Sat.Oct 26, 2019 - Fri.Nov 01, 2019

article thumbnail

How to Convince Investors You’re the Future not the Past

Steve Blank

This article previously appeared in VentureBeat. I just had a coffee with Mei and Bill, two passionate students who are on fire about their new startup idea. It’s past the “napkin-sketch” stage with a rough minimum viable product and about 100 users. I thought they had a great insight about an application space others had previously tried to crack. But they needed to convince investors that they are Facebook not Friendster.

Bandwidth 302
article thumbnail

6 Awesome Tools To Make Your Startup Smarter In 2020

YoungUpstarts

by Gaurav Gupta , Founder of Square Boat. Startups are all the rage these days with innovative minds coming up with novel ideas and transforming them into reality. But wanting to materialize a product or service and sustaining its operations are two different things. Although help comes in the form of diligent teams and reliable investors, in order to come at par with established names, a startup needs to rope in useful tools and resources which can standardize things.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

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

article thumbnail

6 Keys To Maximizing Your Own Leadership Performance

Startup Professionals Musings

In my experience as an advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs in business, one of the biggest failures I see is a lack of self-leadership. You can’t lead a business to success, if you can’t lead yourself. I define self-leadership as the capacity to set direction and make decisions, to positively drive your own performance. Leadership in business starts with making good personal choices.

article thumbnail

Job vs. Startup

VC Cafe

Last week, I spoke to a group of students at London Business School about what makes Israel a unique startup ecosystem and our approach to venture at Remagine Ventures. The students had some great questions about venture capital, Israel and entrepreneurship, but one struck me in particular. It went something like this: I want to be an entrepreneur and start a company.

Israel 68
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

6 Ways to Increase Holiday Sales and Engage Your Customers

Up and Running

’ Tis the season for businesses across the world to see the bottom line on their income statements (profit and loss, or P&L) go from red to black! Black Friday is just around the corner, and this is a great time to review your sales forecast goals and develop a strategy to meet them through your holiday campaigns. So what will your business do to make sure your products are top of mind as your customers make spending decisions from Black Friday and Cyber Monday through the end of the year

Sales 92
article thumbnail

4 Reasons To Add Personalized Video Marketing In Your Marketing Plan

YoungUpstarts

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then just imagine the impact of a video. The marketing industry has understood the significance of conveying story through a video; that’s why video marketing is spreading its wings everywhere. Digital media is a whole new world for marketers, and they are living it to the fullest. From the realm of website development and SEO marketing to social media promotion, now digital marketing has added personalized video marketing in this game.

Video 133

More Trending

article thumbnail

What You Need to Know About VPN With Windows 10

The Startup Magazine

The internet is considered as one of the most important inventions mankind has ever made. It has provided something that can surpass distances and situations. People would marvel at it like it was some art from a long gone artist. Even if when we get older, the internet stays because it is now considered as a necessity to have access to it anywhere.

article thumbnail

How to Develop a Winning Employer Branding Strategy

Transformify

Anastasiia Kiilo is Human Resources Director at SpdLoad. She’s excited about designing processes and always finds the most efficient and non-ordinary way to build a focused team. SpdLoad is a startup development company focused on web and mobile development of Minimum Viable Products( MVP) for early-stage startups. Anastasiia, what goals are you looking to achieve by leveraging Employer Branding ?

article thumbnail

Self-Awareness And Coachability: The Two Most Important Leadership Traits

YoungUpstarts

by Quint Studer, author of “ The Busy Leader’s Handbook: How To Lead People and Places That Thrive “ I remember an interesting conversation I had with a venture capitalist. We were discussing the qualities he looks for when thinking of buying a company. I was expecting to hear words like “profitability” and “growth potential.” But instead, the VC put self-awareness and coachability at the top of the list.

article thumbnail

7 Secrets to Leading Others and Enjoying Your Legacy

Startup Professionals Musings

By default, every one of you who owns a business or manages a team has the title of leader, but in my consulting experience, I find that just having the title doesn’t make most of us a leader. I also find that leaders are made, not born , meaning that we all can grow into leadership, if we learn from experience. I find also that if you fail as a leader, your team will likely fail with you.

article thumbnail

Fazt Tech Shares the Top Five Reasons Why Most Startup Companies Fail in the First Year

The Startup Magazine

With over 30 million small businesses in the United States, which include all ventures earning under $1 million annually, the market for sole proprietors is unprecedentedly popular. In fact, they account for a whopping 99.9% of all professional entities in the country. Unfortunately, such a high number does not translate to an equal level of revenues.

article thumbnail

5 strategies to make your business more efficient

NZ Entrepreneur

Time is a precious commodity, and when you’re a small business owner, it’s typically the thing you wish you had more of. When you feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, using the time you do have effectively is crucial. It can be a hard road to navigate, but here are five strategies to make your business more efficient and streamline your small business.

article thumbnail

The 7 Most Important Web Development Software In The Market Today

YoungUpstarts

The digital age has been more beneficial to us than people realize. Above everything else, the internet has been the primary source of most of the recent advancements we have seen. That said, perhaps the most overlooked tool in today’s tech world is website software. Website software plays a significant role in how successful a website is given all of the responsibilities it has.

article thumbnail

Hiring Freelancers: How to avoid bad apples?

Transformify

The ‘’Gig Economy’’ series sheds light on the future of work and the pros and cons of hiring freelancers and gig workers. Our guest today is Jake Rheude, VP of Marketing, Red Stag Fulfillment. Some early-stage startups rely on freelancers to optimize costs and extend the time until the next funding round. Why do you hire gig workers and freelancers?

Hiring 56
article thumbnail

Building Your StartUp Offline And Online: Addressing Your Digital Readiness

The Startup Magazine

We are in the age of entrepreneurship. Each month, around 543,000 small businesses are launched, and although the startup scene has slowed in the American landscape, the country continues to see thousands of businesses launched each quarter. Yet, the process has transformed and is now primarily digital. While the fundamentals of launching a business such as location, product, and securing a target market remain the same in principle, the methods have changed.

article thumbnail

Trickery as a Business Model – Rental Cars

Start Up Blog

Customer service systems have improved so much in then past 20 years we take for granted how arduous some things used to be. I was reminded yesterday when I had to pick up a hire car that not every industry has embraced the possible. Why? To maximise profit while the barriers to entry are still high. It made me wonder if one car rental brand is called Hertz on purpose!

article thumbnail

Consulting Sucks (Sometimes): 15 Ugly Truths To Ponder Before You Take The Leap

YoungUpstarts

by Elaine Biech, author of “ The New Business of Consulting: The Basics and Beyond “ The gig economy is roaring right along, and that means consulting work is more popular than it’s ever been. And the truth is there are many great benefits to becoming a consultant. In fact, you may even be thinking about taking the leap yourself. But before you hang up a shingle, know a sobering truth: Consulting sucks.

article thumbnail

Pre-Seed Rounds Aren’t Going Away, But Pre-Seed Funds Are

View from Seed

Over the past few years, “pre-seed” as a distinct category has emerged within the early stage fundraising landscape. To some degree the best way to describe a pre-seed round is that you know it when you see it, as the definition is squishy… but most pre-seed rounds are characterized as relatively small ($750K or less), early in company formation (pre-product), and typically followed by a larger “seed” round ($1M-$3M) within 12 months.

article thumbnail

Driving a Dealership Website Towards Increased Traffic and Sales

The Startup Magazine

The world of auto sales has changed dramatically in recent years due to a number of advanced online sales and marketing solutions that are working towards bringing the capabilities of the dealership online. With this change in technology, the attitudes regarding the function of a dealership’s online presence are also changing the face of dealership marketing.

Sales 61
article thumbnail

Bringing Marketing and Product Development Together

Duct Tape Marketing

Bringing Marketing and Product Development Together written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Jill Soley. Podcast Transcript. On this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I visit with author and product and marketing executive Jill Soley. Soley has been developing, launching, and nurturing products for nearly 20 years; she’s currently the Chief Product Officer at the agile project management software firm Obo.

article thumbnail

3 Enterprise Data Backup Solutions That Are Secure

YoungUpstarts

It is clear that data security is more important than ever for individuals and business people. There is so much important information that could get easily lost. This is the reason more people are figuring out how important it is to protect your data. The following are three data backup solutions worth considering. 1. HYCU. HYCU is a backup software system that can be used for Nutanix.

Security 113
article thumbnail

What Do Company Secretaries Do for Nonprofit Organizations?

Board Effect

Company secretaries perform a wide variety of important duties. For some nonprofit organizations, the question is more of “What don’t company secretaries do for nonprofit organizations?” Nonprofits generally assign their company secretaries many of the same basic duties and responsibilities. Beyond that, each organization assigns duties to the company secretary according to the needs of the nonprofit.

article thumbnail

Trick-or-Treaters Remind Us To Review Our Business Security

The Startup Magazine

For children and their families, Halloween can be a fun and exciting time. For teenagers, however, the holiday represents a notorious excuse for devious behaviour like throwing raw eggs and toilet paper on any type of structure. Occasionally, these pranks can get out of hand to the extent of targeting businesses as well. When this situation arises, it isn’t unusual for these childish hijinks to escalate into property damage or even serious crimes.

article thumbnail

IT Service Management Best Practices That Top Organizations Live By

Women Entrepreneurs Can

Effective IT service management (ITSM) is what separates great organizations from everyone else. It’s why firms spend millions of dollars each year on IT consulting services, to do things such as: Developing IT strategies that align with their overall business goals and strategies. Supporting corporate objectives with effective IT services. Ensuring that the provision of IT service generates a return on investment.

article thumbnail

The disconnect between software buyers and vendors - about the role of SIs

deal architect

In the case studies I wrote for SAP Nation 3.0 I noticed two common threads A) Customers were using SIs cautiously - the last set of experiences with SIs and outsources has made them wary. A couple even thanked me.

Software 199
article thumbnail

What Are the Three Types of Organizational Conflict of Interest?

Board Effect

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or an entity has a clash between personal and professional duties or responsibilities and that clash gives them the benefit of personal or professional reward. Often, this happens because someone has a vested interest such as money, status, knowledge or reputation that places them in a position where the position calls the objectivity of their decision-making into question.

article thumbnail

10 Insights For Locating The Perfect Business Mentor

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Most people don’t know that billionaire Mark Zuckerberg , for example, gives real credit to the inspiring mentorship of Steve Jobs for Mark’s Facebook success. Yet most entrepreneurs simply don’t know how to work with a mentor. It is not as simple as one person giving the other all the right answers.

Demand 213
article thumbnail

Five Strategies To Grow Your Business And Get More Clients

YoungUpstarts

by Maureen Gharrity, CEO and founder of Finding Your Way Coaching. Growing your business, or trying to get new clients, can be hard. It doesn’t always have to be. The strategies that work to bring in more business are not necessarily what you may think or what you default to. When business owners and executives struggle to grow, they quickly fall back to what they know, or what got them to their current level of success.

Developer 170
article thumbnail

The Dyslexic Advantage

Version One Ventures

I know many people that are dyslexic: entrepreneurs, close friends, family members. And almost all of them have suffered from the general perception that dyslexia is a learning disability. Most of them had a terrible time with a school system that generally doesn’t recognize that dyslexic individuals learn differently – which usually results in them struggling with reading and writing, and losing a lot of self-confidence in the process.

article thumbnail

Pandere Shoes, Anchorage Startups, and Techstars

Feld Thoughts

Pandere Shoes is an Alaskan founded and women-owned startup that creates expandable footwear that accommodates a host of conditions such as edema, diabetes, and neuropathy. . I met the co-founder Laura Oden when I was in Anchorage last month to speak at the Accelerate Alaska event. She came up to me after I gave my talk and told me that her company wouldn’t exist without Startup Weekend and Techstars.

Alaska 113
article thumbnail

How Starting A Business Fits Into Every Career Today

Startup Professionals Musings

With the cost of starting an online business today at an all-time low, I can’t imagine why everyone doesn’t have a web site and an LLC to mitigate liability and minimize taxes. You need to have these as backup, in case the gig economy catches up to you, or you need a side hustle for extra income, or being in control of your dream role as an entrepreneur finally becomes a passion.

LLC 184
article thumbnail

How B2B Brands Can Generate More Website Traffic

YoungUpstarts

Getting businesses to visit your website is very different from encouraging the general public to visit web pages. B2B marketing has some crossover with B2C marketing, but when it comes to traffic generation, the tactics for those companies that target other businesses are significantly different. There are some clear and practical methods available for those B2B businesses that are hoping to boost the number of people that visit their website, and the effects can be highly beneficial.

B2B 138
article thumbnail

SaaS CRO: What You’re Not Testing (But Should)

ConversionXL

Think back to the last experiment you ran for your SaaS company. What were you trying to learn or improve? Maybe you wanted to increase email captures or free-trial leads. . Now try to think of the last time you experimented with something other than your acquisition strategy. If you’re struggling, you’re not alone. . Article after article, course after course, conference talk after conference talk addresses acquisition experimentation—getting more conversions at the top of the funnel.

Retention 101
article thumbnail

It’s Time To Upgrade Your Money Mindset

YFS Magazine

Ultimately, money is a tool that is waiting to be used. The real power is inside of you. Use it to create a successful pathway to success.

Finance 101
article thumbnail

LoudCrowd Lands Funding to Help Brands Incentivize Customers to Share Products on Social Media

SiliconHills

Brands have worked with influencers to sell products through social media for a long time. But it’s been more difficult for them to engage with regular customers who might like their products. And that’s where LoudCrowd saw an opportunity. The Austin-based startup sells software directly to brands that allow them to reward customers who promote […].

article thumbnail

8 Simple Strategies To Self-Soothe And Stop Work Overwhelm

YoungUpstarts

by Judith Orloff, M.D., author of “ Thriving as an Empath: 365 Days of Self-Care for Sensitive People “. Are you experiencing work overwhelm? Or even full-blown burnout? You’re not alone. Today, a whopping two out of three full-time workers are wrestling with burnout, according to a recent Gallup study. To boot, the World Health Organization (WHO) now classifies work-related burnout as a “syndrome” and an “occupational phenomenon.”.

New York 133