May, 2018

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Remind Me Why I Love You? (Why “In Person” is Everything)

Both Sides of the Table

You had an amazing meeting with an investor. Your product demo crushed. The dialog was great. They told you how much they loved your space. The meeting was only supposed to last 45 minutes but you ran 90. The assistant tried to end the meeting twice but was shoooshed away. You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence.

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How to Run Marketing Experiments The Right Way

ConversionXL

You need to run experiments. The one who runs the most experiments wins. BUT – most marketing experiments are done wrong. What’s missing is hypothesis driven testing across all inter-business disciplines. Nearly everything we use in our daily lives came about as a direct result of an experiment. The cars we drive, the computer or mobile device you are using to read this sentence, the Great Wall of China, Abercrombie and Fitch advertisements – all of them have gone through some form o

Marketing 133
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The Best 3 Branding Exercises For Startups

YFS Magazine

Here are a few fun, engaging and insightful exercises you and your team can do today to help define your brand. Don’t be shy — let your creative juices flow!

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15 Inspirational TV Shows For New Entrepreneurs

YoungUpstarts

If you are in the process of growing your business, I’m sure you are very busy, but everyone needs to take break to recharge the batteries from time to time. You can have your relaxation time without feeling guilty by putting your feet up and tuning into some of the top TV 1. shows recommended by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. These shows will give you a behind the scenes look at how the world of business works, what it takes to become successful in business and teach you strategies that you

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

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

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For the sake of productivity, developers need to learn to say “no”

The Next Web

Whoever coined the mantra ‘The customer is always right’ has never tried to undertake development tasks for clients with grandiose ideas, but zero technical background. Nowadays, every company might be a software company, but not everyone knows how to effectively manage software development projects. But give them the option, and they will sure as hell try.

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Rare event in Palo Alto today: fireside chat with Lifograph and Microsoft

The Startup Magazine

Microsoft General Manager Dave Mendlen is in Palo Alto today to participate in a rare fireside chat with the CEO of Lifograph, Dea Wilson. Mendlen flew into Silicon Valley from Seattle specifically for this event to chat with the “Wiki of People” CEO. Drinks and Chinese food will be served for dinner in the Procopio building at the event today which runs from 5:45 PM – 8:45 PM PDT.

More Trending

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Misty II – The Apple ][ of Home Robots

Feld Thoughts

I got an Apple ][ computer forty years ago. It cost $3,000 and changed the trajectory of my life. Today, you can pre-order a Misty II for $1,599 , which is 50% off MSRP. From my perspective, Misty is today’s home robot analogy to the personal computer from 40 years ago. A video description is much better than a few paragraphs, so sit back and enjoy.

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Entrepreneurship for Superwomen

Up and Running

I believe that there is no better way for a woman to succeed than to have her own business. I went through the information technology revolution and was on the bleeding edge of both technology and the acceptance of women in the workplace. . I left the corporate world after 35 years with my self-esteem in tatters and reputation tarnished. Why? I had written a book in which I discussed: Women in the workplace.

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The Pitfalls Of State And Local Taxation For Startup Companies

YoungUpstarts

by Rebecca Stidham, Senior Manager – Tax Services at OUM & Co. LLP. In today’s business environment where innovation and technology converge and the modern day entrepreneur has more support and incentive than ever to begin their dream startup company, more often than not discussions about state and local business taxes have a similar tone: “The company is losing money; we don’t owe any taxes.”.

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The 5 Sales Tools Every Company Will Use in 2019

ReadWriteStart

Over the past couple years, the machine learning niche has exploded into the mainstream. Startups have popped up left and right to show off their innovative new tools, and Google — the tech giant above all tech giants — now claims to be a machine learning company. This sudden spike in AI interest is not as surprising as it might seem. People have wanted smart robots since the earliest days of sci-fi.

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Using Message-Mining to Pinpoint a High-Converting Value Proposition for Your Product

ConversionXL

There are already a bazillion resources out there that spell out how to “craft the perfect value proposition.” In fact, the whole concept of “unique value propositions” (UVPs) is — at least at first glance — really Marketing 101 material. So why keep talking about it? For one very good reason: Most courses & books on value propositions FAIL to show you how to actually create value proposition through empirical, quantified research.

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How Much Should You Raise in Your VC Round? And What is a VC Looking at in Your Model?

Both Sides of the Table

There’s a quick litmus-test conversation any early-stage VC will have with the founder and it’s one that you should be as prepared for as your elevator pitch. It goes something like this … VC: “How much money are you raising?” Founder: “$8–10 million” VC: “What’s your current burn rate?” Founder: “$250k / month.” VC: “So at a constant rate of burn rate you’d be raising enough for 2.5–3 years.

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SEO Analyst Providing Digital Marketing Services Through a Comprehensive Approach

Hearpreneur

Anyone wishing to join the digital marketing field needs some skills and prior knowledge to excel. Chris Rodgers is the founder & CEO of Colorado SEO Pros , where he develops company processes, innovating digital marketing practices, and supporting a full-time staff of SEO analysts and digital marketers. He has worked in the technology and digital marketing industries for the last 13 years.

SEO 82
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10 Copywriting Strategies Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Up and Running

Copywriting can make or break your business. Your skills, directly and indirectly, impact how well you communicate with your customers. Good writing brings out emotions, answers questions, and leads users toward the sale. Before you ever start writing, think about what stage of the customer journey your reader is most likely in: Awareness stage : Customers in this stage are beginning to articulate symptoms of their problem: “I keep getting drenched on the way to work.

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How Data Analytics Influences (and Can Better Influence) Your Business

YoungUpstarts

A relatively new concept, data analytics is the wave of the business current and future. No matter how many times companies and governments get in trouble for using people’s data to their advantage, (Can anyone say Facebook and Russia?), it’s still an important tool in societal development and user retention. A reason why is how data analysts collect and use the information.

Analytics 124
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How Technology and Training Fueled One Ad-Based Company’s Growth

ReadWriteStart

“I didn’t even know who Mark Zuckerberg was back in October 2015. Eighteen months later, I’m keynoting at conferences and serving clients in London, Sydney, Singapore, Los Angeles, Lisbon, Vancouver, and 50 other cities,” says Logan Young, the co-founder of BlitzMetrics, a Facebook dashboard and advertising company. Learn, Do, Teach: Build Your Expertise First.

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3 Ways Businesses can Kick Start their Web Application Security

The Startup Magazine

Web application security is an imperative to pay attention to. In an age of regular breaches and security threats knowing how to prevent security issues is pivotal. Here are three tips to kick-start your web application security. Know Your Target. Understanding your target is one of the most crucial, yet often overlooked, aspects of information security.

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Understanding the Herd Mentality of VCs and How not to Let it Psyche You Out

Both Sides of the Table

Whether you’re fund raising from angels, seed investors and VCs?—?as an industry we succumb to “herd mentality.” There are a few exceptions and originally thinkers but it’s maddening how much group think and need for social proof there are. Nobody commits, nobody wants to set a price, nobody wants to stick their neck out then BOOM! Reid Hoffman is in?

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A Nutrition Label for Internet Privacy. And Apple Should Lead the Way.

Hunter Walker

WANT: a more standardized, human-readable format for conveying Privacy Policies and Terms of Service. FDA Nutrition Labels, which were only first required within the last few decades and underwent a reformatting a couple years back, seem to be a reasonable direction to follow. There’s a site called TOSDR (Terms of Service Didn’t Read) which tries to simplify this complexity into a summary [ Wired article ].

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4 Startup Funding Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Up and Running

Innovative products and business models are the foundations of a promising startup. However, you’ll also need a steady flow of funds, especially in the early stages, to turn those ideas into reality. Funding is crucial for improving technology, hiring the right people, and launching a comprehensive marketing strategy to get a foothold in the market.

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6 Surefire Ways To Get Your Small Business Noticed

YoungUpstarts

by Cooper Hollmaier, technical SEO manager at Visiture. We all know that marketing is essential for a small business, especially as you’re just starting 8out. You’ll need to attract new foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar location and visitors to your website. Finding the time or skill-sets to do the job effectively on a small business budget may seem near impossible.

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6 Effective Branding and Marketing Strategies for Your Beauty Business

crowdSPRING Blog

The global beauty market is predicted to grow from $432.7 billion in 2016 to $750 billion by 2024. Online growth has been especially strong. If you’re building or growing a beauty business, you have a lot of competition and it’s tough to stand out. To help you, we’ve assembled useful branding and marketing tips to help your beauty business reach and connect with customers.

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Enterprises and AI Need to Connect Better – Here’s Why

ReadWriteStart

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic across the board. Everyone from developers, to data scientists, journalists, and general user-bases of all profiles are talking about it on a global scale. Entrepreneurs have taken notice of the benefits of AI in most areas of everyday life, whether assistants, mobile, entertainment and even healthcare or insurance.

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Planning Your Fund Raising — “Measure Twice, Cut Once”

Both Sides of the Table

There is an old management saying, “measure twice, cut once” which refers to the benefit of doing some planning. It’s the antithesis of “ready, fire, aim” which seems to be so prevalent in today’s society. The benefits you will receive from doing even some basic planning before you hit the fund raising trail are enormous. This post has some basic advice on how to plan your raise before you hit the road.

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Metrics: A double edged sword

The Equity Kicker

Let me start by saying that I’m a massive believer in the power of metrics. There’s an old adage that if you don’t measure something it doesn’t happen and I think there’s a tonne of truth in that. As a result we advise our companies to build KPI trees so employees in each department know what to do and there can be confidence that if everyone delivers the company will hit its overall growth and profitability targets.

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Fast Growing Startups Focus on Customers

The Startup Magazine

Startups have only one way of thriving, and that is through growth. At this stage of a company, all employees of the company need to proactively focus on customers and their receptivity to the offering. Every startup company that grows very fast understands the complexity that comes when scaling operations. For these startup companies, the client success team does not falter as the company grows because they adjust to the changing expectations of customers as the request volumes grow.

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What Are The Best Cloud Storage Services For Small Businesses

YoungUpstarts

[Image source: Pixabay]. Cloud storage services have become more popular than ever. This is because the level of data has increased over the years and so the hackers and other security threats. In order to keep your data secure, you have few options. The best alternative is to get a cloud storage service and keep all of your data in the cloud. However, there are a lot of benefits and some problems when it comes to these services.

Cloud 133
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Not your Dads CRM

deal architect

I was looking at our Amazon credit card statement. I expected plenty of Whole Foods charges after I told my wife we get another 5% off if she used the card, but I was taken aback by the number of.

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GitHub gives us a glimpse into the collaborative future of work

The Next Web

Today, 10 years after its public launch, GitHub sits at the center of all developer workflows. But reflecting on this first decade in business, it’s not unrealistic to think that it’ll be at the center of all workflows in the years to come. In fact, because of GitHub’s roots in the developer community — and the increasing centrality of developers in general — understanding GitHub’s trajectory may actually provide a glimpse of what the future of work holds for businesses everywhere.

Community 165
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Why Hearing “No” in a Fund-Raising Process is Actually Healthy

Both Sides of the Table

Every entrepreneur wants to hear “yes” during the fund-raising process but I would argue that being too risk averse and not pushing hard enough and be willing to hear a “no” is what holds back many people from “yes.” I believe people generally hate making decisions and especially so when they involve commitments and risks. This is true of any buying process where a customer has to make a large investment decision on your software or when an investor must decide whether to give you $5 million.

LP 189
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Amy Schumer’s ‘I Feel Pretty’ Movie Is Full Of Lessons For Female Entrepreneurs

YFS Magazine

In I Feel Pretty Amy Schumer goes from insecure girl-next-door to über confident power woman. But is her winner-takes-all mindset accessible and attainable when it comes to the way you market and brand your business? Absolutely!

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A Workshop for Colorado Food Entrepreneurs in Hotchkiss, CO – June 21 and 22

Feld Thoughts

I’ve been investing in natural food related business for a while. I do this partly because I’m interested in what we eat, but mostly because I can’t make angel investments in tech companies anymore because of my Foundry Group fund agreements. And I enjoy making angel investments … Boulder is the starting point for the natural foods industry, dating back to the founding of Celestial Seasonings in 1969.

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[ADV] Admiral Markets – Make Your Financial Transactions Risk Free And Protected

YoungUpstarts

Financial sector is one of the most rapidly growing markets in the world economy. It offers a great chance to interested traders and investors who are willing to invest their hard earned fortune in various sectors of the financial market. One of the most significant paltform in the financial sector is the Foreign exchange market. Trading in currency has gradually increased over the years all around the world economy.

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PowerPlex: Celebrating American Manufacturing

deal architect

I tend to take a lot of photos and talk a lot when I am invigorated by products, places or people. Two days in Detroit this week for Plex’s annual user conference yielded me over 200 photos and 50 conversations.

Detroit 199
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Mattress company Emma is fastest-growing startup in Europe

The Next Web

For the fifth year in a row Adyen and TNW teamed up to find the fastest growing companies in Europe’s six hottest startup ecosystems: the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, and Sweden. The winner, mattress business Emma (Germany), was announced tonight at TNW Conference Founders Dinner in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. To search for the fastest-growing startup, TNW reached out to hundreds of companies identified as fast-growing based on their research and asked them to sign up

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Why you should never have a data room — the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever…

Both Sides of the Table

Why you should never have a data room?—?the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. If you stick through to the end I’m guessing I can persuade most of you. Let me start out with my premise: “Data rooms are where fund-raising processes go to die.

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