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Five Startup Tips From Bill Gates

InfoChachkie

free weekly Infochachkie articles! Bill’s advice reflects Microsoft’s hardnosed culture, which encourages internal competition and a ruthless pursuit of the truth. Unless your venture is focused on researching potential scientific breakthroughs, it is likely that your technology can be easily copied and your patents circumvented.

Tips 275
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Getting A Software Patent Is Valuable But Frustrating

Startup Professionals Musings

For a software startup, a patent can be the intellectual property providing the key competitive advantage, or it can be an expensive non-defensible bureaucratic nightmare -- or both. Some argue to simply eliminate software patents, while others put their hopes in U.S. There is no such thing as a world-wide patent.

Patents 53
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Five Reasons for Setting Startup Strategy Early

Startup Professionals Musings

I’ve talked about the solution part several times, so this article will focus on the value of a strategy. Here are five good reasons for setting the strategy early, as summarized by Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy in their new book “ Now, Build a Great Business! They emphasize that before the “What” should come the “Why?”

Startup 92
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The 5 Criteria That Matter When Evaluating A College Entreprenurial Program

InfoChachkie

A version of this article previously appeared in Forbes. As I thought about the characteristics that comprise a great program, I identified five criteria that a prospective entrepreneurial student can use to evaluate the efficacy of a collegiate entrepreneur curriculum. Is there a venture competition with cash prizes?

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Intellectual Property – Worthless To A Startup, Priceless To A Big Dumb Company

InfoChachkie

free weekly Infochachkie articles! Patents held by startups generally have a limited ability to reduce competition. The average time required to obtain a patent is 36-to-40 months, during which there is no guarantee your adVenture will ultimately receive patent protection. Not All Patent Types Are Created Equal.

IP 256
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Tilofy: Making Sense Of The World Around You Using Location Data

socalTECH

Ali Khoshgozaran: Before we started the company, me and my partner had participated in the USC Viterbi startup competition. About 100 teams participated in that competition, and 10 teams were selected to be part of USC''s Viterbi Startup Garage program. How did Tilofy come about? What drove your interest in this area?

USC 236
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How to Gauge Business Potential for Your Invention

Startup Professionals Musings

" A Techdirt article argues that if you look at the true history of major breakthroughs, you might conclude that the invention was the easy part – the hard part was the business side. Can you sell it for five times the cost? Is it competitive to the current alternatives? Business innovation is turning technology into money."

Patents 95