Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 6, 2014
'I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I should note that my friend Brad Feld has written a new book on the subject that I would recommend if you want the bible on the topic. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 7, 2014
'by Julie Miller and Brian Bedford, co-authors of “ Culture Without Accountability: WTF? What’s The Fix? “ As a leader at your organization, you like to think that you run a pretty tight ship. But if you’re being honest with yourself, you know that you let a few things slide in 2013. A missed deadline here and there. A few tiny white lies to clients.
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The Equity Kicker
JANUARY 9, 2014
'As you can see from the chart above (produced by Microsoft) Android devices have been outselling iOS devices for a couple of years now. However, many of the Android devices were barely smartphones and device sales were only half the story. The app economy was the other half of the story, and iOS was stronger here. For most startups the app economy is the more important side of the story because it’s a better proxy than device sales for revenue and customer acquisition potential.
Hunter Walker
JANUARY 5, 2014
'Lost time is never found again – Benjamin Franklin. “A Venture Capitalist? What exactly is that?” If you’re in the technology industry you can probably answer but as I discovered this holiday season, most of my extended family and childhood friends were a bit fuzzier on the concept. Turns out the best way to explain was to share how I spend my days at Homebrew , the seed fund Satya and I founded in 2013.
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
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 8, 2014
'Happy official New Year’s, all. It’s that time of year where we think about new beginnings. And there’s none that makes me happier than to announce that Jordan Hudson has been promoted to a Principal at Upfront Ventures. Please help me congratulate him by Re/Tweeting this post (and following him if you don’t already). What is a principal at a VC firm and how does it work at Upfront Ventures?
JANUARY 9, 2014
'Medium site navigation Cancel Home Search Collections Sign in with Twitter 10 min read Photo from the Happy Startup Summercamp Next in trending 10 ways you’ll probably f**k up your startup Here I highlight some common early-stage mistakes I come across working closely with startup teams (and how you can avoid them) Laurence McCahill in Spook Studio 10 min read 10 ways you’ll probably f**k up your startup Here I highlight some common early-stage mistakes I come across working closely with startu
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Business Plan Blog
JANUARY 9, 2014
'Steve Rowles has been serving the San Diego startup ecosystem for over 20 years. Beginning in 1987, he worked in the garages of the first companies to come out of UC San Diego. Steve strives to provide a higher value to the local startup community and serves on the Board of Directors of CommNexus , a non-profit technology industry association that works to accelerate the formation, growth, and success of the industry in the San Diego region.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 4, 2014
'Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. I think as a tech industry we have bred a culture that places more emphasis on product excellence than managing human behavior. Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product.
Steve Blank
JANUARY 6, 2014
'For the last 75 years products (both durable goods and software) were built via Waterfall development. This process forced companies to release and launch products by model years, and market new and “improved” versions. In the last few years Agile and “Continuous Deployment” has replaced Waterfall and transformed how companies big and small build products.
deal architect
JANUARY 4, 2014
'Verizon has been running the commercial below over the holidays. What’s remarkable is they showcase wearables, bluetooth speakers, other electronics…but no phones. Their new retail stores carry phones, but they are often tucked in the back aisles. I look at.
Duct Tape Marketing
JANUARY 10, 2014
'How to Leverage Phone Conversations with Customers written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Jeanne Landau – Enjoy! photo credit: mycallfinder.com. It is estimated that U.S. businesses experience an annual loss of $83 billion simply because they provided bad customer service (or really, they didn’t provide ‘customer service’ at all).
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
JANUARY 7, 2014
'“Always raise more money than you think you need.” – people asking you to take their money Actually, they’re right. It’s not a ruse devised by greedy vulture capitalists vying for extra points of equity. You do need more money than you think. Why? Today you have a business plan, featuring a plausible growth trajectory (neither too conservative nor too optimistic), and an associated cost structure to drive signups and service customers.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 6, 2014
'You have to be extra tough mentally to be an entrepreneur. While thinking about it, I realized that it’s really not that different from the toughness required and trained into America’s elite military force of Navy SEALs, who are known to be cool under fire, able to sense danger before it’s too late, and never give up on achieving their objective. I just finished a new book “ The Way of the SEAL ,” co-authored by Mark Divine, who spent many years with the SEALs, and has since started and built
deal architect
JANUARY 6, 2014
'CES in 2011 inspired my book The New Technology Elite which focused on technology embedded in products and services in over 75 industries. As I wrote in Chapter 1 Lost in the excitement about iPad killers and iPhone rumors at.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 7, 2014
'By Mark Divine with Allyson Edelhertz Machate, authors of “ The Way of the SEAL: Think Like an Elite Warrior to Lead and Succeed “ In this exercise, you will work through a mock mission plan related to either your business or personal life – for example, to launch a new product, service, or venue, or to lose weight. Part 1: Select a Target that FITS.
Gust
JANUARY 5, 2014
'Image via Pets.Answers.com. “Will the dogs eat the dog food?” This rather crude expression weighs heavily on the mind of all good startup founders, no matter how confident they appear. We all know the products they give away, and the ones purchased by family and friends don’t count. The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 7, 2014
'I’ve been advising and mentoring startups and growth companies for years, and find myself always pushing them to try something new, for the sake of growth and survival. When you try new things, you make mistakes, and I’ve seen many. Smart companies learn from their own mistakes, but some don’t pay enough attention to other people’s mistakes. In the spirit of saving you a few lifetimes of pain, here are some common mistakes or shortcuts that seem to happen routinely: Wait until your company is u
deal architect
JANUARY 8, 2014
'In the Workday Predict and Prepare videocast last month, my second prediction was HR is at the cusp of an analytical revolution as it learns to leverage sensory, social and yes, plenty of HR data. I used examples like UPS.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 10, 2014
'by Matt Everard, managing director of Barrington Freight. The growth of developing nation’s economies – India is a fine example – has led to a surge in the amount of outsourcing contracts from developed nations. In 2013 there were 2,637,239 jobs outsourced offshore from the US alone, according to Sourcing Line Computer Economics. Outsourcing is not just a cost reduction tactic; it can also enable your business to access specialized services.
The Next Web
JANUARY 5, 2014
'Ilya Pozin is the founder of Open Me and Ciplex , and a c olumnist for Inc, Forbes, and LinkedIn. He’s also a gadget lover, investor, mentor, husband, father, and ’30 Under 30? entrepreneur. . Listen to this post as audio, courtesy of SaveToListen. It might sound strange, but creating something great is the easy part of being an entrepreneur. The hard part is to get customers as excited about your product as you are.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 5, 2014
'What sparks paradigm-shifting innovation in any business? It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible. As an entrepreneur in a startup, how do you know if you have this potential, and what are the steps to get from an innovation to a revolution?
deal architect
JANUARY 10, 2014
'Cloud revenues are just 4% of total 2013 revenues. Three of its senior cloud executives from SuccessFactors and Ariba acquisitions have moved on in the last year. Its own internally developed BYD shows little traction after years of investment. Yet.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 8, 2014
'You know the adage about the tip of the iceberg? That actually applies to the Internet too – what many of us don’t realize is that the interwebs that we see is merely a fraction of the actual Internet. In fact, we see but only around 4% of web content (called the “Surface Web” or “Visible Web”), with the rest being the “ Deep Web “ Unlike the regular Internet where content is accessed via regular web browsers, Deep Web content is not indexed by se
Feld Thoughts
JANUARY 7, 2014
'I was a CEO once. In my first real company, Feld Technologies, there were two founders – me and Dave Jilk. I was President (we didn’t use the CEO title then, but as the President, I was the “chief executive officer”) and Dave was Vice President. As we grew, other people had different titles, but the two of us ran the business. I’ve been told that I was a good CEO, but after about ten people I didn’t like the role of CEO.
Mike Michalowicz
JANUARY 5, 2014
'Back in September 2013, McDonald’s began a campaign for their Premium Roast Coffee. Started in California, the campaign (perhaps due to its success) has grown countrywide. Buy any size cup of coffee, at any time of the day, and it’s only $1. Small, medium or large – your choice – only a buck. It sounds great, until you understand the behavioral modification occurring.
deal architect
JANUARY 6, 2014
'My kids introduced me to Pei Wei over the holidays. It’s P.F. Chang’s “Asian Diner” concept in a growing number of neighborhoods. Both have one near their campuses and are regulars. I overheard my daughter excitedly talk to my wife.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 7, 2014
'By Jessica Oaks. A new year brings with it the hope of better things to come. The past year saw some radical developments in social media – witness the rise of Vine and Snapchat – and 2014 looks to promise more of the same. Below are some social media predictions for the coming year. Investment in Social Media Experts Will Become a Necessity. Currently, social media duties for many brands probably fall on the shoulders of one or more “tech-savvy, passionate” staff members whose main responsibil
The Next Web
JANUARY 4, 2014
'One business resolution worth keeping is making a commitment to attend more in-person networking and education events. For entrepreneurs in and around the tech industry, conferences are an excellent way to get up to speed on the latest developments, find great new services, and get a read on potential clients and customers — plus, you never know who else you’ll meet.
Feld Thoughts
JANUARY 10, 2014
'I changed my sleep pattern in October. Three months later, I feel like a completely different person. A much better one. Since I was in my early 20′s, I’ve been getting up at 5am from Monday to Friday. I generally would go to sleep between 10 and 11. An alarm clock would wake me up. By Thursday or Friday I would often snooze or even reset it for 6am or 7am.
deal architect
JANUARY 5, 2014
'I am running a series from a scan of over 50 magazine issues on New Florence of best of 2013 and things to look forward to in 2014. The 2013 entries were summarized here Here are the 2014 entries. Conde.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 6, 2014
'Japan’s top online shopping mall Rakuten has been flying its flag in Singapore for some time now despite not having launched a local version of its site, but it has finally done so – the electronic commerce and Internet service provider has today announced the official commencement of its operations in Singapore. Rakuten some time last year announced its first-ever Rakuten Startup Challenge in Singapore, a competition that looks at getting Singapore-based entrepreneurs and develo
Version One Ventures
JANUARY 6, 2014
'As someone who is still relatively early in his investing career, I often think about what qualities set successful investors apart from the rest. Good investing doesn’t just happen. And while luck may help at times, it’s not the answer. Here are few key ingredients that I consider important for being a great investor: Live in the future. Paul Graham advised start-ups to “Live in the future, then build what’s missing.
Rembrandt Communications
JANUARY 9, 2014
'Want to start 2014 with some great content for your customers? It’s the start of a New Year, and that means potential customers are looking for new content and information to help them reach new goals. What kind of content are you providing? By offering valuable information your target, audience members can actually use, you’ll […].
deal architect
JANUARY 9, 2014
'I am reading news from CES this week including that from a “personal cloud” company, Lyve Minds, a Seagate Technology startup. It made me ponder how believable the offering would be if an enterprise software company had announced it. 3.
YoungUpstarts
JANUARY 8, 2014
'By John Canfield, VP of Risk for WePay. When you are in the beginnings of starting up your business or in the heady days of growing your business, one often neglected part of your business may be the operational headaches and risks you have to tackle as you scale. In particular, if you are a platform serving many users and accepting payments on that platform (e.g.
Feld Thoughts
JANUARY 8, 2014
'tl;dr – If you are a CEO and want to take an amazing online course about being a CEO by Return Path’s Matt Blumberg, sign up for Startup CEO from NovoEd now. Yesterday, I wrote about Rand Fishkin of Moz falling out of love with the CEO role. Today I read Jason Goldberg of Fab’s great post on his struggles as CEO in 2013 and what he learned from it.
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