abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

(*) Benchmark is/was an investor in companies labeled with the asterisk. In 1776, Adam Smith released his magnum opus, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations , in which he outlined his fundamental economic theories. Front and center in the book — in fact in Book 1, Chapter 1 — is his realization of the productivity improvements made possible through the “Division of Labour”: It is the great multiplication of the production of all the different arts, in consequence of the

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Internet Matching Vertical Hosting 88

Start Up Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

It’s very hard to understand the consequences of something when you can’t touch it, feel it and experience it in the physical form. Many of our virtual experiences seem displaced from a physical reality. It’s as if it didn’t really happen, that it’s only information and information isn’t real. Digital privacy fits neatly inside this parable.

Government 82

Government 82

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Startup strategy is like Kung Fu. There are many styles that work. But in a bar fight, you’re going to get punched in the face regardless. I can only teach you my style. Others can only teach you theirs. This is my style. “MVPs” are too M to be V. They’re a selfish ploy, tricking people who thought they were customers into being alpha testers.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most board meetings are administrative updates that accomplish very little other than inform board members about the performance of the company since the last board meeting. That’s certainly one function of every board but if your board is your “brain trust” and the people you can most use as a sounding board to help you make the toughest decisions in your company and if its the one group truly privy to your most confidential information and your hardest choices then it’s a shame if you don’t ge

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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

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. The founder explains that the product is so “buzz-worthy” that usage will spread rapidly through word-of-mouth only, meaning people loving it and recommending it to their friends. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.

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YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Technology has been one of the essential elements that makes a business more effective and successful. It changes continuously, adapting to advancements and innovations in order to constantly improve. In business, the primary driving force is to be able to accommodate the needs and demands of society. Here are eight business trends that you need to watch out for and will continue to grow this year: 1.

Artificial Inteligence 174

Artificial Inteligence Database Social Media Technical Review 174

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I will also delve into how to prepare for them, how to make the meeting effective and how to best follow up to make sure people take action. Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash In response to one of my posts I saw this great Tweet by Bilal Zuberi and it resonated.

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Cofounder Conversion Management Founder 251

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Apple created a monster. Every September, millions expect Tim Cook to change the world. Steve Jobs actually did a few times. But, increasingly, the Apple hype-fests are a marketing—not a product—showcase. Fanfare is a poor substitute sustainable results. For product launches, long-term success relies on cornerstones of marketing research and execution, like a strong value proposition and full-funnel campaign.

Product 110

Product Campaign Acquisition Social Media 110

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

The upcoming 2019 is thought to be a year of improvements and innovations. And one of such expectations is the release of 5G that is waited in the spring 2019. The main features and future benefits were discussed and presented at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2018 in Maui that was held from 4 up to 6 December. If you crave for details about the event, feel free to study up the reports or read detailed reviews, but now it’s not the main issue.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Software Review South Korea Bandwidth 76

YFS Magazine

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

A well-designed user experience (UX) could raise your website’s conversion rates by 400 percent. Here's what every online business needs to know.

Design 76

Design Conversion Web Development Developer 76

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

The Forrest Four-Cast: February 25, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin. A finalist in the Social and Culture category, which will pitch at 11 am Saturday, March 9, MySideKick is a complete web-based application that addresses all the issues of sexua

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Startup Technical Review CTO Hire Detroit 55

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

“Email marketing is dead.” That’s what a digital marketer told me while trying to sell me his messenger bot software. But email isn’t going anywhere. Customers who buy through email spend 138% more than those who don’t sign up for email offers. And email marketing has an ROI of 28.5% compared to 7% for direct mail. If you’re unpersuaded by statistics, also recall that: If you own your email list, you pay nothing to reach subscribers.

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Email Software Review Campaign Metrics 133

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

As the price of high-quality cameras has continued to fall, the art and craft of photography have flourished. For many people, photography isn’t just a way of capturing a memory. Photography is a fulfilling way to express yourself. It’s a way to interpret the world and make the invisible visible. And for many, it’s a way to make a living.

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Business Plan Small Business Administration Hiring Social Media 64

deal architect

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

In interviewing SAP customers for the upcoming book, I ended up classifying them broadly into four groups. I termed the first three: a) Risk-takers who are trying out new Leonardo ML or IoT projects, developing new functionality with its Cloud.

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Software Cloud Developer Customer 329

Austin Startup

MARCH 1, 2019

The Forrest Four-Cast: March 1, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin. A finalist in Transportation and Delivery , which will pitch at 9:30 am Saturday, March 9, ENSO innovates in the tire industry by developing sustainable tires for electric vehicles.

Startup 76

Startup Harvest Germany Early Stage 76

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Transcript of Questioning Best Practices to Do Great Work 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: Everybody loves best practices. Give me an example. Give me a template to follow. Well, I think that that practice leads to mediocrity.

China 67

China New York City New York Technical Review 67

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

I’ve sat on many boards over the past 2 decades and seen my share of high-functioning boards and low-functioning boards. Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much.

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LP Startup Burn Rate Stock Options 269

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

A big trend in business these days is hiring freelancers or contract personnel for the duration of a project, rather than permanent staff. According to a recent poll , contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce within a decade. Yet I find that few of today’s workers realize that succeeding as a freelancer requires a whole new focus on “marketing” yourself.

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Employee Elevator Pitch Differentiation Social Media 246

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. In totality, these posts are at least as long as most business books. So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

Software Review 48

Software Review Sales Cofounder Analytics 48

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Questioning Best Practices to Do Great Work written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Jay Acunzo. Podcast Transcript. Today on the podcast, I speak with author, keynote speaker, and founder of Unthinkable Media , Jay Acunzo. Acunzo began his career at tech giants, including Google and HubSpot, and he now travels the world as a public speaker and the creator of documentary series about people who do great work, which he builds with B2B brand clients.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Washington B2B New York 63

deal architect

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Amazon has just started to take advance orders for the eBook version of SAP Nation 3.0. It shows release date of April 15, but we are trying to get it out by March 31. The print version should also be.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2019

In this age where every person feels the need for a relationship with people they do business with, introverts like me might seem to be at a distinct disadvantage. Most of us just don’t have the urge to proactively get out and talk to new people, face-to-face, online, or through an app. This is equally hard at work, especially when many of our peers may be remote, anywhere in the world.

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Leadership Technology Global Developer 217

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

In recent years, the world has continued to improve energy usage, waste management, and reduce environmental pollution?—?with innovative solutions coming online every day. Technology isn’t the answer to all of our problems, but it’s hard to imagine how we can progress without it. Capital Factory has teamed up with EarthX , an international nonprofit dedicated to helping create a sustainable future worldwide, to give one tech startup a $100,000 investment and direct exposure to cleantech industry

Technical Review 59

Technical Review Dallas Texas United States 59

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. It can start 2–1 founders to investors and then sometimes moves to 3–2 but sometime around the A, B or C round the idea of “independent” directors comes up. This post sets out how I believe founders (and investors) should think about independent board members having worked with many of them for the past 20 years.

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Warrant LP Cofounder Founder 187

deal architect

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

It's tough to argue with Microsoft - after all, it was at least briefly, the world's most valuable company late last year. CEO Satya Nadella is getting all kinds of kudos. "Whatever they're paying him, it's not enough," former Microsoft.

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Software 191

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 23, 2019

An entrepreneur lifestyle that continues to gain in popularity these days is being a “social entrepreneur.” In the simplest of terms, these are people who seek to generate “social value”, rather than profits, and use traditional business principles to provide solutions to social issues On the surface, this sounds like entrepreneurs who want to build a non-profit organization.

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Angel Investor Government Bootstrapping Business Model 214

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Pre-swag surf group photo of HBCU@SXSW students and Spike Lee at Capital One House Over the past several years, tech communities across the United States have attempted to make significant progress towards increasing diversity and inclusion in their industries. Although positive steps have been made, the headway appears to have stagnated or even worsened in some companies and cities.

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Partner Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity 55

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Photo by Filipe Delgado from Pexels We’ve all been in meetings that get off track?—?sinking ever down the proverbial “rat hole,” from which rescue feels impossible. How does it happen? And how can you avoid it? This is part of a series on Managing Boards. In my last post I wrote about board preparation before the meeting and frankly this can be applied to any type of meeting.

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Distribution Reputation Conversion Management 173

deal architect

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

In 2006, I asked the question "Is the media biased?" I wrote "No this is not about being liberal or conservative. This is about how little MSM covers business technology as against consumer oriented technology. New York City is home.

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New York New York City Media Technology 170

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Although I hear more and more about “global warming,” and the many ways we are destroying our environment, I still don’t see many global business winners in this space, comparable to Facebook and Amazon. Al Gore, by just talking about it, still seems to be leading the way in monetization, having amassed an estimated net worth reported recently as around $300 million.

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Artificial Inteligence Global Green .Net 199

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 23, 2019

Credit: UbiQD, Inc. The Forrest Four-Cast: February 23, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin. A finalist in Hyper-Connected Communities , which will pitch at 5 pm Saturday, March 9, UbiGro is a nanotech-enabled greenhouse film by UbiQD, Inc. that red-

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Startup Harvest .Net 54

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

If you’re planning on starting your own business for the first time, don’t let the statistics put you off. As the saying goes, it’s better to fail than have never tried. Skill vs. Luck in Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital: Evidence from Serial Entrepreneurs , a Harvard paper, noted that first-time entrepreneurs have an 18 percent chance for success, but by following these tips you can help increase those odds whether you plan to launch your startup in Edmonton , Vancouver, Boston or anywhere

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Angel Investor Boston Venture Capital Social Media 194

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

We are entering a really interesting phase in the food industry that I think most people don’t fully realize. For the last 20+ years, the dominant trend among grocers, restaurants, packaged food and beverage companies and others have been a market shift towards natural and organic products. What started as a niche movement has permeated all corners of the food and beverage industry, and has been a major strategic priority for large CPG companies and restaurant chains for the last two decades.

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eCommerce Differentiation Engineer Product 168

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 1, 2019

I participated in a one hour Crowdcast yesterday with Techstars and 43 North about How to Build a Successful Startup Ecosystem in your City. Some of the thoughts from my upcoming book The Startup Community Way are in the hour, along with a bunch of things Techstars is doing around this initiative. powered by Crowdcast. If you are in a city somewhere in the world working on developing your Startup Community and are interested in learning about the new Techstars Startup Ecosystem Development produ

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Startup Community Email Developer 151

Austin Startup

MARCH 1, 2019

New Age Meats cofounders Brian Spears and Andra Necula The Forrest Four-Cast: March 1, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. Winners in 10 categories will be announced at the Pitch Award Ceremony at 6:30 pm Sunday, March 10, at the Hilton Austin.

Technical Cofounder 48

Technical Cofounder San Francisco Cofounder Startup 48

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 23, 2019

Fintech (financial technology) ruled the roost when it came to industries on the up-swing up until a few years back, when blockchain technology and all the possibilities it offered stormed the scene. Even so, there are still plenty of lively startups in the fintech sector that have shined through the crowd to make us sit up and notice them. They cover a wide scope of industries, and are keeping the buzz in the financial technology sector alive.

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Startup Algorithm .Net Stock 170