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Web-Based Business Strategies and Monetization Models
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Getting Funded with Venture Capital: Why It May Not Be Such a Good Idea

Getting Funded with Venture Capital: Why It May Not Be Such a Good Idea | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

"You are more than three times as likely to crash your startup as you are to ring the NASDAQ opening bell."

Robin Good's insight:



Rachel Chalmers illustrates five key reasons why it may not be such a great idea to get your startup funded by venture capital.


These include: 


  1. Not getting a fair hearing

  2. Rising capital means losing the YOU and giving in to financial interests as the primary drivers

  3. The majority of VC funded companies will not ever generate any venture success

  4. You are not going to have full control anymore

  5. Venture math is a harsh mistress 


Key advice: VCs are optimizing for a very specific outcome (making a large as possible profit fast). Share that alignment, or don’t take their money.


Chances to convert a startup into a VC-funded success, are not very high, if you look at the numbers. But worse than that, is what you have to endure and give up to achieve that goal.


Useful. 7/10



Full article: http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/five-reasons-not-to-raise-venture-capital 

Reading time:  7 mins.


See also: http://www.masternewmedia.org/bootstrapping-startups-guide/ 







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Life Is In Permanent Beta: The Startup Is You

"How do you survive and thrive in this fiercely competitive economy? You need a whole new entrepreneurial mindset and skill set. Drawing on the best of Silicon Valley, The Start-Up of You helps you accelerate your career and take control of your future–no matter your profession."


Via Guillaume Decugis
Robin Good's insight:


A fantastic presentation, well designed, illustrated and rich of meaning, valuable messages and insight, illustrates the ideal path for the do-it yourself entrepreneur and highlights what are the key elements that can make his path always a successful one.


A must-see presentation. 9/10


Original presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/reidhoffman/startup-of-you-visual-summary


The Startup of You is also a book, authored by Reid Hoffman (LinkedIN founder) and Ben Casnocha.


More info: http://www.thestartupofyou.com/


Oreder the book: http://www.thestartupofyou.com/order




Janice Tomich's curator insight, March 15, 2013 1:24 PM

Work life in 2012 ... success using your entrepreneurial mindset. 

Brad Tollefson's curator insight, March 19, 2013 10:34 PM

I like it...

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The Startup Business Model Toolkit: Aizon.me

The Startup Business Model Toolkit: Aizon.me | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

Aizon.me is a free web-based tool that has been designed to help entrepreneurs and startuppers organize, plan and structure their new activity.

Aizon.me is made up of four modules that take care of specific areas including:


1) ocoach - online coach.

Here you can find a checklist to start your business, a to-do list to help you with completing planned tasks, and a progress chart to keep you on track.


2) sb.plan – (simplified business plan)

This is a simple and useful tool for collecting your thoughts, prioritizing your actions, and planning your business strategy.


3) b.model
The Business Model Canvas, is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model. It is a visual template pre-formatted with the nine blocks of a business model. 


4) bm.chart

This is a page populated by four charts focusing on Profitability, Revenues (bu Customer Segment or by Stream), Costs. It helps the user estimate his market size, revenue streams, and costs — faster than any spreadsheet and it allows you to

test the profitability of your ideas with a quick reporting dashboard.


Find out more: http://aizon.me/ 


(Reviewed by Robin Good)

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Startup Funding: The Fund-Raising Game Has Changed - 7 Ways To Raise Money For Your Business In 2012

Startup Funding: The Fund-Raising Game Has Changed - 7 Ways To Raise Money For Your Business In 2012 | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

From the article intro: "Startup funds will be harder to come by in 2012, according to hundreds of venture capitalists polled in a recent survey by the National Venture Capital Association.


...


In spite of the gloomy funding forecasts, there's still hope for entrepreneurs in need of cash in 2012.


In fact, small-business financing options outside the venture capital industry are rapidly proliferating in the digital age.


With just a few clicks, anyone can pitch a business idea to the growing ranks of angel investors.


In addition, a number of Web services now provide platforms for entrepreneurs to raise small sums of money from large pools of people -- a process known as crowdfunding.


Even Congress is showing deference toward the Internet's capacity to connect businesses with capital, as lawmakers weigh rule-changes that would allow entrepreneurs to use social networks to sell stakes in their startups. (Under current securities law, entrepreneurs can only solicit donations.)


Still, a large share of startup funds continues to flow from the old-fashioned lender that small-business owners love to hate: banks.


...


So regardless of whether you run a tech startup on the hunt for strategic Silicon Valley investors or you own a local restaurant that's in need of nothing more than a simple bank loan, entrepreneurs must recognize that in the new year, the fund-raising game has changed."


Here are the new ways to raise in 2012:

1. Banks

2. Crowdfunding

3. Contest and Accelerator Programs

4. Online Pawn Shops

5. Friends and Family

6. Angel List

7. Revenue-Based Financing


Fibd out more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/23/startup-funding-7-ways-to-raise-money-in-2012_n_1161801.html#s563590&title=Banks 

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"Totally Customer Centric" - The New Startup Model: Nail It Then Scale It

"Totally Customer Centric" - The New Startup Model: Nail It Then Scale It | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

Great piece, excellent advice and strategy!

 

"I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers."

 

Here's the bottomline:

 

At the heart of it, to be a successful entrepreneur you have to be totally customer centric, and learn to change and adapt as fast as the market. The pace of change in the marketplace is escalating, so entrepreneurs have to improve their ability to deal with change.

 

At the same time, more entrepreneurs are jumping into the fray, and less money is available from investors. It’s time for a new startup model. In my view, savvy “super angel” investors such as Mike Maples, Jr., and leading incubators such as Y Combinator, are already on this one. How far behind is your startup?

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2011/09/18/adopt-the-new-startup-model-nail-it-then-scale-it/


Via janlgordon, Tom George
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Startup Gurus Suck: Talk To a Fox Next Time You're Looking for Advice

Startup Gurus Suck: Talk To a Fox Next Time You're Looking for Advice | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

Startups and bad predictions

Robin Good's insight:



Andrew Chen asks why we are so bad at predicting successful startups. He writes: "...we’re all so bad at predicting what will work and what won’t. I’ve written about my embarrassing skepticism about Facebook, but hey, I’m just a random tech guy.


For the folks whose job it is to professionally pick winners, the venture capitalists, they aren’t doing very well either.


It’s been widely noted that the venture capital asset class, after fees, has lagged the public markets- you’d be better off buying some index funds."


In his view, much of the disappointing results are due to the "generic startup advice" being offered online. He writes that generic principles cannot be effectively applied to all situations. And he is right.


But more than anything Andrew stops at analyzing what are the kind of people who often provide such predictions and strategic advice:


"[There are] two categories: hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea and foxes who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea."


"...Silver clearly identifies as a fox, and contrasted his approach to the talking head pundits that dominate political talk shows on TV and radio. For the pundits, the more aggressive, contrarian, and certain they seem, the more attention-grabbing they are.


Rather similar to what we see in the blogosphere, where people are rewarded for writing headlines like “10 reasons why [hot company] will be killed by [new product].” Or “Every startup should care about [metric X]” or whatever."


"The solution to all of this isn’t easy- to be a fox means to draw from a much broader set of data, to look at the problem from multiple perspectives, and to reach a conclusion that combines all of those datapoints."


"Over my 5 years in Silicon Valley, the biggest lesson I’ve learned from trying to predict startups is calibration. They talk about it in the video above, but the short way to describe it is to be careful with what you think you know versus what you don’t."



Insightful. Right on the mark. 8/10


Full article: http://andrewchen.co/2013/04/08/why-are-we-so-bad-at-making-startup-predictions/


(Image credit: Red fox - Shutterstock)



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Why Startups Fail? Harvard Professor Analyzes Nine Years Worth of Data

Why Startups Fail? Harvard Professor Analyzes Nine Years Worth of Data | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

Robin Good: Interesting article on the New York Times reporting on the analysis done by Prof. Noam Wasserman, who has been hunting for many years to identify the reasons why startups and those who lead them fail so often.


Having recently published his findings in a book entitled “The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup” he has shared with Jessica Burder of the NYT some interesting insight from his research.

Here a few of interesting thing Prof. Wasserman has discovered:


a) Startup partnerships done with friends, relatives or family are very risky.


b) Dividing equity very early in the game is not a good idea.

c) CEO replacement is organic, especially if you have a good one.




Quite interesting. 7/10


To find out the reasons why, check the full article here: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/a-harvard-professor-analyzes-why-start-ups-fail/?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss 

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Why Startups Fail - 20 Top Reasons Gleaned from 32 Startup Failure Post-Mortems

Why Startups Fail - 20 Top Reasons Gleaned from 32 Startup Failure Post-Mortems | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

An analysis of 32 startup failure post-mortems to identify the top 20 reasons for startup failure. Learn how you can avoid failure through these lessons.


Via Flavian Mihai
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How To Create a Million-Dollar Business In a Weekend: Noah Kagan

How To Create a Million-Dollar Business In a Weekend: Noah Kagan | Online Business Models | Scoop.it

Excerpted from the article: "Noah Kagan built two multi-million dollar online businesses before turning 28. 


Mr. Noah has quite the start-up resume.

He was employee #30 at Facebook, #4 at Mint, had previously worked for Intel (where he frequently took naps under his desk), and had turned down a six-figure offer from Yahoo.


...Noah’s helped create Gambit, an online gaming payment platform and a multi-million dollar business; and AppSumo, loved by entrepreneurs and moms everywhere...


The purpose of this post is simple: to teach you how to get a $1,000,000 business idea off the ground in one weekend, full of specific tools and tricks that Noah has used himself.


He will be your guide…"


....


"I’m going to suggest is that you start with a much simpler essence of your product over the course of a weekend, rather than wasting time building something for weeks… only to discover no one wants it."


Here the key steps:


Step 1: Find your (profitable) idea


Step 2: Find $1,000,000 worth of customers


Step 3: Assess your customer’s value


Step 4: Validate your idea


Read the full article (full examples and references) here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/09/24/how-to-create-a-million-dollar-business-this-weekend-examples-appsumo-mint-chihuahuas/ 


(Curated by Robin Good)

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