April, 2017

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How MakeSpace Recently Closed $30 million in New Funding

Both Sides of the Table

Just over a year ago I wrote about how MakeSpace had raised $17.5 million in capital to build out its operations in 4 cities: New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago and Washington D.C. I pointed out that the storage market in the US alone is ~$30 billion / year and there is no dominant provider — the largest player has < 10% market share. If you have a storage need in one of these cities please consider checking out MakeSpace.

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Creative Ways To Improve Your Customer’s Online Experience

YoungUpstarts

In e-commerce, retaining customers is essential to the survival of your business. It has long been known that keeping a customer is much cheaper than acquiring a new one, as those customers tend to be far more receptive to sales and promotions after they have made an initial purchase with you. Retaining a customer involves keeping them engaged, anticipating their needs, and making sure your brand stays at the top of their mind whenever they are thinking about purchasing again.

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4 Chasms And 5 Customer Types That Kill Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone in the business world has heard of the old bestseller by Geoffrey A. Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Most investors and startup professionals expand this concept of focus to apply to key issues of every aspect of strategic and tactical planning in a startup.

Customer 191
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18 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.

San Diego 108
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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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10 Ways To Build Smarter Landing Pages

YFS Magazine

Do your landing pages convert? Many business owners and digital marketers drive potential customers away due to poorly designed websites and landing pages.

Design 106
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3 Tips on How to Recruit Your First Remote Team

Up and Running

If you’ve never recruited for a remote team, you’re probably wondering if the recruitment process looks different than the traditional hiring process. The answer? Yes, it does. However, this shouldn’t worry you. All you have to know is where to look, how to leverage LinkedIn for your recruitment process , and how to communicate with remote workers. This guide will give you three quick tips to get you started on the right track.

Salary 90

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How To Solve 5 Common Business Problems

YoungUpstarts

The idea of starting your own business can be tempting. As soon as the idea pops into your head, you’re likely to fantasize about the freedom. It’s easy to imagine: You’ll be able to make your own decisions. You’ll only do work that you want. And you’ll only work with people who are easy to get along with. However, here are 5 challenges you may never have thought you might have to face: 1.

Forecast 138
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Colorado Global EIR 2017 Applications

Feld Thoughts

The 2017 applications for the Colorado Global EIR are now open through April 15, 2017. The Colorado Global EIR program is a way for experienced international entrepreneurs to receive an H-1B visa, allowing them to work in Boulder. They must commit to working 20 hours per week at CU Boulder (supporting cross-campus entrepreneurial activities), and of course, will be paid for doing so.

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The Girls Who Innovate - Joy Akor

Transformify

We’re starting series of stories about girls who completed their training at SheInnovates Africa , learning the programming and entrepreneurial skills they needed to succeed. Each story is unique and portrays the challenges they faced on the way to success. Today we’re telling the story of a girl from Nigeria, Joy Akor. She always had the passion to impact others and has found numerous ways to contribute to the growth of her community.

Nigeria 68
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3 Things Online Retailers Can Learn From Brick And Mortars

YFS Magazine

Online retail is the future — we all know that. But don’t count traditional brick and mortar stores out just yet. Here's why.

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4 Steps to Turn Tweets Into Customers

Up and Running

What many small business owners don’t know about using Twitter is how they can take the conversations already happening on the social media platform to get more customers in the door. With more and more users signing up on Twitter each day, including an increasing number of users who are 50 years old and up , Twitter is a powerful platform for getting your business in front of a large audience with varied age ranges and interests.

Customer 108
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How to Build a High Performing Growth Team

ConversionXL

As technology continues to make data-driven marketing easier to implement and control, one thing remains constant: it’s all about the effectiveness of your team. As Paul Rouke says, we need to prioritize human intelligence in the face of increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, and building a high performing team is the most impactful thing you can do when it comes to growth.

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The Pros And Cons Of Digital Learning

YoungUpstarts

A recent report from by the CMI and Oxford Strategic Consulting highlighted how attitudes to online learning have started to shift in the workforce. Many employees now believe that companies choose online learning methods as a way of cutting costs rather than as a smarter alternative to traditional classroom learning. Gil Mulders, the head of learning at InterContinental Hotels Group, was speaking last month at the 2017 HR Tech World Conference in London , where he touched on the difficulty of f

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Why Small Businesses Have the Social Media Marketing Advantage

Duct Tape Marketing

Why Small Businesses Have the Social Media Marketing Advantage written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. As a small business owner, you’re constantly looking for new ways to get your company’s brand on the radar of potential customers. If you don’t already, using social media in business is a great way to engage with current customers as well as attract new ones.

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Why Great Executives Avoid Shiny Objects

Both Sides of the Table

The modern world is filled with constant distractions. Only those with maniacal focus on results and a willingness not to engage in every activity achieve extraordinary results. As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We are over-intro’d and at the same time under-resourced in terms of staff to handle the barrage of in-bound requests.

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Avoiding the trap of low-knowledge, high-confidence theories

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

We’ve all laughed at detailed renderings of constellations overlaying a paltry set of stars that are in fact quasi-random. Like Fornax, which is just three stars: But which humans have no trouble rendering as an intricate sequence of machinery: It would be funny, if this natural compulsion didn’t also cause us to make bad decisions, all the time.

Flash 298
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How to Set up Payroll As a New Employer

Up and Running

When you own a business, you are in charge of hiring employees. Top-notch employees can help you streamline business processes, add innovative ideas, and grow your business. Before you start worrying about a candidate sourcing strategy or hiring your first employee, you need to have a little understanding of payroll. Most business owners are experts in their industry, not payroll.

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9 Lessons Learned from Running a CRO Agency

ConversionXL

Run an agency? Offer conversion optimization services? Then you know it can be hard. I’ve been running an optimization agency for 6 years now. Here are my top lessons I’ve learned along the way. 1. Build a name, build an audience. It’s so much easier to run an agency business if you have a personal brand name and an audience. Think about it: you’re in the business of expertise.

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Times Are Changing In Logistics

YoungUpstarts

Logistics is the business of transporting goods from one area to another. It’s become particularly popular for business owners to outsource their logistics needs to other companies and there’s a clear reason for this. Logistics can be expensive. It can cost thousands to move heavy equipment from one area to another. Sometimes it’s cheaper for companies to hire a company to complete the service, cutting the cost as well as the responsibility.

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How Social Media Can Bring The Right Customers For Your Business Using Word Of Mouth

Duct Tape Marketing

How Social Media Can Bring The Right Customers For Your Business Using Word Of Mouth written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Word-of-mouth has been both King of Advertising and a marketer’s best friend for ages – and I mean literally, ages. A naturally occurring phenomenon, word-of-mouth is as old as human communication itself.

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Whats CRM anymore?

deal architect

Asked Josh Greenbaum, speaking for a group of analysts Microsoft briefed during CRM Evolution on Monday about updates to its Dynamics 365. What used to be a HR recruiters playground in LinkedIn a few years ago is becoming a salesperson’s.

Software 240
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5 Public Speaking Opportunities To Make Your Company

Startup Professionals Musings

As a mentor for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs, I talk to a fair number who may have a great vision and a strong engineering background, but have a negative interest in the role of public speaking in business. In fact, they often claim to be part of the survey group that fears public speaking more than death, but I’m not sure how anyone could validate that survey.

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Introducing Gotham Voices: An Email Newsletter for NY Tech

View from Seed

TL;DR: We’re launching a newsletter highlighting the best content from the NYC tech community. Fill out the form below to get Gotham Voices in your inbox each week, and read on to learn why we’re excited to launch this today. Subscribe to Gotham Voices. * indicates required. First Name. Last Name. Email Address *. As a seed-focused venture firm with offices in New York and Boston, we believe there’s a responsibility for us to not just be participants in the local entrepreneurial comm

Email 185
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The wrong question: Is now the right time to start a company?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Yes. The answer is always yes. But it’s the wrong question. I started Smart Bear in a recession (2002) and it went great. I’ve been explaining for eight years why recessions are a great time to start a company. It’s wise because costs are low (every vendor is thrilled to have new business) and if you can get people to buy when money is tight, you’ve really proved you have a desirable product.

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Home-Based Businesses – A Look Back In Time To 1985 And Beyond

YoungUpstarts

by Diana Ennen, President of Virtual Word Publishing and author of “ Virtual Assistant, The Series: Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA “. This month I celebrated my 32 nd year in business. Wow! How cool is that? Who would have thought 32 years ago that a site like LinkedIn would be available to share the news of my big anniversary? Totally awesome!

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How Systems Make Your Business More Human

Duct Tape Marketing

How Systems Make Your Business More Human written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. I’m a huge fan of technology. Without it, my business would be in a much different place than it is now. However, over-reliance on it can be a trap that puts you out of touch with your customers and can prevent you from building relationships that will help you get better at what you do and help you build a strong network and community.

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Day 2 for enterprise technology?

deal architect

In his annual letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos writes “I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades.” “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death….To be.

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Smart Entrepreneurs Favor People-Centric Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around.

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Building Product in a Saturated Niche [Traction Podcast #39: Ellen Chisa, Lola]

View from Seed

Ellen Chisa is VP of product at Lola , a travel company combining the human element of travel agents with smart technology. While some entrepreneurs build their products in markets that feel wide open for the taking, travel is one of those industries with tons of noise and competition. So how does one gain a foothold? How do you break through, build something BIG and DIFFERENTIATED?

Product 184
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14 things you better love before becoming an entrepreneur

The Next Web

Imagine somebody asked you to write on a piece of paper the things you love doing. If what came to mind was “partying, hanging out with friends, going to the beach, meeting new people, traveling,” you might ready to go on vacation or spring break. If on the other hand, you wrote “learning, making decisions, listening, risk, selling, working hard and building something from nothing,” you might be ready to be an entrepreneur.

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10 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Leadership Coaching

YoungUpstarts

by Gregg Thompson, author of “ The Master Coach: Leading with Character, Building Connections, and Engaging in Extraordinary Conversations “ When it comes to helping you perform at your best and accelerate your career, nothing compares to the power of being coached. But while working with a great coach is a highly effective way of accelerating your development as a leader, it also represents a significant investment of time and money.

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Optimizing the SaaS Funnel from Top to Bottom

For Entrepreneurs

In my talk at the 2017 SaaStr Annual conference, the goal was to offer a simple model of a SaaS business and highlight key areas for optimization within the SaaS funnel. Watch the video presentation to learn the key levers a CEO can pull to make the greatest impact to their business. (video from SaaStr Annual 2017).

Video 153
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Getting Your Head in the Game for Fund Raising

Both Sides of the Table

When you run a startup you’re always on borrowed time. You have cash in the bank, a monthly burn rate and a “cash out” date that few in the company truly comprehend. I’ve never met a founder who wasn’t acutely aware of his or her ticking time bomb and the sense that failure and humiliation is a real possibility. It’s why so few can really start a business from scratch.

Burn Rate 238
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7 Key Steps From a Million Dollar Idea To a Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Based on my own experience as a startup investor, and feedback from like-minded friends, we all get pitches for at least ten startup ideas for every one new business plan. New business founders need to remember that investors fund business implementations, not ideas. In fact, investors will tell you that ideas are worth nothing, outside the context of a real team with a real plan.

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Support Startups for Net Neutrality

Feld Thoughts

The new leader of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Chairman Ajit Pai, has said he wants to roll back existing net neutrality rules that prevent big cable companies from discriminating against online companies and services. Congress is lining up behind him. Engine Advocacy , Y Combinator , and Techstars are organizing a letter opposing these actions, signed by startups, investors, accelerators, incubators, and entrepreneurs.

.Net 136
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How not to be as stupid as this brand

The Next Web

I’ve always wanted to own real estate. At one time, I owned a small property in Jacksonville Missouri. I bought it without ever seeing it, as an investment opportunity. Four years, a foreclosure, and a lot less money later, I learned my lesson. I’m now in the habit of picking up another kind of real estate; I’m what you might call a domainer. A domainer is someone who buys, for whatever reason, a domain name on the domain aftermarket or possibly even hand registers it.