Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

Fred Wilson wrote two posts in 2010 that were very influential with the startup community. The titles were: Mobile First, Web Second. Mobile First, Web Second (continued). If you’re in the minority that never read them – you should. I know that they really impacted an entire cohort of startups because every company that was coming to pitch me businesses was (is) saying, “I’m a ‘mobile first’ company.” Part of the beauty of blogging that in two sittings F

Mobile 334

Mobile Web Software Review San Francisco 334

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 16, 2012

Twitter isn’t just a fun way to keep in touch with friends and follow your favorite celebrities; it’s also an incredibly valuable tool for marketing, branding, customer service, and business education. These days, few big businesses operate without a Twitter presence, and more and more business gurus, CEOs, and teachers are flocking to the site to share their expertise and inspiration with young professionals like yourself.

Social Media 228

Social Media PR Media Hosting 228

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 29, 2012

Just about every weekend someplace on the planet a peculiar series of meetups is happening called Startup Weekend. The idea is to bring together a group of people, many of whom have never set eyes on each other before, to form new ventures, many of which are tech-related. So far the model seems to be working: each weekend on average has produced two or three companies.

St. Louis 135

St. Louis Kansas City Norway Kansas 135

David Teten

JANUARY 10, 2012

We also have a great panel coming up next Thursday night, Jan. 17, on “How Investors Are Increasing Their Returns Through Collaboration and Technology”. This is another joint event between HBS Angels of NY and the HBS Club of New York. Panel 1 – How Social Investing is Disrupting Traditional Investing in Public Securities. The first panel will focus on public markets and will discuss the use and effectiveness of social media tools and data mining technologies in harnessing the wisdom of

Technical Review 128

Technical Review Technology North Carolina Switzerland 128

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

VC Cafe

JANUARY 24, 2012

Reports on the drop of local VC financing in Israel don’t tell the whole story. The latest IVC report reveals that in 2011, 546 Israeli high-tech companies raised $2.14 billion in VC funding, representing a 70% increase compared to the $1.26 billion raised in 2010 and almost double from the $1.12 billion raised in 2009. How can we explain such a big increase?

Israel 111

Israel Technical Review IPO Startup 111

Gust

JANUARY 4, 2012

Given that 2011 is already behind us, I’d like to take a brief time-out from the usual legal and financial wonkery to wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year. Many thanks to David Rose , Ilana Grossman , Justin Stanwix , and the whole Gust team for making the Gust Blog such a valuable platform and resource for entrepreneurs and angel investors.

Intellectual Property 143

Intellectual Property IP Startup United States 143

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 11, 2012

The daily deals industry may be taking somewhat of a beating to its reputation in recent times – stories of deals gone bad abound – but according to All Deals Asia , this space is still growing rapidly in Southeast Asia. The daily deals aggregator says they are seeing more and more merchants listing their deals on deal sites, and consumers haven’t quite had enough of scouting for such deals. “Many (merchants) are beginning to see this group buying model as one of the risk

Asia 190

Asia Malaysia Indonesia Aggregator 190

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 26, 2012

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!

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Media 94

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 13, 2012

I woke up this morning to a post from Fred Wilson titled The Academy For Software Engineering. In it Fred announced a new initiative in New York City called The Academy For Software Engineering. Fred, and his friend Mike Zamansky (a teacher at Stuyvesant High School) helped create this with the support of Mayor Bloomberg’s office and Fred and his wife Joanne are providing initial financial support for the project.

Leadership 130

Leadership New York City Software Engineering New York 130

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 16, 2012

Cracking The Code. Thoughts from a Venture Capitalist on Software, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, Internet and more. Monday, January 16, 2012. BlablaCar - Travel Revolution. Some countries in Europe may have lost their AAA ratings, but they have not lost their appetite to innovate and create new online services. Blablacar is one such example of innovation: with a fast growing community of 1.6m members in France ( www.covoiturage.fr ), the UK ( www.blablacar.com ) and Spain ( www.

Software Review 95

Software Review Europe Technical Review Spain 95

Gust

JANUARY 5, 2012

The U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, section 12(g), generally limits a privately held company to fewer than 500 shareholders. The assumption has been that companies with 500 investors are quasi-public anyway, and for disclosure and other reasons should be forced to go public when the shareholder number approaches this limit. Since the IPO market has been in the doldrums for most of the past decade, high-profile private companies have chosen (or been forced) to stay private while raising hug

SEC 131

SEC Angel Groups Technical Review Private Equity 131

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 26, 2012

Today's roundtable was co-hosted with the Jacksonville Startup Weekend. For the uninitiated, Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where entrepreneurs come together to pitch ideas, form teams, and learn best practices. This past weekend, the Jacksonville entrepreneurship community hosted their own version of this exciting program. 150 people came together, and 17 businesses were formed.

Jacksonville 114

Jacksonville Florida PPC Programming 114

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 25, 2012

While you’re undoubtedly learning a lot from your MBA courses at college, it never hurts to supplement your education with a little outside reading material. There are numerous great books out there on business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and other topics of interest to MBA students that can be immensely valuable to anyone looking to build their knowledge and prepare for a career in business.

Merger 228

Merger Leadership Design Management 228

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 13, 2012

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!

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 31, 2012

I believe that science fiction is reality catching up to the future. Others say that science fact is the science fiction of the past. Regardless, the gap between science fact and science fiction is fascinating to me, especially as it applies to computers. My partners and I spend time at CES each year along with a bunch of the founders from different companies we’ve invested in due to our human computer interaction theme.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Cofounder Video Cloud 127

ConversionXL

JANUARY 9, 2012

Recently I critiqued a number of websites (links at the bottom of the post) and made suggestions for improving their conversion rates. I noticed that the key problems were pretty much the same for most of them. It’s highly likely your website suffers from the exact same problems. Fix these issues and watch your conversion rate improve. Use the following as kind of a conversion improvement checklist.

Software Review 120

Software Review Conversion Email Video 120

mashable.com

JANUARY 13, 2012

Top Stories Photo & Video Galleries Top Lists Trending Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video More Topics. People Recommended Mashable Staff More people. Jobs Awards Join Mashable on Google+ Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Facebook Mashable Social Media All Social Media How-To Facebook Twitter YouTube Google+ Featured in Social Media Tech All Tech Apps & Software Dev & Design Gadgets Mobile Featured in Tech Business All Business Advertising Marketing Media Small Busine

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Social Media Social Network RSS 78

Diego Basch

JANUARY 28, 2012

Some people believe that carrying out a large software project is like building a bridge. You look at your past projects and use the data to estimate the time and resources needed. This view has been debunked decades ago; this analogy was frequently seen as an aspiration for the future when I did my Master in Software Engineering at Carnegie Mellon in the late nineties.

Software Developers 78

Software Developers Software Development Software Developer 78

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 9, 2012

It wasn’t quite so long ago at GovCamp Singapore that citizens were arguing for more openness of public data. Today, at least one public sector organization has taken heed – the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is introducing the OneMap Challenge , a competition to leverage on over 45 layers of theme data contributed by various public agencies on OneMap as well as the datasets on www.data.gov.sg to develop location-based desktop and mobile applications useful to businesses and the pub

Singapore 190

Singapore Mobile Web Community 190

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 5, 2012

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!

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Growthink Blog

JANUARY 3, 2012

Every year for the past decade I have heard the same thing, regardless of whether the economy is doing well or poorly. And what I hear is entrepreneurs saying that it's so hard to raise money. Importantly, whether times are good or bad, the process of raising money is pretty much the same. And whether times are good or bad, the challenge of raising money is still the same.

Bootstrapping 108

Bootstrapping Venture Capital Finance Business Plan 108

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 16, 2012

5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Create Content For You This content from: Duct Tape Marketing. You’ve heard enough about the need to produce content that I’m guessing you’re probably blogging away and curating, aggregating and filtering all manner of content. But there’s one type of content that you may not be focused on and I happen to think it’s some of the most potent to be had – and that’s customer generated content.

Customer 75

Customer Nashville Software Review Aggregator 75

mashable.com

JANUARY 23, 2012

Top Stories Photo & Video Galleries Top Lists Trending Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video More Topics. People Recommended Mashable Staff More people. Jobs Join Mashable on Google+ Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Facebook Mashable Social Media All Social Media How-To Facebook Twitter YouTube Google+ Featured in Social Media Tech All Tech Apps & Software Dev & Design Gadgets Mobile Featured in Tech Business All Business Advertising Marketing Media Small Business Star

LLC 68

LLC Technical Review Social Media Startup 68

Ben's Blog

JANUARY 19, 2012

When you base your life on credit. and your loving days are done. checks you signed with love and kisses. later come back signed insufficient funds. —Funkadelic, Can You Get to That. Thanks to Ward Cunningham, the metaphor technical debt is now a well-understood concept. While you may be able to borrow time by writing quick and dirty code, you will eventually have to pay it back—with interest.

Management 71

Management Technical Review Software Review Engineer 71

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 12, 2012

by Vickie Milazzo, author of “ Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman “. We all know men overwhelmingly populate the higher echelons of the business world. And most of us agree on the reasons why: sexism, a history of repression, the “Mommy track,” and so forth. But a new study conducted by researchers from several business schools, including Columbia University Business School, suggests there might be another reason for the shortage of women in high-level positions: we just don’t exaggerate enoug

Salary 188

Salary Matching Sales America 188

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 15, 2012

We write often about small businesses and startups and lean approaches to marketing and other business functions. Mid- to large-size companies can also benefit from the lean methodology and one way to do so is by actively leveraging crowds of workers: designers , software engineers , testers , writers , customer support people , customers, market researchers , and dozens of other groups via the Internet.

Software Review 89

Software Review Technical Review Social Media Community 89

Growthink Blog

JANUARY 19, 2012

When I was a kid I played ping pong quite a bit. We had a ping pong table in my basement and I would play a lot with my dad, my brother and my friends. I was always a good athlete, and have pretty good hand-eye coordination. So that, combined with a lot of practice, made me pretty good. In fact, I actually won a bunch of local ping pong tournaments at my school and the town recreation center.

Leadership 91

Leadership Entrepreneur China Hiring 91

Software By Rob

JANUARY 25, 2012

Photo by psiaki. Based on the title of this post you might be thinking I have mad stacks of money in the bank. That I’ve had a few “exits” and instead of hunkering down and writing code for 6 months I opted to talk to a few of my buddies at the yacht club and purchase a primed and growing social network for somewhere in the mid-seven figures.

Acquisition 63

Acquisition Software Review Fresno Algorithm 63

deal architect

JANUARY 8, 2012

This continues a series of columns from practitioners I respect. The category "Real Deal" describes them well. This time it is Stan Swete, CTO and VP of Product Strategy at Workday. Besides being one of the best technologists in the.

Product 372

Product 372

Ben's Blog

JANUARY 31, 2012

Man, have you ever really wondered. Like why are we here? What the meaning of all this? —Outkast, Church. Since Marc and I founded Andreessen Horowitz three years ago, we have raised $2.7 billion. That statement begs a few questions. The two most obvious are: Why did such a new venture capital firm raise so much money? How did such a new venture capital firm raise so much money?

Venture Capital 78

Venture Capital Portfolio Cofounder Networking 78

Rob Go

JANUARY 18, 2012

In a prior post about what it’s like to be a VC I made the claim that even if an investor has operating experience, that experience gets stale after a few years. This led to the following question in my comments: “You mention that operational skills begin to decline 2 years into the job. If this is true, then it follows that VC GPs can only add limited operational value.” I have lots of thoughts on this, so I thought I’d expand with a full post.

Operations 50

Operations Technical Review Investment Bankers Cofounder 50

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 2, 2012

A few weeks ago I wrote about New Year ‘s resolutions for small businesses , but the other day I realized I had left one out. This one is not an action item, nor an intellectual exercise. It is at once very simple, but also incredibly difficult, especially when under pressure to get a new business off the ground to improve performance in an existing one.

Small Business 108

Small Business Startup Differentiation Lean 108

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2012

Over the holiday I became aware of a new tech blog that aims to have deep insights into the next generation of technology, which they call The Hypernet. Why should you care? Well, it is established by some of the industries more successful investors – Mike Maples and Roger McNamee. My favorite post was this one (image above) in which they talked about their 10 hypothesis for technology investing.

Technology 280

Technology Marketing 280

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 10, 2012

Almost no startup founder values her time properly. Consultants know exactly what their time is worth: their hourly rate. As they say, it’s how much “the market will bear.” When a consultant intentionally doesn’t work for an hour — whether to be with family or to work on a new startup — they’re clearly giving up an hour of potential earnings.

Founder 291

Founder CPA Startup Early Stage 291

deal architect

JANUARY 13, 2012

In 2005, the year in which I launched my innovation blog, New Florence, I had 65 posts there. This year, at the pace January has started, I will have that many by the 3rd week of February! And my books.

Technology 310

Technology 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2012

An "elevator pitch" is a concise, well-practiced description of your startup and your plan, delivered with conviction and enthusiasm, that your mother should be able to understand in the time it would take to ride up an elevator. Everybody knows about these, but few people seem to deliver a good one. A good elevator pitch is not just for an elevator discussion.

Elevator Pitch 283

Elevator Pitch Startup Differentiation Distribution 283