Sat.Jun 11, 2016 - Fri.Jun 17, 2016

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The 5 Productivity Tools You Need As An Entrepreneur

YoungUpstarts

When you’re starting out in business, you have thousands of things to take care of. With limited resources in capital and manpower, it is the entrepreneur’s responsibility to get things done. It then becomes imperative for small business owners to be efficient in their daily tasks, in order to free up valuable time on the things that matter: cherishing first clients and growing the company.

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Even Social Entrepreneurs Need Profit to Meet Goals

Startup Professionals Musings

It’s very fashionable these days to declare yourself a social entrepreneur, working for the good of society, the environment and a better life. Most social entrepreneurs don’t like to talk about making money, but often they still ask for help finding investors. As an adviser, I have to tell them they should be looking for philanthropists, who look for social value rather than financial returns.

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A Scaling Magic Trick

Feld Thoughts

By definition, as a company scales rapidly, it adds people quickly. There are many things about this that are difficult, but a vexing one has to do with the leadership team. Often times, the wrong people are in senior positions. The faster a company grows, or the less experienced the CEO is (e.g. a first time founding CEO), the more likely it is a problem.

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Don’t go on a phishing trip!

Berkonomics

Dave’s note: Our guest author this week is Kevin McDonald, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer at Alvaka Networks, a network services and security firm in Irvine, California. He is a trusted technology and security consultant and public policy advisory to some of America’s most influential people and organizations. .

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

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

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Small Business Revenue Is On The Rise: Are You?

YoungUpstarts

By John Orlando, Chief Marketing Officer at Constant Contact. Small business owners might not hear this often enough, but you deserve a round of applause. Not only are you kicking it when it comes to revenue, you’re also savvy marketers with impressive do-it-yourself skills. This insight comes from a recent survey of 1,000 small business owners conducted by Constant Contact.

Revenue 144
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Voice – the next big paradigm shift

The Equity Kicker

I just worked my way through 213 slides of Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends publication. If you’re at all into understanding how the tech world is evolving I recommend you find the time to read it yourself (embedded below). This time round the most thought provoking slides for me were slides 115-133 where she talks about voice as a computing input.

Audio 65

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The HP Enterprise Startup

deal architect

I had a chance to spend some time at the HP Enterprise Discover event in Las Vegas last week. I was last at the event in 2012 when HP was a $120 billion entity. Today, HPE after the spin off.

Las Vegas 221
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Three Methodologies That Help Businesses Stay Creative

YoungUpstarts

by Lewis Robinson. Projects in business come in various sizes and shapes ranging from small, extremely-focused jobs demanding only a few tasks, to complex, multi-faceted work requiring input from every member of the staff. For you to undertake any project, there must be a plan that defines the whole methodology, from how you plan to deal with the project, tackle the risk factors, test each iteration, and manage the resources.

SCRUM 100
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7 Ways to Get More Podcast Subscribers

Duct Tape Marketing

7 Ways to Get More Podcast Subscribers written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. I’ve been podcasting now for over ten years and I still crave new subscribers. Now, don’t get me wrong, the benefits of podcasting for me are so strong I would do it even if no one subscribed, but exposure is one key reason to put in the time and effort (although it’s not that much time and effort) and getting more listeners can only help.

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What’s the Best Writing Advice You’ve Ever Received?

Brandanew

Far too often, I speak to clients, bloggers, marketers and other creatives who are stuck in some sort of a writer's limbo being unable to write about their own brand stories. My colleague ran a piece about her inspiration and writing advice last year , and I am now sharing some tips that help me. It's not easy, and don't let anyone have you underestimate the challenges you may face.

Marketing 158
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Jeff Weiners dystopian comments

deal architect

On Monday as I was going through the first edit of my book on automation, I heard of the whopper Microsoft bid for LinkedIn. I then read CEO Jeff Weiner’s letter to employees announcing it. Josh Bernoff calls the letter.

Employee 183
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The Characteristics Of The Best Websites In The Business

YoungUpstarts

A business website is a must, and a business website that turns the customers on is a necessity. However, creating a top site isn’t as easy as you might think. You can’t just play around with a few themes on WordPress and go live. You have to think about a variety of features that will entice the customer to make a conversion. To achieve this goal, you need to incorporate a few generic features that are vital to a site’s success: Easy Navigation.

SEO 100
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How To Talk About Competitors And Gain Credibility

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking negatively about competitors, and can’t resist making derogatory statements to their own team, to investors, and even to customers. This approach only makes these important constituents question your integrity, intelligence, and your understanding of business basics. Pointing out flaws in others does not give you strength.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere: Show No. 33: David Comisford and Omar Zenhom

Steve Blank

A huge lesson is to raise money at the appropriate time. We didn’t understand our value proposition. We didn’t even have a fully baked-out product. We weren’t ready. So we failed. Every time I started a business it was because I saw them as good short-term financial opportunities. In hindsight I realize none of these businesses lasted because i t wasn’t authentic.

Cofounder 134
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SAP finally has a marketing hit

deal architect

SAP Marketing has had a rough patch. There was the obnoxious “spokesperson”, Phil that SAP had to hastily take down. There was the balloon imagery around SAP’s cloud. Someone forgot to think about the hot air connotations. There’s all the.

Marketing 174
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The Importance Of Language Skills In The Modern Business World

YoungUpstarts

The business world is in a continuous development. Businesses are evolving and activating in a diversified environment that doesn’t respect physical boundaries anymore. Even more, due to accelerated globalization , we now live in a world where any type of business has the possibility to extend over borders. This made language proficiency a very important business skill that will boost anyone’s career.

Global 168
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Startup Founders Can Learn From Reality Television

Startup Professionals Musings

As an advisor to entrepreneurs and active angel investor, I often get questions about the realism of the Shark Tank TV series, compared to professional investor negotiations. The simple answer is that with all the staging of TV lights and billionaire investors, it’s nothing like Silicon Valley. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons.

Founder 136
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Does the Media Know About You?

Rembrandt Communications

Public relations can help you boost sales and create a positive reputation When you have a big event, new product or service or news to share, does the media know about it? What about your online reputation? Could it use some help? Whether you are in real estate, construction, health, or anything else, entrepreneurs often […]. The post Does the Media Know About You?

Media 122
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NYC Tech Podcast #2: Pillar Companies

View from Seed

In the second episode of our NYC Tech-focused series, Jay Acunzo and I talk about the tech companies most likely to ascend to the status of “pillar” tech company. We also explore why many companies we consider pillars may not be, and what makes such a company in the first place. At the end, we reveal the new name of our NYC tech podcast.

Naming 120
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Why It’s Important To Start Your Business Green From Ground Up

YoungUpstarts

by Michael Rogers of USInsuranceAgents.com. The world currently is at the point where every organization is encouraging business owners to invest in green, eco-friendly businesses. It was set in motion by the need to reduce the world’s carbon footprint. People should learn to think green in any idea they set out to implement. Companies and industries were cited as some of the major contributors to the degeneration of the environment.

Green 153
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7 Ways to Keep Your Customers Begging for More

Startup Professionals Musings

For too many small businesses, customer service is still seen as a “burden.” Entrepreneurs don’t realize that this burden is actually costing them over $200 billion in repeat sales, according to a recent study by the W. P. Carey School of Business. The report also indicates that customer problem experiences continue to increase, up four percent to 54 percent since the last study.

Customer 133
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The Expanding World of Accelerators

Gust

In some ways, it is now difficult to imagine a world without accelerators. Many of the globe’s most well-known and disruptive startups were propelled from the hallways of legendary accelerators such as Y Combinator, TechStars, and 500 Startups. AirBnb, Dropbox, Zenefits, Stripe, DigitalOcean, Heroku, Optimizely, Intercom, Reddit, and hundreds of other startup success stories were all briskly brought to life.

Startup 115
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Marketing Attribution: Creating a Growth Engine at Salesforce, Zendesk and Slack

For Entrepreneurs

I recently sat down with Bill Macaitis. I’ve been a big fan of Bill’s since we brought him in as CMO at Zendesk. He has since gone on to be CMO at Slack. In an age where product gets most of the attention, Bill is the kind of marketer founders crave. He knows exactly what.

Engineer 124
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Risks That Entrepreneurs Need To Be Prepared To Face

YoungUpstarts

Business is a risk. We all know that inherently. The more you want from the world, the more you must be willing to sacrifice or bet. When you’re the entrepreneur at the top of a business, that means you’re throwing yourself into even more risk. You’re also taking a personal investment in the risks of the business as a whole. Here are just some of the risks you need to be aware of: Lack of preparation.

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Introducing The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE)

Startup Lessons Learned

Can you believe it's almost five years since The Lean Startup was published? As I've traveled the globe these past five years, a very common question I get asked is: when are you doing another startup? Now, I'm finally ready to answer it. I'm the CEO of a new company with a mission to fix the root cause of one of the worst problems plaguing our whole business ecosystem: the malign philosophy of short-termism that emanates from our public markets.

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Not every decision can be made quickly: how to approach your mega decisions

Version One Ventures

The ability to make fast decisions often means the difference between good and great – this is true for both entrepreneurs and investors. At Version One, we usually know within a few days whether we should invest in a company or not. After we get this initial feeling, we can spend weeks doing more due diligence, but the benefits will only be incremental.

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7 Revenue-Boosting Strategies for Your Travel Business

Up and Running

The travel industry is a growing behemoth with no sign of slowing down. In 2014, the global economic contribution to the travel industry was 7.6 trillion U.S. dollars. Not only is the travel industry one of the largest in the world, but it encompasses a wide variety of business types and customer needs. This makes the travel industry easy to break into, as there are plenty of niches to fill, but difficult to stand out in, as large players (think major airlines, hotel chains, and services like Ub

Revenue 83
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Health And Wellness Benefits At Work Are Expanding

YoungUpstarts

by Andy Meyer, CEO of Financial Fitness Group. If you’re the owner of a company or working in human resources, you’ve likely got some form of health and wellness program installed in the workplace. Not only are these programs a hallmark of the current-day office, but they’re also becoming a valuable and expected benefit – and for good reason. With healthy employees producing more valuable work, taking fewer sick days, and costing less to corporate health care plans, having a health and wellness

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7 common mistakes to avoid when naming your app

The Next Web

What’s in a name? In the app universe, where Apple and Android users have over three million apps to choose from and attention spans are shrinking to all time lows, the answer’s simple: Everything. While a weak name won’t necessarily spell disaster for a well-conceived product, a great name makes the all-important first impression. Here are seven common mistakes to avoid when deciding on a name for your app. 1.

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Physical retail in trouble as shoppers continue to move online

The Equity Kicker

New data out from BRC-KPMG shows online sales of non food products grew 13.7% in the year to May 31st, taking online penetration of non-food to 21.2%. Physical retail of course went the other way decreasing 1.6% in the three months to the end of May. During that period we also saw the collapse of BHS and Austin Reed – both bastions of the UK high street.

Austin 78
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Introducing Hustleathon.

Hippoland

It’s been a while since I’ve had a side project. But, I’m excited to talk about a new side project called Hustleathon today. It’s something that I wish I had had several years ago as an entrepreneur. When I first started my company LaunchBit five years ago, it was clear to me that the number one thing I could do to advance my company was to sell.

Equity 76
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Why Every Marketer Needs To Be A Great Storyteller

YoungUpstarts

by Pierre de Braux is a content strategist at Spiralytics, Inc. Storytelling has been the basis of content marketing for over a century now, one of the original storytellers being agricultural equipment manufacturing company John Deere. The company published a brand magazine back in 1985 not to sell products, but to educate farmers on how they could become successful business owners.

Marketing 109
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7 lessons learned growing from $1,000 to $15,000 a month in 100 days

The Next Web

$15,000/mo in 100 days. Here’s how we got here… I’m about to hit “publish.” What’s the worst that could happen, right? Mm… maybe we should wait until tomorrow. Let me get back to this after taking a few calls. … Alright, let’s do this. *Few more hours more of pondering* Screw it. *Click* The first version of Rype was live. At this point, I was feeling too anxious to take it all in, but it propelled us on a completely new journey from that moment on.

Web 82
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Book: The Curve

Feld Thoughts

Yesterday was not an awesome day. I was tired from my run on Saturday and a late-ish night so I slept in. Amy got up with the dogs. When I woke up, our country was deep in the fallout from the worst mass shooting in the history of the U.S. I was shocked by the shooting, then angry about some of the responses, and then ultimately – with Amy – just sad about the whole thing.

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6 Tips To Speak With More Clarity And Confidence

YFS Magazine

No doubt you’ve got a good message – maybe even a great message. But that doesn’t matter much if the way you’re saying it isn’t honed. People are superficial that way.

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Entrepreneurs: The Importance Of Branding Yourself

YoungUpstarts

As an entrepreneur, you’ve probably been warned about all sorts of things that you must do. It can feel quite overwhelming to someone that is just getting used to the idea of owning a business. So, how do you represent yourself when it comes to business ownership ? Now, you’re the one calling all the shots, and it’s up to you to obtain the custom you need for a successful business.