Steve Jobs once said: "It's rare that you see an artist in his thirties and forties able to really contribute something amazing". Yet in his forties and beyond he went on to reinvent the music industry model, mobile phones, computers (again) and books.
Neil Perkin entrepreneurship ageThe crowdfunding phenomenon, which has already helped thousands of artistic and cultural projects go public, is now crossing over into the world of venture capital and the financing of startup companies. The only problem is that, until now, it has been illegal to invest as little as $100 at a time into a new startup without first being an accredited investor.
Dominic Basulto venture capital crowdfunding entrepreneurshipGuest Post by: Guy Kawasaki
Over the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.
entrepreneurship fundraising Guy KawaskiJason Fried, CEO of 37signals, knows a thing or two about small business. His company has been developing apps for small businesses for seven years. But it’s how he runs his own company that reveals his keen insight for how to be a successful small business.
Denise Lee Yohn small business entrepreneurship organisational behaviour corporate culture value creationHave you noticed that something in the digital zeitgeist has changed the way we think about creativity and commerce? Artists are no longer just “artists” - they are now entrepreneurs, marketing gurus and branding experts, all rolled up into one. You can thank creative “crowdfunding” sites like Kickstarter and RocketHub for that.
artists creativity crowdfunding Dominic Basulto entrepreneurshipFred Wilson tells the story in this extraordinary post of how his investment company, Union Square Ventures, missed the opportunity to invest in Airbnb, one of my favourite peer-to-peers. At the time, the founders had ideas but the service was still a marketplace for air mattresses on people's floors. It was, he says, the classic investor's mistake of focusing too much on what the business were doing at the time and "not enough on what they could do, would do, and did do".
entrepreneurship failure Neil Perkin start-ups venture capitalistThere was an Economist piece on Innovation a while back on Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble's new book “The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge”, dealing largely with innovation in established companies. There's much focus on ideas generation these days, perhaps more so than on what innovation really is: the commercialisation of those ideas. The perspiration stuff, not the inspiration stuff.
entrepreneurship innovation mavericks Neil Perkin organisation behaviour problem solving peopleInnovation is an oft-used but oft-misunderstood word. Legendary journalist, editor and author Sir Harold Evans gave a lecture at the RSA a few days ago on the 'spirit' of innovation - what makes for successful innovation and what we can learn from some of the great innovators - the inventors and the entrepreneurs who took risks, were often met with disdain, but who originated transformational technologies, products and services. He talked about the myth of the lone inventor. The trouble with the 'Eureka Myth', as he calls it, is that it
big idea entrepreneurship innovation invention Neil PerkinIn his presentation at the Behance 99% Conference in New York, venture capitalist Fred Wilson outlined his views on ten different types of entrepreneurial models for the modern Internet economy. These range the gamut from the single-person Sole Proprietorship (Matt Drudge) to the Project (James Cameron's Avatar) to the Breakout (Foursquare) to the Company (Twitter).
entrepreneurship Dominic Basulto venture capitalist startups[Nuts & Bolts is a new category focusing on basic business practices for the entrepreneur or established business. Look for new Nuts & Bolts posts approximately weekly.]
I saw my brother-in-law over the holiday, and he mentioned a friend who had started a business selling duck calls. This friend was having trouble collecting from his retailer customers, with the result that he had outstanding receivables of $20,000. Did I have any advice as to how he could collect better?
John Caddell small business entrepreneurship payment
