May, 2010

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Why Lawyers Don’t Run Startups

Steve Blank

Startups need to have a great lawyer, accountant, patent attorney, etc. But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. I was having coffee with a friend who teaches at the U.C. Berkeley Boalt Law School and runs their entrepreneurship program. Our conversation led us to Scott Walkers post Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers and why we both recommend that entrepreneurs print it out and tape it to their wall.

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Telling the 800-lb Gorilla to Shove it up his Ass

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Every founder frets about competition from a big company, me included. We scoff at their inability to innovate and for prioritizing shareholders over customers, but still we quiver in fear. Dozens of people on Answers.OnStartups ask about it so I know I'm not alone. It always goes like this: I'm just a two-person operation with no budget. What if a huge company with a hundred software developers and a million dollars in marketing budget decides to copy my idea?

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Ten Attributes of Your Ideal Business Partner

Startup Professionals Musings

A week ago I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ How to Select an Ideal Startup Co-Founder ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal business partner. Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for. In this article, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.

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This Week in VC with Dana Settle of Greycroft Partners

Both Sides of the Table

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. It’s always fun debating companies with Dana because she’s always so knowledgeable on deals – particularly those in the digital media, ad-tech and eCommerce spaces. When the show has been processed it will be available here (estimated 8pm PDT).

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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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Finding Developers is Tough Again

SoCal CTO

I’m seeing and hearing that it’s becoming tough finding good developers again, at least here in Los Angeles. On Friday, at the LA CTO Forum , I heard from a couple of CTOs having trouble finding good developers. My company, TechEmpower , recently added a few top notch developers, but it wasn’t easy to find just the right people. And it’s not just me, Ben Kuo just posted - Good news for developers (and jobs) We’ve been talking with a lot (and I mean a LOT) of people who are looking for developers

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Software Patent Absurdity

Feld Thoughts

As long time readers of this blog know, I’m strongly against software patents. Succinctly, I think they are (a) invalid constructs, (b) totally unnecessary, and (c) a massive tax on and retardant of innovation. More and more of my VC brethren are beginning to come out publicly against them as are many extremely well respected long time software innovators.

More Trending

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"Authentic" is dead

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

It's time to retire the following phrases. They should no longer be used, ever, in any context except derisive mocking: Fast and easy. Putting customers first. The Holy Grail of. The leading provider of. Legendary customer support. Also eschew these words, as devoid of meaning as a yogi's mantra and as useless as a simile that doesn't contribute new information: Authentic.

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Ten Tips for Business Traction to Attract Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Every investor expects to see some traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have been working 20 hours a day, and spent your last dollar, but have no results to show, investors will be sympathetic, but will probably tell you that your dream vehicle doesn’t have wheels. Traction means forward progress. I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start.

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Thank you

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, May 31, 2010 Thank you The past month has been an incredible roller coaster: #sllconf was a trending topic (briefly topping Justin Bieber before the wifi in the hotel gave out), the Web 2.0 Expo Intensive rocked, the mainstream media has started writing about the Lean Startup, and - most of all - the movement continues to grow and evolve.

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Pick the Perfect Name for Your Startup

mashable.com

Top Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video Google Buzz Social media Music Business Advertise Network Blippr iPhone App Mashable France MashDeck Twitter App Mobile Site Social Media Events Twitter Guide Book Facebook Guide Book Partners App Development WordPress Experts MaxCDN Content Delivery Dynect Managed DNS Rackspace Hosting Intridea About Us Submit a Tip!

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Great Week Off the Grid in Keystone with Books

Feld Thoughts

Wow – I needed that vacation. Sometimes it just catches up with me and I don’t realize how tired I am. Amy and I were going to go to Paris but both of us just needed to chill out so we went to our house in Keystone and just hid out for a week. I only had a few things that I had to pay attention to and the goddess of my schedule Kelly made sure I was available when needed.

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Analyze This: 5 Rules For Awesome Impromptu Web Analysis

Occam's Razor

The hardest kind of "analysis" to provide is in response to open ended questions. That is why I love asking open ended questions! They expose a person's critical thinking ability (something I highly recommend you test when you hire web analysts: Interviewing Tip: Stress Test Critical Thinking. Please ). They also help you understand if someone really grasps key concepts.

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Bending over: How to sell to large companies

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

This is a guest post by Steve Hanov , who blogs about programming and startups. For a micro-ISV, selling to big businesses can be more lucrative than selling to consumers. Instead of making a few dollars per sale and hoping for thousands of sales, you sell to only a few customers, and charge much higher rates. But the rates are high for a reason. It takes more time and money to sell to businesses, especially the big ones.

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Is Outsourcing Exploitation?

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

I wasn’t going to write this article. I was comfortable with my stance on outsourcing, comfortable enough to recommend it and promote products, and profit from the affiliate commissions, from people who use the catch-call of $2-per-hour labor and the phrase – “ they do the work, you get the money “ I’ve begun the process of outsourcing to the Philippines.

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VCs pivot, too… First Round Key Hire Wire becomes the Key People Wire and some thoughts on startup hiring

This is going to be BIG.

Imagine if the biggest companies in the world had to increase their workforce by 25% month over month. It would be a monumental task that could spell the death of them if extreme care wasn't taken to maintain the highest level of quality in their talent pool. Even if that was done, it would still be no small feat to onboard that much new blood without completely rocking the boat.

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12 Questions: Meet Maximilian (USA)

crowdSPRING Blog

In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.

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Why Startups Should Train Their People

Ben's Blog

“Teachers teach and do the world good. kings just rule and most are never understood”. - KRS 1, My Philosophy. “Most managers seem to feel that training employees is a job that should be left to others. I, on the other hand, strongly believe that the manager should do it himself.”. - Andy Grove, High Output Management. When I first became a manager, I had mixed feelings about training.

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The Common Thread Between Batman, The Romans & One of Facebook's Angels

Growthink Blog

A fantastic article in Fortune Magazine this month - " The Temptation of Facebook ," talks about the early days of the social media giant. Of most interest is the story of Mr. Peter Thiel investing $500,000 into the company in 2004, at an effective valuation of $4.9 million. Given that the estimated market value of Facebook is now north of $20 billion - for those doing the math at home, that represents a 1,000x return - a short 6 years later, Thiel's investment surely falls into the category of

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Top 7 startup tips

Start Up Blog

I was asked to give a list to Tim Reid on a few micro marketing / startup tips for his terrific podcast. I thought they were worth sharing in point form here. Project management is the key skil l (Outsource weaknesses, be blissfully unaware how to do technical things, manage the value chain.). Think micro (Start small, no tiny. think hyper-local, and expand out from there).

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The Big Six Online Business Models

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Please forgive me for harping on about outsourcing in so many blog posts recently. At the moment I’m going through the process of hiring new full time workers, plus John Reese is launching his Outsource Force program and giving away free videos on how to outsource, so this subject is a bit in focus for me right now. If you haven’t caught the latest John Reese video, the third in the series talks about the six online business models and how you can outsource the tasks involved to make

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The Right Way to Cancel a Meeting

Both Sides of the Table

Canceling meetings is part of modern day life. I seem to get so over programmed that if I ever want to have a “break-out&# unplanned trip somewhere I seem to have to reschedule meetings. Not fun, but a reality. And people reschedule meetings with me on a regular basis, too. If done correctly I never have any problem with it at all. Done poorly and it really puts a bad taste in my mouth.

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Online marketing for Startups: back to basics – p+p+p+p

crowdSPRING Blog

As a Kellogg alum (worlds greatest marketing school, after all, uh huh) I would be remiss not to write occasionally about marketing in the context of our world: online entrepreneurs. At crowdSPRING, we are constantly evaluating our own mix of marketing strategy, tactics, and resources and the “debates&# can get extreme. Like many small companies with limited marketing budgets, we are forced to work with the resources at hand, so creativity, partnering approaches, social media, and viral ef

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Solving the "marketplace" business model

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

A sizable percentage of Capital Factory startup submissions take the form of the "marketplace." In fact, 3 of the 10 selected companies from the past two years has followed this business model. Marketplace companies are notoriously difficult to start, so I'm constantly amazed that so many entrepreneurs chose this route. Maybe it's the "go big or go home" mentality?

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I'm Writing a Book: “Start Small. Stay Small. A Developer's Guide.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Catch Me at the 2010 Business of Software Conference in Boston Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Out → I’m Writing a Book: “Start Small. Stay Small. A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup&# About this Blog , Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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Entrepreneurial Finishing School

Steve Blank

I usually hear the “Should I get my MBA?” question at least once a month. If you’re an entrepreneur, the glib answer is “no.” It’s also the wrong answer. Should I Get My MBA? Last week I was having coffee with an ex engineering student of mine now on his second startup (and for a change it wasn’t a Web 2.0 startup) who wanted to chat about career choices.

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Things to compliment at SapphireNow

deal architect

Ok, as we enter Day 3 of this event, let me lay out the stuff I have been impressed with/need to compliment so far A much more smiling Hasso Plattner than in prior years. We had a chance to spend.

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You Can’t Look for a Job from a Remote Location – It Doesn’t Work

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve had this conversation so many times it’s painful. A friend calls me up from “you name it&# city: Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and says, “I’m thinking about moving to Los Angeles (or SF, NY, etc) and I’d love to start interviewing. Let me know if you hear of anything interesting.&#. I guess when I hear things like this I revert back to my shock jock instincts and say, “Don’t bother.

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So you wanna pay someone to create an iPhone app?

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

Alright, so you have a business and now you want to app-ify it and get in on the iPhone craze, but you don’t have (or want to hire) iPhone developers in-house. What do you do? You outsource it of course! I just happen to come across a string of messages of a group message board. The topic, the going rate for contracting out iPhone app development, not a developer’s salary.

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Investors Fund People First, Plan Second, Idea Last

Startup Professionals Musings

Investors are people too. They evaluate you like you should assess a possible co-founder or first employee. What are your credentials? What have you done that would convince me that my money is safe in your hands? Only after they’re sold on you, do they want to see your plan and hear your idea, not the other way around. Even with great credentials, it is all too possible for an entrepreneur to come across as a high risk investment.

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Late Stage Co-Founder Wanted, Screencasting Handbook Released.

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← iMemories VHS to DVD Conversions Don’t Plan to Get Rich from Your Startup → Late Stage Co-Founder Wanted, Screencasting Handbook Released, Triumph of the Nerds on DVD, and more… Cool News, Links & Reviews If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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You’re Just the Founder

Steve Blank

At times VC’s forget who their business is built on. Nice Car. Last week in a car showroom of all places I ran into a VC who I hadn’t seen in ten years. He had sat on the board of my last company and we chatted and made small talk as he was admiring a new car. It was clear that he had no memory of a phone conversation my partner and I have never forgotten.

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SAP-Sybase: First Take

deal architect

First of all, I wish SAP had not done this. They have enough on their plate without adding another layer of complexity and chaos to distract management. But having said that, Sybase is a nice move, if it can give.

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Learn to Say “NO” to Meetings

Both Sides of the Table

As a startup entrepreneur you’ll have many demands for your time. Especially if you start to have a degree of success or build a high public profile. Everyone will want you to speak at conferences. Service providers will want to get to know you. Potential employees want to “get together.&# VC’s will want to learn about what you’re up to and later stage VCs will have their 23-year-old analysts call you to tell you how interested they are in your company.

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APWT Women Panel on Mobile Paradigm

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

Over at HackerDojo , I attended a womens panel on “Mobile Paradigm&# organized by Asian Professional Women in Technology. There were about 50-60 people in attendance, of which I knew about 4-5 people. PayPal provided pizza and drinks for the event, Thanks PayPayl! The panel consisted of a CEO of a travel guide app for the iPad, a bootstrap developer of many iPhone apps and an iPad app, and a marketing person from a Shazam-competitor app.

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GigaOM’s GreenNet 2010

Venture Chronicles

Last week I had the opportunity to attend GigaOM’s GreenNet 2010 event, which was looking at how energy solutions are powering a new wave of innovation in Silicon Valley. I was pleased to see that Katie had focused a good amount of the agenda and speaker slots for talks given by regulators and public utility officials. This is important because unlike previous waves in the Valley which relied only upon access to capital and technology innovations, the clean technology movement likes at the

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StartupSchool Online A/B Testing Class Video is Available

Software By Rob

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Out How to Find Your 4-Second Startup Pitch → StartupSchool Online A/B Testing Class Video is Available Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

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