Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 1, 2020
In my experience, the Silicon Valley startup model, focused on disrupting established industries, has treated the USA well and created some great global businesses. Yet many of you are telling me that we are all missing big opportunities by not recognizing the unique challenges faced by startups in developing countries , where infrastructure is lacking, and talent is not so concentrated.
View from Seed
APRIL 27, 2020
In a period of uncertainty, the easiest thing to do as a VC is to be paralyzed by fear and do nothing. We can stay busy by expending time and effort supporting the existing portfolio, which is the right thing to do and a good use of time. But when it comes to new investments, the path of least resistance is to hang back and see how things play out.
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YoungUpstarts
APRIL 28, 2020
As beginners, it’s easy to jump straight into designing a website’s interface. However, working offline should be carried out first to generate a good foundation that you can build on. You can use this time to inform your web design, add more structure to simplify your design process, and articulate a clear purpose for the entire design. Of course, one crucial consideration is user experience.
ConversionXL
APRIL 28, 2020
You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you get a calendar invite for an all-hands meeting—with no warning or context? I got one of those in 2018, mere months after I started at data.world as their first growth marketing and demand generation hire. My initial role was to grow the user base for our free, open-data catalog. But I soon found out our real challenge was monetization.
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 Professionals Musings
APRIL 25, 2020
Did you ever wonder why some entrepreneurs always seem to have all the luck and success, while others never seem to catch a break? As an angel investor, I quickly learned that luck has very little to do with it, and I now look for some personal characteristics and leadership styles that separate the potential winners from the losers. These differences are the reason that investors say that they invest in people, rather than ideas.
VC Cafe
APRIL 29, 2020
Several European countries started announcing ‘Exit Plans’ from the current lockdowns. But as the world is starting to flatten the curves, the economic impact is just beginning. Earlier this week the NVCA (North American Venture Capital Association) issued a white paper detailing the impact of the current capital crunch on startups: Expect more layoffs (currently over 30,000) according to this layoffs tracker and expected to grow for up to 10%-50% as startups struggle to secure fundi
Start Up Roar brings together the best content for start up professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Up and Running
APRIL 28, 2020
For many of you, it’s likely that you’re just finishing up your fourth or fifth full week working from home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Working remotely, especially for your first time, can be challenging to adjust to. Stationed in the comfort of your recliner with the fridge just a room away is appealing, but it has its drawbacks. Endless texts, calls, and remote meetings, children or pets wanting to play, and countless other distractions can make it difficult to separate your home l
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 29, 2020
The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first fifteen minutes. The biggest complaint I hear from fellow investors is that startup founders often talk way too long, and neglect to cover the most relevant points. Or they get sidetracked by a technical glitch due to poor preparation.
Hearpreneur
APRIL 26, 2020
Anyone can be an innovator, but it takes special traits to lead in innovation. It’s about how you implement the lessons you gain along the way and dare situations as they come. It’s about being future-oriented, paying special attention to details and putting yourself in vulnerable situation when you think it’s worth the risk. We asked entrepreneurs and business owners about the traits they admire in innovators and here are the responses; #1- Unconventional thinking.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 30, 2020
by Erik D. Rosenstrauch, Founder and CEO of FUEL Partnerships. In approaching the COVID-19 crisis from the marketer’s perspective, the question is how, not if, the world will change when the restrictions are lifted. My intuition relies on what marketers believe and researchers have proven – the repeated behavior learned during this several month crisis will form new consumer habits.
Up and Running
APRIL 30, 2020
We used to call it “what-if” but today it’s known as “scenario analysis.” It’s been a favorite management tool of mine since my time as VP for a market research firm, and it’s a method I used for decades growing a software company from zero to well over $10 million in annual sales. Today, with the COVID-19 crisis upon us, it’s the best way to move forward through rising uncertainty.
Steve Blank
APRIL 27, 2020
Over the last month billions of people have been unwilling participants in the largest unintentional social experiment ever run – testing how video conferencing replaced face-to-face communication. While we’ve discovered that in many cases it can, more importantly we’ve discovered that, regardless of bandwidth and video resolution, these apps are missing the cues humans use when they communicate.
Women Entrepreneurs Can
APRIL 27, 2020
Remote work is fast becoming the new normal in the corporate world, especially with the current outbreak. With the prevalence of collaborative tools such as Trello, Jira and Slack, companies are beginning to find new ways to help their workers to maintain productivity in the comforts of their home. For freelancers majorly, such setup is quite the order of the day for them.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 29, 2020
The work-from-home (WFH) culture has officially come of age. With masses of employees huddled at home, safe from the ravages of the novel coronavirus threat looming on our horizon, remote work is no longer an option for millions of companies across the globe. However, there’s a big challenge that faces most employers who are unfamiliar with the remote work setup: what software tools do your staff need in order to stay in the game and run your day to day operations with minimal business impact?
Up and Running
APRIL 27, 2020
Recessions, or even a volatile market like we’re currently experiencing due to COVID-19 , are difficult times. There’s a great amount of uncertainty, people losing their jobs, and a direct hit on cash flows that can place businesses in dire straights. But it doesn’t have to be all bad. . Current businesses are finding ways to pivot their business models, revisiting their budgets, and developing new forecasts to minimize their burn rate and maximize their available cash runway.
deal architect
APRIL 25, 2020
A decade ago, Workday pioneered with its Technology Day format. I wrote back then "Few vendors have the guts to be open to such a smart and opinionated bunch as Workday was during its Technology Day yesterday. Like a marathon.
Women Entrepreneurs Can
APRIL 27, 2020
With millions of different companies worldwide and cut-throat competition, the central tenet of businesses is undergoing a sea-change. Start-ups like 4DHealthWare and Biobot Analytics are leading the way, and business today is all about customer satisfaction. Bill Gates coined the phrase, ‘Customer is King.’ With so many world-class options available for every product and service, the only way to differentiate in the marketplace now is how you treat your customers.
YoungUpstarts
MAY 1, 2020
– A strong HR and sound corporate policies can substantially minimize an employer’s risk of litigation. – Intelligent W2 and 1099 contracts allow employers to control much of the process in case of conflict; don’t copy and paste a (useless) standard employment agreement. – If litigation is inevitable, select an attorney with a proven track record in corporate litigation and defending employers — and who also does not shy away from using the strategy of offense as the best defen
Austin Startup
APRIL 26, 2020
In honor of Netflix’s big beat today in the very unfortunate age of COVID-19, I decided to revisit my four-part Bazaarblog series while I was CEO of Bazaarvoice (from our inception in 2005 to our IPO in 2012). The name of the last part? “Netflix vs. Blockbuster: Round Four (Lights Out?)” First, just to provide a foundation here, Bazaarvoice was named after Chapter 4 of “The Cluetrain Manifesto” (available for free online), “ Markets Are Conversations ”.
deal architect
APRIL 28, 2020
I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes.
Women Entrepreneurs Can
APRIL 26, 2020
One of the prime requirements for an equipment rental software is reliability, which is not as common among the equipment hire software providers as it should be. Then there is also the question of the application being able to cater to the operational, functional and financial needs of specific businesses. So, how do you find the right equipment hire management software for your company?
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 28, 2020
by Deb Boelkes, author of “ The WOW Factor Workplace: How to Create a Best Place to Work Culture “ As the pandemic churns on, your employees may be getting somewhat settled into their strange new routines. But don’t be fooled: Even as they get acclimated with Zoom meetings or working in masks, their anxiety hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s just gone underground.
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 26, 2020
Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their idea of a new technology or required service. These idea and developer skills are necessary, but not sufficient, to build a business. A real business requires leadership – thought leadership to attract customers and mind share, as well as people leadership around a team, partners, and investors.
deal architect
APRIL 25, 2020
I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes.
ReadWriteStart
APRIL 27, 2020
Starting a tech company is exciting, but there are dozens of factors you’ll need to consider if you want your startup to succeed. Much of your time brainstorming will be spent considering things like how to reduce costs, how to expand efficiently, and how to build the right team—but you’ll also need to consider the nature of your brand, including your business’s name.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 27, 2020
The iconic football coach Vince Lombardi once famously said, “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.”. Although leadership may be attainable through dint of hard work, it’s also true that some of us might be more naturally suited to leadership than others, simply because of certain qualities that we possess — although we can certainly strive to improve ourselves in those areas, as well
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 27, 2020
If you want to make a great first impression on a startup investor or an advisor like me, don’t try to convince me or show me how busy you are. For some reason, too many aspiring entrepreneurs I know seem to focus on “actions” rather than “results.” Based on my experience, survival and success are both about doing the right things , and not about doing everything.
deal architect
APRIL 28, 2020
I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes.
View from Seed
APRIL 27, 2020
In one’s everyday life, “work” is certainly one of the most important activities that occupies up to half (if not more) of the available hours of a day. Your line of work not only impacts how you go about your working hours, it also shapes your identity and the choices available to other non-work aspects of your daily life. . Despite the gradual shift towards a more “white collar-driven” economy over the last 40 years, there are still over 110 million “mass market workers” in blue collar and ser
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 29, 2020
The costs associated with operating a small business can weigh heavily on growth and the ability to compete with other companies. Streamlining some of those tasks can help ease the burdens, and there are many ways your company could be streamlining which not only saves you money but increases productivity and customer service. Here are some ways your business could streamline some of its day to day functions. 1.
Feld Thoughts
MAY 1, 2020
I’m excited to announce the launch of Energize Colorado , a new Colorado-based non-profit to help energize companies in Colorado survive the Covid crisis and then thrive as we get the crisis under control. A month ago (which seems like a year ago), I wrote a post explaining that the Covid crisis was actually three interwoven crises : health, financial, and mental health.
The Startup Magazine
APRIL 30, 2020
When someone mentions the term “curb appeal” what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you immediately think about a house in a residential neighborhood. But did you know that business curb appeal is just as important, particularly for startup businesses trying to get visibility? The Importance of Curb Appeal. First impressions are typically formed in a matter of seconds.
David Cohen
APRIL 25, 2020
At Techstars , one of the most common questions we get is “How has the pandemic impacting financings and M&A transactions?” Due to the size of our system (now 2,200 accelerator portfolio companies and adding 500 per year) we have real-time insight into this question. Each month we typically see between 40 and 70 financing events kick off, which is what we’re tracking here.
YoungUpstarts
APRIL 28, 2020
by Shannon Tucker, Vice President of Media Relations at SSPR. Two words that make me cringe: “No comment.”. I’ve been working in PR for close to 15 years, and I still spend more time than I’d like trying to get clients to understand the importance of crisis planning. Many see it as an afterthought, others prefer the, “No comment,” approach and want to run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.
Feld Thoughts
APRIL 27, 2020
We are starting to exit phase 1 of the Covid Crisis in the United States. If you find the whole thing extremely disorienting, you have my empathy. In mid-April, I was getting used to the Stay at Home mode. I’d joke about how I was made for this and was never leaving my house again. Last weekend I took a digital sabbath and woke up feeling energized on Monday.
VC Adventure
APRIL 27, 2020
I’ve published a number of posts over the past few weeks about some of the challenges of the existing PPP loans and in particular, about my concerns that the loans aren’t getting to as many of the smaller businesses that need them. In this CNBC op-ed article , Elizabeth McBride and I pointed out how the face of entrepreneurship in the United States is changing.
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