February, 2018

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How to Out Amazon, Amazon

Both Sides of the Table

There has always been tension between CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies and the retailers who sell their products to consumers. If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. This is an age-old marketplace tension where leverage often determines the value captured.

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6 Keys to Building a Winning Startup Team

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Did you know every job opening attracts around 250 resumes ? And that number can feel like hundreds more if you’re in the midst of starting your own company and searching for the perfect startup team. Before you begin reviewing candidates, consider this checklist of tips for developing a top team. Choose Experts. Whatever area you’re looking to recruit in, look for experts in their fields.

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Take only “smart money” investments

Berkonomics

Close. This statement could be considered controversial. We have previously made the case that professional investors demand more in the form of restrictive covenants and lower valuations. Now we explore the other side of that coin. Professional investors usually bring “smart money” to the table, defined as money that comes along with good advice and great relationships for corporate growth.

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1.7 Million Members Will Work in Coworking Spaces by the End of 2018

Deskmag

In 2018, Coworking Spaces are again expecting great things for their market. The average number of members is growing and operators are planning expansions with almost the same speed as in the previous years. There is currently no dip on the horizon. However, many operators expect a consolidation. Here is the first bundle of results of the latest Global Coworking Survey: The 2018 Coworking Forecast.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

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.

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What it means to be resourceful

Derek Sivers

I was at a musicians’ gathering in Memphis. I met a lot of people complaining that their various forms of online distribution weren’t earning them as much as they’d hoped. Then I met a musician who sold 8000 copies of his album himself. No distributor. No website. Just by himself. I asked him how he did it. He said, “ I just slowly drove around the city every night, with the windows down, playing my music loud.

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Why Female Founder Office Hours is So Important

Both Sides of the Table

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. The idea is simple enough: several female VC partners at top funds will hold 1-hour meetings with 40 promising female entrepreneurs looking to get advice on their business and pitch in a friendly, non-judgmental, safe environment.

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3 Keys to Navigating the Entrepreneurial Maze

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Mike Monroe. “Nobody trusts a person who fails a lot,” he said matter-of-factly. “So you might want to be careful whom you tell about your grandiose plans to take over the world.” My mentor’s advice felt like a parental reprimand. Up until that point, I had been the consummate visionary: the guy with a million and one plans but nothing to show for them.

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How to cheat legally on your tax return.

Berkonomics

Close. When do you cross the line between honesty and dishonesty in tax planning? Is it ethical to allocate income between periods to take advantage of tax breaks? Can expenses be put off until the next period to increase income, or accelerated into this period by prepayment to decrease net income? Where do you draw the line, assuming no intent to defraud?

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The State of Coworking Spaces in Asia

Deskmag

Once upon a time, it was mostly freelancers who used and founded coworking spaces. These days, the share of freelancers is declining and more employers and employees are taking their places. How these two worlds of coworking spaces differ from one another and how they are blending together can be seen in Asia. The situation there offers a glimpse into the beginnings of the coworking movement as well as the future of corporate coworking.

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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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Creative communication

Derek Sivers

The way you communicate with people is part of your art. For people who have never heard your music, it’s the start of your art! If you make depressing music, send your fans a dark black announcement that’s depressing just to look at. If you are an “in-your-face country-metal-speedpunk” artist, have the guts to call a potential booking agent and scream, “Listen you crazy dirtbag!

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Expanding Your Time Horizon To Scale Your Startup

Tomasz Tunguz

When a startup takes form, the first weeks and months and years are spent furiously. The team assembles itself. The lightbulb illuminates. It is formed and reformed again and again as customers supply feedback. Eventually the team hews the right product. The startup raises capital. Then the team returns focus to hiring, evolving the product, and closing customers.

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Three Bitcoin Billionaires Share Their Story of How They Moved Early into the Asset Class

Both Sides of the Table

At the recent Upfront Summit my partner Stuart Lander had the opportunity to show some California Love and interview three of the wealthiest Bitcoin owners, each of whom were some of the earliest owners in the asset class and who haven’t sold any of their holdings. It’s an extraordinary story ranging from Jaime who studies cryptography in college to Bryan who was early in selling products on Silk Road to Steven owns 179,000 Bitcoin worth more than $2 billion.

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My Top 6 Growth Hacks

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Miranda Naiman, accidental entrepreneur, motivational speaker, organizational development practitioner, writer, and founder of Empower Limited , a Tanzanian human capital consultancy firm. I officially took the plunge about nine years ago. I resigned from my beloved job and leaped into the unknown to launch my company, Empower. If I could fly back in time to Empower’s start-up phase and give my younger self advice, I would offer these six thoughts. 1.

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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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Hire a consultant; ignore the advice.

Berkonomics

At one time or another, most all businesses use consultants to fill the gaps in knowledge or to provide guidance for management. Consultants are good in that you can sample their work with short projects, change to other consultants quickly, and stop using them when a project is completed. I have a partner in a consulting practice that specializes in the travel industry.

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The Atomic Element of Your Marketing

This is going to be BIG.

In the last couple of weeks, I've had two similar conversations with my portfolio companies. They were just starting to build out their marketing strategy and they were faced with the challenge of how to staff it. Do you hire someone senior who might feel like the execution of the work was beneath them--or who simply hadn't done it in a while? Or, do you hire someone adept at the actual creation piece, but who needed guidance around how things were strategically put together at a high level?

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Why you need a database

Derek Sivers

A database is just an organized collection of information. You could have a database of your music or your books. But I’m going to talk about a database of all the people you know. Your email app is a kind of database. It has an address book of everyone you’ve emailed, and a history of your emails with each person. So you’ve already done half of what I’m going to describe here.

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Dropbox S-1 Analysis - The King of Freemium

Tomasz Tunguz

Founded in 2007, Dropbox epitomizes the freemium go-to-market. Dropbox has grown from 0 to 500 million users over that time period. 2% of those users convert to paid and pay an average of $9.33 per month. 90% of revenue originates through self serve channels - an astounding figure for company that generated more than $1B in revenue last year. Dropbox’s revenue grew from $604M to $1.1B from 2015 to 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 35%.

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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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The Breakthrough Presentation that Stole the Upfront Summit

Both Sides of the Table

If a picture is worth a thousand words then you already know that Chamillionaire is having a great time with his new startup Convoz. He’s here on stage with Snoop Dogg and they had just dialed in Shaq to record a live video for his platform. It was just announced today on TechCrunch. We’ve known each other for nearly a decade and he’s been a friend, a co-investor in startups and a mentor to many startups with whom I’ve worked.

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Hyper Targeting Makes the Most of Your Budget

Entrepreneurs' Organization

The right data lets you personalize your message, no matter what your market. Consider this example out of the tourism industry from Morgan & Co. , a media agency owned by EO Lousiana member Eric Morgan. . A Millennial, a Gen Xer, and a Baby Boomer walk into a swanky hotel bar. They sidle up to the three feet of marble that separates them from the smooth-talking bartender and order the house special.

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Bankers: love ’em or hate ’em. They may affect your future.

Berkonomics

Let’s get right down to it. Your banking relationship can be like a great marriage or a bad trip to the DMV. In most cases it is strictly your choice. But the results of that choice will reverberate for what could be years. For a start…. How did you open your first bank account? Did you just walk into a branch, fill out the forms, take your first ten checks from your newly-opened account and leave?

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Learn More, Grow More, Be More

Entrepreneurs' Organization

It happens: You build a successful organization and business is humming along. Suddenly you realize: You’re bored and you want more. Not more money necessarily, but more personal and professional fulfillment. More enjoyment, more opportunities, more challenges. Entrepreneurs with an ongoing thirst for learning often turn to executive education programs to expand their knowledge base to tackle new challenges and opportunities.

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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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Having the Conversation

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Trust, transparency and triumph—the gift of your family’s future. Written for EO by Susan Michel, founder and CEO of Glen Eagle. Whether we have aging parents, adult children or both, we all should consider having an honest conversation about the future. If there’s one lesson I have learned from working with families over the years, it’s that elderly parents often regret that they didn’t start a dialogue with their adult children sooner.

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4 Signs You Are Not Ready for the Business Growth You Want

Entrepreneurs' Organization

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey, the greatest obstacle to a company’s growth is the company’s inability to manage fast growth. Being unprepared for growth can flat line your revenue potential and reveal underlying problems that may prove irreparable. Thus, a smart strategy for growth not only sets goals but assesses fundamental issues and considers potential weak spots.

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Debunking the Startup Failure Myth & How To Overcome 3 Common Obstacles to Success

Entrepreneurs' Organization

For entrepreneurs, “failure” feels like a curse word. We wince and often retreat in fear of it. When people think about startups, the word failure isn’t too far back in their minds. I myself often cite the age-old statistic that peppers headlines, confidently claiming 90% of startups are doomed to die. And I’m not alone. In an op-ed for Fortune , business journalist Erin Griffith admits, “I carelessly repeat a statistic that I’ve heard dozens of times in private conversations and on public stage

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8 Deadly Sins of Project Management

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Project management can be a minefield—and it requires teamwork, communication, awareness and competence to navigate. We’ve all encountered projects failing needlessly owing to a range of reasons. So what are the primary causes of project breakdowns? Here, we’ve compiled a list of the eight most common project management pitfalls to overcome on the path to success. 1.

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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.