Sat.Jun 25, 2011 - Fri.Jul 01, 2011

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10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

I made every textbook mistake at my first startup, which is why I believe I was much more effective at my second one. I have adopted the motto “ good judgment comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgment. “ We need to learn from doing, by trial-and-error. If I can help you avoid some of my first-time mistakes it would be a victory.

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A Startup Partner Needs More Than a Good Resume

Startup Professionals Musings

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ Ten Steps in Choosing the Right Startup Partner ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.

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Five Sensible Business Lessons You Must Learn to Embrace — No App Necessary!

YoungUpstarts

by Michael Feuer, author of “ The Benevolent Dictator “. These days you can download an app for almost anything. Need to track a delayed business trip flight? There’s an app for that. Need to check on how much traffic the company Web site is getting? There’s an app for that. Want to update an important Word document or Excel file on the fly? There’s an app for that too.

Cofounder 124
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Not Everyone Is The Right Customer

crowdSPRING Blog

A few days ago, Christian Jung, a designer and consultant from Germany wrote an interesting post – Goodbye Basecamp, This Is The End Of A True Love. My Heart Is Broken , explaining why he would no longer use Basecamp , popular project management software created by 37signals. Christian decided that after six years, his needs changed and Basecamp was no longer the best solution for him.

Customer 117
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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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The Coming Brick Wall in Venture Capital & Why This is Good for US Innovation

Both Sides of the Table

This is the final part of a 3-part series on the major changes in the structure of the software & the venture capital industries. The series started here if you want to read from the start. Or the Cliff Note’s version: Open Source & Cloud Computing (led by Amazon) drove down tech startup costs by 90%. The result was a massive increase in startups & a whole group of new funding sources: both angels & “micro VCs&#.

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Translate Your Startup Vision to Investor Values

Startup Professionals Musings

Presenting your startup vision as a founder to a potential investor, or presenting an idea as an employee to an executive, requires that you effectively communicate, or “translate”, the value proposition into terms that the receiver can fully understand and appreciate. If you fail, it’s your loss, not theirs, no matter what the reason. For example, if your investor has been a senior business leader, you need to transform your message so that it addresses the issues that senior business leaders h

Agile 230

More Trending

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Twitter Link Roundup #92 – 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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The 1% Rule: Entrepreneurs Beware

Growthink Blog

Do you still have your high school yearbook? I do. I don't look at it very often. But when I do, it's pretty cool to see the pictures of me and my friends. And to read all the comments my friends wrote in it. But I recently learned that yearbooks have gotten a whole lot better. I learned this when my son Max graduated from the fifth grade last week.

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Raising Capital? 3 Tips for Entrepreneurs

Scott Edward Walker

Introduction I’ve been helping entrepreneurs raise capital as a securities lawyer for 17+ years, and there are certain fundamental legal mistakes that I’ve seen entrepreneurs make over and over again. Accordingly, I thought it would be helpful to share three basic tips for entrepreneurs in connection with raising capital. (Note: this post was originally published on The Huffington Post.

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Why the Browser Matters

Ben's Blog

Lost some real n%^$as I knew from a long time ago. But Heaven or Hell, I’m hoping that they be where I’m a go. —Lil Wayne, Swag Surfin. Before my partner Marc Andreessen and his friends at the University of Illinois invented the browser in 1993, most people thought only scientists and researchers would use the Internet. The Internet was thought to be too arcane, insecure and slow to meet real business needs.

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Understanding Changes in the Software & Venture Capital Industries

Both Sides of the Table

In this three-part series I will explore the ways that the Venture Capital industry has changed over the past 5 years that I would argue are a direct result of changes in the software industry, not the other way around. Specifically, Amazon has changed our entire industry in profound ways often not attributed strongly enough to them. I believe the changes to the industry will be lasting rather than temporal change.

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Six Things Entrepreneurs Know That Are Dead Wrong

Startup Professionals Musings

All true entrepreneurs operate off a set of tenets that are built into their psyche, or drilled into them from training and mentors. These are represented by sayings like “You never get anywhere unless you take a chance” and “Passion and persistence are the keys to success,” Unfortunately, there are still other old, reliable tenets that don’t work anymore.

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Service this good does not need a term contract

deal architect

is the message Verizon is sending with its FiOS broadband commercials. Service this good? Most Verizon customers are on 15/5 speeds. Watch the crunch as Apple launches iCloud, as amazon offers free video as part of its Prime servive (which.

Video 210
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Top 50 Startup Blogs of 2011! We’re In!

YoungUpstarts

Internet entrepreneur Evan Carmichael has put together a list of the top 50 Startup Blogs for 2011 and we’re in again this year under the category of “Niche Startups&# ! We’re totally chuffed to be mentioned alongside luminaries such as Mashable , TechCrunch and GigaOM , and is only one of three Asia-based blogs in that 50 (India-based PluGGd.in is one, and Jordan-based ArabCrunch being the other).

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Slow Down To Speed Up

Feld Thoughts

It’s Sunday morning. Take a deep breath. It’s summer time. Go for a walk. Or a run. Play with your family. Take a nap this afternoon. Read a book. Go to a movie. Chill. Last week, I had two close friends tell me some version of “I’m too busy.&# One insightfully said “I have no time these days. I’m doing too much.&# The other simply said “sorry I didn’t call back – I have no time.&#.

Alaska 177
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Ten Ways to Prepare Now for a Startup or Any Job

Startup Professionals Musings

These days I see a surge of new startups as we fight our way out of the recession. If you are not starting one yourself, the next best thing is joining one as a partner, or as an early employee. It takes much the same preparation to make you the best entrepreneur, or the best job candidate. Of course experience is the best teacher, but you need to get the job to get the experience.

Startup 237
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Neither Fish nor Fowl

deal architect

We see it all the time in the auto market – cars so different looking they stand out. As the Washington Post wrote about the Scion xD “Ugly has never been so attractive”. In a crowded technology marketplace, sometimes it.

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Making It Stick: Five Rules For Delivering Effective Feedback

YoungUpstarts

by Dave Anderson, author of “ How to Lead by The Book: Proverbs, Parables, and Principles to Tackle Your Toughest Business Challenges “ Part of being a leader is telling your team members how their performances are measuring up. Whether you’re handing out praise or facing a you-need-to-improve conversation, here are five tips excerpted from my book “ How to Lead by The Book: Proverbs, Parables, and Principles to Tackle Your Toughest Business Challenges “ that will help yo

Cofounder 160
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Giving Due Diligence Calls Their Due

Genuine VC

One of the most boring things to do in any business decision is making reference calls. Usually you’ve already made a selection of whatever type (hiring a new employee, deciding on a VC, choosing a new vendor), and then the next/final logical step in a “process” is to call a few people just to verify what you’ve already decided.

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Startups Without Financial Projections are Doomed

Startup Professionals Musings

Most entrepreneurs tend to avoid this area of the business, and as a result are badly surprised by cost realities, and investor expectations. They seem to think that financial projections are simply invented numbers for investors, and not useful. In reality, it’s like jumping in your car for a long hard drive with no destination in mind. Chances are, you won’t enjoy success from the trip.

Startup 236
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Baker Tilly: a brave new world of services

deal architect

It felt like deja vu all over again. My colleague Brian Sommer invited me to join a couple of other analysts, Katherine Jones and Tom Ryan to be part of a market intelligence and strategy workshop for the consulting/advisory side.

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ZURBsoapbox

YoungUpstarts

If you enjoy listening to and learning from the experiences of remarkable people – if you’re a fan of TED , for example - do check out ZURBsoapbox as well. ZURBsoapbox , put together by the amazing folks over at interaction and design agency ZURB , is a series of lectures by entrepreneurs, designers, managers, movers, shakers and friends of ZURB to share with like-minded folks.

Design 160
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Warning To All Entrepreneurs About Bad Investor Behavior

Feld Thoughts

I received an email from an entrepreneur today asking me about something that made my stomach turn. It’s a first time entrepreneur who is raising a modest (< $750k) seed round). There are two founders and they’ve been talking to a VC they met several months ago. Recently, the VC told them he was leaving his firm and wanted to help them out.

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Don’t Count on Crowd-Funding to Save Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the hot new approaches I have seen around the country for assisting startups looking for funding has been “crowd-sourcing” sites ( Kickstarter ) or “crowd-pitching” events ( Funding Universe ). These are variations on a “crowd-funding” theme to raise money for a startup through social networks and voting at public events. I’m still waiting for a startup to proclaim real success from this approach.

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More New Renaissance

deal architect

on the innovation blog Electric Charging on the Go? Interest in Computer Science degrees grows Welcome, elements 114 and 116 A tech detox spa package.

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[Malaysia] Chalkboard Launches Location-Based Widget For HTC Devices

YoungUpstarts

Location-based mobile advertising network Chalkboard has announced an exclusive strategic partnership with device maker HTC in Malaysia, and launched a Chalkboard widget for HTC users in that country. The free, easy-to-use widget provides real-time updates and promotions from Chalkboard ’s over 4,000 business customers to users of HTC ‘s Android devices. “ HTC is proud to provide a richer experience for our users by incorporating Chalkboard – a service that works with thousands of local bu

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How Many SEO Keywords Should You Use?

Rembrandt Communications

I just finished speaking at PINK’s big, “Spring Into Ownership” event in Atlanta about search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting and social media, and one of the biggest questions I received was… “How many search engine optimization keywords should I use on my Website pages?&# Well, first of all, stop worrying about how many SEO keywords [.].

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The Dynamics of a 99% Committer

Feld Thoughts

I heard a great phrase the other day: “he’s a 99% committer.&# It was in the context of trying to get something to closure where I felt like someone had committed but it was ambiguous. The person ultimately committed and all was good, but there was some question about outcome for a few days. To be clear, I separate this from a process issue – where the person is on board personally but going through an internal process with a partnership, an investment committee, or a decision

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More innovation

deal architect

On the New Florence blog Technology in summer movie crop Airbus Vision for 2050 Windtronics Innovative Turbine Electric Charging on the Go?

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[Video] Musicians And Entrepreneurs, By Derek Sivers

YoungUpstarts

From James Woo, soft.com.sg. Here’s a video of a presentation given during MusicCamp SG earlier this year by serial (music) entrepreneur Derek Sivers entitled “Musicians and Entrepreneurs&# , held at The Pigeonhole Cafe ( editor: which we happened to have featured before ). Best known for founding CD Baby , Sivers – who spoke before at TED – shares his experiences as a musician and music entrepreneur: soft.com.sg is a website dedicated to the local music industry in Singa

Video 157
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"Smell Like a Man" Agency Partners With Nike, Target & Coke on Tech Incubator

ReadWriteStart

Wieden+Kennedy, the advertising agency that made the absurdly popular Old Spice campaign on TV and the web called "Smell Like a Man" announced today that it is now accepting applications from brand-friendly tech startups for admission to its incubator program, the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE). The Portland, Oregon company has partnered with Nike, Target and Coca Cola to create a shared office space, mentorship plan, partnership considerations and a small funding opportunity.

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The Magic of Onswipe on an iPad

Feld Thoughts

If you have an iPad, go look at Feld Thoughts in the browser on it right now. I’ll wait. If you don’t have an iPad, it looks like the following. My friends at Onswipe did that. In one minute. All it took was one line of Javascript. Onswipe was in the TechStars NY program and did an awesome job. Not surprisingly they’ve put together an awesome investor group including Spark Capital and Betaworks.

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Social Media Revolution – Facts and Figures (Updated)

crowdSPRING Blog

A few years ago, Erik Qualman, the author of Socialnomics , produced a popular video highlighting the impressive facts and figures about the growing popularity of social media. Erik updated that video in 2010 and has just released a third update (below) which shows the impressive dominance of social media across the world. Some examples mentioned in the video: Over 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old.

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FeeFighters Helps Small Businesses Save On Credit Card Processing Fees

YoungUpstarts

If you’re a small business owner who accepts payment through credit cards, you may want to check FeeFighters out. Chicago, Illinois-based FeeFighters is a free-to-use online comparison engine that lets you find the best rates for credit card processing services. Credit card merchants bid on the site for your business, and those bids are vetted for transparency so that you won’t be hit by hidden costs or other frustrations normally encountered with credit card processing facilities.

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Productize Yourself

This is going to be BIG.

There are so many risks you can’t account for in a startup—and in the first year especially, the entrepreneur is just trying to make sure the company doesn’t blow up above all else. “Don’t die” is the most important thing you can accomplish in the early going. That’s why hiring is so incredibly important. Bad hires can crush a company, and that doesn’t just go for full time employees either.

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Is There Anything I Didn’t Ask You That I Should Be Asking?

Feld Thoughts

Recently I’ve been on the receiving end of a bunch of due diligence calls. Some of them are for companies I’m involved in, some are for entrepreneurs I’ve worked with in the past, and some are for other VCs I’ve worked with who are raising new funds. I view these differently than reference calls (I won’t do reference calls for anyone) – these are not about “employment&# , they are about investment and a long term working relationship.