Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 6, 2013
'Without DogVacay my Thanksgiving would have been ruined. That’s a fact. And I’m not an investor. I just had to tell this story. It’s a great one about entrepreneurship, friendship and the collaborative economy that is helping families in need across the world. The Background. Every year my family meets in San Diego for Thanksgiving.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 28, 2013
'There is a controversial interview with Paul Graham floating around and I''m left to wonder why we''re still paying attention to guys like him. He is accused by people of being, at best, oblivious and at worst, sexist. I''ve never sat down with the guy, so I can''t speak to that, but I''m tired of hearing about the same voices over and over again when I''m not even sure they''re relevant.
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Gust
DECEMBER 29, 2013
'Image via HealthyBodyLife.com. I’ve been advising and mentoring startups and growth companies for years, and find myself always pushing them to try something new, for the sake of growth and survival. When you try new things, you make mistakes, and I’ve seen many. Smart companies learn from their own mistakes, but some don’t pay enough attention to other people’s mistakes.
Tomasz Tunguz
DECEMBER 12, 2013
On January 8, 1966, the New Yorker profiled Buckminster Fuller for the first time. During a trip to a Maine island with the journalist Calvin Tomkins, Fuller said something tremendously prescient: Fuller proposed a worldwide technological revolution…[that] would take place quite independently of politics or ideology; it would be carried out by what he calls “comprehensive designers” who would coordinate resources and technology on a world scale for the benefit of all mankind,
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For Entrepreneurs
DECEMBER 16, 2013
'Three years ago I spent a lot of time looking at SaaS business intelligence companies. I loved what I saw in the demos: easy data connections, slick looking graphs, powerful drill down tools and custom dashboards made the tools look like no-brainers. And then I began my diligence calls. All of these bells and whistles […].
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Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 17, 2013
'One of the questions I’m most often asked by CEOs is how to hire sales people. I’ve written a lot about recruiting and hiring at startups including my controversial post on whom not to hire and my rapid response to the flame war. I’ve also written extensively on sales and on which sales execs to hire and how to think about the different kinds of sales leaders.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 4, 2013
'When governments go through leadership changes, it is generally expected that their whole staff gets replaced. It''s a bit weird to comprehend for those on the outside. When a new CEO for a company is hired, you might change out a few people, but you wouldn''t replace all the key folks. The turnover would be detrimental to company culture. Same goes for a baseball team.
Gust
DECEMBER 15, 2013
'Image via niaje.com and www.yec.co. There is so much written these days about how to attract investors that most entrepreneurs “assume” they need funding, and don’t even consider a plan for “bootstrapping,” or self-financing their startup. Yet, according to many sources , over 90 percent of all businesses are started and grown with no equity financing, and many others would have been better off without it.
Tomasz Tunguz
DECEMBER 9, 2013
Raising money for a startup is expensive. The typical legal fees for a Series A are about 1% of the total money raised: roughly $40k on $4M. Of course, this doesn’t factor in the time for the process and the dilution of the investment. But if your startup is considering an IPO be prepared to pay eight times as much in fees. Across 360 venture backed technology IPOs in the last 10+ years which on average raised $107M, 8.8% of the dollars the startup raises in the initial public offering is
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Fink About It
DECEMBER 13, 2013
Finding a good problem to solve with a startup can be like finding a needle in a haystack. “Haystack. End of Summer” Claude Monet One of my favorite blog posts is Paul Graham’s How to get startup ideas. Paul is one of my top-five bloggers, along with Marc Suster, Ben Horowitz, Nir Eyal, and of course [.]. The post Pinpointing Problems Worth Solving (Part One of Three) appeared first on Fink About It.
Derek Sivers
DECEMBER 23, 2013
I met Jac Holzman the same day I met Bill Gates, but Jac made a much bigger impression, and he’s been my friend and mentor ever since. Jac Holzman is a living legend. He founded Elektra Records in 1950. (Yeah! 1950! Let that soak in a minute. That’s years before rock music was even invented!) He signed artists like The Doors, Carly Simon, Harry Chapin, and Judy Collins to their first record deal.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 10, 2013
'Recently I wrote the first post in a series on board meetings, entitled, “ Why You’re Not Getting the Most out of Your Board ,” which focused on the need to prepare properly, set good objectives and discuss mostly strategic topics. Even if you follow this game plan meticulously your board meeting can be taken off course by well-intentioned board members who lead you down a rate hole.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 2, 2013
'If I was going to start a venture capital fund around a theme, I''d pick something a little different. Forget Enterprise, or Mobile. It wouldn''t be "networks" or any other standard classification of startup. No geographic focus. I''d start a fund around "Play". Play, it seems, is making a huge run and should be positioned for success for a long time.
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Gust
DECEMBER 1, 2013
'Image via ExecutiveSky.ch. I hear many executives and professionals in large corporations talking about their dream of jumping ship, and starting their own company. What they don’t realize is that the longer they wait, the more big-company habits they are acquiring, which will make their eventual decision harder and entrepreneurial efforts less and less likely to succeed.
Tomasz Tunguz
DECEMBER 4, 2013
Credit: National Geographic. I was lucky enough to spend some time with Monica Adractas, a former McKinsey partner who is now Churn Czar at Box. She and I chatted about the challenges in managing churn and her view on how to handle it. I thought she had some terrific insights and a clear understanding of the methods to reduce churn from her experiences.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 19, 2013
' By: Arthur Lipper. In the process of raising funds to create and develop a business, entrepreneurs make many statements to those they seek to attract as investors. In my years of investing, I’ve developed a set of tough questions that are sure to elicit both information and a vibrant dialog – questions not on the usual checklists of angel groups or investors.
Derek Sivers
DECEMBER 19, 2013
Looking around the room. “Why am I here?”. It’s a useful question to ask often. Either it will re-focus your reasons for being where you are, or it will make you realize your reasons have expired and you should be somewhere else. In a little apartment in Singapore, I ask it again. “Why am I here?”. Because of the brilliant and fascinating people here.
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Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 3, 2013
'I’m super proud to announce that DataSift has just completed a $42 million financing round coming at the end of a year where its revenue grew several hundred percent year-over-year. Considering our revenue is SaaS revenue this achievement is even more remarkable. The timing of the announcement of this investment couldn’t have been timed more perfectly if we tried.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 19, 2013
'The other day, I looked at some real estate space on behalf of one of my portfolio companies. The owner sent me this. Maybe I just don''t have enough imagination or lack of the requisite architecture degree. At least it''s better than showing an actual picture of what the office looks like now, after the last tenant trashed the place on their way out.
Gust
DECEMBER 8, 2013
'Image via LeadChangeGroup.com. If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. These are the questions that get past the hype of a founder “vision to change the world,” and into the realm of real business strengths, weaknesses, and current health.
Tomasz Tunguz
DECEMBER 2, 2013
A key component in a startup’s formula for success is educating customers about the product and driving sales. The sales and marketing teams of a startup are responsible for this. There are many ways to structure sales and marketing teams. The diagram above outlines a sales and marketing team structure that I’ve observed across many startups.
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
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 12, 2013
'Investors love it when entrepreneurs draw little or no money from their startups. It extends the cash available for research and other necessary fixed costs and gives the fragile, young company more “runway” to get to breakeven. But when forecasting the ultimate viability of a business, many times an entrepreneurial founder uses a low, unsustainable salary rate for him or herself in order to show early breakeven.
Derek Sivers
DECEMBER 8, 2013
Yesterday I procrastinated, tinkered, and wasted time, doing nothing of any value. Then this morning, I found out that one of my best friends died yesterday. He was out on a bike ride on a quiet street when a car swerved into the bike lane, killing him instantly. We shared my online music account. I see he had just downloaded the entire Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young catalog yesterday before he left on his ride.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 9, 2013
'Most board meetings are “update meetings” where management downloads its status to a group of investors. These outside board members spend most of the board meeting trying to reacquaint themselves with the company’s business and critical issues. This is hardly ideal and some simple changes could help management avoid both issues.
This is going to be BIG.
DECEMBER 16, 2013
'Last night, I went to go see Dallas Buyers Club. It''s a very powerful movie. Whether it''s accurate or not, is debatable , but it''s theme is something that resonated with me. We, as a society, put in place structures like government and big corporations largely as an organizational efficiency. By pooling our resources and centralizing control, theoretically, we can more effectively do things like police neighborhoods, manufacture things and defend our borders.
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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