2011

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32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder

SoCal CTO

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations. Many of these founders have talked with several developers or development firms about their plans.

Developer 396
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Should Startups Focus on Profitability or Not?

Both Sides of the Table

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
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How To Build a Web Startup – Lean LaunchPad Edition

Steve Blank

As part of our Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and for the National Science Foundation, students build a startup in 8 weeks using Business Model Design + Customer Development. One of the problems they run into is building a web site. ——— If you’re an experienced coder and user interface designer you think nothing is easier than diving into Ruby on Rails , Nodes.js and Balsamiq and throwing together a web site.

Lean 333
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50 Great Ways To Use QR Codes In The College Classroom

YoungUpstarts

QR codes were first created by Toyota to track vehicles in manufacturing, offering a small barcode that can be quickly decoded. That was 1994, and now, almost 20 years later, QR code technology is experiencing a revival — but not in the automotive industry. The small, square codes are ubiquitous, showing up on everything from flyers to beer bottles, allowing anyone with a smart phone to quickly scan and find out more information with the code.

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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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Open Innovation in DC

Startup Lessons Learned

Something interesting is happening in Washington, DC right now. It's not the usual partisan fights about the budget or the deficit. In fact, it doesn't fit any of our stock ideological categories very well. The Federal government is being transformed - initially, in small ways - by people I think should be recognized as entrepreneurs. They are leveraging the same kinds of new technology, management thinking, and big data to improve lives that we routinely use here in Silicon Valley.

DC 167
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5 Lessons From the Garage48 Helsinki Hackathon

ReadWriteStart

Garage48 Helsinki , the largest hackathon in the Nordics, took place last week. It gathered 120 hackers from Finland, Estonia and Latvia under the same roof and challenged them to go from zero to demo in 48 hours. Sixteen startups were created during the weekend. Together with Osma Ahvelampi (CTO, Sulake ) and Teemu Kurppa (co-founder, Jaiku ), I was a mentor to those teams.

Latvia 158

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The investment that didn’t happen

K9 Ventures

Note: All information contained in this post is based on my best understanding and perception of what transpired. I have confirmed with the founders that none of the information contained herein is deemed confidential and is therefore fair game for me to share in this post. In April 2008, I was introduced to Ugmode, Inc. (thanks to my advisor Terry Winograd ).

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The Law on Fonts and Typefaces: Frequently Asked Questions

crowdSPRING Blog

The right typeface is often the key to a great logo, graphic or web design. But there’s much confusion and misinformation about typefaces, fonts and the law. Many people do not understand the law governing the use of typefaces and fonts. Others incorrectly assume that they can freely use any typeface or font for any project. When you purchase a commercial font, you are purchasing a license to use the font software.

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The Application Development Landscape – 2012 and beyond

For Entrepreneurs

Today’s application developers are faced with a broad set of architectural decisions that can make or break their company going forward. This presentation, which was given as a keynote for the MassTLC application development conference, highlights the major changes that are taking place in the world of application development. The Application Development Landscape – 2011 [.].

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10+ Trends: Recap of 2011 and What’s Next…

thebarefootvc

As a venture capitalist, I am privy to innovations long before they become mainstream, one of the things I love about my job. But even more exciting is when I see inflection points of adoption — which is why 2011 was a particularly exhilirating year for me. This was the year that the promise of technology to truly change the world and empower individuals (the reason I entered the tech world in 1994) reached global scale.

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Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups

SoCal CTO

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. I'll get to service providers in a later post. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." Steve Blank divides the individuals associated with startups as: Founders Early Employees (Employees # 1-25) Later Employees (Employees # 26-125) The reality is that the definition of founder and em

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Lead, Follow or Get the Fuck Out of the Way

Both Sides of the Table

Today’s post courtesy of the Dave McClure school of vocabulary. About a month ago I was meeting with a seasoned entrepreneur. After 10 minutes I felt like we were old buddies because we had both been through the trenches of startup tech land and had had similar experiences. He was recounting one of his higher profile startups to me. He founded the company, raised a bunch of money, built the product and established a good reputation and market position.

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Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out – The Startup Genome Project

Steve Blank

In April 2010 I received an email that said, “I’m an incoming Stanford student in the fall and working on a project that a number of people suggested I get in touch with you about.&#. Ok, I get a lot of these. Is this some grad student or post doc who wanted to do some independent study? The email continued, &# The problem I’m working on is that many founders are either making uninformed decisions or inefficiently learning the new skills they need.

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10 Old Brands That Managed To Stay Modern

YoungUpstarts

You might have more in common with your great-grandparents than that receding hairline or cleft chin; some of your favorite brands might have been used by your predecessors, even as early as the Civil War. And while your elders may not be transitioning into the digital age with ease (or at all), several of America’s oldest brands have thrived through multiple technology changes.

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Case Study: Lean UX at work

Startup Lessons Learned

This article is a guest post by Jeff Gothelf, Director of User Experience at TheLadders in New York City. Jeff has been promoting the use of Lean UX as an effective method to spur greater innovation, quality and productivity in startups as well as within teams in larger organizations. Jeff keeps a blog here ( www.jeffgothelf.com/blog ) with tweets available at @jboogie ( www.twitter.com/jboogie ).

Lean 165
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The Helsinki Spring

ReadWriteStart

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. This is the first of two posts about Finland and entrepreneurship. I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford's Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. (Thanks to Kristo Ovaska and team for the fabulous logistics!

Finland 158
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The Three Functions of a Management Team

OnlyOnce

The Three Functions of a Management Team. After my quarterly Return Path exec team offsite last week, my team and I were rehashing the day’s conversation over dinner. Was it a good day or a bad day? An upper or a downer? We concluded that the day was as it should have been – a good mix of what I will now articulate as the three main functions of a management team.

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Management Quality Assurance

Ben's Blog

You’d better check yourself before you wreck yourself. —Ice Cube, Check Yo Self. Everyone in the technology industry seems to agree that people are paramount, yet nobody seems to be on the same page with what the people organization­—Human Resources—should look like. The problem is that when it comes to HR, most CEOs don’t really know what they want.

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Innovative Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins

www.smashingmagazine.com

Magazine Network Shop Jobs RSS Facebook Twitter Newsletter All categories Coding Design Graphics Inspiration CSS Freebies HTML5 JavaScript Photoshop Typography Usability Wallpapers WordPress Smashing Magazine Innovative Techniques To Simplify Sign-Ups and Log-Ins By Anthony T May 5th, 2011 Design 48 Comments Publishing Policy Advertisement There are many ways to design sign-up and log-in forms.

AJAX 104
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I Quit My Job And Lived To Tell

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

I’d like to introduce you to Nacie Carson , who a few years ago took the leap, leaving the perceived safety of full time employment to become an entrepreneur. She has since built up a client base and worked hard to establish an online brand that has paid dividends. Like many of us, Nacie has strived to establish online income streams as close to passive when possible, derived from her abilities as a writer.

Salary 104
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I am a developer, yet I outsource the development of my startup

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

That’s right, I prefer writing code than writing words and yet it’s been two months now that I started outsourcing the development of TaskArmy to someone in Ukraine. I spent the first 8 months developing the website myself until I proved to myself that my idea was a viable business idea. I was then ready mentally to spend more money into my idea. Anton is working full-time with me and I wouldn’t look back on that decision.

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5 Types of Content That Every Business Must Employ

Duct Tape Marketing

5 Types of Content That Every Business Must Employ This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with John Jantsch (Click to play or right click and “Save As&# to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen) Dawn Endico via Flickr The creation and distribution of content has become such a significant aspect of effective marketing that it requires a high place in the strategy conversation in most every business.

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Whom Should You Hire at a Startup? (Attitude Over Aptitude)

Both Sides of the Table

This post originally ran on TechCrunch. Startups. We know the mantra: Team matters. Is this philosophy exaggerated? Overrated? Cliché? No. Team is the only thing that matters. Whatever you’re working on now, the half-life of innovation is so rapid now that your product will soon be out-of-date. Your existence is irrelevant unless you continue rapid innovation.

Hiring 399
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Steel In Their Eyes – Why VC’s Should Be Startup CEO’s

Steve Blank

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. Mark Twain. Venture Capitalists who are serious about turning their firms into more than one-fund wonders may want to have their associates actually start and run a company for a year. Running a company is distinctly different from simply having operating experience – (working in bus dev, sales or marketing.

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10 things I’ve never heard a successful startup founder say

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

I built this software for myself, and then it turned out a million people wanted it exactly how I originally envisioned it. After hiring a few people, being the CEO became a lot easier, and I was able to focus on high-level strategic plans instead of fighting fires. I wish we had spent less time talking to prospective customers before designing interfaces and writing code.

LLC 335
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The real entrepreneurs of New York City

Startup Lessons Learned

The Lean Startup Machine looks a lot like reality television for startups. It's intense, the teams go head-to-head, the protagonists live and learn, and it's all very entertaining. But there is something serious at work, too. I have written previously about how powerful the these events are as a teaching tool for Lean Startup principles. While I was in New York, I had another opportunity to witness this firsthand, and I wanted to share the results with you.

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Startup Genome Project Aims to Crack the Innovation Code

ReadWriteStart

Just as the Human Genome Project aimed to crack the human code, the Startup Genome Project hopes to be able to drill down into some of the details of what it's calling the "innovation code.". The project has launched a survey to investigate "the science of startups," lessons from which it plans to incorporate into blackbox, a new seed accelerator that was created with the merger of techVenture, Cofounder Network, Founders First and Startup School.

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Do You Have the Mentality to Manage a Startup?

Startup Professionals Musings

A while back, when a startup founder mentioned to me that he wasn’t sure he had the personality to be an entrepreneur, I realized how important that insight was. My first thought is that if you are more annoyed than energized by expert advice, team suggestions, and customer input, then you should probably avoid this line of work. Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but that’s a good start.

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The CEO’s CEO

Ben's Blog

This biography was unauthorized. —Nas, U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim). Great chefs find things in the style, presentation and technique used in a meal that the ordinary diner never sees. Great musicians hear things that casual listeners completely miss. CEOs evaluate other CEOs much differently than the popular press or the general population.

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20 Essential TED Talks For Entrepreneurial Students

YoungUpstarts

Although a strong education is by no means a requirement for business acumen or success, many still saunter off to college and further hone what they’ve already got. Those walking on or logging onto campus with visions of profits and genius dancing in their heads shouldn’t relegate their learning within those boundaries exclusively. They should drink up any potentially valuable insight they can, and the venerable TED offers up one such conduit.

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Why You Should Eliminate Titles at Start-ups

Seeing Both Sides

There has been a recent dialog around a theme I'll call "hacking the corporation" - creating novel approaches to building young companies, particularly when they are in their formative start-up stage and pre-product market fit. One of them, reinventing board meetings (or, "Why Board Meetings Suck" ), has gotten some attention from leading thinkers like Steve Blank and Brad Feld.

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15 Years Of Technology Progress

Feld Thoughts

Next week at Defrag I’ll be giving a talk titled “Resistance is Futile” I’ll be talking about my premise that the machines have already taken over. A few days ago a friend of mine emailed me a perfect image to summarize where we are today. Ponder and enjoy.

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HubSpot’s Best Practices for Managing SaaS Inside Sales

For Entrepreneurs

Best practices for inside sales managers. An interview with Mark Roberge, VP of Sales at HubSpot, discussing how he blends science and process with the art of selling. HubSpot is a SaaS company selling Inbound Marketing software. HubSpot has grown revenue over 6,000% in the last four years, placing them #33 on the Inc 500 [.].

Sales 167
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Why You Need to Take 50 Coffee Meetings

Both Sides of the Table

50 coffee meetings. It should stick in your head as a metaphor for networking. For getting outside of your comfort zone. For starting relationships today that won’t pay off for a year. It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of “ 10,000 hours.&#. Anybody who has spent any time with me in person will be tired of this advice because I give it so frequently.

Dividend 410
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Entrepreneurship is an Art not a Job

Steve Blank

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. George Bernard Shaw. Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development , Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could do it. I’m beginning to suspect this assumption may be wrong.

Agile 332
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Color Wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Color theory is a little obsession of mine. You’re here for startup advice, but this week I’m taking an indulgence. Leave a comment if you want to see more or fewer of these little distractions. Artists get it wrong. Ask any artist to explain how color works, and they’ll launch into a treatise about the Three Primary Colors : red, blue, and yellow: All other colors are created by mixing these three colors in certain proportions, they’ll explain.

Green 336