Sat.Sep 29, 2018 - Fri.Oct 05, 2018

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Despite What You Hear, You Don’t Need VC Funding

ReadWriteStart

According to the most recent edition of PitchBook’s Venture Monitor, the first half of 2018 saw 94 investment deals surpassing the $100 million mark, continuing a trend in which late-stage successful startups and larger companies receive the lion’s share of VC funding allocations. That’s not to say that seed rounds for startups don’t get VC investment, but by […].

Startup 139
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5 Pieces of Bad Advice That All Entrepreneurs Should Ignore

Up and Running

Starting a new business is always daunting. There are just so many balls to juggle. Prioritizing all the tasks that entrepreneurs have to wrestle with is a constant battle. Everything is urgent, and everything is important. No wonder then that new entrepreneurs are always hungry for advice from people who have already built successful businesses. Their pearls of wisdom can help them avoid the mistakes that they made and provide some much-needed support.

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5 Keys To Minimizing The Burn Rate For Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 223
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Real Estate Agents: Considerations When Choosing Mobile Apps like SetSchedule

YoungUpstarts

Real estate agents are competitive and smart in looking for new ways to land the next sale. They are active in their community, and they often use the best marketing techniques in making sure that they remain relevant in the industry. The rise of new technology has helped real estate agents rely on better and more innovative solutions like SetSchedule to solve their productivity problems.

Mobile 101
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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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Make Your Startup Appear More Professional

The Startup Magazine

A startup by nature is a small, agile company which is innovating to solve a problem. Start-ups are lean and designed to grow or scale up quickly. The challenge for small innovative companies is that they generally have a limited budget that needs to be allocated carefully. However, a low budget doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice professionalism. Here are some simple ways to ensure that to ensure that your company looks adept and well-qualified in its early days: Source: Pexels.

Startup 101
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The Entrepreneur’s Essentials #3: The five critical ingredients to build a big company

Austin Startup

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. In totality, these posts are at least as long as most business books. So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

IPO 52

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Why Consumer Brands Need To Keep An Eye On Their eCommerce Channel

YoungUpstarts

by Shailendra Nagarajan, Senior Product Marketing Manager at DataWeave. The online retail marketplace is a hugely competitive ecosystem. It is saturated with competing eCommerce retailers, brands and sellers, all fighting for consumer interest and investment. For brands, such an environment poses unique challenges. How can they ensure that their products and overall brand identity are being perceived well on all eCommerce sites?

eCommerce 114
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Sneak Preview: Workday Rising

deal architect

It’s an annual ritual. A Workday executive does our readers a favor and shares a curtain raiser on their Rising event, which this year is expected to draw over 10,000 attendees. This time it is Barbry McGann, senior vice president.

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Why Sales and Marketing Need Each Other

Duct Tape Marketing

Why Sales and Marketing Need Each Other written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Pam Didner. Podcast Transcript. This week on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I chat with Pam Didner. After almost 20 years in corporate America, where Didner held a variety of senior leadership positions in departments as varied as finance and accounting, supply-chain management, and global marketing strategy, she decided to strike out on her own.

Sales 66
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The Making of Cosmos Arena

Austin Startup

Cosmos Arena is a local multiplayer party game for up to 4 players. Right now it is PC only but we hope to make an XBox port as well. I’d like to share with you the story of how Cosmos Arena came to be. Getting Started My team started working on this project in 2016 when I was still working a full time job in AAA. I launched my studio Astire Games and brought on some contractors, most of whom were also working day jobs, so we were moonlighting to get to the first prototype.

Austin 48
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7 Steps To A Memorable New Venture Marketing Rollout

Startup Professionals Musings

Even with instant two-way communication via the Internet and mobile phones, your greatest new solution or service won’t found or properly recognized without marketing. The challenge is to rise above the clutter, and stand out in the rush of over 500,000 other new businesses that get started in the U.S. every month. I find that digital marketing is the most visible and effective place to start.

Marketing 240
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Two HCM institutions

deal architect

As Workday Rising kicks off in Vegas, it is time to also recognize two other HCM resources which allow us to keep annual tabs on the changing face of HR HR Executive magazine announces their annual list of top products.

Product 230
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Days of Reckoning

thebarefootvc

The past couple of weeks have seen a flurry of activity in the blockchain and crypto markets: Yesterday, the WSJ published an investigative report that looked at money laundering in the crypto world. Of over $88M of illicit funds it tracked, $9M went through Swiss based exchange Shapeshift. Perhaps related to this investigation, Shapeshift announced a few weeks ago that it would require registration on its exchange.

IPO 40
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Millennial Retention Is all About Purpose; So What Is Purpose?

YoungUpstarts

by Nick Craig, President of the Core Leadership Institute. As a young company, you might naturally gravitate toward seeking young talent. Yet even if you’re a millennial yourself, you may not have the answer to the unique challenges that come along with attracting and maintaining high-achieving millennials. The problem, as explained by studies and articles , often boils down to the fact that millennials are “wired differently”, incentivized less by the standard carrot-and-stick materials.

Retention 136
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6 Keys To Maximizing Your Content Marketing Impact

Startup Professionals Musings

Entrepreneurs have always believed that their product or service must show real value to customers, but today the smart ones are even able to make their marketing valuable. The days are gone when marketing was all “pushing product.” Now customers seek out people who are willing and able to add value, with expertise and insight, even before they have a product.

Marketing 231
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Q3 2018 Summary: Portfolio News and Activities

Version One Ventures

It’s the beginning of October. Fall is underway, and it’s time to summarize all the key news and announcements from last quarter. And we have a lot of exciting things to share in the coming months, so stay tuned! Announcements and Accolades. Headout announced their $10M Series A , led by Nexus Venture Partners and V1. If you haven’t already checked it out, Headout is a mobile app that lets you book last-minute activities .

Portfolio 113
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Q318 Staycation: Resting, Reading, and Little Running

Feld Thoughts

I took last week off the grid for my Q318 vacation. Amy and I were originally going to Alaska to look at polar bears but canceled everything after I got sick and did a staycation in Boulder instead. I got at least 10 hours of sleep each day, did a bunch of self-care things (PT, massage, meditate), ran a few times (to the extent that 14-minute miles can be considered running), and read a half dozen books.

Restful 106
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Importance Of The Internet For Businesses

YoungUpstarts

The Internet has made the world global village and in this age of advanced technology and internet, it is hard to imagine that how a business could run its operations efficiently without an Internet connection. High speed broadband and LTE technology has increasingly transformed the way people do work in office or at workplace for positive growth and development of their businesses.

Internet 119
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How to Have a Winning Career, Despite Constant Change

Startup Professionals Musings

Most young people who are completing their educational degree today think they will have learned all they need for their career ahead. Unfortunately, based on my own extensive experience in business, I have to tell them in my talks that most of what they know now will be obsolete in a few years. The most important thing you can learn in college today is how to learn.

eCommerce 212
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Employee Benefits a Small Business Needs to Offer Today

The Startup Magazine

All businesses must provide some employee benefits because the law requires them. However, if you want your small business to have the best talent you need to go beyond the mandatory basics. According to CBInsights , not having the right team is the third most common reason for small business failure. This means that attracting that best talent is essential for your company’s survival.

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Universities Play a Key Role in Austin’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

SiliconHills

Austin’s universities play a critical role in the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. At the first university tract during Austin Startup Week, Ashley Jennings, program manager in the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin, led a panel discussion on the importance of entrepreneurship on campus with experts from local universities.

Texas 101
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Rock Stars — 3 Cool Companies Making Money From Stone

YoungUpstarts

The Stone Age ended around 5000 years ago when our ancestors began fashioning tools from metal. But stone is still an invaluable material used every day by millions of people around the world. You’ll find it in everything from solid buildings to beautiful sculptures and the notoriously heavy Atlas Stones used in The World’s Strongest Man competition.

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5 Steps To Strategy Tuning Through Machine Learning

Startup Professionals Musings

Conventional thinking in business has long been that strategy decisions are made by humans, while the focus of automation and machine learning should be on execution. With the speed of change and volume of market feedback today, as well as the advances in machine learning, Amazon, Alibaba, and others have proven the value of software driven strategy decisions.

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Is a Decorating Business A Viable Startup?

The Startup Magazine

If you’re currently in the process of considering whether or not you have a viable career as a painter and decorator, then you’re probably already aware of some of the basic requirements. For those with a love of creativity and DIY, home decorating can be a very rewarding career, while also being a potentially high-profit business venture as well.

Startup 105
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How To Prevent Business Betrayal (And Protect Your Ideas)

YFS Magazine

Good IP practices can actually prevent partnerships and employee relationships from turning sour. Here's a set of best practices that can reduce your risk.

IP 102
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5 Ways To Build Your Brand Organically

YoungUpstarts

by Kevin Stimpson, international speaker and CEO of Strive & Grind. To grow your brand organically, you have to literally plant your seeds, nurture them, and watch the seeds grow. Your goal should be to create something that people are loyal to. However, many entrepreneurs struggle to have customers buy over and over again. Why? It’s because they aren’t building a brand.

Jordan 115
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A Strong Cold Email Always Beats A Weak Warm One

Hunter Walker

The “always find a warm intro to a VC” axiom is misunderstood. Its intent was to suggest that a mutual connection who can vouch for an entrepreneur’s abilities, experience and perseverance would be of value to the process. This is still true. It did not mean “find someone who happens to have the VC’s contact info and get them to forward an email without much context or relevance.” At least one third, and maybe as much as 50%, of the “warm introductions&#

Email 99
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Startup Capital: FundBox for Invoice Factoring

The Startup Magazine

FundBox is comprised of multiple business to business lenders which work with SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses) to offer funding while they are awaiting payment from their debtors. This US-based business loan company is revered for its rapid approval of loans, favorable rating in the media, and its focus on SMBs. One of the biggest problems with small and medium sized businesses is cash flow.

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Starting A Coaching Business Online? Avoid These Common Mistakes

YFS Magazine

While it’s totally possible to build a successful business in this area many online coaches struggle to successfully launch and hit their goals!

Sales 105
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How A Strong Logo And Brand Can Help Your Etsy Store Thrive

YoungUpstarts

by Amanda Bowman of crowdspring. 2018 has been the year of a lot of things, but towering over all of them in bespoke heels has been the year of the crafter. With 1.9 million sellers, 31.7 million active buyers, and 45 million products , Etsy offers an enormous marketplace filled with ample opportunity for the nimble-fingered entrepreneur. Etsy can take credit for many stories in which a good old-fashioned side hustle explodes into a legitimate, sustainable business.

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The Biggest, Baddest Austin Startup Week Ever

SiliconHills

It’s hard to believe it’s the eighth annual Austin Startup Week. Why? Because it’s our eighth time covering the event and last month marked the seventh anniversary of Silicon Hills News. Austin Startup Week was one of the first events Silicon Hills News covered when the site launched in September of 2011. Austin was a […]. The post The Biggest, Baddest Austin Startup Week Ever appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 94
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Increase Sales Using Social Media – Growth Hacks That Work

The Startup Magazine

You need to establish good relations with your customers in order to generate more sales and social media is the best place to find and attract new audiences. One of the biggest advantages that social media offers is you can reach a lot of audiences and increase your sales without spending a lot of money. All you need is to follow some growth hacks to make your brand a social superstar: 1- Identify Your Audience and Choose The Right Platform.

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A ‘People First’ Strategy Is How Great Companies Thrive

YFS Magazine

Employee retention is important for businesses large and small. Losing team members is not only disruptive, it’s also costly and time-consuming.

Retention 101
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4 Smart Tips For The Beginning Investor

YoungUpstarts

As a beginner-level investor, you may have many questions going into the world of investing. How do I research where to invest? How do stocks make money ? Where do I begin? Here are a few tips to help you get started in investing. #1 Investing for the Long Run, Not the Short Term. First thing’s first: What are you trying to achieve? Before you begin investing, you want to set some goals.

Stock 114
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U.S. Army Futures Command Center Seeks to Collaborate with Austin Startups

SiliconHills

The U.S. Army is creating augmented reality sunglasses with night vision, GPS and computer capabilities for soldiers, said Gen. John M. Murray, head of the U.S. Army Futures Command Center, based in Austin. It’s on the path in the next couple of years to put the capability of night vision goggles into a pair of […]. The post U.S. Army Futures Command Center Seeks to Collaborate with Austin Startups appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 92
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Low Budget Marketing Tips for Startups

The Startup Magazine

Marketing is a vital consideration for any business, regardless of the size. Without a coherent and effective marketing strategy, there will be nothing to make your startup stand out from all your competitors. Just because you don’t have heaps of cash to spend on your marketing, that doesn’t mean that you can’t put on an effective campaign. Here are some simple tips for saving money and improving the effectiveness of your marketing.