Sat.Jan 23, 2016 - Fri.Jan 29, 2016

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Things I believe.

This is going to be BIG.

I believe in solvable problems, but that you can't make progress on them until everyone involved accepts responsibility for causing them. I believe that if you aim for compromise, you will be less successful than if you aim for creativity. I believe that if you treat people like you believe they can be better than they are, they will be. I believe that if you're not doing everything you can to get them there, they'll fail without you.

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Valuation Part I: Peeling the Onion, or How Top Investors Value the Startups They Invest In

Gust

Early-stage technology company valuations are generally a crap-shoot. Bill Payne did a great post about this in October 2011. This post builds on top of his work, and attempts to shed additional light on the valuation process. New founders may think that startup valuations work like this: I figure out what the value of my existing company is I figure.

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Clearing the Air: What I’ve Learned from Mountaineering

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Standing atop the 14,200 “milk bottle” summit of Starlight Peak, we watched the sun continue the last hour of its descent over the mountains to the west. We knew we had at least eight hours of descent to base camp – most of which would now be done with headlamps in the black of a moonless night. Although we summited via a different route than we were to descend, I had gone this route a few years before.

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The Question to Ask Before Starting a Company in 2016

Tomasz Tunguz

My father keeps a copy of Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy on his bookshelf. An imposing dark gray tome, Competitive Strategy is a business classic. I remember reading it sometime in high school, and not understanding very much of it. It was only six years later in a college macroeconomics class, my professor helped me understand the value of the Five Forces.

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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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Why I’ve Shifted More Attention to Facebook

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve been spending a lot more time on Facebook as a blogger than I ever did. So I thought it was worth explaining why. And I’m going to cross post this entire post on Facebook as an experiment rather than just posting a link on FB and trying to drive people to my blog. If you want to follow me on Facebook I’m here. So if you’re reading this on Facebook (or on my blog!

More Trending

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Fans Becoming Investors: Marketing Tips for Startups

Entrepreneurs' Organization

In 2012, the U.S. passed the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act with bi-partisan support. But what effect does that have on American entrepreneurs, and how can you leverage this within your own start-up? In this short video, EO Los Angeles member Ron Miller gives an overview of this legislation, the opportunities it brings to entrepreneurs and tips for marketing to your fans – who can now invest in your company.

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The New UI for SaaS - The Question

Tomasz Tunguz

Quick. Casual. Human. Chat differs from other forms of communication. Because of these three attributes, chat seems to be reemerging as a potentially disruptive user interface for both consumers and business users. The typical teenages emits more than 3000 text messages per month, not to mention messages on other networks. Most retailers provide customer support via chat.

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The Other Kind of Traction You Need to Get Funded

This is going to be BIG.

One of the earliest lessons a new VC learns is about building consensus within a firm. No matter what the voting structure is in your partnership, I think every VC can think of a deal that they got completely excited about, only to have the deal crash and burn when they showed it to the rest of their team. It can be one of the most confusing and frustrating things from the entrepreneur side.

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Switch strategies

Derek Sivers

Life is like any journey. You need to change directions a few times to get where you want to go. Early in your career, the best strategy is to say yes to everything. The more things you try, and the more people you meet, the better. Each one might lead to your lucky break. Then when something is extra-rewarding, it’s time to switch strategies. Focus all of your energy on this one thing.

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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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Jason’s 2016 Prediction: Converting Online Traffic to Increased Sales

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Jason Forrest, EO Fort Worth Member and CEO of Forrest Performance Group. Jason Forrest, CEO of Forrest Performance Group, predicts that in 2016, organizations will convert online and social media traffic to more website conversations, phone calls, direct engagement, and ultimately—increased sales. Companies that embrace this change will have a huge advantage over the competition.

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Chained Probabilities in Startup Business Models

Tomasz Tunguz

In 1983, Lorne Whitehead, a physicist from the University of British Columbia proved he could knock down the Empire State Building with 29 dominos. A domino can knock over an other domino one-and-a-half times its size. Whitehead’s theory concretely demonstrates the power of a chain reaction. Like a series of dominos, a startup’s success is a chain reaction.

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Now This is Just Amazing…75 Pounds!

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Joe Apfelbaum, EO Brooklyn member, Ajax Union. When I joined EO, I was 75 pounds heavier than I am today. I remember sitting at a Warren Rustand event with a beer in my hand thinking to myself, why are all these successful entrepreneurs in shape, and I’m the only fatso in the room? The problem was that I was completely unaware that I was obese.

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How to Use Your Company Culture to Generate New Clients

Entrepreneurs' Organization

A positive and energetic culture around the office is not something you can, or should, fake. Tom Turner, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member from Nashville, is the co-founder and steward of purpose of DSi , one of the nation’s leading providers of advanced electronic discovery and digital forensics services. We asked Tom how company culture can help businesses generate new clients.

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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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Systematize For Expansion

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Having trouble scaling and growing your business? Here’s how to systematize for expansion. Jason Swenk was 2 weeks away from shutting down his agency: “Because we didn’t have a clear vision of where we’re going. We didn’t know that ideal customer, what their biggest challenges were. We didn’t have the right things in place.

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#EOlooksforward: Jai Gupta Shares His Story

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Jai Gupta, EO Indore, Vogmask. Jai shares how he turned his dangerous health situation into a million-dollar business. “I signed up for the Half Marathon at GLC in Athens and started training for the same on the streets of Delhi. One evening, I developed a wheeze. From there on out, I slipped downhill pretty quickly. My lung function dropped 45% within 2 weeks.

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