Startups 101: The Complete Mint Presentation. The Essential Startup Reader: 10 Lessons in Entrepreneurship – G. As a blogger, I spend most of my time writing. But it’s time spent reading that’s most satisfying. Here’s a short (and by no means a complete) list of 10 articles that encapsulate the art of the startup. Most were published during 2009, and I found them educational and full of practical tips that we’ve applied to our business. They’ve also helped me think differently about startups and entrepreneurship. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. 1. “What Startups Are Really Like” by Paul Graham: This has to be the single best essay I read during 2009. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10: “Startup Killer: The Cost of Customer Acquisition” by David Skok: A definitive essay on startup business models, the perils of overoptimism, and the importance of cost of customer acquisitions.
Bonus links: * Self-serving: “What Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From Derek Jeter” and “What Makes DJ Tick.” * Every startup guy should listen to Jobs’ speech before embarking on their journey. Blog.pmarca.com: Angels vs. Venture Capitalists. [This blog post is by Ben Horowitz, the Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz.] At our new venture fund, we’ve been spending time looking into new ways that will make the lives of entrepreneurs seeking funding easier. To that end, we’ve linked up with Ted Wang who has been working on an open source legal project called the Series Seed documents. We’re impressed with his work and are going to use these standard funding documents as part of our seed stage investments wherever appropriate. We have to give a big shout out to Ted: he nailed this. In a nutshell, entrepreneurs and the businesses they are starting have evolved. Let us know what you think: check out the Series Seed documents, and share your thoughts. Here’s more background on our thinking behind how entrepreneurship has changed, creating the need for these simplified funding documents.
Angels vs. Why do angel investors exist? Based on these challenges, startups developed specific requirements for venture capital partners: Faut-il faire une étude de marché pour cré. Par Guilhem Bertholet (chroniqueur exclusif) - Incubateur HEC Si chaque création d’entreprise et chaque entrepreneur est unique, on retrouve quand même chez quasiment tout le monde les mêmes interrogations au moment de se lancer dans le grand bain. Rédaction d’un business-plan, réalisation des prévisions financières, choix des statuts, répartition du capital… autant de sujets propices à s’arracher quelques cheveux… L’étude de marché est un autre de ces moments pouvant donner le vertige, non seulement car il est difficile pour l’entrepreneur en herbe de savoir par quel bout la commencer, mais aussi car techniquement la tâche semble énorme. Dans les deux cas, on fait fausse route, et l’entrepreneur ne fait que mettre une distance dangereuse entre lui et la réalité de son marché. Les chiffres obtenus ne sont, de toute manière, jamais vrais, et le pire risque est que le créateur commence à les croire… Étudier un marché, c’est donc bien chercher à le comprendre, constamment, pour s’y adapter.
Exclusive: French tech firms which raised over €1 million in 200. [France] As my first post on Techcrunch Europe I thought it could be interesting to give you some insights on the French market, and especially the situation regarding fund raising. So here is a list of (almost all) French companies in the web industry that have raised more than €1 million in 2009. Divided into three categories (Web, Mobile & E-Commerce), they are ranked by decreasing amount, and then by date. Despite all my research, I cannot guarantee that this list is 100% exhaustive, but I am pretty confident that this list covers 95% of transactions made in 2009. Don’t look for a source for each line, they were too numerous. But the main ones were company or investor websites, Journal du net or Neteco and blogs etc – and of course previous articles published on TechCrunch ;-) Web Easyvoyage : 31,6 million euros in Oct. 09. Konbini : 3 million euros in July 09.
Wedia : 2,6 million euros in June 09. Scan & Target : 1 million euros in April 09. E-Commerce.