Sat.Apr 09, 2016 - Fri.Apr 15, 2016

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Startup Shootaround: Making Sense of Voice Technology

View from Seed

Editor’s note: The NextView team periodically holds internal “shootarounds,” where we discuss a startup topic or trend and try to make sense of it for everyone involved: entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers. Below is a lightly edited transcript of our latest shootaround on voice technology. ROB GO: Okay, so as you know, I’m passionate about this space, and I think there are three main things to think about around voice.

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Validate The Pedigree Of A Startup Before You Jump

Startup Professionals Musings

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Yet if you are on the other side of the table, there are some other key questions that you need to ask, which will tell you more about the real success prospects for this business.

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Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 2

Steve Blank

We just held our second week of the Hacking for Defense class. This week the 8 teams spoke to 106 beneficiaries (users, program mangers, etc.), we held a DOD/IC 101 workshop, our advanced lecture was on the Value Proposition Canvas , and we watched as the students ran into common customer discovery obstacles and found new ones. (This post is a continuation of the series.

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How to Start a Real Estate Business

Up and Running

If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you love talking to others, building connections, and helping out—you’re a people person. If this is the case, the real estate industry is a perfect career choice because it relies on you having excellent people skills in order to be successful. And, if on top of being personable, you’re also organized, ambitious, goal-oriented, and up for a challenge, you’ve hit the metaphorical jackpot.

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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 True Cost Of Poor Leadership

YoungUpstarts

by Will Bridges, HR Consultant at Unum. While poor management has a financial cost, it also has a wider detrimental cost to a business, as well as individuals. Bad leadership can be the result of insufficient training, an inadequate understanding of the business, and weak management skills. So, what exactly is bad leadership costing your business and what can be done to safeguard against it?

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10 Strategies to Grow Profits in Yoga and Pilates Studios by Linda Brown

Mike Michalowicz

Profit in your Yoga or Pilates studio is critical to your success. It takes more than setting up a brick and mortar studio to stay in business and be profitable. In some areas, there is a lot of competition – with as many as three to four studios on the same block. It’s important to focus on how your studio differentiates itself from the one down the street.

More Trending

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How to Open a Marijuana Dispensary

Up and Running

Pot is a hot topic, even for those who don’t smoke it. The recent legalization of marijuana in several states has been an unprecedented process. By legalizing both recreational and medical marijuana, states have opened up a new industry—one that people are clamoring to take advantage of. If you are one of the many entrepreneurs interested in opening a marijuana dispensary, this article can guide you through the necessary steps.

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How Ransomware Works And How To Stay Protected

YoungUpstarts

As suggested by its name, the term Ransomware kidnaps your files for ransom. While the average Internet user isn’t familiar with this malware, the fact that nearly 1% of the people whose computer got infected with Ransomware had to pay at least $665 demands attention. For people who have come across this nuisance, they report that the important part of their computer gets locked down.

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May Business Angels Spread Their Wings Over Kenya?

Transformify

Despite Kenya has been named as the fasted growing payments market in Africa, there is still a lot to be done to develop the local business angel community. The founding of M-Pesa in 2007 inspired many young people to undertake entrepreneurial risks. The capital of Kenya, Nairobi, is a vibrant city offering various resources for young start – ups, including accelerator 88MPH and incubator i-Hub.

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Lightspeed is growing our Consumer Investing team

Lightspeed Venture Partners

I joined Lightspeed ten years ago. It’s been an amazing ride. We announced $1.2bn of committed capital in our latest fund family last month and four of us have been listed on the CB Insights/NY Times list of top 100 Venture Capitalists. The partners here had made many great investments in consumer companies before then — companies that resulted in successful IPOs like BlueNile and eHealth in the late 90s.

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A Tribute to Harald Stuckert

deal architect

Harald Stuckert passed away a couple of days ago. It was a shock to everyone who knew him, and especially so to me. I had just seen a Facebook entry with him commenting on The Masters. He loved golf. I.

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How to Avoid Being Disrupted as a VC

Both Sides of the Table

My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “ Top deal maker in Los Angeles in Venture Capital.” Numero uno. I was nowhere to be found. And that’s a true reflection of just how successful and prolific Greg has been in LA. In a world that is hyper competitive – even amongst VCs – I can honestly say that not only is the media recognition accurate but it is amongst the proudest days I’ve had in dev

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Invention is Drudgery

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Edison spent 18 months on the drudgery of trial and error to produce the first workable light, which lasted only 13 hours before the carbon fiber filament would burn out. He then spent another 18 months on the drudgery of trial and error before discovering that a carbonized bamboo filament would last 100x longer, and finally a modern-like light-bulb was born.

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Unbounce’s Oli Gardner on Building Startup Landing Pages That Convert [Traction #22]

View from Seed

Oli Gardner is the co-founder of Unbounce, a platform that helps you build, test, and optimize landing pages to convert customers. Today, he spends most of his time writing and speaking and is arguably the best source on the planet for learning about how startups can create landing pages that convert, whether you’re drumming up pre-launch demand or trying to keep growing meaningful revenue.

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The art of the analyst mini-summit

deal architect

I have written before about well done analyst summits here and here. Last week I had the opportunity to be part of a very well done mini-summit – a little over 4 hours – just before the start of Oracle.

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How to Avoid Being Disrupted as a VC

Both Sides of the Table

My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “Top deal maker in Los Angeles… Continue reading on Medium »

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Are You Ready Yet To Be An Entrepreneur Full-Time?

Startup Professionals Musings

There seems to be a big debate these days about the best approach to starting a new business. Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model. I’m definitely a proponent of this latter approach.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 28: Magdalena Yesil and Michael Mondavi

Steve Blank

If I had spent less time on the business and more time with the family, we’d have been better off as a business and as a family. Family must come first in a family business. And if others don’t get your startup idea, it won’t matter how hard your team works to try to achieve it. Balancing business and family, and ensuring demand for your product were key lessons shared by two veteran entrepreneurs on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show.

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Part 2 of Interview with Malcolm Frank of Cognizant: Davos, Design Thinking, Automation

deal architect

Continuing my interview with Malcolm Frank, EVP of Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant. Part 1 can be found here Malcolm, you were at Davos in January. What did you hear from the European or from the global perspective which is.

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Understanding the Rich Tapestry of American Culture as Experienced Through Food

Both Sides of the Table

Like many immigrant families and many Jewish families I grew up around a kitchen table, often outside my house and experiencing food… Continue reading on Medium »

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7 Reasons For Startups To Maximize Early Visibility

Startup Professionals Musings

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. The common reason given is that this prevents any competitor from stealing their idea and beating them to market. In my view, this paranoid approach costs them much more than the risk of being open.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 28: Magdalena Yesil and Michael Mondavi

Steve Blank

If I had spent less time on the business and more time with the family, we’d have been better off as a business and as a family. Family must come first in a family business. And if others don’t get your startup idea, it won’t matter how hard your team works to try to achieve it. Balancing business and family, and ensuring demand for your product were key lessons shared by two veteran entrepreneurs on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show.

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A User Manual To Working With Me

Feld Thoughts

Jon Hallett , a prolific angel investor and successful entrepreneur who I’ve gotten to know over the past few years, dropped a major knowledge bomb on me yesterday afternoon when he sent me a post from David Politis titled This is How You Revolutionize the Way Your Team Works Together… And All It Takes is 15 Minutes. I remember having a meal in December 2011 with David at the Plaza Food Hall in New York and talking about BetterCloud which we foolishly passed on investing in.

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7 Easy To Implement Strategies For Your Facebook Page

Brandanew

The organic reach on Facebook for businesses is anywhere between 10% to 16% and often times even lesser. Even if you end up spending valuable dollar amounts on Facebook, your investment is well worth it in the long run. With over a billion consumers actively spending time on Facebook , you have to learn how to make it work for your business! Here are some easy to implement strategies for your Facebook page, that’ll help in the process. 7 Easy To Implement Strategies For Your Facebook Page.

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How To Improve Your Business Credit Score

YoungUpstarts

Gaining a good business credit record has a huge number of benefits for your business. On the one hand, it enhances the amount you can invest in your day-to-day operations. You can buy communications and IT equipment, providing a better working environment for your employees. On the other, it can have fantastic financial implications, helping to position your company far better for payment terms with new product suppliers.

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5 Content Errors That Kill Sales

Rembrandt Communications

Fix these simple mistakes before they send sales to the competition You worked hard to create the content on your Website, newsletter and blogs. You post the copy and wait for the results to come in. Well, you may be waiting a long time if you are unaware of… The Top 5 Content Errors That […]. The post 5 Content Errors That Kill Sales appeared first on Boost sales with BtoB Content Strategy and PR here.

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Entrepreneurs Should Never Work Weekends

YFS Magazine

It is our responsibility to set boundaries and ensure we are living our lives to the fullest. So take time to disconnect from work, reconnect with your personal passions, and recharge for the week that lies ahead.

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In New Orleans, a female-led pie business embodies the local entrepreneurship scene

The Next Web

Last month, Nicole Eiden and Marielle Dupré were hustle-ready entrepreneurs running a popular New Orleans pie business called Windowsill Pies. This month, they are stars of area entrepreneurship and women’s interest. Eiden and Dupré had just won the Junior League of New Orleans’ Women’s Entrepreneurship Fellowship, a significant prize and resource given out to the winners of a pitch competition that took place during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week.

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Key Decisions That Could Make Your Business Soar

YoungUpstarts

Did you ever think that the future success of your business could be one right decision away? We think there are plenty of examples where making one right decision could catapult your business into the spotlight. In most cases, these decisions are completely overlooked by business owners. Either they fail to notice them, or they don’t realize the huge impact that decision had on their company.

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How To Beat Michael Jordan At Sports

Feld Thoughts

I had a great interaction with a friend several months ago. The question he asked was: “How do you beat Michael Jordan at sports?” I thought about it for a second. I knew Michael Jordan was a good golfer and I don’t play golf. I figured he was in better shape than me and could beat me on a track. There is no way I could ever beat him at basketball.

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Dear elizy: How should I split equity with my co-founders?  And how will that affect raising a seed round?

Hippoland

Dear elizy : I started a company in school with two co-founders. Let’s call them Ada and Bob. Ada is my professor, and we are using her lab, and the company is based on her research, though the IP is assigned to the company. Bob and I were her students and will be graduating this year. We plan to incorporate and work on this company full time, while Ada will work on it part-time, as she is a full-time tenured professor.

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3 missteps to avoid at all costs when building a minimum viable product

The Next Web

So… your brilliant idea for a web or mobile application is going to completely change the way consumers or businesses [fill in the blank]. Great! But the days of investors cutting checks for ideas with zero validation are a fading memory. Today, investors more often commit money to scale companies than for initial market and customer testing. Therefore, the best first step for many startups with an idea for a B2C or B2B software application is to build a Minimum Viable Product.

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Does Your Start Up Have A Disaster Recovery Plan?

YoungUpstarts

When you are excited about starting up a new business, getting everything in place, creating your technology infrastructure, and starting people working are your main priorities. You want to be able to win those first vital customers and provide them with outstanding products and services. You want to build your brand and get your name out there, and you want to create a sustainable, profit making enterprise as quickly as you can.

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Techstars 2015 Global Impact Report

Feld Thoughts

Techstars had an incredible year in 2015 and grew the organization on many dimensions. If you want a full view of what Techstars is – and is doing – today, take a look at the 2015 Global Impact Report. [link]. To everyone who has been involved in Techstars in any way, thank you! The post Techstars 2015 Global Impact Report appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

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Define your target customers narrowly

The Equity Kicker

I just read an interesting article about a startup called Silver Concierge that took Steve Blank’s entrepreneurship course in Stanford. The whole thing is well worth a read, but the killer section for me was “Startup Lesson #1: Know your customers — and why they need your product” Silver Concierge didn’t make it through the customer dev process.

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Entrepreneurs Are Visionaries Who Do These 4 Things Remarkably Well

YFS Magazine

A successful entrepreneur is a creature like no other, an individual who is willing to explore opportunities that no one else would dare approach, a person who is not just willing, but keen to do the thing nobody else will do.