View from Seed

JANUARY 19, 2017

Remember when we were scared to buy things online? It wasn’t all that long ago when we swiped plastic cards in person for everything we bought, Black Friday meant toe-to-toe battles with every other holiday shopper in the mall, and the thought of entering your personal financial info into a website to buy something terrified many shoppers. As a nosy prepubescent, I eavesdropped on these ‘adult’ conversations about internet purchasing on our landline between my parents and relatives or family fri

Technical Review 183

Technical Review Internet Software Review Web 183

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 19, 2017

by Lewis Robinson. Making sure your website is visually appealing is an important aspect of your web design. However, the visual beauty of your site alone cannot do the job in getting your visitors to interact with your site. Over time, businesses including eCommerce sites have found that using design to engage users is an essential part of making a site successful.

Web 168

Web Design eCommerce Social Media 168

Steve Blank

JANUARY 15, 2017

On the last day Congress was in session in 2016, Democrats and Republicans agreed on a bill that increased innovation and research for the country. For me, seeing Congress pass this bill, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act , was personally satisfying. It made the program I helped start, the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) a permanent part of the nation’s science ecosystem.

Lean 238

Lean Technical Review Government Programming 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2017

Starting and running a business is hard. Don’t believe the old myth that with a few hours of work a day and a great web site, you can get rich while you sleep. I have found that the most successful entrepreneurs and business executives have an impressive work ethic, and they surround themselves with a team of comparable commitment. Business is more about people than product.

Angel Investor 132

Angel Investor Technical Review Matching Hiring 132

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

Startup

BeyondVC

JANUARY 16, 2017

When we started boldstart in 2010, a core thesis of ours was to invest in next-gen SaaS which we called SaaS 2.0 at the time and best highlighted in our end of 2015 review: SaaS 2.0, reinventing for the mobile first workforce will continue to remain robust. We also see older school SaaS companies being rebuilt with more flexible back-end technologies like microservices and reimagined with a more responsive and beautiful UI.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Software Review Vertical Open Source 60

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 18, 2017

Perhaps no other mystery has ever been as intriguing and evident as that of time. Although life and death are both metaphors of time, yet neither of these realizations can hold on to the reality of time passing away. Apparently, everything important that needs to depend on making the most of the available time. The hours wasted never return in the same way again, and one must start refreshing the task from the point of the last milestone.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review IP Software Review Cloud 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2017

Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. One would think that with all the sad stories and tools published over the past twenty years, this problem would be behind us. But people are still begging for more technology or laws, often to protect them from themselves.

Technical Review 132

Technical Review Non-disclosure Agreement Due Diligence Entrepreneur 132

Professor VC

JANUARY 18, 2017

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" -- Emma Lazarus (from "The New Collusus" memorialized on the Statue of Liberty) Coffee Mug available from Politically Comical The Statue of Liberty has seen better days.

San Jose 44

San Jose Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Colorado 44

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 18, 2017

When people think of manufacturing in the US, they often imagine huge plants hiring thousands of workers. While this may be true for some industries, like automobile manufacturers, for example, most manufacturers in the US are small to medium sized enterprises. This trend began in the early 1980s and gained considerable momentum in the early 1990s. Today, more than half of the US manufacturing sector has less than five hundred employees.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Florida Louisiana Engineer 109

deal architect

JANUARY 19, 2017

Three presentations really stood out during the Oracle Cloud analyst day in NYC this week.

Cloud 252

Cloud Product Development Developer Product 252

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2017

Our goal was to scale Hacking for Defense classes across the US – giving students the opportunity to perform national service by solving real defense/diplomacy problems using Lean Methods. In exchange our government sponsors benefit from 1) access to talent that most likely would never have served the country, 2) getting solutions as minimum viable products/prototypes in 10 weeks, 3) exposure to a problem solving methodology used in Silicon Valley and battle tested in Iraq and Afghanista

San Diego 182

San Diego Afghanistan Iraq Silicon Valley 182

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2017

Businesses are finding that being socially responsible can be great for the bottom line, as well as good for employee morale. Of course, a company still needs to make a profit to survive, but supporting a worthy cause can be the most profitable brand building you can do. Witness the growth and popularity of Patagonia in outdoor clothing, and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Government 152

Government Retention Valuation Employee 152

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 16, 2017

Running a business comes with a lot of different types of things to keep track of, especially when you are in the startup business. Due to the low amount of employees in a standard startup company, you may find yourself taking on a lot more tasks than you normally would if the business was much better established. There are certain things that you need to think about to make sure that your business is safe and free from potential data thieves, and as they say, prevention is better than cure, so

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Software Review Security Employee 109

deal architect

JANUARY 16, 2017

I have just come back from a round the world trip with frequent reminders of Great Britain's wide influence - Victoria Harbour, Raffles Hotel, Brabourne Stadium, Kipling's Kim in bookstores among others. You could almost visualize the rise and fall.

Software 163

Software 163

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2017

Our goal was to scale Hacking for Defense classes across the US – giving students the opportunity to perform national service by solving real defense/diplomacy problems using Lean Methods. In exchange our government sponsors benefit from 1) access to talent that most likely would never have served the country, 2) getting solutions as minimum viable products/prototypes in 10 weeks, 3) exposure to a problem solving methodology used in Silicon Valley and battle tested in Iraq and Afghanista

San Diego 161

San Diego Afghanistan Iraq Silicon Valley 161

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 20, 2017

A key ingredient of Techstars accelerator programs is our experienced and engaged mentor community. Mentors embrace the Techstars “Give First” philosophy by offering founders their time, advice, and connections. We treat mentorship seriously – you can read about it in our Mentor Manifesto and my blog series on the mentor manifesto. And, my book Give First, coming out at the end of 2017, will cover mentorship in depth.

Syndicate 151

Syndicate Syndication Seed Stage Vertical 151

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2017

by Anand Srinivasan, founder of LeadJoint.com . A number of entrepreneurs operate their business as freelancers or sole proprietors. This can include personal trainers, lawyers, accountants, musicians and even bloggers. Building a business brand in this case can be tricky – would you want to build your own personal brand, or should you be building a brand for your company?

Customer 116

Customer Technical Support Valuation Lead Generation 116

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2017

Effective communication is an absolute requirement for successfully starting a business, but it doesn’t come naturally to many entrepreneurs. Communication is considered a social skill, and inventors and engineers, for example, are not known to be social butterflies. Founders have to communicate their ideas and products to investors, business partners, and the rest of the team.

Distribution 140

Distribution Channel Restful Engineer 140

The Startup Toolkit

JANUARY 17, 2017

While most folks invest to beat inflation’s 6% (or whatever) each year, Mark Cuban suggests sitting on a large pile of cash and accepting that you’re going to lose some each year. The reasoning is that even very super-rich folks have trouble getting their hands on lots of cash in a hurry, so having it sitting around means you can pounce on limited-time deals noone else can pursue.

Technical Review 27

Technical Review Lean Founder Stock 27

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 19, 2017

Over the past few days, I’ve had a similar conversation about reporting tempo with three different people (2 CFOs and 1 CEO). In each case, we snuck up on the issue, rather than starting with it. The fundamental question addressed what the reporting tempo to the board should be. A number of years ago, I decided to shift to quarterly board meetings.

Balance Sheet 139

Balance Sheet Metrics SEC Distribution 139

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 18, 2017

As online retail sales increase markedly each year, there’s no better time than the present to start your own eCommerce store. Increasingly, people are choosing to buy products from their phones rather than drive to a physical store. So you can take advantage of this modern digital trend, we’ve compiled the 5 fundamental steps you should take when launching an eCommerce store: 1.

eCommerce 109

eCommerce Technical Support Hosting Mobile 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2017

Everyone knows that that startups are risky, but they also expect that the job will be exciting and potentially very lucrative (think early employees at Facebook and Google). Yet we have all heard stories about the high turnover, unstructured work environment, lower base pay, and unpredictable expectations from the top. Assuming you are lucky enough to get hired, what can you do to survive, and even stand out above the rest in this environment?

Matching 137

Matching Restful Employee Startup 137

The Next Web

JANUARY 16, 2017

In the lead-up to Tech5 2017 – the annual competition organized by TNW and Adyen which celebrates Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies in The Netherlands, UK, Germany, Spain, France and Sweden– we’re launching a series of remarkable stories of businesses that experienced extreme growth. We asked these companies to tell us the data backed story on how key decisions were made, which growth hacks led to the much loved hockey stick curve, and how this impacted their company.

Hockey Stick 125

Hockey Stick Netherlands Spain Sweden 125

Up and Running

JANUARY 17, 2017

The days when food trucks were associated with grungy building sites and fried food at the fair are long gone. These flexible small business ventures are recognized as an exciting and viable option for foodies wanting to follow their dreams. Generally considered a more affordable entry for beginners, the unique marketing and legislative challenges in the food truck environment can come as a surprise.

Social Media 104

Social Media Stock Government Media 104

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 19, 2017

by Karla Friede, CEO, co-founder, and member of the Board of Directors at Nvoicepay. Even though the use of paper checks for business payments has been slowly declining, most U.S. companies are still using them for 50 percent or more of their vendor payments. There’s a huge opportunity for process efficiency and cost savings by cutting back on checks and automating payments with cloud technology—even bigger than most organizations realize.

Cofounder 165

Cofounder Stock Cost B2B 165

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 17, 2017

If you are growing at a rate of less than 50% year over year, you should consider viewing 2017 as the year of flat headcount. As budgets are settling down and getting approved for many of the companies I’m on the board of, I’m seeing a general trend of much less headcount growth in 2017 than in 2016. In some cases, companies got ahead of themselves.

PR 104

PR Operations .Net Cost 104

The Next Web

JANUARY 16, 2017

For marketers, the easy days are over. Once upon a time, maybe four or five years ago, it was fairly straightforward to segment customers, predict their behavior and schedule broad but impactful marketing campaigns. Technology has changed all that. Social and digital media, powered by rapidly evolving technologies, have transformed the consumer landscape and destroyed both the traditional market segmentation and customer journey.

Campaign 122

Campaign Web Technology Media 122

Brandanew

JANUARY 20, 2017

2017 is ON and I’m so excited to begin this year with inspiration and creativity. If you’re on our email list , you already got our postcard last week. Each week, I’ll be covering awesome brands that inspire us with sheer creativity, brand experience and storytelling. This week we cover brand email journeys. The example comes from home decor giant, Crate and Barrel.

Email 100

Email Matching Hosting Partner 100

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 19, 2017

Very few people enjoy going to work, with many doing it just because they need the money. You however never have to feel miserable each time you think of going to work. You have the potential to make the most out of your job by transforming it a positive experience. To many of us, work is all that we do with our lives. The many hours we have to spend thinking about work is one of the factors that lead to exhaustion and stress.

Product 152

Product 152

Rembrandt Communications

JANUARY 18, 2017

No budget for SEO copywriting and more? No problem! It’s the beginning of the year, and that means it’s time to put your 2017 B2B content marketing strategy into action. But, it’a also that month when your mailbox is full of holiday bills. You need to start marketing to increase sales, but you also need […]. The post B2B Content Marketing Strategy with Zero Funds appeared first on Boost sales fast with content marketing strategy and PR here.

B2B 100

B2B Marketing PR SEO 100

The Next Web

JANUARY 18, 2017

As an entrepreneur you hear this question nonstop, how big can your company get? When looking at startups, the fact of the matter is that some business models are worth more than others. The underlying way to show value as a startup is scalability. Scalability effectively analyzes growth as a standard in your business model. Businesses like Sourcify that focus their company around software are more scalable than consumer product brands like Original Grain.

Algorithm 120

Algorithm Business Model Matching Web 120

YFS Magazine

JANUARY 20, 2017

When you’re building a business online, a top priority as an industry newcomer is to build awareness around your personal brand.

Sales 112

Sales Marketing 112

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 18, 2017

By Dr. Karen M. Reddington, president, FedEx Express Asia Pacific. Asia is on the verge of a transformation. The digital economy is so fundamentally changing how we work and live that tomorrow’s Asia will likely bear little resemblance to the region we see today. Nowhere is this more evident than in small businesses’ enthusiasm for intra-Asia trade, which is helping to define the region’s future growth.

Asia 126

Asia Small Business Global Singapore 126

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 17, 2017

This is an exciting time for cryptocurrencies. As we recently wrote in Cryptocurrency’s Second Act , the rise of Ethereum revealed that cryptocurrency is not a winner-takes-all market. It has evolved from a sole player with a limited use case into an ecosystem with at least two cryptocurrencies at scale, and many others trying to get to scale. We’re seeing interesting new use cases built on top of cryptocurrencies and the new ability to monetize software and open source.

Internet 95

Internet Open Source Community Naming 95

The Next Web

JANUARY 18, 2017

The end of the year isn’t merely the end of the financial year for many companies, it’s also the time when many people take a few extra days off. And the two entangle each other in a sort of ROI tango many people are afraid of. Will you reach your quarterly goals? Will you end the year in the black? And especially for publishers like us, can you cut through the holiday noise and keep reader engagement up?

Web 105

Web Media Employee Entrepreneur 105

Up and Running

JANUARY 18, 2017

You have thought of the concept repeatedly. You have written mission statements and defined your product or service. You have built business strategies, financial plans, spent hundreds of hours raising capital, and now it’s time to select your team. As a startup, your hiring process is going to differ from that of a big business. Established large companies almost always have an organized and clear structure, streamlined hiring process, and regimented training.

Employee 94

Employee Hiring Cofounder Startup 94