Kim Kardashian China Chow Alecia Elliott Kat Von D Ana Paula Lemes
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Finding And Buying A Domain Name
I believe that a good domain name is an important success factor in building and launching consumer web services. It's not in my top ten but it could be. It's certainly something we think about a lot when making investments...
VentureBeat?s Mobile Summit in photos
We held our very first Mobile Summit on Monday and Tuesday, where 180 executives gathered to discuss the industry’s top issues. During the summit, VentureBeat published a number of articles, interviews and presentations, and next week we’ll be posting videos too. In the meantime, here are some photos.
VentureBeat Editor-in-Chief Matt Marshall interviews Michael Abbott, Twitter’s vice president of engineering. Abbott talked about Twitter’s focus on mobile and about Twitter creator Jack Dorsey’s current involvement with the company.
Keith Rabois, the chief operating officer at Square, argues that traditional websites are dying and that mobile apps are the future.
Attendees enjoy the sunshine outside the main session room. We held the summit at Cavallo Point, just north of San Francisco. (Photo by Christopher Peri)
Naturally, the phones stayed out during dinner.
Matt grills AT&T chief technology officer John Donovan about the carrier’s strategy. Donovan outlined plans to improve AT&T’s network, saying that the demand for data after the release of the iPhone could not have been predicted and that 3G microcells are not a cure-all.
Everyone gathers at the end of day two for a boardroom discussion about mobile payments.
With a 180-person, invite-only list of attendees, we’d like to think that everyone in the room was a VIP, but there were still a couple of reserved seats. Here, VentureBeat’s Nate Werlin, who was key in putting the summit’s content together, refuses to sit in his assigned seat. (Photo by Christopher Peri.)
Your humble VentureBeat bloggers chase the news; Devindra Hardawar left, Yours Truly right. (All photos by Dean Takahashi unless otherwise noted.)
Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler
More Contests for Growing Companies
This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.
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* * * * *
Forbes List of America’s Most Promising Companies
Entries currently open
Forbes wants to shine a light on high-growth, privately held companies with brilliant prospects. Forbes — with help from CB Insights? Beacon software — hasRead More
From Small Business Trends
More Contests for Growing Companies
Laura Prepon Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah Julie Benz Saira Mohan
LTV > CPA
A couple weeks ago, in a comment to an MBA Mondays post, Dan Lewis wrote "LTV has to be higher than your CPA or you're not going to make it." I asked Dan to elaborate in a MBA Mondays guest...
Aaliyah Katherine Heigl Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova
Small Business News: Small Biz Strategy
What’s your small business strategy…you’ve got one, right? It’s the difference between success and failure and should be one of the first decisions you make about your business. Creating a strategy encompasses how your business markets, delivers services, manages costs, uses tools and, in general, tells its story. If this sounds like a pretty big deal, it is! Check out the links below covering the many aspects of small business strategy. And then tell us…what’s your small business strategy?
Planning
Read More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Small Biz Strategy
Leelee Sobieski Teri Hatcher Lauren Bush Natalie Zea Brody Dalle
The Word Bubble
In all the posts over the past year or so outlining my thoughts on the financing and valuation environment in the internet sector, I've avoided using the word Bubble. It is intentional. For me Bubble will always be inexorably linked...
The Word Bubble
In all the posts over the past year or so outlining my thoughts on the financing and valuation environment in the internet sector, I've avoided using the word Bubble. It is intentional. For me Bubble will always be inexorably linked...
Patricia Velásquez Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti Michelle Branch
Friday, April 29, 2011
Small Business News: Small Biz Map to Success
The map to success is different for every small business, but information and a commitment to constant learning are the first steps in the journey. Today we share the�latest news on many different aspects of small business from finding a niche to getting loans to hiring employees and beyond. If you’re starting on your small business journey or are already well on your way, let us provide some of the detail for the map you use on your road toRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Small Biz Map to Success
Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova
Viral Slides: Play CFO With Microsoft's Q3 Deck
Yesterday, Microsoft reported third-quarter earnings, which beat expectations, but still had some warnings signs (PC non-growth!).
Here the the software giant's results, all duded up with pretty charts and bullet points to pencil out.
Here the the software giant's results, all duded up with pretty charts and bullet points to pencil out.
Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff Talisa Soto Julianne Hough
Ten Presentation Tips for Movie Lovers
Ten Presentation Tips for Movie Lovers View more presentations from Matt Gambino
Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale Shiri Appleby Kelly Hu
Is Your Business a Pork Belly
Is Your Business a Pork Belly
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Chelsea Handler Salma Hayek Jennifer Scholle Tatiana Zavialova Tila Tequila
Small Business News: Great Tips and Tools
You need an edge to succeed in small business. Make no mistake. Your products and services�may be great, your marketing and sales process flawless, but there are a lot of little things that will eventually put you on top, if that is indeed where you’re headed. Those edges, those�tools and tips, are not part of some�marvelous secret code distributed to you by gurus. No, it�could�be a whole variety�of tips and tools�you’ve learned about or picked up over�yo0ur small business career.Read More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Great Tips and Tools
Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry
How Much Will it Cost to Insure the Royal Wedding?
For the average couple, insuring a wedding is not expensive. It is probably one of the cheapest things on the long list of wedding expenses. However, Prince William and Kate Middleton are far from the average couple and nothing for the royal... Read more
Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle Blu Cantrell Jaime King
10 Things You Pay Much More For Now
It?s time to face some unfortunate facts: prices for many commodities and goods are going up. The tremulous recovery of the economy after the recession has been shaken in recent months due to shortages, political unrest, and natural... Read more
Katharine McPhee T.A.T.u. Amber Valletta Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Small Business News: Great Tips and Tools
You need an edge to succeed in small business. Make no mistake. Your products and services�may be great, your marketing and sales process flawless, but there are a lot of little things that will eventually put you on top, if that is indeed where you’re headed. Those edges, those�tools and tips, are not part of some�marvelous secret code distributed to you by gurus. No, it�could�be a whole variety�of tips and tools�you’ve learned about or picked up over�yo0ur small business career.Read More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Great Tips and Tools
Eve Brittany Lee Daisy Fuentes Asia Argento Charisma Carpenter
The Word Bubble
In all the posts over the past year or so outlining my thoughts on the financing and valuation environment in the internet sector, I've avoided using the word Bubble. It is intentional. For me Bubble will always be inexorably linked...
Kelly Rowland Danica Patrick Josie Maran Leighton Meester Dominique Swain
Economic data
March Pending Home Sales rose 5.1% m/o/m, better than expectations of a gain of 1.5% but is still down 11.5% y/o/y which was boosted by the tax credit. The best gain was seen in the South where contract signings rose by 10.3%. The West and Midwest also saw gains while the Northeast region saw a [...]
Simone Mütherthies Carrie Underwood Rosario Dawson Tricia Helfer Elena Lyons
Small Business Financing Might Get Easier If SEC Eases Crowdfunding Regulations
Social media has made it cheaper and easier for small business owners to market their companies. Now, social media companies might be making it easier for small businesses to raise capital, too.
Back in January, I posted on Small Business Trends about the rise of crowdfunding as a possible solution for small business owners seeking financing. Closely related to peer-to-peer lending sites, such as Prosper.com, crowdfunding goes one step further. While peer-to-peer lending focuses on individualRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business Financing Might Get Easier If SEC Eases Crowdfunding Regulations
Uma Thurman Alice Dodd Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle
comScore Total Universe Report
For the past three or four years, I'd look at Twitter's numbers on comScore, or Alexa, or Quantcast, or some other third party measurement service and I'd wonder "what would they be if they included mobile devices like phones and...
Blake Lively Christina Applegate Shana Hiatt Tara Conner Drea de Matteo
Will the Early Stage Innovation Program Make a Difference?
The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced the start of the Early Stage Innovation Fund, a program that will provide $200 million per year in equity funding ?over the next five years,? to ?early-stage companies [that] face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding.?
Ray Leach of Jump Start America argued that the new fund will dramatically increase the amount of capital available to the founders of highRead More
From Small Business Trends
Will the Early Stage Innovation Program Make a Difference?
Taryn Manning Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Amazon says some data unrecoverable after restoring cloud service
Amazon said that about 0.07 percent of the data storage in its restored eastern cloud service isn’t fully recoverable. The company’s cloud-based web services suffered an outage that lasted for three-and-a-half days last week and service was restored for the most part on Monday.
But some of the data — 0.07 percent of the eastern region — hasn’t been recovered, and the company is contacting the limited number of customers who have lost data. One of the lessons being learned here is that backup sometimes isn’t enough, and customers who use web services may have to use multiple cloud vendors in the future.
The Amazon crash has raised questions about how much users will be able to trust cloud storage. Some companies using Amazon’s service are offering their own customers freebees to make the hassle a bit more palatable. For example, HootSuite is offering $50 credit for customers affected by the Amazon downtime.
The outage, which happened at the same time Sony suffered a hacker attack that brought down its PlayStation Network, brought down numerous high-profile Amazon customers, including Quora, Sencha, Reddit and Foursquare. Amazon said that a detailed post mortem is coming for the Elastic Block Store outage, and it is looking into the root causes. One status message report said that a “network event” caused the service to “re-mirror” a large number of EBS data in the eastern region.
On Monday, Amazon reported that its profits fell 33 percent as it spent to build more more and more warehouses.
Companies: Amazon, Sony
Katharine McPhee T.A.T.u. Amber Valletta Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt
Small Business News: Great Tips and Tools
You need an edge to succeed in small business. Make no mistake. Your products and services�may be great, your marketing and sales process flawless, but there are a lot of little things that will eventually put you on top, if that is indeed where you’re headed. Those edges, those�tools and tips, are not part of some�marvelous secret code distributed to you by gurus. No, it�could�be a whole variety�of tips and tools�you’ve learned about or picked up over�yo0ur small business career.Read More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Great Tips and Tools
Molly Sims Monika Kramlik Lacey Chabert Amber Brkich Gretha Cavazzoni
Is Your Mobile Device Good For Business, But Bad For The Family?
Sixty percent (60%) of small business owners admit that they spend more time holding their mobile devices than the hand of their significant others. If that doesn’t tell us something about the pervasiveness of mobile communications, and our priorities, I’m not sure what does.
That finding comes to us from the Staples 5th Annual Small Business Survey (PDF), based on 300 U.S. small businesses having no more than 20 employees.
I was struck by several of the pointsRead More
From Small Business Trends
Is Your Mobile Device Good For Business, But Bad For The Family?
Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale Shiri Appleby
Office Hours
Yesterday I did office hours for the second time. We started doing office hours in the fall of last year and try to do them once a quarter. Brad, Albert, Christina, and I all do them. Christina does office hours...
Garcelle Beauvais Kristy Swanson Ali Campoverdi Giuliana DePandi Pamela Anderson
YetiZen starts an incubator for game startups (exclusive)
The game industry is hot, with lots of companies chasing the success of social game darlings such as Zynga and mobile game successes such as Ngmoco. That’s why YetiZen is forming a new incubator to help launch game startups.
To some people, that’s a sure sign of a bubble. But YetiZen founders Sana Choudary and Japheth Dillman believe that their focus on the fast-growing and highly specialized game business will help them stand out from the growing numbers of incubators for tech companies.
Last year was a record year for gaming fundings. We counted 91 companies which raised $1.05 billion in 2010, up 58 percent from a year earlier. That has inspired a lot more entrepreneurs and developers to start new companies that want to grow and raise money as well.
“We are focused on the grassroots space,” Choudary said. “We can help young companies get traction, and not in a bubble-like way.”
Choudary and Dillman want to work with those new companies that are in their seed stage and need� help to accelerate their growth. As other incubators do, YetiZen is inviting a class of companies to join its first group of companies. The first class has already been selected and YetiZen will take applications for more incubator classes in the near future.
Choudary and Dillman will bring in knowledgeable game industry insiders, lawyers, game designers and venture capitalists to help the game startups. Each class will last about three months. The focus will be on the hottest area of the business, the mobile, social and emerging game markets. The companies can be game developers or platform makers.
“Everyone is looking for better deal flow,” Dillman said, and Yetizen will help filter out the good ones from the bad. “The VCs really want something like this.”
The pair have a long history advising game companies, and they started the SF Game Developers Workshop as a monthly gathering for social game makers in the Bay Area who are thirsty for knowledge about their fledgling trade. The incubator can teach the young companies how to get better distribution for their games.
The first companies selected to participate include Ayumusoft, Gabagool Games, Bushi-go, Socialbear, and SkillAddiction.
Advisors from the game industry include Jay Moore, Will Harbin, Max Skibinsky, Dean Gebert, Asra Rasheed, Amy Jo Kim, Mark Rose, Margaret Wallace, and Benjamin Joffe. Financial advisors include Tim Chang of Norwest Venture Partners, Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Ping Li of Accel Partners, Charles Hudson of Softtech Ventures, Jeff Karras of Singtel Innov8, and Patrick Chung of SK Telecom Ventures.
“They know the market and I believe they can provide a much-needed service in this area,” Chung said.
There are other incubators. Joystick Labs is aimed at accelerating startups in the Research Triangle Park region of North Carolina, while IGN has an incubator in San Francisco that is co-located with its game industry publications. The Canadian government has various programs to help startups, as do some U.S. cities such as New Orleans. None is as established as Y Combinator, the tech incubator in Mountain View, Calif. YetiZen chose San Francisco because the overwhelming majority of independent game companies in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area.
The YetiZen founders say their service is needed because three-fourths of game startups fail in their first year and nine out of ten will wind up failing. The program will follow a formal process, where incubator students will meet with the board of advisors in their first month, meet with investors in the second month, and hold some kind of public demo in their third month. There will be five to ten companies per round. The first round will run from May through July. The second class will be November through January.
The focus won’t be on college students starting their own companies or the one-person garage-style developers. Most of the startups are far enough along where they won’t need actual office space, but those that do could tap the shared office of Rocket Space in San Francisco.
Yetizen won’t offer actual seed funding for its incubator members. In return for the acceleration service, Yetizen will get a negotiated equity stake.
Companies: Yetizen
People: Japheth Dillman, Sana Choudary
Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff
Chinese stocks signal warning lights
The disappointing manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs in April was not what the Chinese stock market was telling us in mid-April! The Shanghai Composite Index tends to lead the China CFLP Manufacturing PMI by one month. In mid-April the market was actually anticipating stronger PMIs through end May! Sure, a weaker than expected PMI in April [...]
Brooke Burns Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie Erica Leerhsen
An Android WiFi App I Need
I use wifi a lot on my android phone. I use it in my office, my home, my beach house, cafes I frequent, and offices of companies I frequent. I save the profiles for all of these locations and replace...
Kelly Carlson Sara Foster Natassia Malthe Victoria Silvstedt Hilary Swank
Recycling Capital
The Gotham Gal and I have been fortunate to accumulate signficant capital over the past fifteen years. And the vast majority of it is invested in startups. We get distributions from a sale of one company and within months that...
Summer Altice Rose McGowan Bar Refaeli Jessica White Anna Friel
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Disappearing Into The Fire Workshop
One of my all time favorite blog posts about entrepreneurship is the Disappearing Into The Fire post written by my former partner Jerry Colonna. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and go read it. Jerry has been...
Cindy Crawford Mariah OBrien Uma Thurman Alice Dodd Kate Walsh
5 Things an Administrative Assistant is Better at Than You
I know, I know, as a small business owner, you rock at everything you do: make sales, balance the books, prepare the coffee?well, maybe not so much. Tomorrow is�Administrative Professionals Day,�and in honor of that day, we want to make you feel good by telling you all the things an administrative assistant can do better than you.
1. Keeping Your Calendar Organized: Let?s face it: You?ve missed more than your fair share of meetings becauseRead More
From Small Business Trends
5 Things an Administrative Assistant is Better at Than You
Kirsten Dunst Vanessa Minnillo Katie Holmes Victoria Beckham Missy Peregrym
YouTube launches movie rental service
YouTube will soon begin offering its users major Hollywood movie titles as an on-demand service, according to�TheWrap. The service is a direct competitor to Apple?s iTunes.
The official announcement is expected soon, and the service may launch as early as this week. Pricing details and titles are not yet available. Neither are the details about video quality, but high-definition options wouldn’t be a big surprise.�The movies will be available from at least three major studios: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal. Paramount and Fox are not participating and Disney?s status is still unclear.
A senior executive from a Hollywood studio that has signed the deal told TheWrap that the streaming video-on-demand would probably expand to sell-through titles.
?What?s really good about their approach is rather than another subscription offering, they?re going into a fresh area where there has been fewer leaps forward,” said the source.
The titles will be available on YouTube the same day they appear on iTunes or video stores, and before subscription services like Netflix.
Companies: Disney; Netflix, fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal, Warner Brothers
Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff Talisa Soto
An Android WiFi App I Need
I use wifi a lot on my android phone. I use it in my office, my home, my beach house, cafes I frequent, and offices of companies I frequent. I save the profiles for all of these locations and replace...
Rachael Leigh Cook Elisha Cuthbert Ciara Rachel Hunter Heidi Montag
comScore Total Universe Report
For the past three or four years, I'd look at Twitter's numbers on comScore, or Alexa, or Quantcast, or some other third party measurement service and I'd wonder "what would they be if they included mobile devices like phones and...
The Avatars of Second Life Daniella Alonso Gina Gershon Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller
25 Least Trustworthy Brands of the Past Decade
Image: Alex E. Proimos/Flickr What makes you stop trusting a company? Was talking to their customer service people akin to having a conversation with a brick wall? Do your bills more closely resemble Pandora?s Box than something you can... Read more
Dita Von Teese Rachel Nichols Dido Joss Stone Majandra Delfino
Is It 1994 Again?
Frederick Sheehan is the co-author of Greenspan’s Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve. His new book, Panderer for Power: The True Story of How Alan Greenspan Enriched Wall Street and Left a Legacy of Recession, was published by McGraw-Hill in November 2009. He was Director of Asset Allocation Services at John Hancock [...]
LTV > CPA
A couple weeks ago, in a comment to an MBA Mondays post, Dan Lewis wrote "LTV has to be higher than your CPA or you're not going to make it." I asked Dan to elaborate in a MBA Mondays guest...
Vinessa Shaw Rebecca Romijn Nadine Velazquez Pink Mila Kunis
Monday, April 25, 2011
Will Yahoo Be In Play Again? Here's a Few Scenarios (That Could Be More Than Just Scenarios)
One of the results of Yahoo's weak earnings report earlier this week has been the renewal of chatter about possible changes in its leadership and even ownership.
And continued investor discomfort with its troubled stock price and the level of renewed grumbling by major institutional shareholders is causing some key players to go back to their PowerPoints to reevaluate various options.
And continued investor discomfort with its troubled stock price and the level of renewed grumbling by major institutional shareholders is causing some key players to go back to their PowerPoints to reevaluate various options.
Kim Yoon jin Melania Trump Summer Glau MÃa Maestro Virginie Ledoyen
Mark Suster Interviews The Gotham Gal
joanne wilson, mark suster, the gotham gal
Kelly Carlson Sara Foster Natassia Malthe Victoria Silvstedt Hilary Swank
Will the Early Stage Innovation Program Make a Difference?
The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced the start of the Early Stage Innovation Fund, a program that will provide $200 million per year in equity funding ?over the next five years,? to ?early-stage companies [that] face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding.?
Ray Leach of Jump Start America argued that the new fund will dramatically increase the amount of capital available to the founders of highRead More
From Small Business Trends
Will the Early Stage Innovation Program Make a Difference?
Victoria Silvstedt Hilary Swank Whitney Port Minka Kelly Carol Grow
LTV > CPA
A couple weeks ago, in a comment to an MBA Mondays post, Dan Lewis wrote "LTV has to be higher than your CPA or you're not going to make it." I asked Dan to elaborate in a MBA Mondays guest...
January Jones Christina DaRe Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart Bianca Kajlich
Entrepreneur Corner: Auto-renewals and safely raising prices
Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.
Ask the attorney: The auto-renewal conundrum ? Setting up an auto renewal for your product or service gives you a steady revenue stream, but if it’s done wrong, it can put you in legal hot water. Attorney Curtis Smolar offers five ways to ensure you’re protected.
5 ways to retarget visitors (without using retargeting tools) ? Retargeting is a great way to bring in customers who failed to purchase when they visited your site. Too many services, though, put your ads on sites that are inappropriate. Danny Wong, co-founder of Blank Label Group, offers some alternate ways to get the job done.
Do you need a mentor ? or a teacher? ? Entrepreneurs often think they need a mentor, when what they really need is a teacher. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank says there’s a big difference between the two. One has a two-way line of communication, while the other simply imparts knowledge.
4 ways to raise prices without causing a customer meltdown ? If you’ve had a product on the market for a few years and haven’t raised prices, odds are you’re leaving money on the table. Former venture capitalist Healy Jones runs down the most effective ways to raise prices without alienating customers and causing your leads to dry up.
The pros and cons of dorm room startups ?Box.net was started from a dorm room, but co-founder Aaron Levie quickly learned that came with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. He discusses both in this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture, given at Stanford University.
Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi Jolene Blalock Nichole Robinson Monet Mazur
He?ll talk about monetary policy but will he say US$?
The highlight of the week is going to be the Bernanke press conference after the release of their FOMC statement on Wed and while ears will be listening to his comments about the coming end of QE2 and what comes next, it will also be important if he discusses the state of the US$ or [...]
Majandra Delfino Maria Bello Jennifer Gareis Ashlee Simpson Donna Feldman
Viral Video: "Super 8? and "Portal 2? Interactive Movie Trailer
Though BoomTown was dubious, this trailer for the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie "Super 8" is pretty cool beans.
It is in the style of an interactive video game--in fact, Abrams worked with the creators of the recently released "Portal 2" to embed it right into the video game.
It is in the style of an interactive video game--in fact, Abrams worked with the creators of the recently released "Portal 2" to embed it right into the video game.
Amber Brkich Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey
Mark Suster Interviews The Gotham Gal
joanne wilson, mark suster, the gotham gal
Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie Erica Leerhsen Angela Marcello
US Healthcare vs. the Rest of the World
The state of the United States today is extremely fragile. Lawmakers are at war with one another over how to reduce our deficit while increasing our quality of living, and there is no end to the debate in sight. At the very core of this struggle... Read more
Ali Campoverdi Giuliana DePandi Pamela Anderson Amber Arbucci Christina Aguilera
25 Most Trustworthy Brands
Image: Valerie Everett/Flickr What makes you trust someone? For one, they do what they say they're going to do. They help you out when you need it most. They don't do anything to make you distrust them, like charge you for borrowing their DVDs... Read more
Amerie Rachel Bilson Karen Carreno Bijou Phillips Marika Dominczyk
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Small Business Events and Conferences ? HUGE List
Welcome to our biweekly roundup of small business events, conferences and webinars, brought to you as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.
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Small Business Works: Tools for Small Business – 2011 and Beyond
April 28, 2011, Pittsburgh, PA
Starting a small business or growing your small business? Looking for all the right resources?
Attend the Small Business Works event in Pittsburgh and hearRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business Events and Conferences – HUGE List
Zhang Ziyi Nikki Reed Natasha Bedingfield Audrina Patridge Simone Mütherthies
Explorsquare
We arrived in Palm Springs really late last night and I woke up too early (I always have trouble adjusting to new time zones). So I got up and went out looking for a good espresso. I'm not a fan...
Paula Garcés Genelle Frenoy Shania Twain Gwen Stefani Sunny Mabrey
The Dollar: Five Factors for Investors
My Sunday WaPo column this week is a melange of 5 factors about the dollar that all investors should know about. Its a little random, written for main street investors . . . > click for full article > Source: The value of the dollar: Five factors for investors Barry Ritholtz Washington Post, April 23, [...]
Shania Twain Gwen Stefani Sunny Mabrey KarolÃna Kurková Laura Harring
Sponsor A Golfer On The Pro Tour
Our best investments have emergent use cases that the founders never considered when they launched them. Kickstarter is showing that in spades right now. When Perry initially imagined Kickstarter almost ten years ago now as a way to raise money...
Maria Bello Jennifer Gareis Ashlee Simpson Donna Feldman Jodi Lyn OKeefe
Unapologetic Rules for Entrepreneurs
Unapologetic Rules for Entrepreneurs
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Missy Peregrym Sarah Gellman Eliza Dushku Bonnie Jill Laflin Joanna Krupa
Small Business News: Small Biz Legal Views
Legal issues are the part of running a small business some entrepreneurs hate the most. But attention to legal issues large and small will save you money, time and could even be the difference between success and failure. We’ve assembled some great content on the topic, so be sure to have a look at the post below and offer comments if you have something to add.
Startup
Picking your small business legal form. As you put your company together, manyRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Small Biz Legal Views
Melania Trump Summer Glau MÃa Maestro Virginie Ledoyen Lindsay Lohan
Social Campaign Shows the Power of Contests
Contests and promotions have been a popular form of marketing on Facebook and other social sites in recent years, and a campaign by the Dockers clothing brand is a particularly good example of how to use such a contest to build a strong fan base and positive brand association.� Although this is a large-scale campaign for a well-known brand, it provides key takeaways that can mean the difference between success and failure for any business hoping to turn social siteRead More
From Small Business Trends
Social Campaign Shows the Power of Contests
ValueClick acquiring mobile ad network Greystripe for $75M
Online marketing company ValueClick has acquired mobile ad network Greystripe for $75 million, according to TechCrunch.
The deal continues a merger spree among the mobile ad networks, as noted in previous deals such as Google’s $750 million purchase of AdMob and Apple’s $275 million purchase of Quattro Wireless.
Greystripe raised $18.1 million in four rounds. TechCrunch said that Greystripe is on pace to generate $25 to $30 million in revenue this year and $6 million in gross profit.
eMarketer has predicted that U.S. mobile ad spending will break $1 billion this year, up 48 percent from 2010. Greystripe has not responded to a request for comment. Greystripe, headed by Michael Chang, is one of the biggest independent mobile ad networks. Others include Jumptap and xAD.
Companies: Greystripe, valueclick
Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah Julie Benz Saira Mohan Brittny Gastineau
10 Things You Pay Much More For Now
It?s time to face some unfortunate facts: prices for many commodities and goods are going up. The tremulous recovery of the economy after the recession has been shaken in recent months due to shortages, political unrest, and natural... Read more
Summer Altice Rose McGowan Bar Refaeli Jessica White Anna Friel
Sony confirms external attack brought down PlayStation Network
Sony acknowledged today that its PlayStation Network online entertainment service was brought down by an external intrusion, according to a blog post this evening.
The network has 70 million registered users and it is Sony’s gateway to online entertainment on the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. Frustrated users have been without service since Wednesday. Sony’s Qriocity music service was also attacked an brought down. Sony has kept the services off while it conducts an investigation into what happened.
Patrick Seybold, a spokesman for Sony, said in the post, “An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.”
On Friday, the hacker group Anonymous denied that it was to blame for the attack. Until now, Sony offered no explanation for the network outage, prompting some to wonder if it was related to Amazon.com?s crash of its cloud computing infrastructure, EC 2, which has also been down since yesterday. Sony had also updated its PlayStation Home virtual world for gamers with a version 1.5 update. And others wondered if hackers, who had been angry about Sony?s prosecution of hacker George ?GeoHot? Hotz, had found a way to ?jailbreak? Sony?s PS 3 so that users could download unauthorized or pirated software. Sony sued him for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
But that case has been settled. And Anonymous, the hacker group that had attack Sony sites earlier, said it was not behind the shutdown. In fact, Anonymous said ?Sony is incompetent.? Still, an observer of the IRC forum used by members of Anonymous speculated that the attackers likely behind this current Sony outage appear to have learned their methods from Anonymous? activities of two weeks ago.
Companies: Sony
People: Patrick Seybold
Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Explorsquare
We arrived in Palm Springs really late last night and I woke up too early (I always have trouble adjusting to new time zones). So I got up and went out looking for a good espresso. I'm not a fan...
Jessica White Anna Friel Monica Bellucci Minki van der Westhuizen Katharine Towne
Social Media Boosts Exposure & Traffic for SMBs
Want some good news for your Wednesday? How?s this: If you?re a small business owner who is investing time in social media, chances are you?re beating out your medium- and large-sized counterparts in benefits. How?s that feel? Pretty good, right? And that was just one of the statistics that came out of the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report put together by Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner.
Michael?s report polled 3,342 business owners and analyzed their experiences withRead More
From Small Business Trends
Social Media Boosts Exposure & Traffic for SMBs
Emmanuelle Chriqui Anna Faris Lil Kim Kelly Ripa Yvonne Strzechowski
Explorsquare
We arrived in Palm Springs really late last night and I woke up too early (I always have trouble adjusting to new time zones). So I got up and went out looking for a good espresso. I'm not a fan...
Cristina Dumitru Cat Power January Jones Christina DaRe Malin Akerman
World Gold Bug Article on WSJ Front Page
Front page WSJ story today — World Is Bitten by the Gold Bug: “Gold continued its upward march in a time of global financial tumult, closing above $1,500 an ounce Thursday for the first time as investors seek safe haven in the metal. In a remarkable performance for any sort of asset, gold has notched [...]
Mila Kunis Samaire Armstrong Selita Ebanks Michael Michele Marisa Tomei
A Closer Look at Strategic Defaulters
The Washington Post has an interesting — and not very surprising — article on Strategic Defaulters. It is based on a study by researchers from the European University Institute, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. The key data point: “[Estimates are] that 35% of defaults in September may have been strategic, up from 26% [...]
Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen Melissa George Cameron Richardson Chandra West
We Could Make Our Roads Into Solar and Piezo-Electric Generators
Washington?s Blog strives to provide real-time, well-researched and actionable information.� George ? the head writer at Washington?s Blog ? is a busy professional and a former adjunct professor. ~~~ I wrote yesterday: Another use of a free, wasted byproduct to generate electricity is piezo-electric energy. “Piezo” means pressure. Anything that produces pressure can produce energy. [...]
Yahoo's Q1 Earnings: The Revenue Growth Drought Continues Due to MicroHoo Search Fall-Off
Yahoo announced its first-quarter earnings today, showing a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to declines in search revenue from its partnership with Microsoft.
The Silicon Valley Internet giant reported revenues of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.
The Silicon Valley Internet giant reported revenues of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.
Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera
I sure hope the iPhone 5 looks like this
Pictured here is the latest mockup of Apple’s next iPhone, taking into account a slew of new and old rumors, put together by ex-Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky over at his interim online home.
If the iPhone 5 ends up looking close to this mockup design, Apple may just lock me in for another cellphone cycle (which in gadget blogger terms is between a year and 18 months).
At first glance, you’ll notice a larger screen that reaches the edge of the device (the iPhone 4’s bezel instantly looks more unattractive after looking at this picture), a slightly tapered back, and a larger home button. Topolsky says that despite current rumors that the iPhone 5 won’t be a major redesign over the iPhone 4, he’s been hearing differently for months. His sources say that the next iPhone more closely resembles the super-thin iPod Touch and will have a “teardrop” shape (similar to the curves on Google’s Nexus S).
The larger home button also serves as a gesture area, according to Topolsky’s sources. The larger screen will likely be 3.7-inches to retain Apple’s “Retina Display” marketing, something that wouldn’t be possible if it was 4-inches (this runs contrary to the majority of rumors we’ve seen). Topolsky adds that he’s also hearing the iPhone 5 will be able to work across multiple carrier networks, something that Verizon accidentally mentioned this week as well.
Topolsky stresses that he’s still not sure if the iPhone 5 will have a metal back (it just looks that way because he used an iPod Touch image as the basis for the mockup), and that the device’s taper may not be as extreme as his mockup.
Corey Daniels, a fan of Topolsky’s site, also contributed his own take on the mockup (below), which may be a more accurate interpretation of the rumors.
Companies: Apple
People: Joshua Topolsky
Natalie Imbruglia Patricia Velásquez Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti
Spitzer on Institutional Corruption on Wall Street
Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
Talisa Soto Julianne Hough Paula Garcés Genelle Frenoy Shania Twain
Friday, April 22, 2011
Give Yourself Permission to Suck
Give Yourself Permission to Suck
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Raquel Alessi Marisa Coughlan Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi Jolene Blalock
Unapologetic Rules for Entrepreneurs
Unapologetic Rules for Entrepreneurs
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale Shiri Appleby
Disappearing Into The Fire Workshop
One of my all time favorite blog posts about entrepreneurship is the Disappearing Into The Fire post written by my former partner Jerry Colonna. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and go read it. Jerry has been...
Norah Jones Nicky Hilton Garcelle Beauvais Kristy Swanson Ali Campoverdi
Spitzer on Institutional Corruption on Wall Street
Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
Shannon Elizabeth Maggie Gyllenhaal Foxy Brown Ivana Bozilovic Cristina Dumitru
Weekend Favs April Sixteen
Weekend Favs April Sixteen
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Bar Refaeli Jessica White Anna Friel Monica Bellucci Minki van der Westhuizen
10 Most Sinister Ways Casinos Keep You Gambling
Put all thoughts of big winnings and Casino Royale out of your mind. No matter what your system or how great your understanding of the odds, at the end of the day the house always wins, meaning you can kiss your hard-earned dollars goodbye. And... Read more
Gretha Cavazzoni Marla Sokoloff Jennifer Love Hewitt Tina Fey Gina Philips
Pre-$200 Million Valuation: Flipboard's Mike McCue at SXSW (The Full Onstage Video)
In March, BoomTown travelled hipster-Texas-style for the South by Southwest festival in Austin to interview Flipboard's Mike McCue in an onstage interview there.
The well-funded Silicon Valley start-up makes an innovative and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad and McCue talks about its next steps in this hour-long video.
The well-funded Silicon Valley start-up makes an innovative and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad and McCue talks about its next steps in this hour-long video.
Amanda Swisten Scarlett Chorvat Kim Smith Hilary Duff Lake Bell
Thursday, April 21, 2011
After Tax Time: What?s Next for Your Business?
Another April 15 (or April 18 this year) has come and gone, and you?ve dutifully sent in your tax forms for one more year.
If you?re self-employed operating as a sole proprietor, tax time can be yet another reminder that you haven?t addressed your business structure yet. Maybe you started your business as a side project, and a sole proprietorship made sense. But now, filling out that Schedule SE and paying all those self-employment taxes make you cringe. And maybeRead More
From Small Business Trends
After Tax Time: What’s Next for Your Business?
Shania Twain Gwen Stefani Sunny Mabrey KarolÃna Kurková Laura Harring
Sponsor A Golfer On The Pro Tour
Our best investments have emergent use cases that the founders never considered when they launched them. Kickstarter is showing that in spades right now. When Perry initially imagined Kickstarter almost ten years ago now as a way to raise money...
Cheryl Burke Olivia Wilde Paulina Rubio Kirsten Dunst Vanessa Minnillo
Nokia finalizes Microsoft contract, sees trouble ahead with Japan quake impact
Nokia and Microsoft today finalized their courtship by signing an agreement that would commit the companies to their previously announced partnership, which would see Nokia adopting Windows Phone 7 as its primary smartphone platform.
Additionally, Nokia reported strong first quarter earnings today, but CEO Stephen Elop warned that it will be a bump ride for the next few quarters as the company deals with supply chain shortages stemming from the recent Japanese earthquake.
Not much has changed between the original announcement in February and today’s signing, the companies say. Microsoft phone unit President Andy Lees and Nokia EVP Kai Oistamo offered some insights on the progress of the partnership in a revealing conversation with All Things Digital’s Ina Fried. ?We?ve gotten to where we have gotten to faster than we thought,? Lees said. ?Now we know who is exactly writing each piece of code.?
Both said that the companies are ahead of schedule with the partnership, which is a good thing since the fate of Windows Phone 7 and Nokia’s future hangs in the balance. Oistamo said he was pleased with Nokia’s progress on integrating WP7 into its hardware over the past few months. He also confirmed that the company is still aiming to get its first Windows Phone device out this year, something that Elop had first mentioned in February.
A few minor changes to the original partnership announcement: Microsoft plans to use Nokia’s Ovi Map technology outside of phones, and Nokia will use Bing on phones outside of WP7 devices.
When it comes to first quarter performance, Nokia said that it saw sales of 10.4 billion euros, which is an 18 percent dip from the last quarter, but 9 percent above the same time last year. The company expects its key devices and sales unit revenue to drop this quarter to around 6.1 billion to 6.6 billion euros, down from 7.1 billion euros in the first quarter. Nokia pointed to supply chain issues resulting from the Japanese earthquake, increased competition from Apple and Google, as well as a lack of dual-SIM phones (a feature popular outside of the US) as reasons for the lower project sales.
Companies: Microsoft, nokia
People: Andy Lees, Kai Oistamo
Asia Argento Charisma Carpenter Hilarie Burton Kelly Carlson Sara Foster
Keeping Customers Is the New Lead Generation
Keeping Customers Is the New Lead Generation
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Raquel Alessi Marisa Coughlan Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi Jolene Blalock
4 ways to raise prices without causing a customer meltdown
(Editor’s note: Healy Jones is a former venture capitalist and the VP of marketing for OfficeDrop. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
If you’ve spent the last few years improving your software as a service (SaaS) app and haven?t raised prices then you are probably undercharging your customers. Your solution is getting better and better, your customers are getting greater and greater value – why can?t you capture some of this value in the form of higher prices?
In fact, you probably started your company with prices that were too low – either because you were afraid to charge more for your service or because you didn?t realize just how much customers were willing to pay for your product. While raising prices can be risky, if done right it won?t cause a widespread customer freakout.
Raising prices doesn?t always have to result in a negative media blitz or a mass customer exodus. Having gone through (what we consider) a successful pricing change ourselves, here are a few tips to getting the fair market value for your app or SaaS product without sending your loyal fans running for the hills.
Do recon on similar services. – This may sound obvious, but how will you know the value of your product or service until you see what?s already out there? More importantly, if you have been adding features and functionality to your app, the original competitive set against which you compared yourself when you launched may no longer be as relevant.
Also, don?t just do an apples-to-apples (or app-to-app!) comparison. A major problem OfficeDrop made when comparing our price to other services was that we limited ourselves to other SaaS applications – when we should have realized that most of our potential customers were purchasing expensive, off-the- shelf software from traditional vendors at very high, one-time prices ? then repurchasing expensive new versions of this software every few years.
So, check out the other similar services that follow a different pricing structure. Do the math. Are you leaving money on the table?
Be very deliberate with your communications. – Over-communicate. Communication to existing customers is absolutely critical to making a successful pricing change. In fact, when Sixteen Ventures, a SaaS Value Pricing consultancy, analyzed the problems Zendesk and Chargify had with their pricing changes, it was clearly much more about communication than the actual price increase.
We aggressively communicated with our customers and users via our blog, on Twitter and directly on our home page prior to the pricing change. For example, we posted on our blog several days prior to the pricing change to alert the world to the upcoming change.
In addition, our CEO, Prasad Thammineni, sent an email directly to our paying customers and to the potential paying customers who were currently in our free trial period. We kept the email brief and hyped our new features. Most importantly, we made it clear the users did not have to change the price they pay.
Prasad not only requested that users with questions email him directly (by simply replying to the email) he also provided his direct office phone number and our customer service number. Not a single user called, and he got two emails. One was email was, ?Why are you bothering to tell me this?? and another simply said, ?Ok.? Potential crisis, averted.
?Grandfather? current users in at their prior rate if you raise prices. – Let your paying customers keep their existing pricing. Give them the option to upgrade to the new prices, but keep your current paying customers happy. Critics of this move would say ? ?Man, if your service is getting better, then your old customers should be happy to pay the higher price. So don?t bother grandfathering ?legacy? users in at a lower price point.? I disagree.
We chose grandfathering since it seemed like the most civil way to raise prices for our loyal customers. They took a chance and started using a startup company?s software to run an important part of their business. Now they were reaping the reward by getting a substantially improved service at a lower price than the rest of the world.
The most important point in Prasad?s email to users was to let current customers know we were grandfathering them into their existing, current pricing plans. Additionally, we let users who were currently in our free trial period choose between the old pricing plans or the new pricing plans (different features for each, of course) when they upgraded to a paid plan. No bait and switch.
Finally, we didn?t promise that we?d eternally keep the old plans around, but made it very clear that we had no intention of changing their plans anytime soon. After all, inflation does happen.
Above all, don?t apologize. – Charge more because the service is getting better. Customers are getting more. Appearing defensive will automatically put customers on the offensive. Tie the pricing change to an increase in value ? that is by bundling around new features/benefits that your customers and market will perceive as higher value.
People are much more likely to accept new pricing if it is bundled with a clear message that the change is because of new, valuable features.
Aki Ross Ashley Tappin Carmen Electra Amanda Marcum Leila Arcieri
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