Sat.Feb 09, 2019 - Fri.Feb 15, 2019

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Why Has Seed Investing Declined? And What Does this Mean for the Future?

Both Sides of the Table

Seed investments are down by any measure (funds, deals, dollars) over the past 3 years in deals < $1 million AND in deals between $1–5 million. What gives? Over the past month a colleague ( Chang Xu ) and I sifted through data on the venture capital industry (as we do every year) and made a bunch of calls to VCs and LPs to confirm our hypotheses.

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9 Things That Take a Pitch From Good to Great

Up and Running

I’ve seen hundreds of startups pitch to angel investors and venture capitalists, and most of them—at best— are just okay. There have been plenty of pretty good ones that hit all the key components of a pitch , but only a handful of those took it a step further and were truly great. When I think about what set those excellent pitches apart from the rest, it turns out that they all shared some of the same qualities.

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Once again: Is it the jockey or the horse?

Berkonomics

Early stage investors have been arguing over this for years. Do they bet on the entrepreneur (jockey) or the business idea and plan (the horse)? This is serious stuff. If you are looking for money, this question will certainly come up in one form or another when you approach professional or organized angel or VC investors. A more complex answer.

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Eight Reasons Why Your Subscription Model Customers May Be Jumping Ship

YoungUpstarts

by Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of “ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue “ Everyone knows that retention is crucial for subscription-based companies. If you can’t keep the customers who sign up with you, you’re going to quickly find yourself in trouble. Just ask Blue Apron, which has found itself in the news recently for its poor stock market performance and its widely criticized acquisition-focused

Customer 173
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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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Exploring The Everyday: Better Meat For a Better Future

View from Seed

Exploring The Everyday is an interview series exploring interesting individuals or companies who are trying to make an impact on the lives of everyday people. You can learn more about this series here , or read our past interviews here. What do you think about when you hear the words, “lab grown meat”? Are images of Frankenstein and his monster coming to mind?

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Increase Repeat Purchases with Cohort Analysis

ConversionXL

In my daily work with ecommerce brands, I see two types of companies: The first type focuses on acquisition and conversion. The second relies on retention. The second type is winning. Why? Overall acquisition costs for both B2C and B2B have gone up by 50% in the past five years. Sooner or later, relying on new customers will break you. To offset these costs, you need to earn more repeat purchases from existing customers.

Retention 126

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Companies Typically Underinvest In Managers. Here Are 12 Ways To Invest In Yourself. 

YoungUpstarts

by David Deacon, author of “ The Self Determined Manager: A Manifesto for Exceptional People Managers “. We all know managers do crucial work. They shape culture, improve employee performance, drive creativity and innovation. And yet, fewer training dollars are typically earmarked for managers than for people at other levels. You’re right: This makes little sense.

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6 Entrepreneurs Explain How They Are Incorporating Social Entrepreneurship in Their Business

Hearpreneur

It’s argued that social entrepreneurship is the new business model due its ability to help one connect with the world and live a purposeful life while serving others. It also improves the image of business through collaborations and fosters relationships for a better society. We asked entrepreneurs and business owners how they’re incorporating social entrepreneurship and here are the responses. #1- Online community portal.

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Ecommerce UX Battle: Benchmarking 4 Beauty & Cosmetics Mobile Websites

ConversionXL

Which popular beauty and cosmetics website has the best user experience? This is a conversion-focused benchmark analysis of four competing beauty and cosmetics websites : Clinique. Fresh. Lush. Sephora. We selected sites from among the top 25 in their category, according to Alexa rankings. Our analyses measure overall user experience of each site as a composite of 5 separate UX dimensions.

eCommerce 119
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SXSW Startups: TransferFi

Austin Startup

The Forrest Four-Cast: February 13, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin. A finalist in the Enterprise and Smart Data category, which will pitch at 12:30 pm Saturday, March 9, TransferFi is creating the world’s first long-range, safe, and efficient Wi

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4 Must-Follow Inventory Management Tips

YoungUpstarts

When did you last see a factory counting its stock manually? Over the last couple of decades, the manual process of counting stock has slowly faded. Managing inventory is a prime requisite for any business. The more accurate the management is, the better chances you must make full use of your stock instead of keeping it in the warehouse. New businesses often find it difficult to manage their inventory because they simply don’t know where to start.

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Meet Chainalysis, the startup that brought down the biggest dark web marketplace

Cracking the Code

This post was written with my colleague Amit Kumar. We worked closely together on this exciting new investment. ** While still very much in its infancy when it comes to development and adoption, a decentralized financial system has the ability to be massively disruptive and important for decades to come. However, in order for cryptocurrency to achieve this potential and for the industry to mature, there is a growing need for foundational infrastructure and regulatory frameworks to drive complian

Web 48
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Polishing brand ERP

deal architect

Kudos to Cindy Jutras for her study "Real Facts About ERP Implementation". Her survey showed that two-thirds of respondents graded their ERP implementation as "successful" or "very successful." The survey found 31% thought their ERP project was at least a.

Offshore 297
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SXSW Startups: Pathware

Austin Startup

The Pathware team takes a nature break. The Forrest Four-Cast: February 9, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.

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Why Your Site Must Switch to HTTPS (And How to Do It)

Duct Tape Marketing

Why Your Site Must Switch to HTTPS (And How to Do It) written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch on HTTPS. Every website in the world is carried across a protocol known as HTTP. Recently, though, we’ve seen more and more websites switching over to HTTPS, which is the secure version of that same protocol.

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10 Ways To Improvise, Thrive And Survive In A Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

As an entrepreneur, you have to improvise and adapt quickly to survive and thrive in the face of the unpredictable challenges of the market. But this improvisation a not a comedy, although there are some distinct correlations, in relation to reacting, adapting, and communicating. In business and in comedy, you win most often with “Yes, and …” instead of “Yes, but ….

Startup 236
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Oracle and SAP: Quit sniping, start leading!!!

deal architect

In the Steven Spielberg movie, President Lincoln on the cusp of victory in the Civil War, is clearly grateful to Lieutenant-General Ulysses Grant and clasps his hand with both of his. However, he also says "We've made it possible for.

Cloud 255
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SXSW Startups: LinkDyn Robotics

Austin Startup

James DeBacker, Bongsu Kim and Jovita Ezeokafor The Forrest Four-Cast: February 12, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.

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Pros Vs. Cons Of Affiliate Marketing

YoungUpstarts

We live in a world where people can avoid the hassles of commuting to work by getting into passive income streams. Affiliate marketing is one such way to generate income passively. In a nutshell, it’s a partnership between a product creator or service provider who’s looking for marketing opportunities and an affiliate who will get paid by commission to do the marketing.

Affiliate 210
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Do’s and Don’ts For Entrepreneur Business Networking

Startup Professionals Musings

I often recommend business networking as the most effective way for a startup founder to find investors, advisors, and even key executive candidates. But what if you are an introvert, or new to this game, and don’t know where or how to start? The answer is still the same, but I have learned over the years that there is an etiquette to this process, just like there is for social networking.

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Davos: Not just for the elite

deal architect

Alan Alper, VP and Editorial Director, has his fingerprints on most Cognizant marketing publications and events. He has been involved in the planning of Cognizant's presence and pitches at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum for the last.

Marketing 230
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How to Have a Smarter VC Strategy

Austin Startup

How to Have a Smarter VC Strategy Four Tips for Startups Smart Money (Credit: Meritus Media ) I was sitting at dinner with my family after a week of non-stop, around-the-clock meetings, phone calls, purchase agreement edits, more agreement edits…again with the agreement edits, and I found myself settling into the fact that the company we founded just five short years ago had just successfully completed a Series A round of funding.

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Why You Need A Business Lawyer For Your Small Business

YoungUpstarts

It is crucial for every venture to go legal as there are so many things to consider. Legal requirements are designed for the safety of the businesses especially where partners are involved. There are specific laws formulated for the business and operations and those laws are different for different regions. An attorney is an expert of law who can guide civilians in a better way for their social wellbeing.

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Do You Know A “Downer” Who Is Killing Your Business?

Startup Professionals Musings

A “downer” is defined here as someone who seems to dwell on the negatives of every business challenge, and loves to highlight bad news or potential problems. No matter how smart or experienced this person may otherwise be, things must change or they will kill your startup. I’m not talking about someone who has an occasional bad day, but rather people who when asked, “How are things?

Employee 206
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Karma can be a real b h

deal architect

I am reading Tom Peters' The Excellence Dividend. It keeps reminding me of his 1982 classic The Search for Excellence and how much it influenced my writing style. My focus has always been on present and future excellence. My New.

Dividend 223
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The British Chap Who’s Changing the U.S. Cell Phone Market from Austin

Austin Startup

Rob Webber, CEO & Founder of MoneySavingPro.com , one of the leading cell phone price comparison sites in the U.S. Top three benefits of starting a business overseas 1. Other markets can be a lot bigger than your home market, meaning there is a higher growth potential. For example, the U.S. market is roughly five times that of the U.K., so it made total sense for me to move my business overseas and open doors to new and bigger opportunities. 2.

Austin 48
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Here are the 5 hottest startups in Norway

The Next Web

A country of never-ending sunsets, northern lights, and home to over 50 thousand islands and fjords, Norway has always been a haven for nature enthusiasts. But now it’s also becoming a haven for techies. Norway is home to one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in the Nordics. In the first half of 2018, the country raised $185.8 million in investments, a full 76.3 percent increase compared to H1 2017.

Norway 166
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Businesses Without A Website Are The “Walking Dead”

Startup Professionals Musings

These days, if your startup does not have an Internet home base up and running, you are not ready for business or potential investors. Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings and verify that you are not a scam, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, and suppliers expect to find contact information.

Viral 191
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Aurora: The Next Leg of the Road Trip Begins!

Reid Hoffman

In the early decades of the 20th century, automobility at scale ushered in new patterns of living and a new era of broad-based prosperity in America. For some time now , I’ve believed autonomous vehicles can do the same. So when the opportunity arose last year for Greylock to co-lead the $90 million Series A round in Aurora with Index Ventures, I jumped at the chance.

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The Entrepreneur’s Essentials #13: To be stealthy or not?

Austin Startup

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. In totality, these posts are at least as long as most business books. So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

Stealth 48
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Here are the 5 hottest startups in Sweden

The Next Web

Dubbed a ‘unicorn factory’ Sweden has become a powerhouse incubator for some of the most innovative startups. It’s no wonder, with massive success stories such as iZettle and Mojang Games (the creators of Minecraft) that the country has been experiencing an influx of growth in technology in the last decade. In fact, in 2017 Sweden more than doubled its number of startup exits.

Sweden 158
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6 Ways To Make Payment Easy For Your Online Customers

YoungUpstarts

If you’re running an online business such as an e-commerce store, it is essential to give payment processing consideration as much as the shopping experience. After all, the checkout is your customer’s last stop, and this is where they’ll finally pay you for your products and services. The last thing you want is for customers to leave your site because it’s such a pain to pay you.

Customer 138
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Digital Marketing Trends to Drop and Trends to Follow

ReadWriteStart

Trends are more or less dictated by the shifts in consumer behavior — as well as deeper elements such as changes in SEO, CTRs, and reach/impressions. This past decade also brought a surge in the awareness of the importance of digital marketing and doing it correctly. 2019 is the year that will close off a […]. The post Digital Marketing Trends to Drop and Trends to Follow appeared first on ReadWrite.

Marketing 158
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6 Ways To Retain Employees When Payroll Is Tight

YFS Magazine

By YFS Magazine. Many small businesses struggle with the revolving door of employee turnover at a high cost. Here are six ways to remedy the situation.

Employee 151
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Here are the 5 hottest startups in Denmark

The Next Web

What more could you want from a country where fairy tales, Lego, and the idea of the chill ‘hygge’ vibe originate? Now Denmark is also one of the most exciting startup scenes in Europe and is home to more than 400 tech companies that do everything from analytics and big data to gaming, cloud, fintech, and apps. In fact, this year Denmark reached 6th place on the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Index, beating out its Nordic neighbors.

Denmark 141
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Healthcare Learning Management Systems Comparison – Why Use Healthcare LMS Vendors?

YoungUpstarts

In an increasingly connected world, it has become increasingly easier to ensure that all healthcare organizations are following proper clinical guidelines and best practice procedures. Regulatory bodies want to ensure that staff are up to date on all mandatory trainings and certifications, and what better way to meet their needs than to utilize a healthcare learning management system vendor?