Gust
JUNE 19, 2012
Blog. Thoughts on startups by investors that fund them & entrepreneurs that run them. Subscribe by email. RSS Feed. Invested Interests. Who Makes the Money on an Inevitable Shoe Dropping? Last weekend I caught Mashable announcing that Ebook Sales Surpass Hardcover in the U.S. , something I’ve expected since I first bought a Rocket ebook reader about 10 years.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 22, 2012
The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation.
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Feld Thoughts
JUNE 22, 2012
Today’s post is a guest post from William Hertling, author of the award-winning Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears and A.I. Apocalypse , near-term science-fiction novels about realistic ways strong AI might emerge. They’ve been called “frighteningly plausible”, “tremendous”, and “thought-provoking”. By day he works on web and social media for HP.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 18, 2012
Starting up is easy; starting up a company with the most viable blueprint for success, however, is not so. And while many companies start with a great idea and loads of confidence, a startup company requires a solid business model and a proper plan in place in the earliest stages of its development for the best chance for success. Although countless books have been written on how entrepreneurs can put together successful startup companies, corporate attorney, entrepreneur, executive coach and wr
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
Gust
JUNE 17, 2012
Money to build the business is the number one challenge for most startups. Don’t believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and professional investors will throw money at you. In reality, only 3 out of 100 companies who apply are successful with Angels, and the success rate with VCs is even lower. A large percentage of startups never apply to either.
techcrunch.com
JUNE 22, 2012
Home. Startups. Mobile. Gadgets. Europe. Video. More. Enterprise. Venture. Social. GreenTech. Gaming. Opinion. Drama. Guides. Smartphones. Tablets. Digital Cameras. Laptops. Headphones. Events. CrunchBase. Hot topics. Facebook. Apple. Google. Android. Disrupt SF. Startup Battlefield. startups. Comment. Free Startup Docs: How Much Equity Should Advisors Get?
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 18, 2012
I previously touched upon the Passion/Product Fit of an aspiring entrepreneur. Once the answer is found, the entrepreneur needs to do serious research on the market he/she will be addressing. This is by no means easy. Product/Market Fit. People say the important part of a Startup is its Team. To me, the Market is the most important followed closely by the Team who can execute, navigate and conquer that market.
This is going to be BIG.
JUNE 19, 2012
The other day I wrote a post about the lack of Enterprise Software disruption coming out of NYC —and a lot of people responded that I wasn’t citing Buddy Media. Buddy Media was an amazing exit, but I never really thought of it like “enterprise software” I thought about it more like an agency that had developed off the shelf social tools around its service solutions.
Tim Keane
JUNE 19, 2012
'Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. Home. Archives. Profile. Subscribe. « | Main. | Technology versus market risk in angel investments » June 19, 2012. Referrals: Worth Their Weight In Gold or Passing The Buck? It depends. If you're asking to be referred to someone, or introduced, you may want to try and understand the dynamics in a particular situation. There is a lot of power for the recipient
David Teten
JUNE 22, 2012
HBS Angels of NY and the NAIC have named the finalist women and minority entrepreneurs of the Venture Capital Access Program; check out the press release below. If you’re from a major media outlet, please contact me to attend as a guest the pitch night in midtown Manhattan on June 27. Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of Greater New York and the.
SVPG
JUNE 16, 2012
One thing I love to do when I visit with companies is collect their favorite quotes and mantras. It helps me to understand their culture and their values. We all deal with certain truths about building technology products, and I find that certain quotes resonate strongly with people and help them internalize important concepts or ideas. For this article, I thought I'd share my current list of favorites.
Growthink Blog
JUNE 17, 2012
The depressing and high-anxiety inducing combination of punchless public equity markets, historically low interest rates, and significant inflation risk has fueled desperate pleas for new, workable, and performing investment ideas and strategies. Any reader of these pages know the author's enthusiasm for private equity investing, both for the entrepreneurial spirit it represents and demands and because as an investment class it has outperformed all others by a wide margin.
crowdSPRING Blog
JUNE 19, 2012
Whether it’s hour fifteen of driving on a long road trip, an early morning after little sleep, or just another day with that “2:30 feeling,” being tired is a drag. It puts a damper on creativity, concentration, and renders the strongest amongst us listless and grumpy. While we can all strive to get the recommended eight hours of sleep and plenty of downtime to relax our brains, the vast majority of us turn to some kind of quick fix to get us through a particularly exhausting d
www.drowningamerican.com
JUNE 22, 2012
Drowning American. Musings on Life and the American Dream. Search. Main menu. Skip to primary content. Skip to secondary content. Home. Post navigation. ← Previous. Next → How to Hire for Sweat Equity…. Posted on November 14, 2009 by Travis Biziorek. The business plan was starting to look great and all the idea kinks were worked out. I started feeling as though we were stagnating.
deal architect
JUNE 22, 2012
This weekend, in a twinge of nostalgia on the 40th anniversary of Watergate, I rented All The President’s Men. I never get tired of the Jason Robards (as Ben Bradlee) line: "Nothing's riding on this except the First Amendment of.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 18, 2012
I come from a high-tech software background, and only a few years ago, it would cost at least a million dollars ($1M) for a team of professionals to produce any commercial software product. Now, with open source software components, and low-cost development tools, the same job can be done by one good hacker for a few thousand dollars. Even for low-tech startups, the scope of information available on the Internet, and its global reach, has had a similar financial impact on the many other challeng
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
JUNE 19, 2012
My company is profitable, and has been from day one. – every high-tech bootstrapped founder I know what you really mean. What you mean is that the only business-related charges on your PayPal MasterCard — aside from those on intentional detour for tax-deduction like the external DVD drive you needed to rip CDs after you realized the MacBook Air in all its luxurious, silent, thin, sexy glory still cannot import “The Best of Pat Benatar” without
www.drowningamerican.com
JUNE 22, 2012
Drowning American. Musings on Life and the American Dream. Search. Main menu. Skip to primary content. Skip to secondary content. Home. Post navigation. ← Previous. Next → How we Hire for Sweat Equity (Part 2)… Posted on April 7, 2011 by Travis Biziorek. The first time we hired partners for Kibin was way back in late 2009. You can read more about that here.
deal architect
JUNE 17, 2012
I often get asked (by clients, book readers, audiences where I present) about the top 2-3 sources I would recommend for innovation ideas. And I will usually rattle off 2-3 sites or authors I respect. I usually do it with.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 20, 2012
Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “Founder’s Syndrome.” A few years ago I was intimately involved with a promising startup that taught me about this issue.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 20, 2012
The difference between success and failure for a business is almost always down to making the right decisions. A wrong choice during the critical growth phase can doom any startup; the right decision, however, propels the fledgling business onto the path of potential success. In the book “ Hits & Misses: New York Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Strategies ” by award-winning journalist, columnist and essay writer Tina Traster , such decision-making by some entrepreneurs are put under t
Feld Thoughts
JUNE 19, 2012
The first cycle of The Microsoft Accelerator , powered by TechStars , is in its final run up to demo day. The first program has focused on Kinect applications and has some super teams, such as Gestsure (they control operating rooms with motion control) and Ubi (they turn any surface into a touch screen.). Demo Day is in Seattle on June 28th. If you are an investor (angel or VC), send me an email and I’ll get you an invitation.
deal architect
JUNE 18, 2012
As he introduced the Microsoft Surface tablet this afternoon, Steve Ballmer kicked off by pointing out Microsoft has long been a hardware player. He is right of course. Lots of accessories – mice, webcams. Lots of devices which did not.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 16, 2012
After working with dozens of startup founders, I’m still amazed that some seem to be able to do the job easily and effectively, always in control, while others always seem to be struggling, out-of-control, and fighting the latest crisis. I am more and more convinced that it is the right founder behavior that leads to success, rather than some exceptional intelligence or training.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 19, 2012
Crowd funding is an increasingly popular way for aspiring entrepreneurs to raise funds for kick-starting their business ideas. Crowd funding – also known as crowd financing or hyper funding – allows people to network and pool together money and resources to invest and support in projects or initiatives started by others. Such “investors” can have an option to either own a small portion of the company, or purchase future products and services at a discounted price.
Feld Thoughts
JUNE 17, 2012
Brad Burnham ( Union Square Ventures ) and I were in Iceland a few weeks ago for the Startup Iceland event. Bala Kamallakharan organized the event and moderated the discussion (and was an amazing host.) We talk about the Boulder and New York startup communities, why we were hanging out Iceland, what we thought about Iceland as a startup community, how to “organize the future” (since the future doesn’t have a political lobby), innovators vs. incumbents, leaders and feeders, an
deal architect
JUNE 18, 2012
It’s good to see three non-vendor, non-traditional analyst firm events survive and grow. Enterprise 2.0, GigaOm Structure and LeWeb are all this week and again in the Fall. All have grown a loyal patronage over the last few years. More.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 17, 2012
Starting a business is usually the result of a personal dream or need. Investors tell me that they invest in people, more than the idea. Customers buy from people, not from a company, at least at the startup stages. That’s why it’s important to build a personal brand, in parallel and before your business brand. This will kick-start your business, and improve your odds of success.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 20, 2012
Multitasking may sound like it’s efficient and productive and all, but trying to do many things at the same time may not be all that hyped up to be. For one, multi-tasking can lead to some serious long-term consequences. For example, did you know that *gasp* excessive use of the Internet – especially when you jump from one task to another – can lead to atrophy of brain matter?
Rembrandt Communications
JUNE 20, 2012
If you are a good search engine optimization (SEO) copywriter, then you probably spend hours crafting the perfect message and placing the appropriate keywords in just the right place. You care about the message and providing value to your client and their customers. But are you too close to your copy and wasting time in [.].
deal architect
JUNE 17, 2012
on the innovation blog Happy 75th, Golden Gate Bridge Energy AND water from wind Man made waves Leap Motion Answer Plots A tale of two cities.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 21, 2012
Entrepreneurs often get the advice from their lawyers and friends to always get a Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA or CDA) signed before disclosing anything about their new venture. Most investors and startup advisors I know hate them, and refuse to sign them. Who is right? Let me try to put this question in perspective. If you are totally risk-averse, then push to always get signed NDAs.
YoungUpstarts
JUNE 21, 2012
Unlike in previous years, consumer-type devices at CommunicAsia 2012 were somewhat of a rarity. Despite having grown in size – organizers claim that it’s bigger by 3-percent over last year – much of the show floor were mainly taken up by infrastructure vendors peddling large satellite dishes, optical fiber cables, signal boosters and other enterprise-type solutions of no interest to the common man.
Feld Thoughts
JUNE 18, 2012
Ben Horowitz from Andreessen Horowitz has a beautiful post up titled The Struggle. He captures – in words – what many entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurial CEOs go through. I’ve heard variants of it many times over the years and have experienced it myself in several companies where I’ve been the entrepreneur and many companies where I’ve been the investor.
deal architect
JUNE 20, 2012
Jessica Park sings the praises of Amazon for helping her with her self-publishing career. Saved her life may be a bit too exuberant, but then again who am I as an author who uses traditional publishers to question that enthusiasm?
Up and Running
JUNE 21, 2012
If you’ve been putting off writing your business plan, you are not alone. Writing a business plan can seem like a daunting task and an easy one to avoid. But, it doesn’t have to be. An easy way to start is with a one-page business plan. There’s really not any difference between a “one page business plan” and a good executive summary.
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