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Week of January 7
Sprouter Weekly
Your weekly round up of the hottest startups, best content & must-attend events.

Founder Profile

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.

Read On

Hot Startups of the Week

YouTern
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.

mConcierge
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.

Wanderfly
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.

Quest Visual
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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Sprouter Answers

Have a question about building your startup? Get an expert answer. Visit Sprouter Answers at Ask.Sprouter.com.

Upcoming Events

Consumer Electronics Show
Las Vegas
January 6th-9th

The International CES is the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow. It features 2700 exhibitors from around the world. It’s produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the consumer technology industry.

RSVP Now
CONNECT Denmark Springboard
Holstebro, Denmark
January 10th

CONNECT Denmark is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs in Denmark. Springboard events are panel reviews of startups. The 700th Springboard is being held on Monday.
RSVP now →

NextGen Conference
Stanford University
January 12th

The NextGen Conference brings together aspiring young entrepreneurs and more experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Join for a full day at Stanford University.
RSVP now →

SF Beta
111 Minna St., San Francisco
January 11th

SF Beta is San Francisco's biggest startup mixer, attracting founders, innovators, investors, and executives from Silicon Valley. This event’s demo theme is Financial Innovation, and will feature 12 startup demos.
RSVP now →

Gateway 2 Europe
Tel Aviv, Israel
January 12th

This event will feature representatives from Luxembourg discussing how to make your entrance into the European market a success. Agenda includes a Zynga case study.
RSVP now →

What We’re Reading

Staff Pick

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.
Read it →

Staff Pick

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.
Read it →

Staff Pick

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.
Read it →

Community Pick

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.
Read it →

Community Pick

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.
Read it →

Community Pick

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.
Read it →

Featured Members

James Stayton
James Stayton
Connect on Sprouter @jstayton
Visit Website girimedia.com/

James is a California-based entrepreneur and the founder of Giri Media.
Connect with James Stayton →

Nick Gammell
Nick Gammell
Connect on Sprouter @nickg
Visit Website gainfitness.com/

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.
Connect with Nick Gammell →

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