SoCal CTO
APRIL 27, 2011
Several people have recently come to me to help them source and/or hire full-time CTOs for their startup having found me through my post that looks at: Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data. The first thing I do is suggest they explore if they really need to hire a full-time CTO for their startup and if so, what kind of CTO they need. There's a lot on my blog already around this topic.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
APRIL 25, 2011
Everyone says small startups require focus. Say “no&# to anything that distracts from your goal, your vision, your strategy, tempting though it is to explore all opportunities, hoping each time that this is the one that will catapult you from Mixergy listener to Mixergy interviewee. Lack of focus results in half-assed initiatives, each interrupted by apparently greener pastures before you’ve invested the time and devotion it deserves.
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Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 13, 2011
Brad Feld is a fountain of knowledge & wisdom. I had the chance to sit down with him for an hour and ask him loads of questions that I thought you’d enjoy hearing. If you have time check out the video (or download on iTunes – Episode 27 - and listen at the gym or on your commute!). Or, as always, summary notes available below. Huge thank you to Steve De Long for the write up.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 21, 2011
In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business card you gave me last week. That’s just wrong. We need instant access to the most important of all resources, current contact info. Too many of us have piles of business cards scattered around the office and home, as well as additional contacts on your cell phone, PDA, Outlook, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
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
Steve Blank
APRIL 4, 2011
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part four. Part one is here , two is here and three is here. Syllabus is here. Week 4 of the class. Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Value Proposition (their company’s product or service.) This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyer
Startup Lessons Learned
APRIL 25, 2011
It’s been just over a year since the inaugural Startup Lessons Learned conference , and it’s time to do it again. Steve Blank called last year’s conference “ Woodstock for entrepreneurs ” and my goal is do even better this year. (If you somehow missed SLLCONF 2010 , you can get caught up with a complete video recording here.) The Lean Startup movement has made tremendous progress in the past year.
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ReadWriteStart
APRIL 15, 2011
It's not easy to build a great Web application. While open-source tools, readily available APIs, social platforms and cloud hosting providers have made it easier in many ways, being a Web entrepreneur is still not for the faint of heart. It's challenging to build, design and deploy software. It's also challenging to attract and retain a loyal community of customers and users.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 4, 2011
You Manage What you Measure. One of the things I discuss the most with the portfolio companies I’m involved with is that “you manage what you measure.”. It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Having a set of metrics that you watch & that you feel are the key drivers of your success helps keep clarity.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 29, 2011
The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation.
Steve Blank
APRIL 21, 2011
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment with a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. With two weeks and two more updates to go, this post is part six. Parts one through five are here , Syllabus is here. While we’ve been pushing hard on the teams, this week the teaching team was about to get its socks blown off. All the teams were showing us what agile looked like, but this week several would remind us what focused and relentless really meant.
K9 Ventures
APRIL 27, 2011
Note: All information contained in this post is based on my best understanding and perception of what transpired. I have confirmed with the founders that none of the information contained herein is deemed confidential and is therefore fair game for me to share in this post. In April 2008, I was introduced to Ugmode, Inc. (thanks to my advisor Terry Winograd ).
Startup Lessons Learned
APRIL 11, 2011
The Lean Startup Machine looks a lot like reality television for startups. It's intense, the teams go head-to-head, the protagonists live and learn, and it's all very entertaining. But there is something serious at work, too. I have written previously about how powerful the these events are as a teaching tool for Lean Startup principles. While I was in New York, I had another opportunity to witness this firsthand, and I wanted to share the results with you.
crowdSPRING Blog
APRIL 7, 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!
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 16, 2011
It’s easy to think that the wife of a well-known & successful VC ( Fred Wilson ) would have had an easy and storied life of wealth and privilege. I had previously had the opportunity to spend time with Joanne Wilson , Fred’s wife, and knew otherwise. That’s why I was so interested in having “ The Gotham Gal &# come on This Week in VC ( video link on YouTube , download iTunes, episode 15) ) and dispel those myths.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 20, 2011
The best survival guides tell you how to be proactive and avoid the probabilities of ending up in a worst case scenario. Of course you need to learn how to recognize a bad situation before it bites you, and you need to know all the secret ways to wiggle your way out, before you succumb. The challenges stem from the simple fact that every entrepreneur is starting something new, where things are predictably unpredictable.
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 5, 2011
In my last post on ReadWriteStart, I talked about how, in many cases, it wasn't an advantage to build your start-up in stealth mode. As a continuation of that theme, I thought it would be interesting to explore five tools you can use to iterate and improve your startup idea before writing one line of code. There is nothing worse than building a tool no one is interested in, so I'd encourage you to consider these options before starting down the path of building your next startup.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 1, 2011
I take a ton of meetings with people asking me about opportunities in our portfolio. For a lot of people, I feel like I’m the one being asked to do the work of finding them something. For a select few people, they understand that startups need a lot of help, and fall in love with the people who are motivated and show that they can offer help right off the bat.
Start Up Blog
APRIL 28, 2011
A few soundbites from the future: Leadership: It’s no longer about being king of the mountain, it’s about being center of the circle. Prof Joseph Nye author of Soft Power. Woman will lead the 21 st century, or at least a feminine social and business ethic. The 20 th century was very male centric. This has flipped with the rise of social facilitation.
crowdSPRING Blog
APRIL 13, 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!
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 19, 2011
I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. You can watch him on YouTube , download in iTunes (for gym or commute) 3/31/11 edition.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 2, 2011
By Ernst H. Gemassmer Startups struggling for survival are not uncommon, due to economic changes, management problems, or product issues. If these challenges can’t be resolved by the existing team with “course corrections” or “pivots,” an investor will often bring in an experienced CEO to tackle the turnaround before or after bankruptcy. This is a hard and painful process for everyone, but it’s usually better than the alternative of liquidating or losing the assets and antagonizing many customer
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 5, 2011
One of the best part of my jobs as a technology journalist is getting to hear founders' stories. I have some really great, memorable experiences of talking to entrepreneurs - not just about what they're building, but why. Sometimes these are stories that, in turn, end up in the articles I write. Sometimes they're not - off topic, off the record, and what have you.
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 29, 2011
I had an interesting conversation with an entrepreneur last week about how he decided which VCs he was going to pitch. Mostly, it was a function of who he could get introductions to. No matter how much I or any of the team here at First Round made themselves accessable through Office Hours, LinkedIn, Twitter, speaking, blogging, etc., he was always going to go where he already had the warm intro versus going in cold.
VC Cafe
APRIL 8, 2011
VC Cafe asked entrepreneurs to tell us what type of help or support they wish they could get from the venture capital investors. What started originally as how can VCs differentiate themselves to stand out, quickly became an Entrepreneur’s wish list from its VCs. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the entrepreneurs that took time to add, modify and improve this initial list with thoughtful feedback.
crowdSPRING Blog
APRIL 18, 2011
I like doing anything and everything I can over the internet. Some might say this is because I am a college-aged millennial whose social skills have been stunted by technology, but I think it has more to do with the ease, convenience and immediacy the internet provides. Need pad thai at midnight? The internet will prevail. Need to order panda shaped salt and pepper shakers because you forgot to buy your room mate a birthday gift until two days beforehand?
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 20, 2011
If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. They have totally changed the way you run a VC firm, investing heavily in systems & events for their founders that are pushing the boundaries of the way our industry works. One example is that they introduced a program where their founders can pool together shares from their company and exchange them for a small portfolio of other First Round Capital companies.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 6, 2011
I’m sure you have all been frustrated at least once at not being able to get the Internet domain name you want for your company. Who owns all of these names, and should you ever buy one for a premium? The simple answer is that if you want to be found and remembered on the Web, the perfect domain name can easily be worth several thousand dollars. Snagging an unclaimed great one is almost impossible these days because domain "squatters" gobbled up a lot of the catchy real estate several
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 14, 2011
On Saturday, April 9, 2011, I arrived in Chennai at 3 a.m. after a 24-hour journey from California. At 11 a.m., a group of entrepreneurs from TiE Chennai gathered at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Research Park campus, and we spent the next four hours discussing strategy and tactics of early-stage entrepreneurship. TiE Chennai organized a Startup Super Day, during which I delivered the keynote address followed by a live strategy roundtable.
OnlyOnce
APRIL 26, 2011
As I mentioned in a previous post , I write a column for The Magill Report , the new venture by Ken Magill, previously of Direct magazine and even more previously DMNews. I share the column with my colleagues Jack Sinclair and George Bilbrey and we cover how to approach the business of email marketing, thoughts on the future of email and other digital technologies, and more general articles on company-building in the online industry – all from the perspective of an entrepreneur.
Ben's Blog
APRIL 27, 2011
This biography was unauthorized. —Nas, U.B.R. (Unauthorized Biography of Rakim). Great chefs find things in the style, presentation and technique used in a meal that the ordinary diner never sees. Great musicians hear things that casual listeners completely miss. CEOs evaluate other CEOs much differently than the popular press or the general population.
crowdSPRING Blog
APRIL 18, 2011
After almost five years of working closely with a partner in an internet venture, I have had a great deal of time to think about how to do it better. At times it has been as easy as could be – enjoying the work together, assisting one another seamlessly, being greater than the sum of our separate parts and more able than the sums of our separate skills.
Growthink Blog
APRIL 18, 2011
The founders of wildly successful companies - with their world-changing impacts and their awe-inspiring wealth creation - receive much well-earned praise and financial rewards for turning their great entrepreneurial visions into reality. But what about those with 1-2 degrees of separation who also benefit immensely? Angel investors like Andy Bechtolsheim - who put $100,000 into Google in September 1998, a position now worth more than $1.7 billion.
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak
APRIL 25, 2011
It is one thing having an awesome product or service, but if nobody knows about it, how do you expect to sell it? This realization usually happens just before business owners start to consider self promotion and exposure opportunities. There are a number of ways to go about getting your name out there, and forming relationships and connections with other businesses is one very important way of going about it.
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 26, 2011
Crowdfunding has become a popular way to fund a variety of projects, from small-scale endeavors to large-scale , literally earth-shaping efforts. It's still not the accepted or the obvious choice for funding your startup, however. But news that the Austin, Texas-based MicroVentures has successfully raised its first $150,000 for three startups via its crowdfunding platform suggests that these alternatives might be viable after all.
OnlyOnce
APRIL 21, 2011
Backwards. I came to an interesting conclusion about Return Path recently. We’re building our business backwards, at least according to what I have observed over time as the natural course of events for a startup. Here are a few examples of what I mean by that. Most companies build organically for years…then start acquiring others. We’ve done it backwards.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 11, 2011
I recently had the pleasure of spending an hour with Jon Steinberg, president of Buzzfeed , a company who focuses on helping media companies make their content go viral. His words, “we find things on Sunday morning that will be on the Today show on Tuesday morning.&# That’s why people turn up to Buzzfeed. We talked about a lot of great stuff in the video including how to do sales calls and a how a new “culture of writing&# is emerging as a critical skill set in business today.
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