The Lean Stack – Part 2. 18 Flares07506--×18 Flares x Access to videos, talks, and worksheetsInvitation to private Google Plus CommunityJoin in on live Q&A webinars and fireside chats. The Lean Stack – Part 1. Spark59 Manifesto. Why Lean Canvas? 456 Flares242066045121--×456 Flares x Access to videos, talks, and worksheetsInvitation to private Google Plus CommunityJoin in on live Q&A webinars and fireside chats. Habits Are The New Viral: Why Startups Must Be Behavior Experts. Editor’s Note: This guest post is written by Nir Eyal, a founder of two startups and an advisor to several Bay Area incubators.
Nir blogs about technology and behavior design at nirandfar.com. Face it; you’re hooked. It’s your uncontrollable urge to check for email notifications on your phone. It’s your compulsion to visit Facebook or Twitter for just a few minutes, but somehow find yourself still scrolling after an hour. It’s the fact that if I recommended a book to purchase, your mind would flash “Amazon” like a gaudy neon sign. If habits are defined as repeated and automatic behaviors, then technology has wired your brain so you behave exactly the way it wants you to. In an online world of ever-increasing distractions, habits matter. Turning Habits Into Cash Ever since the creation of the first online media companies at the dawn of Web 1.0, businesses have made money from their users’ behaviors.
Viral Is Nice, But Habits Are Required The Curated Web Will Run On Habits Image Credit My Lot. Eric Stromberg — How to Make an Impact During the First Month of Your Startup Job. A lot has been written on the process of joining a startup, and I’ve written a bit on the topic. Less is written about what to do once you join. Truth is, that’s when the fun starts, and it’s important to optimize your experience from day one. There are a few things I wish someone had told me before I started, so hopefully the tips below will help you get up the learning curve faster during the initial phase of your startup job: 1. 2. New employee: "Hey, have you guys ever thought about adding rainbows to the confirmation page?
Generally the next part of this conversation involves the manager turning it back on the employee: Manager: "That’s an interesting idea. Most startups give their employees a lot of power to trust their instincts and quickly take action to test something out, so take advantage of this luxury from the beginning. 3. 4. 5. "The main unit of progress at a startup is learning. " Take advantage of that progress. 6. What It’s Like To Go Through Y Combinator (The Wired Version) Quick Practical, Tactical Tips for Presentations. In the past I’ve given some tips for handling meetings effectively, covering topics like: - How not to let your meeting go down a rat hole; - Dealing with the elephant in the room; - Dealing with skeletons in your closet; - How to make meetings discussions, not “pitches” - A tale of two pitches (I eventually invested in the first company that pitched) Today’s post is a subtle one about positioning yourself in a presentation.
This might be a VC meeting but also might just be a sales or biz dev meeting. It’s any meeting where you are in a small room and are being called on to present on some form of overhead slides 1. Sit closest to the projection screen – Many times a week I have entrepreneurs who do presentations for me and often I’m with some or all of my colleagues. From witnessing all of these presentations I can tell you that there is a right place and a wrong place to sit. 2.
I’ve lately been attending meetings with our shareholders (called LPs or limited partners). 3. 4. 5. 6. Lessons Learned. Airbnb. When you walk into our conference room at Union Square Ventures, you see the box of cereal on the right on our conference room credenza next to a wifi router and a jar of Jolly Ranchers. It is there because we are big Obama fans? Nope. The cereal box is a reminder to back great entrepreneurs whenever they walk into our office regardless of what they pitch us on (as long as its in our investment universe). Let me explain. Tell us about something you saw that was intensely interesting but was not something you'd invest in. So here's the story of how we missed Airbnb, one of the best startups to come our way in the past few years. The Airbnb founders came out of the winter 2009 Y Combinator class. We made 500 of each (Obama O's and Cap'n McCains).
I asked them if they'd leave a box of the cereal for us and it has been sitting in our conference room ever since. At that time, Airbnb was a marketplace for air mattresses on the floors of people's apartments. A Few Key People Really Can Make a Huge Difference. Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Mark Suster (@msuster), a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at GRP Partners. Read more about Suster at Bothsidesofthetable I’m in Seattle this week. People keep asking me if I’ve “seen anything interesting.” Of course I have. I’m an entrepreneur at heart so I’m always inspired when I hear stories about innovation. I really liked BigDoor, MediaPiston, OpsCode, BuddyTV, SEOMoz and much more.
But I’m not here trolling for deals. I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. The ingredients are all here. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 awards dinner on Thursday night I started to reflect on what it would take to “change the trajectory” for Seattle or for any regional market, really. And I think about the “Seattle issue” as a metaphor for startups and business in general. “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. Him: “I know, I know. Me: “Bullshit. My recipe for Seattle or your community: 1. The flip side. Entrepreneurship Interview and Business Case Study.
Introduction In the following experiment, you will solve two decision problems. These problems arise in the context of building a new company for an imaginary product. A detailed description of the product follows this introduction. Although the product is imaginary, it is technically feasible and financially viable. The data for the problems have been obtained through realistic market research—the kind of market research used in developing a real world business plan.
So far, the entrepreneurs who participated in this study found the project both interesting and feasible. Before you start on the product description and the problems, I do need one act of creative imagination on your part. Description of the product: You have created a computer game of entrepreneurship. The game part of the product consists of a simulated environment for starting and running a company. You have taken all possible precautions regarding intellectual property. Problem 1: Identifying the market 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures - Creating Enchantment. Les start-up américaines traquent les petits génies - Les Echos.fr. The power of a great smile and good handshake. Business relationships are a lot like personal relationships: You’ll get a lot more done if the other party likes you. There is, of course, no way to train to be likeable, but entrepreneur and author Guy Kawaski notes that a person’s ‘likability’ is a key ingredient in business deals, in this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture given at Stanford University.
Kawaskai talks about ways to be more enchanting – including his mathematical formula for the perfect handshake. (Can’t see the video? VentureBeat and marketing expert Dan Freeman are working on a Marketing Automation buyers report. The 15 Greatest Tech Pivots Ever. Entrepreneurship Interview and Business Case Study. Hey, Startups, Want To Win? Then Hire These Kinds Of People...