Sat.Sep 24, 2011 - Fri.Sep 30, 2011

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Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups

SoCal CTO

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. I'll get to service providers in a later post. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." Steve Blank divides the individuals associated with startups as: Founders Early Employees (Employees # 1-25) Later Employees (Employees # 26-125) The reality is that the definition of founder and em

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Tips to Help you Think About Sales at Your Startup

Both Sides of the Table

Sales. It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing. This week I had the chance to have an hour-long discussion with Vince Thompson (ran West Coast sales for AOL for 7 years – back in the day when AOL was what Facebook is today) and Mo Ali , who has the awesome Twitter handle @BornToCall – runs sales at This Week In.

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20 Coolest iPad Ideas For Your Library

YoungUpstarts

Since its 2010 release, attitudes about the iPad have undergone a radical change. Once mocked by techies for being both frivolous and having a silly name, the device has since become nearly ubiquitous in coffee shops, schools, airports and businesses across the nation. Why? Because in many ways, the iPad actually did live up to the hype. It’s easy to use (even for little kids), intuitive, lightweight and generally a highly versatile tool adaptable everywhere, from the board room to home ro

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4 Deadly Legal Mistakes That Startups Make

Scott Edward Walker

Introduction This post was originally part of the “ Ask the Attorney ” series I am writing for VentureBeat (one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs). Below is a longer, more comprehensive version. Question My co-founders and I are working on a cool new site, and we’ll be ready to launch in a few weeks. I’ve been reading a lot on the web about incorporation and other legal stuff.

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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 untold story of Posterous

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

Sachin Agarwal on left. There are a lot of blogging sites out there – WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and then there’s Posterous. Sachin Agarwal, founder of Posterous, told a story which seemed to be a collection of happenstances. At a talk last Friday, Agrawal talked publicly for the first time since Posterous spaces launched. He started by saying that he will be talking about things that he hadn’t shared before.

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What Can A Falafel Truck Teach Us About How To Do Business?

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

My name is Bryan Clark and I am a professional writer and blog editor in the tech, entrepreneurship, finance and digital lifestyle fields. I have written before for Entrepreneurs Journey in 2007 and I’m happy to say I am back with a new column starting today. In this article I will talk about what is needed to produce a quality product, which includes four main elements: location branding marketing customer service I’m never sure what the appeal is, but every time the falafel truck p

More Trending

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Small Business Spotlight of the Week: Simple Squares

crowdSPRING Blog

This week’s spotlight was a pretty controversial product at the crowdSPRING office. When I brought it to the lunch table and announced what it was, people were skeptical, even downright cynical. But to those that were adventuresome enough to try it, it ended up being a tasty treat. What was it, you ask? Simple Squares. Made with only six ingredients, these confection bars are wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy and soy-free, refined-sugar free, uncooked, and kosher.

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Will Work for Equity - Investing in Clients - Arizona Bay

www.inc.com

); Login or signup. Welcome | Logout. Join our community. Login using: Use your Inc.com account: Forgot login ? Forgot login ? Create an Inc.com account: Subscribe to Inc.coms Free Newsletters. Start-up | Mondays. Technology | Thursdays. Small Business Success | Mondays and Thursdays. The Goods: Your Business Toolbox | Thursdays. Finance | Tuesdays.

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What Can A Falafel Truck Teach Us About How To Do Business?

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

My name is Bryan Clark and I am a professional writer and blog editor in the tech, entrepreneurship, finance and digital lifestyle fields. I have written before for Entrepreneurs Journey in 2007 and I’m happy to say I am back with a new column starting today. In this article I will talk about what is needed to produce a quality product, which includes four main elements: location branding marketing customer service I’m never sure what the appeal is, but every time the falafel truck p

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Why Email May Be Draining Your Company’s Productivity

Both Sides of the Table

Email. Ah, email. That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. I’ve taken to saying, “Email is our personal to-do list that anybody adds to – whether they know us or not.” I was lamenting it tonight when I saw the most brilliant response Tweet by Andrew Hyde . “inbox = tetris getting zero lines doesn’t win it just makes the next move easy.” Brilliant!

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10 Ways to Size Your Company’s Value for Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

Once you have a potential investor excited about your team, your product, and your company, the investor will inevitably ask “What is your company’s valuation?” Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an exorbitant number. I’ve written about this before, but it’s a mysterious subject, and I’m always learning more.

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Beware The Consultant

infochachkie.com

About Who the Heck is Uncle Saul? Be The Beatles Not The Flock Of Seagulls John Greathouse’s Bio ConTraps Part 2 ConTrap Part 3 ConTrap part 4 Startup Children Pt 2 Startup Children Pt 5 Startup Children Pt 3 Startup Children Pt 4 Decision Making 101 Talks: Jason Nazar on how to Persuade. infoChachkie. Hands-on startup advice for emerging entrepreneurs.

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Ballad of The Lean Startup

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Tweet. --> With IMVU not growing. And revenue not flowing. And with piles of cash monthly burning, They asked “Is it a mess, Or is it progress?” Then measured by validated learning. With their customers confused. Eric’s ego was bruised – All his basic assumptions were nixed. They had to unload. All that beautiful code. Before the product could ever be fixed. “What’s the last six months for, Tossing my code out the door?

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Why Super Pro-rata Rights are Not a Good Deal for Entrepreneurs

Both Sides of the Table

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Chris Sacca fly by that prompted me to want to write a blog post helping entrepreneurs understand why they should push back against VCs asking for “super pro-rata” rights. I’ll explain what they are and why you should avoid them if you can. A primer on “pro-rata” rights. Institutional investors will always insist on pro-rata rights.

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1001 Serial Articles for Entrepreneurs & Startups

Startup Professionals Musings

As of today, I will have published an article here for entrepreneurs and startups every day for the last 1001 days, since I started Startup Professionals Musings near the close of 2008. It’s been a great ride, but it’s now time to dial it back a bit, and focus on some other priorities. I still plan to publish on this blog occasionally, as well as more frequently on my blogs at Forbes , Huffington Post , and others.

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Should You Share Equity with Consultants?

www.inc.com

); Login or signup. Welcome | Logout. Join our community. Login using: Use your Inc.com account: Forgot login ? Forgot login ? Create an Inc.com account: Subscribe to Inc.coms Free Newsletters. Start-up | Mondays. Technology | Thursdays. Small Business Success | Mondays and Thursdays. The Goods: Your Business Toolbox | Thursdays. Finance | Tuesdays.

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The two executive chasm

deal architect

I spent a couple of invigorating days at TUCON, Tibco's user conference. Every executive session like the one below Dennis Howlett kindly shared we had with the CEO Vivek Ranadive was strategic and built off the theme of his new.

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ProfessorVC: Card Counting for Investors

Professor VC

ProfessorVC. The last blogger in Silicon Valley. Monday, September 26, 2011. Card Counting for Investors. How would Billy Beane have done as an early stage investor? I havent had a chance to see Moneyball yet, but did read Michael Lewis book when it came out eight years ago. However, I have seen some blog posts posing the question about whether the same principles of valuing baseball players could be applied to entrepreneurs.

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How To Kick Innovation Up a Notch to Nanovation

Startup Professionals Musings

What sparks paradigm-shifting innovation in any business? It’s a special mix of entrepreneur and company, regular in every respect except for having the courage and foresight to make an idea happen that was supposed to be impossible. As an entrepreneur in a startup, how do you know if you have this potential, and what are the steps to get from an innovation to a revolution?

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Working for Equity Instead of Cash

genylabs.typepad.com

Small Business Labs. Tracking and Forecasting the Trends Impacting the Future of Small Business. Welcome to Small Business Labs. Small Business Labs, from Emergent Research , covers the key social, technology and business trends impacting small business. Follow us on Twitter. Emergent Research. EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

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More innovation

deal architect

on the New Florence blog The Social Business Index Islamic Science Rediscovered Highly Autonomous Driving Greplin: “Google for your private life”.

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Stay Focused To Win

YoungUpstarts

(Click on picture to enlarge article). In warfare, the side that brings all its firepower to bear on one point of the enemy’s front usually breaks through and wins the battle. It is the same for start-ups – the ones most likely to succeed are those which approach their businesses with razor-sharp focus. Here are four steps to sharpen your focus.

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Entrepreneurs Challenge The Gartner Hype Cycle

Startup Professionals Musings

The Hype Cycle was a concept put forward by Gartner, Inc. back in 1995 meant to apply to technology product evolution and acceptance. As I was reading about it recently, it occurred to me that the concept relates directly to how investors see startup opportunities and potential success as well, at least those with technology in their offerings. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, the Gartner Hype Cycle characterizes the over-enthusiasm or "hype" and subsequent disappointment

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Compensating a consultant at start-up phase

help.bplans.com

Bplans. Your business plan starts here. Home. Sample Plans. Sample Business Plans. Sample Marketing Plans. Business Plan Outline. Business Plan Template. How-To Articles. Writing a Business Plan. Starting a Business. Financing a Business. Growing a Business. Running an Online Business. Small Business Legal Issues. Buying a Business. Business Glossary.

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More New Renaissance

deal architect

on the innovation blog AT&T’s Network of Possibilities The Amazon Storefront: 7-Eleven? Did Supercomputers predict the Arab Spring? The Startup Genome Compass.

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Is Your Teen A Master Of Their Money? Or Slave To It?

YoungUpstarts

by Sharon Lechter, founder of Pay Your Family First. A recent survey by Charles Schwab showed that the average teen still expects a starting salary of US$73,000 that will grow to US$150,000 in their chosen career. However when you match this expectation with the reality of the current very high unemployment rate for the same age group… it should alert all of us that trouble is brewing for the future.

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Knowledge Is Power: Convertible Note Financing Terms, Part I

Gust

The most successful serial entrepreneurs in the world may found three or four, perhaps even eight or ten venture-backed startups over the course of their careers. By contrast, venture capitalists and angel investors typically make scores or even hundreds of investments over the course of their careers. It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal.

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Equity for Consultants – Keep it Simple!

www.mattbartus.com

A View from the Valley. Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. Blog blog archive. Quora Answers. About Matt. Client references. Contact. Resources. Equity for Consultants – Keep it Simple! posted Feb 3 in Equity , People issues. I can’t tell you how often a client calls me up and says something like this: “Matt, we have this great new consultant who is going to make introductions to us to [pick type of

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Life With Android, 1 Year Later

Venture Chronicles

A little over a year ago I turned off my iPhone 3 and fired up a new HTC Evo Android handset, the initial experience I wrote about here. I recently upgraded my handset from the Evo to the just released Samsung Epic Touch and wanted to share some thoughts about Android after having lived with it for a full year. As you might surmise given that I just upgraded my handset, I’m pretty happy with Android but first let’s get some of the negative comments out of the way.

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5 Tips For Start-ups

YoungUpstarts

(Click on picture to enlarge article). Registering a start-up is easy, but there are many challenges to building it that can trip you. Here are some ways to mitigate these challenges. This article was originally written by me and contributed to a column in Singapore’s Straits Times Digital Life. All rights belong to Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.

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Best. Birthday. Ever.

Startup Lessons Learned

Last week I turned 33, while on the road. I received an incredible amount of good news all at once. First off, I received the big news that you'll get to read if you open up the paper this coming Sunday: The Lean Startup has debuted at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller List. The Lean Startup debuts at #2 on the New York Times Bestseller List Look closely, and you'll see The Lean Startup right below televangelist Joel Osteen and right above The Guinness Book of World Records.

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Quit Your Whining

Rembrandt Communications

I can’t do that! I don’t want to! Wa! Wa! Wa! Sounds like a small child not getting his or her way, doesn’t it? Well, believe it or not, I’ve heard plenty of adults saying these exact same things recently and felt the need for a little pep talk via this blog. Whether it’s a [.].

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Snake-Oil Startup Recruiting

Genuine VC

Everything in startups is selling. Selling to financiers. Selling to customers. Even for consumer-facing online services, UI and product design is about selling users on what actions you’d like them to take. Recruiting new employees is one of the most important selling jobs that a Founder/CEO does in the first couple years of a startup’s life (and subsequently for that matter).

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The Character-Driven Company: Five Simple Rules To Help Yours Become One When It Matters Most

YoungUpstarts

by Dave Anderson, author of “ How to Lead by The Book: Proverbs, Parables, and Principles to Tackle Your Toughest Business Challenges “. It’s certainly a tense time in business. The uncertain economy has many business leaders constantly poring over the financials, crunching the budget, and nixing every possible unnecessary expense. Unfortunately, financial problems aren’t the only ones your company might be facing.

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Entrepreneurs: Just Say No To Super Pro-Rata Rights

Feld Thoughts

On Friday, I saw a tweet from Chris Sacca about super pro-rata rights that said “ Seeing a lot of VCs cram super-prorata terms into deals. Feels uncool to me. Any good arguments for why it’s helpful to entrepreneurs? ” I quickly responded to Chris on Twitter with “ @sacca just say no to super prorata ” and then opened up a WordPress window and scribbled some thoughts for a draft post on that that I was planning to put up Monday morning (now).

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Tax Credits for Startups in New York State

David Teten

As our federal and state government continue to worry about job creation, they’re trying their best to promote entrepreneurship. Our CFO Alex Katz just sent out a memo to our portfolio, attached below, about 2 tax credits available to companies that do business in New York State. For background, we rarely see a CPA come to us with a startup idea.

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