Sat.Nov 07, 2015 - Fri.Nov 13, 2015

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Why do you win?

This is going to be BIG.

When I first started in venture capital, back in 2001, I used to fund funds. I worked for an institutional investor that invested in both venture capital funds and later stage growth deals. My job was to figure out why certain firms were winning and why they might continue to win. Part of this, of course, involves looking into the past. Why someone did well previously is the first clue to figuring out whether or not that would be sustainable--but it isn't necessarily predictive.

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How My Son Taught Me the Meaning of Charity

Entrepreneurs' Organization

The following story was written by James Breeze, CEO of Objective Experience and an EO At-Large member in the Asia Pacific region: “Dad! I want to start a charity!”. You can imagine my surprise hearing this from my seven year old son, Ben, while he was sitting at my desk watching videos on YouTube. “I want to help poor kids in Bali.”. Not quite sure if he knew what he was saying, I asked, “What is a charity, Ben?”.

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How Much Cash Should Your SaaS Startup Burn?

Tomasz Tunguz

As the temperament of the fundraising market shifts, particularly in the later stages, the question of how much a startup should burn will become increasingly important. We’re living in a historic period of very inexpensive venture capital. These cheap dollars have fueled spectacular companies with record-setting growth rates. In such an environment, growth at almost any cost is handsomely rewarded.

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Good, cheap, fast. Pick any two.

Berkonomics

This one is attributed to Rod Adair, the famous oil and gas fire suppressing expert. And boy, does it apply to most of us and our offerings. “Quality” products and services should not be positioned as “cheap,” or your potential customers will question your message from the start, and will be more critical of the delivered product than if offered as one or the other, but not both.

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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Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business.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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Ask A Founder: Startup Lessons Learned from Squareknot’s Jason Rappaport

Gust

Jason Rappaport, Founder and CEO of Squareknot, has raised $1.3 million to date — his first $500,000 round came after a single email, pitch, and lunch. We sat down with Jason as he shared what his fundraising journey was like, the startup lessons he learned, and his advice to fellow founders. Here is what he had to say: HK: Tell me a Read more >.

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2015 Software Startup IPOs and M&A - What Does the Data Imply for 2016?

Tomasz Tunguz

In the last 22 months, there have been 4 $1B+ software IPOs and 3 $1B+ software acquisitions. But compared to 2014, 2015 was a meager year for startups looking to go public or be acquired. The chart above plots the M&A activity over this period. The M&A market halved in activity. In 2014, $11B of disclosed M&A occurred. I’m excluding take-private transactions of public companies like SAP/Concur, Bain/BlueCoat, Oracle/Responsys, etc.

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When We Were Young

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Douglas Hanna, CEO of A Small Orange, LLC. All entrepreneurs remember the first time they gave a presentation about their business. My first presentation wasn’t completely ordinary, though. I was 16 years old at the time, and my parents joined me on the trip because they didn’t want me going to a conference by myself. Throughout the speech, my mom kept giving me assuring looks, while my dad insisted on asking questions that were embarrassingly irrelevant to my presentation.

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A Community of TotalE Support

Entrepreneurs' Organization

The following statement and photo montage highlight EO member Tim Harrison’s TotalE experience and how his community plays a vital role in his entrepreneurial journey: My support community is made up of my wife and two children, our immediate family and some of my good friends shown here. My journey started 20+ years ago when I was in college.

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The Leadership Equation

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Kathy Heasley, founder and president of Heasley & Partners, Inc. As an entrepreneur, some days I wonder what kind of leader I am. I wonder if I’ve hit the “sweet spot” of my leadership abilities, or if I still have a ways to go. I think everyone has the ability to lead, and with that responsibility comes the power to shape lives. When I think of how I got to be the leader I am today, I think of one person: Mr.

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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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Creating Change in Your Community

Entrepreneurs' Organization

In some capacity or another, many of us have a desire to give back to our community. As the CEO and founder of a fundraising and event management firm, EO New York member Darren Port leveraged his own desire to give back by developing a successful business and enabling others to make an impact. What he learned in the process is that making charitable work a part of our lives is not as challenging as we might think.

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#MotivationMonday

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit. ~ Conrad Hilton ~. The post #MotivationMonday appeared first on THE BLOG.

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Note to Self: Brace for Growth

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Joanne Williams, Co-Founder and Deputy Managing Director of Nido Petroleum. Getting old can be scary. I learned that the hard way when it came to my business. Three years ago, we were a small entity eager to learn. We were young, ambitious and ready to take the world by storm. And then we had a growth spurt. In the blink of an eye, the entire organization changed.

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Benchmarking Atlassian's S-1 - How 7 Key SaaS Metrics Stack Up

Tomasz Tunguz

Founded in 2002, the Australian software maker Atlassian is an exceptional company in many regards. But foremost, Atlassian is one of the best examples of flywheel SaaS companies yet. Atlassian counts 1600 employees and sells five products JIRA (bug tracking software), Confluence (project management), HipChat (internal chat/collaboration), BitBucket (code repository) and JIRA Service Desk (help desk software.

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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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Describe EO in ONE Word

Entrepreneurs' Organization

What one word would you use to describe EO? Here are a few responses that we received: “ Roots. If you are a tree, then EO is your root system. The more you get involved, the stronger and deeper your roots become, allowing you the foundation to build a great life and business.” -Jason McDougall. “ Instrumental. EO has been very instrumental in my life.