Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2019

Image via Pixabay After a frustrating meeting with a small business client recently who didn’t “have time” for social media, I was surprised to find evidence on the Internet that up to one quarter of small business owners are still hesitant to invest time, money, and effort into a social media strategy. They don’t realize that they are missing out on a great opportunity for “free” promotion, as well as taking a great risk by not listening to what customers are saying, and not monitoring or respo

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 1, 2019

by Hal Gregersen, author of “ Questions Are the Answer: A Breakthrough Approach to Your Most Vexing Problems at Work and in Life “ Creative breakthroughs come about when courageous entrepreneurs dare to reframe the most puzzling challenges by asking different questions. By reframing questions, they dissolve barriers to thinking, like limiting prior assumptions and they channel creative energy down more productive pathways.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

Managing Your Startup Board?—?A Short Presentation I was invited to do a keynote presentation at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit this week in Sausalito. It was an amazing gathering of some of the most ambitious early-stage CEO’s looking to make a dent in fields related to healthcare, biology, AI and other transformative fields. It’s encouraging to know that there are still great VC firms like KV that are looking to make these short of big bets on shaping the future.

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View from Seed

MAY 2, 2019

As the seed stage that atomized and series A rounds have become larger and more traction based, the paths to series A have changed. The baseline path to series A has tends to look something like this: Raise $0?—?$500K in angel or pre-seed funding -> Raise a $2–3M institutional seed -> Raise an A. This is the logical path that one would think is pretty “standard” for early stage companies.

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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

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2019

In tech-savvy times, applications have become a daily part of our lives, from music to data we take help of applications for almost everything we do for example shopping, music, traveling, food and even business. when it comes to businesses, these days they are increasing in size, complexity, and resources, it is getting difficult to […]. The post Importance of Application Software appeared first on ReadWrite.

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Version One Ventures

MAY 23, 2019

Over the past few months, we have been running a series of posts where we profile one of the many incredible operators in our network. These operators are generous enough to share their expertise and wisdom, and we are lucky to do deep dives into unique topics. We’ve already learned about marketplaces from Bala Subramaniam , Head of Fulfillment at Instacart.

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 16, 2019

by Aaron Beashel, Head of Marketing at Qwilr. Working in any project-based industry, you’ll quickly realize that there are so many mismanaged projects. Even with project management software, a well-trained team, and the best of intentions, it’s not uncommon to see projects take much longer than planned and blowing the budget- sometimes by a lot. It’s true, no two projects are exactly the same, but the issues that can affect and potentially jeopardize even the best-laid plans are all quite simil

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Hearpreneur

MAY 15, 2019

Each business has a story. No matter if the business is a Goliath like Wal-Mart, or a local business owned by a couple or family, the business has roots in an idea. For each business owner, the story of their journey can range from monetary needs or the passion for a unique project. Each story is different though the reasons may be the same. No matter the tale, the background behind each and every business is what fuels each and brand.

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Feld Thoughts

MAY 28, 2019

In February 2017 I met Shawn Frayne, one of the founders of Looking Glass Factory , a Brooklyn-based company with ambitions to make holographic interfaces a reality. Their team was scrappy and had sold an impressive variety of volumetric display kits to fuel their R&D efforts, and since our human-computer interface investment theme is one of my favorites, we led their Series A round.

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ConversionXL

MAY 29, 2019

In my experience, I find that teams and organizations report many winning A/B tests with high uplifts, but somehow they don’t seem to bring those uplifts in reality. How come? Five types of A/B test “wins” can exaggerate discovered uplifts. I use the acronym “de FACTO”: F alse winners; A nti-winners; C hanging winners; T ricked winners; O verestimated winners.

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Up and Running

MAY 20, 2019

Writing a business plan can help make sure Office Space doesn’t feel relatable [ source ]. There’s a famous scene in the cult-classic 1999 movie “ Office Space “ where the main character, Peter, is confronted by his boss, Bill. Amidst the dull hum of white-collar cubicle bliss, Bill passive-aggressively asks Peter if he got the memo about putting cover sheets on all “TPS Reports” (if you’ve seen it, you’re probably already chuckling).

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Steve Blank via Flickr by jdlasica 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).

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 13, 2019

by Rene Banglesdorf , author of “ Stand Up: How to Flourish When the Odds Are Stacked Against You “ Aviation has long been thought of as a male-dominated industry, and rightfully so. Pilots, air traffic controllers and grounds crew members have been and still are mostly positions held down by men. Even as you work your way up the ladder, men still significantly outnumber women even in the C suite of aviation.

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Hearpreneur

MAY 28, 2019

Marcelo Ricigliano is the co-founder of 4Geeks Academy , a Miami based coding academy with campuses in USA, Chile and Venezuela. 4Geeks Academy students gain real-world software development skills that traditional education left behind but are required to meet the demands of our digital economy. 4Geeks Academy offers part-time or full-time, always on, bilingual curriculums focused on advanced software skills while providing unmatched job placement assistance.

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The Startup Magazine

MAY 5, 2019

If your graduation date is approaching and you aren’t sure what your next step will be, consider starting your own tech company. It’s one of the best business ideas that gives you the flexibility and the upside you want in a new career. The tech industry is booming, from energy-efficient vehicles to remote-controlled coffee machines. Many industries have a high demand for creative, motivated individuals to apply their talents.

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ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2019

If you’ve ever worked at an agency, you know the value of client education. Results aren’t persuasive if reports seem like a jumble of acronyms. Trend lines aren’t impressive if they track metrics that appear distant from business goals. Client education is central to marketing messaging, too, especially for sellers with long sales cycles. Prospects spend a limited amount of time on your site.

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YFS Magazine

MAY 9, 2019

Let's take a look at common website design mistakes which, when corrected, can be the driving force behind an increase in online sales.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2019

Everyone wants to grow and innovate like Amazon these days. From meager beginnings selling books online back in 1994, Amazon is currently the largest e-commerce retailer and cloud computing platform in the world, and now dominates even the giant Walmart. In my role as a business advisor, I’ve long wondered how to pass their secrets along to other new ventures.

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 27, 2019

by Christopher Grey, co-founder and COO of CapLinked. It’s that time of year again. Thousands of qualified college graduates are getting set to enter the workforce. They were promised that their hard work and diligence will earn them an attractive job and a high chance of success. With ambition, motivation, and dreams, scores of young men and women will forge their way into the business world.

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Up and Running

MAY 22, 2019

Congratulations! Now that you officially have a website , what started as a seed of an idea has grown into a full-fledged business—and the possibilities are endless. Creating your business’ website is an important step whether you plan to sell online or simply point prospective customers toward your brick and mortar location. It’s a platform—one that’s entirely under your own control—for helping customers to discover both your brand promise and what you offer.

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The Startup Magazine

MAY 2, 2019

Before using the services of any company, it is always good to look at the consumer reviews. They can give you a glimpse into what to expect, and whether the service quality is worth your time and money. Reviews are especially important when looking to engage the services of a debt management company. If you are in financial distress, the last thing you want is to deal with a company that will only add to your misery.

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ConversionXL

MAY 8, 2019

Ecommerce marketing often focuses on the bottom of the funnel—remarketing ads for abandoned carts, time-limited email discounts, etc. Yet the average ecommerce conversion rate is between 1 and 3%. The overwhelming majority of ecommerce site visitors are non-purchasers. One key to transition visitors into purchasers is building trust. Social proof and trust seals can do that at the point of purchase.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he’s responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He's been with the firm since its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth, from three employees to 150+ and from $300 million in assets under management to more than $10 billion. He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill

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NZ Entrepreneur

MAY 27, 2019

Wondering how to find the right cofounder but don’t know where to start? Wellington’s Nick Harley shares valuable advice for first time business builders. I like to think I’m a decent footballer, a better than the average golfer and through my experience in the building trade, I can turn my hand to anything practical. I’m also a terrible chess player, crap at computer games and I’d expect most five year old girls to give me a beating at tennis.

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Board Effect

MAY 24, 2019

In the construction world, there’s a standard saying: “Measure twice, cut once.” That’s because once something has been cut, if it’s too short, there’s no way to fix it. In the office world, the standard for emails should be: “Read it twice; send it once.”. Once you’ve hit that send button, you’ve released complete control over what was sent, even if it was sent to the wrong person.

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crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 17, 2019

The top 5 retailers in the US made nearly $230 billion dollars in 2018. ( $228.4 billion to be exact.). They must be doing something right. Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Walgreens, and Home Depot have each built strong brand identities and all benefit from powerful household recognition and strong brand equity. As we wrote previously : A brand is the sum total of the experience your customers and customer prospects have with your company.

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The Startup Magazine

MAY 23, 2019

Online jobs are starting to become obvious options for people who need to stay at home. One of the best choices out there is being a virtual assistant (VA). When you do it right, being a virtual assistant can be an excellent career move. Virtual assistant businesses offer an array of side hustle benefits. Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay. Personal assistants are the people you should hire first.

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ConversionXL

MAY 29, 2019

What does it take to grow a YouTube channel? Is a channel more than the sum of its video parts? Or will a strategy that focuses on videos alone increase subscribers? This post tries to answer those questions. Some solutions are simple—you need a consistent visual presentation on your channel page and across videos. Others don’t distill into tidy bullet points, like choosing a unique angle for storytelling.

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Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 14, 2019

How to Become a Digital Minimalist written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Cal Newport. Podcast Transcript. Today on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I chat with computer scientist Cal Newport. He is a professor at Georgetown University and the author of several books including his latest, Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World.

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Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2019

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures: The Business Model Canvas – to write down all the hypotheses about a new business; Customer Development – a process for testing those hypotheses outside the b

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deal architect

MAY 2, 2019

I find Frank Scavo a great sounding board. He has a way of simplifying things and pushing back when things are buzzword-y. I have quoted him in several books. He has introduced me to case studies I have profiled in.

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Board Effect

MAY 27, 2019

Has being asked to serve on a nonprofit board of directors taken you by surprise? If so, it’s not the best idea to give a firm answer right away. Much more goes into serving on a nonprofit board of directors than most people think. It’s best to do a little research, and maybe talk to some seasoned board directors so that you can ask some important and intelligent questions before accepting a vacant board seat.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2019

My Commencement Speech?—?Life at Your Crossroads Photo by Justin Luebke on Unsplash Crossroads Cal Poly Pomona! What’s up!?! I’m so grateful to be up here addressing you today. Today you’re either here to graduate or support somebody graduating. A graduate is at his or her first major crossroad in life. You are faced with decisions about which road to take.

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View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

Many of us in the seed stage ecosystem have noticed a shift in the way seed rounds are coming together. Historically, seed rounds were syndicated among several different firms. Early seed funds and super-angels typically wrote $250-$500K checks, and rounds of $2–3M would be composed of 3–4 funds collaborating together along with a handful of angels.

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Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 1, 2019

Transcript of Everything You Need to Know About Podcasting written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Back to Podcast. Transcript. This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order. John Jantsch: This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by SEMrush. It is our go-to SEO tool for doing audits, for tracking position and ranking, for really getting ideas on how to get more organic traffic for our clients, co

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Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

I was interviewed by Philip Bouchard , Executive Director of TrustedPeer Entrepreneurship Advisory , about how entrepreneurship education has changed, mission-driven entrepreneurship, and what we’ve learned about corporate innovation. Worth a read. Interview highlights: How is the way that universities teach entrepreneurship evolving? Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford.

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