group Chief Pilot Technical and Efficiency at AirAsia, shared his version of “data visualization” at GE’s annual Minds+Machines day in New York. He expresses to fellow pilots the impact of certain maneuvers such as shutting down an engine.

New York 191
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Entrepreneurs Need A New Adaptive Innovator Mindset

Startup Professionals Musings

'One of the business ironies that many entrepreneurs have learned the hard way in the past is that ideas which are truly disruptive carry the highest risk of failure, take the longest to gain traction, and thus are the least likely to get external funding. So some entrepreneurs stick with incremental solutions, avoiding more transformational or adaptive solutions implying disruptive change.

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Seven Tips For Ensuring Startup Success

YoungUpstarts

'by Scott Gelbard. Many entrepreneurs have aspirations about starting a company; however, they are not sure how to make it all work. There is so much conflicting advice to the point that it becomes confusing, causing startup business owners to question what advice to follow. Here are seven tips that are sure to dramatically improve the chances of success for startup businesses: 1.

Startup 233
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Yesterday Was The End of My Biking Career

Feld Thoughts

'First off – I’m ok. But here’s the story. “Ouch” “You’re in an ambulance. I’m just putting an IV in your arm,” said a disembodied voice. I had no idea where I was. I had a vague recollection that I had been on a bike. “You’re in ambulance. You are ok. Stay calm.” I realized I was tightly strapped to a board and couldn’t move if I wanted to.

Slovenia 194
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Right Entrepreneurs In The Right Place Get Funded

Gust

'Image via Flickr by Jeff Belmonte. I’m a strong believer that investors invest in people, before they invest in a business plan, or an idea. But I continue to learn that there are a host of other factors, maybe not even related to you or your business, that could keep you from getting the funding that you need. You may not have control over many of these, but it helps to know, for planning purposes, what is really happening.

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Ten Rules For Business Success Survive A Century

Startup Professionals Musings

'In this world of constant change, new technologies, and a thousand cultures, it’s evident and somehow comforting to me that the basic rules for business prosperity really haven’t changed in the last hundred years. Business success is still more about the people than the technology or idea involved. As an Angel investor and a mentor to entrepreneurs I still see this every day.

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Bootstrapping Your Way To Launching Your eCommerce Business

YoungUpstarts

'by Milysan Troche, founder of MyHauteCloset.com. Launching a business can feel completely overwhelming, and it is far too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you don?t possess the means or knowledge or have the slightest inclination on how to begin. After fleshing out at minimum a 1-3 page plan in order to assess your target demographic, price points of the items you wish to carry and overall branding voice of your business you will then need to focus on the nuts and bolts of bringing y

eCommerce 229
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Successful people start before they feel ready

The Next Web

'James Clear writes about using behavioral science to master your habits and improve your health. His free guide, Transform Your Habits, has been downloaded more than 80,000 times. This post originally appeared on his blog. In 1966, a dyslexic sixteen-year-old boy dropped out of school. With the help of a friend, he started a magazine for students and made money by selling advertisements to local businesses.

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Are You Guilty of These 3 Frightening Words in Your BtoB Content?

Rembrandt Communications

'Is Your Copy Scaring Customers Away Right Now? While frightening decorations, costumes and haunted houses are popular this month, scary, BtoB content is not. If you use the wrong words online and in your marketing materials, you can instantly lose sales. With this in mind, here are… 3 Scary Words to Avoid in Your BtoB […]. The post Are You Guilty of These 3 Frightening Words in Your BtoB Content?

SEO 133
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Crowdfunding: KickStarter, Indiegogo, AngelList, Gust: How to choose?

Gust

'First, it’s important to understand that the four platforms you list fall into two very distinct groups. Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are project -based crowdfunding platforms through which anyone can contribute money, either as a donation or with the promise that they will receive a tangible ‘reward’ of some kind if the project is successful.

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How To Properly Introduce A Keynote Speaker

YoungUpstarts

'By Diane Gottsman , modern manners and etiquette expert, and author of “ Pearls of Polish, An Etiquette Guide for Today’s Busy Woman “. When you are asked to introduce a keynote speaker at an event, you don’t want to pull a “John Travolta”. If you think there is no preparation involved in a well-executed introduction, think again. Here are some tips to help you set the stage for a memorable presentation: 1.

Texas 217
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A step-by-step guide to launching a product (for complete newbies)

The Next Web

'Jason SurfrApp is the founder of IWearYourShirt and author of Creativity For Sale. After Skyping with some college students, I wanted to share my process for launching a product or creative campaign. Whether it was launching IWearYourShirt, starting a non-profit, selling my last name, or various other campaigns/ideas, there’s been some semblance of a system I use that I wanted to share.

Product 161
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Mentors 7/18: Be Responsive

Feld Thoughts

'Techstars Boulder Demo Day was last week and it was the best one yet. As I got up on stage to close things out, I was incredibly proud of all of the entrepreneurs, but even more proud as I looked out at the audience and saw many of the mentors who make Techstars the experience that it is. Element seven of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto is Be Responsive.

Cofounder 140
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Top 20 cities for venture capital – London in at #7

The Equity Kicker

'The table below was published by Martin Prosperity. The data is for deals of $5m-200m from 2010-13 and hence excludes lots of deals that are included in other studies which show a much larger market. Given that San Francisco and San Jose/Silicon Valley are effectively one market the right way to think about this market is that 19% sits in the winning region, and the rest of venture capital activity is highly fragmented.

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[Infographic] Habits Of Unsuccessful People Vs Successful People

YoungUpstarts

'Regardless of your definition of success, merely getting by in life is not what we were set on earth to achieve. But achieving success in life doesn’t quite happen through happenstance but require a combination of talent, timing, sweat as well as no small measure of luck. Studies have shown that successful people do share many common habits – for example these include the penchant to track progress, the ability to dissect and learn from mistakes, thinking long term and taking risks

Developer 197