How to Convince Investors. August 2013 When people hurt themselves lifting heavy things, it's usually because they try to lift with their back.
The right way to lift heavy things is to let your legs do the work. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake when trying to convince investors. They try to convince with their pitch. Most would be better off if they let their startup do the work—if they started by understanding why their startup is worth investing in, then simply explained this well to investors. Investors are looking for startups that will be very successful. (There are a handful of angels who'd be interested in a company with a high probability of being moderately successful.
How do you seem like you'll be one of the big successes? Formidable The most important ingredient is formidable founders. They're not necessarily trying to mislead you. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Demands Telecommuters Report To The Office. Marissa Mayer, the relatively new CEO of Yahoo, has decided she wants her employees showing up to the offices beginning in June, not just telecommuting from home all the time, according to All Things D’s Kara Swisher.
From an internal memo: “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices. Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.” Swisher also reports, perhaps unsurprisingly, “strong” anger among those affected by the policy, many of whom joined the company in part because of the flexibility that Yahoo previously provided.
All in all, it appears working from home is a bit of mixed bag for employee and employer alike. Also on HuffPost: (5) My NextBig Idea. Www.mynextbigidea.com. Blowing up Startups Since 2010. Kick-off for Start-ups. Kicklabs: San Francisco's home to the best and brightest startups in the business. Incubators and Accelerators. Do They Work? Over half of all startups are dead in the water within 2 to 5 years.
This certainly may help explain the exponentially popular appeal of business incubators and accelerators, which promise to boost the chances of individual startups to raise capital, get to a positive revenue stream and provide community benefits like higher regional employment. There were about 12 incubators in 1980 and today they number in the thousands in the USA alone. Top Startup Incubators And Accelerators: Y Combinator Tops With $7.8 Billion In Value. 7 Lessons from TechStars’ David Cohen on Building a Startup Culture. Bruce V.
Bigelow2/3/12 When it comes to tech startups—especially in Internet software and app development—San Diego has been adrift in the horse latitudes. That’s the term Spanish mariners had for the waters where the trade winds died out for days and even weeks at a time. Becalmed sailors desperate to gain some headway would heave their horses overboard to reach the New World. It hasn’t reached that point yet in San Diego, but you would never know that software was once a thriving entrepreneurial community here. Still, there are signs of a freshening breeze. David Cohen last week at UC San Diego Scores of new seed-stage startups have begun to emerge throughout the region, including a dozen that just moved into the new EvoNexus incubator in downtown San Diego. Last week, more than 200 people turned out to hear David Cohen talk at U.C. Are boutique startup accelerators the real tech bubble? - TNW Insider. It’s not at all uncommon that when something is successful, other companies attempt to mirror that success by following some of the same methods.
From the first cars to the recent deluge of daily deals sites, the behavior is far from surprising. It stands to reason then that we’d start seeing a number of startup incubators and accelerators popping up across the world, given the success of some of the bigger names within this vein. While the track records of accelerators such as Y Combinator and TechStars are subject to your definition of success, the fact that these companies have spawned some of the names that are now huge within the technology industry will continue to lead more people down a similar path. But there are inherent dangers to follow-on behavior. Because of that fact, it’s time to look at what’s going on right now with accelerators across the world, for better or for worse.
Venture Incubators and Accelerators. Business, or venture incubators and accelerators have been around for quite a time, but now business accelerators are spreading across the US, as early stage investors, entrepreneurs, and policymakers try to speed how long it takes to create new ventures.
Unlike many business assistance programs, business incubators do not serve any and all companies. Entrepreneurs who wish to enter a business incubation program must apply for admission. They also tend to be physical places where you can start your business under a collective roof. Other differences are that while one of the benefits of either business assistance programs or incubators is the ability of participants to network, the accelerator does as well, but also actively supports entrepreneurs in their search for finance and introduces funders to the participants. Choose a Startup Business Incubator. Everyone would love their startup to be the next Pinterest or Instagram — a business that rockets to the top quickly.
But getting a startup off the ground depends on many factors. Among them, you need a talented team, a great product or service, strong marketing and sales, a business model that’s feasible — and some money and even business partnerships to make it all work.
Tecshtars.