July, 2017

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Why good people leave large tech companies

Steve Blank

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I was visiting with an ex-student who’s now the CFO of a large public tech company. The company is still one of the hottest places to work in tech. They make hardware with a large part of their innovation in embedded software and services.

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10 Strategies To Cover New Product Development Costs

Startup Professionals Musings

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here.

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The Fundamentals Of The Modern Consumer’s Mind

YoungUpstarts

by Drew Klebine, lead writer and co-owner of uxax.org. We live in an age of information. When applying this idea to how consumers shop online, it’s safe to assume that they already know everything about you and your company. Even if they don’t know everything, they can do their research to figure out whatever they want, and they will. Remember the olden days when consumers chose to simply trust whatever marketers and salesmen were saying, even the shady stuff?

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Announcing our investment in Ada Support – the AI support platform that’s answering 2 million questions a month

Version One Ventures

As Ada Support launches its automated chat platform from stealth and announces an impressive $2.5 million seed round, we’re looking back at our journey with founders Mike Murchison and David Hariri. The story underscores the importance of perseverance and having the right founding team. Just after closing Fund II in October 2014, Boris took a trip to Toronto.

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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 Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Pricing Strategy for Your SaaS Startup

Up and Running

Five months ago, the five members of our Chanty team gathered around a small table in a coffee shop to try to answer the ultimate question for our business: “How will Chanty make money?”. Determining the right monetization strategy is by far the most important issue for every SaaS business. You can have all traction in the world—acquire, activate, and retain users, but until your startup earns money, you are doing charity work, not running a business.

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Money Is A Consensual Hallucination

Feld Thoughts

My favorite Onion article of all time (from 2010) is U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion. It starts off with some Bernanke brilliance. “Though raising interest rates is unlikely at the moment, the Fed will of course act appropriately if we…if we…” said Bernanke, who then paused for a moment, looked down at his prepared statement, and shook his head in utter disbelief. “You know what?

More Trending

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Startups Need Employees Who React Like Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. Then they are surprised to see productivity and creativity take a big dip. What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business.

Employee 173
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Ready To Revamp Your Website? Here’s How To Do It Right

YoungUpstarts

Whether you have a small business or a super large corporation, you will need a website. But it cannot be just any website. It has to be a website that is going to work for you. It needs to work on both a technical level and a personal level. It has to resonate with your readers. If you have no idea where to get started, you are in luck. Everything you need to know to point you in the right direction can be found here: Get The Best Hosting Possible.

Hosting 133
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How to fail gracefully

David Cohen

Of course nobody wants their startup to fail, but the fact is that it happens and it’s a completely normal part of company building. Investors understand this and realize that failure is often a part of the process. If your company has failed, make sure you go out of your way to let all of your investors know what’s going on. At Techstars, part of our Code of Conduct is to communicate with your investors at least every six months.

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What Millennial Women Leaders Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship

Up and Running

In 2013, a Pew Research Center study revealed some sobering insights into the reasons why 34 percent of millennial women weren’t interested in becoming a boss or top manager. But beyond gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace, some experts also referred to a confidence gap—less self-assurance compared to men—as essential as competence for success.

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Recapping Q2 2017: Portfolio News and Activities

Version One Ventures

We hope everyone had a great Canada Day and/or Fourth of July! It’s hard to believe that another quarter has flown by. Q2 has been busy for Version One and our portfolio companies – here’s a quick recap of select news coverage, funding announcements, and product updates (at least the things we can announce publicly): . Funding and follow-ons. We announced our investment in Citizen Hex , an Ethereum liquidity company.

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10 Best Cities in the United States for Startups and Entrepreneurs

crowdSPRING Blog

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. startup ecosystem for many decades. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. But this is becoming less true today, as more and more entrepreneurs find their way across the U.S.

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5 Stages of Technology Adoption Compared To Grieving

Startup Professionals Musings

How many times have investors heard startups start their pitch by touting that their technology is “disruptive?” What entrepreneurs forget or don’t realize is that most customers are wary of all technology, educating the market on new technology is expensive, takes a long time, and people buy problem solutions rather than technology. Investors will likely wait for more traction.

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Keep Customers Coming Back For More

YoungUpstarts

When you are running a business online , you need to think about what makes a customer tick. And, perhaps more importantly, what makes a customer buy. There can be a lot of factors that determine a customer’s buying behavior, and you need to be aware of them all. You need to make sure that there are no issues that could stop a customer buying from you and that there are lots of strategies in place to ensure that they keep coming back to your business.

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“Their baseline knowledge of Silicon Valley probably comes from HBO’s Silicon Valley.” How Alyssa Bereznak Covers Tech for The Ringer.

Hunter Walker

My undergrad degree was in history, but I always qualify it as “social history,” which to me means not just focusing on “names, dates, wars” (aka high school history) but understanding the past through stories. Alyssa Bereznak covers tech for The Ringer and her reporting appeals to me for the same reasons. Alyssa doesn’t write wrote explainers about Instagram’s latest feature updates but she will go deep into the Plantsagram subculture.

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Should You Build a Mobile App or a Website for Your Startup?

Up and Running

Website, web app, or a mobile app—what would be the right “form” for your business idea ? Since the release of the very first iPhone, everyone has been treating the mobile-first business model as the new gold rush. Some, on the contrary, say that the modern user is already experiencing app fatigue and that people tend to use just three apps at most , so competing for desktop attention still remains easier.

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The LP Opportunity to Change Tech Culture

thebarefootvc

Over the past month, Silicon Valley has been at the forefront of many conversations outside of the technology world. Unfortunately not for groundbreaking technology, but for rampant sexual harassment and predatory behavior. The stories outlined by a number of brave women in the NY Times last week recount investors using their power and position to proposition female founders.

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Why You Must Optimize for Conversions Before Awareness

Duct Tape Marketing

Why You Must Optimize for Conversions Before Awareness written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. When marketers plan their campaigns, the objective is usually to achieve one of two goals: increase brand awareness or maximize conversions. These two styles of marketing work together but they’re distinct from one another. Awareness marketing involves establishing a reputation within your niche, differentiating yourself from competitors and bringing people into the top of your funnel.

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Inforum: Mixed emotions

deal architect

The buzz at Infor’s annual user conference (and a side analyst summit) was around Coleman, the AI platform Infor announced to use “powerful machine learning to improve processes such as inventory management, transportation routing, and predictive maintenance”. The name Coleman.

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Tips For SaaS Businesses To Up Their Game By Leveraging Web Push Notifications

YoungUpstarts

by Pravya Pravin, product marketer at iZooto. In 2017, with 5X times faster growth than traditional software market, SaaS finds itself outrunning traditional software product delivery. Cloud software model will account for 1 dollar for every $4.59 spent on traditional software by 2019. A mammoth decline in traditional software can be seen in the coming future.

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Unintended Consequences: When SAFE and Convertible Notes Go Awry

Pascal's View

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. We’ve received numerous constructive comments, both privately and on social media, from attorneys, VCs, and CEOs who are well aware of the problem (including several who are experiencing it in real time). This is a fundamental issue that does, indeed, boil down to understanding the post-money valuation of a company.

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Leading Edge or Bleeding Edge: The Make or Break Difference

Up and Running

Most successful business plans entail launching a new product, service, or distribution outlet that attacks existing market competitors on what military planners would term an exposed flank. In battle, an effective flanking attack hits the opponent (or competition ) where they are less able or unable to respond. A smart commander will mass forces against this flank, just as an astute business leader will pour resources into their flanking effort.

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Why Corporate Innovation is Harder Now

Steve Blank

I was at Stanford in the Graduate School of Business and was interviewed by Peter Gardner of StartGrid for his On The Road podcast. I shared my current thinking about innovation in companies and government agencies. It’s worth a listen. BTW, it seems every podcast has a trick last question. This one was, “if I was on a road trip what’s the destination and what’s playing on the radio?

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Is Your Virtual Team a Mess? These Apps Can Help

Duct Tape Marketing

Is Your Virtual Team a Mess? These Apps Can Help written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. What does it take to run a successful business? Every entrepreneur has their own viewpoint. Their personal idea of what it takes to achieve success. Steve Jobs, had this to say: “It’s not the tools you have faith in–tools are just tools–they work, or they don’t work.

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SAP Leonardo: The dawn of intelligent applications

deal architect

At SapphrieNow a few weeks ago, SAP’s Hasso Plattner painted the vision of “Intelligent Applications” to include Intelligent Transactions – automate high-frequency repetitive tasks Analytics – make data-driven insights available to everybody Collaboration – tap into the collective intelligence of.

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This is Why Your Online Marketing Campaign Isn’t Working!

YoungUpstarts

The World Wide Web is a minefield to navigate, due to its sheer vastness. It’s no wonder online marketing can be such a daunting task. If your online marketing campaigns haven’t been going as planned, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate what you’re doing. Now, mistakes are inevitable – it’s the only way we can learn sometimes. But acknowledging them when they first occur will help you make improvements the next time around.

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Should you invent a new UX?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Early in my career, I was indoctrinated with a Cardinal Rule of User Interface: A user interface should minimize surprise. Have you always hated tabs inside dialog boxes? Understandable, but users know how they work, so you have to use them. If you put a scrollbar instead, half your users will never realize that scrolling is possible. For example, this dialog is ridiculous but it’s still clear how to use it: Is the default system drop-down list not exactly right for your purposes?

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How Founders Can Become Better Leaders

Up and Running

Dr. James R. Bailey, of George Washington University School of Business and the Centre for Management Development, London Business School. As a founder, you’ve probably been focused on writing your business plan , building out your financial forecasts to position yourself to get funding, and managing the day-to-day minutia of running a business. But have you thought about how your leadership skills and your ability to shape positive company culture can affect your startup’s survival ?

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10 Entrepreneur Shortcuts To Be Avoided At All Costs

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting a new business is a long, hard process, and I can’t blame any founder for looking for shortcuts. I’ve taken a few myself, and I know how much work they can save, as well as how painful some can be in retrospect. When you are trying new things, there are plenty of new problems to go around, so why would you want to re-experience the pain of others?

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What You Need to Know About Google Posts

Duct Tape Marketing

What You Need to Know About Google Posts written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Google is at it again! After much anticipation, Google has released Google Posts for all Google My Business users. Originally this feature was only available to select small businesses, celebrities, sports leagues, movies studios, and even political candidates (you may have noticed “candidate cards” throughout 2016 which were essentially the same as Google Posts).

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The Clover-Leaf Talent Economy

deal architect

In analyzing factoids from the recent listing of the Fortune 500, I came up with a startling data point. The F500 have a combined total revenue of $12.1 trillion equal to 65% of the US GDP. Yet they only employ.

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How To Reduce Unsubscribe Rates For Your Email Marketing Campaigns

YoungUpstarts

by Chris Low, founder of MyTeamPlan. No matter how useful and interesting your newsletter is, there is still a small percentage of your subscribers who may no longer find your content relevant. A Mailchimp study found that between 0.1 to 0.4 percent of subscribers opt out of mailing lists on average during any given email campaign. Mailing lists that offer discounts and vouchers have extremely low rates of opt-out.

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How to Grow Your Startup’s Growth Team [Traction #45: Fareed Mosavat, Slack]

View from Seed

On the show today, Fareed Mosavat shares his experiences on growth teams for Slack, Instacart, and RunKeeper. We learn from his approach but also extract valuable lessons about where growth jobs actually fit into your overall organization. Follow Fareed on Twitter. Follow Jay on Twitter. Listen now or subscribe on iTunes , SoundCloud , Stitcher , or Google Play.

Startup 176
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6 Things to Consider Before Entering a Market

Up and Running

Everyone thinks being an entrepreneur is sexy. We are deluged by the media with stories of multimillionaire and billionaire entrepreneurs with their ridiculous lifestyles. The truth is, being an entrepreneur is a stressful, risky profession. It’s a career filled with uncertainty, long hours with potential for little or no pay, and never being off the treadmill of finding the next sale.

Marketing 111
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10 Controversial Lessons From Serious Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Most people agree that entrepreneurs have to think differently and take risks to have much chance of building a successful business. Yet I have found that serious entrepreneurs usually go way beyond these platitudes in their actions and thinking, and often won’t volunteer their real views, for fear of alienating “regular” people, and being branded a fanatic.

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Transcript of How to Free Up More Time in Your Work Week

Duct Tape Marketing

Transcript of How to Free Up More Time in Your Work Week written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Back to Podcast. Transcript. john: So what’s your biggest problem? Is it time, is it focus, is it delegation? Those are the things I hear all of the time so that’s why I’m speaking with Mandi Ellefson. She is the CEO of the Hands Off CEO.