photo credit: JohnSeb

Lucid Imagination – the startup launched in 2009 which distributes Apache Lucene and Apache Solr search technology announced that it has raised $10 million in venture capital funding (completes its Series B round) with existing investors Granite Ventures and Walden International and new participation from Shasta Ventures.

The startup is the commercial entity for Lucene/Solr and it offers a broad portfolio of software and service solutions. It offers differentiated search for organizations across a wide range of sectors including Web 2.0, media, telecommunications, government etc. Its customers include Nike, Ford, Zappos, eBay, Ford, Cisco and many others.

Funding will be used to accelerate readiness and adoption of Lucene/Solr search technology. It had a total funding of $6 million before this and after this deal the company’s total funding comes up to $16 million.

A startup which is in its second year is seeing revenue in millions and counts Google’s enterprise search as its direct competitor.

This is definitely great news! Congratulations to Lucid Imagination. A good source of motivation and inspiration for startups

You can visit TechCrunch for a detailed description:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/10/lucid-imagination-raises-10-million-for-apache-search-technology/

the startup that commercially distributes the open source Apache Lucene and Apache Solr search technology, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from

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Data of all kind is being increasingly accumulated on the web by millions of people who are embracing ‘technology’ and new style of working.

Unlimited data is virtually stored on the internet and with the rise of Web 2.0 services such as social networking, blogging, cloud computing etc companies have started to struggle in coping up with costly and complex networks of server computers.

Many tech startup founders believe that they have ‘almost’ reached breaking point. Companies don’t really have the money to keep buying servers, hire people to manage them or build huge facilities to keep, power and cool them.

Startup companies have found out ways to deal with this issue. Server efficiency has definitely and massively increased with virtualization of data but tech companies are still finding ways to make this better. Various methods are adopted by tech companies to reduce the number of servers and increase their efficiency. For example; using flash memory instead of traditional spinning (the way songs are stored in iPods) is one of the methods used by Fusion-io Inc

While some companies focus on server efficiency, others concentrate on networking gears that moves data from one machine to another. Datacenters need better quality and faster networks which can handle over-burdened servers.

Companies are also looking out for ways on how to structure the vast amount of data and figuring out ways in which they can used more effectively by businesses and consumers. Restructuring data, providing information and changing the database architecture is the next target market for tech startups.

For more information on how startups are coping up and taking advantage of the data flood we suggest you read this post on Wall Street Journal

Azul Systems Inc., No. 6, and Schooner Information Technology Inc., No. 34, build specialized servers for specific datacenter software programs, which they say perform significantly better than general-purpose servers.

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

Intel Corp (the world’s largest chip maker) with a group for other 24 venture capital firms has declared that it will invest $3.5 billion in U.S tech startups over the coming two years to accelerate and promote domestic job growth. The investments will mainly focus on information technology and bio-technology (or clean technology).

Intel believes (and the US also) that it faces stiff competition in the areas of education and innovation from India and China. The CEO of Intel argued that the United States should lead the global race for innovation.

Intel has also taken initiatives in the past when it comes to investing or hiring graduates. Google, HP, GE and Dell Inc. also encourage graduate hiring.

A good step taken by Intel for promoting innovation and startups

For more details we suggest you read the Business Week Post here
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-23/intel-venture-firms-to-invest-3-5-billion-in-u-s-startups.html

Intel takes stakes in companies that have technology that can be used to increase future processor sales.

photo credit: Johny hanging head down from the tree

You know you need to write a ‘killer’ press release when launching your startup. As a startup entrepreneur you already know that a press release is a major PR strategy (and probably the first one) and should be written immaculately.

Here are a few tips on how to write an effective press release for a business launch:

1.Visit press release sites such as prlog.org, openpr.com, prnewswire.com and pr.com etc and see the way other press releases are written. It will help in grammar, punctuation and formatting.

2.Write a headline which conveys your message directly (avoiding ambiguity). Don’t over-think

3.The important information should fit into the first paragraph and your website name should also be mentioned here

4.Make the press release interesting, use quotes and avoid jargons

5.Make someone else check your press release before publishing

Remember to follow the general SEO tips such as anchor text, keywords & NOFOLLOW tag etc. And of course leverage social media platforms to make your release viral.

For more information on this, please read this post on StartupNation

As you’re writing, think about the key elements that your audience will find interesting. Focus on the benefits,

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Entrepreneurs (most of them) see insurance as a ‘cost’ that you can get away with. Let me remind them – insurance is an investment, not a cost for a startup.

Future is uncertain, and so are the associated risks. Businesses can’t predict a ‘disaster’. May be these risks are small or even affordable, but there is a good chance you are underestimating them. The chances of your business catching fire or getting hit by a flood are low, but can you imagine the disruption that it may cause?

A criminal act, calamity or anything minor can cause major disruption. Entrepreneurs leave the insurance phase for later, but I would suggest getting your startup insured as soon as your business is launched.

Many clients also ask for insurance details before they are prepared to do business with you. Public liability is important for many clients. It also helps you build credibility.

For more information on this, please visit:
http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842907520208545/why-you-need-insurance.html

Despite not being able to trade, you will still have to pay your staff, rent and other costs. You could lose a very significant amount of business or incur heavy costs while attempting to maintain it.

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The task of naming a startup may sound easy, but believe me; it requires a lot of thought and brainstorming.

What’s in a startups name? Everything – the branding and marketing stems from the name. It is not only important but crucial for a startup’s success.

Compare Lycos and Vidoop with Brightmail and Paypal - the latter clearly standout and are easy to pronounce and remember. You can notice the difference yourself. Looking at many successful brands today, there are two things we can find in common;

1.The name relates to what the company actually does. It establishes (a direct or indirect) an association between the brand and product/services of the company

2.The name is not ‘literally’ related to the product/service but it creates a differentiating characteristic or feeling

Other points to be kept in mind when naming a startup:

•A name that can be remembered easily

•Refrain from being too creative with the names

•Think about acronyms (like AT & T for American Telephone and Telegraph, Inc.)

•Do not trade on existing business names (using parts of other well-known brands)

•It should be scalable (think long term growth)

There is a great post on ReadWriteWeb where it talks about naming of mint.com.

Patzer and Mint went through this very process themselves, first purchasing mymint.com at roughly $3,000 before inking a deal with the owner of mint.com

photo credit: Neil Boothman

Today I came across one of the most creative and informative presentations on SEOmoz regarding Search Engine Optimization for startups. The presentation was made for the YCombinator SEO for Startups event.

Here are a few tips from the post/event:

1. Employ SEO in the concept phase (not after the site is built) – It is quite hard to do but take advantage of being a startup. You’re building your website from scratch, so be sure to apply SEO from the beginning.

2. Build accessibility first – Make something search engines can find. Unique content that users and search engines find valuable

3. SEO is a strategy, not a tactic – Don’t do the usual SEO stuff by following certain guidelines and tactics. Explore, experiment and form a proper SEO strategy for your startup

4. Remember: SEO is not a one-time event – It is constantly evolving, not only because Google keeps changing its algorithms but more because hundreds of competitors keep adding content and updating their site.

5. Analytics = Religion – Researching, tracking and reporting, all is possible through analytics. It’s the soul of any SEO initiative

6. Have other sources of traffic to your website (not only Google) – Pass links in e-mails, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, press releases etc. If 90 % of your traffic is coming from Google then that is certainly very dangerous.

For more tips, visit SEOmoz

I promise that no hairbrained scheme to manipulate the search rankings by registering thousands of sites or scraping the web for open places to link or contacting 6,000 “friends” for a link exchange are either A) new or B) going to work.

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Mr. Kevin Rose created Digg.com – a user driven social content website that attracts 38 million visitors each month. After you submit content to the site, other people read your submission and “Digg” what they like best. If your story receives the most Diggs, it’s promoted to the home page for other visitors to see – a unique concept which caused a revolution in social media.

Digg.com was launched in 2004 and has been a successful in luring millions of visitors. But achieving all this wasn’t as easy. Kevin Rose had a tough time launching Digg.com – a once upon a time ‘startup’.

Kevin Rose worked for a television company and worked on Digg in his spare time to keep costs down. He says “If you are really passionate about something, it is possible to work a fulltime day job and have that side project, but be prepared to make sacrifices”.

At some point net entrepreneurs will have to decide between quitting their jobs and committing to their ventures, but the longer they can work without taking help from investors, the more equity they will maintain in their start-ups.

Some other suggestions for startups from Mr. Kevin are:

•Dispensing with an office – Digg didn’t have one for 6 months
•Renting and not buying server capacity for testing
•Skipping expensive conferences and networking at after-conference parties instead
•Not to design too many features in your startup product initially
•Hiring people from the start so they can see the big picture right from the beginning
•Avoid taking money from unknowledgeable ‘dumb investors

Mr. Kevin also mentions that being worried, tensed and hyperactive about your startup product is perfectly alright. He also had a stressful time after Digg’s launch, ensuring the site wasn’t hacked or taken over by spammers – “it was really scary. I can remember waking up early in the morning because I didn’t know what was going to be on the homepage.”

A lot of advice for startups from the founder of Digg.com himself

For more details visit: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/3358151/Digg-com-founder-boosts-startups
 

photo credit: alexanderdrachmann

It is easy to glamorize the life of an entrepreneur – but what isn’t easy is to imagine all the difficulties that come along. However, without a doubt the benefits of being a startup entrepreneur outweigh all the problems.

There are millions of people every year who step forward and take a plunge and start their first ventures. So should you take the plunge as well? As a potential entrepreneur, it’s the ‘gut’ feeling of succeeding that is important. There are strong internal drivers that compel us to startup our own venture.

Yes we have the idea, motivation and zeal, but do we really have everything needed to be successful startup entrepreneur?

Take this 2 minute test (Isenberg Entrepreneur Test) and find out. Simply answer yes or no to the questions and be honest (to yourself):

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/02/should_you_be_an_entrepreneur.html

I am sure Zuckerberg, Larry Page & Steve Jobs will score well in the quiz 

"I want to get rich" is not on the list either. All else being equal (and all else is rarely equal in the real world), on the average, people who set up their own businesses don't make more money, although a few do succeed in grabbing the brass ring.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

So you create a Facebook Fan Page and have 200,000 fans in two weeks. How do you get the benefit out of this? Well this is a 100 percent opportunity to become an ‘entrepreneur’ (in good faith).

The dilemma is – can a famous Facebook page become a real startup?

We have two kinds of people here;

1.Intentional – who form a Facebook page or open an account with Twitter before launching a website (bona fide startup.

2.Unintentional – who form a Facebook page, get massive number of fans and then decide to launch a website with the same idea

In both cases, the biggest question is whether the popularity of a Facebook Page can be easily harnessed to build a standalone website. The obvious advantage is that Facebook has a huge number of users who are very active (Trust me – Facebook is extremely engaging). If a user becomes a fan of your page, then updates you post on your page will automatically show up in the user’s profile. Building an audience through Facebook is comparatively easier.

Now the problem is that users might be reluctant to visit your website when they can get all updates from Facebook (user friction)

It will be a long way before a Facebook page can turn in to a sustainable and profitable business.

Econsultancy explains the topic elaborately in this post by citing an example of Secret London

As a standalone website, Secret London will have to convince its users to visit and use yet another website. That means far more

PS: My friend launched a Facebook Fan Page yesterday and has above 300 fans already – she is already thinking on the same line