Too small to fail: The partnership-driven nature of fintech startups

By Houston Frost May 22, 2013

In the last quarter-century or so that has made up the digital revolution, one universal axiom has held true: evolve or die. Record labels were too busy suing pirates in the 1990s to adapt their business model to the digital world, newspapers were consigned to the recycle bin of history after failing to convert the economics of print to the...

Data, heart, virality, and leadership: Five tips for today’s entrepreneurial journey

By Dan Levitan May 22, 2013

Digital communications and social media have empowered consumers, whose voices can be heard loud and clear. As has always been the case, the fate of a business is often determined by how well it generates consumer delight. However, these new platforms have provided consumers a bully pulpit like never before. Early stage companies able to react quickly to customer feedback...

Memo to this year’s YC class: It’s damn hard to build an enterprise company

By Ben Sesser May 21, 2013

Among VCs and entrepreneurs like myself, there’s a lot of talk about the recent pivot from consumer startups to enterprise software. It seems that many young founders have now decided they’d rather start the next Box, not the next Facebook. The shift to enterprise is a bit of the “tail wagging the dog.” The poor short-term performance of a few consumer IPOs like...

Yahoo didn’t buy Tumblr. They bought Tumblr’s market position

By Christopher Lochhead May 20, 2013

Critics of Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr think buying a company with little revenue for $1.1 billion dollars is dumb. They argue Yahoo is paying too high of a premium, based on Tumblr’s financials. These critics do not understand what Yahoo is buying. The rationale for this acquisition cannot be plugged into a spreadsheet. Yahoo isn’t buying revenue, profits or even technology....

Dave McClure is no male chauvinist

By Ondi Timoner May 19, 2013

In case you missed it, Dave McClure has been under fire for a comment he made at Big Omaha, a Nebraska-based innovation conference. The founder of 500 Startups was giving a lecture at the conference, when he asked a woman in the audience how the battery life was on her iPhone. “It’s fine,” she said, to which Dave replied, “You...

The Apathy Epidemic: Why your startup will suck you dry

By Peter Shallard May 17, 2013

With entrepreneurs, there’s rarely a lack of drive, at least in the beginning. After a while, though, as your idea matures into an actual startup, apathy can rears its ugly head. Almost every entrepreneur experiences this, though is usually loathe to admit it. It might present itself as a slow decline in motivation, with each day feeling a little less...

Why you’re not spending enough to acquire customers

By Jordan Elkind May 9, 2013

Bottom line, you’re not spending enough on customer acquisition. This might seem a bold claim. After all, with competition increasing as the e-commerce market tops $200 billion, marketing managers are finding it more and more expensive to acquire customers. As a result, many are trying to minimize cost pre acquisition (CPA). This is a bad idea. The reason that online retailers...

The C in CEO should stand for “custodian of the vision”

By Justin Yoshimura May 8, 2013

Up until a couple years ago, I equated the job of CEO with serving the needs of various stakeholders (customers, employees, investors, etc.). Like most CEOs, I learned that it’s virtually impossible to serve all of these, at times, competing interests. Not only is it impossible to please everyone but many stakeholders are notoriously short-sighted and reactionary. They’re like a...

Forget City Hall, the insurance industry is what could really help the sharing economy

By James R. Fisher May 7, 2013

Understanding risk has been my life’s work. Over the past 36 years, I have spent time in all varieties of insurance: reinsurance, personal and commercial lines, accident, health, and more. I’ve seen all sides of the business, as a CEO, CFO, Director, and investor. Recently, however, I’ve tracked with interest the emergence of the collaborative economy. The efficiencies that marketplaces...

The real reason software sucks and how to fix it

By Bob Gower May 6, 2013

Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth. —Mike Tyson It was at one of my first gigs as a product manager — for a telecom startup in Oakland CA called MaestroConference — that I learned the importance of planning for surprises. Every few days someone would come in with an urgent need for the product —...