Qwikifits in well with Yahoo‘s recent acquisition history: It’s a mobile-first startuppriced under $ 100 million. Yahoo has acquired more than a dozen startups fitting this description, shutting down their respective apps and diverting engineering resources to Yahoo‘s expanding portfolio of mobile apps.
The big exception to that trend is, of course, Tumblr, which Yahooacquired last month for north of $ 1 billion and promises to run as a separate business. Read more…
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.
The opening of your investorpitch is critical. Flounder and you might lose a venture capitalist‘s attention from the start. Here are fivemissteps VCs look out for when sitting down with entrepreneurs.
Choosing an office space in a strategic locale can help grow your business. Here are six factors to keep in mind when considering where to base your business.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.
“I paid someone $ 5,000.00 to build me a website (along with $ 150 per month to maintain it), now that I want to look after the website myself, the guy tells me he owns my website and was only loaning it to me.” – Anonymous
This scenario may not be identical to one that you’ve experienced, but the underlying theme may sound familiar! Did you complete work for a client who never paid, have you hired a developer that never wrote a line of code, did a supplier forget to share really important details, did a JV (joint venture) partner simply not do what they promised, or did your manufacturer fail to build your prototype to spec?
What do you do when you’ve been duped in business? Getting screwed over in business is frustrating — to say the least. Besides reacting in lunatic fashion, many entrepreneurs are left feeling jilted and gun-shy when the next opportunity crosses their path.
Instead, consider it a lesson learned, move on and conduct business more wisely than you did before. And thankfully there are specific steps you can take, in the future, to not get duped!
“Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!” Here are ten practical steps you can take to protect your downside in business (i.e. limit potential loss that would result from things not going as planned):
1. Expect the best, but plan for the worse.
If you are like me, you may have a higher than normal propensity towards altruism, but this shouldn’t masquerade as a free pass to lose sight of due diligence. Should you expect the best in life and business? Absolutely. But be wise and plan for the worse — undesirable outcomes and situations that will be out of your control. This is what active risk management is truly about in business. If proverbial **** were to hit the fan, how would you protect your downside?
2. Remember: a verbal contract is not worth the paper it’s written on.
Do you feel really good about Sally’s promise to do the work? Are you simply in love with David’s sense of humor and commitment to your business? That’s great. You really do want people in your corner that you like, those who foster trust, but life happens. Sally may decide she’d rather jet set to Indonesia in lieu of finishing your project. David may over-promise and put your plans on the back-burner.
Once upon a time, a handshake would seal the deal. Sadly, this is no longer the case. Generally, most people do have good intentions, but you shouldn’t let expectations guide your engagement strategy. ”Life does not obey our expectations. Life obeys our intentions, in ways we may notexpect.” (Author unknown)
So, before you engage new partners or opportunities put expectations in writing. Consider it your new modus operandi.
3. Do your homework.
Never let time constraints or warm and fuzzy feelings prevent you from doing your homework. Vet suppliers, check partnership references, and remain informed. If you hire a company to develop a mobile app, it would be wise to know what a mobile app “is” and to learn the basics so you can carry on an an intelligent conversation.
I never conduct projects without first gaining a basic understanding of what I want to accomplish and what it will take. Candidly speaking, when you are informedno one can spit in your face and call it rain.
4. Create a scope of work (SOW) document.
When you become an entrepreneur you become a project manager. One of the easiest ways to protect the downside of your projects is to set clear expectations. This is where a SOWdocument comes into play. For all intensive purposes a SOW a) addresses the work to be done b) ensures its performance and c) reiterates everyone’s comprehension.
A well-crafted SOW can force clarity, eliminate gray areas, simplify a large project by phases, keep things on track (with milestones) and prevent a ton of back and forth. Most importantly, it will keep everyone accountable.
5. Develop requests for proposals (RFPs).
Large corporations utilize RFPs and so should your small business. An RFP represents your solicitation, often through a bidding process, when interested in procuring a service. It’s a great way to standardize incoming proposals, consolidate data, compare vendor information and gain greater industry insight.
Issuing an RFP can also keep cost centers in check. However, RFPs shouldn’t be used to institute bidding wars, but they will help you make more informed business decisions.
Staying on top of your competitor’s marketing tactics is key if you want to be ahead of the game. But you don’t need a big budget to do it. Here are six easy ways to stay in the know.
The startup scene today is an overcrowded space where companies are constantly vying for talent. But hiring talented people is only the first step in cultivating an innovative and creative environment. Building a workplace where there is a constant exchange of ideas involves finding the right formula for your company and culture.
You can’t force creativity, but the right setting will put your team in the right frame of mind to find imaginative solutions. Here are six ideas to help cultivate creativity in your company:
1. Be easygoing.
A relaxed and flexible work environment increases your team’s productivity by letting ideas flow. Encourage an atmosphere where the boss is more likely to make you a coffee than expect you to make them one.
Let go of the traditional 9-5 work week and have team members come in to work when they are rested and at their best. Not everyone is an early bird, and that’s good! Embrace your employees’ natural rhythm — they’ll show up to work fresh and ready to go.
2. Hire for culture.
Look for team members who understand your vision and align with your culture. Having a team that shares one vision and works together helps the organization run smoothly. This doesn’t mean only hiring people who always agree with you, though. Encourage different perspectives — it will help your company stay ahead of the curve.
3. Bring on people who love what they do.
Hire people that are passionate about their work. You want people at your company who really care; people who are excited to go to work everyday because they believe in the product. Adding people that want to improve your product will be the most beneficial for your company.
Point #2 goes hand-in-hand with this one. It’s far more pleasant to work alongside interesting, friendly, and driven people working towards the same goals.
4. Encourage diversity.
Put together a team with different backgrounds, passions, and capabilities. Having a group with a diverse set of ideas and problem-solving approaches helps push your product forward. Embrace and celebrate your team members’ individuality — out-of-the-box ideas and problem-solving approaches help push your product forward.
5. Incorporate sprints
The hustle and bustle of daily office life can wreak havoc on your concentration: emails, phones, meetings — the distractions are endless. That’s where a “sprint,” a set amount of time in which your team works to finish a project, can be the solution.
Startups develop quickly in the early stages because everyday interruptions are at a minimum. When your company has started to grow into individual teams, having them work in a remote location surrounded by nature is a great way to center your focus and take up a project from start to finish.
6. Take ample time off.
Communicate how important taking vacation is. Our brains are constantly on and connected, taking time off for some R&R is crucial for a healthy work/life balance. Wore-down workaholics don’t produce the highest quality content, you want your employees to be fresh and excited to be at work. Convey to your employees how important time off is — and make it non-negotiable.
There are plenty of roadblocks your team will have to overcome to breakthrough in your industry; the company’s work environment shouldn’t be one of them. Reimagine what “work” should look like, and you’ll be surprised at the impact it will have on your team’s energy and creativity. The best takeaway for your employees? They won’t be boxed in by rigid rules and can focus on building the next game-changing feature instead.
What’s your favorite way of breaking the mold?
Christian Springub started his first business at the age of 12 buying and reselling kinder suprise collectible toys at flea markets. Three years later he switched to creating websites for small business in his hometown with Fridtjof. Christianmoved to San Francisco in 2011 to build Jimdo in the USA.
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.
Pinterest is rubbing up against the limits of its own overmodest acceptable usage policy. The social site that lets people share images of things they really dig has told the FT it plans to allow more nude images to be pinned by users — followingcomplaints from artists and photographers about its current nudes ban.
However the company told the FT yesterday that it is planning to loosen its top button when it comes to arty nudes. “Pinterest is about expressing your passions and people are passionate about art and that may include nudes. So we’re going to try to accommodate that,” it told the newspaper.
More to the point, it may not have much choice. Search for art nudes on Pinterest and there’s no shortage of artistic nude — and frankly just scantily clad — content already being pinned. So the site may well simply be responding to what its users are already doing.
Policing user generated content is always a huge challenge — and one which Facebook has recently found itself falling foul of as a result of gender-based hatred posts. That social network was targeted by an anti-sexism campaigning organisation for failing to remove violently misogynistic posts that incite rape and sexual hatred.
The campaigning organisation, the Everyday Sexism Project, targetedFacebook advertisers whose ads were appearing next to the offensive posts, urging them to pull their ads until the content was removed. Various advertisers did so, and earlier this week Facebook’s Safety team posted an update saying it intends to review and update its guidelines for identifying and removing gender-based hate speech. So, while user generated content may be a low cost way to power your business, it can also clearly cause serious damage if it’s not managed correctly.
Returning to Pinterest, the site’s focus on imagery makes it a natural home for people with an interest in art — and that makes its current acceptable usage policy a bit too inflexible. There’s no editing out the human form from art history, so liberating acceptable usage by allowing some nudity makes a lot of sense. The challenge will be for Pinterest to keep things clean enough that it doesn’t put off swathes of its less arty, more home-makery focused users — who want to see pins of cupcakes, not, y’know, cupcake.
We’ve reached out to Pinterest to ask how specifically it plans to amend and police a new, more nude-friendly policy — without opening the floodgates to more hardcore adult material — and will update this story with any response.
