Sat.Apr 25, 2020 - Fri.May 01, 2020

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10 Strategies To Make You A Lucky Winner In Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Did you ever wonder why some entrepreneurs always seem to have all the luck and success, while others never seem to catch a break? As an angel investor, I quickly learned that luck has very little to do with it, and I now look for some personal characteristics and leadership styles that separate the potential winners from the losers. These differences are the reason that investors say that they invest in people, rather than ideas.

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How We are Investing Through The Covid Correction

View from Seed

In a period of uncertainty, the easiest thing to do as a VC is to be paralyzed by fear and do nothing. We can stay busy by expending time and effort supporting the existing portfolio, which is the right thing to do and a good use of time. But when it comes to new investments, the path of least resistance is to hang back and see how things play out.

Cofounder 194
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Going Global: How To Build A Distributed Team

YoungUpstarts

Going global is often a requisite growth path for businesses seeking to expand and whilst the model of setting up satellite offices is a tried and tested way to expand overseas a more recent organizational model is that of ‘distributed’ teams or companies. What exactly defined a distributed company though and what are some of the challenges in running a company using this relatively new organizational model?

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10 Ways to Stay Productive While Working Remote

Up and Running

For many of you, it’s likely that you’re just finishing up your fourth or fifth full week working from home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Working remotely, especially for your first time, can be challenging to adjust to. Stationed in the comfort of your recliner with the fridge just a room away is appealing, but it has its drawbacks. Endless texts, calls, and remote meetings, children or pets wanting to play, and countless other distractions can make it difficult to separate your home l

Product 120
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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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10 Keys To Limiting Your Startup Story To Ten Minutes

Startup Professionals Musings

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 fellow 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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What’s Missing From Zoom Reminds Us What It Means to Be Human

Steve Blank

Over the last month billions of people have been unwilling participants in the largest unintentional social experiment ever run – testing how video conferencing replaced face-to-face communication. While we’ve discovered that in many cases it can, more importantly we’ve discovered that, regardless of bandwidth and video resolution, these apps are missing the cues humans use when they communicate.

Video 436

More Trending

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Turn What-if to What-Now: The Importance of Scenario Analysis

Up and Running

We used to call it “what-if” but today it’s known as “scenario analysis.” It’s been a favorite management tool of mine since my time as VP for a market research firm, and it’s a method I used for decades growing a software company from zero to well over $10 million in annual sales. Today, with the COVID-19 crisis upon us, it’s the best way to move forward through rising uncertainty.

Forecast 120
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18 Entrepreneurs Explain Some of the Traits They Admire in Innovators

Hearpreneur

Anyone can be an innovator, but it takes special traits to lead in innovation. It’s about how you implement the lessons you gain along the way and dare situations as they come. It’s about being future-oriented, paying special attention to details and putting yourself in vulnerable situation when you think it’s worth the risk. We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the traits they admire in innovators and here are the responses; #1- Unconventional thinking.

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Boost Productivity and Stay Secure While Working Remotely

Women Entrepreneurs Can

Remote work is fast becoming the new normal in the corporate world, especially with the current outbreak. With the prevalence of collaborative tools such as Trello, Jira and Slack, companies are beginning to find new ways to help their workers to maintain productivity in the comforts of their home. For freelancers majorly, such setup is quite the order of the day for them.

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The Future Of Retail And America In The Post-COVID World

YoungUpstarts

by Erik D. Rosenstrauch, Founder and CEO of FUEL Partnerships. In approaching the COVID-19 crisis from the marketer’s perspective, the question is how, not if, the world will change when the restrictions are lifted. My intuition relies on what marketers believe and researchers have proven – the repeated behavior learned during this several month crisis will form new consumer habits.

America 159
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8 Things You Need To Start a Business During a Recession

Up and Running

Recessions, or even a volatile market like we’re currently experiencing due to COVID-19 , are difficult times. There’s a great amount of uncertainty, people losing their jobs, and a direct hit on cash flows that can place businesses in dire straights. But it doesn’t have to be all bad. . Current businesses are finding ways to pivot their business models, revisiting their budgets, and developing new forecasts to minimize their burn rate and maximize their available cash runway.

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Workday continues its innovations in Analyst Summits

deal architect

A decade ago, Workday pioneered with its Technology Day format. I wrote back then "Few vendors have the guts to be open to such a smart and opinionated bunch as Workday was during its Technology Day yesterday. Like a marathon.

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5 Ways to Use Tech to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Women Entrepreneurs Can

With millions of different companies worldwide and cut-throat competition, the central tenet of businesses is undergoing a sea-change. Start-ups like 4DHealthWare and Biobot Analytics are leading the way, and business today is all about customer satisfaction. Bill Gates coined the phrase, ‘Customer is King.’ With so many world-class options available for every product and service, the only way to differentiate in the marketplace now is how you treat your customers.

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Labor Law Defense Tips & Strategies For Employers

YoungUpstarts

– A strong HR and sound corporate policies can substantially minimize an employer’s risk of litigation. – Intelligent W2 and 1099 contracts allow employers to control much of the process in case of conflict; don’t copy and paste a (useless) standard employment agreement. – If litigation is inevitable, select an attorney with a proven track record in corporate litigation and defending employers — and who also does not shy away from using the strategy of offense as the best defen

Employee 131
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6 Leadership Requirements For Every Startup Business

Startup Professionals Musings

Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their idea of a new technology or required service. These idea and developer skills are necessary, but not sufficient, to build a business. A real business requires leadership – thought leadership to attract customers and mind share, as well as people leadership around a team, partners, and investors.

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The New Normal: A conversation with Mike Laven, CEO, The Currency Cloud

deal architect

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes.

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How to Name Your Tech Startup

ReadWriteStart

Starting a tech company is exciting, but there are dozens of factors you’ll need to consider if you want your startup to succeed. Much of your time brainstorming will be spent considering things like how to reduce costs, how to expand efficiently, and how to build the right team—but you’ll also need to consider the nature of your brand, including your business’s name.

Naming 207
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Economic Access for Mass Market Workers – What We Are Excited About

View from Seed

In one’s everyday life, “work” is certainly one of the most important activities that occupies up to half (if not more) of the available hours of a day. Your line of work not only impacts how you go about your working hours, it also shapes your identity and the choices available to other non-work aspects of your daily life. . Despite the gradual shift towards a more “white collar-driven” economy over the last 40 years, there are still over 110 million “mass market workers” in blue collar and ser

Marketing 156
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5 Tips To Keep Your Startup Productive, Not Just Busy

Startup Professionals Musings

If you want to make a great first impression on a startup investor or an advisor like me, don’t try to convince me or show me how busy you are. For some reason, too many aspiring entrepreneurs I know seem to focus on “actions” rather than “results.” Based on my experience, survival and success are both about doing the right things , and not about doing everything.

Product 308
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The New Normal: A conversation with Dennis Hodges, CIO, Inteva Products

deal architect

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes.

Vertical 273
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7 Key Legal Tips For Every Young Entrepreneur

YoungUpstarts

Establishing a startup business is very exciting and fulfilling. However, there are other serious aspects that you need to consider, such as the legal aspect. It prevents you from running into legal issues that could hurt or even kill your startup. But, do you know these legal aspects? Well, let us enlighten you on some key legal tips you ought to know as you venture into business. 1.

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Launching Energize Colorado

Feld Thoughts

I’m excited to announce the launch of Energize Colorado , a new Colorado-based non-profit to help energize companies in Colorado survive the Covid crisis and then thrive as we get the crisis under control. A month ago (which seems like a year ago), I wrote a post explaining that the Covid crisis was actually three interwoven crises : health, financial, and mental health.

Colorado 151
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Exploring the Importance of Curb Appeal for Businesses

The Startup Magazine

When someone mentions the term “curb appeal” what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you immediately think about a house in a residential neighborhood. But did you know that business curb appeal is just as important, particularly for startup businesses trying to get visibility? The Importance of Curb Appeal. First impressions are typically formed in a matter of seconds.

Revenue 115
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The New Normal: A conversation with Bill Berutti and Jerry Foster of Plex Systems

deal architect

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes.

Vertical 243
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4 Tips To Streamline Your Small Business

YoungUpstarts

The costs associated with operating a small business can weigh heavily on growth and the ability to compete with other companies. Streamlining some of those tasks can help ease the burdens, and there are many ways your company could be streamlining which not only saves you money but increases productivity and customer service. Here are some ways your business could streamline some of its day to day functions. 1.

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The Disorientation of Exiting Phase 1

Feld Thoughts

We are starting to exit phase 1 of the Covid Crisis in the United States. If you find the whole thing extremely disorienting, you have my empathy. In mid-April, I was getting used to the Stay at Home mode. I’d joke about how I was made for this and was never leaving my house again. Last weekend I took a digital sabbath and woke up feeling energized on Monday.

Denver 135
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PPP and Women and Minority-Owned Businesses – We Need To Do More

VC Adventure

I’ve published a number of posts over the past few weeks about some of the challenges of the existing PPP loans and in particular, about my concerns that the loans aren’t getting to as many of the smaller businesses that need them. In this CNBC op-ed article , Elizabeth McBride and I pointed out how the face of entrepreneurship in the United States is changing.

SBA 119
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3 Signs it’s Time for You to Change Your Brand Packaging

The Startup Magazine

Your packaging is arguably the most important part of the product. The packaging is the key to selling the product in the final stage of the sales funnel, and it protects the product on the shelf and in the customer’s home. It can also easily cause the product to be lost in the crowd, or you to lose the sale if you haven’t kept up with the times. This is why you should always consider whether your packaging is up to par, and whether it could use a redesign.

Stock 110
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Tips To Help Freelancers Concentrate

YoungUpstarts

Freelancing is a popular career track for many Americans these days. The old 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs are great, but contracting gives workers a lot of freedom. For people who love to travel, getting degrees in higher education like masters in school counseling , criminal justice, or something else, picking when you want to work is really important. Sometimes, you just won’t be able to sit in an office all day, five days a week.

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Run A Virtual 5k With Me On Sunday May 3rd

Feld Thoughts

The Second Wind Fund of Boulder County is hosting a Virtual 5k run on Sunday. Second Wind Fund of Boulder County has a mission to decrease the incidence of suicide in children and youth by removing the financial and social barriers to treatment. We are dealing with three crises right now: health, financial, and mental health. The first two are getting most of the attention, but I anticipate an increasing societal focus on the third, which results from the first two.

Hosting 104
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Are financings and M&A slowing down during the pandemic?

David Cohen

At Techstars , one of the most common questions we get is “How has the pandemic impacting financings and M&A transactions?” Due to the size of our system (now 2,200 accelerator portfolio companies and adding 500 per year) we have real-time insight into this question. Each month we typically see between 40 and 70 financing events kick off, which is what we’re tracking here.

Finance 117
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Homebrew Turns Seven!

Hunter Walker

April 26th, 2013 was the day we closed Homebrew’s initial fund and we consider it our ‘birthday.’ The firm’s why and how were previous blog post topics and I won’t rehash them here, but first I want to share my 2013 Homebrew ‘ premortem ‘ with you. When Satya and I started Homebrew together it was with full intention to be our ‘last career,’ what we’d be doing for the next 20 years or so.

Partner 123
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Timing Is Everything: How To Secure Early-Stage Funding

YoungUpstarts

by Ash Rust , founder and managing partner of Sterling Road. Money is constantly on the mind of any entrepreneur: how to raise it, where to invest it, and how to make more of it. Given that mindset, it’s only natural that most entrepreneurs jump at the first chance they get to secure early-stage startup funding. The sooner they have the funding, the sooner they can invest it in their business.

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Why companies can save big by choosing the right accountancy firm

The Startup Magazine

If you’re a startup or small business trying to save yourself money by doing DIY business accounting, you may miss out on savings from allowable expenses and tax benefits you didn’t know existed. Partnering with the right accountant can save you much-needed cash every year. They will provide a variety of services to save you time, money and stress when you have to produce financial reports and complete tax returns.

Forecast 104
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Accelerators can help startups survive the pandemic by boosting diversity

The Next Web

Business accelerators are programmes which offer various types of support, including training, mentorship, access to workspaces and investment, to early-stage businesses with the aim of helping them through the fragile early stages of growth. They may play a vital role in post-COVID-19 recovery. In a recent study, funded by the UK government, we found evidence that participating in one particular accelerator (which will remain anonymous) was associated with an increase in business survival rates

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Supporting the 1K project

David Cohen

Minda Brusse and my good friend Alex Iskold started a new non-profit recently called the 1K Project. Already thirty more volunteers have jumped in to help manage it. The idea is super simple. You can nominate a family and directly support them with $1,000 (1K) per month for three months. They’ve already crossed 100 families supported, and it’s growing fast.