Sat.Feb 15, 2020 - Fri.Feb 21, 2020

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navigating the rules and risks of startup crowdfunding

Venture Well

We highlight what crowdfunding is and what startups need to know before jumping into high-stakes opportunities, which can spell trouble down the line. The post navigating the rules and risks of startup crowdfunding appeared first on VentureWell.

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7 Reasons You Don’t Want to Start a Business With Friends

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Contributed by Frank Hamilton. Starting a business is an exciting adventure. It’s understandable why some people choose to do it with friends. After all, who could be a better partner than your best friend? You might be surprised by the obstacles you could face as friends in business together, though. Here are just seven reasons to think again before you launch a business with your buddy. 1.

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Being In The Flow

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

I have been investing in developer tools since the earliest days of my VC career. The first investment I led in the late 80s was a financing that provided the funds to acquire a programming editor called Brief. It was a text-based editor for PCs. That investment worked out but we didn’t make a lot of money on it. Brief was eclipsed by other better editors.

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Could You Step Away From Running Your Company? Here’s How I Did.

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Contributed by Raj Thakkar, founder and CEO, Charter School Business Management Inc. Could you step away from your company unexpectedly for months on end—and know everything would run smoothly? What would you do if you had to step away unexpectedly from your business for four months, just days after you’d landed your biggest client ever? That’s the quandary I faced in July 2019.

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 The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

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5 Rules of Thumb to Shorten Your Sales Cycle

Revolution

Besides businesses that operate with negative working capital like cable TV?—?where you pay before receiving the service?—?I don’t know any company that thinks their sales cycle is too short. This is especially true for thinly capitalized startups, where survival can hinge on landing a single marquee client and getting paid in a reasonable amount of time.

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More Trending

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My 1985 Nike Air Jordan Investment

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

Earlier this week I purchased 1% of a collection of five 1985 Nike Air Jordan sneakers using our portfolio company Otis’ mobile app. I paid $330 for ten shares (out of a total of 1000 shares) implying a value of $33,000 for the five pairs, or roughly $6600 each. This page shows the highlights of this sale, including a video, a link to the investment deck, and a link to the offering circular.

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Mindful Leadership for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Contributed by Rob Dubé, CEO at imageOne. Rob is a member of EO in Detroit, speaker, author and an avid proponent of mindful leadership. . If you’re like most business leaders and entrepreneurs, you know what it’s like to be stressed. Those years of nonstop work provide us with exciting dream careers and anxiety-ridden sleepless nights. Stress is simply part of the deal, right?

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Should you be working on this startup?

This is going to be BIG.

We’ve all heard the anecdotes—the famous founder who pitched 1000 investors before any of them said yes. That kind of story drives founders to take a “VC’s don’t know anything” approach to their business and trudge on despite legitimate criticisms of the business, often costing themselves tens of thousands of dollars or more of personal savings. So how do you know whether or not something is worth working on?

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Principal Promotional Announcement

HPA

HPA believes world-class organizations are built by giving people the resources and opportunities to be successful. Whether it’s our members, our partners, or our portfolio companies, HPA is committed to helping build a stronger Midwest entrepreneurial ecosystem by supporting people. In that same vein, we’re excited to announce the promotion of our two Associates, Bess Goodfellow and Stephen Ross, to Principal.

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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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Entertainment vs Utility

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

The news this week that HQ Trivia has finally called it quits reminded me of this post I wrote back in 2012 about the difference in sustainability (and thus value) between entertainment and utility apps. What is interesting to me is if you could use a social app or an entertainment app to get to another place (distribution, platform, blockchain, financial services, etc, etc).

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This CEO's Leadership Worth $250 Million. Simplus CMO Shares Why.

Smart Hustle Magazine

Ryan Westwood is a man on a mission to spread leadership principles to his team, his one page business plan is one of the keys to his success. Simplus founded by Ryan, is a successful Salesforce technology partner which was just sold to Indian mega company InfoSys for $250 million. Amy Osmond Cook, CMO of Simplus shared with me the "inside" story of how this deal came to be - it's all about leadership and focus.

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Five debtor management tips for better cashflow

NZ Entrepreneur

Business success is about more than finding a new customer. A more complete picture looks at your cash flow – because being paid on time and in the right amount is a critical part of your overall business health. Managing debtors is stressful no matter how many times you’ve had to deal with them, but doing so is important to your cash flow.

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How about personal guarantees for company debt?

Berkonomics

Is the guarantee still required today? More than ever, the banks and lenders today require personal guarantees from entrepreneurs, and even from CEO’s of angel or some VC funded businesses. Starting and running a small or growing business can be a challenge to the most confident and optimistic entrepreneur. And the process of borrowing money or financing asset purchases can be an eye-opener for those who are not used to today’s lender and seller aversion to grant easy credit.

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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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Funding Friday: The 7th RiffTrax Live Campaign

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

These guys have been using Kickstarter, and a bunch of other online platforms, to support their live shows riffing on “campy B-movies.” I love the underground, indie creative community and these guys are a great example of that. I backed this project this morning. USV TEAM POSTS: Nick Grossman — Feb 17, 2020 Cryptographic Identity Albert Wenger — Feb 11, 2020 Birthday Wish: Contributions to Climate Crisis Collective.

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Keeping Cybersecure During Tax Time. 7 Things to Know.

Smart Hustle Magazine

As small businesses work to get their taxes in order before April 15, they should also make sure their online financial information is secure from cyberattacks – after all, tax time is one of cybercriminals’ favorite times of the year. It’s crucial to protect this information from an attack: A recent survey of small businesses by the National Cyber Security Alliance found that after suffering a data breach, 10 percent of SMBs went out of business, 25 percent had to file for bankruptcy and 37 pe

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Backing Fatma Collins and Julie Rogers at Ten Little--the 8th Brooklyn Bridge Ventures Company Founded by Moms

This is going to be BIG.

As a founder, your most valuable asset is your time—and there is probably no group of founders who are more efficient about getting the most out of their time than moms. Moms also have a unique and personal insight into what’s important to other moms when they buy things for their kids. They’re looking for products that save time, provide good value, are good for their kids and have values they believe in.

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Effective tax policies can boost state investment

Innovation 2 Enterprise

By Scott Meacham. It’s a good thing when state leaders recognize the strategic importance of innovation in job and wealth creation. It’s also a good thing when a state considers legislation to help address capital gaps. Oklahoma’s Technology Business Finance Program (TBFP) Seed Fund is a nationally recognized best practices example of legislated early stage capital that has stood a 20-plus year test of time.

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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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[OurCrowd in The MediaLine] Israel’s Drive toward Smart Roads

OurCrowd

Yakir Machluf is director of business development and the mobility lead for OurCrowd, a $1.4 billion investment firm working with startups to help bring their innovative solutions to market. Read More here. The post [OurCrowd in The MediaLine] Israel’s Drive toward Smart Roads appeared first on OurCrowd.

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Living In A World Possibility. Benjamin Zander Shares Why You Should.

Smart Hustle Magazine

Alex Judd, host of EntreLeadership podcast, interviewed Benjamin Zander, founder and conductor of the renowned Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to impacting world leaders and innovators, Zander has also released the musical potential of the best musicians in the world. In this interview, he shares how to overcome negativity and embrace possibility in every situation.

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Tell Them To Go It Alone: Tag-Team Pitches are Terrible

The Seraf Compass

As a mentor and startup advisor, one of the most common fund-raising questions founders ask you is: can my co-founder and I pitch the company together? I suggest you tell them to strongly resist the temptation. It is a very bad idea. Tell them that some roads are better walked alone.

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Stillwater’s HostBridge Technology bridges gap between legacy mainframes, emerging mobile technologies

Innovation 2 Enterprise

By Jim Stafford. STILLWATER – Don’t look for a sign in downtown Stillwater advertising the presence of HostBridge Technology, which has maintained its headquarters just off Main Street for two decades. There isn’t one. Founded by Russell Teubner in 2000, HostBridge Technology occupies a historic building along E. 7th Street, just off Main Street. The company employs about a dozen people in Stillwater, along with contract workers worldwide.

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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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[OurCrowd in Cleveland Jewish News] Former NBA player Michael Redd hopes to net results with Israeli tech investment

OurCrowd

The retired athlete has teamed up with ADvantage SportsTech Fund, an organization that focuses on sports tech startups. ADvantage is backed by OurCrowd, an Israeli global hybrid venture capital platform, and leAD Sports, a German accelerator founded by the grandchildren of Adi Dassler, the founder of the Adidas sportswear manufacturing company. Read more here.

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Going Back In Time To Understand The Present

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

Our portfolio company Recount Media is doing some of the finest reporting on the presidential race right now. This 2 minute 16 second video goes back over Mike Bloomberg’s debate appearances in his time as NYC’s Mayor and shows how many of the questions he faces now were in fact questions he faced back then. It’s interesting to watch this and see if we see some of the same responses this evening.

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9 Steps to Repeatable, Scalable, and Profitable Growth

For Entrepreneurs

I recently did a podcast interview with Harry Stebbings of “The Twenty Minute VC” where we talked about the 9 step model for how B2B startups need to get through product/market fit, and then how they should go about finding a repeatable, scalable, and profitable growth process. For those of who are interested in learning.

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How To Scale Your Business If It's One Person. 15 Tips.

Smart Hustle Magazine

For the last few months I've been focused on scale and growth. How to scale your business is something that many people want to do but are not sure how to do it. Sure I've started a few companies and sold two, but I find that from time to time I get "lazy" and need to push myself. Also I've never really FOCUSED on growth, with purpose. Now I am. Entre Leadership podcast has been a huge resource of tips and inspiration.

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Monetizing Analytics Features

Think your customers will pay more for data visualizations in your application? Five years ago, they may have. But today, dashboards and visualizations have become table stakes. Turning analytics into a source of revenue means integrating advanced features in unique, hard-to-steal ways. Download this white paper to discover which features will differentiate your application and maximize the ROI of your analytics.