Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

There are certain topics that even some of the best journalists can’t fully grok. One of them is profitability. I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 30, 2011

by Jason Womack, author of “ Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More “ Now that the presents have been unwrapped and the halls have been undecked, it’s back to the daily grind. And while you’d love to feel energized and excited about jumping into 2012, instead you’re weighed down with dread. You know the second you step foot in your office you’ll be hit with 20+ tasks to add to your to-do list and an inbox full of e-mails begging for an immediate response.

Forecast 219

Forecast Software Review Technical Review Product 219

deal architect

DECEMBER 27, 2011

‘Tis the season to see Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Daniel Craig, Robert Downey Jr. ‘Tis also the season to review the typeset version of my new book. And as I juxtapose the two, I am staggered how many tech themes.

Technical Review 218

Technical Review 218

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 30, 2011

Chris Dixon had an excellent post yesterday titled Recruiting programmers to your startup. The post, and the comments, are full of super useful stuff that every entrepreneur should read carefully. I sent the link for the post out to the Foundry Group CEO email list and it generated a great discussion thread, including one of the companies sharing their full day interview / evaluation process which includes a four hour coding exercise.

Software Developers 136

Software Developers Software Development Startup Hiring 136

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

Rob Go

DECEMBER 28, 2011

I was reflecting on this post last week about the state of consumer web in Boston and shared a few of my thoughts in the comments. It got me thinking about this past year, specifically around consumer tech in Boston. Perhaps it’s been missed by most, but I think it was a remarkable year for this sector within this market. And that’s true pretty much across the board – from exits, late stage financings, scaling companies, and seed activity.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Boston Software Review IPO 54

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Asia – especially in countries such as India, China, Vietnam – is fast becoming the place where many entrepreneurs, whether locally born or lured back from Silicon Valley, are setting up shop. It’s not surprising then that the region has also been on the lips on venture capitalists and angel investors who are intent on riding the technology innovation boom in this part of the world.

Asia 167

Asia Technical Review Vietnam Singapore 167

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 28, 2011

As someone obsessed with human computer interaction, the Kinect is an important piece of hardware. Of all the various things Microsoft is working on these days, I find it the most interesting. I’ve seen some awesome things done with it by my friends at Oblong and Organic Motion and saw a ton of neat hacks at last year’s Blur Conference.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Common Stock Seattle Cofounder 134

www.readwriteweb.com

DECEMBER 29, 2011

While certainly not every business needs to raise venture financing, it is the path for many high-growth technology startups. Therefore, going down the fundraising path is something many technology entrepreneurs will need to do and is a critical step in the development of their business. This can be an intimidating experience so I've put together a list of five tips for raising a venture round.

Cap Table 47

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 47

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2011

Go-to people get things done. As an entrepreneur, you need these people, and you need to be one, if you expect your startup to be successful. That may be easier said than done, since resumes do not tell the story, and without real nurturing, they won’t stay around long. To highlight how rare this breed is, Jeffrey Gandz of the Richard Ivey School of Business relates a quote from a new CEO in a large company, "I have more than 1000 people in my head office organization, 900 can tell me somet

Startup 241

Startup Analytics Reputation Channel 241

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I was lucky enough to get interviewed by Rob Morris of American Entrepreneur Radio. Ron Morris has a great “radio voice,” and actually seemed to understand what the heck I was talking about. It made for a fun interview. Click here to listen to the interview: Steve Blank American Entrepreneur Radio interview. The following week Ron Morris interviewed Regis McKenna , who for decades was the “gold standard” for high tech Public Relations in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 224

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Public Relations Business Model 224

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 28, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). Everyone likes New Year’s Inspiration this time of year; this interview is perfect to scratch that itch. This is the fourth installment in my “Uncommon Interview” series — interviews where we get right into the meat and dispense with pleasantries or “how did you get into this business” sorts of fluff.

Cofounder 223

Cofounder New York Conversion Entrepreneur 223

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 27, 2011

With limited to no marketing budget, most startups usually rely on social media marketing to help them get the word out. The question for most startups is: how? The road of social media marketing is strewn with the debris and detritus of well-intentioned, but clueless, startups. But help is at hand. This infographic – as designed by the good folks at Column Five Media – shows you, as a startup, how you can leverage on social media marketing as a tool to help you communicate to your a

Social Media 214

Social Media Media Marketing Startup 214

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2011

For most new high-tech products, the first customers are always “early adopters.” The conventional wisdom is that early adopters are the ideal target for new products, to get business rolling. I see two pitfalls with any concerted focus on early adopters; first, the size of this group may not be as large as you think, and secondly, their feedback may lead you directly away from your real target market of mainstream customers.

Customer 229

Customer Engineer Technology Product 229

deal architect

DECEMBER 29, 2011

on the New Florence blog Fijit Friends Disney Appmates Starbucks is a tech barista Kelvin- Helmholz Waves.

Technology 236

Technology 236

Small Business Force

DECEMBER 25, 2011

Back when Yoda was just a mere wisp of a lad, I remember a newsstand where I would go to buy a newspaper for my Dad. The proprietor, who was the father of one of my good friends, had a unique way of tracking his money. Under his counter he had an old cigar box and in it he kept all the company's money for the day. When folks made a purchase, he put the money he received in the box.

Small Business 35

Small Business Forecast Software Review Revenue 35

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 30, 2011

by Alex Schmelkin, co-founder and president, Alexander Interactive. Tablet Commerce Takes Off. With the continued explosion of Apple’s iPad and other tablets in 2011, 2012 will see an expanded focus on tablet commerce. Retailers will learn the importance of optimizing their websites for tablet usage. Forrester predicts that tablet adoption will grow at a rate of 50% per year through 2015.

Cofounder 185

Cofounder Singapore New York eCommerce 185

Gust

DECEMBER 28, 2011

In the “good old days,” angels invested in seed-stage startups and teed up promising companies for subsequent venture capital financing. If the company was successful, this quickly led to an IPO – a very happy ending for the entrepreneur, the angels, and the venture capitalists. My, my…how the world has changed. The two major differences in the exit environment in the past decade are (1) the disappearance of the IPO market and (2) the rapidly increasing size of the average VC fund.

IPO 153

IPO Venture Capital Entrepreneur Angel Investor 153

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 26, 2011

As many of you know, I’ve been involved in advocating for the Startup Visa since the idea was first conceived in the fall of 2009. While it’s frustrating to me that some leaders in Congress are much more interested in trying to jam through bills, such as SOPA and PIPA, that fundamentally censor and undermine the structure of the Internet, rather than support entrepreneurs and the corresponding jobs that get created by creating a Startup Visa, I’m optimistic and hopeful that log

United States 134

United States Entrepreneur DC Startup 134

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 26, 2011

Tweet. One of the best things any investor can do is to pull back from the day to day of getting pitches and think about high level trends. What areas are going to change? What areas need to be disrupted? What types of things might happen in 2012, as opposed to needing another 3-5 years to come to fruition. The thing you need to be careful of, however, is only paying attention to big trends, because you never know when you're thinking big data and you miss the awesome direct sales jewelry compan

Technology 116

Technology Valuation Community Restful 116

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 26, 2011

Can creativity ever be managed? Shouldn’t it be a spontaneous process that happens when a flash of brilliance strikes somebody? How can one be creative if one is an engineer/accountant/mechanic? Well, according to Josh Linkner , CEO of ePrize, anybody in any profession can be creative and it doesn’t just happen by accident. In his book “ Disciplined Dreaming “, the business innovator and jazz musician shows that creativity isn’t born but made.

Flash 165

Flash Analytics Developer Engineer 165

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Due diligence should always be a two-way street. A while back, I published an article on “ Startup Due Diligence Is Not a Mysterious Black Art ,” describing what investors do to validate your startup before they invest. Here is the inverse, sometimes called reverse due diligence, describing what you should do to validate your investor before signing up for an equity partnership.

Due Diligence 119

Due Diligence Entrepreneur Offshore Angel Groups 119

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 27, 2011

It’s that time of year again. Everyone that publishes content and is looking for link bait is publishing a top 10 list of 2011. I’m getting asked daily to contribute – I finally decided to create a blog post so I could simply refer to it instead of saying “sorry – I hate top 10 lists, count me out.” 10. They are boring as shit. 9.

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Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

DECEMBER 29, 2011

We’ve all bought into the dream. You know the one. With the attractive pictures. Of you (or me) sipping a pina colada , resting on the beach, while cash pours into our bank accounts because we run an auto-pilot home business on the Internet. We’ve all realized it isn’t as rosy a dream to live through. Reality bites. Early.

Restful 111

Restful Internet Web Entrepreneur 111

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 29, 2011

by Ron Volper, Ph.D., author of “ Up Your Sales in a Down Market “ Recently I visited a major office products retailer to purchase a new color printer for our office. I had spoken to some of my colleagues about printers, so I came to the store armed with a little bit of knowledge and a lot of questions. Even though there were few customers in the store, no salesperson approached me.

Sales 154

Sales China New York Conversion 154

Gust

DECEMBER 28, 2011

One of my pet peeves in pitches is the triple whammy of absurdly high profitability projections. I’ve seen entrepreneurs promising 30, 40, even 50 percent profitability in their projections. Why triple whammy? Projecting excess profits, at rates way beyond the normal, are bad for at least three reasons: Kills credibility regarding industry knowledge and realistic projections.

Angel Investor 79

Angel Investor IPO Search Web 79

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 29, 2011

I’ve always had mixed feelings about the importance of a company announcing a financing in the absence of any other activity. “Dear World: We Just Raised $X From Investors A, B, and C.” Ok, but so what? In my book, there is only one real reason for this – to a ttract new potential employees : “We’ve just raised $X and are hiring 20 people including types A through types Q – see our jobs page at jobs.companyname.com and apply now.” Unfortunately, ve

Finance 133

Finance SEC Term Sheet Acquisition 133

Life Beyond Code

DECEMBER 29, 2011

We talked about stop signs very recently. A rejection even from someone who is accomplished can dampen anyone’s spirits. However, the reasons for rejections can be many. If what you have created is valuable and awesome, the reason for rejection is generally, the fit. What you brought to the table may just not be right for the project at hand.

Flash 82

Flash Video Restful Employee 82

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 26, 2011

mobileTech Tuesday, by Steve Guengerich Chances are, you may have never heard of Dewey Winburne, especially if you are somewhat new to Austin. I’ve been meaning to write this post for a long time to help change that possibility, in a small way. Because, regardless of whether you never met Dewey Winburne before he died in 1999 or have never even heard the name before, Dewey is a symbol for Austin and its tumultuous, joyous, [.].

Austin 86

Austin Naming China Texas 86

Up and Running

DECEMBER 28, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. The sluggish economy continues to be an issue for small business owners. And now it appears competition may be getting tougher too. According to the Guardian Life Small Business Trends Research Report, larger companies will aggressively market to prospects once considered “too small.” That means those of us who own small businesses may find ourselves dealing with new and tougher competitors.

Advertising 79

Advertising Small Business Web Internet 79

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 29, 2011

Now that it’s winter time, I’m spending more time on my treadmill. While I run naked when I’m outside (no headphones, no music), I find running on a treadmill to be mindnumbingly dull. Pluck my eyeballs out, swallow them, then poke my fingers in my ears and pull out my cochlea, and then punch myself over and over again in the face until FAKEGRIMLOCK comes and rescues me from myself kind of dull.

Curation 132

Curation Video Restful Programming 132

Growthink Blog

DECEMBER 30, 2011

If you've purchased any of my capital-raising products or followed my essays, you've undoubtedly heard me say that you should never send an investor your business plan cold. (By "investor," I'm mainly referring to venture capitalists and angel investors.) Rather, you should always start with a "teaser" email. A "teaser" email is an email that "teases" the investor by giving them a bite-sized amount of compelling information about your company.

Angel Investor 85

Angel Investor Email Business Plan Programming 85

Start Up Blog

DECEMBER 29, 2011

When I first met Sean Callanan for SportsGeekHQ he gave me a business card which I thought was pretty cool. An old footy trading card – with a player from my favourite team. As below: What I love is how he did it. It’s a simple mashup. No printing costs – just a card with a sticker of his details on it. He carries with him a card from each team and during the conversation (without me realising) he asks which team I follow.

Conversion 80

Conversion Cost Bootstrapping Entrepreneur 80

Up and Running

DECEMBER 29, 2011

I wrote a post with this title more than four years ago. Today, a good day for reflection and looking back as we welcome a new year, I want to revisit the basic truth in the title of this post, and point out what that really means. from istockphoto.com. Why are plans always wrong? Because they predict the future, and we’re human. We humans suck at predicting the future.

Business Plan 75

Business Plan Forecast Management 75

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 27, 2011

As entrepreneurship in Boulder continues to grow, Boulder Digital Works is offering a new course with Robert Reich (co-founder of OpenSpace, OneRiot, and the Boulder New Tech Meetup) called StartUp: Learning Entrepreneurism. This is the first BDW course open to anyone in the Boulder community to join BDW’s graduate students. StartUp begins with the premise that entrepreneurship, rather than being the result of genius and magic, can be learned.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Cofounder Agile Startup 131

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

DECEMBER 28, 2011

It’s that time again when the old year winds down (toodles, 2011), a new year sparkles before us full of potential, promise, and possibility (hey there, 2012), and savvy entrepreneurs are preparing their 2012 business plans.

Business Plan 83

Business Plan Restful Entrepreneur Marketing 83

Start Up Blog

DECEMBER 28, 2011

Invest it in yourself. Go to local Melbourne (Y Combinator) Statup site Adiso.com and book a flight to San Francisco. Spend the next month working on your best idea startup idea. Get a working prototype, or do those updates you’ve been talking about for the last 6 months on your current startup. Get it in shape. Book meetings with VC’s, write up a schedule of where all the events are, startups weekends are and build a calendar of people to meet, things to do and actions to take while

Silicon Valley 80

Silicon Valley San Francisco Revenue Startup 80