Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 11, 2016
Many aspiring entrepreneurs are looking to the Internet as an opportunity to get rich quick, instead of a place where you can start a business you love, for very little capital and minimal technical expertise. The reality is that if you build a business you love, you may in fact make big money, but if you start a business to get rich, you will probably fail.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 14, 2016
You may have one or more ideas about how to make life easier or how to improve upon an already existing technology. Yet, you may have found that moving forward with that idea takes more than wishful thinking. Many entrepreneurs have used InventHelp to turn their imagined opportunities into real businesses. InventHelp allows you to discover and nurture the entrepreneur inside you.
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Brandanew
DECEMBER 13, 2016
It’s tough to survive in today’s highly competitive market. It’s almost impossible to thrive without a solid online presence. A website has become one of the most important aspects of a brand’s online marketing strategy. Without an optimized brand website, your small business will not stand out. Most modern customers are used to easy access of information online and expect a well designed site.
Up and Running
DECEMBER 14, 2016
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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
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 14, 2016
Today is amongst the proudest days I’ve had at Upfront Ventures — getting the chance to announce that Kevin Zhang has been promoted to Partner. Watching him develop over the past 4.5 years at Upfront has been both a pleasure and also has taught me a lot about venture capital. Kevin joined Upfront in 2012 as an Associate. We generally look for associates who are deeply quantitative, have great research & analytical skills and often have the tool kit for framing and making complex decisions.
Occam's Razor
DECEMBER 12, 2016
There is, almost literally, an unlimited number of things you could focus on to create a high impact data-influenced organization. And, as if unlimited is not enough, nearly every month your analytics vendors release new features, you discover new analytics solutions, and as your business is more successful (hurray!) there is a new mobile app to track or a new digital experience to problem-solve or a crazy online to offline campaign that upends everything unleashes a new layer of tactical activi
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 2, 2016
So, you’ve got the bug to work for yourself? There is no doubt about it, the appeal of startup culture is inarguable. It represents our chance to get away from the nine to five grind, stop taking orders, and start working for yourself. Instead of completing one menial task after another, we’ll have the ability to make our dent in the world. With luck, we might even make some money doing it.
YFS Magazine
DECEMBER 29, 2016
From new clients and potential investors to press inquiries, your online hub is the best place to start impressing the world.
Version One Ventures
DECEMBER 14, 2016
This has been an important year for us as a firm, as well as the market in general. We couldn’t begin any recap of 2016 without focusing on the bubble we hear so much about. The industry entered the year bracing for an apocalypse. Every announcement – whether it was a funding round, exit or layoffs – was analyzed within the context that the tech bubble has definitely burst or that we’re still in the bubble.
Hunter Walker
DECEMBER 24, 2016
In the spirit of clearing out some half-formed thoughts, one takeaway is that we’re again in a period where the most exciting investment opportunities possess real technology risk. When we started Homebrew in 2013 our industry was, in retrospect, probably midway through a cycle where innovations were in business model rather than underlying technology.
ConversionXL
DECEMBER 7, 2016
Nowadays nearly every online shop utilizes some sort of product recommendation engine, which is no wonder, as these systems, if set up and configured properly can significantly boost revenues, CTRs, conversions, and other important metrics. Moreover, they can have considerable positive effects on the user experience as well, which translates into metrics that are harder to measure, but are nonetheless of paramount importance to online businesses, such as customer satisfaction and retention.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 9, 2016
“If we build it, they will come.” I heard it again yesterday from a technical entrepreneur who should know better than to believe the old “ Field of Dreams ” sports fantasy movie theme in today’s Internet information overload environment. These days, building a new business is all about visibility and marketing, no matter how great or innovative a solution you bring to the table.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 21, 2016
by Kaloyan Dimitrov, founder of Vambos.com and Coriti.com. A business has various departments which work interdependently to maximize performance. For instance, a typical firm will have sales, operations, accounting, customer service and human resource departments. Each unit has distinct roles and performance metrics. An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software comes to combine these functions into one system.
YFS Magazine
DECEMBER 19, 2016
The advantages of the internet are limitless. Here are the four steps needed to bring your business online.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 8, 2016
Dave’s note: This week we invite long-time CEO of Quicksilver Software to respond to our question: “How have you remained relevant in the gaming software business over so many years?” He and his company have worked in the video game business since the very earliest generation of games in the early 1980’s. His company is one of the oldest independent studios in the business.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 12, 2016
Today it has been announced that I’m leading a $15 million funding round in Tact , a new generation of Enterprise Software company along with other investors including Microsoft Ventures and previous investors Accel and Redpoint Rather than just waxing lyrically about how great the company is I thought I’d provide some context about why I invested and also about a fundamental change I see in the coming years in the way enterprise software is used.
ConversionXL
DECEMBER 1, 2016
Customers don’t usually see one ad and then click over to purchase. In reality, the path is much more complex, and usually includes various marketing channels – organic and paid search, referral, social media, television. But if you’re a rigorous and data-driven marketer, the question has to cross your mind: how much credit can I give each channel for this conversion?
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 23, 2016
Things change so fast these days in business that your first priority as an entrepreneur is to stay current, by talking to customers, peers, and experts. Secondly, you must constantly communicate suggested changes to your team, implement necessary pivots, and realign all the elements of your business, including partners, investors, and vendors. No change means falling behind.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 21, 2016
by Raghav Mathur, VP Strategy, Partnerships & Business Operations, G/O Digital. Social media marketing – every small business owner has been told time and time again they must do it. Anyone who has a Facebook account can set up an ad campaign in a snap, and even target specific audiences based on a variety of characteristics. It’s affordable, effective and has almost no barrier to entry.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
DECEMBER 6, 2016
Worrying is a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Worry” causes the very thing you’re worried about, to actually happen. When you’re backstage getting more and more anxious that your performance won’t be good, you’re implanting thoughts of second-guessing and fear that will arise during the performance. Instead, you should realize you’ve already done all the practice required, and mistakes don’t actually matter anyway.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 22, 2016
One of my company CEO’s recently described his rule for acquisition success, and it resonated with me as a great goal for planning during acquisition exercises. This CEO states that he has made it work twice when acquiring companies, and that is enough for him to make it his rule for all future acquisitions. If the target company is able to show a ten percent EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), then the acquisition team should be able to create a way to
View from Seed
DECEMBER 5, 2016
So much of digital innovation has changed the way people communicate and create or access content. As a result, few departments in business have changed how they work quite like marketing, and few functions look so fundamentally different today than a decade ago. So hiring your first marketer as a startup founder can be a daunting task. What’s the profile of the candidate?
deal architect
DECEMBER 12, 2016
I enjoy spending time with Jason Blessing, CEO of Plex. We share a passion for automation and other manufacturing technology and we enjoy sharing notes on outstanding plants and facilities we get to visit. With a new President about to.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 12, 2016
“Being in Silicon Valley, a lot of my friends want to work for Google or Apple, but this class showed me that the problems in public service were even more challenging and rewarding. I used to watch the news about Syrian refugees and feel that I was just a bystander to a hopeless situation. But this class helped me realize I can have an impact and be part of the solution.”.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 12, 2016
by David Estrakh, Senior Vice President at Express Trade Capital. Even though your manufacturing facility is up and running, that doesn’t mean you can forget about it and turn your attention to other aspects of your business. Manufacturing requires constant attention to ensure that costs remain low and quality and productivity stay high. Here are a few ideas for keeping your operation running smoothly: Manage the Product Lifecycle.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 4, 2016
At some point in their life, hopefully everyone strives to be the best in their chosen profession. Most people think that being the best requires more intelligence, more training, and more experience. In reality, in business or even in sports, the evidence is conclusive that it is as much about how you think, as what you do. I saw this illustrated a while back in the classic sports book, “ Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else ”, by Jon Gordon.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
DECEMBER 20, 2016
What would happen if I forced you to develop all your precious, proprietary, secret-sauce code in a public Github repository? One thing would be: You would be judged. Your peers would judge you by that code, with a broad definition of “goodness” that includes everything from file and class organization, documentation, tests, avoiding placing API keys in code, eliminating your reliance on “security by obscurity,” and even that artful quality which like the proverbial US Su
View from Seed
DECEMBER 14, 2016
NYTech does not mirror the diversity of its host city… Today on Gotham Alpha, I talk to Alex Qin, Skillshare engineer and founder of Code Cooperative, about the reality of New York Tech’s diversity gap…what factors actually reinforce hiring prejudice here…and how we can all start to fix this problem, right now. Follow me and Alex at twitter.com/tdevane and twitter.com/alexqin.
deal architect
DECEMBER 14, 2016
More from my conversation with Jason Blessing What other trends excite you in terms of manufacturing technology? I think the other interesting thing that is emerging in manufacturing from a technology perspective is 3D printing and how that's affecting how.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 12, 2016
“Being in Silicon Valley, a lot of my friends want to work for Google or Apple, but this class showed me that the problems in public service were even more challenging and rewarding. I used to watch the news about Syrian refugees and feel that I was just a bystander to a hopeless situation. But this class helped me realize I can have an impact and be part of the solution.”.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 7, 2016
by Roger Chen, Vice President, Asia for GoDaddy. Domain name, check. Web hosting, check. Website designed, check. Products and solutions to sell, check. Shopping cart, check. Congratulations, your business is now online. What next? When it comes to finding success as a small business on the internet, having a website set up is merely the first step.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 5, 2016
Too many entrepreneurs put their best creative thinking into the startup idea, and believe that the business implementation simply requires following tried and true business practices. In my experience as a startup advisor, nothing could be further from the truth. To win, you need to think outside the box to deliver a better customer experience, business model, and new positioning.
Brandanew
DECEMBER 9, 2016
Businesses of all sizes develop branding strategies to ultimately develop a distinction over competitive offerings in a customer’s mind. Your customers should be able to distill your brand’s essence in your stories, marketing activities and products. Needless to say, building brand differentiation and a narrative requires careful thought.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 11, 2016
Over the last couple of weeks, I've been to a couple of tech events that were sparsely populated by straight white men. Yeah, can you believe it? One was a careers panel aimed at women in tech held at Flatiron School and the other was Alterconf. The goal of Alterconf is to provide safe opportunities and spaces for marginalized people in tech and those who support them by highlighting positive initiatives of local community members.
deal architect
DECEMBER 2, 2016
After 15 years and countless deals, you would think integrating acquisitions would be an Oracle core competence. It’s inconsistently so if you talk to many “refugees” who have left after an Oracle acquisition. After listening yesterday (replay here) to Oracle.
Feld Thoughts
DECEMBER 11, 2016
As we get to the end of 2016, I’m in many conversations about 2016 performance and 2017 budgets. While 2016 isn’t over yet, most SaaS companies know how things are going to end up within a few percentage points. As a result, their focus on 2017 is an extrapolation from how they have been doing in 2016, typically building on month over month activity.
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