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Getting A Software Patent Is Valuable But Frustrating

Startup Professionals Musings

For a software startup, a patent can be the intellectual property providing the key competitive advantage, or it can be an expensive non-defensible bureaucratic nightmare -- or both. Some argue to simply eliminate software patents, while others put their hopes in U.S. Patent offices can’t keep up with software technology.

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8 Tactics To Make You A Fearless Business Innovator

Startup Professionals Musings

Every business owner and entrepreneur I meet in my consulting rounds dreams of finding that “ disruptive ” innovation that will supercharge their business and move it into the ranks of business unicorns (billion-dollar valuations), such as SpaceX and Apple. Be sure to hire and cultivate new talent with the right mindset.

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Spectacles and $SNAP’s $20B Valuation

Austin Startup

In summary: Snap’s current business doesn’t justify a $20B valuation. How can one justify a $20B valuation for Snap? The product that could most likely justify Snap’s $20B valuation is Spectacles. But if it can’t, it’s going to take Snap a long time to the achieve financial performance necessary to sustain a $20B+ valuation.

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8 Ways The Maker Movement Turns Ideas Into Businesses

Startup Professionals Musings

This new culture builds on hobbyist technologies, extends the open-source inventory of hardware and software, and bridges the gap into real business solutions with other advantages, as follows: Shortens the time and cost from idea to prototype. Quick low-cost design and fabrication alternatives are extremely valuable.

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The Coming Brick Wall in Venture Capital & Why This is Good for US Innovation

Both Sides of the Table

This is the final part of a 3-part series on the major changes in the structure of the software & the venture capital industries. Or the Cliff Note’s version: Open Source & Cloud Computing (led by Amazon) drove down tech startup costs by 90%. The series started here if you want to read from the start.

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Understanding Changes in the Software & Venture Capital Industries

Both Sides of the Table

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. million in team costs to code, launch, manage, market & sell our software.

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Big Data Investors Put a Premium on Proprietary Software

ReadWriteStart

Despite a meager track record for generating outsized returns, investors keep piling money into open source start-ups. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, a minimum of 110 “open source startups” had raised more than $7 billion from venture capitalists as of 2015, up over 100% since 2013.