SoCal CTO

JUNE 13, 2011

We had an interesting presentation at the LA CTO Forum by the CTO of a startup who chose Groovy / Grails as the framework for their startup. t prompted a good discussion around how CTOs go about choosing the programming language and framework for their startup. Some common themes from the discussion: Know Where You Are Going Before you can possibly make a choice around language and framework you need to ask all the important questions that are talked about in Startup Software Development – Do Yo

Framework 330

Framework Programming Ruby Fractional CTO 330

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have been working 20 hours a day, and spent your last dollar, but have no results to show, investors will be sympathetic, but will probably tell you that your dream doesn’t have wheels. Traction means forward progress. I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 13, 2011

We recently underwent a Cinderella-like transformation: A total redesign of the WP Engine website from despicable steaming pile of hideousness to a designed, thematic — dare I say artistic? — sleek new look. Does it matter? It must have mattered. Look how bad it was. Not only were the pages just ugly, they were peppered with database errors and CSS blowups: Just look at us now , sporting a grayscale 1950′s automotive motif playing off the “engine&# concept using the lates

Design 253

Design Lean Database Cofounder 253

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2011

Wireless music sharing must be the “hot new thing&# – right after we wrote about MyStream , Singapore-based mobile application developer Bitsmedia announces and launches Frenzapp Music , an application that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to share and discover music. Like MyStream , Frenzapp Music users can mutually share favorite tunes and allow friends to browse their favorite song library.

Fractional CTO 174

Fractional CTO Germany France Singapore 174

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

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 14, 2011

Something interesting is happening in Washington, DC right now. It's not the usual partisan fights about the budget or the deficit. In fact, it doesn't fit any of our stock ideological categories very well. The Federal government is being transformed - initially, in small ways - by people I think should be recognized as entrepreneurs. They are leveraging the same kinds of new technology, management thinking, and big data to improve lives that we routinely use here in Silicon Valley.

DC 167

DC CTO Hire Fractional CTO Silicon Valley 167

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

During today's roundtable, we had four Microsoft BizSpark Startup India Challenge grant finalists present. Two of them, Freshdesk and Bizosys (10Screens), are 1M/1M premium members, and we have already been working on their strategies for a few weeks. Sponsor. Freshdesk First, Girish Mathrubootham from Chennai, India, pitched Freshdesk , a SaaS company that provides small and medium businesses with on-demand customer support software that offers multi-channel social support.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 13, 2011

by Edward D. Hess, author of “ Growing an Entrepreneurial Business “ For many, achieving the American Dream means taking control of their destiny, quitting their 9 to 5, and opening the doors to their very own business. These brave entrepreneurial souls have shaped American enterprise, and today, they’re playing the very important role of helping to drive the nation’s economic recovery.

Indianapolis 219

Indianapolis Minneapolis Kentucky Virginia 219

David Teten

JUNE 14, 2011

I am delighted to announce that I’m joining ff Venture Capital as a Partner. Official blog post and more details here. In addition, Michael Yavonditte , CEO of Hashable , is joining as a Venture Partner. Since 1999, ff has made over 100 investments in over 35 companies , and from the beginning has been highly focused on generating industry leading returns.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital Technical Review Early Stage Portfolio 122

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 15, 2011

Our society puts a lot of emphasis on the college degree as a key step towards job readiness. In doing so, we tend to overlook the other ways in which knowledge and expertise can be shared. These can include internships and mentorships, both of which place student-learners in situations where they can hands-on experience and advice from actual practitioners in their field.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Cofounder Matching Video 120

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Branchout , often called LinkedIn meets Facebook, has done a lot in their application to provide users motivation and opportunity to spread the word about the service. The purpose of Branchout is helping people to network their way to jobs. However, funny enough, I don't see the job search and showing you who you know at the company as being particularly well done.

Viral 331

Viral Startup Networking Social Network 331

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 13, 2011

The only thing worse than having no customers is having non-paying ones. And small businesses, with limited credit and cash flows, suffer from non-paying customers more than most. After all, it sucks doing a whole bunch of work and rack up a large number in your receivables column, but have your business go under because you can’t collect on them to pay off your own bills.

Technical Review 215

Technical Review Small Business Social Media Sales 215

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

My friend, Ben Horowitz , and I debate the tech bubble in The Economist. This post originally appeared as part 1 of 3. ———————————————————————————– We won’t get fooled again. We don’t get fooled again.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 16, 2011

I had the privilege of keynoting at the Founder Showcase tonight in San Francisco. Adeo asked me to speak about fund raising. I generally don’t like to speak about fund raising in a frothy market. If you’re bullish you seem like a Cramer-esque cheerleader and if you’re bearish you sound like a party pooper. But Adeo asked so I obliged.

San Francisco 307

San Francisco Marketing Video Founder 307

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Branchout , often called LinkedIn meets Facebook, has done a lot in their application to provide users motivation and opportunity to spread the word about the service. The purpose of Branchout is helping people to network their way to jobs. However, funny enough, I don't see the job search and showing you who you know at the company as being particularly well done.

Viral 323

Viral Startup Networking Social Network 323

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 16, 2011

By John Hamm, author of “ Unusually Excellent ”. No one wants to lose. That’s true whether you’re talking about the Super Bowl, a friendly basketball game with the neighbors, or a footrace between eight-year-olds. Yes, the desire to win is embedded in the human psyche. So why is it that in the business world the “win or (almost) die trying” principle seems to falter?

Leadership 145

Leadership Silicon Valley Demand Sales 145

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 16, 2011

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING Home About Consulting Products Programs Workshops Blog Resources Contact Subscribe by RSS Subscribe to Duct Tape Marketing by Email Small Business Week 2011 Our winners! Mon – Justin Severidt Tues – Elizabeth Frederick Wed – Denise Sheehan Thurs – Nicholas Hammernik Fri – Jennifer Nagel Books by John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – by John J

Customer 66

Customer Video Social Media Software Review 66

Steve Blank

JUNE 17, 2011

My friend Ben Horowitz and I debate the tech bubble in The Economist. This post is the “rebuttal&# statement to Ben’s opening comments. An edited version of this post originally appeared as part 2 of 3. Part 1 is here. ———————————————————————————–. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold them. Know when to walk away.

Investment Bankers 310

Investment Bankers Stock Valuation Venture Capital 310

emediavitals.com

JUNE 13, 2011

Trending iPad Smartphones Social Media SEO / SEM Paid Content Content Aggregation / Curation Hyperlocal Tags Advertising Audience Development Design Editorial Technology Products & Resources Publisher's Playbooks Industry events Site index.

Web Development 40

Web Development Developer Web SEM 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 16, 2011

Successful entrepreneurs are usually hard-driving, and highly focused on some specific goals, like being the dominant player in a given domain, or the low-priced provider of their product. Yet other entrepreneurs will talk for hours about all their ideas, and how they intend to change the world, but I don’t hear any specific goals or milestones. Many people are very hesitant to set specific goals, due to lack of self-confidence or whatever.

Entrepreneur 251

Entrepreneur Business Plan Developer Product 251

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 14, 2011

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING Home About Consulting Products Programs Workshops Blog Resources Contact Subscribe by RSS Subscribe to Duct Tape Marketing by Email Small Business Week 2011 Our winners! Mon – Justin Severidt Tues – Elizabeth Frederick Wed – Denise Sheehan Thurs – Nicholas Hammernik Fri – Jennifer Nagel Books by John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – by John J

Software Review 64

Software Review SEO Small Business Kansas City 64

Software By Rob

JUNE 16, 2011

Photo by Dave Rodenbaugh. Anytime you spend 3 months planning an event, whether it’s a wedding, a product launch, or a conference, you need a post-mortem. A time to reflect on things that went right and things that needed work. This post is my post-mortem for MicroConf 2011 , which took place last week in Las Vegas, NV. Mike Taber (my conference co-host) and I had a 45 minute conversation about it that will be published next week as episode 46 of our podcast , but when we stopped recording

Las Vegas 47

Las Vegas Software Review Bootstrapping Hosting 47

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2011

Many industries, from the well-known to the obscure, are booming with opportunities for startups, according to IBISWorld. By analyzing revenue figures, growth trends and profitability levels of more than 700 industries, the U.S. industry research house lists five hot sectors that have start-up potential: education and employment, Internet and technology, green, and residential and commercial construction.

Green 217

Green Startup Demand Internet 217

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2011

By Bob La Loggia, CEO StormSource Technology is like a banana. Yes, you heard me right, a banana. Just like technology, a banana has very distinct phases. Understanding these phases and taking action on them could be the difference between your company being king of the jungle or being caged in a zoo scraping flattened Junior Mints off the ground for sustenance.

Technology 237

Technology Green Startup Web 237

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 16, 2011

SIMPLE, EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING Home About Consulting Products Programs Workshops Blog Resources Contact Subscribe by RSS Subscribe to Duct Tape Marketing by Email Small Business Week 2011 Our winners! Mon – Justin Severidt Tues – Elizabeth Frederick Wed – Denise Sheehan Thurs – Nicholas Hammernik Fri – Jennifer Nagel Books by John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – by John J

Reputation 61

Reputation Small Business Management RSS 61

deal architect

JUNE 12, 2011

Impressed with iCloud? The New Florence blog last week profiled some of the most ambitious projects happening elsewhere in the world Submersible to the Deepest of Deep Lagos makeover Iceberg Towing Orient Express 2.

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186

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 14, 2011

by Uwe Hook, BatesHook. Many people in our industry are thinking about the future of agencies. Mitch Joel wrote a nice piece. I spoke about it before. The majority of pundits agree that any successful agency has to be agile. That’s an important principle but if you’re having 10 different businesses working on the same brand and nobody talks to each other, agility starts to feel a bit superficial as a founding principle.

Singapore 200

Singapore Agile Campaign Hiring 200

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2011

It takes a great entrepreneur with a great vision to start a business, but it takes a collaboration of many people to make it a success. That’s where leadership comes in as a key ingredient, to drive the collaborative process to make the whole team better than the sum of the parts. I remember a book from a while back by Amilya Antonetti, titled “ The Recipe: A Fable for Leaders and Teams ” which illustrates the key concepts with stories and specific guidance on how to develop your natural leader

Leadership 236

Leadership Startup Matching Developer 236

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 14, 2011

The English language badly needs a gender neutral pronoun. The more I write, the more I feel the need for this. In my post yesterday, Does Your VP of HR Report To Your CEO? I felt this very acutely as I tried to be gender neutral to avoid the “CEO’s are male, VP of HR are female&# bias. But I failed and just used “he&# throughout the post.

Technology 151

Technology 151

deal architect

JUNE 15, 2011

on the New Florence blog The library of the future From GM to Garmin to Google Maps and back to GM A history of Google Doodles Washable RFID for hotels.

Technology 199

Technology 199

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 13, 2011

Crowd-sourced, collaborative venture capitalist firm VenCorps , in conjunction with Kauffman Foundation , is currently running PitchU , an online elevator pitch competition that gives away US$5000 cash to the best video pitch every month. Contestants basically upload a two-minute elevator pitch video to YouTube – they’ll get feedback from VenCorps ‘ panel of judges , as well as members of the startup community.

Las Vegas 198

Las Vegas Elevator Pitch Video Los Angeles 198

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2011

If you are a first-time entrepreneur, I often recommend that you team with a co-founder with experiences, connections, and a skill set that complements, but doesn’t duplicate yours. Even experienced entrepreneurs need a partner to strengthen their position. The question is how to find that elusive perfect-fit partner. First, I will admit there is no magic formula here, just like in real life when trying to find a relationship partner.

Partner 231

Partner Cofounder Silicon Valley Non-Compete 231

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 13, 2011

A decade ago I didn’t pay much attention to the VP of HR position. Today, I view it as a key role if you are growing headcount at least 50% year over year and have more than 20 people in the company. And, title inflation notwithstanding , I prefer to call it “VP of People&# since we are people after all, not “human resources&# or “HRs&#.

Portfolio 139

Portfolio Developer Video Management 139

David Teten

JUNE 16, 2011

Join our panel and entrepreneurs for a startup pitch event on June 23. Each startup will have 5 minutes to present their companies and 15 minute Q&A time with our panel and audience. Pizza and drinks will be served. Startups: Soraya Darabi – Co-Founder @ foodspotting.com. Ryan O’Donnell – CEO @ letsgift.it. Chris Mirabile – Co-Founder & CEO @ TheHotList.com.

Cofounder 128

Cofounder New York Venture Capital Startup 128

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 12, 2011

By Nigel Collin, LeadingCreatives. Creating Zoos – Culture. You also need to provide your creatives with the right environment that will support and stimulate their creativity. You need to create the Zoo. A good Creative Zoo is a place where creative people love to hang out. It’s where they feel they belong and can interact with other creative people.

Singapore 191

Singapore Dividend Hiring Partner 191

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 15, 2011

The most successful freelancers are excellent communicators. Is it enough to have great communication skills to succeed as a freelancer? No. However, it’s nearly impossible to succeed as a freelancer without effective communication skills. We’ve seen many talented designers on crowdSPRING and elsewhere fail to grow successful freelance businesses because they were poor communicators.

United States 130

United States Design Social Media China 130

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 16, 2011

I’m in my car on the way to Aspen for the weekend (Amy is driving – I’m in the passenger seat.). The top is down. It’s absolutely beautiful on I-70 as we travel at a high rate of speed. And I’m sitting here blogging on my iPad. There is no way to describe this as anything other than magic. I’m in an extremely creative zone of my life and trying to spend as much time as I can working on stuff I really care about.

Technology 129

Technology Partner Entrepreneur 129