999 Posts Found

Coverage of the supposedly meteoric revenue growth of a number of Silicon Valley startups has fueled unrealistic notions: what a good idea looks like; how fast a founder should expect to be able to attract investment capital; and how quickly, even with a really great idea, growth will take off. If we use unicorns as a guide for our own startups, it appears that success … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Bobby Martin | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The Review is now over two years old and home to dozens of stories that have resonated and made a difference. In 2015 alone, we added nearly 100 new articles, full of granular how-to’s for designers, product managers, marketers, recruiters, sales leaders, executives and many more. What follows is a list of the 30 most impactful, change-making pieces of advice drawn from everything we published … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Miscellaneous

The Review reflects on the extraordinary people they’ve interviewed and long-form articles they’ve published over the last year.

Content: Article | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Miscellaneous

With almost $1 billion in funding and ambitions to replace petroleum-based cars with a network of cheap electrics, Shai Agassi’s Better Place was remarkable even by the standards of world-changing startups. So was its epic failure. A 21st-century cautionary tale.

Content: Case Study | Author: Max Chafkin | Source: Fast Company | Subject: Entrepreneurship | Industry: Automotive | Company: Better Place

The first part of fundraising is getting the meeting and 90% of startups fail at this point. Here’s how to make sure you get meetings with the right investors.

Content: Article | Author: Ash Rust | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Ten person startups (or smaller) often have a lot of generalists. Everyone does a little of everything, which is what can make startups exciting. When you grow past 10 people to 15 or 20, that structure starts to break down. All of a sudden the generalists in slash positions will move from two part-time jobs to two full-time jobs and will stop being effective. The … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Joseph Walla | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources

Businesses are breaking out of the old too-big-to-fail mindset to face disruptive technologies head on. Disruption’s survivors are learning how to benefit from new modes of engagement with potential competitors and tomorrow’s startups. Call it corporate venturing. In this paper, the co-authors outline a menu of options for established businesses looking to embrace startups in their drive to achieve profitable growth.

Content: Article | Authors: Adrià Batlle, Julia Prats, Pau Amigó, Xavier Ametller | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz attempts to clear some of the opacity of how the VC industry works, by defining some basic terms, beginning with a bit of history.

Content: Article | Author: Scott Kupor | Source: Andreessen Horowitz | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

El fracaso de un emprendedor empieza cuando su estrés es mayor que su energía, sus miedos son mayores que su motivación y su interés de regresar a la zona de confort es más importante que ser dueño de su propio éxito.

The failure of an entrepreneur begins when his stress is greater than his energy, his fears are greater than his motivation and his interest in … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jürgen Klaric | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Every startup is a series of hypotheses — about who’s a customer, what makes your product or service attractive to these customers, and so on. Lean startup provides a rigorous framework that you use to prove or disprove as many of these hypotheses as possible at as low a cost as possible. An interesting question is how do you generate the hypothesis? If you have … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Stefanos Zenios | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Entrepreneurship

There’s a lot of advice on the web about what to do once you’ve raised money, but not when to do it. This is unfortunate, because poor timing can kill a company. This post will describe some common timing issues, as well as a framework for avoiding them.

Content: Article | Author: Leo Polovets | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

People, essentially, do not create their own fortunes. They inherit them, come to them through the occupation of some state-protected niche, or, if they are very brilliant and very lucky, through infusing a particular group of men and women with the germ of an idea, which, in time and with just the right environment, allows that group to evolve into an organism suited to the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ryan Avent | Source: Evonomics | Subjects: Economics, Entrepreneurship

The two fundamental dimensions on which entrepreneurial projects differ are the level of uncertainty – how much is known and how dangerous are the unknowns – and the cost of experimentation. In a recent study, Jackson Nickerson and Robert Wuebker and Nathan Furr used these dimensions of cost and uncertainty to create a 2×2 matrix to identify four zones of development, into which entrepreneurial projects … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Nathan Furr | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Strategy

Early on, many startups don’t want to show prices — and that’s okay. Most don’t really know what they should charge, so they prefer to get intel by asking inbound customers some pricing questions. However, when you reach a point where you want a touchless sale, then you need to show your pricing. If it’s not a clear number, such as in Wistia’s case, give … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Patrick Campbell | Source: First Round Review | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Marketing / Sales, Pricing

The article introduces you to the Sean Ellis Test for assessing Product Market Fit. Further, the article explores the benefits and limitations of the Sean Ellis test, and finally discusses in detail how to properly apply the test for a positive outcome in your business.

Content: Article | Author: Martin Luenendonk | Source: Cleverism | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Marketing / Sales, Strategy

In the beginning stages of hiring key talent for an early stage company, an engaged founder may spend anywhere from 40-50% of his or her time recruiting key hires. Having a clear philosophy around compensation and rewards is essential to do this effectively. Additionally, you can benefit from access to up-to-date compensation tools and resources to help hire and retain the best talent.

Homebrew has put … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Homebrew | Subjects: Compensation, Entrepreneurship, Human Resources

Rafe Furst of Quantitative VC uses data analysis and poker references to try to understand if VCs are good at investing in startups or if it is all just luck.

Content: Article | Author: Rafe Furst | Source: Medium | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

There exists no formula for matching co-founders. Sometimes fits that look perfect in all ways don’t work out, and in other instances founders who may seem polar opposites of each other work in relative harmony. For founders, there are few issues that, early on in a company’s rearing, are more important. With that in mind, we’ve tapped our networks and our personal experiences to give … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Christopher Steiner | Subject: Entrepreneurship

At the core of the hiring criteria for our venture capital firm, and what we see at top tech companies, is of course things like (a) acumen and talent, (b) relevant experience, (c) culture fit and often (d) domain expertise. But if you’re a rapidly growing (or hope to be) tech company or VC firm, there’s a missing element in that list. A lot of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Craig Hanson | Source: Medium | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Startups usually hire someone for their skills (what they can do today) or their potential (what they may be able to do once they ramp up). It’s important to decide ahead of time which of those two routes startups want to explore: Understanding how immediate your need is, and whether you have time/resources to mentor someone to grow into a role is key.

Content: Quotation | Author: Rodolphe Dutel | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Human Resources