Find out how this entrepreneur launched a visual search engine that provides instant personal recommendations to shoppers using their photos.
(Inc) — Dear Norm, Can I ask you a follow-up question? How many add-ons can I have before I start looking desperate and willing to do anything? For example, I’d like to offer swimming pool maintenance — balancing chemicals, scrubbing walls, cleaning skimmers, and such. And I could also do light pet care, such as walking […]
(Read Write Web) — In a post last week about how to measure the effectiveness of startup employees, we mentioned that perhaps the number of hours worked isn’t the best metric. With that said, this weekend was Labor Day weekend in the U.S., one of the more popular get-out-of-town weekends of the entire calendar, but does […]
(Inc) — It’s been four years since Jeff Howe coined the term “crowdsourcing.” Since, Facebook has engaged thousands of members to translate the site into more than 65 languages. Pizza Hut uses virtual order-takers through the cloud, and if you need a new logo, you can tap the design pool through 99Designs. Biewald and Janah […]
(Read Write Web) — What constitutes a “startup”? Is it the age of a company? Its size? Its funding? Its profitability? Its position in the industry? Steve Jobs often speaks of Apple’s “startup” culture. Last week, an articlein the New York Times referred to the seven-year-old airline Virgin America as a startup. Read More…
( Read Write Web) — Despite claims that the age of privacy is over, many Internet userscontinue to have privacy concerns, particularly as more and more of our personal data is stored and shared online. Having a privacy policy for your startup is important then in terms of meeting the legal requirements for protecting your customers’ […]
(Read Write Web) — Perhaps you have some spare time on your hands, or perhaps you just want to do good for others from the comfort of your desk chair. Either way, a great way to fulfill these needs is to participate in crowdsourcing – community driven conglomerations of small efforts by large crowds of […]
(Entrepreneur) — If your business plan is to start fast, grow big and sell or go public, then venture capital might be the way to fund that plan. In addition to an infusion of capital, you usually get access to the brain trust and contacts at the VC firm, providing experience and leverage for your fledgling enterprise. […]
(Inc) — Naming your business can be a stressful process. You want to choose a name that will last and, if possible, will embody both your values and your company’s distinguishing characteristics. But screening long lists of names with a focus group composed of friends and family can return mixed results. Alternatively, a naming firm will […]
(Black Enterprise) — There are no easy shortcuts to successful, sustainable entrepreneurship: being your own boss takes lots of time. Most of all, it takes work, work and more work. Those unwilling to embrace this truth usually end up doing entrepreneurship the hardest and most costly way possible—by trial and error—and become unhappy and frustrated, if […]
(Entrepreneurs) —Timothy Ericson can quickly sum up what he and his business partner knew about the bike-sharing industry before launching a business in the field two years ago. “We started from nothing,” says Ericson, CEO and co-founder of CityRyde, a bike-sharing consulting firm. “We basically spent our first two years becoming experts in an industry […]
(Read Write Web) — Whether or not you believe that venture capital is broken, the necessity of funding startups still exists. One alternative to traditional funding models is “crowdfunding” – crowdsourcing the fundraising process. Like crowdsourcing, crowdfunding is based on the idea of the “wisdom of crowds.” And crowdfunding contends that “the crowd” can be a […]