Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010
Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts:
There was some really great content in June. Here are the top 30 along with a brief snippet from the post.
- 10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss- A VC : Venture Capital and Technology, June 18, 2010
The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conference a couple months ago. The 99% conference is aimed at creative professionals and is focused on Edison's "99% perspiration.". And in the spirit of how to get your ideas to happen, they asked me to talk about entrepreneurship and the myriad ways you can "be your own boss."
- 8 Questions to Ask When Interviewing at a Startup- Instigator Blog, June 18, 2010
Job interviews are meant to be conversations. The interviewer asks some questions and the interviewee does the same. It’s never a good sign when an interviewee doesn’t have any questions. It shows a lack of interest. Recently someone asked me, “I’m thinking of taking a job offer from a startup. I’ll have to relocate.
- 37 Startup Insights- OnStartups, June 7, 2010
Earlier this year, I had a chance to attend SxSW. One of the highlights of my trip was a startup dinner which included Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37signals. At the time, they had just come out with their new book " Rework ". had downloaded a copy to my Kindle, but hadn't had a chance to read it yet. Now I have. Twice.
- Pivoting- Chris Dixon, June 14, 2010
My Hunch cofounders and I frequently ask ourselves: “If we were to start over today, would we build our product the same way we had so far?&# This exercise is meant to counter a number of common cognitive biases, such as: 1. The sunk costs trap. People tend to overvalue past investments when making forward-looking investment decisions.
- Creating Incremental Strategic Value- Ask the Angels, June 17, 2010
We can easily overlook the level of demand pull when we are assessing strategic value. Just because a product has a patent, deep complexity and an obvious competitive advantage does not mean that it can fly by itself into the market. had two occasions recently to review products which had clear market leadership.
- How-to learn about angel/vc term sheets- Gabriel Weinberg, June 28, 2010
I think every startup entrepreneur (and angel investor) should have a good understanding of financing term sheets. Yes, even bootstrappers. haven't raised any money for my companies that required a term sheet (just friends & family money in my first company), and yet I still think it is important for a number of reasons. liquidation preference.
- The Pattern-Seeking Fallacy- A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks, June 14, 2010
What do these have in common? This pitcher has retired 5 of the last 7 batters.". We tried 10 AdWord variants and combination D is the clear winner.". The Bible Code predicted the Sept 11 attacks 5,000 years ago.". We sliced our Google Analytics data every which way, and these 4 patterns emerged.". Patterns in Chaos. Surprised?). Let's see why.
- You’re Not a Real Entrepreneur- Steve Blank, June 10, 2010
Who is an entrepreneur really? It turns out that there are four distinct types of entrepreneurial organizations; s mall businesses , scalable startups , large companies and social entrepreneurs. They all engage in entrepreneurship. Yet entrepreneurs in one class think that the others aren’t the “real” entrepreneurs. Small Business Entrepreneurship.
- Saving time in preparing for board meetings- Fred Destin, June 11, 2010
Some of the startup companies I work with do awesome board presentations. Stylish visualisations, tons of data. suppose it's because most of them are consumer facing businesses, but boy are they good at communicating. Personally, I don't like weighty board packs and I do not wish to inflict slide preparation upon anyone. Delegate and automate.
- Suggestions for Angel Investors- Feld Thoughts, June 2, 2010
I’m on an Acela train between Boston and New York (listening to Boston’s More Than A Feeling – how recursive) on my way to the TechStars Boston 2010 Investor / Demo day. It sounds like Angel Boot Camp rocked. My long time friend and co-angel investor Will Herman wrote a post titled Angel Investing that summarized some of his advice.
- Don Norman at Business of Software 2009- Business of Software Blog, June 21, 2010
Imagine you’re on the first slide of your powerpoint presentation and want to move to the next slide. Your remote control has two buttons. They are unmarked, but one button points up and one button points down. Which button do you press? Why you have to design products for how your customers are , and not how you want them to be. didn’t think so.
- Simplify Your Existence in 3 Easy Steps- Feint, June 4, 2010
My guide to cutting through the bullshit and making things simple. Why make things hard on yourself. Over the past year, I’ve been dramatically changing the way I approach life. To be honest I was confused. The world felt like it was sitting on my shoulders and I was slowly being dragged down. And then I took a stand. Productivity.
- Parting Ways With A Founding Team Member- A VC : Venture Capital and Technology, June 11, 2010
One of the hardest things for an entrepreneur is to part ways with a co-founder or founding team member. Those early days putting together the plan, building the product, and building the team are formative and powerful. The loyalties that develop during that time are strong and hard to break. Running a business is not an easy job. And be generous.
- 8 Really Cool Web-Based Tools for Bloggers- Blogtrepreneur | Entrepreneur Blog, June 1, 2010
Looking for cool applications to help you make your blog or site all it can be? We’ve found some good ones! From ways to make sure your site looks good no matter who’s looking at it, to protecting your privacy and your content, these tools are all easy to use and either free or very
- From Minimally Viable To Maximally Buyable Product- OnStartups, June 21, 2010
I’m a big fan of Eric Ries and the lean startup movement that he’s championing at Startup Lessons Learned. think many of the fundamentals behind the lean startup are things you likely have been practicing for a while. But, seeing it articulated so well and establishing a common vocabularly for us to talk about it is immensely valuable. What’s next?
- Builders and extractors- Chris Dixon, June 19, 2010
Tim O’Reilly poses a question every entrepreneur and investor should consider: are you creating more value for others than you capture for yourself? Google makes billions of dollars in annual profits, but generates many times that in productivity gains for other people. Most entrepreneurs are natural-born builders.
- hacker angels- Gabriel Weinberg, June 14, 2010
hacker angels is a new group of hackers who are also angel investors. The group currently consists of myself, Joshua Schachter , Jeff Miller and Roy Rodenstein. You can follow us all on twitter via the new hacker-angels list. You can also email us at ha@hackerangels.com. We are also looking for other hacker angels to join us.
- Out of the cesspool and into the sewer: A/B testing trap- A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks, June 21, 2010
Your A/B tests are trapped in a cesspool when they should be in the sewer.? Do you really care why A/B testing is analogous to unwanted liquids? Not yet, so I'd better get right to the point. On the rare occasion that it rains in Austin we get these deep puddles in the backyard. Water "seeks" the lowest point in the yard, but it's narrow-minded.
- The Search For the Fountain of Youth – Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Enterprise- Steve Blank, June 3, 2010
It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change. Charles Darwin. Companies have a fairly predictable life cycle. They start with an innovation, search for a repeatable business model, build the infrastructure for a company, then grow by efficiently executing the model.
- 7 Ways Nokia Can Win Again- ArcticStartup, June 18, 2010
In the eyes of the developers and the startup community, Nokia went from hero to zero in less than 3 years. Despite its still 44% strong market share, the company is losing more and more every day to Apple and Google, both of which had no previous mobile experience. The company is about to introduce the N8 to a mostly indifferent community. Games.
- In Defense of Multitasking- David Silverman, June 9, 2010
HBR.org blogger Peter Bregman recently made some excellent points about the downside of multitasking — as did Matt Richtel in his New York Times article on Monday. will not deny that single-minded devotion often produces high quality. But let's remember, unitasking has a downside too — namely, what works for one person slows down others.
- 5 Business Fundamentals I Learned the Hard Way- Tim Berry's Blog - Planning Startups Stories, June 3, 2010
Two days ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by John Caddell , founder of the Mistake Bank, for a podcast focusing on mistakes. That made me think about some of the things I learned that came from the business mistakes I’ve made. And despite a fancy business degree. Your employees can’t also be your friends. learned this the hard way. agree.
- How to Proactively Protect Your Online Reputation- Startup Professionals Musings, June 12, 2010
These days, your online Internet reputation is your reputation. Of course, having no reputation is usually better than a bad one, but don’t wait for someone else to establish a good one for you. The first step in the process is to claim your online identity. See my previous article on “ How Much Should You Pay for a Great Domain Name? Twittering.
- Six Slides- A VC : Venture Capital and Technology, June 23, 2010
The CEO of one of our portfolio companies is working on a fundraising deck and asked me for some tips. gave him my favorite, "keep it to six slides." 34; He ended up with thirteen which I see as a moral victory. The founder and CEO of another of our portfolio companies is wrapping up a large round and he showed me his pitch deck. Guess what?
- No One Told Me What Being an Entrepreneur Really Means- FairSoftware's Blog, June 3, 2010
There are lots of myths and dreams attached to starting a company. Will you be the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? Will you negotiate million dollars rounds of financing with cool VCs? This is what starting a company really means: e-mailing 100 strangers a day, every day. For the foreseeable future. That’s it. People you don’t know.
- Rethinking The Laptop- Feld Thoughts, June 19, 2010
This morning, as I was waiting for my laptop to grind through its startup process I started wondering why I had a laptop. travel a lot and had it with me in San Francisco and Los Angeles this week, but hardly used it. And, when I did, I was frustrated with how long I had to wait for it to “get started&#. By noon it had fully synched itself.
- Competition is overrated- Chris Dixon, June 26, 2010
Your #1 competitor starting out will always be the BACK button, nothing else. 8211; Garry Tan. Suppose you have an idea for a startup, and then do some research only to discover there are already similar products on the market. You become disheartened and wonder if you should abandon your idea. Here are some things to consider.
- SEO in #20tweets- Gabriel Weinberg, June 13, 2010
Recently I spoke at Dreamit Ventures on SEO. used Manu Kumar's #20tweets presentation format where I opened twenty tweets in twenty tabs and clicked them off as I went. The talk was recorded by Vijay Kailas from Numote. The point of the talk was two-fold. First, I wanted to convince the Dreamit startups (and you!) reasons to follow. buying links.
- Taking "Fail Fast" to a whole... 'nutha... level- A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks, June 10, 2010
I hate it when writers resort to dictionary definitions to make a point. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines 'authentic' as 'relating to or denoting an emotionally appropriate, significant, purposive, and responsible mode of human life.'. So true, so true, and that's the perspective you must adopt to become adroit in social media.".
- Is Your VC Founder Friendly?- Steve Blank, June 15, 2010
The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. Some VC’s get it, others may not. So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How do you figure out which VC firm is best for you?
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