March, 2011

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Whom Should You Hire at a Startup? (Attitude Over Aptitude)

Both Sides of the Table

This post originally ran on TechCrunch. Startups. We know the mantra: Team matters. Is this philosophy exaggerated? Overrated? Cliché? No. Team is the only thing that matters. Whatever you’re working on now, the half-life of innovation is so rapid now that your product will soon be out-of-date. Your existence is irrelevant unless you continue rapid innovation.

Startup 399
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Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions

SoCal CTO

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 264
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Pawn Stars Teaches Entrepreneurs How To Not Negotiate - Real Lessons From Reality TV

InfoChachkie

I was recently working at my kitchen table while my adolescent son was watching the History Channel’s reality TV show Pawn Stars. The show caught my attention, as a litany of extremely unsophisticated individuals sold their family heirlooms and other.

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ReachLocal To Help Power Facebook Deal Test

socalTECH

Woodland Hills-based ReachLocal , the provider of Internet advertising services to small and medium sized businesses, said Wednesday afternoon that it will participate in Facebook's Deals test in San Diego. Facebook said this week that it would be testing out a Groupon-style deals in San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, and Austin this week. ReachLocal said it will use its existing presence in San Diego to source deals from local businesses for Facebook.

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Can You Ask for Office Rent Relief? How to Manage Your Lease During COVID-19

Office leases are one of companies’ largest expenses, and if your whole team is working from home with no clear end in sight, you may be wondering what to do about your lease.

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Find your rock in Ensenada.

Berkonomics

Every entrepreneur has that moment of truth – the one that marks the decision to take the path to entrepreneurship or the path to job security with a larger employer. And down the road a bit, most of us face another when deciding whether or not to go for growth, requiring new investment and increased risks. My moment of self-confrontation came many years ago when deciding whether to leave behind the relative comfort of a good income from my one person operation or hire my first employee to allo

Invest 220
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LA Leads In Entrepreneurs, Says Report

Tech Coast Venture Network

'A new study released by the Kauffman Foundation this week shows that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has the highest number of entrepreneurs per 100,000 people, of the top fifteen largest MSAs. According to the study of entrepreneurial activity in the United States, LA-Long Beach-Santa Ana had 620 entrepreneurs for every 100,000 people, beating out such areas as New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (360 per 100,000), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (5

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Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions

SoCal CTO

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 259
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Worst Corporate T-shirt Designs Ever - How To Offend People With Your Startup’s SWAG

InfoChachkie

Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start, addresses a number of valuable startup issues, including fundraising, partnering, branding and beyond. In addition to these foundational startup issues, Guy also briefly discusses how to properly design a corporate T-shirt. When I.

Design 268
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Amazon Threatens To Cut California Affiliates

socalTECH

E-commerce giant Amazon.com has told the California Board of Equalization that it would cut ties to its California affiliates, if any of four bills looking to force Internet retailers to collect sales tax are passed. According to Amazon it would be "compelled to end its advertising relationships" with over 10,000 California-based participants in Amazon Associates, its affiliate program, if any of those new tax collection bills are passed.

Commerce 258
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Never use short term borrowing to cover long term debt.

Berkonomics

This insight is one that is so important to the continued health of a growing company that it cannot be overstated. First, let’s be sure we know what is short in term and what is long in term. Long term debt is taken on for the acquisition of fixed assets such as equipment, cars, facilities and acquisitions of companies or their assets. Short term debt is often composed of accounts payable to the trade or employees for expenses, payroll liabilities, accrued but unpaid vacations, customer dep

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The Best Entrepreneurs Have Some Common Traits

Startup Professionals Musings

At some point in their life, hopefully everyone strives to be the best in their chosen profession. Most people think that being the best requires more intelligence, more training, and more experience. In reality, in business or even in sports, the evidence is conclusive that it is as much about how you think, as what you do. I saw this illustrated well recently in a sports excellence book called “ Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else ”, by Jon Gordon.

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The Magic Midnight Mind Meld

Both Sides of the Table

The most common questions I’ve gotten over the past week have been a variant of: Was SXSW worth it? Was it just one big party? Should I go next year? Why do your eyes still look so bloodshot? (And I’ve learned a new term, I arrived home with SxSARS). As you may know I outlined my rules for maximum impact at events / conferences before SXSW began.

Ideas 294
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The Challenges (& Opportunities) of Starting a Tech Company in LA

Jason Nazar

I recently hosted a panel at the Twiistup Conference about LA tech companies. I asked the panelists ( David Travers , Brian Norgard , Fouad ElNaggar , & Demian Sellfors ) about the specific challenges that we face down here in Los Angeles as opposed to Silicon Valley. I have some pretty specific thoughts on the differences between companies in the two cities, as I wrote about in my previous post A Tale of Two Tech Cities.

Company 111
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Lunch With Mark Suster - Witnessing A Sense Of Purpose

InfoChachkie

I had lunch earlier yesterday with Mark Suster, General Partner at GRP Partners, blogger extraordinaire and overall cool dude. I am writing this entry at 4:00 AM. Mark’s kindness and insights moved me to roll out of bed, fire up.

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Interview with Edo Cohen, Seevolution

socalTECH

Recently, we ran into Edo Cohen , CEO of Los Angeles-based Seevolution (www.seevolution.com), a firm developing web site heat map tracking software. We talked with Edo about what his firm is up to. What is Seevolution all about? Edo Cohen: Seevolution is a real time analytics and heat map company for web sites and web applications. It will show you in real time, live, what people are clicking on, what people are looking at, and what they are paying attention to, and how far down a web site peopl

Web 255
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Manage your mantra.

Berkonomics

I am constantly surprised when speaking with entrepreneurs and CEO’s who act puzzled and a bit flustered when I ask, “So what is your mantra? Tell me about your company in ten words or less.” Almost every one begins a long explanation of their business that is nearly impossible to follow, let alone recall a few moments later. And each lost an opportunity to tell their story in a memorable way that has power and boosts their enterprise value in the minds of the listener.

Coach 174
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Eight Entrepreneur Attributes You Can’t Fake

Startup Professionals Musings

Business success begins in the mind of the startup founder and his team. A winning startup is a team of entrepreneurs who build and run the business as an extension of who they are, rather than some extrapolation of the Google or Facebook model. It’s not so easy to fake the important attributes when the going gets rough. So before you risk it all by jumping into a startup, do a reality check on your own mind to see if you can find a majority of the following attributes, summarized from the book

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I’m sticking with Disqus. Here’s Why

Both Sides of the Table

I’ve written before about my love for Disqus. I’m not an investor – I just love the product. So now Facebook has a new commenting system. They’ve been around for a while and when they first announced this initiative I knew the day would come when people would start saying, “should I replace Disqus?&# I started telling people privately that I thought Google should buy Disqus for the same reasons Facebook wants to own commenting in the first place.

Blogging 287
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TZ Startup Hot Seat | Brian Mullins & Team Daqri

Tech Zulu Event

This weeks TZ Startup Hot Seat features the team at Daqri. Brian Mullins and team agreed to answer our questions and tell us why Daqri will change the Augmented Reality space. Visit TechZulu for full story.

Startup 92
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Balance Minimal Product Viability With Maximum Utility: Maximize Your Startup’s Value Proposition – MVP²

InfoChachkie

With a few exceptions at the end of their career, the Beatles did not include songs that had previously been released as a single on their UK albums. According to George Martin, The Beatles’ Producer, “At the time, I didn’t want to shortchange the public. Assuming the fans had bought the single, I figured they wouldn’t want to hear it again on the album.”.

Product 232
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Girls Scouts Go High Tech with iPhone Cookie Sale App

socalTECH

Are the days of Girls Scouts knocking at your door selling cookies on their way out? Proving that iPhone mobile applications are now fully mainstream, the Girls Scouts of the USA, the organization which oversees Girls Scouts in the US, said today that it has released the Official Girl Scouts of the USA Cookie Finder for the iPhone or iPod touch. The group said that the free app allows users to find their way to the nearest cookie sale nearby, with dates of the start and end of local cookie sales

High Tech 251
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Focus on the Right Competitors

Frank Addante

I did a presentation yesterday at the Digital Publishing Summit in Deer Valley, Utah. Instead of doing a pitch about the Rubicon Project, I chose to take the opportunity to lead a discussion for the industry about focusing on the right competitor. I think it came as a bit of a shock to the room; but I felt like we really needed to elevate the conversation.

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Guess How Long Overnight Success Really Takes

Startup Professionals Musings

Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.

Yahoo 118
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One Man’s Signal is Another Man’s Noise

Both Sides of the Table

After the weekend kerfuffle over AngelList I was reading Brad Feld’s post on Signal vs. Noise. It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. that it’s sometimes hard to know when to pay attention and when to keep your head down. Mostly during the day I’m in meetings or doing work.

Email 287
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TZ Startup Hot Seat | You Rock Guitar

Tech Zulu Event

Spotlight: LA Tech was a huge success as Efren posted last week. For those that missed it, there is a full rebroadcast on Techzulu.com. Each startup did a great job pitching their dreams an vision, but we want to dig a little deeper. This segment we will call the TZ Startup Hot Seat and first to get grilled is Cliff Elion with You Rock Guitar. Visit TechZulu for full story.

Startup 85
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Interview: Ryan Rifkin of Burstly

InfoChachkie

Messenger: Ryan Rifkin, Co-Founder & VP of Operations, Burstly, Co-Founder & Sr. Director of Partnerships at TagWorld/Flux (sold to Viacom) Value Prop Twitter Style: Burstly is: “A monetization platform for iOS and Android app developers” If you haven’t already subscribed.

Platform 225
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LA Leads In Entrepreneurs, Says Report

socalTECH

A new study released by the Kauffman Foundation this week shows that the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has the highest number of entrepreneurs per 100,000 people, of the top fifteen largest MSAs. According to the study of entrepreneurial activity in the United States, LA-Long Beach-Santa Ana had 620 entrepreneurs for every 100,000 people, beating out such areas as New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (360 per 100,000), San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont (550

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VIDEO: The Most Important Things in Business

Jason Nazar

DocStoc – Entrepreneur (3/23/11) from OC Creative Media on Vimeo. Here was a recent video interview I did for Entrepreneur Magazine. Its a short clip talking about Docstoc and my philosophy on how to break out of the pack by focusing on the “most important items&#. Its a common mantra I preach to our team. There is an incredibly small number of items we work on that actually drive the great deal of our progress, we all know this as the Pareto Principle or the 80-20 Rule.

Writing 63
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How to Recognize Dysfunctional Startup Leadership

Startup Professionals Musings

Founders almost always cite lack of money as the reason for failure, but if you look deeper, I believe the reason is more often about dysfunctional people and leadership. Sometimes it comes right back to the founder, in terms of a malaise often called “Founder’s Syndrome.” A few years ago I was intimately involved with a promising startup that taught me about this issue.

Startup 106
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Why Startups Need to Blog (and what to talk about …)

Both Sides of the Table

This post originally ran on TechCrunch. Blogs. We all read them to get a sense of what is going on in the world, peeling back layers of the old world in which media was too scripted. By definition, you read blogs. But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? Absofuckinglutely. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. 1.

Blogging 373
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TechZulu Is Hiring Contributors/Reporters! Here’s How to Apply

Tech Zulu Event

Interested in joining TechZulu's growing editorial team? Read on to learn more about openings and how to apply. Visit TechZulu for full story.

Report 91
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Interview: Dan Engel of SaaSy

InfoChachkie

Messenger: Dan Engel, Co-Founder and CEO, SaaSy, Co-Founder and CEO, FastSpring, former Marketing Manager at Google, VP of Market Development at Picasa Value Prop Twitter Style: SaaSy is: “the 1st all-in-one payment & subscription management service designed for SaaS, Web.

SaaS 223
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Cornerstone OnDemand Sets IPO Offering Range

socalTECH

Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand , which develops online learning and talent management software, said Wednesday morning that it expects its IPO to price between $9.00 and $11.00 per share. The firm is looking to list on the NASDAQ Global Market as CSOD. Cornerstone OnDemand is selling 10.5 million shares of its stock, raising around $105M in the offering.

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FastCall411 Gets Funding

socalTECH

Hollywood-based FastCall411 , the developer of pay-per-call technology headed by Richard Rosen, has scored funding from Dave McClure's 500 Startups fund. FastCall411 was one of seven recipients of funding from the Twilio Startup Fund, a fund which looks to invest $250,000 in startups that use Twilio's telephony API. FastCall41 provides lead generation for local search publishers using Twilio.

Funding 242
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J.R. Johnson On Critical Mass and Communities

socalTECH

Today, Lunch.com (www.lunch.com), the startup headed by J.R. Johnson, announced a move to allow other sites to host and show content via a new Lunch Network effort. We caught up with J.R. Johnson, founder and CEO of Lunch to better understand the move and what it means, as well as what the firm has learned. J.R.'s last firms were VirtualTourist.com and OneTime.com, which he sold to Expedia.

Content 242
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Anthony Batt Heads To Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst

socalTECH

Anthony Batt , the founder and Chief Creative Officer of BUZZmedia , has joined Katalyst , the digital media studio founded by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. Katalyst said that Batt will lead the Katalyst team as President, and will help create content, recruit talent, and serve its brand clients. Katalyst was founded in 2000 by Goldberg and Kutcher, and includes clients such as Gatorage, Levi's Nikon, and Intel.

Buzznet 240