Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2012

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.

Leadership 272

Leadership Business Model Entrepreneur Partner 272

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 24, 2012

It’s hard not to be a techie these days. With the pervasiveness of gadgetry in our everyday lives, our brains are crammed with “Gb,” “BIOS,” and “OLED.” Chances are good that now, more than ever before, the stories of the men and women who paved the way for today’s technology, and the people who are now exploiting those works in new and fascinating ways, will appeal to more than just students who are early adopters.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley 165

Up and Running

APRIL 23, 2012

Doing your homework before seeking an investor is absolutely number one priority. There are thousands, if not millions, of entrepreneurs that haven’t the slightest clue how to approach a deal. Here are some common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make when they’re talking to investors. Don’t say or do any of the following, and you’ll have a leg up on the competition for those investment dollars.

Non-disclosure Agreement 98

Non-disclosure Agreement Technical Review NDA Due Diligence 98

Start Up Blog

APRIL 21, 2012

In my previous blog entry I spoke about ‘leveraging the wood chips’ Which is an old business maxim on how whatever we do has some kind of externality, off cut or by product which can be leveraged (very often sold) in some way to invent a new revenue stream. And while it may be obvious that many large business have such an opportunity, we also have this opportunity as individuals to realise the value of our wood chips.

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Ruby Technical Review Software Review Australia 63

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

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2012

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). The implications of the decision you make are huge, defining your brand image, your funding requirements, and your long-term business viability.

Business Model 282

Business Model Revenue Portfolio Differentiation 282

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 26, 2012

Social media resources like Google Plus offer a great opportunity for growth in education through collaborative work, communication, and camaraderie. Many of today’s universities have recognized this incredible potential, and have put G+ to work on campus. We’ve discovered more than 30 great ways universities are currently using Google Plus, along with several ideas for the future.

Georgia 214

Georgia Technical Review Michigan Hosting 214

Start Up Blog

APRIL 21, 2012

In my previous blog entry I spoke about ‘leveraging the wood chips’ Which is an old business maxim on how whatever we do has some kind of externality, off cut or by product which can be leveraged (very often sold) in some way to invent a new revenue stream. And while it may be obvious that many large business have such an opportunity, we also have this opportunity as individuals to realise the value of our wood chips.

Ruby 48

Ruby Technical Review Software Review Australia 48

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2012

A few angel investors have slipped or fallen from their lofty perch, so entrepreneurs must take great care to validate the character and reputation of every prospective investor. The entrepreneur’s tendency to be in a huge hurry to obtain the funding can end up being disastrous, and play into the hands of these less scrupulous investors. Many entrepreneurs believe all money is created equal.

Angel Investor 281

Angel Investor Term Sheet Entrepreneur Due Diligence 281

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 22, 2012

by Lee Shen Han. In an earlier post , I briefly touched upon the over indulgence of the importance of the ‘idea’ in a startup. Most of us have a tendency to develop a strong case of sour grapes when we come across successful ventures. We look at these ‘lucky’ startups and talk about how the founders stumbled upon the perfect idea, and were in the right place at the right time.

Lean 157

Lean Technical Review South America Silicon Valley 157

deal architect

APRIL 21, 2012

Offer for my blog readers - buy a copy of my new book, The New Technology Elite, and I will mail you copy of my last book, The New Polymath, a $ 39 list value. Email your proof of purchase.

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Email Technology 246

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2012

When you work inside a startup with lots of clever and motivated staff you’re never short of good ideas that you can implement.

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Bandwidth Management Startup 256

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2012

If you are an entrepreneur these days, or trying to grow an existing business, everyone is telling you that you need to use social media. There are many ‘experts’ out there telling you how to do it, or even offering their services. But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment.

Social Media 245

Social Media Metrics Media Startup 245

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 24, 2012

This is part of an ongoing startup advice series where I answer (anonymized!) questions from readers, like a written version of Smart Bear Live. To get your question answered , email me at asmartbear -at- shortmail -dot- com. Employee-Investor writes: I’ve been invited to join as startup as employee #1. They’re giving me a salary and an OK stock grant, but I want more stock.

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Salary Stock Startup Valuation 229

deal architect

APRIL 25, 2012

Bill Starke’s sculpture in the lobby of the Hyatt in Denver I stayed at this week is a good metaphor for the changing enterprise software industry. In general, everyone treats SAP and Oracle as the pursued, and SaaS vendors as.

Denver 236

Denver Software 236

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 26, 2012

We know Craigslist as a useful, if sometimes somewhat sleazy, online classified ads service that lets you find almost any kind of product or service available. What’s more unusual are classified ads that leads to people starting their own companies. That was the case in 2007, when Steve Bernstein, the publisher of music rag Relix Magazine , put up an ad on Craigslist looking for ideas on how to repurpose guitar strings – he wanted to sell more ads in his magazines to guitar string co

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Cofounder .Net Channel Founder 233

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2012

As the business economy rebounds, many entrepreneurs are thinking that life will soon get easier, and their opportunity can only grow. In reality, the business world gets tougher every day, with new entrants, new technology, and competitors more easily entering the fray from around the globe. Way back in 1979, Michael E. Porter proposed his Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment which I think makes even more sense today.

Differentiation 235

Differentiation Framework Equity Business Plan 235

Genuine VC

APRIL 24, 2012

VCs rarely go into an entrepreneur’s pitch meeting with a completely open mind. Of course they have biases given their past experiences, like with any human interaction. More importantly, though, they have biases about whether or not they are going to find the opportunity attractive even before a word of the dialog has been spoken. VCs have a fond saying about “wanting to like it” when they’re introduced to a new investment opportunity where many conditions of their so-called pattern recognition

Syndicate 224

Syndicate Syndication PR Portfolio 224

deal architect

APRIL 26, 2012

Both in the panel I was part of at Inforum this week in Denver and in this guest column for InformationWeek, I highlight that consumerization is actually a major revenue opportunity for most companies. But to get there will need.

Denver 210

Denver Revenue 210

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 27, 2012

Singapore-based startup Kark Mobile Education today announced that Jakarta-based investment firm Ideosource has invested an undisclosed sum into the company. According to the founder, the money will go into funding the development of their product – tentatively also called Kark – a tablet-based education and entertainment platform targeted at four to 12 year-olds based on simulation and interactivity triggered by trading cards (similar to baseball, Magic The Gathering or Pokemon-type

Mobile 176

Mobile Asia Singapore Cofounder 176

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 25, 2012

Yesterday, President Obama was in Boulder. The guys at Orbotix showed up and got him to play around with a Sphero. Watch the video (it’s pretty awesome) and then I’ll tell you the story of how they made it happen. The short answer – always be ready to demo your product – you never know when the President (or a key customer) is nearby.

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Product United States Restful Video 187

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 24, 2012

The following is an excerpt from HBS Professor Noam Wasserman’s new book, The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. Noam is one of a rare breed of business academics: he studies entrepreneurship using a rigorous empirical approach. The book taps Noam’s analyses of data on 10,000 founders, plus the personal stories of Evan Williams of Twitter, Tim Westergren of Pandora, and two dozen other founders.

Equity 168

Equity Founder Cofounder Vesting 168

deal architect

APRIL 25, 2012

on the innovation blog He said, she said The Queen in 1952 and 2012 Google’s Easter Eggs The feature which launched a thousand projects A Financial Services app store.

Technology 186

Technology 186

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 26, 2012

Small business resource for African Americans Black Enterprise has launched the Black Enterprise Small Business University Powered by Dell , an eight-week, online video course offering expert advice to entrepreneurs looking to start and grow profitable small businesses. With videos covering topics such as technology, marketing, leadership and putting together an exit strategy, the Small Business University is targeted at the aspiring start-up, the part-time entrepreneur, and those with an alread

Small Business 162

Small Business Video Exit Strategy Leadership 162

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 23, 2012

I'll show up generally anywhere I get invited to speak. I love public speaking, teaching and generally being helpful. I'm often the last one to leave an event, held back by the most persistant of entrepreneurs trying to squeeze as much advice as they can out of me. It's totally fine--except when I really really have to go (as opposed to when I just said I really had to go, ten minutes ago).

Startup 160

Startup Lean Venture Capital Mobile 160

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 23, 2012

As the endless stream of emails, tweets, and news comes at me, I find myself going deeper on some things while trying to shed others. I’ve been noticing an increasing amount of what I consider to be noise in the system – lots of drama that has nothing to do with innovation, creating great companies, or doing things that matter. I expect this noise will increase for a while as it always does whenever enthusiasm for startups and entrepreneurship increases.

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Community Portfolio Email Startup 147

deal architect

APRIL 22, 2012

On the New Florence blog 21st Century Cocktails Epcot Flower and Garden show Cupcake ATM The Forgetting Pill Revolutionizing Solar Panel production.

Product 199

Product Technology 199

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 24, 2012

by David Nance. As any small business owner knows, the success of your business is all about cash flow (and generating it!). Each dollar is precious, but investments must be made in order to generate a return. The make-or-break decisions relate to which investment will generate the greatest return, and often more importantly, the greatest positive cash flow.

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SEO Algorithm Search Engineer 150

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 25, 2012

Backblaze, a leader in cloud storage, just celebrated its fifth anniversary. While the company is now profitable and its seven founders are getting paid salaries, that wasn't always the case. We got a chance to look deep into the company's balance sheet and see exactly how it managed its cash flow over the past five years. The tale offers insights for all kinds of entrepreneuers.

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Management Balance Sheet Silicon Valley Salary 149

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 24, 2012

I get to work with a lot of great CEOs. When I reflect on what makes them great, one thing sticks out – they are always building their muscles. All of them. As a marathon runner, I’ve got massive legs. Marathoner legs. They’ll look familiar to anyone who runs a lot. In contrast, I have a wimpy upper body. I’ve never enjoyed lifting weights.

Search 141

Search Developer Management 141

deal architect

APRIL 21, 2012

Dean Homer Erekson at my alma mater, The Neeley Business School, asked several alums to contribute to a collection titled Major Moments for its 75th anniversary. I was honored to be invited and contributed below – I wrote it last.

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YoungUpstarts

APRIL 23, 2012

Oh how LinkedIn has grown. Even before the world’s largest online professional network listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) , it was growing its footprint across the world. One of their biggest markets? Asia Pacific. LinkedIn launched its regional headquarters in Singapore in May last year, and today it announced the opening of Hong Kong office, its 25 th office globally and 9 th office within Asia Pacific.

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Asia Singapore Japan Social Media 150

Agile VC

APRIL 27, 2012

How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. Home. About Me. AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Ethos: What ‘Blank Canvas’ Means to NextView. April 27, 2012. As many of you may know, we have a section on the NextView website called “Ethos” where we describe five key principles to how we operate.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 124

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 26, 2012

Irony alert: A lot of this post will be incomprehensible. That’s part of the point. I get asked to tweet out stuff multiple times a day. These requests generally fit in one of three categories: 1. Something a company I’m an investor in wants me to tweet. 2. Something a smart, respected person wants me to tweet. 3. Something a random person, usually an entrepreneur, who is well intentioned but unknown to me wants me to tweet.

Social Media 134

Social Media Audience Email Software 134

Genuine VC

APRIL 24, 2012

VCs rarely go into an entrepreneur’s pitch meeting with a completely open mind. Of course they have biases given their past experiences, like with any human interaction. More importantly, though, they have biases about whether or not they are going to find the opportunity attractive even before a word of the dialog has been spoken. VCs have a fond saying about “wanting to like it” when they’re introduced to a new investment opportunity where many conditions of their so-called pattern recognition

Syndicate 114

Syndicate Syndication PR Portfolio 114

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 24, 2012

by Sara Fletcher. Whenever you’re embarking on a project, be it big or small, one of the most valuable steps in ensuring the success is seeking counsel. You do your research and you get advice from knowledgeable, experienced people who’ve done it before or who have specialized in what you’re trying to achieve. The information and guidance that you can get from people who’ve already invented your wheel, can aid in making decisions that ultimately govern the triumphs of your project.

Government 145

Government Networking Internet Operations 145

David Cohen

APRIL 26, 2012

I get asked to make many introductions. I’ve noticed a trend lately, which is that more and more of them go something like this: Hey David, can you introduce me to investors that you think might be interested in my company? To me, this is the lazyweb version of asking for introductions, and it has many associated problems which will prevent you from reaching your goal of having valuable introductions.

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Cost Startup 133