July, 2015

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Bill DeBlasio's Uber targeting is in danger of making NYC a tech joke

This is going to be BIG.

Mayor Bill DeBlasio is on the verge of making NYC one of the most unfriendly cities in the world for technology companies to operate. It first started with Airbnb, which got caught in a crackdown aimed at people who turn "affordable" residential housing into full time hotel space. Don't concern yourself with the fact that Airbnb is simply an outgrowth of the lack of affordable housing--where no one would ever bother renting out their place if they didn't have to struggle to afford to live here.

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Fauxmentum

Both Sides of the Table

__. faux·men·tum. fōˈmen(t)əm,fəˈmen(t)əm/. noun. when a technology startup, its investors or the market believe in robust growth rates writ large. “the ecommerce company gained fauxmentum by raising artificially high amounts of venture capital and spent lavishly on customer acquisition despite long payback periods and questionable LTV” __.

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We have officially kicked off our 2015 Private SaaS Company Survey!

For Entrepreneurs

For the fourth year in a row, I am working together with David Spitz and his team at Pacific Crest Securities, an investment banking firm (@dspitz and @PacCrestSec, respectively on Twitter) with a specific focus on SaaS, to survey SaaS companies in order to share benchmarking data and insights on the growth and operations of the […].

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The Fastest Growing Areas of Startup Investment in 2015

Tomasz Tunguz

Earlier this week, we examined the trends in the major categories of startup investment including eCommerce, Software, Social Networking and Education. But which lesser known startup sectors are starting to raise venture dollars? Where are founders finding unique opportunities to innovate? Bitcoin is the fastest growing sector followed by photo sharing and physical storage (which includes moving and self storage companies).

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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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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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TEL 254: The Responsible Business with CAROL SANFORD

The Entrepreneurs Library

A summary of things you should know about The Responsible Business according to CAROL SANFORD. Introduction (0:41). About two weeks ago a joined The University of Washington founding a center that is going to house the many many decades of my work under something called ‘The Responsible Business Center.’ I also work a lot with individuals now through seed communities, I’m an author of two award winning and Best Selling books, and as a result I do a lot of keynote speaking.

More Trending

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What to Expect When You're Expecting Venture Capital Returns

This is going to be BIG.

One of the first things I did when I joined the venture asset class as a lowly institutional LP analyst in 2001 was to build the VC fund cashflow model. Just about every analyst who looks at fund investing has built one. You incorporate expected company returns, mortality rates, and fee structures to try to predict how a venture capital fund works from a cash in, cash out, and NAV standpoint.

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How Many Angels is the Right Amount for a Startup to Have?

Both Sides of the Table

If you follow the Twittersphere you may have noticed several people weighing in on this recent piece by Mike Isaac of the NY Times, asking “ How Many Angels is Too Many? ” I found myself nodding through all of it with quotes like, “Seed investing is the status symbol of Silicon Valley,” said Sam Altman. I myself coined the term ENIFA (everyone now is a f **g angel) in 2011 but it didn’t stick as well as the term Unicorn did.

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Need Funding? 2015 Is A Strong Year For Startups

Gust

2015 is shaping up to be a strong year for the startup and early stage investor ecosystem. Total startup funding applications are up across the globe and in multiple sectors, especially in the United States where the surging New York City tech industry is leading a nationwide growth in new startups. Coming out of the second quarter of the year, the total number Read more >.

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Startup Investment Trends in 2015

Tomasz Tunguz

In the last six months, VCs have invested more than $57B according to Mattermark data , which puts 2015 on pace to exceed 2000 as the year the most venture capital will be deployed, ever. Which sectors are benefitting from all these venture dollars? The chart above contrasts the top 12 sectors receiving venture funding in the US, and plots the relative share of dollars invested by month.

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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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A Shockingly Common Way that Sales Misses Plan

For Entrepreneurs

It’s just after the end of a quarter, and for VC’s that means many board meetings to review how portfolio companies have performed. Over the years of doing this, I’ve been shocked and surprised how many times I’ve seen good companies with great product/market fit miss their sales targets for an incredibly avoidable reason: they […].

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Patent litigation can kill the small guy.

Berkonomics

When you think of patents, you think of added value to the corporation in the form of protection of its intellectual property. In fact, many corporations spend millions developing surrounding patents to form what is known as a “patent thicket,” much like Brer Rabbit jumped into to protect himself against his detractors in the briar patch. Investors like to see patents or patent applications as evidence of intellectual property value and barriers to entry.

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What Scales?

This is going to be BIG.

I've got a great deal for you. It requires you to set up the operation from scratch in every city--and it probably only works in cities. There is a ton of regulatory risk. Right now the market is pretty much only high net worth individuals. Oh. You only invest in scalable businesses? Sorry, I didn't realize. I'll keep that in mind for next time. Congrats, you passed on Uber.

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The Loneliness of Success that Nobody Talks About

Both Sides of the Table

Yesterday I saw two biopic films: “ Amy ” about the life of Jazz sensation Amy Winehouse who died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27 and “ Montage of Heck ” about the life of Kurt Cobain , the grunge-rock generational voice who died of an overdose of heroin and valium at the age of … 27. It was a heavy day, for sure.

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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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Need Funding? 2015 Is A Strong Year For Startups

Gust

2015 is shaping up to be a strong year for the startup and early stage investor ecosystem. Total startup funding applications are up across the globe and in multiple sectors, especially in the United States where the surging New York City tech industry is leading a nationwide growth in new startups. Coming out of the second quarter of the year, the total number Read more >.

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What's Really Happening in the World of Bitcoin Investment

Tomasz Tunguz

In response last week’s post on The Fastest Growing Areas of Startup Investment in 2015 , in which Bitcoin topped the list, I received many questions about the underlying dynamics of this startup segment. Which regions? Which stages? How much is going into Bitcoin companies. Using Crunchbase data, I analyzed BTC investment patterns over the past 4 years.

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TEL 255: Small Business Big Pressure with DARRYL LYONS

The Entrepreneurs Library

A summary of things you should know about Small Business Big Pressure according to Darryl Lyons. Introduction (0:48). I’m an entrepreneur, I co-founded a company called Pax Financial Group and I have been advising and leading individuals and small business owners with their money for 15 years now. Our company has become one of the best places to work in the community so I am really proud to lead a small business and write about it.

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Bottom up budgeting creates waste. Top down!

Berkonomics

Many people believe that bottom up budgeting leads to waste and misdirection. The advocates of top-down budgeting are strong in their belief that if you give each person or department no guidance, they will budget to their wants or specific needs, not to those that support a corporate goal. So, they argue: Give your people a top-down generated target.

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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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Backing someone pre-pitch: The story of how I backed Clubhouse

This is going to be BIG.

I'm excited to be able to finally announce Brooklyn Bridge Ventures ' investment in Clubhouse , a company I agreed to back before I even knew what it was. In 2010, a bunch of techies got together to do the next year's NYC Triathlon. I had already done two and was looking forward to joining people from the tech community. It was also right around that time when I started CTO School--a small five session series on how to go from being a developer to a technical leader, which blossomed into a not o

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What You Can Learn from a Scorpion

Both Sides of the Table

The hardest thing about starting a company is that from day one you emerge as this completely vulnerable entity trying its hardest to project success, power, trajectory and inevitability while you secretly know that you’re one knock-out blow from extinction. Think about it: You start with nearly no money, you bring on some co-founders and if they quit it could completely derail your mission, you talk to journalists who if they decide to be cranky can ruin your reputation, you pitch investo

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NeverSnooze CoFounders Launch Kickstarter to Help You Stop Snoozing

Onevest

Chase Armstrong saw a chronic problem with how people were starting their day. The luxury of having an alarm clock on your iPhone meant that a blind reach and a gentle tap earned you five or ten more minutes of precious sleep. The consequence, as many of these “snoozers” fail to acknowledge, is that it decreases the effectiveness of a good night’s sleep, and makes it even more difficult to start your day.

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Startup Best Practices 15 - Start With the Why

Tomasz Tunguz

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” This line from Simon Sinek’s TED talk captures the power of a values based marketing campaign. Simon contrasts feature-based marketing - start with what the company is selling continue to how they do it and finishes with why - to value based campaigns which reverse the story-telling order.

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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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In Defense of the Deck

abovethecrowd.com

My partners and I have noticed an interesting trend over the past few years: an increase in the number of entrepreneurs who prefer to pitch us without the use of a presentation deck. On one hand, this is totally understandable. Many believe that PowerPoint decks are emblematic of the type of bureaucracy disparaged in Dilbert cartoons. Others want to appear “casual” and “conversational” and view the presentation as overly formal.

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Whatever it is, try to deliver it via the cloud

Berkonomics

By David Steakley. Editor’s note: Popular contributor, David Steakley, returns this week with his take on the importance of cloud delivery for technology businesses. – DWB. Everyone knows that software-as-a-service has displaced the old style of delivering enterprise software. You may have assumed that this has transpired as a natural evolution of technological capabilities.

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When doing the right thing by people is also the better business model: Why I backed Homer Logistics

This is going to be BIG.

Late last year, Adam Price opened by eyes to a group invisible to most New Yorkers--bicycling food delivery guys. He told me about how they get their jobs, what they make, how they make it, and about all of the various problems that come with being a 1099 worker--or being completely off the books. He told me months and months ago, before anything came out about Uber's workforce, how it was never going to work in a world of increased "on demand" services.

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How the Hell do I Prioritize Work, Blog & Find Balance?

Both Sides of the Table

I noticed this post today from Ezra Galston titled “ Dear Brad, Fred & Mark: How The Hell Do You Do It? ” The premise is that either I (I won’t speak for Fred or Brad) have some magical solutions that allow me to produce a lot of content, or I’m super human or conversely I could read it as a negative post in that I’m somehow neglecting my duties as a mentor and advisor to the startup companies in which I’ve invested or to the fund that I manage. **. tl;dr

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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