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(In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right. This paralyzes most people.
Part I of this series describes the 360-review that I conducted at a growing, dynamic SaaS business which has recently graduated from the startup stage and entered the early-growth phase. One of the most compelling conclusions I drew from the reviews is that both Founders need delegate more of their day-to-day tasks.
Sometime around 2003/04 my technology team turned me on to “Spolsky on Software&# a periodic newsletter served up blog style from Joel Spolsky of FogCreek Software, a maker of bug-tracking software. Blogs weren’t popularized yet so it was an oddity for me to read the founder of a software company spewing out advice.
I had dinner this week with a top new customer at one of our enterprise software investments. I wish I did more enterprise software investing because when I attend meetings like this I realize that this is my core DNA – rolling out business software solutions to customers. The press don’t get your financials.
I originally conceived it as the Top 11 things that I believe “all entrepreneurs need to succeed.&# If it stuck to this theme then I would stand by my top 11. It isn’t a “must&# for me but it’s certainly a huge positive when entrepreneurs have it. And the progress since my first product review is also great.
Over my many years of mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and business professionals, I often hear a desire to start a new business, with a big hesitation while waiting for that perfect idea and perfect alignment of the stars. Most aspiring entrepreneurs don’t have the resources alone to “bootstrap” or fund their new business alone.
Work on budgets, submit RFPs, answer customers support calls, work the bug-tracking software, and trying to meet the next sprint release schedule. I never lived beyond my means and it’s always a warning sign for me when evaluating companies and entrepreneurs. Note to said entrepreneurs – you’re not missing anything.
Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam , led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry , announced a $10 million round of financing. Here I make the case that entrepreneurs must stay focused on the prize, not the doubters. Entrepreneurs. ” **. It can be one of the strongest motivators.
A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for duediligence. Not doing duediligence on the funding source.
CapLinked operates an online service which helps entrepreneurs and startups organize duediligence documents, find investors, share and communicate with their investors, and more. CapLinked was founded by Eric Jackson and Christopher Grey, and is backed by a long list of Silicon Valley angel investors.
A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for duediligence. Not doing duediligence on the funding source.
Also, we've got a few entrepreneurs, including Kevin Chou, who is at Kabam up north, and has raised $150M in funding, and Alex Bard, who was at Goowy, which he sold to AOL. My brother is in charge of the development team, and is very focused on development and coding. You, as an entrepreneur, are expected to go though duediligence.
All of the benefits of a cryptographically secured, publicly verified, anonymized transaction system can be erased by errant code, malicious actors, or poorly defined parameters of an executable agreement. Hoping to beat back the tide of bad contracts, bad code and bad actors, Sagewise , a new Los Angeles-based startup has raised $1.25
A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for duediligence. Not doing duediligence on the funding source.
According to Tige Young, Founder and CEO of Tui Tai Expeditions , entrepreneurs should de-emphasize ROI and focus on a more accurate measure of wealth, Return On Life. How did an American software engineer come to own an adventure travel company cited by National Geographic as, "one of the best adventure travel companies on earth?".
The part of the movement that resonates the most with me (in my words) is that entrepreneurs should keep their capital expenditures really low while they’re experimenting with their product and determining whether there is a large market for what they do. This benefits you, the entrepreneur. It takes options off of the table.
The entrepreneur cannot wait to show me their product via a demo. Most entrepreneurs seem confused by my reaction and often say something like: “VCs love demos. Note: I invest almost exclusively in b-to-b software companies. GUI Fever – Entrepreneurs are often justifiably proud of their clever, clean user interfaces.
This concentration is partly due to natural causes – successful startups spawn other successful startups. If the tech community believes that a certain area is the epicenter of a particular industry, motivated entrepreneurs will start their ventures in such locations, thus reinforcing the geography’s perceived advantageousness.
Jackson, CEO and co-founder of CapLinked (www.caplinked.com), which is developing tools to help entrepreneurs and investors connect. Eric is an experienced entrepreneur, and was a very, very early employee at PayPal, where he was recruited by Peter Thiel. Jackson: It's actually two audiences, both the entrepreneur and investor.
Most entrepreneurs work long hours and weekends to get the job done. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Thus you should do the same or more duediligence on educational background, previous work, and references.
Many entrepreneurs encounter a similar dilemma. Thus, entrepreneurs must decide when to stop listening to the Sirens’ song of a quick buck and position their company to take advantage of long-term, sustainable business models. However, in the long run, entrepreneurs always benefit from delivering Maximum Utility for a fair price.
If you care to review my prior discussion with Kevin, you can do so HERE. In light of his love/hate public relations history, I asked Kevin if he has any tactical advice for emerging entrepreneurs seeking press coverage for their ventures. When it comes to Internet marketing, “faith” is often code for “No ROI.”
There was a lot of consumer internet activity again…resurgence of things, but it was still mysterious, venture capital was still kind of closed, 1st time entrepreneurs had a lot of questions that were unanswered, and there was still some sort of hand waiving around all the financing stuff and so we took it on….”. was starting.
A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for duediligence. Not doing duediligence on the funding source.
The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. We only want software revenue.” We prefer to sell software, not get involved with client systems.”
For many entrepreneurs, college has little appeal. Academia’s arbitrary, bureaucratic structure, combined with its predominant focus on theoretical issues, causes many entrepreneurs to depart college early. Entrepreneurs are misfits. Entrepreneurs are often societal rejects. Gates of being a master programmer.
LA's technology startup industry has saw a surge in new companies and efforts from its serial entrepreneurs in the last few months. Here's a quick look at just a few of the new companies who are led by serial entrepreneurs from the LA ecosystem. Entering Startup image courtesy Mike @ flickr. Ground Control. AppOnboard.
Yesterday I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. Failure to prepare for duediligence. Not doing duediligence on the funding source.
I became an entrepreneur because I had to. I had to be successful at my new software company. My sales tax payments were due in the next few days, and I didn’t have the money. In an hour I received a phone call from the friend who was in the office where I was due later that morning. By Frank Peters.
Our target market is entrepreneurs, creatives, and developers. Our services range from basically any platform service to enable an entrepreneur or developer or creative, to get online with a website, or do things like set up a blog. First, for those not familiar with DreamHost, talk about what your company does?
Jody--an experienced entrepreneur who was most recently co-founder of a firm he sold to the Virgin Group, and has been involved with such firms as Lycos, Buydirect.com, and Xoom--told us the story of EcoMom, plus how he connected with McClure on the investment. Jody Sherman: I've been an entrepreneur since I got out of the military.
As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m always surprised by the fact that some never seem to be able to that first startup going, while many others never seem to stop, starting their second or third initiative before the first one is fully hatched. I’m now convinced that serious entrepreneurs relish the startup process more than success.
However, Egg Baby--the title from newly funded Nix Hydra (www.nixhydra.com)--seems to have cracked the code for how to get new, young, female consumers to become game players. Most of the reviews rant about how cute the game is, so they probably like that too. Lina Chen: Number one, we learned to code and made a prototype ourselves.
It's the biggest portion of our revenues at our company, and our clients include the Buffalo News, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, JDate, Spark network, and many entrepreneurs. We actually built that about a year and a half ago, and are bringing that back due to overwhelming demand. How do clients license your software?
Here is an entry-level benchmark for the new software personal assistants: Simple and intuitive communication. A good assistant know how get things done efficiently, recognizing user hardware and software limitations. Of course, many are still fighting it as well, due to privacy concerns. Technology environment savvy.
They can read reviews, see pictures and even talk to the family before confirming. I typed in my brothers zip code and ton of houses popped up in his area and I was able to search out on a map view. I then clicked on reviews, looked at pictures and read the owners descriptions of what they were looking for. I registered.
Entrepreneurs can still build big businesses on the outskirts.” David encourages entrepreneurs to stay away from the big tech firms (such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple) because they are hard to compete with. We once thought Microsoft was a monopoly on the Internet due to IE. Where David is Totally Right.
Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Most entrepreneurs work long hours and weekends to get the job done. Thus you should do the same or more duediligence on educational background, previous work, and references.
With Startup Boost, we had dozens of investors, service providers, successful entrepreneurs, and major industry leaders (including Microsoft, Google, Softbank, REME, and TechStars) coalesce around our initiative to help early stage companies get to the next level. AIs continued growth is something I will be keeping my eye on in 2019.
The final episode of Bravo’s Start-ups: Silicon Valley aired recently, wrapping up an 8-episode run of what could be considered the most bizarre depiction of entrepreneurs and start-ups to date. How many entrepreneurs do you know who would throw a wild party the night before meeting a prominent angel investor? What was that ?
It is code word for “I’m not ready to invest for whatever reason … I need more proof.&#. They get positive product reviews on TechCrunch, GigaOm or Paidcontent.org. It’s not required but I have seen this technique be used effectively by entrepreneurs. They hire key staff. They make progress.
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 come from a family full of very successful, and high profile entrepreneurs, and how that has influenced his experience as an entrepreneur himself.
New entrepreneurs tend to focus only on getting the product right, and assume that the right culture and ethics will come later simply by hiring good people. While codes of behavior do not guarantee an ethical culture, they do clarify desired behavior and articulate for employees what is expected of them. Ethics can’t be managed.
A few months ago I wrote about an entrepreneur, Sam Rosen, whom we brought on as an EIR at Upfront Ventures. His message was that he realized he needed to move his girlfriend’s stuff into a storage facility due to apartment flooding. Now remember that Sam is an entrepreneur. They built the software. I felt bad.
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