January, 2021

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How To Prepare Your New Venture For Investor Scrutiny

Startup Professionals Musings

For the elite startups and entrepreneurs who manage to attract the investor they dream of, and survive the term sheet negotiation, there is still one more hurdle before the money is in the bank. This is the mysterious and dreaded due diligence process, which can kill the whole deal. In reality, it is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of the business and the team.

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Why LP’s Passed on Seed Funds 10 Years Ago (And What’s Happened Since)

View from Seed

This year will mark the 10 th year anniversary of NextView. I’ll be writing a number of posts looking back over the first decade of the life of this firm. In some ways, this feels like an eternity. But in the grand scheme of things, 10 years is a blip, and one that had a continuous bull market in tech. So whatever conclusions or observations I draw should be seen in this context.

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Technology, Innovation, and Modern War  – Wrap Up

Steve Blank

This class, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give our students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others has the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats. Our 20+ guest speakers were an extraordinary collection of military and policy leaders including two Secretaries of Defense, Generals, Admirals and Policy makers.

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5 Reasons To Invest In Software Testing

YoungUpstarts

Software testing can help your enterprise increase ROI, enhance customer retention, and show that your enterprise cares about its customers. Here are the 5 reasons why you should invest in software testing. The post 5 Reasons To Invest In Software Testing appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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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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The most important 2021 Predictions in entertainment tech and gaming

VC Cafe

“It follows that the goal of forecasting is not to see what’s coming. It is to advance the interests of the forecaster and the forecaster’s tribe.” PHILIP TETLOCK, SUPERFORECASTING: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PREDICTION. Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of entertainment tech, gaming and commerce. But are these trends here to stay? 2020… where to start?

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28 Entrepreneurs Explain The Future Trends They See in Their Industry

Hearpreneur

We continue to experience different trends in consumer behavior as well as entrepreneurship. The onset of the pandemic has influenced major changes that have created new opportunities and changed the business landscape. We’ve also seen extensive use of technology and increased remote working. We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the future trends entrepreneurs see in their industry and here are the responses. #1- Use of cheaper online divorce tools.

More Trending

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We’re Hiring a Platform and Operations Associate at NextView

View from Seed

With the recent announcement of our fourth fund , we are expanding the team at NexView with a new Platform and Operations Associate. This role will be virtual through the end of the pandemic, but will ultimately be based in either our New York or Boston office. From the beginnings of NextView, we have had a commitment to being high-conviction, hands-on, seed stage focused investors.

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What Is the Future of HR?

ReadWriteStart

Human resource (HR) departments have long been integral to organizational success, and they’re likely to remain that way for decades to come. But the nature of HR is likely to evolve with new technologies, research, and trends. What does the future of HR look like? Remodeling the Workforce. For starters, we may see HR leading the charge in remodeling the shape of the average workforce.

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Are You Bringing Your Best Self To Work?

YoungUpstarts

by Edward D. Hess, author of “ Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change “. Whether we’re leaders or not, most of us have some less-than-ideal traits and habits. Maybe we steamroll over others. Or we intimidate them with angry outbursts. Or we gossip. Or show off. Or get defensive when someone questions us. Or maybe we spend our days flying under the radar so we don’t have to leave our comfort zone.

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5 Effective Ways To Protect Your Tech Startup From Hackers In 2021

The Startup Magazine

There are several effective ways to protect your tech startup from hackers in 2021. As of 2019, the average cost of a data breach was over $3.9 million. For startups, this is a significant cost. Potentially, a breach that early on could keep a young company from growing. Indeed, business owners would need to spend to fix the breach and implement strong cybersecurity measures.

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The Anti zoom

VC Cafe

2020 was a good year for Zoom. Now synonymous with video-conferencing, the company-name-turned-verb stock peaked in October 2020, a market interpretation of how the Zoom Boom has defined the daily lives of many millions throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. Video calling apps have become an almost fundamental part of our lives, the closest we’ve reached to in-person, human interaction.

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8 Initiatives To Heighten Your Customer’s Experience

Startup Professionals Musings

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected.

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Q4 2020 Portfolio Review

Version One Ventures

Happy new year! We hope you’re well rested and recharged from the holidays! While 2020 brought unprecedented challenges, it’s also been a time of great innovation and perseverance. We’ve seen our startup companies find new ways to keep moving forward. Here’s a quick look back at some of the biggest (public) highlights of Q4. It’s incredible to see how much everyone has been able to accomplish despite the fact that every aspect of life has been dramatically altered.

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The Main Reasons Startups Fail

ReadWriteStart

Launching a startup is ridiculously exciting. Not only do you get a chance to control your destiny and build an effective team, but if you’re lucky and you work hard, you could turn it into a “unicorn”—a billion-dollar enterprise. Of course, most of you reading this know that the odds of your business becoming a tech unicorn are slim, even if you have a great idea in place.

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4 Accounting Tips For Startups And Small Businesses

YoungUpstarts

by Swapnil Shinde, Co-Founder and CEO of Zeni. If you want your business to grow, it’s vital to have the right financial foundation. If your accounting processes aren’t in order, you may not have a complete picture of your startup’s financial health and could be leaving money on the table. In my 15+ years as a startup founder, investor, and advisor — and now in my role as CEO of a bookkeeping and accounting startup — I’ve come across countless businesses whose accounts aren’t accurate or GAAP-co

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How to Make an Immediate Impact With Your Startup

The Startup Magazine

It is the hope of every startup to make an immediate impact so that you can quickly start to bring in as much money as possible and start to make your mark in the industry. Unfortunately, there is no recipe for success and you often hear of startups failing in the early stages after failing to hit the ground running and encountering financial issues.

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28 Entrepreneur Share Their Goals for 2021

Hearpreneur

It’s a new year and right after the ball drops, it’s time to go to work. Often entrepreneurs and business owners create their New Year’s Resolutions around their business. It could be more revenue, hiring clients or launching a new product or service, but every new year is an exciting time because it’s ripe with opportunity. We asked 30 entrepreneurs to share their business goals and what they were looking forward to in 2021. #1- Two fundamental goals for 2021.

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Segment vs Mparticle

ConversionXL

As is tradition with our other tool comparisons , this is not a dry feature-by-feature comparison of Segment and Mparticle. We won’t proclaim one is the ‘best’ customer data platform (CDP) for which every business, including yours, should use. Many factors, including your budget, company size, and current data workflow, will determine if either platform is the right fit.

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How I Gamified My Own Brain to Lose Weight & Improve Fitness

Both Sides of the Table

Socially distant hiking in Sedona (we drove there) I recently wrote about my weight-loss journey over the past 18 months where I lost 65 pounds without a fad diet and returned to my college weight. If you want to get in better shape and haven’t read that you might start there. I separately wrote about some food plans I use. I started advice with the premise that no amount of exercise or food eating plan would help with long-term fitness or weight goals unless you first had a mental plan and a se

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What is the secret to remote work? Just ask your Sales team.

Austin Startup

Halong Bay, Vietnam The world has changed. The charlatans are at the gate; the bloggers are salivating, and everyone’s trying to make a quick buck. The hype cycle for “Remote Work” and “Distributed Companies” has reached a fever pitch, and everyone has an opinion about it. Meanwhile, Sales and Customer Success teams are plugging away, working remotely, as if nothing has changed.

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4 Tips To Help You Increase Customer Loyalty

YoungUpstarts

What would your business look like if you were able to increase your retention rates by 10 or 15 percent? How much more profitable would you be? These are questions worth considering as you start fresh in 2021. What Makes a Loyal Customer? Customer loyalty is something that businesses have been after for decades. And in today’s competitive environment, it’s something that’s harder to obtain than ever before.

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9 Simple Reasons To Use CRM In A Business Startup

The Startup Magazine

Business startups need a tool that can help them increase customer intelligence for increased sales and revenue if they have to grow fast amidst stiff competition. This is why many business startups are scrambling for the right CRM tools in the market. CRM is therefore considered as the magic tool that every entrepreneur must integrate in their business domains.

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27 Entrepreneurs Share Their Tips and Tricks of Staying Motivated

Hearpreneur

When the going gets rough in business, you’ll need the 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 alone. Here are the various ways entrepreneurs and business owners stay motivated in business. #1-The feedback we get.

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Best Practices for an Effective Virtual Board Communication Strategy

Board Effect

So much gets lost in the translation when communication isn’t clear. That’s never a good thing when it comes to board communication. Communication is difficult enough when you’re speaking face-to-face. Prior to the year 2019, the business world had been making a gradual move in the direction of virtual communication. With the onset of the pandemic and the need for safety, boards scrambled to set up virtual communication.

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How to Optimize Your Work Performance

Duct Tape Marketing

How to Optimize Your Work Performance written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Clare Kumar. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Clare Kumar, she helps busy professionals optimize their performance. Clare Kumar is a media contributor on productivity, organization, and work-life integration.

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8 Keys To Preparing Early For Your Next New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. In addition, current investors want to see every startup go public or be acquired, as an exit event, so they can get their due return for that investment which has been tied up for the last few years.

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Of Compliance And Cybersecurity: Bolstering Business Credibility And Continuity

YoungUpstarts

by Andy Prakash, founder of Privacy Ninja. The increasing pervasiveness of online activities have led to a greater demand for interconnectivity. This environment is more apparent in nations such as Singapore where there is extensive internet connectivity and the citizens are digitally knowledgeable. Thanks to the Singapore government’s unrelenting drive for its Smart Nation initiative, both public and private organisations have also been working towards a digitally inclusive and interconnected s

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Where To Focus Outsourcing For A New Startup

The Startup Magazine

A startup is often a deeply personal project, but new business owners shouldn’t overlook outsourcing. According to business mag Forbes, outsourcing can offer a way to help your business grow by streamlining functions that detract from your free time in running the day-to-day functions of your startup. The trick to properly outsourcing is identifying and targeting what areas of your business you can afford to outsource.

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20 Entrepreneurs Share Their Takeaways from 2020

Hearpreneur

The start and ongoing of a business can be rewarding and exhausting at the same time. Running a business successfully encompasses learning from mistakes that happen along the way which in the end, helps your business to be more strategic and to get back on track. We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the tough lessons they have learned in 2020. #1- Balance is key.

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6 Key Steps to Operationalize Board Member Education

Board Effect

If you’ve done a good job of recruiting new board members and succession planning, incoming board members will bring some degree of knowledge about governance practices with them. Regardless of how much board experience a board member has, it’s unrealistic to assume that anyone has a full and complete understanding of governance. Having noted that, even the most experienced board members should pursue board member education.

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Mastering the Art of Selling Your Business

Duct Tape Marketing

Mastering the Art of Selling Your Business written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Warrillow. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview John Warrillow, Founder of the Value Builder System which is a simple software for improving the value of company. He’s also the author of: Built to Sell and The Automatic Customer.

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5 Actions To Convince Your Boss You Are Accountable

Startup Professionals Musings

Are you often frustrated that people reporting to you, or key peers, seem to dodge accountability for their actions? They are quick to claim the credit for things in their domain that work, but also quick to disclaim responsibility for problems that keep popping up. Perhaps you need to do more to be a role model for accountability , and provide more coaching on exactly what it means.

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Five Keys To Remote Business Success Every Founder Needs To Know In 2021

YoungUpstarts

by Richard Roth, Founder of Progressive Tech. Starting any new venture in life is an exciting time, be it a business or any other endeavor. Odds are it will almost certainly require more sweat, time and determination than you expected. During these tumultuous times, when established systems collapse and change, new opportunities are constantly being created.

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Announcing NextView IV

View from Seed

We are pleased to announce that we have closed on NextView IV. This is a fresh $100M fund with the same high-conviction, hands-on seed strategy that we’ve been pursuing since the start of NextView over 10 years ago. $100M is a meaningful increase from our $50M third fund, though it’s still quite small in the grand scheme of venture, especially amid the recent wave of late stage financings and SPACs.

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20 Entrepreneurs Share Their One Prediction for Business in 2021

Hearpreneur

The business landscape is always changing which leaves uncertainty in different industries. Business owners are optimistic that 2021 will see better days, especially with the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines. The new normal might see a return of business and provide better opportunities for people to explore. Here’s what entrepreneurs predict for business in 2021. #1- The rise in the 3-2-2 workweek.

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The Analyst Cam: Cella Technologies and shop floor optimization

deal architect

As we have moved to virtual vendor briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short segments (with permission from vendors), as part of my Analyst Cam series. During the last few months we have seen growing interest in bite-sized applications in.