Sat.Apr 30, 2016 - Fri.May 06, 2016

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8 Secrets To Pushing Your Startup Ahead Of The Crowd

Startup Professionals Musings

In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kaufmann Foundation , the numbers are finally here to show it. The number of startups rose in 2015 for the first time in five years, with the largest year-over-year increase in two decades. Over 500,000 new businesses were created last year, or about one per minute of every day.

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Teach your Users

A Crowded Space

And vice versa… Marketplaces function best when all users know exactly what to expect and how to behave. Smooth transactions happen when all parties know how to properly conduct business. This is true in every marketplace I know of - all the way back to the ancient bazaars. Cultural norms develop that help all marketplace participants understand the appropriate behavior.

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Take Care Of People And They Will Take Care Of You

YoungUpstarts

Getting started with a new business is an exciting time. There are logos to design, offices to set up, and personnel to hire. Amid all the activity swirling about, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the important personnel actions you need to take in order to establish long-term business viability. Many startups include friends and family during their earliest days, going to outside employees only when the major growth starts.

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How to Start Your Own Gym

Up and Running

You wake up at sunrise to teach the first class of the day at your new fitness studio. You love motivating your clients to reach optimum levels of health and wellbeing. This is what keeps you going when you face challenges or get overwhelmed in the nitty gritty of running your own fitness center. If this sounds like something you would love to do, then this article is for you!

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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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Book: The Business Blockchain

Feld Thoughts

If you are interested in understanding the business implications of blockchain technology, William Mougayar ‘s new book – The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology – is a must read. I’ve known William for about five years. I almost invested in his company Engagio (there’s now a different company by that name) but decided not to.

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Our Investment In Reflektive

Lightspeed Venture Partners

Identifying and hiring great talent is one of the hardest and most important parts of building a company and setting it up for success. While finding great talent is hard enough as it is, retention is even harder. We live in the age of LinkedIn and Glassdoor. The best performing companies and CEOs know this — your best employees are constantly being courted by recruiters and competitors, and if you drop the ball on talent management, you drop everything.

More Trending

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Our Resource List to Get Your Photography Business Up and Running

Up and Running

Maybe you’re considering starting a photography business, and want to make sure you’re prepared. Maybe you’ve just started your business and want to make sure it’s as successful as possible. Either way, these resources will help you get up and running. Listen to the experts. This Week in Photo podcast. If you’re an auditory learner and you love podcasts, This Week in Photo is a really unique resource you should check out.

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Stuck in the Middle With You

Both Sides of the Table

It’s safe to say that all eyes globally are on the United States right now with an election that feels more like a script of House of Cards… Continue reading on Both Sides of the Table »

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SAP Nation 3.0

deal architect

People ask me all the time if I have plans for volume 3 in the SAP Nation series. I tell them I am waiting for a turnaround in the SAP economy. A noticeable one. For reference, my models showed the.

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Make a Living, Not a Life: Inside WeWork’s Seed Stage with Jesse Middleton [Traction #23]

View from Seed

On this episode of Traction, we go inside the thinking behind a $16B startup — worth more than Twitter, Pinterest or Dropbox as of this recording. Today’s guest, Jesse Middleton, is a co-founder of WeWork Labs, the company’s global startup incubator, and currently the head of WeWork X, which includes Labs and also the new WeWork investing and M&A activities.

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A Guide to Facebook Video Ads: Can a Small Business Benefit from Them?

Duct Tape Marketing

A Guide to Facebook Video Ads: Can a Small Business Benefit from Them? written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. photo credit: facebook. When Facebook officially promoted auto-play video ads in 2015, most users were confused by the videos playing out of nowhere. Although there was a certain dose of resistance during the beginnings, we all got used to the auto-play feature; and business owners agreed that Video Ads were a great opportunity for them to market their brand to the right

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9 Entrepreneur Habits That Lead To Long-Term Success

Startup Professionals Musings

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle that requires staying power, because starting a new business is a long-term process with many tough challenges. As an angel investor, I look diligently for signs that an aspiring startup founder has what it takes to thrive and prosper for the long haul ahead. Passion and vision are necessary, but not sufficient, to really change the world.

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The TACO Challenge

Both Sides of the Table

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. In the US this is often confused as Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16th and is called Grito de Dolores. That made some people think of taco bowls and love Hispanics. Whatever. Our portfolio company mitú , the fastest growing digital video company focused on the Latino market in the US (in English) and globally (in Spanish) has taken a different approach to the taco.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 30: Guido Kovalskys and Doris Korda

Steve Blank

There was a time when having the information gave you the power. That’s no longer the key. The problem isn’t getting information or data; it’s knowing what to do with it. Founders will always encounter naysayers, shut out the voices and listen to the customers instead. It gets you to a business faster. Two lessons from the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show.

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Small Businesses Must Make Data Privacy a Priority

Duct Tape Marketing

Small Businesses Must Make Data Privacy a Priority written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. photo credit: Creative Commons Five Data Privacy Principles from Mozilla by Ann Wuyts is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Society’s concern with data and privacy (or the lack thereof) has been brought to the forefront due to the FBI-Apple controversy.

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7 Shortcuts That Can Kill A Startup Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Starting a new business is not an informal process, and should never be treated like a hobby between friends. Unfortunately, as a startup advisor and angel investor, I’ve seen too many ventures with great potential get destroyed or set back by legal and other shortcuts that should never have been allowed to happen. The path to true success does not allow for shortcuts.

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Protecting Your Portfolio

YoungUpstarts

Let’s be honest: investing your hard-earned money is not always easy. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why many people feel a complete loss when faced with the overwhelming process of managing their assets. Yet, as long as you do it the right way, you can end up being a wise investor, and one of the most important factors to take into account is your portfolio.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 30: Guido Kovalskys and Doris Korda

Steve Blank

There was a time when having the information gave you the power. That’s no longer the key. The problem isn’t getting information or data; it’s knowing what to do with it. Founders will always encounter naysayers, shut out the voices and listen to the customers instead. It gets you to a business faster. Two lessons from the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show.

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Learning from Jeff Bezos: Big winners pay for so many experiments

Version One Ventures

Amazon’s Annual Letter to Shareholders has become a must-read for entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders – and the recent 2015 letter provides great insights into how Jeff Bezos thinks and how one of the most successful companies on Earth operates (this year, Amazon became the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in annual sales). Readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Jeff Bezos and have taken several key lessons from him over the years.

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How Entrepreneurs Can Capitalize On Their Alma Mater

Startup Professionals Musings

Most aspiring entrepreneurs look to their alma mater, or any university, as a source of classes that can help them, but neglect to think outside the box or take advantage of all the other resources to be found there. The lesson of finding help, connections, and even funding where other people may never look is one that makes all the difference in the entrepreneur lifestyle.

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How To Convert Your Innovation Into A Running Business

YoungUpstarts

By Saad Amanullah Khan, author of “ It’s Business, It’s Personal: From Setting a Vision to Delivering it Through Organizational Excellence “ One of the greatest challenges that any start-up, entrepreneur or an existing business can face is how to convert their innovation or unique idea into an actual running, profitable and sustainable business.

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What Is Your Hardware Business Gross Margin?

Feld Thoughts

I’m seeing an endless stream of hardware-related companies these days. In our world, we are focused on software wrapped in plastic , a line I think I first used some time in 2012. If you understand our themes, it fits squarely within human computer interaction for us. There was a point in time – probably less than six years ago – where very few VC firms would even consider an investment in a hardware related company that was aimed at consumers.

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Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Doesn’t Produce Oodles of Cash and Customers!

Rembrandt Communications

3 Quick Tips for SEO-Copywriting Sales Success! “Content marketing strategy wins!” “Content is king!” “Search engine optimization rocks!” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’ve read all of the recent news and reports on how great content is for your business. But your content-marketing-strategy is not producing sales, online awareness or credibility. What gives? Well, here are… 3 […].

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Fundraising is a numbers game

The Equity Kicker

These are Forward Partners dealflow stats for the first four months of 2016. 832 leads. 47 first meetings (6% of leads). 8 second meetings (17% of first meetings). 2 deals (25% of second meetings). We met an additional 53 companies at FP Office Hours. In some ways they are like first meetings and they do sometimes lead to deals, but they are only 15 minutes long and many of them are speculative in nature so I excluded them from the analysis.

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Tips And Tricks For Millennials Aspiring To Be Their Own Boss

YoungUpstarts

by Gyawu Mahama, Social Media and Marketing Manager at Hiscox Small Business Insurance. National Small Business Week is not only the perfect time to reflect upon the major role that small business plays in our communities, but also marks an opportunity for aspiring small business owners to think about finally taking the proverbial leap and create a plan to turn their dreams into a reality.

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Ad Block Tracking With Google Analytics: Code, Metrics, Reports

Occam's Razor

You don't use an ad blocker, right? Of course not! You would never want to take away the opportunity a content creator has online to monetize their work via ads. I know that at least some of you think I'm being sarcastic. I am not, and this post is all about getting the data to show you that I am indeed not being sarcastic. I am insanely excited that we can track ad blocking behavior in Google Analytics, so easily.

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10 Impressive Startups Founded By Women Entrepreneurs

YFS Magazine

Here's a look at 10 women-led startups on the rise - impressive founders that are blazing trails to make women entrepreneurs no longer the exception but the rule.

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What you wear does matter when fundraising.

Hippoland

“And so I wear glasses when I go into investor meetings in order to look more intellectual and like a legit CTO.” I was out to dinner in Palo Alto in 2011 with a handful of super smart technical women. I was the least technical of the bunch (and lucky to get an invite!) – technical in resume but not a day-to-day engineer like the rest of them.

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Keeping Your Startup Organized

YoungUpstarts

Organization can be quite easy when you first begin a startup. This is because things move at a slower pace, there are fewer employees, and you may not have many clients. It can be easy to overlook the need for a proper organizational structure in the beginning. It is important to have an appropriate arrangement from the very commencement of your startup business, however.

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Your Wall Is Dingy

Feld Thoughts

As I procrastinate from going for a run this morning, I started writing a post titled The Pro-Rata Gap Myth. After two paragraphs, I got tired of writing it and hit the “ this is b t ” wall – it’s too complicated to explain a myth that I’m not sure even matters. So I deleted the post and decided to tell a story instead.

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Are These 5 Mindset Blocks Sabotaging Your Business Success?

YFS Magazine

You have this passion and burning desire to build a profitable business and make an impact on the world. You know it’s possible because you see others with an enviable lifestyle, but you feel stuck! So what’s going on?

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15 Student Run Startups Pitch at the 10th Longhorn Startup Lab Demo Day

SiliconHills

By Laura Lorek Reporter with Silicon Hills News A year ago, Ryan Norton didn’t have a car and he needed to get to the dry cleaner and back from the University of Texas at Austin campus. “Dry cleaning is really inconvenient,” Norton said. “As we looked at this space we recognized the entire industry is […] The post 15 Student Run Startups Pitch at the 10th Longhorn Startup Lab Demo Day appeared first on SiliconHills.

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Easy Ways To Make A Million Dollars

YoungUpstarts

Making a million bucks is an ambition held by many of us, but for most people it’s a pipe dream that never comes to pass. They say money isn’t everything, but there is something highly alluring about the notion of having a cool one million dollars in a bank account with our name on it. It might seem unattainable right now, but if you set the right wheels in motion, it is possible to make a $1 million before you reach retirement – and here’s how: Build an Investment Portfolio.

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CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap – Startup Week

Feld Thoughts

I have 60 free tickets to the screening of the movie CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap on Thursday May 19, 2016 from 7:00 PM to 9:15 PM during Boulder Startup Week. First come, first served. I’ll be there and look forward to seeing you. The post CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap – Startup Week appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

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5 Ways To Find Out What You Really Want In Business

YFS Magazine

Here’s a look at five ways you can drag that colossal idea into the light, settle on what the "perfect client" means for what next right move will make the most difference in your business.

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Forecasting in venture capital

The Equity Kicker

Good VCs need to be good forecasters. We need to predict which companies are going to succeed and second guess future trends so we can develop our firms to stay ahead of the curve. Deloitte have just published an interesting synopsis of Tetlock’s Superforecasting which gives us some insights into the types of people we need to recruit and the habits we need to cultivate to be good at the forecasting game.