Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2013

'We all get a lot of email. And we send off scores of them, too. For important emails we hope for replies or action. If you do the math on the number of inbound emails you get multiplied by the time it would take to read them all and respond to those that expect a reply you would be astounded. It is simply unmanageable. Yet some simple techniques can help massively improve your ability to get people to take action on your important emails.

Email 415

Email Software Review Hosting Demand 415

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

'What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists.

SBIR 314

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 314

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2013

'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.

Startup 263

Startup Affiliate Advertising Technical Review 263

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 6, 2013

'Guest post by Lisa Regan On August 20, Eric will sit down with developer and Hut8Labs co-founder Dan Milstein for a webcast you can join to discuss “Getting Engineers Into the Lean Startup Cycle.” This conversation will be a great opportunity for engineers and engineering managers to learn more about implementing Lean Startup ideas. It’s also for founders who want to think about how engineering and the rest of the business team can realign around a shared set of goals.

Lean 167

Lean Engineer Startup Cofounder 167

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

Startup

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

'Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. It’s part three of a series, cross-posted from his own blog , in which he draws on his experience to offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. You can follow him on Twitter, where he is @ChristianReber. So far I have shared with you 6 simple steps to start your own tech business (don’t miss part 1 and part 2 ).

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 9, 2013

'I’ve written before about hiring for cultural fit, and about the importance of prioritizing cultural fit over competence when hiring at startups. I started thinking about it again when I saw this Dilbert comic , because it pokes fun at the culture of startups and their propensity only to hire people who fit into them. But what are we talking about when we talk about cultural fit, anyway?

Part-Time VPE 153

Part-Time VPE Hiring Engineer Portfolio 153

David Cohen

AUGUST 29, 2013

'Recently, I wrote a post called “ Entrepreneurs Deserve Full Transparency ” for my WSJ series. Several entrepreneurs wrote me, but this story really stands out as a warning to do your diligence and demand full transparency. Not all accelerators are created equal. I’ve posted the following email by permission of the author, who shall remain anonymous as his request.

Cofounder 134

Cofounder Technical Review Vertical Programming 134

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2013

'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 few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.

Viral 249

Viral Marketing Entrepreneur SEM 249

SiliconHills

AUGUST 18, 2013

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News TechStars Austin will introduce its inaugural class Monday night, August 19th at 6:30 at Capital Factory. Announcing its first Austin program in May, TechStars has reviewed applications from more than 850 companies and chosen ten. Filament Labs build patient tracking and compliance software around mobile health, behavior […] The post TechStars Introduces Its First Austin Class appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 121

Austin Software Review Mobile Programming 121

The Next Web

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly, a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The company is one of the largest VC–backed startups in Southeast Asia, having raised over $60 million in funding. . This is the first of a four-part series that will provide insight into starting, building, and funding a company across Asia.

Asia 127

Asia China Japan Startup 127

ConversionXL

AUGUST 5, 2013

'Want to know how to deal a serious blow to your landing page conversions? Have it look different from the ad they saw before landing on the page, and have it contain different words. In other words, one of the best ways to improve landing page conversions is to maintain scent: make pre-click and post-click message + look & feel match. There needs to be “scent” The ad they see or the email they read needs to smell like the landing page they land on.

Advertising 111

Advertising Bulgaria UAE Matching 111

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 29, 2013

'Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

firstround.com

AUGUST 13, 2013

'Neil Roseman is downright tired of hearing Silicon Valley companies say they “hire only the best and the brightest.” No matter how many times they say it, most still make decisions based on gut feel, basic credentials, GPAs, ivy league educations, flashy company names - even SAT scores. Roseman objects. As the former Technology VP for both Amazon and Zynga, he’s interviewed hundreds of people and believes every phase of the process needs to be meticulously designed to drill de

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Silicon Valley Leadership Naming 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

'I’ve done a lot of video interviews. This is one of my favorite if not my favorite outright. It’s only 12 minutes long and if you’re a first-time entrepreneur (or second time, frankly) I encourage you to watch it if for nothing else than to get a sense that your struggles are universal. TechCrunch interviewed me and asked me to talk about failure.

Startup 412

Startup San Francisco LP Bankruptcy 412

SiliconHills

AUGUST 6, 2013

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News You too, can make your own robot, using Artoo, a micro-framework for robotics using the programming language Ruby. Mike Ford, a software engineer at Trion Worlds, spoke Monday night to a group of around 30 people at Austin RB meetup at Capital Factory about the Artoo technology [.] The post Robots as Tools, Toys and Teachers appeared first on SiliconHills.

Ruby 119

Ruby Software Engineering Framework Austin 119

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

'Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. It’s part three of a series, cross-posted from his own blog , in which he draws on his experience to offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. You can follow him on Twitter, where he is @ChristianReber. So far I have shared with you 9 simple steps to start your own tech business ((don’t miss part 1 , part 2 , and part 3 ).

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 19, 2013

'How to Deliver Extreme Value Through a Collaborative Sales Process written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Today’s sales process must be bathed in collaboration. The idea of a “sales process” is not a new one, most sales people either figure something out that works and it become the de facto process for them or their organization hands down and trains around a specific method or moving a lead from inquiry to close.

Sales 67

Sales Technical Review Reputation Technical Support 67

Venture Chronicles

AUGUST 2, 2013

'I have covered a couple of topics in this series, the first being hiring the best people and the second organizing for success based on the attributes of the people you are hiring. Today I want to go into territory less obvious because let’s face it, hiring the best people and creating conditions where they can succeed is the kind of startup advice that is squarely in the “stating the obvious” category.

Product 62

Product CTO Hire Architecture Startup 62

deal architect

AUGUST 26, 2013

'I was reading this Wired quote about Dieter Rams'' philosophy about product design: "It doesn’t draw attention to itself; it merely allows users to accomplish their tasks with the maximal amount of efficiency and pleasure. At its best, it is.

Design 324

Design Software Product 324

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2013

'I have lived (England, France, Italy, Spain, Japan & the US) and worked (Ireland, Germany, India) around the world. I adore accents. I listen not only for the country but the region. I became engrossed with the origins of both accents and phrases. One of most fascinating & enjoyable books on the topic is Bill Bryson’s “ Made in America ,” which demystifies the origins of the English language and why Americans speak more traditional English than the English do.

Italy 391

Italy California Mexico Los Angeles 391

Steve Blank

AUGUST 12, 2013

'Asking, “Can I have coffee with you to pick your brain?” is probably the worst possible way to get a meeting with someone with a busy schedule. Here’s a better approach. —— Jason, an entrepreneur I’ve known for over a decade, came out to the ranch today. He was celebrating selling his company and just beginning to think through his next moves.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley Deal Flow Customer Development Stock 335

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2013

'Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.

Initial Public Offering 297

Initial Public Offering Startup California .Net 297

Diego Basch

AUGUST 14, 2013

'Yesterday I was reading this Hacker News thread about the Common Crawl, and one comment caught my attention: Common Crawl is awesome. I wonder how complex it would be to run a Google-like frontend on top of it, and how good the results would be after a couple days of hacking… I wondered why it wasn’t obvious to this person that it would be very complex to do that, and that the result would not be great.

Search 61

Search Technical Review Finder Engineer 61

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 20, 2013

'This is the third article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap and COC: a new metric for cancellations. You can’t read an article about SaaS metrics without running into LTV — The L ife t ime V alue of a customer. Meaning, the gross revenue you expect to get from a customer over its entire lifetime.

Retention 262

Retention Metrics Revenue Bandwidth 262

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 14, 2013

'by Robert V. Taylor, President of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation and author of “ A New Way to Be Human: 7 Spiritual Pathways to Becoming Fully Alive “ Difficult co-workers add to your workplace stress and the happiness you experience in your work. You are not alone. Surveys reveal that 70 percent of American workers find their jobs stressful.

Incubator 269

Incubator Naming Conversion Product 269

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2013

'I have a saying that I employ as a powerful metaphor at every startup with whom I work – “beware of shiny new objects.” It is one of the easiest pieces of advice to give as it is almost always valuable if entrepreneurs follow it as a guideline. Yet sadly most startups have “shiny object” obsessions. In today’s uber-connected, social media, everything-is-public, people tell you there’s killing it with these new features, investor & mentor whiplash &#

Bandwidth 368

Bandwidth Social Media Portfolio Video 368

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

'What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Healthcare (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists.

Startup 294

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 294

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2013

'The sad truth is that cash flow surprises kill many startups, even though they should have been adequately funded to survive. Overall, 90% of small business failures are caused by poor cash flow, according to the D&B Small Business website. Cash is king when it comes to the financial management of a growing company, so this is not the place for shortcuts and sloppy practices.

Startup 286

Startup Matching .Net Sales 286

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 21, 2013

'I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the unsung hero of many start-ups: the other founder. A lot has been written about the founder/CEO and her growth and evolution as a company grows. But little is written about the (nearly omnipresent in my experience) co-founder – the #2, behind-the-scenes partner who teams with the founder/CEO from the very beginning to build the company.

Cofounder 45

Cofounder Founder Part-Time VPE Portfolio 45

Small Business Force

AUGUST 31, 2013

You think about it ahead of time! Picking a partner or co-founder isn't like finding a new friend. This is creating a relationship that will last for some time, with enormous financial and emotional consequences. Just like people that tend to jump into marriages, entrepreneurs tend to get starry-eyed and join forces without thinking through the long-term implications of having a partner.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Partner Technical Review Founder 40

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 1, 2013

'By Brian Cristiano, CEO of BOLD Worldwide. 1. Tell an honest story. Big companies have budgets to make their TV ads look like Hollywood movies. Small businesses do not. But with an authentic, genuine message and the right team, even low budgets can produce advertisements that look professional and connect a great product or service with target customers.

Advertising 250

Advertising Small Business Campaign Media 250

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 19, 2013

'I’ve talked openly about the five month long depressive episode I went through earlier this year. If you missed it, I encourage you to read my article last month in Inc. Magazine titled Entrepreneurial Life Shouldn’t Be This Way–Should It? Depression is a fact of life for some entrepreneurs. My depression lifted near the end of May and I’ve been feeling normal for the past few months.

Community 190

Community Startup Search Technology 190

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 21, 2013

'Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. The Lean Startup Conference was founded four years ago to bring together real entrepreneurs who have applied Lean Startup techniques and have useful advice to share with each other. Last year’s conference was no exception: speakers talked about their direct experience with practices you may need help implementing—things like metrics, feedback, and experimentation.

Lean 167

Lean Louisville Startup Metrics 167

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2013

'Entrepreneurs often have formidable technical expertise, key to developing a new product or service, but a great naïveté in management skills. They run into difficulty when their business reaches the $1-2 million annual sales range, or their employee count exceeds 5-10. It’s here that entrepreneurs must shift their thinking from tactical and operational, to strategic and managerial.

Management 273

Management Startup Entrepreneur Revenue 273

The Next Web

AUGUST 17, 2013

'This is a guest post by Aaron Pitman , an angel investor and founder and partner of RA Domain Capital. Is your attitude holding you back from success? I’ve always been a big believer in positivity. It’s helped me accomplish much in my life as an entrepreneur. When advising others, positive thinking is my first suggestion on the path to success. All this made me wonder if there were actual, scientific links between positive thinking and success in business.

Florida 167

Florida Angel Investor Entrepreneur Networking 167

Mike Michalowicz

AUGUST 10, 2013

'One of the more frequent questions I am asked about entrepreneurship is how to prepare for it. You do it. You just start doing it. Doing is the best way – the only way – to prepare.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur 167