January, 2018

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25 education trends for 2018

This is going to be BIG.

Year after year, educators and those invested in education love to speculate about what will take off in the near future. And as far as riveting news goes, nothing quite peaks the interest like new trends that have the potential to fundamentally change learning. In almost all of the commentary from both educators and industry, the mention of AR and VR for 2018’s big trends were ubiquitous.

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WP Engine passes $100M in revenue and secures $250M investment from Silver Lake

A Smart Bear

People said there’s no money in hosting. WordPress is just a toy. After the success of Smart Bear, I should be setting my sights on something big, not this. I’m sure people said similar things to Heather when she joined as our CEO. The Silicon Valley-oriented technology press outlets don’t cover us because we’re not in San Francisco, even though we’re more successful than most of the startups they cover.

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Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Hugh Massie, founder and CEO of DNA Behavior International . Like me, many of you instinctively knew that you had a strong desire to start a business and then at some point, the right innovative idea came along and in you jumped. Along the way, the entrepreneurial journey turned out much harder than you had expected—both emotionally and financially.

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What’s a company board good for, anyway?

Berkonomics

Some of you have gotten along forever without a board of directors, or used your spouse as the “other” board member from the start. But there are some very good reasons to build a great board composed of some outside members. And good board members can add real value to you and the company. In other posts, we cover legal responsibilities of a board, how to pay board members, the limits of their responsibilities, dealing with under-performing or “noisy” board members, and more.

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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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7 Predictions for SaaS in 2018

Tomasz Tunguz

Below are 7 predictions about the startup software ecosystem. How many of them do you agree with? The tax holiday for repatriation creates one of the most active M&A environments of the past ten years. The repatriation holiday is part of the new tax plan. It permit companies to bring US dollars held abroad (from software sales in other countries) back to the US at a lower tax rate than before.

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How VC Fundraising Favors White Men

This is going to be BIG.

Last week, on Martin Luther King Day, I decided that instead of saying something in my weekly newsletter , I would do the opposite--I would listen. I asked, "What is your experience of being be black in tech today and what can allies do to improve it?" The responses I got came at a time when I've been having a lot of conversations with female founders as well about their fundraising experiences.

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The Top Coworking Events in 2018

Deskmag

Have you already planned your vacations for this year? Combine some of them with exciting coworking events, extend your trip and turn them into a coworkation! From vibrant New York City, the breezy Hanseatic cities Bremen or Gdansk, to the tropical climate in Georgetown, Malaysia. the coworking gatherings are as diverse as the cities where they take place.

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#NewYearGoals2018: Harness the Power of Accountability

Entrepreneurs' Organization

The Four As of Accountability. Octane’s #NewYearGoals2018 series is focused on tackling small, attainable goals to realizing big results. Today, we consider the value of accountability in achieving your objectives. Want to increase the likelihood of achieving your goals? In a recent article written for Inc. , EO Accelerator Program Director Lauren King suggests following four steps in order to boost your sense of accountability.

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Can your lawyer destroy a good business deal?

Berkonomics

Over the years in business and as a member of over forty boards, I have received good advice from corporate attorneys and on occasion bad advice as well. There is a line that should be drawn in a relationship between corporate attorney and CEO or board. Attorneys are paid to protect the corporation, not to give business advice. Some are experienced enough to provide great business advice.

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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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Ten Year's Worth of Learnings About Pricing

Tomasz Tunguz

Last week, I shared a presentation with an executive team at a large public SaaS company on everything I’ve learned about pricing. Here’s a summary of the frameworks and theory that I’ve aggregated over a decade of investing in startups. Why do we set prices? Setting aside the important reasons of generating revenue and maintaining solvency for a business, there are many other reasons to set price.

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“Marketing” just means being considerate.

Derek Sivers

Don’t confuse the word “marketing” with advertising, announcing, spamming, or giving away branded crap. Really, “marketing” just means being considerate. Marketing means making it easy for people to notice you, relate to you, remember you, and tell their friends about you. Marketing means listening for what people need, and creating something surprisingly tailored for them.

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What Valuation Should I Expect in My Seed Round?

This is going to be BIG.

Powered by OpenReel I have to be honest, I'm a little suspect when one of the first questions a founder asks me is about valuation. So many things about startups are difficult and so few startups raise *at all* versus the number who try, that this seems like not the most important question. That being said, you want to feel like you got a good deal--and your lead investor should be able to walk you through how they got to a particular valuation and why they thought it was appropriate.

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WeWork harms 40% of all coworking spaces in its close vicinity, however…

Deskmag

WeWork is probably the globally most well-known brand that is associated with coworking. That is despite the fact that only a small part of the areas comply with the coworking space concept and most desks are located in private offices. With the roughly seven billion dollars they have so far collected in venture capital, WeWork has the potential to start a fierce competition with other coworking spaces.

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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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A Shared Vision On the Path to EO Alchemy

Entrepreneurs' Organization

Since pursuing and winning PEAK in 2017, Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Utah chapter is well on its way to achieving yet another victory: Hosting a successful EO Alchemy in October 2018. Octane recently checked in with EO Utah’s leadership to discuss the year ahead. Step Up is your chapter’s theme this year. What are you trying to inspire with this message?

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The investment committee rejected you; what does that actually mean?

David Teten VC

One of the most common ways a venture capitalist rejects you is a variation of, “I love you, I love your company. I brought it up to the investment committee (“IC”)… but they turned it down.” What does that actually mean? Is this the business equivalent of telling a flame, “ It’s not you, it’s me ”? A few years ago I published a research paper on how private equity and venture capital firms originate investments.

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An Era of Fundamental and Massive Change - The Capital Markets Innovation of the ICO

Tomasz Tunguz

In December 2017, the amount raised in ICOs nearly equaled the amount raised by Series A investments globally. The technology innovation catalyzed by Bitcoin and Blockchain is creating many multibillion dollar economies quickly. The ICO market today bears many similarities to the dotcom era. Startups can raise hundreds of millions of dollars on an idea.

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Pricing philosophy

Derek Sivers

For years I made a living playing at universities. One time a college far away in Ohio — about a 12-hour drive — asked what I would charge to do a two-hour show. I said, “$1500”. She said, “Oh, that’s a bit too much. What would you charge to do just a one-hour show ?”. I said, “$2000”. She said, “No, wait, you’ll be performing less, not more!”. I said, “Yeah!

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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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What Should I Include in a Pitch Deck? [VIDEO]

This is going to be BIG.

I've rewritten a lot of pitch decks over time and a lot of them are really bad--mostly because founders have been told what should go in them without a lot of consideration as to why. Somewhere along the line, someone came up with things that are supposed to go in a pitch without ever asking investors how they take in a story. Here what I want to see in the video below.

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Top Two Reasons for Churn

For Entrepreneurs

In working with a number of SaaS portfolio companies, I have found that there are two causes of churn that occur more frequently than any others. They are: Failure to successfully onboard the customer Loss of the champion who drove the purchase Looking at these in order: Failure to successfully onboard It’s easy to understand.

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How Are You Creating Your Legacy?

Entrepreneurs' Organization

By Kevin Bonfield, founder and managing partner at Concentre and a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization in Dallas, Texas. Many of us have never considered what we want our legacies to be. And yet our legacies alone define the ways in which we’ll be remembered. Recently, I joined a group of 100 world changers for The Conversation, an event designed by author Tammy Kling.

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Accounting: What kind of bean counter do you need?

Berkonomics

Close. Accountants are trained, certified and usually quite experienced in financial analysis, both creating and reviewing data. Bookkeepers are often trained on the job although sometimes more formally and handle the physical work of accounting for the transactions. To expect a bookkeeper to provide analytical planning is to ask for something they often cannot provide, except in a cursory way.

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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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How to Identify a SaaS Market that Machine Learning Will Disrupt

Tomasz Tunguz

In SaaS, machine learning has become an essential component to many different products. Whether it’s automating responses to inbound sales queries, identifying expense reports for audit, or surfacing anomalies in data, machine learning improves workflow software. To date, most software imbued with machine learning reduces costs rather than increase revenues.

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Art doesn’t end at the edge of the canvas.

Derek Sivers

Imagine you see a caged feather on a museum wall. The sign underneath says the artist is a political activist in jail. Imagine that same caged feather again. But instead the sign says the artist is a high school kid in Florida. Or imagine that the only way to see it is to crawl deep into a shrinking tunnel that opens into a room of mirrors, where the caged feather is suspended by a thread.

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The Scariest Thing About Working at a Growing Startup

This is going to be BIG.

The amount of work that goes into a job at a growing startup is insane. As soon as you put one project to bed, three more pop up. However, the most difficult aspect of the work isn't necessarily the effort required, but the emotions, with fear perhaps being the greatest one of all. When you're part of a small team, you're indispensable. You are literally doing three jobs at once--three jobs that should probably be done by two people each.

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Voting Rights of Vesting Shares

Startup Lawyer

One of the most asked questions I receive when setting up new startup companies is “Do my vesting shares have any voting rights?” Or in other words, does a stockholder only get to vote based on their amount of vested shares? Since most of the times a founder subjects their entire share amount to a vesting … Continue reading → The post Voting Rights of Vesting Shares appeared first on Startup Lawyer.

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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