What is the future for tech VCs in Europe?

Mike Butcher | TechCrunch UK

"What is becoming clear is that there is a new generation of younger VCs in the business who actually “get” what is going on online. A typical age for them might be early to mid 30s, which means they have grown up with the Web."

How to do business like the Mafia

Clare Longrigg reports on the letters of jailed Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano | World news | The Guardian

"The letters of jailed Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano are full of insights into his leadership style. The result could be a how-to manual for company directors. Clare Longrigg opens the mafiosi's management handbook"

Top Lessons I’ve Learned From Starting My Company (So Far)

ambient

"Because I just launched my company, I spend a lot of time reading / thinking / discussing with others about what it takes to succeed.

Without having been at it very long I am, nevertheless, beginning to build a philosophy that I think will end up guiding me through the coming years. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far."

OPEN DECISION MAKING

Global Guerrillas - Networked tribes, infrastructure disruption, and the emerging bazaar of violence. An open notebook on the first epochal war of the 21st Century.
By John Robb

"Let's start with an assumption: War is a contest of minds. Therefore, the process of using minds -- decision-making -- is the core process upon which all warfare is built."

Harvard starts teaching open source

The Open Road - The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay - CNET Blogs

"It's about time that United States elite academic institutions finally got around to not only using open-source software, but also teaching it. In the April 2008 edition of Harvard Business Review, Harvard gives its MBA students a taste of the decision facing every company that leverages technology as part of its business (namely, everyone):

Should I embrace or fight open source?"

The Cybercrime Economy

Posted by Thomas Claburn - Security Blog - InformationWeek

"Dot-coms daunted by the financial downturn would be well advised to look to the cybercrime economy.

Cybercriminals "have very sound business models," said Joe St Sauver, manager of Internet2 Security Programs through the University of Oregon at an RSA Conference panel on Wednesday, "better than many corporate business plans I routinely see."

To YC or to VC? That is my question

Written by Denny Miu | FoundRead

"I’m a repeat founder and YCombinator devotee. I’m the wrong age group to apply to YCombinator, but I’ve still learned a lot from the incubator from afar — like, the virtues of micro-loans and “entre-sumers.” This is my story."

Denny Miu is currently writing a new book on entrepreneurship

The following is a list of the chapters that are finished as well as in progress:

10. Why Startups Fail and Why Gigamon Should've Too
9. How to Turn Your VC into Your Worst Enemy
8. What I Learned From My Dad Who Taught Me How To Ride A Bicycle
7. Make Money Then Make Meaning
6. Team Building versus Bread Making
5. Middle Management Gone Wild
4. Marketing is to Sell Shit that You Don't Have
3. How to Turn Orange into the New Black
2. Entrepreneurship and Love Making
1. The Nail that Keeps the Air From Leaking

The Growth Of Collegiate Entrepreneurship

By Steve Spalding | How To Split An Atom

"Collegiate entrepreneurship is indisputably on the rise. More students seem to value the growth of their own assets over assisting the growth of others and are as a result seeking ventures in lieu of jobs. In support of this trend, universities are becoming increasingly encouraging of entrepreneurial activity, launching new programs, competitions, organizations and other initiatives. The results are outstanding: there are nearly 7,500 new startups each year from the top 25 entrepreneurial schools alone."

Does a Business Guy have a Place in Software Startups?

by Tony Wright | - Tony Wright dot com

There is a tremendous amount of venom loosed towards so called “business guys” or “idea guys” (as I’ve called ‘em) in the startup community. They can’t catch a break.

The Case For And Against Software And Business Model Patents

Legal Issues by Mike Masnick | TechDirt

"If the court does effectively create an "exemption" for software and business models, it's setting a dangerous precedent that could be revoked (or gamed). It also could make things worse for all other kinds of patents."

Biznik Connects Independent Business Owners

by Wendy Kaufman | NPR

Morning Edition, April 8, 2008 · A Seattle couple never meant to start a business, but now they're running Biznik, an online network for independent business owners that consistently ranks in the top 10 results for business networking.

A Guide to Business Development 2.0

Written by Alex Iskold - ReadWriteWeb

At least once each day I get a call from someone trying to sell me outsourced development services. It's difficult to not be frustrated with these calls and it is increasingly hard to be polite, because they come so frequently. Yet, more than frustrated, I am just puzzled. Does this tactic still work? Who in this day and age would give business based on a cold call? These companies could definitely use a dose of business development 2.0.

2008 Tech Marketing and Sales Budgets Hit New Lows, says IDC

From Tekrati Research News

"IDC forecasts a 4 percent increase for the average tech vendor marketing budget in 2008, and a 7.9 percent increase for the average tech vendor sales budget in 2008. These budget increases are the lowest that IDC has forecast in the past four years. IDC expects further pressure on IT vendor marketing and sales functions for cost control and productivity increases."

The Web Is Improving Consumer Software By Cutting Out Middlemen

by Timothy Lee, Techdirt, Techdirt Insight Community

"Software that would never have been judged serious enough to put in a box and sell at Best Buy can now carve out a niche in the market by appealing directly to customers."

How to Piss Off Your Users

by Hillel of Jackson Fish Market

"I understand that forcing users to spam their friends is a neat way to get lots of people signed up for an app. However, even putting aside the actual value of people who joined your app through confusion or social engineering, is this really the tone you want to set with your audience?"

Open Source Software Made Developers Cool. Now It Can Make Them Rich

By Daniel Roth for Wired Magazine

"Last spring, marketer and blogger Hugh MacLeod posted a question on his site: If open source is such a phenomenon, where are all the open source billionaires? His audience wasn't amused."

7 ways to raise money for your start-up

VIA www.16thletter.com

"One of the biggest issues with starting a company - and keeping it running - is finding the cash to stay in business. Even if you work hard at saving money, only spending on the things that are necessary, it is fairly likely that there will be a time when you need more capital."

Will Work for Equity - Investing in Clients

Why Arizona Bay started taking stock from its customers instead of cash.
By: Ryan McCarthy

"One of the ways vendors and partners--whose behind-the-scenes assistance often is crucial to a start-up's success--can get a piece of the action is to exchange services for equity.

How Much Money Can a Blog Earn?

by Darren Rowse | ProBlogger
“If my blog has ((insert daily number of impressions or page views of your blog here)) how much should it be earning?”

SSRN-Are Angels Preferred Venture Investors?

BRENT D. GOLDFARB University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business GERARD HOBERG University of Maryland - Department of Finance DAVID KIRSCH University of Maryland ALEXANDER J. TRIANTIS University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business October 1, 2007

Abstract: We examine the impact of business angels on 182 Series A financings and subsequent company outcomes. Our studied rounds have a varied mix of business angel and formal venture capital investors (VCs). We find that when only angels participate in a financing round and VCs are absent, control rights are more entrepreneur-friendly, legal expenses are lower, and investors are more geographically proximate to the company. Such angel-backed companies are less likely to fail and are more likely to have a successful liquidity event. We find that companies financed exclusively by VC investors also perform well, particularly when deals are large. Companies financed by both angels and VCs experience inferior outcomes. Our results suggest that entrepreneurs consider business angels to be preferred investors and VCs investing in small deals face adverse selection. For larger deals, where deeper-pocket VC participation is required, these roles reverse and angels face adverse selection when investing alongside powerful VC syndicates. [repost]

Message for Entrepreneurs

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

Your ad-supported Web 2.0 site is actually a B2B enterprise in disguise

Futuristic Play by Andrew Chen

"Doing a B2C is more fun than a B2B right?

...

The key thing here is: "The users of your website are not really your customers.""

Sense of Urgency

by Matt of jabbik : blog

"Startups are enterprises driven by a vision for a new and/or better product and/or service. They're not driven by dire necessity."

Angel financing - Term sheets (part 2)

by Craig Hayashi in Startup North

"One of the first things a term sheet will outline is the investment mechanism for the deal..."

Angel financing - Term sheets (part 1)

by Craig Hayashi in StartupNorth

"A term sheet is used to outline the main terms under which investors make an investment in your company."

Analysis: Startups That Came Back From The Dead

by Stan Schroeder | Mashable - Social Networking News

"We’ve all seen the usual success story: a 20-something programmer gets an idea, launches a website, and within months he’s already got huge traffic, multi-million dollar exit options and an interview with Wired. All the traffic graphs go straight up without faltering even for a day."

In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop

By MATT RICHTEL - New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.

How to pick the right business partner

David Alison's Blog: Startup 101:
"Picking a partner to go into business with is an interesting challenge, especially when you are just starting out. If you think finding the right life partner and getting married is stressful, think about this: in all likelihood you will be spending nearly double the number of waking hours working with a business partner than you will with your spouse. That's a lot of 'quality time' to spend with a person."