Sat.Dec 17, 2011 - Fri.Dec 23, 2011

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The End of the Web? Don’t Bet on It. Here’s Why

Both Sides of the Table

Fred Wilson recently posted a great video on his blog with the CEO of Forrester Research, George Colony. The money slide is the graphic below. The chart shows three scarce resources and their improvements over time. The top line is available storage (S), the middle line represents processing power (following Moore’s law) or (P) and the bottom line is the Network (N).

Web 355
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The Government Starts an Incubator: The National Science Foundation Innovation Corps

Steve Blank

Over the last two months the U.S. government has been running one of the most audacious experiments in entrepreneurship since World War II. They launched an incubator for the top scientists and engineers in the U.S. This week we saw the results. 63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. 19 of the 21 teams are moving forward in commercializing their technology.

Incubator 301
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Early-Stage Startups Need Friends, Family, and Fools

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs have learned that it’s almost always quicker and easier to get cash from someone you know, rather than angel investors or professional investors (VCs). In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. You see, investors invest in people, before they invest in ideas or products.

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Sphero Has Shipped!

Feld Thoughts

My little buddy, the robotic ball controlled by your smartphone named Sphero, has shipped and you can order a Sphero now ! Having watched Sphero come to life over the past 17 months, starting as a seed of an idea in the heads of two mad geniuses (Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson) has been awesome. I remember seeing Ian and Adam’s video application to TechStars for the Boulder 2010 program (at the time the company was called Gearbox).

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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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Nuts & Bolts of Intellectual Property for New Startups

Gust

So you’ve chosen a name for your startup, product, or both. Having covered all the bases to ensure that your corporate name is available, the domain name can be acquired, and the name doesn’t infringe any existing trademarks (as we discussed last week ), now is a good time to look at the categories of intellectual property (IP) that are relevant to most startups.

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7 Customer Service Trends To Watch And Leverage In 2012

YoungUpstarts

by Richard Shapiro, founder and president of The Center For Client Retention ( www.tcfcr.com ). Providing exceptional customer service has long been seen as a competitive advantage. Social media, mobile technologies and altering demographics present businesses of every size with tremendous opportunities. All of these changes actually underscore the importance of getting back to the basics of treating customers as individuals with unique needs.

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More Trending

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Don't Forget Brooklyn: NYU's plan for the old MTA headquarters needs to happen

This is going to be BIG.

Seemingly to save face, Stanford pulled out of NYC's Applied Sciences initiative to build a world-class engineering school last week. At the same time, Cornell got an anonymous $350 million donation to move forward with it's proposal--and rumor has it that the Mayor will announce Cornell's victory as soon as today. I have no doubt that any new school dedicated to engineering will be a good thing in New York City--one that I will fully support.

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There Is Only ONE Silicon Valley

Gust

Silicon Valley is a very special place – the nucleus of high-growth, high technology entrepreneurship in the US, indeed, in the world. The Valley produces world-class entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and successful high-tech companies – all growing and creating jobs on one relatively small peninsula. The Valley has been a unique place for over half a century.

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Let Me Introduce Myself

Both Sides of the Table

I am a big believer in VC pitches that the bio slide should come up front. Actually, I think the advice in this post applies to any sales meeting also. The short answer is that by knowing the key members of the management team the VC firm can quickly identify strengths on your time and know whether you have some competitive advantage in your chose field relative to other people with whom you will compete.

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We the chumps

deal architect

I recently passed the Ayn Rand section in the bookstore and saw her book I had read a long time ago. I also thought if she lived today, given her libertarian views, she would bristle against how many businesses take.

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If You Think Making Money is Hard, Try a Non-Profit

Startup Professionals Musings

A common misconception I often hear in the startup world is that non-profits are easy and safe, since they don’t have to pay taxes, and they don’t have to make a profit for their shareholders. In reality, from the feedback I get from non-profit executives, exactly the opposite is true. Technically speaking, in the United States, a non-profit corporation or association is one which has been exempted from Federal income taxes by meeting the criteria set out Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue C

Africa 255
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When being “first” is not a competitive advantage

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

(Powered by LaunchBit ). “WE STARTED THE TREND” “Wherever you hear companies talking about Managed WordPress Hosting, they are following our lead.” This is how one of our competitors attempts to differentiate and compete with us at WP Engine. Is it effective? Most startups insist they’re “first” at something.

HTML 243
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The National Science Foundation Innovation Corps – Class 2: The Business Model Canvas

Steve Blank

The Lean LaunchPad class for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps is a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part two. Part one is here. Syllabus here. The 21 NSF teams had been out of the classroom for just 15 hours as they filed back in with their business model canvas presentations. Their assignment appeared (to them) to be deceptively simple: Write down their initial hypotheses for the 9 components of their company’s business model (who are the customers?

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The SAP cloud a freak of nature?

deal architect

In Florida, where I live, we know a thing or two about clouds. We see them in the horizon or on the radar and we reset lawn sprinklers from auto to manual. We think of sedating our beagle, who becomes.

Cloud 264
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Holidays, Shopping Habits, Mobile Marketing And Small Businesses

YoungUpstarts

Holidays are important to small businesses because consumers spend a lot during festive seasons. But a new survey by AT&T of small business owners is showing that customers are changing their buying habits, and that they need to change the way that they reach out and connect with their customers during the festive buying season. Consumers’ Buying Habits Are Changing.

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It’s Not About Having The Most Friends, It’s About Having The Best Friends

Feld Thoughts

Over the past month I’ve been systematically cleaning up my social graph. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to do this, as I’m a very active user of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Google+ along with a bunch of applications that leverage these various social graphs. Historically, I’ve been a very promiscuous friender, accepting almost all friend requests.

Security 152
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Outside capital: do or die?

Gust

A gigantic percentage of startup literature concerns how to raise capital. But before you start on that PowerPoint, let’s ask this: do you really have to? Or is it still possible to bootstrap and build a company organically? Strategically, the advantage outside capital provides is obvious: you can go faster. And since speed of iteration is often the factor that separates success from failure, access to adequate cash is indeed often critical.

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A tough crowd

deal architect

When The New Polymath came out, I took heat for being nice to an innovation group at BP. It had nothing to do with the Gulf spill, but people would have preferred I paint BP as a villain. With my.

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[Singapore] LiveJournal Blogshops Record S$96 Million In Transactions For 2011

YoungUpstarts

You’d think that for a tiny country where almost everything is conveniently located nearby, Singaporeans wouldn’t quite take to online shopping as we have. But blogshopping – shopping online via blogshops – has indeed taken off in a very big way: according to a LiveJournal survey, some 480,000 people visit LiveJournal-hosted, Singapore-based blogshops every month with an intention to shop.

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Startup Communities: Creating A Great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your City

Feld Thoughts

I’m deep into writing my latest book. For now, the title is “ Startup Communities: Creating A Great Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Your City.” I’m open to different titles – if you’ve got ideas just put them in the comments. Following is the current table of contents. It’s still pretty dynamic as I’m adding stuff while I’m writing.

Community 142
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Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs: Free Apps, Ad-Supported Business Models => Dangerous!

ReadWriteStart

At today's roundtable, the last for 2011, we had four different countries represented and an intense set of discussions on five very interesting businesses - a fabulous event to end the year with. BootstrapToday. Anand Agarwal from Pune, India, pitched BootStrapToday , an Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) SaaS solution from his company Sensible Softwares.

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Economists And Analysts Have No Idea.

deal architect

Apologies to Henry Blodget for borrowing the title of his column and making it even more provocative. He talks about poor short term forecasts from market watchers. I would say that is the equivalent of showing up on wrong bank.

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[Review] The Real Truth About Social Media

YoungUpstarts

What do small businesses Brendan’s Irish Pub and Butter Lane have in common with big brands Old Spice and Starbucks ? According to Eric Harr, author of “ The Real Truth About Social Media: Confessions of a Social Media CEO “, these names “get it” when it comes to engaging their audiences when it comes to social media. Harr, an Emmy-nominated CBS TV host and founder and CEO of boutique social media agency Resonate Social Media , puts together in his book a compilatio

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Resistance Is Futile

Feld Thoughts

Marc Andreessen recently wrote a long article in the WSJ which he asserted that “ Software Is Eating The World.” I enjoyed reading it, but I don’t think it goes far enough. I believe the machines have already taken over and resistance is futile. Regardless of your view of the idea of the singularity, we are now in a new phase of what has been referred to in different ways, but most commonly as the “information revolution.” I’ve never liked that phrase, but I p

Web 139
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Radically different in 2012

Life Beyond Code

Radically different is what most people would wish to be in the 2012. To be radically different is to be markedly different from the usual or customary. Who wouldn’t want something radically different (on the positive side, of course) in the new year? Almost everyone. Note that I did not say everyone as there are people who are doing extremely well and they may just be looking at maintaining the status quo so that they didn’t slip in the new year.

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Business Model Disruption

deal architect

In the wake of Oracle’s missed quarter I have seen the words ‘business model” bandied a few times. My reaction: we ain’t seen nothing yet. As Don Tapscott summarizes succinctly “There are two kinds of business models: those that have.

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8 Ways To Adapt Your Business To The New Normal

YoungUpstarts

by Patricia Sigmon, founder and president of LPS Consulting. Remember the days when each new sale was welcomed, celebrated, and worn on your sleeve as a badge of honor? You still can have those sales and the feeling of pride that comes with it, but not when every dollar earned is producing an uphill battle to pay off too much debt, too much operating expense, and too much capital outlay.

Cloud 154
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Book: I Was Blind But Now I See

Feld Thoughts

James Altucher is brilliant. Everyone on the planet should buy a copy of his new book I Was Blind But Now I See right now. You’ll likely hate some of it. Other parts will annoy you. Still others will seem simplistic, counterproductive, or just plain odd. But every page will make you think. I met James for the first time at Defrag this year. Eric Norlin invited him.

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Holiday Video 2011 – The Circle of Startup Life

David Teten

From all of us at ff Venture Capital : Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year, and a little cheer with our 2011 Holiday Video, a tribute to our startups and partners – The Circle of Startup Life:

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How can you be nice to Oracle?

deal architect

I guess my post last night stood out while most others were busy railing on Oracle. I got a couple of messages asking why Oracle deserved my kind words. Whether a tech vendor or a topic I tend to rely.

Software 210
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Twelve Ways To Boost Your Etsy Store Sales This Holiday Season

YoungUpstarts

by Allison Strine, co-author of Starting an Etsy Business For Dummies and owner of www.allisonstrine.etsy.com. All across the country, Christmas trees are going up, stockings are being hung by chimneys with care, chestnuts are roasting on open fires, halls are being decked, and holiday shoppers are out in droves. In fact, Black Friday sales were the strongest they’ve been since the beginning of the recession, with ShopperTrak reporting that in-store sales for the day were up 6.6 percent over las

Sales 154
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Book: Everything Is Obvious*

Feld Thoughts

Tonight’s book was Everything Is Obvious* which was cleverly subtitled *Once You Know The Answer with a special bonus subtitle How Common Sense Fails Us by Duncan Watts. And yes – for those of you keeping track at home, I didn’t read a book last night; I was working on mine instead. I enjoyed this book. As I was reading it, I kept coming up with alternate titles like Everything is Bullshit, The Macro is Irrelevant, Humans Don’t Reason Well, Common Sense Fucks Us Up, Pred

Media 133
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10 New Years Resolutions For Small Businesses and Startups

crowdSPRING Blog

The new year is fast upon us and it is time for that ritual known as resolution-time! I am not talking about a new resolve to eat lighter and get to the gym 4 days a week. I am talking about business resolutions – specific actions and efforts you should take over the course of the next few months to strengthen your business, improve your customer’s experience, and strengthen your team in the year ahead.

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More New Renaissance

deal architect

on the innovation blog Time’s annual innovation issue GirlApproved Android’s Brick & Mortar play Freemium Mechanics.

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[Infographic] Top Apps To Help You Stay Sane And Safe During The Holidays

YoungUpstarts

The festive season is upon us and if you’re anything like me you’re probably so stressed by all the things that need doing that it doesn’t quite feel like a holiday anymore. Well, never fear: mobile security company Lookout has rung up an infographic – made by the good folks at Column Five Media – with a list of useful mobile apps that help you out with tasks like shopping for presents and planning for trips.

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The 12 Days Of TechStars

Feld Thoughts

I hate Christmas music. Hate, hate, hate. Call me Grinch Feld. I don’t care. It just makes me want to poke knitting needles in my ears to stop it. Amy and I were in City Market grocery shopping the other day and at some point I had to go outside and scream. It felt good enough that I was able to go back in the store and finish buying greek yogurt and vegetables.

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