SoCal CTO
DECEMBER 19, 2012
I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy. He wanted to get input from me on what he's doing, and he wants to begin to ask developers what it would take to build his product. I asked some of the same questions I ask in my Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions and then I get to a very common conversation: Me : Do you have specs?
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 5, 2012
by Vickie Milazzo, author of “ Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman “. The legend goes that prior to becoming the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina (now former CEO of HP) stuffed her pants with socks for a male-dominated meeting. Her message was clear: “I have everything it takes to compete.” Although Fiorina might be alone in literally stuffing her slacks, it’s a sure thing that plenty of other women have gone to great lengths—pulling longer-than-necessary hours, cutting maternity leaves sh
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Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 20, 2012
I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Maybe it’s time to look harder at the mantra of a new breed of gurus and successful entrepreneurs, including Steve Blank and Eric Ries , called “nail it then scale it” (NISI).
Mike Michalowicz
DECEMBER 18, 2012
Bad Business Habits. There was a time that you loved your work. Maybe you started the business yourself, or you joined a company that was going to take you places. But things have changed, and you hate your company. You dread coming to work. The cause of all this loathing may not be them, it may actually be you. After all we have the sole control over what we think of things.
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
Gust
DECEMBER 27, 2012
1. Understand your business. It sounds obvious, but the majority of entrepreneurs who pitch me have obviously never thought through many of the major issues surrounding their companies. You should know EVERYTHING about your business, product, customers and competition. You should know every metric regarding customer acquisition, conversion and retention.
The Next Web
DECEMBER 30, 2012
As we get closer to the New Year, the ritual of making resolutions begins and we all flock to the usual patterns: we want to to eat healthier, work out more, get promoted, or spend more time with our kids and family. These are with no doubt worthwhile goals, but I’d like to pose an important challenge for founders: Make learning and development your key resolution in 2013.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Up and Running
DECEMBER 6, 2012
Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept for starting and growing successful companies: Lean Planning™. Lean Planning is a set of tools for discovering a business model that works, building an action plan to test your assumptions, creating financial models and a plan for a viable business, and tracking your performance so you can adjust your plan on the fly, quickly and easily.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 23, 2012
Most of the entrepreneurs I know realize they have some bad habits, like maybe procrastination or not listening well, so they focus on dropping these. New studies indicate that a more productive approach would be adopting new good habits and behaviors that clearly move your business forward, like good time management and implementing customer recommendations.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 10, 2012
The other day, I'm in a meeting where someone told me an industry magazine that would be relevent to one of my companies. I texted the founder and got the following response: " Yeah. We were in their last issue.". Oh, umm. yeah. well, carry on. A lot of times, I take meetings with companies that feel a lot more like they're on the outside looking in than they should.
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 7, 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!
Gust
DECEMBER 13, 2012
There is no one thing (aside from integrity) that is an absolute, and what you need to have when fundraising for a startup will depend to some extent on how you are managing your funding process. A good list of just about everything you could possibly want to have in your arsenal is listed in the answer to What materials or software should I use to pitch a VC?
The Next Web
DECEMBER 1, 2012
“I’ll put you on my schedule.” “I have you marked in my calendar to start next week.” “My schedule is full right now.” Have you ever told a client or potential client any of the above? I have many times. When I started working for myself and taking on client work, I never really “scheduled” client projects.
The Equity Kicker
DECEMBER 19, 2012
Every now and again I come across a phrase which I wish I’d come up with myself and this is one: Plans are worthless, but planning is indispensable. Chris Dixon used it as a title for a post yesterday, and at first I thought the credit was due to him (which wouldn’t have surprised me), but it turns out that President Eisenhower uttered these words in a 1957 speech.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 21, 2012
Have you noticed that more companies beg you to participate in their business today? It started with an email survey on your last stay at their hotel, but now includes requests for online product reviews, to social media input on the design of future products. They do it because engaged customers become loyal advocates and buyers. Welcome to the “Participation Age” of marketing.
David Cohen
DECEMBER 10, 2012
Today, Nike announced their first Nike+ Accelerator program, powered by TechStars. Ten companies will participate in a three-month, mentorship-driven program. The technology focus will be about leveraging the success of the Nike+ FuelBand, Nike+ Running and NikeFuel to support digital innovation. Anyone that knows me will tell you I’m a quantified self geek and enjoy data.
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 14, 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!
Growthink Blog
DECEMBER 3, 2012
The saddest lament of entrepreneurs and owners of private companies seeking to sell and exit their companies is that they want their businesses to be valued on their future potential , and not its CURRENT profitability. Given that the typical, offered purchase multiples for smaller businesses – as in those with less than $5 million in EBITDA – can be as low as 1 or 2 times last year’s tax return profits, this is understandable.
The Next Web
DECEMBER 24, 2012
Like many top VC firms, Mangrove Capital has been increasing its focus on Berlin this past year. Last month, they put on a big party here in a venue consisting of old shipping containers – what could be more Berlin than that – as they continue their search for the next big thing. One of the biggest names behind Luxembourg-based Mangrove is Michael Jackson.
The Equity Kicker
DECEMBER 13, 2012
New research from Ofcom has found that Britain leads the world in usage of several key technologies: Most likely to access TV content over the internet: 23% of us do so every week (USA is second with 17%). Use more mobile data: In Dec 2011 the average mobile connection downloaded 424 megabytes of data (Japan was second with 392 megabytes). Spend more money online: Average per head spending on ecommerce in 2011 was £1,082 (Australia was second with £842).
ConversionXL
DECEMBER 11, 2012
Sometimes A/B testing is made to seem like some magical tool that will fix all problems at once. Conversions low? Well run a test and increase your conversions by 12433%! It’s easy! Setting up and running tests is indeed easy (if you’re using the right tools), but doing it right requires thought and care. 1. Most A/B tests won’t produce huge gains (and that’s okay).
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 10, 2012
My wife & I have a close friend who recently entered the workforce for his first-ever job. On his first day of work my wife was kind enough to write down words of wisdom from her years on the job. I don’t write about Tania very often – mostly at her request. Otherwise I’d shout from the mountain tops how smart & capable she is.
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 21, 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!
Duct Tape Marketing
DECEMBER 27, 2012
Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from DJ Waldow – Enjoy! You can have the best offer, the most compelling copy, sent from a trusted source, using a subject line that has been optimized for your audience … and yet, if you don’t have a list of email addresses to send to, none of it matters. Without a list of email addresses in your database, email marketing can be quite challenging.
Ben's Blog
DECEMBER 5, 2012
Aww man, you sold your soul. Naww man, mad people was frontin’ Aww man, made something from nothing. —Kanye West, New God Flow. Your startup is going well and as your business expands, you hear the dreaded words from someone on your board: “You need to hire some senior people. Some real ‘been there, done that’ executives to help you get the company to the next level.
deal architect
DECEMBER 21, 2012
The Orlando Sentinel ran a story “Vendors complain after Orlando spends $ 8.7m on software without bids” I sent the reporter and the Editor this email “I read your article and would like to share some reactions. I am a.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 3, 2012
Almost every large company understands it needs to build an organization that deals with the ever-increasing external forces of continuous disruption , the need for continuous innovation , globalization and regulation. But there is no standard strategy and structure for creating corporate innovation. We outline the strategy problem in this post and will propose some specific organizational suggestions in follow-on posts. —-.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 15, 2012
My Blackberry died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know. It seems so long ago that we had to start hiding our Blackberry’s in our pockets to avoid always being chastised. If you were caught sending out an email on your Blackberry you had to quickly whip out your iPhone to show that – wait! – I have one of these, too. It is stunning to think about the blind spots that market leaders can develop.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 14, 2012
To be successful as an entrepreneur, you don’t have to be a fabulous person, but it helps. Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. But the entrepreneurs that have “it” seem to be able to effortlessly get team members, investors, and customers to follow them anywhere.
Duct Tape Marketing
DECEMBER 28, 2012
Some of my favorite tools and services have gone through some pretty big changes recently – enough so that felt it warranted a post just to point the changes out. The first three, Gmail , Evernote and TweetDeck , are tools I use every day to run my business. The last two, Yelp and Foursquare , are familiar rating and location tools that have morphed a bit to go after the lucrative local search market and deserve a good hard look from local small businesses. 1) User interface changes for Gm
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
DECEMBER 4, 2012
I get a constant stream of requests to look at new startups or to announce something that a startup just did. As you’d guess, I can’t do it, as much as I love to chat about startups, by which I mean swapping wisdom with fellow entrepreneurs, by which I mean stoke my ego by telling strangers what to do with neither repercussion nor responsibility.
deal architect
DECEMBER 6, 2012
I remember a meeting with a systems integrator while at Gartner. He wanted to know who would be the “next SAP” they should build a practice around. So I showed him an ERP magic quadrant. I still remember his face.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 14, 2012
In 2012, in partnership with Stanford University , U.C. Berkeley and NCIIA , Jerry Engel and I first offered the Lean LaunchPad Educators Class. The class was designed to teach educators (and the entrepreneurs that support them) the Lean LaunchPad approach (Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) for teaching entrepreneurship.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 17, 2012
I got a call Sunday from a business colleague while I was sitting in the lounge at LAX waiting for yet another delayed flight. This colleague is a lawyer with whom I work on a deal and have done so for a couple of years. By all accounts I now consider him a friend. He caught me while I was sipping a Bloody Mary and thinking a bit a business situation that bummed me out.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 7, 2012
We can all dream about what it takes to make our startup a success. From recent survey feedback, it seems evident that the urban legends leading to success are wrong. The average entrepreneur is not the one who dumped a promising career, sketched his idea on the back of a napkin, and accepted millions from an investor to make billions of his own. I was just perusing an older but still very relevant report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship, titled “ Making of a Succes
The Startup Toolkit
DECEMBER 12, 2012
Slides from “ Lean startup intro (with no buzzwords) ” by robfitz. Lean gets bogged down in tactics & tools. This presentation is about what are, in my opinion, the big principles behind lean startup. Things are nowhere near as bad as they were in the dotcom days. The typical startup spends little money, focuses on product, and tries to build traction.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 11, 2012
by Bill McBean, author of “ The Facts of Business Life: What Every Successful Business Owner Knows that You Don’t “ All year long you’ve been in frantic motion. You’ve put out fires. Solved employee snafus and issues. Juggled conflicting priorities. Fielded exhausting back-to-back meetings, telephone calls, and endless emails. Motivated yourself and others.
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