Startup Genome Project Aims to Crack the Innovation Code Just as the Human Genome Project aimed to crack the human code, the Startup Genome Project hopes to be able to drill down into some of the details of what it's calling the "innovation code." The project has launched a survey to investigate "the science of startups," lessons from which it plans to incorporate into blackbox, a new seed accelerator that was created with the merger of techVenture, Cofounder Network, Founders First and Startup School. "Despite the supreme economic importance of scalable startups, we still don't understand the patterns of successful creation," say the project organizers. "More than 90% of startups fail, due predominantly to self-destruction rather than competition. For the less than 10% of startups that do succeed, most encounter a handful of near death experiences along the way." The Startup Genome Project aims to measure a number of factors that may contribute to startups' success or failure, including design, customer development, market.
Constitution Day: An Opportunity for Empowering Students to Think Critically Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesLaird Monahan walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial past a giant banner printed with the Preamble to the United States Constitution during a demonstration against the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling on Oct. 20, 2010.Go to related 2010 blog post » Sept. 17 is Constitution Day, the day when the writers at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the United States Constitution in 1787. Dust is far from gathering on this 225-year-old document, however (not least because it is preserved in the highly protected, temperature-regulated National Archives case): The Constitution influences our lives, schools and government every single day. Each school day is an opportunity to make the Constitution relevant in your classroom by empowering students to research big questions, think critically, defend their arguments with evidence and speak their opinions with the protections that the Constitution entitles us. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
When To Pivot In A Startup? [Lean Startups] I was recently talking to an early stage startup who actually started off with a big bang and are now revisiting the product. The team basically needs to explore if they started off on a ‘wrong’ note or they should just keep on going. “When to Pivot” is a very difficult question to answer, but here are a few early signs that you need to keep looking. a. Hypothesis. First build a hypothesis around the core of your product (“People want to write short messages/get instant gratification” Twitter’s probable hypothesis before the first release). After the first release, ask yourself if your hypothesis stands correct and you are close to the reality? b. “Startups that succeed are those that manage to iterate enough times before running out of resources” -Eric Ries After all, it’s a high speed chase game and as an entrepreneur, you are simply running against time/resources. As a startup, track metrics like a ninja and track the important ones (and not the only ones that are going up). c.
Democracy Web | Welcome to Democracy Web Crowdsourced Marketplaces – Only $250 and a huge payoff I just upped my pledge to $250 to put a remarkable Kickstarter project over the top. Symbionomics, stories of a new economy is high concept, with systemic change as its goal. I am a serial startup and turnaround entrepreneur with a record of seven out of eight successful companies become a professional investor (after selling several companies you realize every company is a future’s contract). The Hub Bay Area has recently raised enough money from high net worth individuals and family foundations to start a seed fund for startup entrepreneurs working out of the two hubs we operate, the large and expanding one in San Francisco and the smaller one in Berkeley where we started. That money came from people like Lloyd Elder, who built Google’s infinitely scalable server network. We have a latent element of crowdsourced funding in our new HubCap seed fund, that my partner Tim Freundlich, a true genius, has devised using his Giving Assets platform that he spun out of Calvert.
128 Civics Questions and Answers with MP3 Audio (2020 version) Listed below are the 128 civics questions and answers with audio files for the 2020 version of the civics test. These questions cover important topics about American government and history. The civics test is an oral test and the USCIS officer will ask you to answer 20 out of the 128 civics test questions. On the civics test, some answers may change because of elections or appointments. Although USCIS is aware that there may be additional correct answers to the civics questions, applicants are encouraged to respond to the questions using the answers provided below. 65/20 Special Consideration If you are 65 years old or older and have been living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident of the United States for 20 or more years, you may study just the 20 questions that have been marked with an asterisk (*) found at the end of each question. Listen to all 128 questions and answers (MP3, 65.62 MB) A: Principles of American Government 1. 2. (U.S.) 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Twenty-seven (27)
HOW TO: Sign Up Users Even Before You Launch Your Startup Shane Snow is a Mashable contributor and co-founder of Contently.com, an “agile publishing” platform for brands and professional bloggers. In April, “stealth” social media startup Kohort announced its upcoming launch. Within a few days, the site received thousands of user signups, according to its founder Mark Davis. In the startup world, this itself perhaps isn’t uncommon, but what made Kohort’s story unique is the fact that those thousands of users had no idea what Kohort was when they signed up. To this day, the purpose of the site is still secret. It may not matter to you what Kohort is or isn’t, nor whether stealth is good or bad. Kohort is not alone, or even lucky, in its ability to break through the startup-launching, consumer-pitching chaos. 1. In order to collect user information, you need a place for users to sign up. LaunchRock gives startups a turnkey solution for a custom coming soon page that allows users to sign up for updates and share the fact that they did so. 2. 3. 4.
5 Best Blogs to Announce a New Start-up Announcing a new business start-up is an exciting adventure for the small business entrepreneur. To maximize exposure, he should announce his site to as many portals, forums, blogs, and sites as possible. Sounds like a good idea, right? # 1 – Killer Start-ups The site at KillerStartups.com is a user-driven community of Internet start-ups. The site uses a hardy blog platform that is very successful in creating a buzzing social networking environment. # 2 – Sun Start-up Essentials Sun Start-Up Essentials has a comprehensive program that is useful in helping entrepreneurs get started in business. A discount on servers, desktops, and storage.A choice of operating systems: Windows, Linux, or Solaris. # 3 – TechDay This informative website provides a comprehensive list of start ups and their area(s) of business or technology. # 4 – Crunchbase Crunchbase.com is a free database for technology people, organizations, and investors. # 5 – Startupmeme Feature image, courtesy Brajeshwar.com Like this:
The ABCs of Startup Marketing If you're new here or just an old friend, I'd love it if you subscribed via RSS feed. Thanks for taking time out of your day to come hang out here! 0inShareinShare Anyone that has worked the startup life before knows how different and difficult it can be and how important marketing and lead generation is to the survival of the company. Especially when you’re first starting out, the win of a single customer could be what pays the light bill for the month or the loss of a single customer could be enough to put the company on life support. For those of you reading this who work at a startup, if there were a set of tips from a successful startup that would help you be a better marketer at your company, you’d want to know about it, right? Recently Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot spoke at Atlassian Starter Day in San Francisco about startup marketing. I think you’ll find this presentation really useful as it has all sorts of actionable nuggets hiding inside of it.