News
Make Your VC Presentation Shine
There are some good tips here about getting ready for the first meeting with a venture capitalist, but it is all focused on the presentation. Much, much more preparation is required on the business plan itself prior to ever trying to present it...
via http://www.entrepreneur.com
- May 14, 2010
Want to Be an Entrepreneur? Listen to Angel Investor Naval Ravikant
This is an excellent and short video about startups and venture capital
via http://news.ycombinator.com/
- May 13, 2010
Americans Fed Up, But Like Small Businesses
The American economy has always been an entrepreneurial economy, so it's no surprise that even in tough times that small business is still rated highly...
via
- May 12, 2010
Many marketers don't know how to sell to women
This news story recaps Michael Silverstein's latest book "Women Want More" about how to successfuly market to women, who make 85% of all of the consumer purchasing decisions. I worked with Michael at the Boston Consulting Group and what really impressed me then was his analytic rigor. He hasn't changed - his research for this book was very deep and included 15,000 interviews with women. If you are selling products to women, this is an excellent book to read...
via http://www.tennessean.com
- May 5, 2010
Consumer debt is not your friend
This is an excellent summary of the fallacy of consumer debt, which, by the way, could only have been ushered in with the idea of an employee's base pay. If everyone was paid according to their work (like in the old days and known as "pay for performance" a concept we teach in the Venture Academy) as opposed to be paid the same base pay regardless of what they accomplished, consumer debt would be much more difficult. Have you ever tried to get consumer debt without a W-2 or payroll summary? It's almost impossible and that is a good thing...
via
- May 5, 2010
The Five Whys for Startups
Root cause analysis is extremely important (that's why we teach it as part of our Venture Academy training) and it has been an important part of business process design and redesign for quite some time. I love the "Five Whys" because it almost always leads you to the root cause - and as this article correctly points out - it is just as important in a fast-paced startup environment as it is in a bloated "too-big-to-fail" corporate environment...
via
- April 30, 2010
Use the Three-Minute Rule to Better Understand Your Customers
This is a good point. When I worked in new product development we used the term "fitness for use" to make sure that our product was fit for the uses that customers actually used them for. There is no substitute for understanding what problem the customer is trying to solve with your product or service...
via http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/managementtip.php
- April 29, 2010
What Trust Brings to Amazon, Zappos, and USAA
Working on your customer value proposition? Consider the "customer trust" factor...
via
- April 28, 2010
The State of Web Development 2010 – Web Directions
Interesting survey data on the state of web development...
via
- April 28, 2010
3 Things a Potential Acquirer Wants to Know Before Buying Your Business
This is an excellent, short article about building a business in order to sell it. Caution: always know who you want to sell it to. Who needs it the most?; Who would pay the highest price?, etc.
via
- April 27, 2010
