Our network

Startups

13 Questions That Will Lead You To Your Perfect Marketing Strategy

May 15, 2012 by John Jantsch
with 19 views
0

Any business model, or plan for that matter, is little more than a guess and I believe that your best chance for getting that guess right is to build your business model based on a marketing strategy. [read more]

Tolerance and Prosperity

May 6, 2012 by Fred Wilson
with 22 views
0

Yesterday, my partners and I invited Paul Romer over to USV for lunch. For those that don't know, Paul is a leading thinker in the world of economics and currently a Professor at NYU. It was a fascinating conversation. My favorite part of it was Paul's "lecture" on William Penn, early Pennsylvania, and the reaction to the growth of... [read more]

Getting it Right the 2nd Time (our investment in SEOMoz)

May 1, 2012 by seth levine
with 20 views
0

It’s not often in this business that you get a second bite at the proverbial apple, but with our funding of SEOMoz announced today we got just that. [read more]

exclusive

Audio Archive: Hire More Staff or Contract Out?

May 1, 2012 by Kelsey Arnold
with 19 views
0

Hire More Staff or Contract Out? A Question for Every Small BusinessSponsored by... For entrepreneurs with the right strategy, this is an exciting year to launch a new business with high growth potential. Our panel of experts will show you innovative ways of finding funding including crowd funding, private investment, Internet-based... [read more]

Is it a tech bubble?

April 30, 2012 by Chris Dixon
with 43 views
0

Every week a “we are in a tech bubble” article seems to come out in a major newspaper or blog. People who argue we aren’t in a bubble are casually dismissed as promoting their own interests. I’d argue the situation is far more nuanced and that people who engage in this debate should consider this. [read more]

exclusive

Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs Meet at the UVA Venture Summit 2012

April 23, 2012 by Joan Justice
with 108 views
0

“Welcome to the University of Virginia’s Annual Venture Summit, where venture capitalists and alumni from top investment firms across the nation join with innovative researchers, academics and students to share a discourse about the frontiers of fields where the future is shaped.” [read more]

Your Piece of the Pie: Does Being The First Full-Time Paid Employee Affect That Founder’s Equity In The Company?

April 21, 2012 by Brad Feld
with 63 views
0

You do an excellent job of looking at both sides of the question. While the founder who is working full time for the company is getting paid and the other founders are not, the other founders presumably are still getting paid from the day jobs. [read more]

Measuring Innovation Metabolism

April 20, 2012 by Jim Ewel
with 20 views
0

What I'm Reading: Master Your Metabolism By Ji... What I'm Reading: Master Your Metabolism By Jillian Michaels (Photo credit: puck90) I recently came across a concept, described by Dustin Dolginow of Atlas Ventures, called “Product Metabolism." Dustin’s insight was that the speed at which startups iterate on their product, their “product metabolism”, should be a key performance indicator (KPI), and startups with a higher product metabolism should realize more success than those with a lower metabolism. [read more]

Is your resistance to asking for help drowning your dreams?

April 17, 2012 by Pamela Slim
with 39 views
0

Asking for help is a core attribute of successful entrepreneurs. If you have staff, like I am proud that I do now (Sheila Sanders, my full-time assistant, started at my office three weeks ago), it becomes imperative to ask for help and delegate as much as possible. I am used to having a meeting with peers, and saying things like: [read more]

The Tragedy Of Calling Things Silicon Blah

April 17, 2012 by Brad Feld
with 22 views
1

If you are going to create a startup community, build your own identity. People now talk about “New York” and “Boulder” as amazing startup communities. They don’t talk about Silicon Alley and Silicon Flatirons. Well – I suppose some do, but I don’t hear it anymore (or at least my brain doesn’t process it) – I just hear New York and Boulder. [read more]

exclusive

Lessons Learned: Mistakes from Past Ventures that I Won’t Be Making Again

April 14, 2012 by Randy Minchew
with 154 views
0

I'm a serial entrepreneur. Making mistakes is the best way to learn, but by passing some of these lessons on to you, you may be able to avoid making the same ones I did. [read more]

Motivating Your Employees To Be More Productive Workers

April 10, 2012 by Small Biz Bee
with 70 views
0

Being the owner and manager of a small business is a tremendous undertaking. It involves balancing a budget and leading a marketing campaign, raising capital and designing new products. Unlike at major corporations, where a different person is assignment to different specialties, a small business manager usually needs to be a developer, advertiser, fund-raiser, consultant, and hiring manager all at once. [read more]

V&S Acquired by Havas: A Pivotal Moment for Crowdsourcing in Advertising

April 5, 2012 by Ross Dawson
with 20 views
0

The purchase by Havas of a majority stake in crowdsourced ad agency Victors & Spoils is a sign of a major shift in the advertising industry. [read more]

How Do I Protect My Option Grant From A Down Round In The Future?

April 3, 2012 by Brad Feld
with 24 views
0

A question on joining a start-up in the midst of receiving funding, and the powers of a CEO. [read more]

Hiring Developers Before Product/Market Fit?

April 3, 2012 by Tony Karrer
with 37 views
0

Using my StartupRoar as a radar, I came across a great post by Gabriel Weinberg Do you really need a full-time hire for that? [read more]

Hire or Outsource Your Marketing?

April 1, 2012 by Bill Brelsford
with 71 views
0

  Sean Crafts at Mavenlink posted an interesting, infographic-style decision chart on his blog that he titled “Should You Hire or Contract Your Marketing Department?”  While many of the questions in the decision tree may not apply to small business marketing decisions (small business owners rarely start with budget) it... [read more]

Simple Business Models Often the Best

March 27, 2012 by Jeff Cornwall
with 45 views
0

Sometimes the simplest business models make the best opportunities. [read more]

Business Modeling is a Process, Not an Event

March 25, 2012 by Jeff Cornwall
with 105 views
0

Developing a sound business model is key to the successful launch of a business. But you should never assume the business modeling is finished once the business begins to grow. Keeping a business model current is critical for long-term success.A business model helps to ensure that all of the "moving parts" of the company are working... [read more]

The Monastic Startup

March 20, 2012 by Brad Feld
with 30 views
1

Last week at our Yesware board meeting, we talked about the idea of “the monastic startup.” This was a phrase that Matthew Bellows, Yesware’s CEO, came up with, and it characterizes the culture they are creating at Yesware. It embodies two concepts:The monastic startup is a place where engineers do the best work of their lives. This... [read more]

Four Ways I Participated @ SXSW

March 16, 2012 by David Armano
with 14 views
0

The interactive portion of SXSW is over—and by all accounts this year was the biggest (wettest) and probably the most "mature" of the event as more senior individuals from companies across the globe make their Mecca to Austin to network and learn about the convergence of technology and business. Here's a quick roundup of a few things I... [read more]

Logo