Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2012

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.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Non-Compete Vietnam 222

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2012

My pal Dave has blogger Tourette’s. He has it on stage, too, at conferences. He can’t help himself: He’s Dave. My pal Dave has problems. Not the ones you’d imagine. His biggest problems are with language, colors, fonts and spacing. Not much more. I think he could say “no” a bit more. I’ve told him that if a vet just clipped his wings a little bit I think it would be good for his health.

China 309

China Incubator Email Portfolio 309

Agile VC

JULY 11, 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. The Rise & Fall of Great Venture Firms [Part 1]. July 11, 2012. I happen to be fascinated by the history of the VC industry, and one of the things we discussed at a recent offsite are the common threads behind the rise and fall of great venture capital firms.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

David Teten

JULY 9, 2012

Countless psychology studies have proven that we tend to like people who look and/or think like us. Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College and a Professor of Psychology, taught my “Introduction to Psychology” class in college. On the first day of class, he asked, “Do you want to know whom you are going to marry?” The 18-year-olds were excited to learn the answer.

Hiring 138

Hiring Technical Review Affiliate Audience 138

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

JULY 13, 2012

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.

Viral 238

Viral Cost Marketing SEM 238

The Next Web

JULY 13, 2012

In the startup world, venture capital is often viewed as the penultimate goal, yet for many startups bootstrapping is often the reality. And self-financing puts the emphasis on business credit. If you’re a small business owner, navigating the lending world today can feel like one big Catch-22 loop. Traditional lenders and commercial banks are typically reluctant to loosen their purse strings until you’ve proven yourself with a strong credit history.

CPA 126

CPA Startup LLC Bootstrapping 126

David Teten

JULY 9, 2012

Countless psychology studies have proven that we tend to like people who look and/or think like us. Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College and a Professor of Psychology, taught my “Introduction to Psychology” class in college. On the first day of class, he asked, “Do you want to know whom you are going to marry?” The 18-year-olds were excited to learn the answer.

Hiring 128

Hiring Technical Review Affiliate Audience 128

mashable.com

JULY 10, 2012

Top Stories Photo & Video Galleries Top Lists Trending Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video More Topics. People Recommended Mashable Staff More people. Jobs Events Try Our New Social News App Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Facebook Mashable Social Media All Social Media How-To Facebook Twitter YouTube Google+ mRank Tech All Tech Apps & Software Dev & Design Gadgets Mobile Business All Business Advertising Marketing Media Small Business Startups Jobs Lifestyle All Li

eCommerce 101

eCommerce Software Review Technical Review Social Media 101

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2012

Everyone’s heard startup advice about the importance of having a balanced management team. For instance, a tech whiz with no sales skills needs to have a strong salesperson on board to land investors. But a new book argues that startup management teams need a balance not only of job experience and skills, but also in their psychological makeup. Successful businesses often have one thing in common: The management team has carefully designated roles.

Founder 144

Founder Silicon Valley Startup Incubator 144

Gust

JULY 12, 2012

My wife, Ann, and I took a trip this past spring to visit Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Russia. The goal was to share our experiences in the realm of angel investing with an array of global audiences, by participating in various lectures, discussions and workshops. In all four countries we met passionate entrepreneurs who were eager to discuss their exciting startups, as well as angel investors looking to support them.

Community 121

Community Estonia Ireland Finland 121

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

JULY 12, 2012

It’s a shame that the reshoring trend (of manufacturing back to the USA) will take years to be realized. I’m a fan of course, I’ve written about it here before. Like many trends, it’s emerging in dribs and drabs; and some dispute it’s even really happening. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to raise funds for new manufacturing ventures in the USA.

North America 95

North America Intellectual Property Software Review Offshore 95

www.joelonsoftware.com

JULY 10, 2012

Joel on Software. Software Inventory. by Joel Spolsky. Monday, July 09, 2012. Imagine, for a moment, that you came upon a bread factory for the first time. At first it just looks like a jumble of incomprehensible machinery with a few people buzzing around. As your eyes adjust you start to see little piles of things that you do understand. Buckets of sesame seeds.

Software Review 85

Software Review Software Database New York City 85

ReadWriteStart

JULY 9, 2012

The top startup accelerators in the world - programs like TechStars and Y Combinator - receive a couple thousand applications for just a handful of spots each session. It’s harder to get into one than Harvard or Stanford. So how do you do it? You could Google “how to get into a top accelerator” and see what advice you find. Or, better, you could pick the brain of a recent graduate.

Technical Cofounder 127

Technical Cofounder Startup Boston Programming 127

David Teten

JULY 12, 2012

For startup companies trying to build buzz around their brand, but without the capital to launch a full-fledged PR campaign, there are a lot of ways to hack the PR game. Building on my earlier post about free publicity , I wanted to share some additional thoughts. To begin with, the best PR you can build is through satisfied customers with high Net Promoter scores.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital PR Technical Review Startup 122

The Next Web

JULY 13, 2012

Ingrid Alongi isn’t like most CEOs. While it’s typically understood that the CEO’s job is to be the salesperson and face of a brand, Alongi tends to spend more time focusing on the work conditions and employee happiness of her company, Quick Left. In fact, she’s so unlikely to talk about herself or her company that, while sitting with her for dinner during Big Omaha, the subject of Quick Left came up (not from her, mind you) and I said that I really needed to talk to some

Developer 114

Developer Technical Cofounder Omaha Cofounder 114

eranki.tumblr.com

JULY 13, 2012

Rajivs blog. RSS Archive. July 12, 2012. Scaling lessons learned at Dropbox, part 1. Rajiv Eranki. I was in charge of scaling Dropbox for a while, from roughly 4,000 to 40,000,000 users. For most of that time we had one to three people working on the backend. Here are some suggestions on scaling, particularly in a resource-constrained, fast-growing environment that can’t always afford to do things “the right way” (i.e., any real-world engineering project ;-).

Software Review 94

Software Review Database SQL Security 94

ReadWriteStart

JULY 10, 2012

The 10th annual student software contest, Microsoft's Imagine Cup, is wrapping up in Sydney, Australia, and there are some important lessons that all entrepreneurs, young and old, can glean from the process. The contest challenges hundreds of thousands of people - mostly college students - from around the world to come up with a new idea, code it using various Microsoft products, and pitch it in a series of judging rounds that culminates with winners in several categories, including software and

Software 124

Software Balance Sheet Singapore Architecture 124

deal architect

JULY 9, 2012

An executive told me a few weeks ago “My outsourcer has been reading too many of your innovation books. We hired them to do fairly mundane application and infrastructure support. Instead of doing that better, cheaper, faster, they are always.

Hiring 277

Hiring 277

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2012

Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.

Entrepreneur 263

Entrepreneur Initial Public Offering California .Net 263

venturebeat.com

JULY 12, 2012

VentureBeat | News About Tech, Money and Innovation. Whats Hot Menu. Skip to primary content. Skip to secondary content. what’s hot? Ouya Console. MobileBeat. GamesBeat. Nexus 7. Singularity University. / deals. Search. Primary Menu. Skip to primary content. Skip to secondary content. 2012 Events. Jobs. Newsletters. Video. RSS. Share. Prev. Next. 22 hrs ago.

Detroit 69

Detroit Incubator Technical Review Venture Capital 69

ReadWriteStart

JULY 9, 2012

The top startup accelerators in the world - programs like TechStars and Y Combinator - receive a couple thousand applications for just a handful of spots each session. It’s harder to get into one than Harvard or Stanford. So how do you do it? You could Google “how to get into a top accelerator” and see what advice you find. Or, better, you could pick the brain of a recent graduate.

Technical Cofounder 80

Technical Cofounder Startup Boston Programming 80

YoungUpstarts

JULY 8, 2012

The fact that the debate over whether a college degree is a sound investment even exists says volumes about the state of higher education in America today. But not only is the debate real, well-known figures are getting in on the discussion. It would be one thing if musicians or baseball players were making noise about how they skipped college and turned out fine, but it’s another thing to hear millionaire businessmen say college is not a must.

Cofounder 273

Cofounder Engineer Hosting Forecast 273

Jeff Hilimire

JULY 10, 2012

Yup, I think I just made my new toy even better :). Btw, and I’m sure its no surprise that I’m saying this, but this new Macbook Pro with retina display is freaking incredible ( link for spec details). The display is insane and reminds me of the difference we experienced going to the iPhone with retina. I wasn’t convinced it would be that much of a difference and I actually didn’t get this laptop because of it, but it’s phenomenal.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Technology 54

www.geekwire.com

JULY 10, 2012

Home. Jobs. Community. GeekWire Events. Startup Resources. Dispatches from the Digital Frontier. HOME. About GeekWire. Contact Us. Partners. Advertise with GeekWire. Sponsors. Job Board. Posts Comments Startups. STARTUP SPOTLIGHT. VENTURE CAPITAL. ENTREPRENEURS. Amazon. E-COMMERCE. KINDLE. AMAZON WEB SERVICES. Microsoft. WINDOWS. WINDOWS PHONE. XBOX 360.

Venture Capital 42

Venture Capital Seattle Cofounder Software Engineering 42

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2012

Everyone’s heard startup advice about the importance of having a balanced management team. For instance, a tech whiz with no sales skills needs to have a strong salesperson on board to land investors. But a new book argues that startup management teams need a balance not only of job experience and skills, but also in their psychological makeup. Successful businesses often have one thing in common: The management team has carefully designated roles.

Founder 65

Founder Silicon Valley Startup Incubator 65

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2012

People who can’t manage their own lives don’t make good entrepreneurs. Small businesses require multi-tasking, work prioritization, and decision-making, with no entourage of assistants and specialists. That’s why Fortune 500 executives usually don’t survive as startup CEOs. First you have to learn to accept total responsibility for things that happen to your business, just like you are responsible for everything in your personal life.

Startup 253

Startup Management Entrepreneur Networking 253

YoungUpstarts

JULY 10, 2012

Any observer will agree that the travel industry is ripe for some innovation, so it’s no surprise that many startups are eying that space. During the recent JFDI-Innov8 Bootcamp Demo Day in Singapore, we saw two startups – Singapore-based Flocations and Trafflers of Indonesia – putting their spin on travel. Here’s another newish Singapore-based travel startup, Qiito ( www.qiito.com ), that looks at travel from a different perspective.

Singapore 255

Singapore Indonesia Japan Asia 255

online.wsj.com

JULY 11, 2012

WSJ. WSJ. Facebook. Twitter. MarketWatch. MarketWatch. Barrons. Barrons. SmartMoney. SmartMoney. AllThingsDigital. AllThingsDigital. WSJ Live. WSJ Live. FINS. FINS. Factiva. Factiva. More. BigCharts. Financial News. Virtual Stock Exchange. WSJ Classifieds. WSJ Classroom. WSJ Radio. WSJ Wine. SEARCH. headline. gold man. Companies. GOLD. Ran gold Resources Ltd.

Silicon Valley 42

Silicon Valley Founder Software Review Technical Review 42

ReadWriteStart

JULY 10, 2012

The 10th annual student software contest, Microsoft's Imagine Cup, is wrapping up in Sydney, Australia, and there are some important lessons that all entrepreneurs, young and old, can glean from the process. The contest challenges hundreds of thousands of people - mostly college students - from around the world to come up with a new idea, code it using various Microsoft products, and pitch it in a series of judging rounds that culminates with winners in several categories, including software and

Software 60

Software Balance Sheet Startup Singapore 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2012

Although every startup is unique, there are certain common avoidable mistakes that can lead to legal complications which jeopardize the long-term success of the business. I’m not suggesting that every startup needs a lawyer, but you should definitely pay attention, and not be afraid to consult legal counsel if any of these raise qualms for you. Like other environments, most legal issues don’t result from fraud, but from ignorance on specific requirements, or simply never getting around to doing

Non-Compete 249

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder Startup 249

deal architect

JULY 10, 2012

Talk about Defcon 5. The McKinsey Quarterly (sub required) tells its executive audiences to be wary of cyberattacks. Wow, since when did strategy firms and CEOs start focusing on digital security? Before IT folks rejoice and spend their likely increased.

Security 225

Security Audience 225

ctotodevelopers.blogspot.com

JULY 11, 2012

Social, Agile, and Transformation. I cover several topics including agile software development, software startups, web 2.0, social networking, SaaS, content management, media, enterprise 2.0 and business transformation. Monday, June 18, 2012. Strategic Agile Thinking: Balancing Value, Innovation and Research. One of the issues I see with successful agile teams is the lack of strategic thinking on why and how they solve prioritized business needs.

Agile 40

Agile Architecture Offshore Software Developers 40

YoungUpstarts

JULY 9, 2012

Much has been written about the characteristics – and quirks – of the Millennial Generation, those born between 1982 and 1995. We’ve looked at what can go in the minds of a Millennial employee , what their greatest strengths are, talked about what they can learn from baby boomers , how entrepreneurial they are and even how companies can best appreciate them.

United Arab Emirates 219

United Arab Emirates Asia South Africa Indonesia 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2012

We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. These people are highly focused on investment areas they know, which have a large opportunity for growth, revenue projection of $20M or more in five years, and a high return that can be realized via an exit within five years.

Angel Groups 237

Angel Groups Angel Investor Early Stage Startup 237

deal architect

JULY 11, 2012

on the New Florence blog OneCognizant: System of Engagement meets System of Record Mobile Innovators The Last Mile at San Quentin How solar storms cause havoc What’s the opposite of innovation? Innovative or weird flavors?

Mobile 220

Mobile Technology 220

gigaom.com

JULY 10, 2012

Tech News and Analysis. Events. Books. Research. Home. Apple. Cleantech. Cloud. Europe. Media. Mobile. Video. gigabarb : Microsoft’s Ballmer to Apple: It’s on (again) [link]. Pulse. Follow us on Twitter. -->. Speech recognition anyone? AT&T opens up Watson API. By Kevin Fitchard. Jul. 9, 2012, 3:50pm PT. 2 Comments. Tweet. Look out Nuance Communications, there’s a new speech recognition player in town.

API 50

API Technical Review Artificial Inteligence RSS 50