992 Posts Found

An estimated 20,000 corporate alliances have been formed worldwide over the past two years. Such strategic alliances can provide business owners with long-term security, new revenue channels, and, often, the anchor needed to maintain stability in otherwise turbulent waters.

A successful joint venture can open the door to a world of future partnership opportunities, says renowned entrepreneur Robert Wallace. In Strategic Partnerships: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Robert L. Wallace | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management, Strategy

While most people have never heard of them, search funds are attracting increasing attention as a way for small businesses to beat the usual odds of success, even in the midst of a deepening recession.

Content: Article | Author: Brent Bowers | Source: The New York Times | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Finance

Endless articles, books, and blogs have been written on the topic of business plan presentations and pitching to investors. In spite of this wealth of advice, almost every entrepreneur gets it wrong. Why? Because most guides to pitching your company miss the central point: The purpose of your pitch is to sell, not to teach. Your job is to excite, not to educate.

To win … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Garage Technology Ventures | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Sim Simeonov from Polaris Venture Partners shares some of his thoughts on how VC’s engage with executive summaries. [Hat tip to Brad Feld]

Content: Article | Author: Sim Simeonov | Source: HighContrast | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The executive summary is often your initial face to a potential investor, so it is critically important that you create the right first impression. Contrary to the advice in articles on the topic, you do not need to explain the entire business plan in 250 words. You need to convey its essence, and its energy. You have about 30 seconds to grab an investor’s interest. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Garage Technology Ventures | Subject: Entrepreneurship

A conversation with Marc Andreessen, co-founder and chairman of Ning and an investor in several startups including Digg, Plazes, and Twitter. Best known as co-author of Mosaic, and founder of Netscape. He is on the Board of Directors of Facebook and eBay.

Content: Multimedia Content | Authors: Charlie Rose, Marc Andreessen | Source: PBS | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, People

A great pitch deck is concise (15 slides) and highly focused. And in the deck, VC Ed Sim likes to see the following points covered.

Content: Article | Author: Ed Sim | Source: BeyondVC | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

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Too much money is worse than too little for most organizations. Until that day comes, the key to success for most organizations is bootstrapping. The term bootstrapping comes from the German legend of Baron von Munchhausen pulling himself out of the sea by pulling on his own bootstraps. That’s essentially what you’ll have to do, too.

Content: Article | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Small Business

Jeff Bussgang at Flybridge Capital Partners explains the three stages to the VC due diligence process and how it works.

Content: Article | Author: Jeff Bussgang | Source: Flybridge Capital Partners | Subject: Venture Capital

LearnVC was born out of the frustration of climbing the steep learning curves in venture capital. Combined with similar curves for company formation and early round investing, the founders see even more opportunity for making it easier to understand the mechanics of startup life. The site explains the topics side by side with working, interactive examples that clearly illustrate the concepts being described.

Content: Online Resource | Authors: Andrew Boardman, Jeffrey Boardman | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Guy Kawasaki provides a list of ten things that every small business owner should do in the new year, though you will likely find the list applies to larger businesses as well.

Content: Article | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Management, Small Business

All else equal, a venture-capital-backed entrepreneur who starts a company that goes public has a 30 percent chance of succeeding in his or her next venture. First-time entrepreneurs, on the other hand, have only an 18 percent chance of succeeding, and entrepreneurs who previously failed have a 20 percent chance of succeeding. But why do these contrasts exist? HBS professors Paul A. Gompers, Anna Kovner, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Anna Kovner, David S. Scharfstein, Josh Lerner, Paul A. Gompers | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subject: Entrepreneurship

TheStartUp411 is a collection of user generated information for those involved in starting and financing businesses; both entrepreneurs and those that finance them. Any registered user is allowed to submit an article that will be reviewed by all and will be promoted, based on popularity, to the main page. When a user submits a news article it will be placed in the “unpublished” area until … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Subject: Entrepreneurship

What do self-respecting entrepreneurs do when subjected to new regulations? They learn the regulations backward and forward and then vow never to start another business that falls within the scope of those regulations. And so off the entrepreneur goes to find a new way.

The new entrepreneur often seeks ways to innovate outside the scope of the newly established regulations. In the beginning, all that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Foster | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Economics, Entrepreneurship, Government

Guy Kawasaki has compiled his best wit, wisdom, and contrarian opinions in handy book form. From competition to customer service, innovation to marketing, he shows readers how to ignore fads and foolishness while sticking to commonsense practices. He explains, for instance:

– How to get a standing ovation
– The art of schmoozing
– How to create a community
– The top ten lies of entrepreneurs
– Everything you wanted … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Small Business

Harvard Business School professor William A. Sahlman’s article on how to write a great business plan is a Harvard Business Review classic, and has just been reissued in book form. Now a decade old, we asked Sahlman what he would change if he wrote the article today.

Content: Article | Authors: Sean Silverthorne, William A. Sahlman | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, People

Be stubborn in the face of failure. Instead: Be determined in the face of disbelief.

The doubters are inevitable and the odds are stacked against entrepreneurs and startups, thus it is crucial to believe in yourself, your company and your solution. Yet that determination can become our biggest weakness when it manifests itself as stubbornness or inflexibility; we can learn more through failures than successes.

The difference … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Taylor Davidson | Source: Unstructured Ventures | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Success / Failure

Paul Graham, who runs Y Combinator and has been involved in numerous early stage financings, offers this lengthy analysis of the intricacies involved with raising money for your startup. A good read for any entrepreneur.

Content: Article | Author: Paul Graham | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Here’s Guy Kawasaki’s advice to all the Biffs, Sebastians, Brooks, and Tiffanys who want to be kingmakers: “Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first.” He’s also concocted the venture Capital Aptitude Test (VCAT) to help people decide whether they are right for the venture capital business.

Content: Article | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Source: How to Change the World | Subjects: Industry Specific, Venture Capital