Steve Woda's blog

links for 2010-01-29

• Bin Laden blasts US for climate change - washingtonpost.com
  Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday. In the tape, broadcast in part on Al-Jazeera television, bin Laden warned of the dangers of climate change and says that the way to stop it is to bring "the wheels of the American economy" to a halt.
• How to Design Web Forms That Don’t Suck — eCommerce-Guide.com
  As an online retailer, Web forms are your bread and butter. There’s no use putting effort into designing great product pages and getting your customers to the checkout with bulging shopping carts only to have them bail out because your checkout process sucks. All businesses lose a percentage of customers during the checkout process; what percentage you lose depends on how badly your forms perform. Here are several ill-conceived practices that create bad checkout experiences — and how to avoid them.
  (tags: Website forms design)

links for 2010-01-27

• Will Google's Nexus One Change the Wireless Industry? - Knowledge@Wharton
  On January 5, Google launched the Nexus One -- the company's new "superphone" -- with a good deal of fanfare. At a press event, Google executives showed off the sleek device, based on the search firm's own Android operating system with integrated services such as Google Earth, an online map and satellite image tool. Google's software, combined with a speedy processor, represent a new category of phones "as powerful as your laptop computer of three to four years ago," said Andy Rubin, Google's vice president of engineering, in a statement. The phone also includes voice recognition technology for speaking text messages and emails, and touts a 3-D interface, among other features that had the tech world buzzing before the launch event.
  (tags: google android nexus mobile)
• The Tourists Have Gone Home: Venture Capital, 2010
  Early-stage investing in 2009 mirrored the rocky overall economy with fewer deals, lower valuations of companies, and almost no exits. By October there had only been eight IPOs of venture-backed companies in the U.S. This was only a slight increase over 2008 in which there were six IPOs during the entire year.

  The last time such a phenomenon with IPOs occurred, according to Wharton Prof. Raffi Amit, was 1975. "VCs don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, which means they can't go out and raise new money. They have to be very careful with what new investments they make because they don't see how they can get out of the investments they are in right now," he says.

  Further, Amit notes there has been a sharp decline in fundraising. "Seed investments in particular, which traditionally have come from angels, have all but dried up," he says. "Angels lost a lot of capital in the last decline in the stock market and a lot of them have disappeared."

  
  
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship wharton)
  
  

links for 2010-01-24

• Washington Post - Obama's bank reform misses point entirely
  One of my go-to guys here on Economy Watch is Miller Tabak equity strategist Peter Boockvar, because he's smart, fast and pithy. His morning note today is no exception.

  Boockvar had a take on President Obama's attempt to rein in the nation's big banks, a plan he announced Thursday. Under the subject line, "Have we learned nothing?," Boockvar writes:...

  
  
  (tags: obama economy politics)
  
  

links for 2010-01-23

• Technology use up in kids, parents losing ground - washingtonpost.com
  Like many working parents, Beverly Flaxington armed her daughter with a cell phone in fifth grade, when the time came for her to venture out alone. At first, it was a great way to stay in touch. That was then. Now 13, Samantha's grades have slipped drastically and she's obsessed with texting, Facebook and her laptop, sometimes falling asleep in her clothes clutching her phone. When her texting exceeded 2,000 messages a day, her parents shut off the function from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on school nights, and Sam "just went nuts."
  (tags: technology kids children safety security kidsafe)

links for 2010-01-22

• "For Dems, the only good thing about the Senate election loss in MA is this: It could wipe the grin off Robert Gibbs's face." - washingtonpost.com
  For Democrats, the only good thing to come from Tuesday's loss of the Senate election in Massachusetts is this: It could wipe the grin off Robert Gibbs's face. The Democrats' failed struggle to hold onto Ted Kennedy's seat in the liberal state showed how badly the party's brand had been damaged over the past year. But as the White House press corps challenged President Obama's press secretary on Tuesday afternoon about the anticipated loss, Gibbs answered with his usual mix of wisecracks and insults. "Broadly speaking, can you talk about the difference between 59 and 60 votes in the Senate and what that means for the president's agenda this year?" "Broadly, it's one," Gibbs answered.
  (tags: polictics gibbs obama)
• Technology Review: Blogs: Scott Brown, Voter Databases, and Social Media
  One of the great supposed achievements of the 2008 presidential race was that President Obama and the Democratic Party gained a formidable political weapon: the most detailed databases ever amassed on the views and voting habits of registered U.S. voters. Obama had deployed social technologies on a grand scale. And Democrats were said to be ahead of Republicans in deploying distributed volunteers to make Web-enabled phone-bank calls. During such calls, volunteers could fill out online forms, building files on each John and Jane Doe--who they said they voted for, what issues moved them. In the two months before the 2008 elections, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) added 223 million new pieces of data on voters, giving the DNC ten times the amount of data they'd had in the 2004 campaign. (That's what Voter Activation Network, a company based in Somerville, MA that builds front-end software for DNC database, told me after Obama won.)
  (tags: politics)

links for 2010-01-19

• Chinese Internet search firm Baidu looks forward to life after Google - washingtonpost.com
  In 2000, a 31-year-old software engineer named Li Yanhong, a.k.a. Robin Li, left his job in Silicon Valley and returned home to China to start an Internet search engine. He raised $26.2 million in venture capital, including a modest investment by Google. Ten years later, Li's company, Baidu, has become the dominant search engine in China, a goliath with 7,000 employees and a market value of $16.2 billion on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Google, which sold its stake in 2006 when it launched its own Chinese site, has lagged far behind, capturing less than half of the market share Baidu has here.
  (tags: google baidu search china)
• Scott Ritter, former UN Weapons inspector and prominent Bush critic, faces Internet sex charges - PoconoRecord.com
  Prosecutors and police said on Wednesday that Scott Ritter, a former chief United Nations weapons inspector, will face trial in Monroe County Court in March after police accused him of innapropriate contact over the Internet with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. Ritter, 48, turned himself in to Barrett Township Police in November after he was charged with having a sexual conversation with a police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl and masturbating on a Web camera on Feb. 7, 2009. Ritter was not charged until November after police went through the time-consuming process of obtaining court orders for computer and cell phone records. "We actually were not aware who he was until just prior to the actual arrest," said Barrett Township Police Chief Steven R. Williams. "We treated it like all of the other cases that we handle."
  (tags: kidsafe child safety security UN)

links for 2010-01-16

• Child Mobile Ownership Up - eMarketer
  Americans are beginning their “always-on” habits at a younger and younger age, according to Mediamark Research & Intelligence’s (MRI’s) “American Kids Study.” More than one-third of 10-to-11-year-olds in the US owned a mobile phone in 2009, compared with 20% in 2005. Ownership among kids ages 6 to 11 rose from 11.9% to 20% over the same time period.
  (tags: mobile children)
• Are you clear on that? "In Obama's speeches, one favorite phrase: 'Let me be clear' " - washingtonpost.com
  Whether President Obama's upcoming State of the Union address focuses on jobs, health care, foreign policy or something else entirely, there is one thing we can count on: Obama will make himself absolutely clear. All politicians have their verbal tics -- say, John McCain's "my friends" -- but few resort to their crutches as often as Obama relies on his "let me be clear" set-up. He deploys it in formal speeches as well as in impromptu remarks, meaning that the White House speechmakers have keyed in on the boss's security blanket. "Let me be clear," Obama said when he introduced himself to the country at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. "We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued. And they must be defeated."
  (tags: obama speeches)

links for 2010-01-15

• Apple IPhone With New Camera May Be Released by June (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
  Apple Inc.’s latest iPhone will probably be available as early as June, include a more advanced camera, and may feature a touch-sensitive casing, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Robert Chen said in an interview, without identifying who gave him the information. “Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” said Taipei-based Chen, a member of Asia’s top-ranked technology hardware research team. The handset will feature a new plastic casing similar to that used for Apple’s touch-panel Magic Mouse released last year, he said. “We’re not going to comment on rumors and speculation,” said Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman.
  (tags: apple iphone)
• iPhone 2010 To Have Touch-Sensitive Casing
  Goldman Sachs believes the next-generation iPhone will pack a 5 megapixel camera and a touch-sensitive casing, similar to Apple's Magic Mouse. It will begin its life in manufacturing facilities some time in April, in time to hit store shelves by June. iPhone 2010 reports, rumors and predictions are likely to come in a steady stream for the foreseeable future. The latest comes from analyst firm Goldman Sachs. In an interview, analyst Robert Chen said that the next version of the iPhone will include not only a better camera, but a touch-sensitive case. "Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone."
  (tags: apple iphone)

• Google vs. China - washingtonpost.com
  Good for Google. The company's decision to stop censoring its Chinese search engine is more likely to mean the end of its China-based service than a breakdown of Beijing's political firewall. But more important than the question of whether Google.cn survives is the larger issue that Google has now raised for other Western companies and democratic governments -- which is whether China's gross and growing abuse of the Internet should be quietly tolerated or actively resisted. Google cited a major instance of that abuse in announcing its policy change: "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack" on Google and more than 20 other large companies aimed at stealing software code. "A primary goal of the attackers," Google said, was breaking into the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. This is shocking but unsurprising.
  (tags: google china)

links for 2010-01-13

• Raising Money Using Customer Development « Steve Blank
  Getting “funded” is the holy grail for most entrepreneurs. Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail.

  This post describes how companies using the Customer Development model can increase their credibility, valuation and probability of getting a first round of funding by presenting their results in a “Lesson Learned” venture pitch.

  It should go without saying that this post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply my observation of how companies using Customer Development positioned themselves to successfully raise money from venture investors.

  
  
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship customer development)
  
  
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  Technology Review: How Google Ranks Tweets
  
  
  o deliver useful search returns from the so-called real-time Web--such as seconds-old Twitter "tweets" reporting traffic jams--Google has adapted its page-ranking technology and developed new algorithmic tricks and filters to keep returns relevant, according to a leading Google engineer.

  Google rolled out real-time search technology last month, to offer searchers access to brand-new blog posts and news items far faster than the five to 15 minutes it previously took Google's Web crawlers to discover newly created items.

  
  
  (tags: twitter google search)
  
  
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  'iPhone 4G' Landing Worldwide In June? - InformationWeek.com
  
  
  According to a report from The Korea Times, Apple is set to introduce the "iPhone 4G" no later than April, with the device hitting store shelves around the globe by June. The report includes some interesting specs on the unannounced product. Let's take a look.

  Apple is set to make an announcement later this month. The topic of Apple's reported press event is said to be about a tablet device, though new information about the iPhone is not out of the question. Ahead of that event, The Korea Times claims to have information from a source inside KoreaTelecom (Apple's distribution partner in South Korea) that confirms details about the next generation iPhone.

  The iPhone 4G -- as it is currently being called -- would sport an OLED display, a dual-core processor and a better graphics chip. Other features being reported include a removable battery (!!!), dual cameras to support video calling, and possibly mobile TV services.

  
  
  
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  Facebook mole reveals master password and more - mirror.co.uk
  
  
  Facebook had a master password that allowed employees to access any account and still records far more information about how you use the site than you’d assume, according to a new interview with a Facebook insider.

  American blog, The Rumpus, has published an interview with someone it claims is a current Facebook employee. The biggest revelations: there was once a master password that would access any profile and Facebook records which profiles you visit most (essentially a stalking count) amongst many other bits of data.

  
  
  (tags: facebook privacy security)
  
  
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  Google GDrive Launches. Just Don't Call It That. - washingtonpost.com
  
  
  "This is not GDrive" said Google Docs product manager Vijay Bangaru yesterday while showing me something that sure does look exactly like the fabled GDrive.

  "How is it different," I asked.

  "That's hard to say, because GDrive doesn't exist."

  Alrighty then. Putting that aside, you can soon upload any file type at all to Google Docs, not just the dozen or so Office formats that the service allowed as of yesterday. Video files. Images. Audio Files. Even Zip files. As long as those files are 250 MB or smaller, you're good. The new feature will roll out over the next several weeks, says Google.

  Like other documents in Google docs, files can be kept private, made public or shared with a few users. Google Viewer can be used to view many file types, with the notable exception of video.

  
  
  (tags: google docs gdrive)
  
  
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  Younger Americans Still Fueling Facebook - eMarketer
  
  
  As Facebook reached 350 million users worldwide, its largest single source of growth was still the US.

  Inside Facebook reported that the US gain of more than 4.5 million monthly active Facebook users was the highest number of any country. Because of the large installed base of US Facebook users, it represented a 5% gain, compared with 10% growth in countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

  
  
  (tags: facebook demographics)
  
  
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  How To Pitch A Venture Capitalist On A Napkin - WSJ
  
  
  When pitching a business to a venture capitalist, the presentation should be so simple it can fit on a square napkin. Well, actually seven napkins, according to Tech Coast Angels, a group of Southern California angel investors.

  “Southwest Airlines business plan was conceived on a cocktail napkin. Compaq Computers “portable” design was originally sketched on a restaurant napkin. An investor presentation can equally be simplified by following some guidelines that offer thoroughness with simplicity,” the angel group says.

  Specifically, Tech Coast Angels lays out the seven “P’s” for entrepreneurs to include on slides when pitching a VC:

  
  
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)
  
  

links for 2010-01-12

• Technology Review: Blogs: Predictably Irrational: What boyfriends and girlfriends search for on Google
  You know how Google sometimes “predicts” what you might be searching for by giving you a little drop down menu of suggested search queries? These suggestions, of course, are based on what other users frequently search. So I tried teasing out some gender differences. Look at the pictures below.
  (tags: marketing predictions seo)
• A peek inside a venture-capital pitch meeting at Grotech - washingtonpost.com
  Entrepreneurs can't build anything without money. And to get it, one of their first stops is often to a venture-capital firm. I wanted to know more about "VCs," so last month I sat in on a pitch meeting at Grotech Ventures, a Fairfax County firm that has invested in more than 100 early-stage information technology start-ups over the last 25 years. A Grotech pitch meeting works like this: About eight partners who are lawyers, MBAs and financial types sit around a conference table while an entrepreneur "pitches" the business he is starting. If Grotech likes what it hears, it might offer between $500,000 to $5 million to help a business get started or expand.
  (tags: Entrepreneurship vc grotech)

links for 2010-01-09

• Va. panel refuses to recommend legislation regarding 'sexting' - washingtonpost.com
  Members of the Virginia State Crime Commission refused Tuesday to recommend legislation concerning sexting, but the issue is likely to come before lawmakers next month. Currently, it's up to commonwealth's attorneys whether to charge teens and young adults who send sexually explicit pictures or videos through text messages or e-mails with possessing or transmitting child pornography. Several have done so, and some lawmakers say there should be laws to ensure the issue is dealt with uniformly across the state. But others, like Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, said taking the discretion away from the state's 120 elected prosecutors could result in a teen being punished for a stupid mistake while allowing a serious predator to receive a mere slap on the wrist. Albo called possible legislation "a total minefield."
  (tags: virginia sexting kidsafe safety)
• 10 Tips: My Personal Journey Toward Maintaining Inbox Zero
  I get a lot of email and am often frustrated when I miss an important message, just because it slipped down and out of sight into page two of my inbox. I also have a ritual of emptying my inbox and getting to inbox zero (or at least close to zero) twice a year, before my trips to visit my family for the holidays and again in July. There is something so satisfying about starting a trip with a clean inbox, and I’ve been able to get to inbox zero twice a year for many years now. However, this time I wanted to keep it at inbox zero.
  (tags: email)

links for 2010-01-08

• Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup « Steve Blank
  A lot of entrepreneurs think that their startup is the next big thing when in reality they’re just building a small business. How can you tell if your startup has the potential to be the next Google, Intel or Facebook? A first order filter is whether the founders are aiming for a scalable startup.

  Go For Broke
  A few years ago I sat on the board of IMVU when the young company faced a choice my mother used to describe as “you should be so lucky to have this problem.” For its first year IMVU had funded itself with money from friends and family. Now with customers and early revenue, it was out raising its first round of venture money. (Not only did their sales curve look like a textbook case of a VC-friendly hockey stick, but their Lessons Learned funding presentation was an eye-opener.)

  
  
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)
  
  
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  TheFunded.com: The Seven Levels of Traction
  
  
  So, in my experience, there are seven levels of "traction," and each level has various nuances. For example, "the launch" could be a soft launch or a beta launch. "The idea" may be rough, modeled, patented, etc.

  THE TRACTION CURVE
  1. The Idea
  2. The Team
  3. The Prototype
  4. The Launch
  5. Adoption
  6. Revenue
  7. Profitability

  
  
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)
  
  
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  Technology Review: Blogs: TR Editors' blog: AT&T Embraces Android
  
  
  Android devices have finally come to AT&T. The carrier, which has benefited a great deal from its exclusive deal to carry Apple's iPhone, is the last major network to offer a phone loaded with Google's mobile operating system.

  Now it plans to enter with a splash, by offering customers five devices, made by HTC, Dell, and Motorola, all within the first half of this year. Dell's Mini 3 will reportedly be the first device for AT&T's network to hit the market.

  Some are speculating that AT&T's sudden big push into Android is inspired by the impending end of its iPhone deal.

  The announcement was one of a series that AT&T made this week at the company's developer conference in Las Vegas, which coincides with CES. The carrier also announced that it will improve the speed of its 3G network.

  
  
  (tags: att google android mobile)
  
  
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  Ideas are a dime a dozen - Brad Inman
  
  
  This story is difficult to confirm because my Uncle Dale is dead. He died of a heart attack in 1961 — fact or fiction, the story goes like this.

  Dale operated clothing stores in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. “He was the best merchant of the bunch,” my father often said. Everyone on my father’s side of the family were small town retailers; his two brothers, his sister and his father.

  The family lore is that my Uncle Dale knew Sam Walton. Here is the connection. Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas. The store was a franchise of the Butler Brothers chain, where my Uncle Dale worked before he opened his own stores. In the 1950s and early 1960s, they were both budding businessmen in that part of Arkansas.

  
  
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)
  
  
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  Co-Working Offers Community To Solo Workers : NPR
  
  
  Wi-Fi, laptops and cell phones make it possible to work from just about anywhere these days. They've helped people leave the office and work from the comfort of their living rooms or corner coffee shops.

  But now, an increasing number of Americans are looking for something in between.

  Community

  Kevin Prentiss started his Internet-based business from his apartment in New York City. For two years, he says he worked 14-hour days in solitude — ironic, considering he runs a social networking site.

  "I don’t know that I was talking to myself," he says. "I think that probably I was talking to myself."

  Then one day he heard about New Work City. It's a rented office space in Manhattan where workers like Prentiss can drop in, hook up their laptops and work away with other people similarly mobile, while making face-to-face connections.

  
  
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)
  
  
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  2020 Vision: Why you won't recognize the 'Net in 10 years - Network World
  
  
  To borrow from John Lennon: Imagine there's no latency, no spam or phishing, a community of trust. Imagine all the people, able to get online.

  This is the kind of utopian network architecture that leading Internet engineers are dreaming about today

  As they imagine the Internet of 2020, computer scientists across the country are starting from scratch and re-thinking everything: from IP addresses to DNS to routing tables to Internet security in general. They're envisioning how the Internet might work without some of the most fundamental features of today's ISP and enterprise networks.

  
  
  

links for 2010-01-07

• MediaPost Publications Forrester: Smartphone U.S. Market Share Reaches 17% 01/06/2010
  Good news for Google today as it launches the Nexus One, its own high-end mobile device. The proportion of adult U.S. subscribers owning smartphones jumped to 17% last year from 11% in 2008 and 7% in 2007, according to new data from Forrester Research. The growth rate has held steady from 2008 even as the user base has expanded -- a good sign, because new technologies often initially have gaudy growth numbers before declining rapidly as adoption increases, said Forrester.
  (tags: mobileme)
• Skype Upgrades Video For HDTV -- InformationWeek
  Sophisticated videoconferencing isn't just for only large-scale enterprise users anymore. Skype and some high-definition TV suppliers have announced that they will offer videoconferencing for home users in a few months. And the videoconferencing will be free, provided users are members of Skype's service. Skype, recently separated from eBay, said Tuesday that LG Electronics and Panasonic will begin supplying features for the service on sets they plan to market later this year. In addition to new TVs, users must purchase Web cameras with microphones.
  (tags: skype)

links for 2010-01-06

• Google's Nexus One Phone, Revealed - Advertising Age
  Curious why so many seemed to know so much about Google's new Nexus One before its official rollout on today? Well, that's because VIPs like venture capitalist Fred Wilson have been carrying them around for more than two weeks.

  Google's new Nexus One phone rolls out today.
  Google
  Google's new Nexus One phone rolls out today.
  "In mid December as holiday gifts and cards were arriving daily at our office, I received a gift from Google. It was a Nexus One," Wilson wrote on his blog, adding that Google asked him to "keep quiet" about it until Jan. 5.

  
  
  (tags: google mobile phone)
  
  
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  Northwest Flight 253's Lessons for Leaders - Rosabeth Moss Kanter - Harvard Business Review
  
  
  The botched bombing of Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit haunts millions of air travelers facing (and wanting) tighter airport security. The lucky passengers on NW 253 subdued the terrorist and witnessed minor fires but no explosion. Now the important question is why was he allowed to board the plane in the first place?

  Leaders should ask themselves the equivalent question about what can go wrong and how to prevent it in their own domains. Global financial crashes, regional power outages, laptops with pyrotechnic batteries, or tainted food ingredients, to name just a few, present similar problems. The NW 253 scare offers an instructive example of the roots of systemic failures. Every leader can learn a few lessons.

  
  
  (tags: leadership)
  
  
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  Hiring Commissioned Salespeople? Don’t Use a Standard Selection Process
  
  
  I’ve only had brief bouts with commissioned salespeople but I learned two things from my experience that I carry with me to this day whenever I talk to people about this subject:

  1. It is one of the toughest jobs to start and be successful in.
  2. It is one of the toughest jobs to hire for.

  As for point one, I don’t know what to say. We’ve tried a ton of different programs to help people get their start in these sorts of positions. The most successful people don’t seem to need too much guidance though. We’ve tried giving training pay for a month or two just to see if we could get them over the hump but it never made much sense in the dollars and cents department.

  
  
  (tags: sales hr)
  
  
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  Apple to Ship Tablet Device in March - WSJ.com
  
  
  Looking to build on the momentum of its iPhone and iPod, Apple Inc. will unveil a new multimedia tablet device later this month, but isn't planning to ship the product until March, say people briefed by the company.

  While the device's ship date hasn't been finalized and could still change, people briefed on the matter said the new product will come with a 10 to 11-inch touch screen—which would make it closer in size to Apple's line of MacBook laptops than its smart phone.

  
  
  (tags: apple tablet)
  
  

links for 2010-01-05

• The Essential Startup Reader: 10 Lessons in Entrepreneurship – GigaOM
  As a blogger, I spend most of my time writing. But it’s time spent reading that’s most satisfying. Here’s a short (and by no means a complete) list of 10 articles that encapsulate the art of the startup. Most were published during 2009, and I found them educational and full of practical tips that we’ve applied to our business. They’ve also helped me think differently about startups and entrepreneurship. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.
  (tags: Entrepreneurship)
• Innovation; Innovator's DNA
  A major new study involving some 3,500 executives has highlighted the key skills that innovative and creative entrepreneurs need to develop. The six-year-long research into disruptive innovation by INSEAD professor Hal Gregersen, Jeffrey Dyer of Brigham Young University and Clayton Christensen of Harvard, outlines five 'discovery' skills you need. But, says Gregersen, you don’t have to be ‘great in everything.’

  Some well-known business leaders such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos rely on their own particular strengths since innovative entrepreneurs rarely excel at all five discovery skills. For example, Scott Cook of Intuit is strong in observational skills. Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce.com, does a lot of networking, he says. As for Bezos, “experimentation was his forte,” while Jobs is “incredibly strong at associating.”

  
  
  (tags: innovation)
  
  

links for 2010-01-02

• The Inside Round - bijansabet.com
  I would say that most venture backed startups require additional capital after the seed or Series A round. That isn’t a bad thing and typically part of the plan. And everyone knows that going in from the founders, to the early employees as well as the earliest investors. At some point the company then needs to raise additional capital. (I’ve already written about how to focus your efforts with that early capital so i wont discuss that topic in this post.) It is very common to seek out a new lead investor for the new round of capital. Why?
  (tags: vc Entrepreneurship)

links for 2010-01-01

• Time to Cut Red Tape for Startups - BusinessWeek
  For small business owners in the U.S., the cost of complying with government regulations is one of those ongoing problems that doesn't receive enough attention. Perhaps it's easy to overlook, given small employers' skyrocketing health-care costs and worries about tax increases. But research commissioned by the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration reveals that the cost of complying with federal regulations is higher for small businesses than for midsize or large ones—45% higher on a per-employee basis, on average in 2004. For businesses with fewer than 20 workers, the cost of compliance is more than $7,600 per employee, compared with $5,300 for businesses with 500 or more employees. These numbers are of roughly the same magnitude as the employer share of employee health-care costs, which consulting and reinsurance firm Towers Perrin pegged at $5,760 in 2004 and $7,500 in 2009. So, on the basis of costs, regulatory compliance is a big issue for small businesses.
  (tags: Entrepreneurship politics regulation)
• LinkedIn Wants Users to Connect More - WSJ.com
  If LinkedIn Corp. wants to avoid being swamped by social-networking giant Facebook Inc., it will have to convince users like Jackie Nejaime to log in more often they do now. Ms. Nejaime, a San Francisco real-estate agent, uses LinkedIn to stay in touch with her 183-person network, check out job prospects and see if someone might be interested in one of the homes she's selling. But she typically logs in only a few times a month because she says the site lacks features. "I would like to get more use out of it," said Ms. Nejaime "I just don't know how." By contrast, the 47-year-old says she uses Facebook every day to touch base with friends and professional contacts.
  (tags: linkedin social networking)