Pinboard: bookmarks for asterisk2a tagged 'start-ups'

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[ growing for growth sake! vs growing in a world/area that is not conducive to grow ] When Twitter went public in 2013, its stock soared and its value jumped to $25 billion. Its founders and early investors got rich. But since then, the company has been considered a failure, despite the fact that it boasts 320 million active users, because it's not growing fast enough. Douglas Rushkoff, author of "Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity," talks to Steve Paikin about why he sees the push for more growth as dangerous. // true capitalists (shareholder, crony, greedy) w/o self-regulation or governance extract all the value there is to extract and then leave, dispersing it to the few who already have [...] WE MUST REWRITE THE RULES OF THE GROWTH GAME ITSELF! [...] you want to optimise the economy based on velocity of money (circulation of money), not share price and value extraction [...]

Venture Capital Unicorn shareholder capitalism Greed shareholder value profit maximisation profit maximization Wall Street Wall Street activists Yahoo! Google Inc. Alphabet Inc. Microsoft IBM Intel Oracle capitalism exploitation Super Rich short-termism short-term thinking 1% plutocracy oligarchy M&A economic growth growth round Mutual Fund macroeconomic policy secular stagnation Private Equity MBO Pivot IPO dividends prosperity Start-Ups Start-up s&p500 pension scheme pension finite resources resource depletion economic history creative destruction share buyback Apple capitalism in crisis capitalist Uber monopoly oligopol oligopoly antitrust corruption western world squeezed middle class emerging middle class BRIC business cycle company book cost center overhead costcutting operating performance operating margin globalisation globalization Universal Basic Income artificial intelligence AI augmented intelligence Robotics automation structural unemployment materialism consumerism status anxiety disenfranchise disenfranchised youth unemployment post-capitalism Mobile Banlieue deprivation poverty trap poverty meritocracy meritocratic Gini value coefficie
april 2016 by asterisk2a

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned From Chris Sacca About Venture Capital | 25iq

“Good investors are in the service business.” “There are angels who have 75 companies and don’t call any of them ever.” [...] “Any VC will tell you where they really make their money is on following on, it’s on doubling down into the winners. The things that are growing geometrically in terms of users, revenue that kind of stuff.” [...] “I do try to focus a lot on the entrepreneur as a person, I think that has fallen out of the equation recently…. look for driven people.” [ execution, passion, vision, mission, alignment ] [...] “Companies don’t succeed, when there’s a lot of chiefs and no Indians.” [...] “Create value before you ask for value back.” [...] “It’s people with these broader life experiences who have balanced relationships who come up with the cool shit.”

Venture Capital a16z First Round Capital s23p Chamath Palihapitiya Marc Andreessen Ben Horowitz 500 Start-ups ycombinator Start-Up advice Start-Up lesson Networking
august 2015 by asterisk2a

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Naval Ravikant to VCs: “You can lie to your LPs, but don’t lie to yourselves” | PandoDaily

“There was so much innovation being thrown around—moveable carry, geographic portfolio, unbundling and more. Many were coming up to me later saying the ideas were flying at them too fast. That’s exactly what’s happening in the market.” Even if you don’t know what those terms mean, the important takeaway is that even the stodgiest VCs are going to have to start acting more like the entrepreneurs they serve because the market is only getting more competitive with the ways to fund becoming far more varied and “hackable.” [and add Corporate Accelerators, Incubators and Venture Funds] [...] restrictions LPs put on funds: things like how much you can invest, what percentage of a fund you can invest in follow on rounds of existing companies, what sector you invest in, whether you can invest personally if the fund invests as a group, etc.

Venture Capital angel-list Seed Round Angel Investor SPV Private Equity IPO growth Sand Hill Road Silicon Valley 500 Start-ups Rocket Internet ycombinator Accelerator TechStars Seed Camp Incubator niche vertical Secondary Market a16z s23p hunt for yield distortion Signal vs. Noise wantrepreneur economics of abundance abundance marginal cost MicroVC Party Round Start-Up lesson Start-Up advice ecosystem
may 2015 by asterisk2a

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500 Startups Aims To Be The Largest VC Shop In The World | TechCrunch
500 Start-ups
may 2015 by asterisk2a

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New stats show raising Seed money from big VCs increases survival. (The opposite of what everyone in the Valley says) | PandoDaily

(2) Don’t do a “party round” (2) Don’t raise money from a major VC. They will only follow on with the best companies and the signaling risk if they say no can be damning. [...] The companies who raised funds from large VC firms did better than those who raised funds from micro-VCs. [...] The anecdotal stuff is true & the data is true. The answer to how thats possible lies, as everything else in venture world does, with a massive range of quality & low barriers to get in. [...] the # of firms who invest at least $1 million a quarter 4 at least four straight quarters, there are only a paltry 97 firms left in the industry. [...] Raising big institutional funds is hard. Even shitty big VC firms have 2 meet some kind of bar 2 get that money — which is increasingly disappearing in the US. [...] [ hypothesis/thesis of micro-VC is flawed & opportunistic of lower Start-up cost 2 get from idea 2 MVP 2 Product/Market Fit with some traction. higher delta between good & bad co&mVC&angel ]

Start-Up lesson Start-Up advice Venture Capital Seed Round Angel Investor Party Round distortion hunt for yield economic history unintended consequences ZIRP NIRP QE technological history technological progress Micro-VC VC Product/Market Fit post-traction Series A MVP meritocracy meritocratic Accelerator ycombinator Seed Camp TechStars 500 Start-ups
april 2015 by asterisk2a

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[PreMoney MIAMI] Upfront Ventures, Mark Suster, "Venture Outlook 2015 - Goldrush or Fool's Gold" - YouTube

(1) Change from Sales Funnel to Funnel of Intent on Mobile and Social Media. Lower Marketing/Early user acquisition cost at scale. And tap to credit cards to with one click through third party Platforms. And also Open Source Software Stacks and buying 'by time' the hardware stack on Google, AWS or Azure is paradigm shift. Results also in noise one has to break through first - raising the bar (by user choice) for everyone. (2) min10 - Value Creation held inside Private Market through growth & late-stage investing instead of IPO with single-class share structure with wobbily business numbers 'help you god that you aren't out 24m later' because of impatient Wall Street. (3) min14 Series D valuations show Private Market highest bidder wins phenomenon. But Valuations are up across the board. And with more Seed/Angel Investors, Seed Valuations are also bid up higher compared to ABC. // &! min29 youtu.be/25TxrhsXFvs - 500 Startups, Dave McClure "4 Years of Moneyball - What Have We Learned"

Silicon Valley Seed Round A Round growth Venture Capital Sales Funnel Funnel of Intent mobile first mobile homescreen mobile phone Social Media Start-Up lesson Start-Up advice hunt for yield ZIRP NIRP QE secular stagnation productive investment Private Market Platform TOS 2000 dot.com bubble 2008 IPO Wall Street single-class share structure SPV short-term thinking short-term view Hedge Fund Mutual Fund Private Equity late-stage funding Unicorn seedround seedfunding angelinvestor angel-list Angel Investor angelinvestors incomplete information complexity unintended consequences Dave McClure Mark Suster UpFront Ventures 500 Start-ups paradigm shift
april 2015 by asterisk2a

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[PreMoney MIAMI] 500 Startups, Dave McClure "4 Years of Moneyball - What Have We Learned" - YouTube

Angel Investors/Seed and maybe even A Round is about jumping on and doubling down on companies that do well, others don't know about. It's information arbitrage. Wall Street Services Cottage Industry aka Economic Forecaster and Stock Pickers make their money with supposed information arbitrage. But it's just a cottage industry. ... Where Seed/Angel Investors do hustle, network, keep things private, sharing of non-public information with their best buddy and co-investor. // min 34 talks about Silicon Valley Ecosystem. (1) Optimism and Believe. German culture about fear of failure does not support it well in public. (2) supporting structures (3) capital at every stage.

500 Start-ups Dave McClure Seed Round Venture Capital information arbitrage Private Market incomplete information Silicon Valley Angel Investor angel-list Hustle Networking Berlin Start-Up Scene culture society Germany failure Leistungsdruck ecosystem London Scene Europe Start-Up Scene
april 2015 by asterisk2a

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Eric Newcomer – Venture Firms Fret as Y Combinator Soars | Genius

“You—and your references—have to be able to explain to a founder how you're going to help them.” +++ via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8288119 +++ PS: Don't take money from X bc X give u higher valuation. VC firm is a Services Company as is YC. Pick from who feels best with services and added values. I would even go on to say that giving you money is not the core product value proposition any more in VC world. In a world of ZIRP/NIRP/QE/etc, a world were high net-worth individuals hunt for yield on AngelList and Co. Core Product Value Proposition moved to a the quadrants of people who went through it/domain expertise/network&connections/services to scale faster (from HR/taxes/office/law to finding and getting that guy[s] [plural] with the PhD&Work@ScaleExperience to scale Twitter back-end successfully).

ycombinator Venture Capital a16z brand reputation Network Silicon Valley TechStars 500 Start-ups Start-Up lesson Start-Up advice
september 2014 by asterisk2a

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Path’s kiss of death compliment: “It’s hugely popular in Indonesia!” | PandoDaily

[+ Raising Too Much Money for a too small product and market!?] It may be the beginning of the end for a company that was once offered $125 million to sell to Google – in a high priced acquihire – less that six months into its existence and before the company even launched. [...] So, what went so wrong? The answer seems to be a combination of poor execution, an excessive focus on design over utility (not to mention differentiation), and a keeping up with the Joneses desire to spend lavishly. [...] The company has always been a reflection of Morin, including his obsessiveness over design and his proclivity for spending. For example, Path reportedly built its team with a designer to developer ratio of 1-to-2, as compared to an industry average that is likely closer to 1-to-20 (or even lower, although precise figures are hard to come by). [[ ~ Spending for the wrong means to an end. ~ ]] [[ ... Inside the bubble that is the Valley and the Fetish ... ]]

Path Dave Morin acquihire acqui-hire Start-Up Start-Ups Product/Market Fit Venture Capital Timing Hype Cycle execution Focus focused Lean Start-Up Start-Up advice Utility bloat design systems design system design designer product design burn rate runway corporate culture Snapchat Instagram Silicon Valley Fetish Digg Kevin Rose Dennis Crowley foursquare Consumer Internet Space Start-Up Lesson
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Brad Stone On What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Amazon's Jeff Bezos - Keen On | TechCrunch TV

>> every non-fiction account is simplified to some degree. >> The Everything Store. Lesson: 1.) Stick to your Vision. 2.) Never Stop Innovating.

Amazon commoditization commodity business jeffbezos Jeff Bezos book disrupting markets disruption Vision advice Start-Up Start-Ups entrepreneurship entrepreneur eBay Yahoo! AOL Microsoft IBM Innovation SaaS Software Is Eating The World complexity entrepreneurial corporate culture Google Apple comparative advantage competitive advantage competitiveness Facebook Twitter
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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FCC approves plan to consider paid priority on Internet

The proposal is not a final rule, but the vote on Thursday is a significant step forward on a controversial idea that has invited fierce opposition from consumer advocates, Silicon Valley heavyweights, and Democratic lawmakers. The FCC will now open the proposal to a total 120 days of public comment. Final rules, aimed for the end of the year, could be rewritten after the agency reviews the public comments. + http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/obama-pledges-net-neutrality-laws-if-elected-president/ "Obama pledges Net neutrality laws if elected president. The presidential hopeful says if elected, he'll prioritize enacting antidiscrimination rules for broadband providers during first year in office. Will others follow?" + http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/netzneutralitaet-in-den-usa-fcc-zum-zwei-klassen-internet-a-969678.html + http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2014/05/fcc-s-net-neutrality-plan - Wheeler a former cable-industry lobbyist

Net Neutrality FCC USA presidency barackobama barriers to entry discrimination Innovation Silicon Valley competitive advantage competitiveness comparative advantage economies of agglomeration economies of scale Start-Up Start-Ups revolving-door Lobbying lobbyist lobby revolving door Washington Career Politicians interest groups public policy infrastructure investment infrastructure public good public utility
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Startups: Wagniskapital - Deutschland scheut das Risiko - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Manchmal rappt Horowitz seinen Rat an Jungunternehmer und formuliert seine Management-Tipps mit Hilfe von Songtexten bekannter HipHop-Künstler. Wenn Gründer mehr Mut beweisen sollen, bedient er sich etwa bei Ice Cube und rät: "If you are scared motherfucker, go to church." Die Lobby von Andreessen Horowitz in einem eleganten Flachbau am Rande von Menlo Park ist dekoriert mit Originalaufnahmen von Atombombentests. Das alles wirkt manchmal etwas brachial. Aber trifft man Horowitz in seinem Büro, erlebt man einen sehr freundlichen Mann in Pulli, Jeans und Turnschuhen, der während des ganzen Gesprächs nicht einmal die Stimme hebt. [...] Dann spricht er lange und ausführlich über Regulierung und Arbeitsmarktgesetze in Deutschland. Dass es drei Monate dauere, ein Unternehmen zu gründen. Dass, wenn es nicht gut läuft, kaum eine andere Möglichkeit bleibe, als "gleich ganz zuzumachen", weil nicht schnell und einfach Personal abgebaut werden könne. Dass es an Unternehmergeist mangele. ...

Germany Silicon Valley Berlin Berlin Start-Up Scene risk taking aiming big Start-Up Start-Ups FNAC Google Facebook Twitter Airbnb risk aversion Marc Andreessen Ben Horowitz Venture Capital VC entrepreneurship entrepreneur scaling Andreessen Horowitz corporate culture disrupting markets disruption skill-biased technological change skill skills workforce Book regulators regulation Innovation SAAS SAP SME SMB competitive advantage competitiveness comparative advantage globalisation globalization Europe Structural Impediments unemployment imbalance Mobile Creative Mobile Creatives technological history technology Charles Hugh Smith destruction value creation manufacturing engineering engineer Amazon Salesforce riskaversion risk-taking public policy Career Politicians accountability transparency Politics Female Founders Women in Tech progressive
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Safe Harbors – AVC

The answer to this quandry is “safe harbors”. I argue for them all over the place. In content licensing. In telecom policy. In banking policy. If we had a general bias in our society to let early stage startups try things and see if they work before we worry about compliance we would see a lot more innovation.

Net Neutrality FCC ISP Start-Up Start-Ups Lean Start-Up Silicon Valley MVP Minimal Viable Product innovation barriers to entry
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Franchise redux: The professionalization of the sharing economy has deep implications | PandoDaily

But for all Airbnb and Uber’s much deserved “disruptive” acclaim, these businesses have older roots than the hype cycle suggests. According to conventional wisdom, Airbnb and Uber enable “regular individuals” to make a few extra bucks renting out an extra bedroom or giving fellow travelers a ride. They unlock a new class of assets, where fellow consumers share in collaborative consumption. In fact, while these businesses nailed rapidly changing consumer preferences – buying services at time of usage, rather than owning assets fits the post-recession, Millennial sensibility of the moment – the supply side of their businesses does not match the narrative. Supply in these marketplaces is increasingly delivered by entrepreneurial, small business owners, not fellow consumers. Uber and Airbnb are best understood as reimagined franchise operations that leverage mobile data, the social graph, and continuous feedback loops to deliver a better consumer experience.

Airbnb Millennials GFC post-recession 2014 Consumerism consumerist zombie consumer sharing is caring sharing economy marketplace marketplace efficiencies marketplace inefficiencies Technology convenience disrupting markets disruption franchise business Platform Open Platform franchising redux service delivery mobile first digital natives adoption adoption curve trends youthification unintended consequences complexity unknown unknowns self-regulation regulation deregulation vested interest interest groups operating performance Start-Up Start-Ups Lean Start-Up Silicon Valley entrepreneurial entrepreneurship feedback loop transparency Models Social Media recovery productivity output-gap underemployed working poor squeezed middle class disposable income Debt Super Cycle USA UK Europe consumer
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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WordPress.com Parent Automattic Has Raised $160 Million, Now Valued at $1.16 Billion Post-Money | Re/code

Wordpress - democratising publishing. Wordpress VIP plus its new corporate communication platform geto2.com - will compete with the likes of Yammer (MSFT owned) and Slack, atlassian's platforms as well as Salesforce's platform. smart raising a round when money is flushing around - hunt for yield. taking the money for the long-term. likely giving them +5 years runway and solidifying their publishing platform might. there will be acqui-hires along the way I guess. + Automattic’s competitors have certainly been investing, noted Mullenweg. In their last rounds, Weebly raised $35 million, Squarespace $40 million and Medium $25 million. In addition, Wix is currently valued at around $730 million, raising $127 million, in an IPO. ... Automattic's aim is, to become cash-flow positive - I guess. Not in a hurry but naturally with pushing mobile, e-commerce and the Freemium model (driving up conversion) on Wordpress.com.

Automattic Matt Mullenweg Wordpress Tumblr Blogger publishing 2.0 self-publishing publishing Blogging bloggers microblogging MovableType Twitter LiveJournal hunt for yield growth round ZIRP QE monetary policy asset bubble WallStreet acqui-hire acquihire Squarespace Weebly Wix medium.com Platform Open Platform GNU General Public License GNU GPL short-form content digital content paid content content creator content distribution micro content Niche throwaway content BuzzFeed digital economy digital natives digital artist VIP mobile first freemium conversion Start-Up Start-Ups entrepreneurship entrepreneurial
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Euphemism of the day: Airbnb admits they ‘hacked customer happiness in the wrong direction’ | PandoDaily

the pains of growing not hockey stick like but, steeper than one can human possibly hire people to deal with it on the back-end. and what most hurts retrospectively is, that you couldn't and or didn't pay attention to things like culture and management ... and actual happiness inside a growing child (business).

Airbnb customer service customer support hospitality business Social Media communication PR public relations Start-Up Start-Ups entrepreneurship people management management internet culture corporate culture
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Sexism sucks less once you’ve raised $56 million | PandoDaily

“The third wave of e-commerce is coming – it’s about the full stack today,” Park says, referring to the fact that Julep produces its own products. “We’re doing something fundamentally different in terms of how we serve the consumer.”

everyday sexism sexism sexismus VC Venture Capital Silicon Valley Start-Up Start-Ups GitHub Female Founders entrepreneurship entrepreneur e-commerce full-stack customer retention customer acquisition beauty industry beauty products
may 2014 by asterisk2a

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Brian Cohen says startup success is about relationship building | Inc.com

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131020190842-29092-the-most-dangerous-battle-a-company-can-wage-is-an-internal-one + http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1291213/ + http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP13951

Start-Up Start-Ups Co-Founder infighting psychology co-founders Co-Founder Cofounderdating.com entrepreneurship
april 2014 by asterisk2a

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Chris Dixon at Startup School 2013 - YouTube
Start-Up Start-Ups inefficiencies marketplace marketplace inefficiencies Silicon Valley
april 2014 by asterisk2a

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Gillmor Gang: No Reply - Gillmor Gang | TechCrunch TV

talking about Sillicone Valley funding scene, people getting more into growth funding more, more people piling in. real innovation which needs development time and a R&D lacks the whole scene. + talking about Twitter's spam notion, and its lean towards more distribution and unattractiveness for non tech savvy people and bc of the spam its lack to have a open converstation with @'s

Twitter Silicon Valley Venture Capital Start-up Start-Ups seedfunding seedround
march 2014 by asterisk2a

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Confident As F*** But Scared as S*** - YouTube

... personal investment. one should know that a business outcome isn't reflective on a persons value. Leads me to the end conclusion of http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_wilkinson "Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies" - where he shows that inequality leads to social stress. Paul Robinette associates his business outcome and other peoples reviews of his brainchild with his personal likeability and his social value to the overall community / friends and family and associates. + see http://www.youtube.com/user/ThisWeekIn/search?query=Jerry+Colonna

Start-Up entrepreneurship entrepreneur judgement expectations life lesson Oxidative stress stress USA inequality Gini coefficient This Week in Startups jasoncalacanis Jerry Colonna This Week in Start-Ups advice
march 2014 by asterisk2a

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The Importance of Benevolent Dictators

I believe that groups coming together to make tough decisions driven by consensus tend to make poor decisions. [...] It’s hard being a leader. By definition leaders make hard choices given incomplete information. And by tough decisions I mean it is clear that some people’s views will end up on one side of the fence and others will end up on the other side. But you need conviction. [...] Leaders need to be respected, not loved. [...] Decision makers. Visionaries. Leaders. Chart their own course against the constant chorus of second guessers. [...] Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that you should make decisions without other people’s input. My motto is “always triangulate.” >> http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2013/03/10/consequences-and-the-decisions-we-make-or-dont/

larryellison billgates stevejobs leadership Apple markzuckerberg decision making management start-ups
march 2013 by asterisk2a

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Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation - YouTube

intrinsic motivation superior! intrinsic - things that matter in life, not money. financial incentives can be detrimental! > autonomy (selfdirection) > mastery > purpose

performance sports motivation sport management creativity start-ups Olympics
march 2013 by asterisk2a

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Message Map: How To Pitch Anything In 15 Seconds - YouTube
sales communication mindmap startup101 start-ups start-up pitch pitching pitch-deck elevator pitch Marketing
december 2012 by asterisk2a

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i5invest

i5invest - Where tomorrow´s online business is born.

i5invest ist ein Inkubator (=Brutkasten) für erfolgreiche Online- und Mobile-Geschäftsmodelle von morgen. Der Fokus unseres Interesses sind Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Web 2.0-Projekte.

"i5" steht für unsere Kompetenzen: innovate, inspire, incubate, invest und internationalize.

europe start-ups incubator
october 2009 by asterisk2a

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Y Combinator: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund (Paul Graham) July 2008

Paul Graham
July 2008

YCombinator startup ideas business entrepreneurship startups inspiration start-ups paulgraham
october 2009 by asterisk2a

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Daniel Ek: Spotify will kill file-sharing, be a European home-run

sustainable business
http://twitter.com/michaeljung/status/4084581521
Like id did with the comment about Mint.com acquired by Intuit. Selling to a big house / competitor.

I fav the mindset of @Eldsjal (Daniel Ek) CEO of @Spotify bc he thinks about sustainable business/growth/meaning http://bit.ly/YwocV

spotify music europe freemium start-ups entrepreneurship entrepreneurial business sustainability growth future trend trends
september 2009 by asterisk2a

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