SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. I'll get to service providers in a later post. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." Steve Blank divides the individuals associated with startups as: Founders Early Employees (Employees # 1-25) Later Employees (Employees # 26-125) The reality is that the definition of founder and em

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Not understanding and agreeing what “Entrepreneur&# and “Startup” mean can sink an entire country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. ——— I’m getting ready to go overseas to teach , and I’ve spent the last week reviewing several countries’ ambitious attempts to kick-start entrepreneurship. After poring through stacks of reports, white papers and position papers, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions. 1) They sure killed a ton of trees. 2) With one noticeable exception, governmen

Government 335

Government Silicon Valley Startup Venture Capital 335

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

By now you probably know that Netflix is splitting its business into two parts: its digital streaming business (retains the name Netflix) and its DVD mailing business, which was its original business (to be called Qwikster). If you haven’t read Reed’s explanation of this split make sure you read it (of course, after you’re done with this post ) —> here.

Los Angeles 329

Los Angeles Revenue Retention Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2011

With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 upon us, and the recent financial woes, there seems to be a growing population out there worried about all the people and companies watching to hurt them. Why is everyone so paranoid these days? My plea to entrepreneurs is to recognize it as an opportunity, and go the extra mile to make people’s life better rather than stoke the fires.

Technical Review 235

Technical Review Startup Social Network Software Review 235

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

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

Many of us have fond childhood memories of grocery shopping with the family during weekends; I still recall struggling to lug heavy bags of groceries home from the supermarket, as a young boy, just to prove to my parents I was grown up enough to help. It was character-building for sure, but it wasn’t exactly fun. For most people, shopping for household items and groceries is possibly one of the most troublesome, time-consuming and repetitive activities around.

Singapore 230

Singapore Distribution China Bootstrapping 230

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

The Lean Startup Book launches in just under a week. How many copies will this book sell in its first week – real, hardcover, paper copies? If that number crosses some unknowable threshold, the book will debut as a bestseller, and then an awful lot of people are going to read it. People who would never bother with an entrepreneur’s blog, who may not even see themselves as entrepreneurs: shopkeepers and policy makers, CFO’s and private equity managers, and even future entrepreneurs.

Lean 167

Lean United States Startup SEO 167

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

As part of our Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and for the National Science Foundation, students build a startup in 8 weeks using Business Model Design + Customer Development. One of the problems they run into is building a web site. ——— If you’re an experienced coder and user interface designer you think nothing is easier than diving into Ruby on Rails , Nodes.js and Balsamiq and throwing together a web site.

Lean 334

Lean Web Coder Business Model 334

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually a COO title at a startup is an ego thing.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Due Diligence 325

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

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).

Startup 286

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 286

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

During the recent launch of Blackberry 7 OS in Singapore, Research In Motion (RIM) executives had shared that Southeast Asia was a potential hotbed of application developers with whom they were keen to work with. We took the opportunity to speak to Sarim Aziz, RIM ‘s Team Lead for Developer Relations and ask more about the company’s interest in the burgeoning developer ecosystem in this region. 1.

Developer 207

Developer Asia Thailand Singapore 207

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

I have thought a lot about the issue of how to stimulate a region's entrepreneurship over the years. Today, at the roundtable, we had a discussion around the topic, especially in the context of specific geographies that were represented at the session: Dublin, Ireland, and Kolkata, India. Today, building Internet businesses, or businesses that are primarily marketed through the Internet, is viable for entrepreneurs all over the world.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Ireland India Entrepreneur 124

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

This post is admittedly the outcome of a conversation with a few people over some beers. Some of it is a bit tongue-in-cheek and certainly we are greatly simplifying things. The people around the table included a bunch of us who would be prey in some situations. So, please take this in the spirit intended. The conversation centered around a founder who's key question is "Where Do I Find a Developer for My Startup?

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Fractional CTO Southern California Startup Mobile 296

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

As Finance Fridays continues, we are introducing the concept of the Cap Table. We recognize that we are still at the very early basics stage, but as we are taking a case study approach to this we feel like we have to set up all of the pieces before we get into the messy guts. Hopefully you are staying with us and finding this useful – feedback welcome!

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Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Sales. It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing. This week I had the chance to have an hour-long discussion with Vince Thompson (ran West Coast sales for AOL for 7 years – back in the day when AOL was what Facebook is today) and Mo Ali , who has the awesome Twitter handle @BornToCall – runs sales at This Week In.

Software Review 300

Software Review Sales Due Diligence Startup 300

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. Yet, according to many sources , over 90 percent of all businesses are started and grown with no equity financing, and many others would have been better off without it.

Sweat Equity 255

Sweat Equity Technical Review Entrepreneur Bootstrapping 255

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Leading business information architect and IT entrepreneur Pekka A. Viljakainen’s was recently in town to give a talk and promote his book “ No Fear: Business Leadership for the Digital Age “, and we were fortunate enough to catch him for a short interview to talk about how business leadership in the new digital era. In this interview, Viljakainen also shares some thoughts about entrepreneurship and globalization.

Leadership 206

Leadership Social Media Global Technical Review 206

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Today, September 13, 2011 is launch day ! And, for me, it's literally a launch into a crazy amount of travel. For the next two weeks, I'm going to do as many events, interviews, and talks as I physically can. I hope you'll join me, either in person or virtually. A complete list of book tour stops for the first leg of my journey is below. To stay up-to-date, you can get the firehose of updates by following me on Twitter or for "just the facts" follow me on Plancast.

Lean 155

Lean Seattle Los Angeles San Francisco 155

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Ethernet inventor and generally accomplished tech super-guy Bob Metcalfe gave a great opening keynote talk at this morning's Capital Factory Demo Day in Austin, Texas. The event has been good so far and is live streaming online for free. Metcalfe offered a wide ranging talk to open the day but included some tasty tidbits in the form of two lists: five personal skills that entrepreneurs need to develop in order to succeed in building tech companies that scale and six types of people a startup eco

Technical Review 148

Technical Review Angel Investor Startup Texas 148

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Now that Dick and Jane have added a CTO to SayAhh’s founding team, they’ve turned their full attention to working on their product. Today, we’ll look at the impact of the expenses to date on the P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement. Since SayAhh is in the pre-launch development stage, the company doesn’t have any revenue yet. They also haven’t launched a product, so there is no corresponding “cost of goods sold” – the direct cost of delivering their product.

Balance Sheet 125

Balance Sheet Fractional CTO Burn Rate Salary 125

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. I expected it to be controversial and it was. To be clear, I said that most companies I see pitching have COOs & I don’t have a rule against it. I’ve had several COOs at companies in which I’ve invested. In bringing up the issue I wasn’t “hating on COOs&# – I’m just challenging you to think about whether your CEO + COO structure really provides the right amo

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

Everyone in the business world has heard of the book by Geoffrey A. Moore titled “ Crossing the Chasm ” (1991), but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Most investors and startup professionals expand this concept of focus to apply to key issues of every aspect of strategic and tactical planning in a startup.

Marketing 238

Marketing Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 238

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

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 99

Social Media Small Business Design Media 99

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Join the conversation by adding Mashables Pete Cashmore to your Circles on Google+ Close Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Twitter to get started! Close Mashable Top Stories My Stories Topics People Activity Viral Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video About Mashable Company About Us Advertise Submit News Contact Us Announcements Mashable Follow Resources Guidebooks Lists How To Trending Mashable Awards Subscribe Now Partners W3 EDGE Rackspace Concentric Sky Dynect DNS I

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Auren Hoffman is the CEO of Rapleaf , a personal-data aggregator that has been the subject of a remarkable amount of controversy but is wildly useful as a data provider to must-see apps like Rapportive and Gist. While Hoffman's company may know a lot about you as a web user and person, he knows a lot of people himself the old-fashioned way, in real life.

Silicon Valley 130

Silicon Valley Hiring Technical Review Due Diligence 130

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Introduction This post was originally part of the “ Ask the Attorney ” series I am writing for VentureBeat (one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs). Below is a longer, more comprehensive version. Question My co-founders and I are working on a cool new site, and we’ll be ready to launch in a few weeks. I’ve been reading a lot on the web about incorporation and other legal stuff.

Vesting 89

Vesting Software Review IP Intellectual Property 89

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Boston is a great place to start and build a company. There is a wealth of resources that are unique to this town and a vibrant community of hackers, business people, and investors at various stages in their career. However, Boston is a transient town, especially for the student population that refreshes a large population each year. It’s also surprisingly difficult for students to get plugged-in to everything that is happening in the local tech ecosystem.

Boston 56

Boston Technical Review Community CTO Hire 56

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

During a recent, fairly random project, I had so many interesting insights that relate to the business tips we write about on this blog, I decided to write this week’s post about them. I’ll describe the project I was working on, the process I went through, and then discuss how failure was imperative to my success, and the three key factors I observed for finding flow and experiencing peak performance.

Technical Review 79

Technical Review Australia Database Matching 79

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

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 97

Social Media Small Business Design Media 97

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Top Stories Photo & Video Galleries Top Lists Trending Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video More Topics. People Recommended Mashable Staff More people. Jobs Welcome to Mashable! Sign in with Facebook or Facebook Mashable Social Media All Social Media How-To Facebook Twitter YouTube Google Plus Featured in Social Media Tech All Tech Apps & Software Dev & Design Gadgets Mobile Featured in Tech Business All Business Advertising Marketing Media Small Business Startups Featured in Busi

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

While certainly not every business needs to raise venture financing, it is the path for many high-growth technology startups. Therefore, going down the fundraising path is something many technology entrepreneurs will need to do and a critical step in the development of their business. This can be an intimidating experience so I've put together a list of five tips for raising a venture round.

Cap Table 125

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 125

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Fred Wilson wrote a blog post yesterday called “Real Names” in which he talked about a commenter on his blog who preferred not to comment because he didn’t want to use his real name. It’s all told through a graphic & very short so worth your having a quick read. It’s a powerful concept. The idea of not using one’s real name is something I’ve had to come to understand better through other people providing context.

Social Network 329

Social Network Iran Naming Networking 329

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Foreign visitors to Silicon Valley continually mention how willing we are to help, network and connect strangers. We take it so for granted we never even to bother to talk about it. It’s the “Pay-It-Forward” culture. ——-. We’re all in this together – The Chips are Down. in 1962 Walker’s Wagon Wheel Bar/Restaurant in Mountain View became the lunch hangout for employees at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley Finland IP Cofounder 335

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

My name is Bryan Clark and I am a professional writer and blog editor in the tech, entrepreneurship, finance and digital lifestyle fields. I have written before for Entrepreneurs Journey in 2007 and I’m happy to say I am back with a new column starting today. In this article I will talk about what is needed to produce a quality product, which includes four main elements: location branding marketing customer service I’m never sure what the appeal is, but every time the falafel truck p

St. Louis 77

St. Louis Los Angeles Chicago Technical Review 77

crowdSPRING Blog

SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

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 92

Social Media Small Business Design Software Review 92

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

A while back, when a startup founder mentioned to me that he wasn’t sure he had the personality to be an entrepreneur, I realized how important that insight was. My first thought is that if you are more annoyed than energized by expert advice, team suggestions, and customer input, then you should probably avoid this line of work. Actually, it’s more complicated than that, but that’s a good start.

Management 315

Management Startup Restful Entrepreneur 315

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

At today's roundtable, we had entrepreneurs presenting from Brazil, Israel and India. In fact, I was pleased to even see an entrepreneur from Kolkata, India, the city in which I was born and raised. Estate Lister. First up, Siddhesh Joglekar from Mumbai, India, pitched Estate Lister , a real estate portal along the lines of Zillow, targeted to the Indian market.

Brazil 115

Brazil India Israel Entrepreneur 115