How to Run an Online Contest
A year ago we launched the ReadWriteWeb Guide on Community Management with the knowledge that "Community Manager" would become an increasingly popular job title. Since then, the requirements of...
View ArticleThe Importance of Quick Decisions
In the words of legendary investor Mark Suster, "Entrepreneurs don't noodle, they do." While it's important to be analytical in your decision making, it's also important to act when opportunities...
View ArticleWhere is Entrepreneurship Really Taught?
Between Y Combinator's Startup School, the influx of seed fund incubators, the list of legendary mentors and investors and the dotcom bust's school of hard knocks, is there really any reason to go to...
View ArticleWhen Negotiation Becomes Dishonesty
If you've been a geek your whole life then you understand the term "Canadian girlfriend." The Canadian (or sometimes British) love interest is the person you talk about when a member of the opposite...
View ArticleApple's Virtual Reality Store: Second Life or XBox Live?
While the rest of the world was caught up with Google Buzz, Apple was quietly granted a patent for a virtual reality App Store. The store patent encompasses details such as seasonal and time-based...
View Article6 Approaches to Your Company Blog
In the last few months several startups have asked me how to approach corporate blogging. Judging by the frequency of requests, Gartner was right in suggesting that corporate blogging is rising up the...
View ArticlePRManna: Striving for a Tech-Focused HARO
A few days ago Ryan Waggoner launched PRManna - a site for startup companies to offer themselves as news sources to the tech blogging community. Similar to Peter Shankman's Help a Reporter Out (HARO)...
View ArticleCause-Based Funding: Startl and Philanthropic Startup Investment
Raising funding is hard any way you slice it, but the emergence of cause-base resources is helping pave the way for ethical startups that might have otherwise gone unseen. A few years ago we featured...
View ArticleSkout's Location-Based Dating: The Quest for Love and Profit
Less than a decade ago, online dating was by no way considered mainstream. Not only were you judged for putting your profile up on a dating site, but your choice of site between Lavalife, Match and...
View ArticleWe're Still Not Facebook: Lessons from Late Adopters
This week thousands of visitors arrived at ReadWriteWeb thinking we were the new Facebook and asking us how to login. The phenomenon came about as mainstream audiences were directed to our story via...
View ArticleFind a Pattern Before Scaling Up Your Sales Team
The problem with hiring an arsenal of top sales and marketing executives when you don't have a proven customer model is that you're likely to burn through all that funding you worked so hard to get....
View ArticleHow to Land an Event Panel Spot or Speaker's Invite
One of the best ways to become an industry influencer is to get involved in industry events. They're a great way to surround yourself with respected colleagues and they offer your the opportunity to...
View ArticleAR App Development: Metaio Releases Unifeye Mobile SDK
At today's Mobile World Congress, augmented reality company Metaio unveiled its Unifeye Mobile SDK and Android demo at Sony Ericcson's Creation Day. The company is offering developers a chance to...
View ArticleScoop St: From Flash Mobs to Group Shopping Discounts
Georgetown roommates David Ambrose and Justin Tsang never thought their time spent together in the dorms would amount to a joint business. The two recently launched Scoop St. - a group buying discount...
View ArticleBuild Business Cases, Not Business Plans
In the ancient times before the internet, a business plan was what you wrote to appease the Gods of private equity and venture capital. It was a thick document, full of scientific analysis, market...
View ArticleIs Humanism the Future of Sales and Conversion?
There's a reason why vanity URLs, personalized profile pages and recommendation systems are so popular. To a customer or site visitor, there's nothing more interesting than themselves. As the CEO of...
View ArticleHacking the iPhone App Store's Ranking Algorithm
If you're a mobile app developer, one of your biggest concerns is getting noticed. Companies like Smule and Tapulous already have recognized brands; however, for the independent app designer, the...
View ArticleInnovate100: Enter to Be The World's Most Promising Startup
The Guidewire Group just launched its Innovate!100 competition to highlight the most promising companies of the year. Early-stage startups are encouraged to submit applications and compete in one of...
View ArticleInvesting in Innovation: The Circle of Life
It's easy to construct an "us" versus "them" mentality between startups and investors, especially when there are so many disgruntled founders who've had the door slammed in their face. But I'd hardly...
View ArticleWhere Are the Women Bloggers? They're Driving Your Sales
If an agency has ever pitched you on outreach to women's blogs and they don't mention the BlogHer network, there's something wrong with them. BlogHer and its 2,500 contributing blog affiliates are...
View ArticleMyWare: Personalized Service or Invasion of Privacy?
There's a fine line between what is considered a knowledge database and an invasion of privacy, and that line is likely to be determined by marketing. This week we wrote an article about Please Rob Me...
View ArticleHiring Programmers: Screening Out Liars and Duds
Every entrepreneur will tell you that recruiting the right candidate is important. While startups are constantly trying to find programmers that mesh well with their culture, team and work-style, one...
View ArticleBecoming Market Leader: Finding and Beating the Competition
In the late 90's, a spokesperson for the Coca Cola corporation said, "Our primary competition isn't Pepsi. Our real competition is water, tea, nimbupani and Pepsi... in that order." While it's a...
View ArticleShould Startups Pitch Associates For Funding?
As an entrepreneur raising funding, it's easy to get into the mentality of pitching to anyone who will listen, but an active discussion amongst the investment community has sparked considerable debate...
View ArticleNever Mind the Valley: Here's Washington DC
The words "fat cats in Washington" have been uttered in every corner of the nation from Texas to the Bay, yet DC's tech scene is anything but sluggish. Companies like AOL, Nextel, MCI and Uunet found...
View ArticleStartup Visa Introduced: Is it a No-Brainer?
Foreign startups with their sights set on targeting a U.S. market will be happy to note that as of this morning, Senator John Kerry and Senator Richard Lugar introduced the Startup Visa Act in...
View ArticleSocial Media Metrics: Why Am I Counting Tweets Again?
Earlier today, conversation tracking site UberVu launched Compare. The service allows you type your name and a competitor's name into search boxes to produce information on your competing brand...
View ArticleKeeping Out the Trolls: Relevancy in User-Generated Content
In the summer of 2008, J.R. Johnson sold Virtual Tourist to Expedia for $85 million dollars. While Johnson seems like the type of laid back Los Angeles entrepreneur that would take some vacation time,...
View ArticleThe 3 Surprising Investment Sources Behind Your VC
While so much of the startup scene is funded by investment capital, it's tough to know exactly where all of that money comes from. In chasing the power behind the investment throne it's easy to...
View ArticleAlways Be Closing: Ink the Deal and Do It Quickly
Just because you've been in talks doesn't mean the deal is done. Entrepreneurs need to remain diligent about timelines in order to ensure that the deals they've set in motion actually come to...
View ArticleIn Hindsight: When VC Associates Misread the Landscape
When a startup entrepreneur tells the story of his/her mistakes and how they've corrected them, it's endearing. When an investment associate for one of the more prestigious VC firms does it, it's...
View ArticleOpen Thread: PRManna - Copy Cat or Inspiration?
Earlier this month we noticed PRManna climbing up the Hacker News front page and reached out to the creator for an interview. Ryan Waggoner started PRManna in his spare time and was open in saying...
View ArticleEscape from New York: Is the Valley Necessary?
In an effort to highlight some of the emerging tech centers across the world we've written on a number of cities for our Never Mind the Valley series. We've featured the funding and opportunities...
View ArticleSeries Seed Documents: Legal Templates for Early Investments
Because today's startup generally requires significantly less seed capital to function, the legal contracts once required for large-scale deals are no longer appropriate. Rather than forcing startups...
View ArticleHow to Prepare for Conversion and Optimization
The best way to reduce bounce rates and design a path of least resistance for members and customers is to offer something they want. While others prioritize member acquisition in order to build an...
View ArticleFollow the Hippie: Leadership Lessons Through Dance
When Sigma Partners' Richard Dale posted a video of a random dancing guy to his Venture Cyclist blog I was skeptical. I'd seen the original video sans narration and dismissed it as a strange...
View ArticleDeadHeads and Retweeters: Crowdsourcing Influence
Last week the New York Historical Society opened the first large-scale exhibit of material from the Grateful Dead Archive. The archive will be managed by the University of Santa Cruz with special...
View ArticleThere is No Perfect VP of Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing are not the same thing. It's true they both deal with relationship management and it's true that neither of these job descriptions require hardcore engineering, but just because...
View ArticleBeyond Ads: Monetizing Location-Based Services
This week geo-crazy mavens were pleased to hear of location-based updates to Facebook, the launch of Foursquare analytics and of course yesterday's news of Gowalla's comment and picture functionality....
View ArticleSmall Business Web Directory Launches at SXSW
Upon first glance we were skeptical. Generally when someone says they're launching a business directory it's an SEO play with little value to users. Nevertheless, the small business web directory is a...
View ArticleIs Innovation Fair? Andrew Keen Says No
Andrew Keen is no stranger to controversy. He has irritated bloggers by equating Web 2.0 with communism and enraged citizen journalists with his best selling book, Cult of the Amateur: How Today's...
View ArticleSeed Incubator Panel: YCombinator, VentureHacks, Capital Factory, TechStars
A decade ago, entrepreneurs saw seed funds as a means to an end. There was little effort to brand the separate groups, there were few celebrity angels and the entire VC community seemed shrouded in...
View ArticleHow to Burn Bridges with Bootup Labs and Other Investors
When Phoenix-based designer Jamie Martin's blog post hit the front page of Hacker News earlier today, he realized what it's like to burn bridges in a connected world. After his company Status.ly and...
View ArticleInside Twitter's Developer Fears with OneForty's Laura Fitton
After a busy couple of days, oneforty app store founder Laura Fitton is in the unique position as the unofficial spokesperson for a developer community turned upside down in the wake of the Tweetie...
View ArticleUsing the Startup Process to Change Disaster Relief
In early December a Supernova session entitled, How Startup Companies Can Change the World had presenters brainstorm ways to connect the technology industry with policy makers. Coupled with many of...
View ArticleGoogle Image Search Gets a Redesign and New Search Ads
With more than 10 billion images indexed, Google Image Search has become the visual reference source to beat. Google's VP Marissa Mayer took the stage at a press conference today to announce the...
View ArticleThere's Money to be Made in "Premium Privacy" Says VC Fred Wilson
When veteran blogger and venture capitalist Fred Wilson addresses an audience on the business opportunities in geolocational services, you can't help but listen. While we have our own opinions as to...
View ArticleRisk-takers and Strategists: Jeremiah Owyang on Long-Term Social Media Planning
Two years ago, 93% of Americans believed companies should have a social media presence. Today, brands are hiring social media specialists for customer support, crowdsourced product development,...
View ArticleReputation Management Services Should Practice What They Preach
Online reputation has been measured by in-bound links through Google Ranking, RSS and feed subscribers and now, the number of social media shares on services like Klout and Echo apps. As new...
View ArticleTribal Leadership: A Review
Organizational leadership theories too often manifest into tedious memoirs peppered with Sun Tzu and Machiavelli quotes. The frequent outcome is subjecting teams to rewriting job priorities as MBOs,...
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