The 10 Myths of Entrepreneurship
This is a fun, little animated video that dispels the myths of entrepreneurship. What does it take to be a great entrepreneur?
Vator Splash startup event comes to LA
Vator Splash startup event comes to LA, May 30 (3:30 pm to 10 pm)
Vator, one of the largest business networks dedicated to high-tech entrepreneurs and investors, is bringing its popular Splash event to the Hollywood Roosevelt on the evening of May 30! Founders and/or CEOs of Twitter, Zynga, PayPal, Pandora, Zappos, Box etc. have spoken at Splash. Get energized and inspired by them as they share their lessons learned about their success and failures scaling their startups from the ground up.
A Man Walked Into A Phone Booth
Suzen Pettit
by Suzen Pettit at Omaginarium
An old wise man once said:
‘To love is to suffer.
To avoid suffering one must not love.
But then one suffers from not loving.
Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer.
To suffer is to suffer.
To be happy is to love.
To be happy then is to suffer.
But suffering makes one unhappy.
Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness.
I hope you’re getting this down?’ -Woody Allen
Guy Kawasaki: The Top 10 Mistakes of Entrepreneurs
Guy Kawasaki speaks at the UC Berkeley Startup Competition (Bplan) at the Haas School of Business.
Guy Kawasaki is the former chief evangelist of Apple and co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures. Here he explains the top ten mistakes that entrepreneurs make. His talk covers all stages of a startup, from inception to exit.
Guy Kawasaki’s Advice for Entrepreneurs: Typers & Prototypers
Guy Kawasaki is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures.
Previously, he was the chief evangelist of Apple. Kawasaki is the author of ten books including Enchantment, Reality Check, The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Google Analytics: Optimizing AdWords
This is an excellent video on optimizing Adwords using Google Analytics. Anyone with a website business should know this!
In this tough economy when many advertisers are cutting their online ad budgets, it’s important for all of us to review optimization tactics. What do you do when you start or are handed an AdWords account? Here’s an optimization “how-to” primer for you all.
How Many Startups Fail?
Everyone seems to think that their hot tech startup will make them a billionaire by their mid-20s, but that’s not always the case. What are the actual chances a typical startup will succeed?
Click here to View Info Graphic
Present Like an Investor: Tailor Your Approach to What Investors Care About
Founders Space Roundtable presents: Are you ready to wow investors at your next pitch event or meeting?
Sign up for Event: http://fssfapr2013.eventbrite.com
Presenters: Joydeep Bhattacharyya of Shasta Ventures; Sean Jacobsohn of Emergence Capital Partners; Richard Mordini of Javelin Venture Partners; and Ali Wasti of Azure Capital.
Find out what venture capitalists care about, and how to present your information to get to yes. Our panel will discuss:
- How to tell your story
- How to present your team
- How to explain the market potential
- Discussing competitors
- Sharing the business model
Investors Hate Risk: Demonstrate You’re A Sure Bet
Founders Space Roundtable presents: Which risk factors are non-starters for investors? How can you minimize risk to look like a sure bet? Even if you have a killer business concept and team, VCs and angels are weighing the risks. There are steps you can take to minimize perceived risk and get the funding you need.
Sign up for Event: http://fssvapr2013.eventbrite.com/
Presenters: John Giddings of Tech Angel Group, Jay Jamison of BlueRun Ventures, and Jon Soberg of Blumberg Capital.
Our expert panel will share knowledge on these questions and more:
- What do investors view as high risk?
WavePlay Presents the Silicon Valley Dojo Event
23 April from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in San Francisco
Sign up for Event: http://waveplaydojoapril2013.eventbrite.com
Network with investors, founders and the international community while gaining information on “The Silicon Valley Way” of doing business to connect with investors and get traction.
Do you want information on what makes business happen in Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay? You’ll get the information you need from investors and subject matter experts while networking with the international and domestic community. Our experts will answer these questions and more:
- What are the shortcuts to connecting with investors?
WavePlay’s Portuguese Speaking World Pitch Event in San Francisco
WavePlay and Leadership Business Consulting Present
26 April from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in San Francisco
Sign up for Event http://waveplayportuguese2013.eventbrite.com
This event is open to all interested parties
All presentations are in English
Network with investors, founders, subject matter experts, dignitaries and the San Francisco/Silicon Valley international community! Our panel of judges will give feedback and tips to entrepreneurs on their pitches, presented in English.
Countries represented: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal
Agenda
2:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m. — Networking, drinks and appetizers
2:30 p.m.-2:40 p.m. — Welcome and introductions
Getting Your App Out There with App-o-Day
We’ve been exploring all sorts of ways to get our apps on as many iPhones and iPads as possible.
One good platform we found is App-o-Day. Their model is to offer their users a free app every day. They do this through their own app, which features a single free app each day.
This will only work if you can make your app free for a few days and then turn it back to paid. The result is a huge number of downloads in a single day.
We tried this out on our game Beetle Bounce, and it worked like a charm.
Fundraising Series (Part One) – “Building Your Story”
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21 Steps for Entrepreneurs to Raise a First Institutional Round of Financing
by John Hagedorn, advisor to FLG Partners & retired CFO
Download the Full Paper: 21 Steps for Entrepreneurs
This paper’s primary purpose is to describe the research, analysis, and organizing sets which founders must complete with great rigor if they are to be successful in raising a first financing round from venture capital firms. The objective of the first 16 of these steps is to qualify the startup as having the potential to grow into a company which can reward the investors with the returns they require. This qualification is in not met by following an accepted outline for preparing documents and presentations. It is accomplished by the founders doing the homework that proves first to themselves, and then to investors that their venture meets the criteria for success posed at each step.
What’s in a Name? Naming Your Company
Karen Milde, CEO and Co-Founder, Reframe Marketing Inc.
When naming your company there are a number of things to consider. A name too common and it will be disregarded without a second thought, too original and abstract and the function of the company may be missed. This can be an overwhelming task, as a name is capable of making or breaking a company. Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started.
Verticalize 2013 – The World’s Largest Startup Expo
Join us at Verticalize!
300+ Startup Exhibitors, 25+ Industry Verticals, 3 Outdoor Pavilions. 1 Day.
On Treasure Island located 3 miles from San Francisco.
Sign up: http://verticalize.me/2013/register/
The Verticalize 2013 expo hosts each of the 30+ industry verticals in their own vertical-specific area of the expo hall. The main expo hall areas are called “Pavilions” and may be indoors or outdoors.
Vertical areas are organized into “Pavilions” including:
- Consumer Pavilion
- Developer Pavilion
- Enterprise Pavilion
- Industry Pavilion
- Advertising & Media Pavilion
Eric Ries talks about The Lean Startup
Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup methodology and the author of the popular entrepreneurship blog Startup Lessons Learned. He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU.
In 2007, BusinessWeek named Ries one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech and in 2009 he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms. In 2010, he became an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School.
Five Forces vs. Blue Ocean Strategy
Do you innovate and move to uncontested territory or improve in exisiting markets?
Do Nothing: How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader
The curse of a manager is that feeling you have to do more to get your team to be productive. The irony is that sometimes doing less is more. When a leader steps back, it allows the executive team to do more, which empowers them. The most affective leaders delegate almost everything they do to staff, thereby freeing themselves up to see the big picture and plan for the future.
Very few tasks should actually be completed by the leader. Leaders should spend most their time acting as a facilitator and orchestrator. If you take the metaphor of an orchestra, the leader is the conductor and shouldn’t be down in the music pit trying to play the cello and violin.
Angel Investment Forum
This is a panel discussion from the Angel Investment Forum, which covers angel investing, fund raising and institutional investing. What is the return on investment? How much is being invested in the US and Europe? How do angel investors pick companies?
Death By Board Meetings
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Investor Expectations: How to Set, How to Meet (Silicon Valley)
What do investors expect from you and how do you manage those expectations? Developing a successful relationship with an investor, from the first moment of contact through funding and IPO or merger, depends on meeting expectations. What can you do to not only meet the expectations of investors but give yourself breathing room by setting realistic expectations throughout the relationship? Our expert panel will share knowledge on these questions and more:
Sign up for Event: http://fssvmar2013.eventbrite.com/
Speakers: Brian Ascher of Venrock, Leif Langensand of Angels’ Forum, and Blair Silverberg of Draper Fisher Jurvetson share knowledge and ideas.
Startup Candy: How to Be the Startup Everyone Wants to Work For (San Francisco)
The fastest way to kill your startup is with B players. How can you attract–and hold onto–hot talent? Get ideas, real-life stories and advice on increasing your odds of funding, innovation, and success when you add smart, creative people to your team.
Sign up for Event http://fssfmar2013.eventbrite.com/
Speakers: Josh Breinlinger of Sigma West Venture Capital, Max Shapiro of PeopleConnect and John Levy of John Levy Consulting share knowledge and ideas.
Get Plugged In: How to Connect with Investors
Want some tips on establishing a meaningful relationship with investors?
Sign up for Event http://fssvfeb2013.eventbrite.com
Presenters: Steve Goldberg of Venrock, Steve Bernardez of Onset Ventures, andNeal Hansch of Rustic Canyon.
Steve Goldberg of Venrock, Steve Bernardez of Onset Ventures, and Neal Hansch of Rustic Canyon share knowledge and ideas.
Investors want to be found–by startups with great potential. Don’t wait until you need the cash to get relationships in place. Whether you are a serial entrepreneur or a first-time founder, get great tips on how to approach and develop a relationship with multiple investors. Discover:
Seed Funding – Startups Through the Lens of Venture Capital
Jeff Clavier and John Lee talk about how newly formed companies in the seed stage can get funded.
Based in Palo Alto, California, Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. Since 2004, Jeff has invested 110+ consumer internet startups in areas like social media, monetization, search, gaming or B2B/B2C web services. These investments are typically located in Silicon Valley, New-York and Boulder. With over 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, Jeff is able to add relevant perspective and value to his companies as they grow from inception to maturity, and hopefully, success.
Multivariate Testing for Web Shop Owners
Ruben Corbo, Freelance Writer
In this modern age of the web, designing a website doesn’t have to rely on trial and error. Once the initial concept, building, and launching phase is done, there are tools you can use to tweak the design here are there to make sure your web shop is getting those much needed conversions. You may not have to spring for that expensive re-design afterall, if you discover small adjustments to the elements on your pages lead to conversions.
Bill Coleman, Tom Kosnik, and David Hornik Discuss Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Venture Capital
David Hornik, Bill Coleman and Tom Kosnik discuss their experiences working in Silicon Valley and share several lessons they have learned over the years.
David Hornik
For more than a decade, David has worked with technology startups throughout the software sector. In 2000, David joined August Capital to invest broadly in information technology companies, with a focus on enterprise application and infrastructure software, as well as consumer facing software and services.
Reinventing Finance, One Startup at a Time
Sean Park believes finance will change radically in the coming months. He talks about some of the fin-tech startups he believes in, from people reinventing banks to new payment systems. This video is about finance being reinvented by entrepreneurs with bold new ideas about what modern finance services should serve customers.
Freemium Meetup at DELL in Santa Clara
Wed Feb 13 6pm Freemium Meetup at DELL in Santa Clara
Dell is the host sponsor, and Intel the refreshments sponsor
Jason St. Peter of DELL Innovators Credit Fund, Melinda Wittstock of NewsiT, Brian Anderson of DELL, and Amit Dhir of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will present at February’s Freemium SF Bay Area Meetup Groupon Wednesday, 2/13. It’s free – all you have to do is RSVP – it only takes a moment.
Our three main speakers – Amit from PwC, Brian from Dell, and Melinda from NewsiT, will present app monetization from different perspectives.
LLC vs. S Corp — Incorporating Your Startup
Which entity is best for a start-up?
First, let’s define each type of entity and how they can be formed. Then we will discuss which is best.
An LLC (Limited Liability Company) is a hybrid of a partnership and Corporation. Instead of “Shareholders”, owners are referred to as “Members”. In a corporation there are officers that run the company, such as President, Treasurer, Secretary. With an LLC there are no officers, instead they are referred to as “Managers”.
An LLC also has different documentation than a Corporation. Instead of Articles of Incorporation, an LLC has Articles of Organization. Instead of Stock Certificates in a Corporation, the LLC has Membership Certificates.
