May, 2017

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Startups – Integrating Security Mindset and Processes Early

YoungUpstarts

by Quan Heng Lim, Cyber-Operations Consultant at Horangi. “The Lean Startup.”. “Fail Fast, Pivot.”. “Agile Methodology.”. The trend today is for teams and projects to be flexible, adaptable, continuously reassessed and developed to ensure that products and/or companies fit market demand. In the chase to produce the best minimum viable product or to push out the next killer feature, security is often given the backseat.

Security 206
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5 Steps To Startup Success Recommended By Many Gurus

Startup Professionals Musings

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 161
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5 Lessons Learned Launching a Startup With No Plan, No Cash, and No MBA

Up and Running

In the summer of 2009, my wife and I caught the entrepreneurial bug and started a company without any prior business experience. We’d never hired anyone. We’d never had anyone pay us for a product or a service. We didn’t know anything about small business accounting or finance. We didn’t even know how to write a business plan. I had some limited knowledge about search engine marketing, but knew nothing about marketing in a more general sense.

Startup 119
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A Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting Competitive Analysis

ConversionXL

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” —Napoleon Bonaparte. When your competitors make mistakes, it makes winning so much easier. But what if it’s you who is making a mistake, while your competitors are off to the races? You won’t know until you figure out what your competitors are up to. Knowing what the competitors are doing – how they are thinking about the market, what tactics they are using, how they are crafting messages and design – can make all the differen

SEO 131
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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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The Very Best Digital Metrics For 15 Different Companies!

Occam's Razor

The very best analysts distill, rather than dilute. The very best analysts focus, when most will tend to gather. The very best analysts are display critical thinking, rather than giving into what’s asked. The very best analysts are comfortable operating with ambiguity and incompleteness, while all others chase perfection in implementation / processing / reports.

Metrics 143
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9 Tips to Increase Profit NOW from Leading E-Commerce and Online Retail Experts

Mike Michalowicz

What I love about the E-Commerce industry is that it provides opportunity for everyone. It’s a great business leveler. The continual innovation of technology and product can provide infinite scalability for an Online Retailer. Plus there’s an industry wide openness and willingness to share what they have already learnt with those new to selling online.

Global 87

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Why You Should Enlist a Business Mentor, Or Be One

Startup Professionals Musings

Building a business is not rocket science, so there is no magic success formula. Some people think you need to get an MBA to get it right, while others are convinced that those who drop out of school early (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg) have the advantage. In my experience working with startups, the best approach these days is to find and use a good mentor (been there, done that).

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You’ve Got Funding: 5 Things to Do With the Money Right Away

Up and Running

Your funding has been approved with the bank or granted via investors—congratulations! Now, the really fun part can begin: the spending. You may have a sudden, overwhelming desire to spend to your heart’s content, but it is important to act responsibly and follow the spending plan laid out in your business plan if your business is to survive its critical early years.

SBA 82
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The Complete Guide to Writing Product Descriptions That Convert

ConversionXL

Most product descriptions are awful. Or worse, non-existent. Product copy and product descriptions seems like such minor parts of a website in the grand scheme of conversion optimization , so many brands brush it off. But for companies doing it right, writing excellent product descriptions is a great way to sprinkle brand personality in a place that most people don’t expect it.

Product 104
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Awesome Austin Tech Events, May 8–15

Austin Startup

The Forrest Four-Cast: May 7, 2017 The strength of the Central Texas technology / startup scene helps SXSW thrive as an epicenter of innovation. Some of the most interesting events in Austin for the week of May 8 through May 14 are as follows: Mon, May 8 thru Thurs, May 11: OSCON OSCON brings the software engineering and developer community together to explore what’s new and useful in open source languages, tools, and techniques.

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What’s our NPS as investors?

Version One Ventures

A few weeks ago, Forbes released their annual Midas List of Top Tech Investors , recognizing those investors who have backed unicorns and seen strong returns for their funds. For these investors, their success is partly due to the fact that they are good pickers and can see opportunities like Uber and Airbnb. But there’s more to it than that. Great investors are at the right place at the right time by being thought leaders and generally solid and helpful individuals.

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Estimating App Development: What Small Businesses Need To Know?

YoungUpstarts

by Julia Kravchenko, partner and VP of HR at Qubit Labs. “Why don’t we make an app?”. Obviously, if you open this article you are also interested in creating the one. If we look through the statistics, it’ll show us that mobile phones are gradually becoming more and more popular. They follow the way of websites: a couple of decades ago having a page in the internet was considered to be luxury, though now you cannot surprise customers with online presence.

Developer 178
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What’s the Difference Between Small Business and Large Enterprise SEO?

Duct Tape Marketing

What’s the Difference Between Small Business and Large Enterprise SEO? written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Big data and cloud-based software have definitely helped level the playing field for businesses of all sizes. Yet, despite easy access to data and improved large-scale management capabilities, small businesses still have to approach some parts of their business differently.

SEO 65
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13 Ways to Ensure You Always Hire the Right Person

Up and Running

Here at Palo Alto Software , we take hiring pretty seriously. I should know—we just wrapped up a lengthy hiring process within the marketing department. After months of searching, dozens of interviews, and sifting through countless resumes, we finally hired a new managing editor for Bplans. This prolonged interview approach wasn’t due to a lack of qualified candidates, but rather a strong desire to make sure that the candidate we chose to fill the role was a great fit on all levels, from a skill

Hiring 105
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How to Hack Growth When Growth Stalls

ConversionXL

One of the greatest threats to long-term success is when companies aren’t vigilant enough about responding to the changes in their market—whether it’s by failing to spot product or channel fatigue, acknowledge new competition, make needed updates to products or marketing adjustments in a timely fashion, or embrace new technology coming online. Editor’s Note: this piece is an excerpt from Hacking Growth.

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The Talent Paradox

deal architect

Phil Fersht wrote a cheerful (not) post this weekend where he asks Is our sole purpose now simply to eliminate people? We spend a couple of decades displacing "expensive" workers because we could find less expensive able ones to do.

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My Talk at MIT: Beyond Finance, Considering Business and Social Impact of Blockchains

thebarefootvc

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a conference entitled “Business of Blockchains” that the MIT Technology Review and MIT Media Lab organized in Cambridge. One of the reasons I started investing in the blockchain space 4 years ago was the rush I got learning about the tech at my first bitcoin conference – akin to the chills I got when I first logged into the Internet in 1994, when I was deeply passionate about more equal access to education.

Finance 53
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Should You Outsource Your Company’s Mobile App Development? Here’s Why You Should

YoungUpstarts

Mobile applications are paramount for the success of marketing campaigns today. While the existence of a company app is not something that has gotten to the level of the website, where not having one is instant marketing doom, it’s not far from it. While not having an app is still something you can get away with as a company, it’s something that will keep you from gaining a considerable amount of extra profit.

Mobile 150
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How can Visual Search Change SEO for E-Commerce?

Duct Tape Marketing

How can Visual Search Change SEO for E-Commerce? written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. The visuals of a website attract more users than a mere text. A web page that is facilitated with images, videos and infographic earn 94% more views than the one having a bulk of the textual content. The more the people are engaged in your eCommerce business, the more they place orders, and the more you earn.

SEO 56
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How to Position Your Business to Be Acquired

Up and Running

A lot of people start their business with dreams of one day potentially selling it or having it acquired. If you are just starting out as an entrepreneur or you have a business idea you want to pursue, you may be wondering why you even need to think about selling your business at this stage. Even if you aren’t planning to sell, building your business thoughtfully and with an eye toward making it highly acquirable is an effective way to build a healthy business.

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Customer Data Platforms: The Next Big Shift in SaaS Marketing Stacks?

ConversionXL

I’m sure you consider yourself data-driven. You make decisions based on data. Problem is, most companies aren’t using their data to the capacity they could be. It’s almost a universal problem, and it means you’re leaving money on the table. You see, the current structure of the modern marketing stack leads to a large amount of data fragmentation.

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PowerPlex celebrating the American Mittelstand

deal architect

I leave every visit with Plex invigorated. Last week their user conference, PowerPlex in Atlanta was no different. Each time they showcase a growing number of customers – the majority are mid-sized US manufacturers. Plex now supports 566 customers, with.

Atlanta 279
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The Surest Sign You’re Winning is When Goliath Takes a Swing at You

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve been involved with several startups where a giant incumbent attacks you and tries to sue you out of existence. When you first receive the threat it feels like the local pizza shop when they first get a call from the local mafia boss and you can feel the shake-down coming. The first instinct is fear, then dread, then panic. You begin to think about how hard it will be to fund raise, sign customers, hire employees, etc. with the cloud of a lawsuit hanging over you.

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Three Innovative Ways To Fund Your Startup

YoungUpstarts

“You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible.” – Paul Graham. Have you ever considered working for yourself; ergo, opening your own startup? There is little doubt that, for a lot of people, self-employment, albeit riskier than full-time employment, is preferable than working for a boss.

San Diego 138
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4 Onsite SEO Tips You Can’t Put Off in 2017

Duct Tape Marketing

4 Onsite SEO Tips You Can’t Put Off in 2017 written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Chances are you have more SEO opportunities than time in 2017. If you’re having trouble prioritizing your SEO needs for the year, read on for four onsite SEO tips that will have the most impact on traffic and sales from organic search this year. 1 – Optimizing Mobile SEO & User Experience.

SEO 58
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How Andela Finds and Trains World-Class Engineers in Africa [Traction #41: Christina Sass]

View from Seed

Christina Sass is co-founder and COO of Andela, a company that locates, trains, and staffs world-class engineers in Africa for hire by tech companies in the US and elsewhere. They’ve sparked a movement, cracked the code on finding great coders, and have attracted investors like Mark Zuckerberg. Visit andela.com to learn more, or follow Christina at twitter.com/sasschristina.

Africa 227
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7 New Business Ideas Whose Time Has Come and Gone

Startup Professionals Musings

As an angel investor, I sometimes worry that all the viable unique ideas must already be taken. Entrepreneurs keep talking to me about the Internet of Things (IOT), autonomous vehicles, inter-planetary travel, and other exciting opportunities, but the majority of real plans I get seem to be “me too” variations of several common themes that have already been done too many times.

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Going to SapphireNow

deal architect

After sitting out SAP’s event the last few years I am going to the event next week for a couple of days. Here’s why: I have been getting requests to update SAP Nation. I have to been reluctant to do.

Software 247
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Not sure?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Not sure? Yes you are. You’re just scared. Which is understandable. But you’re sure. Is employee #2 not working out, or does she maybe just need more time? If you have to ask, you know the answer, you just don’t want to do the difficult thing. But doing the difficult things — not the easy things — is what will define your organization and could be the difference between success and failure, because that person is taking a seat, and every seat has to be filled by a powerhouse.

Hiring 215
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3 Keys To Being A Great Leader In Your Company

YoungUpstarts

by Norman McBrien, co-founder and Head of Operations of GoConqr. The efficient management of a business requires a lot of sacrifice and perseverance, since to be a good leader you must get actively involved in the project you manage and have a close working relationship with your workforce. The small details in the day to day are the ones that make the difference between a great boss and a mediocre one, so it’s advisable to be surrounded by the best resources and to absorb all the advice you can

Cofounder 180
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Transcript of Should Chatbots Be a Part of Your Marketing Strategy?

Duct Tape Marketing

Transcript of Should Chatbots Be a Part of Your Marketing Strategy? written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Transcript provided by Verbatim Transcription Services. Back to Podcast. Transcript. John: The bots are coming and they will take no prisoners. Today we’re going to talk about chat bots with Ben Beck on this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.

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3 Reasons Why Great Design Matters To Your Brand

Brandanew

It’s easy to get lost in the day to day workings of your Startup or small business. It’s much harder to find time to hone your online presence and evaluate what’s working. Most people think of content as the mainstay of good brand experiences. But most of us tend to ignore that content includes great design. You do not want your consumers to find your content.

Design 178
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When To Enlist A Board Of Directors Or Advisory Board

Startup Professionals Musings

Many entrepreneurs I know are confused by definition and need for an Advisory Board versus a Board of Directors. Some view both of these as a waste of time and burden on the CEO, while other founders surround themselves with insiders and cronies in an attempt to expedite and add credibility to their own interests. I suggest a few simple considerations will clarify the alternatives.

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A new era in IT

deal architect

Max Hopper, writing in HBR in 1990 talked about the then IT “Hall of Fame” including SABRE, American Airlines’s reservation system, which eventually became a computerized reservation system (CRS), and Apollo, the other leading CRS, transformed marketing and distribution in.

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Satisficing vs Maximizing

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

“Maximizing” means expending time and effort to ensure you’ve solved something as best as possible. It requires exploration and analysis to ensure “the best” option hasn’t been overlooked, and that we have confidence in our evaluation of all options. “Satisficing” means picking the first option that satisfies the requirements.

Software 182
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7 Key Risk Areas During Optimization Of ERP Implementation

YoungUpstarts

Businesses that use Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, are usually in a better position to manage all their critical operations under one platform. Often, the businesses will require optimizing the ERP if they have to make an impact on the operations. However, this optimization effort may draw other risks which limit the productivity of the business.