November, 2023

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19 Surprising Things You Don't Actually Need to Start a Business, According to Successful Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur - Entrepreneurs Category

Don't have a ton of cash, an MBA, or even a plan? Don't let that stop you from launching, say these experts.

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How Much Does it Cost to Use an LLM?

Tomasz Tunguz

How much does AI cost? It depends on a a few different dimensions, but for a typical use case where a user enters a query & expects about a 200 word response, the cost varies from $0.03 to $3.60. Different models cost different amounts. Also, the size of the context window is an important factor. The context window is a fancy way of saying the quantity of background information the user can provide to the AI.

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Why you really DO need a technical co-founder

Y Combinator

As YC Group Partners, we’re consistently surprised that anyone looking to start a VC-funded tech company would need to be convinced they need a technical co-founder. The usual arguments are that no-code tools, part-time consultants, or dev shops can allow anyone with a business idea to start a tech startup and raise money. “New tools make starting a venture-funded tech company easy for anyone to do!

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The Advantage of Having Venture Backed Friends

This is going to be BIG.

I’ve made over 100 investments in my career and nearly half of those went into diverse teams. I’ll be the first to back up the notion that diverse founders have just as much ambition, drive, intellectual horsepower, creativity—you name it—than anyone else. In fact, you could make the argument that, because of their lack of advantages in other areas, the ones who make it to a venture pitch actually have more of these raw ingredients because they’ve had to in order to make it to the same destinati

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From Curiosity to Competitive Edge: How Mid-Market CEOs Are Using AI to Scale Smarter

Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage

This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.

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Finding Founder-Market-Geography Fit

Revolution

At Rise of the Rest, we’ve spent years traversing the country, spotlighting emerging startup hubs, and building a network of entrepreneurial champions and ecosystem builders beyond Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston. At first, we primarily played an advocacy and convening role, working with policymakers and administrations , organizing bus tours, and telling the stories of the entrepreneurs we met along the way.

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More Trending

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MYbank showcases digital solutions for SME financing at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2023

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register At the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) on November 16, 2023. MYbank, a leading internet bank in China and an associate of Ant Group , showcased digital solutions with the goal of improving accessibility to financial services for small and micro-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the agricultural sector.

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AI: The Teammate Clinicians Need

Andreessen Horowitz

Our healthcare workers need our help. Our clinicians are burned out. After the Covid-19 pandemic, only 57% of physicians said they would choose the field of medicine again. Another recent study reported nurse burnout rates higher than 50%. Our clinicians are battling mental illness. Approximately 10% of physicians have reported having thoughts of suicide, and physicians have one of the highest rates of suicide of any profession.

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Making Northcentral PA the Global Center for Advanced Pressed Materials

Ben Franklin Technology Partners

In an era of technological advancement and economic transformation, Northcentral Pennsylvania finds itself at the forefront of a remarkable development. The North Central Regional Planning and Development Commission , based in Ridgway, PA, along with partners Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania, Penn State DuBois , and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford , has secured a $400,000 Strategic Development Grant from the US Economic Development Administration (ED

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Seraf Toolbox: Capitalization Tables with Waterfall Analysis

The Seraf Compass

Have you ever been in a situation where you are negotiating an investment with an entrepreneur and you can’t agree on the pre-money valuation? Any early stage investor who makes more than one or two investments will certainly run into this issue. It’s never an easy discussion, so it helps if you are prepared ahead of time with concrete facts and figures for your recommended valuation.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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The Art (and Science) of Building a Customer-Centric E-Commerce Brand

Revolution

Today’s e-commerce companies, faced with tightening advertising budgets and increased competition, are finding creative solutions to help personalize and gamify the customer experience. In this rapidly evolving landscape, having an intimate knowledge of your customer and leaning into lifestyle branding is more crucial for e-commerce brands than ever before.

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Level Setting and Career Goals for VCs: What level are Midas List VCs actually performing on?

This is going to be BIG.

I find level setting to be one of the most difficult things to do around any task or skill. Just how good is good? What are the best people accomplishing? How do you measure it? It comes up a lot with my coaching clients who aspire to be top VCs and are trying to figure out how to self-assess and goal set. I figured the best way to go about answering would be to ask the best of the best.

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Skylink’s WaveOn Revolutionizes Software Development: Empowering Non-Tech Professionals with a No-Code Approach

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register The landscape of software development is undergoing a transformative shift with the rise of no-code tools, and Korean startup Skylink is at the forefront of this revolution. In response to Gartner’s prediction that 7 out of 10 apps released in 2024 will be developed by non-tech professionals, Skylink introduced its groundbreaking platform, WaveOn.

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When Your Brand Takes a Hit: How To Make a Swift Recovery

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Contributed to EO by Eden Gillott, an EO Los Angeles member who is president of Gillott Communications , a strategic communications and crisis PR firm. She’s the author of A Business Owner’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting You & Your Business’ Reputation , and serves the EO Los Angeles chapter as MarComm co-chair. We asked Eden how to tackle a PR crisis that’s thrust upon your company by external forces.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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How Inversion Art is trying to become the Y Combinator of the arts world

TechCrunch

What if a little bit of investment, a splash of mentoring and practical support, a slew of introductions, and a whole lot of belief could be used to help artists with their careers? © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

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Startup productivity in the age of AI: automate, deprecate, delegate (A.D.D.)

Jason Calacanis

Over the past decade, I invested in over 350 startups and watched up close as founders figured out how to do more with less. Startups, by their nature, are resource-constrained organizations when compared to the legacy businesses they are trying to displace. Thanks for reading Jason Calacanis on Startups! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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Lesson #355: Artificial Intelligence is Taking Over Marketing

Red Rocket

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around for decades. I won’t bore you with its long history, summarized well in this article. It has even had a significant role in the marketing industry for many years (e.g., predictive analytics used in many advertising platforms). But, what has recently caught storm is the use of generative AI in the creation of many marketing creatives.

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Why It's Good to Be Transactional

This is going to be BIG.

When people describe what they hate about networking, they often use the word “transactional” in a negative way. No one likes to sell or be sold anything—or to be only valued for your ability to exchange goods and services right there on the spot. That, however, is a very privileged perspective on time. People who can take the time to “get to know each other” without demanding anything right off the bat have both extra time and also enough stability in their lives to be able to forgo short term

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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Japan’s SBI Holdings Launches $663M Fund for Web3, AI, and Metaverse Startups

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings is set to unveil a $663 million fund dedicated to supporting startups engaged in Web3, AI, and the Metaverse. The fund’s operations are scheduled to commence by the close of the current year, with investments reaching 150-200 companies within its portfolio.

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Seraf Toolbox: Modeling Tool for an Early Stage Investment Portfolio

The Seraf Compass

One of the biggest challenges faced by early stage investors is to assemble a portfolio of investments that in aggregate return more than 2 times the original amount invested in the total portfolio. In the language of Venture Capital, the goal of a successful early stage investor is to achieve a Distributed to Paid-In (DPI) ratio greater than 2X. In other words, for every dollar you invest in your portfolio, you want to get two dollars back over time.

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Innovation or folly? The Cybertruck will test whether anyone still trusts Tesla

TechCrunch

The Tesla Cybertruck, the first of which will be delivered Thursday four years after its debut, is loved and loathed. For fans, it’s a symbol for what Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk stand for: creativity, irreverence, rebellion. Others see it as an act of hubris. It could be both. Either way, the stakes are […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved.

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Hands, Head, and Heart: Professional Development Opportunities for those in Entrepreneurship-Led Economic Development and Ecosystem Building

Source Link

When I started this work almost 20 years ago, very few entrepreneurship-led economic development, much less ecosystem building, resources or institutions existed for early practitioners to be able to tap […]

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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8 Tips To Navigate Cancel Culture So Your Business Survives

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Contributed to EO by Eden Gillott, an EO Los Angeles member who is president of Gillott Communications , a strategic communications and crisis PR firm. She’s the author of A Business Owner’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting You & Your Business’ Reputation , and serves the EO Los Angeles chapter as MarComm co-chair. We asked Eden how to protect your company from being cancelled.

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Interviewed on Swift Podcast

Paul G. Silva

Jeremy Lam kindly interviewed me for the Swif podcast. We discussed the work PixelEdge does to help business services firms increase their EBITDA and disrupt competitors.

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Authentick Secures $4 Million in Seed Funding for Wallet-Free NFT Experience

AsiaTechDaily

Bookmark ( 0 ) Please login to bookmark Username or Email Address Password Remember Me No account yet? Register Authentick has raised a seed funding round that has brought $4 million in capital to the table. The funding was led by Menyala, the venture-building platform associated with Singapore’s Temasek. Authentick also introduced its NFT platform, Authentickator, designed to simplify the experience of exploring, purchasing, and authenticating digital collectibles or non-fungible tokens

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When Investing, Chasing Growth May Cost You Millions

Red Rocket

I was recently speaking with an entrepreneur who'd passed on an investment because it would not need yield the company at least a 10x growth opportunity. I told him those returns might be reasonable when investing in small businesses (under $5 million) but that he should consider lowering his ROI threshold when investing in larger ones. My logic was twofold: first, bigger companies are harder to grow as quickly as small ones, so the growth percentages will be lower; and second, there's the poten

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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.