Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 6, 2015

I came off of a few tough weeks at work. In part that’s why you’ve heard less from me recently. I had some good days and bad days like most of you. I had a very big negative surprise which I’ve mostly worked through but will take time. And I’ve had some good moments, too, for sure. But through all of this I’m always reminded that in tough times some people pull up their socks and help get the job done while others turn to being critics: Even some who don’t act

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 26, 2015

How do you keep your staff (and yourself) motivated and working efficiently? In the face of a new calendar year, here are 26 ways to improve and/or maintain office productivity: 1. Encourage a healthy work ethic. Working without breaks, regular movement or milestones is a recipe for quick burnout. Make sure you and your employees create good, sustainable work habits. 2.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2015

I've always had a problem with the term "impact investing". It's as if the investments that you made that aren't part of an impact investing strategy hang from the ceiling Mission Impossible style in a temperature controlled environment making no discernable impact on stakeholder's lives. Leave no trace. Leave no fingerprints. Only, we know that's not the case.

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Gust

DECEMBER 6, 2015

Canada has not tapped its female angel investor potential – yet. The female angel investor conversation has been discussed inside and out. From TechCrunch, BetaKit to the Financial Post, there have been more than a few arguments made about the lack of female representation in Canada’s early-stage investment community and the benefits of tapping into this financial resource.

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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 The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.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

For Entrepreneurs

DECEMBER 3, 2015

The following is a guest post by Rob Gonzalez. Rob is the co-founder of Salsify, a leading cloud-based product content management and syndication solution that I invested in in 2013 and where I currently serve on the board. Prior to founding Salsify, Rob was at IBM, Endeca and Cambridge Semantics in senior product management roles.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2015

Like many of you I read in awe last week about the accomplishments of the Washington Post since Jeff Bezos acquired the company two years ago. The killer chart is below: In the article it raved particularly about the WaPo’s amazing mobile app and how Bezos personally intervened to get the team to improve loading times – whatever the short-term costs. “His focus on customer experience has become a near mandate within the news operation.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 19, 2015

When you began formulating the idea of creating a business, what did you think of first? The business model? Your “why” statement? Ideal employees? Every entrepreneur knows that the success of their company can be made – or crushed – by the quality of their core working team. CEOs and business owners want their company to be well-run, and oftentimes, that means formulating a rockstar group of people who will give their best to help you succeed in realizing your dream.

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Unvalidated Learnings

DECEMBER 26, 2015

Charlie Munger (and his long-time partner Warren Buffett) seem to stand out as the antithesis of venture capitalists. Not only do they focus exclusively on large profitable businesses with long track records, but they also repeatedly stated that they don’t want to invest in the tech sector as they don’t understand it (better than the market). However, given their extraordinary investing performance at Berkshire Hathaway, I thought it was worth reading Tren Griffin’s Charlie Munger, the complete

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Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 6, 2015

SaaS Enabled Marketplaces employ elegant business models. They are verticalized SaaS companies that manage a marketplace to create winner-take-all market dynamics. SEMs can generate revenue in four ways: charge the buyer and/or supplier a software fee & charge the buyer and/or supplier a marketplace fee. In addition, a startup must determine what rake to charge.

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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

For Entrepreneurs

DECEMBER 14, 2015

The following is part two of a guest post series by Rob Gonzalez. You can find part 1 here. Rob is the co-founder of Salsify, a leading cloud-based product content management and syndication solution that I invested in in 2013 and where I currently serve on the board. Prior to founding Salsify, Rob was at.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 24, 2015

If we never advertised, we’d never sell anything. Right? Perhaps right, but there are three major types of advertising, some requiring large outlays of cash, some not. First, you can advertise your brand so that people recognize it when they see it in later materials. Second, you can make a call to action, using an ad to bring people to your place of offer, buy your services or product, or take advantage of a special incentive.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 29, 2015

I went looking for the video clip of Tamir Rice running around with a toy gun. I hadn't seen it before the trial verdict. I have to admit, my first reaction was, "Jeez, that's hard. It really does look like he has a real gun." Then I saw a tweet from a white friend of mine about how he used to play with guns as a kid, too. I had forgotten about it, but so did I.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Who is Anju Rupal, and what is she doing to better the world? Watch her Project Octane video, “One Hand Washes the Other,” and read our sixteen insights into her career as a social entrepreneur. 1. Anju is inspired in her work by the cleanliness of Switzerland, where she lives. 2. She is empowering girls and women through her business, Abhati. 3.

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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

OnStartups

DECEMBER 22, 2015

Working on a startup? Have a 800 pound gorilla you're trying to disrupt? That's awesome. But here's a tip: Don't talk about disrupting them. The first rule of disruption is: You do not talk about disruption. Why is this so important? Why shouldn't you declare to the world (and the tech press) that you're going after the big kahuna? Doesn't the media love a great David and Goliath story?

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Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 9, 2015

As a startup scales and surpasses its first organizational breaking point of 8 employees, it’s time to start thinking about organizational design. The strategy a startup chooses in their market should determine their organizational design. In the First Round Review profile of Paul Arnold , the Head of Operations at AppDirect, Paul shares the challenges the initial organizational structure created as the company grew 5x in less than a year.

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For Entrepreneurs

DECEMBER 22, 2015

The following is part three of a guest post series by Rob Gonzalez. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here. Rob is the co-founder of Salsify, a leading cloud-based product content management and syndication solution that I invested in in 2013 and where I currently serve on the board. Prior to founding Salsify, Rob.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 10, 2015

“Broadcast the message and they will come!” “Segment my broadcast and I will have better response.” Both of these time–honored methods of reaching our customers have worked for as long as there was print and radio–TV to get the message out. And both have become increasingly obsolete as new channels of reach have evolved, allowing direct and personal contact with our potential customers, and better yet, free and near–free forms of marketing just for the asking.

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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

Thomas Grota

DECEMBER 26, 2015

Recently I discussed the Pre-IPO-Dip and the impact on mid stage VC investors in unicorns. Keep in.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 5, 2015

At EO’s Global Headquarters, we as staff have a passion for serving our members, and we help provide the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for which EO is renowned. What you might not know is that many of us are also entrepreneurs with business concepts of our own – from award-winning artists to digital media gurus, we truly love working for an organization that connects us with leading business owners around the world.

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Unvalidated Learnings

DECEMBER 15, 2015

Slideshare presentation here These slides support a keynote I gave at Slush’s “On-Demand Everything” conference?—?they summarize my thoughts on the space, which I’ve narrowly defined as mobile-first marketplaces connecting consumers to professionals offering a service (ie. not a product), in less than an hour. These companies represent the 4th generation of online marketplaces, which evolved over time from generalist, passive classifieds (Craigslist), where all the work of matching supply and de

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Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 7, 2015

The Ultimate Software Company is a $5.5B market cap provider of SaaS Human Capital Management software. Founded in 1996, the company initially sold licensed software and migrated to multi-tenant SaaS in 2002 with a product called UltiPro. Today, more than 82% of revenues are subscription dollars. The company serves the mid-market and enterprise customers with a broad software suite that includes Payroll, Human Resources Management Software (HRIS), Benefits Management, Time Clock and a Self Servi

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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

For Entrepreneurs

DECEMBER 2, 2015

“Talent is the limiting resource in everything we do right now.” If that observation rings true, you’re not alone. Despite every effort, most startups struggle to hire the best people. My partners and I believe developing a competency in hiring is one of the most important skills a founder can develop. And, while most founders we.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 31, 2015

We think of media advertising as either paid or free – placed by paying a fee or by a PR firm or by you at no placement cost, especially when you provide editorial content beneficial to the publisher. But this new era of Internet advertising has given rise to two more forms you should know and use in addition to the two traditional types above. Owned media comes from the databases you own, such as your company’s web site, email.

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Thomas Grota

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Recently I had some discussions with investors and founders about the state of investments in tech.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 29, 2015

By Julie Mitchell, an EO Toronto member and Founding partner of Parcel. As part of our firm’s rebranding strategy for McKenzie Pitch Partners, which was anchored by the publication of founder Hamish McKenzie’s new book, we held an innovative event in New York City that showcased Hamish’s philosophy in action. Since “Pitch: What You’re Not Doing Makes All the Difference” is a guide to navigating the strategy, story and presentation phases of pitch preparation, we decided to hold a live pitch comp

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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