February, 2014

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Finding an Investor Who is in Love with You

Both Sides of the Table

'I often talk about what I’m looking for when I meet with an entrepreneur. Above all else I’m looking for a genuine passion for what the entrepreneur is doing. It’s even a direct quote in my Twitter bio. Of course passion isn’t enough. You need a set of innate skills that differentiate you from the thousands of others who set out on your similar journey.

Video 373
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Security And Privacy Are Entrepreneur Opportunities

Startup Professionals Musings

'With the Identity Theft Resource Center® reporting a 30% increase in privacy breaches in 2013, there seems to be a growing population out there worried about all the people intent on hurting them. Why is everyone so paranoid these days? My plea to entrepreneurs is to recognize these concerns as an opportunity, to make people’s life better, rather than stoke the fires.

Security 251
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Sometimes It Pays to be a Jerk

Steve Blank

'That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart; his passport shall be made. William Shakespeare Henry V | Act 4, Scene 3. The concepts in my Lean LaunchPad curriculum can be taught in a variety of classes–as an introduction to entrepreneurship all the way to a graduate level “ capstone class.”. I recently learned being tough when you select teams for a capstone class pays off for all involved.

Lean 286
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What Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Google+

YoungUpstarts

'by Alicia Lawrence, WebpageFX . Imagine that you walk into a football stadium to watch a professional football game. You are decked out from head to toe in your team’s colors. Unfortunately, your team isn’t “home.” Though you aren’t kicked out, you are treated like a pariah by everyone from the home fans to the vendors to the mascot. What does this have to do with Google+?

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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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4 steps to starting a Web business without knowing a thing about coding

The Next Web

'Eddy Lee, Ph.D, is a venture capitalist investing in Silicon Valley and Singapore. He is also a Consulting Assistant Professor at Stanford University. So you have a great idea for a new mobile app or Web service—but you don’t know anything about coding or developing. You might have started searching for a tech-oriented co-founder to help you launch your idea, only to find that your startup can’t afford the ongoing salary for a skilled software developer.

Web 160
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YouTube Marketing And Analytics: A Primer For Magnificent Success

Occam's Razor

'YouTube is magnificent. YouTube is amazing. YouTube is… wait, let me quantify that. YouTube Marketing and Analytics Framework for Success. According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any cable network as of mid-2013. And rather than just being content you watch, it is content you watch, share and shape. How cool is that!

Analytics 151

More Trending

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Why You Should Not Ignore The Science Of Marketing

crowdSPRING Blog

'Supermarkets share a common layout. Many competitive products (toothpaste, for example), have similar packaging. Do supermarket and toothpaste companies lack imagination? It’s possible, but a different explanation is more likely. Smart businesses apply science to marketing. Relying on psychological research, these businesses adapt marketing strategies to maximize revenues and profits.

Marketing 103
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Can a Small Business Consultant Help You Run Your Business?

Up and Running

'There comes a point in every business when the owner realizes they need advice and wonders, “Should I hire a consultant?”. And, as with most things in life, the answer is, “It depends.” Whether you’re starting a new company or growing an existing business, hiring the right consultant can be a cost-effective way for your small business to leverage specialized knowledge.

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Startya Helps You Build Your Idea For A 30% Stake In Your Company

YoungUpstarts

'Perhaps you’re an aspiring technology entrepreneur with a great idea of a product you believe would take off, but due to the lack of technical knowledge or funds have no way to turn your business idea into reality. You could try the hard route and raise funds to put together a team. With funds you could maybe even consider outsourcing the development.

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Why you should pay attention to these 8 emerging tech hubs

The Next Web

'This post originally appeared on the TransferWise blog. TransferWise is the clever new way to transfer money between countries, from the people the people who built Skype and PayPal. From Silicon Valley to Silicon Alley, and Berlin’s hip coffee shops to East London’s Silicon Roundabout , the world is well versed in the global innovation boom towns.

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The Landing Page Optimization Guide You Wish You Always Had

conversionxl.com

'Extra Lucrative Conversion Advice. Home. Blog. Conversion Optimization Services. 1:1 Consultations. Conversion Research. About. RSS. Complete Guide to A/B Testing. Join my private newsletter and get the Complete Guide to A/B testing: Jan 31, 2014. The Landing Page Optimization Guide You Wish You’ve Always Had. Tweet. Tweet. What follows is a list of resources that can be applied specifically to landing page optimization, found here on ConversionXL & from other great websites around t

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The Science of Storytelling & Memory and Their Impact on CRO

ConversionXL

'Have you ever heard of the “ significant objects ” project? As a literary & anthropological experiment, Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn wanted to see if they could resell cheap knickknacks (avg. cost $1.25) on eBay and turn a significant profit by adding personal stories to the item descriptions. The hypothesis was that emotionally charged stories would increase the perceived value of each object and therefore net a large profit on each item sold.

Video 134
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Twitter Link Roundup #210 – Small Business, Startups, Innovation, Social Media, Design, Marketing and More

crowdSPRING Blog

'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!

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The 5 Biggest Legal Mistakes That Startups Make

Scott Edward Walker

'My law firm recently entered into a new partnership with This Week in Startups and sponsored their live fireside chat last month in San Francisco with authors Nick Bilton and Brad Stone. Prior to the event, I conducted a legal workshop entitled “The 5 Biggest Legal Mistakes That Startups Make,” which I have uploaded below. If you would like to jump to different sections of the video, here’s how it breaks down: Mistake #1 : forming the wrong entity (at 1:25).

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The Simplicity Cure: Why True Employee Engagement Lies In The Little Things

YoungUpstarts

'by Todd Patkin, author of “ Finding Happiness “ We all know that employee engagement matters. Yet again and again, studies point to a pervasive lack of it (for instance, a recent Gallup report indicates that only 13 percent of employees worldwide are engaged), as well as the incredible costs of this problem. No one can deny that disengaged employees are less productive, less innovative, less collaborative… less everything that leads to successful organizations.

Employee 248
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How we built our investor presentation and raised $2 million

The Next Web

'Mikael Cho is the co-founder of ooomf , a network that connects short-term software projects with handpicked developers and designers. Mikael writes about psychology, startups, and product marketing over on the ooomf blog. If you choose to raise money for your company, you’ll inevitably need to prepare a few documents for investors. One of the most important ones is an investor presentation or a “deck.”.

Africa 157
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What in the World ?!?

thebarefootvc

'I gave a talk, titled “What in the World?”, almost exactly 2 years ago to this day at Bloomberg LP’s headquarters in NYC as part of Social Media Week. You can view the full presentation here. I overviewed demographic and economic trends globally and outlined the opportunity for technology companies to access growth in the emerging markets.

India 107
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Jules Watkins: Photographer, TV Producer & Director Gives It All Up To Teach Video Online (And Makes $200K+ Within Two Years)

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

'[ Download MP3 | Download Transcript | iTunes | Soundcloud ]. Jules had a previous life as a professional news photographer, then managed to find a backdoor into a career in television. He worked his way up to become a director and producer, working on such well known shows as Big Brother , My Sweet Sixteen and Pimp My Ride … Read the rest of this entry » The post Jules Watkins: Photographer, TV Producer & Director Gives It All Up To Teach Video Online (And Make

Video 84
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Twitter Link Roundup #211 – Small Business, Startups, Innovation, Social Media, Design, Marketing and More

crowdSPRING Blog

'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!

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The 5 Biggest Legal Mistakes That Startups Make

Scott Edward Walker

'My law firm recently entered into a new partnership with This Week in Startups and sponsored their live fireside chat last month in San Francisco with authors Nick Bilton and Brad Stone. Prior to the event, I conducted a legal workshop entitled “The 5 Biggest Legal Mistakes That Startups Make,” which I have uploaded below. If you would like to jump to different sections of the video, here’s how it breaks down: Mistake #1: forming the wrong entity (at 1:25) Mistake #2: not buttoning-down IP

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[Review] Put That Cell Phone Down And Look Me In The Eye

YoungUpstarts

'You’re on what you expected to be on a romantic night out, but instead of putting his full attention on you your date has been fiddling with Facebook on his smartphone the whole night through. Or this – you’re presenting your latest proposal but you can’t seem to command the attention of your colleagues, who seem to be more interested in their mobile phones than the latest ideas you have.

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What we can learn from the evolution of Content Management Systems

The Next Web

'Viktor Marohni? is the CEO and co-founder at ShoutEm , a self service mobile website and mobile apps creator, a ‘Wordpress for mobile apps.’. From banking software to cell phones, as markets develop and grow, more user-friendly products with fewer but highly-polished features are winning the game. In the early stages of every technology, the market is usually dominated by products built for early adopters who are typically tech savvy – this mainly consists of developers who like to have full c

PHP 143
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The Magic of the Irish – Dublin’s Resurgence on the Global Tech Scene

Both Sides of the Table

'I wrote this on my flight home from f.ounders & web summit in Dublin, Ireland late last year. I think I was too hung over to finish it, hit publish and move on. So here is attempt two now that the alcohol is mostly out of me. The Magic of the Irish. Scenes from my counter-top on my last night in Dublin. I recently returned from a 5-day visit to Ireland, my first time back in 10 years and the start of what I hope will be a more regular travel schedule there.

Ireland 392
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Want to be successful? Be willing to accept help when its offered.

Jeff Hilimire

'Sometimes people confuse accepting help with a sign of weakness. They think if they admit they need help that it means they are less capable and it will appear they are inadequate. This is the ultimate sign of a person’s ego holding them back. Recently I experienced a person like this. I was talking to a friend who works at a big company in town and they were expressing a problem they were having with a web development project.

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Discontinuing SAP coverage

deal architect

'Couple of years ago I asked SAP to take me off their events list. I kept asking questions and not really getting answers from its executives and I felt like a jerk writing lukewarm or negative blog posts after being.

Software 372
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Do You Know Enough to Securely Own Bitcoins?

Diego Basch

'[ I wrote this draft a week ago and forgot about it, but in the light of the Mt. Gox news I decided to post it because someone might find it useful ]. Over the past few months I’ve noticed a significant number of forum posts by people losing crypto coins due to their own mistakes. This happens because many do not understand the basic concept of Bitcoin/Altcoin ownership, and the implications when it comes to protecting coins.

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Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?

YoungUpstarts

'By Alex Zaltsman, CEO of InnoviMobile.com and president of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization of New Jersey. Are you trying to jumpstart your career as an entrepreneur? Curious about what other entrepreneurs believe are the most important traits for starting a business? The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) of New Jersey conducted an informal survey of their 90 members to discover common traits entrepreneurs tend to have.

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5 common mistakes to avoid in mobile commerce

The Next Web

'Matt Winn is Volusion’s Marketing Communications Manager, where he helps oversee the organization’s branding and communications efforts. Our current culture is riddled with mobile junkies addicted to their tablets and smartphones. While this newfound obsession has had quite the negative impact on dinner conversation, it does present a great opportunity for retailers to take advantage of this mobile fixation by providing a high-impact, enjoyable mobile commerce experience.

Mobile 137
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How Should Business Adapt to the Facebook Paper App?

Duct Tape Marketing

'How Should Business Adapt to the Facebook Paper App? written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing By now you’ve probably at least read about Facebook’s newest app called Pape r. If you own an iPhone and live in the US it’s also possible that you’ve downloaded and experienced the new app.

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Have Entrepreneurs Become Too Informal?

Seeing Both Sides

'I love dressing informally, maybe too much. My wife frequently reprimands me for dressing down. I recently met with a US Senator in slacks and a collar shirt (which I thought was being respectfully dressy!) and he wryly cracked that I looked awfully comfortable. I sometime teach my HBS class in jeans (please don''t tell the dean). But lately, I have been wondering if entrepreneurs have taken informality too far.

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Happy Birthday, Blog

deal architect

'My blogs are celebrating their 9th birthdays – Deal Architect this month, its younger sibling New Florence in March. Together, they represent my longest “book” – 9,000 posts long. It’s been quite a run. In many ways they are ying.

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What I Learned by Flipping the MOOC

Steve Blank

'Two of the hot topics in education in the last few years have been Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s) and the flipped classroom. I’ve been experimenting with both of them. What I’ve learned (besides being able to use the word “pedagogy” in a sentence) is. 1) assigning students lectures as homework doesn’t guarantee the students will watch them and 2) in a flipped classroom you can become hostage to the pedagogy.

Lean 326
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A Sneak Peak at Some LA Startup Energy

Both Sides of the Table

'Mark. You disappeared? What the fork happened to you? And what’s up with this crazy new blog design? Well … more on that next week. I will tell more. But for now … Every year we run a big VC, LP & Tech Summit in Los Angeles (this year downtown) to showcase the best of our community and invite others from around the country. Our event this year will feature many portfolio companies and also emerging LA tech companies such as Tinder & Whisper.

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How to check if your app is addictive enough to make money

The Next Web

'Making money on mobile can be a tricky thing. Having ads on your app is an option, but few companies have truly cracked the perfect mobile advertising strategy, so adding ads to your app will likely be an annoying, disruptive experience to the user. Still, this doesn’t mean having ads on your app won’t make you money; it means you better have an amazing and addictive app.

Mobile 163
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Where To Find The Most Angels To Fund Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

'If your startup is looking for an Angel investor, it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of Angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up. Or does it? Actually numbers and locations are just the beginning. The challenge is to find the right Angel for you, and for your situation. Here are some basic principles: Angels invest in people, more often than they invest in ideas.

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Visualizing the Interactions Between CAC, Churn and LTV

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

'(Guest post by Gordon Daugherty. If you like this, go see his Shockwave Innovations blog ) Anyone that has taken an accounting class or learned basic business financials knows the interaction between key elements of a P&L (revenue, cost, expense) and a balance sheet (assets, liabilities, equity). But it’s surprising to me how many companies with recurring/subscription revenue don’t understand the interactions between the elements that make up customer acquisition cost (CAC), chu