This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 8, 2012

I'm not sure whether or not Obamacare is a good idea. Watching our two candidates quibble over obscure facts and figures related to it doesn't make me feel any more well informed about it either. I think I'd need an hour long explanation of it by a team of experts to even scratch the surface. What people wind up voting on has little to do with most of the words and positions being covered, because most people don't understand the finer points of each infinitely complex and nuanced issue.

culture 282

culture education communities capital 282

Gust

OCTOBER 21, 2012

Apple NYC image via The Washington Post. A startup begins with a great idea, but all too often, that’s where it ends. Ideas have to be implemented well to get the desired results. Good implementation requires a plan, and a good plan and good operational decisions come from good people. That’s why investors invest in entrepreneurs, rather than ideas.

startup 162

startup innovation enablement entrepreneurs 162

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 25, 2012

In past insights, we’ve explored data gathering and dashboards for tracking the most important information to manage your company. Every good executive has a set of critical data points that best alert him or her to the changes in the flow of business most important to note and in many cases to curb a negative trend early in the game. There is a truism you should internalize: Most all big problems start off as small problems.

board 66

board sustainability VC investing 66

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 31, 2012

Ariel Diaz wrote an insightful post in PandoDaily yesterday outlining the state of affairs in online education. Ariel touched on the history of education, catalogued the problems of the status quo and pointed to a few innovative initiatives. Most Edu Innovation is Post-Secondary. Reading the post and reflecting on the startups I’ve seen, I concluded most of the innovation in education has occurred in post-secondary education instead of K-12, despite the fact that the K-12 market is about 50% lar

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education startup innovation enablement 40

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Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

technology

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2012

It all started in 2010 with Klout. I wasn’t a believer. I had always liked and respected CEO Joe Fernandez but could never get my head around the fact that the Klout was putting up charts showing who influenced me and it didn’t map to the reality I knew in my head. I had been trading emails & Tweets with venture capitalist John Frankel and we were to meet in person in March 2011 at SxSW to talk about Klout and other investments he had made.

venture capital 303

venture capital VC ventures capital 303

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 25, 2012

A few times this week I've heard the term "Skin in the Game.". What it generally means is that you've put your own money into something--that you're risking something along side the people who are supporting you. I had an entrepreneur tell me that he put $75,000 of his own money into something because he thought it was important to have skin in the game.

entrepreneurs 276

entrepreneurs support investing investment 276

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 16, 2012

RA Dickey of the New York Mets is the closest I've ever had to a sports hero. His story of overcoming child abuse, a missing arm ligament, a decade in the minors and going on to reinvent himself in his mid-30's using a pitch few have mastered is nothing short of inspirational. I took the afternoon off a couple of weeks ago to see him win his 20th game of the season at Citifield.

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pitching frameworks construction consulting 259

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Picture this: Your family builds a tremendous business in Nebraska over four generations making black socks. You make more black socks for more people in the western world than anyone. The next generation isn't interested in socks. One daughter is touring nationally with her punk band. The son is off in Africa combating disease with Doctors without Borders, and the other son. well. remember Woody Harrelson on Cheers?

venture capital 244

venture capital VC capital networking 244

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

September’s Startup Map showcases the latest trends in startup profiles created on Gust between September 1 st and September 30 th. Some of the entrepreneurs chose to keep their startup profiles private and therefore are labeled as unpublished in this month’s map, and were not included in the trends analysis. In September the US has once again shown the highest concentration of startups, even though there was a decline when compared to the month of August.

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startup education development entrepreneurs 155

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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

development

Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2012

I began studying angel investing returns about 10 years ago as a result of a problem I couldn’t resolve: The investing world seemed certain that angel investors were rubes. Conventional wisdom dictated that they made reckless investments in very early-stage ventures mostly doomed to fail. And whenever they might come close to succeeding, savvy “professional” investors would just swoop in, cram them down, and win the real returns.

angel investing 152

angel investing venture capital investing investment 152

Gust

OCTOBER 7, 2012

Image via Facebook.com. Every time I hear about a new startup that is in stealth mode, I wonder what problem they are hiding from whom. Of course they pretend that they are trying to avoid alerting competitors prior to launch, but too often it becomes an excuse to move slowly in a world that’s all about getting to market fast. I believe stealth makes sense for large companies who can be sued for “pre-announcing” a new product to stall the market or kill a competitor.

entrepreneurs 131

entrepreneurs incubation media culture 131

Gust

OCTOBER 14, 2012

Ryan Blair book image via Amazon. It’s a well-accepted axiom in the investor community that entrepreneurs learn more from their failures than their successes. Thus a well-explained startup failure often can actually improve your odds of funding in the next go-round. Yet, there is no doubt that the best strategy is to learn from someone else’s mistakes, so you can enjoy the millions that someone else lost in learning.

entrepreneurs 174

entrepreneurs leadership strategy communities 174

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

This summer I conducted our third annual survey of the pre-money valuation of pre-revenue companies recently funded by angel groups in North America. Access to our 2010 and 2011 surveys can be found at 2011 Valuation Survey of North American Angel Investor Groups. We received data from thirty groups of the fifty angel groups from whom we requested data.

energy 169

energy data collection angel capital networking 169

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CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

opportunity

Gust

OCTOBER 15, 2012

An impromptu Twitter debate arose among Fred Wilson, Dave McClure, Mark Suster, Chris Dixon and others about convertible debt, priced equity rounds, and the nuances of early stage financing. It was such a good discussion that Fred asked that someone Storify it. I’ve done that here and expanded it with some additional references, background info and light commentary.

financing 140

financing finance angel investing investing 140

Gust

OCTOBER 4, 2012

People who tell you that VCs won’t look at a company with an even equity split are being silly. That has never once, in my experience, been even a slight hiccup, let alone a dispositive factor in a seed investment. That said, there is a core of truth in the concept that there always needs to be *some* way to make a decision. That’s why the Senate has the Vice President as the tie breaker, and why boards of directors are almost universally an odd number.

founder 125

founder ventures board investing 125

Gust

OCTOBER 11, 2012

While you will definitely need to be a corporate entity before you can accept funding from any investor (or issue stock options to any employees), the specific corporate status of the venture at this stage is much less important to investors than its functional status. That is, if all you have is a good idea, the reality is that you are highly unlikely to be able to get funding from anyone at all, even if you are a Delaware C corporation with gilt edge stock certificates.

pitching 122

pitching investing investment founder 122

Gust

OCTOBER 25, 2012

The question should be “used for what?” Because convertible notes are designed to give investors an equity interest in a company that will eventually be worth much more than their investment, the intention on their part is always to convert into equity (after all, if they were just after the interest on a loan, they could find much less risky things to invest in than a startup.).

financing 121

financing finance investing investment 121

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

B2B marketing

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

I like this a lot. The executive summary: . Dropbox Co-Founder Drew Houston believes false mythologies about tech company founders do a disservice to aspiring entrepreneurs. While many people think all tech founders start with world conquering visions, says Houston, the reality is that founders learn one day at a time just like everyone else. This less-than-two-minute video comes from Stanford’s Ecorner , its online entrepreneurship center, which is a great resource. .

founder 119

founder entrepreneurship entrepreneurs 119

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 23, 2012

What's your equity split of this business and why? Are we comfortable with the thinking behind that? What is the scope of our business? What is outside the scope of what we want it to do? Are we allowed to do anything outside of the business? What is the expected time commitment? What are my roles going to be and how might that change over time in 3 months, 6 months?

founder 396

founder culture board support 396

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 16, 2012

The first mobile phones were purchased by corporations and given to employees. Thirty years ago, most people used computers at work but not at home. Most of the innovation flowed from the enterprise into the home. Today, it’s very much the opposite. The big trends in enterprise trace the opposite movement both at the software layer and the device layer: consumerization of IT means using consumer channels to acquire customers and bring your own device (BYOD) means 66% of employees bring their own

innovation 40

innovation technology development investing 40

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 4, 2012

The flurry of media activity in entrepreneurship including the spate of new TV shows like X-Factor for tech and Shark Tank, the refocus of the NYTimes and WSJ on technology, and the number of entrepreneurs on mainstream magazine covers gave me the impression that entrepreneurship is on the rise. While this may be true in pockets like New York or California, entrepreneurship in the US is shrinking - at least according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a report from the NYTimes: When Job Creat

entrepreneurship 40

entrepreneurship education media communities 40

Speaker: Wayne Spivak - President and Chief Financial Officer of SBA * Consulting LTD, Industry Writer, and Public Speaker

The old adages that "cash is king" and "you can’t spend profits" still hold true today. But however well-known these sayings might be, it requires a change in mindset to properly implement a cash flow management system that predicts your business's runaway as accurately as possible. Key to this new mindset is understanding the difference between the Statement of Cash Flows, a historical look at the source and uses of cash, and the Cash Flow Statement, which uses transaction history and forward-l

financing

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Lately I've been going through this amusing little "Who's on first?" routine with servers at restaurants. "Do you have iced green tea?" "No, sorry we don't." "Well do you have regular green tea?" "Yes, we do." ".and you have ice.and a glass?" "Oh.yeah.I guess we do." Eureka! They get it after I ask for the ice. They have all the ingredients for what I asked for.

opportunity 256

opportunity startup 256

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2012

I'm running the NYC Marathon this year to raise money for Camp Interactive. I'm about halfway to my goal, which about two weeks left--so I've come up with an idea. For four straight nights this week, I'm going to be answering questions live on Sprouter. I'm going to answer 50 questions per night starting at 10:30PM ET. The suggested price per answer is a $5 donation to my fundraising.

venture capital 218

venture capital technology capital ventures 218

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Peter Senge has been called the most influential business strategists of the century and in my view Senge is the successor of Peter Drucker, the management visionary. Senge published a book in 1990 called The Fifth Discipline which I think every manager, founder and CEO should read. Great companies transcend their great products. Not defined by one product, these companies adapt, innovate and reinvent.

startup 40

startup board innovation development 40

Tomasz Tunguz

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Last week, a close friend, who is a product manager/designer, told me he’s starting a company. He asked me where I thought the biggest opportunity lay given his skills and his passions. He’s incredibly capable and driven, but he hasn’t yet found the right place to apply his energy. My friend is in search of a problem to solve. He’s in the right place.

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energy collaboration opportunity startup 40

Speaker: P. Andrew Sjogren, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Very Good Security, Matt Doka, Co-Founder and CTO of Fivestars, and Steve Andrews, President & CEO of the Western Bankers Association 

PCI compliance can feel challenging and sometimes the result feels like you are optimizing more for security and compliance than you are for business outcomes. The key is to take the right strategy to PCI compliance that gets you both. In this webinar, we have a great set of panelists who will take you through how Zero Data strategies can be used as part of a well-rounded compliance and security approach, and get you to market much sooner by also allowing for payment optimization.

strategy