September, 2021

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7 Reasons That Investors Won’t Fund Inventions Alone

Startup Professionals Musings

Every inventor seems to think their invention is worth a million dollars, but I haven’t seen anyone pay that much for one yet. In fact, I often have to tell aspiring entrepreneurs that their inventions have zero value, at least not until they are put in the context of a business plan, with qualified people committed to executing the plan. Early-stage ideas fall in the same category.

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Web App vs. Website: The Difference That Can Make Or Break Your Business

YoungUpstarts

A website and a web app have a lot in common. But there are several key differences that you should know about when it comes to web development. . The post Web App vs. Website: The Difference That Can Make Or Break Your Business appeared first on Young Upstarts.

Web 244
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How to Optimize SaaS Development Costs

Up and Running

In the last decade, SaaS (Software as a Service) has become a very popular model for new software product development. According to Blissfully’s report, overall spend per company on SaaS has increased by 50% in 2020 as compared to 2018. The largest cost component of establishing a SaaS company is product development costs. This includes the design, development, launch, and enhancement of the SaaS application. .

Cost 158
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22 Entrepreneurs Reveal The Companies They Admire Most For Innovation

Hearpreneur

Innovative is a word often used to describe successful companies. It drives media attention and fosters customer retention rate, which is why most companies strive to have it in their mission statement. It seeks to solve customer problems in a better and modern way and helping such companies edge the competition. One of the companies that's known for innovation is Apple.

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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 State of Creative Automation

VC Cafe

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” Pablo Picasso. Like many other parts of our life and work, creativity, the ability to invent or design something new from scratch, might have seemed like it’s the last job safe from automation/machines. With new advances in AI, creativity is now being transformed by technology and offered as a services for consumers and companies.

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The Future of Naming is Naming for the Future

ReadWriteStart

It’s the rebrand that became a hot-potato issue. Hasbro made headlines when it renamed its classic Mr. Potato Head line to simply Potato Head. This name change was no small fry. The 70-year-old brand made this decision in order to break away from traditional gender norms and allow for families of all kinds to be imagined. “Culture has evolved,” Kimberly Boyd, a senior vice president, and general manager at Hasbro, told Fast Company.

Naming 144

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Five Facts About Learning Management Systems

The Startup Magazine

If you are unfamiliar, learning management systems is a software-based platform that helps with the administration, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. In a nutshell, an LMS helps a school or business deliver their training materials to their employees or students. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

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How to Establish a Relationship Funnel for Long-Term Business Growth

Up and Running

Sales is all about how to get more customers, and relationship funnels prioritize establishing a genuine connection with your customers. These allow you to build your audience’s trust by teaching them and focusing on providing value. They are then ready to be sold the answers to whatever problem they may have. Your prospects will be willing and ready to buy from you if you’ve done a fantastic job of creating and nurturing the relationship before this point.

Sales 152
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Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy that Builds Loyalty and Awareness

ConversionXL

Building loyalty and awareness are top priorities for any social media marketer. And for good reason. The greater your visibility, the more your brand is in front of potential followers. By turning those fans into customers, you can create long-term advocates that spend more money and recommend you to others. In the past, it was possible to achieve these goals through promotion and advertising.

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Why We Invested in Toya

VC Cafe

*by Kevin Baxpehler. At Remagine Ventures we like to say that “we invest in technologies that change how people spend their time and money”. Advancements in technology and changing cultural behaviour are big drivers of this trend and Covid-19 was like pouring gasoline on fire. . As we are spending more of our resources online, we believe that a “new Internet” is being created – with the consumer at its centre – on top of a strong tech infrastructure: 5g/6g, cloud, edge computing, new

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How to Accelerate Innovation in Today’s Digital Workplace

ReadWriteStart

The growth of technology and innovation expands opportunities for making profits. According to Alex O’Byrne of We Make Websites, the pandemic has caused websites to “ become the primary purchase path for many brands—rather than a secondary or alternative method to in-store. ”. The alternative method to in-store methods means merchants need to improve their online retail experience for better sales.

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9 Messages From Sales Training May Save Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Most aspiring entrepreneurs believe that a great idea alone will assure business success. Experts argue that it’s more important to have a great plan, and personal business acumen. Hardly anyone mentions selling principles. Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business.

Sales 348
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Why set up a limited company in Hong Kong?

The Startup Magazine

Hong Kong has attracted many investors for obvious reasons. The favourable tax environment has attracted overseas companies interested in doing business in Hong Kong. In addition to an attractive tax system and a productive workforce for a Hong Kong business, a stable political environment, a productive legal system, and a favourable business environment are other factors that provide many profitable Hong Kong company formation services.

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28 Entrepreneurs Explain Why They Started Their Business

Hearpreneur

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.

Wyoming 127
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A Complete Guide to YouTube Analytics

ConversionXL

With more than 2 billion monthly active users and more than a billion hours of content consumed every day, the right Youtube strategy can increase brand awareness, engagement, and conversions. . But, cutting through the noise can be a challenge. Strategically leveraging YouTube’s robust analytics can help you make data-backed decisions and improve performance.

Analytics 134
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How to Take Care of Yourself While Living Your Digital Nomad Life

Transformify

Although it may seem like life as a digital nomad is all beaches, parties, and a little work in between, this snapshot just isn’t realistic. Life as a digital nomad can be quite lonely, stressful, and overwhelming at times. For instance, missing family and friends back home incessantly. Or frustrating the heck out of yourself trying to learn cultural customs and languages.

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Tapping Into The Power of SMS Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing

Tapping Into The Power of SMS Marketing written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Aaron Weiche. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Aaron Weiche. Aaron is the CEO and Co-founder of Leadferno, a business and text messaging platform to close more leads faster. Aaron is a digital marketing veteran of over 20 years founding and growing both digital marketing agencies and marketing software products.

SMS 101
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5 Ways To Solve More Problems And Grow Your Business

Startup Professionals Musings

As a long-time business advisor, and an investor in startups along the way, I’m always on the lookout for an entrepreneur who is responding first to a problem in the marketplace , rather than bringing a new technology to the market, assuming it will find a problem to solve. I assert that problem solvers are more likely to succeed, since every business comes with plenty of problems.

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5 Ways Your Startup Can Fail Before the End of the First Year

The Startup Magazine

Most people know that starting your own business is a risky venture. What some people don’t quite realize are the pitfalls you can easily fall into. It’s hard to say if there’s a primary reason why a startup can fail. The reasons for startup failure tend to be a combination of things. Source: Flickr. Here are five common ways your startup can fail before the end of the first year.

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Opinion: It’s a startup world

NZ Entrepreneur

Our world is changing, and fast. With the pandemic, climate crisis, global economic shifts and rapidly changing consumer markets, it is clear that many businesses of today will no longer be relevant tomorrow. If we want to maintain and support sustainable economic growth while meeting the broader needs of society, we will need an economy underpinned by innovation and new technologies.

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How to Grow Your App Startup Organically with App Store Optimization (ASO)

ConversionXL

App store optimization (ASO) is about getting your mobile app in front of the right users at the right time. With 2.22 million apps available in the Apple App Store and 2.89 million in the Google Play Store, you need the best possible strategy to help your app stand out. . In this post, we’re sharing how ASO helps you increase traffic and downloads, the specific on-metadata vs. off-metadata factors that matter, and how to leverage ASO mechanics to maximize conversions.

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Tips on How to Make Your Business More Suited to Hybrid Working

Women Entrepreneurs Can

As the pandemic starts to ease and the world slowly starts coming back to life, businesses breathe a sigh of relief. Staff are no longer required to work from home, people are visiting stores again, and everything is gently returning back to normal. However, not everything is as peaceful as it seems. After a fight for survival over the pandemic, businesses are now being faced with a new challenge that they were never prepared for: getting their teams back into the workplace with COVID still in c

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The Changing Venture Landscape

Both Sides of the Table

The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new post-pandemic norm?—?even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed. And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing.

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7 Scenarios Where A Business Plan Is Still An Asset

Startup Professionals Musings

As a startup mentor and investor, I am approached regularly by aspiring entrepreneurs who assert that business plans take too much time, are inaccurate, and rarely add value. They cite sources like Profitable Venture Magazine, “ Why Business Plans are a Waste of Time ” and this Forbes article. From my perspective, much of this advice is urban legend and just plain wrong.

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Building The Ultimate Marketing Engine

Duct Tape Marketing

Building The Ultimate Marketing Engine written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch and Douglas Burdett. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , we’re doing things a little differently. Douglas Burdett takes on the role of guest host and interviews me about my new book launching Sept. 21, 2021 — The Ultimate Marketing Engine: Five Steps to Ridiculously Consistent Growth.

Engineer 101
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Lead and Disrupt

Steve Blank

You think startups are hard? Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what comes next. Charles O’Reilly and Michael Tushman coined the term an “Ambidextrous Organization” to describe how some companies get this simultaneous execution and innovation process right.

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How to Create an Effective Branding Campaign That Inspires a Movement

ConversionXL

Brand is the perception of your company in the eyes of the world. It’s shorthand for who and what you are. Getting branding right gives people a reason to love you, which they’ll reward with loyalty. Getting it wrong, however, can create an impression you may never be able to change. In this article, you’ll learn what’s required to create a branding campaign that strikes the right chord.

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Burning Platform: AI in the Enterprise

deal architect

In this 53rd episode of Burning Platform, we have Roy Altman, CEO of Peopleserv. We draw on his recent experience editing of an issue of Workforce Solutions Review focused on AI (available here) We cover a wide range of angles.

Cloud 397
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State of VC 2.0

View from Seed

This post is inspired by some of the earliest conversations I have had with the team here at NextView and since the beginning of my VC journey. Back in 2018, my colleague Rob wrote a blog post about how the VC asset class is doing. Given that a lot has transpired in that time, I thought it would be fascinating to take another look at some of the ideas of that post and see what has changed in the ensuing 3 years.

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8 Advantages To Building Your Own Startup Prototypes

Startup Professionals Musings

Back in the early 2000s, the Maker Movement took hold in California, based on the emergence of such do-it-yourself (DIY) tools as 3-D printers, and now sites such as SketchUp and Makerspaces have all the tools you need to make almost anything computer related. Thus entrepreneurs were able to build prototypes and design new products without the traditional huge prototyping cost.

Startup 397
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The Less Is Almost Always More Content Strategy

Duct Tape Marketing

The Less Is Almost Always More Content Strategy written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Kate Cooper. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Kate Cooper. Kate is the content strategist at Homeward, a new kind of home finance company. She is a plain language advocate who believes in a less-is-almost-always more approach to content.

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Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition

Steve Blank

For 25 years as the sole Superpower, the U.S. neglected strategic threats from China and a rearmed Russia. The country, our elected officials, and our military committed to a decades-long battle to ensure that terrorists like those that executed the 9/11 attacks are not able to attack us on that scale again. Meanwhile, our country’s legacy weapons systems have too many entrenched and interlocking interests (Congress, lobbyists, DOD/contractor revolving door, service promotion of executors versu

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Never Tell The Truth, Press It Instead

YoungUpstarts

Evan Nierman says one should press the truth - not just stating the facts - but putting the full weight of influence behind a message. The post Never Tell The Truth, Press It Instead appeared first on Young Upstarts.

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Start Your Holiday PR and Marketing Now

Rembrandt Communications

Unless you’re already ahead of the game…. It’s time for back-to-school, and you know what that means! The holidays are approaching fast! Ugh! The Halloween decorations are out. Next will be Thanksgiving and the big winter celebrations. Do you have all of your public relations, or PR, and marketing ready for this year’s holiday season? Yes, the holidays may be months away.

PR 246
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Welcoming Jack Abramowitz to Our Investment Team

View from Seed

I’m excited to announce that Jack Abramowitz has joined our investment team at NextView. He will be based in our office in New York and looking to invest in companies across the US. Although Jack is relatively early in his career, he brings with him a wealth of knowledge as an operator and investor from his experiences at fintech unicorn Better.com, Common Ocean, and Goldman Sachs.

New York 317
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5 Attributes To Look For In Your Perfect Startup Idea

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur wishes that he could predict whether his idea could be the “next big thing,” before he spent his life savings and years of energy on it. Investors, on the other hand, typically don’t even look very hard at the product or service, but prefer to evaluate first the entrepreneur, and secondly the business plan. I define these products and services as “solutions” (customers buy solutions to a problem), but Guy Kawasaki more generically calls them causes, meaning any new idea, compa

Startup 387