Both Sides of the Table
JULY 29, 2010
We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. We will continue to do more of this. If you want to watch the show click the image above or this link , but if you want a quick read – here’s a summary: 1.
Startup Lessons Learned
JULY 28, 2010
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot (The following guest post is a new experiment for this blog. It was written by Sarah Milstein in collaboration with kaChing CEO Andy Rachleff. kaChing has been very active in the Lean Startup movement. If you havent seen it, Pascals recent presentation on continuous deployment is a must-see; slides are here.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
crowdSPRING Blog
JULY 27, 2010
We’ve recently discussed several useful topics for small businesses and startups, including naming your company , how to make you taglines stand out from the crowd., and tips for buyers looking for logo design. Today, we’ll cover web design marketing best practices and tips for small business. Most businesses, from one person start-ups to small and mid-size businesses to international conglomerates, need to have a presence on the Web.
OnlyOnce
JULY 30, 2010
Agile Marketing, Part II. I wrote about this years ago when I was temporarily running Marketing and was noting a lot of the similarities between running contemporary Product Development and Marketing efforts. Nick Van Weerdenburg just put up a great post called Why Marketing is Becoming Like Software Development which you should read if you run or work in, or work closely with, a marketing department.
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
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 26, 2010
Social Proof in Action … Yesterday I wrote about the benefits of using social proof and authority in raising venture capital. If you didn’t read that yet it might be worth having a quick skim as a primer. Social proof is defined as “looking for others to guide our decisions&# and is also one of the most important techniques in acquiring customers in your company.
Steve Blank
JULY 26, 2010
If you’ve had a great career what happens to all your knowledge and experience when you retire? Great Suit. My wife and I had dinner last night with a friend of hers from high school. Tom, her husband whom I had never met before joined us as well. I took one look at his suit and guessed “high-powered lawyer. “ (I was right, the suit probably added another $250 per billable hour.).
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
deal architect
JULY 27, 2010
Good friend Ray Wang lays out his 7 tenets of starting a new analyst firm - it’s a nice summary of his own decision process as he exited Forrester and what he has learned since. I would like to contribute. Tags: Industry analysts (Gartner, Forrester, AMR, others).
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 25, 2010
I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Cialdini who is also author of a very well received book called “ Influence &# (which I plan to read). “Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is fille
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 27, 2010
If you are one of the many people who lost your job during these tough economic times, you should be working on starting your own business, in parallel with looking for that ideal replacement job. Let me explain why this is a win-win deal, no matter what the outcome. You have probably secretly always wanted to run your own show, but with a full-time job, never had the time to consider a startup.
Steve Blank
JULY 29, 2010
One of the toughest problems for entrepreneurs is to keep score as they search for their business model. Keeping Score. One of the key concepts of Customer Development is writing down your initial hypotheses (guesses) of all the parts of your business model, then updating them with the facts you find outside the building. Since I first wrote the book Four Steps to the Epiphany I’ve realized that an even better way to keep score is by diagramming each of your business model hypotheses on a
deal architect
JULY 30, 2010
In my book trip to Europe last week, there was plenty of discussion on the future of work and what it means to countries like Ireland, immigration etc. This week at a GigaOm event the focus was much more on. Tags: Industry Commentary.
Rembrandt Communications
JULY 28, 2010
As a new business owner, it’s easy to rush through publicity efforts in order to concentrate or core business activities and priorities. But before you contact the media or post a press release, ask yourself if the information you’re about to send is really newsworthy. Will a reporter really care about what you have to [.].
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 24, 2010
A little known, but valuable resource, every startup should investigate is a formal or informal connection to your local university. These resources are definitely are not limited to students, since every university wants and needs the real world exposure and experience of entrepreneurs who already have credibility in the marketplace. Here is a short list of the areas where you should be able to find help, whether you are a student or an independent entrepreneur: Finding an idea.
Genuine VC
JULY 26, 2010
Micro VCs are notorious for building large and friendly syndicates. One or two players decide (sometimes rather quickly) to make a seed-stage investment in a new startup, and as a round comes together they invite in a number of their Micro VC and angel cohorts. What’s the reasoning for all of this chummy behavior? While traditional VCs sometimes have a love/hate relationship with their syndicate partners (often depending on how well their mutual portfolio companies are performing), it seem
deal architect
JULY 25, 2010
Last week was a whirlwind of book events across Europe - in Dublin, in Amsterdam, 2 in London and in Paris. Befitting a book on Polymaths it was diverse in many aspects. The venues: What a choice - do you.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 26, 2010
The other day, Josh and I met with a very cool company that has some serious traction. They’re more than doubling revenue every quarter and will soon be on track for a million dollar run rate. The only concern was that they didn’t know what their cost of customer acquisition was, nor did they which channels would be most effective, or how much they could acquire out of each channel.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 29, 2010
Behind most great startup success stories is a long list of mistakes! Unfortunately, for every success story you see, there is an even longer list of failure stories with mistakes that you don’t see. But rather than dwell on the failures, I’ve tried to extract from them a list of practical action items that will improve your survival probability. Every startup mentor has his favorite list of basic strategies to avoid pitfalls, and I’m no exception.
Feld Thoughts
JULY 26, 2010
I got a note from Nivi, the creator of AngelList , over the weekend saying that he’d put up a special page for angel investors in Boulder. He’s looking for the local Boulder angels to add their names to the list. Gang – let’s get ‘em up – if you are an angel investor and based in the Boulder area, sign up ! There’s been an enormous about of blog and news chatter about angel investors, especially seed investors and the emergence of super angel / micro V
deal architect
JULY 30, 2010
The Polymaths have been making their way around the world. a) This one made it to Leonardo Shikida in Brazil in good shape. b) This one arrived to Harish Malani in India “severely jetlagged”. Barnes and Noble generously offered him. Tags: The New Polymath.
Growthink Blog
JULY 27, 2010
I have two simple questions to ask you. 1. What color and shape is a STOP sign? 2. What color and shape is a YIELD sign? Pretty much everyone gets the first question right. Yes, a STOP sign is octagonal and red. But most people get the second question wrong. They incorrectly think that a YIELD sign is triangular and yellow. Now the triangular part is correct.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 30, 2010
A good entrepreneur is not necessarily a good salesman. In fact, they are often the opposite, more focused on building things rather than selling them. Yet, in today’s world of information overload and global reach, marketing and selling skills are critical to the success of every startup. The old axiom “If we build it, they will come” has long been relegated to the field of dreams , since at least 1989, with Kevin Costner’s movie by the same name.
Feld Thoughts
JULY 30, 2010
Ah – well – another day passed and there was once again a ton of chatter around angel investing. A lot of it was prompted by AngelConf 2010 which you can watch recordings of on Justin.tv ( AngelConf 2010 Part 1 and AngelConf 2010 Part 2 ). While there continues to be plenty of negative VC tone and “disruptive change is here&# (ala traditional VC is over ), there were also some great nuggets, including my favorite line from Joshua Schachter of typical VC behavior of SHITS (
Life Beyond Code
JULY 29, 2010
If you have been reading my blog for sometime, you know about mini sagas. It is a story that is told in exactly 50 words. Not 49 or 51 but exactly 50. I have had many requests about how to write a mini saga. I have written close to 100 mini sagas and published around 57 of them. That does not make me an expert on writing mini sagas but writing about hundred of them has taught me a lot of things.
Start Up Blog
JULY 30, 2010
Multi-tasking is a hoax. In fact it’s one of the worst developments associated with the personal computer revolution. It robs us of time, reduces focus, and has a negative impact on reaching deadlines adn getting stuff done. So here is my top 10 list of ways to avoid the multi-tasking hoax: Only have one computer application open at a time. Only check your emails at 2 designated times of the day (say 9am and 3pm).
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 25, 2010
Getting things done effectively in a startup requires total individual and team accountability. You can’t afford excuses and multiple people doing the same job. In my view, “taking responsibility” is the core element behind accountability. Many people hear responsibility as an obligation, but I hear it as “the ability to respond.” Unfortunately many people don’t have the ability to respond, because they lack confidence in themselves, or simply don’t have the skills required.
Feld Thoughts
JULY 27, 2010
This week’s special guest are Jeff Clavie r from SoftTech VC and Rob Hayes from First Round Capital. Among other things, you get to hear Jeff define the Three Asses Rule and Rob explain what happens after you finish the TechStars program. As a special bonus, there’s a cute clip of me near the end watching the incredible record tennis match between Isner and Mahut.
Growthink Blog
JULY 30, 2010
Last night I went to a party at a bar in New York City. The party was organized by a successful businessman that I recently met. He was visiting New York, and put together the event so he could catch up with a lot of his old friends. I didn't really know anyone at the event which was a little awkward at first. But everyone was real nice, and I soon got to speaking with several of the guests.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 30, 2010
Each day, hundreds of people stuff themselves into my inbox--pitches, career advice pleas, introduction requests. It's almost as if I hand out cash for a living or if my job is to know a lot of people in the NY tech community. oh, wait. that is my job. So, one would assume, then, if someone had the opportunity to a) put me in a position where I'd really owe them a favor. big time b) be able to pitch me or talk out what they're up to, next steps, opportunities, etc w/o it even necessarily countin
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 28, 2010
I continue to see stories of really young entrepreneurs, like this article on Business Fastlane , with kids as young as 9 years old who have successful businesses. This makes me wonder what sets that entrepreneurial drive in kids, and how early parents and schools should start teaching the basics. There are already a couple of good books out there for youth entrepreneurs, such as a new one from my friends Adam and Matthew Toren, Kidpreneurs: Young Entrepreneurs with Big Ideas.
Feld Thoughts
JULY 27, 2010
In 2008 I was invited by Pamela Samuelson , who I met through several Silicon Flatiron events, to be on an advisory board at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. I attended the one meeting that we had and a subsequent symposium and wrote about it in the post Entrepreneurial Companies and the Patent System. As with most things like this, I found it fascinating, stimulating, and frustrating all at the same time and hoped that I’d contributed something useful to the discussion.
Start Up Blog
JULY 27, 2010
Patrick Jean’s short film Pixel (featured below) isn’t new – it’s been around a few months, but it is amazing. It was viewed more than 1 million times within it’s first 24 hours of its release. It was a passion project by Patrick. He did it because he was inspired by the 8-bit video games he grew up on. He won lots of prizes , and then got many offers from major Hollywood studios (Sony, Warner, Dreamworks) to make pictures.
Growthink Blog
JULY 26, 2010
Happy Monday! Or should I say "be careful folks, it's Monday." Why would I say that? Because statistics show that most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings. And, migraines in children are most likely to occur on Monday mornings too. What is this Monday morning curse? Well, it's most likely the fear and pain of having to do something you don't want to do.
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 26, 2010
Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Non-organic growth would include OEM relationships, finding strategic partners, “coopetition,” as well as acquisitions.
Feld Thoughts
JULY 26, 2010
?While I still don’t have my jetpack, I do have my picturephone. I was four when the AT&T PicturePhone appeared on the scene. This dude went through a lot of iterations over the year – my favorite is in this Western Digital ad. This morning as I was drinking my coffee, waking up, and trying to get motivated to go running in the rain (I think I’ll go swim instead), my dad called on Skype.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 27, 2010
Today I met with a young venture professional who spent far too much time figuring out why thought leaders would even want to meet with him than he actually spent just asking them to meet. When I asked how many startup investors, for example, he had asked to meet in the last two weeks, he replied, “Well, none.” Ok, then don’t tell me they won’t want to meet with you until you get turned down.
Growthink Blog
JULY 29, 2010
It's been less than a month since Crowdfunding Formula was released to teach entrepreneurs how to quickly and easily raise money from this great new funding source. And as we might have expected, entrepreneurial creativity has already started to take Crowdfunding to the next level. More entrepreneurs are raising money from Crowdfunding. And they are using more creative techniques to get folks to learn about them and donate.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
282 
Let's personalize your content