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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Genieo closes $3 m. in seed funding

[ By israel21c.org ]
Genieo Innovation of Israel, creators of the ultimate home-page personalization engine, announced early this month the closing of US $3 million in seed funding.

Backed by leading private investors, the company is bringing to market the industry's first fully automatically updated and micro behavioral-targeted (MBT) personalized home-page. "Our technology transforms a homepage into a personal assistant" says Miss Sol Tzvi, founder and CEO of Genieo ...


Read here full story - Genieo closes $3 m. in seed funding

Monday, November 23, 2009

Learn to price your software product

For my visitor attention - very interesting article found, - just simple explanation HOW TO price your software product.


[ by Dharmesh Shah - OnStartups ]


I’m going to open this article with a short (and true) story. I officially kicked off my marketing software company, HubSpot, about 17 months ago. If you’ve read my blog for any period of time, you likely know that I’m a big beliver in the “charge early, charge often” mantra. As it turns out, in order to “charge early”, you have to figure out what you’re going to charge people. That is, you have to have a price for your product. Thankfully, both my co-founder (Brian Halligan) and I had recently graduated from a top 5 MBA program. And, it wasn’t just any top 5 program — it was MIT. You know, that place where science and math and uber-geeky analytical stuff happens. So, you’d think that when it came time to figure out a price for our product, we’d really dig in, do some heavy-duty analysis, some really hard thinking and come up with a relatively well thought-out price...



Read here full story - How To Price Software Without Just Rolling The Dice


Monday, September 07, 2009

What is the right age to found venture ...?

[by Vivek Wadhwa - TechCrunch ]
Research that my team conducted, based on a survey of 549 entrepreneurs in high-growth industries, showed that the average founder of a high-growth company launched his venture at age 40. We also learned that these founders are likely to be married and have two or more kids. They typically have six to ten years of work experience and real-world ideas. They simply got tired of working for others and wanted to rise above their middle-class heritage...

Read here full story - When It Comes To Founding Successful Startups, Old Guys Rule


Sunday, September 06, 2009

50 things that are being killed by the internet

[ By Matthew Moore - Telegraph.co.uk ]

...
Your lunchbreak
Did you leave your desk today? Or snaffle a sandwich while sending a few personal emails and checking the price of a week in Istanbul?
...



Interesting article and discussion even more ... >>

Monday, August 31, 2009

The long lost formula for start-up success. No, really

[By Nigel Eccles - Hubdub Ltd]

You know the story. A group of friends come up with an amazing product idea, lock themselves away, code like demons, eat pizza, drink coffee and several months later come out with a prototype. The prototype is good enough to convince some investors, they raise money, build the full product, launch it, users love it, product gets traction, acquirers circle and then founders exit to a large pay-off. They then give media interviews which gets summarised into something that sounds like...


Read here full story - The long lost formula for start-up success. No, really

Monday, August 03, 2009

Three Israeli Femme-preneurs To Keep an Eye On

[ by Roi Carthy - Techcrunch.com ]

...
the fact of the matter is that female entrepreneurs are a rare breed. Let’s all try a mental game together… How many female startup CEO’s can you name off the top of your head? I am embarrassed to say that I have trouble coming up with more than a handful, but I don’t think I am alone.

Here’s what I find strange about all this: I speak to VC’s and private investors regularly, and have never EVER heard anyone comment negatively on deal-flow based on the entrepreneur’s gender. Startups—at least this has been my experience—are weighted on the merits of the product, market and the team, but never on gender. Frankly, I can’t explain why female entrepreneurs are a rare commodity in our industry. (Feel free to enlighten me about the gender bias underpinning the tech industry in comments).

The situation in Israel is not much different. But it should only be the quality that counts… To that end, here are three Israeli female entrepreneurs worth keeping
...


Read here full story - Three Israeli Femme-preneurs To Keep an Eye On



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

... 10 Questions to Ask Before You Join a Startup

[ By Guy Kawasaki - Alltop.com ]
1. How much money do you have in the bank?
2. What is your net outflow per month?
3. What is the post-money valuation of your last round?
4. What can you do that your competitors cannot?
5. What can your competitors do that you cannot?
6. Who are your investors?
7. Who is on your board of directors?
8. Has anyone in the engineering team actually shipped a product?
9. Assume that you have $0 for marketing, how would you market the product?
10. What keeps you awake at night?


For answers read this article ...



Monday, July 20, 2009

Tips For Landing That Startup Dream Job

[By Dharmesh Shah - onstartups.com]
The single most important attribute that many startups look for in recruits is that they get stuff done. You can be the most brilliant engineer/marketer/whatever on the planet, but if you don’t have a tendency to get a lot of stuff done, you’re not an attractive recruit.

The reason is obvious and simple — but I’ll tell you anyways. Startups are a grand exercise in resource-deprivation. There’s always too much work and not enough people.

If the startup team hires you, they want to know that you’re going to put a dent in their workload — not just come up with great ideas for other people to work on ...


Excellent article, highly recommended... >>> Tips For Landing That Startup Dream Job


Sunday, July 19, 2009

Avner Ronen of Boxee on unpacking the way we consume TV

In this interview, Avner discusses the future of TV, the importance of interface design to building a successful product and why Sacha Baron Cohen might be a likely candidate to transform the media’s approach to online.


Wednesday, July 08, 2009

... startup is like a rock and roll band ...



Surfing and reading today about Startups I have found very good comment, I've liked very much and offer to yours attention:




Choosing the people on your core founding team (first four or so) is an important factor in success. They need to be smart, energetic and committed. It helps if they can fill multiple roles at the same time (sell, write software, deliver services and invoice).

I like to say that a startup is like a rock and roll band. You can fail if you don't have the talent, don't produce the right product, egos get out of control or people lose direction.

Get the right people with the right attitude, and you'll have a much better shot.


More, here in excellent post 10 Things Most MBA Schools Won’t Teach You About Startups by onstartups.com



Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Want to get funding? It’s all about research

[By Chris Morris, Entrepreneur Corner]
Video interview: Wendy Lea has worked as a bootstrap entrepreneur, corporate executive, and angel investor over the last 25 years. She joined GetSatisfaction.com as CEO in February. Lea is also the founder of The Chatham Group and an angel investor. Of particular interest to entrepreneurs are her thoughts on what she looks for when deciding where to invest and her advice for entrepreneurs who are looking for start-up capital (about 2 minutes into the clip).




Continue here...

Sunday, June 14, 2009

In continue to previous post...

[By holyexposures.com]

At the meeting we heard from one VC, Blumberg Capital, who specializes in seed round investments of internet companies.
The partner of the firm who spoke, Bruce Tarragin, said that they were closing a deal in Tel Aviv now, and had already closed another deal earlier this quarter.

The Capital Market Bulls Return
There had been several months, since last October, with virtually no dealflow that was actually leading to investment. Now, there seems to be a reawakening of the capital markets. The negative sentiment of the market has been replaced with a feeling that we have already reached bottom, and now there are good ideas out there that are worthy of investment.


Continue here Israel Economy for Start Ups – Signs of Improvement




Thursday, June 11, 2009

Sell High, Buy Low: Israeli Start Ups Get Funded

[By VCCafe.com]

Despite the exit drought, more Israeli start ups have reported to recieve venture rounds from the last 60 days. You’ll notice the common thread: lots of private investor involvement and almost always participation of the previous investors as well.

Read more: >>>


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

10 steps to catch VC cash

[By CNN Money]
Looking for funding for your big idea? Follow our 10-point guide to landing the right investors.


"The entrepreneur is the Pied Piper of a company," says Chip Hazard, general partner at Boston-based Flybridge Capital Partners. "We want an articulate, passionate CEO who can excite others - employees, customers, business partners."
Flybridge joined the syndicate that backed Goby Technologies, a Boston-based search startup that provides comprehensive leisure and travel information in a single site - first with a seed round to build a prototype, then with a multimillion-dollar Series A round to fund longer-term operations. >>>



Saturday, June 06, 2009

Draper helps take companies "prublic"



[By David Lawsky and Anupreeta Das]
"It's an opportunity for an entrepreneur to get a little bit of liquidity and ... for a venture capitalist to either show that these companies have some real value to them or to sell some."

Venture capitalists invest in fledgling companies and hope to make a return several times that investment by taking the company public or selling it to a larger competitor.

There are 85 companies that have had to pull their initial public offerings because of inhospitable markets, Draper said. He said 200 start-up companies of the "highest quality" are ready to participate in the XChange.


Continue here ...



Friday, April 24, 2009

Does anyone still have MySpace?

Looks like Internet community is growing up...

Posters on the wall, teen magazines, boom boxes playing the same stupid songs over and over again (automatically!) - that's not a sustainable situation, by definition. That's teenage living and that's what MySpace built its huge site on. Just like being a teenager, MySpace is something that most people grow out of. Today marked an important point in the internet's move beyond MySpace.


Read more in article by Marshall Kirkpatrick.

In opposite Twitter's domination growth is fantastic - Global Visitors Shoot Up To 19 Million.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Venture Capital Under Attack



The journey to find these ideas has taken me from inventors’ basements, to obscure research labs, to, in one case, a smoky Milwaukee bowling alley renowned for its fried Twinkies. With a lot of hard work and a little luck that journey ends on the floor of a stock exchange, witnessing a company you helped build go public. It’s a helluva ride.


Great article by Adam Grosser with interesting statistics about the value of VCs to economic prosperity. The challenge is - what can be learned from the current financial crisis that will improve the VC industry.

CREATE is a key theme!

Job creation, innovation and new technologies will help lead global economy back to a growing and successful economy. Venture Capital plays an incredibly important role in the global economy, and thanks to VCs (in both time and money), entrepreneurs and start-ups management have indeed been able to grow seedling ideas employing many and driving worldwide competitiveness.

There is a lot to be said for a creative and transformative approach to take the best of what the VC’s do and creatively use it as one of the solutions to rebuild the economy through creation.


Friday, April 17, 2009

We will miss you Yossi ...

Not for Kids!!!
Do not try this at home!!!
For GURUs only...

Monday, April 13, 2009

Today is my birthday

I have grown up…
:-)

Still enjoying my spring holiday till 18/04/2009.
Just a couple interesting talks I like to share with you:

By David Pogue:




and Brody Kenrick:



No comments, just see and enjoy - the sky is the limit ...
Have a great holidays!


Monday, March 23, 2009

Working with Israelis - pros & cons

Funny article found by my “radar” - does generalize on Israelis…
Working with Israelis

The first step in working with Israelis is understanding what motivates them.
The biggest influence on the shaping the Israeli way-of -thought is the Israeli army.
Everyone in Israel joins the army at the age of 18 and leaves the army 3 years later (2 years for women).
This experience shapes the future employee work ethic and attitudes.
When employees in the UK office are given a task - it's a task.
In Israel - it's a mission. Every task is taken with the utmost seriousness. It must get done! Life or Death! Attack!!
Employees in the Israeli office will not go home until the task is done.


The truth about Israelis is that they are not too different from any other nations. There are so many types of them – hard workers and some lazy ones, creative and ungifted, tall and short, fat and thin…
We are all different…

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Failure is just part of the path to success

But it is not the rule ...

Not all failures are equal, explains William H. Davidow, a founding partner in the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures. A company might fail because its timing was bad or because the entrepreneur was a poor manager. Mr. Davidow, who says he would have expected “a higher follow-on success rate for the failed entrepreneurs,” says that an entrepreneur who has failed in a previous venture “would get in the door to talk to me” about a new idea. But, he adds, “I would want to know why that last deal failed, and what the person learned from it.”


More in excellent article Try, Try Again, or Maybe Not.

P.S. Try ... Fail ... (or not) ... and Start-up again ...
:-)

Friday, March 13, 2009

Why things goes wrong?

Start-up, or any other business beginning – is a hard under pressure work, very limited in time frame, so only highly professionally crew have chances to success. Therefore looking back to my personal experience, - I think it is safer to go into business with a work colleague than with a friend. Even you know what you're getting in to - starting a business with a mate may sound like a good idea, but some-time better is just stay friends and save yourself a lot of heartbreak.

I like to share with you excellent article with a lot of useful information packed in - Starting up with a friend (What could possibly go wrong?) by Daniel Tenner.

* Make your agreements explicit so that you don’t break implicit promises
* Detail your agreements so that your promises are clear
* Don’t be afraid of discussing negative scenarios, so that you don’t add the stress of misunderstanding to already bad situations
* Write things down so you’ll remember
* Don’t make things work at all costs, so that you don’t spend the next years living with a deal that’s not acceptable to you
* Don’t assume things will get better with time, so you’re not surprised when they don’t


Making resume, I like to point - whether you going to start new venture or just some web-project/service, - make sure you have a mutually agreed upon, objectively measurable set of criteria for success. And most important point is to write everything down. Regularly measure yours, individual performance and the corporate performance against those criteria to avoid unexpected situations and surprises.

Any business idea, relation between friends, colleagues, clients etc, should be written down also to avoid misunderstanding in the future.

If only I'd read this article before I started my first business, I could have avoided many problems and a lot of stress. I hope someone else does find it useful in their own endeavors.



Saturday, March 07, 2009

Israel Web Tour Seeks Hot New Tech Startups in Israel to Showcase in California

Last time I am very busy being precipitate in couple projects, but still scanning news about Israeli start-ups and technology news. Lot of them I have missed in publishing here… Looks like entrepreneurs are much stronger in "tumultuous times" and not likes to give-up… So, I feel good seeing new ventures are being backed, new rounds are still existing … Investors steel looking for new start-ups … wheel still turn …

Today I like to hare with you information about California Israel Chamber of Commerce:


The California Israel Chamber of Commerce (CICC) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental membership supported organization dedicated to strengthening business and economic relations between California and Israel. With its wide and dynamic network of over 5,000 companies, business executives and investors, CICC is positioned to serve as a facilitator and active supporter for joint ventures between the two communities. Through its programs and activities CICC supports hundreds of Israeli entrepreneurs through their journey to grow, fund and advance their startup companies

More details here: www.ca-israelchamber.org

They announce about third annual tour April 20-23 in the Silicon Valley:
The California Israel Chamber of Commerce is holding the third annual tour April 20-23 in the Silicon Valley. They are looking to bring the hottest Israeli start-ups to the event and give these innovative companies the chance present their products. Submissions for interested companies will open today, March 6, with applications deadline March 9.


Videos from last year’s tour can be found here: youtube.com/watch?v=eenC3F4NE0s


Saturday, February 14, 2009

Education is the key to success

I like to offer to your attention "Talk by Bill Gates: How I'm trying to change the world now"

Bill Gates hopes to solve some of the world's biggest problems using a new kind of philanthropy. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider two big questions and how we might answer them.




I believe Bill Gates is not only intended to talk about these two problems, what he is encouraging those talented people around the world to dedicate themselves on something and carry out better solutions for the whole world, in - technology, education, health care, economy, etc. … but he deserves our respect, for his talent, for Microsoft and for the things he is doing now for the world. Through his philanthropic response to Malaria and the needy, he has shown that he lives a life that is beyond himself, - a life that has purpose …

Good education is priceless for any nation, good teachers are the key to the future, but I don't think spending money on "digitalizing" of classrooms is the right solution to anything. I think improved standard of living and free education at all levels available to all are the way forwards.



Sunday, February 01, 2009

Top 10 Resolutions for a More Profitable 2009

Hello my dear friends, In the down economy, saving money ... What can we do? What can we do to protect ourselves and re-build our communities? Here are "Top 10 Resolutions..." I have found in article written by Dr. Susan L. Reid:

1. Focus on your primary greatness
2. Be transparent and honest in your dealings
3. Keep it simple
4. Care forward
5. Create a loyal fan base
6. Embrace eco-responsibility as an overall business strategy
7. Master social networking
8. Cultivate a culture of collaboration.
9. Find new opportunities for expansion
10. Strengthen relationships

Loss of jobs. Difficulty maintaining our standard of living. We’re in a worldwide global recession.

We’ve seen financial markets collapse, mortgage lenders go under, home loss through foreclosures, extreme bailout packages, and growing unemployment




More detailed here