This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 11, 2016

Over the weekend, Rent the Runway held an event for its Project Entrepreneur initiative, which brought together over 100 female entrepreneurs looking to get education and advice on how to take their businesses to the next step. Unfortunately, one of the panelists, Skinny Girl vodka's Bethenny Frankel, told an African American founder in the audience that if she wanted to raise funding, that she should go out and hire a white guy to be the face of her business.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. When I publicly Tweeted that all companies should be gross margin positive many people pointed out that Amazon wasn’t profitable for many years.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

APRIL 28, 2016

By Lauren King, Director of the EO Accelerator Program. As someone who’s dedicated her career to helping small-scale entrepreneurs grow their businesses, I’ve heard many skeptics say a business accelerator program is just a cover for startups looking to increase capital. I disagree – after working with thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world who are putting in the hard work and time to reach the US$1 million mark, I see the importance of accelerator programs enabling businesspeople to r

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abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.” By January of 2016, that number had ballooned to 229.

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strategy

Tomasz Tunguz

APRIL 21, 2016

Pricing. Is there any word that confers some whisper of dark arts than pricing? Or any question that instills less confidence than, “How did you derive your pricing strategy?” Many times, startups replicate and tune competitors’ pricing strategies. If everyone else prices per seat, then so should we… Is this the right thought process?

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 25, 2016

I spoke to a new seed fund investor the other day and they told me they don't lead. I told them that was b t and they should, because founders need decisive investors who can be helpful, not ones that sit on the sidelines and outsource their decisions to other investors. They told me their fund wasn't big enough. B t. I led the $1.8mm seed investment in goTenna with $250k.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2016

Lead — It’s hard to be a real leader. Decisions are never black or white, so most people fudge. The straddle middle grounds to keep everybody happy. They make compromises to try and hold together constituencies. On business decisions they want to hedge their bets so they do a little bit of everything but nothing extremely well. As highlighted by Brad Garlinghouse years ago in the famous “ peanut butter manifesto ”— it’s like spreading peanut butter evenly over a piece of bread.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

APRIL 1, 2016

This month, we’ll be engaging in an open dialogue that asks the question, “What does social entrepreneurship look like within our global EO community and beyond?” Many of our members already have dedicated their personal and professional lives to social entrepreneurship, filling social and environmental needs around the world. Here’s just one example – SPARK Schools, founded by EO Johannesburg members Stacey Brewer and Ryan Harrison, is changing the lives of student

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Derek Sivers

APRIL 17, 2016

(part of the “do this” directives ). 1. Assume it’s their last day. Everyone talks about living like it’s your last day on earth. Instead, to appreciate someone, live like it’s their last day on earth. Treat them accordingly. Try to fulfill their dreams for the day. Really listen to them. Learn from them. 2. Be who you’d be when alone. You could live in a crowd, pleasing only others.

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startup

Tomasz Tunguz

APRIL 10, 2016

There many ways of measuring a SaaS company’s efficiency: magic number, payback period on cost of customer acquisition, lifetime value to cost customer acquisition ratio, quick ratio. These metrics primarily focus on measuring efficiency in customer acquisition. But, a software company’s true efficiency also have to include the cost to service contracts.

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Berkonomics

APRIL 14, 2016

As a leader, you set the goals, establish the strategies and tactics to get there (with help from others of course) and sell the dream to all of your stakeholders. And that includes potential customers as well as executives and employees. Sometimes growth happens without a leader envisioning it, living it daily, evangelizing it to anyone who will listen.

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This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 3, 2016

The other day, I sat in on a pitch practice with a company who, by all accounts, is the leader in its category. They are doing things no other company like it has been able to do, on relatively little capital compared to their peers. When they focus on sales, they crush it. When they focus on making product improvements, they make great strides. Consumer buzz in their market has been off the charts.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

I was watching my favorite show on TV this morning – GPS (Global Public Square) with Fareed Zakaria. It is a hugely compelling show because Zakaria covers world issues that will affect all of us in ways that are accessible and with frameworks for processing disparate information. He brings knowledgable experts from varying points of view but never books anybody that engages in yelling matches.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

APRIL 22, 2016

Sometimes all it takes is a little spark to start a revolution. Just ask Stacey Brewer and Ryan Harrison , EO Johannesburg members who are redefining the educational ecosystem in South Africa. In this special feature, the co-founders of SPARK Schools discuss the state of education in their home country, the far-reaching value of their hybrid learning model and how, through entrepreneurship, they’re changing lives, one student at a time.

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For Entrepreneurs

APRIL 20, 2016

Intro In the early stages of their business, founders often struggle to come up with really strong messaging to describe what they are selling, and this has a huge impact on their ability to raise money, find customers, and attract employees. This is not that surprising, as it can be really hard to arrive at.

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founder startup 165

Tomasz Tunguz

APRIL 7, 2016

Daniel Kahneman wrote about his experiences with the inside/outside bias. Kahneman, a team of graduate students, and the Dean of the Hebrew University School of Education collaborated on curriculum for judgment and decision-making for high schools. At one point, Kahneman surveyed his team to estimate the amount of time remaining to complete project.

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Berkonomics

APRIL 21, 2016

Dave’s note: This week we again welcome my co-author of “Get Scrappy” to give us some of her sage advice in only a way she could express it. You’ll enjoy her style and message… By Kim Shepherd. It’s great to get good reviews and hear positive feedback. positive is good. But negative is powerful. Don’t get me wrong: the glass is half full.

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technology

Derek Sivers

APRIL 18, 2016

(part of the “do this” directives ). 1. Prepare for the worst. Since you have no idea what the future may bring, be open to the best and the worst. But the best case scenario doesn’t need your preparation or your attention. So mentally and financially prepare for the worst case, instead. Like insurance, don’t obsess on it. Just prepare, then carry on appreciating the good times. 2.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2016

My partner Greg Bettinelli (worth following on Twitter) was recently named by The LA Business Journal as the “ Top deal maker in Los Angeles in Venture Capital.” Numero uno. I was nowhere to be found. And that’s a true reflection of just how successful and prolific Greg has been in LA. In a world that is hyper competitive – even amongst VCs – I can honestly say that not only is the media recognition accurate but it is amongst the proudest days I’ve had in dev

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

APRIL 12, 2016

Jacob Radloff is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Munich-based oekom research AG , a leading rating agency that has established environmental sustainability reporting in the global financial markets. Ashoka’s Felix Oldenburg caught up with Jacob recently to hear more about starting early, the challenges of growth and what it takes to keep innovating.

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For Entrepreneurs

APRIL 6, 2016

This is part of our series “Pitching to Investors” that shares real examples and practical advice from the Matrix General Partners on creating your pitch deck. See intro to the series here: Five Ways to Nail Your Pitch and Win Over Investors. Our goal in this series is to help entrepreneurs nail their pitch so.

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opportunity

Tomasz Tunguz

APRIL 28, 2016

In ServiceNow’s Q1 Investor presentation are the first semblances of SaaS metrics in public company reporting. If you sift through the 40+ public SaaS businesses, you won’t find mention of annual recurring revenue, churn, account expansion, or cash collection cycles in most of them - even though these are the the metrics the management teams employ to evaluate and steer their businesses.

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Berkonomics

APRIL 7, 2016

Here’s a formula for success… Let’s say you have been told by your board, by your chairman, CEO, or direct leader to solve three problems you identify and report back within a month showing progress – or that you have solved these three. First, you’d worry that this is an artificial way to focus management. Why three? Why now? After a short moment, you’d turn into action mode, perhaps calling in senior staff for a brainstorming session.

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board 54

Derek Sivers

APRIL 20, 2016

My advice and opinions may sound strange on their own. Do you know what musical counterpoint is? Underneath the main melody, you have a counter-melody that goes against it, and together they make harmony. This is different from harmonizing, where someone sings along with the melody at an interval. The counter-melody is a separate melody that could stand on its own, but is mainly there to complement the main melody.

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advice 58

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2016

You may have noticed a new look at Both Sides of the Table today and that’s because I’ve migrated my blog to Medium.

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