Sat.Feb 07, 2015 - Fri.Feb 13, 2015

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Announcing NextView’s Entrepreneur Advisors: Part 1

View from Seed

'As the holiday season is behind us and 2015 is firmly underway, we wanted to take a moment to both announce and celebrate the collection of top entrepreneurs who have agreed to return as our Entrepreneur Advisors. These individuals have all graciously agreed to continue their prior commitments to NextView-backed startups and entrepreneurs. . We’re excited and feel incredibly lucky to have them back on board: Niraj Shah and Steven Conine – Co-founders of Wayfair.

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Why You Need Qualifications In Frontline Management

YoungUpstarts

'Some people are born leaders; others were groomed to be ones. There’s a fine difference between becoming a leader because the situation called for it and becoming a leader through hard work and diligence. When it comes to frontline management, you can never be too careful about how you handle yourself. Your decisions and choices will affect dozens if not thousands of other people in the same organisation or company as you are.

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Why Entrepreneur Advisors Matter

Agile VC

'As the holiday season is behind us and 2015 is firmly underway, we wanted to take a moment to both announce and celebrate the collection of top entrepreneurs who have agreed to return as our Entrepreneur Advisors. These individuals have all graciously agreed? to continue their prior commitments to NextView-backed startups and entrepreneurs. We’re excited and feel incredibly lucky to have them back on board: Niraj Shah & Steve Conine – Co-founders of Wayfair.

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How to Become Your Own Boss in 2015 (Webinar Recap)

Up and Running

'Are you unhappy with your current job? Have you always dreamed of being your own boss? Before you quit, you need to create a plan. I had the opportunity to speak with Melinda Emerson, the “SmallBizLady” and America’s #1 small business expert, who took the opportunity to share with us her proven, step-by-step method to transition from employee to entrepreneur.

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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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How to Recognize Great Conversion Optimization People

ConversionXL

'While mediocre people are dime a dozen, good people are always in demand. But good optimizers are in very high demand, everyone and their mother is trying to hire one. Alas they can be hard to find. If you’re looking to hire one, what should you look for? What makes an optimizer a great optimizer? There are many universal traits that make anyone a “good hire” – like being proactive, hard working and so on – but what’s unique about optimizers?

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Mapping Movement: The Growing Need For Computer And Cell Phone Forensics

YoungUpstarts

'by Jared K Stern, the President/CEO at Prudent Risk. Computer and cell phone forensics are becoming more mainstream, and for good reason. There’s a lot of information hiding on electronic devices these days, and that information could be the key to uncovering huge liabilities for companies and help the government solve crimes more quickly. What Is Electronic Forensics?

More Trending

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Free Invoice Templates You Can Use Right Now

Up and Running

'If you’re a freelancer or independent contractor, chances are you’re familiar with how time-consuming the invoicing process can be. If you want to get paid, invoicing is not something you can set aside. The real question is, how can you do it faster? And, how can you do it more affordably, without having to turn to expensive software? One quick and easy way to streamline the process is to use an invoice template.

Flash 108
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Ben Dyer Joins Austin-based Enola Labs’ Advisory Board

SiliconHills

'Ben Dyer, a serial technology entrepreneur and entrepreneur in residence at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, has joined the advisory board of Enola Labs. The Austin-based mobile and web development company is run by Marcus Turner, its president and chief technology officer. It is also in the process […] The post Ben Dyer Joins Austin-based Enola Labs’ Advisory Board appeared first on SiliconHills.

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There Has Never Been A Better Time To Fail Fast Or Win Big

YoungUpstarts

'by Bernhard Schroeder, author of “ Fail Fast or Win Big: The Start-Up Plan for Starting Now ” . If you have ambitions about creating a startup, then do it now. Why? There has never been a better time. With new online technology, lean resources (think food cart/truck versus restaurant), cloud everything, you can “test” an idea with low risk and not too much money.

San Diego 144
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Taking My Hat Off to @Shervin and His Hyperloop Ambitions

Both Sides of the Table

'*. Shervin Pishevar. Many of the articles I’ve read about him over the last several years have a listing of his biggest successes – mostly Uber – and a tinge of cynicism about his close connections with celebrities or self promotion. Not this one. I’m going to write a pure admiration piece. A “hats off” (see what I did there?

Las Vegas 281
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What Do I Do Now? The Startup Lifecycle

Steve Blank

'Last week I got a call from Patrick an ex-student I hadn’t heard from for 8 years. He was now the CEO of a company and wanted to talk about what he admitted was a “first world” problem. Over breakfast he got me up to date on his life since school (two non-CEO roles in startups,) but he wanted to talk about his third startup – the one he and two co-founders had started.

Lean 257
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Was the S4HANA launch rushed?

deal architect

'As I listened to the SAP launch in NYC of its S4 product I told a few folks I was struck how high level the presentation was. That they should have field tested and matured the pitch with many customers.

Software 254
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Smart Entrepreneurs Make Better Decisions Faster

Startup Professionals Musings

'Every so often a promising entrepreneur seems to freeze in the oncoming headlights and gets run over by his competition. Why is it that his idea which seemed so fundable only months ago fails to attract investors today? The team is the same. The company''s market is the same. The only change might be a visible new competitor, or another economy downturn, resulting in investors holding their money, and that makes all the difference.

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Top Five Things VCs Want

YoungUpstarts

'by Al Goldstein, CEO of AvantCredit. Competition for venture capital is fierce, especially among startups. This article will talk about the things VCs and funding experts look for and what’s most likely to win them over. Below are a few characteristics VCs and funding experts look for in a startup. 1. CEO Track Record. Navigating the startup scene is a challenging task so it is important to have a CEO at the helm with a proven track record.

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What You Are Instead of What You Are Going To Be

Feld Thoughts

'I spent the weekend in Las Vegas with my dad. He’s almost 77 and I’m 49. We had an awesome weekend which I expect he’ll write about in detail on his blog Repairing the Healthcare System in the next few days since he generally does a really nice retrospective of our annual trip together. As I was reflecting on our weekend during my flight home yesterday, I remembered a discussion I had with Todd Vernon , the CEO of VictorOps , and a long time friend (we’ve been investors

Las Vegas 151
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Digital with a Big D

deal architect

'One of the most invigorating projects I have worked on in recent years was helping Karl-Heinz Streibich, CEO of Software AG write his book, The Digital Enterprise. It conveyed his passion why every enterprise, irrespective of the industry or the.

Software 195
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Great Entrepreneurs Move From Developers To Leaders

Startup Professionals Musings

'Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their knowledge of a new technology or required service. Developer skills are necessary, but not sufficient, to build a business. A real business requires leadership – thought leadership to attract customers and mind share, as well as people leadership around a team, partners, and investors.

Developer 209
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5 Crucial Steps To Becoming A Savvy Entrepreneur

YoungUpstarts

'by Donny Gamble Jr., founder of Personalincome.org . It’s almost a rite of passage in every successful entrepreneur’s life to spend a period of time at a totally unfulfilling nine-to-five, punching the clock and watching the hours of your life slowly slip away. “Meh. They say it builds character,” you say to make yourself feel better. But ultimately you find yourself turning into a character you don’t want to be and you just can’t reconcile that in your mind.

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Explaining Net Neutrality to My Dad

Feld Thoughts

'It’s late Saturday night after an awesome day in Las Vegas with my dad. We are doing our annual father-son weekend, where we head out on Friday somewhere he wants to go and return Sunday afternoon. Don’t ask my why we ended up in Vegas – it’s a mystery to both of us, but we are having fun. Today we bought some art at the Martin Lawrence Gallery, tried to buy tickets to Rod Stewart but finally gave up, headed down to Downtown Las Vegas, had lunch at The Container Park, hu

.Net 132
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Bridge Group 2015 SaaS Inside Sales Survey Report

For Entrepreneurs

'Survey results from 342 B2B SaaS companies on key inside sales metrics including group structure, ramp and retention, quota and compensation, activity & technology and leadership. Intro The SaaS model has become mainstream, and is everywhere. Gone are the early fears of data privacy and security, and now even late adopters are using SaaS for […].

Sales 131
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8 out of 10 statistics are… totally made up

The Next Web

'Paul Jarvis is a best-selling author and designer. He writes weekly for his popular newsletter and runs an online course on becoming a better freelancer. According to a study done by Bloomberg, 8 out of 10 small businesses will fail within the first 18 months. The only problem is that this study done by Bloomberg doesn’t exist. Or at least, isn’t public anywhere on the Internet.

Internet 131
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10 Important Non-Technical Traits That Every Developer Should Possess

YoungUpstarts

'by Philip Acuña. Hiring a developer isn’t just about finding someone with the right technical skills. Though technical prowess is obviously important, non-technical qualities such as self-motivation and problem-solving abilities are crucial when it comes to ensuring that your vision becomes a reality. Countless entrepreneurs have hired candidates that look great on paper, but often lack the imagination or tenacity to complete the project independently or to the entrepreneur’s liking.

Colombia 164
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Do You Love What You’re Doing?

Rembrandt Communications

'If not, take this Valentine’s Day weekend to make some changes! It’s almost Valentine’s Day… time to think about the people and things you love. With this in mind, how much do you “love” what you are doing? If there are certain aspects of your business that you just don’t like, I have a few […]. The post Do You Love What You’re Doing? appeared first on SEO Content Strategy and BtoB Public Relations.

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Death of Distance and the End of Time

Feld Thoughts

'I was fortunate to spend an hour with a group of about 30 people and Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC yesterday morning. It was a super interesting and stimulating conversation that preceded an excellent speech that Wheeler gave on his Net Neutrality proposal. Go read it and ponder it. It’s in English (not legalese), is blunt, direct, and at times humorous.

.Net 121
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PR in the global economy: How media is different in Latin America vs. the US

The Next Web

'Conrad Egusa is the CEO of Publicize. He is happy to connect on LinkedIn here. Good PR strategy starts with good intelligence. You have to understand the value of the stories you want to tell. And you have to understand the publications you want to reach. And just as pitching a story to The Next Web isn’t the same as pitching it to the Wall Street Journal, there are also important, sweeping differences between the media cultures in different countries and even regions.

America 125
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Does Alternative Finance Exist In Singapore And Hong Kong?

YoungUpstarts

'by Anthony Coundouris , trade finance evangelist for ApexPeak. In Hong Kong, there are fewer than 10 alternative financiers, with similar numbers in Singapore. Alternative finance has grown slowly in these countries, because both are the historical treasurers of Asia. Money is in good supply and there are viable borrowing options for small-business owners.

Singapore 161
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How Technology Can Help Your Business Get Funded

Up and Running

'As a startup founder, your financial situation and getting your ideas funded are likely at the forefront of your mind much of the time. In fact, raising capital can be one of the most difficult tasks that any entrepreneur has to accomplish—it takes time, intelligence, creativity, and yes, a little bit of luck. However, there are plenty of new technologies, apps, and websites that aim to help business owners build connections, find investors, and grow their brands—and it just takes perseverance

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When partnerships should pursue partnerships (hint: rarely)

The Equity Kicker

'I wrote about the challenges of partnerships last year and I’m going to have another go at it today. Over allocating resources to partnership deals is one of the easiest and common mistakes that startups make. This is from the A Founder’s Notebook : Startups should say no to 99% of partnership opportunities. Most partnerships never go anywhere and don’t make sense for the startup to invest significant effort into the relationship due to being time and money constrained.

Partner 110
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How to find and attract the best developers globally

The Next Web

'This post is brought to you by HackerRank – find the best tech talent globally. Fingers deep in a keyboard, large headphones on, and a can of energy drink within reach flashes the paradigm of the traditional developer. Perhaps our figment of artificial intelligence is in the middle of a hackathon, maxing out mad coding skills in the programming languages that speak in new volumes to better UX, capabilities and functionality never seen by the likes of everyday Web users before.

Global 120
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7 Surefire Ways To Increase Sales With Autoresponders

YoungUpstarts

'Autoresponder emails, which are automatically triggered based on specific criteria you set, can be one of the greatest tools for building relationships and growing sales, if they are used appropriately. If they aren’t used wisely, you run the risk of annoying your customers and finding out just how quickly you can lose your subscription audience. Email marketing has been identified as one of the most profitable modern marketing techniques.

Sales 149
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Finding a Problem Worth Solving

K9 Ventures

'When we started in the PhD program in Computer Science at Stanford , Prof. Rajeev Motwani , who was the “default PhD advisor” for all incoming PhD students told us that our only priority should be to find a research topic that we care about. In fact, Prof. Motwani was so adamant that this was the only thing that mattered, that he said that we shouldn’t worry about the myriad of other requirements for the PhD.

San Jose 105
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Good startup hypotheses must be falsifiable

The Equity Kicker

'Karl Popper was perhaps the pre-eminent philosopher of science of the 20th century and central to his work is the notion that for a theory to be useful it must be falsifiable. Benedict Evans posted this quote on Twitter yesterday in a debate about the applicability of Clayton Christensen’s innovators dilemma theory to the iPhone. I’ve reproduced it here because it’s useful for startups generally.

Startup 103
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A first-time founder’s guide to term sheets: What’s an equity investment?

The Next Web

'Andrej Kiska is an Associate at Credo Ventures. In the introductory post to my term sheet guide, we covered a general introduction to term sheets and the trade-off between high valuation and complex investment structure, as well as focused on the basics of a convertible loan. Now we’ll shed some light on terms in a standard equity round term sheet and provide some context as to how we at Credo Ventures look at each of them.

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Must-Have Technological Aids For Real Estate Agents

YoungUpstarts

'by Preethy Martin, content strategist at Proptiger.com. Technology plays a key role in optimizing the workflow of a business. This holds true for real estate agencies as well, wherein the agents are constantly on their toes in a bid to stay one step of competition. This requires them to be out of their office and on the move, which may make it difficult for them to tackle some of their tasks at the workplace.

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It’s Sofa King More Effective to Pick up the Phone

Both Sides of the Table

'*. Phone calls. Millennials are allergic to them. I have this conversation Sofa King often that I’m sure each reader who has met me will think I’m talking specifically about you. I’m not. Well, I am. But not only you. Email is efficient. You can crank out asynchronous thoughts, orders, questions, commands and comments. I email often.

Email 263
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Emotional resonance: the essence of great product

The Equity Kicker

'As I ran this morning I was imagining a conversation with a good friend of mine about us investing in his next startup. He has a technical background, but like many great techies has taken commercial roles to broaden his knowledge base. I think he’s also pretty good at product. It’s this last point that I want to unpack a bit this morning.

Product 102