Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

When I first read Paul Graham’s blog post on “High Resolution&# Financing I read it as a treatise arguing that convertible notes are better than equity. As I’m generally a believer in ‘pricing rounds’ I initially didn’t agree with the premise of the post. Photo credit: D. Story/J. Blanchard/O’Reilly Media. I just re-read it and on second reflection, I’m surprised just how much I found myself in near TOTAL agreement with Paul.

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 27, 2010 Good enough never is (or is it?) One of the sayings I hear from talented managers in product development is, “good enough never is.&# It’s inspirational, always calling the team to try harder and do better. It works to undermine excuses for poor or shoddy work. And, most importantly, it helps team members develop the courage to stand up for these values in stressful situations.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

A number of investment rounds and acquisitions took place in recent weeks and it’s worth taking note. Below is a recap of some of September’s Israeli tech headlines: Investment rounds. The startup Tracx , which provides a SaaS solution for tracking and managing marketing campaign on social networks, has received an undisclosed investment from Israeli angel Zohar Gilon.

Software Review 138

Software Review Venture Capital Technical Review SEM 138

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Top Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video Google Buzz Social media Music Business Advertise Network Blippr iPhone App Mashable France MashDeck Twitter App Mobile Site Social Media Events Twitter Guide Book Facebook Guide Book Partners App Development WordPress Experts MaxCDN Content Delivery Dynect Managed DNS Rackspace Hosting Intridea About Us Submit a Tip!

Web 111

Web Design Social Media Software Review 111

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

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

I was recently involved with a company (not as an investor) where an embarrassing mistake was made. One of the leaders took a sort of “heads will roll&# approach. It’s not my company so I basically stayed out but tried to encourage him to think differently about the “punishment.&# I didn’t stick around for the repercussions so I hope the process was balanced.

Management 350

Management Employee Technical Review Warrant 350

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Earlier this summer, we posed the question of whether or not native mobile applications would eventually be made obsolete by the mobile Web. Many agreed that the power of the mobile Web and cloud over native apps may be an inevitability, but according to a survey released today , four out of five app developers say their customers prefer a native experience.

API 123

API Mobile Database Cloud 123

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Top Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video Google Buzz Social media Music Business Advertise Network Blippr iPhone App Mashable France MashDeck Twitter App Mobile Site Social Media Events Twitter Guide Book Facebook Guide Book Partners App Development WordPress Experts MaxCDN Content Delivery Dynect Managed DNS Rackspace Hosting Intridea About Us Submit a Tip!

Web 111

Web Design Social Media PHP 111

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

For a long time I had a rule for my blog: no pop-ups. I considered pop-up banners one of the most annoying things about surfing the web, especially during the early days before pop-up blockers became standard in browsers. If I didn’t personally like them, why would I subject my audience to them? Things have changed. Pop-up technology has become more subtle, with the lightbox pop-up becoming the new standard (and also able to bypass pop-up blockers).

Software Review 83

Software Review Development Team Review Technical Review Email 83

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

A fter years of talking with many of you in the Israeli startup industry, investors and entrepreneurs alike, I was invited to present some tips for entrepreneurs at the Launch48 conference in London this weekend. Launch48 is a new kind of micro-incubator taking place over the course of a weekend, which enables entrepreneurs to pitch their concept in one minute, in order to find team mates who are interested in pursuing the idea.

Elevator Pitch 102

Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Ten Things I Will Never Have to Do Again The #1 Goal of Your Website – Slides from my Business of Software Talk → Your Market is Smaller Than You Think Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Marketing 64

Marketing Software Review Matching Bootstrapping 64

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 1, 2010

Austin-based Bazaarvoice , the leader in social commerce, has been aggressively building out an incredible suite of applications, furthered by the launch of Social Commerce Insights, which allows marketers to easily and precisely measure social commerce ROI. Social Commerce Insights raises the bar on social media measurement by enhancing Bazaarvoice’s industry-leading analytics capabilities with pre-built integrations with leading Web analytics solutions, including Adobe® SiteCatalyst®, powered

Social Media 59

Social Media Analytics Software Review Austin 59

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

What do you get when you combine 7 panelist plus one moderator on to a stage for 30 minutes to talk about a serious topic? Answer: Not much. And that was evident on today’s Angel vs. VC panel. It’s a shame. There are real changes in the venture capital industry and it would have been fun to talk about them. I said almost nothing in the 30 minutes.

Liquidity Event 308

Liquidity Event Silicon Valley Seed Stage Finance 308

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I n its first investment in Israel, Russian search engine Yandex is rumoured to invest $3.4 million in Israel’s Face.com , a startup developing face recognition technology. This is Face.com’s second round, after previously raising about $1 million from Rhodium and local angels Yaniv Golan (AOL, ex Yedda) and Yariv Gilat. As a result of the investment, Yandex’s CEO Arkady Volozh is now a member of Face.com’s board.

Finder 94

Finder CTO Hire Widget 94

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Lesser Known Traits of Successful Founders Your Market is Smaller Than You Think → Ten Things I Will Never Have to Do Again Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Software Review 50

Software Review Costa Rica RSS Employee 50

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

Gartner made a name starting in the mid-90s forecasting the estimated cumulative cost of Y2K remediation. I was there – and the big numbers it bandied about helped focus enterprises on the core problem. But it also led to hype, Tags: Industry Commentary.

Forecast 282

Forecast Naming Cost 282

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Steve Jobs is one of those entrepreneurs who seems universally either loved or hated, but not many will argue with his ability to innovate in the technology product arena over the years. He was instrumental in creating Apple, which has pioneered a dazzling array of new products, and recently surpassed Microsoft, to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

Startup 258

Startup Design Founder Entrepreneur 258

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

It's time for me to nut up or shut up. I need to put my money where my mouth is. We're going to separate the men from the boys. I'm going to whip out the dick, slap it on the table, and get out a ruler. Did I miss any other clichés? I've been lecturing you about how to build honest, successful little bootstrapped startups for a few years now, and you've been patient, attentive, and in those spunky moments which I very much appreciate, vehemently argumentative.

Bootstrapping 232

Bootstrapping Hosting Reputation Restful 232

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

In Customer Development the goal of a minimum feature set is to pare the features of the first product release to the minimum necessary for early customers. But finding what those “minimum” features are can be an adventure. All the Data and Not a Drop to Think. We started Epiphany to solve the “too much data but not enough insight” problem. During the 1990’s large corporations had bought different software applications to automate each part of their enterprise – finance, customer support,

San Francisco 228

San Francisco Database Advisory Board Silicon Valley 228

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

With so much talk about social networks, E2.0, collaboration etc, it was a nice reminder from Kim Nash about the Internet of Things - sensors , robots, RFID tags etc. As many episodes from my book extracted below show, they.

Internet 247

Internet Social Network Networking 247

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

When someone asks me for the best way to fund a startup, I always say bootstrap it, meaning fund it yourself and grow organically. Bootstrapping avoids all the cost, pain, and distractions of finding angels or VCs, and allows you to keep control and all your hard-earned equity for yourself. Last year I interviewed a serial entrepreneur, Rich Christiansen , who has done almost 30 businesses wholly by bootstrapping.

Bootstrapping 240

Bootstrapping Merger Salary .Net 240

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Software by Rob Passionate about Startups and MicroISVs Lessons Learned by a Serial Entrepreneur home about press micropreneurs archives ← Lesser Known Traits of Successful Founders Your Market is Smaller Than You Think → Ten Things I Will Never Have to Do Again Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place.

Software Review 27

Software Review Costa Rica RSS Employee 27

Altgate

OCTOBER 1, 2010

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Outsourcing For Startups No one wants to tell you your baby is ugly → Startup Executive Compensation Scorecard Posted on October 1, 2010 by admin In a couple of weeks, CompStudy will release the 2010 survey results with the latest on startup executive compensation.

Part-Time VPE 39

Part-Time VPE Startup Salary Equity 39

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Couple of years I would have been shocked at the announcements of today, today it merely deserved a tweet of a “wow” but little additional surprise. You see I already profiled Ray Lane in my book for having made the. Tags: Enterprise Software (other vendors) Offshoring (TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant) Outsourcing (Business Process - BPO) Outsourcing (IBM, Accenture, EDS).

Offshore 236

Offshore Software 236

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

I’m always looking for evidence of early startup characteristics that might be predictors of long-term success. Every investor has his own list, usually based on his own very small sample, or simply his gut feeling. Of course, we would all like to have a magic list based on more definitive tracking of many real startups over time. In that context, I recently came across an old study of 27 startups featured in Inc’s annual “Anatomies of a Start-up,” done for “The Journal of Business Venturing,” a

Startup 231

Startup Non-Compete Channel .Net 231

Jason Ball

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

This is the first installation in my Thoughts on Entrepreneurship series. It stems from a talk a gave earlier this year in Bilbao… Up first is raising money. Raising money is probably the most important step you’ll take in your business. It will probably take longer than anything else as well- *especially* if you live in Europe. You need to plan on a minimum of 6 months to raise funds, although 1 year from start to finish is very possible.

Pre-Money Valuation 34

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution Venture Capital 34

Seeing Both Sides

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

One of my favorite business school professors, Andre Perold , used to like to say that in ever transaction in the financial markets, there are only two types of actors: wolves and sheep. As you might expect, the wolves have the edge in the encounter, due to superior market information or negotiating position. If you find yourself in a market transaction and don’t know for sure that you are the wolf, then, sadly, you are the sheep.

IRR 36

IRR IPO Entrepreneur LP 36

deal architect

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Larry Ellison made his ambitions pretty clear at Oracle Open World last week about becoming as big and broad as IBM. But while he may well be on his way on the hardware side with Sun and Hurd in tow, Tags: Enterprise Software (IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP).

Software 231

Software 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

What if your Google search for ‘Paris Hilton’ listed your top result as the Hilton Hotel in Paris, because it knew your interests were not in the other direction? This is the current dream of Tim Berners-Lee , the man who invented the (first) World Wide Web. He calls his dream ‘Web 3.0’ or the ‘Semantic Web,’ meaning it understands user context. He and many other experts believe that the Web 3.0 browser will act more like a personal assistant than a search engine.

Web 230

Web Semantic Artificial Inteligence Startup 230

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Skip to content Follow: RSS Email Twitter Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli On building profitable web applications Home Contact me Creations Blog Books Entrepreneurship & Startups General Online experiments Programming tips and tricks Startup tips and tricks Tags facebook Is it still possible to be a successful developer on Facebook? by Aymeric on October 1st, 2010 Recently InsideSocialGames published the article “ the future looks bright for small developers on facebook ” where it analyses the growth

Developer 28

Developer Ruby Australia Chile 28

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010

Startup Weekend , an organization dedicated to the worldwide education and proliferation of entrepreneurship, has made a name for itself over the last few years with its unique weekend-long events. Over 17,000 participants have attended one of the organization's 120+ global events, from which over 560 new startups have launched. Thanks to a grant announced today from the Kauffman Foundation , Startup Weekend to continue to grow and better educate entrepreneurs in more cities around the globe.

Startup 146

Startup Early Stage Hosting Naming 146

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

About a month ago I wrote a post titled Trying Gmail For A Week. I haven’t thought about Outlook, Entourage, or Mac Mail for a month and I don’t think I’m ever going back. It took about a week to rewire my brain for how conversations worked and what the keyboard shortcuts were, but not that I’m there it’s just awesome.

Seattle 135

Seattle Email Video Technology 135

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

These days, if your startup does not have an Internet web site up and running, you are not ready for business or potential investors. Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, partners go there to see how they might fit, and suppliers expect to find contact information.

Customer 225

Customer Viral Web Small Business 225

Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Skip to content Follow: RSS Email Twitter Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli On building profitable web applications Home Contact me Creations Blog Books Entrepreneurship & Startups General Online experiments Programming tips and tricks Startup tips and tricks Tags facebook Is it still possible to be a successful developer on Facebook? by Aymeric on October 1st, 2010 Recently InsideSocialGames published the article “ the future looks bright for small developers on facebook ” where it analyses the growth

Developer 28

Developer Ruby Australia Chile 28

BeyondVC

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010

It's not easy to build a service that everyone loves and even harder to build one that gets 3000 new users a day on an installed base of 2 million users.  Once there you may think of yourself in the drivers seat as having built a successful company.  Unfortunately, this is where the need for revenue comes to play.  As a startup you can only raise external funding for so long before you generate your own cash flow to pay for operating expenses.

Internet 122

Internet Cofounder Revenue Advertising 122

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Want to work for a startup? Have you ever wanted to work for a web startup, but aren’t sure where to look or how it might be different from a big company gig? Come check out the TechStars Smackdown event on October 12th in Boulder. It’s not a typical job fair. The event starts with a panel of entrepreneurs that will answer questions about what it means to work for a startup – common questions such as salary levels, equity versus salary compensation, work/life balance, and job

Salary 131

Salary Startup Equity Security 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

Many entrepreneurs are convinced that banks are not worth the effort for startups, especially early-stage ones that still don’t have a revenue stream, or collateral to back up their financing needs. A question I get all the time is “Can I ever expect any backing from my bank for a great opportunity?” The short answer is that some banks will help, if you do your homework.

Silicon Valley 201

Silicon Valley Early Stage Startup Equity 201