Sat.Dec 14, 2013 - Fri.Dec 20, 2013

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Why Floored is Awesome, and Not Just for the Real Estate Industry

This is going to be BIG.

'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.

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The Smartest Entrepreneurs Bootstrap Their Startup

Gust

'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.

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How to Shorten Your Sales Cycle and Avoid Wasting Time

Both Sides of the Table

'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.

advice 375
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Building smarter software: Proactively deliver insights

For Entrepreneurs

'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 […].

SaaS 167
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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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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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Disrupting the Whole Damn Thing

This is going to be BIG.

'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.

More Trending

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Why am I here?

Derek Sivers

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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Startup Best Practices 4 - Managing Monkeys

Tomasz Tunguz

You’re walking down the hallway at work from one meeting to the next. A colleague or report stops you en route, asks for a minute and presents an important problem. It’s easy to respond with “let me think about it” and duck into the meeting. In that half-second, all the responsibility of the decision has been transferred. Unlike a minute ago, you have the monkey on your back.

startup 40
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Could you answer these tough investor questions?

Berkonomics

' 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.

investing 105
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What are the differences between startups/tech companies founded in Silicon Valley and those founded in New York?

Gust

'While there are differences in the startup communities on the two coasts, and while there are definite differences in the investment communities, I’ve found much less of a difference in the types of companies being started. To the extent that there is one, my guess is that it has as much to do with the traditional market strengths of the two regions, rather than anything else.

startup 131
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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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Revenue per Employee Benchmarks of Billion Dollar Companies

Tomasz Tunguz

One way of measuring the efficiency of a company’s revenue model is to benchmark revenue per employee. Google and Facebook, the two most efficient companies, generate $1M per revenue per employee per year. Setting aside those exceptional cases and focusing instead on SaaS companies, the typical average revenue per employee is about $190k to $210k per year.

SaaS 40
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The 10 Most Important Metrics in a Startup's Financial Statements

Tomasz Tunguz

Financial statements are a Rosetta Stone for startups. They reveal the strategies and the tactics of how to bring a product to market. These are the ten metrics I look at when sifting through a startup’s operational model, whether when considering an investment or in a board meeting. Revenue growth indicates how quickly a company can grow under the current way of doing business.

startup 55