Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. I often get asked about the real alternatives to bridge this valley, and there are some good ones I will outline here.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 18, 2013
The big irony about India is it has produced tens of thousands of software engineers, but hardly any successful software or web services companies. The reasons are many – its successful services firms like TCS and Infosys invest heavily in.
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YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 18, 2013
Innovation – that strangely elusive quality that most businesses would kill for, but many struggle to attain or maintain. There’s plenty already written on the topic – for example, how animation company Pixar approaches innovation in “ Innovate The Pixar Way ” – but “ Unrelenting Innovation: How to Build a Culture for Market Dominance ” by Gerard J.
Up and Running
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
If you’re raising money for your company and you want to pitch to angel investors or venture capitalists , then there are a few important things to know that savvy investors care about. I’ve raised close to $1 million for my previous startups and the following questions were not what I had expected to hear from the investors I was pitching to.
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
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. More executives, or other more creative titles are seen as a big red flag.
SiliconHills
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
BY IAN PANCHEVRE Reporter with Silicon Hills News MetroHi.com , a San Antonio based startup in the review management space, started with humble beginnings but is now picking up momentum, and it’s all thanks to a unique approach to an enduring problem. Radu Istrate, the founder and CEO of MetroHi and a Boston College graduate, [.] The post MetroHi.com Embraces a Unique Approach for Reputation Management appeared first on SiliconHills.
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Babbling VC
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
I'll be the first to admit that I often invest a disproportionate amount of time analyzing hardware and software. I've recently caught myself dicking around with Android for a couple days. Seriously, a couple days.hours spent trying to see if I "like" an OS. I've been the first to jump on bandwagons of apps too and spent time analyzing which email or calendar or messaging app is best.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. Then they are surprised to see productivity and creativity take a big dip. What they should be doing is hiring only “entrepreneurs,” meaning people who think and act as if this is their own business.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
I have known Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor for going on 2 decades now. He was a polymath way before I wrote a book celebrating them. He has computer science and law degrees in addition to an MBA. He is.
Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 18, 2013
This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. By now many of you know the Harlem Shake but what you may not appreciate is the broader trend behind the video and it has mirrored my general views on how TV will work in the future. Harlem Shake is a YouTube phenomenon that in just 2 weeks has gone from nothing to on air on both Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert and collectively the Harlem Shake has been viewed around 200 million times.
Babbling VC
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Please excuse this commercial break on BabblingVC. We've recently launched Device Ident out of Liquid Labs and are looking to quickly build out the team. Due to very positive market resonance, we're looking to quickly ramp up a sales team of two to three people. Initially, we need a Head of Sales to help us get going. If you or anyone you know has some start-up experience, comes out of the sales space and wants to be part of a quickly growing, financed business let us know.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 16, 2013
Entrepreneurship is all about leading – leading customers to a new product or service, leading a startup team to peak performance, and leading a new business to the market opportunity, while providing maximum return to stakeholders. Most entrepreneurs feel they have innate leadership talents, but struggle with how to nurture these abilities and measure their effectiveness.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
In June 2010, Steve Jobs talked about the post-PC era “When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise with a silly company name like Smart Bear. They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise without a human sales force using Salesforce. They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise over GoToMeeting, with a demo and no slides, from a geek with no webinar. They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise with amateur design and a small-company, human voice.
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
By Trevor Blake, author of “ Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life “ I have found that many entrepreneurs struggle with the same basic difficulties. We are often so caught up in our own ideas that we forget the aspects that are essential to our success. This is not to say that we should not be enthusiastic; on the contrary, you want to be excited and confident in whatever it is you are doing.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
The days are gone when a techie or a genius could build things in his garage and customers would find and buy the product, based purely on the “wow factor” of the technology. New technologies are everywhere today. People have seen so much that they are blasé, or actually fear pure technology. They want a personable brand, before they will consider the product.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
I heard Mark Hurd and Thomas Kurian today in an Oracle webcast about its recent Eloqua acquisition. I was impressed Thomas did most of the talking about how it will integrate with Oracle’s other CRM acquisitions – RightNow for service.
Gust
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Image via Facebook. Go-to people get things done. As an entrepreneur, you need these people, and you need to be one, if you expect your startup to be successful. That may be easier said than done, since resumes do not tell the story, and without real nurturing, the best people won’t stay around long. To highlight how rare this breed is, Jeffrey Gandz of the Richard Ivey School of Business relates a quote from a new CEO in a large company, “I have more than 1000 people in my head office org
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
by Greg Glebe, founder and CEO of Pedestal Source. Unless you are like Andrew Mason, the overnight millionaire who created the social media sensation Groupon, or Jonathan Duhamel, the million-dollar poker player, the path to wealth and fame will not come as easily or as quickly to you or your new business. New business owners looking for the big red button that will make things simple and easy are in for a lot of trouble and heartache because starting a new business means you are in for the roll
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
It’s sad when the startup is “successful,” but the founder still feels totally unsatisfied. I see it happening all the time. The business is a winner, but the family or other relationships are broken by the stress. Or the entrepreneur started down this path to be their own boss and change the world, but find they are now answering to many more people, with nothing really changed.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
I have watched with interest the Oracle/Forrester back and forth around Fusion apps Two observations Comparing Fusion to other pure play SaaS products is myopic. Oracle offers its customers the full SIP (Software, Infrastructure, Platform) as a service. Fusion will.
Feld Thoughts
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
I meet a lot of people. I hear a lot of people introduce themselves. I interview a lot of people. Sometimes I want to hear their story; most of the time I don’t. I’ve realized recently that I’m tired of hearing histories. And I’m tired of telling mine. It’s easy to find out most by a simple search on the web. Or a scan through LinkedIn.
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
So if you’re anything like me who often get lost in the labyrinthine maze we call the Singapore shopping mall and likewise hate to look for a map directory or consult the nearest mall employee for assistance, help is near. In fact, it’s now in the palm of your hand. Everybody’s favorite geo-location service Google Maps has released an indoor version for Android users, so now you know exactly which floor you’re on (probably the wrong one) or how far away you are from your
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 18, 2013
For most new high-tech products, the first customers are always “early adopters.” The conventional wisdom is that early adopters are the ideal target for new products, to get business rolling. I see two pitfalls with any concerted focus on early adopters; first, the size of this group may not be as large as you think, and secondly, their feedback may lead you directly away from your real target market of mainstream customers.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 19, 2013
In my post So you want to be a (Big) Data Hero I highlighted several examples of impressive payback from projects around predictive maintenance of railcar wheels, hurricane tracking, crop insurance, water leakage etc. I listed other examples in a.
Feld Thoughts
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
Jon Bradford and I have known one another since before the development of the Mentor Manifesto. Today we’re bringing Jon and his team at Springboard in London into the TechStars family as they re-brand to become TechStars London , our first international program. We have every confidence in them as a high-quality extension of the strong ecosystem we have already built here in the US.
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
Many small business owners think that only large corporations with big budgets can afford to go green. But they couldn’t be more wrong. You don’t need deep pockets to in order to implement eco-friendly solutions at your workplaces. There are many ways a small business can help contribute to the health of the planet, and at the same time, save some money too!
Mike Michalowicz
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
Few things are truly more important to entrepreneurs and small business owners than getting and keeping customers. After all, you’re not even in business unless you have products or services to sell and paying customers to buy them. So for many of us, customer service is no small thing. But we sometimes minimize its importance by dealing with our customers as if we deserve their business.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
I have made a personal resolution – avoid watching shows like Homeland and 24. I find myself paranoid after watching them. Not sure, though, I can avoid conversations like below: a) I hear the term “paparazzi drones” from an exec.
Rembrandt Communications
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
What is small business public relations? If you are a new entrepreneur, you’ve probably heard of using press releases and publicity to help boost awareness for your products and services. However, you may not know exactly what public relations is and what it can do for your business. Small business public relations is really just [.].
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
Despite the slew of natural disasters that’s hit continental United States in recent months such as Hurricane Sandy and the winter storm Nemo, small businesses continue to lack a business preparedness or recovery plan in case they’re affected. According to the recent 2013 Small Business Disaster Survey carried out by Alibaba, Vendio and Auctiva in December 2012, 74-percent of small business owners don’t have a disaster recovery plan for their business.
VC Cafe
FEBRUARY 20, 2013
US accelerator program Techstars, recently ranked #2 startup accelerator worldwide by Forbes, is moving to the UK, merging with UK accelerator program Springboard. Up until now, TechStars had operated a franchise model in Europe in the form of StartupBootcamp, but this one is different, said David Cohen. The official [.]. [[ This is a content summary only.
deal architect
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
I was talking to a tech executive at a multinational and he was describing the labor pools he had access to in India, E. Europe, S. America, China and he said “I don’t think technical talent will ever be a.
Version One Ventures
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
While crunching the data and reflecting on the past year, it’s clear that 2012 was busy. Version One Ventures made eleven investments, including three angel investments that rolled over into the fund. Here are some of the more interesting details to share about our activity in 2012: Version One invested more than $2.5M in 2012 Our focus centered around three investment areas: e-commerce ( Frank & Oak , Julep , Instacanvas ), SaaS ( Jobber , Top Hat Monocle ), and marketplaces/platforms (
YoungUpstarts
FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Despite the advancement of women’s rights around the world – such as women’s suffrage and better education opportunities – women continue to suffer discrimination as compared to men, whether it is at the workplace , or having access to vital services such as the Internet. That’s right – women around the world lag men by around 25-percent with regards to Internet adoption.
VC Cafe
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
In “Save and Print These LumaScapes to Get a Grasp on Digital Media [Infographics]” posted on VC Cafe in June 2011, we shared the useful infographics created by US consultancy LumaPartners. The LumaScapes are a great way to depict an industry value chain all in one page. While [.]. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!
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