Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'When I first met Meredith Perry she was 24. That was three months ago this week. Today I’m handing her the largest A-round check I’ve ever written as a VC as we lead her $10 million A-Round at uBeam. As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 27, 2014
'I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The good news is that a patent can scare off or at least delay competitors, and as a “rule of thumb” patents can add up to $1M to your startup valuation for investors or M&A exits (merger and acquisition). The bad news is that patent trolls (non-producing companies that make their money from licensing patents) can squeeze the lifeblood out of unsuspecting entr
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Gust
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'The first question you need to ask is “What country are you in?” and the second is “Are you an Accredited Investor by that country’s standards?” If we’re talking about the US and you are NOT at the Accredited level ($1 million in investable assets, or $200,000 annual income), then for the moment you are actually not allowed to invest in privately held startups (emerging public companies, of course, you can buy on the stock market like everyone else.).
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 27, 2014
'Suddenly, there’s a lot of constructive conversation about women in technology and entrepreneurship. I’m glad, as there is a continuous mess of sexism, misogyny, hatred, anger, specious assertions, and general weirdness. This mess is from men to women, from women to women, from men to men, and from women to men. Basically, there’s gender equality in the awful parts of this.
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
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'I’m pretty on record as saying I don’t think many private-to-private tech mergers make sense. They are often done from a position of weakness. Something in both companies isn’t working, which is why they come together. I often don’t believe in the therm M&A because in my experience mostly A works. But of course there are always exceptions.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 25, 2014
'Change is hard. I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. In both cases, it’s easy for them to become frustrated and give up, since most have never been trained in change management, and don’t even know what questions to ask.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
ConversionXL
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'83% of clients were comfortable providing a referral, yet only 29% of clients actually gave one. That’s was what Advisor Impact found in 2010 when they surveyed more than 1,000 financial service clients to understand how customer satisfaction & loyalty was translating into new client referrals. What’s shocking about the relatively low 29% referral rate is that 93% of the people surveyed said they were somewhat or extremely likely to continue working with their advisor & near
Up and Running
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'The new year is fast approaching. What has your business accomplished in 2014, and what is still left to do? Whether or not you can believe it, 2015 is quickly approaching. What have you accomplished? Where has your business taken you? We asked 10 entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share how they are spending the end of the year. 1.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 26, 2014
'Over 25 years ago, Michael E. Gerber wrote a best-selling business book called The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. The E-Myth (“Entrepreneurial Myth”) is the mistaken belief that most businesses are started by people with tangible business skills, when in fact most are started by “technicians” who know nothing about running a business.
ithacaVC
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'Cayuga Venture Fund recently closed an investment in a company called Agronomic Technology Corp (ATC). The underlying tech was developed at Cornell (like many of the companies in the CVF portfolio). Completely unrelated to CVF’s investment, Deb Eichten, who is on the staff at Entrepreneurship at Cornell, recently interviewed the founders of ATC.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 25, 2014
'I’ve been having this PR discussion with three separate portfolio companies at once so I thought I’d just publish my thoughts more broadly. I have written many times about PR so if you want a deep dive on the “how” of PR you may enjoy reading some of these posts. PR is an insanely valuable activity in early-stage companies. Very few investors understand this and even fewer startups.
Up and Running
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, handmade decorations of encouragement hang from a tree overlooking some of the wreckage. When disaster strikes in your area and your business is affected, what’s next? For many small businesses, the future can be extremely uncertain. During the process of rebuilding, most small business owners will ask themselves if it’s time to apply for a disaster loan, or if that is a viable option for them.
Austin Startup
OCTOBER 27, 2014
'Querium Corporation today announced a strategic partnership with Sapling Learning, a wholly owned subsidiary of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., to provide mobile-ready review and preparation platform for the Texas STAAR Algebra 1 End of Course assessment. Under the agreement, students in more than 1,200 school districts will have access to the Querium “Step-by-Step” performance assessment program designed to assist mastery of concepts in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
View from Seed
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'This post was originally published on the personal blog of NextView founding partner Lee Hower. Lee’s posts also appear regularly on View From Seed. Subscribe here for more. Most folks reading this will know that many startups were built in part with the help of venture capital. Most attention goes to tech companies ranging from Google to Genentech, but some non-tech companies like FedEx and Starbucks also raised VC early in their lives.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 31, 2014
'Entrepreneurship is everywhere, but everywhere isn’t a level playing field. What’s the playbook for your region or country to make it so? ———-. Scalable startups are on a trajectory for a billion dollar market cap. They grow into companies that define an industry and create jobs. Not all start ups want to go in that direction – some will opt instead to become a small business.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 26, 2014
'Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). In that article I talked about how PR drives: recruiting, employee retention, biz dev deals, funding and even M&A and that often “attribution” to your PR activities is unknown.
Bryce Dot VC
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'This morning, like nearly every morning for the last 5 years, I stepped onto my Withings scale. I’ve been traveling the last few days and I’d added a couple pounds over that time. Interesting. On my walk to the office this morning I tapped the button on my Nike Fuelband, which I’ve also worn nearly every day for the last 3 years. This morning’s tap was to check the time, but the band also measures my various movements throughout the day and presents that back to me in th
Agile VC
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'Most folks reading this will know that many startups were built in part with the help of venture capital. Most attention goes to tech companies ranging from Google to Genentech, but some non-tech companies like FedEx and Starbucks also raised VC early in their lives. However, many folks probably don’t think about exactly where those VC dollars that help fund startups actually come from.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'In today’s fast moving world of business startups, learning trumps knowing every time. What established businesses know through experience keeps them from looking for the new and innovative ways to do what they do better, cheaper, and faster. I’m convinced that’s why most mature companies are slowing down or buying their innovation through acquisition, rather than building it.
YoungUpstarts
OCTOBER 31, 2014
'Workplace cultures differ around the world, and not surprisingly, leadership styles tend to also vary as shaped by the different cultural norms in a particular society. From autocratic style management to more egalitarian ones, there are specific overarching philosophies that drive leadership styles in different countries. Even in the Western world, leadership styles can differ.
Gust
OCTOBER 26, 2014
'Image via Flickr from Food For Thought album. When someone asks me for the best way to fund a startup, I always say bootstrap it, meaning fund it yourself and grow organically. Bootstrapping avoids all the cost, pain, and distractions of finding angels or VCs, and allows you to keep control and all your hard-earned equity for yourself. Despite all the focus you hear on external investors, over 90% of startups today are self-funded.
Scalable Startup
OCTOBER 26, 2014
'How is it that so many people associated with startups reap the financial benefits, yet others just as close get no financial upside This is a source of frustration among many people in the startup sphere. Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 31, 2014
'According to several recent reports , job satisfaction for employees is at an all-time low. An online survey published earlier this year found that nearly two-thirds of the respondents were not happy at work. One obvious alternative is to become an entrepreneur. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m often asked what it takes to switch and get real satisfaction from this lifestyle.
The Next Web
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'Franklin Morris is a Senior Writer for Rackspace Digital—the digital marketing infrastructure specialists. The mom-and-pop shop on the corner probably doesn’t rely on traditional advertising (television, print, billboards, etc.) to bring in customers. Neither does your favorite local burger joint. But most iconic brands have hired an ad agency at some point on their upward journey.
YoungUpstarts
OCTOBER 31, 2014
'by James Woodgate, PR and marketing manager at Simtech. Ecommerce is one of the leading business trends nowadays for millions of vendors willing to get the most out online without investing a fortune. As online markets are constantly growing in their popularity, you can see more and more merchants moving their businesses into the Web. If you have a traditional brick-and-mortar venture, but wish to increase your online sales dramatically or take your business activity to the next level, then it&
Rembrandt Communications
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'BtoB Content Strategy That Makes Your Customers Want More Happy Halloween! Soon, the streets will be filled with witches, goblins, zombies, and ghouls screaming “Trick or Treat!” It’s a fun statement, but it can also refer to your content. For instance, when was the last time you reviewed your content to see if it’s actually […]. The post Is Your Content a Treat?
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'Yesterday, at The Calloway Way event at MIT , I ran into Joe Caruso. I’ve known Joe for a while – we met through Techstars Boston, where he’s been a great mentor and very active angel investor. He had just read my post on being uncomfortable with the phase of the current cycle and told me an anecdote from the great Internet bubble of 2001 that I hadn’t heard.
The Next Web
OCTOBER 25, 2014
'Ilya Pozin is a serial entrepreneur, writer, and investor. He is the founder of online video entertainment platform Pluto.TV, social greeting card company Open Me, and digital marketing agency Ciplex. Entrepreneurs are a breed of their own. While many people fantasize about breaking free from their 9-to-5 to be their own boss, few people actually follow through.
Scalable Startup
OCTOBER 26, 2014
'How is it that so many people associated with startups reap the financial benefits, yet others just as close get no financial upside This is a source of frustration among many people in the startup sphere. Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one.
Up and Running
OCTOBER 30, 2014
'Loyal customers will frequent your business time and time again. No matter the size of the business, customer loyalty is incredibly important. Repeat customers spend up to 67 percent more than new customers. Plus, it’s up to ten times more expensive to try to attract new customers than it is to keep the ones already doing business with you. If you’re looking for real ways to create and keep up customer loyalty, consider implementing a few of these strategies. 1.
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 28, 2014
'I know I’m getting old. I remember in 2007 when the idea of a super angel appeared, where successful entrepreneurs were suddenly angel investors making 10 or more seed investments a year. This was a “new” innovation that was celebrated with much fanfare. Between 1994 and 1996 I made 40 angel investments with the money I made from the sale of my first company.
The Next Web
OCTOBER 27, 2014
'Johnathan Leow is the author of “The Crowdfunded Kit.” If you want your crowdfunding campaign to really succeed, it’s not enough to raise funds from your family and friends – you’ll want to have wider coverage in the media. Almost every campaign that’s raised over $100,000 needed some sort of PR to get to that level of funds. You could go the traditional route of PR by paying an agency to do it for you if that’s not your area of strength (assuming, of course, that you have the finances to affo
Gust
OCTOBER 25, 2014
'The Business of Venture Capital. Insights from Leading Practitioners on the Art of Raising a Fund, Deal Structuring, Value Creation, and Exit Strategies. Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur. Mastering the VC Game. A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms. Term Sheets & Valuations. A Line by Line Look at the Intricacies of Term Sheets & Valuations.
Up and Running
OCTOBER 29, 2014
'What is an SBA Loan? The U.S. Small Business Administration was created in 1953 to help Americans start, build and grow their businesses. As an independent agency of the government, the SBA partners with both public and private organizations to deliver its services, including loans. An SBA Loan is not a direct loan from the SBA itself. Rather, it is a loan that has been made by a commercial lending partner, but that the SBA has guaranteed for these partners and that has been structured accordin
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 26, 2014
'I’ve sat in the background and expressed my opinion privately on the energy utility municipalization issue in Boulder. It’s been one where the debate and exploration so far has been much more emotional, at least in my opinion, that rational. Beth Hartman recently reached out to me with an extremely clear point of view that parallels mine.
The Next Web
OCTOBER 31, 2014
'Firas Kittaneh is the CEO of One Mall Group. Businesses make a killing selling products that rarely cost more than a hundred dollars. Take Warby Parker and H&M, for instance. It’s hard not to smile at the prices; it’s easy to swipe your credit card too. For companies that offer single items worth hundreds of dollars or goods that cost an alarming four-figures, there are a number of obstacles to overcome before you can convince shoppers to spend even a dime.
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