Sat.Nov 06, 2010 - Fri.Nov 12, 2010

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Five Reasons for Setting Startup Strategy Early

Startup Professionals Musings

All too many startups are founded simply on the basis of a new and exciting technology invented by an industrious technologist. This is the origin of the “ solution looking for a problem ” and “ if we build it, they will come ” syndromes, which result in surprise and frustration waiting for funding, and waiting for customers that don’t materialize. The right approach is to start by solving a problem causing real pain to a large number of customers willing to pay real money for a solution.

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Twitter Link Roundup #60 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

crowdSPRING Blog

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!

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Risk-takers and Strategists: Jeremiah Owyang on Long-Term Social Media Planning

ReadWriteStart

Two years ago, 93% of Americans believed companies should have a social media presence. Today, brands are hiring social media specialists for customer support, crowdsourced product development, promotions and even leads generation. At this point, with Twitter and Facebook having hit critical mass and millions opting into location-based advertisements, the issue for most organizations is transitioning from ad hoc profile updates to long-term strategy.

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Entrepreneurship in the Fast Lane

Growthink Blog

What do all of the most dynamic 21st Century entrepreneurial companies have in common? They: 1. Pursue Global Markets 2. Place Corporate Culture Above All Else 3. Embrace the Black Swan Both Within and Without 1. Pursue Global Markets. If you don’t have a business that can scale globally, then either don’t bother or just content yourself with staying small.

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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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Finding Opportunity "On the Job"

The Entrepreneurial Mind

With the unemployment rate remaining high, there continues to be a steady stream of people looking to create their own jobs through entrepreneurship. For many of these accidental entrepreneurs, the most promising opportunities can often be found through experiences and observations from their previous jobs. Brian Roland, an alumnus of Belmont University, had been working with Sprint for five years designing and developing online employee procurement portals for Fortune 100 companies.

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Cracking The Code: A Quick & Funny Summary of AdTech

Cracking the Code

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Sunday, November 07, 2010. A Quick & Funny Summary of AdTech. I love this video: everything you need to know about online advertising! Posted by Philippe Botteri. at 5:29 PM. 1 comment: @boilingice. said. Too funny. Reminds me of Colors. 11:11 AM.

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Boulder CTO December Lunch with Tim Wolters

devver.wordpress.com

The Devver Blog A Boulder startup improving the way developers work. Boulder CTO December Lunch with Tim Wolters with 5 comments The Boulder CTO Lunch meets once a month with a guest speaker and covers topics and questions that startup CTOs should find interesting. This month, the group had Tim Wolters from Collective Intellect come lead the discussion.

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Eye of the Hurricane

The Entrepreneurial Mind

Like every entrepreneur, I tend to try to find the positive in every situation. I guess that is one of the traits we develop to help us survive the trials and tribulations that are part of the entrepreneurial journey. So it comes as no surprise to me that we are seeing glimmers of optimism among entrepreneurs right now. After all, they have survived the initial onslaught of the recession.

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Hubris Versus Humility: The $15 billion Difference

Steve Blank

Describing your product as “new and “never been done before” instead of “we’re just like those others guys, but better” could cost your company billions. RIM and TiVo are two examples of getting it right and wrong. Research in Motion (RIM). By 1992 Research in Motion (RIM) had been in business for eight years, had 16 employees, sales of about $500,000 a year, and three or four business lines.

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Women 2.0 Pitch Night…batter swing!

Sophia Perl of Wisdom

Last week, I attended the Annual Women 2.0 Pitch Night in San Francisco. I don’t make it out to SF much, but for special occasions I will. The crowd turnout was pretty good and the event was well organized with plenty of food and drinks. Some of the finalists were generating revenues already and/or have very promising strategic partnerships lined up.

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The Apple of the eye of the New York Times

deal architect

A couple of weeks ago I highlighted how mainstream media like the New York Times, Fortune etc write overwhelmingly and fawningly about Apple, Google, Facebook and other consumer tech and largely ignore enterprise tech. One exceptional journalist I identified was. Tags: Industry Commentary.

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Today’s Business Networking

Startup Professionals Musings

I often recommend business networking as the most effective way for a startup founder to find investors, advisors, and even key executive candidates. But what if you are an introvert, or new to this game, and don’t know where or how to start? I have learned over the years that there is an etiquette to this process, just like there is for social networking.

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Get Out of The Building – And Win $50,000

Steve Blank

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. Albert Einstein. Entrepreneurship As A Management Science. Those of you who have been reading my blog already know that I have been talking about a new approach to entrepreneurship education called “E-School” or the Durant School of Entrepreneurship. I believe that we have now learned enough about entrepreneurship as its own management science, to rethink our approach on how to teach it.

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Top Startup Blogs, All Traffic Does Not Convert the Same, Time Tracking Without Timers, and more…

Software By Rob

Top Startup Blogs – A real-time blog ranking tool by Dharmesh Shah based on his blog grader. I must have made a wrong-turn at some point because I think I’m the only blogger in the top 20 who isn’t a millionaire. All Traffic Does Not Convert the Same – Along the lines of my post Nine Levels of Traffic Quality (though he ranks traffic sources in a different order), this is an in-depth look at one marketer’s experience looking at conversion rates from various sources

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Deal Architect joins Constellation Research Group

deal architect

Effective today, my consulting firm Deal Architect is now a member of the Constellation Research Group. We will continue to deliver services under the Deal Architect banner, but in addition, we will now be able to leverage the resources of. Tags: Industry Commentary.

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Startups are Low Risk Compared to Work-at-Home

Startup Professionals Musings

If your confidence is low about starting your own business, and you are tempted to “reduce the risk” by signing up for one of the many “work at home” startup offers you see, think again! These offers that you see on every social network and Craigslist are invariably scams. The problem is getting worse. To stem the tide, the web giant Google late last year launched a legal battle against more than 50 companies that allegedly infringe upon the Google name to promote "work-from-home" scam

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Anything is Possible (in a Startup)

This is going to be BIG.

I know you're out there. I can feel you now—corporate recruiters at career fairs, sending offer letters to work at banks and consulting firms. I know that you're afraid. Google is. You're afraid of startups. You're afraid of change. You’re afraid that students and young people are going to realize that you’re not the best place for them to learn, grow, or gain in responsibilities.

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Human Instrumentation at the New York Marathon

Feld Thoughts

Fred Wilson emailed me a link to Dennis Crowley’s post I’m running the NYC Marathon tomorrow! Fred knows my obsession with human instrumentation, marathons, and social media. And if you recognize Dennis’ name, that’s because he’s the founder / CEO of Foursquare. As I write this from my house in Eldorado Springs, Colorado, I can see that Dennis is at mile 4.64 of the NYC Marathon via RunKeeper.

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Startup Strategy Roundtable: African Tech Entrepreneurs Emerging

ReadWriteStart

I liked all of the companies that were presented at this week's roundtable. And it was really cool to see a company from Tanzania. I LOVE the international nature of the 1M/1M initiative. First up today was Joshua Schwadron presenting Betterfly , a startup he founded earlier this year that offers an easier way to find the best individuals (not companies) providing various services.

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Pick the Right Investor Type for Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

If your startup desperately needs an investor, you may not care if the investor is a so-called “angel” investor, or a venture capitalist (VC). The money is the same color in either case. But I have found that making the right choice at the right time can have a major impact on your long-term success, and the decision process is complex. The basics are simple.

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Positioning is Yours; Perception is Theirs

Life Beyond Code

What triggered this was a simple question from a friend – “ How do I change how people perceive me? &#. You can’t control how people perceive you – but you can control how you position yourself. It’s a little bit convoluted if you think about it. The biggest feedback you get about your positioning is from the perception audit – a quick poll of how people actually perceive you.

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TechStars Like Accelerators Outside of Software / Internet

Feld Thoughts

Over the past few months I’ve had a number of people ask me if I know of any TechStars like accelerator programs for people creating non-software / Internet products and services. Some of the obvious vertical markets have been around cleantech and bio / life sciences but some of the more subtle ones have been around government services and non-profits.

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Telling Startup Stories With Data

ReadWriteStart

You have to be able to tell a good story. I mean that as a general rule. (i'm a folklorist after all, right?). But when you're an entrepreneur, it's particularly important that you can craft a story to share with others, one that really encapsulates what you do and why you do it. Your audience could be a customer, investor, journalist, colleague, friend, and you need to be ready to be imaginative, memorable, strategic.

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Success is More Inspiration and Less Perspiration

Startup Professionals Musings

There is no doubt that both inspiration and perspiration are always required in a startup. Yet many people seem to be stuck on one end or other of this equation – all perspiration with no dream, or all inspiration with no reality. Success is the right balance of both for fun and profit. Aspiring entrepreneurs ask me why their great idea hasn’t sold; they talk about it endlessly, and they expect others to do the development, finance, and marketing work for them.

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How are you Dealing with Turbulence?

Rembrandt Communications

The plane drops and rises suddenly. It feels like I’m on a roller coaster thousands of feet in the air. Some passengers squeal every time the plane goes up and down. A baby cries. Finally, we land safely in Detroit. And what do you know? It’s not even raining. After the flight, I’m anxious to [.].

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Memeo is Looking for a VP or Director of Marketing

Feld Thoughts

We are investors in Memeo , the leading Digital Content software and services platform for consumers and businesses. They are looking for a VP or a Director of Marketing to join them in Santa Clara, CA. If you are interested, please send your resume to MarketingSearch@memeo-inc.com. A description of the job and Memeo follows: Memeo is currently recruiting for a VP/Director of Marketing to drive its SasS SMB product growth.

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How Will Your Startup Handle "The Talent Crunch"?

ReadWriteStart

A number of stories have crossed the wire in recent weeks about the " talent crunch " in the tech industry. Although the unemployment rate in the U.S. remains high, many tech companies are struggling to find and to keep employees. Compounding what's already just a general shortage of engineers, those tech companies with deep pockets are offering big salaries and bonuses to those willing to join (and hopefully stay).

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Trophy Entrepreneurs Can Land Trophy Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

By Joseph A. Bockerstette, Main Street Venture Fund Angel investing in most parts of the country remains a relatively informal and unstructured process. The depressed economy has dampened the angel community’s appetite, making the identification of the trophy investor more important than ever. Professional angel investing takes time, knowledge, skills and resources.

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6 Things Entrepreneurs Should Do to Excel

Growthink Blog

The hedge fund manager David Tepper has done well again by betting on the moves of Washington. DealBook has his firm's returns for October. Tags: Top Headline 2 Appaloosa Investment Appaloosa Management David Tepper Palomino Fund Thoroughbred Fund.

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Glue Conference Invites New Startups To Apply To Participate For Free

Feld Thoughts

Eric Norlin is a conference master organizer. The original conference we helped Eric create – Defrag – is happening for the fourth time in ten days in Boulder (11/17-11/18). I know of several major announcements that are happening around the conference along with a long list of amazing people that are attending that I’ll get to hang out with for two days.

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Tips for Getting (Follow-Up) Press Coverage for Your Startup

ReadWriteStart

When it's time to launch your startup, you probably know to have the press release ready to go out to the various publications you hope will give you coverage. But after you launch, how (and when and where) do you go about securing follow-up coverage? The obvious answer is to simply continue the PR push. Keep trying. Although you might feel as though you are filling reporters' inboxes with email (and yes, yes you are), we are always looking for stories.

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3 Worries on Social Media and Business …

Up and Running

I keep running into people who insist that every business, every business owner, every manager, every job seeker and everybody else should be developing his or her web presence. You should have a blog. You have to be on Facebook. You have to be on Twitter. You know what I mean. Yes, I agree that reputation is important, and that the online world provides a wonderful opportunity to share and validate expertise and build a reputation.

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How Christine Syquia Started A Million Dollar Fashion Accessories Business

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

Christine Syquia contacted my about starting a column on Entrepreneurs-Journey. I asked what business experience she brought to the table and she quickly impressed me with her story of starting a million dollar accessories business with her sister, with distribution in some of the largest fashion stores in the USA. I know you’re going to enjoy what Christine has to offer because she has stories from running a real world business selling real physical products – fashion accessories.

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If you shout, they won’t come…

Life Beyond Code

If you shout, they won’t come…. Getting a card from someone at a conference is not the same as getting their permission to add them to your newsletter. When someone adds me to their list without their permission, I simply smile, mark the email as spam and move on. Sometimes I try to unsubscribe. But that’s not always easy. For example, this company makes it look like unsubscribing is a super-sophisticated rocket science.

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ChubbyBrain Looks at the Demographics of ReadWriteWeb Readers' Startups

ReadWriteStart

Last week, we looked at some of the statistics gleaned from ChubbyBrain 's new Funding Recommendation Engine. To recap, the recommendation engine helps entrepreneurs find the rest investor match, based on the latter's previous patterns. And ChubbyBrain released the demographics from early enrollees in the program, revealing some interesting statistics about who is seeking startup funding.

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Business plans for entrepreneurs: the three ‘Rs’ – Part I

crowdSPRING Blog

Some have argued that a business plan is not necessary when starting up your venture and that entrepreneurs can better spend their time on other things. I strongly disagree and argue that the very process of writing a business plan leads to a stronger, more sustainable business. In the following short video (the first in a short series), I discuss why I believe this and lay out the three Rs: research, refinement, and (w)riting and how these can help entrepreneurs develop their idea and bring it