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Seed funded startups ripe for shakeout, VCs say — Tech News and Analysis
Individual seed investors have been an increasingly powerful force in Silicon Valley’s startup funding landscape. But in an onstage conversation at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference in San Francisco Tuesday, two venture capital heavyweights said that while the VC industry has been shaken up by the increase of seed backers, the current environment will likely lead to a fall. “There will be a day of reckoning, certainly. There are way too many companies getting seed funding,” said Maha Ibrahim, a partner at Canaan Partners.
If startups are facing a cash crunch, it isn't when they start up. Venture capitalists today are buzzing about a Wall Street Journal story about how Internet startups are facing a "cash crunch." It's mostly based on AngelList data (or not, see update below), plus venture fund-raising statistics from Dow Jones. I don't dispute either of them, but believe they need to be viewed in a broader context. More importantly, I think the real story they tell was overlooked. First, overall venture capital activity is not decreasing.
Where startups really get (cash) crunched - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blog Term Sheet
Interview with One Kings Lane CEO Doug Mack
One Kings Lane didn't exist two years ago. Now it is generating $100 million in 2011 net revenue and it's valued at $440 million. CEO Doug Mack tells us the home decor flash sales site's secret to instant success.Startup Café - Accueil
Monter son projet, lancer sa boite, être son propre patron. Voilà qui fait rêver ! Même si la tâche reste ardue, nous sommes convaincus que le web est une chance sous bien des aspects. Cette année, la Compétition de Startup LeWeb 2011 honorera les 3 meilleures startups qui auront créé des applications et produits de références permettant d’adresser au mieux les besoins conjugués du Social/Local/Mobile (SoLoMo). Cette année, nous souhaitions mettre les semi finalistes de la Compétition de Startup LeWeb’11 sous le feu des projecteurs et vous donner ainsi la possibilité de voter pour votre startup préférée.
Fred Wilson: “Marketing Is For Companies Who Have Sucky Products”
How much should a startup spend on marketing? The answer, according to VC Fred Wilson, is zero. The best marketing for a startup when it is just getting off the ground are kick-ass products.
Venture Hacks - Good advice for startups.
“Every time the other party says ‘I want’ in a negotiation, you should hear the pleasant sound of a weight dropping on your side of the leverage scales.” After weeks of fund-raising, you find a brave investor who says “Yes, I want to invest.” He says he will give you an offer soon.
Startup information
Erick Schonfeld is a technology journalist and the former Editor in Chief of TechCrunch. At TechCrunch, he oversaw the editorial content of the site, helped to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produced TCTV shows, and wrote daily for the blog. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to a thriving... → Learn More Raising money is never fun for entrepreneurs. It takes a lot of time and distracts them from actually building their business.
Stupid Questions VCs Ask
The guide to getting a base in Silicon Valley for your European startup
In what is possibly the best presented and above all realistic exposition I’ve yet seen on what it’s like to extend a European startup into Silicon Valley, Andy McLoughlin , co-founder with Alastair Mitchell , of Huddle , socked it to the crowd at the annual Future of Web Apps London event this week. “Fighting and Thriving in the Valley” is a step-by-step look at what it’s like to take a startup from outside the Valley – in this case Huddle’s roots in London – and create a footprint in the US via San Francisco. It was an excellent speech. But since Carsonified , the people behind FOWA, have gone down the road of locking down video for the preserve of their paid-for online conferences (as is their right), we haven’t seen any online video of the talk.Quand Loic LeMeur vient en France il passe son temps à nous expliquer qu’il faut arrêter de faire des « me too », que c’est pas en copiant les américains qu’on créera des nouvelles success stories. C’est vrai qu’il y en a pas mal en ce moment, mais que doit en penser? Est ce que ça marche?
4 questions sur les « me too »? - Romain David
Metrics for social startups - swombat.com
I found a very good presentation on Hacker News which outlines some key metrics that are important for "social games". If you're building a consumer app these days, adding some social gaming elements can make or break it, so those metrics are very relevant. The presentation breaks down metrics into acquisition , retention and monetisation metrics, and distributes their importance around the lifecycle of a game, which goes through the stages of early , mid-game , and mature development. CAC ( Cost of Customer Acquisition ) (i.e. how much it costs you to generate sticky traffic) is the key metric early on. As you move towards mid-game, virality becomes important.
It is the first day of the year 2012 (despite what WordPress says… I think it is on UTC and I don’t feel like wasting my time going through their shitty UI to change it). I am not a fan of making “New Year’s Resolutions” as I think having them once a year gives people an excuse to wait to make important life goals and does not provide enough accountability on a consistent basis. For me, taking time each month to reflect seems to be a more effective timeframe. Jack Dorsey tweeted today that his resolution was (and always is) to Simplify and that really resonated with me.
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“Jobs and prosperity will come from thousands of small new ventures and networks” | Le Camping
Per Håkansson is helping individuals and companies to deeper digital understanding leading to a more successful imagination of future opportunities. Last week, he gave to the campers a mentor session about strategic product development and Startup urgency. We interviewed him about his Blurb experience and the way he is thinking startup world. From your Blurb experience, how the use of APIs became a strategy ?Incubators
La semaine dernière nous avons considéré la possibilité de monter un YCombinator en France pour maîtriser la création de start-up locales. Mais devrait-on s’inspirer aussi de ce qui se passe à l’étranger quand il s’agit des exits ? Même si nous avons vu récemment deux grands rachats en France, notamment celui d’ Exalead par Dassault Systèmes pour 135 millions d’euros et celui de PriceMinister par Rakuten pour 200 millions d’euros, nous avons certainement moins l’habitude de parler de rachats que nos homologues sur le continent américain – et nous parlons encore moins de valorisations qui atteignent les milliards de dollars ou d’euros – comme celles de Skype ou de McAfee .
Devrait-on encourager les grands groupes français à racheter comme Google & Cie ?
Below, I link to blog posts and other online resources that offer advice for entrepreneurs.
Web's Best Advice for Entrepreneurs
Music Start Ups