Posts Tagged ‘Startups’
6 Must-Have Web Tools for Entrepreneurs
These days, there are tons of tools out there solving all sorts of problems. There are a few I find myself using on a daily basis to help run my business more efficiently and successfully. I’m always on the lookout for new practical tools too, so if you know of any, let me know in…
Read MoreHow to Turbocharge Your Social Media Marketing Campaign
When it comes to social media marketing, startups, especially those that are operating on a limited budget, can use all the help they can get. A well run social media campaign can help a new business drum up interest, generate customers, and make sales. Social media offers an avenue for startups to capture some space…
Read MoreDo We All Undervalue Bootstrapping?
In business schools, in popular blogs, in business publications, and in general discussion of starting a business, we undervalue bootstrapping. We teach starting a business as if every new business requires sophisticated venture capital. I understand how this can be educational. It means teaching business planning, which is the ultimate business teaching tool, and investment…
Read More4 Steps to Optimizing Team Strengths for Innovation
Most entrepreneurs I know are individually very innovative, but a successful startup can’t be a one-man show (for long). That means they need to build an innovative team, which is not a skill that most people are born with. In fact, some very innovative individuals, known as ‘idea people’ or inventors, often end up creating…
Read MoreEmbracing the Unknown: How I Decided to Found My Own Business
A little over a year ago, I was the chief technologist at Dyn, the fastest growing private company in New Hampshire with an internet performance product suite that is changing how companies connect to their end-users. Yet after years of helping the company grow to more than 400 employees on three continents, I decided to…
Read MoreStartup Stock Options as Fool’s Gold
Terry had a good job with an established software company but left to join a startup. Why? “Because they’re giving me startup stock options.” Too bad. Two years later that job ended. That startup was going nowhere, cutting costs, and fighting extinction. Terry needed a new job. Again. What about those options? They had no value whatsoever. They…
Read MoreDo It Right the First Time: 7 Tips to Take Your Startup to the Next Level
Startups can experience tremendous growth when the owners make the right decisions early on. Here is a checklist for entrepreneurs who wants to take their startup to the next level. 1. Prepare a plan You need to develop a model that the business is going to follow. The program needs to elaborate on some of…
Read MoreFinding Dumb Investors is a Dumb Idea
Are you looking for dumb investors? “How can I find investors who don’t take much equity?” “How can I find investors who don’t interfere with my running the business? I first posted my objections to this kind of thinking nine years ago in Dumb Investors Dumb Idea, one of the earliest posts on this blog. That…
Read MoreDon’t Get Fooled by These Legitimate Investor Tricks
A few weeks ago Rus Yusupov, founder of Vine, found out that after a $30 million dollar sale in 2012, Twitter was shutting down Vine. The Tweet that followed sums up many startup founders egregious feelings towards investors. When you hear a founder saying something like this after a company sale, it’s a big red…
Read More7 Startup Scenarios That May Be Judged Non-Fundable
If you aren’t willing to take some risk as an entrepreneur, then don’t expect any gain. Yet everyone has limits, and every investor implicitly has similar limits on what makes a startup investable, or one to avoid at all costs. If you need investors, it’s important that you understand their filters, and even if you…
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