View from Seed
APRIL 14, 2020
For the last several years, the early stage investing market was driven largely by the F ear O f M issing O ut, AKA FOMO. This led to a number of repercussions that most VC’s have lamented during this time, including higher prices, larger rounds, shoddy due diligence, and many companies raising large sums of venture capital that probably aren’t suited to VC funding.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 13, 2020
If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. The same applies to manufacturing and almost any process these days. Outsourcing is defined as contracting the work to another company, usually located in a developing country, like India, China, or Eastern Europe.
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Steve Blank
APRIL 16, 2020
Sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, my coffees with current and ex-students (entrepreneurs, as well as employees early in their careers) have gone virtual. Pre-pandemic these coffees were usually about what startup to join or how to find product/market fit. Though in the last month, even through Zoom I could sense they were struggling with a much weightier problem.
deal architect
APRIL 15, 2020
Alex Shootman, CEO of Workfront is one of my favorite tech execs because he is always positive - and that in an authentic way. I had enjoyed his book, Done Right (my review here) because he had so many examples.
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
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 24, 2020
It’s true that right now is a tough time to be in the retail industry. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, most of the United States is in a lockdown and many businesses have had to close. If you’re a retail company that gains the majority of your business from people walking into your storefront and walking out with your product, then this puts you into a tough spot.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 6, 2020
There is so much confusion and misinformation out there about the government sponsored “payroll protection plan” loans to companies that the heads of every small business CEO in the country must be spinning. We have been advising a lot of entrepreneurs so I thought I’d “open source” some of the advice I have been sharing. I am not claiming to be the world expert on this.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 11, 2020
Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. In reality, more features will more likely make the product confusing and less usable to all. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers.
Steve Blank
APRIL 1, 2020
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. It’s been updated with new information about the U.S. Paycheck Protection program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. What cashflow-negative companies must do to survive. We’re in uncharted territory with the Covid-19 pandemic. But it’s increasingly looking grim.
Hunter Walker
APRIL 17, 2020
Our friendship began as many do – in a bar a few days after I’d been told that Lenny (a) just left airbnb and (b) was smart. Upon receiving the tip I clicked over to his Twitter profile where I saw that indeed he had left airbnb and that he was clearly super duper smart because he already followed me. A DM-slide and poof! cocktails and product management war stories ensued.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 28, 2020
As beginners, it’s easy to jump straight into designing a website’s interface. However, working offline should be carried out first to generate a good foundation that you can build on. You can use this time to inform your web design, add more structure to simplify your design process, and articulate a clear purpose for the entire design. Of course, one crucial consideration is user experience.
ConversionXL
APRIL 28, 2020
You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you get a calendar invite for an all-hands meeting—with no warning or context? I got one of those in 2018, mere months after I started at data.world as their first growth marketing and demand generation hire. My initial role was to grow the user base for our free, open-data catalog. But I soon found out our real challenge was monetization.
Up and Running
APRIL 9, 2020
What is Cash Flow? Cash flow measures how much money is moving into and out of your business during a specific period of time. Broadly speaking, businesses bring in money through sales, financing, and returns on investments—that’s cash flowing in. And they spend money on supplies and services, as well as utilities, taxes, loan payments, and other bills—that’s cash flowing out.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 25, 2020
Did you ever wonder why some entrepreneurs always seem to have all the luck and success, while others never seem to catch a break? As an angel investor, I quickly learned that luck has very little to do with it, and I now look for some personal characteristics and leadership styles that separate the potential winners from the losers. These differences are the reason that investors say that they invest in people, rather than ideas.
Startup Lessons Learned
APRIL 22, 2020
Over the past few weeks, I have recorded a series of conversations with people leading the way out of this mess. They range from prominent CEOs and investors to scientists and builders. Many of them I have had the privilege of working directly with on relief efforts, and their example is what has kept me going in dark times - and inspired me to take action.
The Startup Magazine
APRIL 15, 2020
Many fail to understand the importance of project management in meeting key business goals. After all, even those who work on a given project may not see the complexity of tasks involved in the broader effort. Managing employees, time and budget are the primary concerns, but among that, keeping track of every little detail is a concern for project managers.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 16, 2020
by LJ Suzuki of CFOshare. First, take a deep breath. Exhale. Do it again. Count 6 things in the room around you: computer, a glass of water, my bookkeeper looking panicked…. Once you have achieved a calm headspace, take a survey of your cash position: How much cash is left? Is it enough to cover payroll? If no…. When is the next payroll due? If you answered “no” to #2, you need to scramble to get cash in time for #3.
YFS Magazine
APRIL 11, 2020
Launching a new website? Here are five website design trends the 99designs community forecasts to dominate web design this year and beyond.
Hearpreneur
APRIL 15, 2020
Being in love is great. Being in love with your business, when you’re an entrepreneur, is even better. Waking up each morning knowing you are getting to do exactly what you love is more than most people could ever say about any “job” they have had. Although there are days when tossing in your hat seems like a viable option, remembering how much you love your “job” can quickly snap an entrepreneur out of that mentality.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 1, 2020
Attracting the right customers is the key to success in business, whether you have a new startup or a mature enterprise. In my role as an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often see struggling businesses trying to be too many things for too many people, resulting in customer confusion, initiatives executed poorly, and high costs, few customers, and slow growth all around.
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 7, 2020
The entrepreneur’s path is challenging and exciting. It requires your full commitment and a sincere desire to scale business as you evolve too. It is a continuous process of stepping beyond your own limits and bringing innovation for the world to see. The moment when you start feeling your limits often means that you are close to your individual breakthrough and business growth.
The Startup Magazine
APRIL 21, 2020
According to the US Small Business Administration, startups and small businesses numbered around 30.2 million in the United States in 2018. That number accounts for about 90% of the total number of businesses in the United States. For most of these businesses, there’s usually staffing problems due to limited resources, which means one has to source for alternative services at the best price.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 17, 2020
by Melanie Parish, MCC, author of “ The Experimental Leader: Be a New Kind of Boss to Cultivate an Organization of Innovators “. These are crazy times we are living in. As a leader, during COVID -9 (or any crisis) it can be hard to find your feet and to feel confident in your path. You may feel inadequate, unsure and out of your depth. That is to be expected.
Version One Ventures
APRIL 8, 2020
The last couple of weeks have been quite a test for cryptocurrency markets in general and DeFi in particular. On Black Thursday (March 12), BTC/ETH prices declined by ~50% and DeFi’s flagship project, MakerDAO, ended up with ~$5 million USD in unbacked DAI. You can read Tom Schmidt’s excellent postmortem of what happened here. This event was a powerful reminder that while DeFi is extremely exciting in the long-term, it’s still very much in the early adopter experimental phase.
Austin Startup
APRIL 23, 2020
It’s easy to scare people. It’s harder to “unscare” them (in fact unscare is not a word). Customers will need more than permission to return to restaurants and other businesses that were closed because of a virus they know is still circulating. In a Gallup poll , only 20% said they would return back to normal activities immediately after restrictions are lifted.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 29, 2020
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 fellow 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.
VC Cafe
APRIL 29, 2020
Several European countries started announcing ‘Exit Plans’ from the current lockdowns. But as the world is starting to flatten the curves, the economic impact is just beginning. Earlier this week the NVCA (North American Venture Capital Association) issued a white paper detailing the impact of the current capital crunch on startups: Expect more layoffs (currently over 30,000) according to this layoffs tracker and expected to grow for up to 10%-50% as startups struggle to secure fundi
Up and Running
APRIL 28, 2020
For many of you, it’s likely that you’re just finishing up your fourth or fifth full week working from home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Working remotely, especially for your first time, can be challenging to adjust to. Stationed in the comfort of your recliner with the fridge just a room away is appealing, but it has its drawbacks. Endless texts, calls, and remote meetings, children or pets wanting to play, and countless other distractions can make it difficult to separate your home l
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 21, 2020
Modern businesses rely on technology to support their operations. Recent studies concluded that over 80% of business-related information and other resources are now stored in the cloud. The availability of cloud infrastructure through services like AWS and GCP means even home businesses can leverage the power of cloud computing to streamline business processes.
The Startup Magazine
APRIL 2, 2020
Entrepreneurship is the dream of many people who want to bring big ideas to life and turn startup ventures into massive industry powerhouses. But it’s also about business paperwork. There will be plenty of it early and often during your entrepreneurial journey, but rather than look at it as a headache you should consider the many ways in which it will help protect you, your family, and the company as a whole.
Version One Ventures
APRIL 14, 2020
It’s been over five years since my friend Jonathan Libov and I wrote a blog series on digital healthcare. I revisit these posts every so often – most recently, when I wrote the 2020 edition of our areas of interest in healthcare. Each time I go back, I’m reminded that despite so much development in digital healthcare technology and infrastructure, we have yet to see mainstream scale. .
Duct Tape Marketing
APRIL 23, 2020
Elevate Your Brand Visually with Easy Design Editing written by Jenna Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Payman Taei. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview the founder of Hindsight Interactive and Visme , Payman Taei. Payman’s background in Biology has led him to truly believe in the art of evolution.
Transformify
APRIL 13, 2020
Most people associate DHL with logistics, and few are aware of the fact that DHL ESS team develops Enterprise Software Solutions. What is even more interesting is that DHL Freight opted to base its first and only R&D team in Sofia, Bulgaria. " DHL ESS plays a fundamental role in the Freight Transformation program, aiming at harmonize the existing operational, financial and reporting processes and replace the legacy systems with state-of-the art standards operating procedures and technolo
Up and Running
APRIL 30, 2020
We used to call it “what-if” but today it’s known as “scenario analysis.” It’s been a favorite management tool of mine since my time as VP for a market research firm, and it’s a method I used for decades growing a software company from zero to well over $10 million in annual sales. Today, with the COVID-19 crisis upon us, it’s the best way to move forward through rising uncertainty.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 6, 2020
Advancements in technology have made virtually every aspect of our lives easier. In both our work and personal lives, we wield smartphones to do things faster and more efficiently, from ordering shopping to scheduling appointments, paying bills and creating invoices. It’s become so easy to manage our affairs in the digital realm that we rarely stop to appreciate just how easy it is.
Steve Blank
APRIL 27, 2020
Over the last month billions of people have been unwilling participants in the largest unintentional social experiment ever run – testing how video conferencing replaced face-to-face communication. While we’ve discovered that in many cases it can, more importantly we’ve discovered that, regardless of bandwidth and video resolution, these apps are missing the cues humans use when they communicate.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 8, 2020
Whether you are an entrepreneur managing a startup, or a corporate executive with thousands of employees, it’s hard to ignore the evidence of big value from happy employees. According to a classic study from Deloitte , happy employees have been shown to be up to 20 percent more effective in the workplace than unhappy employees, as well as far more loyal and productive.
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