Sat.Sep 22, 2018 - Fri.Sep 28, 2018

article thumbnail

We’re Overthinking Seed Round Signaling Effects

For Entrepreneurs

There is much hand wringing in the startup ecosystem about various forms of signaling between the seed and A rounds. Conventional wisdom, and advice, abounds: entrepreneurs should never include a venture firm in their seed round because it’ll scare other VCs off from pursuing the A. After all, the “insider” VC has more information and.

article thumbnail

Keep A Real Job Until Your New Venture Shows Traction

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the big decisions every aspiring entrepreneur has to make is when to quit your current job to devote yourself fulltime to your new startup. Some of you are so committed to the new passion that you quit your day job early, and dedicate all your time and resources to the new venture. Others wait until the new business starts to generate revenue and profit before making the move.

Salary 383
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

10 Attributes Of The Ideal New Venture Job Candidate

Startup Professionals Musings

In a corporate environment, the focus of a job interview has long been demonstrating your match to the skills and experience outlined in the job description. In my experience with startups, that is still necessary, but not sufficient. Today’s business world has become totally customer driven, so customer-centric and people abilities really make the difference between winners and losers.

Retention 232
article thumbnail

7 Must-Dos Before Starting a Company

Up and Running

There are so many things I wish I’d known before I started my first company. Hindsight’s 20/20, but I wish someone had sat me down before I wasted a lot of time and money on a company I wasn’t ready to start. While the project quickly fizzled out, it did give me some valuable insights into all the groundwork that needs to be done before getting started which helped me succeed in my second endeavor.

article thumbnail

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

article thumbnail

Scaling from maker to manager

Version One Ventures

A few weeks ago I shared some important leadership lessons from Stewart Butterfield , including investing in your own growth to make sure that the founder scales as fast as the company. Growing with your start-up can be a very tough undertaking for a founder. It requires reinventing yourself dramatically in very little time. When you start your company, you will be a “maker” for most of your days, wearing a thousand hats and tackling whatever needs to be tackled.

article thumbnail

5 Profitable Small Business Ideas For 2019

YoungUpstarts

Today, starting your own business has never been easier. Whether you’ve been working shifts or working in a 9-5 office job for years, if you’re getting tired of commuting to and from your workplace every day and doing a job laid out for you by somebody else, running your own business from the comfort of your own home or office can be a very alluring idea.

More Trending

article thumbnail

5 Fall Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs

Up and Running

As fall replaces summer, I know I become tempted to curl up with a window view of the falling leaves, a cup of tea, and a good book. It’s a great way to enjoy some “me time.”. At the same time, I occasionally like to feel like my relaxation is also productive, or the things that interest me in my professional life filter into my personal life. When that happens, I like to turn to books that are not only engaging, well-written, and interesting, but also happen to be about business.

article thumbnail

The Apple Watch – Tipping Point Time for Healthcare

Steve Blank

I don’t own an Apple Watch. I do have a Fitbit. But the Apple Watch 4 announcement intrigued me in a way no other product has since the original IPhone. This wasn’t just another product announcement from Apple. It heralded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) entrance into the 21 st century. It is a harbinger of the future of healthcare and how the FDA approaches innovation.

China 67
article thumbnail

Why React Is Growing In Popularity

YoungUpstarts

React is a declarative and component-based JavaScript library that developers use to build user interfaces (UI). The library provides programmers with a set of advantages that make it an ideal choice for UI design, including the ease of use and extension. In today’s fast-changing world, front end components need to be portable and reusable while also providing users with interactivity.

Java 100
article thumbnail

How a crappy promotion led to me being a software engineer

Austin Startup

This post expands on a recent podcast I did with Living Corporate outlining the story behind my career switch to software engineering. Quick Background I was born in Nigeria, but mostly grew up in Dallas, TX. My undergrad was in Nutritional Science at UT Austin, and I have a graduate business degree from Arizona State University. My parents wanted me to go to pharmacy school, but I abandoned that to pursue my real interests, business and entrepreneurship.

article thumbnail

Sales Training Options to Help Your Small Business Succeed

Duct Tape Marketing

Sales Training Options to Help Your Small Business Succeed written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Having an effective and engaged sales team is one of the keys to guaranteeing your business’s success. Some people are natural sales men or women—they have the gift of gab, the ability to easily connect with others and win their trust, and are adept at juggling leads and following up with prospects and existing customers alike.

Sales 77
article thumbnail

7 Attributes Of People With An Entrepreneur Mindset

Startup Professionals Musings

As an angel investor and a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always disappointed to see founders who seem stressed out most of the time, and more annoyed than energized by the abundance of challenges they see in building their startup. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is a tough one under the best of circumstances, and it’s one you have to love in order to succeed.

article thumbnail

PR Blockchain Matters: Media Relations Services In Blockchain Have Never Been So Important

YoungUpstarts

Picture this. You and your blockchain startup staff come up with a brilliant plan to organize and hold a contest on Valentine’s Day. You want your followers, fans, and critics to share a campaign you recently launched with their loved ones. The reward they get is to have the loved ones pop into a draw to win a slice of about $10, 500 in cryptocurrency value.

PR 100
article thumbnail

Dreamforce Keynotethe good and not-so-good

deal architect

I am not at the Salesforce event this week but changed my travel plans to make sure I could watch yesterday’s streaming of the 2 hour keynote. Some of it was predictable.

Hawaii 236
article thumbnail

3 Tips to Protect Your Business

Rembrandt Communications

(As seen on Little PINK Book) Look forward to happiness and health in the years ahead International Day of Older Persons is October 1st, and according to the United Nations site, “almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60,” and “by 2050, 2 billion people, over 20 per cent of the world’s […]. The post 3 Tips to Protect Your Business appeared first on Small business PR and content strategy that boost sales, awareness and credibility fast!

PR 176
article thumbnail

Adopt An Entrepreneur Mindset To Enhance Your Career

Startup Professionals Musings

One of the big differences between an entrepreneur and an employee of a big business is that employees tend to have a very narrow focus on their job, while entrepreneurs have to keep the broader focus on business. Both want personal satisfaction and financial success. In fact, U.S. entrepreneurs consistently claim to be happier , and have a higher net worth than employees.

article thumbnail

Four Worth-The-Money Round-The-Clock Coworking Spaces In Singapore

YoungUpstarts

Recent statistics show that the booming number of coworking industry remains unstoppable through the next coming years. In fact, it’s becoming the preferred workplace of today’s labor force. Nonetheless, though there’s a hotbed of coworking spaces widely available in Singapore, entrepreneurs of all sorts resort to what really meets their office demands.

Singapore 100
article thumbnail

Inforumpeeling an onion

deal architect

I wrote last week that I was looking forward to getting an update on Infor’s verticals – hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, retail and others. At Inforum in Washington this week, I only got a detailed briefing about the Retail vertical.

Vertical 207
article thumbnail

Startup App Intro: Politiscope – Politics in the Palm of Your Hand

The Startup Magazine

How many times have you been sitting at a dinner table or watching the news and someone mention’s a politician by name and you have wondered who they are talking about? Or, maybe you’ve heard the name but have no clue as to their stance on certain issues. Better yet, you are voting and do the “eenie, meenie, miney, mo” at the poll because you’ve never heard of anyone on the ballot.

Startup 132
article thumbnail

3 Tips to Protect Your Business

Rembrandt Communications

(As seen on Little PINK Book). Look forward to happiness and health in the years ahead. International Day of Older Persons is October 1 st , and according to the United Nations site , “almost 700 million people are now over the age of 60,” and “by 2050, 2 billion people, over 20 per cent of the world’s population, will be 60 or older.”. With this in mind, are you taking appropriate precautions to live a happy and healthy life when you get older, or is your business slowly killing you?

Utah 100
article thumbnail

What’s Great About You That You’re Not Willing To Look At?

YoungUpstarts

by Brendon Watt, the Australian CFO of Access Consciousness. Have you found what you’re great at? Have you even started looking? Or, have you settled into living a life where you’re just working hard for the money? Growing up, I never really thought I would become much of anything. I didn’t have a college education and I didn’t think that left me with much of a choice as to what I could do for work and money.

Global 188
article thumbnail

Home Office Essentials for Entrepreneurs

Up and Running

One of my favorite perks of entrepreneurship is the ability to set my own schedule and work from anywhere. I’m able to balance the need for quick “alone time” focused on my projects with the need to be around other entrepreneurs for high energy support. No matter where I’m working on any given day, my home office is my base of operations. From that consistent place of my own, it is easy to branch out to work from a coffee shop, customer office, co-working space or even my back porch.

article thumbnail

Think Differently About Success

The Startup Magazine

The ability to create success starts with a mindset that aligns with taking action, learning rapidly and adapting to change. Successful people think differently about success. It’s not all about your IQ or the kind of car you drive. True success is having a growing network of people you know how to tap into, achieving fulfillment in what you do, and being able to see opportunity everywhere. 1.

article thumbnail

Do you have to bankrupt yourself to start a company? How all in is all in?

This is going to be BIG.

I started a company back in late 2007. We raised $550k in seed funding and, despite a lot of hard work, things didn’t work out. It turned out I wasn’t such a great product manager, the technical things we were doing were about two years too early—about to be made orders of magnitude easier by a lot of cloud and big data tools, and, oh, yeah, Lehman went under when I was pitching VCs for money in 2008.

Salary 114
article thumbnail

6 Ways To Prepare Yourself For The First Step In Your Entrepreneurial Journey

YoungUpstarts

by Chris Bray , founder and CEO of Bray Innovation Group . Without Netscape, would Google exist? Had MySpace not paved the social platform pathway, would Facebook’s app be a smartphone staple? Probably not. Thanks to entrepreneurial spirit, drive, and conviction, our world is exciting and ever-changing. Ultimately, such successes are born from innovators like you.

Cofounder 178
article thumbnail

3 Work Smart Secrets For Entrepreneurs With Chronic Health Issues

YFS Magazine

Chronic illness and pain shouldn’t hold you back from pursuing your dreams. In fact, it should be the very thing that motivates you to make them a reality.

article thumbnail

SaaS Data Planning: A Start-to-Finish Guide to Implementation

ConversionXL

Data is the life blood of any SaaS company. Data will empower you to make better decisions and help you grow faster. However, few companies make the most of their existing data or get access to the data they need. This guide is meant to help you go from zero to analytics proficient as quickly as possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re starting from scratch or if you’re simply trying to level up your existing data strategy.

Retention 107
article thumbnail

The Best Ways to Keep Your Employees Motivated

The Startup Magazine

No matter what kind of office environment you’re involved in, your colleagues will play the most important part in a working day. You’ve got to make sure that everyone is happy and willing to get the work done. From the physical office space to the individual worker, there are plenty of methods to ensure motivation from your team. Source: Pixabay. Office Design.

article thumbnail

Secrets To Success: What This Maverick Turnaround Expert Learned From An Extraordinary Six-Year-Old

YoungUpstarts

by Rick Miller, author of “ Be Chief: It’s a Choice, Not a Title “ Years ago, I volunteered at a rehabilitation facility in Morristown, New Jersey, working with a gifted physical therapist in a 100-degree heated pool. I assisted as the therapist used the warm water to stretch the muscles of children challenged with cerebral palsy and other muscular disorders.

article thumbnail

Can You Trademark A Website Domain Name?

YFS Magazine

Is your website domains eligible for trademark protection, just like your brand name? Here's a look at what every entrepreneur needs to know.

Naming 108
article thumbnail

The future is keyless: Introducing Nexkey

K9 Ventures

Ah, the morning pat down: wallet, check; phone, check; keys, check. That’s been my routine for decades. That’s probably been your routine for decades as well. And yes, we’re carrying a super computer in our pockets, but so much of our daily lives is still unlocked by mechanical keys — little mechanical gizmos and puzzles that were invented as long as 6,000 years ago!

article thumbnail

We’re Overthinking Seed Round Signaling Effects

For Entrepreneurs

There is much hand wringing in the startup ecosystem about various forms of signaling between the seed and A rounds. Conventional wisdom, and advice, abounds: entrepreneurs should never include a venture firm in their seed round because it’ll scare other … The post We’re Overthinking Seed Round Signaling Effects appeared first on For Entrepreneurs.

article thumbnail

The Importance Of Content Writing In SEO

YoungUpstarts

The verdict is in: digital marketing is a must-have for any business in today’s economy. Many customers find out about businesses through digital means, and a digital marketing campaign delivered in tandem with SEO strategy builds credibility, visibility, and a positive reputation. Some business owners have thought that SEO simply entails elegant web design and attractive social visuals.

SEO 167
article thumbnail

How My Failures Made Me A Better Business Mentor

YFS Magazine

You might wonder how my failures as an entrepreneur relate to mentorship. Believe it or not, they have a lot more relativity than you may imagine.

article thumbnail

Raising Capital For an E-Commerce Startup

The Startup Magazine

In 2015, the e-commerce industry was estimated at $1.6 trillion, making the startup dream a profitable reality. Getting into e-commerce is a great way to start your own brand , especially with many ways to do business online. You can create an affiliate site, sell your own products, drop ship for a merchant, and more. However, one element remains, how do you raise capital for your e-commerce startup?

Startup 85
article thumbnail

Second Seeds: The New Normal But Know This…

Hunter Walker

I delete my tweets periodically, so wanted to capture some good discussions regarding seed bridges and founder/investor expectations. These two previous blog posts provide context. The Three Types of “Second Seed” Rounds: Too Cold, Too Hot and Just Right. For Fundraising, Seed is No Longer a Round, It’s a Phase. So what can mess up a seed extension process?