This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 24, 2018

It’s that time of year again—the season of people quitting their jobs soon to start a company. I don’t know whether it’s New Years resolutions or end of year bonuses, but I feel like there’s a bit of a peak in people wrapping up previous things looking to start something new. If you’re going that route—here are a couple of things I would suggest: Have at least six months of personal expenses in the bank —and that’s only if you know you can at least get some angel capital based around your connec

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Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

It’s that time of year, time to look back and reflect on the most significant storylines in the tech, startup, and VC world. A comprehensive post on this topic could be 5,000+ words, but we do not do such things here. We kept detailed notes month by month and today, I tried to organize them by key sections, what you’ll see below. There’s a good chance I’ve missed something — if you feel that way, by all means, please share your point of view on Twitter (or email) an

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 21, 2018

Written for EO by Michael Neidert, a writer and consultant. . Entrepreneurship is difficult in any part of the world, but entrepreneurs in developing nations face an especially steep uphill climb. Add poor infrastructure, difficult-to-access capital and daunting challenges to the list of typical issues of starting a business, and entrepreneurship in a developing nation becomes an especially courageous act.

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For Entrepreneurs

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Matrix Growth Academy – Zero to 100 was an educational event held in San Francisco, aimed at providing B2B Founders with a road-map for how to get from Zero to a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth process that would take them to $100m in revenue. Please find below the primary videos for They have been.

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Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 16, 2018

So much food goes to waste in our country every year. So many people are hungry. It is literally cheaper to throw food away than to give it away… until now. A few years ago I had the honor of mentoring Maria Rose Belding when she and her partners at Means Database were in the Valley Venture Mentors startup Accelerator. Her social venture is organized and dreams like a high tech silicon valley startup – but all of that energy is directed to doing good, at scale.

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This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 2, 2018

Over the last five years ago, a disproportionate amount of venture capital funded paid acquisition on Facebook. Some very large consumer facing businesses were built, but that gravy train won’t last forever—and signs are that it is seriously slowing down. Companies are reporting that acquisition costs are trending up, and optimization is increasingly feeling like squeezing blood from a stone.

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Haystack

DECEMBER 30, 2018

Alright, here we go. My predictions for 2019. I am not great at these “looking ahead” posts. We all know the unknown will happen. Looking at my post last year, it wasn’t that great — and my take on crypto was proven wrong. Ok, let’s move on…for 2019’s prediction, I tried to keep it simple and cook up big questions that are on most peoples’ minds, and offer my two cents on them.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 17, 2018

The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) ’s Accelerator program empowers early-stage entrepreneurs with the tools, community and accountability necessary to aggressively grow and master their businesses. Peter Gabauer, an EO Accelerator participant in Brisbane, Australia, is founder and CEO of Table and Desk , which provides custom furniture in 14 days.

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Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2018

Customers will pay you to build your SaaS product. It’s one of the great advantages of a SaaS model. Annual prepay contracts - wherein customers pay for a year’s cost on day - is a free loan from customers. And every startup can benefit from this advance. There’s only one requirement: you must be able to sell your product while you’re building it.

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Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Ran across these great blog posts ( The Illusion of Product/Market Fit for SaaS Companies , The SaaS Adventure ) by Brad Feld & Neeraj Agrawal respectively. Product/Market Fit is now, appropriately, a central concept in startups. But when do you have it? If you think you have it, odds are darn good you don’t. Is your data really robust enough for you to know you have it?

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Entrepreneur - Entrepreneurs Category

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Entrepreneurship involves a lot of blood, sweat and tears -- especially when your business is designed to make people sweat.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 20, 2018

This week we contacted royalty licensing expert, the well-respected Arthur Lipper, asking the magic question. Why are you so strongly sold on royalty licensing as the most effective way to finance a tech-based early stage company? I asked him five important questions, which he answered, and I’ve summarized below. Since I am a proponent of using equity as a tool and he is so much opposed, this week it is his turn to make the case.

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Haystack

DECEMBER 27, 2018

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You are what you eat. About a year ago, I tracked down a VC who gave a talk I heard about where he referenced the phrase “Your portfolio is your path,” it stuck out in my mind because amid all the noise, it was simple, brief, and yet still open to interpretation. We hung out and I asked him about the entire talk he gives (a subject for another post, if he agrees to it), but this one a small portion of it and I think

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 13, 2018

At Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) , our vision is to build the world’s most influential community of entrepreneurs. One way we encourage young entrepreneurs is through the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) , EO’s premier competition for students who own and operate a business while attending college or university. The intense, international competition culminates with the Global Finals, where “studentpreneurs” from 50+ countries compete and make connect

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Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 26, 2018

Reading the news in the past week made me wonder. Just where are we pricing SaaS companies today? The Nasdaq and the S&P have toyed with a bear market. Many stocks are down 10 to 50%. Absolute valuations are one consideration, but let’s understand it at a deeper level. Have multiples compressed? The answer is yes, they have, but enterprise value to forward revenue multiples are still at some of the highest levels for SaaS companies in the past eight years.

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Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 6, 2018

My thanks to the many people who put their faith in Rick Plaut and my new venture, Launch413. A special thanks to the many members of River Valley Investors who provided the pre-seed funding to get us started and then played a big part in finishing our seed round. For those that don’t know Launch413, we are an alternative venture fund that takes startups from Launch to their first $10 million in revenue.

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Forward Cities

DECEMBER 12, 2018

We’re growing our team with 2 new positions! Forward Cities , the largest national network of cities committed to advancing inclusive innovation and economic development, is seeking two dynamic new team members: Fellows Manager. ESHIP Ops Coordinator (Kansas City ONLY, Temp – Perm). Information on how to apply can be found on the respective pages.

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Berkonomics

DECEMBER 20, 2018

This week we contacted royalty licensing expert, the well-respected Arthur Lipper, asking the magic question. Why are you so strongly sold on royalty licensing as the most effective way to finance a tech-based early stage company? I asked him five important questions, which he answered, and I’ve summarized below. Since I am a proponent of using equity as a tool and he is so much opposed, this week it is his turn to make the case.

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Haystack

DECEMBER 26, 2018

It’s an unusual time in the markets. With high levels of public market volatility — the first we’ve seen in the age of social media and true real-time information — it feels like everyone and their grandmom is expecting a downturn. “We’re in the nth year of an unbelievable bull market!” “Most of the country doesn’t have any savings!

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Written for EO by Gareth Williams, founder of YellowDog. When you launch a business on your own, you don’t need to worry about anyone’s performance apart from your own. As your business grows, you recruit talent to work with you. You make key hires and start building your team. But that’s just the beginning. How do you assess how your new team members are performing without relying solely on KPIs?

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Tomasz Tunguz

DECEMBER 14, 2018

These are my ten favorite books from 2018. The (Mis)Behavior of Markets - Written by Benoit Mandelbrot, the Belgian mathematician who pioneered fractals, this book and theory inspired Naseem Taleb. It’s a powerful book on the uncertain nature of financial turbulence. Creative Selection - Ken Kocienda, a former Apple engineer who co-authored Safari and the iPhone keyboard, writes about culture at Apple.

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Surdna Foundation

DECEMBER 19, 2018

Can the money that is at the heart of the foundation business model be responsive to a foundation’s important values of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)? The answer is yes. This report includes interviews with executives at eight large foundations that have embraced organization-wide DEI efforts. We asked them how DEI can shape the structure of the investing department, the work of investment committees and the choice of investments.

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Forward Cities

DECEMBER 21, 2018

For our inaugural #FCTalks, Marketing Coordinator Justin Laidlaw sits down for a conversation with CEO Christopher Gergen. The two discuss why inclusive and equitable entrepreneurship is paramount to the success of an economic ecosystem and the reasons how cities can better support these efforts. Watch the video, join the discussion at #FCTalks on Twitter, and take the Year End Survey.

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Derek Sivers

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Life can be improved by adding, or by subtracting. The world pushes us to add, because that benefits them. But the secret is to focus on subtracting. Imagine a number line, with 0 on the left and 20 on the right. Say I want to be in the middle, at 10. But I’m at 17. “What can I add to get to 10? I tried adding 8 but that didn’t work. Maybe 3 would help.

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Haystack

DECEMBER 24, 2018

I’ve been thinking about the timeless phrase, “risk and reward.” Entrepreneurs and investors both need risk in order to reap a reward. Of course, founders and early employees often take very different risks than investors do. There are always examples to break the rules, too — successful, repeat founders who become LPs in funds and/or invest on the side (even on a side fund), or investors who branch out on their own to start their own franchises.

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