July, 2016

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Why Acceptance of Failure is Critical to Startup Success

Both Sides of the Table

I talk about failure a lot because I think it can be tremendously instructive and I think that success without failure often masks underlying lessons. I even prefer to fund entrepreneurs who have experience some level of set-backs in their careers or startups because I think it brings a humility to decision-making that I find healthy. I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer

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Punching Above Your Weight as a Founder: Why I invested in Bizly

This is going to be BIG.

I'm a founder. Sure, I'm an investor, too, but I started Brooklyn Bridge Ventures , the firm I invest out of. That means that in addition to thinking about what kinds of investments I'm going to make, I need to think about where I'm going to work, payroll, business cards, all that stuff. As we've seen, the "business stack" of a variety of services entrepreneurs run on everyday has changed dramatically over the last few years.

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June 2016 Project Octane: A Student of Opportunity

Entrepreneurs' Organization

In entrepreneurship, opportunities can present themselves in various ways. For participants of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), EO’s flagship program for nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs, opportunities for leadership and business growth are boundless. Just ask Violeta Martinez, winner of the 2016 EO GSEA Global Finals and founder of VAIZA, an El Salvador-based, luxury brand crafted from the heart.

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Stop managers from gaming the system

Berkonomics

Business unit managers are under lots of pressure to perform, and occasionally are tempted to step over the line finding ways to look better than reality reflects. Of course, this has never happened to you, and you have never done this in your past. So we are speaking of a theoretical manager here. Of course. Here’s a way to prevent such behavior and create a tool for organization – and transparency at the same time.

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Navigating the Future: Generative AI, Application Analytics, and Data

Generative AI is upending the way product developers & end-users alike are interacting with data. Despite the potential of AI, many are left with questions about the future of product development: How will AI impact my business and contribute to its success? What can product managers and developers expect in the future with the widespread adoption of AI?

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Disconnect

Derek Sivers

All the best, happiest, and most creatively productive times in my life have something in common: being disconnected. No internet. No TV. No phone. No people. Long uninterrupted solitude. When I was twenty-two, I quit my job and spent five months alone in a house on a remote part of the Oregon coast. Practicing, writing, recording, exercising, and learning.

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Why Computer Vision Tracking the Flow of People Will be a Huge Market

Both Sides of the Table

Density laser tracking above a doorway As I’ve written before I believe Computer Vision will become a major factor as a Human-Computer Interface (1) as sensors and cameras help us make sense of our physical world. There is so much in the media about “The Internet of Things” that it has lost meaning and for many for some strange reason it became a short-hand for wearables.

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The Myth of the Top Investor

This is going to be BIG.

Someone asked me recently if they should raise a fund, because they had access to investments that were being made by "top, brand name investors". Whether there even is such a thing relies heavily on your perspective. It is absolutely true that many of the firms you've heard of being called the "top" funds consistently perform in the top quartile, even decile, of all funds, over time--Sequoia, Accel, etc.

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How To Unleash Sustainable Innovation That Matters

Entrepreneurs' Organization

This article was originally posted on Forbes.com. It has been reprinted here with permission from Ashoka. As President and co-owner of the 102-year-old Lamey Wellehan shoe stores, Jim Wellehan used sustainability to foster innovation and remain relevant in the face of fierce competition. A 2015 Maine Business Leader of the Year , he reports that eliminating waste and carbon has freed capital for growth, enhancing employee and customer loyalty.

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Hire for talent. Rent for experience.

Berkonomics

Want the best way to create your core competency quickly and inexpensively? Think like a startup, with little resources, a limited window of time, and few dollars to spend on expensive experts. This insight comes from a fellow CEO who explains that he leverages his financial resources for growth by dividing his hiring decision into these two boxes.

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Your Fractional Finance and Accounting Team

Mighty Financial specializes in supporting the financial aspirations of small businesses and entrepreneurs. With our comprehensive bookkeeping and precise accounting expertise with decades of experience across diverse financial roles, our team offers tailor-made services ranging from essential bookkeeping to strategic fractional CFO support, catered specifically to the unique challenges of technology companies, startups, and SMEs.

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Why This New Chatbot Is More Likely To Get You Promoted Than Fired

OnStartups

Confession: For the past several months I've been furiously coding away on a new project as part of HubSpot Labs. It's called GrowthBot. It's a chatbot for marketing and sales people -- and anyone looking to grow a company (like startup folks). The launch has gone well, and my bot is currently happily handling thousands of messages. Things like "show me companies in california that use HubSpot" and "who are the top influencers about landing pages".

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The Smallest ACV to Justify an Inside Sales Team at a SaaS Startup

Tomasz Tunguz

What is the smallest price point at which a SaaS startup can justify building an inside sales team? This is a natural question that many SaaS startups raise as they begin to complement bottoms-up, product-led adoption with assisting customers through the sales process. There are publicly traded SaaS companies at nearly every price point - even very small ones.

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Why We Can’t Let Luddites Ruin Global Trade

Both Sides of the Table

Luddites. It’s a term most of you know as being somebody who is backward or uninterested in learning new technology. Actually, the Luddites were worse than this. They were a movement in England during the Industrial Revolution who had the objective of ruining machinery that was used to build products at scale. They thought factories were a threat to custom assembly of products and ultimately to the agrarian way of life (as more people were moving to urban environments).

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The Thing About the Best Pitches

This is going to be BIG.

The best pitches have a hook. The very first sentence gets me leaning forward, not back. They have an unrelenting storyline--and they don't let a boring team slide get in the way if your team isn't the most exciting part of what you're doing. They mostly talk about where you're going, because the what you've done up until now in a seed pitch usually isn't that much.

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Digitalization: 5 Tech Updates That Will Help You Survive The Recession & Thrive

Lack of digitalization decreases business competitiveness. To thrive, embracing modern solutions becomes essential. The approach to digitalization often aligns with a company's business model. This shift not only boosts productivity but also automates processes and improves security. The tech market offers a wealth of technologies tailored for management, planning, and forecasting, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods.

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Why Inclusivity Is the Foundation for a Better Software Development Approach

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Annmarie Lanesey, EO Albany member and co-founder of Greane Tree Technology . When Annmarie Lanesey co-founded a software development business in Troy, NY in 2008, she saw business ownership as a means to successful living. Her commitment to a flexible, yet powerful software development approach has fueled a broader passion: a more inclusive pipeline for developing STEM talent.

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A riddle: Why explain why?

Berkonomics

In my early journalism classes, I was taught the five “W’s” of good news stories, and that most should be in the first paragraph at that. Who, what, when, where and why are the five, with sometimes a “how” thrown in for those followers of the macabre. But of the five, “why” is by far the most important for business leaders to consider and communicate.

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Curious as to why you’re not mentioning mattermark/cbinsight + angellist/crowdfunding as…

Unvalidated Learnings

Curious as to why you’re not mentioning mattermark/cbinsight + angellist/crowdfunding as significant new takes? To me, radical information transparency + open and automated investment process have the potential to be much bigger game changers for the industry than YC or A16Z, who may have added a platform / community layer but remain old school closed partnership at heart.

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How Fast Does a SaaS Startup Have to Grow to Survive?

Tomasz Tunguz

McKinsey released a study of high growth software companies entitled Grow Fast or Die Slow. One salient conclusion: If a software company grows at 20% annually, it has a 92 percent chance of ceasing to exist within a few years. In other words, software companies must grow quickly to survive. Slow growing businesses suffer from the lack of oxygen that fuels growth.

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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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Of Course #BlackLivesMatter — How Could Anything be LESS Controversial?

Both Sides of the Table

Black lives matter. Saying it out loud is obvious. And important. Agreeing that Black lives matter does not make one anti-police — it simply acknowledges that we understand there is a white privilege in the United States that has existed since our foundation. Having grown up in the US but having lived in Europe for more than a decade gives me a unique perspective to know this problem is more pronounced in America and we have a responsibility to continue to chip away at the problem.

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Missing Quantative Easing for unicorns will change private investment markets

Thomas Grota

Some months ago I was arguing the end of the unicorn era?—?meaning startup companies driven to +1bn.

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The Beating Heart of Your Business

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By David Mammano, and EO Western New York member and f ounder and CEO of Next Step Education Group. The Latin word for heart is “cor.” The Italian word for heart is “cuore.” The French word for heart is “coeur.” The Spanish word for heart is corazón.” . Are you beginning to understand where the English word “core” comes from and how it relates to your values?

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Microservices Essentials for Executives: The Key to High Velocity Software Development

For Entrepreneurs

“Software is eating the world” – Marc Andreesen Companies thriving in the new world order have technology as a core competency. They build complex cloud applications. They constantly bring new capabilities and features to the market. And despite the constant iteration and updates to their cloud application, their software is rock-solid reliable. How do they.

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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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Is management by walking around an outmoded fad?

Berkonomics

One of the CEOs I coach starts his day by walking the floor of his extended facility and checking in with managers and employees of the various departments, especially the call center. He tries to feel the pulse of the company by the intensity of motion, the metrics of backlog, and the stated problems brought to him as he asks. Is he a relic of bygone times, when employees worked in a single facility, managed directly by people who could see and speak to them in person?

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Flux in the Fundraising Market

Tomasz Tunguz

Over the last year, the amount of series A investment in US startups has fallen by nearly 33% from a high of $6 billion to about $4 billion in Q2 2016. Later stage investments have followed a similar path. Curiously, the series B/Expansion stage market has witnessed remarkable resilience, continuing to increase despite volatility. The series a market is also seen a similar drop in the total number of investments, indicating a slower investment pace.

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Another Major Win for LA Tech

Both Sides of the Table

I was in France and the UK for business last week so I was a bit out of the tech news cycle and more focused on the world events that were happening nearby. But one tech news story stood out for me — the fact that LA-based Dollar Shave Club (DSC) was sold to Unilever for $1 billion. This continues to solidify Los Angeles’ place as a major player in the global tech ecosystem and while any one success doesn’t define a city — the number of high-profile startups and exits has definitely increased.

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VC Fund raising in Germany?—?A Status Quo

Thomas Grota

Earlier this year I was giving my view on the development of Corporate Venture Capital markets with.

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Statement of Cash Flows vs. Cash Flow Statement

Speaker: Wayne Spivak - President and Chief Financial Officer of SBA * Consulting LTD, Industry Writer, and Public Speaker

The old adages that "cash is king" and "you can’t spend profits" still hold true today. But however well-known these sayings might be, it requires a change in mindset to properly implement a cash flow management system that predicts your business's runaway as accurately as possible. Key to this new mindset is understanding the difference between the Statement of Cash Flows, a historical look at the source and uses of cash, and the Cash Flow Statement, which uses transaction history and forward-l