Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
I’ve had a post in my head for months – maybe longer – about the role of a CEO. It originally appeared on TechCrunch as a guest post but just in case you missed it there. My primary role was “chief psychologist&# and as I’ve learned over the past few years the same has been true as a VC. Both are basically people businesses.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
Creating and building a business is not a one-man show. It requires a team effort, or at least the ability to build trust and confidence among key players, and effectively communicate with partners, team members, investors, vendors, and customers. These actions are the hallmark of an effective leader. Behind the actions are a set of principles and characteristics that entrepreneurial leaders, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, seem to have in common.
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Genuine VC
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
Most VCs drink beer, but how much do they realize that their industry is increasingly resembling that of the beer industry? Forgive me if I start a bit theoretical. The famed business strategist Michael Porter described a set of successful general strategies which firms employ to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage: differentiation strategy and cost leadership strategy for those firms with a broad market scope, and a segmentation strategy for those with a narrow market scope.
ReadWriteStart
SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
I have been meaning to get to discussing blue-sky opportunities at the roundtables, and this week we did some of that. During this week's roundtable we discussed an area that deserves a serious look from entrepreneurs: Rural BPO. Whether it is in the emerging markets or in the U.S., it is my sincere belief that there are numerous entrepreneurial opportunities to be tapped into.
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
Growthink Blog
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
For opportunities that Growthink is following now, click here. Believe it or not, the great residential real estate crash of the last few years will turn out, in the long run, to be VERY good for the U.S. and the global economy. Here's why: The Fixation on Housing Prices Has Been and Is Unhealthy: The word that comes to mind when reflecting upon the government subsidies (see mortgage interest deduction, first-time home buying credits, etc.) and media attention given to housing prices is distorte
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
It is no secret that the world of venture capital (VCs) has been turned upside down by the recession, and the many other changes in the marketplace. I see now emerging a new wave of investors, popularly known as “super angels,” micro-VCs, or “super-seed” investors. Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. Business Week ran a more thorough analysis of this movement a while back, which I am summarizing here.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
VC Adventure
SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
AdExchanger just posed an interview that I did with them that touched on some of our ad-tech investments as well as our overall investment philosophy. I’ve cross posted an unedited version of that interview below. 1. Why get into the venture capital side of the business? Do you ever get the entrepreneurial "itch"? I first got into venture capital about 10 years ago and I love my job.
viniciusvacanti.com
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
Home About Contact Me How To Make It as a First-Time Entrepreneur Vinicius Vacanti Guide to Finding a Technical Co-Founder September 7, 2010 | View Comments Steve Job's Technical Co-Founder “I’ve got this HUGE idea. I just need to find a technical co-founder.&# Ugh. I’ve heard that too many times over the last few years and it almost always ends badly.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
I was thumbing through Twitter messages on my Blackberry on Monday (I use Twitter as a “ mobile first, web second &# product) when I saw the following Tweet (see graphic). I resisted the temptation to jump in with a response because I knew it was too complicated of a topic to discuss on Twitter. But I thought I should do a quick post on the topic. 1.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
Every entrepreneur needs to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, and realistic about their reasons for choosing the startup route. For any entrepreneur, even the best business opportunities, if entered for the wrong reasons, will likely fail. Some of these reasons seem obvious, so forgive me for restating, but I still hear them too often.
deal architect
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
Mark Hurd replaces Charles Phillips at Oracle. In joining the company, Mark commented "I’m excited to be a part of the most innovative technology team in the I.T. industry.” Yes, if the IT industry is only defined as IBM, HP.
www.redmonk.com
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
Blogs Michael Coté James Governor Stephen OGrady GreenMonk RedMonk Rollup RedMonk TV RedMonk James Governor's Monkchips An industry analyst blog looking at software ecosystems and convergence About & Contact « I’m Back, with a Start: Are You Ready for a 9 Day Sustainability Summit at the Prince of Wales’ Gaff? Thoughts On The Dell Streak: I like the form factor.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
Keepstream is one of the five Capital Factory companies graduating today at Demo Day here in Austin. With their new web tool you can collect tweets and snippets, arrange as nicely-formatted collections, then share directly or embed in blog posts as I've done below. Besides shilling for them, I've been wanting to make these kinds of posts periodically.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, playing coy, or quoting an exorbitant number. I’ve written about this before, but it’s a mysterious subject, and I’m always learning more.
Pascal's View
SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
I never expected to have my first book published in China, much less in Mandarin, but that goes to show how much the world continues to change. My contributions to this undergraduate textbook, Venture Capital: Theory & Practice , are the result of two important collaborations. First, the body of collaborative work on corporate governance best practices that I have developed since 1999 with other venture capitalists and professional service providers to the venture industry; and, second, th
www.redmonk.com
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
Blogs Michael Coté James Governor Stephen OGrady GreenMonk RedMonk Rollup RedMonk TV RedMonk James Governor's Monkchips An industry analyst blog looking at software ecosystems and convergence About & Contact « I’m Back, with a Start: Are You Ready for a 9 Day Sustainability Summit at the Prince of Wales’ Gaff? Thoughts On The Dell Streak: I like the form factor.
deal architect
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
I have written before that US immigration policy is dated – we focus on country based quotas, family reunification, lotteries, and there is way too much angst about the social cost of Mexican migrant labor. We have lost sight of.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
An "elevator pitch" is a concise, well-practiced description of your startup and your plan, delivered with conviction and enthusiasm, that your mother should be able to understand in the time it would take to ride up an elevator. Everybody knows about these, but few people seem to deliver a good one. A good elevator pitch is not just for an elevator discussion.
SoCal CTO
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f
Seeing Both Sides
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
I love Jackson Hole , Wyoming. It is one of the most extraordinarily beautiful settings in the world. One cannot help being in a good mood when observing the breathtaking wildlife, open sky and the awe-inspiring Grand Tetons. Thus, reading the reports from the August annual economist confab in Jackson Hole could not have been more depressing. If the practitioners of the dismal science sound this pessimistic amidst such an uplifting setting, what will their attitude be when t
ReadWriteStart
SEPTEMBER 4, 2010
I recently had an urge to pick up an MMORPG again, but after checking on the profile for my favorite Everquest 2 character - clocking in at over 138 days played - it's probably best I not devote myself to the life of hardcore raiding at particular juncture. That being said, as a self-described gamer, I'm pretty sympathetic to any argument made that playing MMOs makes you a better person.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
One of the key sections of any business plan is the analysis of the competition. I especially love the ones that start and end by saying “We don’t have any competitors.” Investors take that to mean either 1) there is no market for your product, or 2) you don’t understand the concept of business and competition. Either way you lose. Way back in 1979, Michael E.
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
Today our portfolio company BigDoor launched the first ever gamification plugin for WordPress. The plugin will allow a WordPress site owner to add leader-boards to their site as well as reward users with badges and points when they leave comments and check-in. It is a great way to incentivize repeat visits and help build a community on your site. The BigDoor team has built a powerful gamification API, but until recently it required a programmer to implement it.
OnlyOnce
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
What Does a CEO Do, Anyway? Fred has a great post up last week in his MBA Mondays series caled “ What a CEO Does. “ His three things (worth reading his whole post anyway) are set vision/strategy and communicate broadly, recruit/hire/retain top talent, and make sure there’s enough cash in the bank. It’s great advice. These three are core job responsibilities of any CEO, probably of any company, any size.
ReadWriteStart
SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
Madison, Wisconsin has always been known as a progressive town - in part because it's home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But over the last few years, the city has gained a reputation as an emerging technology startup hub in the Midwest. Earlier this year, Forbes Magazine named Madison the 7th most innovative city in the U.S., ranking it ahead of the noted startup hotspot of Boston.
Startup Lessons Learned
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 6, 2010 Lo, my 57692 subscribers, who are you? Since this blogs earliest days, I have made a habit of surveying you, my subscribers. I did it originally as a demonstration of the advantages of having a pathetically small number of customers , but I found the actual info so incredibly helpful, I have done it several times since.
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
One of the most common criticisms of VC investors making seed investments is something that has become known as “the signaling problem.&# The explanation of this problem is that VCs create a “negative perception&# about a company if they make a seed investment but then don’t follow through and make a next round investment. Another way to say this is that a VC creates a “signaling situation&# with their seed investment – if they don’t follow on in the next ro
VC Cafe
SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Y ou will hear this piece of advice from many people: fail cheap, fail fast. Others would go even further and say it is better to launch half a product than a half-assed product. The Four Steps to the Epiphany (highly recommended book by Steve Blank) preaches for customer development before product development, advocating a quick launch with a minimal feature set rather than a full fledged product offering.
ReadWriteStart
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
Understanding your market is a crucial part of planning your startup. But traditional market research can be both expensive and time-consuming, taking weeks or even months to develop, execute and analyze and eating up dollars that many new companies just don't have. Ask Your Target Market is an online self-service market research platform that tackles those obstacles, helping startups and small businesses assess their markets while avoiding both the high price and lack of agility associated with
Life Beyond Code
SEPTEMBER 4, 2010
You are busy like everyone else and you forgot to thank someone for a favor received. You make a mental note that you need to thank that person when your time frees up a time. But as everyone else you get busy with your projects and soon one of the two things will happen – 1) either you are too busy to thank or 2) it is too late to thank ( that’s what you think ).
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 8, 2010
I was thinking more about my post from yesterday titled Addressing The VC Seed Investor Signaling Problem. There were a bunch of good comments that caused me to realize that I wrote the post from the perspective of a VC, not an entrepreneur. As I mulled the comments over, I realized something very specific. If a VC invests in a seed round but then doesn’t invest in the next round, there is a signaling problem, regardless of what the VC does with their investment.
Start Up Blog
SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
I was recently email some pics of Kulula Airlines livery. I’d describe it as eyeball worthy. Because it’s worth looking at, it’s worth talking about. There is no shortage of in cabin jokes from cabin crew while talking to passengers, but few have the courage to paint their personality on the fuselage like Kalula have. In an era of media proliferation, the trick any startup needs to master is the ability to be talked about.
ReadWriteStart
SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
There is a fascinating article online this morning from the San Francisco Chronicle's Tom Abate in which he profiles Raymond Lei , a 19-year-old Berkeley student and entrepreneur. While still in high school Lei founded ooShirts.com with just a computer and an idea. A few years and just a couple thousand dollars in capital later, Lei runs a successful 2.5 person team set to earn over $700,000 in 2010.
This is going to be BIG.
SEPTEMBER 6, 2010
If you work in data security, you know what a honey pot is--it's a place where you can lure the bad guys in, because it looks like a place that you can do bad stuff and get away with it. When you bring all the bad guys to one place, that gives you the best opportunity to catch them. In the real world, though, that presents some problems. Fake data doesn't really catch people in the meatspace.
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 9, 2010
I spent the previous 36 hours in Washington DC, primarily at the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 conference. I did a ten minute speech on the Startup Visa and a ten minute interview about entrepreneurship, innovation, and the Startup Visa. The conference was well attended – about 700 or so folks – and I enjoyed a number of the talks that I sat through.
Life Beyond Code
SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
Most people confuse their wishes and fantasies to be burning desires. In simple terms, a wish is something that you want and you have no interest in paying the price to get it. Similarly, a burning desire is something that you want but you are willing to go the length to get it. In both cases, people will passionately talk about it. The confusion happens when the “wishing&# person is highly articulate and persuasive.
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