Jeff Richards’ 8 tips for entrepreneurs: Keep your funding options open. Hire the best talent you can find. Take advantage of the moment, and run like hell. Work with great investors. Play bigger than you are. Find and leverage mentors. Be honest and transparent. Enjoy the ride. Straight forward, but take notice of are few of them: Keep your funding options open. The smartest second- and third-time entrepreneurs I see …
Are venture capitalists paying or living the venture?
Techcrunch article ‘VCs are getting into PR’ started ‘my fire’ again. The article highlights the trend that VCs is no longer just about paying checks – well, if it ever was? – and names PR as one function that VCs are now paying attention to. Obviously, competition for funds and leads as well as the fight for any stakeholder’s recognition …
This year’s heart of the curriculum – not that simple
Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Politicians strike it as a key component of the legislation. Business schools have recognized the importance of it, both in terms of establishing programs and building the right environments to foster these activities. Executives – both corporate and SME – emphasize the importance of it too: Creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship is this year’s mantra against the backdrop …
Make money to build better services, the hacker way
So Facebook is hitting the headlines again – for good reasons: 800+ million active users, USD 3.7 billion in revenue. And growing! In eight years! The Internet is a fantastic fertilizer. However, it’s just a fertilizer. At the core of Mark Zuckerberg’s and the Facebook organization’s success is a culture and process that made those results possible, as Eric Ries points out. At Facebook …
No such thing as a home market
Resting on the belief that operations in your home turf is a safer bet may prove extremely risky. Although ‘globalization’ is close to a cliche, surprisingly many companies have not adjusted their go to market modeling as they expand, develop, divest or start up a new business. John O’Farrell discusses how to build a global company from the ground up. http://goo.gl/jR0qn
Entrepreneurial management. Not an art. Not just for startups.
‘The Lean Startup’ suggests how to accelerate through a pragmatic build- measure – learn feedback loop enhancing chances of building a sustainable business. With this book Eric Ries is a part of the movement that creates science where there was only art. A must read, not just for startup managers. http://goo.gl/xh9Hn
Why governments don’t get startups?
Last year in DK, governments incubators held a total of 310 portfolio companies. 15 were sold or terminated, only 3 with ‘some’ success (i.e. ‘some’ positive return). Not very impressive! This repeats the trend from previous years, and they say the ‘crisis’ is to blame. Perhaps, they could learn from Steve Blank who states that “any government that starts public financing …
Thank you Blackbox
Finally an attempt to put startup metrics and benchmarks in play. Now you can compare your startup against 3,200+ internet startups! Hard to neglect since 90% of all startups (of which 30% is internet-specific) fail. Although different characteristics, there is good inspiration for the later stage capital people too. (Link removed)
Cracking the innovation code
The Startup Genome Report has been released – a new framework for assessing startups more effectively by measuring the thresholds and milestones of development. Thanks to Blackbox and fellows. http://bit.ly/m3D19O
Bet on skill and experience
This year’s MIT $100K Business Plan Contest semi-finalists was named in March. This list is interesting among other reasons because a large component of success in entrepreneurship and venture capital can be attributed to skill, thus increasing the rate of success above the 18-30% average hit rate. Chance of success may be enhanced even further by choosing experienced venture capital firms (but only …