Sat.Jun 30, 2012 - Fri.Jul 06, 2012

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How to Survive Four Common Worst Case Scenarios

Startup Professionals Musings

The best survival guides tell you how to be proactive and avoid the probabilities of ending up in a worse case scenario. Of course you need to learn how to recognize a bad situation before it bites you, and you need to know all the secret ways to wiggle your way out, before you succumb. The challenges stem from the simple fact that every entrepreneur is starting something new, where things are predictably unpredictable.

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Sixteen Signs You May Be Practicing Cowardly Leadership

YoungUpstarts

by Mike Staver, author of “ Leadership Isn’t For Cowards: How to Drive Performance by Challenging People and Confronting Problems ” It’s a tricky time to be a leader. With the economy so unforgiving right now, making smart business decisions is critical. That’s true not just in terms of strategy (whether to change your product mix or move into a new marketplace) but also relationships (whether to fire the toxic high performer or address a conflict head-on).

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Steve Would Be Proud: How Apple Won The War Against Flash

techcrunch.com

Late Thursday, an extraordinary thing happened: Adobe announced in a blog post that it would not provide Flash Player support for devices running Android 4.1 , and that it would pull the plugin from the Google Play store on August 15. The retreat comes five years after the introduction of the iPhone, the device which thwarted Flash’s mobile ambitions, almost even before they began.

Flash 110
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A good case study is worth many paid ads.

Berkonomics

We have grown more than a bit weary of most advertising, no matter in what form. We are constantly bombarded by ads in multiple types of media, to the extent that we most often tune them out unless particularly entertaining from the first moment. Dave’s book: Positioning. In my keynotes on trends in technology, I often lead into one of the trends with the proposition that we have left the information age and are solidly within the age of recommendation , pointing to the fact that 69 perce

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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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50 Shades of Grey

deal architect

Fair warning – there is nothing erotic in this post:) But the bestseller’s title applies to the technology world. Amazing how many versions of the truth we have floating around a) If you live on Twitter, Google Glass is the.

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When Your Website Powers Your Business

YoungUpstarts

By Joe Thomas, Left Brain Digital. If you can afford to have your brand new warehouse built from the ground up, who are you going to hire to build it? The intelligent answer is simple: a reputable building contractor with happy clients and lots of experience, right? I mean, why on earth would you invest your hard-earned dollars to hire anyone less than a pro?

More Trending

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Have You Fallen Into The Busy Trap?

Feld Thoughts

Are you “too busy.” When someone asks you how you are doing do you immediately respond with something like “I”m incredibly busy.” If the answer is yes, go read the amazing opinion piece in the NY Times by Tim Kreider titled The ‘Busy’ Trap. I’ll wait. I’ve spent the last month at my house in Keystone in Maker Mode.

Email 180
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Celebrating Grown-Ups

deal architect

Like most in technology, I am a big fan of start-up companies. My books, in particular, have made me just as respectful of companies that have survived 50, 100, 200 years and even more how they have influenced the evolution.

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Intel – Redefining Mobility Computing With The Ultrabook

YoungUpstarts

If you’ve been shopping around for a laptop and you’re confused by the multitude of sleek notebook PCs from different hardware manufacturers all called the Ultrabook , you’re unlikely to be alone. The Acer Aspire S3, the HP Envy 14 Spectre, the Series 5 from Samsung, amongst many others, are all Ultrabooks, and like some consumers you may wondering why these vendors aren’t suing each other into oblivion for copyright infringement.

Mobile 164
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Assume Your Market is People Like You, Then Fail

Startup Professionals Musings

Face reality. As an entrepreneur, you should assume none of your customers is like you, yet I find that most entrepreneurs assume just the opposite. Customers don’t have your technical base, the passion, and interest in your solution. In fact, even if they did, they couldn’t find you in the clutter. An underrated portion of every startup effort must be about communication and marketing.

Marketing 245
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3 Great Things to Do on July 4th for Your Business

Rembrandt Communications

Ahhh. time to celebrate our independence. As you eat some barbeque, spend time outdoors and watch the fireworks, the last thing you want to do is think about work. However, there are three things you can do that will help your business on this holiday: Do Nothing. Most of you already had this on your [.].

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More New Florence

deal architect

on the innovation blog The Clei Cabrio convertible bed Sabotage by software The transit of Venus The IT Consultants – Venture Capitalists Bit.Ly’s Big Influence The colors of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas 239
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Finnish Police To Tap On Location-Based Service Grafetee.com To Make Neigborhoods Safer

YoungUpstarts

You know something’s serious when the police gets involved. But in the case of Helsinki, Finland-based location-based app Grafetee (www. grafetee.com ), the men in blue are simply leveraging on technology to make neighborhoods safer. Grafetee is a mobile location-aware application for smartphones and other mobile devices that allows users to update their status with images and text in real-time.

Finland 191
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Tips for Entrepreneurs Seeking the Next Big Thing

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur wishes that he could predict whether his idea could be the “next big thing,” before he spent his life savings and years of energy on it. Investors, on the other hand, typically don’t even look very hard at the product or service, but prefer to evaluate first the entrepreneur, and secondly the business plan. I define these products and services as “solutions” (customers buy solutions to a problem), but Guy Kawasaki more generically calls them causes, meaning any new idea, compa

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Copywrong Again: Founding the Next Pinterest or Napster?

Gust

As I wrote in Part I of this post , many of the most creative and disruptive startup businesses in recent years have involved the use of intellectual property in innovative, non-traditional ways that defy easy categorization and stretch the boundaries of concepts such as the fair use doctrine in copyright. When presented with a product or service in development, we often have to admit that there is no clear precedent and look for the best analogous situation to assess legal risk.

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One of the good guys

deal architect

Workday is recruiting Jim Holincheck from Gartner. He is a top notch HR analyst, and I agree with Dennis Howlett, “one of the good guys”. Very nice functional and personality fit for Workday. Jim and I go back a ways.

Cloud 225
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ResourceGuru.com Schedules Your Business Resources

YoungUpstarts

Scheduling appointments is relatively simple for small business owners, but scheduling resources – i.e. making sure that there are enough manpower, equipment and budget for a certain project – can be a major headache. Resource Guru ( [link] ) is here to help – the cloud-based app aims to help companies be more efficient by allowing them to schedule people, equipment and resources online.

Cofounder 159
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What To Do When Your Startup Profits Hit the Wall

Startup Professionals Musings

A good many startups I know have been “successful” over a couple of years in overcoming the challenges of starting the business, including incorporation, services development, funding, and setting up operations. Yet they still haven’t achieved a healthy growing profit, even though this was one of the main reasons they went into business for themselves in the first place.

Startup 236
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Startup Equity Crowdfunding Grows in Europe (NESTA Report)

VC Cafe

NESTA, the UK Innovation Foundation, has released the ” The Venture Crowd “, a new report on crowdfunding as an investment tool. The report reveals that in 2011 alone, €1.5 billion was raised through crowdfunding for projects and businesses in need of funds. Amongst the different types of crowdfunding: Donation, Reward, Lending and Equity, the latter is on the rise as a fundraising mechanism for European startups.

Equity 160
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More New Renaissance

deal architect

on the innovation blog The Last Mile at San Quentin You say Football, I say Soccer Summer Innovations: Not your parent’s grill Digital Honey-Dos Homeless to Harvard – Part 2 Reinventing Nature Conservancy.

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8 Career Practices Millennials Can Learn From Baby Boomers

YoungUpstarts

There’s no such thing as a shortcut to success. But, if millennials want to do themselves a favor, they can learn much from those that came before them. Making an effort to learn career practices of those that have been in the workforce longer can prove an essential resource for those that are new to the business world. Consider these eight career practices that millennials can learn from baby boomers: 1.

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Check Your Business vs Family Balance This Holiday

Startup Professionals Musings

I know some entrepreneurs with successful businesses, and others who seem to have a great relationship with their family, but I can’t think of many who have both. Some people would argue that these two successes are mutually exclusive, but I’m not convinced. Individually, they both take focus, commitment, and a variety of skills, all the strengths of a good entrepreneur.

Demand 228
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The Declaration of Internet Freedom

Feld Thoughts

I started off my morning by reading the Declaration of Independence. I never get tired of reading it or pondering what was going on at the time. It’s hard to transport myself back to July 4th, 1776 but it’s pretty remarkable to think about what was going on that caused 56 people to sign this brilliant document and in one moment start our country on amazing course over the next 236 years that have had a profound impact on the history of the world.

Internet 137
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What this dog saw

deal architect

As my readers know, at any given time I have no problems being pleaded not to be too tough on Vendor A, B, C…. What’s been more baffling has been the reaction to the overwhelmingly positive case studies in my.

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Feel On! Turns Tweets Into Comic Illustrations

YoungUpstarts

Twitter’s 140-character limit can be very restrictive and austere for some, which is why there are tweet shortening services and such. But If you’re the fun-loving sort who tweet and who’re into all things cute and Japanese-y, you may want to check this Twitter client out – Feel On! ( www.feel-on.com ) turns your tweets into cute and fun illustrations.

Japan 149
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Why an Accelerator Could Be Right for Your Startup

ReadWriteStart

Although there is some debate on whether or not startup accelerators really turn out the success stories they promise, new accelerators are popping up all over, and startup entrepreneurs are clamoring to get into one. So, just how hard is it to get accepted by an accelerator? Is the application process onerous? Is it even worth the effort? To find out, I talked to a few startup entrepreneurs about their accelerator experiences.

St. Louis 138
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The Simple Formal Beginnings Of Feld Technologies

Feld Thoughts

My first business partner, Dave Jilk, emailed me our original partnership agreement for Feld Technologies. It’s one page. We incorporated a month later as an S-Corp. It cost us $99 to do this – I remember using an organization called The Company Corporation - we called an 800 number, gave them some information, and the documents were automatically generated and filed.

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Why We Chose Salesforce CRM Over Zoho

David Teten

I finally did it: I’ve moved my contact database over to the web. After extensive research of different CRM solutions (thanks BestVendor ), we’re working with Salesforce.com. We also used Salesforce heavily at one of my prior companies, Circle of Experts. I’ve been a loyal Act user for my personal CRM system since 1996, and have 13,000 contacts in my database.

Database 133
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Why Major Retailers Are Largely Local

YoungUpstarts

NTUC FairPrice holds its ground through innovative concepts like FairPrice Express ( courtesy of FairPrice ). In a world of global brands by FMCG players like Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple and P&G, it appears almost counter-intuitive that huge retailers like Walmart (the world’s largest company), Carrefour and Tesco are still largely local. Here in Singapore, for example, NTUC Fairprice and Cold Storage are still dominant supermarket players which managed to hold their ground despite the thre

Mexico 145
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Finding - and Funding - the Next Mark Zuckerberg

ReadWriteStart

It’s a startup truism: Investors fund people, not ideas. But ideas are much easier to assess than people. So how do venture capitalists decide if an entrepreneur is worth millions in funding? The easy answer is: They look at the founder's resume. “The mantra in our business has always been ‘serial entrepreneurs,’” says Bob Ackerman, managing director at Palo Alto-based venture firm Allegis Capital.

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The Conundrum of Email

Feld Thoughts

I’ve just spent a month in Maker Mode. It’s been a powerful month and prompted a few posts like Have You Fallen Into The Busy Trap? which generated lots of feedback as well as deeper responses from posts like Do We All Work Too Much? And Do We Really Have a Choice? Amy and I are talking about this almost every day as we work on our book Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship With An Entrepreneur.

Email 135
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Startups: Is purchasing office jellyfish a good use of investor money?

Gust

If the investor thinks it is, then it is. If not, no. While that may sound simplistic, it’s actually accurate. It is important to look at questions like this holistically. Investors are putting their money behind an entrepreneur and his/her particular vision, team, and operating skills. If the entrepreneur believes that having office jellyfish is a Good Thing for company morale and a work environment that is conducive to a more productive startup team, then either the investor believes in,

Warrant 127
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July 19 Dreamit Talk: Best Practices in Recruiting High Performers

David Teten

On July 19, I’m giving a presentation to the current group of DreamIt Ventures companies in New York on “Best Practices in Recruiting High Performers.” This is open to the public (no charge). Given the hyper-competitive market for talent in the New York tech world, I thought it would be helpful to provide insights into some of the issues and challenges associated with building a great team in an early-stage company, and to offer advice to entrepreneurs on how to effectively source, inter

New York 128
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Accidental Entrepreneurs: Meet the New Breed of Startup Founders

ReadWriteStart

The Great Recession ravaged many of America’s normal behavior patterns - including business startups. In fact, according to a new study from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by security giant Symantec, the recession changed startup entrepreneurs themselves. Necessity Is the Mother of Invention. The survey found that the “leaders of small businesses launched during the Great Recession are dramatically different than those who launched their company prior to 2008.

Founder 121
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The Joy Of Shipping A Day Early

Feld Thoughts

Yesterday at 4:57pm I hit send in Gmail and submitted the final draft of my newest book Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneur Ecosystem In You City to my publisher (Wiley). I’ve still got two more revision cycles – one in a few weeks when I get the final copyedited version and then one last review of the page proofs but the book is done.

Montana 120
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The Art of NYC Cycling for Entrepreneurs #bikenyc

This is going to be BIG.

A lot of people ask me about cycling in NYC. They ask me about startups, too. As I was biking around the other day, I realized that they have a lot in common and so the advice I have to give about both is pretty similar: 1. Cycling is a *higher* risk activity, but it doesn't have to be dangerous. If you're going to start a company instead of working for someone else, you're definitely putting something at risk--current income, opportunity cost, some social capital perhaps.