Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

'This article initially appeared on Inc. If you haven’t already followed me on Twitter, that’s the fastest way to get blog updates. Click here. In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. This post is about the “P” or pain. The point of PUCCKA was to develop a common methodology to make sure our whole team approaches sales with the same mindset and to give us a language to talk with each other about our prospects, as in, “have y

Sales 367

Sales Software Review Social Media Customer 367

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 9, 2013

'The traditional mode of starting a company is to plan a serial process, where you complete once all the steps, leading to the “big bang” launch of the company. I strongly recommend a dramatic departure from this model, called “planned iteration” or Lean Startup methodology, where you assume you won’t get it right the first time, so you launch with a minimum viable product (MVP).

Agile 263

Agile Startup Social Network Software Developers 263

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 25, 2013

'by T. Scott Gross , author of “ Invisible: How Millennials Are Changing the Way We Sell “ The Millennial generation is here. They feel entitled. They negotiate everything. And they ‘ll tell you exactly what is on their mind… even if you don’t want to know. Let’s see you make a team, and a profit out of that! Before we go any further (and before those of you with short attention spans form an opinion and clock out)… let me apologize.

Florida 203

Florida Government Leadership Management 203

The Next Web

JUNE 7, 2013

'Today is the day that eight hopeful startups got to pitch their ideas to investors at startup accelerator Springboard’s Internet of Things (IoT) demo day in Cambridge, England. The eight teams hail from all over the world – including entrants from Montreal, Toronto, Portugal and Bulgaria – and have spent the last three months tirelessly working away on their hardware-based startup ideas for the Internet of Things in preparation for today.

Internet 120

Internet Bulgaria Portugal Stealth 120

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

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 4, 2013

'In a recent post , Ev Williams (co-founder of Twitter, Blogger and Medium), suggested that all startup advice is wrong (presumably, including his own post on this subject). Ev pointed out that what works for one entrepreneur/company doesn’t necessarily work for others: Companies are not built in a lab. We are unable to run Monte Carlo simulations.

Small Business 125

Small Business CTO Hire Startup Cofounder 125

Up and Running

JUNE 21, 2013

'Most of the challenges in starting a business relate back to doing the little things right. Like any good coach has said at some point: The fundamentals get you to the top. If you are thinking of starting a small business, make sure you follow these ten important rules for small businesses: 1. You need to manage your cash. The number one reason small businesses go bankrupt is lack of cash , not lack of profits.

Small Business 153

Small Business Software Review Lean Advertising 153

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2013

'Creating and building a business is not a one-man show. It requires a team effort, or at least the ability to build trust and confidence among key players, and effectively communicate with partners, team members, investors, vendors, and customers. These actions are the hallmark of an effective leader. Behind the actions are a set of principles and characteristics that entrepreneurial leaders, like Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, seem to have in common.

Leadership 261

Leadership Business Model Entrepreneur Startup 261

SiliconHills

JUNE 13, 2013

'There’s a new map in town: ATXup. Nick Hammond, an Austin-based software developer, created the map using an open source program called RepresentMap. Other startup communities worldwide are using the same program to map their emerging tech startup economies. Some of the latest additions to the map include: Nitero Inc., Trails.by, Longhorn Startup Camp, Clay.io, [.

Austin 115

Austin Open Source Startup Software Developers 115

The Next Web

JUNE 22, 2013

'A great idea ensure startup success, right? Wrong. No one enjoys hearing it, but three out of four startups will fail before they ever get to market. Yes, even the greatest ideas are still susceptible to ending up in the trash. As a startup founder, mentor, Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) member, I’ve witnessed far too many startups reach the end far too early.

Alaska 162

Alaska Startup Acquisition Community 162

Version One Ventures

JUNE 13, 2013

'It’s the age-old debate among start-up circles: which is more important to the success of a start-up: the strength of the sales/distribution strategy or the quality of the product? On one end of the spectrum, many start-ups think that great products sell themselves, while the other camp argues that it’s the channel and monetization that define a company’s success.

Sales 145

Sales Product CTO Hire Sales Cycle 145

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 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!

Social Media 95

Social Media Small Business Design Media 95

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

'In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. The first post covered the topic of “P” or pain. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it.

Campaign 336

Campaign Sales Software Customer 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

'Marketing is everything these days. You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for custome

Marketing 258

Marketing Startup Technical Review Social Media 258

blog.alinelerner.com

JUNE 21, 2013

'Aline Lerner's Blog. making technical recruiting suck less. Home. Posts. About. Press. Lessons from a year’s worth of hiring data. Jun 21, 2013. I ran technical recruiting at TrialPay for a year before going off to start my own agency. Because I used to be an engineer, one part of my job was conducting first-round technical interviews, and between January 2012 and January 2013, I interviewed roughly 300 people for our back-end/full-stack engineer position.

CTO Hire 98

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 98

The Next Web

JUNE 13, 2013

'Code Club UK, the network of volunteers that teach kids to program, is celebrating its first birthday today and is doing so in style by announcing the expansion of the initiative to the entire world. Code Club is a free scheme that relies on volunteers around the UK to teach children aged between 9 and 11 coding skills. Since its introduction more than 800 Code Clubs have sprung up around the country.

Luxembourg 117

Luxembourg Web Development Community Programming 117

Growthink Blog

JUNE 17, 2013

'Holding constant for socioeconomic factors, the typical entrepreneur makes less money, works more hours and suffers more work-related stress than their employed counterparts. And when we combine these statistics with those that show a very low percentage of businesses ever attaining meaningful profitability, it is remarkable that people ever even dream to be entrepreneurs and start businesses at all.

Web Development 91

Web Development Web Entrepreneur Developer 91

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 21, 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 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2013

'I have a motto in business and life, “give before you get.” It’s a philosophy, really. And it applies to business relationships & networking as much as it does to remuneration in the workplace. It seems we live in an era of “ask.” I see it on Twitter. Lots of asking. I see it on email even more. And in person in spades.

Los Angeles 407

Los Angeles PR Networking Partner 407

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2013

'On a regular basis, I am approached by entrepreneurs who assert that business plans are a waste of time. They cite sources like a recent BusinessWeek story, “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ” and this NY Times article. From my perspective as a professional investor and long-time advisor to entrepreneurs, much of this urban legend advice is just plain wrong.

Business Plan 250

Business Plan Technical Review Entrepreneur Angel Investor 250

tuckermax.me

JUNE 21, 2013

'Home. Menu. About. Reading Lists. Quote Lists. Book Summaries. Archive. Contact. June 21, 2013. Don’t look for talent, find people who do things. I wrote a blog post a while ago about what one of my former assistants did after working for me, and in it I wondered why so many of them have had success. My conclusion was that: I honestly don’t think I have much to do with it.

RSS 78

RSS New York Hiring Software Review 78

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

'The greatest number of jobs is created when startups create a new market – one where the product or service never existed before or is radically more convenient. Yet this is where startups will run into anti-innovation opponents they may not expect. These opponents have their own name – “rent seekers” – the landlords of the status-quo. Smart startups prepare to face off against rent seekers and map out creative strategies for doing so… First, however, they need to understand what a

North Carolina 335

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 335

deal architect

JUNE 9, 2013

'The disclosures of the NSA supposed access to Microsoft, Google, Apple and other data is going to draw plenty of Congressional investigation, Obama bashing and even more foreign criticism of the US Patriot Act. But it will likely only skirt.

309

309

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 13, 2013

'Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Samuel Faith – Enjoy! When it comes to content marketing, nothing is better than a good webinar. You can educate, inform, engage and convert your target market – all at once. Independent reports from inbound marketing experts indicate that webinars can significantly boost your expert status, build meaningful and engaging relationships with your customers, and turn your audience into high converting pro

SMS 66

SMS Audience Email Metrics 66

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 15, 2013

'My mom seems to sneak into my blog from time-to-time. My dad less so. Mom was an entrepreneur and a civic leader. She was (is) a bit of a ball buster. And a negotiator. And a go getter. So she naturally fills my story arcs more easily. But of course we’re all a product of both of our parents – if we were fortunate enough to be raised by two individuals.

San Francisco 407

San Francisco South Carolina South America Colombia 407

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2013

'It is no secret that the world of venture capital (VCs) was turned upside down by the recent Recession, and many other changes in the marketplace. I see now emerging a new wave of investors, popularly known as “super-Angels,” micro-VCs, or “super-seed” investors. Every early-stage startup should explore this new funding alternative. Examples of some leaders in this space include Mike Maples in Silicon Valley and David S.

Angel Investor 231

Angel Investor Entrepreneur Early Stage Silicon Valley 231

Diego Basch

JUNE 10, 2013

'If you write code for a living, when was the last time you released something as open source? If you can’t remember, I’d hold that against you in an interview. Why? Assuming you take pride in your work (if you don’t… well), open-source code is an incentive to: Make sure the code is not horrendously embarrassing. Verify that a random person can check it out and make it work.

Open Source 59

Open Source Coder Software Review API 59

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

'In a startup instead of paying consultants to tell you what they learned you want to pay them to teach you how to learn. —-. Roominate , one of my favorite Lean LaunchPad teams came out to the ranch last week for a strategy session. Alice and Bettina had taken an idea they had tested in the class – building toys for young girls to have fun with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and started a company.

PR 314

PR China Lean Channel 314

deal architect

JUNE 18, 2013

'It is embarrassing to see large vendors so desperate to show they are cloud players that they will grab at any straw. First there was SAP''s Bill McDemott''s gushy, mushy claim "We thank Lars so much for bringing the cloud.

Cloud 306

Cloud 306

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2013

'What makes an entrepreneur tick? Perhaps the better question is – what kind of leader makes the best entrepreneur? After all, startups are fast paced, small, and ever-morphing, which means it takes certain type of person to help make things succeed. Here’s a look at what a founder should be able to do: Development. Write Code. Build a server.

Advisory Board 279

Advisory Board Balance Sheet Term Sheet Entrepreneur 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

'This article originally appeared on Inc.com. Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience. I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. This is a very important to do when you first start a company.

Sales 393

Sales Startup Framework Search 393

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

'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 continues to decline. Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected.

Customer 230

Customer Technical Review Startup Salary 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 4, 2013

'Isn’t entrepreneurship about having an amazing idea and building a living around it? …yes, except every advisor and blogger admonishes ” your idea sucks ,” you prima donna pompous a **e , so your job is to use an “idea” as a foil to find out what is actually an amazing idea and then go follow that path, whatever that might be.

Marketing 259

Marketing Early Stage Lean Metrics 259

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

'There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo. The Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship curriculum has caught fire. This week 100 educators from around the world will come to Stanford to learn how to teach it. —– Life is full of unintended consequences. Ten years ago I started thinking about why startups are different from existing companies.

Lean 286

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 286

deal architect

JUNE 6, 2013

'The WSJ picks up on a Forrester analysis from a few weeks ago. It suggests Oracle apps customers are staying put on EBS, PeopleSoft etc because they are not impressed with Fusion Apps. Here''s the reality. Several hundred Oracle customers.

Customer 299

Customer Software 299

Jeff Hilimire

JUNE 11, 2013

'Um, Evernote, were you reading my diary? Or at least my blog? See, I’ve been struggling with landing on a solid to-do process for years. In fact, you’ll see in September of last year I blogged about my process for managing my to-do list and ended up deciding to use Evernote but wishing they had a way to set due dates. And finally, Evernote’s most recent update introduced “Reminders” , a feature that allows you to attach a due date to a note.

Technical Review 52

Technical Review Green Technology Email 52

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 9, 2013

'I spoke this past week at the LeWeb conference in London, which was a superbly well run event with a very quality production team. Kudos. The 20-minute video of my presentation is here if you’re interested. And it was convenient for me because we also held our annual London board meeting of DataSift , who helps companies processes and analyze large volumes of social plus enterprise data in realtime.

Syria 361

Syria Marketing Libya Los Angeles 361