Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

Most technology startups seem to be founded by three types of people: product managers, engineers or biz dev types (MBAs and the like). Very few of them are started, in my experience, by sales people and very few early stage companies really understand sales. That’s why I started the Sales & Marketing Series and at one point I will do a bunch of posts on the sales methodology we developed at my first company called PUCCKA.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2010

Sometimes I like to drop the comment socially that “I knew Bill Gates back when he was a regular guy.” I know that dates me a bit, but it also shows that I have been hanging around startups for a long time. The honest truth is that I worked with Microsoft then from my “safe” perch in big IBM, during the early days of the IBM PC. At that time I couldn’t imagine a startup succeeding that was first called Traf-O-Data to process raw traffic data into reports, later changed to Microsoft to sell Basic

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Viral Software Developers Software Development Partner 214

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 5, 2010

In the quest for optimization, A/B tests, metrics, and funnels, we're in danger of losing the fun and value of creative work. When we demand overwhelming customer outcry before committing to the slightest product change, we're in danger of losing the value of creating a cool feature that takes too much effort but people just love. When we do the minimum necessary to get the job done, we're efficient but not thrilling.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Some great posts in March The following are the top items from featured sources based on social signals. If I Launched a Startup - The Startup Lawyer , March 17, 2010 Great advice on initial steps of setting up a Startup. 9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere - Life Beyond Code , March 29, 2010 You would have met many smart people who live a mediocre life.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup PR Exit Strategy 150

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

“Staple green cards to the diplomas of foreign students who graduate from any U.S. university in math or science&# (Thomas Friedman). I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post.

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Technical Review Canada Green South Carolina 282

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2010

Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company, near-shore service, or off-shore organization in China, India, or Eastern Europe. In the USA, “near-shore” is a euphemism for connected countries, like Mexico and Canada. There is no simple answer to that question for all cases, but there certainly are some key considerations which will help you select the optimal solution for your case.

Software 129

Software Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Non-Compete 129

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 6, 2010

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 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! 2000+ Illustrator Symbols for Illustrators and Animators – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Austin Startup

APRIL 8, 2010

Entrepreneurs in the central Texas region have good reason to be excited this week. Not only has Austin been recognized repeatedly for the relative strength of its local economy in recent weeks , but on Monday, Austin-based Microventures launched its new site for peer-to-peer venture funding. The site takes the form of a marketplace where startups can submit their companies for funding, and investors can choose to invest anywhere between $250 and $5,000.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Incubator Texas 75

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2010

In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business card you gave me last week. That’s just wrong. We need instant access to the most important of all resources, current contact info. Too many of us have piles of business cards scattered around the office and home, as well as additional contacts on your cell phone, PDA, Outlook, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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Technical Review Technology Software Review Social Network 120

Berkonomics

APRIL 7, 2010

Here we examine the relationship between time, quality and competitiveness. If you are getting the impression from these many insights that complex relationships cause simple problems, you are right. We have heard the “haste makes waste” ditty since childhood. There is little need to reinforce the obvious. On a larger scale, there are epoch stories of giant companies eating massive losses in a recall of product, often based upon limited testing before release.

Software Review 63

Software Review Reputation Internet Cost 63

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 6, 2010

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 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! 2000+ Illustrator Symbols for Illustrators and Animators – [link].

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy. Field Marshall Helmuth Graf von Moltke. I was catching up with an ex-graduate student at Café Borrone , my favorite coffee place in Menlo Park. This was the second of three “office hours” I was holding that morning for ex students. He and his co-founder were both PhD’s in applied math who believe they can make some serious inroads on next generation search.

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Software By Rob

APRIL 8, 2010

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← From 160 Hours to 10: A Tale of Agile Business Practices My Podcast Launches Today: “Startups for the Rest of Us&# → “Startup Website Reviews&# Screencast Series Has Moved to StartupLens.com Website Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Software Review 40

Software Review RSS Startup Software Developers 40

trada.com

APRIL 7, 2010

Trada Blog: Paid Search Marketing, Online Advertising and Small Biz Trada's blog for small businesses making paid search, online advertising and social media easier to understand. Skip to content Tina MVC for WordPress « Finding The Need for International Pay-Per-Click Campaigns Lijit: A Fun Tool in Your PPC Arsenal » The Stealth Mode: Trada’s Position on Staying Stealth Debate: Stay Stealth?

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Stealth PPC Advertising Conversion 40

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. Because it is a “series&# I plan to get into some of the deeper complexities of funds such as “cross over funds&# and “why VC’s hate to price their own deals&# at a later stage.

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Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

deal architect

APRIL 5, 2010

OK, so more lines at Apple stores and more consumer excitement – but how will the iPad do in the enterprise? Marc Benioff thinks it will usher in “Cloud 2” - he says “cloud + social + iPad—will inspire a. Tags: Industry Commentary.

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Cloud 225

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 8, 2010

This is a guest post by Jarie Bolander, author of Frustration Free Technical Management and a moderator at Answers OnStartups. It'd be wonderful if you could run a business without interacting with anyone else — never relying on others to deliver quality work on time and never having to "be salesy" on the phone. Yeah, but unfortunately you do have to rely on others to respond to emails and phone calls.

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Harvest Email Lean Customer 227

Software By Rob

APRIL 6, 2010

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Startup Website Reviews – Episode 3: SimplyBill.com From 160 Hours to 10: A Tale of Agile Business Practices → Startup Website Reviews – Episode 4: NHProf.com Website Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Software Review 27

Software Review RSS Startup Software Developers 27

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 8, 2010

I was on This Week in Venture Capital today with Jason Calacanis talking about the big VC deals at the moment and talking about the VC industry. It’s about a 30 minute video (or about as long as it normally takes to read my rambling posts! I’d embed the video but it doesn’t seem to allow you to do this so here’s the link the This Week in Startups, Inaugural show.

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Venture Capital IPO Valuation Deal Flow 232

Venture Chronicles

APRIL 6, 2010

Comcast won a major legal case it filed against the FCC regarding Comcast’s attempt to throttle BitTorrent traffic on their network. The FCC fined Comcast on the grounds that it violated their net neutrality policy, and Comcast took them to court arguing that not only were they wrong to regulate internet data on the grounds of net neutrality, they actually didn’t have the authority to regulate the internet at all because even the FCC has said that the internet is not a telecommunicat

.Net 38

.Net SEC Technical Review Internet 38

deal architect

APRIL 9, 2010

Craig Cmehil is once again hosting FridayMorningReport (FMR) 24 Hour Marathon in aid of Doctors Without Borders. He has an all-star cast presenting on a variety of topics today and tomorrow. Dennis Howlett provides a roll-call here. I am presenting.

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Hosting 150

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2010

The Fundamentals of Technology Entrepreneurship course at Stanford taught undergraduates how to take a technical idea and turn it into a profitable and scalable company. By getting out of the building on a team project, the class helped students viscerally understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed teams, came up with a business idea then talked to customers, vendors and sales channel partners to validate their business model.

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Silicon Valley Business Model Customer Development Engineer 126

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2010

Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. Customers pay for solutions, but there is no market for ideas. I’m often approached by people with a “million dollar idea,” but I haven’t seen anyone pay that for one yet. Equally often, I see startups who are on the road to implementing an idea, but haven’t figured out what problem it solves – the business plan waxes on eloquently for 20 pages about how great this product and

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Feld Thoughts

APRIL 9, 2010

I had lunch today with Nate Abbott and Natty Zola, the co-founders of Everlater , a TechStars 2009 company. Nate and Natty are two of my favorites – not only because they regularly kick my partner Seth Levine’s ass on bike rides but also because they starred in last year’s TechStars The Founders video series. Today, while enjoying a veggie burger at Mustard’s Last Stand , we talked about how Nate and Natty learned to program.

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Programming Cofounder Video Finance 133

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 7, 2010

So midway through their rocket ship ride to a million users and beyond, the Foursquare team is going to jump off for $100 million and a chance to work at Yahoo! for the next couple of years? Riiiight. If you believe that, I have a bridge app to sell you. Sure, Yahoo! may be considering buying Foursquare—in the same way I’m also considering dating Lady Gaga.

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Acquisition Venture Capital Valuation Mobile 121

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

APRIL 8, 2010

Hello. Apologies for the links in the post below, they’ve gone missing since I posted this a few hours ago. I’ll see if it’s on my end, and in the meantime, hold tight.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2010

Entrepreneurs today are paranoid, afraid that even their friends will steal their business. Yet a creative collaboration with your biggest competitor in the same industry may be the best opportunity for revenue and survival. But remember that “dancing with the wolves” can also get you eaten for lunch. You have to take the risk, but keep your wits about you.

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Partner Non-Compete Exit Strategy Affiliate 120

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 7, 2010

We’ve been having a running joke within Foundry Group for several years about “stealth mode.” My partner Seth alludes to it in his blog post a few years back titled To stealth or not to stealth. I’ve always been on the side of “not to stealth” but after watching the remarkable stealth experience of Trada , thinking about how Niel Robertson (Trada’s CEO), Seth, and the Trada team have effectively used stealth mode, and reflecting on what “stealth mode” actually means, I’ve changed my mind.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 3, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, April 3, 2010 Six streaming locations Cant travel to San Francisco for the Startup Lessons Learned Conference on April 23, but still want to participate? Thanks to the support of organizers around the world, you can join in remotely - in most cases, free of charge. Im excited to announce the first six confirmed simulcast locations: Delft, Netherlands [link] Provo, UT [link] Boulder, CO [link] Chicago, IL [link] Barcelona, Spain [link] Vancouver, Canada [lin

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San Francisco Netherlands Continuous Deployment Lean 108

Rembrandt Communications

APRIL 8, 2010

Do you have a newsletter? If not, you may be missing out on a valuable, marketing opportunity.

Marketing 113

Marketing Public Relations PR Small Business 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2010

Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. These days, the technical side is the easy part. Proving the business model requires a different approach than proving the technical concept.

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Business Model Advisory Board Angel Investor Channel 120

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 6, 2010

While some people hate the phrase “failing fast”, I find it instructive when it’s used to signify that one isn’t going to pursue a particular path in the context of a larger set of activities. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about The Proliferation of Standardized Seed Financing Documents. It generated several hundred email responses and a handful of phone calls.

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Term Sheet LP Finance Email 118

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 8, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, April 8, 2010 Conference streaming, sponsors, discounted tickets Simulcasting in twenty cities worldwide leads todays news for the Startup Lessons Learned conference on April 23. Thanks to the generosity of new sponsors, we also have a handful of heavily-discounted tickets available. Discounted Hotel Rate Traveling to SF for the conference?

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Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

APRIL 5, 2010

Six months after first starting this blog in 2005 I came across another form of online communication called a “Podcast&#. Initially, like blogging, I had no idea what this term meant, but with some quick research I learned that podcasts and podcasting are all about creating audio files and syndicating them online via things like RSS. You can read my more lengthy definition of what a Podcast is here.

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Growthink Blog

APRIL 8, 2010

I recently read about a smart tactic a Fortune 500 marketing manager used to increase sales by 10%. I think you'll find it useful. And I think it's something you can implement right away to improve your sales. But what I'm even more excited to tell you about is what the manager did wrong. Which, when done right, should increase sales by even more, perhaps by 27%.

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Feld Thoughts

APRIL 6, 2010

I’ve enjoyed my interviews on Vator.tv in the past and think Bambi Francisco and crew do a great job of highlighting up and coming entrepreneurs, companies, and their investors. Vator is holding a Splash event on May 13, at the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco. Like its last event, about 400 attendees are expected. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh will talk about how he built a company to a $1 billion exit to Amazon and Gurbaksh Chahal will talk about how he started and sold two companies for $340 million bef

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San Francisco Founder Entrepreneur 99