Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 8, 2010
The emergence of social networking and the Internet has caused a new focus and value on “openness,” which leads to a new element of leadership, called “Open Leadership.” The mantra of open leadership is “Be Open, Be Transparent, and Be Authentic.” This is counter to the traditional business premise of “control,” so many companies are still pushing back.
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 3, 2010
In April I wrote a post about Rally acquiring AgileZen. I’ve been an investor in Rally from the very early days and am incredibly proud of what the team there has created. As I’ve written in the past, I encourage companies I’m an investor in to continually explore small acquisitions when entrepreneurs have created something that is on their roadmap.
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ReadWriteStart
OCTOBER 7, 2010
At today's roundtable we had some interesting companies and a lot of fundraising discussions, and I will review them shortly. Before I do, however, I want to talk about a thumb rule that I'd like to propose to entrepreneurs about raising money. Bottom line, early stage equity is very, very expensive. So at any point, if you are trying to raise money, and you are hearing from investors that you are too early and have too little validation, it may be a good thing.
crowdSPRING Blog
OCTOBER 7, 2010
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account , I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
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 Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 4, 2010
If your startup can’t be bothered with social media, or has no plan to take advantage of it, then you are definitely at risk these days. But simply jumping in is not enough. Before you start spending money and time being a user, you need to understand how it can help you and your business. Using it randomly or incorrectly is a waste of your precious time.
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 4, 2010
This summer I made two new friends who completely blew my mind – Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson. I met them through TechStars – they were founders of Orbotix , one of the 11 teams to go through this TechStars Boulder this summer. Today, Foundry Group announced that it has led an investment in Orbotix. I’m always on the lookout for what I consider to be genius level software engineering talent.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak
OCTOBER 7, 2010
Three years ago I began the search for a technology setup to market and deliver my first information product online. Although I made a decision and eventually launched my product, I would continue to change systems as I ran up against problems with the technology. Gideon Shalwick and I have had a conversation over and over again, lamenting the lack of a truly robust software tool designed for Internet marketers to sell information online.
VC Cafe
OCTOBER 7, 2010
A s every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor , which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors. See the March 2010 edition after the jump. For previous editions, click here. ISRAEL’S WEF RANKING IMPROVES TO 24TH PLACE, BOOSTED BY INNOVATION.
Growthink Blog
OCTOBER 7, 2010
Now that summer is officially over, venture capital activity is picking up. I just reviewed the many companies who recently raised venture capital with an eye towards those that are offering products and services that could benefit other entrepreneurs and business owners. These following six companies fell into this category. Collectively these companies just raised $43.2 million.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 4, 2010
First-Mover Advantage is an idea that just won’t die. I hear it from every class of students, and each time I try to put a stake through its heart. Here’s one more attempt in trying to explain why confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea. First mover advantage – great bad idea. The phrase “first mover advantage” was first popularized in a 1988 paper by a Stanford Business School professor, David Montgomery, and his co-author, Marvin Lieberman. [1].
deal architect
OCTOBER 3, 2010
The College of Cardinals was sending out dark smoke signals for weeks. But when the white smoke finally came out and the bells chimed announcing a consensus candidate, the press went “whoa!” They should have been in Rome covering the. Tags: Industry Commentary.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 5, 2010
I have often complained how much I hate sitting on panels. The reason is that conferences usually pack them up with speakers to maximize the number of high profile guests in attendance to sell more general admission tickets. So with a panel of 5-6 people and 30-45 minutes it’s hard to have a real conversation. Every speaker wants to get their points in so the conversation often lacks rhythm.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 3, 2010
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 Search Engine Marketing (SEM). For most, it sounds like a magical process or a scam, with the experts spewing so many acronyms. Search engine marketing is simply buying advertising for your business from Google or another search engine company.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 7, 2010
I had breakfast with two of my ex-students from Singapore who were building a really interesting startup. They were deep into Customer Discovery and presented a ton of customer data on the validity of their initial hypothesis – target customers, pricing, stickiness, etc. I was unprepared for what they said next. “We’re going to do a big launch of our product in three weeks.
deal architect
OCTOBER 5, 2010
Will the US ever win the Ryder Cup again? Thrilling finish, but. Who is the “greatest quarterback”? Let the controversy begin (continue?). as Tom Brady is the fastest to win 100 games. Is it a “monumental blunder”? That is the.
Campus Entrepreneurship
OCTOBER 5, 2010
Does your university or college offer a full fledged entrepreneurship ecosystem. Here is an article from Katherine Dunn in MIT’s Technology Review which explains the ecosystem at MIT and how it has grown more extensive and networked over time. Over the last decade, dozens of organizations, courses, awards, and seminars have sprung up at the Institute, turning what was often a serendipitous route to the marketplace into a more formalized process.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 6, 2010
A common misconception I often hear in the startup world is that non-profits are easy and safe, since they don’t have to pay taxes, and they don’t have to make a profit for their shareholders. In reality, from the feedback I get from non-profit executives, exactly the opposite is true. Colloquially speaking in the United States, a non-profit corporation or association is one which has been exempted from Federal income taxes by meeting the criteria set out Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue C
Startup Lessons Learned
OCTOBER 4, 2010
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 4, 2010 Stop lying on stage Entrepreneurs crave information about successful startups, and they should. Most of the received wisdom about business and entrepreneurship is simply wrong. Many journalists and conference organizers attempt to fill this demand by giving successful entrepreneurs the opportunity to tell their stories: in magazines, on blogs, and on stage.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 6, 2010
I obviously don’t speak for all investors. But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. And they’re easy to remember because they all begin with an M: management, market, money and above all else momentum.
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 6, 2010
During the Tahoe Tech Talk three hour Q&A segment with the panelists, someone in the audience asked about how to create a stronger entrepreneurial community in their city so that it could be “more like Silicon Valley.&# After a little banter, Chris Sacca and Dave Morin called me up onto stage to do a short riff on what we’ve done in Boulder and what makes it special.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 7, 2010
In reality, so-called “founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. But that’s only the beginning of the story. These shares are allocated and committed, but not really issued and owned (vested) until later.
Startup Lessons Learned
OCTOBER 5, 2010
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, October 5, 2010 The Lean Startup Bundle People often ask me if they can buy "Lean Startup in a box" from me. Its a strange thing, to be asked by a potential customer if they can give you copious amounts of money, and then to have to refuse. Startups run into this problem all the time: not every possible way of making money is equally useful.
ReadWriteStart
OCTOBER 6, 2010
Startups and Hollywood are more alike than we give credit. After nearly 12 months at a Y-Combinator company in Silicon Valley, I find myself noticing an eerie resemblance between my previous life in the film industry in NY/LA. This week's release of The Social Network, an interpretation of the rise of Facebook, and it's founder Mark Zuckerberg, is another corridor between these two worlds.
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 2, 2010
After flying home on an extremely early flight from Tahoe, having lunch with Amy, and then taking a nap, I’ve been pondering why I thought the Tahoe Tech Talk Conference was so powerful. As you may know, I’m not generally a conference goer, usually focus on tech-oriented conferences like the ones we’ve helped create ( Defrag , Glue , and Blur ), and rarely can sit still for an entire day.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 5, 2010
One of the biggest impediments to starting a new venture is the “terror barrier,” as popularized by Bob Proctor , a 75-year-old millionaire and world renowned entrepreneur. This is the imaginary barrier that always seems to appear at the critical point where we would step out ahead of peers or competitors, but fear causes us to stop short. Everyone has a comfort zone, or level of risk, where they feel in control.
Rembrandt Communications
OCTOBER 3, 2010
“My site is optimized for the search engines, and it’s not showing up online.” Yep. I hear this a lot. And unfortunately, I have to tell a lot of entrepreneurs that they just wasted money. And maybe you are going through this too? You just spent a lot of time and money on a search-engine-optimization [.].
ReadWriteStart
OCTOBER 8, 2010
The goal here at ReadWriteStart over the last year or so has been to provide a place where first-time entrepreneurs and early-stage startups can find curated advice, tips and information to help them launch successful ventures. This is the nature of the entrepreneurial community; to help others that want to follow in your footsteps. Some might say that the path to success for each prospering startup has been different, but author Bill Murphy Jr. believes there is a science to it all.
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 8, 2010
I think the best way for entrepreneurs – especially first time or aspiring ones – to learn is to hear stories from other entrepreneurs. That was one of the motivations for David Cohen and I to write Do More Faster. There are two such stories in Westword Denver this week. Both are companies I’ve been involved in that have gone through the TechStars program in Boulder.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 2, 2010
Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Driven by the recent recession, smart entrepreneurs of all ages are jumping into the fray with new ideas, new recovery strategies, and discarding outmoded business models. I see it most in the newest generation of entrepreneurs (Gen-Y), who were shocked out of entitlement into action by the recession. Donna Fenn, in her recent book “ Upstarts!
Occam's Razor
OCTOBER 4, 2010
Try this. Ask a famous blogger, a published author, a random twitterer or your mom how to succeed in web analytics, or how not to be a Reporting Squirrel. The answer will invariably be: Before you provide the data, ask the requestor what is the business question they are trying to answer. Then fulfill that need. It is a good answer. Most of the time they, Marketers /bosses /HiPPO's, ask and we puke data out.
ReadWriteStart
OCTOBER 6, 2010
Mark Suster is one of those unique venture capitalists in that he has experience as an entrepreneur prior to joining the VC world (or the "dark side" as he calls it). Twice, in fact. That's why he calls his blog "Both Sides of the Table," because he has literally sat at both sides of the negotiating table. It's this experience as both an entrepreneur and a VC that provides him a fresh perspective on startups and the investment market, so what does Suster think are the most important factors to s
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 3, 2010
Over the past two weeks I’ve heard the word “contrarian&# more times than I can count. Suddenly, to become a successful investor in any segment (angel, venture capital, public markets, debt markets) you have to be contrarian. The assertion that a “contrarian strategy&# always wins seems to be in the air. When I ask people what they mean by “contrarian&# , I’m amazed at how often they define it as either as “actively investing&# or “sitting on the sidel
crowdSPRING Blog
OCTOBER 6, 2010
Google’s revenue from adwords in 2009 was USD$23 billion. While adwords can be part of a strong small business marketing strategy, most startups and small businesses can’t afford to pay much for traffic. There are excellent alternatives, including search engine optimization (SEO). A few years ago , Google released a very useful search engine optimization starter guide (and later made that guide available in over 40 languages).
Life Beyond Code
OCTOBER 6, 2010
My friend Harish shared with me a powerful observation this evening. It took me a while to get it but the more I thought about it, I felt that it was a great example of the power of the narrative. Harish was at a car wash where they made an “amazing&# offer – “ Buy two car washes and this one is free. &#. The keywords there were – “this one is free.&#.
ReadWriteStart
OCTOBER 8, 2010
While a lot has been written about the cost-benefit analysis and economic wisdom of the cloud, little has been said about the teams that build them. This is a blog post about one such team, and one journeyman's lessons from being a part of it. There are many reasons for focusing on the human factor when talking about cloud telephony. Not only are we dealing with a legacy medium (think about it: the telephone has been around for more than 100 years), but also a highly regulated one, which means a
Feld Thoughts
OCTOBER 7, 2010
With the release of our book “ Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup “, my co-author David Cohen and I are taking the show on the road. Next week is Palo Alto on Tuesday, Los Angeles on Thursday, and Seattle on Friday. In most cities, we are doing four separate events: Pitch More Faster : Several emerging local companies will present their companies to me and several other local VCs.
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