Sat.Jul 07, 2018 - Fri.Jul 13, 2018

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3 Entrepreneurs That Built An Empire On Social Media

YoungUpstarts

Social media can make dreams come true – really. There are entrepreneurs from across the world that have used social media to build their brand and sell products. It’s a bit of luck for some, hard work for all, and lots of persistence to make dreams come true. Love them, hate them or envy them, you can learn a lot from these social media successes. 1.

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Relentlessly Turning Input Knobs To 0

Feld Thoughts

I’ve got a lot on my plate. I always do. Presumably, I like it this way because I’d change things if I didn’t. And yes, that’s continuous fodder for conversations with my therapist and with Amy. I have always tried to ignore the macro, especially short-term dynamics, in the context of my work. I collect a lot of data and like to be well informed.

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This 1 Piece of Advice Could Make Or Break Your Career

Steve Blank

There’s no handbook on how to evaluate and process “suggestions” and “advice” from a boss or a mentor. But how you choose to act on these recommendations can speed up your learning and make or break your career. Here’s what to keep in mind: I had a team of students working on an arcane customer problem. While they were quickly coming up to speed, I suggested that they talk to someone who I knew was an expert in the area and could help them learn much faster.

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7 Key Steps To Getting Top Performance From Your Team

Startup Professionals Musings

During my early years of managing in business, I always assumed that if I hired and trained the smartest and most experienced people I could find, I would get outstanding productivity. I quickly learned that top performance also required the right initiatives and responsiveness on my part, high employee engagement, and a matching chemistry and culture with other team members.

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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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When You Listen To Customers, What Are You Really Hearing?

YoungUpstarts

by Aytekin Tank, founder & CEO of JotForm. What does it mean to “listen” to customers? Companies toss around this language while, ostensibly, chasing their competitors and ignoring what customers want. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to find cases where technological innovation and the best interests of customers are at odds. What are such companies “listening” for?

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Give Me Discipline Over Talent Everyday

This is going to be BIG.

Recently, I helped one of my portfolio companies make a VP of Marketing hire. The founder asked me early in the process if I thought the candidate was good. Having not worked with her previously, I didn't know how talented she was firsthand, but what I did have confidence in was that her strategy would be well thought out, and if it wasn't working, she'd analyze why, proactively address it, and describe what steps she would take to find a solution.

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How Gamification in the Workplace Impacts Employee Productivity

The Startup Magazine

When employees are happy, their productivity is usually high. Employees who enjoy what they do are likely going to perform well in their duties as well as stay longer in the company. Therefore, the employer should invest in ways that will enhance the joy of employees in the workplace. Gamification is considered one of the ways that employees’ work and workplace as well can be made enjoyable.

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The Industry Analyst Evaluation Game

Feld Thoughts

Over the past 25 years, I’ve invested in many startups that sell products to large enterprises. Many of these companies end up either creating or helping to create a new category. As the startups (or the category) become visible, they inevitably attract the attention of industry analysts, who write reports on the categories and the startups as part of the industry analysts’ business.

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A no-BS guide to getting cheaper, faster, better design (etc.)

Austin Startup

How to get legendary work in a jiffy without paying more Seriously. Let’s. You’ve just received the proposal you requested for a project. Before signing off, you want make sure the timeline works, the price is right, and all your bases are covered. You reply with some questions, and some gentle probing to see whether you might keep to the lower end of the price range, get a little more for your money, or finish it a little faster.

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How Chat Bots Can Help You Grow Your Business

Duct Tape Marketing

How Chat Bots Can Help You Grow Your Business written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Marketing Podcast with Andrew Warner. Podcast Transcript. My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Andrew Warner, founder of Mixergy , a program that interviews experts to help you grow your business. He and I discuss his new initiative, Bot Academy , and what your business needs to know about bots today.

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Five Entrepreneurial Tips from Arshad Madhani

The Startup Magazine

Arshad Madhani has become a leader in the digital marketing industry for two reasons. First, he knows how to crunch the numbers and separate a strategy performing poorly from one exceeding expectations. Second, he excels at building personal relationships. This allows him to communicate this analysis in an effective manner, a trait that helps him connect with clients and advertisers alike!

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Influencer Marketing: Proven Strategies To Find Influencers Who Fit Your Brand

crowdSPRING Blog

The digital marketplace changes more often than Kylie Jenner switches her hair color. It not easy for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and marketing strategists to keep their marketing campaigns relevant and competitive. Influencer marketing, if done right, can help your startup or small business grow your audience, improve sales, and expand brand awareness through social media.

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How to Get Laid Off

OnlyOnce

How to Get Laid Off – an Employee’s Perspective. One of my colleagues at Return Path saw my post about How to Quit Your Job about 5 years ago and was inspired to share this story with me. Don’t read anything into this post, team! There is no other meaning behind my posting it at this time, or any time, other than thinking it’s a very good way of approaching a very difficult situation, especially coming from an employee.

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My Journey with MELD

Austin Startup

My dream has always been to work from home as a graphic designer, but little did I know, it’s not as great as it sounds. It certainly has its perks but what many people don’t realize is the extent to which you are constantly alone. When I worked from home, it was hard to differentiate home from work. It was all the same. It killed my productivity, creativity and I was always distracted by dishes, laundry, naps, cats, etc.

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Why We Invested in The Nudge

View from Seed

Sometimes we just need little push to take action. A little motivation to make things happen. And having a plan already put together makes things just that much easier. Yep, sometimes all you need is just little a nudge. Enter just that, The Nudge. It’s a “planner friend in your pocket,” as the team calls it. A personal digital lifestyle advisor which sends SMS-based ideas about things to do (with a link to an detailed entire plan to make it easier to follow through).

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Why and How to Rename Your Business

crowdSPRING Blog

“…a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare. A strong business name identifies your business, tells your customers and prospects something meaningful about your brand , and helps to differentiate your business from your competition. But what should you do if you decide that the name you’ve been using for your business isn’t effective at accomplishing those goals?

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How to Get Laid Off

OnlyOnce

How to Get Laid Off – an Employee’s Perspective. One of my colleagues at Return Path saw my post about How to Quit Your Job about 5 years ago and was inspired to share this story with me. Don’t read anything into this post, team! There is no other meaning behind my posting it at this time, or any time, other than thinking it’s a very good way of approaching a very difficult situation, especially coming from an employee.

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5 Most Common Hiring Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Transformify

Hiring a new employee is a stressful experience for human resources professionals, department leaders, and employees who will be taking on excess work during the training and onboarding period. This stress and frustration are exacerbated when the new hire doesn’t work out and leaves soon after starting. To reduce the instances of employee turnover-- both in a new hire and seasoned employees who become fed up-- hiring managers need to avoid making errors during the hiring process.

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Cutting Small Business Costs Using DIY CNC With CraftLaser

YoungUpstarts

Technology is constantly advancing, making things more accessible, smaller, and faster. With new advances in CNC technology and opensource software, in-house production is easier and more accessible than ever. Branding, signage, business merchandise, and packaging are usually outsourced to other companies to fill the gap for businesses. What if you could save that money, and produce your own designs and products without having to pay out?

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Why and How to Rename Your Business

crowdSPRING Blog

“…a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare. A strong business name identifies your business, tells your customers and prospects something meaningful about your brand , and helps to differentiate your business from your competition. But what should you do if you decide that the name you’ve been using for your business isn’t effective at accomplishing those goals?

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6 Demand Generation Metrics To Quantify Marketing ROI

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur knows that good demand generation marketing is the key to growth these days, but very few have the discipline or know-how to measure return in a world of a thousand tools and techniques. Even those things that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow, as the market matures, the culture changes, and competitors appear with new solutions.

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Zero to 100 – A High Growth SaaS Playbook

For Entrepreneurs

I have great pleasure in announcing a new program called Zero to 100 – The Growth Academy. This program is my response to what so many of you have been asking for: a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building.

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Hitting The Business Books — 3 Ways To Educate Yourself For Entrepreneurship

YoungUpstarts

Succeeding in business is an iterative process and sometimes the most useful lessons emerge from failure. There’s no real substitute for experience — but there are several formal and informal ways to learn painlessly from those who’ve blazed a trail before you. So if you’re hitting the business books, here are three ways to educate yourself for entrepreneurship. 1.

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Influencer Marketing: Proven Strategies To Find Influencers Who Fit Your Brand

crowdSPRING Blog

The digital marketplace changes more often than Kylie Jenner switches her hair color. It not easy for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and marketing strategists to keep their marketing campaigns relevant and competitive. Influencer marketing, if done right, can help your startup or small business grow your audience, improve sales, and expand brand awareness through social media.

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7 Reasons To Not Give Up Too Soon On Your New Venture

Startup Professionals Musings

Most of the young entrepreneurs I know are classic proof of the old adage that people tend to overestimate what they can do in a short period, and underestimate what they can do over a long period. They become frustrated when they are unable to build their startup in a weekend, and give up way too soon when the path to real success seems to be interminable.

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8 nifty, new apps that will help you save money

The Next Web

Arguably everyone experiences financial challenges at one time or another. For some, the challenges are relatively small and insignificant. For others, money issues become big, scary and stressful. No matter where your income-to-spending ratio currently sits, one thing remains true — you can save more money. Even if you’re someone who saves every month and thinks you’re on top of your finances, the eight applications below will help you keep more dollars in your bank and cash in your wallet. #1

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5 Ways Of Making Extra Money While Getting Your Business Off The Ground

YoungUpstarts

by Joe Levi, founder of Student Money Saver. Let’s face it, you didn’t choose the life of an entrepreneur because you thought it was going to be easy. Getting your business off the ground takes countless hours of hard work, plus a little luck. Finding ways to make money as you establish yourself can prove invaluable on the road to success. I’ve put together 5 simple ways to help you on your way.

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How Latin America is Drawing in Global Tech Giants

ReadWriteStart

Latin America’s tech-savvy workforce has attracted international companies to maintain support offices in the region for years. However, the recent government commitment to develop innovation hubs, coupled with a growing middle class that lead in the adoption of mobile devices, has made Latin America prime territory for global tech companies to target local consumers.

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Conscious Capitalism Drives Winning Businesses Today

Startup Professionals Musings

I’ve noticed that most young entrepreneurs are more socially conscious today than ever before, which is a great trend. Unfortunately, some are so focused on this principle that they forget that every business, even nonprofits, have to practice the basic principles of capitalism (build a business model to make money) to cover their costs to do good things another day.

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How to engage with influencers on Twitter for you brand

The Next Web

I’m sure you’re no stranger to the growing popularity of influencer marketing among brands and marketers today. The significant growth in the number of people showing interest in “influencer marketing” during recent years is proof enough. However, have you ever wondered why? Because people trust the opinions and recommendations of these thought leaders.

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7 Tips For Starting A Business In Your Garage

YoungUpstarts

When you launch a business, a suitable place to operate is a key piece. For many owners, their garage is an obvious solution. It represents additional square footage that won’t displace their living space. There are many advantages to starting a business in your garage, starting with the savings. “When you start a business, the last thing you want to do is spend any money that you do not have,” says MJ Gottlieb , an entrepreneur and founder of Fishbowl.

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The Logical Evolution of Private Markets: A new class of company.

K9 Ventures

Recently I attended a lunch where we were all asked to present something provocative/mind-blowing. I thought about that for a while and realized that I want my provocative thought to not be something that is a pie in the sky idea but instead something that is based on a series of logical conclusions. Well, here is a series of logical progressions that lead me to believe that in the near future, we will see the emergence of a new class of company.

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9 Innovation Practices For Long-Term Business Health

Startup Professionals Musings

A guiding principle for startup success, as well as the long-term health of a mature business, is a liberal dose of innovation at the beginning, with additions of the same on a regular basis. Unfortunately, innovation means change, and most business professionals and existing customers, by default, hate change. Thus without thinking, every company becomes more static.

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5 Ways To Improve Your Website’s First Impression

YFS Magazine

Whether you run a successful blog or e-commerce website, make that vital first impression count.

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20 Secrets For Writing Content That Attracts And Engages 

YoungUpstarts

by Justin Champion, author of “ Inbound Content: A Step-by-Step Guide To Doing Content Marketing the Inbound Way “. By now you realize that the old method of marketing doesn’t work. Buyers now hold all the power. Chasing them down and begging them to buy is a waste of time and money. They want to find you — and your main job is to be found.

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The Harsh Reality Of The Preference Stack

Haystack

I recently shared this article and tweeted this , and I was quite surprised by the thread it triggered and the reaction it generated. After reflecting on it for a day, I began to understand why — even though this topic has been written about many times, “technology” as a sector and industry now has gone from vertical to horizontal, entirely pervasive across industries, across sectors, across geographies and cultures.