January, 2017

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7 Basic Tips For App Development

YoungUpstarts

Better app development isn’t hard, in fact it just takes the right mindset and some well thought out planning. Here’s how to do so: 1. Start With A Clear Goal. Any strategy for successfully creating and promoting a new app relies on setting up clear goals for your new software. One of the best ways to think about this need is by concentrating on the problem your app is going to solve.

Developer 174
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8 Disciplines for Transforming Ideas Into Businesses

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs are people who dream up new ideas, and then commercialize them into new businesses. Most people believe that the hard part is coming up with the idea, and the easy part is turning it into a business. Yet, in my experience as a mentor to entrepreneurs, the majority of failures I see are related to starting and growing the business, not developing the solution.

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Potential Pain Points When Starting a Small Business

Up and Running

If you feel restless working for someone else and have come up with your own idea for starting a business, you should consider the challenges that you will face ahead of time. Owning and running a business is incredibly rewarding—but it comes at a price. Stress, painful mistakes, and sacrifice all accompany the pride, excitement, and sense of accomplishment that comes with creating your own money making machine.

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52 Entrepreneurs Explain Why They Started Their Business

Hearpreneur

Share Each business has a story. No matter if the business is a Goliath like Wal-Mart, or a local business owned by a couple or family, the business has roots in an idea. For each business owner, the story of their journey can range from monetary needs or the passion for a unique project. Each story is different though the reasons may be the same. No matter the tale, the background behind each and every business is what fuels each and brand.

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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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In 2017, GE Will Buy More Tech Startups Than Google

Hunter Walker

When the WSJ and the NYTimes write the same trend story you can assume it’s a narrative that is being pushed by people who want it to be true! And the narrative for 2017 is OLD ECONOMY COMPANIES WANT TO BUY YOUR STARTUP. So, is it true? Largely yes, but the pot of gold might be more modest than some of 2016’s notable transactions suggest (Jet, Cruise, Dollar Shave Club).

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Austin’s CodeNEXT

Austin Startup

Picture Description: CodeNEXT Logo and Tag Line: “Shaping The Austin We Imagine” Will Austin’s revised land development codes hurt or help people with disabilities? Urbanization is one of the most important global trends of the 21st century. It has the potential to contribute to the “re-design” of our world supporting the creation of sustainable, accessible, and inclusive cities for all.

More Trending

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Startup Metamorphosis: The Story of Bugsee

K9 Ventures

We’ve all heard over and over again that “Startups are hard,” but it’s a hollow statement that just bounces off until you really experience it yourself. You have to feel it viscerally in order for it to really sink in. That very experience however, makes startup success that much more gratifying. The story of Bugsee is a very unique one in my experience as an investor and one that I figured needs to be highlighted and shared.

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What Does the Future Hold for Conversion Optimization?

ConversionXL

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” – Yogi Berra. Digital marketing moves at a fast pace. One year something works, and the next year it is obsolete. Similarly, conversion optimization moves quickly. Sure, there are some core skills that seem foundational and everlasting, but year to year there are also some new skills that crop up.

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18 Entrepreneurs Explain What They Did Prior to Starting Their Businesses

Hearpreneur

Share It’s always a special time when you take the “leap of faith” and start your own business. But it’s rare that an entrepreneur or business owner doesn’t leverage their background in some way to launch their business. It could be studying entrepreneurship in school or it could have been working with a government contractor or maybe someone had a sales job.

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It's Not The Ink, It's The Think: 6 Effective Data Visualization Strategies

Occam's Razor

Ten years, and the 944,357 words, are proof that I love purposeful data, collecting it, pouring smart strategies into analyzing it, and using the insights identified to transform organizations. In the quest for that last important bit, I am insanely obsessive about 1. simplification and 2. pressing the right emotional buttons. The reasons are that we all like complexity, it gives us energy :), we tend to be logical, and we often treat data output as the end when in reality the data output is jus

Audience 118
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6 Tools to Help You Manage a Remote Team

Up and Running

In the last few years, remote work has become an attractive solution for many employees and employers. Around 67 percent of companies allow some employees to work from home on occasion, and 38 percent allow employees to work remotely on a regular basis. The perks of a remote working situation are pretty obvious for employees, but there are also several amazing perks for their employers, too.

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Marketing Tips For Startup Businesses

YoungUpstarts

Starting up your own business can be a stressful process, with business plans, accounts, company registration and loads of time consuming administrative tasks that seem never-ending. Then there is marketing, which can be as big or small a task as you want it to be. However, your marketing strategy will have a huge impact on the success of your business, so it is definitely worth investing a lot of effort into.

Marketing 139
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6 Tactics for Turning Your Website into a Lead Generating Machine

Duct Tape Marketing

6 Tactics for Turning Your Website into a Lead Generating Machine written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Photo Credit: Shutterstock. Anybody can create a website, but not everybody can create a conversion machine. Your website should be a mechanism in your business that allows you to convert prospective visitors into interested leads who will later become customers and advocates for the products and services that you sell.

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Get a Grip on Innovation — 10 Questions, 20 Minutes

Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

Get a Grip on Innovation — 10 Questions, 20 Minutes. Ten questions for you to focus on assessing the state of your organization’s innovation program. Twenty minutes to learn something and take action steps. If you think your current program is working, non-existent, or just a disaster — you will learn something by taking this quick survey.

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37 Entrepreneurs Share Their Favorite Inspirational Business Quote

Hearpreneur

Share André Gide wrote that,”Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” Quotes are an important part of motivation, though many of them are repeats of another turn of phrase. Business owners are particularly partial to famous quotations. Reading a motivational speech from a business legend or famous creative mind can give you a spark.

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Look what we did

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

“You must be so proud of what you created” — the reflexive conclusion delivered by visitors to our building at WP Engine, struck by a beautiful place teeming with energy and activity, coming upon the little office of the founder. “What we created,” I always respond. It’s not false humility. I didn’t create this.

Engineer 203
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Hacking for Defense Goes National

Steve Blank

Our goal was to scale Hacking for Defense classes across the US – giving students the opportunity to perform national service by solving real defense/diplomacy problems using Lean Methods. In exchange our government sponsors benefit from 1) access to talent that most likely would never have served the country, 2) getting solutions as minimum viable products/prototypes in 10 weeks, 3) exposure to a problem solving methodology used in Silicon Valley and battle tested in Iraq and Afghanista

San Diego 182
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“Small Business” Does Not Mean “Disadvantaged”. Here’s Why.

YoungUpstarts

by Lewis Robinson. Every small business should be focused on the future, and that means building innovation into internal processes. To remain competitive against big corporations and an endless stream of internet startups, companies looking for growth must produce new products and services to engage new markets. And not just occasionally, but frequently.

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5 Hidden Biases Will Negatively Impact Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

I’m sure we have all seen entrepreneurs with high levels of passion and confidence touting an idea that seems to make very little sense to us. Of course, we never see ourselves in this mode, yet we need to recognize that all humans see reality differently through a built-in set of “cognitive biases,” based on their own unique background of experiences, training, and mental state.

Startup 156
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Happy byproducts of startup work (even if the startup doesn’t)

The Startup Toolkit

I’ve felt financially secure ever since my first company failed. While I suppose that could be a sign of ambitious embezzlement, in this case it’s thanks to the byproducts of working on a startup: skills, network, insight. One benefit is that a couple years plodding away on a startup transforms you into an incredible freelancer[1]. While freelancing isn’t the goal for most founders, it’s a safety net that allows for big risks with small stress[2].

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How to Grow the Supply Side of a Marketplace Startup [Traction #34: Mike Russell, Paintzen)

View from Seed

Mike Russell is the CEO and co-founder of Paintzen , a NextView-backed company based in New York. Over the last couple years, they’ve experienced strong growth for their marketplace business, and today, we dive deep into the weeds of how Mike and team grew the business. More specifically, we learn about the approach and tactics used to grow the supply side of the Paintzen marketplace.

Cofounder 136
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Augmented Reality Will Put Local SEO On Steroids

Duct Tape Marketing

Augmented Reality Will Put Local SEO On Steroids written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Augmented reality has recently grown from the far-flung corners of geek world to become a surging phenomenon that is threatening to burst into popular culture. Pokemon Go, an AR based gaming app, generated huge traction subsequent to its July 2016 launch.

SEO 46
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Entrepreneurship Is Intellectual Immigration

Feld Thoughts

At the MIT Celebration of 50 Years of Entrepreneurship in November, I heard a number of fantastic lines that have stuck with me. One of them was from Noubar Afeyan. “Entrepreneurship is intellectual immigration.” As I sat in an audience of about 200 extremely accomplished MIT graduates spanning over 50 years, I thought to myself “he just f **g nailed it.” I’m a huge fan and supporter of immigration, especially around entrepreneurship.

DC 158
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5 Tips For More Productive Networking

YoungUpstarts

Have you ever felt like you’ve built a great relationship with an email address instead of a person? With the raw scale of connections at our fingertips, we can occasionally become victims of our own technological advances. When you are networking with dozens, maybe even hundreds of contacts at a time, how do you keep your networking connections meaningful?

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10 Ways To Keep The Road Ahead In 2017 A Happy One

Startup Professionals Musings

Welcome to another challenging new year ahead! You’ve probably already made your resolutions for 2017, but if not, I suggest a renewed commitment to finding happiness and satisfaction in your chosen business lifestyle. After all, most of us spend more hours in this role than any other, and life is too short to spend most of your life unhappy. If you haven’t tried it, one way to be happier at work is to be an entrepreneur, according to a Forbes article and a study by Babson College.

Restful 153
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The Only Thing an Investor Can Give You that Matters

This is going to be BIG.

VCs promise a lot of things. We've got all these platforms, advisors, special partners, communities, networks.special economic bells and whistles, spaces, programs, partnerships, etc. Meanwhile, they most useful thing we can give you when you're first starting out seems to be the hardest to get: Honesty. VCs see a lot of deals. We see successful companies and others that fall on their face--so getting our actual opinions about something, pass or fund, can be really useful.

Founder 139
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The What, How & Why of Hiring a Business Development Lead at Your Startup [Traction #35]

View from Seed

Kristen Craft is VP of business development and marketing at Ovia Health. For this episode, Jay sat down with Kristen while she was head of biz dev at video platform company Wistia. They talk about what business development roles actually do for their companies, and when and why a founder would hire someone to lead up the function. This is a deep, nuanced exploration of a job role that doesn’t often fit as neatly into departmental categories as engineering, product, sales, or marketing.

Hiring 120
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A recap of Q4: Great momentum for 2017

Version One Ventures

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a restful holiday! While we’re ready to look ahead and embrace 2017, here’s a quick recap of the major activity across our portfolio last quarter. We’re looking forward to continuing this momentum into the new year. Portfolio companies in the news. In continuing to be the consumer’s financial advocate, Trim launched a chatbot that helps renegotiate your Comcast bill.

Seattle 131
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A Full Day At CES

Feld Thoughts

Pro Tip: If you are at CES today and want to connect, I’ll be hanging out at Eureka Park from 11am this morning (Friday) when I’m on a panel about diversity until I leave the premises at 2:30. My dad and I left the Venetian yesterday at 8:30am to head over to the Las Vegas Convention Center. When I arrived back at the room at 10pm, I was done / baked / toasted / wiped.

Las Vegas 119
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Attention Healthcare Administrators: These Technologies Can Keep Your Facility Competitive

YoungUpstarts

If there is one thing that can be said of living and working in the 21 st century, it would be the impact technology has had on literally every aspect of daily life. If you hold an MSHA degree (master of science in health administration) then some of these bits of technology can make your life a whole lot easier. Not only is technology vital to healthcare but the right technologies can keep your hospital or healthcare facility competitive.

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9 Steps To Increasing Your Street Smarts In Business

Startup Professionals Musings

People who are good at solving problems for other people make great entrepreneurs. That’s what a business gets paid to do. The challenge is not the same as inventing a new technology, or finding things that make you feel good, and assuming that everyone will want one. In business, the ability to solve problems is called “street smarts,” and it’s more valuable than “book smarts.

Metrics 146
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How’s Your DIY Marketing Going?

Rembrandt Communications

You could be wasting more valuable resources than you think. In the past few weeks, numerous people in my life have been diagnosed with cancer and other illnesses, had hospital visits and even died. It’s just a reminder that no matter your age, no matter how healthy you are and no matter how “good” things […]. The post How’s Your DIY Marketing Going?

Marketing 109
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Impressive Brand Identity Campaigns in The Last Decade

Brandanew

Successful advertising campaigns can directly impact a brand’s perception. Although most marketers have similar data at their disposal, not all brand identity campaigns are successful. What makes one campaign better than others? E xperts say it’s not just images but campaigns that reach people’s emotions. Let’s look at some examples of memorable campaigns that have created magic for brands.

Campaign 109
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The hunt for the fastest growing company in Europe starts now

The Next Web

At TNW, we love fast growing tech startups – telling their stories and celebrating their growth. This is why we have decided to partner with Adyen – for the fourth year in a row – to host our acclaimed Tech5 competition. For Tech5, we focus on one key figure: Revenue growth. We’ve witnessed the exponential growth of the European tech scene. Ecosystems all over the continent are maturing at an extreme pace, providing a launchpad for tech companies like Transferwise, Delivery Hero, Cabify, Foodpa

Europe 116
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For Life Coaches, Travel Expands Your Business — Here’s How

YFS Magazine

It really does not matter where you plan to travel to; these experiences will support the growth, personally and professionally.

Sales 136
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The Buddhists Of Silicon Valley

YoungUpstarts

by Sarah Emory, Instaread.co. “I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.”. – Edna Mode, The Incredibles. When Lawrence Levy sat down to write “ To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History “, he was making a conscious choice to look back and reflect upon what he saw. Levy’s current spiritual path might lead one to believe that he can do so from a more enlightened “now,” undeterred by the past’s distractions.