Sat.Mar 23, 2013 - Fri.Mar 29, 2013

article thumbnail

The Semantic Web Opens a New Age for Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

Someday you will be able to ask your browser or smart phone open questions like "Where should I take my wife for a good movie and dinner?" Your browser would consult its intelligence of what you and she like and dislike, take into account your current location, and then suggest the right movies and restaurants. If you are the first to deliver this, your startup might be the next Google!

Semantic 245
article thumbnail

Love And Giving Aren’t Green: Startups & Corporate Social Impact

YoungUpstarts

By Melissa Thompson, CEO of Talk Session. Once a year New York City is overcome at 5 p.m. with color-blocked swarms of people donning shiny new running sneakers; people whose eyes are still glued to their BlackBerrys monitoring the market close; an assembly of ethnically-balanced, clean-cut 22- to 45-year-olds wearing a version of the shirt, “JPMorgan Corporate Challenge: TEAM MORTGAGE-BACKED SECURITIES!

Green 149
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 groupthink and denial can ruin startups

The Next Web

I’ll admit it, the title of this article is downright curmudgeonly. But between visioning sessions, collaborative software development and Linus’ Law of bug detection — we’ve been taught to accept the wisdom of crowds as necessary to most startup decision-making. In our world, consensus is treated as a type of quality control and our success as leaders depends on a culture of listening and openness.

Startup 130
article thumbnail

How I hired a great web developer on oDesk for $12/hr

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

I am working on the weekly planner called Week Plan and I decided I needed someone to help me develop it while I focus on the other tasks of the business. Many people resist the idea of outsourcing so I thought I would show how I went through the process myself and found a great web developer. 1. Post the job on oDesk. Title: The title should be as descriptive as possible to attract the right people.

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

7 Worst Entrepreneurial Perceptions From Engineers

Startup Professionals Musings

Every engineer who has invented some new technology, or is adept at creating solutions, believes that is the hard part, and it should be a short step to take that solution to market as an entrepreneur. In reality, that short business step embodies far more risk, and a poor technology solution is not near the top of most lists of common reasons for business failures.

Engineer 250
article thumbnail

The ABC Process For Ranking Team Players

YoungUpstarts

By Bruce Hodes, author of “ Front Line Heroes “ A lot of factors impact the long-term success of a business entity, and achieving success is complex. As businesspeople, we cannot control the economy, our competition, taxes, healthcare plans, or national events. However, I think we can agree that the quality of employees within an organization directly affects that organization’s performance.

More Trending

article thumbnail

Web Framework Performance - Startup Founders Need to See These Numbers

SoCal CTO

In Web Framework Benchmarks , there are some very interesting and surprising numbers around the performance of various web frameworks. Startup Founders really need to see these numbers. And I hope you are not running on Cake PHP when you see these numbers. Many of us are putting more into the front-end and having the application logic and back-end exposed through JavaScript (JSON) APIs.

Framework 175
article thumbnail

Running Your Own Startup Comes With Accountability

Startup Professionals Musings

Everyone seems to like the aspect of being an entrepreneur that goes with “being your own boss” and “able to do things my way.” But sometimes they forget that this kind of freedom comes with a price of personal accountability. Accountability means “the buck stops here,” and “all the failures are mine.” Too many people seem to do whatever it takes to avoid accountability, both before and after the fact.

Startup 251
article thumbnail

Everything about Java 8

TechEmpower

The following post is a comprehensive summary of the developer-facing changes coming in Java 8. This next iteration of the JDK is currently scheduled for general availability in September 2013. At the time of this writing, Java 8 development is still very much in progress. Language features and APIs may still change. I'll do my best to keep this document up to date.

Java 560
article thumbnail

More New Florence

deal architect

on the innovation blog Technology at the NBA All Star Game Technology at Toy Fair 2013 The Elon Musk Tesla Blog Asteroid DA-14 fly by The Science behind the Russian Meteor Cell phone data to fine tune traffic data Coming.

article thumbnail

Digital Sabbath

Feld Thoughts

I’m not religious but I’ve always liked the idea of the Sabbath. One day a week of rest and reflection. I spent the weekend with Amy in San Diego and in addition to a Digital Sabbath (no electronic devices from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown) I took off all day Sunday off from electronic devices, only opening up my laptop on Sunday night to start editing the latest draft of Matt Blumberg’s book Startup CEO.

San Diego 174
article thumbnail

A Winning Startup Team Takes a Learning Leader

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting and running a company is a team effort. Yes, it takes a leader (entrepreneur), but you can’t do it alone, without a team. Maybe only you and a co-founder comprise the team at first, to provide key skills, back you up, and test your ideas. As the startup grows, the team has to be able to really push you in making growth decisions, rather than you pulling them along.

Startup 239
article thumbnail

Did You Get Ripped Off with PR and SEO?

Rembrandt Communications

3 Questions To Ask Now About Your PR and SEO services I get many referrals from small business owners who spent a fortune on a top, PR firm or search engine optimization, SEO, services without seeing any results. They spent a lot of money purchasing “well known” services, and now they are weary of hiring [.].

PR 153
article thumbnail

Data Heroes - continued

deal architect

In my post So you want to be a (Big) Data Hero I highlighted several examples of impressive payback from projects around predictive maintenance of railcar wheels, hurricane tracking, water leakage etc. I listed other examples in a follow up.

article thumbnail

Ten Phrases That Should Be Banned From The Workplace Forever

YoungUpstarts

By Darlene Price, author of “ Well Said!: Presentations and Conversations That Get Results “ Do the top leaders and successful managers use specific words to achieve success? Are there words and phrases that should be avoided at all costs? Yes indeed! I’ve used the lessons learned from over 20 years of working closely with top corporate executives and leaders helping them present themselves and their message more effectively.

Cofounder 154
article thumbnail

Startups Stick with Organic vs Paid Search Results

Startup Professionals Musings

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on paid search results (appear on the first page of search results, right hand column, despite low SEO rank). What most people don’t realize is that, according to new research , 90% of search engine users rarely look at the paid results.

Search 226
article thumbnail

Framework Benchmarks

TechEmpower

About What we do Portfolio People Blog Contact. Blog. You are viewing a single entry. Please also check out the most recent entries. March 28, 2013. Framework Benchmarks. How much does your framework choice affect performance? The answer may surprise you. Authors Note: Were using the word "framework" loosely to refer to platforms, micro-frameworks, and full-stack frameworks.

Framework 560
article thumbnail

From IT to Digital Business

deal architect

Chris Murphy has a must-read cover story at InformationWeek "It's not about information technology anymore. It's about digital business. The new description is a testament to IT's advancement from a back-office, support-the-business role into a developer of products and apps.

article thumbnail

Learning From Rockefeller

YoungUpstarts

By Brandon Peters. Entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs trying to get a business education are faced with an avalanche of books and articles on business and personal development, by experts from all sorts of different fields, all advocating an equally wide range of approaches to business. Things can get particularly confusing when you see books like “ The 48 Laws of Power ” and “ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ” jostling each other for space on the bookshelf,

Vertical 152
article thumbnail

Avoid Career Missteps From Employee to Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

Many people, especially those who have spent years struggling up the corporate ladder, dream of jumping ship and becoming an entrepreneur. But every job move is fraught with risk, and the move from employee to entrepreneur is on the high end of the risk curve. This is a big jump, especially in an unstable economy, so do your homework first on this one.

Employee 223
article thumbnail

The Power of A Great CEO Coach

Feld Thoughts

Our Foundry Group CEO list lit up this morning with a question about CEO coaches and whether they were helpful. My quick response was: I think a great CEO coach can be awesome and not-great CEO coach can be very detrimental. Jerry Colonna is the best CEO coach I’ve ever met or worked with. There are others that I’m sure will emerge from this discussion but make sure you know what you are getting / looking for.

Matching 149
article thumbnail

The Hushed Tones around Third Party Maintenance

deal architect

Watching this Dennis Howlett interview with Ray Wang, it occurred to me how the industry still talks about 3PM as a taboo topic: a) Enterprise software vendors still pretend they have no defections, even though Rimini Street, for one has.

Software 220
article thumbnail

Mentoring: How It Can Help You Keep Your People And Grow Your Company

YoungUpstarts

By Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International. Anyone who’s had the experience of starting a business knows how important it is to recruit great people. Equally important — and even more difficult perhaps — is keeping those hard-won employees. Although we often think money is the most important factor in keeping staff content, the potential for professional growth is also a key consideration.

Retention 147
article thumbnail

Re-imagining the mobile use case

Version One Ventures

(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Google recently released the results of a new study on mobile search and conversions. Along with Nielsen , Google analyzed over 6,000 mobile searches and the actions that came after the search. While there are quite a few interesting findings (including the fact that 55 percent of conversions occur within the first hour of the mobile search), the most significant takeaway for me is the fact that 77% of all mobile searches occur at home or at work; only 17% occur on the

Mobile 145
article thumbnail

Friday Community Hours At Boulder Book Store for Startup Life

Feld Thoughts

Amy and I are going to be hanging out at the Boulder Book Store on the Pearl Street Mall on Friday from 4:15pm to 6:00pm. We’ll be signing copies of Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur and talking with anyone who shows up about the challenges and joys of a startup life. Our friends at the Boulder Book Store will have plenty of books so come by, (buy a book), (get it signed), ask questions, get feedback, or just say hi.

Community 141
article thumbnail

Innovations off the global beaten path

deal architect

We hear so much about Silicon Valley and Bangalore and Shanghai that is refreshing to hear about innovations in unexpected places: Nigeria's Nollywood: Most prolific in world Medellin, Colombia's massive turnaround Bhutan's plan to go all organic farming The world's.

Bhutan 191
article thumbnail

[Review] Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams

YoungUpstarts

Imagine this scenario – as head honcho of a company you’ve put together a talented, winning leadership team that by all accounts should be driving the business forward and destroying the competition… but it all seems stuck. People aren’t working with one another, distrust is rife, and worse, you’re struggling to see results.

article thumbnail

The 12 Ways To Instantly Boost Morale At Your Office

Mike Michalowicz

The morale can go up and down like the DOW Jones. Some of it is a natural result of outside influences, such as a struggling economy. Most of it is under your direct control. Short of putting putting antidepressants in the water supply many expert argue there’s no sure-fire way to boost employee morale. I disagree. Morale is the result of the stories going on in your employees’ heads.

Employee 157
article thumbnail

The Amazing Magic of Harmonix

Feld Thoughts

One of the places new approaches to human-computer interaction plays out is with video games. One company – Harmonix – has been working on this for 18 years. Harmonix, which is best known for Rock Band, is also the developer of three massive video game franchises. The first, Guitar Hero, was the result of almost a decade of experimentation that resulted in the first enormous hit in the music genre in the US.

Video 134
article thumbnail

Twitter ad revenues forecast to near $1bn in 2014

The Equity Kicker

I have been wondering lately how Twitter was getting on. Anecdotally people and companies seem to be getting more and more out of the site and its data but the chat I’ve heard about the efficacy of its advertising products has largely been negative. Well it turns out the business is doing very well. As you can see from the chart above revenues have now reached a reasonable scale and continue to grow very fast. 100% year-on-year growth for a business of this scale is impressive.

Forecast 131
article thumbnail

[Ad] Taking The Family Away For Easter? Cover Your House With Home Insurance

YoungUpstarts

It’s not long to wait now… Soon you’ll be running round the garden (like a headless chicken) with your kids, searching for chocolate eggs. But what if you fancy doing something a little different this year? You could take all the fun with you on a four-day break to make the most of the bank holiday weekend. But before you pack up your bags, make sure your home insurance is up to date.

Search 140
article thumbnail

The 8 Things You Can Never Say To A Client

Mike Michalowicz

You have heard it a million times. Judge someone by their actions, not their words. Even though words supposedly make up 10% of communication (body language, voice inflection, etc. make up the majority), words are critically important. In fact, if you slip up with the wrong words it can be deadly. One verbal faux pas and you might just send that perfect client of yours right to the competition.

Naming 159
article thumbnail

Xconomy Launches in Boulder/Denver

Feld Thoughts

I’m psyched to see Xconomy launch their Boulder/Denver edition. Bob Buderi , Xconomy’s CEO, talks about how it came together in his post Announcing Xconomy Boulder/Denver—7th Region in Our Network. Boulder/Denver joins the other six regions – Boston, Detroit, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle – and is now part of the broad and expanding coverage that Xconomy is providing on business, life sciences, and technology news.

Denver 126
article thumbnail

The real disruption in education is taking kids out of the classroom

The Equity Kicker

The news in the FT this morning (paywall, sorry) is that Amol Bhave, a 17-year-old from Jabalpur, India has been accepted into MIT based on his results in online courses offered by edX, a non-profit online education venture founded by Harvard and MIT. Amol said the following about his decision to take online courses rather than go to a local school: I really felt that the quality of education online was far, far better than [my] school.

India 110
article thumbnail

[Infographic] The Trillion Dollar Apple

YoungUpstarts

Despite recent stock market setbacks , Apple is still poised to become the world’s first US$1 trillion company. In fact, top economists predict that the technology is likely to exceed that number sometime between August 16, 2013 and April 9, 2015. But it won’t be easy. Apple’s market cap must increase by some US$400 billion – which took them a four-year period between 2008 and 2012 to achieve – while the value of each Apple share needs to hit $1,072.

Stock 133
article thumbnail

Use Your Customers Existing Habits To Get What You Want

Mike Michalowicz

In this video, Mike Michalowicz shares two techniques for getting customers to do what you want simply by leveraging their existing habits. You will learn how to reduce customer shop lifting and how to keep bathrooms clean. The possibilities are endless.

Customer 148