Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 26, 2013
'If you Can’t Make Time, MakeSpace. A few months ago I wrote about an entrepreneur, Sam Rosen, whom we brought on as an EIR at Upfront Ventures. I would have liked to have been even more Upfront with you back then about our intentions with Sam but out of respect to him we held back on our broader thesis until now. Today we announced our launch. Here’s the deal.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013
'Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. While our teams have mentors, socialize a lot and give great demos, the goal of our class final presentations is “ Lessons Learned ” – about product/market fit, pricing, acquisition/activation costs, pricing, partners, etc.
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Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 8, 2013
'Contrary to what most of you might guess, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the last few years is not Gen-Y young upstarts, but Baby Boomers in the 55-64 year age group. In fact, according to a study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, these Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom. Some people are calling entrepreneurship the ‘new mid-life crisis’ for the 76 million-strong demographic once thought to be over the hill.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 13, 2013
'by Stella Fayman, CEO and cofounder of matchist. You’ve decided to hire a development shop to build an MVP , give your product a facelift, or build that mobile app you’ve been wanting to build for years. If this is your first time hiring a dev shop, it can be confusing understanding the difference between competitors. However, you’ll be spending a lot of money on developing your product, so it’s important to take time to research and interview the firms that interest you.
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
The Next Web
SEPTEMBER 24, 2013
'This post is brought to you by Lenovo Inspire Me. More info can be found at LenovoInspireMe.com , where you can enter our competition to win the trip of a lifetime. _. We’re taking a slightly different approach to our second feature in the Inspiring Entrepreneurs series. A fortnight ago, Boris interviewed Reed Hastings on his business lessons and experience, but now I’m shaking it up with a look at a 26-year-old founder who is disrupting the mobile and social networking spaces: Kik CEO and fou
Version One Ventures
SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
'A key investment thesis here at Version One is that we like to invest in companies that “sell to many” over companies that “sell to few.” This preference isn’t necessarily due to market size, but rather the structure of the market: are there only a few dozen customers that might buy your product or are there thousands, or even tens of thousands of potential customers?
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
'I can always tell when one of my students has been in the military. They’re focused, they’re world-wise past their years, and they don’t break a sweat in the fast pace and chaotic nature of the class and entrepreneurship. Todd Branchflower took my Lean LaunchPad class having been entrepreneurial enough to convince the Air Force send him to Stanford to get his graduate engineering degree.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 30, 2013
'Every investor expects to see some business 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 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.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 25, 2013
'While the world has over the past few years been riveted on the revolutionary civil uprising that’s been taking the Middle East by storm called the Arab Spring, there’s been a far more silent – and likely as important – revolution taking place there that might ultimately do more to change the face of that region. Where there’s been the overthrowing of governments, mass protests and even outright civil war, there’s… entrepreneurship. “ Startup Risi
The Next Web
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
'Toying around with the idea of starting a company? Worried about things that may go wrong or making the wrong decisions? Did you just start a company but are concerned about how you are doing things? You are not alone, and you definitely are not in unchartered waters. There are not only many thousands of people just like you who are working on starting their own company or have just launched their company, but there have been thousands of people who were once in your shoes who’ve gone on to gro
ConversionXL
SEPTEMBER 6, 2013
'I feel like “conversion rate optimization” is in 2013 what “social media marketing” was in 2009. Most startups fail. Not because they have a conversion problem but because they never really nail the product or how to market it. The product or website (be it software, e-commerce, or a service) might be awesome , but if it puts itself in front of the wrong market, or packages itself so the right market can’t figure out why it’s awesome, the startup will fail.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
'If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business.
Up and Running
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'Sixty percent of small business owners and managers say their biggest human resources challenge is finding skilled talent. Heavy competition for workers with specialized skills doubles the difficulty budget crunches impose on recruiters. Some companies with deep pockets are offering generous transition packages to lure workers away from competitors.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 23, 2013
'The new hot topic for entrepreneurs the last couple of years is crowd funding, which is anticipated to at least supplement, if not replace, the slow and mysterious process of current Angel and venture capital investors. The problem is that crowd funding means something different to everyone, and even I have been confused by the different ways the term gets used.
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 4, 2013
'By Mark James, Crunch. Behind every successful entrepreneur is an excellent accountant – a natural number cruncher carrying a passion for payroll. With their assorted accountancy knowledge they help keep businesses afloat, but unfortunately like everything in life their expertise comes at price. As such, as an aspiring entrepreneur you’re probably struggling to afford one, their yearly or monthly fees impacting significantly on your cash flow.
The Next Web
SEPTEMBER 14, 2013
'Paul Jozefak, co-founder and managing director of innovation laboratory Liquid Labs , argues that outsourcing innovation will become a mainstream business practice and a key driver of growth, specifically in the tech sector. While he clearly has a business interest in companies outsourcing their innovation, we feel it’s an argument worth noting. Innovation within large corporations is often slow and ineffective.
Version One Ventures
SEPTEMBER 30, 2013
'I recently spoke with a founder and CEO of a start-up that had just crossed the 200-employee milestone. Like so many others lucky enough to reach that level, he was complaining about how progress was coming to a halt as the organization grew and became more complex. I myself experienced this as COO at AbeBooks. It’s a cruel irony in business: the more people you add, the slower you get.
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 6, 2013
'Matt Blumberg ‘s amazing new book Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business is out and shipping. The early reviews are great, including this detailed one from Tech Cocktail. Matt’s book is already having an impact in my world. At Cheezburger, we just added Scott Moore to the leadership team. Ben Huh, the founder/CEO who I adore and love working with, send out a powerful email about how he’s approaching Cheezburger’s next stage of growth, and how he’s
ConversionXL
SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
'“ I have too little traffic to test; hence, I can’t do conversion optimization. ” I’ve heard this a lot. B t , I say. You can do conversion optimization on any website – even on sites that have so little traffic that a split test would take 2 years to run until statistical significance is reached. You might not be able to run tests, but you can still optimize.
crowdSPRING Blog
SEPTEMBER 20, 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!
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 3, 2013
'by Kenneth Coats, founder of eKnowID. If you don’t perform a background check on your potential partner before doing business with him, you’re setting yourself up to get duped. Now, don’t get me wrong: Most people don’t lie on their résumés. But those who have something to hide will hide it. In other words, you won’t know it’s there unless you look for it yourself.
The Next Web
SEPTEMBER 8, 2013
'Christian Jurinka is Chief Engagement Officer and Co-founder of Attack! Marketing , a multi-channel lifestyle agency specializing in experiential and promotional services. As tech seeps deeper into our work and the digital and real worlds combine, a whole new demand is rising for people who can bridge the ‘in-between’ space – a place that straddles both creativity and technology, and takes two very distinct areas of expertise and melds them together.
SiliconHills
SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
'By LAURA LOREK Founder of Silicon Hills News Jeff Lindwood, a software developer with Biscotti Labs, loves dogs. He and his wife even adopted one from the Austin Pets Alive shelter. But helping one dog wasn’t enough, he said. He wanted to do more, but he couldn’t adopt any more dogs. That’s where he got […] The post PayPup Wins PayPal’s Battle Hack in Austin appeared first on SiliconHills.
Feld Thoughts
SEPTEMBER 23, 2013
'Last week, in the midst of Denver Startup Week, we had a full day Foundry Group Exec conference. Ben Deda from FullContact convened about 100 execs from our 60 or so portfolio companies for the day. We had seven topics of one hour each, led by a different set of execs. The result was an incredible range of discussions across an amazing group of people.
Rob Go
SEPTEMBER 9, 2013
'Labor Day is over, time to get to work! Summer is always the time when large numbers of new participants in the tech ecosystem arrive and start to get their bearings. This is why this was created, and why I try to refresh it every year with the most interesting meetups, companies, and folks to follow online. Boston is a great place to start and build a company.
crowdSPRING Blog
SEPTEMBER 13, 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!
YoungUpstarts
SEPTEMBER 4, 2013
'by Mitchell Rigie and Keith Harmeyer, authors of “ Smartstorming: The Game-Changing Process for Generating Bigger, Better Ideas “ Craig never shuts up. Ever. Diane openly worries that every new strategy idea is going to bring the company crumbling to the ground. Kevin picks apart every suggestion until everyone is weary of discussing it and there’s no actionable element left.
The Next Web
SEPTEMBER 9, 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. This is the final part of a guide to launching your own startup.
Diego Basch
SEPTEMBER 15, 2013
'For some reason many people discuss the problem of estimating software development timeframes without properly understanding the issue. There is a famous answer on Quora that exemplifies this. Lots of people like that story, even though it’s inaccurate and misguided. “Software development” is such a huge endeavor that it doesn’t even make sense to talk about estimates without an understanding of the kinds of problems software can solve.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 28, 2013
'CEO transparency. It almost sounds uncontroversial. A CEO should tell her staff everything! Right? Right?!? Of course not. It’s a hard topic to write about because it’s almost an accepted norm that total transparency is good. It is not. For starters let me use “CEO” as a proxy to include her “inner circle” which might mean co-founders or might just mean senior execs of the business.
Duct Tape Marketing
SEPTEMBER 26, 2013
'How to Leverage Mobile Technology to Gain Insights Into Your Marketplace written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Willie Pena – Enjoy! photo credit: blakespot. In the next few years, marketing will be almost totally mobile.
crowdSPRING Blog
SEPTEMBER 6, 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!
deal architect
SEPTEMBER 17, 2013
'Many enterprise vendors and customers view mobile UI as just another more convenient portal to their back end processes. A growing number of companies are, however, building “rich” mobile apps to get more face time with their customers and even.
The Next Web
SEPTEMBER 12, 2013
'_. This post is brought to you by Lenovo Inspire Me. More info can be found at LenovoInspireMe.com , where you can enter our competition to win the trip of a lifetime. _. In the first of a new series talking to tech industry leaders about what shaped them as entrepreneurs and the lessons they’ve learned in their careers, we speak to Netflix co-founder and CEO, Reed Hastings.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 7, 2013
'Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to scale. But what does that really mean? Simply stated, it means that your business has the potential to multiply revenue with minimal incremental cost. Ready to scale is when you have a proven product and a proven business model, about to expand to new geographies and markets.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 3, 2013
'I sit through a lot of presentations. These range from companies pitching me to portfolio companies presenting at board meetings. Each of these scenarios has a team presenting. Almost always the CEO plus members of his or her management team including tech, marketing, sales and/or product. Some CEO’s are masters at communicating when team members are present.
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