June, 2013

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GRP Announces $200 Million Fund. Rebrands as Upfront Ventures

Both Sides of the Table

'I am super excited to announce that today is a day of lots of new things for my partners & me: A new fund, a new office and a new brand. Let’s start with the fund. We have previously raised funds in 1996 ($200 million), 2000 ($400 million) and 2008/9 ($200 million). This month we closed our 4th fund of $200 million. If you’ve been following the press about VC funds you’ll know this is no small feat.

ventures 343
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Makerbot: The First "Real" Brooklyn Exit

This is going to be BIG.

'Yesterday, it was announced that Makerbot was acquired in a deal that could be worth up to $600 million. While any exit in NYC is great, what makes this particularly special to those of us on this side of the river is that it was the first tech startup in Brooklyn to sell that was a) native, b) bought for what it did, and perhaps, more importantly, c) had a model whose idea was native to the ideals we promote in this community, namely creativity.

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Wood Egg (my new company)

Derek Sivers

Like everyone, I can get deeply curious about something, and dive in. Starting five years ago, I got deeply curious about the differences between countries and cultures, fascinated with understanding the different perspectives. I talked about a few fun ones in this 2-minute TED talk. So two years ago, I moved to Singapore , and started visiting all the countries in Asia, asking dumb questions, making good friends.

culture 52
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A Formula For Innovation

Tomasz Tunguz

One of my favorite courses in engineering grad school was Marketing which was taught by a brilliant quirky professor. On the first day of class, our professor wrote on the board this equation: Innovation = Invention + Go To Market. Addressing a group of engineers who prided themselves on their technical skills, this professor of marketing tried to instill in us that invention alone isn’t enough to create innovation.

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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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

Berkonomics

'Have you ever lost all of your data on your smartphone, laptop, or desktop PC? If not, it is probably only a matter of time until you do. Those of us who have experienced this heart-stopping event now regularly back up our data and many of us create images of our entire hard drives often, ready this time to address an effective recovery. But what about the shock of a fire, a major natural disaster, or even the loss of an important company top executive?

More Trending

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Here’s What’s Driving Collaborative Consumption and Where the Market May Head Next

Both Sides of the Table

'I spoke this past week at the LeWeb conference in London, which was a superbly well run event with a very quality production team. Kudos. The 20-minute video of my presentation is here if you’re interested. And it was convenient for me because we also held our annual London board meeting of DataSift , who helps companies processes and analyze large volumes of social plus enterprise data in realtime.

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NYC: Regulatory nightmare for tech startups trying to conduct consumer friendly businesses

This is going to be BIG.

'New York City is a fantastic place to live--I''ve been here all my life. I wouldn''t want to live anywhere else. That being said, it isn''t necessarily the easiest place to live, but it''s worth it. That''s why I get excited when companies in my industry create businesses that improve the living experience of being here. The mobile phone has the potential to be incredibly transformative for the lives of NYC residents.

startup 273
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Fragile Plan vs Robust Plan

Derek Sivers

When I first had the idea for Wood Egg — publishing 16 books about 16 countries every year — I thought I would write them all myself. Visit 16 countries for 3 weeks each, doing intensive research the whole time. That’s 48 weeks, so I could do it again each year. … But I had a baby on the way, so that idea lasted about a minute. Then I thought of a journalist I know who would love that kind of life.

culture 52
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The Return of Venture Backed Hardware

Tomasz Tunguz

Recently, hardware companies have been popping up in all kinds of places. Nest is building the next thermostat. Sonos sells seamless and beautiful soun systems. Thalmic Labs and Leap Motion are innovating in alternate forms of computing control. Electric Imp is building the platform-as-a-service to connect devices to the web via Wifi and so on. Hardware investments are blossoming because software is reinvigorating the market.

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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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Safety first. Profits follow.

Berkonomics

'Much of work place safety is common sense. But there is a natural tension between economy of operation and provision for safety for employees, and the resulting risk to the enterprise must be carefully weighed. Good boards of directors have a committee of the board to deal with “audit” issues, which should include analysis and recommendations to management about workplace safety as a part of a broader issue of risk management.

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Why You Should Give Before You Get

Both Sides of the Table

'I have a motto in business and life, “give before you get.” It’s a philosophy, really. And it applies to business relationships & networking as much as it does to remuneration in the workplace. It seems we live in an era of “ask.” I see it on Twitter. Lots of asking. I see it on email even more. And in person in spades.

advice 407
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Why Your Startup Needs a Sales Methodology

Both Sides of the Table

'This article originally appeared on Inc.com. Like most startup entrepreneurs, when I began my first company in 1999 I had no formal sales experience. I did have the wherewithal to visit potential customers and try to understand the pain points that I thought could be solved with our solution. This is a very important to do when you first start a company.

startup 393
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To Sell Anything You Need to Know What Makes You Unique

Both Sides of the Table

'In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Having a good sales methodology can help you ensure your company runs more disciplined campaigns and focuses scarce resources on your best opportunities. The first post covered the topic of “P” or pain. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it.

advice 336
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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 Biggest Reason Most Sales Campaigns Don’t Close

Both Sides of the Table

'Every sales organization with more than a handful of reps or that is across multiple offices or time zones would benefit from having a sales methodology. There are many out there and many books have been written on the topic. I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. It was useful because I was new to sales and as the CEO it gave me some comfort to feel more informed about how our leads where going and to know the likelihood of our

advice 328
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The One Key Person That Will Help You Improve Sales

Both Sides of the Table

'This is part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. This post is about finding your “champion.” We developed this at our first company and called it PUCCKA – the overall methodology is described here. The “P” stands for Pain or the reason your customer needs to implement a new product.

advice 322
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Lessons I Learned from My Dad

Both Sides of the Table

'My mom seems to sneak into my blog from time-to-time. My dad less so. Mom was an entrepreneur and a civic leader. She was (is) a bit of a ball buster. And a negotiator. And a go getter. So she naturally fills my story arcs more easily. But of course we’re all a product of both of our parents – if we were fortunate enough to be raised by two individuals.

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Identifying Pain in the First Step in a Sales Process – Here’s How

Both Sides of the Table

'This article initially appeared on Inc. If you haven’t already followed me on Twitter, that’s the fastest way to get blog updates. Click here. In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. This post is about the “P” or pain. The point of PUCCKA was to develop a common methodology to make sure our whole team approaches sales with the same mindset and to give us a language to talk with each other about our prospects, as in, “have y

advice 367
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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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The Library in Building 42

Tomasz Tunguz

In the center of Google’s campus lie a cluster of four buildings: 40, 41, 42 and 43. Contained within building 42 was the epicenter of product management: Jonathan Rosenberg’s office. Immediately next to his office stood a collection of three bookcases containing a library of different books on various topics that JR curated. I used to pass that library every day on my way to meetings and each time I walked past, I would pause to see which new volumes had arrived.

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The Bewildered User at the Center of the Legal Firestorm

Tomasz Tunguz

Reading TechMeme and HackerNews this morning, you’ll find more stories about legal issues relating to technology than stories about innovation: the PRISM affair, the DoJ’s suit against Apple for anticompetitive ebook pricing, Samsung’s win of a sales injunction banning iPhones and iPads, Chinese hacking of US assets, patent trolling and reform and so on.

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Making the NYC Community Smaller

This is going to be BIG.

'When I was in college, at Fordham''s scenic Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, I deeply rooted into my community. I was one of that handful of student leaders that ran five or six different things at one time and who couldn''t walk from one classroom building to another without running into someone I had to talk to about a meeting, an intramural sport or something social.

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When a sales oriented founder's job isn't to sell, but to build a sales team

This is going to be BIG.

'I''ve had two entrepreneurs I know in the last week come to this same conclusion. Despite the fact that they''re great sales founders, selling isn''t actually their job. Being the sole salesperson on your team, no matter how good you are, isn''t scalable. You need to figure out what it is that you do to sell, the scripts you know by heart that you never wrote out, the way you get a feel for which customers are warmer than others, and find a way to teach it to others.

founder 267
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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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No Phone with Food

This is going to be BIG.

'The other day I went to dinner with a friend. My phone was low on power--drained from listening to the Mets take 20 innings to lose a game. I plugged in before we went out. When we were ready to go, I instinctively reached for my phone, because I never really walk out the door without it. We weren''t going far, but that wasn''t the point. It has become an appendage--a tether to the rest of the world, preventing me from straying too far from the other billions.

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For anyone who thought Makerbot exited too soon.

This is going to be BIG.

'Ok, still thinking about the Makerbot news. I have to admit, part of my reaction to the Makerbot news was "Already. jeez? It didn''t even have much time.". That''s because our recent experience with exits is that they suck--or the company sells right at its peak meaningfulness. Most of the startup exits that we''ve seen lately are of companies that are one acquiring company management pivot away from disappearing off the face of the earth.

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Why Startups Need a Well Articulated Strategy (And How to Think About Yours)

Both Sides of the Table

'I recommend you read Fred Wilson’s recent blog post about the need for a well articulated business strategy before pushing a particular business model. Since Arrested Development is back I thought I’d resurrect Gob Bluth’s answer when he was told he needed a “business model” – he quickly figured out that he was missing one so he asked Starla, the Bluth company secretary, if she would be his business model.

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The Startup Sector That’s Quietly Booming

Tomasz Tunguz

I’m asked with some frequency which startup sectors are booming. Mobile messaging and big data are knee-jerk reactions at this point. But these days I often respond “financial services.”. In the last two years, financial services startups have been innovating impressively quickly and challenging some of the fundamental ways in which capital and credit are distributed.

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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