Sat.Sep 10, 2016 - Fri.Sep 16, 2016

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5 Steps To Maximizing Your Startup Cash Flow Runway

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.

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5 Terrible Social Media Fails in 2016 That You Must Avoid

Brandanew

Brands are closer to their audience with the help of social media. They experiment and try various creative styles to win hearts. But quite often ideas may end up in a paradox when the implementation goes awry. Social media fails can prove to be costly and brands may have to balance a tricky situation to regain their position. It takes many campaigns, much brainstorming and creative effort to nurture and build a brand cult, but it takes just one misstep to offend people.

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5 Effective Marketing Strategies For Startups

YoungUpstarts

Technological innovations have opened up new ways and places for businesses to market themselves. The challenge however has been in deciding which marketing strategy to adapt for startups as well as mid-sized companies due to their small budget. Digital advertising is just as expensive as the traditional print advertising method. Marketing through social media has proven to be quite time consuming.

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Online Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money

Up and Running

The great thing about starting an online business is that it’s one of the more affordable business options, and for the most part, can be started from home. Beyond making sure you’re registered as a business entity, all you really need to get going is a home office (and even that isn’t a strict requirement), a good internet connection, and some great entrepreneurial follow through.

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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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7 Due Diligence Steps Will Validate Any New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? After all, most great breakthroughs, like a computer in every home, seemed like a crazy idea before Steve Jobs and Bill Gates made it happen.

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A Primer on Wireframing for Conversion Optimization

ConversionXL

If you’re part of a conversion optimization team, a big part of that job is communicating treatments to other specialists on your team (analysts, designers). Depending on the scope of the changes, you could use a few different tools and methods. Almost always, though, this includes wireframing – and it helps to be able to do wireframing decently well.

More Trending

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An Absolutely 100% Non-Boring Article About Business Insurance

Up and Running

I work in business insurance, which means that as soon as I tell people what I do, they’re yawning. And yet, almost every business has some form of insurance to protect it from fires, lawsuits, and vandalism—things that are 100 percent not boring. In fact, the first business insurance policies came from Lloyd’s of London, which used to be a coffee shop where sailors and merchants gathered.

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A Tale of Two Wildly Divergent Emotions

deal architect

Dennis Howlett posted this weekend “The robots are coming and we are royally screwed”. In contrast, ZDNet ran my column “Automation is coming, but it'll take longer than you'll think (and won't take your job)” The timing of the columns.

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New York City Tech Podcast: Eli Bronner, Growth at AngelList

View from Seed

New tech ecosystems often benefit from entrepreneurs who will dive in blind and figure out their direction along the way. This profile of founder tends to be younger, obsessively driven, and inclined towards making big, bold, necessary mistakes early and often on the path towards product-market fit. In 2010, Eli Bronner and his Lua Technologies co-founders were this exact profile of entrepreneurs, and New York City was an exuberant tech ecosystem without much structure or identity.

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Grow Your Business By Securing The Right Equipment

YoungUpstarts

Growing your business is something you can do quickly or slowly. Of course, most people want to take a quicker route. But if you want your business to expand faster , you need money. Many business owners end up growing their company at a slower pace so that they are able to save for the things they need. However, sometimes you won’t get far unless you can buy some essential equipment.

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Small Business Accounting 101: 9 Steps to Get Your New Business on Track

Up and Running

Running your own business is a journey of ten thousand miles, and you’re about to take the first step. But before your business really gets off the ground, you need to make sure you have your accounting administration set up properly. Accounting may seem like the most mundane aspect of running a business, but it’s also the most essential to keep on track —especially during the early stages.

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Oracle Open World a SaaS sneak preview from Steve Miranda

deal architect

Oracle OpenWorld, its annual marquee event which starts on Sunday, can be overwhelming. This year, the agenda shows more than 1,800 sessions spread across 12 venues in and around Moscone Center. That section of San Francisco shuts down to cars.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 41: Chris Schroeder and Andy Cunningham

Steve Blank

There are only two emotions in startups — utter ebullient enthusiasm and outright terror. Here’s the big thing about tech companies: They all believe that if they build it, the world will come, but it doesn’t really work that way. The reality distortion you create is imperative to be able to believe what you’re doing, and get the people around you to believe what you’re doing.

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A New Venture Needs Connected Leadership To Thrive

Startup Professionals Musings

Most startup ideas begin in the mind of an individual, but an idea is not a business. It takes a team, with effective leadership, to build a business. Many aspiring entrepreneurs default to team leadership by domination and control. Yet in my experience, the best entrepreneurs quickly learn the art of people connection. They connect and inspire the right people to achieve more with less.

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How to Write a Business Plan: Use This Checklist to Keep Yourself on Task

Up and Running

Most people think of the business plan as a one-time event, something used to accomplish a specific goal—getting funded, usually. This, however, is a very limited viewpoint. The business plan, in its many different formats, can be used for a variety of purposes, including validating an idea, getting funded, and managing a business successfully. How you format your plan will depend on what your needs are.

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The Post-Corporate Job Economy: A Remarkable US innovation

deal architect

Lost in all the noise about the “middle class squeeze”, angry workers “who have been left behind”, and that 6 out of 10 Americans say the “economy is on the wrong track” is another story which has not been widely.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 41: Chris Schroeder and Andy Cunningham

Steve Blank

There are only two emotions in startups — utter ebullient enthusiasm and outright terror. Here’s the big thing about tech companies: They all believe that if they build it, the world will come, but it doesn’t really work that way. The reality distortion you create is imperative to be able to believe what you’re doing, and get the people around you to believe what you’re doing.

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How To Create Customer Value And Profit To Survive

Startup Professionals Musings

As a startup advisor, I see too many entrepreneurs get distracted by technology or their favorite cause, and then wonder why they can’t find an investor, attract customers, or build a long-term business. Every startup needs to start with an honest assessment of how they provide customer value, and how that translates into a sustainable business return for stakeholders and growth.

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5 Risk Management Issues Many Small Business Owners Neglect

YoungUpstarts

by Walt Capell, president and owner of Workers Compensation Shop. A major part of running a successful business is effective decision making. One area where good decision making plays a large role in any business is in regards to risk management. A large part of a good risk management plan is a business owner who can determine what the businesses actual risk is and how much of a risk each element represents.

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Turns Out This Life Hack Really Does Make You Happier

YFS Magazine

As an entrepreneur, I recognize this is a life hack for quickly building more confidence, clarity, and renewed health with very little investment.

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 42: Sunny Shah and Curt Haselton

Steve Blank

We as researchers go in with a bias – that obviously these guys want our technology – but that is not the case for a lot of customers. What you think about your technology is great, but at the end of the day you’re not the one buying it. It was intimidating from day one. I am good with doing research and doing experiments but talking to customers is not my forte.

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10 Ways To Win A Coveted Job In That Hot New Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

In a corporate environment, the focus of a job interview has long been demonstrating your match to the skills and experience outlined in the job description. In my experience with startups, that is still necessary, but not sufficient. Today’s business world has become totally customer driven, so customer-centric and people abilities really make the difference between winners and losers.

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Things That Beginner Startup Owners Tend To Forget When Launching The Company

YoungUpstarts

Most people from around the world dream about becoming their own boss and about having their own company. This inspires many to launch a company but statistics show that most of the startups will fail in the very first year of their existence. That normally happens because of many mistakes that are made due to a lack of business experience. The beginner startup owner will tend to forget many important things.

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Retail foot traffic is dropping like a stone

The Equity Kicker

When I read in David Kelnar’s ‘Respect your elders’ and five other powerful trends shaping consumer retail that in the US retailers suffered a 48% decline in shop visits between 2010 and 2013 I did a massive double take. If that rate of decline has been continuing visits this year will be roughly 75% down on 2010. Physical retail is a high fixed cost business and given that it’s fair to say sales correlate with footfall these levels of decline will put many retailers out of busines

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Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 42: Sunny Shah and Curt Haselton

Steve Blank

We as researchers go in with a bias – that obviously these guys want our technology – but that is not the case for a lot of customers. What you think about your technology is great, but at the end of the day you’re not the one buying it. It was intimidating from day one. I am good with doing research and doing experiments but talking to customers is not my forte.

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Introducing Umi Kitchen: A Platform for Culinary Entrepreneurs

Version One Ventures

We’re excited to add another great marketplace to the V1 portfolio and announce an investment we made last November. Umi Kitchen is home cooking delivered. The platform connects talented home cooks with families and individuals who crave a home-cooked meal but don’t have the skills or time to spend in the kitchen. The platform empowers culinary entrepreneur, including full-time and part-time chefs, students, and stay-at-home parents who might be looking to share their passion and make additional

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Supplemental Income For Entrepreneurs: Get Started With Swing Trading

YoungUpstarts

By Jason Bond, entrepreneur and small cap stock expert at JasonBondPicks.com. There’s no easy path to becoming a successful entrepreneur. In fact, even the most accomplished business owner would admit to making hundreds of mistakes. Although no two entrepreneurial journeys are the same, one thing is true about most startups in their infancy: they don’t have a robust cash flow.

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crowdSPRING Community Gives Back with Branding for Global Sanitation Non-Profit gather

crowdSPRING Blog

At crowdSPRING, we feel very fortunate to participate in such a vibrant community of talented creatives. It’s the work we do as a collective that makes the greatest impact. But we also value our broader, global community, and feel it’s important to make an impact there, as well. That’s part of why we launched our Give Back program back in 2008.

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Startups Are Like Growing Plants From Seeds

YFS Magazine

I always think of starting a business in the same way I consider what it takes to grow a healthy plant.

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The learning and growth trade off

The Equity Kicker

I’ve finally got round to reading Andy Grove ‘s High Output Management , widely regarded as a classic on management that was originally published in 1983. The Foreword to the latest edition is written by Ben Horowitz of A16Z fame and includes the following paragraph: As he describes the planning process Andy sums up his essential point with this eloquent nugget of wisdom: “I have seen far too many people who upon recognising today’s gap try very hard to determine what act

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Hail The March Of The Citizen Coder

YoungUpstarts

by Jonas Lim, Director, Solution Engineering (Asia), Salesforce. Based on data released by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) , there will be more than 6,000 open programming positions and a need for around 30,000 technology specialists over the course of the next two years. This technology skills gap will surely affect Singapore’s vision to be a Smart Nation in the years to come.

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Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS)

K9 Ventures

A couple of years ago I was talking with a company that wanted to build robots. Their proposed price point for the robots was about $20K per unit. It would be a brand new product, that people had never really seen or experienced before, and it would replace some amount of human labor. After thinking about this some, I was extremely puzzled. Putting myself in the shoes of the customer, here’s how I would think: “So, you want me to pay you $20K cash up front, for a product that has nev

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5 Ways to Build The ‘Know, Like And Trust’ Factor That Grows a Business

YFS Magazine

Together, these tactics point to a very clear pathway to build powerful alliances and maintaining a diverse mix of relationships.

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5 Signs Your Bank Is a Bad Fit

Up and Running

As a small business owner, your bank has a big impact on your finances. You’ll want to choose a bank that offers competitive rates, minimal fees, and great products. Switching to a new bank can take time and effort, but it may be worth it if you can save money or receive a better product. Here are five ways to tell if it’s time to switch banks. See Also: 10 Things the Bank Will Ask When You Need a Business Loan. 1.

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How Gamification Of Business Process Yields Successful Results

YoungUpstarts

by Shahid Mansuri, co-founder of Peerbits. Simulating business processes in the gaming scenario is an interesting way to keep yourself intrigued in the business. Better if you were once a gaming freak in your early days of life. No matter if you are an employee, CEO, or even a stakeholder, you need to get aware of the buzz around gamification. It simplifies your task to comprehend and analyze business process to undertake resourceful activities.

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Fresh from the SPRING: smarikaahuja

crowdSPRING Blog

When perusing our galleries here on crowdSPRING, we see some amazing work submitted in the projects. Today, we noticed this gem submitted in this presentation project. Let us start the slow clap for smarikaahuja. Check out more great work on smarikaahuja’s profile page. Nicely done, smarikaahuja, nicely done!

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