September, 2011

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Why Reed Hastings Should be Applauded for Netflix Split

Both Sides of the Table

By now you probably know that Netflix is splitting its business into two parts: its digital streaming business (retains the name Netflix) and its DVD mailing business, which was its original business (to be called Qwikster). If you haven’t read Reed’s explanation of this split make sure you read it (of course, after you’re done with this post ) —> here.

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The Future of Publishing and an Opportunity to Work with CNN/Money

This is going to be BIG.

Don't know if you noticed, but LinkedIn has an editor now. Just think about that for a second. A professional social networking site has hired a content focused executive away from a traditional media company's digital arm. Isn't LinkedIn doing terrifically well with it's recruiting focused business? Isn't ad-supported content a tough place to be? Why would LinkedIn hire away Dan Roth from Fortune a few months ago.

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Knowledge Is Power: Convertible Note Financing Terms, Part I

Gust

The most successful serial entrepreneurs in the world may found three or four, perhaps even eight or ten venture-backed startups over the course of their careers. By contrast, venture capitalists and angel investors typically make scores or even hundreds of investments over the course of their careers. It should therefore come as no surprise that an asymmetry of information exists, mostly gleaned from experience, between founders and investors in a venture financing deal.

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Time does fly when you’re having fun. Lighten up for maximum lift.

Berkonomics

Have you ever noticed how slow time passes when you are in a troubled environment? Conversely, sometimes you look up at the end of a great day and wonder where the time went. Over the years, I have discovered that the difference is not just applicable to the good times, but to the environment, created by the senior executives, that filters throughout the organization.

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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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

For Entrepreneurs

The Science behind Viral Marketing is a look at the key factors that drive growth in viral marketing. (Hint, the most important factor is not the one everyone expects.) It also looks at what is needed to get virality to work, and how to create and optimize viral marketing campaigns or viral products. This was [.].

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More Trending

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Why Email May Be Draining Your Company’s Productivity

Both Sides of the Table

Email. Ah, email. That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. I’ve taken to saying, “Email is our personal to-do list that anybody adds to – whether they know us or not.” I was lamenting it tonight when I saw the most brilliant response Tweet by Andrew Hyde . “inbox = tetris getting zero lines doesn’t win it just makes the next move easy.” Brilliant!

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You can't win them all. but you can learn why you failed and be better for next time

This is going to be BIG.

I lost a deal last week. It sucks. To be clear, it wasn't really a deal that I "had", but there was a company that our team at First Round got excited about and offered an investment to. There were lots of other investors interested and even when we had relegated ourselves to just having an angel-sized piece, when the music stopped, we were left without a chair to sit on.

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Gust: Venture Forward

Gust

Most of us love the idea of a new beginning, a makeover, and a fresh start. Yet, despite the tremendous amount of innovation in our space, there is still a huge. amount of, (excuse the graphic word), regurgitation going on in our blogosphere. I’m not referring to the use of viral media to spread good ideas; I’m referring to. the frequency with which old thoughts get re-packaged and spread, under new. authorship.

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A successful exit is a great measure of a good journey.

Berkonomics

I’ve been involved with well over a dozen successful exits and four initial public offerings over the years, some of them with monstrous gains, some more modest. Then in addition, there are the exits that returned some portion of capital, but nothing more. And finally, there are the sad exits that were complete write-offs for the investors, regaining some portion of note-holder or creditor money in the process. .

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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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SaaS CEOs: Measure Customer Engagement – Increase Conversions & Lower Churn

For Entrepreneurs

The goal of a SaaS CEO should be to increase the profit they make from each customer (LTV), and lower the costs in sales and marketing that it takes to acquire each customer (CAC). Measuring Customer Engagement is a key tool that will help you achieve that goal, as it will allow you to increase [.].

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On IPOs: If You Are Going To File, Make Sure You Price

abovethecrowd.com

As you likely know, I am a big believer that the IPO can play a key role in the development of a company’s life. Moreover, I have argued that many in our ecosystem have an unhealthy anxiety regarding the dangers and consequences of being public. Lastly, I have argued that the IPO window is wide [.].

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Further Thoughts on Startup Operations

Both Sides of the Table

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. I expected it to be controversial and it was. To be clear, I said that most companies I see pitching have COOs & I don’t have a rule against it. I’ve had several COOs at companies in which I’ve invested. In bringing up the issue I wasn’t “hating on COOs&# – I’m just challenging you to think about whether your CEO + COO structure really provides the right amo

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The Excitement of Possibility

This is going to be BIG.

Tweet. The amazing thing about the internet is that you never know when and how you’re going to get inspired—and what voice will emerge and speak to you. This is a story that you have to read. It’s from a girl looking back, through her Gmail archives, at a relationship with a love she lost to cancer. I wanted to know who it was that wrote this and so I poked around, finding her blog.

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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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5 Things I Look when Investing in a Startup

Gust

Since this is my inaugural post here, I decided it would fit the occasion to list the five things I value most in an startup investment proposal. What I say here is my opinion and mine alone. It’s the result of several decades in high tech, three years as an investor in a local Oregon angel investment group , some consulting in due diligence for venture capital, and my experience as founder and co-founder of successful ventures.

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Timing is everything in a sale of a business.

Berkonomics

I have saved this next story until now because it is one of my favorites, and certainly illustrates the point as well as anything I could devise from fiction. First here is a bit of the background. The year was 1998. After presenting a “state of the company” report at a national meeting of resellers for a company where I sat on the board, I was approached by one of the audience members, complimenting my presentation and stating, “I have a problem.

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Why Your Startup Doesn’t Need a COO

Both Sides of the Table

It’s very common for startup companies to have COO’s. So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. But … Startups don’t need – shouldn’t have – COOs. I have this conversation with every startup that comes to see me and has a CEO & a COO. I think usually a COO title at a startup is an ego thing.

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Why Super Pro-rata Rights are Not a Good Deal for Entrepreneurs

Both Sides of the Table

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from Chris Sacca fly by that prompted me to want to write a blog post helping entrepreneurs understand why they should push back against VCs asking for “super pro-rata” rights. I’ll explain what they are and why you should avoid them if you can. A primer on “pro-rata” rights. Institutional investors will always insist on pro-rata rights.

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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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Why Pseudonymity Is Such an Important Concept

Both Sides of the Table

Fred Wilson wrote a blog post yesterday called “Real Names” in which he talked about a commenter on his blog who preferred not to comment because he didn’t want to use his real name. It’s all told through a graphic & very short so worth your having a quick read. It’s a powerful concept. The idea of not using one’s real name is something I’ve had to come to understand better through other people providing context.

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Tips to Help you Think About Sales at Your Startup

Both Sides of the Table

Sales. It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing. This week I had the chance to have an hour-long discussion with Vince Thompson (ran West Coast sales for AOL for 7 years – back in the day when AOL was what Facebook is today) and Mo Ali , who has the awesome Twitter handle @BornToCall – runs sales at This Week In.

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Don’t Commit BSAK Errors. The World is Too Small

Both Sides of the Table

BSAK Errors. I always loved the term … ”Between seat and keyboard.” Normally it was my tech team just being cheeky with me about my withering technology chops. But … … was thinking about a very common BSAK error that I see committed – the “flaming email.” Or when I worked at Accenture we called these “CLMs.” (career limiting maneuvers).

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VCs with Personalities? Foundry Group FTW!

Both Sides of the Table

I was an entrepreneur for years. I must have pitched 40-50 VCs over the years. Possibly more. As I talked about on many occasions when I was an entrepreneur – and blogged publicly about - I learned a lot about my business and myself in these meetings. It was largely a positive experience. [Make sure to watch the video ]. Still, it was bloody annoying, too.

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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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Entrepreneur Social Media FAIL: I don't have time to blog because I need to hire, get customers, get PR and raise money

This is going to be BIG.

Tweet. Let's be clear--you can absolutely build an incredible company without participating in social media. There is certainly success without blogging, and blogging definitely isn't a guarantee of success by any means. So why bother? You have tons of things to do as a founder. You have hiring to do, money to raise and you've got to get your company's story out there.

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Debating Some of the Issues of Our Time with Dmitry Shapiro

Both Sides of the Table

I had the pleasure of sitting down for an hour with Dmitry Shapir o of AnyBeat this week. The last startup he did raised $70 million for the online video space before being sued for more than $1 billion by Universal. He won the battle (the lawsuit) but lost the war (went bankrupt, with pending litigation he couldn’t get funded. He’s back in the game as an entrepreneur and this time he wants to take on Facebook.

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Kayaks and Startups: Signalling direction on the open water by making a hard turn

This is going to be BIG.

Tweet. I kayak on the waters around Manhattan--which is a ton of fun but can also be a bit precarious when it comes to navigating ferry traffic. A few weeks ago, we were with a group of paddlers and came face to face with a ferry boat heading in our direction. We wound up between it and the pier that it wanted to turn into coming around a bend. The ferry boats in NYC are on pontoon-like structures, and so the worst thing you can ever see as a kayaker is straight through to the other side of the

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Paywalls and Kettlebells

This is going to be BIG.

Tweet. The other day, I was working out in New York Sports Club in Bay Ridge, doing my kettlebell swings and basu ball as per the Four Hour Body. I was standing in an area marked "for personal training only -- when personal training sessions are occurring, this area is private" or something to that effect. When I started, there weren't any trainers to be seen.

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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