Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 25, 2013

'We all get a lot of email. And we send off scores of them, too. For important emails we hope for replies or action. If you do the math on the number of inbound emails you get multiplied by the time it would take to read them all and respond to those that expect a reply you would be astounded. It is simply unmanageable. Yet some simple techniques can help massively improve your ability to get people to take action on your important emails.

Email 415

Email Software Review Hosting Demand 415

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

'What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists.

SBIR 321

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 321

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2013

'Smart people only visit and buy from credible and memorable websites. In the past, if your startup had a website presence, the company was credible by definition. In today’s world, a website is necessary but not sufficient for credibility. Dreamers and gamblers have found out that if the website isn’t validated as credible, it’s probably a scam, and everyone loses.

Startup 263

Startup Affiliate Advertising Technical Review 263

The Next Web

AUGUST 14, 2013

'Editors Note: This is a guest post by Slava Akhmechet, founder of RethinkDB. You can follow him on Twitter here. There are already very good lists of startup lessons written by really talented, experienced people ( here and here ). I’d like to add another one. I learned these lessons the hard way in the past four years. If you’re starting a company, I hope you have an easier path.

Startup 161

Startup Ruby Technical Review Vesting 161

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

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 12, 2013

'Crowdfunding platforms have been used by cash-strapped startups as a way to not only raise fund for ideas, but also to test if there’s a market for such ideas. The makers of the Klick Stylus , Morrison Innovations , earlier in June this year successfully used Kickstarter to raise enough funds to go-to-market with the capacitative and analog pen combination.

Technical Review 197

Technical Review Social Media Campaign Cost 197

Occam's Razor

AUGUST 12, 2013

'There are few things more complicated in analytics (all analytics, big data and huge data!) than multi-channel attribution modeling. We have fought valiant battles, paid expensive consultants, purchased a crazy amount of software, and achieved an implementation high that is quickly, followed by a " gosh darn it where is my return on investment from all this?

Channel 162

Channel Analytics Campaign Conversion 162

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 9, 2013

'I’ve written before about hiring for cultural fit, and about the importance of prioritizing cultural fit over competence when hiring at startups. I started thinking about it again when I saw this Dilbert comic , because it pokes fun at the culture of startups and their propensity only to hire people who fit into them. But what are we talking about when we talk about cultural fit, anyway?

Part-Time VPE 153

Part-Time VPE Hiring Engineer Portfolio 153

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2013

'Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.

Viral 249

Viral Marketing Entrepreneur SEM 249

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

'Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. It’s part three of a series, cross-posted from his own blog , in which he draws on his experience to offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. You can follow him on Twitter, where he is @ChristianReber. So far I have shared with you 6 simple steps to start your own tech business (don’t miss part 1 and part 2 ).

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 22, 2013

'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

David Cohen

AUGUST 29, 2013

'Recently, I wrote a post called “ Entrepreneurs Deserve Full Transparency ” for my WSJ series. Several entrepreneurs wrote me, but this story really stands out as a warning to do your diligence and demand full transparency. Not all accelerators are created equal. I’ve posted the following email by permission of the author, who shall remain anonymous as his request.

Cofounder 134

Cofounder Technical Review Vertical Programming 134

ConversionXL

AUGUST 5, 2013

'Want to know how to deal a serious blow to your landing page conversions? Have it look different from the ad they saw before landing on the page, and have it contain different words. In other words, one of the best ways to improve landing page conversions is to maintain scent: make pre-click and post-click message + look & feel match. There needs to be “scent” The ad they see or the email they read needs to smell like the landing page they land on.

Advertising 111

Advertising Bulgaria UAE Matching 111

SiliconHills

AUGUST 18, 2013

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News TechStars Austin will introduce its inaugural class Monday night, August 19th at 6:30 at Capital Factory. Announcing its first Austin program in May, TechStars has reviewed applications from more than 850 companies and chosen ten. Filament Labs build patient tracking and compliance software around mobile health, behavior […] The post TechStars Introduces Its First Austin Class appeared first on SiliconHills.

Austin 105

Austin Software Review Mobile Programming 105

firstround.com

AUGUST 13, 2013

'Neil Roseman is downright tired of hearing Silicon Valley companies say they “hire only the best and the brightest.” No matter how many times they say it, most still make decisions based on gut feel, basic credentials, GPAs, ivy league educations, flashy company names - even SAT scores. Roseman objects. As the former Technology VP for both Amazon and Zynga, he’s interviewed hundreds of people and believes every phase of the process needs to be meticulously designed to drill de

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Silicon Valley Leadership Naming 100

The Next Web

AUGUST 10, 2013

'Perfecting your product’s user experience (UX) means creating something that people truly enjoy using, be it an app, gadget or multifaceted service. Look no further than below and you’ll find a list of 13 excellent UX tips from startups like Square, Path, Uber and more. 1) Embrace guerilla usability testing. “Many startups don’t test their product at all or only after release because they fear it would be too expensive and would take too long.

Cofounder 157

Cofounder Guerilla Startup Analytics 157

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 2, 2013

'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 98

Social Media Small Business Design Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2013

'I’ve done a lot of video interviews. This is one of my favorite if not my favorite outright. It’s only 12 minutes long and if you’re a first-time entrepreneur (or second time, frankly) I encourage you to watch it if for nothing else than to get a sense that your struggles are universal. TechCrunch interviewed me and asked me to talk about failure.

Startup 412

Startup San Francisco LP Bankruptcy 412

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 19, 2013

'How to Deliver Extreme Value Through a Collaborative Sales Process written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Today’s sales process must be bathed in collaboration. The idea of a “sales process” is not a new one, most sales people either figure something out that works and it become the de facto process for them or their organization hands down and trains around a specific method or moving a lead from inquiry to close.

Sales 69

Sales Technical Review Reputation Technical Support 69

SiliconHills

AUGUST 6, 2013

'By SUSAN LAHEY Reporter with Silicon Hills News You too, can make your own robot, using Artoo, a micro-framework for robotics using the programming language Ruby. Mike Ford, a software engineer at Trion Worlds, spoke Monday night to a group of around 30 people at Austin RB meetup at Capital Factory about the Artoo technology [.] The post Robots as Tools, Toys and Teachers appeared first on SiliconHills.

Ruby 105

Ruby Software Engineering Austin Framework 105

Venture Chronicles

AUGUST 2, 2013

'I have covered a couple of topics in this series, the first being hiring the best people and the second organizing for success based on the attributes of the people you are hiring. Today I want to go into territory less obvious because let’s face it, hiring the best people and creating conditions where they can succeed is the kind of startup advice that is squarely in the “stating the obvious” category.

Product 62

Product CTO Hire Architecture Startup 62

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

'Mikita Mikado is a software engineer and entrepreneur from Belarus, now based in San Francisco. He is the co-­founder and CEO of Quote Roller and PandaDoc. His passions are business process automation, surfing, and his new baby girl Maya. ?. Sales are the bloodstream for most businesses, and tech startups are no exception. It’s always better to be earn money, not just raise it, as money you earn doesn’t dilute your ownership and reassures your investors.

Belarus 137

Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

deal architect

AUGUST 26, 2013

'I was reading this Wired quote about Dieter Rams'' philosophy about product design: "It doesn’t draw attention to itself; it merely allows users to accomplish their tasks with the maximal amount of efficiency and pleasure. At its best, it is.

Design 324

Design Software Product 324

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 29, 2013

'I have lived (England, France, Italy, Spain, Japan & the US) and worked (Ireland, Germany, India) around the world. I adore accents. I listen not only for the country but the region. I became engrossed with the origins of both accents and phrases. One of most fascinating & enjoyable books on the topic is Bill Bryson’s “ Made in America ,” which demystifies the origins of the English language and why Americans speak more traditional English than the English do.

Italy 391

Italy California Mexico Los Angeles 391

Steve Blank

AUGUST 12, 2013

'Asking, “Can I have coffee with you to pick your brain?” is probably the worst possible way to get a meeting with someone with a busy schedule. Here’s a better approach. —— Jason, an entrepreneur I’ve known for over a decade, came out to the ranch today. He was celebrating selling his company and just beginning to think through his next moves.

Silicon Valley 336

Silicon Valley Deal Flow Customer Development Stock 336

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2013

'Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an old article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.

Initial Public Offering 297

Initial Public Offering Startup California .Net 297

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 15, 2013

'3 Step Content Marketing Audit for Small Business Marketers written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Ryan Kettler – Enjoy! photo credit: john.schultz. Use this quick and easy process to improve your website in order to attract more visitors and customers.

Small Business 64

Small Business Marketing HTML Software Review 64

The Next Web

AUGUST 22, 2013

'Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly, a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The company is one of the largest VC–backed startups in Southeast Asia, having raised over $60 million in funding. . This is the first of a four-part series that will provide insight into starting, building, and funding a company across Asia.

Asia 127

Asia China Japan Startup 127

Diego Basch

AUGUST 14, 2013

'Yesterday I was reading this Hacker News thread about the Common Crawl, and one comment caught my attention: Common Crawl is awesome. I wonder how complex it would be to run a Google-like frontend on top of it, and how good the results would be after a couple days of hacking… I wondered why it wasn’t obvious to this person that it would be very complex to do that, and that the result would not be great.

Search 61

Search Technical Review Finder Engineer 61

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 20, 2013

'I have a saying that I employ as a powerful metaphor at every startup with whom I work – “beware of shiny new objects.” It is one of the easiest pieces of advice to give as it is almost always valuable if entrepreneurs follow it as a guideline. Yet sadly most startups have “shiny object” obsessions. In today’s uber-connected, social media, everything-is-public, people tell you there’s killing it with these new features, investor & mentor whiplash &#

Bandwidth 368

Bandwidth Social Media Portfolio Video 368

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

'What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? We’re going to test this hypothesis by teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Healthcare (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) this October at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists.

Startup 303

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 303

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2013

'The sad truth is that cash flow surprises kill many startups, even though they should have been adequately funded to survive. Overall, 90% of small business failures are caused by poor cash flow, according to the D&B Small Business website. Cash is king when it comes to the financial management of a growing company, so this is not the place for shortcuts and sloppy practices.

Startup 286

Startup Matching .Net Sales 286

Early Growth Financial Services

AUGUST 6, 2013

'Originally published in LifeHack. Ask The Entrepreneurs is a regular series where members of those involved in the Young Entrepreneur Council are asked a single question that aims to help Lifehack readers level up their own lives, whether in a area of management, communication, business or life in general. Here’s the question posed in this edition: What’s your favorite tool for tracking employee/contractor time and why?

Employee 58

Employee Technical Support Finance Software 58

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

'Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. It’s part three of a series, cross-posted from his own blog , in which he draws on his experience to offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond. You can follow him on Twitter, where he is @ChristianReber. So far I have shared with you 9 simple steps to start your own tech business ((don’t miss part 1 , part 2 , and part 3 ).

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 20, 2013

'This is the third article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap and COC: a new metric for cancellations. You can’t read an article about SaaS metrics without running into LTV — The L ife t ime V alue of a customer. Meaning, the gross revenue you expect to get from a customer over its entire lifetime.

Retention 262

Retention Metrics Revenue Bandwidth 262

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 14, 2013

'by Robert V. Taylor, President of the Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation and author of “ A New Way to Be Human: 7 Spiritual Pathways to Becoming Fully Alive “ Difficult co-workers add to your workplace stress and the happiness you experience in your work. You are not alone. Surveys reveal that 70 percent of American workers find their jobs stressful.

Incubator 269

Incubator Naming Conversion Product 269

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2013

'When we started E.piphany there was an equally scrappy startup called DoubleClick (later acquired by Google for $3.1 billon). Other the years Kevin O’Connor, former CEO and founder of DoubleClick and I got to know each other. It’s been fun watching a 20th Century entrepreneur learn new tricks as he builds his next startup, FindTheBest using Lean Methodology.

Lean 302

Lean Agile Customer Development SEO 302