February, 2019

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How My Mother Helped Me Become The Entrepreneur I Am Today

YFS Magazine

From an early age, my mom taught me five things children needed to learn to become a successful adult. They became my life concepts for leadership.

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28 Entrepreneurs Share Their Tips and Tricks of Staying Motivated

Hearpreneur

When the going gets rough in business, you’ll need motivation to keep moving. Motivating yourself can be hard but practicing consistent habits such as reminding yourself of why you started can be a major boost. A network of friends and partners can also serve as a great assurance and reminder that you’re not walking. Here’s the various ways entrepreneurs and business owners stay motivated in business. #1- Celebrating the little wins.

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Why Has Seed Investing Declined? And What Does this Mean for the Future?

Both Sides of the Table

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. What gives? Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

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Viral Marketing And Word-of-Mouth Require Investment

Startup Professionals Musings

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.

Viral 268
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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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8 Business Trends That Will Make Waves In 2019

YoungUpstarts

Technology has been one of the essential elements that makes a business more effective and successful. It changes continuously, adapting to advancements and innovations in order to constantly improve. In business, the primary driving force is to be able to accommodate the needs and demands of society. Here are eight business trends that you need to watch out for and will continue to grow this year: 1.

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Kung Fu

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Startup strategy is like Kung Fu. There are many styles that work. But in a bar fight, you’re going to get punched in the face regardless. I can only teach you my style. Others can only teach you theirs. This is my style. “MVPs” are too M to be V. They’re a selfish ploy, tricking people who thought they were customers into being alpha testers.

Restful 202

More Trending

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Product Launches: 5 Unexpected Lessons from the Real World

ConversionXL

Apple created a monster. Every September, millions expect Tim Cook to change the world. Steve Jobs actually did a few times. But, increasingly, the Apple hype-fests are a marketing—not a product—showcase. Fanfare is a poor substitute sustainable results. For product launches, long-term success relies on cornerstones of marketing research and execution, like a strong value proposition and full-funnel campaign.

Product 110
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Who Should be on Your Startup Board?

Both Sides of the Table

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. This is smart because amazing board members can be transformative with important advice and access and can also help attract other great board members (and team members). Bad board members can make business very unpleasant.

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5 Indications That Your Work Culture Needs Attention

Startup Professionals Musings

Whether your company is a startup or a mature business, the last thing you need in the office is a toxic work culture. Yet, according to a recent study , more than half of tech employees see their current office culture as toxic. That can’t possibly be healthy for employee morale, productivity, or customer focus. The sad part is that many executives still don’t know how to recognize the signs.

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Eight Reasons Why Your Subscription Model Customers May Be Jumping Ship

YoungUpstarts

by Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of “ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue “ Everyone knows that retention is crucial for subscription-based companies. If you can’t keep the customers who sign up with you, you’re going to quickly find yourself in trouble. Just ask Blue Apron, which has found itself in the news recently for its poor stock market performance and its widely criticized acquisition-focused

Customer 173
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Lessons from a Diverse Venture Capital Portfolio

This is going to be BIG.

Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the pre-seed and seed stage VC fund I run in NYC, has invested in 64 companies in the last six and a half years. Twenty-five of them have at least one female co-founder. Fifteen had co-founders over 40. Five have LGBTQ+ founders. Three teams have African-American founders. Three of the founding teams are married couples. All were backed based on the sole criteria that they had the potential to make my limited partners a lot of money.

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Quickly Unpacking Spotify’s Acquisition Of Gimlet Media

Haystack

I’ve been traveling all week, digging out of email, and closing two deals and — hence — have been pretty quiet online. As I was scrolling through Twitter today and saw the rumors around Gimlet, the podcast media company, being acquired by Spotify for $200M in cash, I knew I had to stop, write this post, and share some thoughts on what’s going on.

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Choosing Between A Mobile App And A Website For Your Business

The Startup Magazine

In recent years, we’ve seen a trend known as the “appification of the web” where businesses are focusing on creating a fully-fledged mobile app experience instead of just having a website. Both apps and websites have their pros and cons. Which one is best for your business isn’t really a question, as most people would tell you that you need to have both.

Mobile 97
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Email Copywriting 101: Five Steps to Better Converting Emails

ConversionXL

“Email marketing is dead.” That’s what a digital marketer told me while trying to sell me his messenger bot software. But email isn’t going anywhere. Customers who buy through email spend 138% more than those who don’t sign up for email offers. And email marketing has an ROI of 28.5% compared to 7% for direct mail. If you’re unpersuaded by statistics, also recall that: If you own your email list, you pay nothing to reach subscribers.

Email 133
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10 Ways To Highlight The Credibility Of Your Website

Startup Professionals Musings

Smart people only visit and buy from credible and memorable websites. In the past, if your startup had a website presence, the company was credible by definition. In today’s world, a website is necessary but not sufficient for credibility. Dreamers and gamblers have found out that if the website isn’t validated as credible, it’s probably a scam, and everyone loses.

Affiliate 221
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How To Start A Consulting Business

YoungUpstarts

by Katie Lundin of crowdspring. Navigating the transition between a salaried employee and running your own consulting business can be tricky. If you’re ready to take the leap, we’re here to share 4 of the 10 steps you’ll need to know to get started. And if you like what you read here, be sure to read the complete 10 step guide on how to start a consulting business. 1.

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Learn from People, Not Classes

Reid Hoffman

CAMBRIDGE I / ALEJANDRO GUIJARRO. Over the past two decades the internet has reshaped our daily lives and the world of business—so it’s not surprising that it’s transforming how companies develop talent. The emergence of a “personal learning cloud” makes it convenient and affordable for people to access new ways to learn. And that’s a necessity: To keep pace with change and avoid disruption, business leaders must become what we call infinite learners—those who not only enjoy learning but feel a

Japan 78
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How To Get a Job In Venture Capital

VC Adventure

One of the most frequent questions I get asked is “how do I get a job in venture?” In fact, I’ve written two posts over the years on this topic – one way back in 2005 and a follow-up to that a few years later in 2008 (the 2nd of the post is the more practical advice if you’re pressed for time; or just keep reading below).

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Investor Perspective: How to Write a Killer Business Plan

The Startup Magazine

Startups with a solid business plan and great pitch deck have a far greater chance of gaining investment. In this essay by one of Mercia’s Fund Principals, Ian Wilson, Ian talks about the sorts of things he and the team are looking for when plans come to them for review. Republished with permission. The best business plans help investors understand the opportunity, the risk, and of course the potential return.

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Increase Repeat Purchases with Cohort Analysis

ConversionXL

In my daily work with ecommerce brands, I see two types of companies: The first type focuses on acquisition and conversion. The second relies on retention. The second type is winning. Why? Overall acquisition costs for both B2C and B2B have gone up by 50% in the past five years. Sooner or later, relying on new customers will break you. To offset these costs, you need to earn more repeat purchases from existing customers.

Retention 126
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10 Things to Consider About Your Website in 2019

Duct Tape Marketing

10 Things to Consider About Your Website in 2019 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on the 10 Things to Consider About Your Website in 2019. You’ve started a business and created your website. But that doesn’t mean your work here is done. Behaviors and trends change, your needs shift, and your website must continue to evolve so that it’s meeting your goals.

Design 78
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6 Entrepreneurs Explain How They Are Incorporating Social Entrepreneurship in Their Business

Hearpreneur

It’s argued that social entrepreneurship is the new business model due its ability to help one connect with the world and live a purposeful life while serving others. It also improves the image of business through collaborations and fosters relationships for a better society. We asked entrepreneurs and business owners how they’re incorporating social entrepreneurship and here are the responses. #1- Online community portal.

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The coming Enterprise Software Hurricane

deal architect

In interviewing SAP customers for the upcoming book, I ended up classifying them broadly into four groups. I termed the first three: a) Risk-takers who are trying out new Leonardo ML or IoT projects, developing new functionality with its Cloud.

Software 329
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A Deep Dive into What Has Really Changed in Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve heard a lot of people question whether there is too much money in venture capital chasing too few great deals. “We’re in a new tech bubble!” some have pronounced. “Valuations are out of control” is the mantra of others. Others believe that new business models are emerging that could replace venture capital all together. Every year I try to answer the question of “what has changed in the Venture Capital industry” and this year my colleague Chang Xu and I took a deep dive through the data and

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8 Strategies For Winning As A Freelancer Or Employee

Startup Professionals Musings

A big trend in business these days is hiring freelancers or contract personnel for the duration of a project, rather than permanent staff. According to a recent poll , contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce within a decade. Yet I find that few of today’s workers realize that succeeding as a freelancer requires a whole new focus on “marketing” yourself.

Employee 246
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Ecommerce UX Battle: Benchmarking 4 Beauty & Cosmetics Mobile Websites

ConversionXL

Which popular beauty and cosmetics website has the best user experience? This is a conversion-focused benchmark analysis of four competing beauty and cosmetics websites : Clinique. Fresh. Lush. Sephora. We selected sites from among the top 25 in their category, according to Alexa rankings. Our analyses measure overall user experience of each site as a composite of 5 separate UX dimensions.

eCommerce 119
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The Benefits of Including Video on Your Website

Duct Tape Marketing

The Benefits of Including Video on Your Website written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on Including Video on Your Website. Video has become a foundational element in marketing. Why is video so important? It’s how people want to consume content. They want the ability to listen without reading, to be hands-free, and to just have the content coming at them.

Video 76
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16 Entrepreneurs Explain What They Love About Being An Entrepreneur

Hearpreneur

Being in love is great. Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Waking up each morning knowing you are getting to do exactly what you love is more than most people could ever say about any “job” they have had. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality.

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Time for more vertical integration in enterprise software

deal architect

As SaaS vendors took off in the early 2000s, I was encouraged by their business model. They had collapsed software, hosting, application management and upgrades into one contract. But in recent years I have seen a reversal and a lot.

Software 317
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High Functioning vs. Low Functioning Startup Boards

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve sat on many boards over the past 2 decades and seen my share of high-functioning boards and low-functioning boards. Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much.

LP 269
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The Sharing Economy Is Changing The Rules Of Business

Startup Professionals Musings

The pervasive ability and need to communicate constantly and globally through the Internet and smartphones is incenting everyone to get more out of their own assets and time, and capitalize on the idle resources of others. This sharing economy is rapidly becoming the new business of sharing, with major winners already including Airbnb (rooms), Uber (rides), and Chegg (books).

Cuba 246
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Not Just A Buzz Phrase: How Disney’s Mission Drives Its Continuing Success

YoungUpstarts

by Michael G. Goldsby and Rob Mathews, authors of “ Entrepreneurship the Disney Way “ Have you ever found yourself thinking that a mission is just a buzzword, and a mission statement is nothing more than corporate fluff? If so, you are not alone. But the sad reason behind this hasty judgment may be that for most companies, it’s true. Too many organizations lack a core mission that’s been well defined by a good mission statement.

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Transcript of Questioning Best Practices to Do Great Work

Duct Tape Marketing

Transcript of Questioning Best Practices to Do Great Work written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Back to Podcast. Transcript. This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order. John Jantsch: Everybody loves best practices. Give me an example. Give me a template to follow. Well, I think that that practice leads to mediocrity.

China 62
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Here are the 5 hottest startups in Portugal

The Next Web

It might be everyone’s dream to move to Portugal. Beautiful beaches, amazing food, and weather. Its vibrant startup scene is now another reason to add to the list. Like in neighboring Spain, the country was hit hard with a headache-inducing unemployment rate that was concentrated primarily on Portugal’s youth. Instead of plunging the country into a deeper recession, this moment inspired an entrepreneurial zeitgeist that hurled Portugal headfirst into a technological renaissance.

Portugal 167
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Polishing brand ERP

deal architect

Kudos to Cindy Jutras for her study "Real Facts About ERP Implementation". Her survey showed that two-thirds of respondents graded their ERP implementation as "successful" or "very successful." The survey found 31% thought their ERP project was at least a.

Offshore 297
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The One Thing That Great Leaders Understand

Both Sides of the Table

One Thing That Great Leaders Understand I was scanning Twitter this past week and I came across these great Tweets by Michael Seibel at Y Combinator. When I was young I thought management was about distribution/delegation of responsibilities. I now realize it is truly about the maintenance of morale and motivation. Morale and motivation are moving targets that require consistent and proactive effort to maintain.