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'I have a motto in business and life, “give before you get.” It’s a philosophy, really. And it applies to business relationships & networking as much as it does to remuneration in the workplace. It seems we live in an era of “ask.” I see it on Twitter. Lots of asking. I see it on email even more. And in person in spades.
'The City of Los Angeles--despite a successful, recent mayoral campaign focused on the city''s tech-friendly new major has just issued a cease and desist to Uber , Lyft , and Sidecar , three smartphone driven ride services who have been serving the area''s high tech savvy residents. According to letters from Thomas M. Drischler, taxicab administrator for the Los Angeles City Department of Transportation, all three services lack proper licenses to operate, and were ordered to "cease and desist" f
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. The CEO of Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix) was born in Germany and grew up in South Africa. Although his English was impeccable, he was occasionally tripped up by colloquialisms. One that he particularly struggled with was "word-of-mouth marketing,”which he consistently referred to as "mouth-to-mouth marketing.
'Have you ever lost all of your data on your smartphone, laptop, or desktop PC? If not, it is probably only a matter of time until you do. Those of us who have experienced this heart-stopping event now regularly back up our data and many of us create images of our entire hard drives often, ready this time to address an effective recovery. But what about the shock of a fire, a major natural disaster, or even the loss of an important company top executive?
Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.
'By Charles J. Curto, Managing Principal of Tech Coast Equity Group At a meeting of the Technology Council’s Entrepreneur Society, Susan Howington, CEO of the outplacement firm Power Connections, presented Do You Know Your Professional Brand? How Your Brand Influences Your Success. Below are key take-aways from her presentation. Susan defined your professional brand as […].
'Some investors seem to focus wholly on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage, and in reality these are the core attributes for every funding equation. While these may be necessary for funding, they may not be sufficient to make your startup the great success embodied in your vision. In the last couple of years, perhaps in reaction to some business atrocities leading to the recent Recession, I am seeing a renewed focus on other less tangible attributes whic
'My mom seems to sneak into my blog from time-to-time. My dad less so. Mom was an entrepreneur and a civic leader. She was (is) a bit of a ball buster. And a negotiator. And a go getter. So she naturally fills my story arcs more easily. But of course we’re all a product of both of our parents – if we were fortunate enough to be raised by two individuals.
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'My mom seems to sneak into my blog from time-to-time. My dad less so. Mom was an entrepreneur and a civic leader. She was (is) a bit of a ball buster. And a negotiator. And a go getter. So she naturally fills my story arcs more easily. But of course we’re all a product of both of our parents – if we were fortunate enough to be raised by two individuals.
'In the latest services-meets-smartphone service to launch in the Los Angeles area, a new startup, Naki Laundry , said today that it has launched its service in Santa Monica, letting the tech set use their smartphone or the web to get their laundry cleaned. Naki lets users use the web or an app to request a laundry pickup, and gets your laundry done--clean and folded--either later the same day or the next morning.
'A version of this article previously appeared on Inc. John Lusk, along with his Co-Author Kyle Harrison, leveraged their humble company''s newsletter into The MouseDriver Chronicles , a New York Times bestselling book. Along the way, they created a supportive community of emotionally attached stakeholders that would be the envy of any Social Media Manager.
'Much of work place safety is common sense. But there is a natural tension between economy of operation and provision for safety for employees, and the resulting risk to the enterprise must be carefully weighed. Good boards of directors have a committee of the board to deal with “audit” issues, which should include analysis and recommendations to management about workplace safety as a part of a broader issue of risk management.
'When I was a kid, a friend once woke up with a crayon lodged so far in his nose they had to surgically remove it. He had his older brother to thank for it, who thought it was funny to put the crayon in his nose while he was sleeping. About 6 months ago my son Jackson, who was fascinated with coins, began choking during a diaper change. I immediately turned him over and did a mini Heimlich maneuver.
'Indiegogo announced the launch of Indiegogo City Sessions, two workshop-style events to be held this summer in Toronto and Montreal. Both events will feature crowdfunding insights from Indiegogo co-founder Danae Ringelmann, first-hand tips from successful Canadian campaigns and practical guidance on running a successful campaign—everything from how to market a campaign to common mistakes that campaign owners make.
'I recommend you read Fred Wilson’s recent blog post about the need for a well articulated business strategy before pushing a particular business model. Since Arrested Development is back I thought I’d resurrect Gob Bluth’s answer when he was told he needed a “business model” – he quickly figured out that he was missing one so he asked Starla, the Bluth company secretary, if she would be his business model.
'Ben Satterfield is the co-founder of TestFlight, an immensely popular piece of software for iOS (and now Android) which lets developers distribute beta copies of their apps to their users. TestFlight recently joined forces with Burstly (www.burstly.com) to create a suite of apps for mobile developers and publishers. We spoke with Ben about how Burstly is now creating a company to help mobile developers create, develop, distribute, and monetize their apps.
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. Mike Falzone nearly died twice in a two-week period, during which he was also fired from his job. On the way home from the hospital, he vowed that he would never work for anyone again. Since that day, Mike has written a successful book and toured nationally as a musician and comedian. With nearly 70,000 subscribers to his BestFriendmenship YouTube channel and 6 million video views, Mike is an emerging YouTube star.
'Assuming first that a corporate whistle-blower is not tooting about you individually, such a class of people have been granted protections under the law and serve a function that needs to be acknowledged. First, the assumption is that such a person is not making his or her gesture for personal profit, but to give proper notice that there is something illegal going on within the company that the person cannot accept and must tell someone about.
'People with money to invest have choices. How do you as an entrepreneur with a new idea get to be one of those choices? Initially, you may be able to rely on friends and family to put you on the top of their list, but eventually you will probably need real professional investors (Angels and VCs). You won’t win with them without understanding their alternatives, as well as their mindset.
By Charles J. Curto, Managing Principal of Tech Coast Equity Group At a meeting of the Technology Council’s Entrepreneur Society, Susan Howington, CEO of the outplacement firm Power Connections, presented Do You Know Your Professional Brand? How Your Brand Influences Your Success. Below are key take-aways from her presentation. Susan defined your professional brand as […].
'This article originally appeared on Inc.com. Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience. I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. This is a very important to do when you first start a company.
'Is that mobile cost-per-click, CPA ad, Facebook campaign, or Pinterest page actually translating into a customer? A new, Santa Monica startup, CampaignEQ , is hoping to help marketers better attribute increases in mobile customers and traffic to their marketing campaigns, with a new product. According to CampaignEQ--founded by former Beachmint execs William Belk and Dirk McGregor--its new cloud-based, web and mobile affiliate tracking platform is aimed at offering up better mobile attribution a
'A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes. It is only a matter of time before a YouTube filmmaker wins Oscar gold and my money is on Joe Penna. His videos have 325 million views and he has over 2.5 million subscribers to his MysteryGuitarMan YouTube channel. Mainstream America was first introduced to him in THIS McDonald''s commercial.
'So you’ve been at this for years through thick and thin, great days and days in which you’ve had better times. Much of your job has become routine. But it feels good to see your “baby” grow and others buy into your vision. direct lender cash advance. It is human nature for you and every entrepreneur to fall into a routine of taking care of day to day issues, meetings, communicating with customers and shareholders.
'If you can’t solve problems and enjoy it, you won’t make it as an entrepreneur. By definition, an entrepreneur is the first to undertake a given business, and firsts never happen without problems and people frustrations. The toughest problems are people problems, like personnel issues, but there are tough operational problems as well, such as vendor delays.
'This article initially appeared on Inc. If you haven’t already followed me on Twitter, that’s the fastest way to get blog updates. Click here. In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. This post is about the “P” or pain. The point of PUCCKA was to develop a common methodology to make sure our whole team approaches sales with the same mindset and to give us a language to talk with each other about our prospects, as in, “have y
'Phone calls. We all have important ones and want to maximize the impact, which can be hard to do when you aren’t face-to-face. Many first-time entrepreneurs have grown up digital natives so have a really good intuitive feel for technology & design but don’t yet have the business basics down. . This shows itself when people try to do an elevator pitch, send concise, actionable emails or have a quick phone call with you to ask for help. .
'I spoke this past week at the LeWeb conference in London, which was a superbly well run event with a very quality production team. Kudos. The 20-minute video of my presentation is here if you’re interested. And it was convenient for me because we also held our annual London board meeting of DataSift , who helps companies processes and analyze large volumes of social plus enterprise data in realtime.
'I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let’s start with the fund. We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). This month we closed our 4th fund of $200 million. If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat.
'In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. The first post covered the topic of “P” or pain. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it.
'Every sales organization with more than a handful of reps or that is across multiple offices or time zones would benefit from having a sales methodology. There are many out there and many books have been written on the topic. I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. It was useful because I was new to sales and as the CEO it gave me some comfort to feel more informed about how our leads where going and to know the likelihood of our
'This is part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. This post is about finding your “champion.” We developed this at our first company and called it PUCCKA – the overall methodology is described here. The “P” stands for Pain or the reason your customer needs to implement a new product.
'Earlier this month, Dealstruck (www.dealstruck.com) debuted a new, crowdfunding marketplace with an interesting twist. Instead of equity, the company is aimed at profiting profitable small businesses with business debt funding from investors, to help those businesses grow and get to the next level. The San Diego firm is headed by Ethan Senturia , who sat down with us to tell us how Dealstruck is trying to help build small businesses and jobs--and also tells us a bit about what it''s like to com
'For venture capital investors and entrepreneurs, used to making the commute between Silicon Beach and Silicon Valley, the distance--and time--between the two technology centers has just dropped, thanks to the launch of Surf Air , an all-you-can-fly membership airline. Surf Air launched its first flight today at 10:45am, flying from Burbank to San Carlos.
'You''ve seen the company''s work in the Superbowl, on television, and on the web, all for big brands--but you might not know it came out of the crowdsourcing efforts of Tongal (www.tongal.com). The Los Angeles company--which is backed by $15M from Insight Venture Partners--has come up with a way to utilize the web and its deep depth of creative talent to produce many viral videos and commercials for its clients.
'Goldstar , the online service which helps connect people with special deals on live entertainment, has tied with Google on support of Google Now. The Pasadena-based company said it has integrated with Google Now, to provide consumers with information about live entertainment in their area. The integration provides reminders of events they''ve purchased in Goldstar, weather forecasts, traffic updates, turn-by-turn directions, and more.
'There''s been a subtle--but very significant shift--in the solar power market in recent years, particularly in California, where it''s actually cheaper in many cases to lease solar panels on your roof, than to pay the power company. One of the companies that has taken advantage of that is OneRoof Energy (www.oneroofenergy.com), a San Diego company headed by David Field.
'It seems like there are more and more electric vehicles on the road every day--particularly here in Southern California. However, it''s still not the easiest thing to charge them, particularly at work or outside of home. One local company which is looking to change that is EV Connect (www.evconnect.com), which installs and runs charging stations for companies.
'Santa Barbara-based apartment leasing software suite developer Yardi has expanded its software to handle social media marketing, according to the firm. Yardi said it has expanded its Yardi Marketing Suite to now handle social media marketing, including a Facebook application and links to Twitter. Yardi said the tools allow possible renters to check availability and lease apartments directly from Facebook.
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