999 Posts Found

There’s nothing wrong with legacy businesses. I wish I had one – a profitable business that generated cash and gave you independence. There is a big problem with legacy thinking. What we need is new, dynamic thinking applied to legacy businesses to bring them into today’s new opportunities.

Content: Quotation | Author: Randy Komisar | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management

Mark Suster of GRP Partners in LA offers a useful article on getting access to venture capitalists.

Content: Article | Author: Mark Suster | Subject: Entrepreneurship

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

Venture capitalist, consultant and former Apple software “evangelist” Guy Kawasaki talked about “the art of innovation” during a recent visit to the University of Pennsylvania. He offered 10 rules for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Content: Article | Author: Guy Kawasaki | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, People

As part of our 30th-anniversary issue, Inc. asked Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last, what we might expect in the next 30 years. His answer: uncertainty, chaos, turbulence, and risk. In other words, it’s not a bad time to be an entrepreneur.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Bo Burlingham, Jim Collins | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management

The basic spreadsheet and accounting programs you’ve relied on ’til now won’t help your growing business eliminate decision-making bottlenecks, reduce IT costs, increase productivity, or improve the customer experience. To do all that requires an enterprise-wide, integrated software system. Learn how an integrated system can help take your business to the next level, and how to ensure you get the right system for you. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ali Jani | Source: TechnologyEvaluation.com | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Small Business

Existing strategy frameworks are designed for bigger firms with plentiful resources. They should not be liberally borrowed and advanced as solutions for SMEs, who face resource constraint. This very lack of resources impacts the competitive strategies that are feasible to SMEs. What’s more, the current literature in SME strategy fails to take into consideration potential competitive reactions from market incumbents in prescribing competitive strategies for … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Lee Khai Sheang, Lim Guan Hua, Tan Soo Jiuan | Subjects: Small Business, Strategy

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

This content is restricted to site members. Please log in or register

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