March, 2013

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One of the Biggest Mistakes Enterprise Startups Make

Both Sides of the Table

This article initially appeared on TechCrunch. 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 want low-touch or zero-touch businesses” was the mantra. I believe it’s flawed.

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Five Tips for #sxsw

This is going to be BIG.

I'll be headed to my seventh and perhaps last SXSW Interactive this year. I've spoken twice , judged at the startup accelerator, been around for the first Garyvee SXSW flashmob wine party , tipped a certain investor off to Twitter , been the investor behind the app that "won" the conference , attended a bike rally , tattooed a 4SQ douchebag badge on my head , played actual foursquare , and funded a guy I met for the first time there (Rob May from Backupify) --three years later.

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The 11 Risks VCs Evaluate

Tomasz Tunguz

Though the industry is called venture capital, the goal of a VC isn’t to maximize every risk. Instead, we try to understand all the risks a business might face and weigh those risks with the reward - the exit. Here are the major risks that I typically review when a startup pitches. Market timing risk - Is now the right time for the business? It’s often hard to evaluate this risk, but nevertheless, it’s an important consideration.

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Develop a culture of curiosity.

Berkonomics

Some of the world’s best companies to work for are those that encourage employees to spend time following their own paths of curiosity toward development of new products or services. Google, 3M, Facebook , and Microsoft all allow their employees to take time to explore new ideas they conceive and attempt to develop. Famously, the post-it note is an example of such a product coming from employees of 3M who were looking for quite another market for their newest light adhesive product.

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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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.

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Human Intervention as a Competitive Advantage

Derek Sivers

The listening algorithm. A year after I started CD Baby, when it was still just me in my bedroom, the CEO and VP of a hugely-funded Silicon Valley online music company contacted me, saying they wanted to fly out to New York to meet me. I said OK, and we met a week later for dinner. Dinner was a lot of blah blah blah smalltalk, and I wondered what they really wanted.

More Trending

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Bolstering the Partner Ranks at GRP

Both Sides of the Table

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that we have added Greg Bettinelli as a partner at GRP Partners. If you don’t already follow him on Twitter please click link and follow. You won’t regret it. The guy has knowledge. It is the first time in 6 years that we’ve expanded the partnership. So why Greg and why now? I first met Greg about 4 years ago or so.

VC 360
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How to Make Sure Professional Services Don’t Take Over Your Software Company

Both Sides of the Table

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. I recently wrote a blog post in which I pointed out that many investors & advisors discourage enterprise startups from having a professional services (PS) business and I think this is a big mistake. I think it’s important for enterprise startups to layer in professional services into your revenue stream.

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The Importance of Benevolent Dictators

Both Sides of the Table

I believe that groups coming together to make tough decisions driven by consensus tend to make poor decisions. This is especially true in startups where speed matters and where there is a need to constantly calibrate direction and where these decisions can have existential outcomes. Should you increase your burn rate by adding 2 senior hires who will help you ship faster or sell more but then have less time for fund raising?

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Tips for the Kiddie Table: What to do when you didn't make that list or get that invite

This is going to be BIG.

When I was 13, they split up my Little League into the "A" Team and the "B" Team. I got put on the "B" Team, mostly because I sucked. I didn't suck as bad as some of the other kids--I tried to swing, wouldn't swing over my head, but I certainly never really hit the ball. The team was terrible--we went 0-14--but I took it upon myself to really work at my hitting, learn how to play other positions, and try my hardest.

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PE Mastery: CAPTARGET's Playbook for Quality Lead Flow

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.

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Your Startup’s 10 Most Important Metrics

Tomasz Tunguz

With the analytics tools today, it’s easy to measure hundreds if not thousands of different metrics for your business. Cutting through all the chaff to determine the most important or insightful metrics can be quite a challenge. Below are the ten metrics I’ve found to be most useful in board meetings. They answer the questions of how should a startup founder might measure the business at the highest level.

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Tip for Keith and Dennis: Focus on the best uses of your time. cc @dens @rabois

This is going to be BIG.

Should VCs publicly denouce companies? To be honest, I'd love to live in a world where everyone was just upfront and honest with each other--where if you didn't like something or someone, you could just say it, and it wouldn't be a huge tweetstorm. The reality is, we know that there are people out there that don't like us or don't believe in what we do--some of them are justified and some will have to eat crow when we eventually succeed.

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Hack Project to Help a Non-Profit: Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse Volunteer Coordination Tool

This is going to be BIG.

The Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse is a non-profit runs a variety of human powered boating programs for both kids and adults on the Brooklyn waterfront. We have a free kayaking program that puts nearly 4,000 people on the water. We have over 100 volunteers and in any given week, we might have 25 or 30 people staffing our program. That presents quite a coordination problem that is only going to get worse as we scale--manually gathering responses, filling holes in our schedule, etc.

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The Future Is Here, It’s Just Not Evenly Distributed

Tomasz Tunguz

An entrepreneur shared this quote with me a few weeks ago. The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed. William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003. I remembered it this morning when I drove past a Google self-driving car and then again a few minutes later when a Tesla whipped past me and a third time during the same commute when I dictated an email to my mobile phone.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

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

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How to Align Founder and VC Incentives: Why Fund Size Matters

Tomasz Tunguz

When deciding if to raise a venture round, it’s critical to ensure your venture investor shares the vision for the company: both the product roadmap and the financial goals of the company. Most founders never consider the impact on fund size on VC motivations. As long as there are enough reserves to invest as the company grows, a founder might think, that’s fine with me.

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Why Branding Is the Next Essential Startup Competency

Tomasz Tunguz

How much is the most valuable brand in the world, Coca-Cola worth? $77.8B. That’s 45% of the company’s market cap. Often times, winners create advantages in a market through brands. These brands evoke emotions within consumers: feelings of trust (Visa), of aspiration (Nike), of adventure (RedBull). And if the brand is strong enough, it replaces the generic term: tissues/Kleenex, internet search/Google, glass cleaner/Windex.

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Machine Learning in Consumer Products

Tomasz Tunguz

I believe machine learning will drive the next big wave of innovation in consumer web services. The very same technologies that power Google’s search and Netflix video recommendation engine will become far more common and useful, perhaps even predominant in the consumer web. Every great consumer product has a little bit of magic. Apple employs static software and hardware design to anticipate user needs - to create that magic.

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Searching for Eric Schmidt

Tomasz Tunguz

For over two years, Larry and Sergey met CEO candidates before deciding to hire Eric Schmidt. Hiring a CEO was a condition investors imposed as part of the Series A terms. After the investment closed, the founders wanted to renege on that part of the agreement , but the board asked the duo to meet some of the valley’s top CEOs. At which point, Larry and Sergey only wanted to hire Steve Jobs.

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Statement of Cash Flows vs. Cash Flow Statement

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

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In 15 Years From Now Half of US Universities May Be in Bankruptcy. My Surprise Discussion with @ClayChristensen

Both Sides of the Table

“In 15 Years From Now Half of US Universities May Be in Bankruptcy.” Such was the quote of Clayton Christensen followed by, “… in the end I’m excited to see that happen. So pray for Harvard Business School if you wouldn’t mind.” Who else does Clayton pray for? Apple. Yup! Watch the 30-minute interview to hear why but summary notes below.

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10 Key Buildings in the Brooklyn Innovation Community

This is going to be BIG.

Back in 2006, when I started working on putting together some community groups for entrepreneurs and tech people, I looked for a better name to reference this collection of people. "Tech community" seemed too much about people soldering things together and writing code. Not only did I want it to include people working on the future of digital media at ABC, but I also had in mind the roll that other types of creative people have in the inspiration of a city.

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The Role of Angel Groups Going Forward

This is going to be BIG.

This week, I spoke to one of the longest running and most active angel groups in the country, the New York Angels. For a long time, they were basically the only game in town for seed and early stage funding in NYC. Luckily for all of us, including the New York Angels themselves, the ecosystem has bloomed. Not only has the NYC ecosystem changed, but the whole ecosystem around early and seed investing has innovated.

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It is dangerous, but fair game to hire from a competitor.

Berkonomics

Sometimes it is the first thought you or your managers have when in need of skilled talent, especially for sales or product development. It is not hard to find and observe the best employees of a good competitor at work, skillfully moving the competitor forward in a visible way. And it is a tempting slice of pie – two slices for one price – to take a critically needed employee from a competitor, damaging that firm while building yours.

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How to Avoid the Pain and Cost of PCI Compliance While Optimizing Payments

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.

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Important notice to Berkonomics RSS feed readers!

Berkonomics

You may lose your feed immediately after this notice (March 26th, 2013) as we switch today from Feedburner to local control of your feeds. PLEASE come to [link] now and re-enter your email address at the RSS on the upper right of the screen to continue receiving your feeds. (Email readers are not affected by this change.). Thank you! Dave Berkus.

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Be a leader!

Berkonomics

This simple statement is not what it seems at first. I quote this from a frequent family exhortation by parent to child in the Kemp clan, going back several generations. The late Jack Kemp, famous as quarterback for the Buffalo Bills and later as US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development then Vice Presidential candidate, told this story about his mom, as he continued the tradition with Jack’s now-grown family.

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Your Startup’s Top 3 Priorities

Tomasz Tunguz

Once you have built your product and it’s in the market, there are only three things that matter: distribution (getting the product into users' hands), engagement (validating that you’ve built the right product and that users are using it), and monetization (making money from those engaged users). Some companies call this the 3 Rs: reach, retention and revenue.

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Mobile Productivity for Normal People

Tomasz Tunguz

Over the past few weeks, there has been a new refrain among consumer mobile startups that I’ve met with: we’re designing for normal people or normals as Chris Dixon would put it. There are a few reasons for this trend. First, there is a movement towards great design. Second, there is a wave to reinvent and reimagine core applications of the mobile phones.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in