August, 2011

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And now for something a little different: First Round portfolio company chloe + isabel launches [#frc]

This is going to be BIG.

Tweet. Last August, Chantel Waterbury walked into First Round's New York City office and told me all about jewelry, empowering women entrepreneurs in the fashion space, and what it means to design inspiring accessories. She expounded on the completely missed opportunity to combine offline and online direct selling into a singular complementary vision.

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Avoid Monoculture. Travel. Read Widely. Let Experience be Your Compass.

Both Sides of the Table

I sometimes feel that the Silicon Valley culture and we as technologists more broadly can breed monoculture in our approach to entrepreneurship, problem solving, market analysis and technology solutions. Experiences way beyond any hack-a-thon, startup blog or your current company engagement can enrich your thinking and challenge you to think more broadly about the solutions you offer in the market.

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Think of your exit as you commit your resources along the way.

Berkonomics

Each decision you make to commit resources affects the future value of the business to some degree. Minor decisions, such as replacing employees who have left the company or equipment needing updating, are usually considered operational in nature, and unless the business is changing direction, not relevant to this analysis. But each commitment of resources of any substantial size for acquisition of new products, talent, even new companies, changes the value of your enterprise perhap

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How Tech People Can Make a Difference in the Lives of Under-Privileged Children

Both Sides of the Table

I’d like to start by asking each of you to consider helping under-privileged children in America get a little bit more than they have today. Sure, you can give a small amount of money. Even $10. Please. It’s better than zero. You can combine that with supporting Fred & Joanne Wilson. (if you click no other links on theis site click that one).

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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Explaining FNAC: Feature, Not a Company

Both Sides of the Table

FNAC. I first heard the term from Chris Fralic at First Round Capital. Feature, not a company. It has always stood out in my mind. Whether something is a feature or a company is clearly subjective. And sometimes features (say, Twitter) turn into companies. For me it is a useful shorthand for a very clever set of product features that in my mind would be hard to remain a stand-alone business or themselves to generate enough revenue to justify the company’s existence.

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More Trending

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Be like the duck: SinglePlatform raises money for paddling #frc

This is going to be BIG.

You may have seen the TechCrunch and BusinessInsider articles on SinglePlatform raising an additional $3.25 million from us, DFJ Gotham and new investor New World Ventures. You may have read the description of what they do--"Help Local Businesses Create Online Storefronts" or "manage their web presence"--and think that's not particularly interesting.

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GroupMe + Skype #frc

This is going to be BIG.

GroupMe, a First Round portfolio company, just announced its acquisition by Skype. ( Techcrunch story here , AllThingsD here , Betabeat here ) What's cool is that they'll be staying in NYC--a win for the Big Apple! In my opinion, GroupMe built the very best team in the space, never stopped iterating, and still has a very big vision for the service. Through Skype, they’ll have a huge distribution channel, so this will be only the beginning for the company.

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Why You Need to Take 50 Coffee Meetings

Both Sides of the Table

50 coffee meetings. It should stick in your head as a metaphor for networking. For getting outside of your comfort zone. For starting relationships today that won’t pay off for a year. It’s the entrepreneur’s equivalent of “ 10,000 hours.&#. Anybody who has spent any time with me in person will be tired of this advice because I give it so frequently.

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Irene brings rain, flooding and end of news as we know it [#irene]

This is going to be BIG.

On June 17, 1994, the whole country was interrupted by broadcast news—us New Yorkers were watching Patrick Ewing and the Knicks in the NBA Finals. It was the beginning of the biggest media spectacle we had ever seen. All that needs to be mentioned is “White Bronco” and anyone born on the other side of the 1980’s knows what is being referred to.

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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What Startups Can Learn About PR and Crisis Management

Both Sides of the Table

I was recently approached by Fast Company to comment on “crisis management&# at startups in the wake of the Airbnb “ranksackgate&# story. I agreed to do the interview because the story was about what other companies can learn rather than about airbnb in particular. What are the teachable moments? The short article in Fast Company is here if you’d like to read it.

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10 Things for Startups to Do in August While Everyone Else is on Vacation

This is going to be BIG.

Tweet. When I was running Path 101, I'd laugh when people asked me if I was taking vacation. First off, I couldn't actually afford to go anywhere on a startup salary. Second, there was way too much to do. Third, I'm not sure I could have successfully unplugged anyway. The issue was that for the last two weeks in August, there were no VCs around to pitch, no distribution partners to meet with for biz dev deals, and seemingly no one else around actually working for me, the non-technical co-founder

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Time is Money: There is a multi-billion dollar business to be built around time

This is going to be BIG.

Yesterday, I ran the Battle of Brooklyn 10 miler in Prospect Park. When I got there in the morning, I noticed that Dave Morgan, founder of Tacoda and Simulmedia, had also checked into the park for the run. We met up and, as it turns out, he signed up the day before after noticing my packet pickup checkin at Jackrabbit on Friday. He's training for a marathon and had signed up for a few halves to prepare.

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Tracking the Hiring Funnel

This is going to be BIG.

At a board meeting yesterday, a management team was talking about their hiring needs and some of the challenges they're having hiring great people. This conversation seems to take place at nearly every growing company in just about every board meeting. over and over again. It's clearly one of the most important things a company can do--yet companies don't ever get as organized around it, with dedicated resources, until much later in their lives.

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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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Mea Culpa

Both Sides of the Table

On this blog I’m often trying to combine lessons for entrepreneurs and market commentary. Yesterday it was my turn for the lesson. In my zeal to prove a point I often take a strong stance on an issue. I then debate the topic in the comments section and hope that we all learn from the conversation. It’s my personality to do this. Yesterday I pushed this passion in the wrong direction.

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#S&Pfail

This is going to be BIG.

"S&P’s intrusion into American politics is also ironic because, as I pointed out recently, much of our current debt is directly or indirectly due to S&P’s failures (along with the failures of the two other major credit-rating agencies — Fitch and Moody’s) to do their jobs before the financial meltdown. Until the eve of the collapse S&P gave triple-A ratings to some of the Street’s riskiest packages of mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt ob

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Audiences, Fanbases and Communities: Why I probably wouldn't sublet a room to a fellow blog commenter

This is going to be BIG.

I had a great breakfast this morning with Andrew Parker , and we talked about a range of things, including how to describe big groups of people who consume content and services. People use the term "communities" a lot, and in many ways, overuse it--describing groups that don't feature any of the key attributes of a real community. Various descriptions of community include: "shares some common values".

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Happy Birthday Pop: 10 things I remember about my grandfather

This is going to be BIG.

Today would have been my grandfather's 94th birthday. He got ALS (Lou Gerhig's Disease) and passed away 15 years ago. I've been wearing his ring ever since. Everytime he visited us in Brooklyn, he complained about the parking. It didn't help that he was driving this huge boat. a '91 Mercury Grand Marquis. We used to play demolition derby with Lego vehicles on his kitchen table, rolling the cars from one side of the table to the other.

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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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Develop the “What if” question chain method.

Berkonomics

One of the most valuable tools in an executive’s arsenal is the use of the question chain in planning meetings or to analyze scenarios that might result from an action. The powerful words are “What if…” followed by an ever-deeper question that follows the possible results of an action, or a decision based upon the last “What if” question. The beauty of this method is that it causes the person proposing the solution to think much more deeply than during the development process, unveiling many po

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Stay current or the market will drift away.

Berkonomics

Markets and competitors change. Are you being left behind? Over the years, I have often heard the complaint from CEO friends that they have become so swamped by the demands of their growing businesses that they feel themselves further and further from the center of their industry, no longer at the forefront of information and competitive development.

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Why Online / Offline Mobile Integration is Going to be a Huge Business

Both Sides of the Table

“People still want calls …&#. When I first got into VC I decided I better have some investment themes. My macro theme was “great entrepreneurs&# who mapped to my belief system about the kind of entrepreneurs I wanted to work with. My background was 8 years of telecoms & mobile and 8 years of cloud computing & SaaS – so these two themes were a given.

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Stock Market Drops. Then It Rallies. What Happens Next for Funding?

Both Sides of the Table

This article was originally published on TechCrunch. Venture Capitalists typically have partners’ meetings on Mondays. Why is that? Who knows. But probably because as a group we travel a lot. So the industry formed around a day of the week when all partners could avoid having company board meetings or traveling. Yesterday was a Monday. And not a pleasant one.

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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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It is satisfying, but rarely profitable, serving early adopters.

Berkonomics

I am a gadget freak, often purchasing new technologies in their first release. And my closet is full of such gadgets, from early pen-based computers to early brick-sized cell phones to an electronic handwriting recognition pad received as a gift to test. These early dives into new technologies serve a purpose for me. They keep me at the leading edge of new development as it is productized, even before mass production.