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How to make your startup succeed where others have failed. Gene Yoon has been a founder, startup executive, venture capitalist and lawyer over the last decade in Silicon Valley. His current startup, Bynamite, is attempting an idea that many have failed at before. He submitted this story to VentureBeat. Thirty seconds into my pitch for a system that lets users control the ads they see, I can tell that my audience gets it. The problem is clearly understood, the solution is simple, the use cases are well-defined, the market size is compelling. There’s only one hitch: History says this effort won’t succeed. Over many years, there have been many smart entrepreneurs who have made the same pitch, and all of them have failed.

It’s a good question, and it has more wrong answers than right answers. Before you’re ready to address the Question, you have to consider its corollary: “Why do people keep trying this idea?” Possible answers here involve irredeemable stupidity, unforgivable ignorance, and incurable obstinacy. Timing. Corporate Charlatans: Seven Signs Your CEO Could Be Lying. For stockholders, earnings conference calls offer a rare opportunity to hear about their companies straight from the senior executives. But while corporate leaders tend to paint glowing pictures of their companies' prospects, these optimistic futures sometimes turn out to be little more than wishful thinking and hot air. Faced with the possibility of C-suite dissembling, some investors have wondered how to determine the honesty of their executives -- and the safety of their investments. Analysts at Stanford University may have discovered a technique for gleaning useful information out of the dross of misleading earnings conference calls.

David Larcker and Anastasia Zakolyukina, two researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, reviewed executive statements from more than 29,000 conference call transcripts. Here are seven signs that could indicate a corporate executive (or your boss, for that matter) is being less than totally honest. A Dirty Mouth Equals a Dirty Bottom Line? 20 rules of thumb for building a great startup culture.

(Editor’s note: Scott Weiss is the former co-founder and CEO of IronPort Systems. He submitted this column to VentureBeat.) Developing a good, healthy culture is extremely important at a startup. Culture reflects the essence of a startup’s operation because it directly affects the success of a company’s hiring practices and overall strategy. It is, at its core, essentially a set of shared norms and a key source of strength and guidance when a startup goes through those virtually inevitable trying times.Some fundamental practices are obvious “must-dos” in building a strong culture.

You must, for example, work to engender trust. While these points create the core foundation for a good culture, it’s just the beginning. Personally interview every new employee until the startup has 50 employees. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with many successful executives and have found these tips to be very effective. Are you making or losing money with marketing automation? Twitter, Digg investor: Be a Thunder Lizard, don’t sell to Google.

Mike Maples Jr., an early backer of popular web startups like Twitter and Digg, ended today’s Future of Funding event in San Mateo (co-sponsored by VentureBeat) with a passionate keynote urging attendees to either found or fund “Thunder Lizard” companies. Those are the companies that defy conventional venture wisdom, which says you either make small bets for a small payoff, or big investments for a big payoff, Maples said.

Like Godzilla, Thunder Lizards start out small, but thanks to the power of technology, they’re soon crushing cars — or incumbent competitors. “You could raise a tiny amount of money and be hatched by atomic eggs,” Maples said. “In fact, I would argue that the vast majority of truly great companies have done it that way.” On the surface, it might seem like Maples’ ideas could be boiled down to “think big,” but Maples tied that vision to a specific investment strategy. Visionary entrepreneurHuge potential marketFundamental advantageLow capital requirements. The surprising truth about what motivates u.

Five of the Best Product and Industrial Design Talks on TED | we. As TED tells us ‘Ideas are worth spreading’, TED is a annual conference which inspires huge numbers of people with great talks and speakers every year since 1984. The quality of each speaker is so high that you find yourself inspired each and every time, no speaker brings up a talk which isn’t relevant, their presentations are top class and will open up new areas of your mind for thought.

I hope to show to you 5 of the best talks which discuss issues related to the disciplines of Product (& Industrial) design, design philosophy and future design thinking. Some of the speakers you will know and be familiar with, but most importantly I hope all will inspire and get you thinking in new and exciting ways. 1. Leading designer and self confessed scientist Ross Lovegrove discusses his philosophy of fat-free design and shows us an insight into several his extraordinary design thinking. 2. 3. 4. Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. 5. EC Book Review: “Made to Stick,” by Chip and Dan Heath | Venture. (Editor’s note: Javier Rojas is a managing director leading U.S. investment activities for Kennet Partners. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.) What’s holding back the spread of your ideas?

The problem may be that you know too much. For entrepreneurs, the ability to inspire, motivate and evangelize is critical. It’s a 24/7 job. In “Made to Stick,” the Heath brothers have developed a helpful formula to rate how likely your message is to be remembered – and how effective its call to action is. Better still, they show you how to improve both. It’s a model that was developed by analyzing proven and effective messages – from Aesop’s fables to education lesson plans and advertising messages – and explains why the brain needs particular elements to hold on to an idea. Both authors seem imminently qualified to comment: Chip is a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Business School, and has spent 10 years researching and teaching the issue.

Big ideas from “Made to Stick”: TED: Ideas worth spreading.