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Often when they do I throw out my favorite statistic: 73.6% of all statistics are made up. Here’s how I learned my lesson: I started my life as a consultant. I had to read each report, synthesis it and then come up with our best estimate of the markets going forward. I say it deadpanned. It’s irony.
This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed startup. I paid up for the diploma but can’t say that I saw better results. So back to MBAs.
A new study released by the Kauffman Foundation this week shows that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has the highest number of entrepreneurs per 100,000 people, of the top fifteen largest MSAs. The report covers all business entrepreneurs, not just those in the high tech industry.
I grew up believing that human behavior was 20% nature, 80% nurture. In my bones I’m convinced that entrepreneurs are more nature than nurture although I know both are involved. I have recently written extensively on what I believe the 12 characteristics of an entrepreneur are. of all data is made up.
Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. However, a number of them wanted to vicariously experience the startup world through John and Kyle''s venture. It''s gonna highlight our emotions, our ups and our downs.
A new study released by the Kauffman Foundation this week shows that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has the highest number of entrepreneurs per 100,000 people, of the top fifteen largest MSAs. The report covers all business entrepreneurs, not just those in the high tech industry.
There has long been a big debate about the best approach to starting a new business. Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model.
What is an entrepreneur? I learned that based on my selling statistics (which were good, but not great), every non-sale got me 1/15th of the way toward a sale. What does this have to do with being an entrepreneur? Here's the definition I came up with: if you walk and talk like an entrepreneur, you are one.
Making the decision to start your own business is a major commitment, with huge implications for skills and lifestyle. These are not valid reasons to start a business. But if you're focused on solving a real problem, believe you can do it better than anyone else, and confident in wearing many hats, you have the right start-up mindset.
A new, Santa Monica-based startup has created a new iTunes application, Draftpedia , aimed at providing a comprehensive source for NBA and NFL Draft history, player stats, and team rosters. The app--which is free--is the brainchild of David Rabie and Joe Sarafian, two Santa Monica entrepreneurs who were born and raised in Los Angeles.
In an attempt to boost diversity and inclusion efforts and civic engagement between the growing technology industry in Los Angeles and the community that surrounds it, over 80 venture capitalists and entrepreneurs joined the city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, and the non-profit Annenberg Foundation to announce PledgeLA.
As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. There is no crowd of successful entrepreneurs. Successful startups are all about the right people with the right stuff. Financial model.
It starts with sharing the opportunity and upside. Think of startups and early stage businesses whose entrepreneurs you know. Nearly none, if statistics and experience are key to the answer. One: The entrepreneur. First, there is the entrepreneur , the visionary, and force behind the venture from start to finish.
The baseball community has really taken to it, because we''ve set it up how coaches already operate. How''d you start the company? They were very small shcools--he went to Cate, which is inland from Ventura in the Santa Barbara area, and I went to The Thacher School, and we both ended up at the University of Southern California.
In my role as advisor and mentor to many new entrepreneurs, I often find myself suggesting that they think bigger. We all are excited to hear real innovation, and struggle daily to increase every potential entrepreneur’s scope of thinking. For example, smart entrepreneurs look for recognizable patterns in disconnected domains.
The data consistently confirms that: (i) venture capitalists are typically not adventuresome, and (ii) most startups lack the three intoxicating factors which cause venture capitalists to pull out their checkbooks. This concentration is partly due to natural causes – successful startups spawn other successful startups.
Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Thus, financial projections for up to five years are a necessary element in every business plan. Forecast sales-volume expectations.
Upon graduation from Wharton, John and Kyle launched a startup based upon a simple, pedestrian product: a computer mouse shaped like the head of a golf driver. However, a number of them wanted to vicariously experience the startup world through John and Kyle''s venture. It''s gonna highlight our emotions, our ups and our downs.
The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. Startups with no exit planned will minimize investor returns. Most entrepreneurs like the startup role, but not the big-company role. Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy.
One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Searching LinkedIn, for example, is a must for contemporary entrepreneurs. But don’t wait for them to contact you.
Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market research data. With social media and the new survey tools, it’s easy and fast to set up and run your own focus group, or opinion survey.
Much has changed in the past four months of the technology startup world and how outsiders value the business. That’s economics (or statistics) for asking whether price ratios of how investors value companies was simply coming back to historical norms. We entrepreneurs have been spinning that line for decades in every boom cycle.
When I heard a friend and business mentor say, “Your startup won’t fail if you don’t quit,” I realized that every entrepreneur should adopt “never give up” as their mantra. Either could improve the statistic that half of startups fail within the first five years. So why do most startups fail?
Many entrepreneurs are so enamored with their product vision that they believe their own hype, and are convinced that the market for their solution is so huge that no one will ask them for independent market-research data. With social media and the new survey tools, it’s easy and fast to set up and run your own focus group or opinion survey.
Making the decision to become an entrepreneur is a major commitment, with huge implications for skills and lifestyle. Therefore, the least you can do is take advantage of some of the self-assessment tools and guides around, like “ The Entrepreneur Equation ,” by Carol Roth, which highlights personal characteristics and skills required.
From the annual search statistics from Google and Bing , it''s clearly information about celebrities. A Santa Monica startup, Famous Birthdays , looks to have carved out quite a niche in the area, with its online list of (you guessed it), famous birthdays. The design just went live in the last couple of weeks. READ MORE>>.
The last thing a new entrepreneur wants to think about for a new startup is how it will end. Startups with no exit planned will minimize investor returns. Most entrepreneurs like the startup role, but not the big-company role. Yet one of the first things a potential equity investor asks about is your exit strategy.
In our Insights and Opinions section this Friday morning, Frank Peters , angel investor and podcaster at the Frank Peters Show , shares his opinions on startups making Google their exit strategy: It's the exit strategy for too many entrepreneurs: "Google's a target exit partner." Meanwhile entrepreneurs dream. Continued.).
As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you.
Since the recession, and at least partially sparked by it, I’m seeing a real resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. The rate of new entrepreneurs increased about 10 percent, from 280 out of 100,000 adults in the 2014 Startup Activity Index, to 310 out of 100,000 adults in the 2015 Index.
Most aspiring entrepreneurs understand that you can’t build a business if you won’t commit to delivering a product or service, but many are hesitant or refuse to commit to any financial forecasts. Thus, financial projections for up to five years are a necessary element in every business plan. Forecast sales-volume expectations.
Can tapping the power of the crowd not only help you find customers and help fund your project, but also help you shape your startup idea and find funding? A new, Los Angeles area startup, JumpStartFund (www.jumpstartfund.com) recently launched, offering up a combination of crowdfunding and crowd-advice for entrepreneurial ideas.
I talk to many people who have spent years struggling up the corporate ladder who dream of jumping ship and becoming an entrepreneur. I hasten to tell them that every job move is fraught with risk, but the move from employee to entrepreneur is on the high end of the risk curve. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The visibility of Google, Facebook and a few others continues to propagate the myth that the ultimate objective of every entrepreneur should be to take their startups public via an initial public offering at the earliest opportunity. Facebook, for example, ended up raising almost $16 billion through its IPO.
Bitvore is based in Irvine, and is backed by serial entrepreneur Yuri Pikover, as well as other angels. Our system will go off and watch those things for you, trend them over time, do statistical analysis on them, or you can use it as a very advanced news gathering system, which is what we''re doing with it today for Wall Street.
When I heard a friend and business mentor say, “Your startup won’t fail if you don’t quit,” I realized that every entrepreneur should adopt “never give up” as their mantra. Either could improve the statistic that most startups fail within the first five years. So why do most startups fail?
Entrepreneurs who require funding for their startup have long counted on self-accredited high net worth individuals (“angels”) to fill their needs, after friends and family, and before they qualify for institutional investments (“VCs”). Thus investing in startups should always be approached as a low odds game.
Every new venture that survives the first five years starts to drift away from their entrepreneurial thinking, and assumes they have achieved the path to longevity. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup.
Every entrepreneur needs to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, and realistic about their reasons for choosing the startup route. For any entrepreneur, even the best business opportunities, if entered for the wrong reasons, will likely fail. Health and personal problems don’t go away when you start a business.
Change is about the only thing constant in the world of startups. Since the startup environment is usually more volatile, the challenge there in balancing advantage, risk, and performance, is more critical than in big companies. It starts at the top with the founder and CEO, but has to extend quickly to the bottom of the organization.
Semantic technology is important… we can aggregate individual lists into the wisdom of crowd aggregations which are more statistically meaningful than one person’s opinion about a topic.”. How would you describe your relationship with your investors and what can young entrepreneurs learn from your philosophy? “I
Image via Flickr by Jupiter Labs Many first-time entrepreneurs find themselves unable to bootstrap their startups, and also unable to find early funding at the venture capital level or even with angel investors. The average amount per startup was $23,000, usually in the form of a convertible loan, rather than an equity investment.
Many new entrepreneurs are so excited by their latest idea that they can’t resist contacting every investor they know, assuming the investor will be equally excited and want to contribute immediately. Every pitch should start with a concise statement of the problem and your innovative solution. Marty Zwilling.
As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. There is no crowd of successful entrepreneurs. Successful startups are all about the right people with the right stuff. Financial model.
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