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20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground

20 of the Best Resources to Get Your Startup Off the Ground
This series is supported by Grasshopper, the Virtual Phone System designed for entrepreneurs. Learn more about Grasshopper at Grasshopper.com. Let's face it: as an entrepreneur, the odds are stacked against you. Most businesses fail after the first few years, and even if you do manage to survive, that doesn't mean your business will redefine an industry, become profitable, or change the world. Getting off on the right foot is essential to navigating a startup from its infancy to profitability. Luckily, there have been countless entrepreneurs that have gone through the same toils building their own businesses, and most of them are happy to share their experiences to better prepare you for the journey ahead. Guides to Getting Started Before you dive into your startup (or maybe after you're neck-deep), you should get yourself a crash course education in starting a business. 1. Inspirations for the Idea 5. Startup Web Apps 7. Social Media for Startup Success 11. Raising Money 14. 17.

The price of love? Losing two of your closest friends | Science Falling in love comes at the cost of losing close friends, because romantic partners absorb time that would otherwise be invested in platonic relationships, researchers say. A new partner pushes out two close friends on average, leaving lovers with a smaller inner circle of people they can turn to in times of crisis, a study found. The research, led by Robin Dunbar, head of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, showed that men and women were equally likely to lose their closest friends when they started a new relationship. Previous research by Dunbar's group has shown that people typically have five very close relationships – that is, people whom they would turn to if they were in emotional or financial trouble. "If you go into a romantic relationship, it costs you two friends. Dunbar's team used an internet-based questionnaire to quiz 428 women and 112 men about their relationships.

TheFunded.com: The Resource for Entrepreneurs. Crunchbase Similar Sites | 50 Websites Like Crunchbase VentureBeat | Tech. People. Money. Similarity: Popularity: Language-Location: English - United States Similar or Not? Rating: (Be the first to rate!) Seedcamp The european micro Seed Fund for internet technology companies. Entrepreneurship Corner: Stanford University's free podcasts a... The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) Entrepreneurship Corner is a free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning. +1 Rating: (5.0, based on 1 vote) Y Combinator: Startup Library Squidoo : This Lens is Locked -3 Rating: YouNoodle | Helping startups grow through competitions YouNoodle helps startup founders get advice, prizes, and opportunities from our network of startup competitions. Y Combinator Company List Names and descriptions of companies funded by Y Combinator, a seed accelerator.

US Venture Capital Firms For Tech Startups The VC market in the United States is perhaps more accessible for startups now than at any point in history. Due in part to the rise of tech startup incubators and angel investor networks, venture capitalists are spread all across the spectrum, working intently with early-stage companies to provide seed funding and injecting capital into established companies planning to go public. At Walker Sands, we’ve worked with many of the portfolio companies listed here to formally announce rounds of funding or help them tell the stories that inevitably follow. Accel Partners | Palo Alto, CA Early Stage/Mid Stage Focus: Technology Total Capital: $8.8 billion Notable Investments: Facebook, Groupon, Dropbox, Spotify, Rovio, Etsy, Baidu Adams Capital Management | Pittsburgh, PA Early Stage Focus: Applied technology, information technology, networking infrastructure, semiconductors Total Capital: $815 million Notable Investments: DATAllegro, Dell, InSoft, Fotomoto, Landslide CRM

Venture Capital Firms | VC Listings February 19, 2015 15+ min read Welcome to the Entrepreneur VC 100 list of top early-stage venture capital firms -- a platform highlighting the who’s who of the U.S. startup ecosystem. The ranking is based on data from PitchBook, a Seattle-based data and tech provider for the global private equity and venture capital markets. PitchBook’s research process for VC 100 also tracks each firm’s investment activity. VC 100: U.S. venture capital firms ranked based on capital invested in U.S. early-stage deals in 2014 (in USD millions*). #1 Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Park, Calif. 2014 Early-stage investments (in millions, USD): $1,020.23 2014 Early-stage deal count: 50 Industries: Consumer products and services, software Regions: United States Assets under management (in millions, USD): $4,350 2014 Deal highlights: Zenefits Insurance Services. #2 Khosla Ventures, Menlo Park, Calif. 2014 Early-stage investments (in millions, USD): $809 2014 Early-stage deal count: 45 Industry: Software Summon. Delighted.

The Ultimate Startup Intelligence Tools List 2013 It used to be hard to find information about early stage startups. Team members (and their background), funding to date, metrics (not just the vanity metrics shared by management) – all of these nuggets on private companies were behind a paywall of services like VentureSource, available only to those who could fork the annual subscription fees. But things have changed. There’s never been more information available on seed and pre-seed startups and the challenge is not being discovered or noticed. The main challenge startups face is to get used. VC Cafe’s Startup Intelligence Tools List 2013 This is a comprehensive list of tools and companies who provide intelligence data on tech startups from pre-seed (alpha) to mature startups pre-acquisition. (Note: If you plan to copy or share this list, please attribute credit to the source. Corporate (Paid) subscription Services Analytics/ Market Research/ Statistics Directories (paid) Freemium Models/Reports Beta Lists/ Reviews B2B APP Marketplaces

Venture Capital Firms | Compare by size, location, and more. Venture capital funds If you’re looking for very early-stage investment for your start-up you may assume that venture capital funding is beyond your reach. While it’s true that many VC funds prefer more established businesses, there are plenty out there that focus on seed and early-stage investments and are looking for new, innovative companies in which to invest amounts as low as £250,000. Here’s our list of the venture capital funds you need to be aware of if you’re looking for early-stage investment. We’ll be adding to the list constantly so if you’ve spotted something we’re missing, do tell us via the Contact us page. Accel PartnersThis global firm has over 25 years of company-building experience. With Facebook and Getjar on its books, interest lies in budding technology firms. 020 7170 1000 www.accel.com Advent Ventures This London-based fund has invested in, and helped create, world-class technology and life sciences businesses. Balderton CapitalBarry Maloney founded this firm in 2000.

20 leading VC firms investing in tech startups in Europe Looking to raise capital for your startup? Have a good idea but don’t know who to talk to? We’ve compiled an alphabetical guide of notable VC firms so you can scope out their profile, create a list of target investors, and start crafting some strategic intros. Firms were chosen by us based on their focus on early-stage tech startups, commitment to the European market (with offices located in Europe) and past investment activities – check out the full list here… Accel Partners Sectors: Consumer internet, digital media, mobileInvestment size: From $500,000 to $50mNotable investments: Playfish, QlikTechOffices: London Atlas Venture Sectors: Tech and life sciencesInvestment size: From $500,000 to $5mNotable investments: Dailymotion, Seatwave, SeedcampOffices: London Balderton Capital Sectors: eCommerce, consumer internet, softwareInvestment size: From $100,000 to over $20mNotable investments: MySQL, Yoox Group, WoogaOffices: London Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments DN Capital Earlybird e.ventures

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