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On Lafayette Street in SoHo, young, fashionable women lined up around the block to enter a minimalist, millennial oasis, the most perfect Instagram feed brought to life. Staff members glided around the store in pastel pink suits, each embodying the kind of girl that Glossier made us all want to be: beautiful, yet effortless. “We want to inspire, but we also want to be realistic and show beauty in real life,” Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss said in a 2017 interview with Inc, just as th
As a leader, you set the goals, establish the strategies and tactics to get there (with help from others of course) and sell the dream to all your stakeholders. And that includes potential customers as well as executives and employees. Can unmanaged growth ever happen? Sometimes growth happens without a leader envisioning it, living it daily, evangelizing it to anyone who will listen.
Every so often a promising entrepreneur seems to freeze in the oncoming headlights and gets run over by his competition. Why is it that his idea which seemed so fundable only months ago fails to attract investors today? The team is the same. The company's market is the same. The only change might be a visible new competitor, or another economic downturn, resulting in investors holding their money, and that makes all the difference.
Square is teaming up with Apple to enable the ‘Tap to Pay' iPhone functionality within the Square Point of Sale app. With it, customers can quickly use contactless payment, giving consumers an easier shopping experience while helping sellers use the Square system with even less friction. Tap to Pay will be available to all Square sellers sometime this year, with an Early Access Program coming this summer to let sellers tip their toe in the concept first.
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.
Rising traffic is an inescapable condition in cities across the world, from Los Angeles to Tokyo. Peak-hour traffic congestion is an inherent result of the way modern societies operate. Every person hates this congestion, and it keeps getting worse, in […]. The post Atlas Navi: The First AI Navigation App appeared first on StartUp Beat.
Austin, Texas has become one of the most exciting cities in the United States. It is one of the most liberal places in the Lone Star State, making it enticing… The post Austin’s Blossoming Economy: Five Growing Industries in the Capital of Texas appeared first on AllTopStartups.
Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we talked about layoffs and the Winklevoss rock gods. This week, we’re looking at a new layer of crypto doom and gloom. Get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday by subscribing on TechCrunch’s newsletter page. crash redux. We’ve talked crypto crashes a couple times already in the short life of this newsletter but the sell off this week has spooked crypto insiders in a very different way.
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Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we talked about layoffs and the Winklevoss rock gods. This week, we’re looking at a new layer of crypto doom and gloom. Get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday by subscribing on TechCrunch’s newsletter page. crash redux. We’ve talked crypto crashes a couple times already in the short life of this newsletter but the sell off this week has spooked crypto insiders in a very different way.
There are many roads to Rio, so they say. But there is one overwhelming method of appraising the effectiveness of a business leader. Outcomes. We can invent lots of metrics to measure progress for a leader, including revenue, profit, employee satisfaction, cost containment, percentage of available market, and more. But these are all individual roads to Rio – which is the stated goal for the organization.
A popular approach for aspiring entrepreneurs these days seems to be to corner anyone who will listen, with a pitch on their current “million dollar idea.” The initial monologue usually ends with the question “How much money do you think this is worth?” In my opinion, ideas are a commodity, and are really not worth much, outside the context of a visionary leader who can execute.
The rent crisis is getting worse, according to a new report that found a full third of all small and medium-sized businesses are behind on their rent for the month of May. That figure has risen 5% since April, and the situation's even worse in Canada, where 39% of SMBs couldn't make rent. What's driving the crisis? Some of the survey's results suggest the culprit is a wave of rent hikes across the board, paired with outside factors including supply issues and growing gas costs.
“Here’s the deal…” So, I occasionally read suspense novels to break up the relative monotony of constant business books. A sentence in the one I recently read caught my eye. “There are three types of advice,” the wise White House Senior Counsel to the President told the young White House attorney. He referred to the three as legal advice , moral advice, and political advice.
What’s a gatekeeper? Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? There are always gate keepers whose job it is to filter out the inconsequential or inappropriate and allow through those with most promise. That said, gate keepers can and do block some great opportunities before the decision maker even has a chance to use his or her expertise to evaluate.
Many business professionals and entrepreneurs I know are quick to attribute success of a peer to luck, rather than any recognition of a unique strategy or personal attributes. Over my many years as a business advisor and angel investor, I have become a firm believer in the opposite position, that you make your own luck , which drives business success, rather than the other way around.
An entrepreneur is literally “one who creates a new business.” The best new businesses are ones that have never been done before, so mastering creativity and recognizing creativity are key skills and mindsets. But how does one recognize and nurture creativity in a person or team? In researching this question, I reviewed a classic book by Bryan Mattimore, “ Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs ,” which details eight attributes of the most creative people, which seem to ma
I’m sure that every one of us who has been out in the business world for a few years can look back with perfect hindsight and name a few college courses that we should have taken. What’s more disconcerting to me is that I can name a few that aren’t usually even offered, resulting in more than a few students graduating ill-prepared for the real business world!
Every business leader expects to encounter one or more crises eventually. The challenge for each of you is to get it handled quickly and effectively, without losing the trust of constituents , as well as customers. In my role as business advisor, I see leaders who handle it well instinctively, and others who fall apart under the stress, or let their emotions and biases lead them astray.
If an entrepreneur doesn’t find themselves in over their head at least 20% of the time, they are probably not pushing the limits, not taking enough risk, and probably not working on an idea that’s worth doing. The challenge in to know when and how to ask for help, and not let bravado and ego mask anxieties. The best people know when they don’t know, and know how to find the right help.
Angel investors and venture capitalists don’t make equity investments in nonprofit good causes. The simple reason is that it’s impossible to make money for investors when the goal of the company is to not make money. Yet as an active angel investor, I still get this question on a regular basis, so I’ll try to outline the considerations in common-sense terms.
One of the things I’ve learned over my years as a business mentor and investor is that life isn’t fair when it comes to succeeding in business. You may think that passion and hard work are all you need, but I believe we all have unique strengths , and you need to recognize yours, and capitalize on them above all else, in order to get the advantage you need to win in business.
Large corporations and conglomerates, the engines of growth and vitality in the twentieth century, have lost their edge and their image. They have proven themselves unable to innovate, and they have lost more jobs than they create. My friends who “grew up” with lifetime careers in General Motors, Exxon Mobil, or even IBM, are now often too embarrassed to even mention it.
One of the most common complaints I hear from entrepreneurs is that they are overwhelmed by the workload and stress of starting their company. Then there are the additional challenges of balancing the demands of family and friends. Having too much on your plate can turn your dream into a nightmare. Some people will tell you to just get a bigger plate, meaning hire some help.
You may be surviving in the marketplace, but is your business really thriving and winning? In my role as a mentor, I challenge every business leader to be more open-minded as they face the challenges of change and new competitors entering their space. Most are reluctant to tip that balance between hard-won experience versus new thinking that can take them to the next level.
Investing in entrepreneurs and startups is a fun but different world from investing in conventional stocks, bonds, and commodities. First of all, it’s more of an investment in people than in a business, since the startup is usually an idea barely half-baked when they need your money. Secondly, the risk is very high, since as many as 90 percent of startups fail within a few years.
First, the challenge. Let’s say you have been told by your board, by your chairman, CEO, or direct leader to solve three problems you identify and report back within a month showing progress – or that you have solved these three. But wait. You have questions! First, you’d worry that this is an artificial way to focus management. Why three? Why now?
We all have to communicate and collaborate with other people at work, but most of us start out instinctively trying to maintain an emotional distance from others in the work environment. In fact, most employee training courses recommend the distance if the work relationship crosses management levels, and most management policies strictly forbid fraternizing with the team.
A number of tech companies have made the headlines this week for hiring new members of staff, only to rescind such offers before they start. Tech companies like Coinbase, for instance – an exchange for blockchain -secured currencies like Bitcoin – reneged on offers due to “current market conditions and ongoing business prioritization efforts.”.
Deciding to be an entrepreneur is a lifestyle move, and should be part of a long-term strategic plan. You shouldn’t be making this decision just because you are mad at your boss, or you would like to be rich, or someone else thinks you have a good idea. In these changing times, if you already have a startup, with no plan, maybe it’s time to think ahead for a change.
Most people I know in business begin by capitalizing on technical strength or passion for change , such as engineering, or focus on saving the environment. They don’t realize that it takes more to succeed in business or a career – it takes leadership skills to get people to follow you, including peers, a team, business partners, and customers. Luckily, you can learn needed leadership skills.
In my work with entrepreneurs and business leaders, a common question I get is how to be a better communicator. In the rush of daily activities, it’s hard to find time to carefully craft the right messages to all your constituents, route them through all the right channels, and have any insight that they have been heard and understood. It’s even harder to find time to actively listen to input.
When the economy struggles as it is doing now, that’s a strong signal that things have to change, and it’s hard to miss. But most of us in business have to deal most of the time with weak signals, or change that is happening in a far more subtle way. These changes can be cultural, like the increasing need to be social, spawning Facebook and a hundred others, or technological, like the explosion of mobile devices around the world.
Every business owner I know wishes that all team members were leaders, to proactively tackle the challenges of growth , interact effectively with customers on their needs, and eventually step into your role. Yet you know that real leaders are hard to find, and often remain hidden just below the surface of your team. Are you sure you know what to look for, or how to develop potential ?
In my years of mentoring entrepreneurs, a problem I have seen too often is low self-esteem, and over-compensating through arrogance and ego. These entrepreneurs find it hard to respect customers or team members, and their ventures usually fail. As a team member, low self-esteem leads to low confidence, poor productivity, and no job satisfaction. Fortunately, both can be fixed.
Keeping your team connected and engaged should be the highest priority for every business leader. I find this to be a tough challenge for many entrepreneurs, especially those of you who have long focused on technology as the key to the business opportunity. Don’t forget that building a business requires an engaged team, as well as an innovative solution , for long-term success.
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