VC, startups, Y Combinator Robert Buderi wrote: The house was packed with investors big and small (only one limo was waiting outside, though), the food tasty, the mood upbeat, the rain hardly fell—and, most importantly, a score of very intriguing startups stood ready to present. It was Demo Day at Y Combinator, the bi-coastal incubator/venture firm that’s based in Cambridge, MA, in the summer, and Mountain View, CA, in the winter. “YC,” as it calls itself, holds these Demo Days in two batches each year—spring and summer—to showcase its latest startups to accredited investors and a few other outsiders. Who could resist an invitation to be a voyeur at Demo Day? So I headed over yesterday to the East Coast HQ, a gray-green concrete slab with a tent outside in a largely residential neighborhood of West Cambridge. (YC will hold two additional summer Demo Days in Mountain View next week.) All told, 20 startups presented (two others were scheduled to appear but weren’t quite ready to debut, I was told). Y Combinator invests chiefly in software and Web- and mobile-services companies. According to the promotional materials for Demo Day, this crop of companies are developing “a startup job site, engagement analysis for media companies, videoconferencing, database software, a site for students, HR software, a news site, photo-sharing, a video site, a viral game, prediction markets, social browsing, POS customer satisfaction surveys, white labeled social news, audience response software, music distribution, green certification, site creation for small business, a mobile-focused Evite competitor, a secondary ticket market, an event site, and a comment crawler.” And that’s pretty much what we saw. These enterprises are in various stages of development: some have already left the YC roost and launched publicly, others are seeking bigger investment deals, and some are still hunkered down ironing out the business plan and concept. Most are ready to speak to a reporter, but several preferred to stay off the record. And I wasn’t the only one eager to listen. I mean, the house was full—I spotted four folks from General Catalyst, including managing directors David Orfao and Joel Cutler; Akamai co-founder Jonathan Seelig, now a managing director of Globespan Capital Partners; Venrock’s David Beisel; Jo Tango of Kepha Partners; Don Dodge of Microsoft; and some 80-plus representatives from Google, Walt Disney, and a host of other firms. Leigh Zarelli was there from New York: she said her firm, Walt Disney, was stepping up its early-stage acquisitions. My favorite out-of-town tale came from Stephanie Robesky of London-based Atomico (founded by some of the Skype and Kazaa founders), who told me that she only discovered yesterday that the event was in Cambridge, MA, and not Cambridge, England. That sent her scurrying for a last-minute airplane ticket. The entrepreneurs all made PowerPoint-type pitches on a big screen inside, many with live Web demos. Each had seven minutes to make his case. No questions were taken at that point, but you were free to fire away during the breaks and after the event ended some three hours after it began. Y Combinator founder Paul Graham says it was the seventh Demo Day he’s held, the fourth in Cambridge. He kicked off the event by stressing that the startups had a median age of 10 weeks: “So lower your expectations,” he warned. “Imagine what they’re going to look like after six months.” But everyone I spoke to who’d been to previous Demo Days (this was my first one), thought this year’s crop of presenters had definitely raised the bar. “Pretty impressive,” was the verdict of Rich (still no Tacoda tattoo) Levandov of Avalon Ventures. “I would say more energy, more consumer focus” than previous events. And, I have to say, the group as a whole was extremely impressive—few warranted Graham’s caution. Here, in no particular order, are some of the companies I found most compelling—at least based on their seven-minute pitches: Posterous : “Dead simple blogging by e-mail,” is their tag line. This company has already launched, and Garry Tan and Sachin Agarwal gave a cool demo that showed how you could simply e-mail in video clips, audio, photos, text, whatever—and their software would automatically convert it to a blog post. And they didn’t fail to mention that Michael Arrington of TechCrunch had mentioned Posterous …Next Page » Comments | Permalink | Share |  E-mail UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS Less

There’s a great post by Roger Ehrenberg on his Information Arbitrage site. Roger was an investor, board member and leader in Monitor110, a company that planned to become the internet version of Bloomberg. The team had impressive credentials, but ultimately the business didn’t make it. Roger spells out the reasons why. We admire him for sharing these lessons because most of us don’t like to talk about our failures. These are mistakes that any of us could make, so he provides a great opportunity to learn from others. But even more than that, it’s the way he wrote about it that impressed us – he doesn’t cast blame; he just discusses the lessons he learned in the hopes that we may benefit. And we did! That’s why we highly recommend that you read the whole post. We’ll hit his highlights here.   . . 7 mistakes that led to the demise of this business #1 – No single leader Monitor110 had two leaders – a technology person who was one of the founders and Roger, who was a business person. Roger said this structure just didn’t work. This reminded us of the number of times we’ve seen two people start a business. It’s pretty common to split everything 50/50. But it’s a recipe for disaster. In almost all cases, there has to be someone who has the final say for a business to succeed. #2 – The technology-side drove the business This made us think of the number of entrepreneurs who start a business in their craft. They’re technically oriented. They love their product or service, but they ignore what the customer wants and needs. #3 – Too much PR too early Roger’s company was featured on the cover of the Financial Times. You wouldn’t think that would be a problem, would you? But Roger says this raised the bar with everyone – customers, themselves, and financiers … which led to the next problem. #4 – Too much money Too much PR. Which led to too much money. Sounds like a company that’s been blessed. But Roger says the blessing turned into a curse. Because of the great PR, expectations went up significantly. Within the financial community, so money flowed in With their customers And most importantly – with the people of Monitor110. With all these high expectations, they didn’t push a product to market because it needed to be just right. And that didn’t matter because they had a cushion of cash. #5 – Not enough customer feedback By now, you see how all of these mistakes were interrelated. Because of the great publicity, they were afraid to show the customers what they had. They didn’t want to disappoint them and be disappointed. But it wasn’t a problem at the time because they had plenty of money. One mistake was feeding another which was feeding yet another. #6 – Slow to adapt to the market On a post not long ago, we talked about a military concept called OODA loops. OODA is an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. The idea behind the concept is that by getting into the loop, you gain information. Then, by adapting to what you’ve learned, you gain a competitive advantage. #7 – Disagreements about strategy This stemmed from the technology side and the business side not being able to come to terms. It’s also an outflow of Mistake #1 – without a single leader, it’s hard to have a clear vision. Just get started! All of this made us think of the saying, “You don’t have to get it perfect; you just have to get it going. That’s one of the things that we did with Bigg Success. We talked to a lot of people who had all kinds of great ideas. Some diametrically opposed to each other! We could have easily just got caught in the quagmire. Ultimately, we just launched. It wasn’t perfect – we knew that. We’ve learned a lot. There are things we would do differently if we had it all to do over again. But by launching, we were able to learn from the most important people of all – our community. We learned from you. We’re happy to let you know that you’ll be seeing some bigg additions in the near future. So keep checking in and let us know what you think! We’re listening! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.   Related posts Lessons Learned from a Bankrupt Business Owner    10 Warning Signs of Trouble Ahead for Your Business   (Image by Avolore) Less

VC, startups, Legal Robert Buderi wrote: If you’ve ever launched a startup with funding from a venture firm or angel group, you know the bank-account-draining toll those startup legal bills can take. I still feel the pain: an amazing $25K each from my lawyer and the lead investor’s lawyer for a simple angel deal. And guess who paid for it all? Me, the bootstrapping entrepreneur. I need a couple Excedrins just thinking about it. That’s why I perked up immediately when I saw the news in TechCrunch this afternoon, about Y Combinator making the boilerplate legal documents it provides its own startups free and available to all comers—in hopes they will smooth the legal path to funding and save entrepreneurs money in the process. According to a message on the Y Combinator site, where you can download the documents: “These documents were originally created for YC-funded startups to use when raising angel rounds. They seem to have worked well in trial runs so far, so we’re open-sourcing them.” Y Combinator, in case you haven’t been following our recent rash of posts about it, is a novel type of venture firm—based in Cambridge, MA, in the summer, and Mountain View, CA, during the winter—that provides seed funding of up to $20,000 to early-stage startups and works with the founders to help evolve their business plans to the point when they can raise additional money from others to advance to the next stage. As part of the services it provides these young startups, Y Combinator has worked with the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to create legal documents to use when it comes to taking in that additional funding. As the note on Y Combinator’s site says, “While they may not be suitable for all situations, the goal was to make the terms fairly neutral. So while we would of course advise both parties using these documents to have their lawyers look at them, they provide a starting point that we hope can be used in many situations…without too many modifications.” I take that to mean that lawyers like to justify their existence to their clients, so they wrangle over terms, trying to get an edge in one clause or another—or at least prevent the other side from getting an edge. Meanwhile, the bills pile up. But if you have a “neutral” document from the start, you might just prevent a lot of that haggling. And that saves the entrepreneur money—because it’s the lowly startup that gets hit with the tab from both its own lawyer and the investor’s law firm. (Where’s that Excedrin?) “Needless to say, neither YC nor WSGR assumes any responsibility for any consequence of using these documents,” reads the Y Combinator message. But I say that just for trying to ease the entrepreneur’s burden, YC deserves some kudos. Comments | Permalink | Share |  E-mail UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS Less

VC, investing, Entrepreneurship James Geshwiler wrote: Nobody likes to fail. No entrepreneur or venture capitalist thinks a particular venture is going to be the one to fail. As veteran venture capitalist Bob Crowley at the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation says, “we’ve never made a bad investment; just investments that have gone bad.” If we as investors or entrepreneurs thought the odds were stacked against us at the outset, we wouldn’t pursue new ventures. In reality, however, they are. And, rather than just accept that the risks are high and failure happens, there are many things we can do to better the odds of success. 1) Three ways to blow your precious venture capital round. Only about 1 in 100 companies that pursue venture capital money get it. Probably the worst thing you can do right after the financing is then to blow this precious resource. Yet, there is tremendous pressure to scale the company for a large market quickly. Here are the top three catastrophes I have seen first hand and heard from veteran venture capitalists time and time again over the years. —Hiring the right CEO at the wrong time: Investors put money in the company to make money, and you do that by making a big company—fast. As soon as the round is closed, the new board of directors and the founders interview lots of candidates and hire someone who just amazes them with their vision and ability to grow a company quickly. That “professional” CEO starts hiring three to six VPs, they in turn hire three or four managers each; they then hire more staff. Headcount after a Series A grows two to five fold in a few months. That’s great if there is a rock solid foundation underneath the company, and it has equally strong ties to the market. It is a disaster otherwise, creating chaos, frustration, anger and tons of finger pointing. The new CEO takes a lot of the blame, but so should the founders and the investors. The CEO was probably the right person; the company should have spent three, six or more months refining the business model, sales process, marketing strategy, and product development process, as well as assimilating the people so they worked as a team, before hitting the gas. —Scaling the sales force prematurely: This mistake is similar and often related to #1, but it’s enough of a stand alone error that I put it in its own category. Venture investors look at initial sales traction and think the rest of the market buys the same way or has the same needs It takes a lot of market research to make sure you are ready to scale. “How many times do I have to learn this lesson,” one general partner recently said to me. —Building the product ad nauseum: If one is going for a big market, you don’t want to ship one that has bugs, right? That didn’t stop Microsoft—or many other successful software companies, for that matter. The trick is understanding what bugs will be tolerated by which portions of the market and limiting your sales to that segment until your ready for others. Lots of engineers absolutely hate that approach. With a lot of money in the bank, an engineering-heavy venture can be prone to come back to the board time and time again, saying, “we just need another quarter or two of development, then we will be ready for market.” 2) Three ways to blow your exit. After years of blood, sweat, and tears as well as much personal sacrifice, reward is in sight for your entrepreneurial venture. Large public companies not only want to partner and benefit from your work; they want to buy you! Suddenly, this lonely startup seems important, and pressure builds to make perhaps more of what you have than is possible. Here are three ways to grab defeat from the jaws of start-up victory. —Get greedy: The forces of nature have formed a rare convergence around your company, and you think “well, if we’re this valuable now, we’ll be worth a LOT more in a year or two.” Lightning almost never strikes twice. —Allow one party with a different agenda to control the deal: This mistake may have been made years earlier by bringing in an investor or strategic partner whose interests were not in alignment with the interests of others. Alternatively, one party’s interests might have changed because of some external factor. Head this off by having discussions with and among the investors about the pressures everyone is facing, as well as everyone’s goals and objectives. —Try to save money by doing it yourself: A lot of entrepreneurs (and venture investors) bristle at paying an investment banker’s fee, citing other experiences where they or others felt they didn’t get any value. That’s a problem of hiring the wrong banker. Good ones earn every penny they make by create an auction—or auction-like environment—that increases the value of the company substantially. It’s very hard for the CEO simultaneously to play good cop and bad cop with a potential acquirer—especially one they are likely to be an employee of in perhaps only a few days—or have a good feel for the rhythm of a deal because these are infrequent events for them. 3) Three ways to blow your company. There are better perspectives about company failure than I could provide, so here are links to three let-the-hair-down stories that tell it like it is. — Roger Ehrenberg’s post-mortem about the demise of Monitor111 . He lists more than seven major mistakes that killed the company, an information platform for institutional investors on Wall Street, and that are all too common. These include: lack of a single “buck-stops-here” leader, too much PR too early, and too much money. — Chris Herot’s reflections on Convoq and Zing . Chris has some of the same points as Roger—particularly developing a product without enough customer input—but adds important points about the overall context and ecosystem around a company. — Dan Weinreb’s analysis of Symbolics’ failure . Symbolics had great technology and a great team, but the complementary technologies changed. This is a great case study of the ensuing gyrations and apoplexy that many companies suffer in these situations. If you have your own stories or know of similar posts, please feel free to comment and add them below. Comments (3) | Permalink | Share |  E-mail Less

innovation, startups, people Gregory T. Huang wrote: Last night I took the bus down to South Seattle for nPost’s networking event at the Columbia City Theater (not to be confused with the Columbia City Cinema just up the street). It was hosted by nPost founder Nathan Kaiser, whose resource site for tech entrepreneurs is getting ready to launch a biotech job site and a green-tech job site, all in the next few weeks. Kaiser’s events have become a staple of the startup scene. There was free beer, half a dozen startup demos, and lots of good conversation with entrepreneurs, developers, and a few investors. At one point the people giving demos were invited up on stage to give one-minute overviews of their companies. Several held beers while they spoke. I recognized Mikhail Seregine, the founder of CurbValet (a personal shopping service), from the two-minute pitch competition in West Seattle last month. Although there were more than a hundred people in attendance, it felt like a manageable crowd. The mood was casual, festive, and useful. A quick sample of interesting people I met: —Matt Cassarino is the founder of TourVista, which creates online virtual tours for real estate and other applications. Look for a revamped website in early August, he says. Matt also told me about the infamous “Seattle freeze,” whereby people you meet are friendly at first but never really become your friends. (Matt will probably never talk to me again.) I’m not convinced this is any different from other places, but I asked a few people whether it affects local business relationships, and they said not really. —Ben Curtis is the founder of Catch the Best, which has built an online recruiting tool for companies to manage job applications and candidates. On the topic of working for big companies instead of startups, he said, “A few months of contract work for RealNetworks cured me of it… I want to build products and have people actually use them.” —Rob Eickmann is the co-founder of Six Hour Startup, which is a bunch of developers who get together on weekends to start Web companies. (They begin with a six-hour sprint to get a site up and running.) One of their startups, Timelope, is led by local coding stars Anders Conbere and Aviel Ginzburg; they built a software plug-in that lets you and/or your social network track the sites you visit. I asked Rob and Aviel about the impact of Microsoft, Amazon, and now Google on the Seattle developer community in general. There’s a good-sized subculture of developers here who’ve never worked for these companies, they said. And so far, the Google people “keep to themselves,” they said, unlike Microsoft and Amazon workers. Maybe it’s too early to say, but is there a wall forming between Google and the innovation community? —Ian Mercer sold his company NextBase to Microsoft and “did his time” (10 years) there as a product manager in Redmond. Ian said he has probably the “most automated house in the world, other than maybe Bill Gates.” It’s on the Sammamish plateau, east of town, and it boasts all manner of statistical software and sensors—strain gauges, magnetic, you name it—to infer everything from what kind of music should be played in the home office to how many visitors are coming up the driveway and through the front door. No flashy buttons, controls, or displays—”it just knows.” —Chris Howard is an associate at Ignition Partners who invests in software and services and wireless. Chris worked on the $16 million Xeround deal that we wrote about last week. He also pointed out another interesting company in his portfolio, Seattle- and New York-based Visible Technologies, which develops software to help companies track and analyze what’s being said about them in the media, and manage their reputations in search engines. After the event, I tried La Medusa, a Sicilian/Mediterranean restaurant nearby (food rating of 25 in Zagat). I ordered an orecchiette pasta with beef ragu and English peas, and it was wayyy too salty. First major restaurant disappointment here. In any case, the wine and the service made up for it, so I will have to give it another try—maybe after the next nPost event. Comments | Permalink | Share |  E-mail UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS Less

When you own your own business, you have your highs and you have your lows. And it seems like you rarely have any in-betweens. George said  … I never talked about this for years. I thought it was just me. Then I got up the nerve and mentioned it to my sister, who also owns businesses. She said she knew exactly what I was talking about! So that encouraged me to ask other business owners about it. So far, every single person I’ve ever talked to about this knows exactly what it means. You can see it on their face as soon as you bring it up. But it’s something I think a lot of entrepreneurs don’t talk about. Mary-Lynn added  … With Bigg Success, I’m experiencing business ownership for the first time. And I feel like I’m on a roller coaster. There are days where I feel exhilaration from the ride and there are days when I feel sheer terror and want to get off the ride. Entrepreneurial terror If you’ve never experienced it, count yourself lucky, but most people in business have. You can feel terrified at times even with a job. You may fear you’re going to lose yours when you see other people’s jobs getting cut. But it’s still different for business owners. George … I remember one of the guest speakers for my class who talked about the number of mouths he had to feed now. A lot of the most successful business owners I know take personal responsibility for their people. They don’t look at just putting bread on their table; they worry about their employees as well. That can keep you up at night! Inc. published an article (way back in February 1987) called Entrepreneurial Terror. A portion of it has been republished on Wachovia’s Small Business site. It was written by Wilson Harrell, a serial entrepreneur and author of For Entrepreneurs Only. He said: “… the ability to handle terror, and to live with it, is the single most important – and, yes, necessary – ingredient of entrepreneurial success.” This company doesn’t love misery He says that you shouldn’t share your lows with your friends and loved ones, because you’ll just pass the worry on to them. Unless they’re your partner in business. He adds that you should always share your highs, though. How highs turn to lows The way you spend your time and money when you’re on a high often has a lot to do with how low you go. Let’s look at two examples: Too busy for marketing When you’re so busy, you may even be running at capacity, and you know your business couldn’t crank out any more volume no matter how much you wanted to. So you slow down – or even stop – your marketing efforts. George …I’ve done this! It’s easy to do – there’s no time! But that insures the next down cycle because you’re not doing those things that you did to get to the up cycle. Being careless with money A lot of times cash flow is at its peak during an up cycle. That’s part of the reason you’re on an emotional high. So you make that major expenditure. Or you add to your overhead. The next thing you know you’re on a low because business and cash flow have slowed down and you have little or no cash reserves. You may not be able to avoid the highs and lows. What you can do is conduct business so that your lows are higher … and your highs are higher! It may not feel any different, but you know it is. You’re reaching ever higher levels of success! Now that’s bigg success! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.   Related posts Don't Make This Costly Mistake Are You Fishing for Customers in the Wrong Hole? If You Want to Increase Your Profit, Don’t Put Your Customers First There’s Gold In Them There ... Customers! 5 Places to Find Cash for Your Business Today  (Image by LilGoldWmn) ShareThis Less

VC, deals, Entrepreneurship Eric Hjerpe wrote: An entrepreneur asked me at a recent networking event, “So, what makes a deal ‘”hot’” to a venture capitalist?” Of course I told her the stock answer that you would likely get from every VC when presented with that question, something like, “It is a great team with domain experience solving a tough problem in a big market.” But I have to admit, that wasn’t all I was thinking. I clearly told her the characteristics of an investment that will likely get VC funding, but not how a deal becomes “hot” within the VC community. I didn’t tell her how experienced entrepreneurs often use emotion as a tool to create momentum, move deal terms, and get term sheets from VCs. From what I observe in many VC partnerships, a “hot” investment is as much about greed and competition quickly overcoming fear as it is about supporting due diligence. Early stage investing has substantial risk—team, technology, market—this stuff is not for the feint of heart! Every VC has a track record (every company that individual invested in and the associated returns for each) that impacts him or her much more and much longer than, say, an entrepreneur’s failed enterprise from eight years ago. A VC’s track record is how that VC is measured by fund investors and partners—and you need to hold your own to keep both of those constituencies happy. Further, many VC investors are pension funds and endowments. Losing money for a pension fund that provides income for widows during retirement or for an endowment that provides higher education funding for under-privileged students certainly doesn’t make a VC feel very good. It is a real emotional hurdle for a VC to write a multi-million-dollar check (okay, to authorize a wire). Fear is the emotion that favors making no decision or passing on an investment altogether. So the challenge for an entrepreneur with a great investment opportunity is create enough momentum to push through investors’ fear of losing money. The challenge for an entrepreneur who wants a “hot” investment opportunity is to blow through that fear and get deep into VCs’ competitive spirit and greed! VCs tend to be type “A” personalities, and many are (fading) athletes. When an investment happens by another partnership in a space that is close to me and I didn’t get to hear about the company, that is a problem for me. My partners expect me to see investments in my areas of core competence and I expect it of myself. I am letting them down if we don’t get an opportunity to hear the story and possibly invest. Every VC wants the option to invest in every “invest-able” opportunity, and certainly in the spaces that they cover. So, are VCs competitive with each other? You bet. The greed part is obvious. VCs are in the business of making money for their investors. Meanwhile, if VCs are good at their jobs, they make a good amount of money for themselves in the process. So, how does an experienced entrepreneur use this understanding of fear, competition, and greed to create the perception of a “hot” investment opportunity? 1. Experienced entrepreneurs target their fundraising efforts. They share their investment opportunities to the general partners who will “get it.” Those VCs either have relevant operating backgrounds, have made related (but not competitive) investments, or have shown an interest in the space (blogging, conferences, speeches). VCs who require an education process from the entrepreneur will more than likely fall victim to that fear of losing money sooner or later in the due diligence process. 2. Experienced entrepreneurs approach the target list of VCs they know or to whom they can get …Next Page » Comments | Permalink | Share |  E-mail UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS Less

entrepreneurs, startups, networking Gregory T. Huang wrote: “Anyone know any investor jokes?” asks Carolynn Duncan of FundingUniverse. A pause, then someone on the side of the stage shouts “Yahoo!” We’re at Seattle LivePitch, in the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in West Seattle, on a sunny Friday afternoon. (On the way over, I got my first look at the snow-capped Olympic Mountains—awesome.) Hosted by FundingUniverse, a Utah-based site that connects startups and investors (and has recently expanded to the Northwest), the event gives 14 entrepreneurs two minutes each to pitch their startup to a panel of judges and the audience. But it’s not an investor forum or a fundraising event. “The point is to get the community together, for entrepreneurs to pitch in a safe environment and practice taking questions, so we can give them feedback,” says Duncan. The judges were selected from the local innovation community: Rebecca Lovell from Alliance of Angels, Jim Roberts of UW Tech Transfer, Buzz Bruggeman of ActiveWords, Nathan Kaiser of nPost.com (a resource site for entrepreneurs), Todd Dean of the Northwest Keiretsu Forum (angel network), Tom Ryan of Atlas Recruiting (angel investing meets recruiting) and John Kauffman of law firm Stoel Rives. The panel of judges was lined up on stage, and the house lights dimmed as we were given the “five rules of LivePitch”—making it feel like a cross between a spelling bee and “Fight Club.” Most of the rules were self-evident (don’t monopolize an entrant during networking time, don’t sell your services). And we, the audience members, would help determine the winner by each “investing” in two entrepreneurs after the session—whomever we thought had the best pitches. One by one, the 14 entrants came up to the stage. Their pitches were all over the map in terms of tech sector, revenue model, target customer, style, and grace. The ideas ranged from conventional (Lilipip, a filtered YouTube for kids on mobile devices) to different (Sports 4E, automating management of sports leagues) to downright random (Robber Dotter, bringing Swedish bands to market in the U.S.—the founder claimed to be fluent in Swedish, but I would need Erik, our visiting journalism fellow back in Boston, to tell if she was pulling a John Candy in “Splash”). In the end, I voted for Bryce Baril’s MarketOutsider and Lawrence Winnerman’s Elektronova. Baril’s site acts like a “robotic financial analyst,” he says, by scouring the Web for articles about a given company and automatically rating whether the news is positive or negative. Winnerman’s company sells networked sensor “plugs” for appliances (primarily refrigerators) that monitor electricity usage and could eventually save households 10 percent on their electric bill, he says. Both gave polished pitches and responded well to questions, which came rapid-fire from both the audience and the panel: How do you reach your users? What’s the market opportunity? How does your product compare to X, Y, and Z? What’s the expected return on investment in five years? In the end, Elektronova came in number one in both the judges’ and the audience voting, while MarketOutsider came in number two. I was slightly disappointed—I was hoping to be different from the pack. Ultimately, MarketOutsider appealed to both my artificial-intelligence side and my interest in media, while Elektronova had a certain charm I can’t quite put my finger on… but I guess it electrified everyone else too. Comments | Permalink | Share |  E-mail UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS Less

Bigg Challenge Amy knows she’s not passionate about her career, but she doesn’t really know what she would love to do. She wants to know how to discover her passion. Bigg Advice We recommend that you get a notebook to write down your thoughts and answers to the following questions, Amy. These things all revolve around one simple theme – Look to the past to discover your future. #1 – What did you want to be when you grew up? Now you may think that’s a silly question to ask at this point in your life, but it’s not. Because it leads to the more important question … Why? Why did you want to do that one thing when you grew up? Mary-Lynn wanted to be a singing star. She wanted to be like Cher – up on stage performing in front of an audience with a microphone. Unfortunately, she couldn’t sing! But today, she does perform in front of an audience with her very own microphone. It’s not exactly what she envisioned as a kid, but the elements are there. #2 – What classes did you really enjoy? You probably thrived in these classes. What were they, from grade school all the way up through college? And more importantly … What about that particular class did you enjoy so much? George loved philosophy – learning how to think logically and debate a subject. He’s used those skills his entire career. He has found that the work that’s most enjoyable to him often has to do with problem-solving. #3 – What extracurricular activities did you love? And more importantly, what did you love about that activity? Mary-Lynn loved music. She loved being in the pep band and going to competitions. These additional benefits were a bonus to learning to play an instrument well. It appealed to her competitive nature and fulfilled her social needs. #4 – What jobs or roles have given you the greatest satisfaction? More importantly, what common themes were there? George has been an entrepreneur and a teacher. As his career as a business owner advanced, he found that teaching and inspiring others was what he really enjoyed. He got great feedback about meetings he conducted. He also got positive reviews from his students. Today, Bigg Success gives him that outlet to share knowledge with others. #5 – What is, or was, your favorite hobby? What do you, or did you, do for free? Mary-Lynn has loved writing since she was a kid. It taps into her creative side. That desire to be creative has guided her throughout her career. She once left a job because it didn’t offer creative freedom. Her need for creative control in her job spills over from her hobby. Being in touch with what you naturally do, even without pay, can help you discover your passion. So as you ponder these five questions, think about the elements of the activity, rather than the activity itself, to discover your passion. Thanks, Amy, for sharing your bigg challenge with us. We’re confident you’ll discover your passion soon! If you have a bigg challenge, e-mail it to us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com What advice do you have for Amy? Click on the Comment link below Our bigg quote today is by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who said, “Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.” So find your passion to uncover your greatness. Next time, we’ll discuss what to do if working harder isn’t working anymore. Until then, here’s to your bigg success! Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes.  Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed. Related posts Back To The Future: Visualizing The Life You Want (Part 2) Is Your Star Shining Bright? The Greatest Miracle In The World Coping With Life Change Ride The Wave, Dude! Answer These 4 Questions For A Smooth Career Change  (Image by mrceviz) ShareThis Less

Bigg Challenge Ellen e-mailed us because she and her husband are considering buying a franchise. Currently, she’s the #2 executive at a small business she’s worked at for years. She has two questions: What franchise should she buy? Will it pay off within ten years, because she plans to retire then? Bigg Advice Obviously, this is a very personal decision, so only you can decide what franchise to buy. We can, however, give you some guidelines. What’s your expertise? What are your interests? Where’s the opportunity? Match these up when looking for your franchise. How to find your franchise Check out How To Buy A Franchise to learn more about the International Franchise Association. This industry group also provides some fantastic resources for people like you. In the article, you’ll see our review of their exhaustive, step-by-step guide to buying a franchise. The only thing we don’t like about it is that we didn’t write it! They also have a listing of franchises, but in our opinion, it’s not as user-friendly as the next great resource. You’ve probably heard of the Fortune 500. Entrepreneur publishes a similar list called the Franchise 500 every year. You can look up franchises by category – restaurants, business services, and just about any other category you can imagine. They also have lists of the top new franchises, the lowest cost franchises, top home-based franchises, fastest growing franchises, and more. We definitely recommend that you check it out. Making it pay Buying a franchise, as with any business, comes with uncertainty. You have to take chances to succeed. However, you can and should reduce your risk to a level you can tolerate. You’ve heard us say this before – successful entrepreneurs are very adept at that. Use the resources we mentioned above. Do your homework. Build your projections, but remember they are just SWAG. SWAG, in this sense, has nothing to do with the Oscar presenters! It is an acronym for scientific, wild-assed guesses! So make sure you build some “fudge” into your guesstimates. Is there another option? You’ve painted an either / or picture – you either keep your job or you buy a franchise. We wonder if there are other alternatives. You mentioned your husband, but we don’t really know what his situation is. Could he run the business? You could also hire someone to run the franchise for you. Find a way to align their interest with yours. This could range from sharing profits to an actual ownership stake. Obviously, if you choose this last option, you’ll have to accept a lower upside. However, your downside is a lot less, too. If either of these works, you can keep your job AND buy a franchise! Thanks, Ellen for sharing your bigg challenge! We wish you bigg success, whatever you decide! What’s your bigg challenge? E-mail it to us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com! Our bigg quote today is over 2,000 years old. Seneca, the Roman philosopher, said: “It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” You have to look at the downside, but if you spend too much time focusing on that, you’ll never enjoy the upside. Next time, we’ll discuss a recent study that shows that happiness is overrated. Until then, here’s to your bigg success! Subscribe to this feed Related post Start a Franchise or Business to Create Passive Income  ShareThis Less

According to Catalyst, an organization that studies women in the workplace, gender stereotypes still play a major role in how women are judged. If they act consistently with female stereotypes, their competence is questioned. But if their behavior is consistent with that of the stereotypical male, they’re viewed as being too tough. Catalyst has done these studies all around the world. They’ve found that the characteristics of a good leader vary from region to region. But whatever is considered ideal, women fall short. So it would seem that women can’t win. We understand that you can’t change people’s perceptions. To be more direct, you can’t change bias that’s based on stereotypes. You can’t control anyone else. So why worry about it? Focus on what you CAN control – how you conduct yourself and your business. You are the CEO of the most important organization in the world – YOU, Inc. So today we’ll offer 3 tips to overcome stereotypes, gender-based or otherwise. Tip #1 – Be yourself. You can’t change opinions that can’t be changed. But if people like you, or at least respect you, you’ll succeed. So if you’re a nurturing person, nurture. If you’re assertive, be assertive. Don’t try to please everybody. Don’t second guess who you are. Don’t try to become what someone else wants you to be. And don’t ever apologize for who you are. Tip #2 – Promote yourself. Make sure you’re getting the credit that you deserve. Don’t be so humble. Make sure you keep document what you’ve done. Make your boss aware of it. Then you’ll be in demand – with your current company or a new one. Tip #3 – If all else fails, find a different workplace. If your boss or your company isn’t supporting you, move on to a company that will. If you’re not completely ready, start making preparations. And that doesn’t have anything to do with preparation H! This isn’t an easy solution, but you have to go for what you want in life. Tip #3B – Start your own business. Create a workplace where you’d like to work. That’s the motivation for a lot of women starting a business. And women are starting businesses today at three times the rate of men. Turning stereotypes upside down Here’s something that we found very interesting – traits that are often viewed as negatives in the corporate world are being turned into advantages in the entrepreneurial world. Margaret Heffernan wrote a great book, How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business. She says that female entrepreneurs emphasize values and relationships. They create a culture that includes employees, customers, and the community at large. The result – they are building companies that last AND make a contribution. Doesn’t that sound like good leadership? How have you beat stereotypes, gender or otherwise? Share it with us by leaving a Comment below! Our bigg quote is by Anonymous. “Some leaders are born women.” But no one is born a leader. You have to take action, but you can do it! After all, you’ve come a long way, baby! Next time, we’ll sit down at the negotiating table for some delicious tips to negotiate your next deal. The women are having steak … the men are having quiche … how’s that for beating stereotypes? Until then, here’s to your bigg success! ShareThis Less

According to Catalyst, an organization that studies women in the workplace, gender stereotypes still play a major role in how women are judged. If they act consistently with female stereotypes, their competence is questioned. But if their behavior is consistent with that of the stereotypical male, they’re viewed as being too tough. Catalyst has done these studies all around the world. They’ve found that the characteristics of a good leader vary from region to region. But whatever is considered ideal, women fall short. So it would seem that women can’t win. We understand that you can’t change people’s perceptions. To be more direct, you can’t change bias that’s based on stereotypes. You can’t control anyone else. So why worry about it? Focus on what you CAN control – how you conduct yourself and your business. You are the CEO of the most important organization in the world – YOU, Inc. So today we’ll offer 3 tips to overcome stereotypes, gender-based or otherwise. Tip #1 – Be yourself. You can’t change opinions that can’t be changed. But if people like you, or at least respect you, you’ll succeed. So if you’re a nurturing person, nurture. If you’re assertive, be assertive. Don’t try to please everybody. Don’t second guess who you are. Don’t try to become what someone else wants you to be. And don’t ever apologize for who you are. Tip #2 – Promote yourself. Make sure you’re getting the credit that you deserve. Don’t be so humble. Make sure you keep document what you’ve done. Make your boss aware of it. Then you’ll be in demand – with your current company or a new one. Tip #3 – If all else fails, find a different workplace. If your boss or your company isn’t supporting you, move on to a company that will. If you’re not completely ready, start making preparations. And that doesn’t have anything to do with preparation H! This isn’t an easy solution, but you have to go for what you want in life. Tip #3B – Start your own business. Create a workplace where you’d like to work. That’s the motivation for a lot of women starting a business. And women are starting businesses today at three times the rate of men. Turning stereotypes upside down Here’s something that we found very interesting – traits that are often viewed as negatives in the corporate world are being turned into advantages in the entrepreneurial world. Margaret Heffernan wrote a great book, How She Does It: How Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rules of Business. She says that female entrepreneurs emphasize values and relationships. They create a culture that includes employees, customers, and the community at large. The result – they are building companies that last AND make a contribution. Doesn’t that sound like good leadership? How have you beat stereotypes, gender or otherwise? Share it with us by leaving a Comment below! Our bigg quote is by Anonymous. “Some leaders are born women.” But no one is born a leader. You have to take action, but you can do it! After all, you’ve come a long way, baby! Next time, we’ll sit down at the negotiating table for some delicious tips to negotiate your next deal. The women are having steak … the men are having quiche … how’s that for beating stereotypes? Until then, here’s to your bigg success! ShareThis Less

Don’t be alarmed – we just thought it was a catchy title. Nothing explicit here! A lot of very successful entrepreneurs have multiple businesses. So today, we’ll look at starting the “other” business! Benefits of the other business #1 – Your Compensation You have one business now. So you can draw one salary. When you have two businesses, you get two salaries! Your current business pays for your company car. Why not have two businesses so you can have two cars? And two expense accounts. Two planes! You get the idea! There may be better ways to do this, but that’s beyond the scope of today’s blog. # 2 — Diversification Basic financial theory says you should diversify – don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! If you have one business, you’re completely subject to the ups and downs of that one business. With two businesses, one may pull the other one up during times of adversity and vice versa. #3 – Your Wealth Entrepreneurs have most of their wealth tied up in a single asset, but they typically have more wealth than the average homeowner. So owning a business is a great way to build wealth. Why not double the pleasure and own two? One reason not to do it Obviously, there are many reasons NOT to do this, but space doesn’t allow a full discussion. Let’s look at one – how to maximize your opportunity while minimizing your complications. Ask yourself this question – how much can you grow your existing business? If it’s still significant, stick with what you have. Growth consumes money, so keep it in your existing business to maximize that opportunity. Why take on the complication of the other business if what you have now is satisfying you? Borrow a page from bigg business – feed what’s growing. It’s evolutionary. But as its growth winds down, get revolutionary – find the other business! How to know you’re ready Let’s assume that you’ve taken your business as far as you can. It’s still a good business, but it’s hit a plateau. There are two sides to knowing if it’s time for you to move on: Your head – Is your baby ready for you to leave? Your heart – Are you ready to leave your baby? Here’s a great technique to listen to your head and your heart – take an extended vacation! For you workaholics, this may require baby steps. If you haven’t been on a vacation for awhile, take an extended weekend. Then get away for a week. After that, make it two. Work yourself up to at least a month away. You’ll find out if you’re emotionally ready to leave. You’ll also learn how your business functions without you. Who calls? Why? What are the problems? If no one calls, you’re probably ready to go for it. The worst case scenario is that you’ll come back with the knowledge you need to get ready. If you’re interested in pursuing a second business, get our FREE special report, Don’t Make These Mistakes When You Start Your Second Business. You’ll learn important lessons that often trip up second-time entrepreneurs, even those who have succeeded wildly the first time out. Just e-mail us: bigginfo@biggsuccess.com Type “2nd business report” in the subject line. Our bigg quote today is by Michael Gerber, the great author and entrepreneurial guru. “The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.” So if you’re getting the itch, it may be time to pursue the “other” business. Next time, we’ll discuss why women can’t win. Things could get heated on the show! Until then, here’s to your bigg success! ShareThis Less

Don’t be alarmed – we just thought it was a catchy title. Nothing explicit here! A lot of very successful entrepreneurs have multiple businesses. So today, we’ll look at starting the “other” business! Benefits of the other business #1 – Your Compensation You have one business now. So you can draw one salary. When you have two businesses, you get two salaries! Your current business pays for your company car. Why not have two businesses so you can have two cars? And two expense accounts. Two planes! You get the idea! There may be better ways to do this, but that’s beyond the scope of today’s blog. # 2 — Diversification Basic financial theory says you should diversify – don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! If you have one business, you’re completely subject to the ups and downs of that one business. With two businesses, one may pull the other one up during times of adversity and vice versa. #3 – Your Wealth Entrepreneurs have most of their wealth tied up in a single asset, but they typically have more wealth than the average homeowner. So owning a business is a great way to build wealth. Why not double the pleasure and own two? One reason not to do it Obviously, there are many reasons NOT to do this, but space doesn’t allow a full discussion. Let’s look at one – how to maximize your opportunity while minimizing your complications. Ask yourself this question – how much can you grow your existing business? If it’s still significant, stick with what you have. Growth consumes money, so keep it in your existing business to maximize that opportunity. Why take on the complication of the other business if what you have now is satisfying you? Borrow a page from bigg business – feed what’s growing. It’s evolutionary. But as its growth winds down, get revolutionary – find the other business! How to know you’re ready Let’s assume that you’ve taken your business as far as you can. It’s still a good business, but it’s hit a plateau. There are two sides to knowing if it’s time for you to move on: Your head – Is your baby ready for you to leave? Your heart – Are you ready to leave your baby? Here’s a great technique to listen to your head and your heart – take an extended vacation! For you workaholics, this may require baby steps. If you haven’t been on a vacation for awhile, take an extended weekend. Then get away for a week. After that, make it two. Work yourself up to at least a month away. You’ll find out if you’re emotionally ready to leave. You’ll also learn how your business functions without you. Who calls? Why? What are the problems? If no one calls, you’re probably ready to go for it. The worst case scenario is that you’ll come back with the knowledge you need to get ready. If you’re interested in pursuing a second business, get our FREE special report, Don’t Make These Mistakes When You Start Your Second Business. You’ll learn important lessons that often trip up second-time entrepreneurs, even those who have succeeded wildly the first time out. Just e-mail us: bigginfo@biggsuccess.com Type “2nd business report” in the subject line. Our bigg quote today is by Michael Gerber, the great author and entrepreneurial guru. “The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We're born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.” So if you’re getting the itch, it may be time to pursue the “other” business. Next time, we’ll discuss why women can’t win. Things could get heated on the show! Until then, here’s to your bigg success! ShareThis Less

Interview with Scotts LA co-founder Scott Carter – a company that produces audio tour CDs of Los Angeles film locations and locations with historical and architectural interest. Less