photo credit: Hong Kong dear Edward
A bill* was introduced in the Senate (USA) on the 24th February 2010 proposing a new type of visa for immigrants who create startups and jobs in the U.S.
*The Startup Visa Act of 2010 will crate a two year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000 (with $100,000 coming from a qualified venture investor or U.S. angel). After the two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including spouse or children), attract $1 million more in investment, or produce $1 million in revenue, he or she will become a legal resident of the United States of America.
The introduction of this bill is the result of a blog post written by Paul Graham in April 2009 (one of the partners at Y Combinator). In the post, titled “The Founder Visa,” Paul explained that foreign-born students who graduate from a U.S. university can’t stay back in the U.S. to start a company. This post was passed around by bloggers, entrepreneurs and venture industry veterans until it was turned into a savvy social media campaign (including twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc). And the result is in front of us today, the campaign was a success and the bill was introduced a few days ago.
The message associated with the bill is quite straightforward – create jobs and get a green card. Even if the bill passed it isn’t going to attract a herd of entrepreneurs’ right way. It will eventually gain momentum. U.S. is welcoming entrepreneurs from outside the United States, and is promoting ideas and startups.
An interesting discussion is going on in this forum regarding the pros and cons of the bill.
Personally, I believe it’s a strategically well thought decision that would ease out rules and allow entrepreneurs all over the world to harvest their ideas in the technological hub of the world, and besides beneficial for the U.S. as well in terms of employment, innovation and growth.
For more information on this, we suggest you visit TechCrunch
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
photo credit: Arthur40A
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: 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
photo credit: lumaxart
Venture Hacks recently launched a new project aiming to bring startups and angel investors closer.
Venture hacks launched AngelList which is a basic directory of around 80 established angel investors including their contact info and key information like what they’re looking for in a startup etc. The members of AngelList will receive weekly updates from Startuplist (the second project launched by Venture Hacks).
StartupList will be a great boon for all startups looking for angel investors. So if you’re a startup looking for early investment and you have no idea how to get to potential investors then this project is definitely for you. To get on the list you need to apply here.
Venture Hacks will send weekly emails featuring three startup pitches to some of Silicon Valley’s most respected angel investors.
Kudos to Venture Hacks. Great effort and all the best
photo credit: Marco Bellucci
There are a few ‘best’ questions related to startups which pop up in our mind now and then. Questions such as - when is the best time to startup? Which sector is the best to startup in? Which is best - funding through revenues or investors? In this post we attempt to answer these questions precisely. The post is inspired by a very good article I came across recently.
The Best Time
Anytime is a good time to startup with a slight tilt towards starting up during a recession. And why is that? That is because if you survive turbulent times then you definitely learn how to manage a business given any other time or scenario. The tough times teach you. On the contrary if your startup has flourished because of the boom period then it will be difficult for you to sustain in times of drought.
What do GE, Disney, HP and Microsoft all have in common? They were all startups that took off the ground during steep declines in the U.S economy.
The Best Sector
If we take a close look at all companies today, we will find out most of the companies started as outliers (extreme deviation from what their original idea was) , and then with time grew in mass and had a bunch of companies following them to form a so called ‘best sector’. Was there an aircraft manufacturing sector before a Boeing? Not really. So the tip here is not to worry about the sector, just do your business where you have a sustainable competitive advantage in what you’re offering.
Investors
Always keep in mind that investors have different motivations from entrepreneurs. As an entrepreneur, you want to build a company over a long term and as an investor, you want to exit with a good value over the next 7 years (entrepreneurial investors are really rare to find).
Your first option should be getting your funding from customers (revenues i.e.) And if you need outside investors then keep in mind the time frame in which you have to generate real value and a ground-breaking idea that will get you an actual investment. And of course, shape your pitch according to different investors – be a good marketer.
photo credit: Pardesi*
A very common similarity that I have noticed in human behavior is that ‘we want to do something, but we don’t end up doing it’. I want to have a successful career but I disrupt my interview. I want to be thin but I over eat. I want to excel in my job role but I don’t complete my tasks for the day and so on.
How can the rationale behind this behavior be explained? Seth Godin in his recent post explained the phenomena – why is it so difficult to do what we say we want to do?
Answer: The Lizard Brain (Resistance)
Resistance – The voice at the back of our head telling us to go slow, not take risk, compromise and back off. This resistance grows further as we get closer to an insight – the truth of what we really want. Lizards (a physical part of your brain) hate change, achievement and risk.
An advice to entrepreneurs is to block the lizard brain. Be open to change and development, compromise, have meetings, fear critics, take risks and pacify the lizard.
The lizard brain is here to stay – it’s your job to figure out how to ignore it
The lizard is a physical part of your brain, the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because her lizard brain told her to.
photo credit: Naj ( Desired Hopes © )
The world was closely watching and everyone in the media was fanatical about the launch of Apple’s new touchscreen tablet technology – the iPad. The outstanding feature that impressed everyone was the price (just $499). A lot has been written about the iPad but what we are concerned about is its business applications (especially for startups).
Startup entrepreneurs need to be on the go – creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations and also taking their product pitches with them to every meeting, presentation or event they go. iPad will make all of this easier and convenient. For example: When they meet people at events, they can take out their iPad and flip through the presentation then and there. And also for VC presentations or bland elevator pitches – an iPad is certainly a smart purchase for an entrepreneur.
The price plus the benefits – A definite win-win situation for all entrepreneurs
For more details visit: http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/01/what-the-ipad-means-for-startu.php
Keynote, Pages and Numbers will all be available on the iPad when it goes on sale in a few months - and all at just $9.99 per app.
photo credit: Joshua Rappeneker
None of us are unaware about the economic downturn and how it has affected businesses – small or big. You have the idea, drive, creativity, plan and resources to launch a startup but there are certain aspects you should be careful about when launching a startup in the midst of the recession.
Focus, discipline and building value – three tips for Startup launches and the rest follows. Seth Godin, (the Marketing Guru and founder of Squidoo) in an interview with Mashable gives more light on this matter. Here is what he had to say:
http://mashable.com/2009/02/04/seth-godin-advice-for-startups/
Understand that in a down economy, not only is there less money for people to spend on you, but you have to spend less money to make stuff that’s worthwhile.
photo credit: jaeWALK
The staff of any business/startup can be divided into three categories; A, B and C. The people belonging to “category A” – the extraordinaire and really talented people are the ones every business wants to keep. A huge problem arises when the “A players” decide to quit and the company goes haywire in trying to keep them from resigning. Suddenly star treatment is provided and all sorts of promises about the future are made to them. But does this work? Will the A star worker not resign?
After reaching a saturation point where you feel under-appreciated or mistreated, an employee will leave regardless of any newly created incentive. The star treatment and incentives aren’t enough to hold back the employee. Instead identify such employees from the beginning and keep them motivated and happy.
The article below is a great read and talks about first hand experience of an entrepreneur:
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/16/dont-roll-out-the-red-carpet-on-the-way-out-the-door/
Don’t roll out the red carpet on the way out the door, but roll the red carpet inside the organization.
