Prioritizing Your Target Market Niches
Cheryl Downing suggests you explore three market niches to find your target market niche.
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Another Perspective on Paul Saffo’s Talk Aug 28
Two days ago I attended the Churchill Club breakfast presentation featuring Paul Saffo. It was a very insightful and thought provoking talk that revolved around his Harvard Business Review article “Six Rules for Effective Forecasting.” From his talk I took away three points You can’t predict the future! I don’t care if it succeeds or
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By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09
Last night I attended a BayChi event held at the PARC auditorium. This presentation featured Guy Kawasaki, Founder of Truemors and Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures. His presentation was titled “By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09.” You can find the entire
Ready, Set, Launch: Taking the Product to Market
This evening, I attended the SVPMA event featuring Chris Shipley Co-Founder and Chairman, Guidewire Group, Inc. The title of the presentation was Ready, Set, Launch: Taking the Product to Market. Surprisingly, Chris brought two additional speakers with her; Steve Larsen, Co-founder and CEO of Krugle and Arya Barirani, Marketing Manager, HP Software Global Campaigns. This
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Founder’s Story: An EDA Acquisition During the DotCom Boom
This is another joint project we did with Ann Marcus because she is such an effective interviewer. Last month she sat down with Mike Bitzko, currently CEO of CadPlex, to get his founder’s point of view of getting acquired (when he was CEO of Concurrent CAE Systems) at the peak of the dotcom boom and
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Editorial Coverage: The Times They Are A-changing
Which resource do you prefer to obtain information; print or on-line? This morning I attended an interactive DAC debate that touched on the issues on the shift from print media to on-line publishing. Below is my summary of the topics and discussions of the presentation titled Editorial Coverage: The Times They Are A-changing. Moderator: Scott
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DAC Panel Presentation: EDA Exit Strategies: What’s Next?
This morning I attended a panel discussion on EDA Exit Strategies: What’s Next? This presentation was given at DAC on the Pavilion Show Floor. It was a one hour interactive discussion between the panelists and the audience. Below is my take on the two most interesting discussions. Moderator: Kathryn Kranen – Jasper Design Automation, Inc.,
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InfoWorld: Social Media and B-to-B; Over-hyped or Under-executed
This morning I attended the InfoWorld Media Group Technology Breakfast, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The topic was: “Social Media and B-to-B; Over-Hyped or Under-Executed”. Below is my summary of the question and answer discussion. Moderator: Paul Calento, SVP/Strategic Development InfoWorld Panelists: David Hahn, Director, Advertising Products, Linkedin Virginia Hines, Vice President, General Manager,
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Office 2.0 Opportunities and Challenges
Today, while at the Software 2007 conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center, I attended a great Breakout Session on Office 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges. The session was comprised of four CEO’s, one moderator and three panelist. Below is my summary of the presentation. Question to the panel: What is Office 2.0? Ken Rudin, CEO
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Plug and Play Expo Startup Pitches
Are you trying to raise venture capital? If so, the Plug and Play Tech Center Expo is the place to be. The full day agenda included presentations from thirty-one companies to a panelist of investors from Norwest Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Foundation Capital, Amidzad Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. The Expo consisted of two parts;
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Lessons Learned by Jason Feinsmith at Accomplice
Jason Feinsmith advises entrepreneurs to fail cheaply, to seek investment only after you have revenue, and to update product plans weekly.
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Rich Mironov: Service-Model Thinking for Product-Model Folks
This evening I attended “Are You a Chef or Are You a Grocer?” an SVPMA event featuring Rich Mironov. It was an excellent presentation on SaaS (Software as a Service) business models. Mironov outlined four components as key to a successful SaaS offering: Build a multi-tenant infrastructure Manage for slower incremental sales Commit to continuous marketing Get
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SDForum Startup SIG: Interim CEO’s featuring Mark Lazar
Tonight I attended the SDForum Startup SIG, featuring Mark Lazar. Mark is a highly experienced chief executive with a proven record in successfully growing and managing companies in the software and telecommunication industries. Mark is usually attracted to opportunities where a company needs help in accelerating growth or turn around. Mark holds both a BA
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Building A Great Product Roadmap: Eric Walczykowski, Deloitte Ventures
Product roadmaps are entirely driven by solving problems for your customers. Start by asking your customer, “how can we help you?”
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March Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup
Last night I attended the Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup. Below is my opinion of the companies, the presentation, and my attempt to capture the content from the questions and answers. The first presentation was given by MyThings, a website that allows you to catalog your belongings on-line. The site was first used as a service called
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SDForum Quarterly Venture Breakfast with PWC’s: Seed Investments
This morning I attended the SDForum Quarterly Venture Breakfast with PWC’s Seed Investment Report given by Steve Bengston from Emerging Company Services (ECS) group at PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the United States, last year the reported amount of VC investments totaled to $25.5B. Of the 25.5B, 1.2B was invested at the seed stage across 311 companies. Moderator
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VC Investment in Asia and What It Means to Korea
Tonight I attended a KIN / KASE Event: VC Investment in Asia and What It Means to Korea. The guest speakers were Han Kim, Partner at Altos Ventures and Tae Hea Nahm, Partner at Storm Ventures. I have heard many VC’s speak on how they evaluate investment opportunities and what their criteria for investing is.
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2 Disruptive Trends: Open Source & SaaS
Last night, I attended the SDForum Business Intelligence SIG. The guest speaker was Barry Klawans, CTO of JasperSoft who spoke on 2 Disruptive Trends: Open Source & SaaS. From Barry’s talk I learned: The advantages vs. disadvantages of SaaS (Software as a Service) The similarities between SaaS and Open Source How to leverage open source
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Pixar’s Ed Catmull Highlights Value of Post Mortems
The Annual Stanford Entrepreneurship Conference featured Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, as its keynote speaker. Ed gave a great presentation on lessons learned from structurally organizing a company for effective communication across its departments. In the beginning, Ed believed they had created a very strong culture at Pixar. They had paired up programmers
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Going Solo or Partnering Panel: Stanford E-Conference
Today I attended the 2007 Entrepreneurship Conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. One session that I truly enjoyed and found very informative was the “Going Solo or Partnering” Panel. Going Solo or Partnering Panel: Stanford E-Conference Below are three questions and answers I believe capture the importance of developing a solid team. Moderator Andy
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