Sat.Aug 09, 2014 - Fri.Aug 15, 2014

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In its emptiness, there is the function of a startup

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

'This article was originally published on the WP Engine Blog. Calm your freneticTL;DR twitchy-Twitter-brain for five minutes, and let some Chinese philosophy wash over you. Thirty spokes join in one hub In its emptiness, there is the function of a vehicle Mix clay to create a container In its emptiness, there is the function of a container Cut open doors and windows to create a room In its emptiness, there is the function of a room Therefore, that which exists is used to create benefit That wh

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Tax Tips For Your New Business

YoungUpstarts

'by Todd Unger. Starting a business involves establishing new processes and systems that will ensure a strong foundation from which to grow. Here are a few simple tax tips all new businesses should put into place, before they officially hit the ground running: Establish the appropriate structure for your business. Because there can be different tax implications associated with different business structures, its important that you have the appropriate legal entity established before you offici

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Got "Founder Fit?" If You Want Venture Capital, You Need It

Up and Running

'Boris Wertz. Image credit Flickr. A few weeks ago I spoke with Boris Wertz, founder of JustBooks, COO of AbeBooks and founding-partner of Version One Ventures. In as much as a scheduled interview with an angel investor can be, talking with Boris about what it takes to spark the interest of a venture capital firm was a coincidence. Id reached out to him not because I was looking for information on how to pitch an investor, but because of the nature of his investment portfolio: of the six st

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It’s already been done, or has it?

Start Up Blog

'As soon as we think of an amazing startup idea the first thing we often do is trawl the internet to see if someone has already built the app, the service ,the hardware device. We want to know if it has already been done. Oft times, we are deflated to find out it has been. But if we have to search, has it really been done? If no one knows about a concept in market it raises a lot of interesting questions: Did they execute well against the idea?

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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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Understanding Different Types of Angel Investors

View from Seed

'We at NextView Ventures invest exclusively in a startup’s seed-stage round , meaning that many if not most of our deals are made alongside individual angel investors. These angels, however, come in many different shapes and sizes. So to successfully raise a seed round of capital, founders should possess at least a basic understanding of the different types of angel investors they’ll encounter.

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Gartner, the lightning rod

deal architect

'Once again Gartner is in the news. Its is being sued and a whole slew of blogs and articles have piled on. My summer project researching and writing about the SAP economy has allowed me a chance to go back.

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Every Small Business Founder Needs An Advisor

Startup Professionals Musings

'Sponsored by VISA Business Friends tell you what you want to hear. Advisors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you dont need the advisor anymore. In that sense, you should think of an advisor more like your mentor who has done all he can. You always need the friend. Also dont confuse a business advisor with a business coach.

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[Infographic] Why Startups Are Going To Change The World

YoungUpstarts

'It’s not like we don’t say this often enough, but startups – driven by ambitious, usually young founders with a great vision for the future – are going to be the main catalyst to change the world. Startups encapsulate the ideas of focus, cooperation and innovation, and these are traits that set th. But if you’re not convinced of that, here is an infographic from the team at Modis highlighting the various reasons why startups are destined to change the world in wh

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The Impact of Automation on Jobs: The Missing Dimensions

deal architect

'Pew Research has a thought provoking study on the impact of algorithms and robotics on jobs. Half the experts polled are very pessimistic, the other half just pessimistic. Definitely worth a read. What I find fascinating about these discussions is.

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Is It Time to Hire an Employee?

Up and Running

'Overwhelmed? It could be time to hire some help. If you own your own business and find that you simply don’t have enough time on your hands to be able to do all the things you need to do, you may be asking yourself should you hire an employee? . If you’ve already got employees, your question will be similar, when is the right time to hire another employee?

Hiring 99
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Entrepreneurs Must Start Selling And Listening Early

Startup Professionals Musings

'Savvy entrepreneurs start testing their ideas on potential customers even before the concept is fully cooked. They have enough confidence in their ability to deliver that they dont worry about someone stealing the idea to get there first, and they dont forget to listen carefully to critical feedback. They become walking public relations machines for themselves, as well as their idea.

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David And Goliath: How Your Startup Can Land An Enterprise Client

YoungUpstarts

'by Blake Menefee, co-founder of the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs. If your startup has an amazing platform, product, or software, youre probably in the process of staking out big enterprise clients to target. Everyone loves your product, but thats not enough. Too many pitches to big brands result in an executive saying she cant be sure the startup will be around in the future.

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Is Your SEO Content Strategy A Priority?

Rembrandt Communications

'75% of marketers may know something you dont! Are you using SEO content strategy to your advantage? If not, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to significantly increase site traffic and sales. Specifically, did you see the recent report on Digital Trends 2014 by Ektron? It found that 76.6% of the 400 Website […]. The post Is Your SEO Content Strategy A Priority?

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What Motorcycling Can Teach You About Making Decisions

Up and Running

'It’s been a long time now, but in my other life (when I was living in Hawaii and before I worked for Palo Alto Software), I was a motorcycle safety instructor. I trained over 1,000 people through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course. The course taught not only the mechanics of how to ride but equally important how to develop the mental skills to keep track of what’s going on around you to ride more safely.

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Inventor Entrepreneurs May Be The Rare Exception

Startup Professionals Musings

'In my experience, inventors and technologists arent interested or arent very good at building a business, and entrepreneurs arent usually good scientists. These people need to find each other, and can jointly make a great team for a new startup. Without the synergy, companies like Apple might never have gotten off the ground. Historically, its also not often that a good inventor was also a good entrepreneur.

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Small Business Marketing – New Strategies to Get Noticed

YoungUpstarts

'by Nancy Gerstein, CEO of Creative Marketing Associates . With the economy on a slow but steady rebound, entrepreneurs and small businesses are coming out of survivalist mode and looking for new ways to grow. Small business owners are all looking for strategies that build their brands without taking a huge bite out of the bottom line. Take heart: the growth of social media and online platforms makes it possible for even the smallest company to get its message out, delivering a big punch for li

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Dear Uber and Lyft ??? Get Your S**t Together

Feld Thoughts

'Let’s start out by saying that I’m a big fan of both Uber and Lyft. I’m indirectly an investor in both companies as I’m an investor in three VC funds that are investors Uber and one VC fund that is an investor in Lyft. I have no idea how much actual equity I have in either company, but based on current valuations the dollar value of my indirect ownership is non-trivial.

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5 Clues To Investor-Friendly Financial Estimates

Gust

'Image via pixabay.com. Most entrepreneurs struggle with financial projections, not wanting to commit to numbers they cant deliver, and having no clue what investors might consider reasonable. However, making no projections, or non-credible projections will get your startup marked as unfundable. I recommend a simple set of guidelines, which work for at least 80% of the business domains I see.

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Should Entrepreneurs Grow Revenue Or User Count?

Startup Professionals Musings

'Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Both have worked.Google reached $1 billion in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. Twitter showed no focus on revenue in the first five years, but was able to parlay 500 million users into a $22 billion public company, now growing revenue.

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Entrepreneurs: Create A Founding Legend

YoungUpstarts

'by Neil St. Clair, CEO of  AlleyWire. Im here to tell you a story about sacrifice. Normally I preach on video storytelling: How to Tell a Meaningful Story on Video or  3 Steps for Successful On-Camera Interviews , for example, but I want to step back and reflect as a founder. Im offering a cautionary tale for both current first-time founders and those thinking of stepping up to the entrepreneurial plate.

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Negative Maintenance

Feld Thoughts

'I had a fun email exchange with an investor I’ve worked with for almost 20 years in response to something a CEO send out from a board we are both on. I said “f **g awesome.” He said “that’s an understatement.” I said “CEO is such a delight.” He said “CEO is negative maintenance.” I loved this.

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Why you should turn down a job offer from Facebook

The Next Web

'Ilya Pozin is a serial entrepreneur, writer and investor. He is the founder of online video entertainment platformPluto.TV, social greeting card companyOpen Me, and digital marketing agencyCiplex. Receiving an offer from a huge, established company like Facebook is a dream come true. Suddenly youre imagining the great perks like a huge salary, free lunches and plain bragging to your friends about who you work for.

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Investor Secrets For Smart Competitive Positioning

Startup Professionals Musings

'In their passion and excitement about a new product or service, entrepreneurs tend to continually narrow the scope of potential competitors, and often claim to have no direct competitors. This raises a big red flag with potential investors, who conclude that no competitors means no market, or you haven’t looked, and the new startup is likely not investable.

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3 Reasons To Seek Only What You Need During The Funding Process

YoungUpstarts

'By Paul Jackson, founder of Worthworm. For new or young entrepreneurs, understanding the realities of the startup world often comes as a shock. Long-term success requires more than just a great idea and there is no secret formula for navigating such a competitive landscape. Numerous startups are born every day, but the amount of funding largely remains unchanged and making it nearly impossible for all of them to succeed.

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Brutal Honesty Delivered Kindly

Feld Thoughts

'In yesterday’s post Mentors 4/18: Be Direct. Tell The Truth, However Hard , Joah Spearman left a very powerful comment about empathy. “The older I get the more I realize that truth is something that is best coupled with empathy. Ultimately, you have to seek to understand before you can be understood and part of telling the truth is knowing that you’ll never know someone else’s truth until you hear it directly from them rather than assuming you know what someone has exp

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Email etiquette for entrepreneurs: How to get busy people to care

The Next Web

'This post originally appeared on the Crew blog. The more time I spend working on my startup, the more time I seem to be spending in my inbox. Running a startup is pretty much synonymous with sending lots of emails Ive realized (especially when youre not the person writing lots of code). The more emails I write, the more rules I come across for how to write them, too.

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Creating a Positive Work Environment

Up and Running

'Is your workplace a positive one? Here are some ways to make sure your employees love coming to work every day. . When it comes to managing your employees, one of the most important things you can do for them involves setting the right tone at work. Weve all heard some of the horror stories about terrible jobs or bad managers, and the one thing each of these stories has in common was the negative workplace environment.

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Are You Entrepreneur Material?

YoungUpstarts

'by Ronn Cordova, VP of Franchise Development at The Maids. Youve always dreamed of being the boss, but do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? If so you should consider the following before starting a business: 1. Can you deal with risk and insecurity? If you are flexible, able to handle unpleasant surprises, and willing to wade into the unknown, you stand a good chance of navigating entrepreneurial waters.

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I Was A Lousy Board Member Yesterday

Feld Thoughts

'I have been to thousands of board meetings. Maybe tens of thousands. I’ve done them in person, on the phone, and on video conference. Most of the time I think I’m additive to the mix. Yesterday I had a board meeting (where I was remote on video) where on reflection I was a lousy participant and miserable contributor to the meeting. I had a really nice dinner with a founder of a company that was recently acquired by a company I’m on the board of.

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You don’t need a co-founder for your startup

The Next Web

'Jay Barnett is the founder of Priority Pickup, an Australia based online passenger services company that offers private chauffeur rentals to customers in Perth, Western Australia. One of the most frequently asked questions when I go to startup events here in Perth is why I do not have a co-founder for my business. At the outset, having a business partner makes perfect sense.

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In a seed round, is it poor form to accept a lower cap from later investors?

Gust

'There are a [very] few companies, mostly on the West Coast, that have done convertible rounds with differing caps, but it’s unusual, hard to do, and not something that will endear you to the less-fortunate investors. If you find yourself in a situation where (a) you absolutely need/want the $4 m investor, and (b) those are the only terms on which s/he will come in, then typically you would unilaterally lower the cap for all other investors in the round as well.

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Four Reasons Marketers Need Native Ads To Reach Millennials

YoungUpstarts

'by Ash Nashed, CEO and founder of Adiant. Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer recently stated that 46 percent of Millennials consumed branded content through a native ad. One third of those Millennials then shared that branded content. Whats the takeaway from these comments? It showcases the growing value of native ads, especially when it comes to engaging Millennials.

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Mentors 4/18: Be Direct. Tell The Truth, However Hard

Feld Thoughts

'Today’s installment of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto is #4: Be Direct. Tell The Truth, However Hard. Let’s start with “Be Direct.” At some intellectual level, being direct is easy. You just say what is on your mind. You say it in a declarative way. You lead with it and support it with either experience or examples. But humans have a very difficult time being direct.

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How top VC firms use storytelling to connect with entrepreneur communities

The Next Web

'Research from Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC) reveals that in 2013, US venture capitalistscommitted $29.4 billion to 3,995 deals, with investments in internet-specific companies reaching the highest total since 2001. The idea is simple. Venture capitalists fund projects that demonstrate a high probability of success. These investments represent the next generation of technologies and grow to become the next Facebooks and Googles of the world.

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What is the worst startup pitch ever?

Gust

'Take your choice (these are both real, honest-to-God pitches, and I’ve got the originals in my possession): Contestant A. CluelessCo is an internet startup company seeking $2 million of equity financing to fund our company for at least one year. CluelessCo will become the main consumer outlet for the internet, digital cable and satellite TV, and cell phones and PDAs.

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3 Great Startup Ideas That Involve Dangerous Materials

YoungUpstarts

'There are a lot of interesting startups headed by interesting people who do interesting things. Some develop business strategies while others develop consumer electronics. Many create content while others provide the platform for bringing out the creativity in us all. There is no end to entrepreneurial opportunities. Some of the most interesting and most lucrative opportunities happen to be in fields that are also the most dangerous.

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