Sat.Aug 03, 2013 - Fri.Aug 09, 2013

article thumbnail

Getting Engineers into the Lean Startup Cycle

Startup Lessons Learned

'Guest post by Lisa Regan On August 20, Eric will sit down with developer and Hut8Labs co-founder Dan Milstein for a webcast you can join to discuss “Getting Engineers Into the Lean Startup Cycle.” This conversation will be a great opportunity for engineers and engineering managers to learn more about implementing Lean Startup ideas. It’s also for founders who want to think about how engineering and the rest of the business team can realign around a shared set of goals.

Lean 167
article thumbnail

Dilbert on Cultural Fit

Feld Thoughts

'I’ve written before about hiring for cultural fit, and about the importance of prioritizing cultural fit over competence when hiring at startups. I started thinking about it again when I saw this Dilbert comic , because it pokes fun at the culture of startups and their propensity only to hire people who fit into them. But what are we talking about when we talk about cultural fit, anyway?

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How to Present so People will Hear

David Teten

'You probably have to make presentations, but does the audience hear what you’re saying? And do they believe it? Based on my experience in investment banking and strategy consulting, I’ve put together a 3-part series on how to prepare memos and presentations that people will read and believe. Part 1 was How to Write a Memo That People Will Actually Read , and Part 3 will be How to Choose the Right Images for Your Presentations.

article thumbnail

Give Your Advertising ROI a Serious Boost by Maintaining Scent (11 examples)

ConversionXL

'Want to know how to deal a serious blow to your landing page conversions? Have it look different from the ad they saw before landing on the page, and have it contain different words. In other words, one of the best ways to improve landing page conversions is to maintain scent: make pre-click and post-click message + look & feel match. There needs to be “scent” The ad they see or the email they read needs to smell like the landing page they land on.

article thumbnail

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

article thumbnail

Robots as Tools, Toys and Teachers

SiliconHills

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News You too, can make your own robot, using Artoo, a micro-framework for robotics using the programming language Ruby. Mike Ford, a software engineer at Trion Worlds, spoke Monday night to a group of around 30 people at Austin RB meetup at Capital Factory about the Artoo technology [.] The post Robots as Tools, Toys and Teachers appeared first on SiliconHills.

Ruby 102
article thumbnail

Preparing Our Kids For Entrepreneurship: Learning Self-Reliance

Up and Running

'Many of us took a long road to entrepreneurship, working regular jobs before finally stepping out into the unknown. But what if you had had the opportunity to become an entrepreneur as a child? What if you could make all those beginner mistakes when the risk was so low that it didn’t matter whether you failed? That’s exactly the opportunity you can give your children right now.

America 82

More Trending

article thumbnail

How Long Should It Take For a Startup to Succeed?

Startup Professionals Musings

'Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.

article thumbnail

The Post-Mortem on Grapevine, a Short-lived Tech Startup

SiliconHills

'More than 90 percent of technology startups fail, according to a 2012 report from the Startup Genome Project. The researchers studied tech startups and found that most fail “due primarily to self destruction rather than competition.” “For the less than 10 percent of startups that do succeed, most encounter near death experiences along the way.” [.] The post The Post-Mortem on Grapevine, a Short-lived Tech Startup appeared first on SiliconHills.

article thumbnail

Meet the Grand Prize Entrepreneurs of the BEC Boost

Up and Running

'This has been a year of many firsts, but one of the most notable in the entrepreneurial community was the first-ever California Business and Entrepreneurship Center (BEC) Boost : a state-wide startup business plan competition that granted tens of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes to the top entrepreneurs in three age groups (14–17 years old, 18–27 years old and 28+ years old).

article thumbnail

Innovating IT Risk Management

deal architect

'A sad truth in our industry is CIOs don''t often get fired for not being innovative. But they do get fired for major data or security breach or business continuity failure. In spite of that it is a bit concerning.

article thumbnail

10 Clues That Managing a Startup May Not Be For You

Startup Professionals Musings

'People who can’t manage their own lives don’t make good entrepreneurs. Small businesses require multi-tasking, work prioritization, and decision-making, with no entourage of assistants and specialists. That’s why Fortune 500 executives usually don’t survive as startup CEOs. First you have to learn to accept total responsibility for things that happen to your business, just like you are responsible for everything in your personal life.

article thumbnail

The Post Mortem on a Short-Lived Tech Startup: Grapevine

SiliconHills

'By LAURA LOREK Founder of Silicon Hills News More than 90 percent of technology startups fail, according to a 2012 report from the Startup Genome Project. The researchers studied tech startups and found that most fail “due primarily to self destruction rather than competition.” “For the less than 10 percent of startups that do succeed, […] The post The Post Mortem on a Short-Lived Tech Startup: Grapevine appeared first on SiliconHills.

article thumbnail

Startup Lessons: Marketing

Venture Chronicles

'This is the 4th installment in the Startup Lessons series I have been writing in the wake of my experience with Get Satisfaction. We are getting into the topics that are much more specific to Get Satisfaction, therefore I have an obligation to redact certain details that are confidential however in the spirit of shared learnings I will cover as much as I feel is appropriate.

article thumbnail

The Hereke of innovation

deal architect

'Some of the nice takeaways from my time in the Middle East in the 80s were hand woven rugs including a silk Hereke. These Turkish delights are well known for their very tight weaves - the one below has 730.

249
249
article thumbnail

5 Startup Legal Shortcuts That Can Be Expensive

Startup Professionals Musings

'Although every startup is unique, there are certain common avoidable mistakes that can lead to legal complications which jeopardize the long-term success of the business. I’m not suggesting that every startup needs a lawyer, but you should definitely pay attention, and not be afraid to consult legal counsel if any of these raise qualms for you. Like other environments, most legal issues don’t result from fraud, but from ignorance on specific requirements, or simply never getting around to doing

article thumbnail

Five College Startups That Help Others

YoungUpstarts

'by Jessica Martinez. Those darn idealistic college students are at it again by starting businesses with a new kind of goal in mind—creating something that matters! College student turned millionaire stories have been quite popular in the business and startup world but what about those college students who are starting something that could help millions?

Haiti 224
article thumbnail

The Reputational Damage of Non-Responsiveness

Feld Thoughts

'VCs love to say things like “we are entrepreneur friendly.” It’s trendy, catchy, and looks good on a blog post. But, as I’ve said in my post Your Words Should Match Your Actions , one can “ damage their reputations by having their words not match up with their actions.” Now – this post isn’t about responding to emails.

article thumbnail

More innovation on the global beaten path

deal architect

'We hear so much about Silicon Valley and Bangalore and Shanghai that it is refreshing to hear about innovations in other parts of the world. Ice Lab Spain’s High Speed AVE Trains Electronics on the Silk Road Global Landscape of.

Global 249
article thumbnail

Technical Product Elegance is Not a Business Model

Startup Professionals Musings

'Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. These days, the technical side may be the easy part. Proving the business model requires a different approach than proving the technical concept.

article thumbnail

How Much Money Does Your Startup Business Really Need?

YoungUpstarts

'by Ken Myers. So you’re thinking about launching a startup. You have the passion, the vision, the time and the energy, but do you have funds to make your dream become a reality? If you’re wondering how much it really costs to start up a business, the truth is that it really depends. Fortunately, there are a few calculations you can do to help determine what your initial investment will be.

Startup 182
article thumbnail

Entrepreneur Creates Aqwastream™ to Help Environment

Rembrandt Communications

'Information for Experienced Professionals Starting a New Business Recently, I went scuba diving in Redondo Beach, California and was looking forward to seeing fish, crabs, lobsters, and some interesting sea snails. But that wasn’t the case. This time, I dropped down into the ocean, and there was a sea of garbage. I can’t say I [.].

article thumbnail

HPs Data HAVEn

deal architect

'I was invited to be part of a panel at a HP Vertica event in Boston this week. It was their first major user conference and I expected most of the focus to be on their technology. But the icons.

Boston 236
article thumbnail

6 Entrepreneur Recovery Steps When Profits Plateau

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.

article thumbnail

[Infographic] Top Reasons For Small Business Success And Failure

YoungUpstarts

'There are many reasons why small business owners succeed or fail, but many of those reasons are not under the control of entrepreneurs. Be it consumer confidence in the economy and the consumer that results from that, or even the strength of the US dollar, there are too many businesses that fail due to external factors. Of course, internal factors count as well.

article thumbnail

Forbes Reveals the 2013 Venture Capital Midas List

VC Cafe

'Forbes released the 2013 Midas List for Venture Capital today, proving that to be successful in VC, all you need is one big hit. Five of the top ten names on the list invested in Facebook, the largest tech IPO of 2012. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]].

article thumbnail

Application Consolidation payback

deal architect

'While this Unilever case study is meant to highlight SAP''s HANA speeding up the monthly close, to me the bigger story is the large application consolidation "According to Béchet, Unilever is nearing completion of a project to run its worldwide.

Software 210
article thumbnail

Does Your Business Leadership Style Rely on Fear?

Startup Professionals Musings

'Trying to be a business leader by instilling fear in your employees and partners is never a good approach, but it is particularly devastating in a startup. Yet I see this approach used all too often by new entrepreneurs, most of whom are not natural tyrants, but who are fighting to mask their own internal fears and insecurities about starting a business.

article thumbnail

The New Normal: Mobile First

YoungUpstarts

'by Jonathan Erwin, CEO of Red e App. “Bulletin Board First!” “Chain of Command First!” Recognize these terms? Probably not. No one does, because they don’t exist. The actual catch phrase (or, slightly less charitably, buzz word) that has most recently begun to pop up throughout the innovation and technology entrepreneurial landscape is: “Mobile First.” Mobile First means think mobile, think often, think small screen.

Mobile 167
article thumbnail

8 ways to perfect your work-life balance

The Next Web

'Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Ilya Pozin , the founder of Ciplex , and a columnist on entrepreneurship and marketing. Sometimes, busy workdays can feel like a marathon with the finish line still miles away. You enter the office early to find a mountain of work waiting for you, a full inbox, and a calendar blocked out with meetings.

article thumbnail

What have you done for me lately?

deal architect

'This article about IBM''s large contract with customer Bharti Airtel in India provides a nice microcosm of the churn happening around legacy software and outsourcing contracts. Bharti has moved away from Lotus Notes as its email platform and is rebidding.

Offshore 207
article thumbnail

Startup Day Across America on August 29

Feld Thoughts

'Though it may seem as if politicians in Washington, D.C. have a hard time agreeing on anything, those on both sides of the aisle seem increasingly keen to support entrepreneurs and their communities. Some recent examples include the passage of legislation expanding crowdfunding under the JOBS Act and meetings similar to one hosted last month by the Global Accelerator Network in which we worked with the Small Business Administration to gather 16 accelerators to demo their programs for the White

America 151
article thumbnail

Six Reasons People Aren’t Buying Your Stuff

YoungUpstarts

'by Cathy Wilke, owner of Freedom and Fulfillment Coaching. You’re excited about a new potential client you met at an event. She seems like the perfect fit for your work. You know you can help her, and you’d really like to work with her. You had “the conversation,” and it went well—you came from a place of love and service as opposed to one of desperation and need, and she seemed interested.

Finance 166
article thumbnail

Do lean startup principles have a place in the enterprise?

The Next Web

'Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by James Donelan , the VP of engineering at MuleSoft , provider of the world’s most widely used integration platform. There is a lot of talk about the lean startup and whether it works or not. Some proclaim it is critical to the success of any startup and that it is even the DNA of any modern startup. Others claim that it’s unproven , unscientific and gets your product to market in a haphazard way that is ungrounded in quality.

Lean 132
article thumbnail

The Forwardable Intro

This is going to be BIG.

'I offer up a lot of intros to people, and when you add them all up, they can take a lot of time. That''s why I try and push off as much of the work to the person being introduced by asking for a clean, forwardable email. What is that? Well, first, it starts with the person being introduced hitting Compose, not Reply. We don''t want the history of how the guy I''m introducing you to is an a **e sometimes finding it''s way into his inbox.

Email 126
article thumbnail

A Startup Is A Continuum of Ideas

Feld Thoughts

'Chris Dixon had an important post over the weekend title The Idea Maze. He starts off with a very strong juxtaposition of thoughts around the importance of “the idea” to a startup. Ideas_Matter: The pop culture view of startups is that they’re all about coming up with a great product idea. ~Ideas_Matter: In response to this pop culture misconception, it has become popular in the startup community to say things like “execution is everything” and “ideas don’t matter”.

Startup 148
article thumbnail

6 Things The Kardashians Can Teach Us About Branding

YoungUpstarts

'by Ryan Currie, product manager at BizShark.com , Kim. Kris. Khloe. Kameron. Wait, is Kameron a Kardashian? Who can even tell anymore? The Kardashians have done such a fabulous job branding themselves that they’re as ubiquitous as Netflix and LOL Cats. Often chastised for their relentless desire for fame, the Kardashians can actually offer a lot of great lessons to marketers out there.

Dilution 163