Startups

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  Fast Company

• The 12 Best and Worst Digital Characters

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm

• What Do Presidential Libraries Say About Their Namesakes' Legacies?

  Alissa Walker

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Part of the point of a presidential library is that it's a monument to a leader's legacy--his style, his enduring affect on the world, even his reading habits...or lack thereof. Speaking of which, Laura Bush unveiled the design for her husband's book joint this week, and the ultra-traditional structure that nods to Washington but bows to the rest of Southern Methodist University's campus isn't winning any points with architecture critics. But how does W's design stack up against his predecessors? We checked out the libraries of fellow recent commanders-in-chief completed in the last three…

• Drive a Mercedes with Your iPhone and Nine Other Mind-Blowing Stories This Week on Fast Company

  Kate Rockwood

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:45 pm

  Mind-blowing phrase of the week: "interferometric modulation," which can be loosely translated as "Oh my God! Qualcomm’s Mirasol e-reader has color video!" Mercedes Benz unveiled an app that lets you control your car with the iPhone. But Intel one-ups the luxe car maker with an implantable chip that lets you control your computer using only your thoughts.Round two of the juice-packaging cage match started late last year with Pepsi’s Tropicana fiasco, and this week Coke’s Minute Maid unveiled a juicy new look (courtesy of Master of Design cover boy David Butler). Los Angeles took home…

• ComScore's New Study Finds Dope on "Movie Junkies"

  Alissa Walker

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  Research group comScore released its study on "movie junkies" yesterday that surveyed the behavior of 500,000 moviegoers who bought tickets online in September 2009. Some of the highlights: Fandango rules the market. Over $31 million is spent each month buying online movie tickets, with 81% of those tickets purchased at Fandago.com. Females 25-54 are heavy online ticket buyers. Women are actually more likely to make decisions about movie night than men: movie ticket purchasers are 39% more likely to be female. Maybe men would rather watch at home? DVD sales were an equal split between the…

• Can Chegg Beat the Kindle at the Textbook Game?

  Ariel Schwartz

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm

  The Kindle may be the king of e-readers, but it has a long way to go before being accepted as an acceptable replacement for textbooks. When Amazon's device was introduced at Princeton for classroom assignments recently, it received mostly negative reviews. Now the Kindle's budding classroom legacy is being challenged by Chegg, an online textbook rental service that just raised a whopping $112 million in a round led by Insight Venture Partners. Chegg deals in good old-fashioned print books, but saves paper by letting students rent textbooks in a Netflix-like model. The company, founded in…

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  VentureBeat

• Entrepreneur Corner Roundup: The state of the VC world and tech’s human problem

  Chris Morris

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

  Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner: 5 ways VC firms can stop shooting themselves in the foot – Venture Capital firms drill the need to create basic credibility into the companies they invest in – but often fail to take their own advice. Laura Grimmer, CEO of Articulate Communications (which works with VC firms), lists five things they could do to build a better pipeline of prospective portfolio companies. After VC cash? Show ‘em what you’ve learned – When the time came for Cafepress to seek its second round of funding, the company went about it in a…

• Now anyone can try Brizzly’s app for Facebook and Twitter

  Anthony Ha

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:28 pm

  Brizzly, an application for managing messages in Twitter and Facebook, expanded its beta test today — now you don’t need an invite code, so anyone can use it. The application was created by San Francisco-based Thing Labs, and includes features like expanding links and photos, the ability to “mute” people who you want to stop seeing updates from temporarily, and recently-added support for Twitter Lists. In addition to opening the beta, Brizzly also added a new feature today, the ability to translate tweets with a single click using Google Translate. Thing Labs also…

• Tweetmeme launches buttons for re-tweetable advertising

  Kim-Mai Cutler

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:14 pm

  Twitter said it’s planning a large-scale advertising network soon, but U.K.-based Tweetmeme beat them to the punch with a monetization effort of its own today. The startup, which creates those green ‘Retweet’ buttons you see everywhere (including on this site), is rolling out the same feature for ads. They’re partnering with Federated Media to insert retweet buttons into their advertising two weeks from now, enabling people to share compelling ads with others. Advertising in social streams has historically been a touchy issue (see: Facebook Beacon in 2007). Users…

• GreenBeat: Big thank you and media roundup

  Camille Ricketts

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  Thanks to everyone who made it out to GreenBeat 2009 yesterday and Wednesday! We were thrilled with the turnout, and couldn’t be more grateful for all the support we received from attendees, speakers, sponsors and the press. It’s clear that the Smart Grid has gained the momentum it needs for serious work to be done, and we are excited to play a big role in this conversation going forward. With Al Gore, and several of the biggest utilities and brightest entrepreneurs leading the charge, 2010 should be a big year for smart metering initiatives, regulatory reform and consumer…

• GreenBeat: Al Gore says Smart Grid part of ‘the single largest solution’ to climate change

  Anthony Ha

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pm

  Nobel Prize winner and former vice president Al Gore gave a wide-ranging, passionate talk at VentureBeat’s GreenBeat 2009 conference yesterday in San Mateo about combating global warming. We already liveblogged Gore’s talk, but for folks who don’t want to read the blow-by-blow description, here’s a summary. Perhaps the most significant point: That energy efficiency is “the single largest solution to the climate crisis,” and the Smart Grid will “play a crucial role” in achieving that efficiency. The Smart Grid will have a number of advantages,…

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  Inc.com

• Dealing With Complexity; The End of the Oprah Effect

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:30 am

  A long goodbye to Oprah (and the Oprah Effect). It's official. Oprah Winfrey will announce to viewers on today's show that she will be retiring from her long-running talk show at the completion of the 2011 season. No need to shed a tear for Oprah, who has amassed a fortune reportedly in the neighborhood of $2.7 billion. Instead, think of all those businesses who will no longer feel the benefit of the so-called Oprah Effect, a significant surge in business thanks to a product mention on Ms. Winfrey's show. Here's a look at some Inc. 500 companies who have felt the spoils of the Oprah Effect…

• Is Imeem going to MySpace?

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Imeem is a start-up with a great service (free online music!), lots of users (15 million, according to Quantcast), and a compelling story. Unfortunately, it's pretty darn hard to make it in the online music business. The start-up has struggled this year, because of a poor advertising market and high licensing fees owed to the record companies (these fees have been a perenial problem for online music start-ups and nearly shut down Pandora in 2007). Techcrunch reported in May that Imeem had, "risen from the ashes," by renegotiating with the record companies and raising several million dollars…

• How to Find the Right Partnerships

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:33 am

  We just did something that some would say is crazy. We -- the company best known for making "worm poop" gardening products bottled in what were previously plastic soda bottles, and for turning billboards into messenger bags -- are creating products based on Huggies and Scott paper products from Kimberly-Clark. Excuse me? No, not used diapers and handy wipes, but the packaging that they came in. Oh. Yes. But you see where there might be a bit of a mental leap for people to buy products that are made from brands they associate with very unrecyclable things? That is, until you look at what we're…

• Advertisement:

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:33 am

• It Takes a Community to Raise a Customer

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:16 am

  A recent survey commissioned by e-mail marketing provider Campaigner found the top challenge facing small business owners today is customer acquisition and retention -- by a landslide.  The 2009 State of Small Business Online Marketing Survey questioned over 250 North American small business owners with 20 employees or less.  And customer acquisition/retention was the top business challenge of 50 percent of those surveyed.  Growing revenue was a distant second with 15 percent, followed by improving cash flow and maintaining profitability -- at 9 percent and 8 percent…

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  Startup Nation

• StartupNation - Franchise Myths

  26 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  Rick Bowman of Imprint In Time talks with StartupNation's Rich Sloan about common myths people buy into when considering becoming a franchise owner.

• StartupNation - Using Seduction in Business Situations

  11 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  Hear Manhattan-based seduction coach, Arden Leigh, share her high-sizzle insights about how “seduction” has a place in business situations.

• StartupNation - Avoid These 5 Classic Triggers of an IRS Audit

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Learn about 5 common ingredients in your tax filling that put you on the radar at the IRS.

• StartupNation - Success Strategies from the Masters (Part Three)

  4 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am

  Tune in to hear success strategies from StartupNation's own Rich Sloan and from best-selling author, Cynthia Shapiro.

• StartupNation - Success Strategies from the Masters (Part Two)

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Kendra Todd, winner of The Apprentice, joins Rich Sloan to share her wisdom on how to become more successful than you’ve ever been before – even in these tough times.

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  Entrepreneur

• Gear Up for the Holidays--and Beyond

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Why your "crunch-time" skills should become business as usual

• Take Your Message to the Monitors

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Video marketing can engage your online customers on a whole new level.

• The Basics of Starting a Home-Based Business

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Everything you need to live, work and outsource from your couch

• Leverage Your Inner Lemon

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  Use 'Brand Judo' to flip negative perceptions into memorable campaigns.

• Dress Up Your Online Store for the Holidays

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  These tips will give your customers--and your business--plenty of reasons to celebrate the season.

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  TechCrunch

• Google To Shut Down GrandCentral Website

  Michael Arrington

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:14 pm

  Google Voice was GrandCentral before Google acquired that company back in 2007. Like most Google acquisitions it took a long time to fully rebuild the service on Google’s infrastructure, and even today Google Voice is still in private beta. But lots of changes are coming. Google Voice should roll out publicly shortly. Users may be able to port their existing phone numbers to Google if they choose. Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5 will give the service a client soft phone plus enhanced VoIP capabilities. And who knows what part Google Voice will play in in the upcoming Google Phone.

• Screening The News

  Guest Author

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:45 am

  Editor’s note: Today, being a news junkie requires not just the ability to keep up with hundreds of breaking stories a day, but the ability to redistribute those stories to your followers and news sites. To get some insight into the modern news junkie, we asked Mrinal Desai to share with us how he screens the news in the guest post below. Desai is the co-founder of CrossLoop, but some of you may recognize him more from Twitter or Techmeme, where he tips stories every day—580 of those tips have appeared as headlines since the beginning of this year. You can read his last guest post…

• Saturday Giveaway: Kodak 5250 All-In-One Printer, Just For You

  John Biggs

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:31 am

  Good afternoon, readers! What does Santa have in his bag for you today? Interestingly enough, he was unable to bring his bag because this printer is far too big for it. We present, for your inspection, the Kodak 5250 all-in-one: a scanning, printing, faxing, photofinishing machine that can best the big boys in the printer race. Best of all, the 5250 has built-in WiFi so you can stick the printer on your network and print from any computer in the house. Take a look at Kodak's 5250 product page and then click through to figure out how to win.

• TechCrunch Readers: God is Your Co-Pilot, and Stuff that Piggy Bank

  Vivek Wadhwa

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:45 am

  When pitching to VC’s, entrepreneurs hype the heck out of their ideas, years of experience and management teams. But I’ve never heard of anyone touting their luck or connection to God. After reading the posts on TechCrunch, one could easily get the impression that God doesn’t play much of role in Silicon Valley. But ask any successful entrepreneur in private what made them successful, and you might just hear a different story. In a research project my team just completed, the majority of 549 company founders told us that their most important success factor, after “experience” and…

• Uh-Oh: Gameloft Moves Away From Android Development

  Greg Kumparak

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am

  The sudden surge in interest in Android (largely due to all of the hype surrounding the Droid) has caused a lot of developers to reconsider the platform. Atleast one major development house, however, isn't impressed. Earlier today, Alexandre de Rochefort, Finance Director of Gameloft, told an investor conference that the company had "significantly cut [their] investment in Android platform, just like ... many others". Gameloft is one of the largest mobile games companies around, having pulled in roughly $132 million in the last three quarters alone. While there are plenty of fish in the…

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  Hacker News

• Awesome SQL blog

  Comments

• Morgan Stanley’s $9,000,000,000.00 Check.

  Comments

• ForeUI: UI Prototyping Tool

  Comments

• A Summary of the Great CRU Data Hack Emails

  Comments

• All this learning means nothing until you make something happen

  Comments

• 
  SmartBrief on Entrepreneurs

• The story of the penguin and the mouse

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  A Canadian startup called Club Penguin attracted 25,000 kids in its first month to a virtual world where they could "dance,"  -More- 

• Entrepreneur offers a helping hand

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Inspired by the small sewing business that allowed her mother to move from Ethiopia to the U.S., Alfa Demmellash founded a no -More- 

• Learn to enjoy the trying times

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  We often fail to achieve our goals because we get bored with the repeated attempts, writes Peter Bregman.  -More- 

• Washington strikes a listening pose

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Top Obama administration officials met with entrepreneurs and trade associations on Wednesday in an all-day effort to, as Tre -More- 

• Where to link up with European entrepreneurs

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Looking to network overseas? LinkedIn, the premier U.S.  -More- 

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  How to Change the World

• The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read

  GuyKawasaki

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

  Inc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop.

• How to Get Found

  GuyKawasaki

  4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pm

  The reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff.

• How I tweet

  GuyKawasaki

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

  By popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices.

• Current Twitter Demo Script

  GuyKawasaki

  28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 am

  This is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this.

• How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness

  GuyKawasaki

  26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pm

  Over at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.

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  VatorNews.tv

• Hot Potato serves up social event stream

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm

  Launching today, this startup's iPhone app geo-locates you and geo-locates the partyHot Potato, a startup focusing on an iPhone app that streams updates from friends at events in your area, launched on Friday, just one month after the completion of its Series A round of funding. The Brooklyn-based early-stage startup has raised $1 million so far for its mobile brand of social networking via events.Backed by Vimeo co-founder Zach Klein, Hot Potato's iPhone app will be one which facilitates a conversation that revolve around events: who's going where, who's enjoying what, what's happening (as…

• Social networking sites are media portals

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:45 am

  Time spent viewing video on social networking destinations up 98% year-over-year, reports NielsenOne of the things I love about Facebook is how simple it is to view videos on your live feed.  For the most part, videos from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, or those uploaded directly to Facebook play right in the feed without ever having to stray away to another destination.  It just works.  It makes sense that this ease of viewing could be one of the reasons why time spent viewing video on social networking has increased 98 percent year-over-year, according to a report by Nielsen…

• Facebook shares rise 42% in 4 months

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am

  Common stock is trading at $21/ share on SecondMarket, giving the company a $9.5 billion valuation.Facebook’s valuation has been all over the map. In 2007, a $240 million investment from Microsoft pegged the company at a whopping $15 billion. After Wall Street imploded, the company plummeted to $3.7 billion in its own estimation, according to court documents discovered by the AP in February of this year. By May it climbed back to $10 billion with an investment from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies. DST then offered to buy up to $100 million in common stock from shareholders…

• Adobe to release Acrobat.com for smartphones

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  After a couple weeks worth of mobile news, Adobe keeps the updates comingAdobe revealed Thursday that this weekend it will be launching a new version of Acrobat.com, an online platform which allows for PDF conversion, web conferencing, and more. Included in the announcement is the news that Adobe will likewise be releasing both iPhone and BlackBerry applications for Acrobat.com.The new Acrobat.com, which launches this Saturday, Nov. 21 at 3:00am PST, consolidates all of the user's files--documents, spreadsheets, presentations--into one central hub, for easier access. Both free and premium…

• Twitter's new question: What's happening?

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am

  Biz Stone says "What are you doing?" was never the most important questionFrom the beginning, Twitter has asked its users one simple question: "What are you doing?" The original idea assumed the network would be a place for people to keep in touch with each other and the occurrences in their day-to-day lives.But, as co-founder Biz Stone acknowledges in a Twitter Blog post today, that question has taken a backseat to a more important question.According to Stone:The fundamentally open model of Twitter created a new kind of information network and it has long outgrown the concept of personal…

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  Small Business Labs

• Local Web Continues to Grow - Twitter Adding Location Data

  Steve

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am

  The New York Times covers Twitter's planned release of geolocation data.  The new feature will take advantage of geolocation data in cellphones letting users include their location in tweets.  This will allow users to search Twitter by location, improving its use for location applications like local commerce.  It will also allow comparisons across geography.  For example you could compare what  people in New York tweeting about swine flu versus people in Texas.  More evidence of the growth of the local web. 

• Steve King Named 2009 SNCR Fellow of the Year

  cbockels

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) named Steve King the 2009 Fellow of the Year at their recent awards gala in Boston.  SNCR Executive Director Jen McClure stated: "His vision for SNCR’s potential, his impressive experience and expertise as a business leader and researcher, and his unwavering commitment to the Society’s mission and goals is greatly appreciated, and I am honored to work with him as a colleague on our board of directors and as a Fellow conducting research on behalf of our organization.” As managing director of Emergent Research and a…

• The Rise of Social Media Peer Groups

  Steve

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  The Society for New Communications Research(SNCR) just released the preliminary results of a new study showing that corporate decision makers are increasingly turning to online social networks for assistance in decision-making.   The study, The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks, examines the role that social media has on decision-making among business professionals.  Key findings include: Professional decision making is becoming more social as decision-makers utilize social network to research, inform and validate decisions. Professionals trust online…

• Home Businesses and Their Employees

  Steve

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:53 am

  Based on questions and feedback we are getting on the homepreneur study, the finding that roughly half of homepreneurs have employees seems to be the most surprising result. We weren't surprised by these results, mainly because we were surprised by this years ago when we first started researching home-based businesses.  Over the years our conversations, interviews and surveys of home-based business owners have consistently shown that a high percentage are employers.  While there haven't been a lot of recent studies on home-based businesses, others have…

• It's All About Leads

  Steve

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  Yes, this is pretty obvious.  But we often overlook the importance of leads and lead generation.  Also overlooked is how central lead generation is to the business models of many of the Internet's most successful companies - and how lead generation is changing media and marketing.  Google is, of course, all about leads via adwords.  So is eBay and all the other online markets.  For example, I just made a restaurant reservation using Open Table.  It is a public company worth $600 million that gets a big chunk of its revenue…

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  DEMO Conference Blog

• Join Us: December DEMO Innovation Meet-Ups in San Francisco, Seattle, NYC and Austin

  DEMO Staff

  30 Oct 2009 | 1:32 pm

  The DEMO Innovation tour where Matt Marshall, DEMO Executive Producer and the DEMO team travel around the globe to connect with the DEMO community in search of  the best innovation to showcase at DEMOspring 2010 is making it's way across the U.S. in December. Read more

• DEMO’s visits to London and Boston show California is great place to launch

  DEMO Staff

  30 Oct 2009 | 1:28 pm

  Matt Marshall, DEMO Executive Producer I’ve been on the road lately, in a continued effort to find and meet with the best companies around to launch new products at the DEMO conference, and have been developing some cool ideas for DEMO’s next conference in March. I’ll share more about those ideas in future posts. Read more

• DEMO rocked! Now the party starts again

  DEMO Staff

  13 Oct 2009 | 7:25 am

  From: Matt Marshall, Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences and Editor-in-Chief, VentureBeat It’s been two weeks since the end of DEMO. I’m awestruck by the experience, both by all of the incredibly talented people that convened there in San Diego, and by the traction 70 entrepreneurs were able to get during those short few days. Thank you to all of the people who came and make it such a terrific event. Read more

• DEMO 2010 starts now

  DEMO Staff

  7 Oct 2009 | 2:58 pm

  We're fresh off DEMOfall 09 where two weeks ago, 70 companies launched products and announced innovative business plans. If you haven't taken a look, check out the class of DEMOfall 09 at www.demo.com.   Read more

• DEMOfall 09 starts today.. Watch live coverage

  DEMO Staff

  22 Sep 2009 | 6:41 am

  Didn't make it to San Diego for DEMOfall 09? Watch it live on www.demo.com home page starting Tuesday, 9/22 at 8:30am. PT,  thx BitGravity! Read more

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  Bootstrapping a Startup - Business Exchange

• 20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground

  Business Exchange

  et’s face it: as an entrepreneur, the odds are stacked against you. Most businesses fail after the first few years, and even if you do manage to survive, that doesn’t mean your business will redefine an industry, become profitable, or change the world. Getting off on the right foot is essential to navigating a startup from its infancy to profitability.

• Business Bootstrapping Rule Number 11: Do Not Aspire for a Proven Team

  Business Exchange

  Business Bootstrapping Rule Number 11: Do Not Aspire for a Proven Team November 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment Manpower is expensive especially if you hired experienced and skilled workers. They will of course demand a high pay for their service.

• Basic Rules in Starting an Internet-Based Business

  Business Exchange

  I have formulated below the four basic rules when starting an internet business.

• How to Start Your Own Business Without Wasting Time and Money, Part I

  Business Exchange

  How to Start Your Own Business Without Wasting Time and Money, Part I March 4, 2009 Starting your own business can be daunting. Here is some practical advice to get started.

• Can Free Market Initiatives Save Struggling Small Businesses & Nonprofits? Here’s One Online Service That’s Trying

  Business Exchange

  The fantasy of people across the political spectrum, ranging from conservatives to progressives, is that the free market will solve the increasingly desperate woes of small businesses and nonprofits. It’s not entirely impossible, but it does...

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  Sophia Perl of Wisdom

• Quick way to know whether you are a good leader

  Sophia

  16 Nov 2009 | 10:53 pm

  Scarce resources means that you have to be creative in getting people motivated to work for you.  Leadership is a big word.   So how can you gauge how effective you are as a leader.  Here are some quick ways. It’s good to do a self assessment periodically so that you can stay on your A game.  Most people are better at it than others.  Me, I tend to pick up the clues that people give whether it be a joke or a feedback sit down session.  The feedback can be good or bad, it doesn’t really matter which because both are good to hear.  Just be prepared to listen for them in…

• I’m not so crazy about Twitter

  Sophia

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pm

  What’s all the fuss about Twitter?  I’ve been wanting to post something about Twitter for a long time, but I didn’t want to talk about something that I just don’t use too much (not an avid user or follower).  So, I like the idea that there’s one place where strangers can “stalk” other people.   I mean Facebook is where friends stalk friends.  Twitter is for the mass stalker.  I think that Twitter’s 140 character limit sucks.  I sometimes don’t like the character limit that Facebook imposes on my status updates.  Maybe I’m just…

• Women making dough with their clothes…on!

  Sophia

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

  I read a couple of articles talking about how women are making money in this tough economy.  Now now now, don’t get ahead of yourself and assume you know what.  Women are selling their clothes to other women.  The way it works is that a woman will invite her friends over to check out her clothes which are usually on display in a room in the “seller’s” home.  Some “sellers’ hang up their clothes on racks like stores do and provide bags to take home your goodies.  You must remember that your purchases are final sales, no returns.  So why would a woman…

• Mr. Photographer, you could have made money at this event

  Sophia

  31 Oct 2009 | 8:44 pm

  Real quick, I’m back blogging.  I just took a break. Tis the season for Halloween photo ops.  I attended an event where a local photography gave attendees a free 5×7 picture.  I stood in the long line like everyone else and took a picture.  Then I waited in another line to get the printed picture.  I put my name and email address on a sheet and the photo number that was printed.  Then I received my pic with no copyright printing on the back.  The photographer did put out some fliers out about scheduling a Santa photo session, but not a lot of hard selling or upselling of…

• A business based on anonymous confessions

  Sophia

  15 Apr 2009 | 5:31 pm

  I’m sure most of you have heard about PostSecret in which people send in postcards with your confession.  I came across another website called TruuConfessions.com targeted towards women.  I thought it was interesting actually in that women definitely do love their gossip.  When I read the About Us section which I always do on new startup websites, the founder talked about anonymous confessions as being therapeutic.  OK, I can maybe buy that.  Now, when someone posts a confession, she can categorize the confession into a category and then others can comment or say “me…

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  Venture Hacks

• Weekend reading

  Nivi

  21 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am

  Some weekend reading culled from our most popular tweets this week. Steve Blank and I have a good discussion about his and Eric Ries’ new customer development overlay. Regarding the Atlas Developer Beta, John Gruber says that “Access to the beta program is $20″ — this is the new way and I like it. Fake Steve Jobs always has better analysis than WSJ, NYT, TechCrunch, Economist, and your mom combined. I don’t think you need operational experience to be a good VC but Mark Suster’s great new post illustrates the difference. I recommend you pair these posts with…

• The ignorant VC

  Supporting Author

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  Thanks to Atlas Venture for supporting Venture Hacks this month. This post is an interview of Fred Destin — one of Atlas’ general partners — by David Woodward, a journalist and blogger. If you like it, check out Fred’s blog and tweets @fdestin. A few days ago, I had an interesting chat with Fred Destin, Atlas Venture’s ebullient technology partner. Atlas bought a stake in the property website Zoopla at the beginning of 2008, which wasn’t exactly a fun time to be involved in the property game. It was also a pretty difficult period to source capital in any sector — all…

• The sultans of startup marketing

  Nivi

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:35 am

  I recently re-connected with an up-and-coming venture capital Associate who thanked me for introducing her to the masterworks of Steve Blank and Eric Ries. I told her to check out Sean Ellis’ blog, and mentioned that I’ve learned just as much from Sean. Later that night, she sent me a note: “Sean Ellis is awesome. Thanks so much.” Let me tell you why Sean is awesome. First, Sean lead marketing from launch to IPO filing at LogMeIn and Uproar. He later worked with Xobni (Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital), Dropbox (Sequoia Capital), Eventbrite (Sequoia Capital),…

• Extrapolating computing

  Naval Ravikant

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am

  Remember when mainframes did all of the computing? And workstations were dumb terminals docked to the mainframes? The terminals had less power, but were more “mobile”. Then everyone got a desktop. And the desktop is where you did most of your computing. And you carried around your underpowered laptop, which had to be synced with your desktop, or docked to a big screen, keyboard and mouse to be usable. The laptop had less power, but it was more mobile than the desktop. Now most early adopters have a laptop as their main computer. And they’re carrying around their underpowered…

• How to pick a co-founder

  Naval Ravikant

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:32 am

  Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. It’s more important than your product, market, and investors. The ideal founding team is two individuals, with a history of working together, of similar age and financial standing, with mutual respect. One is good at building products and the other is good at selling them. The power of two Two is the right number — avoid the three-body problem. Think Jobs and Wozniak, Allen and Gates, Ellison and Lane, Hewlett and Packard, Larry and Sergei, Yang and Filo, Omidyar and Skoll. One founder companies can work, against the odds (hello,…

• 
  Tony Wright dot com

• The necessity of early stage valuations

  Tony Wright

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:54 pm

  A friend/contrarian Tweeted the following that I though was worth a discussion (the 140 character limit of Twitter quickly got too painful for me). “What’s wrong with this world: Twitter is making $4mil per year yet is valued at $1bil. #newmath” I think this is an important thing to talk about– it’s certainly something that would have resonated with me before I raised money from investors, but now falls pretty flat. I have two quick points to make about it, then I’ll wait for Marina to attack me in the comments. 1. Valuation does NOT equal market value for…

• On Auto-Tweets, Facebook Games, and Other Potential Pollution

  Tony Wright

  26 Oct 2009 | 8:43 am

  I love games. While I did wear a letterman jacket through most of high school, I surreptitiously played Dungeons and Dragons every week with my brother’s gaming group. I’ve played a wide variety of games on every computer I’ve ever owned. I like board games like Settlers of Catan, and (god help me) I even futzed around with Magic: The Gathering. Like a lot of software folks, I have a secret wish to punt everything, run into the hills, and make GAMES. So it’s exciting to see this gaming renaissance. Casual games, social games– whatever you want to call them–…

• Software and Making Money (Presentation Slides Included)

  Tony Wright

  14 Aug 2009 | 3:01 pm

  (note: this is modified from a talk I gave at Seattle Tech Startups on Wednesday) The more I think about it, the more I’m impressed with software businesses that are great businesses (not just great software). There’s a class of entrepreneur that is product focused (like the folks at Twitter), there is a class of entrepreneur that is business focused (the white-toothed stereotypical biz guy), and there is a class of entrepreneur who is PR focused (I won’t name names, but we all know of startups that seem to thrive simply because of the attention they draw). I think good…

• Should you move your startup to the Valley? Depends on where you are (Data included!)

  Tony Wright

  12 Jun 2009 | 11:03 am

  I admit that I am a bit of a contrarian. For a long time, the contention that “if you’re doing a startup, you HAVE to be in Silicon Valley” didn’t sit well with me. Sure, talent is important– but for many startups you need only a few talented folks to prove that you’ve got something and companies like WordPress have proven that you can build a great team (literally) anywhere and everywhere (they are virtual and across the world). Sure, energy is important– but the biggest source of energy isn’t your peers– it’s the people who are…

• Just How Important is the Valley? Let’s Look at some Data.

  Tony Wright

  17 Apr 2009 | 10:17 am

  [Edit: Added the raw data in a table at the end] Some of the smartest startup brains I’ve ever met have said that if you want to be in the startup game, you MUST be in the Valley. There are plenty of justifications out there for it, and many/most of them make a fair bit of sense. Recently, Paul Graham posted another great essay on the topic, and said: The second idea is that startups are a type of business that flourishes in certain places that specialize in it—that Silicon Valley specializes in startups in the same way Los Angeles specializes in movies, or New York in finance. [1]…

• 
  The Businessmakers Radio Show

• The Worldwide Struggle with Energy

  The Businessmakers Radio Show - Russ Capper

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  Dr Michael Economides has published several books on energy and its surrounding political controversies. Energy is victim of its own success, he says. Energy abundance has determined which countries have money and which don’t—and there is an abundance of mis-information out there too. The VERY outspoken Dr. Economides will shock you with his over-the-top opinions. If you care about the future of our environment, our climate, our society, our, well, our ANYTHING, DO NOT miss this interview!

• All-Stars Offer Advice

  The Businessmakers Radio Show - Russ Capper

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  BusinessMakers Legends wax nostalgic when asked for their advice—it’s about passion, keeping your cool and facing down the ultimate challenge. We have compiled a basketful of inspiration from the experts: Brian Liu, founder of LegalZoom; Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Compaq Computers; Nolan Bushnell, inventor of the original video game, Pong, and founder of Atari Inc.; Jeff Sandefer, founder and master teacher at the Acton School of Business; and Judith Cone, former vice president with The Kauffman Co.

• PKF Texas: The Entrepreneur’s Playbook® - Sell Side Due Diligence

  The Businessmakers Radio Show - Greg Price

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  Would you know how to prepare your company for a sale? Do you even know what all seller due diligence includes? Greg Price has food for thought that could help simplify your preparation.

• School of Business 11/21/09

  The Businessmakers Radio Show - Russ Capper|John Beddow

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:30 am

  Russ and John present the show about the make it happen entrepreneurs. Includes: the BusinessMakers Quote of the Week—personal observation by American author Sam Levenson; This Week in Business History includes such diverse topics as Alfred Nobel (as in Peace Prize), the banjo, Woody Woodpecker and the Rolling Stones; Navigating Business Jargon—acronyms, technospeak and trendy new stuff; and Dumbest Moments in Business History—France’s socialist government has retirement problems.

• Business Survival Tip - Choosing the Right Benefit Plan

  The Businessmakers Radio Show - Carl Kleimann

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  Making changes to your medical benefits has become very tricky. But it’s so important that you offer your employees the right plan! Carl Kleimann offers critical tips to consider.

• 
  Up and Running

• Build Your Business Webinar Thursday Nov. 19

  Tim Berry

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

  Please join me tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, on a webinar about using proper business planning techniques to actually build your business, not just your business plan. That’s happening online for an hour beginning at 11 a.m. PST, which is 2 pm EST and 1 pm CST. You can click here to register, or click the button below.

• Startup Financing with a Twist: Share Your Future

  Tim Berry

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am

  Here’s a nice reminder: What Seth Godin is recommending in his blog post today, as alternative financing for a small business, is what we actually did. And it worked for us. Seth’s post is called Debt, equity and a third thing that might work better. It works like this: You have an idea, a fledgling business or a new market to enter. You find an amateur investor (a wealthy dentist, a retired executive) and raise the money to bring it to market. And in return? The investor gets $xx for every unit you sell. From the first one until forever. This is instead of the classic either-or:…

• Do You Have 7 Minutes for Sticky Ideas?

  Tim Berry

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am

  Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, is one of the most interesting and useful books I’ve read in the last two years. It’s about how we use, lose, push, and forget ideas, stories, news leads and such. In short, how we make ideas stick. I was browsing the Web over the weekend and found this very good six-minute talk by co-author Chip Heath. It’s a good summary of an important book. If you can’t see that here, you can click here to go to the original on YouTube.

• Do You Really Want That MBA Degree?

  Tim Berry

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:19 am

  I received an intriguing e-mail today, well-written and thoughtful, from someone considering going for an MBA degree and asking my advice about it. Here’s a portion of it (quoted exactly): I’ve been thinking about developing some actual products for sale; but basically I have about a million ideas and as I trudge forth, I am realizing how little experience I really have when it comes to the nitty gritty. Things like accessing risk, being a better sales person, managing and dealing with potential employees, it’s all new to me. And the more I read about it and learn about…

• Paul Graham on What Startups Are Really Like

  Tim Berry

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am

  If you’re serious about starting a business, take a few minutes and read Paul Graham’s Web essay “What Startups Are Really Like.” Graham’s essay collection site is a valuable resource. He tends to post essays–a lot longer, and usually a lot more thoughtful, than a standard blog post–about once a month or so. He has a large following for good reason. The “What Startups Are Really Like” essay includes 19 points and a conclusion, so it’s more like a 10-minute than a two-minute read, but there’s a lot of real content there. Not…

• 
  The Startup Lawyer

• CoHabitat – Startup Weekend Dallas Launch Party

  Ryan Roberts

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:51 am

  CoHabitat is hosting the official Startup Weekend Dallas launch party this Friday night. A big thanks to Blake Burris for hosting the event. Where: 2517 Thomas Ave. Dallas 75201 When: Friday, November 20th; 10PM – 1AM CoHabitat is a startup community and coworking space in Uptown Dallas. It’s a hub for developers, creatives and entrepreneurs building the next break-out web companies. If you haven’t visited CoHabitat, this provides you with a great reason to finally check it out. CoHabitat CoWorking Share this on FacebookTweet This!Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on…

• 2,000 Reasons To Attend Startup Weekend Dallas

  Ryan Roberts

  9 Nov 2009 | 3:55 pm

  It was recently announced that over $2,000 in cash will be given away to the top teams at Startup Weekend Dallas. The prizes will be determined by community vote and some panelists. Register here for Startup Weekend Dallas. Share this on FacebookTweet This!Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on RedditStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponEmail this to a friend?Share this on FriendFeedSeed this on NewsvinePost this to PosterousSubscribe to the comments for this post?

• Startup Weekend Dallas: 1 Day Left For 20% Off

  Ryan Roberts

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:25 am

  Before you get ready to go trick-or-treating, just wanted to give you a courtesy reminder that the 20% early-bird discount available to those wanting to attend Startup Weekend Dallas expires tomorrow night. Register with the code “swearlybird” before 6pm on October 30th to receive this discount. Here’s what a typical Startup Weekend looks like: 6pm Friday: Everyone gets together; figures out who else is there; what would be interesting to build. 7pm: Pitches start (if you have an idea for a product you pitch it to the group). 8pm: Teams start breaking off (generally about…

• 5 Common Founder Mistakes

  Ryan Roberts

  23 Oct 2009 | 7:53 pm

  This is a re-post of an article that I wrote about common founder mistakes for StartupLucky.com and Killerstartups.com (not sure if it went out yet). 1. Spending Too Much Time Keeping Your “Unique” Idea Top Secret. Some founders attempt to have everyone within 25 feet of them sign an NDA. Instead of spending time drafting and then obtaining signatures on a NDA, a founder should use that time to implement the unique idea. It’s highly likely the idea isn’t unique, and a founder could turn off some good investors/partners/mentors by asking for a NDA signature. 2. Not Vesting Founders’…

• Startup Weekend Dallas Discount Code

  Ryan Roberts

  21 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am

  There’s a 20% early-bird discount available to those wanting to attend Startup Weekend Dallas. Register with the code “swearlybird” before 6pm on October 30th to receive this discount. Buy tickets here, or find out more about the weekend event. Share this on FacebookTweet This!Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on RedditStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponEmail this to a friend?Share this on FriendFeedSeed this on NewsvinePost this to PosterousSubscribe to the comments for this post?

• 
  Forbes

• The 10 Questions You Should Never Stop Asking

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm

  Companies run aground for the same basket of reasons, so don't forget the fundamentals.

• Surviving A Workaholic Spouse

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:41 pm

  Is your partner married to work? Follow this advice.

• Businesses You Can Start for Under $10,000

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  Want to run your own shop but don't have a lot of start-up juice or a fancy pedigree? Try these ideas.

• Growth Lessons: Women In Business

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pm

  Ernst & Young CEO Jim Turley on what can be done to do help women-owned businesses thrive.

• Snoop Dogg The Entrepreneur

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  Rapper shares advice on business and brand building.

• 
  Startup Professionals Musings

• Investor Interest Depends on Startup Stage

  21 Nov 2009 | 6:03 am

  If you are looking for an outside investor, you need to know how they see you. Different types of investors look for startups at different levels of maturity. If your startup is at the wrong stage for the investor you are approaching, the courting is a waste of time for both of you.For instance, if your company is only a few weeks old and you have zero customers and your product offering is still in design, don’t expect someone to hand over $10 million to fund your efforts. It wouldn’t work anyway, since your valuation at that stage would be less than the funding, meaning you would have…

• Founder’s Stock Can be Very Expensive

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:49 am

  In reality, so-called “founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. But that’s only the beginning of the story.These shares are allocated and committed, but not really issued and owned (vested) until later. Typically, vesting in startups occurs monthly over 4 years, starting with the first 25% of such shares vesting only after the employee has remained with the company for at least 12 months (one year “cliff”). Vesting…

• Turn Your Ideas Into Simple Actions

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am

  Successful startups are all about turning ideas into action. These actions must be the hard part, since entrepreneurs always seem to come to me with ideas, and ask me for help on the actions. That has always seemed strange to me, since the magic is supposed to be in the ideas, and the actions are the same for every business.In fact, the actions required to start and run a business are well documented, the subject of many books, and taught in college courses across the land. As confirmed by a new book on this subject by John Spence, Awesomely Simple, turning business ideas into action consists…

• Biotech Blockbuster Opportunities

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:52 am

  In addition to the “green” sector, which I outlined a few weeks ago, I see biotech as one of the places where startups can always go for real opportunities. Recession-proof products with innovation continue to come from the biotechnology industry. Plus, it was one of the top three categories attracting VC money in the most recent quarter of 2009.In its most general sense, biotech is used to refer to any sort of technology that uses biology or other medical technology to accomplish its end. It includes the use of microbes, or life processes, to produce materials and products that are…

• Startups Without a Website Won’t Start

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am

  These days, if your startup does not have an Internet web site up and running, you are not ready for business or potential investors. Customers go there to check on the details of your offerings, investors look there to check out your management and sales approach, partners go there to see how they might fit, and suppliers expect to find contact information.In fact, you need to have at least a prototype web site published several weeks before you expect anyone to find yours, since it takes that amount of time for the web search engine “spiders” to find you and index your content. I still…

• 
  Presentation Zen

• Using Kuler to create color themes

  Garr

  1 Nov 2009 | 5:21 am

  Although scores of good books on color theory have been written — many even for non-designers — most working professionals just do not have the time to delve deeply into a study of the complexities of using color. The good news is that there are online resources that can help you create harmonious color themes without requiring advance knowledge in color theory. There are a few really good online resources such as ColorSchemer and Colourlovers, but my personal favorite is Kuler. Kuler is a web-based color tool from Adobe that has thousands of community-generated color themes from which…

• Presentación Zen: Por fin! La versión en español ya está disponible

  Garr

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:04 pm

  I'm happy to announce that the Presentation Zen book is finally available in Spanish. The book follows the same design and layout as the original English version. Spanish was the most requested translation so we're delighted that it is finally on sale. I'm not sure exactly where you can get the book in your area, but here is info on the Pearson Educación website. Above: A photo of the front and back covers.The Presentation Zen DVD on Amazon and elsewhere also includes Spanish (and Japanese and English) subtitles. Thanks to everyone at Pearson for their hard work and to…

• The art of control without controlling, doing without doing

  Garr

  26 Oct 2009 | 3:01 am

  As a leader — in business, education, or design — how much control do you need? How much can you give up? Is control even the right word? Is it possible to lead without leading? Here is a great TED talk that will get you thinking that has applications for leaders of all types. Former conductor Itay Talgam today runs workshops to help people develop a musician's sense of collaboration, and a conductor's sense of leadership. In this excellent talk at TED Oxford, Itay touches on the art of creating perfect harmony without saying a word by showing the unique styles of six great…

• Tokonoma and the art of the focal point

  Garr

  20 Oct 2009 | 7:14 am

  Every good design needs a focal point. This goes for the design of interior living spaces as well. In many Western homes, the mantel place in the living room is often a focal point from which other interior design elements are added in a more or less symmetrical fashion. In traditional Japanese homes or modern homes containing a washitsu (Japanese-style room) it is the Tokonoma (床の間) that serves as the subtle focal point for the interior. The tokonoma (lit: floor/bed + space) is a raised alcove in which Japanese art such as a hanging scroll (Kakemono) or a flower arrangement is…

• Sumi-e, color, and the art of less

  Garr

  5 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm

  A fundamental design and life lesson from the Zen arts is to never use more when less will do. This goes for the use of color as well. The problem with most slide presentations is not that visuals contain too few colors, it's that they contain too many. A common practice is to use several different vivid hues (colors) in presentation slides when even a single hue in various shades or tints would have been more effective. The ancient art of Japanese brush painting called Sumi-e (墨絵) provides a powerful lesson concerning the use of color, communication, and restraints. Sumi-e was…

• 
  Great Demo!

• Props for Demos

  Peter E. Cohan

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:48 pm

  I saw a great prop yesterday in a Great Demo! Workshop: one of the participants used his laptop as the prop, holding it up for audience view while saying, “it’s like having mainframe in your laptop!” (They provide software to support mainframe emulation and some very cool related capabilities).Props are interesting and energizing – they capture audience attention and reinforce concepts. They help bring life to demos – both for the audience and the presenter!I typically use a range of props in Great Demo! Workshops, such as:- CD- Cell Phone- Newspaper- Book- Telescoping pointer-…

• Mikogo – New Web Collaboration Tool

  Peter E. Cohan

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:40 pm

  Mikogo (www.mikogo.com) is providing a free web collaboration tool, for sessions with up to 10 users. My understanding is that they currently support Windows and have Mac support in beta testing.Free? Yes – they are offering Mikogo free, in the hope and expectation that customers will move up to their for-sale BeamYourScreen offerings.Mikogo appears to offer many of the “standard” capabilities you’d expect for Remote Demos – including, I believe, the ability to annotate over the live application being demonstrated. This appears to be part of their “Whiteboard” functionality –…

• DimDim NOT Recommended for Remote Demos

  Peter E. Cohan

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

  Another new player to the web collaboration tools space is DimDim (www.dimdim.com), who offer a range of web presentation and webinar tools. While part of their positioning is as a low-cost provider, which can be attractive, they do not offer the ability to annotate over a live application (e.g., the product you want to demo). This is an important limitation which prevents me from recommending it for use with Remote Demos.They do offer a free version of their tool, but I’ve yet to see it in use. Interestingly, I was unable to find out if they support annotations over live apps from…

• Great Demo! Implementation Tactic - Weekly

  Peter E. Cohan

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:10 pm

  For Presales Managers:Hold weekly progress calls with the presales team to encourage and uncover success stories, Illustrations, tips, etc. and to reinforce the key ideas. Teams that do this (or similar) report excellent success with the method for individuals and appear to achieve high implementation rates for their teams as a whole.This shouldn’t be a surprise… Management support (particularly first-line management) is typically very important for achieving substantive change with personal skills and processes. Management support, however, can be passive or active. Passive support is…

• Manager “Chaperone” for Demo Prep Calls

  Peter E. Cohan

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am

  Here’s a terrific implementation tactic, suggested by a Great Demo! Workshop manager: Join pre-demo discussions (via phone, for example) between sales people and their presales counterparts as a “chaperone”. The idea is to both facilitate the conversation between the sales and presales participants, and to guide the discussion as necessary or appropriate.Additionally, this approach can help identify those sales people who need more “encouragement” to gather discovery and qualification information that might be needed before a delivering a demo. Similarly, this tactic helps to train…

• 
  Patricia Handschiegel

• The New Power Girls: Women Entrepreneurs On When To Seize The Moment In Business

  Patricia Handschiegel

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:18 am

  It's a chilly night in New York City as Cake House founder (and my sister) Marie Handschiegel ducks into the Alice Tully Hall at New York's Lincoln Center. From the dark wash jeans and ruffled top she's wearing, topped with a lavender cardigan, you'd barely be able to tell that she had just arrived to the city from Chicago a short two hours before. As she takes a seat five rows from the stage among a small crowd of roughly 1,000 guests attending a special acoustic performance with band Bon Jovi, hosted by AMEX, the singer crosses the stage and gets comfortable. Throughout the night he…

• The New Power Girls: Women Entrepreneurs On The Role Of Faith In Business

  Patricia Handschiegel

  12 Nov 2009 | 2:08 pm

  Let's face it. It takes a lot of guts to put your neck out and launch a startup. It takes a lot of courage to walk into a major VC firm like Lightspeed or Spark Capital and ask for money. It takes bravery and determination to create a vision, be it the small local business or the media empire of Oprah Winfrey, who started out exactly like anybody else in this country before becoming the business powerhouse she is. It takes the belief in yourself, your ideas, God, your talent, abilities, knowledge, and all kinds of other things to make the jump, take the gamble, or ride the risk. Power Girls…

• The New Power Girls: Women Entrepreneurs And Gender In Business

  Patricia Handschiegel

  7 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am

  As I take a seat at the small table facing a packed room at L.A.'s Writer's Guild for a panel on new media, I'm aware of three things. First, that there are two seasoned entertainment business executives seated who feel strongly about their views on the Internet. Second, that we're probably more than likely going to disagree on a lot of things because I'm from the Internet side and see things from a different perspective. Third, that I'm the only woman on the panel with exception to the moderator. As someone who has spent most of her adult working life in Internet telecom and platform…

• The New Power Girls: Influencers - Is The Company Your Company Keeps Hurting Or Helping Your Brand?

  Patricia Handschiegel

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:04 pm

  It's a chilly fall night at Hollywood's Roosevelt hotel as the 140 conference parties (three total!) go full swing poolside under the stars. Guests mingle and chit-chat as out of town revelers see familiar faces and catch up. Cabanas line the perimeter as wait staff deliver trays of cocktails. At a private suite to the side of the hotel's signature pool, some of the most influential people on the city's technology and business scene are gathered. A group of women, all friends, are perched on the outside chaise, laughing and talking business. The array of fashionable shoes proves it's not just…

• The New Power Girls: National Business Women's Week, Being Counted, And What Defines A Woman Entrepreneur

  Patricia Handschiegel

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:37 pm

  Entrepreneur Nell Melrino is the kind of woman a woman wants to be. She had a successful company when she realized the importance of exposing young girls to opportunities in business and positive role models and invented "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" in 1992. When she did she took on the suits with a suit, leveraging a now famous research study to convince corporations across the country to support the effort. That study said that by 2009, women would make up an enormous part of our workforce. Today, they do. Half of U.S. workers are female in America. She didn't stop there. She then…

• 
  NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation

• Free & Low Cost Tips for Start Up Businesses – Part #1 – From Robert Tuchman & Young Guns

  kathykormanfrey

  10 Nov 2009 | 12:38 pm

  The Small Business Administration’s latest statistics show that a new startup has about a 50 percent chance of surviving for five years or more. Robert Tuchman is one of the success stories. When he graduated from college in 1993, he entered the stockbroker trainee program at Lehman Brothers but quickly realized his professional path in the rat race would leave him unfulfilled. Armed with one phone, a fax machine and his tiny, one-bedroom apartment, at the age of 25 he funneled his passion for sports and business into his own company, Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE). Within two years, TSE…

• The World is Flat #4: How Generation Y is Going Global

  kathykormanfrey

  21 Oct 2009 | 11:10 am

  Thomas Friedman’s bookThe World Is Flat showed us how our businesses are becoming global.  The top 10 factors leading to globalization Friedman’s book, as well as an entrepreneur “going global” profile were included in our first post of this series. This final post continues our look at “going global.” Bill Clinton calls this evolving trend “interdependence” and cited several recent examples during his talk at the 2009 World Business Forum.  Find highlights of his speech here. But, is Generation Y grasping these concepts? Leading business strategist Gary…

• The World Is Flat #3: How KFC Went Global

  kathykormanfrey

  1 Oct 2009 | 12:50 pm

  Large corporations are often overlooked in the discussion of entrepreneurship. Yet, they are forced to innovate daily to keep growing and providing value to shareholders. Globalization is one such growth strategy, and one of the most successful “going global” stories is about a brand with which we are all familiar: KFC. This is the story of an American fried chicken restaurant chain dominating the Chinese restaurant industry on its home turf.  Furthermore, China has thousands of years of culinary tradition and sophistication. How did this happen, you may ask? Warren Liu speaks at…

• The Student Intern’s Guide to Making Money on the Side

  kathykormanfrey

  15 Sep 2009 | 7:09 pm

  We interrupt our series on How Entrepreneurs Are Going Global to bring you a guest blogger: Wharton student Eric Morris. Eric shares tips with our readers on holding down a paying job while doing an unpaid internship. More than ever, students are shying away from the usual extracurricular activities of high school life for more unique opportunities in their local communities.  There are two main reasons for this evolution.  First, those hard-to-come-by opportunities in the summer are easier to land when fewer students are applying for them in the school year.  Second, employers understand…

• The World is Flat #2: How HM Risk Group Went Global

  kathykormanfrey

  4 Sep 2009 | 11:20 am

  How does one “go global?” Thomas Friedman’s book The World Is Flat showed us how our businesses are becoming global.  The top 10 factors leading to globalization Friedman’s book, as well as an entrepreneur “going global” profile were included in our first post of this series. This second post continues our Q&A with entrepreneurs who have made the jump and ”gone global.” Today we feature Ashley Hunter of HM Risk Group. Q: Explain how you “went global” with your business? Discuss major steps and the benefit to you and your customers. I actually just decided that I…

• 
  Building A Million Dollar Business Part Time

• #27 Confessions and Reflections – Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time

  hotmommas

  14 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am

  Do you ever just stop? Stop to think. Stop to reflect. Stop to realize how far you’ve come? Stop to think about where you want to go? I’m not much of a stopper. But, today, I stop. This post is like a table of contents of the past year, as well as some inside scoop as to what was REALLY going on when I wrote these posts. Just a few  months ago, the Hot Mommas Project was just an idea and a couple of stories.  Today we are the world’s largest collection of teachable role models for women and girls. Learn more at www.HotMommasProject.org.  P.s. If you want to read last years’…

• #26 Top 5 on How to Package Content and Be an Expert – Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time

  hotmommas

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pm

  Your brain on “little bundles” As part of my quest to get nominated for world’s worst professor, last month I actually coached a group of students through a procedure I call “Business Stalking.” This is where you have a target (someone you want to speak with/stalk), determine where they are going to be speaking,  and then you rush the stage afterwards.  Since this time I’ve received many emails, specifically referring to “business stalking” which was probably five  minutes of a two hour talk.  And I realized, really, really clearly:…

• #25d – Will Business Celebrate, or Tolerate, Our Daughters?

  hotmommas

  7 Oct 2009 | 9:21 am

  My intern, Amber, is at the World Business Forum with me today. I look at her, and wonder what type of workplace she’ll be stepping into after college. Of the 18 speakers, one is female. Women are not on the radar screen topically. Here are some repeated themes: Energy Values Trust Innovation I am hoping we’re part of the “values” and “innovation” category, but can’t be sure. Women must be part of the conversation. Leading corporate strategy expert Gary Hamel is speaking RIGHT NOW at a conference. This guy gets it. He says, “No one is going to give you permission to be a…

• #25c – David Rubenstein’s Top 10 Chicken Soup for the Economy? Women in Business Get Your Game On

  hotmommas

  6 Oct 2009 | 1:05 pm

  David Rubenstein, Co-founder Carlyle Group The US unemployment rate is currently 9.8%. It’s the highest in 36 years. Americans are unwilling to take risks or trust big companies. Young people are uncertain of  their career paths. After World War II, the US constituted were 48 percent of the world’s GDP. Now we’re about 20 percent of the world’s GDP. From the women’s perspective, here is a women’s factoid I tweeted the other day to add to the bad news: @ChiefHotMomma: Economy &Women: 19% of senior exec women lost jobs vs 6% of men http://ad.vu/m7j8 [Huff Post Blog / Catalyst…

• #25b – Pat Lencioni Trust and Conflict Exercises for Teams, Women in Business

  hotmommas

  6 Oct 2009 | 12:36 pm

  Pat Lencioni started his talk with a story about parenting and how it relates to the management of teams. He echoed a key theme mentioned by previous speakers Bill George and Bill Conaty: TRUST. Trust in business? Huh? Trust the evil empire? But, Pat focused on PEOPLE in companies. He discussed five areas of improvement to build teams. But here, I want to focus on Trust and Conflict: Two issues I see surface repeatedly with women finding their way in both career and life. (Note: Discussion questions added by blog author) TRUST Q: What is meant by trust? A:  It’s about vulnerability. You…

• 
  Young Entrepreneur

• What is your favorite WordPress Theme and why? – Entrepreneur Poll Results

  Adam

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm

  Over the last few weeks we have been asking you “What is your favorite WordPress Theme and why?” Thanks to everyone who entered this months poll, the overall winning theme for design flexibility and versatility was Thesis 1.6 Your next top 3 favorite themes were: Interphase at Elegant Themes The Lifestyle theme from studiopress! The Wordpress Journalist theme by kalphegor Here are the Young Entrepreneur top 5 online resources for fantastic WordPress templates: Best Wordpress Themes WordPress users have thousands of themes to choose from. They hunt out the best of the best free and premium…

• 6 Steps to Capture Reviews After Purchase

  bizguy

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:09 pm

  Social proof is ever so important for e-commerce retailers, as a “feel-good” barrier stands tall between your site and the folks at the other end of the keyboard. Your offer may look tempting and you may have designed your site perfectly well, with a logical progression, your calls to action and your friendly checkout process. First-time buyers still face an urge to find out a little more, so that they feel they are doing the right thing and discover if others have found success. Incorporating testimonials and reviews within your site makes a great deal of sense. You should try and…

• Interview with Sanjay Sabnani

  Adam

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:06 pm

  This week I was lucky enough to interview Sanjay Sabnani. Sanjay is the CEO of CrowdGather. He has been an active proponent of message boards since 2002, when he acquired General Mayhem, his first message board community. Adam: How did you first come up with the idea for CrowdGather and what made you believe this idea would make a great business? Sanjay: CrowdGather came from my frustrations first as a forum member and then as a forum owner. I felt that forums and message boards had been ignored by technologists and investors alike, despite the fact that they are the largest repositories of…

• Profile on Chad Hurley

  bizguy

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm

  “It’s about creating new market opportunities. Giving users new ways to be creative…We see our technology as a platform for other things” – Chad Hurley. Like many other concepts that we now take for granted as part of our everyday lives, YouTube developed from a fragmented series of ideas and became the product of its own popularity. Rather than representing the result of a well thought out business plan, or a journey through the helping hands of various angel investors, the explosion of the ultimate concept propelled YouTube from an unknown to a household name in very short…

• How to Find a Great Business Partner

  bizguy

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:05 pm

  Every new business goes through phases, some representing expansion (hopefully, often) and some contraction and as these phases unfold your business can fluctuate in size and require different resources. Sometimes, the business will get to a certain plateau and seem to stick, almost spinning its wheels despite your efforts. At this point in time you will want to consider all your options and may feel that a business partner could really help to un-glue the potential and allow you to make significant forward strides. Finding a business partner can be quite a difficult task and is much more…

• 
  David Silverman

• The Moment I Finally Felt Like an Executive

  David Silverman

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:55 am

  When I was little, I heard about "executives." "Executives at Mega Corp have denied rumors of misdeeds." "Executives at Giganta Corp could not be reached for comment." "Executives at Humongo Corp have promised double digit growth despite concerns about recent developments." The mystery around exactly what an executive did intrigued me, and I wondered if someday I could achieve my way to being one. In 1974, my father gave me a tour of the IBM plant where he worked as an engineer. We passed smoky grey glass panels, guarded by assistants at three-sided desks. They concealed, in his words, "the…

• When Sensitive Messages Go Astray

  David Silverman

  2 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

  There are two of me. There's the me who gets up, changes my son's diaper and puts on my 17-year-old shoes that I know need to be replaced at some point but can't seem to get around to replacing. And then there's the me who lives in Los Angeles and gets my email. And I get his. We're both named David Silverman and we both work for the same company. Despite attempts to dispel confusion on the internal email system — I am David S. Silverman and he is David R. Silverman — things still go wrong because people type "David Silverman" into Outlook and press send, blithely relying on…

• How Successful CEOs Respond to Failure

  David Silverman

  21 Oct 2009 | 11:29 am

  Failure. We don't like to talk about it. But we all worry about it. We worry about it in the present: Why am I not doing better in my career? Do my coworkers think I'm messing up? Is my boss unhappy with me? We worry about it in the past: Why didn't I speak up at that meeting? Is it my fault I got laid off last year? What if I hadn't left that job ten years ago? And we worry about it in the future: What if I don't get the project done on time? Will I end up without a bonus? Am I going to get fired? I've recently been talking to CEOs as part of a project I'm working on documenting how people…

• When Clarity is Not the Same as Brevity

  David Silverman

  6 Oct 2009 | 12:55 pm

  Often my suggested revision to an email or document makes it longer than the original. Invariably, I am leapt upon by the brevity police. I imagine them at their keyboards, hunched liked winged monkeys, ready to pounce on any sign of verbosity. "It's too long!" they immediately screech. While it's true that shorter is often better, the soul of good communication is clarity. Cutting content may toss out the bathwater of wordiness, but it may also eject useful information into the electronic abyss. There's an example of this on my (and probably your) desk. The telephone. I am completely…

• What Your Suit Says About You

  David Silverman

  24 Sep 2009 | 6:52 am

  There is no surer sign that I've crossed the invisible line into curmudgeon than this: I wear a suit to work every day and want everyone else to also. It's the second half of that statement that's clearly crotchety, but I ask you to hear me out. Twenty years ago I started my first job at IBM. I wore grey slacks with plenty of pleats (it was the late 80s), a button down shirt, and a tie — my favorite was a red woven "sock" tie, may it rest in peace. On occasion, I would add to the mix either my father's 1940s three-piece grey suit or paisley suspenders causing me to appear to be a very…

• 
  Grade A Entrepreneurs

• Is your company effectively using Twitter?

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:09 pm

  Guest writer: Amita Paul  “Most Fortune 100 Companies Don’t Get Twitter” – this statement referring a study published on Mashable intrigued me enough to write this article. This study was conducted by Weber Shandwick and presented a report on how well Fortune 100 companies use Twitter.  The stats led to conclude that a majority of these companies have yet to come up with a consistent methodology to leverage Twitter to its fullest. For example: Fortune 100 Twitter Accounts: 540; Fortune 100 companies on Twitter : 73; Followers:50% had less than 500; Activity / Frequency: 76%…

• Alain Calefas: How his entrepreneurial quest for adventure led him to create Serenity Valley next to Silicon Valley

  admin

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:46 pm

  Alain Calefas, Serenity Valleyfounder, with Michel Serres at DBF, a networking organization for French entrepreneurs, on November 2, 2009. That day, Alain Calefas was interviewed by Jean-Louis Gassée (who co-founded DBF in 1994). Alain Calefas graduated from the French Ecole Polytechnique, arguably one of the most elitist schools in Europe. To get in, you have to excel academically – period. But when you combine intellectual acumen and a desire to live life to the hilt, you have Alain Calefas. His first passion was Marine Engineering, so from Paris, he went to Berkeley – and fell so much…

• Zoomorama on the newly identified Leonardo da Vinci

  admin

  26 Oct 2009 | 10:07 pm

  About two weeks ago, everybody was talking about the amazing discovery that a painting catalogued as German, early 19th century, by Christie’s in 1998 and offered for $19,000 was an unknown Leonardo da Vinci worth a fortune. How can the experts be now so sure? “Start with instinct, then try a multispectral scanner (from Lumiere Technology), said Timothy Clifford in Time Online. Read this great story as well as the report by Lumiere Technology. And also look at the painting – with Zoomorama (a product that l quite often use on this blog). The truth of the matter is that over a…

• Behind the Cloud, by Marc Benioff

  marylened

  17 Oct 2009 | 8:22 am

  When famous CEOs tell their stories, you are never quite sure if they their goal is self-aggrandizement or an authentic desire to recount something that will be of real interest to others. Marc Benioff has lots of reasons to be very proud of accomplishments, but his book Behind the Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry will be an inspiration to many. salesforce (with a lowercase as was the mania at the turn of the century) is, of course, a major industry success, but also the symbol of a timely, intelligent…

• Social Media: The Revenge of the Internet

  admin

  9 Oct 2009 | 10:55 am

  Earlier this week, I had the privilege of delivering an introductory speech for a great product, ObjectiveMarketer, in front of remarkable executives and CIOs from the European Institutions hosted by Cisco Systems. It’s always a challenge to speak to an extraordinarily knowledgeable audience that is well versed in both technologies and trends, but it is also a rewarding experience. Below is a summary of my presentation. I focused on the fact that social media are the very essence of the Internet, and in many ways, its revenge. The expression “Social Media” was coined by…

• 
  Silicontap.com

• Quinstreet Files For IPO

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:37 pm

  Foster City-based Quinstreet filed for an IPO Thursday evening, saying in a filing with the SEC that it is looking to raise up to $250M in its IPO. The firm is venture backed by Split Rock Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Granite Global Ventures, Catterton Partners, Focus Ventures, Rosewood Capital, Charter Growth Capital, VSP Capital, J&W Seligman, and Stanford. The firm's IPO is being underwritten by Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, and Qatalyst Partners. Quinstreet is a provider of online vertical marketing services.

• Trivascular Snags $30M

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  Santa Rosa-based TriVascular, a developer of stent graft treatments for abdominal and thoracic aortic disease, said this week that it has raised $30M in a Series B funding round. The firm said the funding came from New Enterprise Associates, Delphi Ventures, MPM Capital, and Kearny Venture Partners, all existing investors in the firm. The company said the new funding round will go towards its operations and infrastructure.

• eBay Completes Skype Sale

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  San Jose-based eBay has finally closed its sale of Skype, the firm said late Thursday evening, selling the voice-over-IP service for $2.75 billion to an investor group led by Silver Lake, Joltid Limited, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Andreessen Horowitz. eBay said it received $1.9 billion in cash and a note worth $125M from the buyer, and has retained an approximately 30 percent equity investment in Skype.... (more)

• Smashwords Buys New Zealand Firm

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:45 am

  Los Gatos-based Smashwords, a distributor of electronic books, said Thursday that it has acquired New Zealand firm BookHabit Limited. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Smashwords said it would immediately begin migrating BookHabit's authors, books, and customers over to Smashwords platform, which is used to publish electronic books to a variety of electronic readers. Bookhabit was founded in 2008, and was funded by New Zealand business incubator and angel investment fund WebFund. Smashwords is headed by Mark Coker.

• SocialMedia.com Sells Advertising Business

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pm

  San Francisco-based SocialMedia.com, a online social advertising service, has sold its advertising business to advertising network Adknowledge. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. SocialMedia said the sale will allow the firm to solely focus on it social advertising platform, which it builds for Facebook.

• 
  Austin Startup

• The Trib: A Next-Gen Framework for Next-Gen Reporting

  Steve Guengerich

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:31 am

  Anyone who has read this occasional column knows that I usually write about a tech product or service company or companies that are doing something I find interesting and that are often “under the radar.”  Usually these companies are information tech, although I’ve written a lot about cleantech, too.  I’m breaking from tradition today to talk about a company that most would probably consider belonging to the category of media company, in the vein of newspaper or radio station.  Except, that “tradition” and “media company” are more mutually…

• SXSW Accelerator Deadline Coming

  Bryan Menell

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  Microsoft Bizspark is back again to sponsor the 2010 SXSW Accelerator program. Expanded to 2 days, this is a great showcase for emerging technology companies to get their product or service in front of the world. Accelerator takes place March 15-16th during the SXSW Interactive Festival. Who could forget judges such as Guy Kawasaki, whose insightful quips frequently became retweet material? The format will be slightly different this year. 32 companies will be chosen to present on day one, and the top 12 will be invited to return on day two. If you make the top 12, you get to present in front…

• Bigfoot Networks Raises $8M Series B

  Bryan Menell

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm

  Bigfoot Networks, the networking technology company behind the Killer line of gaming network cards, today announced it has raised $8 million in a Series B financing round led by existing investors North Bridge Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures and Raven Venture Partners. It will use the investment to fund product development and expand its go-to-market capabilities. Bigfoot Networks has raised a total of $20.75 million in funding to date. Bigfoot Networks also announced that it has hired former Polycom executive Wayne Dunlap as vice president of engineering and added veteran consumer…

• 2009 Austin IT Executive of the Year

  admin

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am

  The Austin chapter of the national Association of IT Professionals (AITP) is excited to announce the 2009 IT Executive of the Year Awards winners held in conjunction with the 2009 InnoTech Austin Conference & Expo. This was the 12th annual IT Executive of the Year awards competition and is the premier recognition event for Central Texas Chief Information Officers and Technology Professionals. “This award is an important aspect of giving back to the technology community in Austin. The winners showcase four examples of incredible work being accomplished in Austin”, says Scott Foster,…

• The Stress of a Startup Demands Good Sleep

  Bryan Menell

  12 Nov 2009 | 2:52 pm

  For Austin businessman Dr. Bruce Meleski, the importance of a good night’s sleep is something that most business executives overlook. “Business executives, especially those involved in a startup, work hard to make them work, ” Meleski said. “At the end of the day, they need a good night’s sleep to meet their work demands. To help business executives, their family and friends understand how to improve their sleep performance, Meleski, the owner of IntelliBED at RunTex, is working with some of Austin’s leading medical experts in sleep and neurological fitness…

• 
  Yes to Me

• My eBook On Spiritual Entrepreneurship

  akemi

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

  Finally! My eBook “Lightworker’s Guide to Self-Employment” is ready for your free download. I feel strongly about self employment. I love being my own boss, and I envision more and more people will be self-employed in the New World. Having made the transition from a corporate employee to a small business owner recently, I also know there are a lot of questions and fear among aspiring entrepreneurs. This eBook guides you from the embryonic phase of “Can I possibly start my own business? Do I have what it takes? What does it take to be a successful entrepreneur anyway?” to the point…

• Review: The Spontaneous Healing Of Belief By Gregg Braden

  akemi

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:12 pm

  I am so glad I found this book The Spontaneous Healing of Belief because it gives scientific explanations on so many ideas I’m familiar with, such as the true nature of reality, our creative power over our own lives and on the world, and the Law of Attraction with the power of feelings. The book also serves as a great follow up on Dr Bruce Lipton’s The Biology Of Belief, by discussing what belief can do beyond our individual body. Reality as simulation game Gregg Braden cites various scientific studies to show us that this everyday world we live in is a computer simulation, a virtual…

• Freeing Ourselves From Dualism

  akemi

  15 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

  Do you believe in dualism? That there are two opposing powers in this world fighting against each other? Such as light vs dark or good vs evil? After writing about darkworkers, I feel obliged to write about the issue of dualism. Because darkness doesn’t really exist and understanding this is the key to freedom. (Photo credit) Fighting against darkness is futile I understand the idea of light vs dark, or God vs Saturn, is thousands of years old in the Christian tradition. Many other religions and cultures have similar concept of dualism. It is so ingrained in our collective thinking that few…

• Darkworkers

  akemi

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:02 am

  I really wish there are no such thing like darkworkers. I really wish everyone, I mean EVERYONE, is evolving toward Light and I can hug (literally and energetically) everyone wholeheartedly with zero concern of my energetic flow. I dream of such beautiful world. We are not there yet. It’s true all souls came from the same one Source, as I described in this article about Light. At some point, however, some souls used their free will to go against (or away from) the Source. I received some interesting comments to my recent article about Lightworkers and would like to clarify some points…

• Starseeds: Blueprinters 2 Blueprint Technicians

  akemi

  1 Nov 2009 | 7:07 pm

  Blueprint Technicians form a subcategory within the Blueprinters group. All Blueprinters share a lot of characteristics, so before we get to the specific characteristics of Blueprint Technicians, please read the first post on Blueprinters if you haven’t done so already.  (Photo credit) After Blueprint Originators worked on the general concept of the Earth experiment and Blueprint Designers worked on the aesthetic aspect of the blueprints, Blueprint Technicians worked on the technical side of blueprints. This includes (but probably not limited to) the energetic grid system on Earth, the…

• 
  The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp

• Crazy Black Friday Stories!

  Megan Dorn

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:45 am

  We are exactly one week away from Black Friday, the official kick-off to the holiday shopping season! While I adamantly refuse to participate in the sport (Yes, Black Friday is a sport, and a contact sport at that. It requires training, endurance, skill and strategy. May the best shopper win!), I thought it might be fun if a few PartnerUp team members shared some of their classic Black Friday stories with all of you. Coffee Anyone? Last year I went bright and early with people from my church. But instead of getting in on the extreme shopping action, we sold coffee to all the bitter cold (and…

• 20 Ways to Save Your Small Business Money

  Megan Dorn

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm

  Recycled printer cartridges. Printer ink is insanely expensive. A low-cost solution to a new cartridge is a recycled cartridge. Offer your expertise. Teaching a class, speaking at a conference or writing an article is a cheap and easy way to promote your business and position you as an expert. Trade association benefits. Trade associations sometimes offer all kinds of cost-saving benefits, including competitive group insurance. Alternatives to expensive software. One alternative is open-source software, a fraction of the price of commercial software. Also consider free software downloads on…

• Can Entrepreneurship Be Learned?

  Megan Dorn

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pm

  Is entrepreneurship an inherent characteristic you must be born with? Or is it a skill that can be learned through instruction and study? This is a topic that has been widely discussed within the entrepreneurial community. Some entrepreneurs are still on the fence about it. Others fall firmly on one side or the other. I tend to believe that it’s both. (I should be a politician!) There are aspects of entrepreneurship that require an innate understanding and passion, while there are other aspects that must be learned, either in a school setting or “on the job.” An Inherent Trait…

• Global Entrepreneurship Week

  Megan Dorn

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm

  For those of you who were unaware (I only found out just yesterday), this week is the second annual Global Entrepreneurship Week. Founded jointly by the Kauffman Foundation and Make Your Mark, Global Entrepreneurship Week aims to introduce young people around the world to entrepreneurship and encourage them to think of innovation as a vehicle that can take them anywhere. Last year’s events involved more than 3 million people in 100 countries participating in 25,000 different activities. This year’s events are expected to be even bigger and better. Among the featured events will be a…

• Small Business Tip of the Week: Obtaining Customer Email Addresses

  Megan Dorn

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:01 am

  Email addresses are a key tool to effectively marketing your business. Unfortunately consumers have become all too weary of freely giving up their precious email addresses. To obtain customer email addresses you must first give in order to receive. Create a drawing or contest that requires an email address. Offer a monthly email newsletter filled with quality, useful content. Use email to inform customers of upcoming sales or deals.

• 
  ZDNET Entrepreneurship Resources

• Is the Printed Page Dead (or Just a Little Sick)?

  21 Nov 2009 | 9:34 am

  Doc is a big believer in the power of print, but I do have to admit some print products are moving in new directions. That's why a recent article at the printing Website, What They Think, caught my eye. It's an interview with entrepreneur and writer Paul Hawken, best known...

• IndustryPlayer 6.6 build 660 (Windows)

  27 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  IndustryPlayer is a business simulation game which realistically reproduces all aspects of a corporation's business, including it's relationships with the workforce, suppliers, competitors, consumers, banks, insurers, and the government. The simulation is based on real world economic models and genuine industry data. Players take the role of an entrepreneur and...

• Tivoli Foundations: Designed and priced for your growing business

  15 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  You're invited to a very special Virtual Event for IBM Tivoli Foundations. During these difficult economic times, mid-size companies have unique challenges and may struggle to find equally powerful yet affordable solutions, designed and priced specifically for them. Look no further! ...

• Intelligent Office Increases IT Efficiencies With Help of Small Business Server 2008

  14 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  Intelligent Office is a virtual office solutions provider with seven locations across Ontario, and plans for growth across Canada. The company provides entrepreneurs and businesses with executive office space and services such as professional phone answering and receptionist services. With an eye on sustainable business growth, Intelligent Office wanted to...

• Photos: Start-ups step up at DemoFall

  22 Sep 2009 | 3:10 pm

  Twice a year at Demo events, well-funded entrepreneurs face off with venture capitalists and the press. Here's the scene. by CNET News.com

• 
  BUZZ in theHUB: Genotrope's Startup Watch

• The Bigger Problem with Letting Don Dodge Go

  TS

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am

  *Note that I didn’t post this prior to Don’s most recent news. But the point is still valid, and maybe more so. By now the dust has settled and the pundits have weighed in about what a huge mistake Microsoft made letting Don Dodge go. You can see the some of the commentary here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/04/microsoft-loses-don-dodge-this-is-a-huge-mistake/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/don-dodge-microsoft-exit-interview/ http://andrewhy.de/who-will-hire-don-dodge/ But those issues may just be the tip of the iceberg. I think the real problem is just now manifesting…

• MITX Awards Nov 17th

  TS

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

  If you aren’t already signed up for the 14th Annual MITX Interactive Awards I recommend you consider doing so. As a member of the Web industry here in Boston, you will join the best and brightest of your peers by attending. This event has a long history showcasing the achievments and recongizing excellence in the creation of web innovations and emerging applications that leverage gaming, mobile, search and social media  – all produced and developed in New England. Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Location: Boston Marriott Copley Place, 110 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA Time: 6:00pm…

• Eric Ries Talk @ MIT November 19th

  TS

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am

  We are all set for a great event coming on the 19th. Thanks to our sponsors, we are pleased to be able to present this talk free to all attendees.  By underwriting this event, these sponsors have demonstrated their commitment to the web startup community in the Boston/Cambridge area. Without their help this event would not be possible. We have some good news. The people that signed up on the overflow list, now have a reserved seat at the event. All ticket holders will receive a confirmation email prior to the event. Also, there are 12 slots remaining.  If you aren’t able to reserve…

• You don’t need a CTO, you need a lead developer

  TS

  26 Oct 2009 | 12:48 pm

  A quick review of the startup market here reveals a good number of nascent web startups seeking a technical founder CTO. Socialtality Revenue Architects Kill Your Cube Dating Site Startup Recently a first time founder of a Boston startup came to us seeking a CTO for their web app. There was no great technical problem to solve, no dream team and no technical IP to create a barrier to entry. In short, nothing that would interest an experienced CTO. It was certainly a great opportunity for the right person, but that right person was a veteran developer with a track record of shipping reliable…

• Serendeputy

  TS

  23 Oct 2009 | 12:19 pm

  Genotrope Record:  Serendeputy Funding Status: Bootstrapped Founders Backgrounds: Boston.com, Abuzz Investors: founders Industry: Consumer web, New Offering Description: Serendeputy is your personal news assistant, a little robot who learns what you like and pulls together a page of news articles tailored to your specific interests.

• 
  Savvy Auntie

• Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Award Widget!

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:14 pm

  Dear Readers,As you many know, a couple of weeks ago, we announced the first annual Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards!Now you can share your Coolest Toy Savvy with all your friends, Auntie! You can embed the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Award widget in your blog or other online network!Simply visit this page for your embed code and you're set!I appreciate your sharing the Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards with your network!XOXO,Auntie MelaniePS - for the entire list of winners, visit http://savvyauntie.com/CoolestToyAwards

• Savvy Auntie Coolest Toy Awards!

  7 Nov 2009 | 11:27 am

  Child Lifestyle Expert and Premier SAVVY AUNTIE, Melanie Notkin Honors the Most Trendsetting, the Most Luxurious, and the Most Notable Toys for the 2009 Holiday Season  New York, NY – October 29, 2009 – Melanie Notkin, the founder and CEO of the multi-platform lifestyle brand for kid-friendly women who are aunts by relation, aunts by choice, and godmothers, Savvy Auntie®, is sharing her favorite gifts for nephews and nieces available this holiday season by awarding 12 toys with the “Coolest” title, 6 toys with the “Lux” title (costing $100 and over), and 8 toys will receive…

• Harold, Clifford and Me

  6 Oct 2009 | 5:08 pm

  Dear Readers,First, let me apologize for being somewhat remiss and not tending to this blog more often. Savvy Auntie, now close to 15 months old, is growing by leaps and bounds and it's all I can do to keep up with it all. Which is a wonderful problem to have. I wish it upon all the entrepreneurs (and auntrepreneurs!) reading this.When I was in first grade (or grade one as we called it in Montreal, where I was born), my favorite time of year was when we got to order our Scholastic books. The teacher (Mrs. Hirschorn of dear memory) would hand out a catalog list of recommended books by the…

• Game On, Auntie!

  24 Sep 2009 | 10:08 am

  Dear Readers,I am so proud to announce the latest Savvy Auntie Sponsor! Webwars, an innovator in layered reality gaming and entertainment, is changing the way users engage with online entertainment by removing the barriers between Web gaming and Web sites.Their first launch is Weblings - a game designed for women! Naturally, we love working with them! and when we discovered that Cindy Armstrong, their CEO, is a Savvy Auntie, we were thrilled! She's one of us, Aunties! And frankly, that's why she's working with Savvy Auntie. She understands the power and influence of PANKs (Professional Aunts…

• Savvy Auntie Goes Beyond The Rack!

  14 Aug 2009 | 8:01 am

  Dear Readers,I'm proud to announce the latest sponsor for Savvy Auntie! Beyond The Rackis an exclusive shopping club where members have access to limited-time, flash sales events of designer goods at prices up to 70% off retail. Basically, they announce an incredible deal and you have a limited time to make the purchase - before it's gone forever. The brands that Beyond the Rack has partnered with are some of the brands we covet the most, from Juicy Couture, Diesel and Puma - to Gucci, Christian Dior and Karl Lagerfeld. And many more!Beyond The Rack's stunning ads are running throughout…

• 
  Escape From Cubicle Nation

• 10 ways to stimulate the economy with your brain

  Pamela

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am

  I don’t know about you, but I get mighty tired of reading newspaper articles and blog rants about the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of stimulus money on our economy. What makes me frustrated is that we waste hours a day fighting with each other about things outside of our control, instead of using our own brains to do something about our local economy. So here is my list of 10 things you can do, right now, to stimulate a small corner of your local economy without spending a dime: Mentor a new business owner.  If you know how to build an effective website or display goods more…

• Spreading the addiction of the TED conference one city at a time

  Pamela

  30 Oct 2009 | 2:24 pm

  There are few things that get me fired up late at night like watching TED videos. For the uninitiated, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and is a conference that takes place once a year. The videos from TED are shared free on their website, and the talks are enough to get you standing up with your fist in the air, clutching your heart with tears streaming down your cheeks, or doubling over with laughter. TED is undertaking a new initiative which is to encourage local communities to sponsor their own events, called “TEDx.” We are hosting ours here in Phoenix,…

• Last chance to attend live Escape from Cubicle Nation workshop in 2009

  Pamela

  28 Oct 2009 | 4:20 pm

  The fabulous and enthusiastic crew from last week’s Escape from Cubicle Nation Workshop in London. Photo by the handsome and talented TMSRuge. I communicate on Twitter so frequently that I just realized some blog readers may not know that my last live Escape from Cubicle Nation workshop will take place on Wednesday, November 4 at the Hotel Belamar in Southern California.  I will be joined by the fabulous and talented Colleen Wainwright, otherwise known as Communicatrix, who is an amazing resource for branding and social media. This will be my last workshop of the year, and the last…

• Response to Chris Brogan about Overnight Success

  Pamela

  25 Oct 2009 | 4:05 pm

  Sitting in the Dallas airport after having spent the weekend speaking and participating in Milana Leshinsky’s Coaching Millions Super Summit, I watched Chris Brogan’s 3-part video series on Overnight Success and felt my heart melt. I related to so much of what he talked about, since I have spent so much time this summer on the road, promoting my book. Getting out in front of people is critical, spreading the message of hope and connection through entrepreneurship is imperative, and creating a powerful business model that serves people well and provides well for my family is a…

• The beauty of dirty laundry

  Pamela

  19 Oct 2009 | 2:38 pm

  At the management conference I attended in Pärnu, Estonia last week, we had a speaker from Denmark, Morten Lund,  a long-time entrepreneur who had, among other things, made good money investing in Skype. As he launched into his presentation, he said: “I have founded over 88 startups. And at the moment, I am bankrupt.” Due to a failed investment in a newspaper business in his native Denmark, he had lost a lot of money. But, he said, he actually was feeling quite good. He was spending lots of time with his four kids, whom he obviously adored. And he remained passionate about…

• 
  Life Beyond Code

• NaNoWriMo – Making a Dream Come True

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:11 pm

  This is story about a story that was made possible by NaNoWriMo. This is a THANK YOU post for NaNoWriMo and the wonderful people behind it. First, some background. For those of you who have followed me for a long time, you know that I started my writing journey when my first book (a murder mystery) was published a while ago (read story here). I have been fascinated by fiction for a LONG time. My first four books were fiction (murder mysteries, spy thrillers etc.) In the recent past, I have written business books and created a DVD program ( Beyond Code, Upbeat, TH!NKtweet and The Fulcrum…

• Wherever you are, you can make a difference

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm

  Take a look at this cool video of a flight attendant on Southwest Airlines. Now, it’s hard to beat that for sure. Have a great day! ---Related Articles at Life Beyond Code:Ways to distinguish yourself – #118 Make a difference, however small it is…Difference between ordinary and extraordinaryDifference between a discovery engine and a search engineWays to distinguish yourself #106 – Increase investments in personal growth

• Thoughtfulness 101 – Robert Scoble

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm

  I have written about thoughtfulness on this blog (1, 2, 3, 4) before. You don’t have to do groundbreaking things to be thoughtful – it can be little things but with a lot of care. Let me illustrate this with a simple example I heard from Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) on Twitter that Loic LeMeur (CEO of Seesmic) was switching the Seesmic platfrom from Adobe Air to Microsoft Silverlight. Being a semi-geek, I was curious to know more – especially the reason for the decision to switch. So, I sent a query to Robert to see if he could share more. Here is my tweet: Robert responded…

• Ways to Distinguish Yourself #206 – Thank Powerfully!

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:57 am

  Note: Thanksgiving is coming soon but I wanted to share this way before that date. You will see why as you read the post. Everyone knows that an attitude of gratitude is important to grow. In fact, you might remember your parents telling you to be thankful to people that help you. Yes, I subscribe to the above views whole-heartedly. You are where you are today because of MANY people who helped you get here. It is easy to forget the people that helped you. Sometimes you might think most of your success is because you are smart and of course you did some get a little help here and there. In…

• Ways to Distinguish Yourself #205 – Dis-Engage When Your Work is Valued Less

  thinksulting@gmail.com (Rajesh Setty)

  9 Nov 2009 | 10:26 pm

  Photo Courtesy: psyberartist on Flickr Marketplace is right most of the time. It will set the price for what you bring to the table – based on the supply and demand equations that exist (all the time) Smart people sometimes hit a roadblock when they don’t get what they truly deserve. What they don’t realize is that in many cases they are the ones to blame for that situation. Here is a typical scenario: As you become an expert, it takes you less time to complete a task in your area of expertise. As they grow their expertise in the area, the time takes keeps shrinking. Now,…

• 
  Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog

• Holiday Season: Are You In the Game or on The Bench?

  Linda Bustos

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:03 am

  This week I had the pleasure of sitting down (virtually) with Shawna Fennell of One Choice for Your Store for an interview on her Webmaster Radio show, Ecom Experts titled Holiday Preparations for Online Retailers (on-demand link). One of the questions Shawna asked was What should retailers be doing during the holiday season now that it’s too late to be working on the site or strategy? This post is a recap of what I believe retailers should be doing now to really be “in the game” rather than a benchwarmer this season. Monitor and Optimize Performance Even the largest, most…

• Key Trends in B2B: Webinar Recap

  Linda Bustos

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:04 am

  This post is the Coles-notes version of Brian Walker of Forrester Research’s presentation: Key Trends in B2B eCommerce: From Fulfilling Demand To Creating Demand If you missed it, you can catch the replay at the above link. The replay includes all Brian’s screenshots of real B2B examples (which didn’t look right when resized to fit the blog specs) so I recommend you check it out to get the full effect. Agenda Growth Drivers in B2B eCommerce The Range of Models in B2B eCommerce The Evolving B2B Site Growth in B2B eCommerce Business to business eCommerce has been evolving…

• Should Your Online Store Use Tabbed Boxes?

  Linda Bustos

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:09 am

  Tabbed boxes are one of the best ways to fit more content on a page without increasing page length or cluttering the page and they have become more and more popular on ecommerce sites in the past few years – especially on product pages. But one concern I always have when reviewing websites that use tabbed boxes is – do they really get noticed by customers? Or are they too subtle? I recently worked with an online retailer that had very poor attachment rates for cross-sells and upsells. The culprit? Product recommendations were hidden behind a tab that nobody clicked. Here are some…

• B2B Ecommerce and the Pharmaceutical Industry

  Linda Bustos

  13 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am

  I recently conducted an interview with Mkrtich Laziev, a pharma and chemical e-marketing and ecommerce consultant with over 15 years experience in the industry. Check out his website for more information about Mkrtich and read more of his articles on pharmachem e-marketing, ecommerce and SEO. Can you give Get Elastic readers some background on ecommerce and online marketing for pharmaceutical companies? In many people’s view, pharma e-marketing and ecommerce are closely linked with a famous “blue pill.” I haven’t found anyone with an email address who hasn’t received spam urging…

• New Ecommerce Podcast: eCom Experts

  Linda Bustos

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:48 am

  I’m excited to hear that WebmasterRadio.fm has added a new show to its lineup, eCom Experts. Yours truly will be a guest on Monday, November 16 at 3pm PST/6pm EST. So far there have been 3 episodes, SEO for ecommerce, Improving Shopping Experience & Increasing Sales and Increasing Conversion for the Holidays. On Monday I’ll be talking about the holiday shopping season. Please save the date! Can’t make it? Subscribe to eCom Experts and catch it on-demand. You may also like these similar posts:3 Quick And Dirty Holiday Hints for Procrastinating Etailers Persistent…

• 
  Tim Berry: Planning, Startups, Stories

• Social Media Means People and, Eventually, Maybe, Friends

  Tim Berry

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am

  It was one of those sudden-realization moments for me. I was talking to one of my favorite lawyers last night at a local startups event (smartups.org). He mentioned a person I’d sent to him a couple weeks ago. That person had asked me to recommend a small business lawyer, and I recommended him. The realization was that she — the person I’d sent to him — felt like a friend. I feel like I know her, like her, and trust her. But I’ve never met her. I’ve never even talked to her on the telephone. I’d met her on Twitter. She popped up with interesting…

• The Fog of Research

  Tim Berry

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  Are you familiar with the phrase, “the fog of war?” You can get the idea from the image here, from a computer strategy game: the pieces in the center of the image can see the terrain for only a short distance, shown here as the brighter area. The rest is obscured by the fog of war. Some days, bad days mostly, I think there’s something like this that goes on with most business research. They create the fog of research. It’s like the fog of war. Poor vision. Partial vision. I think this happens all the time with focus groups and surveys. The research is almost…

• Develop Your Business, Not Just Your Business Plan

  Tim Berry

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:48 am

  I’m still long-term frustrated with how many people lose the potential steering and management benefits of business planning because they focus on the plan as document instead of the planning as management. With that in mind, I’m doing a webinar tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, at 11. am PST on the theme in the title of this post. Please click here now to register for that webinar (and yes, it’s free, of course). There’s an important point I’m trying to make. Don’t dismiss business planning as part of your business life just because you don’t want (or have) to do a formal business…

• 5 Business Moments to Never Say No To

  Tim Berry

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  So imagine yourself working on a few variations of a blog post headline when your editor says one of them, perhaps not your favorite, would be better for SEO (search engine optimization). That’s what we call a no brainer. Never say no to better SEO. Period. I was in a conversation along those lines yesterday. It reminded me of one of my favorite little life-advice snippets has always been “never say no to an offer of a breath mint.” If you don’t immediately see why, think about it. I asked around, got some help from friends, and came up with the following “never say…

• 10 Simple Easy Ways to Green Your Business

  Tim Berry

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am

  This weekend I finished Greening Your Small Business, a well written and easily readable new book by Jennifer Kaplan, dealing with a lot of background and a lot of specifics about the idea of “greening” the business. Happily, she starts out by defining what “greening” means, in several practical contexts. Then she deals with greening as green marketing, green travel, green purchasing, and a good understanding of the underlying business rationale. One thing I particularly liked about the book was its list of 50 easy ways to make your business greener. To my mind, the…

• 
  KK Lifestream

• Anticipate the cheap.

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm

  Originally posted in New Rules What would you do if your current offerings cost only one third what they cost today? They will someday soon, so create models that recognize this trend.

• Invest in the first copy.

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Originally posted in New Rules That is the only one that will hurt. The second copy and all thereafter will head toward the free, but the first will become increasingly more expensive and capital intensive. Gordon Moore, of Moore's Law fame, posed a second law: that the costs of inventing chips (that are halving in cost every 18 months) is doubling every three to four years. The up-front investment for research, design, and process invention for all complex endeavors are commanding a larger share of the budget, while the capital costs of subsequent copies diminishes.

• Act as if your product or service is free.

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Originally posted in New Rules Magazine publishers do this. The cover price on a magazine barely covers the cost of printing it, so publishers act as if they were giving it away (and some actually do). They make their money instead on advertising. Says pundit Esther Dyson, "The creator who immediately writes off the costs of developing content--as if it were valueless--is always going to win over the creator who can't figure out how to cover those costs." Memberships in serious discounters such as Cendant are also "as if free." Cendant "gives away" the merchandise very near the cost of…

• What can you give away?

  9 Nov 2009 | 10:06 am

  Originally posted in New Rules This is the most powerful question in this book. You can approach this question in two ways: What is the closest you can come to making something free, without actually pricing it at zero? Or, in a true gesture of enlightened generosity, you can figure out how to part with something very valuable for no monetary return at all. If either strategy is pursued with intelligence, the result will be the same. The network will magnify the value of the gift. But giving something away is not usually easy. It must be the right gift, given in the proper context. To figure…

• Releasing incomplete "buggy" products is not...

  7 Nov 2009 | 4:22 pm

  Originally posted in New Rules cost-cutting desperation; it is the shrewdest way to complete a product when your customers are smarter than you are. The protocommercial state and the triumph of the commons is in ascendance. It is no coincidence that increasing numbers of internet companies take themselves public before they are profitable. Investors are purchasing shares in a firm with protocommercial value. The old guard reads this as a signal of greed, speculation, and hype. But it also signals that many of the components of the gift economy--attention, community, standards, and shared…

• 
  Signal vs. Noise

• I'm a tailor

  Jason F.

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:33 am

  When people ask me what I do all day I have a hard time summing it up. I design, I edit, I think, I review, I suggest, I teach. Some things I mess up, some things I fix up. But what I really do most of the time is trim, tuck, iron, cut, press, and fit. I’m a software tailor. And I’m starting to think that’s my perfect role. My team is incredible. I don’t need to tell them what to do. If there was a fantasy software league, I wouldn’t trade my team for anyone. But there are times during the development and design process where the things we make just don’t…

• Unicorns and projections

  Matt

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:53 am

  “Off the Chart” talks about how recent unemployment rate predictions turned out to be way off the mark. The reason: “Reality has produced numbers of its own.” And that’s the problem with projections. Reality is a terrible collaborator. No matter how much you try to work with it, it has a mind of its own. And it never listens to you. Plus, it’s easier to be a cheerleader than a doomsayer — especially when you have a vested interest in the outcome. That’s how people wind up in an overly optimistic fantasy world. No one ever submits a business plan…

• QUESTION: If you had to give it up, which subscription

  Jason F.

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

  If you had to give it up, which subscription would you miss the most?

• Design Explorations: Basecamp To-dos with Due Dates

  Jason Z.

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  We’ve just posted another article in our series of Design Explorations. This installment shows our process for adding a new feature to Basecamp: Add due dates to to-dos. We’re excited about this new feature and anxious to share this latest peek at our design process. Read the full Basecamp to-dos design exploration.

• [Podcast] Episode #2: Tech company valuations

  Matt

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:35 am

  Download MP3 | Time: 24:10 Like this episode? Please share it with your friends:   37signals worth $100 billion? Start time: 0:37 The story behind the mock press release claiming 37signals is worth $100 billion. The press should be more critical in covering valuation stories. Eyeballs aren’t the only thing that matter. The valuation dance Start time: 8:45 Was the press release a shot at Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube? Why was the sale of Mint to Intuit disappointing? Where will the next great generation of companies come from if they keep selling early? Also, VC money is a time…

• 
  OnStartups

• Answers OnStartups Roundup 1 - March of the parentheticals

  Jason Cohen

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  By now you've probably heard of Answers OnStartups, the new Q&A community for any topic about startups and entrepreneurship. If not, here's Dharmesh's announcement. I have the good fortune of being asked to co-moderate the site with Dharmesh, probably as a result of the popularity of a few provocative but useful guest-posts here on OnStartups. (Note to those of you hoping to expand your influence in the blogosphere and beyond -- take the advice from Leo and Darren and Mary and, I suppose, me: Guest-posting is a good way to do it!) What does "moderation" mean, you ask? I took it mean "Get…

• Adam Smith Video On The Story Of Xobni

  Dharmesh Shah

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm

  As noted in my previous article on startup marketing, I had the opportunity to speak at the MIT Startup bootcamp recently.  My friend, and an all-around great guy, Adam Smith (founder of Xobni) spoke earlier that day.  Adam did a great job capturing the experience of starting a company and watching a company grow.  Adam's both brilliant and articulate.  Well worth watching the video.  Here are some quick notes from the video (to help entice you to watch). 1.  If you can improve email just a little bit, you can create a lot of value.   2.  PG: "Go shake…

• Dharmesh On Startup Marketing: Video From MIT Startup Bootcamp

  Dharmesh Shah

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm

  I recently had the opportunity to speak at the MIT Startup Bootcamp held at the MIT Kresge Auditorium (a great venue that President Obama spoke at just a couple of weeks later). This was a fantastic event with a packed house (1,000+ people in the live audience) where some great entrepreneurs had a chance to share their experiences and insights.  I was a little nervous in the beginning (as usual), but once I warmed up, I think I did OK. Here's a recorded video of my talk.    Hope you enjoy the video. Would love to hear your comments and questions. Looking for other startup…

• Startups: How To Build A Barrier To Entry With Inbound Marketing

  Dharmesh Shah

  20 Oct 2009 | 1:16 am

  I’ve been doing a fair amount of speaking lately.  It’s partly driven by my recently released book, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs (which is doing exceptionally well -- more below on this). The topics I usually speak on are startups (surprise) and marketing (surprise, surprise).  And, when I’m really on a roll and feeling adventurous, I talk about startup marketing. First off, a quick confession.  I’m not really a marketer, and I don’t play one on TV.  I’ve never had the word marketing in my job title, ever.  The closest…

• Holy Crap! HubSpot Has Now Raised A Total Of $33 Million

  Dharmesh Shah

  19 Oct 2009 | 2:12 am

  It has been a little over a year since I announced the news that my marketing software startup closed it’s Series B round of funding.  The article, “Insanity? Why A Bootstrap Entrepreneur Raised $17 Million in Venture Funding”, was a candid glimpse into the rationale for raising what seemed like a huge amount of money to me at the time (it seemed huge, because it was — at least to me). Today, we’ve released news that HubSpot has just closed on another $16 million funding round (our Series C) bringing our total capital raised to a whopping $33…

• 
  Growthology

• The Market is Moral

  Dane Stangler

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

  Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps (also a Kauffman grantee) published this stellar essay last month, which I belatedly read today:The definition of economics with which most textbooks begin—“the study of the allocation of scarce resources”—is accurate but misleading, for it leaves out the most interesting part of the problem. In truth, we are forever innovating to stretch our resources. Transportation was one of the scarcest goods during the first half of America’s nineteenth century, but by the end of the century the railroads had made it so abundant that the face of America changed…

• Happy GEW from Canada ... Cali ... Korea ...

  Tim Kane

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  Global Entrepreneurship Week kicked off yesterday, which you must know if you have seen kauffman.org in the last month.  I had the honor of attending and speaking at the kickoff celebration in Toronto hosted by CYBF.  Amazing day, and what a cool group of entreps. Will have to post links later, as I am travelling to Korea (boarding call!). I did want to share the link to PBS Nightly Business Report.  I was invited to do a 90 second commentary which appears at the end of Monday's show.  Instantly online, too.  Well done, PBS.  I've done more live interviews than I can count,…

• Would a Jobs Credit Work? A Response to Pozen

  Dane Stangler

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:10 am

  (Bob Litan)Main Street is impatient with the pace of the recovery. Yes, the stock market has rebounded smartly from its March lows; and yes, government statisticians tell us that total output of goods and services actually increased at an annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter, most likely marking an official end to the Great Recession. But on Main Street, unemployment has now passed 10%, and many more Americans are discouraged from looking for work, or engaged in part-time jobs unable to upgrade into full-time work. No wonder then that policy makers in both political parties are…

• Employment Recovery in Five Years?

  Tim Kane

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:33 pm

  The jobless recovery of 2010 may well be the jobless recovery of 2010-2015. The pacesetting econ blogger Mark Thoma writing his first post for the new CBS moneywatch.com blog "Maximum Utility" explains why, though he predicts 2013 as the full-employment mark: The reason for the slow recovery is partly due to the depth of the recession — the deeper the hole, the longer it takes to crawl out of it — but it’s also because of the large amount of structural change that the economy must go through before it can recover. Prior to the recession we had too many resources in the…

• Replace all Entrepreneurship Programs with Sales Training

  Dane Stangler

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:30 pm

  In a comment on last week's WSJ op-ed, John Fox of Venture Marketing offered the following thought: "it is exasperating to find so little sales training or formal education available [for entrepreneurs]."This is a subtle yet insightful point. A colleague once suggested that if our aim is to create more entrepreneurs or at least better prepare potential entrepreneurs, we should replace all entrepreneurship education programs with basic sales courses. After all, and to Fox's point, entrepreneurs are engaged at every step of the way in selling something: an idea, themselves,…

• 
  ArcticStartup

• Week In Review: Money Grows On VeeCees

  Nick Mueller

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:55 am

  It was a rollercoaster of a week, with some companies going up, some down, and some upside-down. Take Sopima, the Finnish online contract “bank,” this week they took €1m to the actual bank. Or Voddler, the Swedish “Spotify for movies” company that got 35 million kronor from a mysterious uncle. Not everyone did so well. Like a certain moderately well known Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, that announced Symbian will be executed in 2012. But, don’t waste time shedding any tears for Nokia, their future will be bright. So many new tools are there to help them,…

• Me-Mover Moves You

  Hendrik Morkel

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Bringing you the latest in cleantech, we look today to Denmark, where in less than three weeks the United Nations Climate Change Conference aka “Hopenhagen” will start. But instead of letting our incompetent politicians decide about our future, lets take matters into our own hands – or in this case, feet. Cloudbikes hails from Valby in Denmark, a mere 55 km from Copenhagen, and aims to eliminate the daily need for a car and making our lives more safe, comfortable and sustainable. I can already hear your brain crunching and computing “It does what? I need to do…

• Investment: Sopima Closes A €1m Round

  Ville Vesterinen

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Every Friday we will feature an Investment and aim to break it down as closely as we can so our audience will get an idea of where the money comes from. Sopima, a Finnish company building an online contract bank that aims to enable productivity improvements into the way organizations manage their contracts secured a €1m funding just a while ago. Sopima is developed for all sizes of companies to keep their contracts in order, be able to manage all commitments made. As a web service Sopima enables you to do this together with your business partners, regardless where they are located. With…

• Event Report: Arctic Evening Stockholm – What’s Your Fantasy Price?

  Nick Mueller

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:56 am

  Last night a hundred of Stockholm’s brightest and best in mobile services got together to talk about future challenges, opportunities, hopes, dreams, and tearing down the old order to build it again. The event got started with a short presentation by Jaycut CEO Jonas Hombert, who just might be the nicest guy in the Swedish tech scene, which would put him high in the running for nicest worldwide. He talked about the future of the Jaycut service on mobile devices and his partnership with Intel and Moblin, classifying it as advantageous and door-opening. Next up was the main panel,…

• Tietoset – Tools For Better Industrial Sourcing

  Antti Vilpponen

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:36 am

  Tietoset is a fascinating Finnish company, some 4 years old, building a SaaS-based service where industrial buyers are able to do better sourcing from the manufacturing field. They currently work with the metal industry and have been thinking of taking the model to other industries as well. I know the CEO, Antti Siiskonen, a good friend from university and he stated that the biggest challenges they face are related to the aging owners of the companies – they don’t see the value in doing better sourcing for their business. The company currently employs 10 people and is on the path…

• 
  NextBillion.net

• Vittana: Student Loans and a New Generation of Microfinance

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm

  Authored by: Manuel BuenoMicrofinance is widely touted as a major private sector success in tackling development. According to the State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2009, microfinance now reaches more than 100 million people through more than 3,500 organizations. Nonetheless, like many forms of financing, microfinance is a coarse tool to lift people out of poverty insofar as it usually lends to people who may be willing to invest in the development of fixed assets, traditionally in farming or small businesses. More recently, microfinance products have tried to sharpen their…

• Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Authored by: Diana HollmannIt's Friday in the 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Week! 20,000 events involving 5 million people around the globe are taking place this week lasting from November 16-22.On Monday, here in Washington, IFC held a one-day conference addressing the issue of achieving scale in entrepreneurship. The conference featured representatives from IFC and World Bank, the White House, the US Department of State, Kauffman Foundation as well as entrepreneurs. Michael Fairbanks from the OTF Group and Iqbal Quadir, founder of GrameenPhone and the MIT Legatum Center, were…

• Investor Management

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:39 am

  Organization: New Ventures IndiaLocation: Hyderabad, INNew Ventures India is a joint initiative between CII GBC and World Resources Institute aimed at developing the ecosystem for green SMEs and, in particular, facilitating capital transfer to green enterprises. New Ventures. The New Ventures program of the World Resources Institute runs in six countries: India, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Columbia. New Ventures reaches out to the green SMEs and entrepreneurs through a variety of outreach programs, identifies promising enterprises by engaging with them in a constructive dialogue and…

• Enterprise Management

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:39 am

  Organization: New Ventures IndiaLocation: Hyderabad, INNew Ventures India is a joint initiative between CII GBC and World Resources Institute aimed at developing the ecosystem for green SMEs and, in particular, facilitating capital transfer to green enterprises. New Ventures. The New Ventures program of the World Resources Institute runs in six countries: India, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Columbia. New Ventures reaches out to the green SMEs and entrepreneurs through a variety of outreach programs, identifies promising enterprises by engaging with them in a constructive dialogue and…

• Net Impact 2009: A Wrap-Up

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Authored by: Diana Hollmann2 days, 2600 participants and over 350 speakers on more than 100 panels - those are some of the stats of this year’s Net Impact conference. One thing is for sure: It was an intense and inspiring conference!Clean Technology at the Base of the PyramidOne of the two keynotes on the second day focused on clean technology at the Base of the Pyramid and featured Stuart Hart from Cornell University. He argued that there is still not enough attention paid to the commercialization and distribution of clean technology products and services for low-income…

• 
  My New Biz

• That Means Its Working

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  From the Coding Horror BlogWe may kid ourselves into thinking were writing out of some sense of public good or to create connections or contribute some small bit of knowledge to the world But lets face it Most of us blog because were raving egomaniacs We not only love to hear ourselves talk were incredibly eager to hear other people talk aboRead More...

• Will your Quest for Success be your Downfall

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  From Will it Change You BlogThought When you find what you are looking for in life whats nextIts funny how so many people are on a never ending quest to be better richer more successful We want to be the best we can in life and sometimes that quest seems to be never endingIsnt that the point though Related poRead More...

• The Only Truly Failed Project

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  From the Coding Horror BlogDo you remember Microsoft Bob If you do you probably remember it as an intensely marketed but laughable failure what some call the quotnumber one flopquot at MicrosoftTheres no question that Microsoft Bob was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster But thats the funny thing about failures they often lead to laterRead More...

• All Programming is Web Programming

  14 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  From the Coding Horror BlogMichael Braude decries the popularity of web programmingThe reason most people want to program for the web is that theyre not smart enough to do anything else They dont understand compilers concurrency 3D or class inheritance They havent got a clue why Id use an interface or an abstract class They dont underRead More...

• This is a change

  13 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  From the blog of Tim ScammellI was contacted by CTV to do an TV interview this afternoonI know what youre thinkingA Its about the York Street StationB Tims about to stir it up again in New Maryland Council You would be wrong on both counts Surprisingly this isRead More...

• 
  Silicon Moon

• Korea is Second Tier to Japan for President Obama

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:35 am

  HatTip to friend in D.C. Obviously South Korea has secondary status with President Obama. Take a look at these pictures :)

• Facebook Cufflinks... Only for Geeks?

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:16 am

  I assume only coders from Facebook would love these :)

• News & Links List

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:25 pm

  "A tale of two Diggs" CNET's the social"The Google Phone Is Very Real. And It’s Coming Soon" TechCrunch"5 Reasons Why Google Should Not Sell Handsets" PC World"Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff: Don’t call Chatter a social network" VentureBeat"10 Green Startups to Watch" Fast Company"Jellyfish swarm northward in warming world" AP"North Koreans escape to cold reality" CNN"Online churches draw believers, critics" CNN

• Shop LiNK This Holiday, Rescue TheHundred

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:03 am

  Shop LiNK from LiNK Global on Vimeo."The holidays are just around the corner and with it, exorbitant spending. What if this year, we put a small fraction of that spending to work - not only giving gifts but also changing the lives of North Koreans in the process?This holiday season, we have the opportunity to do more with our giving.Give a LiNK gift and directly contribute to TheHundred, LiNK's new program to bring 100 North Korean refugees out of hiding from the underground. We want to begin this initiative as soon as possible, but we can't do it without your support. You can buy the LiNK…

• American Express Acquiring Steve Case's Revolution Money For $300 Million (AXP)

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:56 am

• 
  Leveraging Ideas

• Please Help the Cause: It’s for the Kids

  Sam

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:38 pm

  Update: We raised the money within 48 hours! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed (9 donations). Awesome. Usually I steer clear of posting personal things on this blog, but I wanted to ask for support in helping a great cause. My youngest sister is part of Teach for America. She’s spent the last year and a half in an extremely impoverished and isolated area of New Mexico, working on a Navajo Indian Reservation as a high school history teacher. She teaches some great kids, but the unfortunate reality is that her students are even more under-resourced than most; reservations are…

• Facebook Movie to be Filmed at Johns Hopkins University

  Sam

  27 Oct 2009 | 10:07 am

  Parts of the Facebook Movie: “The Social Network” by Andrew Sorkin will be filmed on the Hopkins Campus in Baltimore starting in November. Note: I’m very involved at Johns Hopkins University, serving on a number of boards both for the overall University and the Carey Business School. I was in Baltimore for several days last week and I’m very excited that this deal got done and can now be talked about publicly! Also a big congrats to a friend of mine who was very involved in making this happen! This is really exciting stuff. Not only is it exciting because this will be…

• On Pagination, Zip Codes and Zynga

  Sam

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:18 am

  The weather is terrible today here in New York. I think I’ll use it as inspiration to post a few rants (i.e. annoyances) that have been on my mind… Pagination in Flow Applications Tumblr (among others) has adopted a convention for pagination that drives me nuts. You click on a button on the right-hand side to move backward in time (Next)  and you click a left-hand button (Previous) to move forward toward more recent items. I have never understood this. My confusion is that the idea of pagination is essentially derived from books — and with books, right brings you forward…

• How to Get Free Wifi At Starbucks: The Definitive Guide

  Sam

  18 Oct 2009 | 9:37 pm

  I remember reading last summer that Starbucks was offering two free hours of wifi for patrons… In subsequent months, despite having purchased numerous gift cards, owning an iPhone and spending countless hours in Starbucks across the country, I still had not been able to access this mysterious free internet. Well, I finally figured it out! Here’s how get online at Starbucks for free** in under five minutes…assuming a short line :) 1) Get in line and purchase any Starbucks Gift Card (just put some nominal amount of money on the card, such as $5). My preference is the Mini Card.

• Where’s the Enterprise App Store?

  Sam

  9 Oct 2009 | 7:43 am

  First, congratulations to @pistachio on the launch of OneForty! It’s awesome to see such great initial uptake and press; rumors of a Twitter buyout certainly don’t hurt either :) My question: where is the enterprise app store? While I know the social business and enterprise 2.0 space as well as anyone, I still find myself frequently “googling” to find solutions and reviews: should I use MailChimp or Constant Contact? Yammer or SocialCast? SurveyMonkey or Survey.io? What’s better to use as an extranet: Drop.io or Box.net? App stores are brilliant because once they gain traction, they…

• 
  D.I.Y. Startup news

• EntryAds.com – get more money from your website

  public

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:37 pm

  EntryAds is a simple tool for creating advertising place and offer this place to advertisers. It is a real-time auction advertising space where the only one rule applies: The ad with the most money bid will be shown, others will wait in que

• www.ilikealot.com (an item published by you about the things that make you tick.)

  public

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:36 pm

  In November we launched ilikealot.com. Sign up and create your own likealots in your likealot center en post the videos, blogs and articles about the things you like and want to share.

• Style Guidance, your place for style and fashion advice.

  public

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:20 pm

  Style Guidance is a website dedicated to getting you a second opinion when it comes to style and fashion. Whether you need help picking a good shirt or just want to know what’s in style, the community at style guidance will help you.

• “Nubli” says it can sort your e-mails by importance

  public

  15 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am

  Nubli is a Bay Area startup whose mission is to overcome email overload by providing a free Outlook plug-in. Nubli helps you improve email productivity by achieving zero inbox through features of automatic prioritization and tagging.

• www.emote.in – From Tears to Cheers, Broadcast Here!

  public

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:51 pm

  Emote.in is a concept of sharing emotions, built over microblogging with full functionality of a social-networking site and a beautiful scrolling TIMELINE. Emote has a unique concept of attaching an “emotion” to every notice a member post’s

• 
  KillerStartups.com - all

• FranchiseDirect.com - All About Franchises

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:19 pm

  We could define the Franchise Direct website as an online resource that makes it easy for anybody to discover franchise opportunities from all around the globe. The basic idea is to make the process of owning a business not only something easy but also something more fulfilling than ever before. This is accomplished by letting budding entrepreneurs connect with renowned franchise opportunities.Read moreLearn more about FranchiseDirect.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much FranchiseDirect.com is worth with Stimator.com

• AToZQuotes.com - An Online Repository Of Quotes

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:12 pm

  Quotes will be popular until the end of time. It is only natural – not only do they stand as exponents of wit and charm, but (since they come from the lips of others) they also do give us license to say something which couldn’t tumble from our lips otherwise. I mean, if we quote Ambroise Bierce or Groucho Marx all sins are forgiven.Read moreLearn more about AToZQuotes.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much AToZQuotes.com is worth with Stimator.com

• GameClassroom.com - Your Kids Can Learn While They Play

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pm

  This is a service that will catch the attention of parents and educators because it gives children the chance to play many online games especially created for them. These will give them the chance to learn about many subjects, as well as to foster their imagination and develop their critical thinking. Therefore, when it comes to creating educational games for kids with the collaboration of educators who are knowledgeable this is a viable site for you to take a look at.Read moreLearn more about GameClassroom.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much GameClassroom.com is worth with Stimator.com

• Grouvia.com - Organize Your Life And Activities

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:07 pm

  Grouvia can be accurately defined as a free online solution users can bring into play for tracking their personal lives. There are times when you need to be able to manage all your activities in a simple and effective way and this system will provide you with the right service for you to accomplish that goal. This solution can be used for your club, group or association.Read moreLearn more about Grouvia.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much Grouvia.com is worth with Stimator.com

• Swift.fm - Share Your Music On Twitter

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:03 pm

  If you have been waiting for a service that combines both music and Twitter, you are on the right spot because Swift.fm was created based on that idea. It is an interesting service that gives you the chance to learn about pieces created by other users that are following you on Twitter.Read moreLearn more about Swift.fm in Dataopedia.comFind out how much Swift.fm is worth with Stimator.com

• 
  Campus Entrepreneurship

• Its Global Entrepreneurship Week!

  David J. Miller

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:11 pm

  Its that time of year again: Global Entrepreneurship Week. The organizers have done an amazing job this year and there are events all over the place. Get out and get active — there are over 5200 events that are listed on the website. Entrepreneurship is the most powerful human activity and its great to see people celebrating, expanding and supporting it this week. Good one Kauffman Foundation and Make Your Mark for putting this together. In addition to teaching New Venture Creation this week, I will be celebrating this week by giving a guest talk in Zoltan Acs Social Entrepreneurship…

• The Power of Phil Knight (Pioneer Campus Entrepreneur)

  David J. Miller

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pm

  Before there was Kevin Plank and Under Armour — Phil Knight was using his learnings, contacts, and education from Oregon and Stanford to launch Nike (originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports). Knight and Nike’s staying power can be witnessed by the recent controversy surrounding Marcus Jordan (son of Michael and Juanita), the University of Central Florida, and Adidas. Basically, Marcus is an 18 year old basketball player at UCF and refuses to wear any shoe other than Air Jordans (produced by Phil Knight’s Nike). UCF has an apparel and shoe contract with Adidas and as long as…

• Whats Wrong w/ Higher Ed in the US? Lots!

  David J. Miller

  3 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pm

  Newmark’s Door has a great blog entry offering a compilation of criticisms of higher education in the U.S. Those quoted included professors, entrepreneurs, and . Those targetted include law schools, humanities, and computer science departments. There is something for everyone in this piece. Here are a few snippets and who they are attributed to. Joel Spolsky (Entrepreneur): Many universities have managed to convince themselves that the more irrelevant the curriculum is to the real world, the more elite they are. It’s the liberal arts way. Leave it to the technical vocational…

• Athletic SAT from Under Armour and IMG

  David J. Miller

  3 Nov 2009 | 10:27 am

  Under Armour and leading talent agency IMG have joined forces and among other things, will begin creating a standard of measurement for high school athletes looking to play in college. As we all know, college athletics is a huge business and many global brands have come out of that part of the campus eco-system. Nike and Gatorade are two examples (as is Under Armour). Both sides of the recruiting equation (athletes and schools) spend countless time, effort and money trying to find the right fit of student-athlete to school/program. Below are some interesting snippets from the article by…

• Can You Be Entrepreneurial w/ a $1 Million Base Pay?

  David J. Miller

  2 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm

  In recent years we have heard about how entrepreneurial university administrators have become. Creating new models and charting new paths for their august institutions. A new study from the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 23 Private University Presidents in the US are making at least $1 million a year. Hot Dog, bureaucracy pays! From an article by Mary Beth Marklein in the USA Today, Here are the Chronicle’s findings, based on federal tax forms, of the highest-paid presidents of private non-profit colleges and universities. Compensation includes salaries, fees, bonuses,…

• 
  Newly Corporate

• 2009 Holiday Gifts For Young Professionals

  Dan

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:39 pm

  It is getting to be that time of year again. It can be hard to shop for twentysomethings, but the team here at Newly Corporate does an annual brainstorm to identify great products for generation Y professionals. We try not to break the bank with our recommendations, but we don’t discriminate against more expensive objects of desire either. Everything we link to goes to amazon.com, so feel free to investigate the suggested products as well. We’re confident you’ll be able to find something nice for that young professional on your list! See the whole list! 1. LG Blue-ray player…

• 5 Engagement Ring Buying Tips for the Young Professional

  Brandon Henak

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:36 am

  Yes, it’s true, I have recently taken a major step in my life and asked my girlfriend to marry me.  As part of this process, I went through what most men do: the search for the perfect ring.  Based on my girlfriend’s answer to my proposal (Yes!) and all the positive feedback I have received on the ring post-proposal, I figured I would share what worked for me.  No yes-answer guarantees but, here are my tips on a purchase that can be pretty daunting. 1. Decide whether you want it to be a surprise or you want to go shop with her.  Being old fashioned, I wanted to surprise…

• 10 Lessons from Creating an iPhone Application Start Up (Part 2)

  Brandon Henak

  30 Sep 2009 | 7:18 am

  This is the second of a two part series (click here for part one) from a friend of the Newly Corporate bloggers, Eli Gratz.  iPhone Apps and Start Ups are two of the most fascinating things for young professionals today and Eli has done both during his spare time (see http://www.drinkspecialsapp.com)!  I asked him to share some of his experiences creating the Drink Specials App for the iPhone (available in the app store) and recieved 10 great lessons for young professionals looking to start their own businesses or develop mobile applications! 6. Be flexible on your vision, hold to your…

• 10 Lessons from Creating an iPhone Application Start Up (Part 1)

  Brandon Henak

  28 Sep 2009 | 8:14 am

  This is the first of a two part series from a friend of the Newly Corporate bloggers, Eli Gratz.  iPhone Apps and Start Ups are two of the most fascinating things for young professionals today and Eli has done both during his spare time(see http://www.drinkspecialsapp.com)!  I asked him to share some of his experiences and got 10 great lessons for young professionals looking to start their own businesses or develop mobile applications!  Lessons 5-10 will be posted this Wednesday. A lot of people ask me about my experience as a first time application developer and new business owner. They…

• The Dream Home: PMI = a Starbucks a Day

  Brandon Henak

  3 Sep 2009 | 9:29 am

  With all the young homeowners jumping into the market to get their $8000 in Obama cash (which is just driving up the cost of a house $8K-16K, but that is another matter), I have gotten a number of questions about what the right size for a down payment is and what costs are involved. We have a great analysis of what the tradeoffs are for different downpayment percentages in “The Dream Home (or Condo): Saving for a Down Payment” from our Dream Home series. Many of the questions though, are specifically around PMI or Private Mortgage Insurance.  If you have a loan with less than 20%…

• 
  TheFunded Founder Institute News

• Early Admissions

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Results from early admissions in Seattle, New York, and the Bay Area will be tabulated on Saturday, November 21st, and applicants will be notified if they have been accepted on either Sunday evening or Monday morning. Anyone who is not accepted through the early admissions process will have another opportunity to make it in the program at the final admissions deadline for their location. Chances of being accepted are strong. The early acceptance rate in Washington DC and San Diego / Orange County was approximately 50%, and the overall acceptance rate has been over one third in previous…

• Welcome to the Founder Institute (Video)

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  The following video is of a talk that explains the Founder Institute to 85 interested applicants in Seattle on Monday, November 2nd, 2009. The philiosophy, the vision, and the economics are all described in a well produced video, as well as the answer to some common questions. If you are thinking to apply, this is worthwhile to watch. Enjoy! Welcome to the Founder Institute from Adeo Ressi on Vimeo.

• Information Session in Palo Alto

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Anyone in the Bay Area thinking to start a company or running a new startup that can use some assistance is invited to attend the upcoming informational session on TheFunded Founder Institute. It's fun, and it's free:Bay Area - November 24th 6:30 PM in Palo Altohttp://bayarea-fi.eventbrite.com Please RSVP, as space is limited.

• Attend the ASES Student Entrepreneurship Expo

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:15 am

  Stanford's Asia Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society (ASES) is hosting the 2nd Annual Student Entrepreneurship Expo this Thursday. The Expo will feature six innovative entrepreneurs who have start ups ranging from web development to social entrepreneurship. We encourage Bay Area Graduates and applicants to attend this free event the event to network, learn, and share ideas. Here is the info; Thursday, November 19. 7:00pm-9:30pmTresidder, 2nd Floor, Oak EastRSVP - http://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?key=ty_4KAZvajNlKt3MHOSInZg

• NYC Informational Event Tonight

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Everyone interested in the Founder Institute is welcomed to an informational event in New York City tonight, Monday, November 16th. Meet the Founding Member and ask any questions about the program, the mentors, and the curriculum:6:30 PM to 7:30 PM The Digital Sandbox55 Broad Street, New York City4th Floor, Room 5http://institute-ny.eventbrite.com/Sign up at the Eventbrite link above to reserve a spot or just show up. Thanks!

• 
  Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

• Moving to the Cloud is not an all or nothing proposition

  DonDodge

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  The Enterprise Cloud Summit panel at the Interop Conference yesterday discussed some of the challenges and concerns of large enterprises and government agencies in moving their applications to the cloud. While there are some regulatory and compliance concerns for some applications, it isn’t an all or nothing proposition. Moving your email, calendar, spreadsheet, word processor, and other productivity apps to the cloud now can save big money, and free up your IT resources to focus on more strategic issues. InformationWeek says “The vendors argued that cloud computing offers enough real…

• Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen diagnosed Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

  DonDodge

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:26 am

  Paul Allen, the 56 year old co-founder of Microsoft has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer of the lymphatic system. Paul is a tough guy, he already beat Hodgkin's Disease 25 years ago, and he will beat this too. Paul is one of the good guys. Everyone who knows him loves him. Say a prayer for Paul today. It is tragic when anyone is struck with cancer, but it seems only the celebs and rich people get noticed by the media. It is those less fortunate, those without adequate health care, that we should focus more attention on. Health insurance for all Americans must be…

• Thanks Microsoft, Hello Google

  DonDodge

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  Thanks to all the fine people at Microsoft. It was an interesting ride. Four years, 11 months, and 20 days, and I enjoyed every one of them. Well, except for the last few days, that was not fun at all. I hope I played a small part in making Microsoft more approachable, friendly to startups, and easier to work with. Microsoft is a different company, a better company, than when I joined 5 years ago. There are more new people who joined Microsoft in the last 5 years than all the previous employees combined. However, laying off 5,000 people when you have $37B in cash and huge profits is not cool.

• Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter the new communication modes

  DonDodge

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:43 am

  Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter have become my main communication channels since leaving Microsoft. They are always open on my laptop and cell phone. It is somewhat surprising to me how effective these tools are at reaching individual people or thousands of people at the same time. The corporate email system seems oddly out of touch now. Strange now fast that happens. I have used Facebook and Twitter for a long time. But now that I am outside the corporate wall they have taken on new importance. Gmail is new to me, but I can already see why people have been raving about it. It is email, but…

• Pay It Forward, Give and you shall receive

  DonDodge

  9 Nov 2009 | 12:57 pm

  I want to publicly say thank you to all my friends. You know who your friends are when times are tough. I heard from hundreds of friends last week and it meant a lot to me. Social media has created a whole new set of “friends” who know a lot about you and care about you, even though you may have never met in person. Hundreds of these friends took the time to write to me. Over 400 emails on my new Gmail account. There were also hundreds of comments on blogs and news sites that carried the story of my separation from Microsoft. It was almost like I had died, but got to read my obituary and…

• 
  Colorado Startups

• Boulder is showing the world about mentorship

  David Cohen

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:50 am

  During the last TechStars summer, we were visited by representatives from two foreign governments: Singapore and France. Both had heard about something interesting happening in Boulder. Each came and observed the program for a half day or so, looking for a productive exchange of ideas and opportunities. During the summer, I was invited by the Singapore government to visit their country and I jumped at the opportunity. I love to travel to places that I’ve never been before. They also invited Andrew Hyde to come along, which made the trip even more fun. Singapore is pretty much as far…

• Robert Reich and Add-on-Con

  David Cohen

  8 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm

  Robert Reich has done an amazing job building the new tech meetup here in Boulder and now in Denver. I was at the earliest of those meetups, when there were just 10-15 people there. Now there are 300+ and standing room only at every event, it seems. It’s now a fixture here in Boulder, and Robert deserves much of the credit for that. Now Robert has put together at conference called Add-on-Con which is focused on browser add-ons. It’s happening in Mountain View, CA on December 11. They’ve just added a closing keynote called “The future of the web browser” which…

• Internet Business Models of the TechStars

  David Cohen

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am

  I’m a guest lecturer for an executive MBA class at Denver University later today. I was asked to talk about Internet business models (among other things), so I thought I’d take a look at the 39 companies that have been through TechStars to give them a sense of the relative popularity of various business models. I think this represents a fairly decent cross section of reality, since about 75% of these companies have raised outside funding after TechStars ended. Some of these are open to interpretation or are really a hybrid of a couple of forms. My categories might be somewhat…

• Brad Feld interviewing me at Entrepreneurs Unplugged

  David Cohen

  26 Oct 2009 | 11:20 pm

  A few people have asked, so here’s a link to a video of Brad Feld interviewing me at the Silicon Flatirons Entrepreneurs Unplugged event last week down at the University of Colorado. In the interview, Brad asks about: How I became an entrepreneur My first company - Pinpoint Technologies / ZOLL Data Systems (acquired) My second company - iContact (failed) My third company - earFeeder (acquired) My fourth company - TechStars There’s some fun Q&A at the end about TechStars and more. Enjoy!

• An offer to Funding Universe

  David Cohen

  22 Sep 2009 | 7:13 am

  UPDATE: Funding Universe posted a response to this post and has now waived pitch fees nationally as a result. Funding Universe is expanding their presence in Colorado and they are presenting a CrowdPitch event on September 30th in Denver. It costs $125 to present your company there, and it’s free to attend otherwise. Some of us vomit when we hear that promising entrepreneurs are being charged to pitch to investors in Colorado (or anywhere). I’m hoping people will stop doing it. In my opinion, If investors want to see companies they (or sponsors) should bear the costs instead of…

• 
  OnlyOnce

• Book Short: Sloppy Sequel

  Matt

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Book Short:  Sloppy SequelSuperFreakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't nearly as good as the original Freakonomics, either.  I always find the results of "naturally controlled experiments" and taking a data-driven view of the world to be very refreshing.  And as much as I like the social scientist versions of these kinds of books like Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and Blink (book; blog post), there's usually something about reading something data driven written by a professional quant jock that's more reassuring. That's where…

• 5 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

  Matt

  5 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

  Book Short:  Chip Off the Old Block   I have to admit, I was more than a little skeptical when Craig Spiezle handed me a copy of The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey, at the OTA summit last week.  The author is the son of THE Stephen Covey, author of the world famous Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as well as The Eighth Habit (book, post).  Would the book have substance and merit or be drafting off the dad's good name?   I dog-ear pages of books as I read them, noting the pages that are most interesting if I ever want to go back and take a quick…

• If this madness all ended tomorrow, I would do…almost nothing

  Matt

  22 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

  If this madness all ended tomorrow, I would do…almost nothing(This post originally appeared on FindYourNerve on October 21)I don’t know what you call the last 12 months of global macroeconomic meltdown.  I’ve taken to calling it the Great Repression.  In part because it’s somewhere in between a Recession and a Depression, in part because it’s certainly repressed the wants and needs of startups and growth companies the world over.  And it makes for good cocktail party chatter.Someone asked me a question the other day, which started off with “Now that the recession is…

• Why I joined the DMA Board, and what you can expect of me in that role

  Matt

  21 Oct 2009 | 5:46 am

  Why I joined the DMA Board, and what you can expect of me in that role I don't normally think of myself as a rebel. But one outcome of the DMA's recent proxy fight with Board member Gerry Pike is that I've been appointed to the DMA's Board and its Executive Committee and have been labeled "part of the reform movement" in the trade press. While I wasn't actively leading the charge on DMA reform with Gerry, I am very enthusiastic about taking up my new role. I gave Gerry my proxy and support for a number of reasons, and those reasons will form the basis of my agenda as a DMA Board member. As a…

• Wanted: Rock Star Marketer

  Matt

  30 Sep 2009 | 10:18 am

  Wanted: Rock Star Marketer Return Path is hiring a VP Marketing. This is a new position - we haven't had the job filled in a couple years like this, reporting directly to me. The job spec is here. What it's like to work here is pretty well captured here. Why should you pass this on to a friend who is a good fit? Because you will help a friend find the best job he or she ever had! Oh and because we will pay you a nice referral fee if we hire your friend. Why should you apply? That's a longer answer: 1. We are inventive market leaders with a really unique business model, at a good scale, in a…

• 
  Learn to Duck

• Lets All Do The Crowdsource

  Micah

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:55 pm

  Have you heard of the new dance craze that all the kids are doing? Its call the Crowdsource, and it goes like this: Throw your hands in the air and scream “Man! We are super busy!” Shake your head and yell “Have you heard of the craze sweeping the nation? Its called the Crowdsource. The Crowdsource!” Shrug your shoulders and exclaim “Its cool. You get everyone else to do your work for you!” Then you clap your hands, smile and with a knowing, hip smile, laughingly announce “Lets do this!” Repeat until you realize that you are a moron and have no…

• Scream Like a Girl

  Micah

  8 Nov 2009 | 5:57 pm

  Night before last I went to see the Pinback show with my friend Eric Marcoullier . I almost didnt go. After all, I had just finished eleven straight days of travel, which included meetings in NYC, speaking New Orleans at Tribecon (an amazing experience!), my grandmother’s funeral in San Jose and the Techstars reunion in Seattle. Im glad I went. The band was fun, the venue, the Ogden Theatre, is always great (sort of a large version of the Fox in Boulder). As the band began to play, Eric and I were about 5 feet or so from the front. Standing against the stage were three girls. Each…

• A loss for words.

  Micah

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:51 pm

  My grandmother died yesterday. It wasnt sudden, nor was it a surprise. Doesnt mean it was less sad. I had been traveling, most recently speaking at TribeCon in New Orleans, when my mom called to say it wasnt looking good. “What does that mean?” I asked. “It means she is probably going to die.” I felt a bit guilty having fun in New Orleans, which was a LOT of fun (I got yelled at for checking into so many places on FourSquare), but I knew there was nothing I could do. “She is unconscious,” my mom told me. “What does that mean?” I asked. “It…

• The Law of Minicycles

  Micah

  26 Oct 2009 | 1:54 pm

  Over the past few weeks, I have been heads down focusing on getting my new project funded, getting the tech team moving in the right direction, and getting customers. All with an eye towards launch. Its a fun, frustrating and exciting time. Its what makes startups fun. But in the midst of all this hubbub, a simple pattern is emerging. When you look at the lifecycle of a startup, there are really three major parts: The Build Up, The Execution and The Exit. Of course, you can read plenty of articles and books that provide a deeper and more complex view, but I am just not that complex. The Build…

• I Bleed.

  Micah

  19 Oct 2009 | 4:59 pm

  I bleed a lot. Not in a horrible, unhealthy physically or mentally way, but it just seems that I often find new cuts on my arms, feet, legs. Now, I do live with animals, and so I can, for example, attribute the blood on my chest from a misguided attempt by Billie (my dog) to remove my nipple, or as the kids say “play with me.” A second ago, I got up from my desk, and I noticed that the bottom of my foot was cut. Not sure how I cut it, but its cut nonetheless. Why does this matter? I’ll get to that. One of my favorite songs is Please Bleed, by Ben Harper. The equates the…

• 
  Startup Weekend

• Active Hash Tags!

  Startup Weekend Crew

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pm

  Active Hash Tags – Get in on the tweeting in your town! #swnyc – NYC #swdallas -Dallas #swlex – Lexington #swlondon – London #swbay – Bay Area #swcle – Cleveland #lasw – LA #gew – Global Entrepreneurship Week

• #IdahoSW #SWTulsa #SWA3 ALL GOING!

  Startup Weekend Crew

  14 Nov 2009 | 10:37 am

  Events are running strong in Idaho, Tulsa, and Atlanta this weekend. There are some amazing things happening! Be sure to check in with the progress of each city! Atlanta: http://atlanta.startupweekend.org/ Tulsa: http://tulsa.startupweeekend.org/ Idaho: http://idaho.startupweekend.org/

• #swfreetix Winners! Funniest Tweets!

  Startup Weekend Crew

  11 Nov 2009 | 2:24 pm

  Here are the winners of the funniest tweets yesterday! The winners get a free ticket to any of the upcoming Startup Weekend events! @EmekaPatrick “b/c times are rough, NY rents are high, & I’m so behind on bills I live in fear of my organs being repossessed #swfreetix @Janabriggs “I deserve a ticket because my app can be implemented in 5 lines & adds 0 value to life as we know it.” @Perezda “Driving from CA to TX this week. Need free tix for #swdallas so I have something relaxing to do next week ” @baxie404 “I deserve a #swfreetix because 9…

• Ticket Giveaways – 11/10 First 5 Tweets win!

  Startup Weekend Crew

  10 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm

  We are giving away five free tickets today at 4:00pm PST. How: Tweet something funny to @startupweekend and reference your city #swfreeticket We will compile the entries on this page, and announce the winners here!

• CityVote is back! Vote for your city!

  Startup Weekend Crew

  9 Nov 2009 | 4:53 pm

  Would you like to have Startup Weekend come to your city? We have the new City Vote plugin installed on the main site. Don’t worry, this is version 1 and will be improving, but you get the idea. We need a minimum of 75 votes to come to most cities, so tell your friends to vote!

• 
  Startup Houston

• Join us Today as StartupHouston LiveBlogs EOTribe09

  kurtstoll

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am

  We will be liveblogging the EOTRIBE09 event today, starting at 12pm Noon.  Don’t miss it! Note: You can find hi-res versions of the photos on Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/startuphouston

• Exciting Tech Startup Things Going On this Thursday in Houston

  kurtstoll

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am

  There sure is a lot going on in Houston this week!   Its a great week to be a tech/geek/startup!   Check out this list of exciting things going on: Start(up) your Thursday morning off on the right foot with this month’s OpenCoffee Club Houston. OpenCoffee Club is a monthly meet-up that encourages informal discussion and networking among entrepreneurs, technology enthusiasts, and investors to help grow start-up companies in the Houston area. Every 3rd Thursday of the month at 8am CoffeeGroundz www.thecoffeegroundz.com 2503 Bagby Houston, Texas 77006 From there, you can attend the…

• Kirtsy Takes a Bow – Book Launch Event is this Tuesday

  kurtstoll

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:53 am

  Houston’s own Laura Mayes will be talking about and signing copies of her new book Kirtsy Takes a Bow this Tuesday evening. Stop by and visit with the editing author and a number of contributors:  Katherine, Center, Karen Walrond, Jenny Lawson, Brene’ Brown, Julie Pippert, Lauren McKechnie, and Erica O’Grady,  to toast the arrival of Kirtsy Takes a Bow. More info on Kirtsy Takes a Bow from Amazon.com “The women’s blogging revolution has taken hold, and this inspirational and practical guide is a celebration of one of the leading women’s social networking…

• Austin Ventures Office Hours – December 15th @CoffeeGroundz

  Marc Nathan

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Dan Doman the Director of Business Development at Austin Ventures is bringing his team down from Austin to hold the first ‘AV Entrepreneur Hours‘ in Houston on December 15th. He’s setting up shop at the Houston Startup scene’s favorite meeting place: CoffeeGroundz 2503 Bagby Houston, Texas 77006 in Mid Town. Dan is a very accessible guy and is looking to connect with startups here in Houston. Come down and hang with us, the venture team at Austin Ventures, and let’s chat about your business plan at our newly formed “AV Entrepreneur Hours.” AV Entrepreneur Hours…

• StartupHouston LiveBlog of the TiE Online Marketing Panel

  kurtstoll

  14 Nov 2009 | 6:53 am

  Join us as we LiveBlog the TiE Online Marketing Panel from the Briar Club.

• 
  Startup Story Radio

• 2009 Angel Capital Summit with Chuck Blakeman

  Rob McNealy

  10 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am

  In This Podcast Episode Rob McNealy interviews Chuck Blakeman of TeamNimbusWest about the Angel Capital Summit, which is taking place in Denver on November 17th at the Colorado Convention Center. Chuck Blakeman’s Bio Chuck Blakeman has experience with companies as small as $100,000 and as large at $120 million. He re-positioned, started and sold businesses, and obtained [...]

• The Federal Reserve with Stick it to the Man Author Ronald Lewis

  Rob McNealy

  8 Oct 2009 | 7:23 pm

  In This Podcast Episode Rob McNealy interviews Ronald Lewis about his new book, Stick it to the Man, and the problems with the Federal Reserve system. Ronald Lewis’ Bio Ronald Lewis, author of Stick it to the Man,  is a Denver-based activist, speaker, entrepreneur, and technologist.  An early adopter of emerging technologies, Lewis became the first Denver-based lifecaster [...]

• Surviving Debt with Mitchell Allen

  Rob McNealy

  19 Sep 2009 | 7:27 pm

  In This Podcast Episode Rob McNealy offers a timely interview with Mitchell Allen, author of A Survival Guide to Debt: How to Overcome Tough Times & Restore Your Financial Health. Mitchell Allen’s Bio Mitchell L. Allen is the founder, president, and chairman of Debt Education and Certification Foundation, a leading provider of personal debt management courses. Courses he [...]

• Cirque du Soleil Kooza Adds Shows in Denver

  Rob McNealy

  14 Sep 2009 | 1:25 pm

  Cirque du Soleil KOOZA has just announced that due to popular demand, they’ve added an additional block of shows in Denver, from September 30th through October 4th!  The show is truly fantastic, and I’d highly recommend it to all of you if you have the opportunity to see it. In This Podcast Rob McNealy interviews Vitali Charsunou, [...]

• Networking and Mentoring with Carol Quinn of 3Lunches

  Rob McNealy

  7 Sep 2009 | 9:13 pm

  In This Podcast Episode Rob McNealy interviews Carol Quinn co-founder of 3Lunches about the importance of networking and one-on-one mentoring in business. Carol Quinn’s Bio Entrepreneur, writer and advertising creative, Carol Quinn is the co-creator and author of the upcoming nonfiction book: “3Lunches: How to Change Your Life with Friend-to-Friend Coaching and a Sandwich,” and the blog: 3Lunches.com. With [...]

• 
  TechStars

• 6 of 10 Boulder companies rounds led by VCs in 2009

  davidcohen

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:20 am

  The 2009 class in Boulder was really outstanding. It was our third year, and I think this class was the strongest overall group we’ve had yet. All the deals aren’t done yet, but 6 of the 10 companies from this summer in Boulder will eventually announce that they’ve closed deals led by VC firms. These are all seed rounds ranging for $300K – $1.5M. We’re confident that one or two more companies will be angel backed as well. In past years, we’ve seen most of the companies funded by angel investors. This dynamic really shifted this year both due to the quality…

• TechStars 2009 Demo Day in Seattle – 11/4/09

  bradfeld

  21 Oct 2009 | 4:16 pm

  We are doing another TechStars 2009 Demo Day, this time in Seattle on 11/4/09. It’s part of a two day TechStars mini-reunion across all three TechStars years – part retreat, part spend time with a bunch of Seattle colleagues, and part party – TechStars style. The agenda for the Investor part of the event on the after of 11/4 follows: 2:30 PM – Investor Panel – You’ll hear from some of the top angel investors and venture capitalists in the country, including me, Greg Gottesman (Madrona), David Cohen (TechStars), Chris Sheehan (CommonAngels of Boston), Andy Sack (Founders Co-Op),…

• TechStars Bloopers

  bradfeld

  19 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am

  If you’ve been watching the TechStars video series “The Founders“, you’ll love the Behind the Scenes (aka “bloopers”) episode that just came out. The Founders | Behind the Scenes from Megan Leigh Sweeney on Vimeo. Watch otherwise chatty people be speechless, learn more about the use of the word “f#*k”, try to figure out which one is Nate and which one is Natty, see Canadians sing and learn what happens when they get nervous, and go on a rocket ship. Great stuff Megan (and TechStars).

• Boston Founders Video- Sensobi, TempMine, LangoLab

  andrewhyde

  9 Oct 2009 | 12:10 pm

  Boston kicked off this year with nine investments and some fantastic energy in the great Boston startup scene.  They just completed investor day and are working hard at raising their rounds. Megan Sweeney came to Boston to film another episode of The Founders (full series here). Hope you enjoy learning about Sensobi, LangoLab and TempMine.

• TechStars 2009 Demo Day in Mountain View – 9/30/09

  bradfeld

  27 Sep 2009 | 8:43 am

  We’ve just wrapped up our third year of doing TechStars and not only do we have some interesting companies coming out of Boulder, we also have a bunch coming out of our new Boston program as well. In all, we had 19 companies go through the program this summer. I expect at least 14 of the 2009 companies will eventually close their seed rounds, which is similar to the ratio we’ve seen in past years. Last year we brought some of the companies with the most progress out to Silicon Valley and it was a big hit. So this year, we’re doing it again and we already have well over 100 investors…

• 
  Gawker: valleywag

• Hidden Forces Baffle the Twitterati

  Ryan Tate

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:04 pm

  Neel Shah got his scandal-phone returned; Kevin Marks got retweeted by ghosts and Al Yankovic was surrounded by nobodies. The Twitterati were haunted, in a good way. Neel Shah, Page Six gossip and former Gawker and Radar-ite, was glad his phone didn't end up with the likes of his present or past employers. (He should be.) Tech pundit and Berkeleyite Andrew Keen articulated an ideology of what might be called, if you're avoiding Rush Limbuagh-isms, "femifascism." British Telecom's Kevin Marks hopes that's an iPhone you're discreetly working in your pocket. Singer Weird Al Yankovic does this…

• Microsoft Let NSA Spooks 'Enhance' Windows 7

  Ryan Tate

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am

  A National Security Agency director just bragged to a Senate subcommittee about his agency's close "cooperation" with Microsoft to, err, "enhance" how Windows 7 guards a user's privacy. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy? The spooks at the NSA are, of course, notorious for their role monitoring internet activity, and for their use of warantless wiretaps to monitor U.S. phones, often illegally. So computer users could easily be worried to hear that the NSA has "partnerships" with Microsoft, which makes their operating systems; Intel, which makes their wireless chipsets; and…

• Regretsy Book to Be Not Quite as Good as Regretsy.com

  Hamilton Nolan

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:28 am

  The heretofore anonymous founder of Regretsy, the blog that appropriately mocks your dumb arts-and-crafts projects, has been outed. Because she got a book deal! New blog-to-book trend: Saying right up front the book will be more paltry than the blog. Speakeasy reports that the Regretsy mastermind is April Winchell, well-known comedic human. Notably, her new book publishers admit: "We're not going to use everything from the Web site," said Jill Schwartzman, the purchasing editor at Random House. "The ones we're going to pick are the ones that work for a book-reading audience." So read…

• Why Google's New OS Is For Losers

  Ryan Tate

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:57 pm

  A Twitter engineer said Google's new "Chrome" OS is something you resign yourself to; a CNET writer said it's something you are infected with; and Mediaite might hang out awkwardly on Tumblr with it. The Twitterati were ruthless. Twitter engineer Alex Payne is, needless to say, not impressed with Google's new "Chrome" operating system. Financial writer Heidi Moore is, needless to say, as unimpressed with Best Buy as Alex Payne. CNET's Rafe Needleman is, needless to say, as unimpressed with sleazy sales tactics as Hedi Moore, as unimpressed with Google Chrome as Alex Payne and, for all his…

• Yahoo's Lesbian 'Don Juan' Backhands Lindsay Lohan

  Ryan Tate

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:46 pm

  Courtenay Semel, the sapphic spawn of former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, is quoted in the lesbian magazine Curve dissing former lady friend Lindsay Lohan. Then she complains that the media twists her relationships. The nerve of this one. Courtenay Semel, for those who are not familiar with her heiress-level fameballing, is not a shy and retiring person. A person does not make out with her attention-craving girlfriend Tila Tequila on red carpets because she mistrusts the media; a person does not scream at a club bouncer to "just fucking Google me, you dumb fuck" because she mistrusts the media; and…

• 
  E-Consulting - Entrepreneur

• Q&A: Dennis Mortensen on Yahoo Analytics

  Meghan Keane

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:14 am

  Dennis Mortensen has worked in the analytics, optimization and online marketing industry since 1996. He is an Associate Web Analytics Instructor at the University of British Columbia, the Author of data driven insights with Yahoo! Web Analytics, and a frequent speaker on the subject of analytics and online marketing. Mortensen joined up IndexTools in 2004 and worked as COO until the company was acquired by Yahoo! Inc., in May 2008. Today he is the Director of Data Insights at Yahoo! and sits on the Board of Directors at the Web Analytics Association. He also writes the popular analytics blog,…

• How to use Google Voice to increase reorders

  Bryan Eisenberg

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am

  I just received an email from nutritional supplement retailer Jigsaw Health, about a new program they offering their existing customer base. After speaking to President and Co-Founder Patrick Sullivan Jr, I learned that 80% of their monthly revenue comes from returning customers (and they don't even offer an auto-ship program). How? By setting up Google Voice so that repeat customers can place orders via text message. Let's take a look at how this works... Patrick came up with an idea to make it simpler for these customers to re-order from him, knowing that most people don't spend all their…

• 12 reasons Chrome OS will fail

  Patricio Robles

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:33 am

  Yesterday, Google held a press conference at its Mountain View headquarters to provide the world with an update on its new operating system, Chrome OS. A lot of new details were forthcoming, which have have been well-covered by others. The questions on everyone's mind: is Chrome OS the real deal? Where does it fit in? How will it impact the OS market. My answers: it isn't, nowhere, it won't. Here are 12 reasons why Chrome OS is going to fail. The web matters, but so does the desktop. With Chrome OS, Google is betting that desktop apps don't matter to the average consumer. Is that a good bet?

• Search marketing stats round up

  Graham Charlton

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:37 am

  Here's a selection of recent social media stats, taken from a range of sources, including Econsultancy's Search Marketing Statistics document, which forms part of the Internet Statistics Compendium, and other reports... US search engine rankings (comScore) Americans conducted 13.8bn searches in September 2009, with Google accounting for 64.9%. Yahoo was next on 18.8%, followed by Microsoft on 9.4% and Ask on 3.9%. UK search market share (Efficient Frontier) Google's share of UK search spend was 86.5% in Q3 2009, Yahoo was next on 9.1%, while Bing took 4.3%. Search and branding (Google /…

• Q&A: Gerrard Dennis of Simply Group on e-commerce

  Graham Charlton

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:33 am

  The Simply Group operates seven e-commerce sites in the UK, from SimplyScuba, to the recently relaunched SimplyBeach. I've been talking to founder Gerrard Dennis about the challenges if running seven separate sites... How long have you been operating?We started out in 1995 with the Scuba shop and, around 2000, we decided to branch out into other avenues, feeling that specialising in just scuba gear left us too exposed to possible changes in the market.By offering ski gear as well as scuba, we were covering all year round in terms of leisure activities, and we have continued to add more since…

• 
  Startup Lucky

• Why is startup ClickFuel.com one of “America’s most promising startups” according to BusinessWeek?

  Aronado

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:43 am

  MUCHOS thanks to our sponsor:IncSlinger with this weeks social media tip on: Succession planning.  Also, Auctionpia, buy and sell over IM  << These guys make it possible for us to interview start-up entrepreneurs around the globe.  thank you thank you, thank you! We had a great conversation with Colby West, founder of ClickFuel.  Watch to learn [...]

• #startup interview DuffelUP.com, visual trip planner

  Aronado

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:35 pm

  MUCHOS thanks to our sponsor:IncSlinger with this weeks social media tip on: Succession planning. A good chat with Will Cheung, founder of DuffelUp. About Duffel Duffel is a trip planning tool for people who are not planning any trips. No, really. When was the last time you saw an interesting article online about a city you’ve always wanted to [...]

• interview> Jason Keath on SocialFresh.com, socruise, margaritas , and FedoraUp ?

  Aronado

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:47 am

  MUCHOS thanks to our sponsor:IncSlinger with this weeks social media tip on: Succession planning.  Also, a special thanks to The Roger Smith hotel for always being so generous and allowing us to tape in their awesome hotel! If you are going to NYC, this IS the only place to stay. It only took about three (3) [...]

• #startup Magntize.com giving you a beautiful place on the web to call home?

  Aronado

  14 Nov 2009 | 5:59 am

  MUCHOS thanks to our sponsor:IncSlinger with this weeks social media tip on: Succession planning.  Also, Auctionpia, buy and sell over IM  << These guys make it possible for us to interview start-up entrepreneurs around the globe.  thank you thank you, thank you! Congrats to Caleb, Brad, Charles, and the rest of the crew over at Magntize!  [...]

• Start-up Vook.com uniting books and videos into one story

  Aronado

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

  MUCHOS thanks to our sponsors: Auctionopia & IncSlinger.  << These guys make it possible for us to interview start-up entrepreneurs around the globe.  thank you thank you, thank you! Vook was created in 2008 by Internet entrepreneur Bradley Inman, with the vision to unite the disparate worlds of books and videos into one complete, blended story. [...]

• 
  Texas Startup Blog

• Startup Weekend Starts Tonight!

  Alexander Muse

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:09 pm

  We still have spots available.  The event starts tonight at 6PM (you can’t be late).  Register here: Dallas Startup Weekend. We are hosting Startup Weekend Dallas the weekend of November 20th - 22nd at our offices in the INFOMART.  Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects. The weekend is a concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating. It is known for its quick decisions, ‘out of the box’ thinking…

• ShopSavvy is Under the Radar Tomorrow!

  Alexander Muse

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:32 pm

  Debbie Landa, the CEO of DealMaker Media called me a couple of weeks ago and invited me to present ShopSavvy at the Under the Radar conference being held tomorrow in Moutainview, CA.  Back in 2006 I presented Fancast and we were awarded ‘Best in Show’ and the ‘Peoples’ Choice’ awards.  The contacts we made at Under the Radar resulted in SIGNIFICANT revenue for our company as well as an ultimate sale to Comcast Interactive so when Debbie calls I listen.  Lots of friends are presenting this year including Layar and Bottle Rocket.  If you are near the Microsoft…

• Finally, ShopSavvy Available on iPhone!

  Alexander Muse

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:36 pm

  Before I get started, here is the download link: http://bit.ly/shopsavvyiphone.  MG over at TechCrunch beat me to this post, but the story about how we got ShopSavvy on the iPhone is worth telling.  First, the good news is that ShopSavvy is now available for the 2G, 3G and 3GS iPhone (of course we have been on Android for a year).  We began building ShopSavvy for the iPhone last year and even submitted it to Apple for approval.  After waiting four weeks without response we decided to make the application better.  Our honest appraisal of the application was that it sucked.  We worked on…

• Startup Weekend Dallas - Team Recruiting

  Alexander Muse

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

  Rylan and I have been thinking about what we want to work on this weekend and I thought I would share it with you.  Basically, we want to create a shared product wishlist system - i.e. OpenWishLists.  I won’t go into great detail, but if you are interested in lifestyle registries or product wishlists come talk to us about being our  team.  We need more development talent and definitely some design/UI talent.  Could be huge and doable over the weekend.  *rock*

• Prizes Announced for Startup Weekend Dallas

  Alexander Muse

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  It was recently announced that over $2,000 in cash will be given away to the top teams at Startup Weekend Dallas. The prizes will be determined by community vote and some panelists. Register here for Startup Weekend Dallas.

• 
  Sparkplug CEO

• How to Make WordPress Unfairly Awesome: Get the Headway 1.5 Theme

  Easton Ellsworth

  7 Nov 2009 | 8:56 pm

  Hey Sparkpluggers – have you seen this? WordPress + Headway 1.5 = eternal website owner bliss. Let me explain. WordPress is a fantastic platform upon which you can build any website – even a professional website. You probably already know this – Sparkplugging itself runs on WordPress, after all. And Headway 1.5 is a new theme for WordPress that makes updating the design of your website easier than anything you’ve ever seen before. Hence the line about everlasting bliss. An Offer You Almost Can’t Refuse If you’ve been thinking about getting WordPress and/or…

• 21 Home Business Resources You Can’t Miss

  Easton Ellsworth

  1 Oct 2009 | 10:42 am

  Could your home based business use some help? A little jolt to make you jump for joy? We thought so. Here it is, all free and all organized. Start clicking! Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on StumbleUpon Share on Delicious Write on your favorite jeans: http://bit.ly/21homebiz How to Start a Home Based Business 10 Signs that You are Ready to Start a Home Based Business – How to know if it’s truly time to hang up those shiny work shoes and trade them for your favorite flip flops. Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear – Our…

• 5 Ways Calendars Can Help Market Your Business

  Lynette Chandler

  18 Sep 2009 | 7:00 am

  When we think Calendars, we often think our personal calendars, using it to manage our promotional calendar or share with our virtual assistants or project partners. But it doesn’t always have to be that ‘dry’. Many marketers online use PDF’s, videos and audios to get their message out, hope they turn viral which eventually brings traffic back to their web sites and their name in front of others. This method works and works well. Guess what? Content can be in other formats too like calendars. Here are a few example ideas I came up with that you can use a shared Google…

• Who Says Spreadsheets Can’t Be Sexy?

  Lynette Chandler

  16 Sep 2009 | 7:00 am

  It has been so many years since I’ve used Excel. These days, OpenOffice Calc is used exclusively around here. Still, I can’t deny there are some pretty cool things about Excel. Not saying Calc is not a good tool, there are just a lot of cool features and functions that I miss. Also, documentation and help is a little sparse with Ooo. I’m far from a spreadsheet guru. I can create formulas in spreadsheets and use it to help tabulate a bunch of stuff – my household budget is run on a spreadsheet, but that’s about it. Guess I just never found the reason to chart…

• Increase Your Productivity With Home Office Cardio

  Kelly McCausey

  15 Sep 2009 | 8:31 pm

  This is a guest post by Scott Tousignant Would you like to get more done in less time with your work-at-home business so you can spend more time with your family doing the things that you enjoy most in life? Do you often dream of a balanced lifestyle that brings you success in wealth, health, and your relationships? It’s time to make those dreams a reality so you can get on living the life that you deserve. The best part… it’s easier than you may think. The key to increased productivity is to optimize your brain function. The more focused, alert, and efficient your brain operates, the…

• 
  BootStrapMe

• What Risks Are You Taking?

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:26 pm

  The life of an entrepreneur revolves around managing risk and failure - with the hope that your efforts will eventually lead to success. This is more true for bootstrappers than for any other type of entrepreneur.Even the most wildly successful entrepreneurs do not have 100% wins. They sometimes win — but they also fail. It’s just that the world remembers the wins which soon overshadow the failures.Be prepared for the experience...

• Seen that? - Internet marketing made simple-and cheap!

  6 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Internet marketing made simple-and cheap! at BootStrapMe It doesn't cost a lot to get involved in e-commerce, as any good bootstrapper knows. This weekend I attended a (wince) free Internet marketing seminar at the Zollinger Art Center on the campus of Lehigh University, ...

• Pay Yourself First

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:18 pm

  © kevindooley It's a basic truth for all personal finance: pay yourself first. Get Rich Slowly had one of the best explanations of this practice I've read in a while.One of the oldest rules of personal finance is the simple admonition to pay yourself first. All the money books tell you to do it. All the personal finance blogs say it, too. Even your parents have given you the same advice. But it’s hard. That money could be used someplace else. You could pay the phone bill, ...

• Managing IT on a Bootstrapper's Budget

  23 Oct 2009 | 8:36 pm

  VentureBeat took a good look at managing your business' IT issues on a bootstrapped budget.There are ways to keep overall costs down during a company’s early stages – and this frugality (and a well thought out IP strategy) is something that will impress VCs when you decide to seek funding.If your business deals with IT products, the VentureBeat article gives some good advice on keep legal and patent-related costs down.

• Seen that? - Why the SBA may not be the best bet for entrepreneurs

  23 Oct 2009 | 6:18 pm

  Why the SBA may not be the best bet for entrepreneurs at BootStrapMe A first step for any small business person seeking to create a feasible blueprint for success has traditionally been a visit to the U.S. Small Business Administration. However, some observers ...

• 
  I Will Teach You To Be Rich

• Time management: How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finishes by 5:30pm

  Ramit Sethi

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:30 pm

  I’m always on the lookout for “hidden gems,” or people who are doing remarkable work that the whole world hasn’t caught on to, yet. Today, I asked my friend Cal Newport to illustrate how he completely dominates as a post-doc at MIT, author of multiple books, and popular blogger. How does he do it all? Cal writes one of the best blogs on the Internet: Study Hacks. His guest post shows how you can take I Will Teach You To Be Rich principles — plus many others — and integrate them into a way to use your time effectively. Below, you’ll learn: How to use…

• Behind the scenes: I was on the Today Show last week

  Ramit Sethi

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:11 am

  I flew to New York last week to appear on the Today Show. Here’s the clip: Interesting things to note: Green rooms are the best places to meet people. I walked in and Maya Angelou was sitting there. In hair/makeup, Marissa Mayer and a bunch of other interesting people were there You enter NBC through a totally unmarked door, not the conspicuous 30 Rockefeller entrance you’d think They steam your shirt/coat, do your hair/makeup, and have lots of food available to eat before going on air. But nobody eats anything Camera operators came into our studio literally 15 seconds before…

• The Money Diaries: The 25-year-old single mom who writes bad checks

  Ramit Sethi

  8 Nov 2009 | 4:54 pm

  Today is another post in the Money Diaries series, which is based off New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries. We’ve collected stories from real people about their spending habits over seven days, anonymized them, and posted them here. Today’s entry is by a 25-year-old single mother. This woman’s spending is definitely troubling — she spends 8% of her take-home pay on self-described “bad habits,” including cigarettes and writing bad checks. But be careful: It’s easy to say, “Why don’t people just SPEND LESS??!” without understanding the full…

• WTF happened last night? Oh yea, my server got CRUSHED

  Ramit Sethi

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:16 am

  Listen, if you tried to access my webcast last night, you probably didn’t get in, and I am REALLY sorry. I have literally never seen as much traffic as last night — not even when I was on the FRONT PAGE OF YAHOO.COM. At 6:50pm, I logged onto my webcam and finalized everything At 6:55pm, I logged into my blog to add a link to the webcast URL. By this point, my server had slowed to a crawl At 6:56pm, over 1 person/second was trying to access iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog At 7:01pm, we had my webhost on the phone attempting to resolve the issue It took until 7:21pm to completely fix…

• Live webcast tonight: Psychology techniques + live answers to your questions

  Ramit Sethi

  4 Nov 2009 | 11:40 pm

  The webcast is over Tonight (Thursday, 11/5), I’m doing a live webcast to show you 5 psychological techniques to change your financial behavior. You’re learn how to trick yourself to save and earn more using powerful techniques I haven’t mentioned anywhere else. After showing you the new psychological models, I’ll do a Lightning Talk to answer YOUR questions. I’ll also answer questions about the Boot Camp. I want to pack this full of information in 30 minutes, so here’s what I’m covering… 7:00pm – 7:10pm: 5 Psychological Techniques to…

• 
  Start Up Blog

• Who is the worlds greatest entrepreneur?

  Steve Sammartino

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:22 am

  Steve Jobs? Bill Gates? Richard Branson? Not even close… it’s not a billionaire, not even a millionaire… It’s William Kambkwamba. William personifies the meaning of the word ‘Entrepreneur’. He has done more with less than any of those above. In all probability William had as little a resource base available as any living person in the free world. This is no exageration. Here’s why he is the worlds greatest entrepreneur: - He had no financial resources - He could not even afford to go to school, had no formal education - He had to make it work with…

• Startup Survival

  Steve Sammartino

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:50 pm

  In nature, with every second something lives for, it’s probability of continued life increases exponentially. The lessons for startups is simple, do the stuff that keeps you alive longest. And the most important thing we can do for our startup is keep our costs low. Low cost operations gives us the advantage of time. And time is the most important asset when it comes to working out our business model. Not capital, not technology, not employees, not research. Just time.

• If you can type, you can make movies

  Steve Sammartino

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:36 pm

  Yes, it’s true. I made this movie in 5 minutes with the help of Lukey Mac (rentoid regular). And all I did was type. It’s not going to get me an Oscar for best animation, but it’s very quick and a cool way to get a message out to your members, fans, family, anything really… It’s a new website called www.xtranormal.com and I think it is amazing. There is really no limit to where this could go…. Home made full feature animated flicks? Possibly. For startups it’s a great resource to communicate cheaply (Free) and easily. Build a series of episodes and in…

• My new startup

  Steve Sammartino

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

  I’m launching a new startup. For those who don’t know about it here are some of the key points: The brand extension comes from an already successful enterprise The partnership & legal agreements were entered into over a year ago The idea is not an original one, rather a new execution of a proven formula We didn’t pitch the idea or ask for permission, we just did it It’s a brand extension It’s a self funded project with no external capital. But we wont have ownership We will give away the corporation, once it is cash flow positive It’s a very long lead…

• Run an event

  Steve Sammartino

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:32 pm

  If you read this blog regularly you know that I have recently held a Startup School in Melbourne. Beside the fact that it was great fun it also a very enlightening entrepreneurial experience in a way that most businesses are not. It had a start, a middle and an end. It allowed me the entrepreneur to conceive of something, implement it, promote it and post analysis it. This is something we usually must do while our business is in progress. Events give us the opportunity to improve our entrepreneurial skills, because everything is compressed into a tight time line, with defined deadlines. It…

• 
  Springwise

• Eco-iconic license plates for green vehicles

  Springwise

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:53 am

  Electric and hybrid vehicles are typically eco-iconic in their own right, but a new program from Ontario's Ministry of Transportation aims to give them additional recognition via special license plates as well. The Canadian province hopes to have one out of every 20 vehicles driven in Ontario electrically powered by 2020. As part of that effort, it is encouraging the purchase and use of electric cars via several incentives. First, vehicles purchased after July 1, 2010, can qualify for rebates of between CDN 4,000 and CDN 10,000. Even more eco-iconic, however, is that drivers of such vehicles…

• Manchester sells holiday gift wrap designed for the city

  Springwise

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:18 pm

  It's no secret that cities love to promote Christmas shopping as a festive way to boost the local economy. What we hadn't yet spotted, however, was a city selling its very own holiday gift wrap, which is what Manchester is doing this season. Created by graphic designer Peter Saville—whose work has graced the city since he designed for and directed Factory Records—the wrapping paper's vivid colours match Visit Manchester's multi-hued logo. Produced in a limited edition of 5,000 rolls, the gift wrap is sold for GBP 2,99 through Visit Manchester's online shop, as well as at the city's…

• Bank's free tools help clients pay down their debt

  Springwise

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Credit card debt is an all-too-familiar topic for all too many consumers. While the US government is working on its own solutions to that problem, Chase Card Services recently rolled out a new set of tools designed to help its customers manage their debt better. Chase Blueprint offers free tools consumers can use to pay down balances, manage everyday spending and pay off major purchases. Going well beyond simply helping users analyze their spending, Blueprint is fully integrated into customers' accounts, enabling them to create customized payment plans—changeable without penalty—and track…

• Retail chain for brain games targets aging population

  Springwise

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  In 2006, the US counted 37.3 million aged 65 or older. By 2030, the US Administration on Aging expects the number will have increased to 71.5 million. With this burgeoning market clearly in mind, Marbles: The Brain Store is urging the residents of Chicago to "outsmart their age" with a range of products to help maintain mental agility. The company has launched four retail outlets in the region in just over a year. The stores offer over 200 products categorized by the brain function they target: memory, critical thinking, coordination, visual perception and word skills. Products range from…

• Wine by numbers, with a digital content twist

  Springwise

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:43 am

  We've seen several innovations at the intersection of wine and technology, including Aromicon's "virtual taste search engine," which we featured just last week. Dutch startup 94wines is now bringing a new technological twist to the table, so to speak, by offering a line of numbered and colour-coded wines that can be personalized with digital content. Launched a week ago, 94wines offers a line of French wines in which each variety is indicated by a number and a bottle colour rather than a name linked to its maker, vintage or region. Consumers begin by taking a short quiz of six questions…

• 
  StartUpArabia

• Egyptian Mrrha Acquired By UAE Company Creative Solutions

  Mohamed Marwen Meddah

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:38 am

  Mrrha, an Arab online service  that was launched from Egypt around a simple idea to allow users to upload a file and mirror it directly on up to five popular uploading sites of choice, has been acquired by Emirati company Creative Solutions. Mrrha was launched in November 2008 by brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed El-Masoudy from Egypt, aiming to make the process of uploading files to the internet for sharing purposes and mirroring them on the most famous file uploading services a lot easier and faster. Mrrha depends on a parallel uploading mechanism to make this possible, which means that the…

• UAE Based NeuString Receives Investment From Intel Capital

  Mohamed Marwen Meddah

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:18 pm

  Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment arm, earlier announced an investment in NeuString, a leading UAE-based telecommunications analyst software company, further reaffirming Intel Capital’s commitment to investing in the region. The funding from Intel Capital is to assist NeuString in pursuing regional growth and development plans in addition to extending the company’s product offerings. NeuString is a billing software company dedicated to delivering predictive analytics solutions and consulting services to mobile network operators to help them achieve greater…

• Yahoo! Maktoob Acquisition Deal Completed

  Mohamed Marwen Meddah

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:57 am

  The Yahoo! – Maktoob acquisition deal that was announced last August, has officially closed today at noon (UAE time). It had already been announced upon signing the definitive agreement back in August that the deal was expected to be sealed in the fourth quarter of the year. So starting noon today, Maktoob.com and all its sub-divisions (including Maktoob Research, Bentelhalal and others) are officially part of Yahoo!, marking the completion of the first major deal of its kind in the region. The first steps for the company are to work on introducing flagship products like Yahoo! Mail and…

• 4SITE Forum (Sustainability, Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship) – Beirut – November 17-18th 2009

  Mohamed Marwen Meddah

  11 Nov 2009 | 10:52 pm

  4SITE Forum (Investing in Sustainability, Innovation, Technology & Entrepeneurship) is an event being held in Beirut, Lebanon, bringing together over 200 investors, innovators, and entrepreneurs in Lebanon and the Middle East region. The goal of the event is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship towards sustainable economic development and social impact. The event is organized by RootSpace and Baraka Group in conjunction with Global Entrepreneurship Week (a yearly event taking place in November in over 80 countries worldwide), and will be held over two days, full of participatory…

• Bayarat, An Arabic Online Media Content Search Engine

  Mohamed Marwen Meddah

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:06 am

  Bayarat is a new media search engine that was recently launched in its alpha version catering to the Arab world and aiming to make it easier to search for and find Arabic media content online. Bayarat is currently only indexing video content from around the web and across online video sharing portals, with plans to add more types of media content in the near future. A translation layer is integrated into the search engine in order to enable it to search for the same term in Arabic, English, French and Spanish; to broaden the search and return all relevant results. One of the integrated…

• 
  DemoPit

• Launch a contest and promote your brand with CrowdCampaign’s customizable web solution

  DemoPit

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:42 am

  CrowdCampaign is a social tool for building brands. It’s used by ad agencies, event managers, social media marketers – anyone who wants to leverage the power of the social web to build a brand. Easy to customize and manage, you can launch a Twitter-powered contest including a branded promotional site in minutes from your desktop. CrowdCampaign Promo from Chris Bucchere on Vimeo. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

• Real-time mobile search engine from Taptu

  DemoPit

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am

  Taptu is a search engine that makes it faster to find and share mobile-friendly stuff – music, videos, images, news, websites and more. Plus Taptu show you related links, top ten lists and trivia to keep you forever entertained. Killer Features: Touch, tap and flick your way through the best entertainment on the web. Expand or narrow your search, search real-time Twitter and much more Share pictures, videos, links and top tracks with your friends via Twitter, Facebook and email. Tailor made for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Taptu seeks out iPhone-friendly sites (with minimal pinching and…

• Ultimate multiplayer online gaming mouse

  DemoPit

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:17 pm

  The Razer Naga is the ultimate Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming mouse that shifts the balance between keyboard and mouse by putting an unprecedented number of in-game commands in one place. A multi-button thumb grid and Razer’s MMO game interface add-on combine to place every command you need in the palm of your hand. An ergonomic form shaped to maximize ease of use lets you game in comfort for hours on end. With 17 MMO optimized programmable buttons, coupled with custom interface add ons for MMO gamers, the Razer Naga has finally arrived to take you longer and deeper into the realms of…

• Easily create, share and publish online planning schedules with Tom’s Planner

  DemoPit

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:46 pm

  Tom’s Planner is an easy-to-use web based planning application that enables anyone to create and share Gantt Charts online with “drag and drop” simplicity. We’re willing to bet you’ll get the hang of Tom’s Planner quickly if you try it for just two minutes. Tom’s Planner can be used by a wide variety of people: from government workers, consultants, conference and wedding planners to contractors, students, busy soccer moms or family reunion organizers. As long as you understand the structure of your project or event, Tom’s Planner is the easiest and quickest way to…

• Full-function GSM tri-band cellphone watch

  DemoPit

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

  The W PhoneWatch, which at first glance appears to be an attractive digital wristwatch, is a full-function integrated advanced communications device. The W PhoneWatch incorporates a GSM phone that supports the 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz bands. The 1.5-inch TFT LCD micro-touch touchscreen features a screen resolution of 128 x 128 and displays 260,000 colors. The watch measures a mere 57 x 45 x 18mm and weighs only 2.5 ounces. Fully compatible with Bluetooth v2.0 headset and hands-free devices, the W PhoneWatch incorporates a still camera that captures JPEG images at resolutions up to…

• 
  Home Office Warrior

• What To Do When You Hit a Business Roadblock

  Tina Hilton

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm

  As entrepreneurs, whether virtual assistants or any other business venture, we start out with a bright, positive outlook. We’re excited about what we have to offer and optimistic about how successful we’re going to be offering it to others. The excitement bubbles over and we attack whatever we need to do with gusto. But then something happens along the way. For VA’s it’s often the difficulty in finding that first client, or sufficient clients to keep the business rolling along. It seems like the real world comes crashing down on our enthusiasm and douses us with the…

• Social Media, What’s in it for You?

  Tina Hilton

  29 Oct 2009 | 6:35 am

  I was reading a wonderful post by Danny Brown this morning which had several great points concerning social media  but the one that inpired me to think, and thus write this post was what he said about measuring your return on investment (ROI) from social media. It made me think about just what social media has done for my business. Then I remembered all of those struggling virtual assistants who seem to be so reluctant to use it. I know how difficult it can sometimes be to embrace new technology and new ideas. Especially when you yourself can’t see the point or the wisdom in using that…

• Should Virtual Assistants Shun Twitter?

  Tina Hilton

  15 Oct 2009 | 1:08 pm

  Something special for this week’s post here at Home Office Warrior, I’ve recorded my first video blog post! Please forgive the quality, it seems that if I plan on doing more video posts (and I do!) that I’ll be investing in something other than my built in laptop webcam. The video post is regarding whether virtual assistants need to you use social media, especially twitter, in order to be successful. I give you my thoughts on the subject in the video. There you have it, my feelings on the subject. What are yours? I welcome your comments and opinions. Related posts:Twitter…

• Virtual Assistant Tip: By All Means, Barter

  Tina Hilton

  7 Oct 2009 | 10:11 am

  I’ve found, from my own experience, and from hanging around the virtual assistant forums, that most virtual assistants don’t start their businesses with an advertising budget. In fact, I’m sure that there are plenty of small start up companies out there in the same boat.  In this economy it’s all about bootstrapping.  Especially for micro and small service businesses. Yet, in order to get clients, one must get the word out somehow. There are low-cost alternatives out there that many of us are taking advantage of like blogging and social media. But have you ever…

• Virtual Assistant Interview Series V- It’s ME!

  Tina Hilton

  11 Sep 2009 | 2:45 pm

  So far I’ve been the one asking all the questions. We’ve had some great interviews in the series haven’t we?  I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone that participated in the interviews again. This week, it’s the last post in the interview series and I’ve turned the tables on myself. I decided I’d share my answers to the interview questions with all of you.  And not to stop there, I want you to use the comments section to ask me more.  If there are things that you’d like to know about being a virtual assistant, starting a VA business,…

• 
  The Women Entrepreneurs Blog @ Simon

• How I Ensure Marketing is Still Valued in Barbados

  Charla Kucko

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:40 pm

  By Marita GreenidgeThe last four weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. Thank goodness I landed quite safely. It began with the first major request from my client, Barbados Business Enterprise Limited (formerly referred to as CBET (Barbados)) – they needed a marketing plan. I should mention that Barbados Business Enterprise Limited (BBEL) is the latest addition to the venture capital scene in Barbados. The company manages both a seed fund and venture capital fund, which is an essential component of the CBET shepherding model™. The other two components are an entrepreneur with an idea that…

• How to Patent Your Idea

  Charla Kucko

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am

  by Victoria Reynolds SBA’s Office of Advocacy research shows that small businesses outperform their larger counterparts in producing more patents per employee (a measure of innovation). Small firm’s patents outperform those of larger firms in a number of measures, including growth, citation, and originality. In fact, small “patenting firms” produce 13 times more patents per employee than large firms do. Now it is your turn. You have developed a product and are interested in protecting that investment. Let’s start with the basics. What is a patent and how do I know if my invention is…

• The American Dream

  Charla Kucko

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pm

  by Judy Seil Today I sat in a meeting in which three first generation Americans spoke about their ability to start a business in Monroe County, hire employees, invest in buildings and equipment and marvel at how fortunate they were to be in America. What I marveled at was that the words "hard work" is what they attributed their success to. The three owners have diverse businesses, from wholesale to retail to service industries, in which they employ in total over 100 workers. They provide benefits to their employees. They feel fortunate to have attained the American Dream of owning a…

• Tip of the Week: Attend a Conference

  Charla Kucko

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  by Elisabeth Hager, MD Preparing to attend a conference takes more than booking a flight and hotel room. Any time you leave the office you spend valuable resources – time, money and attention to name a few, and you should plan to optimize your return on investment. To do so takes advanced planning. Once you have decided that the conference is worth attending based on content, take the next step and research other attendees.   Conferences bring people who you may have been trying to connect with to a central location, allowing one-on-one meetings to be efficient and cost effective.

• The Entreprenurial Challenge: What to call yourself

  Charla Kucko

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:13 am

  Being an entrepreneur isn't for sissies! But, you already knew that, didn't you? The challenges ahead of you, as an entrepreneur, may seem insurmountable at times. Just coming up with the right name can be mind-numbing. One expert will advice you to be 'memorable' by being outrageous- i.e. Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, all companies that chose names that made them stand out but did not tell the reader what they do or who they are. They chose to be provocative and make people think about their purpose. Another expert may tell you to be specific - spell out your talents, your…

• 
  entrepreMusings

• Contemplating A Blogging Break

  Aruni

  4 Nov 2009 | 8:07 pm

  I’m seriously considering a very long blogging break while I figure out what I want to be when I grow up.  Or shall I say what I want this blog to be as it grows up.  The posts have been kind of random lately…a bit out of focus like I feel these days. I was having lunch with one of my advisers today who always pumps me up.   He’s almost 70 years old and calls himself a recycled dad because he has grand kids older than his youngest kids.  I like him a lot because he’s used to working with strong, smart, professional women.  In the company he founded some 30 years…

• Happy Halloween

  Aruni

  31 Oct 2009 | 7:04 pm

  I remember Halloween being one of my favorite holiday’s of the year as a kid and even as I got older.  This year my son dressed up as a scary skeleton, my daughter dressed up as a princess, and I dressed up in an Egyptian princess (Queen Nefertiti) costume I’ve had laying around for probably 8 years from a Halloween party we had at the house.  I think I surprised a few people who came to the door. In the last few years, I haven’t been that motivated to put on the costume while their dad took them out around the neighborhood.  So I usually greeted people in my blue jeans…

• About Laughter

  Aruni

  28 Oct 2009 | 3:40 pm

  This post called About Laughter came to me while I was in the shower the other day.  I guess I was thinking about About Sleep, About Writing and About Car Paint when the word “laughter” popped into my head and then a blog post started forming. Laughter is the best medicine is an age old saying and according to: Laughter is the ‘best medicine for your heart on the University of Maryland Medical Center, Laughter is the Best Medicine on HelpGuide.org, and Laughter is the Best Medicine on Science Daily, laughter can help prevent heart attacks, help the terminally ill, create…

• Sandi Aitken – Success To Me

  Aruni

  24 Oct 2009 | 7:46 pm

  I interviewed Sandi Aitken (pdf) for The University of Texas at Austin’s alumni magazine, The Alcalde, for an article that was published in the Sep/Oct 2006 issue.  My writing partner, Pam Losefksy, and I pulled these articles together a while back and you can see them on the Success Profiles page of this blog.  You can see the full article on Sandi by clicking HERE (pdf).  I haven’t connected with Sandi since the interview so I’m not even sure if she’s still at Freescale, but here’s an overview: Sandi was/is a benefits manager for Freescale Semiconductor,…

• About Sleep

  Aruni

  22 Oct 2009 | 7:29 pm

  Now for the third post in the “About” series.  The first was About Writing and the second was About Car Paint.  This one is About Sleep or the lack thereof. Sleep is so important but for entrepreneurs and parents it’s often hard to come by…and not from lack of trying.  I consider my two kids two little ventures and I often say, I’ve now been involved in 4 start-ups, 2 being my kids.  Kids are unique and require special attention and you definitely don’t want to screw them up.  You can’t file bankruptcy on, sell, or shut down your kids!

• 
  FT.com - Entrepreneurship

• Take a step back in order to go forward

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:48 am

  How far do you need to distance yourself from day-to-day operations in order to allow other people to take charge?

• Ask the Experts: How to hire professional managers

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am

  Don't hire someone who is less talented than yourself or a person who has only worked for a large corporate, according to our experts.

• Take the free and easy route

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:44 am

  Mike Southon claims that the concept of "free" business models represents a great entrepreneurial opportunity.

• Business Questions: How do I make background checks?

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  We are looking to appoint a non-executive director and now have a shortlist of three. Which background checks should we carry out?

• Business Briefing: Recession sparks start-up interest

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:35 am

  The recession is pushing hundreds of thousands of people into setting up a business at home, according to figures released this week.

• 
  The Next Web

• Wave Overload – Does Anyone Still Use This Thing?

  Alex Wilhelm

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:44 am

  Wave is not doing anything for me, and I wonder if it does much for anyone. I logged into Wave today, for the first time in a week, to head to a wave that actually mattered. A friend is working on a secret project, and wanted to get my input. He dropped everything into a wave, and told me to take a look. I still have yet to find that wave, but I did waste a lot of time looking. Wave has a single innovation, that I can use, that I love: instant team typing. That alone is amazing. But, I came to the realization that if Google would take that and drop it into Google Docs, I would never open Wave…

• Tweet Wave – Lets 1 Million People See Your Tweet

  James Glick

  21 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  Tweet Wave is a Twitter app allowing your message to be exposed to a potential 1 million users in a ‘wave’ like effect through members of the site re-tweeting your messages, guaranteeing your Tweet substantial exposure. Based in the UK, Tweet Wave is the work of Need Creative CEO Danny Whitehouse who has created other Twitter oriented apps including Twitter Me and TwitMoan. Tweet Wave is his latest venture and by looking at the average amount of followers its users have, means at it’s current state, it can offer a reach of 987,823 users. From the conclusions drawn from…

• Twitter ads are coming soon – will you love them?

  Martin Bryant

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pm

  So it looks like Twitter is finally ready to get serious about making some money – ads are on their way. At TechCrunch’s Realtime CrunchUp today Twitter’s COO Dick Costolo told attendees that Twitter ads are coming soon but they’re going to be a bit different from traditional ads. “It will be fascinating. Non-traditional. And people will love it… It’s going to be really cool.” Costolo said. Aside from that the only extra detail he would give were that they weren’t tied to the new Retweet feature. Non-traditional advertising is increasingly being tried by…

• The Next Web’s Weekly Recap

  Mike Bracco

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pm

  Welcome to The Next Web’s Weekly Recap. *** If you have a story we should include in our Weekly Recap please tweet it and include the hashtag #tnwrecap. This week saw the first unveiling of Google’s Chrome OS, some big Microsoft announcements from their developer conference in Los Angeles as well as a bunch of geolocation news as Twitter and Foursquare publicly released their APIs and Google added features to Google Latitude. A closer look at Chrome OS The press coverage Google’s Chrome OS has received since it was announced back in June likely rivals the speculation to…

• Sony to Offer Online Download Service

  Matthew Ellis

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

  Sony have announced plans to launch an online download service next year. It will see the ability for Sony product users to download media content such as music and videos to their televisions and other Sony devices. The move is part of Sony’s Chief Executive, Howard Stringer’s aim of converging their strengths in electronics such as Bravia televisions and the Playstation console with its music label and movie studio productions. The company aims to have the service up and running at somepoint in 2010, “and earlier in the year would obviously be a lot more preferable in my…

• 
  Entrepreneur Success Blog

• Mining The Thought Stream - TweekDeck Rules

  jared

  6 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  Ok maybe I am late to the game but for the last month and a half I have been using TweekDeck. If you follow me on twitter you will notice that I am not a big tweeter, I am however turning into a big consumer of tweets. Twitter has really turned into a major news source. It is not only where I go to find out in real-time what is going on around me (like what was that loud boom in my neighborhood), it is also becoming one of my primary news sources for my industry, my company and myself. If you can think of something and say it within 140 characters, you can enter your thought into the thought…

• How CEOs Could Use Twitter

  jared

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:18 am

  This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of executive mba programs . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com —————————————————————— They are one in a million too now, even though they may be the CEOs of some of the richest and most successful companies in the world - Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, Kevin Rose of Digg.Com, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems…

• What Kind of Boss Are you?

  jared

  29 Oct 2009 | 9:42 pm

  Great memo from Bill Taylor to young leaders. He breaks down 5 questions that you should ask yourself: 1. Why should great people want to work with you? 2. Do you know a great person when you see one? 3. Can you find great people who aren’t looking for you? 4. Are you great at teaching great people how your team or company works and wins? 5. Are you as tough on yourself as you are on your people? http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/05/memo_to_a_young_leader_what_ki.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a38:g26:r17:c0.000116:b28574983:z6

• Follow me on twitter

  jared

  1 Oct 2009 | 1:55 pm

  I know I know, everyone’s tweeting these days. Trust me I have had an account for a long time I just have not promoted it one bit. I do tweet from time to time with interesting stories and situations. So if you are interested, please follow me http://www.twitter.com/jaredreitzin

• Interview this Weekend: Jeremy’s Desktop

  jared

  22 Sep 2009 | 10:02 pm

  Busy this weekend? If you have some time, tune in Saturday September 26, 2009 at 2pm PST to hear me talk with Jeremy Anticouni about mobileStorm Go and learn ways to optimize the performance of your e-mail and sms marketing campaigns. Simply log on to www.technewsla.com and register for my guest appearance on Jeremy’s Desktop. Jeremy’s Desktop is the online edition of Tech News, powered by Make It Work, which airs on KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO every Saturday 1pm – 2pm Pacific. It is hosted by Jeremy Anticouni, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Make It Work, Inc., and renowned radio…

• 
  Startup Africa

• Upcoming events in Johannesburg

  Ismail Dhorat

  6 Nov 2009 | 1:59 am

  GeekMeat Chow – 10 November 2009 So at the last barcamp jozi, we conceptualized a regular geek get together for all things geeky, the first Geek Meat (Gerrit?) will be held on the 10 November. Come have a bite and listen to some interesting talks. We are planning 3 talks for the evening. One on deep IT technology, another on Web 2.x/Soft Skills and another suprise geeky fun talk. Date: 10 November 2009 Time: 19:00 Venue: Picola Pizza Restaurant (Cnr 4th & 8st, Linden Square Shopping Centre, Linden) GPS Coordinates: X: 27°59`35“ Y:-26°8`27“ Cost: Pay for your meal Tel…

• The last few days in Finland

  admin

  1 Nov 2009 | 1:51 am

  On Thursday i arranged a bunch of private meeting, Some of the companies were: http://www.prewise.com http://www.greyarealabs.com/ https://www.scred.com/ On Friday morning we all headed to the Helsinki Living Lab which also has the Arabia factory. They are known for their design with the brand Ittala. Mika told me about Barcamp Helsinki, so decided to head there on saturday and hang with a few Finn geeks. Interestingly, i found some of the same challenges faced in South Africa for startups are faced in Finland, just like in South Africa, failure is not an option and if you have failed it is…

• Day 3 Finland – Nokia & Design Factory

  Ismail Dhorat

  29 Oct 2009 | 3:27 am

  Yesterday on our knowledge exchange visit, we visited a small little company that was founded here in Finland called Nokia, the company was founded in 1865 as Finnish rubber works, and they have done many different things from forestry to mining boots. Today they are currently a mobile device manufacturer and Nokia is in the process of another transformation from just manufacturing of devices to providing solutions and services as well. They currently employ over 125,000 people around the world, with an R & D presence in 16 countries. What struck me however is their how they deal with…

• Day 2 in Finland – Tekes & Tieke

  Ismail Dhorat

  29 Oct 2009 | 2:23 am

  The last few days on this trip have been really hectic, with events and meetings the entire day with little time left over to blog.  On Tuesday we visited Tekes a public funding organization for research, development and innovation. Some of the elements for Finnish innovation are: High investment in R & D High Quality Research & Innovation Entrepreneurship Funding of Research One of the programmes run by Tekes is vigo, which is a startup accelerator and provides funding and coaching to startups to fast track their progress. From Tekes, we headed to Tieke is the Finish information…

• GeoProp – SA Property Listing Startup

  Khalil Aleker

  28 Oct 2009 | 2:39 am

  Today a quick touch base with Mike Kroger yet again. SA Internet Entrepreneur based in Pretoria South Africa. We featured his Plak Startup earlier this year. Now he is in property listing… Why GeoProp Mike? “After someone saw Plak they suggested I do the same thing for the property market… Mainly because most real estate web sites have horrible confusing search interfaces.” Is it free? “Yes, Google Ads to cover the cost of providing a free service.” When did you launch and how did it take you? “Well, not long at all, basically a copy of Plak. I…

• 
  Trizle

• How Shy People Can Sell

  The Trizle Team

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:46 pm

  Face-to-face selling scares you. You need sales. What do you do? Get a list of contacts from Jigsaw, Hoovers, Experian, InfoUSA, or any other list broker. Approach sales online through email/contact-forms/blog-comments. The Pitching Instead of pitching outright -- since the intended prospect will just label you as some spammmmmer: Establish your credibility (e.g., provide valuable comments on blogs, give them a few tips on how they can approach X better, send them snail mail, research their industry,help them improve their businesses/lives) Once you've established some credibility that…

• How to Criticize

  The Trizle Team

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:07 pm

  Most criticisms suck: You suck. NO YOU SUCK NOYOUTHESUCKONESON Nothing changes for the better; they hate each other even more; their guards become stronger between the two. That leads to an artificial relationship that becomes a battle between the two instead of a united front to fight the #%^* ills of the world. The Best Criticisms The best criticisms make people: Seek to improve Throw down their defenses United against a common cause Instantly happier How do you do that? Try this: "You're not reaching your full potential." Then, explain ways they can reach their full potential. Instead of…

• The Quickest Way to Get Rich

  The Trizle Team

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pm

  [First, %$&@ all get-rich-quick schemes. Any "program" that guarantees you greater than Warren-Buffett-type returns (i.e., 20% annual return on your $) is a fraud and should be slapped.] This article is meant for those who actually believe hard work and providing value to your customers mean something. DANGSONWHATUSAY The costs of trying to profit Companies spend billions trying to profit. Silicon Valley companies invest heavily into R&D trying trying to profit. Pharmeceutical companies invest billions hoping to find the next breakthrough drug. Wall Street firms hire $400k…

• How to Interview Job Candidates

  The Trizle Team

  17 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm

  The more candidates you interview, the likelier you'll find a better candidate. How do you increase your chances of finding more/more/more superstars? Create job templates for each and every #%^* step - from the first reply to a job candidate to the interview questions to the welcome package. Automate the inital pre-screen questions that you can use repeatedly. Automate how you post your jobs, with stock job descriptions that you can use over and over and over. Automate The X For instance, your tidy business manual on "Hiring" includes: Job description: [text of job description here] First…

• How To Overcome Pain

  The Trizle Team

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:08 pm

  Something strikes you. You feel pain. You feel like quitting. Now, people, thinking the pain will never stop, will quit; but YOU NO QUITTER. What oh what do you do? Know this about pain: Every minute that passes, you get better. Every minute that passes, you get better. Every minute that passes, you get better. Our evolutionary psyche helps us adapt to the tougher world; without the human's inherent ability to adapt, generations would have perished X centuries ago. Try this: You just completely bombed your speech? You feel better with every passing minute. A customer just completely rejected…

• 
  Pop17

• Today we did a live broadcast from the Pop17 studio and talked…

  sarah

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:23 pm

  Today we did a live broadcast from the Pop17 studio and talked about how to make money on YouTube. Zennie Abraham and Sarah Austin show you what it takes to get the views and the $$ on YouTube. LOL!

• Photo

  sarah

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:02 pm

• Dance Off! Mooncricket VS Pop17

  sarah

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pm

  Our first dance off starts today! Beto Lopez competes with Sarah Austin to see who has more moves in their Ford Fiesta. If you like these videos let me know what you think- rate, subscribe and comment. If you like it I’ll make more music oriented videos. Music by Arrested Development Sponsored by Ford Fiesta Photos by Mooncricket

• Charlie bit my finger remix. LOLol

  sarah

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:55 pm

  Charlie bit my finger remix. LOLol

• iPhone features that are missing, that need to be there

  sarah

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm

  The list Ability to search recent calls by city ( ex search miami, and pull up all the...

• 
  The Product Guy

• From the Startup Marketing Guru to Modular Innovation Wars

  Jeremy Horn

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:21 pm

  Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you. On Starting Up… http://venturehacks.com/articles/sean-ellis Great tips from the guru of startup marketing.     On Design & Product Experience… http://www.noupe.com/how-tos/web-design-trends-testimonials-design.html The trending shape of testimonials to come. On Modular Innovation… http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-11-19-n30.html Modular Innovation wars… heating up.   Have a great weekend! Jeremy Horn The Product Guy Add…

• EXCLUSIVE: The Product Guy "Up in the Air"

  Jeremy Horn

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:08 pm

  It was a rainy day in November. A day not unfamiliar to many business travelers. But, this day was different, the destination was not the goal. It was the journey that was to hold center stage, bathed in a moving bicoastal spotlight, through an immersive marketing engagement with both social, as well as other, media.   "to know me is to fly with me" (Ryan Bingham, Up in the Air)   Recently, I had the unique opportunity to look at various cross-promoted products by way of film and social media and speak with many of the people behind them when I, as a VIP Guest, was……

• From the VC Black-out to Questioning Google’s Wave Contribution

  Jeremy Horn

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:34 pm

  Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you. On Starting Up… http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/08/funding-season-ends-next-week/ On the start of the venture capital black-out period.     On Design & Product Experience… http://designm.ag/inspiration/30-web-designs-with-amazing-attetion-to-detail/ Amazing design… it’s often the details that matter. On Modular Innovation……

• The Product Group, All in One & More: Thanks for Coming!

  Jeremy Horn

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

  A big thank you to everyone who made it to our second meet-up of The Product Group, as well as to our sponsor, Balsamiq Studios! We all had a blast discussing Product People-oriented topics and enjoying Wonderful food. Over the 2 hours we discussed… Product Management Career: resources people use, how everyone go to where they are, and much more Yahoo: the strategy of ‘all in one place,’ and its larger implications for the Internet and companies like Google and Microsoft … and more … View Larger Map The Product Group meet-ups are an opportunity for Product People…

• Gmail – Sweating the Small Stuff

  Jeremy Horn

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:02 am

  This is part 6 of a short story of personal exploration and development by one new to the daily employment of Gmail, long resisted, long desired, and eventually brought to conversion by an Android. Part 6: To Resist Recently our journey began. From the humble origins of Outlook to the portable synchronicity of the Windows Mobile platform, I did travel, did evolve, as needs, desires, and demands of communication and productivity so evolved and changed. Through the darkness of masked potential so emerged new and exciting opportunities. But, to fully grasp this fortune, these new degrees of…

• 
  Ben Casnocha: The Blog

• Book Notes: From Poverty to Prosperity

  Ben Casnocha

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:50 pm

  From Poverty to Prosperity: Intangible Assets, Hidden Liabilities, and the Lasting Triumph Over Scarcity by Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz sketches out "Economics 2.0" -- economic models to understand a world driven by the positive forces of creativity, innovation, and advancing technology. A theme that runs throughout is the centrality of entrepreneurship and innovation to economic growth. The authors explore it themselves and via transcript-interviews with several of the most prominent living economists. This is a book for people interested in economics first, entrepreneurship second, and…

• Experts Who Predict the Future

  Ben Casnocha

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:32 pm

  This week I witnessed two presentations by New York University professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, a noted political scientist and futurist. His latest book is called The Predictioneer's Game and claims to use complex game theory to predict political and economic events. He claims his predictions have been 90% accurate, which is why the CIA and others pay close attention to them. He never told us exactly how his models work, except to say several times that they are "very complex." As he spoke about the world and proffered future events -- Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon, Colombia and…

• Quote of the Day from Cormac McCarthy

  Ben Casnocha

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:20 pm

  Continuing the James Ellroy theme of talented people being obsessed, here's writer Cormac McCarthy in a rare interview with the WSJ:I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.The pointer is from Roger Ebert's very interesting Twitter feed. Elsewhere in the interview McCarthy explains why he doesn't travel.Of course, most Americans are not working on activities that drive them to suicide. The average American spent nearly five hours a day watching television in last year's TV season. It's the…

• Book Review: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

  Ben Casnocha

  16 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm

  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a marvel of a memoir: a remarkable story of a materially impoverished yet highly intellectual family, told in the humane and empathetic voice of one of the daughters, Jeannette. Apparently, I'm not the only one who loved it: more than 2.5 million copies are in print, the book spent over 100 weeks on the NYT Bestseller List, and it has 1,330 mostly five-star customer reviews on Amazon.com to boot. Here's the description: Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose…

• Reasons to Follow Sports (and Bill Simmons)

  Ben Casnocha

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:48 pm

  Over the last ten years my interest in sports has shifted away from closely following teams and players and towards:1) maintaining cultural literacy and facilitating social bonding by understanding the basics of the most popular sports and the most important facts associated with them (e.g. who Lebron James is or which teams are in the NFL Superbowl).2) following how sports generally affects culture and the economy. What's the economic impact on a country when its team wins the World Cup?3) using the rich examples in sports to learn about widely-relevant ideas. #3 is most important to me. For…

• 
  The Eco-Capitalist

• How to Find the Right Partnerships

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am

  We just did something that some would say is crazy. We -- the company best known for making "worm poop" gardening products bottled in what were previously plastic soda bottles, and for turning billboards into messenger bags -- are creating products based on Huggies and Scott paper products from Kimberly-Clark. Excuse me? No, not used diapers and handy wipes, but the packaging that they came in. Oh. Yes. But you see where there might be a bit of a mental leap for people to buy products that are made from brands they associate with very unrecyclable things? That is, until you look at what we're…

• Name Your Own Price!

  23 Oct 2009 | 11:45 am

  We just made what some may consider either a stupid move or a brilliant move, but it's definitely an interesting one -- we've opened a retail store. But that's not the part in question here. We've got solid product offerings that customers clearly want. No, what makes this launch unique is that we've decided to start out by letting people choose what to pay for their purchases. Are we nuts? Why, yes, but that's the beside the point. In other sectors, namely music and restaurants it's shown to be quite a success, drawing a lot of media attention, building good will with fans and customers, and…

• Going Global: Risky or Necessary?

  17 Sep 2009 | 11:46 am

  In an economy like the one we're facing now, the conventional wisdom is to pull back on the reins, focus on your core business, and economize in every way possible. We've never been a company to follow the conventional wisdom, and a historic recession isn't enough for us to lose our fearless ways. TerraCycle is about to go where we've never gone before: the United Kingdom. Starting September 1, we joined together with Kraft UK and Think London, a sustainability focused, private/public-funded service whose sole purpose is to effectively locate foreign businesses and help them establish a U.K.

• Making Sustainability Sustainable

  11 Aug 2009 | 12:11 pm

  When you think of socially responsible, sustainable food companies, which come to mind? Ben & Jerry's? Stonyfield Farm? New Belgium? How about Mars? Mars? You mean the company that makes Milky Way, Starburst, and 3 Musketeers, among others? Not likely top of mind for you. Yet. And I'd wager it just may be in the coming years. Why? Mars recently made two monumental commitments, with action and money to back it up. They encompass both what's in and outside the wrapper. And they could even serve as an example and even a resource to you. Yes, you, the perhaps-already-sustainable-in-many-ways…

• When Does Partnering Make Sense?

  9 Jul 2009 | 11:53 am

  What are you good at as a company? What are you not? Though we at TerraCycle (and I imagine you too) like to think we can do anything we set our minds to, we know what our core competencies are: Branding, materials science and repurposing, and post consumer collection programs. Anything else, we can do it, but there are often others that do it better. And increasingly, we're happy to let them do it. Why expend a lot of energy trying to up our game in those areas, when we can instead focus on maximizing the amount of "waste" we collect, making the most people aware of the options we offer, and…

• 
  The Entrepreneurial Generation

• Snoop Dogg Speaks to Young Entrepreneurs

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pm

  To kick off Global Entrepreneurship Week, I spent the morning at the New York Stock Exchange at an event called “Mentoring Madness,” sponsored by NYSE Euronext and the Kauffman Foundation. A roomful of eager, aspiring college entrepreneurs soaked up advice from a panel of inspiring veterans, including Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes, Barry Sternlicht, chairman of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Stephen Hanson, founder of B.R. Guest Restaurants, and rapper/entrepreneur Snoop Dogg (no wonder every seat was filled!). CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo interviewed the group and extracted…

• An Upstart's Debut on the Inc. 500

  13 Aug 2009 | 12:14 pm

  When I talk about my new book, Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business, which is out next month, people tend to assume that the bulk of the companies I cover are in the tech industry. And while it’s true that I do profile many awesome companies in that space (like Loopt, Xobni, Mint.com, Aviary, Quirky, and many more), I’ve got to confess that I’m always a little more drawn to companies that have become wildly successful in industries that are a bit more mundane. That was the idea behind my first book, Alpha Dogs, which showcased eight amazing businesses in…

• Hiring Generation Y

  7 Apr 2009 | 2:59 pm

  Now that unemployment is at 8.5% and no one is really talking about a labor shortage any longer, can you forget all that nonsense about how you need to pay special attention to training, motivating, and engaging your Generation Y employees? They ought to be happy just to have a job, right? Not so fast, says Bruce Tulgan, author of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy (Jossey-Bass, March 2009). “The downturn in the economy will cause them to keep quiet for a while,” says Tulgan, “but by and large the essential equation remains the same. This generation is being shaped by a lot of forces that cause…

• 'Tis the Season for Hard Core Capitalism?

  23 Dec 2008 | 4:47 am

  Jake Kloberdanz, the 25-year-old CEO of Hope Wine, doesn’t think the holidays are a particularly great time to engage in cause branding. For Kloberdanz and his team of seven GenY partners, cause branding is a 24/7, 365-day proposition: the Newport Beach, California company gives away half its profits to charitable organizations associated with breast cancer, autism, AIDS, serving the families of fallen troops, and green causes. “We’re the perfect balance between hard core capitalism and democratic socialism,” says Kloberdanz. (BTW, Kloberdanz incorporated Hope Wine long before…

• The GenY Spin on Start-Ups

  10 Dec 2008 | 6:06 am

  I’ve been interviewing young entrepreneurs for almost two years now and one of the re-emerging themes in the businesses they start is dissatisfaction with the status quo. Sure, that’s pretty much true for all entrepreneurs, but this generation of upstarts has its own way of looking at existing products and services and judging them not quite up to snuff for their own needs. Their response: I can do better. The result: businesses like Mint.com, Unigo, and Ignighter. Mint.com, which was featured on our Inc.com 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs list, and in our magazine feature, Cool,…

• 
  Fresh Inc.: The Staff Blog

• Dealing With Complexity; The End of the Oprah Effect

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  A long goodbye to Oprah (and the Oprah Effect). It's official. Oprah Winfrey will announce to viewers on today's show that she will be retiring from her long-running talk show at the completion of the 2011 season. No need to shed a tear for Oprah, who has amassed a fortune reportedly in the neighborhood of $2.7 billion. Instead, think of all those businesses who will no longer feel the benefit of the so-called Oprah Effect, a significant surge in business thanks to a product mention on Ms. Winfrey's show. Here's a look at some Inc. 500 companies who have felt the spoils of the Oprah Effect…

• Is Imeem going to MySpace?

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Imeem is a start-up with a great service (free online music!), lots of users (15 million, according to Quantcast), and a compelling story. Unfortunately, it's pretty darn hard to make it in the online music business. The start-up has struggled this year, because of a poor advertising market and high licensing fees owed to the record companies (these fees have been a perenial problem for online music start-ups and nearly shut down Pandora in 2007). Techcrunch reported in May that Imeem had, "risen from the ashes," by renegotiating with the record companies and raising several million dollars…

• How to Test Your Start-Up Idea and Etsy Hits it Big

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:02 am

  Steve Case's $300 million payday. It may not be much compared to that ill-fated, monster merger he presided over several years ago--the effects of which persist today--but Steve Case just won himself another big payday. His finance company, Revolution Money, will be acquired by American Express for $300 million. That's according to Revolution Money chairman and Case confidant Ted Leonsis, who blogged the sale. Though $300 million is a lot of money, it may not be the exit Case and Leonsis were hoping for, especially considering that they had raised close to $100 million in two recent funding…

• When Tweets Go Wrong; Mobile Apps of the Future

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:49 am

  Wall Street giving to Main Street. No matter the motive, $500 million is one solid gift for the 10,000 small businesses that will receive funding from two of Corporate America's most well-known names. So who are the big backers? They just may surprise you. Small businesses team up to profit. Owning a smaller independent store or restaurant can be a double-edged sword. Your outlets have more personality than a major chain but they can't offer customers the sweet deals that come with economies of scale. Enter Original Restaurants, Fast Company reports, an umbrella organization that allows its…

• Why Won't VCs Tell You Why They Turned You Down?

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:04 am

  Foursquare releases its API in the race to dominate location. Foursquare, the suddenly white hot location-based social network, released its API to the public yesterday. And Mashable is predictably bullish about the results, making the argument that just as Twitter's meteoric rise depended on developer interest around its API to build things like Twitter desktop and mobile apps, so will Foursquare's API help legitimize the service and catapult growth. Foursquare, which has already picked up $1.35 million from Union Square Ventures, lets iPhone and Android users check in and notify friends…

• 
  The Mission Driven Business

• A New Home for Green Companies

  26 Oct 2009 | 11:42 am

  Earlier this month, we opened Maryland's first green business incubator. It is housed in the offices of Bethesda Green, the local sustainability non-profit which I co-chair with County Council member George Leventhal. I would have said it was a ribbon cutting, but instead of wasting synthetic material, we gathered local leaders around a pair of hedge clippers and cut a green vine of an invasive species that had been draped across the entryway. (Click to see the photo.) Here is an excerpt of my comments from the opening: We hear a lot of talk about our nation's environmental challenges, but…

• Don't Judge a Drink by Its Bottle

  6 Oct 2009 | 11:43 am

  We learned an interesting lesson this month about the danger of hiding your light under a bushel. Over the past few years, we had been working hard with bottle suppliers to find ways to decrease the weight of our plastic (Polyethylene terephthalate or PET) bottle. There are obvious environmental benefits for such a package -- such a move could eliminate up to 1 million pounds of PET resin on an annual basis. Another advantage of a lighter bottle is that it takes less fuel to ship (before and after filling). And, of course, we'd save money as well because the price of the bottles is directly…

• A Crash Course in Social Entrepreneurship -- Part 2

  1 May 2009 | 10:08 am

  Earlier this week, I posted some of the most common questions I get from entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs -- a list that was inspired by a lengthy correspondence I had recently with a group of California MBA students. Here is the second half of that list, focused on the dynamics of social entrepreneurship. Why social entrepreneurship? I have always had a personal interest in social causes, and incorporating that passion into my business came naturally -- tea is a beverage that we recognized had a "natural" link to everything we wanted to accomplish -- a healthy product with a strong…

• A Crash Course in Social Entrepreneurship -- Part 1

  28 Apr 2009 | 10:55 am

  Every week, I talk with lots of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, or students of entrepreneurship. I recently had a lengthy correspondence with a group of California MBA students, which inspired me to pull together some of the more common questions and answers in this two part series. This first set of questions is focused on getting started in the social entrepreneurship world. How did you start? Step one to starting Honest Tea was a series of e-mails with my cofounder, Barry Nalebuff, about six months before we launched. He was a former professor of mine at the Yale School of…

• Promoting from Within

  16 Mar 2009 | 9:49 am

  Despite all the grim unemployment data, we've been on a hiring spree for the past two years -- from 23 full-time employees in 2007, to 52 last year, and 95 today. As our headcount has quadrupled, one strategy we have increasingly relied on is promoting from within -- starting with the interns we hire in the summer. I wish I could say this was an intentional HR strategy, but we aren't that smart. It wasn't until I noticed that approximately 10 percent of our employees are former interns that I came to fully appreciate the benefits of this approach. First, we hire people who are proven to work…

• 
  Start-Up Toolkit

• Are you for real?

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am

  When we meet people in person, there are often clues as to the person’s identity, and sometimes there are real life tokens of identification. But when we connect online, those clues often don’t exist, leading us to wonder if the person is really who they say they are? What makes a merchant or a connection online real? There are some basic steps, like having your Facebook or Twitter pages link back to a page on your official company site that, in turn, notes your official presence on those social sites. But for some people, that’s not enough. This is one of the problems that…

• The Workforce of Crowds

  4 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

  In 2004, James Surowiecki wrote The Wisdom of Crowds to describe the way that groups can aggregate information and use it to make decisions more effectively than an individual. The example often cited was that a crowd was able to guess the weight of a slaughtered ox more effectively than individual experts, when the crowd’s guesses were averaged together. However, not all small businesses need an ‘intelligent crowd.’ Sometimes what's needed is the brute force of a large group of people, all working on an uncomplicated, repetitive task that humans can do but computers can’t. Amazon,…

• Entrepreneur vs Flu - What's Plan B?

  28 Oct 2009 | 1:31 pm

  One thing most startups and small businesses don’t have enough of is sick days. It is something that I'm personally very aware of, having had to take a sick day in my business today. When it’s your business, it is tough to “take a day off” when you typically work eight days a week. It especially hurts if taking that day means your business isn’t moving forward. While I don’t want this column to harp on the health care debate in Washington, Terri Lonier, President at WorkingSolo.com, told me she believes “The Entrepreneurial Spirit would be unleashed in the US if we had better…

• Trade Show Advice for Startups

  21 Oct 2009 | 9:19 am

  Today I’m privileged to speak at the NY XPO for Business, which is an expo with classes and seminars for small and mid-sized businesses from all over the NY area. They’re expecting 30,000 people or more. (Notes from my panel on Social Media for Small Businesses with be on my business’ website.) I’m going to be looking out for trade show booths, good and bad, and have posted a few pictures (bad booth, good booth). When you spend thousands of dollars for a booth at a trade show – what are you doing to attract people into the booth? Will your signage have your logo, the name of your…

• Customer Serivce - Do the Right Thing

  14 Oct 2009 | 3:10 pm

  When you read about companies that have great service, such as Zappos, you read about passion, and a desire to put the customer first. I've heard Tony Hsieh says Zappos is a customer service company that happens to sell shoes. If you want to grow like crazy and have your customers love you, you have to do the right thing - set up your company and corporate culture to focus on service from day one. It's not easy. You're out making your products, raising capital, or finding the right supplier or accountant, and sometimes the customer problems seem like, well, problems. That is exactly where a…

• 
  Young Upstarts

• JamiQ – Monitoring Social Media Across Languages

  Daniel

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:48 am

  The JamiQ team (from left to right) - employee No. 2 Li JiaYi, employee No. 1 Kelvin Quee, and employee No.3 Benjamin Koe. Just as social media has been growing and will continue to grow at an incredible rate for the foreseeable future, social media monitoring services – those that measure such online buzz and conversations on blogs, forums, news and social networking sites – are increasingly coming into demand. Companies like Syndacast, Media Monitors and Dow Jones have developed solutions to service this need, and even Singapore startups such as Brandtology and ThoughtBuzz…

• Learn From Young Upstarts

  Daniel

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm

  Upstarts, by Donna Fenn. I’d love to get my hands on a copy of “Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success” by author and journalist Donna Fenn. Simply because it’ll make perfect sense for this blog. =) Dear Donna, I’d be ecstatic if you can send me an autographed copy for review. I’ll even list it here. PS: Here’s a free manifesto on Upstarts, if you’re wondering what the book is about.

• Get Your Questions Answered On Startups.com

  Daniel

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:53 am

  Startups.com works with entrepreneurs, small business owners, academics, and seasoned business people to help answer your questions. Startups.com Network, Inc. earlier this month announced the launch of Startups.com, a collaborative startup community that lets aspiring and experienced startup entrepreneurs share information and answers concerning their businesses. “We’ve finally found what was missing from the business resource landscape: a place for entrepreneurs, business people and small business owners to ask their business questions, respond to the ones they know, and create the…

• Entrepreneurship For Professionals

  Daniel

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:51 am

  If you’re a professional, manager or executive who’s aspiring to be your own boss, you may want to check out Action Community for Entrepreneurship (ACE)’s BlueSky Exchange networking event – Entrepreneurship For Professionals. On 25 November 2009, catch professional-turned-entrepreneurs CEO of Asiatel Yeo Poh Seng who grew his start-up into an established telecommunications solutions provider across Asia, and XMI’s CEO Ryan Lee, a multiple award winner for his innovation behind the X-mini speakers, as they share their experience in managing their business. You…

• New York Entrepreneur Week

  Daniel

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:50 pm

  Gary W. Whitehill, founder of New York Entrepreneur Week. New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) is taking place in New York during the week of 16-20 November – that’s five full days worth of top-notch entrepreneur-focused events ranging from keynote speeches from recognized business leaders, inspired panel sessions to the NYEW Relentless business plan competition.  NYEW is a 501c(3) non-profit organization started in July this year by 26 year-old Gary W. Whitehill, who wanted to pull together the many disparate resources available in New York for entrepreneurs. “There are…

• 
  ArabCrunch

• Mrrha, Egypt’s Home Based Startup Acquired By The Ex-Owner of Wslaat, A Maktoob Acquired Company.

  Update: The rumored price was for Maktoob Wslaat acquisition. Launched last year, Mrrha which was founded by Mahmoud Elmasoudy and his brother from egypt right from there home, allows you to upload your files synchronously on the Internet and send (mirror) them to the most famous file uploading services, the ...

• Intel Capital Invests In UAE Based Telecommunications Analyst Software Provider, NeuString

  Another Investemnt round made recently in the tech sector in Arabia as Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment subsidiary, announced yesterday an investment in NeuString, a UAE-based telecommunications analyst software company. With this investment Intel Capital total investment in Arab based companies this year, totals to six, from Jordan: Jeeran ...

• Jordan’s Entrepreneurship Week Kicks Off With Interesting Sessions.

  Our friends at QRCE along with other partners have organized an entrepreneurship week. The week started this Sunday with interesting speakers including Joi Ito CEO creative common and early investor in Twitter, Reid Hoffman founder and CEO of LinkedIn , Mitchell Baker Chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation,, Laith Al-Qaem ...

• Creative Commons Launched in Jordan

  Creative Commons (CC) the equivalent body to open source software foundations but for content has finally launched its Amman chapter. The launch was part of CC first Salon in Jordan and in the Arab world which took place Talal Abu Ghazaleh business Forum. The forum also focused on how CC could be ...

• Yahoo’s Acquisition of Maktoob Completed

  ArabCrunch Broke at the global level that Yahoo Acquired Maktoob, today it was announced that the deal was completed on Thursday noon. Yahoo's acquisition of Jordan based Maktoob is the first major investment by a US tech company in the Arab region. As we said before this is a game changer to ...

• 
  StartupCFO

• Usage-based billing models

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:25 am

  I bought some credits for my long distance calling service Mobivox last week. I use this service at least once a week and yet this was the 1st time I had bought credits since April 2008 (when I was working there). I have to be one of the better users on this service, yet it has only extracted $ 20 from me in a year and a 1/2. That's not the path to riches and points out the fundamental weakness of a purely usage-based billing model.There has been some consolidation in the voice 2.0 space with Sabse buying both Mobivox and Jaxtr. Ribbit exited early as well. There are few stand alone players…

• We're all friends - the end of Non-Competes

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:38 pm

  Techcrunch reported about Don Dodge joining Google today. That's great news for the startup World and a great hire for Google. What was not reported on here is that this hire must mark the end of the Non-Compete as we know it.I think we can all agree that Microsoft and Google consider each other competitors. So, for Don to pick up and immediately take on more or less the same role at the arch rival of his former employer tells me that non-compete agreements mean nothing.That's great news if you're an employee. Not so great if you're an employer.

• When should you hire a CFO?

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

  At last month's National Angel Summit there was a great discussion on when startups should hire CFOs. Bryan Watson from NAO sent me the video. Check in just before the 6 minute mark.Highlights:When: right before you raise your 1st capital?Don't hire a full time CFOHire someone with startup experienceRun things right from the startReally important for your investors. The CFO will be their prime contact.Finally, big shout out to Dan Martell for the plug. Thank you! Cheque's in the mail...

• Yultide 2009: Montreal's Tech Community Holiday Party!

  12 Nov 2009 | 7:25 am

  Like all CFOs, I used to be a nightclub DJ, pumping out house tunes at some of Montreal's coolest venues. I am pleased to report that I'll be dusting off the vinyl for a special appearance along with Alistair Croll and Sean Power of Watching Website's fame on Thursday Dec. 10 for Yultide 2009: Montreal's Tech Community Holiday party.All the details are here: http://www.yultide.com/Hope you can make it out!

• Looking at the World's most valuable Internet Startups

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:26 pm

  A couple of weeks ago Silicon Alley Insider published its list of the World's most valuable Internet Startups. I thought it would be interesting to dig deeper into the numbers to see what we could learn and apply to our own startups. Together with my research department (aka - Jonathan), we crunched some numbers.Recognizing that we have imperfect data since many of these companies are still private we looked at some key ratios: Revenue multiple: Estimated value as a multiple of revenues Valuation / capital raised: Basically how much value is created for each $ in capital Revenue / Capital:…

• 
  FriendFeed - founders

• amq: A very simple page to create web pages: http://www.axess.im/

  FriendFeed

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:54 am

  Founders: amq A very simple page to create web pages: http://www.axess.im/ yesterday - Comment - Like

• Michael R. Bernstein: Startup Florida: What is the economic impact of a Tech Startup? (Part I)

  FriendFeed

  26 Dec 2008 | 11:31 am

  Founders: Michael R. Bernstein Startup Florida: What is the economic impact of a Tech Startup? (Part I) - http://startupflorida.blogspot.com/2008... December 26 - Comment - Like Steve Epstein and Bill Romanos liked this

• Michael R. Bernstein: fsb@crynwr.com: Thread on: Free *Network* Software Business?

  FriendFeed

  4 Dec 2008 | 2:44 pm

  Founders: Michael R. Bernstein fsb@crynwr.com: Thread on: Free *Network* Software Business? - http://www.crynwr.com/cgi-bin... December 4, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like The entire discussion about business-model constraints that might apply to my recent idea for a brand new medium and content industry. - Michael R. Bernstein

• Sanjay Parekh: I run Startup Riot and I'm taking apps to attend and present. Conference is in Atlanta but I'm taking applications from anywhere and this isn't a tech/Internet only conference - I'm looking for all kinds of startups to present and have all kinds of attendees already signed up. Spread the word!

  FriendFeed

  2 Dec 2008 | 6:04 pm

  Founders: Sanjay Parekh I run Startup Riot and I'm taking apps to attend and present. Conference is in Atlanta but I'm taking applications from anywhere and this isn't a tech/Internet only conference - I'm looking for all kinds of startups to present and have all kinds of attendees already signed up. Spread the word! - http://www.startupriot.com December 2, 2008 - Comment - Like

• Michael R. Bernstein: Ned Batchelder's blog: They want Sandy

  FriendFeed

  28 Nov 2008 | 1:57 pm

  Founders: Michael R. Bernstein Ned Batchelder's blog: They want Sandy - http://nedbatchelder.com/blog... November 28, 2008 - Comment - Like Christian Hollingsworth and David HC Soul liked this

• 
  Saranyan's Blog

• Astrology, Destiny and Heart

  Saran

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:42 am

  Why do some things come easy and some things don’t? I have been trying to dig an answer to the above question for some time now. One of my ventures in this area is the mighty “Hora Shastra”, commonly known as astrology. One can look at the planetary positions in a birth chart and lay out the characteristics of the person. Astrologers go to the extent of predicting what event might happen at what time in life, which I am not horribly excited about. I think life should have an element of surprise and the will changes everything. However, this interesting field of study, gave…

• Philosophy of Matrix

  Saran

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:44 am

  Yesterday, I saw the Matrix movie again. The movie is philosophical but it never hit me so clearly until now. Borrowing from various eastern philosophies, Matrix is a treasure house of knowledge with a simple underlying truth – “Man needs to be free”. What does he need to be free from? The entire world of illusions and the powers that govern the illusions (read maya here). It is a brilliant portray of a concept that has been preached by learned men for ages. When a man starts questioning his identity in this world or question his existence, then the journey begins. There is…

• Growth – More plateaus…

  Saran

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:29 am

  Personal growth happens in plateaus and peaks. If you had read George Leonard’s Mastery or some other books on self-development, you must be familiar with the following diagram/chart. peaks and plateaus The above chart is the chart of personal growth. I think it is universally accepted now that personal growth takes place in some way very similar to this. Normally, you practice/train towards your eventual goal and see a great improvement. Then there is a plateau before you see a next growth peak. The length of plateau might vary for everyone. Personally I have found that the length of…

• Read, always!

  Saran

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am

  Read books by and about great people. Imagine them sitting before you and sharing their life’s learnings. You will not get that experience even if you are willing to pay several millions in dollars. Imagine Gandhi telling you what perseverance means to him, Mandela telling what freedom means to him, Emerson breaking off into a powerful talk on self-realization or Frost singing a wonderful poem. And all this happens right before you in your study. Imagine Vivekananda teaching you the secrets of life and Patanjali teaching you yogic disciplines. Imagine Enid Blyton letting you into her…

• Intention

  Saran

  14 Nov 2009 | 7:11 am

  Intention does not mean anything unless it is translated into action. Action does not mean anything unless it is translated into consistency. Consistency does not mean anything unless is it is translated into enjoyment. That is the hardest of all. Translating intention to enjoyment takes lot of discipline, understanding of one’s self and patience. It takes momentary letting go of dreams and focusing on the present. It takes  immense self-belief, full heart and a scarily empty mind.

• 
  47 Hats

• Startups.com: Your Business. Your Questions.

  Bob Walsh

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am

  By Fred Imparatta Community Manager, Startups.com Startups.com There are 450,000 people who take the plunge into small-business ownership every year. Chances are, they’ll need someone to help them answer their business questions. That’s where Startups.com comes in. In Startups.com, business owners (both big and small), can ask their business questions, which will be answered by our community of other business-owners, entrepreneurs, and business-people. You’re in the software industry, a very competitive, but passionate sector. You already have StackOverflow to go and ask your…

• The MicroISV Digest

  Bob Walsh

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:40 pm

  The MicroISV Digest for the week ending November 16th, 2009. (If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.) News and Announcements Jacob Gorban, Apparent Software, has launched Cashculator – the Mac way to track your cash flow. Cashculator is a different kind of personal finance application – instead of focusing on the past and logging previous transactions, it focuses on future by forecasting your financial situation, helping you make better financial/business…

• A new forum for startup questions: Answers OnStartups

  Bob Walsh

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:46 am

  By: Jason Cohen Founder, Smart Bear Software A Smart Bear If you’re like me… I hate that phrase. What if I’m not like you? What if I don’t want to be like you? What if I’m exactly like you but with a better haircut? So forget whether you’re like me, but see if any of the following could be used to describe you: You run a startup. You’re a fan of StackOverflow. You like talking about, arguing about, learning about, and thinking about startups. You have useful things to say about startups but you have only 37 RSS subscribers and half of those are RSS…

• MicroISV Digest returns next week

  Bob Walsh

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:31 am

  Hi all – I’m attending the Business of Software Conference in San Francisco – meeting some great people and listening to speakers who are offering some really good ideas and advice I’ll be posting about here for the next month easily. But it’s pretty all consuming, so the MicroISV Digest will be back next week. The [blurry] photo is of Heidi Roizen – she’s an entrepreneur, corporate executive, corporate director and venture capitalist – and gave a killer presentation on what startups look like from the VC point of view.

• A tale of disappointment, betrayal and ultimate vindication.

  Bob Walsh

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:18 pm

  I was going to hold this for the next MicroISV Digest, but it’s too good to let sit. It’s an engrossing story of how one man on a nearly impossible quest, betrayed by feckless promises made by huge companies, fights through adversity, never giving up, and ultimately succeeds. No, I’m not talking about the latest cookiecutter novel turned out by one of the mega-authors. I’m talking about Ash Maurya’s post today, “From Minimum Viable Product to Landing Pages.” If you’re a microISV you’re going to want to go to this post, print it, and start…

• 
  The Common Sense Web... An Entrepreneurs' Blog

• How Consulting Helps our Startup, and vice versa

  Chris Treadaway

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:18 pm

  Had we launched a startup and a consulting business at the same time in 2006 or 2007, we may have taken a lot more criticism than we did.  But even in the middle of 2008 -- before the stock market crashed and many people realized that the salad days were over -- I heard a lot of good things about the model.  The "capital efficient" startup model was just starting to take hold and most people thought that we could effectively balance the needs of both businesses.  I mean, it's better than starving right? It has worked a little better than I originally expected.  Here are a…

• Death and the Startup

  Chris Treadaway

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:29 pm

  Sorry I haven't posted in awhile.  On October 23rd, my mother passed away from complications from breast cancer.  The original cancer diagnosis was good and the chemotherapy was to be as minor as it gets, which is why her sudden death came as such a shock to us.My purpose with this post isn't to share the intimate details about her life, seek anyone's condolences, discuss the outpouring of support from hundreds of people my parents' community of Brandon, Mississippi, or share my feelings about my mother.  I've saved most of that with family and close friends --…

• Capital Efficiency and where we are in the innovation cycle

  Chris Treadaway

  21 Oct 2009 | 8:19 am

  Capital efficiency is a hot topic for Web entrepreneurs these days.  I've outlined a lot of the reasons we've gotten here in prior blog posts... it's a combination of a bad economy, a maturing yet healthy & evolving Web business from search to social media, the fallout of Sarbanes-Oxley and the resulting lack of IPO activity, a weak M&A market, and poor venture capital performance over the last decade. Time marches on and despite the broader macroeconomic climate, entrepreneurs continue to innovate.  I think it's an important distinction to keep in mind at all…

• An Alternative Startup Approach

  Chris Treadaway

  8 Oct 2009 | 9:16 am

  A lot of people have commented on how the economy and lack of "exits" changes the game for entrepreneurs seeking funding for early stage idea.  You need one heck of a personal connection or paying customers to even think about getting funded at a decent valuation today.  The bar is higher than ever to justify an early-stage investment, and for the effort you'll get a modern (i.e. low) valuation to boot.Rob Adams (former venture capitalist and now professor at the UT Business School) said at a recent Texchange event here in Austin that it is "easier for a startup to sell…

• Wordplay re: Incubators, Catalysts, Accelerators, Mentorship Programs, et al

  Chris Treadaway

  23 Sep 2009 | 4:24 pm

  Quick rant today on something that's been bugging me for awhile -- snobbery around terms used by different people who support entrepreneurs.  Some things I've heard lately:"We are not an incubator <chuckle>, we're an accelerator!""Incubators stand the test of time.""Our mentor program is different."For the sake of simplicity, I ignore labels/names.  It isn't productive to get into a sophomoric debate over whether or not you "incubate", "accelerate", "catalyze", or "mentor."  And if folks are…

• 
  charliecrystle.com

• Stateup Ecosystems

  charliecrystle

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:35 am

  Fred Wilson posted about this yesterday here. The Lancaster/Central Penn area has suffered from the pull of the Silicon Valley and other tech centers, as entrepreneurs move their startups there and top developers get sucked into those ecosystems with the lure of good jobs at Google, Apple, and other large companies. CoTweet moved “to be near Twitter”. [...]

• Strategic vs. Linear Acquisitions

  charliecrystle

  29 Oct 2009 | 3:33 pm

  Acquisitions are up from the same time last year, mostly because the economy had everybody holding their collective breath while they figured out how and where the failure of the economic system would kick them and how hard. The exhalation started sometime in Spring and is about to accelerate–it’s a perfect time for companies with cash reserves [...]

• Startup Valuation & Early Stage Deals

  charliecrystle

  20 Oct 2009 | 10:54 am

  I’m going through the exercise of creating a deal document in anticipation of raising investment. In the past, I’ve used the convertible note with kickers for early risk as a way to simplify raising money without having to set a value for the company. The note simply converts into the first VC round, with a [...]

• Pricing Employee Options

  charliecrystle

  18 Oct 2009 | 9:40 am

  A startup I advise on occasion just repriced employee options 50% higher, while pricing preferred shares lower. On the face of it, it seems skewed, but when you really look at it, it’s very skewed. Here’s why. Let’s say employee options are priced at .15 cents, and preferred is at .40 cents.  We’ll say there are [...]

• New Startup: Sizing & Funding It

  charliecrystle

  10 Oct 2009 | 9:31 am

  I’ve been working in stealth mode for the past two and a half months on new software that I hope will really help people. The closed beta starts sometime next week. I’ll announce the software here and hope you’ll give it  a try. A question I’ve been pondering is something familiar to founders: should I raise [...]

• 
  IttyBiz

• How To Launch A Social Media Charity Campaign

  Naomi Dunford

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  Between charitable appeals, Kickstarter campaigns and, well, a recession, it seems there have been a lot of social giving requests in social media lately. Some are awesome. Some, less so. We’ve done this a few times with pretty sock-rocking levels of success (this is the one we were most proud of) so I thought I’d do a little public service announcement on how to kick ass at begging for money. 1. Tell me what’s going on. Lead with the story. What’s going down? Did somebody’s kid get sick? A fellow blogger lost their job? House getting foreclosed on? Tell me specifically and in words…

• 6 Things They Mean When They Say They Have No Money

  Naomi Dunford

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am

  As a reader of this article, you will fall into one of three categories: 1. People who sell things, or want to sell things. 2. People who are, without exaggeration, destitute and are very sensibly finding free information online about starting and running an ittybiz. 3. People who are financially comfortable but like to wave the I’m-so-fucking-liberal flag. (We know who you are. We can identify you by your screaming about the plight of the poor, while donating less than 1% of your money and 0% of your time to charitable causes.) If you are in category 3, please read the disclaimer at…

• Why I’m Writing 100 Free Guest Posts

  Naomi Dunford

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am

  Because I am nearing the end of the year – and subsequently the end of the 1000 people quitting their day jobs target timeframe – I need a new ridiculous target. Therefore, I’ve decided to write 100 guest posts. No, I’m not kidding. I want to write guest posts. Lots and lots of guest posts. (100, actually, if you want to get obsessive about specifics.) Why do I want to do this? Well, because I want to spread the word, mostly. But I want a very special kind of spreading the word, which is where you come in. I’d like to focus on smaller blogs. Let’s face it, Copyblogger and…

• Deceptive Marketing Redux

  Naomi Dunford

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

  The following is a guest post by the ever-insightful Martin Whitmore. He’s clearly caught up on the Deceptive Marketing Techniques comment thread. Related Posts Deceptive Marketing Techniques: Which Ones Are You Using?

• Everything You Need To Know About SEO. Or Not.

  Naomi Dunford

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Every now and again at IttyBiz, when we get big surges in traffic or subscribers, we run a little system to separate the wheat from the chaff. We write something potentially inflammatory, like yesterday, and then we run something ridiculous, like today. We figure if you stay, we can officially count you. Before you’ve been around for the offensive and the ludicrous, you might just think this is a nice, sensible blog and be in for a massive shock later. We wouldn’t want that. Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that we hadn’t done a Stupid Search Terms piece since March of last…

• 
  Business of Software Blog

• Inbound marketing by @dharmesh and @bhalligan - a book review

  Neil Davidson

  8 Nov 2009 | 10:43 pm

  Inbound marketing - get found using Google, social media and blogs is a great book. It's not the book I expected, but it's a great book nonetheless. Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan and their company, Hubspot, are creating the digital wave. They're throwing giant twitter and facebook rocks into the sea of traditional marketing. This book isn't, of course, targeted at the impossibly thin market of people who, like Dharmesh and Brian, are creating this wave. But neither is it targeted at people like myself; those of us who are surfing the wave with differing levels of skill and success. Instead,…

• How to take advantage of your time at Business of Software 2009 - tips from @asmartbear (#bos2009)

  Neil Davidson

  2 Nov 2009 | 11:35 pm

  This is a guest post by Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software and blogger about startups, marketing, and geekery. Jason gave a Pecha Kecha speach at BoS 2008 and has this advice for 2009 attendees. So you're going to Business of Software 2009! It's going to be awesome. There's a 100% chance you'll get your time and money's worth from the speakers alone, but that's not the only benefit of the conference. In fact, most of the folks I've talked to agree that getting to know the other attendees is half the experience. This conference is unlike any other, and you should take full advantage…

• #codingbythesea – throw four smart people into a house by the seaside and shake

  Neil Davidson

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:55 am

  At Red Gate we like to try new things. The million dollar challenge and the accidental incubator are a couple of examples. Combine this with an occasional but nagging frustration at how long it can take to get stuff done nowadays and a curiosity about how much a small team can achieve if we just leave them alone, we’ve shipped Alex (developer), Dom (designer), Nagashree (tester), Rob (developer), and – oops, I forgot to send a project manager or scrum master - off to a house by the sea for a week. I’m not entirely sure what they’ll be working on, but take smart people, a fast internet…

• Business of Software 2009 program

  Neil Davidson

  21 Oct 2009 | 2:31 am

  I’ve just posted up the BoS 2009 program (thank you @thatdesigner). You can download it here (.pdf). It’s going to be awesome. There are still some places left. You can sign up here.

• Don't just roll the dice - a usefully short guide to software pricing

  Neil Davidson

  20 Oct 2009 | 8:00 am

  In 1938, two young engineers were ready to launch their first product. They'd struggled with what to build. After considering amplifiers, radio equipment, air controllers, harmonicas and even muscle-building electrodes for housewives, they'd finally decided to create an oscilloscope. Not wanting customers to be put off by a version one product, they sensibly called it the Model 200A.The next step? Decide the pricing.They eventually settled on $54.40. Was that because it represented the cost of manufacturing, plus a decent markup? No. These engineers hadn't taken that into account.

• 
  Kentucky Startup Blog

• Five companies receive matching funds

  Richard Stump

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:44 am

  The following five companies received matching funds through the state’s program to match federal SBIR/STTR awards: Adaptive Intelligent Systems, established in Lexington in 2005, is developing innovative, intelligent sensing and control technologies that help improve welding quality and productivity.  SureGene, of Louisville, is developing and commercializing its AssureGene™ test, the first in a planned series of proprietary tests designed to help physicians provide more precise and individualized diagnoses for patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.  Vision Dynamics,…

• Louisville’s Hot Dozen

  Richard Stump

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:14 am

  The Enterprise Corp., a division of Greater Louisville Inc., the metro chamber of commerce, has released its “2009 Hot Dozen” list of fast-growing, locally owned entreprenurial companies. • Achieve CCA Inc.; • Hello Metro Inc.; • IMC Licensing; • NaugaNeedles LLC; • PGXL Laboratories; • Planet Telecom; • Stonestreet One LLC; • SureGene LLC; • The Corporate Playbook LLC; • The Learning House Inc.; • TubeMaster Inc.; •US WorldMeds LLC.

• Advantage of being a Startup outside the valley

  Richard Stump

  11 Nov 2009 | 10:21 am

  The following post by Ali Davar , CEO of Worio, a Vancouver-based startup creating a new category of personalized Web search highlights many of the advantages that I have been preaching about when your high-tech startup is not located in Silicon Valley (or Boston, Austin, Boulder etc).  Also some valuable tips about how to stay relevant in the valley when you are not located there. Avoid the “Valley premium” – Startups that set up shop in the Valley fork over a premium for the exclusive location. As one of the most expensive urban areas to live in nationwide (according to ACCRA),…

• Comparing entrepreneurial cultures

  Richard Stump

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:39 am

  Below are some excerpts from an article on xconomy about the startup scenes in Boston, Boulder and Seattle.  I highlighted the statements I thought were important to or resembled Kentucky and other areas trying build high-tech ecosystems. Brad Feld of TechStars and Foundry Group gave a brief history of the startup scene in Boulder, CO—useful for any city with entrepreneurial aspirations. “When I showed up in ’95, what I found was on the software side you had a lot of smart engineering talent but you didn’t have much else. A handful of entrepreneurial companies in storage and cable…

• Are celebrity investors/advisors/board members worth it?

  Richard Stump

  3 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pm

  I recently read two posts on this subject, one from Altos Ventures and one from Chris Dixon and I agree with the key theme that celebrity (the term that i would use is “big name” not necessarily famous but known like a politician or well connected person locally) are not worth it: “ In our experience, celebrity investors and board members do little to help entrepreneurs do what they need to get done. They offer little in the way of strategic or practical advice about hiring, firing, product development, closing deals and financing. Even worse, sometimes the advice can be…

• 
  Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

• Easy Jet, Making a Fast Buck Screwing Customers

  GREGG FRALEY

  14 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

  I’ve got nothing against the low cost, no frills airlines, they are a necessary market innovation.  They perform a real service and get me places I need to go. It’s part of the deal that you pay for food, get treated like a cow, and become intimate with people who don’t use deodorant. Airlines have to make money — I want them to!  On the other hand, it makes me very angry when somebody takes my money and doesn’t deliver, like Easy Jet. See, I’m a tallish guy, 6-1. Economy seats in planes are a bit of torture for me. So, I often take up the offer to get…

• BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World (review)

  GREGG FRALEY

  11 Nov 2009 | 1:37 am

  Customer service has been on my mind lately.  I’ve just had an awful experience with my web hosting company (Hostway, argh…) and it got me thinking. That’s why reading Barry Moltz and Mary Jane Grinstead’s new book, BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World was so timely for me. It’s helping me dissect how Hostway is losing their edge while I deal with my very real emotions about how I’ve been treated.  But enough about those…people right now, let’s talk about BAM! Let me say straight away this is a great book on the topic.

• Incubation Food, Review of: “If I Never” by Gary William Murning

  GREGG FRALEY

  2 Nov 2009 | 3:54 am

  I read novels for pleasure. I read business books for content.  It’s not quite that simple however. The truth is, given the full-of-bs, hyped-up, buzzword-ridden, and generally weak content many business books are filled with — I probably learn more from novels. The wisdom of the ages is found in stories. Innovators seeking a shift in perspective they can apply to business challenges would do well to read a well crafted story.  Stories also do something to infuse a bit of energy into a bored spirit, and serve as “incubation food” when you are flummoxed by a business…

• Women Innovators Who Use Idea Notebooks

  GREGG FRALEY

  27 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm

  I’m a big fan of keeping an idea notebook. There’s been research done that indicates it’s a real aid to creative effectiveness.  Any innovator worth his — or her — salt should be keeping some kind of idea notebook. I’ve been researching and speaking about famous notebook users and it occured to me (okay, I was told…) that all my examples — Edison, DaVinci, Kerouac, etc. — are men.  The first woman that came to mind, Madame Curie, probably kept lab notebooks, but I can’t seem to find documentation to support the claim. Google, for…

• “HUM Girlfriends” to Enable Young Indian Women Innovators

  GREGG FRALEY

  16 Oct 2009 | 10:21 am

  “Giving back” is the phrase one often hears from celebrities who use some of their fame and fortune to help others.  Successful business people often give back as well, but we don’t usually hear about it. That’s why I was taken by the story of HUM Girlfriends (HUM is the Hindi/Urdu word for “We”). Innovators are made, not born, and it’s fascinating how support, encouragement, and cultural values make a big difference in success. HUM Girlfrirends is the moniker of seven remarkable women of Indian origin.  The seven met at a recent ESOMAR (market…

• 
  TeenEntrepreneurBlog.com

• Renegade Teen CEO, Ed Nash, Fit or Fugly iPhone App Reaches 3,500 Downloads 5 Days After Launch

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:07 pm

  DOWNLOAD the iPhone App NOW: www.fitorfugly.com See our mentions in Huffington Post, Gizmodo and Switched!!! For Immediate Release:     Beauty Was in the Eye of the Beholder….Until a Teen Developed an iPhone App to Prove Otherwise     ‘Fit or Fugly’ iphone app scientifically measures a person’s attractiveness using a photograph and Fibonnaci’s golden ratio.Washington, DC – Ed Nash, a young and promising [...]

• NFIB Young Entrepreneur Awards

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  Apply now for the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 NFIB Young Entrepreneur Awards.  Beginning midnight, October 31 through 11:59 p.m., December 31, 2009, any high school senior graduating in 2010 may apply online for a chance to win a scholarship valued from $1,000-$10,000. This post comes courtesy of NFIB Young Entrepreneur [...]

• Rising to the Top…It’s About Collaboration, Not ‘Competition’!

  admin

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:59 pm

  Last night I was honored to have a seat at the NFTE Movie Premiere of Ten9Eight Shoot For the Moon. I went there to support entrepreneurial teens (aspiring and emerging), the groovy folks that I work with in the DC office and all of the teens I have had the privilege to personally work with [...]

• Bradley Will, That Gen Y Guy, Today on Renegade Teens Radio

  admin

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:27 am

  On today’s episode of Renegade Teens Radio, Host Patricio Quezada, CEO of HispanicsLearn chats with Bradley Will, That Gen Y Guy. Bradley Will is the Ultimate Go-Giver and Founder of Social Media Altitude. He blogs about his adventures in living the ‘good’ life with his up and coming young entrepreneurs on BradleyWill.com . As it was [...]

• Actionomics [dc]: Fall Forum 2009 Hosted by WDCEP

  admin

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:51 pm

  Today I attended Actionomics [DC] Fall Forum 2009, hosted by the fabulous Washington DC Economic Partnership Office, which is an incredible and valuable resource for small businesses in the city (everybody who works there is so nice). Here is the [link I have yet to find-womp, womp] to the virtual home of Actionomics [dc] *sigh*.  There you can read all about this groovy [...]

• 
  Startup Daddy Home Business Development

• Community Building And Great Customer Service

  Ian Gordon | StartupDaddy.com

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:54 am

  I observed a couple of great examples of customer service and community building recently that I want to share with you.  I believe that customer service and community building are the same thing, by the way.  Whether your business is on-line or off, you better be viewing your customers as a community.  They honor you by choosing you, and you’d be an idiot not to value and nurture that relationship. Doing it right by doing it wrong I read Chris Brogan’s blog a lot.  I learn by watching successful people.  I learn not just from what they say and write, but by observing how…

• SD14 | The Business Plan Video: Elements of the business plan VIDEO PODCAST

  Ian Gordon | StartupDaddy.com

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:14 am

  This episode of Startup Daddy is my first Video Podcast. I made a video that talks about the different kinds of business plans and the elements that a business plan should contain. About a month ago, I posted this video to YouTube. When I compare my statistics for the number of people who listen to this podcast to the number of people who visit this site, there are a lot more of you who listen than visit. I have absolutely no problem with this. I am honored that you choose to listen to me at all. So I made the video into a podcast episode so that the subscriber only folks can have a look.

• What Do You Think, The World Started When You Were Born?!

  Ian Gordon | StartupDaddy.com

  26 Oct 2009 | 7:31 am

  I’m Lucky.  I’m Old.  At least that’s what my 6 year old told me recently.  I’m 41, so I am lucky enough to have grown up in a world without the internet which helps me appreciate it.  It also helps me factor in how technology is perceived differently among different generations.  I read a blog post recently that got me thinking a lot about this. Most of us view the way technology has forever changed the way we communicate as a big advancement and a good thing.  Many would argue though, that it has promoted isolation and gives a false sense of community where…

• SD13 | Interview With Marc Warnke Author Of ONO: Options Not Obligations

  Ian Gordon | StartupDaddy.com

  21 Oct 2009 | 3:35 am

  In this episode of Startup Daddy I have a conversation with Marc Warnke,  author of ONO: Options Not Obligations.   A few months ago Marc popped up on my radar as he was promoting his book.  What made me stop and take notice was his concept of the Family First Entrepreneur.  This has been the way I approach my business since my daughters were born, I just didn’t have a name for it. We talk about the entrepreneurial mindset, the importance of teaching your children about basic business concepts, and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur and keep your family your number one…

• 10 Reasons I am Thankful To Be Living In Canada

  Ian Gordon | StartupDaddy.com

  9 Oct 2009 | 12:03 pm

  Last year my wife and I packed up our family and moved to Toronto.  We didn’t have any grand expectations of a better life, we just wanted our kids to grow up near the huge extended family that was waiting for us here.  I have to admit that the transition has been harder for me than I anticipated.  I am a proud, fly the flag on July 4th American, but it wasn’t even the whole living in another country thing. I have spent a lot of time and energy focusing on why it’s not better here than back in Scottsdale, AZ.  It seems that every other week some group goes on strike. …

• 
  The Entrepreneurial Mind

• The Face of Entrepreneurship in the US

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:39 am

  A couple of interesting studies came out this week that help us better understand the direction of entrepreneurship in our economy.A study by Microsoft suggests the most of the new entrepreneurs today are either accidental entrepreneurs or at least not folks who had aspired to become an entrepreneur before the recession.  The study found that about 70 percent of the respondents left their jobs to start their own businesses in the midst of the current recession.The latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report that looks specifically at the U.S. was just released by Babson…

• Seeing the Recession

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:58 am

  My colleague Joe Alexander passed along a map developed by Latoya Egwuekwe that gives a very stark visual display of the spread of unemployment.  Go to this site, press the play button and watch employment spread across the country over the past three years.  You may want to watch it a few times.

• Entrepreneurship is Anemic Around the Globe

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:37 am

  The driver of the old economy from the twentieth century was the auto industry.  The old saying was that if General Motors sneezes, the rest of the economy caught a cold.The driver of the economy in this century has been entrepreneurs.  From the sounds of the latest survey from the Kauffman Foundation and the OECD, entrepreneurs seem to have caught swine flu, so the rest of the economy is probably about to go on life support.In all 23 countries and regions surveyed, firm formation declined and exits increased.  This should be viewed as a leading indicator of job creation -- or…

• Preparing for Inflation

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:57 am

  I continue to be in the camp that is worried about inflation -- even possibly hyper-inflation -- in the not too distant future.  Our ballooning debt along with the many latent inflationary pressures could soon create the spark that ignites a fire storm of runaway prices.  If we see a currency crash, or many are now saying when we see one, we could likely see double or even triple digit inflation.The problem for small business during inflationary times is that they are less able to adjust prices as quickly to adjust to inflationary pressures.  There is never a smooth and orderly…

• A Bucket of Cold Water

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:21 am

  It looks like the Obama administration is considering a move to increase taxes to deal with the exploding federal deficits caused by their massive give-aways and bailouts.  Their plan would be like throwing a bucket of cold water on the embers of entrepreneurial growth in this struggling economy.  From James Pethokoukis:Since Obama already wants to get rid of the income and capital gains tax cuts for wealthier Americans that expire at the end of 2010, clearly what Romer is referring to is the rest of the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts. Letting all the 2001 cuts -- rate reductions,…

• 
  Jun's Startup Life

• Lesson Learned: What happens when you push your girlfriend to become an entrepreneur

  JunLoayza

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Photo by Rowena I’ve come to the conclusion that few people have the desire AND the ability to start their own company.  However, the entrepreneurial mindset CAN be applied in the corporate setting, no matter where you work. For the past year, I have tried to push my girlfriend to start her own venture so that she can escape the “clutches” of her corporate job.  I set her up with a blog and even lectured her over countless dinners about the beauty of lifestyle design. Kim would always listen to my lectures and just nod her head in indifference, until last week, when I…

• Startup Advice: A State of Mind

  JunLoayza

  27 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

  (Please take the time to watch the video.  Trust me, Raul Midon is amazing!) Most entrepreneurs focus on the cash flow, team, market, and product, but neglect one of the most important factors in the success of the startup - morale.  Morale is the thing that keeps you working at 2am in the morning; morale is the element that keeps spirits high when cash flow is running low.  Without high company morale, your startup will feel like it is failing even when things are going very well. I’ve recently been plagued by low moral.  I had low energy during my startup meetings and I found…

• How to keep your girlfriend happy when you’re an entrepreneur

  JunLoayza

  26 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

  Girlfriends are hard to keep happy no matter what.  As a young entrepreneur with very little income, it’s even harder to keep the boss happy. Kim and I got into one of our worsts fights last week.  I don’t even know what started it; all I know is that it was the first time I felt her disdain, frustration, and anger with my career choice.  She has been the most understanding, wonderful person this past year and a half, but everyone reaches a breaking point. At the climax of the fight, I realized what a terrible boyfriend I had been.  I made a promise to her and myself that I…

• Expedition 206 - What does happiness mean to the world?

  JunLoayza

  21 Oct 2009 | 7:43 pm

  If you had the opportunity to find happiness in every region of the world, would you do it?  I would too My good friends from around the world are competing for the opportunity to do just that.  The opportunity is called Expedition 206, where the winning team will travel to 206 countries in 1 year and tape, blog, and Tweet about their adventures and the people they meet. The amazing part is that we get to choose who goes on the trip! Check out my descriptions for the teams below and then decide who you want to vote for. The Teams: Team WOW Brendan - Brendan is a rock star who currently…

• True happiness or Settling for less?

  JunLoayza

  15 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

  I spent all of last week with people from Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Australia, and many other regions of the world.  Each one was a world traveler, film maker, and an amazing creative mind that completely blew away my artistic skill set. To be perfectly honest, I was at first intimated to be in their presence.  I have pretty much spent my entire life in Southern California, while my new friends had traveled to all 5 continents and even studied with Shaolin Masters in China. I wanted to live their lives; I wanted to be them. I began to imagine myself as a world traveler. I probed the minds of…

• 
  Entrepreneur Bootcamp

• Publishing Your eZine – the Pros

  Del Williams

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am

  There are several advantages publishing your own eZine can offer to you. Thus if the pros appeal to you, then publishing your own paperless newsletter can be ideal for you.The most obvious reason publishing an eZine can be the most ideal business to you is that it is so easy to start that any individual can do. There is no need to invest in starting a brick and mortar business or even staff and heavy machines for that matter.In fact, you can do this from the comfort of your home as the most important thing you will need is an auto responder equipped with broadcast feature. Auto responders…

• Publishing Your eZine – the Cons

  Del Williams

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

  As with any other types of businesses, publishing your own online newsletter a.k.a. eZine has its share of drawbacks, in spite of the several benefits it offer.The purpose of this article is not to scare you away with the disadvantages of publishing your own eZine, as the benefits are often more attractive. However, I will also show you how you can easily tackle the cons.One obvious challenge most beginning eZine publishers face is the creation of eZine content. Creating your own content can be tiresome, especially if you are not a gifted writer and that you run out of ideas every so often…

• Where to Advertise Your Ecommerce Business Locally on the Internet

  Del Williams

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:36 pm

  Many online businesses are overlooking their online market in an effort to go global. This is a mistake according to Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media. She said it should be the first place a business starts. Why? It builds credibility in your community, and people still want to buy from people they know and trust. So how do you let the community know you are open for business? How about starting where they are first, online.Read Full Article Here

• Mailing List for Affiliate Marketers

  Del Williams

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  If you are an affiliate marketer who wants to make a comfortable living from referring your prospects to other people’s product or service for decent commissions, then you must consider building your own mailing list.Building your mailing list of hungry prospects can be one of the best investments you will ever make, as it is time and effort worth spending on. When you strike on a Joint Venture and have a new product or service to endorse, you can look no further than your own mailing list.Granted, that most affiliates, as in more than 90 percent of them, are not making money from affiliate…

• Making Money from Selling Advertising Space

  Del Williams

  1 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am

  If you would observe the company that delivers the daily paper to your doorstep for a business case study, you will come to learn that the newspaper publisher hires reporters, writers and other important staff to create the contents and deliver the papers to their readers.In addition to the above mention, the publisher has to invest regularly in heavy duty machineries and tons of papers in printing tons of newspapers on a daily basis.And in order to ensure that the newspapers are delivered on time, the publisher appoints agents at every part of the covered territory.So, how does the newspaper…

• 
  Chasing the Storm

• The Little Red Hen- modern version

  buzzoptima@yahoo.com.sg (Shalabh Pandey)

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm

  I'm sure you must have heard the story of the Little Red Hen. Here is a modern version. Click the title for complete post. (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

• Brand Relationship Onion- People and Brand Relationships

  buzzoptima@yahoo.com.sg (Shalabh Pandey)

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:54 am

  Here's the deal- Brand-User Relationships could be best defined by layers of an onion. Click the title for complete post. (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

• Extrememly rare job openings of a marketing agency of the future

  buzzoptima@yahoo.com.sg (Shalabh Pandey)

  9 Nov 2009 | 5:17 pm

  Part 2 of the Marketing services agency of the future. This time- the job skills. Click the title for complete post. (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

• Video Brainstorm Part 4: Influencer Marketing- Shalabh and Thorben

  buzzoptima@yahoo.com.sg (Shalabh Pandey)

  8 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm

  In part 4 of this 4 part video brainstorm, we discuss how to market a start up. Click the title for complete post. (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

• Video Brainstorm-Part 3- Start up- funding and Downloadable Apps Vs Web based apps

  buzzoptima@yahoo.com.sg (Shalabh Pandey)

  8 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pm

  In Part3 of this 4 part series, we discuss the funding story- and whether downloadable apps are better Click the title for complete post. (twitter.com/shalabhpandey)

• 
  Startup Economy

• Can VC and entrepreneurs just get along?

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:45 am

  I've been thinking about the discontent between entrepreneurs and VCs. The story goes like this:Entrepreneur (E), VC (V)E: The venture capital model is dead. I'm working on a hot company that's going to change the world. VCs don't understand my business.V: What's the correlation between dead VC model and your inability to raise VC money? Bring on the VC-fundable idea and team, and we'll write a check.E: We have a target market with no competition and great idea.V: No competition? If it's an attractive market, there's gotta be someone else competing against you in that market. No product? Too…

• Startup vs. Big Company - Politics

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

  (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The often internally conflicting interrelationships among people in a society.so says Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/politics)Many of us in startups talk about flat organization, no hierarchy, no politics quite often. We tend to believe that bureaucratic organizational structure in big companies is the enemy of all, and that startups are nimble and move faster to adapt to changes to customer demand and market conditions.I recently engaged in a discussion with some friends and talked about the office politics. There were entrereneurs,…

• Future VC Crisis

  15 May 2009 | 7:22 am

  I usually don't pretend to predict the future outcome of industry. I'm often very wrong about the future like many people out there, but what the heck! There will be a VC crisis... at least in the small segment of those affected by the current trends and from pure perspective of financials .It is no secret that the cost of startup decreased dramatically. Paul Graham agrees here, and Prof (via NY Times) has an article here to reinforce the case in point. Wait, didn't I argue for rise of startup cost in the past? Not so fast here. Here's the difference:The cost of starting up a company (e.g.

• Ouch...

  21 Apr 2009 | 4:16 am

  John Sculley: Don't Be Afraid to Make Tough DecisionsJohn Sculley says it was one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do as a CEO: stripping his friend and sponsor, Steve Jobs, of any operating role in the company Jobs had co-founded. Sculley spoke to Inc. in 1987 about what became a very public crisis at Apple Computer, explaining why working with entrepreneurs -- especially those who crave control -- can be trying. "The hardest part of dealing with entrepreneurs is getting them to recognize their own weaknesses. Sometimes they will say they are weak in certain areas, and then try to…

• Disengaging from Social Media

  20 Apr 2009 | 6:29 am

  I've been trying out various social media tools to engage with other online audience personally and professionally. I got into the social media ecosystem that I'm getting to the point where the incremental value of utilizing another social media tools (at least in the contact management sector) is close to zero.The best tools so far has been Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, and it should be no surprise.I tried to make sense out of more extreme professional contact management tool by using Plaxo. Today, I declare the permanent "uninstallation" of Plaxo... forever.I get too many spams and don't…

• 
  The Startup News

• Launch: searchmash, an experimental site started by Google

  Uses Ajax and some other web2.0-ish features.

• News: Google launches "Features, Not Products" initiative

  Sergey Brin is telling employees to stop making old products and start improving new ones. "For example, said Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, Google plans to combine its spreadsheet, calendar and word-processing programs into one suite of Web-based applications."

• Launch: Google Code Search

  Google now lets you do searches -- including regular expression searches -- across public source code.

• Preview: Google testing new site design

  James Yu has a screenshot of a new design Google has been testing lately.

• Launch: Democracy, the free internet TV system

  The Participatory Culture Foundation (formerly Downhill Battle) has finally launched their Internet television platform. Grab existing videocast feeds or make your own, all with a gorgeous interface.

• 
  Growthink

• Successful Entrepreneurs Don't Do This

  Dave Lavinsky

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:32 pm

  I got home for work the other day and sat down with my family for dinner. "How was your day?" I asked my kids. My kids proceeded to tell me about how their days went. Everything seemed like it was going well. So, I asked my son, "Did you get to practice lacrosse today?" As a bit of background, my son plays on a highly competitive lacrosse team, and if he doesn't practice enough, he risks losing his position. "No dad. I didn't have time," he replied. Now this, unfortunately, is NOT an acceptable answer. In fact, according to Napoleon Hill, author of the famed…

• Kim Kardashian, James Cameron's $500 Million Avatar, and Private Equity - A Parable

  Jay Turo

  15 Nov 2009 | 7:49 pm

  Two pieces of startling news to consider when thinking about how money is really made in our brand-driven 21st century economy: 1. James Cameron's 3-D beyond blockbuster "Avatar" - reported by the New York Times' Michael Cieply to have a total budget - production and marketing - in excess of $500 million! Director Cameron, of Titanic, is blowing away ALL movie cost records here. To give a feel of the size of the bet that Cameron, Fox, and private equity partners Dune Entertainment and Ingenious  Media, are taking on the film, Avatar may have to become one of the top-twenty grossing…

• Business Plan Milestones: How They Are Essential To Your Success

  Dave Lavinsky

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am

  One of the absolute keys to a successful business plan is to create the right business plan milestones. Doing so is essential to securing investors and making real progress towards achieving your goals. The story below illustrates the importance of business plan milestones, after which is some guidance regarding how you can create the right business plan milestones for your company. There are lots of things that all of us do, and do as well as we have to, without thinking. Like pumping gas. I just pumped gas this morning. And thought nothing of it. Until now. The fact is that I didn't just…

• November 9, 1989 - The Proper End of History

  Jay Turo

  9 Nov 2009 | 11:49 am

  Passing with surprisingly little fanfare, today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. One of my most enduring memories of my college days (I was an International Relations Major at Stanford, Class of 1990) was a class that I took from an extremely engaging and charismatic young professor on Soviet Foreign Policy. One statement that my professor made stayed with me - that probably none of us in our lifetimes would see the Berlin Wall fall. Her reasons: a) The inevitable brain and talent drain that an opening of the wall would bring about b) The more that people in the old…

• Top 7 Business Plan Secrets [New CD]

  Dave Lavinsky

  9 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

  I recently recorded a CD with my 7 best business plan secrets. This new 54-minute CD reveals my 7 best-kept secrets for how you can create a successful business plan that attracts capital and positions your company for success. Get all the details here. After listening to my CD, you'll be far ahead of your competition because you'll have critical knowledge and skills, such as: - How to make sure your business plan actually gets read - Why having lots of competitors can be a GOOD thing - What investors really look for in your business plan ...and more time-tested strategies that I've used to…

• 
  crowdSPRING Blog

• SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

  Bethany

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:14 am

  Harmonic Jazz Festival You’re going to want to break out your Jazz Hands when you hear about this exciting new festival coming to the UK! Harmonic is a new jazz festival will be taking place March 11th - 13th 2010 in Birmingham, UK. So if you’re in the area or want to make the trip out for it email info@harmonicfestival.co.uk to receive updates.  Our intern, Laura, was so excited about this project on our site that she started reading all the info in a British accent. Chris Mapp, the founder of this festival, asked our fearless crowdSPRING designers to design the logo for this…

• The Ten Step Social Media Marketing Checklist

  Ross

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pm

  A few days ago, I was interviewed by Phil Dobbie from bnet Australia about social media marketing. The 17 minute interview is below.  Among other things, we talked about how to get the best from Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn, commenting, mobile social networks, monitoring, multimedia, brand management, and leveraging combinations of social media tools.

• BE A WINNER

  Bethany

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:54 pm

  Don’t you want to be a winner? I knew our creatives and buyers were a group of phenomenally humble people, who are on our site because they truly love us, but now it’s time for us to show YOU the love! Let us know what you and/or your friends, buyers, clients, designers have done for you this year through our site. How are you going to do that? By nominating your favorite buyer and/or creative for a SPRINGY AWARD! (PS you can totally nominate yourself too and we promise we won’t tell.) crowdSPRING will be selecting the Most Winningest Designer or the Year and the Community Awards, but…

• crowdSPRING Celebrates Shakespearean Sonnet Day (Again)

  Ross

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:02 am

  Sadly, our last Shakespearean sonnet day was this past May. If you’re wondering what Shakespearean sonnet day is - we made it up. We read Shakespearean sonnets to celebrate … ummm … Shakespearean sonnets. In May, Kevin handily defeated all challengers and he’s been boasting about his prowess nonstop for months. Jeff Clark, our newest employee (designer/front end developer), not impressed at all by Kevin’s tattoos and fancy Elton John glasses, very simply said: I challenge thee to a duel! Their video duel is below. YOU are the judge. Who wins this one? Leave a…

• Twitter Link Roundup #21 - Design, Small Business, Social Media And More

  Ross

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:54 pm

  Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week! 10 Ways for Designers to Boost Productivity - http://bit.ly/3LkRR2 The Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009 - http://bit.ly/1PfyI6 Three Big Mistakes that Can Make or Break Your Design Career -http://bit.ly/2ltVNR 8 Layout Solutions To Improve Your Designs…

• 
  Our Startup Story

• 8 Secrets of Success

  John

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

  Some dude I’ve never heard of, has 8 words that are the secret of success. They’re below with my thoughts on them. I found them over on Small Biz Bee. 1. Passion – Duh. If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, why are you doing it. I’ve found (although i never would have guessed it) that I’m passionate about bringing people together, helping people meet, creating an atmosphere were great things are born. 2. Work – Yeah it’s work. Doing what you love feels less like work, but it’s still work, it’s still hard. Possibly…

• The Consequences of a Win/Win Agreement

  Jeffry

  11 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm

  I’ve been reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  It is an “old school” book, and is a much heavier read than a lot of the more recent business related books.  The content is golden, though.  One chapter is on thinking win/win.  A win/win mind set is when you go into an agreement, or negotiations, with the prospect of coming up with something beneficial to both parties.  Over the years I’ve heard a lot of folks talk about “win/win”, but I get the impression it is more lip service while folks look out for their own best interests.  In…

• Philly Startup Leaders Interviews.

  John

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am

  Jeff tweeted about this, and I had to write a post about it. I had no idea this group/organization existed, but Philly Startup Leaders has a video  series (6 deep at the moment) I just started watching the videos, which I plan to rip and put on my iPod (sorry youtube, but these are gonna be gold mines I’ll want offline), but what’s nice it’s not your typical tech startup schmoes talking about how great they are, how hard it is, how cash flow something to worry about tomorrow, etc. These videos talk about real entrepreneurship (IMO), not just the sexy tech startup stuff.

• Because you can, doesn’t mean you should

  John

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:55 am

  I read this interesting interview with the twitter Co-Founders during Startup School. The very first sentence is what struck me. “Biz Stone: We should start with Odeo, our older podcasting service. We realized we weren’t passionate about it. We were building it but we weren’t using it.” Tom and I have had discussions about this concept a lot, especially when looking at areas we thought bringing a community focused conference to would make sense. Sometimes we’ve ruled a community/industry out because while there were no events like ours (In our opinions) there were…

• A Bird in the Hand…

  John

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:47 am

  Tom and I had an interesting discussion the other night. In looking at past sales Tom noted that offering a Team price, resulted in about $10,000 more in profit at the end of the day (the last day of the event, for the sake of discussion), vs. our current model of offering 100 tickets at a reduced price, typically $100-$200 off the regular price. It was interesting because while $10,000 is certainly nothing to scoff at, at this point in the business, early sales are more important. While I hate the concept of early bird ticketing to inflate early numbers, I do like offering those who want to…

• 
  More Caffeine, Please

• Right Question Vs. Wrong Question

  Greg Digneo

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:32 pm

  Yesterday, I was co-speaking at an event on Social Media marketing.  I left the event feeling that I might not have done my job.  You see, at the event, we got so mired in the details of RSS and how to hook your blog to your twitter account to your Facebook fan page. We received one question from a woman selling Mary Kay products that went something like this “How do I get an RSS link on my blog.”  Mind you, she doesn’t have a blog yet.  Unfortunately, that’s the wrong question to ask. The right questions to ask is what do my consumers want to see, and how can I reach them? When…

• Jump in – and figure out the rest later

  Greg Digneo

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:11 pm

  I’m a huge fan of jumping in as I tend to suffer from paralysis of analysis.  I tend to learn on the fly.  I can read all the books and attend all the seminars I want, but it won’t matter until I actually get started.  If you have a project that you want to start, a plan that needs to be executed – Do It!  Do It Now!  Not tomorrow, not 5 minutes from now.  Right now!  Chances are, you will realize it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought.

• My biggest marketing secret revealed!

  Greg Digneo

  13 Nov 2009 | 9:36 am

  In a few short weeks, my blog will be 1 year old.  On a day – to – day basis, I try to give advice and/or share what I’ve learned.  I think I can some it up in one sentence: Market unto others as you’d have marketed to yourself. In other words, if you don’t like someone calling you at dinner time, then don’t call potential customers at dinner time.  If you enjoy reading useful content about a company before you purchase from them, then create useful content for your potential customers so they can enjoy that experience as well. I don’t know, maybe I’m oversimplifying it.

• Earning Attention Vs. Earning Money

  Greg Digneo

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

  The other night, a telemarketer called me and said they were from a bed company.  I don’t need a bed, so I tried to politely tell this woman that I’m not interested.  I figured I’d save my time, and hers.  She proceeds to explain to me that she was not trying to sell me anything over the telephone – and continues on with her story.  I reiterate that I’m not interested, and then hang up the phone. Was I rude?  Perhaps.  However, she needed to recognize that she was trying to sell me something; even if it wasn’t a monetary transaction.  She was trying to sell me a story, and…

• Ice to an Eskimo

  Greg Digneo

  9 Nov 2009 | 7:49 pm

  Just 15 years ago, when someone was a good marketer or salesman, one of the the highest compliment given to him would be “He’s so good, he can sell ice to an Eskimo.”  Today, that compliment is more like “He’s so good, whenever an Eskimo needs ice, they know exactly where to find him.”

• 
  Usman Sheikh's Entrepreneurial Journey

• Everything Happens for a Reason

  Usman Sheikh

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  We can, and often do question the outcome of many things. We also attempt to rationalize why certain things happen, and why certain things do not. In the moment, there is often  a sense of urgency and challenge to make sense of why our life takes certain twists. However, when you start  to look back on some major events that have taken place in your life, I do think they begin to make a lot more sense. I sincerely believe that all these events happen for an underlying reason, one we may not comprehend in the moment. There is however often a really good reason why they take place. Many a…

• Moving Houses

  Usman Sheikh

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  I recently moved houses. It was a most hectic and stressful week! Those of you who have moved houses several times, will be able to relate to the pains associated with relocating. One goes through a roller coaster of emotions from the dread of packing up , to the exhaustion during the actual moving process, and lastly, to a deep sense of relief once everything has been successfully completed. What really surprises me every time I have moved is how much stuff we collect over the years without realizing. In a way, moving helps you to press the restart button and start afresh. Life works in a…

• Trusting your Inner Voice

  Usman Sheikh

  15 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Each and everyone of us has an inner voice. It speaks to us regularly! Over time, we learn to suppress it when it tells us things we do not want to hear. At an early age I knew I wanted to get into business. Coming from a family where most everyone else has chosen the corporate ladder, there was understandably a lot of reservation over the path I wanted to follow. However, when the time came, and I passed up job offers after I graduated from college,  I felt keenly that I had made the right decision. Looking back on my experience since I graduated some years ago, I do truly feel that I could…

• Raising Capital

  Usman Sheikh

  13 Nov 2009 | 11:00 pm

  I have been pretty active on answers.onstarups.com. If you have not visited this website, it is basically a forum to ask questions related to entrepreneurship, in return, you get some really high quality answers from some very successful entrepreneurs. A question that keeps coming up time and time again, is the one about raising capital for web based businesses. In most cases, the individuals asking the questions have not finished building the product, have not got feedback from the community or any user base traction, and do not really have a clear plan about where they will use the money.

• Emotional Stability

  Usman Sheikh

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:53 pm

  The last couple of days have been pretty hectic. There have been a series of highs and lows, enough to play havoc with most people’s minds. I guess this is part of entrepreneurship that gets lost in translation when people romantically recount their entrepreneurial experiences. I wrote about emotional control a year or so ago,  as I was reading over the post, I realized anew how much it had to do with keeping one’s emotional stability while dealing with difficult individuals. This post takes up where I left off when I said ” The moment we let our emotions slip, we make…

• 
  The Mogul Mom Blog

• We are NOT All Connected: Old School Interactions Also Build Brands and Your Business

  Liz Goodgold

  19 Nov 2009 | 12:46 pm

  It is Not On-Line All the Time Razorfish has just published its annual study on how technology is changing the way consumers engage with brands. The data suggests, not surprisingly, that digital brand experiences influence consumers. BUT, what the study fails to highlight, however, is the woefully small number of [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• From Zen Habits: The Simple, Ridiculously Useful Guide To Earning A Living From Your Passion

  Heather Allard

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:54 am

  As a mom inventor who earned her education from the “Entrepreneurial School of Hard & Expensive Lessons”, I realized after reading this post from Zen Habits, that I’m so fortunate to have now found a way to earn a living from my passion – helping other mom entrepreneurs save time, money and frustration on their [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• How to Effectively Cost Your Product

  Heather Allard

  14 Nov 2009 | 12:10 pm

  The following is a guest post by Sarah Shaw, an information junkie and the ultimate go-to girl for everything product related — from which stores are the best to approach first, to how to calculate your margins, to the best manufacturer. Translating ideas into action is her strength, and she lends her wisdom willingly [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• PRWeb Free Webinar: Creating a Killer Publicity Strategy with Online News Releases

  Heather Allard

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:30 pm

  Want to make journalists put down their coffee cups and actually read your news release? Build a publicity strategy that not only gets you noticed, but positions your business as the premiere “go to” entity in your industry. PRWeb Free Webinar Creating a Killer Publicity Strategy With Online News Releases Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:00pm – 3:00pm EST Register for [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• How To Hire The Right Virtual Assistant

  Heather Allard

  7 Nov 2009 | 4:16 pm

  OK, I think we realized after reading Liz Goodgold’s post that most of us could really use the help of a virtual assistant to manage our business. So I went straight to the source — virtual assistants and mom entrepreneurs who’ve hired them — to find out how to hire the right virtual assistant for your [...] [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 
  SimplyRFiD

• Asset tracking with Excel: Use a program you already know to do something you never thought possible!

  Ashley Lange

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pm

  Asset Tracking with Excel Learning how to use new software might be one of the things that can prevent an organization from moving forward implementing a new system. Sure, the system might have all the bells and whistles and be exactly what you need to solve your problems, but that doesn't mean anything if no one can use it. At SimplyRFiD, one of our mission is to make all of our products simple and reliable to use. When it comes to asset tracking, the last thing anyone wants is to spend more time on it than they already do. In order to simplify asset tracking, our Nox Asset tracking and…

• Interop New York 2009: Learn about cutting edge IT, asset tracking and security solutions

  Ashley Lange

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:43 pm

  Cloud computing, mobile business and the newest security innovations. What do these all have in common? The connection is Interop NY. Interop is a leading business IT event that focuses on providing knowledge and insight for decision makers throughout the business world. A combination of exhibitors, workshops and keynotes make the expo worthwhile for professionals from any number of industries. Visit the Interop blog to learn up to the minute facts about the event. SimplyRFiD will be also be at Interop. We'll be focusing on providing all of our guests with information about our RFID…

• November Newsletter Posted: RFID Case Study and Shipping to the DoD with UID

  Ashley Lange

  6 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm

  This month's newsletter is chock full of great information for people looking for straightforward solutions to real problems. RFID Asset Tracking: Learn about Excel Manufacturing, a uniform provider for the Air Force, and how our Nox RFID asset tracking system saved them time and headaches by letting them know where every part of a shipment was at all times. UID Tags: Learn about UID and current requirements about shipping expensive or mission critical items to the Department of Defense. Connect with Experts: Find links to our monthly "webinar" series. Sign up to attend virtually! All you…

• Headaches and Inefficiency, Asset Tracking With RFID Heals Both

  Carl Brown

  31 Oct 2009 | 6:28 am

  By: Ashley Lange, October 30, 2009We all know the frustration of losing articles of clothing. From the lost sock in the dryer to a misplaced shirt in the back of the closet, even the smallest of wardrobes lose items. It's a frustration everyone dreads.  Now imagine dreading that frustration a thousand times a day, and you're beginning to understand the feeling Excel Manufacturing wants to avoid at all costs. Excel Manufacturing is headquartered in El Paso, Texas, and is a leading supplier of Air Force Airmen Battle Uniforms, or ABUs. They ship thousands of uniforms to the Air…

• Our RFID tags can take the heat: Metal mount RFID tags withstand temperatures of up to 400 degrees Farenheit

  Ashley Lange

  24 Oct 2009 | 3:07 pm

  Sometimes all you need to track is a few file folders full of vital information. These folders probably won't leave the safe confines of your office or building, and probably don't need to stand up to much more than some overzealous handlers or a spilled cup of coffee. For that task, RFID tags optimized for use on cardboard or paper paired with high definition cameras and readers will probably suffice.  But sometimes you need something tougher. You need a tag that can withstand the heat and the rain and lots of handling and difficult situations. As you might imagine, not all…

• 
  TechNation Australia

• The End.

  Kim Heras

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

  This is the end, my friends. It’s with great pleasure I announce that, as of today, TechNation Australia (TNA) will no longer be updated. Instead, I have joined The Next Web network of tech blogs as editor of The Next Web Australia (TNW AU). The Next Web is making a concerted effort to become one of the top tech blog networks in the world. Their focus on tech news from all over the world will likely see them successful in their attempts. To everyone who helped make TNA the best tech-startup focused blog in Australia, I’d like to say a huge “Thanks”. That goes to the writers who…

• More Mainstream Media for the Crowd-Sourcing Movement

  Kim Heras

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:34 pm

  Good to see mainstream media catching up on the growth of Crowd-Sourcing and speaking with some of our favourite local tech guys, Ross “Mr Enterprise 2.0″ Dawson and Design Bay Founder and MD, Alec Lynch. The story is a good overview of the pros and cons of the crowd-sourcing space, including the debarcle that was “iSnack 2.0″. Dawson makes some really interesting points about the coordination barriers that have the potential to get in the way of the crowd-sourcing movement. Anyone who’s ever tried to deal with multiple suppliers on any outsourcing or…

• TeamStream Launches, Aims To Change The Way News Is Read Inside Companies

  Kim Heras

  9 Nov 2009 | 4:17 pm

  For a couple of years now, the team at WotNews (formerly Plugger) have been using semantic technology to change the way people access and use news. They’ve done it through the self-titled site Wotnews and it’s Austalian, UK and US sites, through the super-popular WeAreHunted and CelebrityHunted and through a leading edge Australian share-trading platform called Macquarie Edge. The team has now decided to tackle one of the toughest questions in the realm of digital content at the moment - Is there a sustainable business model for news in an era when people don’t want to pay for…

• ChipHacker Launches Knowledge Exchange For Electronics Hackers

  Kim Heras

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:41 pm

  ChipHacker has launched a knowledge sharing community with the aim of bringing electronics hackers from all over the world together to share their skills and experience. The site is another to use StackOverflow’s StackExchange as its platform (TheNextWeb recently ran a story on another site using it, Startups.com). I have to agree with Zee’s comments in that article in that ChipHacker looks somewhat soul-less at the moment. On that note, I wonder about the whole Stack Overflow phenomenon and whether or not it’s success is due more to the fame of its founders, Joel Spolsky and Jeff…

• Shmotter Looking To Take Virtual Fashion Styling To The Next Level

  Kim Heras

  5 Nov 2009 | 2:32 am

  Shmotter, a Melbourne-based start-up, is looking to take on the world of virtual fashion styling by helping wanna-be Rachel Zoe’s perfect their look for the day without having to put a single thing on. The site allows users to select clothes from their large catalogue, mix and match them with accessories, create outfits and collages, then post those up on the site for discussion and rating. If you’re thinking that sounds like the leading site in the space, Polyvore, then you’d be right. Shmotter takes it to another level, though, by allowing users to scan in and upload their own…

• 
  Business Startup Success Club

• True or False?

  Sheryl

  11 Nov 2009 | 4:39 pm

  If you need to get some cash out of your business checking account, it’s OK to take a little bit out when you make a deposit… What’s your answer: true or false? Why? Social Bookmarking

• What’s Wrong With This Deposit Slip?

  Sheryl

  9 Nov 2009 | 5:46 pm

  Do you notice anything strange about this deposit slip? I’ll give you a clue. Look carefully at what’s not on it. Here’s a copy of the back of the deposit slip. I had only one item to deposit—an affiliate commission check for one of the services I use and recommend. You’ll notice that I filled it out with an abbreviation for the payor. If you know me at all or have read past issues of my technology tips newsletter, then you know I’m a stickler for doing things the easiest way possible, saving keystrokes (or in this instance penstrokes) whenever I can. So…

• QuickBooks 2010: Should You Buy It Now?

  Sheryl

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

  It’s that time of year again, when many QuickBooks users are faced with the decision about whether to upgrade or stick with what they have—at least for now. First time buyers are often tempted to buy last year’s software at great closeout prices as retailers clear their shelves to make way for the latest greatest release. So, what’s a buyer to do? What’s the smartest decision to make THIS year? Well, that depends on your particular situation. Some of the most important considerations are your budget, your data format, and your individual work style. Here are some…

• Contest: Win a CPA in a Box!

  Sheryl

  16 Oct 2009 | 1:40 pm

  Announcing the CPA in a Box Contest (that’s a Certified Public Accountant with over 30 years experience).  This contest closed 10.31.09. What you’ll win: The 2-CD QuickBooks training set No More QuickBooks Headaches, Online Sellers Edition (reg price $67.99) plus 30 days of personal support in my private QuickBooks forum where I’ll answer your questions about how to set up the books for your company. How to win: Write one paragraph about the biggest bookkeeping challenge you have with your online sales (e.g. keeping track of inventory, cost of goods sold, PayPal charges) and what kind…

• Growing Your Business Online

  Sheryl

  7 Oct 2009 | 10:21 am

  My friend Lesley Johnston, of Internet Growth Systems, is offering a free 6-week teleseminar training program for small business owners.  Lesley will teach you exactly what you should be doing to manage your business online.  She’ll explain what tools are available for you to easily create the content for your web site (including Joomla and WordPress), how to market your web site, how to make money from your web site, and how to analyze your results. She’ll also teach you how to use the latest social media platforms like Twitter and FaceBook to promote your business.  Each call…

• 
  FairSoftware's Blog

• First Co-Founders MeetUp: Lessons Learned

  Alain Raynaud

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:22 pm

  70 people showed up at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View for the first Co-Founders MeetUp. It was pretty clear that everyone enjoyed the event and was quite happy to have been part of the first of what is shaping to become a long series of co-founders meetups (in Silicon Valley and elsewhere). Basic Format 10 founders had 3 minutes (and 3 slides) each to pitch their company and co-founder opening to the audience. It guaranteed a quick pace for everyone, so that if a company wasn’t of interest to you, it wouldn’t be long before something else would. Show Your Personal Side But the…

• The Case of the Missing Stars: Why a Startup Community Can Thrive Nonetheless

  Alain Raynaud

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am

  If you are like me, you like the new startup community formed at OnStartups.com. Lots of questions from people looking into creating or advancing their startup, and lots of good answers. However, a promise from Dharmesh, the founder, was that “startup stars” would participate: I have a long list of exceptional entrepreneurs I know well enough to arm-twist into participating in the community. Here’s a sample (in no specific order): Adam Smith, Xobni Drew Houston, DropBox Jay Meattle, Shareaholic Mike McDerment, FreshBooks Neil Davidson, RedGate Software, Business of Software…

• Joel vs. Joel on Startup Discussions: And The Winner Is…

  Alain Raynaud

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:52 am

  If you are curious about maybe one day doing your own startup, you should know about a new discussion site called Answers OnStartups. It uses StackOverflow’s software but focuses on the art of starting your own company. The only previous decent online forum covering that topic is the Business of Software forum of Joel on Software. Which one is better? I’ll give you the quick answer first, then the long answer. Quick answer: OnStartups. Long answer: The StackOverflow software is just superior for navigating discussions. A major weakness of the BoS forum is that it’s hard to…

• Interview: Founders of Aucadia.com, where Fans Get Involved in the Bands They Love

  Alain Raynaud

  29 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am

  Aucadia.com is a community website aimed at musicians and fans where the fans can get involved with the bands they love. It’s such a cool project, we had to find out more from Robin and Owen Spottiswoode, the two co-founders. Alain: Tell us about your product and maybe where the idea came from, or why you think this is important Robin: The idea came from research I was doing for a presentation on Digital Rights Management whilst I was at university. I was simultaneously fascinated and appalled at the way the music industry operated. I was fascinated at the audacity of an industry for…

• Instant Idea Feedback for Entrepreneurs

  Alain Raynaud

  27 Oct 2009 | 10:59 am

  When you just found a great idea for an app, the first step (after the initial excitement subsides) is to gather feedback from as many people as you can. That’s what we just made really simple now on FairSoftware with our new feedback widget. Once you setup your idea and enter a description, the community can give you instant feedback on three key elements: Here are some examples: Is there a market for bugcollect, a web site that collects logging and crash reporting information (early feedback from community seems to indicate so)? Can a Facebook game of power and political intrigue make…

• 
  IDDICTIVE.COM

• Critics Go Mystery Shopping

  Mark Nagurski

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:39 pm

  I was giving a talk on entrepreneurship to a group of students at my old secondary school today and we started discussing how to marry up your passions with cool business ideas. One of the students was a ‘foodie’ so we spent 20 minutes or so kicking around business ideas that would suit. In addition to the kinds of ideas you’d expect (start a restaurant, launch catering business, that kind of thing) we came up with a few ideas that, on first inspection, sound pretty cool. When someone mentioned the idea of becoming a food critic, we pitched ideas about creating the next…

• Getting a MentalWorkout on Your iPhone

  Mark Nagurski

  9 Nov 2009 | 4:07 am

  Mobile apps are, of course, big business – the iPhone app store in particular has over 100,000 available apps – with over 2 BILLION downloads to date. And while the bulk of apps can be broadly classed as either games or simple productivity tools, there are also a growing number of more content based apps making their way onto the scene. MentalWorkout for example, produce apps designed to help make your life better: Mental Workout designs, develops, and markets mobile applications focused on improving lives by helping people resolve issues and increase mental performance. The…

• Insulin Inhaler: No Needles Required

  Mark Nagurski

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

  Many sufferers of diabetes have to put up with the daily ritual of insulin injections to help keep their blood sugar in check. Not nice. Thankfully, a new plam-sized inhaler before the Food and Drug Administration in America might just prove a more discreet and less painful alternative. The inhaler, developed by California-based MannKind Corporation, contains an insulin powder which passes from the lungs into the blood stream. While insulin inhalers have been tried before – Pfizer launched one in 2006 but it was so large and awkward that it never really caught on – this one seems…

• Garden to Clear? Rent a Goat

  Mark Nagurski

  4 Nov 2009 | 12:47 pm

  Have some brush that needs clearing? No problems. Seattle-based Rent-a-Ruminant will rent you a herd of 100 goats to munch through it – no machinery, no pesticides, no permits required. Apparently 60 goats can get through 10,000 sq ft in 3-5 days (not bad) and their little hooves are better suited to uneven terrain than chunky earth movers. At about $700 a day, they’re not cheap but likely cheaper than the alternatives and you get that warm green fuzzy feeling too. Possibly a nice option for diversifying farmers? More: Goats on Good.is Pic: Flickr Creative Commons (nbraier)

• Berlin Wall 2.0

  Mark Nagurski

  3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, its back again – in virtual form at least. Berlin-based company Metaversum creates ‘realistic replicas of the world’s most vibrant cities in 3D’ via their virtual world Twinity. They have already created virtual versions of Berlin and Singapore, with London soon to launch. To help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, they have rebuilt a section in virtual Berlin in partnership with the Berlin Senate and Berlin.de. Rather suitably it was launched with a press conference in front of a virtual…

• 
  SoftwareCEO

• New blog: From Clicks to Customers

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  I'd like to welcome a new blogger into the fold. Susan Tatum is a co-founder of Clicks ‘n Conversions, a marketing firm specializing in helping software and tech companies use their websites to turn more visitors into paying customers at greater profits. She's also been a guest instructor at Software University (see her class syllabus here). No matter how remarkable your product is - no matter how much buzz and traffic you've generated - not everyone arrives at your website ready to pull out a credit card. Most of them are going to go through a few decision points to get there. Find out…

• How Plex Systems took off like a rocket with SaaS: 11 tips

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  Plex Systems is aiming at the moon, literally. SaaS from Plex was used on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and the International Space Station. Founded in 1995, company revenues will likely hit $27 million this year. From a strong base in automotive, serial entrepreneur and CEO Mark Symonds is now probing other verticals like food and life sciences. Plex Online is all about helping manufacturers keep track of their processes, and trace any errors back to their source. In this week's exclusive Feature of the Week, Symonds gave us 11 tips on how to build a company that takes off like…

• How to protect your IP with patents: 10 tips (part 1 of 2)

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  What's the worst fear of any software CEO? How about waking up one morning and realizing that someone has stolen your breakthrough idea, or even your code? What can you do? Where do you start? How can you afford to pick a fight with a much bigger competitor? To find some answers, we spoke to Washington, DC-based attorney Susan Pan, a partner in law firm Sughrue Mion. She gave us so much down-to-earth advice that we made this article a two-parter. In this week's Tips & Tactics, Part 1 covers how to protect your IP with patents.

• Get involved in CompTIA's new member communities

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  CompTIA's creating several exciting new communities for its members. These groups are designed to encourage industry collaboration and engagement with thought leaders, set industry standards and best practices, identify industry benchmarks, enable peer-to-peer networking, facilitate industry growth, and more. The communities are member-directed, giving you the opportunity to work on issues that interest you the most. Currently we're launching communities covering Cloud/SaaS, Software, Healthcare IT, IT Security, Small Business Owners, and more. The IT Security group has a meeting coming up…

• 
  Ops gone wild - rants and raves from the startup trenches

• Time to end the frat house culture! We need more women in our midst.

  Apolinaras Sinkevicius

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:32 pm

  Time to end the frat house culture! We need more women in our midst. is a post from: Lean Startup Blog - rants and raves from the startup trenches. One of the top five issues I’m passionate about is the need to increase the number of women executives, techies, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Why does this subject get so much of my mental energy? Progress is too slow! We are raising the next generation in an environment where women are still impeded by their gender.  Parents only want the best for their children, and we need to make sure our girls are judged on their merits. There is…

• Thinking about joining a family-owned company? Watch out for stormy waters!

  Apolinaras Sinkevicius

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:55 pm

  Thinking about joining a family-owned company? Watch out for stormy waters! is a post from: Lean Startup Blog - rants and raves from the startup trenches. Many wonderful small businesses around the world, from restaurants to product manufacturers, are run by families.  In my opinion, these companies have a lot of longevity built into them, because exit strategies rarely cross the minds of founders, and family ties keep the employee retention rate high. But, there is the caveat: family businesses are great… if you are a member of the family. If you are an outsider, there are several…

• Companies that become unionized deserve it!

  Apolinaras Sinkevicius

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:52 pm

  Companies that become unionized deserve it! is a post from: Lean Startup Blog - rants and raves from the startup trenches. Back when I lived in Chicago, I had the pleasure of working with a really grounded and wise CFO. He was an “old dog” with a CV many would envy. During one of our conversations about work environments, he said something that stuck with me: “companies that get unions deserve them”. If you treat your people fairly, invest in them, and genuinely care about their future, no union or union mentality has any reason to exist in your company. So how do we make sure our…

• Beware of corporate cockroaches

  Apolinaras Sinkevicius

  22 Oct 2009 | 1:15 pm

  Beware of corporate cockroaches is a post from: Lean Startup Blog - rants and raves from the startup trenches. I was recently overheard a conversation on the T (Boston’s subway) between two coworkers who were scheming on how to take more “sick time” without getting caught, brown-nose their boss to get what they want, and stay under the radar. These two individuals were corporate cockroaches! I have an allergy to corporate cockroaches that no EpiPen can cure. They are the spoon of crap that ruins a barrel of honey and the rotten apples in a bushel of good ones. Nothing makes me angrier…

• How to ask for help

  Apolinaras Sinkevicius

  13 Oct 2009 | 10:53 pm

  How to ask for help is a post from: Lean Startup Blog - rants and raves from the startup trenches. I was recently helping a good friend with some logistics for an event she was organizing and I got a little frustrated, because I knew I could have contributed more if she would have asked for my help earlier. This inspired me to say: “Emmi, I am going to write an article about how to ask for help!” In any business endeavor when resources are tight (e.g. money, time, sleep, etc), one must know how to ask for help or a favor. So why am I using Emmi as an example? Let me start by saying that…

• 
  Xconomy

• Ironwood Files to Go Public, Seeks to Raise as Much as $172.5M

  Luke Timmerman

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:43 pm

  Biotech, deals, startups Luke Timmerman wrote: Ironwood Pharmaceuticals is gearing up for the possibility of an IPO. The Cambridge, MA-based developer of a new treatment for bowel disorders like for irritable bowel syndrome and chronic constipation said it may raise as much as $172.5 million from investors through the deal, according to a prospectus filed late today. The proposed offering would be underwritten by JP Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, and Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences. The prospectus doesn’t list how many shares it hopes to…

• Advertisement:

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:43 pm

• Blue Marble Snags $2M State Grant

  Luke Timmerman

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:10 pm

  cleantech, Biofuels, startups Luke Timmerman wrote: Seattle-based Blue Marble Energy, the developer of renewable energy and specialty chemicals from biomass, said it has received a $2 million state grant through a partnership with the Odessa Public Development Authority. The company plans to use the grant, from the Washington Community Economic Revitalization Board, to build a refinery in Lincoln County that will turn organic biomass from around Eastern Washington into as much as 858 metric tons of biochemicals and 700 metric tons of green ammonia per year, says CEO Kelly Ogilvie, in an…

• Google Demos Chrome OS, Microsoft Links Into LinkedIn, Amazon Ramps Up for Holidays, & More Big Company News

  Gregory T. Huang

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:16 pm

  Public Companies, startups, trends Gregory T. Huang wrote: It’s been a busy week around here for the big tech companies. At Xconomy, we don’t usually report on things like product releases from Microsoft or sales figures from Amazon—our main focus is on new ideas, models, and companies—but readers need to understand where the big players are heading so they can see the gaps and opportunities for new businesses. So, for each of these pieces of mainstream tech news, I’ll tell you why savvy innovators and business leaders should care. —Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)…

• Day Software, Web 2.0 Content Management Specialist, Moving U.S. Headquarters to Boston

  Wade Roush

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  IT, Software, Web 2.0 Wade Roush wrote: Wails of lamentation spread across the local tech community every time an entity like Zendesk or Greylock or Y Combinator departs Boston for parts west. But today we have a different tale to report. Day Software (SIX: DAYN) a Zurich, Switzerland-based content management software specialist that builds interactive websites for Fortune-1000 giants like Adobe and General Motors, is about to move its U.S. headquarters from Newport Beach, CA, to Boston. When it comes to the software platforms and interactive content that define the world of Web 2.0 commerce,…

• 
  Jim Kukral - Small Business Consultant

• This Is Why I Love Affiliate Marketing

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:34 pm

  I was working out today and when I came back I checked my email and saw this. Dear jim kukral, new sale / lead was registered by our affiliate program. Sale details: Total cost: 164.00 Commission from this sale: 54.12 I made $54.12 during my workout, for doing nothing. When I teach students about this, it blows them away. This is what good affiliate marketing can do for you. These are the kinds of things that happen multiple times a day for me because I put the right pieces in place to drive visitors to content that includes my affiliate links. Make high-quality, problem-solving content and…

• Passion

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:44 am

  The other day I posted about how to do a successful Webinar. One of the things we didn’t have time to cover in that podcast was passion, and how important it is for you to show it in your voice. I do an enormous amount of online teaching as well as teleseminars, podcasts, Webinars, videos and online teaching for the University of San Francisco Online. If there’s one thing I pride myself on is my passion for the topic at hand, and specifically how I convey it through my voice when I’m speaking. On stage in person too. When I’m talking to someone on a class who’s…

• Greed=Failure

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

  If you’re going to charge more for your product/service, then you better make sure you deliver more. I’m constantly amazed by how greedy business owners can be. They work so hard to build up a brand that people love, and when the first sign of success hits them, they scale back and raise prices and make their product not as good. That’s pure greed. Here’s a tip. You can raise prices, fine. But you can’t scale back quality at the same time. Restaurants do this all the time. My family used to frequent Boston Market all the time as a Friday night dinner spot. But…

• Webinars

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am

  I just wrapped up a podcast with friend Greg Friese about Webinars. If you are at all interested in using Webinars to close more business or train or educate a group of people, a Webinar is for you. Download here. More specifically, you will learn: What software options to use for Webinars How to promote your Webinar How to use a Webinar for training, sales and education Other fantastic tips and tricks both Greg and I use This is one of the most informative podcasts I’ve ever done on a niche topic. Please let me know what you think, and share any tips you have in the comments.

• Disclosure

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:43 pm

  I have a disclosure policy now, do you? Do you have one? If you don’t, you may want to get one in place soon as the FTC will be tightening up the noose on bloggers coming on December 1st, 2009. It’s funny, as an affiliate marketer and long-time blogger, I’ve learned these things. 1. Disclosing actually strengthens your affiliate links 2. The vast majority of readers really don’t care, or even know, and once they know, they don’t care. Assuming you’re not trying to deceive them that is. Ted Murphy at Izea just released another round of super-juicy, well-done…

• 
  Information Marketing

• My First Half Marathon Story..

  saripalli

  26 Oct 2009 | 3:16 pm

  My wife had been thinking of running a marathon for a long time but due to work, baby and other commitments she could not get herself in a position to participate in one. She thought of running the Silicon Valley marathon but then she could not prepare herself and did not register. All along I [...]

• Information Marketing: The 5 Questions I Inevitably Ask Everyone Of My Guests

  saripalli

  14 Oct 2009 | 5:55 pm

  This past weekend I was attending Jerry D Clark’s Rhino Millionaire Intensive in Dallas… One of the attendees asked Jerry for a list of interview questions, that he can use to conduct his interviews. Over the years I have done several teleseminars and interviewed many successful people on my blog. Over these many years I have [...]

• Internet Income Summit: Video Snippets

  saripalli

  2 Oct 2009 | 2:06 pm

  Last few days had been hectic, spending late nights with my video team to finish the editing of Internet Income Summit footage. I can tell you the content on this footage is simply amazing. Great speakers, great concepts. I was running around and conducting the seminar and I hardly sat through other presentations. Thank god [...]

• Your Employees Need A Sence Of Visible Contribution, Let Them Blog

  saripalli

  29 Sep 2009 | 11:37 am

  When you’re running a business blog you want to make sure everything in it is tailored to your business, properly SEO oriented and a whole bunch of other things that are going to make it appealing to both your readers and the search engines. Keeping that in mind, it’s easy to develop a slightly overpossessive [...]

• My Recent Presentation On Search Engine Optimization

  saripalli

  23 Sep 2009 | 9:57 am

  “Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die”. In the internet marketing business, everybody wants free traffic or get to the first page of Google, but hardly anybody wants to deal with demands of SEO. Most people consider SEO to be a high skilled job and the demand for SEO experts [...]

• 
  This is going to be Big

• First Round Fridays: BigDeal.com launches competitive shopping site

  CEO

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am

  Yesterday, I bought an Xbox off of BigDeal.com, one of our First Round Capital portfolio companies. I spent nearly an hour and a half bidding against some guy to try and buy at increments from about $18 all the way to $168.  I tried every strategy I knew…  holding out to the last second to try and lull him into a sense of security and then jump in…  then brute forcing it by counterbidding every second all throughout the $30 and $60 range to try to wear him out.  It was an addictive bidding frenzy—and my downside was just buying it at the Amazon price, so I couldn’t really lose. …

• Shakeshackville in the Fall

  CEO

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:48 am

  Shakeshackville in the Fall, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

• Thinking about going from Employee #23515 to Employee #5? nextNY MatchupCamp

  CEO

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

  I've been thinking a lot about where entrepreneurs and startup talent come out of in NYC. A lot of folks believe that you can train people coming out of the financial services base to do something entrepreneurial, but honestly, I'm not so sure about that. What I do think, however, is that it takes more than just a visionary leader or a ninja-level hacker to start a business. There are tons of startup companies in New York City, many already making money or well funded, that are looking for top supporting talent--engineers, designers, salespeople, business development pros, product managers,…

• Launching my weekly e-mail notes on the New York innovation community

  CEO

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am

  Wow… what a long way we’ve come.  In February 2006, I started nextNY because the only community-wide event in town was the NY Tech Meetup and, at the time, it didn’t have much community about it.  I think I was member #71 and now it’s got over 10,000.  At the same time, the NY tech community has exploded with events, both educational and social.  One look at GarysGuide and you can get quickly overwhelmed. A number of people asked me at recent nextNY events how they can find out about what’s going on.  Pointing a busy entrepreneur or executive to the nextNY listserv, which…

• First Round Fridays: Pimping out your friends with Thread

  CEO

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  Last week, First Round Capital had its annual meeting, where we got to walk through our portfolio with our investors.  Honestly, I didn’t realize how many cool companies we had invested in, so I’m going to take the time each Friday to highlight another company. Since I got a “One of Josh Kopelman’s friends likes your photo” note from Thread yesterday, that’s going to be today’s spotlight. Thread is a pretty simple concept: Meet people through your friends on Facebook.  Now, conceptually, meeting people through social networks is a good idea—but we all know how unappealing…

• 
  Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

• When Is The Right Time To Launch Your Product?

  http://ReplytoYaro.com (Yaro Starak)

  21 Nov 2009 | 12:52 am

  During the last coaching call I did with my members the question of when is the right time to launch your product online came up repeatedly from different people. The question isn’t about timing in terms of day or night, or what day of the week, or time of the year you should launch, rather what conditions need to be in place to expect a successful opening campaign. Here’s what we’re talking about… How many subscribers do you need on your email list? How many RSS subscribers on your blog should you have? How many unique visitors to your websites do you need? How many…

• Who Makes More Money – Authors, Bloggers or Internet Marketers?

  http://ReplytoYaro.com (Yaro Starak)

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:09 pm

  I suspect after reading the headline of this article one of the first things that crossed your mind is how can I possibly distinguish the difference between an author, blogger and Internet marketer? Nowadays most published authors have blogs, and bloggers use Internet marketing techniques and write books too. Internet marketers also publish books and use blogs, so how can we determine the difference? In this case rather than look at the person, who can easily encompass all three of the personas we are talking about, let’s look instead at the different mediums themselves and how…

• What Content Is Best – Audio, Video Or Text?

  http://ReplytoYaro.com (Yaro Starak)

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:44 pm

  During our most recent live group coaching call with members of the programs I teach, I was asked what type of content is best. The question in particular pertained to membership sites, and I was asked whether video, audio or written content was the best for keeping members in a program. This is an interesting question. After three years of running three online courses, each with different types of content, not to mention blogging for five years using text, video and audio, I’m in a good position to at least have a perspective on the issue based on my experience. So what exactly is…

• The Secret Tactic Of The Worlds Best Marketers: Become Obsessed

  http://ReplytoYaro.com (Yaro Starak)

  10 Nov 2009 | 12:44 am

  I have a confession to make – I’m obsessed. With what I hear you ask? With cars. I’ve officially become one of those men I never previously understood. Why devote so much of your brain space to knowing the ins and outs of every car ever made? Surely there are better ways to spend your time and more important things to study than those little boxes that go around on four wheels? While I can’t place the blame for my new infatuation squarely on just one thing, there was definitely a catalyst for how this addiction began. His name is Alborz Fallah, or as I call him, Al. Al and…

• How Pat Flynn Lost His Job Then Made $203,219.04 In His First Year Online

  http://ReplytoYaro.com (Yaro Starak)

  5 Nov 2009 | 4:41 am

  Press play to begin streaming the audio or right click the text link and choose save as or save link. Download the MP3 [ 49 Minutes - 22 MB ] Pat Flynn has an inspiring story that you must listen to if you are like many people around the world who recently lost their job and want to transition to making an income online from your own business. Pat lost his job as an architect and decided to start an Internet business. His blog was originally set up as a website to store his notes while studying a special type of architecture qualification called the LEED exam. The blog started receiving lots…

• 
  Men With Pens

• Why You Shouldn’t Stick to Your Niche

  James

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  When people out of the blue get in touch with me and offer a guest post, I usually approach the situation with skepticism. It’s like dating – don’t make a move for a home run when we haven’t even gotten to first base yet. So I replied to FitJerk’s offer with the same skepticism, and then some. “I don’t GET why you want to guest post – my readers aren’t even your target market. You’re into athletics; we’re into business and writing. What’s in this for you?” In short, I couldn’t figure out his angle, his game,…

• Are You Afraid of Success? We Bet Yes.

  Taylor

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  I have discovered something about myself. I’m terrified of success. Not just terrified. I’m willing to put my health at risk, my reputation, and my financial security. I’m willing to do just about anything, if I can avoid being successful. You probably are too. Some of you are thinking that I am nuttier than a Planter’s convention, but I assure you that this blog post was not made on machinery containing nuts. My parents assure me that neither was my brain, so we are living in a nut-free zone, here. This is a harsh truth, and the sooner we all own up to it, the better. We’re…

• How You Might Be Losing Clients Without Even Knowing It

  James

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Most customer experiences you’ll have are fairly average. Not great, not horrible, just somewhere in the middle. Very often, that average experience occurs because the grand majority of people in customer service positions don’t have the training they need to give you exemplary service every time. Excellent customer service isn’t something we’re all born with. It’s learned. Yes, you’ll meet people who really stand out and make you feel great for having done business with them, but you’ll meet a lot more that just do their job and get by. You’ll also meet people that suck.

• How to Keep Your Blog From Losing Weight During the Holidays

  Taylor

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  When the holidays roll around, we people worry about packing on the pounds. But your blog has a tendency to lose the ability to throw its weight around. More distractions, parties, and yeah, good food means we’re more prone to neglect our blog writing during the holidays – and that means your blog looks mighty lean come the new year. So how do you avoid slimming your blog down during the holidays when you have other stuff to do? Here are three ways to keep your blog nice and solid. (As for managing your own weight, you’ll have to find a different blog. I, for one, intend to eat so much…

• The Freelancer’s Guide to Working With Clients That SUCK

  James

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:41 am

  Today’s post comes to us from an international authority in copywriting and peer of mine that I respect highly, Dean Rieck of Direct Creative and

• 
  OnStartups

• Answers OnStartups Roundup 1 - March of the parentheticals

  Jason Cohen

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  By now you've probably heard of Answers OnStartups, the new Q&A community for any topic about startups and entrepreneurship. If not, here's Dharmesh's announcement. I have the good fortune of being asked to co-moderate the site with Dharmesh, probably as a result of the popularity of a few provocative but useful guest-posts here on OnStartups. (Note to those of you hoping to expand your influence in the blogosphere and beyond -- take the advice from Leo and Darren and Mary and, I suppose, me: Guest-posting is a good way to do it!) What does "moderation" mean, you ask? I took it mean "Get…

• Adam Smith Video On The Story Of Xobni

  Dharmesh Shah

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm

  As noted in my previous article on startup marketing, I had the opportunity to speak at the MIT Startup bootcamp recently.  My friend, and an all-around great guy, Adam Smith (founder of Xobni) spoke earlier that day.  Adam did a great job capturing the experience of starting a company and watching a company grow.  Adam's both brilliant and articulate.  Well worth watching the video.  Here are some quick notes from the video (to help entice you to watch). 1.  If you can improve email just a little bit, you can create a lot of value.   2.  PG: "Go shake…

• Dharmesh On Startup Marketing: Video From MIT Startup Bootcamp

  Dharmesh Shah

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm

  I recently had the opportunity to speak at the MIT Startup Bootcamp held at the MIT Kresge Auditorium (a great venue that President Obama spoke at just a couple of weeks later). This was a fantastic event with a packed house (1,000+ people in the live audience) where some great entrepreneurs had a chance to share their experiences and insights.  I was a little nervous in the beginning (as usual), but once I warmed up, I think I did OK. Here's a recorded video of my talk.    Hope you enjoy the video. Would love to hear your comments and questions. Looking for other startup…

• Startups: How To Build A Barrier To Entry With Inbound Marketing

  Dharmesh Shah

  20 Oct 2009 | 1:16 am

  I’ve been doing a fair amount of speaking lately.  It’s partly driven by my recently released book, Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs (which is doing exceptionally well -- more below on this). The topics I usually speak on are startups (surprise) and marketing (surprise, surprise).  And, when I’m really on a roll and feeling adventurous, I talk about startup marketing. First off, a quick confession.  I’m not really a marketer, and I don’t play one on TV.  I’ve never had the word marketing in my job title, ever.  The closest…

• Holy Crap! HubSpot Has Now Raised A Total Of $33 Million

  Dharmesh Shah

  19 Oct 2009 | 2:12 am

  It has been a little over a year since I announced the news that my marketing software startup closed it’s Series B round of funding.  The article, “Insanity? Why A Bootstrap Entrepreneur Raised $17 Million in Venture Funding”, was a candid glimpse into the rationale for raising what seemed like a huge amount of money to me at the time (it seemed huge, because it was — at least to me). Today, we’ve released news that HubSpot has just closed on another $16 million funding round (our Series C) bringing our total capital raised to a whopping $33…

• 
  Click to Client

• Spread the Word about The Marketing Zen Group – and WIN BIG!

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:32 am

  That’s right! Click To Client is now known as The Marketing Zen Group. = ) Please help us spread the word and WIN! 1) Tweet, Share on Facebook or your Blog, etc. – just get the message out. You can even embed this video! Some sample tweets: “COOL! @Shama launches www.MarketingZen.com (formerly Click To Client).” “Check out the brand new -www.MarketingZen.com (formerly Click To Client).” “Great Online Marketing Resource! www.MarketingZen.com (formerly Click To Client).” 2) Comment below and let us know how you got the message out. Prizes will be…

• 11 Ways to Rock a Conference

  Shama

  21 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

  At this point, I have attended tons of conferences – and spoken at well over a dozen just this past year. After coming back from the fabulous Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, I thought it was time to share some of my tips for making the most of a conference. 1) Stay Hydrated – Seems simple – but I can’t tell you how easy it is to forget when you are running around. Carry a bottle of water with you at all times. It can be so easy to lose your energy by the end of the day. Stay hydrated, and you will thank yourself when everyone else is falling apart. 2) Hire a Private…

• Facebook Launches “Like” Feature for All Ads

  Shama

  23 Sep 2009 | 1:58 pm

  Beginning this September, Facebook will be including a “Like” feature alongside ads on their website. This functionality will allow users to actively rate the different ads that they see, and judge whether specific ads are likeable or not. This “Like” feature is quite similar to the “Like” feature enabled for other components in Facebook. To make ad-browsing more efficient and user-friendly, Facebook will be adding an “X” on every ad. One tap on the “X” closes the current advertisement and initiates the emergence of the next ad in the chain. Either you “Like” it, or…

• Small Businesses Fly Free – A Cool Grant by British Airways

  Shama

  16 Sep 2009 | 6:39 pm

  Okay guys, I hate to do two sponsored posts in a row – but this one is too good for me not to share! I love it when in a tough economy, big businesses decide to help small businesses. British Airways is doing something just like that! They are offering a Business Opportunity Grant that will help 100 small businesses fly around the world to see their clients, attract new ones, and just do more business in general! And, while I am a huge fan of online marketing (of course), even I sometimes wish I could just go visit my clients and sit down over a cup of coffee with them. You don’t…

• How to to Maximize Your Opt-In List: A Quick Guide

  Shama

  13 Sep 2009 | 1:13 pm

  Make everything user friendly Your website is the front-end of your operations, the shining gemstone of all your marketing efforts. This is why you should make everything as painless as possible when people are trying to sign up for something. Streamline it The most important component of your offer should be clearly visible. Use simple, bright colors and clean text links. If you want your visitors to view two or three more pages, make sure that they can navigate the deeper pages with little effort. If they don’t want to navigate other pages anymore, the registration form should easily be…

• 
  Blogtrepreneur | Entrepreneur Blog

• Use Your Website To Get Purchasers to Your Physical Store

  As we transition more toward a virtual world, it is quite amazing to see that more than 50% of “bricks and mortar” businesses do not yet have a web presence. As potential consumers use Internet search engines to do their research before they go out into the real world, those companies without a website risk [...]

• Try Brizzly to Manage Your Lists

  Guess what? Twitter is making more and more sense, at least when you integrate some new applications and platforms. Brizzly, a web-based social media reader may be in beta – invite mode only right now, but it promises to elevate the usability of Twitter and even make it, dare I say it, more Facebook-ish. Brizzly has [...]

• Get Up and Running Quickly with Windows 7 Using These Free Tools

  Early reviews about Windows 7 have been largely positive and many consumers are opting to review the operating system for themselves. To some, however the prospect of migrating all the programs and applications and configuring Windows as they like it can be daunting, even though it may be time for a pretty comprehensive spring clean [...]

• Give Your Online Shoppers What They Need

  As an e-commerce retailer, one of your first priorities should be to give your website visitor as perfect an environment as possible and one which is completely conducive to consummating a sale. Unfortunately, findings of an e-commerce survey commissioned by iperceptions found that this is a perception which may be far removed from reality. Four [...]

• How To Live The 4 Hour Work Week

  Still Doing It All Yourself When it Comes To Blogging? You Need To Read This – And It’s FREE I recently stumbled across this great little report called Secrets of Outsourcing Experts Revealed – and I had to let you know about it straight away. You see, I come across SO MANY bloggers who are going [...]Check it out: Payday advanceservices for fast cash needs.

• 
  The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

• How to Hold Your Breath Like David Blaine, World Record Holder (and Now, Me)

  Tim Ferriss

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:35 am

  Last night, world-famous magician and endurance artist David Blaine taught me how to hold my breath. For four months, David held the Guinness world record for oxygen-assisted static apnea (holding your breath after breathing pure oxygen): 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds. His record was then surpassed by Tom Sietas on September 19, 2008. David’s record for doing what I’ll describe is between 7 and 8 minutes. I was born premature and, unlike David, I couldn’t then remember the last time I held my breath for more than one minute. It has always been my physiological Achilles heel.

• How to Breakdance 101: Unleash Your Inner B-Boy

  Tim Ferriss

  25 Oct 2009 | 5:54 pm

  An impromptu b-boying lesson at home after some Bulleit bourbon. Don’t drink and dance. Breakin’ 2 did it. It was 1984 and I was convinced I would be a professional breakdancer. Alas, I was seven years old, and I looked exactly like this reader who left a comment on my tango instructional post: Tim, I’m pretty impressed by your achievements in tango, but what about tips on your first love? B-boying is a sport I’ve watched and attempted for years. Sadly, the minute I go from uprock to six-step I look like a two-year-old trying to find spilled jelly-beans. I don’t…

• Sneak Peek: The New and Expanded 4-Hour Workweek is Here

  Tim Ferriss

  16 Oct 2009 | 2:34 pm

  The 4-Hour Workweek was first published April 27th, 2007. I did my best to cover all of the bases when it debuted, but there were gaps. Though I included cases studies of families using lifestyle design, for example, it was hard to find more than a few the first time around. Not anymore. Things have changed. There are more than 30,000 comments on this blog, hundreds of people have shared their successes and failures via detailed e-mail, and both case studies and experiments continue to flow in from around the world. This doesn’t mean that the current edition doesn’t do the job…

• Random Episode 6: How Kevin Rose and Glenn McElhose Got Scammed in China – Ha!

  Tim Ferriss

  8 Oct 2009 | 1:03 am

  Total length: 20 minutes. This is a weekend edition of Random. It is a happy-hour special of Chinese scams. How did Kevin and Glenn get totally screwed by Chinese “art students”? More important, how do you avoid getting scammed while traveling? This episode lays out one of the most common scams and explains how to spot similar set-ups worldwide… Show Notes from Glenn: - Open intro with weird light: Kevin shooting a laser into a “7 Cups” vessel. Animation by Tynan. - Yin Bar, Beijing – http://www.theemperor.com.cn/ - Travel Website: www.virtualtourist.com

• The Best Decline Letter of All-Time: Edmund Wilson

  Tim Ferriss

  7 Oct 2009 | 7:07 am

  (Source: Crooked Timber) Edmund Wilson, recipient of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal for Literature, was one of the most prominent social and literary critics of the 20th century. He realized, like most uber-productive people, that, while there were many behaviors needed to guarantee high output, there was one single behavior guaranteed to prevent all output: Trying to please everyone. He had a low tolerance for distraction and shunned undue public acclaim. To almost all inquiries, he would respond with the following list, putting a check mark next to what had…

• 
  Caroline Middlebrook

• Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Until Tomorrow?

  Caroline Middlebrook

  21 Nov 2009 | 3:21 am

  I’ve always been incredibly lazy and as a child I always remember my mother saying to me… “why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?” On the surface it seems like good advice – a method for being productive and getting things done but in the business world time is so precious that I always feel that it’s best to put off doing anything that doesn’t really need to be done. As regular readers will know, recently I have been beavering away at my software project and recently I announced some estimated release dates for the first couple of…

• Free Outsourcing Report & Videos

  Caroline Middlebrook

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:59 am

  Tyrone Shum contacted me last week about a new outsourcing program that he’s launching soon and sent me his free outsourcing report and links to some free videos he’s done. I’ve never quite got my head around outsourcing properly before because, as a techie person, I tend to want to do everything myself. However, as pointed out by one of my readers on the weekend’s software project update, the maintenance of my software is going to be a big and continuous job. I want to focus my time on development of new features and don’t want my time to be sucked up by doing…

• Software Project Update & Release Dates

  Caroline Middlebrook

  7 Nov 2009 | 4:03 am

  I have mentioned the software project occasionally in the odd post here and there but I haven’t written a proper update since August! So I thought it was time I did… What Software Am I Developing? The aim of this project is to build a paid membership site that provides tools for Internet marketers. Specially the tools will be designed to automatically build backlinks to your websites. Over time, a comprehensive and integrated suite of tools will be developed but I am starting with a single tool to automate social bookmarking. I have at least a dozen tools planned but will not be…

• Stats & Analysis for October ‘09 – $5,937 Earned

  Caroline Middlebrook

  2 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

  I was rather chuffed with last month as it broke my income record but this month I have earned more than double last month! Income The Bloggers Bible – $4,858.88 Bluehost – $605 Membership Site Mastermind – $328.45 Unique Article Wizard – $53.60 Traffic Rush – $44.87 The Immediate Edge – $25 Twitter Rockstar – $21.24 Total Income Earned During October 2009 – $5,937.04 The income boost this month is of course down to my birthday promotion of the Bloggers Bible which I documented shortly afterwards. This is sadly another one off so next month I expect it…

• Membership Site Mastermind Live Now – 24 Hour Bonuses

  Caroline Middlebrook

  27 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

  Yaro Starak’s Membership Site Mastermind course is live now for 3 days only, for the last time in 2009. If you buy within the first 24 hours you get a fast action bonus pack comprising: Bonus 1: Live Presentation On Buying and Selling Websites Bonus 2: Live Presentation Of How To Build A Massively Profitable Blog Bonus 3: The Keys To A Powerful and Profitable Blog Training Videos Bonus 4: “How To Use The Power Of Video To Market On The World Wide Web” – Teleconference Recording With Gideon Shalwick Bonus 5: “How To Boost Critical Conversion Points In Your Blog Business” –…

• 
  TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur's Journey

• First Sneak Peak Video of RobotWarz

  Tyler Cruz

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:55 am

  Paid Advertisement Since the development of RobotWarz has been making pretty good progress, I thought I would unveil what the game is all about. RobotWarz is an online robot fighting game in an arena-style environment. The best way to describe it would be as a combination of the old 1995 PC game One Must Fall 2097 and the recent Flash game MyBrute. However, we actually borrowed elements and play design ideas from several games including World of Warcraft (respecing) and Fallout 3 (Attribute upgrading). Only two-and-a-half weeks in, we’re obviously still in the very early stages of…

• How to Make Visitors Reach For Their Wallets

  SeanPlatt

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:23 am

  Paid Advertisement Great job! You’ve finally finished development of your killer new product. You’ve done your homework, your ducks are neatly lined in a row, and you’re ready to rule the world with your wonderful widget. Your web design is aces, the traffic nearly guaranteed, and your copy is so clean it practically sparkles. Now how can you make certain those who land on your page aren’t clicking away without reaching for their wallets? The key is in conversion. When a visitor first arrives at your site, you must be mindful of what you want them to do. Whether it’s signing up for…

• Updates on My Robot Game

  Tyler Cruz

  11 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm

  Paid Advertisement A lot of you seem to be quite interested in the robot game I am developing, so here’s an update on how thing’s have been progressing. First, I’ll reveal a bit more about the actual game. The game is called RobotWarz, located at RobotWarz.com, and is an online multiplayer flash-based game where players can quickly sign-up for a free account. They they build their own custom robot, which has many customizable options, and then proceed to fight other robots in an arena-style environment. Only a couple of weeks in, we’re obviously still only in the very early…

• Can You Start Affiliate Marketing from Nothing?

  Dan

  8 Nov 2009 | 9:23 pm

  Paid Advertisement This is a guest post by Dan Walker. Dan hasn’t been in the affiliate marketing game that long but gives out some great tips and technical tricks at Dans Blog. To coin an old saying; everybody has to start somewhere. This is also true of affiliate marketing, there would have been a day where some of the super affiliates you read about now earned nothing or even made a loss. Retrospectively you could say they came from nothing to the riches they enjoy today, but the whole idea of coming “Zero to Hero” in something like affiliate marketing often gives off the…

• The New Movie Vault Finally Launches

  Tyler Cruz

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:11 pm

  If you’re wondering where the hell I’ve been for the past week, it’s because we finally launched the new Movie-Vault.com on November 2nd. Unfortunately, there were a lot of technical issues that arose which required most of my time and attention. We tested the new site on the development server over and over again, but it seems that no matter how much you prepare for a massive revamp on an existing site, there will always be issues. It is always much easier launching a brand new site from scratch that it is revamping an existing site because you don’t have to worry about content…

• 
  Inventor Spot

• Top Ten Holiday Stores For Social Media Gifts

  Ron Callari

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  Gifting your favorite social networking netizen this year doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. A lot of entrepreneurial and social networking online store sites are selling some very unique social media-oriented gifts this holiday season. And with just a few mouse clicks, you can purchase that special gift that demonstrates just how social you are.

• Tumbleweed Tiny Houses: The Smallest House Builder On The Planet

  Beth Hodgson

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  Recently we saw little buildings that could be transported by trailer to be used as offices, storage locations and other shelters, but these were lacking in some obvious amenities. Another builder of teeny tiny houses uses a similar building plan, buts creates houses that are a bit more liveable.

• Hearing Aid Jewelry: Bling That Flaunt’s The Hearing Impaired’s Best Accessories

  Fashion Finds

  21 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  Many children and adults alike who wear hearing aids, particularly prior to their senior years, feel self-conscious about their hearing aids. To try to change this, one confident girl has created a new accessory that makes hearing aids something to flaunt, not hide.

• Kindle vs Nook & Sony e-Reader For The Holidays!

  Ron Callari

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:48 am

  Sony, in its latest attempt to compete head-on with Amazon's Kindle's  and Barnes & Noble's Nook success is attempting to open a storefront online of its own. Despite its previous failure at a similar venture back in 2005, is Sony ready for a comeback?And if not, does Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble's Nook win in this year's Holiday Sweepstakes?

• GM Green-Lights the Cadillac Converj Hybrid

  George Delozier

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:07 pm

  Earlier this year, GM unveiled the electrically powered Cadillac Converj to the world. At the time, it was unclear how long it would take to hit the showroom floors or if it would hit them at all. Now, there are several sources claiming to have confirmation of a production version of the ultra-sleek hybrid luxury car.

• 
  mokoyfman.com

• NYC at dusk, in all her glory.

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:55 pm

  NYC at dusk, in all her glory.

• Solange Knowles, Stillness is the Move (Dirty Projectors...

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:53 am

  Solange Knowles, Stillness is the Move (Dirty Projectors cover) Dre’s Explosive bass-line is pure sickness.

• Ima Robot, Dynomite Saw the amazing Edward Sharpe & The...

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm

  Ima Robot, Dynomite Saw the amazing Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes show last night.  So today a little shout out to where it all began — Ima Robot.

• Vampire Weekend, Cousins The new single.  Turn it up.

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:52 am

  Vampire Weekend, Cousins The new single.  Turn it up.

• bijan: Come In Please - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic...

  16 Nov 2009 | 1:06 pm

  bijan: Come In Please - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros I can’t wait to see this show tomorrow night at the Bowery Ballroom Ditto.

• 
  Force of Good

• Atlanta Launches

  Lance Weatherby

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am

  Not too long ago Rob Kischuk issued a challenge.  Essentially he threw down the gauntlet to Atlanta Startup Weekend participants.  If you are going to play, play with the intent to launch. Paul Stamatiou took up the rally cry.  And Paul had a pretty consistent question during the opening pitches.  "Can you build it in a weekend?" Atlanta has a strong Startup Weekend history.  Both Skribit and Twitpay were companies that made it out of the gate before the end of the weekend.  Both have received seed funding.  There is a bit of a legacy to uphold.  The big plan was select and…

• Foursquare Business Model

  Lance Weatherby

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:05 am

  Yesterday afternoon a friend of mine checked in to The Commerce Club on foursquare.  I had never heard of the place so I two tapped down to learn more.   Note the green special nearby call out.  It led to this loyalty/promotional offer from the Red Moon Cafe. Interesting. 

• Incubation in Georgia

  Lance Weatherby

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am

  ChubbyBrain, whose name is perhaps only surpassed by BackPackBuddy, is issuing a series of reports on the state of incubators around the nation.  They recently covered Georgia.  Not surprisingly, ATDC dominates the market with over a 50% share when you combine the Atlanta and Savannah results.  ATDC is really not just an incubator any more.  It is more of a venture accelerator with an incubation space for companies that need it.  If you do the math on the old ATDC data that CubbyBrain used of 39 companies it would put the total market at about 75 companies incubating in Georgia, or 36…

• Atlanta Startup Weekend Social Graph

  Lance Weatherby

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am

  A social graph of Atlanta Startup Weekend people based on Twitter asw3 hashtag. Courtesy of Russel Jurney based on Drew Conway's work and a graphic bump from Blake Perdue. Click twice to max.  Courtesy of Russel Jurney based on Drew Conway's work and a graphic bump from Blake Perdue. 

• Scoble Agrees!

  Lance Weatherby

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:55 am

• 
  TargetStars

• Go with what you know-Part 3

  Image by Olivier Charavel via Flickr This is the last part  in my series called Go with what you know In my last post, I discussed why companies should not hire a candidate based upon their connections, but for what they know. However, there is another option that many companies tend to ...

• Go with what you know-Part 2

  This is part two in my series called Go with what you know. When an employer is influenced in hiring a candidate based upon their connections, the employer is doing themselves a disservice. I have no problem with hiring people within your network if they have the experience that is required ...

• Go with what you know

  Image by Liz@rt via Flickr What matters most in one’s quest to succeed in business—who you know or what you know? This is a question that seems to keep resurfacing in my life (i.e. talking with friends, watching the news, etc.), so I figured I would write about it to get ...

• Twitter Lists: Pros and Cons

  Image by ursonate via Flickr I’m sure everyone is aware by now that Twitter has implemented the ability to create lists. When they started rolling out this feature I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to make one (I still haven’t). I am forever making lists (i.e. to do ...

• Are you more than a logo?

  In my last blog post, I discussed how important it is for companies to implement a multifaceted methodology into their social media campaign. Last Thursday (Oct. 15th), I had the pleasure of seeing this approach in action when I attended the opening of Garrett Popcorn’s store on Michigan Avenue. For those ...

• 
  The Next Women

• The NextWomen’s Highlights of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2009 – Part 1

  As Global Entrepreneurship Week draws to a close, The NextWomen reflect on the week’s events: Wednesday 18th November – The NextWomen BIG Kitchen Dinner Organised to coincide with Women’s Enterprise Day, the Big Kitchen Dinner saw 83 women and men leading and investing in web 2.0 ventures enjoy a keynote from Stephanie Phair of theOutNet.com.  To get [...]

• Stephanie Phair of theOutNet.com Talks to Female Entrepreneurs in Celebration of Women’s Enterprise Day

  Stephanie Phair On the day that the Women’s Enterprise Task Force announced its intention for a privately held women’s enterprise forum, The NextWomen took the lead as the first women’s enterprise forum with a focus on high growth business. In celebration of Women’s Enterprise Day, over 80 women came together in their most successful Kitchen [...]

• Celebrate Women’s Enterprise Day 2009 with The NextWomen

  Today, as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, it is Women’s Enterprise Day which celebrates the 680,000 majority women-owned businesses in the UK which are generating £45 billion to the UK economy. In the words of the organisers they: ‘want more women to unleash their talents and make their ideas happen’. In honour of the event, we have [...]

• Winner of Innovation Awards is Women-Led Layar

  The winner of the Innovation Awards is the Dutch first mobile augmented reality browser Layar, of which Claire Boonstra is one of the founders. She features in our Women in Tech series. The winning pitch can be seen here: Claire’s advice: Don’t opt out of science subjects. Math & Science can provide access to almost any [...]

• Deal of a Female Co-Founder: Forbes acquires FlipGloss Media

  Forbes Media has acquired online photo content and ad distributor FlipGloss Media for an undisclosed sum.  Female Internet Hero Robyn VanTol,  VP, Product of FlipGloss is one of the four Co-Founders of FlipGloss and reponsible for product strategy, development and content operations. FlipGloss was founded in 2008 with funding from Forbes Media and Elevation Partners. USP [...]

• 
  Active Garage

• Quality #10: Inspection can be a waste if…

  Tanmay Vora

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:05 am

  Welcome to the tenth post in this 12-part series on QUALITY, titled #QUALITYtweet – 12 Ideas to Build a Quality Culture. Here are the first nine posts, in case you would like to go back and take a look: Quality #1: Quality is a long term differentiator Quality #2: Cure Precedes Prevention Quality #3: Great People + Good Processes = Great Quality Quality #4: Simplifying Processes Quality #5: Customers are your “Quality Partners” Quality #6: Knowing what needs improvement Quality #7: Productivity and Quality Quality #8: Best Practices are Contextual Quality #9: Quality of…

• Managing Your Identity – Telephone Etiquette

  Thomas Frasher

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:05 pm

  A professional business people our identity in our marketplace is extremely important.  Identity or brand is an early indicator of the cost of doing business with us. A well respected identity results in lower cost to your marketplace, no matter what that marketplace may be. Today’s article focus’ on a single aspect of identity management that has raised itself to me several times this week: Telephone Etiquette. How many of us use conference calling and online meeting sharing systems (Skype, GotoMeeting, Meetingplace, etc) to conduct our meetings?  I have been in 8…

• Quality #9: Quality of Relationship and Communication

  Tanmay Vora

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:05 am

  Welcome to the ninth post in this 12-part series on QUALITY, titled #QUALITYtweet – 12 Ideas to Build a Quality Culture. Here are the first eight posts, in case you would like to go back and take a look: Quality #1: Quality is a long term differentiator Quality #2: Cure Precedes Prevention Quality #3: Great People + Good Processes = Great Quality Quality #4: Simplifying Processes Quality #5: Customers are your “Quality Partners” Quality #6: Knowing what needs improvement Quality #7: Productivity and Quality Quality #8: Best Practices are Contextual #QUALITYtweet How NOT to…

• Sex appeal in Social Media

  Deepika Bajaj

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:05 pm

  Marketers have long used sex appeal to market their products. There’s no denying that visual cues have been used for many successful advertising campaigns. Take a look at these two videos, first one produced by Apple. You’ve probably already seen it on TV. Watch for how it has a unique sex appeal — the choice of song and the dance moves and think whether you would be more prone to purchase the product… For some of you – Your ROCK STAR imagination kicked into overdrive with this commercial, and you were identifying with your wild side… Here is the second video, which got a…

• Quality #8: Best Practices are Contextual

  Tanmay Vora

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:05 am

  Welcome to the eighth post in this 12-part series on QUALITY, titled #QUALITYtweet – 12 Ideas to Build a Quality Culture. Here are the first seven posts, in case you would like to go back and take a look: Quality #1: Quality is a long term differentiator Quality #2: Cure Precedes Prevention Quality #3: Great People + Good Processes = Great Quality Quality #4: Simplifying Processes Quality #5: Customers are your “Quality Partners” Quality #6: Knowing what needs improvement Quality #7: Productivity and Quality #QUALITYtweet The best practices are contextual – they worked…

• 
  Starting Out Your Business

• Yesteryear profits from looking back

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am

  "Margin is my second god" says John Boyden the 72yearold cofounder of Yesteryear Music. "If you don't make a decent margin you are wasting your time."

• Enterprise becomes a family affair

  7 Nov 2009 | 4:15 pm

  It is never too late to become a serial entrepreneur.

• 
  VC Ready Law Blog

• Advantages of Convertible Debt in Seed Financing

  ben

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am

  We’ve already written about the difficulties and risks of trying to put a value on your company too early (here), but how does an early stage company raise money without a reliable valuation? One way is through convertible debt. Convertible debt is pretty much what it sounds like: debt that can convert to equity. A convertible debt financing is similar to a traditional loan in that the company borrows money (often from angel investors, but sometimes from friends and family or even VCs) and commits to repay it with interest by the end of the term of the loan. Unlike a traditional loan,…

• Common Contract Terms: Representations, Warranties and Covenants

  ben

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:07 am

  If you own your own business, sooner or later you’ll encounter a contract with legal terms that will send you scrambling for a dictionary (or a lawyer). We can’t rid the world of legalese (believe it or not, there’s often a good reason for it), but we can try to make reading legal documents a little less mind-numbing by describing a few concepts that appear in almost every contract you’ll ever read and explaining why they may matter to you. Representations & Warranties Representations and warranties are statements about facts existing at the time a contract is signed, and are made…

• Our Favorite FREE Networking Events in the Boston Area

  ben

  14 Oct 2009 | 8:58 am

  With dozens of networking events every month in the Boston area it’s difficult to figure out which events to attend. So for what it’s worth, we thought we’d give our readers the benefit of our experience by sharing a few of our favorite local events. These events make the list because they’re all great opportunities to meet interesting people who might be able to help you with your business, and because you can’t beat the price (they’re all free!). OpenCoffee (http://www.meetup.com/OpenCoffee-Cambridge-Meetup/) When: Wednesdays, 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. Where: Andala Café in Cambridge…

• Founders Agreements

  ben

  14 Sep 2009 | 8:28 am

  Whether you’re starting a company with your best friend or a few guys you met at a coffee house, you can’t predict how the relationship among Founders will change over time. Many companies (and friendships) have been ruined because a difficult situation arose and the Founders could not agree on how to resolve it, so it can be incredibly valuable to put in place an agreement that spells out what the Founders’ rights and obligations are towards each other in certain circumstances. A Founders Agreement can cover any number of topics, but here’s a summary of some of the most common:…

• Don’t get hung up on the valuation of your startup

  ben

  8 Sep 2009 | 11:16 am

  Many entrepreneurs want to put a value on their company before the ink on their incorporation documents is dry, but valuing an early stage company is as much art as science, and a bad valuation can be worse than no valuation at all. Valuing a company that doesn’t yet have a product on the market, much less paying customers, involves a lot of guesswork. Even if there are good comparables available (ideally other companies at a similar stage of development with similar products that recently received financing at a known valuation), it is hard to extrapolate from those comparables to…

• 
  Startup Ticker

• GirlsAskGuys - ReTweet GirlsAskGuys tweets and get a chance to win a prize!

  GirlsAskGuys

• Big Blue Saw - 18 Colorful New Materials for Laser Cutting and Engraving

  Big Blue Saw

• tgethr - Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn’t Tried Google Wave.

  tgethr

• Tgethr - Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn’t Tried Google Wave.

  Tgethr

• iwannagothere - 80 days around the world. Day 48: Australia » Robe

  iwannagothere

• 
  Startup Expedition

• You Name It

  stephens

  12 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

  These entrepreneurs were not going for a global image when they chose their business name: I wonder if they have a Fook Yoo rewards program?

• Photo Op

  stephens

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:43 am

  Here is a photo from my Entrepreneurial Journey talk at Lawrence Technological University last month. LTU President Dr. Lewis Walker is on the left, I am in the center, and Prof. Don Reimer is on the right. Note that my hair was dark brown the day I started my startup. And now is it nearly all gray. I am reasonably satisfied with my presentation after reviewing the DVD. I will carve it up and post online soon.

• Of All Time

  stephens

  7 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am

  Fortune magazine got it wrong. They recently named Steve Jobs as CEO of the Decade. How about Steve Jobs as greatest Entrepreneur of all time? Yes, they nailed it when they said he changed the world of music, movies, and mobile phones. Where they fell short is Steve Jobs also changed the way we think. He changed the way we think about insanely great products. How we think about innovation. How we pitch. Present. How to change human behavior with disruptive technologies. Apple is one of the greatest startup stories ever. How about Steve Jobs for President. Perhaps he could change the way we…

• Patience

  stephens

  2 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am

  [This is part 5 in a 5 part series about the 5Ps of Entrepreneurship from my Entrepreneurial Journey lecture at Lawrence Tech Entrepreneurs must be patient. The more you are changing the world with your startup, the longer it will take to reach critical mass.I believe entrereneurs are born and not made. That said, I had to learn to be patient. In the beginning, I really felt my startup would take six months to reach revenue. That was 7-1/2 years ago. Mark Burnett, who changed the world with reality television, patiently waited a decade for his vision to reach critical mass. Howard Schultz,…

• Persistence

  stephens

  30 Oct 2009 | 6:46 am

  [This is part 4 in a 5 part series about the 5Ps of Entrepreneurship from my Entrepreneurial Journey lecture at Lawrence Tech Entrepreneurs must be persistent on their startup expedition. The hardest thing in the world is to create something from nothing and change the world. Startups take time. Very few are overnight successes. With Speedraft, I endured over 1,300 rejections in a 5-1/2 year period before we got to the first “yes”. I am not alone in the persistence game. Mark Burnett changed the world of television programming with so-called Reality Television. It took him ten…

• 
  Smart Business RSS | SmartPlanet

• Urban advocacy council advocates producer responsibility for waste management

  Heather Clancy

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:29 pm

  Advocacy organization for more than 19,000 cities adopts resolution calling for "extended producer responsibility" when it comes to recycling and...

• Secure RFID 'fingerprint' could curb counterfeit activity

  Andrew Nusca

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pm

  Researchers have developed an "electronic fingerprinting" system to prevent counterfeiters from copying RFID tags, putting to rest fears that the...

• Brain implants could control computers by 2020, Intel says

  Andrew Nusca

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pm

  Users will be able to control computers using only their brains thanks to chips embedded in them, Intel researchers said. by Andrew Nusca

• Scientists build biggest artificial brain of all time; 1.6 billion neurons, as smart as a cat

  Andrew Nusca

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:21 am

  Scientists have built the biggest artificial brain of all time using a supercomputer powered by 147,456 processors, 150,000 gigabytes of memory and...

• Start-up makes the most out of 'word of Mom'

  Heather Clancy

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:46 am

  Eco-friendly baby products company discovers that even in the online world, word of mouth really counts. by Heather Clancy

• 
  The Wright Place TV

• Tips for starting a new business: By Sean R Mize

  Dr. Letitia Wright

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:41 pm

  Here are some tips for those people who would like to start their new business: By Sean R Mize 1. Check on your competitors. It is not enough that you know the needs and demands of your potential clients. It’s not also enough that you are confident that you can meet these needs. If you [...]

• Attracting New Business on a Shoestring Budget

  Dr. Letitia Wright

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:31 pm

  Attracting New Business on a Shoestring Budget By Kelly Robertson In a recent marketing workshop I attended, I discovered that most business owners rely on just two or three strategies to attract new business. Even well-established companies tend to rely on one or two strategies. However, there is a multitude of ways to drive new business to [...]

• Learning by analogy by Seth Godin

  Dr. Letitia Wright

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:19 pm

  Learning by analogy By Seth Godin Some people are way better at this than others. The other day, I was talking to someone about a complex and specialized issue. It’s quite possible that this was the first and only time in the history of the world that this precise set of circumstances had ever occurred. He said, “do [...]

• Fall/Winter Setting In

  Dr. Letitia Wright

  16 Nov 2009 | 8:13 am

  First of all, thank you to all who sent me love and support over this last month. It is and was very much appreciated. Fall is setting it; it’s starting to get cold. As I am writing this I have on extra layers because I forgot to turn on the heater last night! Tomorrow I am [...]

• The Leap: How 3 simple changes can propel your career from Good to Great

  Dr. Letitia Wright

  15 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm

  The Leap: How 3 simple changes can propel your career from Good to Great Author: Rick Smith This book starts with the author’s quest to understand how in 18 months he had gone from completely unremarkable to writing a best seller, founding a new company that he eventually sold for more money than he ever dreamed of. [...]

• 
  Everyone's Blog Posts - Under30CEO

• Feed Aggregators

  Dave Trindall

  I know I can already use an RSS reader to keep up to date with blogs I subscribe to, BUT... Anyone know of a site / service that: Aggregates all my feeds Includes all related tweets Includes Facebook News feed Includes related news headlines etc.. so that essentially I get one big FEED of all sites I'm 'connected' to? All I have to do is check that one page, and it tells me everything that's going on?

• Feed Aggregators

  Dave Trindall

  I know I can already use an RSS reader to keep up to date with blogs I subscribe to, BUT... Anyone know of a site / service that: Aggregates all my feeds Includes all related tweets Includes Facebook News feed Includes related news headlines etc.. so that essentially I get one big FEED of all sites I'm 'connected' to? All I have to do is check that one page, and it tells me everything that's going on?

• Entrepreneur vs Big Business

  Wray Rives, CPA

  I recently had the privilege of being in the room with about 30 small business owners and entrepreneurs. It really drove home to me why I like working with these folks so much. It was a pretty diverse group of gender, race, age and level of business experience. There were a number of folks who had been laid off in the past year or so and decided self-employment was their best option. There were some young, recent college grads who got out of school and found they were not headed for that great corporate job, because there were none to be had. The thing that struck me though is the one common…

• Interview with young entrepreneur Andrea D’Intino from Tabbles

  Cristian Dorobantescu

  Cristian: Hi Andrea, welcome to Entrepreneurship-interviews. Tell us a few words about yourself. Andrea: Hello Christian, and first let me thank you for this chance and for the good work on your entrepreneurship-interviews.com. Well, about me, I’m a guy with an idea. Before having the idea I worked as a videogame developer first and as a S&M for a developer of industrial solutions. I also earned a BSc. In Economics, which is nicely lodged in my bottom drawer. Cristian: Ok, we should let the readers know that last year you founded a company called Yellow Blue Soft that creates Tabbles.

• A stale idea needs reviving

  Dave Trindall

  The concept is simple: http://milliondollarhomepage.com/ sold ad space by the pixel, now http://bigdaybillboard.com/ sells ad space by the second. I would VERY much like to hear from anyone on what can be done to improve the site and why the idea is brilliant, or even why the idea sux.

• 
  OPEN Forum Articles

• Small Business Owners Share Their Favorite Features of American Express

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:49 pm

  From Polly Schneider Traylor: In January 2005, Rebecca Schreiber took a gamble. After a career working in a steady job at the Department of Commerce she followed her passion for financial planning, and put out a shingle as an independent financial planner after earning her certification. There was a lot at stake in this decision: she wanted to represent young professionals at reasonable hourly fees, not well-heeled clients who were interested in managing their wealth. The model wasn't typical, she says, recalling the days in her early 20s when she was looking for advice from a financial…

• 4 Ways to Use Twitter Lists for Marketing

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm

  From Rohit Bhargava: Ok, so maybe you have a Twitter account set up and have started checking out the site, or maybe you’re still among the ranks of small business owners who haven’t found that compelling reason to get off the sidelines and start trying to use the site. Recently, Twitter launched a new feature that allows users to create lists of people on Twitter … making the site infinitely more useful for users who need some help navigating the flood of information that comes from the site.  1. Improve your PR “hit rate.” For several years now, there…

• Lessons Learned From AdMob: 2 Tips From a Great Deal

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:08 pm

  From SCOTT BELSKY: The founder and CEO of AdMob, Omar Hamoui, recently sold his business to Google for $750 million, just three years after founding the company. But behind this great deal is a great story about maniacal focus, thoughtful negotiation, and a good perspective on life. A recent blog entry in the Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital section shares some of the lessons learned throughout the AdMob experience by Hamoui and his first hire, Russell Buckley. As quoted from an interview conducted by WSJ: On the value of ideas vs. execution: “…far too many…

• The Nightmare of Embezzlement, and How to Avoid It

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:37 pm

  From Jonathan Weber: Embezzlement by an employee is among the worst nightmares of any business owner, and it’s surprisingly common. We’ve had a string of such cases in the news here in Missoula in recent weeks, including the case of a bank teller-supervisor who stole some $800,000 over a nine-year period, a bookkeeper at an architecture firm who took $240,000, a treasurer for a local ambulance service who stole $160,000, and a woman who took $227,000 from two different construction companies that employed her as a bookkeeper. That’s a lot of embezzlement for a small place…

• Intranet and Collaboration Solutions for Small Businesses

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:22 pm

  From Christina Warren: In the old days, an intranet -- that is, a private computer network inside an organization as opposed to the Internet which is a network between organizations -- was often reserved for large corporations with hundreds or thousands of employees. With advances in technology and the advent of virtual offices and cloud computing, that’s changing. Even very small businesses can benefit from having an intranet for sharing and collaborating with employees and clients.   Think of an intranet as your own private portal where authorized users can log in and share…

• 
  The OBJourney

• Friday Finds

  B

  21 Nov 2009 | 11:57 am

  r 1.It Takes a Community to Raise a Customer 2.Intranet and Collaboration Solutions for Small Businesses 3.5 Ways to Use Social Media Activity Offline 4.How to Find the Right Partnerships 5.How to Test Your Start-Up Idea and Etsy Hits it Big 6.4 Ways to Use Twitter Lists for Marketing 7.5 Steps to Turning a Service Into a Product – So You Can Sell Your Business 8.The 5 Deadly Signs of Business Decay 9.Worry Only About the Problems in Your Circle of Influence 10.Sustainability Requires Everyone in the Trenches Social Bookmarking

• Thursday Thirst- Strawberry Lemonade

  B

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:43 pm

                      I am a strawberry lemonade fiend! I am rather displeased when a restuarant does not offer strawberry lemonade and for all my other strawberry lemonade enthusiasts, Ruby Tuesday’s has the best. I told you in the Tuesday Twist blog that I had an important lunch scheduled for yesterday. Well,  it was great! Two other interns and I went to eat with the two HR executives and mostly discussed social media. All the teaching I have heard about dining etiquette started to come into play. That is one area in my professional profile that I ...

• Wednesday Weapons – Nisha Chittal – CelebrateYOU!!

  J

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:34 pm

  In March of this year, we were introduced to an optimistic Politicoholic. One who told the world to “Stop Doom-Mongering”. She tells graduating seniors to, “Choose action over talk. Double your job hunt efforts. Network harder…” With the full post available at Politicoholic.com, Ms. Nisha Chittal is surely someone who understands the job market and is capable of creating her own opportunities. One of which landed her at the globally recognized New Media Strategies! One day I received a call from Brian, “Joshua, I just ...

• 
  Steve Blank

• Closure

  steveblank

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  For those that know me, I’m kind of a “life is too short” kind of guy. I liked to fail fast, move on, and not look back. However, in catching up with the VP of Sales of Ardent last night, I was reminded one of the few times I did return for closure. National Supercomputer Centers For a decade starting in 1985, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established and spent a pile of money (~$50 million/year) on four supercomputing centers in the U.S. – Cornell University; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center at Carnegie Mellon University; and…

• Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

  steveblank

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  One of the benefits of teaching is that it forces me to get smarter. I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. Dancing Around the Question Union Square Ventures was kind enough to sponsor a meetup the night before my class. In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? What metrics do we use to see if we learned enough in Customer Discovery? And without…

• “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch

  steveblank

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  I joined the board of Cafepress.com when it was a startup. It was amazing to see the two founders, Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, build a $100 million company from coffee cups and T-shirts. But Cafepress’s most memorable moment was when the founders used a “Lessons Learned” VC pitch to raise their second round of funding and got an 8-digit term sheet that same afternoon. Here’s how they did it. Fail Fast and Cheap Fred and Maheesh had started 9 previous companies in 6 years.  Their motto was: “Fail fast and cheap. And learn from it.” Cafepress literally started in their garage…

• Relentless – The Difference Between Motion And Action

  steveblank

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Never mistake motion for action. -Ernest Hemingway One of an entrepreneur’s greatest strengths is their relentless pursuit of a goal. But few realize how this differs from most of the population. Watching others try to solve problems reminded me why entrepreneurs are different. Progress Report Last week I happened to be sitting in my wife’s office as she was on the phone to my daughter in college. Struggling with one of her classes my daughter had assured us that she was asking for help – and was reporting on her progress (or lack of it). She had sent several emails to the resource…

• Raising Money Using Customer Development

  steveblank

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Getting “funded” is the holy grail for most entrepreneurs. Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. This post describes how companies using the Customer Development model can increase their credibility, valuation and probability of getting a first round of funding by presenting their results in a “Lesson Learned” venture pitch. It should go without saying that this post…

• 
  Startupstudent.com

• You’re Invited to join eCornell’s Entrepreneur Online Video Contest

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  eCornell is celebrating the growth of the entrepreneurial community by challenging all entrepreneurs to share their unique take on meeting consumer needs. Now through November 30, eCornell is inviting all entrepreneurs who are developing (or have already developed) a new product or service to submit a quick video (5 minutes or less) that explains or demonstrates their process for understanding what customers want and satisfying their needs. The first-place winner will receive a full scholarship (a $3,500 value) for Cornell’s newest online certificate program, A Systems Approach to…

• kickstarter.com

  admin

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

  If you haven’t heard of kickstarter.com you need to check it out.  It’s takes crowd sourcing to a totally new level.  The site’s idea is to provide a forum for people to pitch their ideas and then have people be able to participate in the idea by backing that idea with money.  For that backing of that idea you get insider information about how the idea is coming along as well as some other trinkets.  The other trinkets depends on the project.  Some projects give away T-Shirts or you might have a song written about the you or get a certain amount of months of the…

• The State of the Economy, According to the Federal Reserve Board’s “Beige Book”

  Jason Blumer

  25 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

  The goal of our Federal Reserve is to “provide the nation with a safe, flexible and stable monetary and financial system.”  Basically, it’s a big fat bank providing our private banks with stabilization when needed and overseeing the many actions of our private banks within twelve separate districts in the US. And you may not know that the Federal Reserve also offers some pretty cool reporting too.  A lot of nerdy stats.  For example, you can go to the statistical pages of the Federal Reserve and see how consumer credit is fairing from 2004 through July of 2009 (the table…

• Random Thought: How much change has occurred?

  Jeremy Lattimore

  23 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

  I was having a conversation yesterday with an online friend and we were discussing the movement of people into the freelance/entrepreneurial world and also the usage of telework resources.  One of the discussions that we were having revolved around whether this was a product of the current economic situation or whether the economic situation just pushed it along.  To me it’s a very interesting point and I think that it really could affect your business planning. You could argue that the ball was already rolling in the direction of telework before the economy began to slow.  With the…

• Four Ways to Combat Commoditization in Your Industry

  Jason Blumer

  2 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

  A couple of months ago, I wrote a post on Commoditization at my other blog, and it hit a few cords with readers.  I explained what I meant if a business was being commoditized.  Some readers were a little disturbed to know that they were being commoditized right out of their own market place.  Others desperately wanted to know what can be done.  Let’s explore what we can do to avoid commoditization in your industry, or how to change our business models to counteract this change.  Here are four ways: 1.  Consider how new technologies are affecting your business.  Commoditization…

• 
  First Class Fashionista

• Kristen Stewart’s Reaction to “New Moon” Premiere Madness

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:06 am

  “First Class Fashionista” would like to invite you to shop: Discount Designer Clothes Discount Designer Shoes Discount Designer Handbags *BOOKMARK THIS SITE* Top Celebrity Gossip Blogs Must See Pic of Kristen Stewart at the “New Moon” Regal Benefit screening at Regal Cinemas at the Pinnacle 18 in Knoxville, Tennesse on November 17, 2009. Here is where you can tell thousands [...]

• Taylor Lautner’s Reaction to “New Moon” Premiere Madness

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:40 am

  “First Class Fashionista” would like to invite you to shop: Discount Designer Clothes Discount Designer Shoes Discount Designer Handbags *BOOKMARK THIS SITE* Top Celebrity Gossip Blogs Here is where you can tell thousands of people what you think. Share a comment with thousands of visitors. *Copyright Protected. “First Class Fashionista” permits a direct homepage link and credit. Twilight [...]

• Robert Pattinson’s Reaction to “New Moon” Premiere Madness

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:19 am

  “First Class Fashionista” would like to invite you to shop: Discount Designer Clothes Discount Designer Shoes Discount Designer Handbags *BOOKMARK THIS SITE* Top Celebrity Gossip Blogs Here is where you can tell thousands of people what you think. Share a comment with thousands of visitors. *Copyright Protected. “First Class Fashionista” permits a direct homepage link and credit. Robert [...]

• Kristen Stewart’s Dress Designer for “New Moon” Premiere in Westwood

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:52 am

  “First Class Fashionista” would like to invite you to shop: Discount Designer Clothes Discount Designer Shoes Discount Designer Handbags *BOOKMARK THIS SITE* Top Celebrity Gossip Blogs Here is where you can tell thousands of people what you think. Share a comment with thousands of visitors. *Copyright Protected. “First Class Fashionista” permits a direct homepage link and credit. Kristen [...]

• Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon Sighting in Paris

  admin

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:53 pm

  “First Class Fashionista” would like to invite you to shop: Discount Designer Clothes Discount Designer Shoes Discount Designer Handbags *BOOKMARK THIS SITE* Top Celebrity Gossip Blogs Here is where you can tell thousands of people what you think. Share a comment with thousands of visitors. *Copyright Protected. “First Class Fashionista” permits a direct homepage link and credit. Mariah [...]

• 
  More Caffeine, Please

• Right Question Vs. Wrong Question

  Greg Digneo

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:32 pm

  Yesterday, I was co-speaking at an event on Social Media marketing.  I left the event feeling that I might not have done my job.  You see, at the event, we got so mired in the details of RSS and how to hook your blog to your twitter account to your Facebook fan page. We received one question from a woman selling Mary Kay products that went something like this “How do I get an RSS link on my blog.”  Mind you, she doesn’t have a blog yet.  Unfortunately, that’s the wrong question to ask. The right questions to ask is what do my consumers want to see, and how can I reach them? When…

• Jump in – and figure out the rest later

  Greg Digneo

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:11 pm

  I’m a huge fan of jumping in as I tend to suffer from paralysis of analysis.  I tend to learn on the fly.  I can read all the books and attend all the seminars I want, but it won’t matter until I actually get started.  If you have a project that you want to start, a plan that needs to be executed – Do It!  Do It Now!  Not tomorrow, not 5 minutes from now.  Right now!  Chances are, you will realize it wasn’t nearly as bad as you thought.

• My biggest marketing secret revealed!

  Greg Digneo

  13 Nov 2009 | 9:36 am

  In a few short weeks, my blog will be 1 year old.  On a day – to – day basis, I try to give advice and/or share what I’ve learned.  I think I can some it up in one sentence: Market unto others as you’d have marketed to yourself. In other words, if you don’t like someone calling you at dinner time, then don’t call potential customers at dinner time.  If you enjoy reading useful content about a company before you purchase from them, then create useful content for your potential customers so they can enjoy that experience as well. I don’t know, maybe I’m oversimplifying it.

• Earning Attention Vs. Earning Money

  Greg Digneo

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

  The other night, a telemarketer called me and said they were from a bed company.  I don’t need a bed, so I tried to politely tell this woman that I’m not interested.  I figured I’d save my time, and hers.  She proceeds to explain to me that she was not trying to sell me anything over the telephone – and continues on with her story.  I reiterate that I’m not interested, and then hang up the phone. Was I rude?  Perhaps.  However, she needed to recognize that she was trying to sell me something; even if it wasn’t a monetary transaction.  She was trying to sell me a story, and…

• Ice to an Eskimo

  Greg Digneo

  9 Nov 2009 | 7:49 pm

  Just 15 years ago, when someone was a good marketer or salesman, one of the the highest compliment given to him would be “He’s so good, he can sell ice to an Eskimo.”  Today, that compliment is more like “He’s so good, whenever an Eskimo needs ice, they know exactly where to find him.”

• 
  Startupstudent.com

• You’re Invited to join eCornell’s Entrepreneur Online Video Contest

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  eCornell is celebrating the growth of the entrepreneurial community by challenging all entrepreneurs to share their unique take on meeting consumer needs. Now through November 30, eCornell is inviting all entrepreneurs who are developing (or have already developed) a new product or service to submit a quick video (5 minutes or less) that explains or demonstrates their process for understanding what customers want and satisfying their needs. The first-place winner will receive a full scholarship (a $3,500 value) for Cornell’s newest online certificate program, A Systems Approach to…

• kickstarter.com

  admin

  19 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

  If you haven’t heard of kickstarter.com you need to check it out.  It’s takes crowd sourcing to a totally new level.  The site’s idea is to provide a forum for people to pitch their ideas and then have people be able to participate in the idea by backing that idea with money.  For that backing of that idea you get insider information about how the idea is coming along as well as some other trinkets.  The other trinkets depends on the project.  Some projects give away T-Shirts or you might have a song written about the you or get a certain amount of months of the…

• The State of the Economy, According to the Federal Reserve Board’s “Beige Book”

  Jason Blumer

  25 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

  The goal of our Federal Reserve is to “provide the nation with a safe, flexible and stable monetary and financial system.”  Basically, it’s a big fat bank providing our private banks with stabilization when needed and overseeing the many actions of our private banks within twelve separate districts in the US. And you may not know that the Federal Reserve also offers some pretty cool reporting too.  A lot of nerdy stats.  For example, you can go to the statistical pages of the Federal Reserve and see how consumer credit is fairing from 2004 through July of 2009 (the table…

• Random Thought: How much change has occurred?

  Jeremy Lattimore

  23 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

  I was having a conversation yesterday with an online friend and we were discussing the movement of people into the freelance/entrepreneurial world and also the usage of telework resources.  One of the discussions that we were having revolved around whether this was a product of the current economic situation or whether the economic situation just pushed it along.  To me it’s a very interesting point and I think that it really could affect your business planning. You could argue that the ball was already rolling in the direction of telework before the economy began to slow.  With the…

• Four Ways to Combat Commoditization in Your Industry

  Jason Blumer

  2 Sep 2009 | 1:00 pm

  A couple of months ago, I wrote a post on Commoditization at my other blog, and it hit a few cords with readers.  I explained what I meant if a business was being commoditized.  Some readers were a little disturbed to know that they were being commoditized right out of their own market place.  Others desperately wanted to know what can be done.  Let’s explore what we can do to avoid commoditization in your industry, or how to change our business models to counteract this change.  Here are four ways: 1.  Consider how new technologies are affecting your business.  Commoditization…

• 
  Making Money Online With Young Entrepreneur Michael Dunlop

• Michael Ayalon Interview, PetWebDesigner.com founder – Nothing is Impossible!

  Tammy

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:51 am

  Hi Everyone, Today we have a superb interview with Michael Ayalon Michael Ayalon is the brains behind PetWebDesigner.com, a website design and SEO company that focuses on the pet niche. Michael is 34 and lives on Long Island in NY. We asked Michael what motivates him and what inspires him? I think his answers say a lot about the man. “Helping other people succeed motivates me. I enjoy acting as a mentor to other entrepreneurs, college students, and people looking to build successful businesses for themselves.” “I’m inspired by other entrepreneurs that develop products…

• Jeff Nobbs and Noah Auerhahn of Extrabux.com Reveal Their Entrepreneurial Secrets

  Michael

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:55 am

  +++++ * Please Click Play Button Above To Listen To This Podcast * Hi Everyone We have another podcast and interview transcript for you – this time with two remarkable young entrepreneurs called Jeff Nobbs and Noah Auerhahn from Extrabux.com Extrabux.com is an amazing new development in the world of comparison shopping: Extrabux.com is the first comparison shopping engine (CSE) to combine coupons, cash back and comparison shopping at one online destination. Through its free service, Extrabux.com finds shoppers the lowest possible price on millions of products while also granting cash…

• Joshua Levitt, UsedCisco.com Founder shares His Entrepreneurial Experience

  Michael

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:38 am

  Hi Fellow Young Entrepreneurs! Today we have an interview with a wonderful Young Entrepreneur – Joshua Levitt of usedcisco.com, a company he started aged 29. Founded in 2005, UsedCisco.com is the world’s largest online network hardware outlet, offering thousands of network hardware products at significant savings off list price. Joshua is a seasoned entrepreneur – and having gone through the trials and tribulations of starting his own business he has many great insights such as: “My grandmother once told me when I was running my first business in 2003. ‘You better…

• Dan McComb Interview, Biznik.com Co-Founder Shares His Entrepreneurial Secrets

  Michael

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pm

  ++++++ ++++++ To Listen To The Dan McComb Podcast Click The Play Button Above ++++++ Hi Everyone, Today I am delighted to present an interview with a remarkable Entrepreneur – Dan McComb. Dan is one of the co-founders of Biznik.com Biznik.com is a website I only discovered recently and I have to say I am very impressed. In a very short time, Dan and his co-founder Lara Feltin have built a remarkable community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to helping each other succeed. What brought Dan and Biznik.com to my attention was the recent Biznik National Entrepreneur study…

• Chuck Gordon Interview, CEO of SpareFoot Shares His Start-Up Experience

  Michael

  2 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

  Chuck Gordon Interview Hi Everyone Today I have an interview with a remarkable Young Entrepreneur – Chuck Gordon, the CEO of SpareFoot – a venture-funded company that he started during his senior year at UCLA about one year ago. Chuck is just 22. SpareFoot.com is like an Expedia for self storage. With more than 100,000 listings nationwide, SpareFoot has the largest inventory of storage options on the Web, making it a destination for consumers who don’t want to visit web site after web site or make a bunch of phone calls to find the best deal near them. There is lots of great…

• 
  Finding Benjamin

• Entrepreneurship Competitions Part 6 – Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition

  meganH

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am

  Time for yet another business plan competition! These contests really are hot items these days. While researching for our entrepreneurship competition series, we’ve found tons and tons of competitions for all ages and education levels. Because many of the contests we’ve been finding are targeting a specific region, city, or even school, they can be hard to come across if you don’t know what you’re looking for. So to help solve that problem, we’re working on expanding Finding Benjamin to become a go-to place to find out the inside scoop on all the business plan,…

• Event Parking Service

  ChrisH

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

  Have you ever been to a big concert or sporting event and passed nearby houses selling parking spots in their front yard? Well, these property owners sure make a lot of money doing this, and believe it or not but there is a business opportunity for you even if your house is not near any venues. Many houses near these big venues do not participate in parking services for a variety of reasons. Maybe the home owner does not have the time, maybe they are going to the actual event, or maybe they will be out of town. Go around to these homes a few weeks before the event and find out if they will be…

• Finding Benjamin is Up to Something New…

  meganH

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

  Just as we always encourage our readers to get out there and put that dreamed-up business idea into action, we here at Finding Benjamin are doing the same! We’ve come up with our own idea for a second website (the first being FindingBenjamin.com) that will be fun, interactive, and useful for everyone – and quickly worth a lot of money to us and potentially to you too (or so we hope!). We’re only in the beginning developmental stages, but we’ve been doing a ton of brainstorming and story-boarding, a necessary process to get any project off the ground. Who knew…

• The Best of Halfbakery – November Ideas

  meganH

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am

  It’s a new month, so its time for a new list of awesome inventions/would-be ideas from Halfbakery.com. In case you’re not familiar with our Halfbakery series, there’s a good little summary of what it’s all about here. This month’s list features ideas that might actually be somewhat feasible, but are still as entertaining to read and think about as always! Vegan Wishbone “Thanksgiving has a little bit missing for vegans. Tofu Turkeys have *captain obvious strikes again* no bone structure. Thus create a non-animal based wishbone to insert into the turkey…

• Entrepreneurship Competitions Part 5 – Y.E.S. Youtube Challenge

  meganH

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:19 pm

  Here’s another fun contest for you young entrepreneurs out there. Though this challenge is on a smaller scale than our previous posts and doesn’t offer a cash reward, its really easy to submit an entry and could be a great way to gain recognition if you’re just starting out. The Young Entrepreneur Society, a well known website and community for young go-getters and entrepreneurs, is holding an on-going challenge for a chance to be featured on the website’s homepage. All you have to do is submit a 30 second video clip of yourself describing why you think you’re…

• 
  START-UP BIZTALK

• From Employee to Employer; Complimentary Tip E-Book

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

  How do you make the transition? Once you've decided that you not only want to become a business owner, but you want to also be an employer. You want to shed your "can't do it" hat for the "jack of all trades hat." You want to give someone else a job opportunity that they may have not otherwise had. You know, like name a young employee director, executive, or have an inexperienced person

• Turn on your TV--Online!

  3 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am

  Every week I tune in to these online channels that provide a wealth of information for small business; and I wanted to share their resources with you. As a start-up or aspiring entrepreneur, business education is vital to your success. These two websites understand that small business owners don't have the time to tune in to regular TV, and that when they do, there are few channels dedicated to

• What Do you Do Now? 3 Tips to help you Unleash your "crawling" business plan

  30 Oct 2009 | 8:28 am

  My favorite part of the planning process is helping people plan a new business as they go along. This usually means that they've incorporated some steps, they are familiar with their target audience and their buying habits, and they have some confidence in their abilities. I sometimes also get a different group: those that hesitate; either due to fear or because they have the kind of business

• The 9 Super Simple Steps to Entrepreneurial Success

  27 Oct 2009 | 4:42 pm

  I'm proud to announce that Isaac Business Services Small Business Institute will be using this book as one of its course materials for business seminars taught. (In case you missed it, we had an Open House this month and our new location now includes classrooms for seminars). To give you a little background: I built my business on hosting workshops and seminars for start-ups and aspiring

• Great Research Tools to help with your New Business Idea

  25 Oct 2009 | 6:08 pm

  Here are some great research tools and websites that I have used along the way and wanted to share with you. These websites can help you find information that will aid you in structuring your new business. So before you skip the process because it seems "hard," start with these helpful tools:IBISWorld. This site prides itself as being "the world’s largest independent publisher of U.S. industry

• 
  Matt Wilson

• The Meaning of Life with Snoop Dogg

  Matt Wilson

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am

  Today I read: The Meaning of Life by Esquire Magazine.A compilation of interviews, people from Economists to actors to Snoop Dogg that talk about their thoughts on life and how it should be lived.Lots of great stories, not super deep and philosophical but some good humor and pictures.What I got out of it, the reaffirmation of: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Every day you have the choice, either make yourself happy or make yourself sad.In America we have the rights that allow us to chase happiness.A lot of entrepreneurs play with the end goal in mind—retirement, to make a million…

• How To Make Every Networking Event Worth it

  Matt Wilson

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:41 pm

  I’m headed to Summit Series.  Check out my plan for prenetworking like John Exley. My points include: prenetwork, how to tag team with a partner, getting photos with big wigs, and forming relationships when networking. Learn how to do this online with our free eBooks and Videos at http://RockStarBusinessSeries.com

• Write About What You Care About!

  Matt Wilson

  30 Oct 2009 | 3:03 pm

  People have been asking me non stop lately “What should I wrote about?!” My answer: write about what you care about. I had an extremely gratifying response to my most recent article on Under30CEO. It was a response to BusinessWeek’s GenY hating cover story called “The Lost Generation”. I responded with a letter to our disheveled looking cover boy Dan, telling him to step up his game and become a leader! Not only did a I get an incredible buzz going on Twitter and some amazingly thought out responses, but BusinessWeek put my face/quote on their homepage and put me…

• What Happens when 2,000 College Entrepreneurs Party in Chicago?

  Matt Wilson

  28 Oct 2009 | 1:28 pm

  This past weekend I attended my 6th Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization National Conference.  Under30CEO rocked the place, throwing a huge party; I did a keynote on pursuing your passion, we gave to breakout sessions “Growing Your Credibility and Looking Experienced as a Young Entrepreneur” and “Building Your Rock Star Online Presence” and capped it off sitting on the lunch keynote panel. It was an awesome weekend, went out to dinner with some prominant Bryant Alum and met a ton of people I’d been talking to on Twitter for months!  A big success…

• Get Known? or Know People?

  Matt Wilson

  16 Oct 2009 | 2:32 pm

  To a certain degree its all about who you know, but at some point you’ll meet so many people you’ll never remember them all.  The best solution to remembering everyone? DON’T.  Get them to remember you.  You need to give them something to remember.  You need a way to stay in contact with lots of people–precisely why blogging and social networking are vital in growing your network to a large scale. Get ready for Rock Star Business Series 2.0 get the free stuff here.

• 
  Creative Distraction

• WSJ Kindle Edition’s Bad Paperboy

  Jonathan C. Hall

  20 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am

  I suffered my first misdelivered Kindle newspaper yesterday. I’m not complaining, really — I’m the last person to expect 100% performance from a brand new distribution system. But I did briefly long for the days of paperboys when I saw this: Clicking through, I read the following apology: Dear Jonathan, Thank you for subscribing to The Wall Street [...]

• Healthcare Solution: Insurance Company Says Peel Fresh Citrus

  Jonathan C. Hall

  28 Oct 2009 | 5:51 am

  When a robot from Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield (HBCBS) left my wife a message Monday, I was provoked first by the cheerful, familiar voice inflection in the greeting: It’s the second call from the health insurance company in a week, so perhaps a familiar tone is warranted. The virtual caller quickly defuses any suspicion [...]

• Systematic Creativity: Four Templates for New Product Ideation, Innovation and Invention

  Jonathan C. Hall

  8 Sep 2009 | 1:57 pm

  Is brainstorming the best way to be creative? Doubt it.

• Use Twitter Anonymously, and Be Someone’s Muse

  Jonathan C. Hall

  25 Aug 2009 | 6:01 am

  Today, my company launched a sweet little service that lets anyone post anonymously in the Twitterverse. This service has two flavors: the angelic, heavenly Tweet From Above; and the demonic, hell-raising Tweet From Below. Use either or both as necessary. Of course, with the core Twitter community being a bunch of oft-tweeting, self-aggrandizing megalomaniacs, you might [...]

• Car Fuel Tank Shape: Actual vs. Deduced

  Jonathan C. Hall

  17 Aug 2009 | 12:37 pm

  Deduced shape based on long-term study of fuel gauge behavior.

• 
  On Startups, Venture Capital and Technology by Joseph Ansanelli

• Joseph’s Weekly Twitter Digest for 2009-11-13

  Posted a Term Sheet Dilution Calculator for Startup financing. Enjoy. http://bit.ly/CIIbP #

• Posted a Term Sheet Dilution C…

  Posted a Term Sheet Dilution Calculator for Startup financing. Enjoy. http://bit.ly/CIIbP

• Posted a Term Sheet Dilution C…

  Posted a Term Sheet Dilution Calculator for Startup financing. Enjoy. http://bit.ly/CIIbP

• Startup 131: Term Sheet Dilution Calculator

  A handy tool for calculating dilution in various stages of a startup financing.

• Joseph’s Weekly Twitter Digest for 2009-10-30

  RT @jwelde Great post from @lessin of @dropio about Smartling helping them with site translation http://bit.ly/2hGMda #

• 
  Feint

• Does Your Startup Need Answers

  Anthony

  28 Oct 2009 | 3:39 am

  For a a while now, OnStartups the blog, has been providing valuable articles to the startup community.  And now they have launched a new service OnStartups Answers. This new Q n A community for entrepreneurs provides a central place for all things startup that previously didn’t exist.  Thanks must be given to StackOverflow for the open source software that powers the community. A must have bookmark for founders – OnStartups Answers Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponShare this on MixxTweet This!Share this on FriendFeed

• Add A Floating Twitter Widget to Your Blog

  Anthony

  18 Oct 2009 | 12:38 am

  The jury is still out on whether or not this is annoying, but i’m liking the concept.  WP FollowMe is a plugin for wordpress that will add a floating “follow me” badge to your blog. You can see mine on the right hand side of the blog.  This is very similar to the common “feedback” widgets tta are displayed on many popular web apps. What do you think – annoying or not? Grab the Plugin Here Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponShare this on MixxTweet This!Share this on FriendFeed

• Task.fm on The Today Show

  Anthony

  6 Oct 2009 | 5:23 pm

  Big thanks to Dannielle Kyrillos from DailyCandy.com for giving Task.fm a plug on the Today Show.  Clip is embedded below: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponShare this on MixxTweet This!Share this on FriendFeed

• Bookclub – Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

  Anthony

  16 Sep 2009 | 5:30 am

  I originally came across this book when this blog post, which listed all 50 ways in the book, popped up on FriendFeed.  I found myself going through the list of  “50″ techniques and saying “wow that really is true” This New York Time best-seller is no self help mumbo jumbo or motivational crap – I despise those books.  Instead, this is like a “psychology for dummies”, set in the business and entrepreneurial worlds.  For entrepreneurs this is 50 things you need to know. You are going to be amazed at how easily humans can be manipulated. …

• The Best of Task Blog

  Anthony

  13 Sep 2009 | 7:16 am

  The bloggers at the Task Blog have created some real killer entries recently.  Here are some the top posts: Want to Finish More Tasks? Stop Multitasking – Personally, I think multitasking is impossible, but for those who actaully think its productive…think again. 5 Minute Running Start Method – Eliminate (or cut down) on procrastination.  A simple method to being more motivated 5 Ways to Boost your Energy Levels – A post by myself, some simple ways to increase your energy levels to avoid the dreaded 3pm crash. Bonus – Some squidoo stuff i’ve been working…

• 
  TheFunded Founder Institute News

• Early Admissions

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Results from early admissions in Seattle, New York, and the Bay Area will be tabulated on Saturday, November 21st, and applicants will be notified if they have been accepted on either Sunday evening or Monday morning. Anyone who is not accepted through the early admissions process will have another opportunity to make it in the program at the final admissions deadline for their location. Chances of being accepted are strong. The early acceptance rate in Washington DC and San Diego / Orange County was approximately 50%, and the overall acceptance rate has been over one third in previous…

• Welcome to the Founder Institute (Video)

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

  The following video is of a talk that explains the Founder Institute to 85 interested applicants in Seattle on Monday, November 2nd, 2009. The philiosophy, the vision, and the economics are all described in a well produced video, as well as the answer to some common questions. If you are thinking to apply, this is worthwhile to watch. Enjoy! Welcome to the Founder Institute from Adeo Ressi on Vimeo.

• Information Session in Palo Alto

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

  Anyone in the Bay Area thinking to start a company or running a new startup that can use some assistance is invited to attend the upcoming informational session on TheFunded Founder Institute. It's fun, and it's free:Bay Area - November 24th 6:30 PM in Palo Altohttp://bayarea-fi.eventbrite.com Please RSVP, as space is limited.

• Attend the ASES Student Entrepreneurship Expo

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:15 am

  Stanford's Asia Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society (ASES) is hosting the 2nd Annual Student Entrepreneurship Expo this Thursday. The Expo will feature six innovative entrepreneurs who have start ups ranging from web development to social entrepreneurship. We encourage Bay Area Graduates and applicants to attend this free event the event to network, learn, and share ideas. Here is the info; Thursday, November 19. 7:00pm-9:30pmTresidder, 2nd Floor, Oak EastRSVP - http://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?key=ty_4KAZvajNlKt3MHOSInZg

• NYC Informational Event Tonight

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

  Everyone interested in the Founder Institute is welcomed to an informational event in New York City tonight, Monday, November 16th. Meet the Founding Member and ask any questions about the program, the mentors, and the curriculum:6:30 PM to 7:30 PM The Digital Sandbox55 Broad Street, New York City4th Floor, Room 5http://institute-ny.eventbrite.com/Sign up at the Eventbrite link above to reserve a spot or just show up. Thanks!

• 
  Business for Kids

• The Introduction for Tyler Passes the Golden Key

  jennbouani

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:02 pm

  I’ve put together an Introduction for Book 2 for the Korean printing that’s coming up in a few weeks. Since I didn’t do this for the English version, I thought I’d throw it out here on the blog.   Maybe I should throw the introduction to Book 1 (Tyler & His Solve-a-matic Machine) up [...]

• Entrepreneurs are the REAL Peacemakers says Chris Brown

  jennbouani

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:01 am

  “Entrepreneurs are the REAL Peacemakers,” says Chris Brown, a lecturer at the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University and planner for the Austro-libertarian blog….and how true it is.  They are our heroes – they take the risks; they do the hard work & creative thinking; they create the jobs & wealth.   Without [...]

• Few Pics from Decatur Rotary Club Presentation

  jennbouani

  10 Oct 2009 | 12:17 pm

  Here are a few photos from my speaking engagement at the Decatur Rotary Club on Oct. 2nd.  Thanks Decatur Rotary for your warm reception!! Posted in Author Signings, Business for Kids, Education, Presentations/Speaking Tagged: decatur, gallery, jennifer bouani, Past President David Ewing, photos, pictures, presentation, President Bryan Downs, rotary, rotary club, scott drake, speaker, teaching kids [...]

• Young Inventors: Great Resource for Understanding Patents & Trademarks

  jennbouani

  20 Sep 2009 | 7:34 pm

  If you have a young inventor in your home or classroom, then you’ll want to make sure he or she knows all about patents and trademarks.  These FAQs cover different types of patents, why you need one, what would happen if you didn’t have one, plus a lot more. http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/kidprimer.html Posted in Business for Kids, Education, Tips [...]

• Korean edition of Tyler & His Solve-a-matic Machine now available!

  jennbouani

  16 Aug 2009 | 10:42 am

  Tyler & His Solve-a-matic Machine is now available in Korean via Book21 Publishing!  To order it, click on the cover (and scroll down to see inside illustrations). Korean Edition English Edition Posted in Books, Business for Kids Tagged: adventure story, Business for Kids, korea, korean, tyler & his solve-a-matic machine, tyler and his solve-a-matic machine, tyler homework machine, [...]

• 
  A Smart Bear

• New empirical data for SEO and social media marketing strategies

  Jason

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  Strategies for social media and SEO are so... squishy. You know what I mean. You can't measure "authenticity." You can't measure "relationships." You can measure "subscribers" and "followers" and "uniques" but that doesn't tell you anything about influence or reach or effect. You can measure "page rank" and "search engine position" but those algorithms are shifting and unknowable. Without units of measurement it's hard to experiment, and without experiments it's hard to have data to drive conclusions. This is a sucky situation for the scientist in me. Recently, however, I've come across…

• Hiring Employee #1

  Jason

  2 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

  It's a big decision to make your first hire, because what you're really deciding is whether you want to keep a lifestyle business or attempt to cross the chasm and maybe even get rich. (Cartoon by Andertoons) Assuming you're really in the market for another pair of hands to screw things up help out, the question is how to acquire resumes, how to pair them down, and how to identify someone who is going to work well in your company. There's already a lot of great advice about hiring at little startups. Before I give you mine, here are some of my favorite articles, in no particular order: Smart,…

• Rich vs. King in the Real World: Why I sold my company

  Jason

  19 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am

  I sold my company, Smart Bear, in December of 2007. I haven't talked about it at all on this blog, and it's time I spill my guts about the whole affair. You'd think selling a company would be a glamorous, exuberant experience, but I was surprised at the reactions I got. These are actual quotes: "How could you sell your baby? I'm shocked." "I thought you said things were going well. Hmm." "You're such a sell-out! You used to be one of the few cool people I knew." Interestingly, 100% of the negative reactions were from people who had never started their own company. But that doesn't make them…

• Ask your startup questions on OnStartups Answers

  Jason

  12 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am

  I'm giddy about this new project! Dharmesh Shah of OnStartups started a new website for entrepreneurs, and he graciously invited me to co-moderate the site. OnStartups Answers is a new site where you can ask any question about startups: Starting, ideas, raising money, going alone, co-founders, marketing, hiring, shoestring budgets, accounting, sales people, cold-calling, technical talent, what to do when you're burned out.... anything. It's awesome, and it's not just a "forum" or a "community" or some other generic crap like that.  Here's why: Other entrepreneurs answer the questions, and…

• Response: Sacrifice your health for your startup

  darla

  5 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am

  This is a guest post from my wife Darla, herself an entrepreneur and chef with a healthy dinner delivery service and a food/recipe blog. Darla and I made different trade-offs with our businesses and I wanted her to share her perspective. A lot has been said in response to Jason's post about sacrificing your health for your startup. Some think his position is excessive; some say it depends on your goals. Can you run a lifestyle business that doesn't require so much personal sacrifice? I did. I started Fork In The Road, a wee little healthy dinner delivery business. I actively chose to stay…

• 
  Venture Bin

• Eventzilla – Your events manager

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 8:19 am

  Eventzilla is a web solution aiming at helping you with your events. It´s a simple service in which you can set up your event and manage your ticket selling and stock. Venture Slogan: Managing events made easy. Eventzilla’s own description: “…With Eventzilla, you can set up your event and start selling tickets instantly. The following illustration shows [...] Related posts:Seatgeek – Forecast the ticket priceHotpotato – The real time live events connectorTexturevault – Textures Marketplace

• Nextbee – Word of mouth marketing

  admin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:14 am

  Nextbee is a solution that manages and organizes the word of mouth marketing. You can define incentives for referring your product and then track the social conversations to give rewards. Nextbee is an interesting solution to manage the social marketing. Venture Slogan: More Referrals – Better Conversions. Nextbee’s own description: “…Make word of mouth marketing work for [...] Related posts:Rentmineonline – multifamily referral toolVyoom – Rewarding social networkThoora – Discovering trending news

• Splurb – The popular link reference

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am

  Splurb is a service that shows you popular links on social webs. It´s a solution that gives you the popularity of links over time and size by number of sources. To get listed on Splurb, a link must be on at least two social websites. Venture Slogan: Splurb. Splurb’s own description: “…splurb is a cross-referenced list of [...] Related posts:LinkBee – Link shortener and money makerThoora – Discovering trending newsTa da list – Web To-Do lists

• Newsy – The world news overview

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:05 am

  Newsy is a news aggregator that helps you understand what is happening in the word. It´s a web tool that monitors, synthesizes and presents the world news coverage. Newsy presents a macro point of view about the world’s news pulse. Venture Slogan: The news with more views. Newsy’s own description: “…Newsy.com is a multiperspective online video news [...] Related posts:Thoora – Discovering trending newsGeoviu – information in a mapLazyFeed – Information by topics

• Checkfront – The booking platform

  admin

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am

  Checkfront is a web application that gives you a booking platform. You can manage your online inventorie, centralize reservations, processs payments and manage your distribution channels. Checkfront is an interesting solution to sell your products and services. Venture Slogan: Distributed booking platform. Checkfront’s own description: “…Checkfront is a powerful booking platform that allows businesses to manage their [...] Related posts:Ubidesk – Team collaboration spaceThumbtack – The local services marketplaceKazle – The multi networking aggregation…

• 
  Finding Benjamin

• Entrepreneurship Competitions Part 6 – Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition

  meganH

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am

  Time for yet another business plan competition! These contests really are hot items these days. While researching for our entrepreneurship competition series, we’ve found tons and tons of competitions for all ages and education levels. Because many of the contests we’ve been finding are targeting a specific region, city, or even school, they can be hard to come across if you don’t know what you’re looking for. So to help solve that problem, we’re working on expanding Finding Benjamin to become a go-to place to find out the inside scoop on all the business plan,…

• Event Parking Service

  ChrisH

  12 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

  Have you ever been to a big concert or sporting event and passed nearby houses selling parking spots in their front yard? Well, these property owners sure make a lot of money doing this, and believe it or not but there is a business opportunity for you even if your house is not near any venues. Many houses near these big venues do not participate in parking services for a variety of reasons. Maybe the home owner does not have the time, maybe they are going to the actual event, or maybe they will be out of town. Go around to these homes a few weeks before the event and find out if they will be…

• Finding Benjamin is Up to Something New…

  meganH

  11 Nov 2009 | 9:17 am

  Just as we always encourage our readers to get out there and put that dreamed-up business idea into action, we here at Finding Benjamin are doing the same! We’ve come up with our own idea for a second website (the first being FindingBenjamin.com) that will be fun, interactive, and useful for everyone – and quickly worth a lot of money to us and potentially to you too (or so we hope!). We’re only in the beginning developmental stages, but we’ve been doing a ton of brainstorming and story-boarding, a necessary process to get any project off the ground. Who knew…

• The Best of Halfbakery – November Ideas

  meganH

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:20 am

  It’s a new month, so its time for a new list of awesome inventions/would-be ideas from Halfbakery.com. In case you’re not familiar with our Halfbakery series, there’s a good little summary of what it’s all about here. This month’s list features ideas that might actually be somewhat feasible, but are still as entertaining to read and think about as always! Vegan Wishbone “Thanksgiving has a little bit missing for vegans. Tofu Turkeys have *captain obvious strikes again* no bone structure. Thus create a non-animal based wishbone to insert into the turkey…

• Entrepreneurship Competitions Part 5 – Y.E.S. Youtube Challenge

  meganH

  29 Oct 2009 | 12:19 pm

  Here’s another fun contest for you young entrepreneurs out there. Though this challenge is on a smaller scale than our previous posts and doesn’t offer a cash reward, its really easy to submit an entry and could be a great way to gain recognition if you’re just starting out. The Young Entrepreneur Society, a well known website and community for young go-getters and entrepreneurs, is holding an on-going challenge for a chance to be featured on the website’s homepage. All you have to do is submit a 30 second video clip of yourself describing why you think you’re…

• 
  Sentiment of Success

• Over Protected

  my1ambition

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

  Are we? When you sit back and think about it we realize that we no longer have any sense of independence. Or self-reliance if you will. Our ancestors sure did. They’d go out each day with two goals: Don’t get killed and eat enough to get to tomorrow. In today’s society however, it seems that [...]

• Recent Tweets #5

  my1ambition

  17 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pm

  Just in case you’ve missed out…(favorites in bold) Did you know that Coke makes a special formula especially for McDonald’s fountain drinks! (Maybe its New Coke). NEW BIO: Great thoughts and ideas to ponder, better your life and improve the way you interact with the world! Most violent crime is committed by people who know each other. Yet [...]

• A Farewell Poem to the GSEs

  my1ambition

  8 Nov 2009 | 4:22 pm

  As Freddie announces a $5 Billion loss, I recall a post I wrote a bit over a year ago. It was entitled “Farewell Poem to the GSEs”. So I’ve decided to do a repost. Enjoy! A Farewell Poem to the GSEs by Levik Dubov – September 2008 Freddie and Fannie we will nationalize, As investors soon will come to [...]

• How To Find Yourself in 20 Minutes

  my1ambition

  7 Nov 2009 | 11:25 pm

  Have been thinking a lot over the past couple days. I spent a few days in New York (and attended a live viewing of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). I was mostly on my BlackBerry so I had more time to think instead of just “surfing” the web. One of the things that’s fascinated [...]

• Want To Succeed?

  my1ambition

  23 Oct 2009 | 2:38 pm

  Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Passion, Purpose, Practice! Have an amazing weekend! Tagged: passion, practice, purpose, success

• 
  Current Mom

• Detective Mom

  Julie Bindeman, Psy-D

  21 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Sharing Saturday Picture by: BrillisBeasty Being a parent means taking on great responsibility in all facets of your child’s life. In many ways, it’s combining a number of professions and acquiring expertise well beyond what we might bring to the...

• A Therapist's Perspective on Little House on the Prairie

  Jenny Vidas

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  Family Friday My kids and I love reading together, and our shared books have included current hits like the Harry Potter series, as well as books from earlier decades. I am finding, however, that many of my childhood favorites sound...

• Not so Isolated After All

  Lyn Millett

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:30 am

  A new Pew survey says we are not all isolated zombies after all!

• The Quest for a Balanced Schedule

  Guest Post

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:22 pm

  Work Wednesday Guest post by Ousmane Mariko. Balanced, with a side of organization. That's precisely how I want my busy schedule to be. How about you? If that doesn't describe your current situation, fret no more, I'll try to give...

• Why Exercise Clothes Never Quite Fit Me

  Allison Nazarian

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Truth Tuesday "Mom, how come when you take me to school, all of the other moms are wearing exercise clothes but you are wearing fancy work clothes?" This was the question my then-three-or-four-year-old daughter (she's now 10) asked me point-blank...

• 
  Sramana Mitra on Strategy

• CIO Priorities: City of Miami

  narayananraman

  21 Nov 2009 | 5:16 am

  By Guest Author Narayanan Raman In the previous four articles, I spoke to CIOs from the corporate world, three from United States and one from India. I thought that in order to gain a well-rounded understanding of CIO priorities, I should interview a CIO from the public institutions space. This... ..

• A Scalable K-12 Education Solution: K12 CEO Ron Packard (Part 3)

  Jared

  20 Nov 2009 | 10:59 pm

  SM: Can you tell me more about the content you developed? RP: It is highly interactive and very rigorous. It is very high quality. We thought through everything a child should know from kindergarten to 12th grade to prepare him or her for anything they want to be in this world. Nobody has thought... ..

• A New App, But Sharply Lower Revenues At Autodesk

  MitraSramana

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:14 am

  CAD market researchers expected the industry to sustain growth despite the recession. In an overall U.S. market of $5.2 billion in 2007, the industry was expected to grow 15% in 2008 and another 10% in 2009 to $6.6 billion, and to maintain a CAGR of 11% through 2012. However, Autodesk’s... ..

• A Scalable K-12 Education Solution: K12 CEO Ron Packard (Part 2)

  Jared

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:59 pm

  SM: Basically, you make it possible for parents to enroll their children in an online school? RP: Correct. It is a K-12, full-time online school. SM: What is the relationship with the public school? They get it for free? RP: They get it for free because the state pays for the child’s education.... ..

• Book Reviews: Entrepreneur Journeys Vol. 3 Kicks SaaS

  mkelly

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:29 am

  From Alan Brochstein’s post, Sramana Mitra’s Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 3 Kicks SaaS, on his AB Analytical Services blog: “I enjoyed “Positioning” as much as her first “Entrepreneur Journeys” despite its being more narrowly focused.  It’s quite an easy read given that it... ..

• 
  rosskimbarovsky.com

• Startup Tip: What To Do About Office Space

  Ross

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pm

  Do you need office space for your new startup? What type of office space should you get? And when is the right time to look? I offer five suggestions in this short video.

• How To Get Attention For Your Startup

  Ross

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:33 pm

  Every startup wants to get attention. But getting attention is not easy for a young company, especially if your startup is not in Silicon Valley. In this video, I offer five suggestions to help you get attention for your startup.

• Startup Tip: Don’t Believe Your Own Press Releases

  Ross

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am

  It’s very tempting for a startup to start believing its own press releases (some people call this “drinking your own Kool-Aid”). This is very dangerous. In this video, I offer five reasons why you should not believe your own press releases. Focus on your product or service and stay humble – that’s the best way [...]

• Startup Tips: 5 Thoughts About Risk

  Ross

  15 Nov 2009 | 10:44 pm

  Startups must take risks to succeed. Without risk, startups get complacent and often fail. In this four minute video, I offer five thoughts about risk.

• LLC or C Corp For Startups?

  Ross

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:09 am

  Entrepreneurs must decide whether to organize their startup as a limited liability company (LLC) or a C Corp (S Corp – another option, is typically much less preferred). In this video, I talk about each type of entity and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each.