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Founder Profile
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How Steve Wozniak is giving back to the next generation of entrepreneurs
Steve "The Woz" Wozniak is known for many things, and being a prolific entrepreneur is only one of them.
Whether it's his claim to fame as the co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., his brief stint on Dancing With the Stars or his philanthropic ventures, Wozniak has no shortage of interests. But he maintains that no matter what you want to do, you have to have passion. "If I can say one thing it's that for what you're doing you have to have the internal passion," he says.
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Hot Startups of the Week
YouTern
YouTern helps emerging talent find career-related internships at entrepreneurial companies. Potential interns can sign up for a profile outlining the experience they’re looking to gain and their interests. The website then matches companies in the database with an intern’s skill sets and aspirations. The company was started by Mark Babbitt and is based in Carson City, Nevada.
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mConcierge
mConcierge is an application that helps hotels increase their mobile presence. The application allows customers to interact before, during and after their stay – they can make reservations, check in and out, find nearby attractions, and more. Hotels can track usage and analytics, and interact with their guests. The company launched in the summer of 2009 and is based in Montreal.
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Wanderfly
Wanderfly is a personalized travel recommendation engine that helps you discover new places and experiences. The site’s database has over 1,200 destinations, and recommends places based on parameters including your budget. Users can find, organize, book and share travel plans. Evan Schneyer, Christy Liu and Cezary Pietrzak started the company in January 2009.
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Quest Visual
Quest Visual is the maker of the Word Lens application. The iPhone app instantly translates printed words from one language to another using a device’s built-in video camera instantly. The app doesn’t require an Internet or phone connection to work, and currently only supports Spanish to English and English to Spanish translation. It was developed by John DeWeese and Otavio Good.
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What We’re Reading
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Having a Launched Product is Hard
Entrepreneur and Rapportive co-founder Martin Kleppmann writes on his blog about the difficulties his team faced after launching their product in March 2010. They spent the summer after the company’s launch in Y Combinator, and spent less time on product development and more time on fundraising and providing support.
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Startup Fundraising is a Time Sink
In this post on his blog entrepreneur Paul Stamatiou shares his experiences fundraising for his startup Notifo. He describes the difficulty of the process, from figuring out how much he wanted to raise, to putting together a presentation deck, to finding relevant investors to pitch and actually pitching. Mostly he describes the time it takes to do this properly.
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The “Thin Edge of the Wedge” Strategy
Entrepreneur and investor Chris Dixon writes on his blog about how difficult it is to establish an initial relationship with your startup’s users. He outlines the “thin edge of the wedge” strategy, which involves attacking a smaller problem first and then expanding out. It’s about product tactics, and could be a feature you deemed inconsequential.
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5 Marketing Tips to Grow your Business in 2011
Stephanie Chandler writes on the Reuters Entrepreneurial blog about what to consider when developing your 2011 marketing strategy. She recommends several tips, including giving your website an overhaul and committing to blogging. She also suggests strategically testing out new marketing tactics including mobile marketing.
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Management Flubs Made by Rookie Bosses
Most entrepreneurs start a business to escape an ineffective boss, not to become one. At least so says the Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Needleman, who writes about entrepreneurs who admit their skills as bosses were lacking when they forged out on their own. She says entrepreneurs should properly train new hires, give honest feedback, and set out workplace guidelines.
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Top 5 Trends for Small Business as 2011 Starts
Steve Strauss writes in USA Today about the top small business trends of 2011, including mobile marketing and the popularity of Smartphone applications. He also talks about “the new normal,” the trend of post-recession businesses continually trying to do more with less money. He says companies will continue to work smarter and cheaper.
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Featured Members
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James is a California-based entrepreneur and the founder of Giri Media.
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James Stayton
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Nick is an entrepreneur based in San Francisco. He is the founder of Gain Fitness, a company that provides personalized workouts based on exercise science.
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Nick Gammell
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Founder’s Note
It's the start of a brand new year - what plan are you executing against?
Now is the time to look at those big, hairy audacious goals you set for your company and break them down into smaller tasks.
What are you aiming for?
Where are you now?
What do you need to do to get ahead?
Know where you want to be 12 months from now and work backwards to determine what you need to accomplish each month, each week and finally, each day.
Look for a quick win you can get under your belt and start the year off with clear vision, a tactical plan and a sense of momentum.
Set the direction, force yourself to focus and start hustling.
Until next week,
Sarah Prevette
Founder & CEO
Sprouter.com
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