Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 7, 2014
'I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. Given customers & sales are the lifeblood of any organization you’d imagine everybody would respect their customers.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 17, 2014
'by Jinesh Parekh, CEO of Ruby on Rails consulting shop, Idyllic Software. Hey there, you amazingly resourceful person. You’re doing everything. You’re coding, testing, fixing issues and managing people. Cheers to you! Or not. You’re the CTO. And you shouldn’t be coding. Wait. Before you berate me, I did not say you shouldn’t know how to code.
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Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 13, 2014
'People who have been followers too long as an employee don’t realize how hard it is to be a leader. Every new entrepreneur has to initiate the right actions to be perceived as a leader in their chosen business domain by their team and by their customers, or the road to success and satisfaction will be lost along the way. Driving these actions are some basic principles that entrepreneurial leaders, such as Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and Evernote CEO Phil Libin, seem to have learned early.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 10, 2014
'The University of Maryland is now integrating the Lean LaunchPad ® into standard innovation and entrepreneurship courses across all 12 colleges within the University. Over 44 classes have embedded the business model canvas and/or Customer Discovery including a year-long course taken by every single one of its bioengineering majors. It’s made a big bang.
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 Lessons Learned
DECEMBER 1, 2014
'Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference The Lean Startup Conference is next week--and now that we can step back and see all the speakers and mentors, we have to say: Wow. When you look through the list , you’ll see big names that we’re very pleased we landed, epic companies we really want to hear from, and people we’re particularly excited to present because they have incredible stories to share--and you won’t hear them anyplace else.
Up and Running
DECEMBER 17, 2014
'As we head toward the new year, you’re likely thinking about setting goals and getting things organized. To help you prep, I’ve collated a list of tools—for both web and mobile devices—that have helped me and others get things done, save time, and work more productively. I should preface this list by saying that I have not included “to do” apps primarily because everyone else does, because there are so many of them, and because they’re all pretty much variations of one another.
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 3, 2014
'By Danielle Tate, CEO of MissNowMrs.com. Do you know what your goal is? Is it happiness, independence, wealth or a combination of those things? The key to success is knowing your specific goal and the steps to achieving it. Waking up each morning with your goal burning in your brain will help you steer your day and life towards its achievement.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 6, 2014
'As a startup mentor, I’m always amazed that some entrepreneurs seem to be an immediate hit with investors, while others struggle to get any attention at all. Finally I realized that Venture Capital and Angel investors are actually humans, despite some views to the contrary. As with most business and personal interactions, first impressions tend to become lasting ones.
Feld Thoughts
DECEMBER 23, 2014
'There is a moment during the exploration of a new relationship where a switch flips and the answer is “I want to do this.” With Mattermark , I remember the moment clearly – I was at The Kitchen in Boulder with the founders (Danielle Morrill, Kevin Morrill, and Andy Sparks) and my partner Seth. I had just put a garlic french fry in my mouth (if you’ve never had them at The Kitchen, they are epic) and looked over at Seth.
Version One Ventures
DECEMBER 18, 2014
'Just like last year , 2014 has been busy and eventful here at Version One. We added 8 new companies to our portfolio: Clio , a cloud-based practice management platform for the legal industry; Dwellable , a mobile-first vacation rentals marketplace; HandUp , a donation platform that lets you give directly to a person in-need; Mattermark , an analytics platform for investing, partnering, selling and marketing; Shippo , an e-commerce shipping solution; and 3 startups that have yet to announce th
Up and Running
DECEMBER 8, 2014
'The idea of starting your own business may sound daunting, but the reality is that the economic downturn has forced a lot of Americans to start working for themselves, either by setting up their own venture, or working as a freelancer. In fact, recent research predicts that 40% of America’s workforce will be self-employed by 2020. That’s 60 million people!
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 19, 2014
'As this is the final roundup before Christmas 2014, I thought it might be nice to show you a gift that you won’t be able to give. Why, you ask? The good folks over atCards Against Humanity offered a special expansion pack for lovers of the game. Unfortunately the limited run sold out in a very short time, but the video above will show you exactly what you missed out on.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 8, 2014
'By Nuno Pereira, Director APAC, OutSystems. It’s not easy being a developer. Back in the early days of personal computers and workstations, the average developer only had to worry about applications that ran standalone on the client machine, or during the early days of the internet, client/server apps. The developer of today, in comparison, now has to worry about building apps that work with multiple browsers, various devices of differing form factors both portable and desk-bound, as well as nu
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 10, 2014
'The world of marketing is changing faster than technology these days. Winning entrepreneurs have long since supplemented conventional print and video “push” marketing with digital online interactive “pull” marketing, and more recently added social-local-mobile ( SoLoMo ) to the mix. Mobile and global are driving all of these in innovative new ways to grow your business.
Feld Thoughts
DECEMBER 22, 2014
'I rarely read physical magazines anymore. I only read in the bathroom and most are things I forget to unsubscribe to or that Amy gives me. Today, I finished the most recent MIT Technology Review where I was reminded about the amazing MIT Science Fiction Society. As a sci-fi nut, I realized I’d screwed up by not having a lifetime membership. So, I’m now trying to figure out where to send my $260 to be a lifer.
Mike Michalowicz
DECEMBER 9, 2014
'If you’re selling products or services online, you know how incredibly important reviews are to getting new business. Your potential customers can’t pick up your product and look it over before they decide to buy, but they can get opinions from others who already bought your product through online reviews. Good legit reviews make a world of difference in making sales.
Hunter Walker
DECEMBER 2, 2014
'One of my favorite aspects of the tech industry is that behind the noise, the tweets, the press headlines, there’s a depth of operator-founders who build amazing, lasting and valuable companies. My friend Russ Fradin is one of those people and my bet is that most of the folks who read my blog don’t know Russ. He’s currently cofounder/CEO of Dynamic Signal which helps companies involve their employees in enterprise social media – he calls it an “OS for advocacy.R
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 12, 2014
'“Make it snow,” says Captain Picard! Have a listen to this wonderful leader’s very own version of this old holiday chestnut. 13 days until Christmas, but who’s counting, anyhow? WE ARE! And now… our weekly roundup of the great links and articles we shared with you over the past week on our crowdSPRING Twitter account (as well as my own Twitter account ).
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 23, 2014
'By Brandon Moxam, Director of Brand Development at U.S. Lawns. When bright-eyed entrepreneurs set out to start their own businesses, they’re often stopped in their tracks by two obstacles: a lack of start-up capital and a lack of experience. Without proper funding and with little experience to demonstrate their credibility, it can be a struggle to achieve sustainable business growth and get their business off the ground.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 17, 2014
'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.
ConversionXL
DECEMBER 4, 2014
'Your conversion rate is not what it could be – and you know you need to do something about it. Should you redesign the whole website? Maybe. Probably not though. It depends. But if you are going to do it, you need to tread very lightly. Website redesigns only work if they are carefully managed and data-driven. Careful – radical website redesigns often backfire.
Up and Running
DECEMBER 16, 2014
'To grow a business, most entrepreneurs know that they should be implementing PR strategies. But where do you start, and what are the best approaches to public relations for an entrepreneur? For this webinar, we were joined by Jennefer Witter, CEO and founder of the Boreland Group, and author of the new book, “The Little Book of Big PR: 100+ Quick Tips to Get Your Small Business Noticed.” We recently featured an excerpt from her book, which offers even more great tips on networking f
David Teten
DECEMBER 29, 2014
'My family and I are in the process of moving to another apartment, and we are thinking through how to design it to promote movement for us and our children. At ffVC, we’ve done this with our “ fitness office ”, which has received great reviews. Both at work and at home, we’re trying to make it as easy and natural as possible for people to raise their fitness level while going about their daily life.
Mike Michalowicz
DECEMBER 23, 2014
'How to improve your business productivity and save thousands of dollars on payroll each year. If you have a business with 10 employees making $10/hour, you will overpay close to $5,000 on payroll this year, according to the American Payroll Association (APA). UNLESS… you use an automated time tracker for employees, that is. Automated time tracking – meaning an automated time capture tool (think online) for your employees – that uploads directly into your accounting or payroll
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 4, 2014
'By John McGee, President of OptifiNow. According to VentureBeat, marketing automation software only has 3% adoption in non-tech companies. This is an incredible hurdle for sales professionals to overcome, but one that must be met and conquered head on for success. If a company is lacking the IT support it should have to boost marketing and sales results, the burden of filling the gaps falls on the shoulders of the individual sales rep.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 12, 2014
'Most business mentors tell me that the single biggest problem they have to deal with in small companies is the lack of open, honest, and effective communication, both from the top down and from the bottom up. Some entrepreneurs forget that talking is not communicating. Fortunately these skills can be learned, and the barriers to communication can be overcome one by one.
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 5, 2014
'Thanksgiving is past and Christmas, Hannukah, Kwaanza and New Years are fast upon us, so what better way to prepare than with a taste of the toally bizarre. Yes, we do admit a fondness for Hasselhoff aroound the crowdSPRING office, and above is a video that simply could not escape our notice. But enough about The Hoff – it’s time for our weekly roundup of the great links and articles we shared with you over the past week on our crowdSPRING Twitter account (as well as my own Twi
Hunter Walker
DECEMBER 30, 2014
'95% elation, 5% terror. That’s my perpetual state in thinking about my personal playbook as a seed VC. Developing, refining and iterating on that playbook is the single key to my success but it’s also characterized by small datasets, long cycle times, inevitable mistakes. What I mean by playbook in this case isn’t Homebrew’s overall strategy or best practices for managing a fund.
deal architect
DECEMBER 18, 2014
'Oracle is skirting with a market valuation of $ 2oo billion. Wall Street is gushing. Whatever. I am not writing this to join their praises – I have never judged companies purely on their financial performance. I am more impressed.
Software By Rob
DECEMBER 2, 2014
'I’ve just released a 2-hour audio documentary chronicling the story of building and launching my latest startup, Drip. Launch. A Startup Documentary was compiled and edited from 9 months of Skype calls between myself and my software developer, with an epilogue recorded 1-year later (about 2 weeks ago). From the honeymoon period of “green field” development to the sleepless nights of database failures, Launch captures the real-life angst of building a startup.
YoungUpstarts
DECEMBER 2, 2014
'by Paul Zane Pilzer and Rick Lindquist, authors of “ The End of Employer-Provided Health Insurance: Why It’s Good for You and Your Company “ U.S. companies can no longer afford to provide group health insurance to their employees. There. We said it. Consider this stark statistic: In 2013, as a group, Fortune 500 companies spent more on health insurance than they earned in profits.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 5, 2014
'Marketing is everything these days. You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value
crowdSPRING Blog
DECEMBER 15, 2014
'Mom taught us well. She raised us to be polite and she raised us to consider other’s feelings. For many small business owners saying thanks to your team is a head-scratcher. Performance-based bonuses can be a powerful incentive for individuals, and profit-sharing plans can reward great teamwork, but saying thank you can and should rise above those.
View from Seed
DECEMBER 10, 2014
'NextView Ventures is excited to welcome Dimitri Dadiomov to the team as an MBA Associate. He is currently a second year student at Harvard Business School and will be focused on supporting the early-stage startup community in Boston and its schools. He’ll work with NextView through his final semester at HBS. This is his first post to The View From Seed.
deal architect
DECEMBER 3, 2014
'It is an honor to welcome Unit4 to the past and present gallery of innovators and disruptors who sponsor the Deal Architect and the New Florence. New Renaissance. blogs. Unit4, headquartered in the Netherlands, specializes in business applications for service-intense.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 14, 2014
'Accelerators have had quite a good run the past 5+ years. Not just Y Combinator and TechStars but a host of other accelerators across the country. I have been involved with a high profile one in Los Angeles – Launchpad LA – and we’ve decided to make a shift so I thought this was a good time for reflection. My good friend Adam Lilling and I started Launchpad more than 5 years ago .
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