Startup Genome's "Startup Ecosystems"

The following article was just released by the Startup Genome through their Startup Compass newsletter:

Today the Startup Genome released new findings comparing the startup ecosystems in Silicon Valley, New York City and London.

Entrepreneurship is exploding around the world and new ecosystems are springing up everywhere. With the Startup Genome's new initiative on Startup Ecosystems we hope to yield insights for entrepreneurs deciding where to start their company, investors deciding where to allocate their capital, large companies looking for acquisition targets and policy makers who want to make their entrepreneurship ecosystems flourish. The world is in need of economic revival and unleashing a Entrepreneurial Renaissance is our best hope.

You can read about the findings we released today and join the discussion on Tech Crunch here or on Hackernews here.

Please help us spread the word by sharing this message on facebook or tweeting: "Silicon Valley, London, NYC: Startup Genome Data Reveals How The World's Top Tech Hubs Stack Up http://tcrn.ch/lixHpd"

We hope you are as excited as we are about the potential of this project to further democratize entrepreneurship around the world. If you run a software company, do check out the Startup Compass.  In addition to helping you to better allocate your resources, you will be contributing to generating insights that can allow entrepreneurship ecosystems everywhere to flourish.

"Nothing can stop the man 

with the right mental attitude 

from achieving his goal; 

nothing on earth 

can help the man 

with the wrong mental attitude."

Thomas Jefferson

NYC's Annual Entrepreneur Conference

The time has come to register for Startup 2012, NYC's annual entrepreneur conference and business plan competition!


To register, simply click on the image below!

Networks for Business Survival

Our world is less and less about the single pieces of intellectual property and more and more about the networks that help connect these pieces. 

The total stock of information used in these ecosystems exceeds the capacity of single organizations because doubling the size of huge organizations does not double the capacity of that organization to hold knowledge and put it into productive use. 

In a world in which implementing the next generation of ideas will increasingly require pulling resources from different organizations, barriers to collaboration will be a crucial constraint limiting the development of firms. 

Agility, context, and a strong network are becoming the survival traits where assets, control, and power used to rule.

- Joi Ito

5 Great Things Mentors Do

Mentoring is crucial to business success.
Click on the link to read Inc. Magazine's five things to remember when looking for- or being- a mentor.


(Make sure to take note of point number five!)

8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses

Inc. Magazine recently published an article on the 8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses. These were traits that were shared by some of the world's most successful CEO's.


Click here to find out what they were.

Fred Wilson on Employee Equity

Last night was Fred Wilson's first MBA Mondays Live class on Employee Equity. 

Click here to watch the video of the entire class.


Each week Fred will livestream his in-person class, and archive it on his blog site. Be sure to tune in next week!

‎In the modern world of business, 

it is useless to be a creative, original thinker 

unless you can also sell what you create.

David Ogilvy

Free Course by Steve Blank

Udemy is featuring a free course this week by Steve Blank, author of The Startup Owner's Manual, on the necessary checklist points for entrepreneurs starting a business in any vertical. 


Click here to take the course free!

Lessons from Instagram

Instagram's co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger came back to Stanford to speak on the myths of entrepreneurship to students. After Instagram's recent $1 billion buy-out by Facebook, this 15-month old company has grown to over 27 million users. 


Click the link if you are unable to view the video below.

The Startup Owner's Manual by Steve Blank

Check out Steve Blank's new book The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. (Click the link to order it on Amazon).

If you're an entrepreneur with a startup, then you need to know who this man is. Blank's older book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win, spells out the Customer Development model used in numerous startups. He claims that what makes a startup successful is that they uniquely survive those first, make-it-or-break-it years by following a process of "customer learning and discovery", rather than the traditional product development model. 

Create a great product that makes your customers happy, have a successful business.

His new book, The Startup Owner's Manual, is a guide for outlining this Customer Development process when building your startup. It's two main sections, Customer Discovery and Customer Validation, help turn your entrepreneurial vision into a scalable- and repeatable- business model. Meant to be read like a car repair manual rather than a novel, this book will walk you through the entire startup process to "develop winning products customers will buy".

Magical Misty Morning on the Walk of Wisdom

One benefit that you can look forward to on your Walk of Wisdom!  Even on a foggy day, it's still beautiful!

What are you waiting for?  Email me today to schedule your walk with a serial entrepreneur with over 50 years of starting and building businesses from scratch (mostly software related).

Valuing an Early Stage Investment

Everyone wants to know the value of their business at some time in the process of raising money, thinking of selling a small business, or just out of plain old curiosity.


Here's an article about Dave Berkus' method in assessing the value of critical elements of a startup. According to Berkus, these principles can be adopted to any kind of business enterprise.