iakttakelser (observations)

He leído este interesantísimo post en muypymes.com en el que se aconseja cómo redactar un Plan de Negocio (Plan de Empresa o Business Plan) de éxito. Aquí dejo un extracto del original: El   business plan   es un documento donde se especifica las   claves de un negocio que se pretende iniciar  o que ya se ha iniciado y quiere mejorar. Normalmente, este plan de empresas se muestra a posibles inversores por lo que tenemos que hacerlo lo más atractivo posible. El éxito o el fracaso de este escrito puede ser la clave del  inicio de una nueva empresa  o el siguiente paso para que nuestra compañía evolucione. Os dejamos   10 consejos  para que el plan de negocio sea un triunfo.   Plan de negocio acorde a presentación:  si ya tenemos una presentación para mostrar a los posibles inversores lo mejor es que el plan de empresa tenga una estructura similar. Así, facilitaremos a los interesados el seguimiento. 15-20 páginas : en el plan de...

Interesante post en maestrosdelweb.com en el que se detallan las características de seis aplicaciones que te ayudarán a elegir el nombre de tu empresa. Si acabas de crear una startup o estás pensando en ello, seguro que este post te resultará interesante. Aquí puedes leer parte del mismo: Una serie de herramientas que te ayudarán a definir el nombre de tu  Startup  con sugerencias de palabras de forma aleatoria. Aveces tenemos muchas ideas sobre proyectos y queremos darle un nombre único, que tenga sentido, que la gente lo recuerde con facilidad. Las sugerencias muchas veces no bastan y con estas herramientas quizás puedas darle un valor añadido a la lluvia de ideas. Un dato interesante sobre estas herramientas que te presento a continuación es que algunas han sido creadas por empresas dedicadas al diseño o una Startup como un servicio gratuito que ayuda a los lectores. Es una interesante forma de promoverte como empresa, regalando algo útil a la comunidad y tus cliente...

Good old days are here again. Good news for all startups! A post from GigaOM by Stacey Higginbotham has the whole story . Here is a part: Fourteen venture-backed companies went public in the first quarter of 2011, raising $1.4 billion in the process, according to the National Venture Capital Association. That’s the highest number to go public in a quarter since 2007. While only seven of these companies were in the Internet and technology fields (the rest were in medical and biotechnology), the more interesting data was on mergers and acquisition amounts, which were awesome for Internet-related businesses and pretty grim for hardware and semiconductors (see chart below). In other words, it’s still all about the software. The NVCA reports that during the first quarter there were 74 M&A deals with a disclosed total dollar value of $3.3 billion. Computer software and services and Internet-specific companies accounted for the bulk of the targets, with 63 deals and the lion’s sha...

A post from TechCrunch by Mark Suster has the whole story . Here is a part: Editor’s Note:  This is a guest post by Mark Suster ( @msuster ), a 2x entrepreneur, now VC at  GRP Partners . Read more about Suster at  Bothsidesofthetable Blogs. We all read them to get a sense of what is going on in the world, peeling back layers of the old world in which media was too scripted. By definition, if you are reading this you read blogs. But should you actually  write  one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? Absolutely. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. Suster then takes you through the why, what, where, how and when to blog. Read it. I learned a lot!

You might alredty Know that in the US, we can find two great spots for start-ups: Sillicon Valley in California and Sillicon Alley in New York. In this post by Thomas Oppong in AllTopStartUps.com, eight great New Yorker start-ups that are making over $10 Million in revenues are mentioned: Here you can find 4 of them: Gawker Media  is an online media company and blog network, founded and owned by Nick Denton. In 2009, the corporation was estimated to be worth $300 million, with $60 million in advertising revenues and more than $30 million in operating profit. it is the parent company for 11 different weblogs, including Gawker.com, Fleshbot, Deadspin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, io9, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Gawker.tv, and Cityfile. Vibrant Media  is a world leader in contextual technology aligning billions of words across the Internet with relevant video, information, tools, and advertising. AppNexus  is the most advanced platform for buying real-time online advertising. E...

That's quite a question. I certainly know the best place isn't Hamar. Innovation Norway at Hamar appearently don't think we're innovative enough to earn more support. So we are moving to Oslo, and staying in La Vila in Spain. But I'm proud to tell you we've received offer to incubate in Silicon Valley and Berlin. And we have to decide. I, personally would prefer New York, but we have to look at the people who want us. This will be tricky indeed! A post from VentureBeat by John Backus has the whole story . Here is a part: John Backus  is a co-founder and managing partner at early-stage VC fund New Atlantic Ventures. He blogs at  http://navfund.com/blog/ . Now’s a good time for startups: VCs are  investing more money  now than they have since the recession hit. But do you have to be in Silicon Valley to get the contacts, staff, and VC attention you need to build a venture-backed company? There’s no doubt, Silicon Valley is frequently the first choice fo...

Antes de que leáis este post original de negociosYemprendimiento.com, quiero advertiros que da un poquito de "rabia" o "envidia" ver cómo algunas ideas alocadas han convertido en millonarios a sus ingeniosos creadores. Cito aquí 5 de estas ideas: The Million Dollar Homepage : Se trata de una web de anuncios creada por un chaval de 21 años que decidió vender el millón de píxeles de su site por un dólar cada uno. Ahora es millonario y seguro que hay quien piensa: ¿por qué no se me ocurrió antes a mí? SantaMail : El creador de esta web se ha convertido en Santa Claus y además en millonario. Tuvo la brillante idea de enviar e-mails a los niños firmados por el mismísimo Papá Noel y cobrar a sus padres 10 dólares por cada uno. Ya ha vendido 200.000 de las dichosas cartas. Doggles : El mundo de la Red no tiene arreglo y está loco de remate. Si no, ¿cómo puede entenderse que alguien pueda hacerse rico vendiendo gafas de bucear para perros por Internet? LaserMonks :S...

Son muchos los artículos y consejos que circulan por Internet y por las redes sociales que pretenden hacernos saber a las startups qué y cómo debemos presentar ante inversores. Este post leído en Cotizalia.com, no me parece uno más. Me resulta lógico, directo y práctico. Aquí cito un extracto del mismo del original escrito por Miguel Arias: Olvidamos que los inversores son personas normales, con un tiempo limitado para dedicar a cada emprendedor y una gran cantidad de asuntos que ocupan su atención en cada momento. Por tanto, la clave del éxito es resumir la información más importante en pocas imágenes y frases, sin dejar nada en el tintero, pero sin aburrir al personal. Después de varias presentaciones a inversores de todo pelaje en España, Londres y USA, he descubierto que, en todas las ocasiones, no sólo no me dejaron terminar mi presentación en su orden previsto, si no que tuve que saltar de un lado a otro para responder al bombardeo de preguntas clave:   - ¿Vete al g...

There are many, many tools out there that might help you out when you get started with your business. I've found this post at BusinessBlogsHub.com that summarizes it all and show the 10 must-have tools for your startup. Here I mention 5: 1.  Notixtech.com  – These days everyone is on their mobile texting, checking emails, checking the score of the game etc. but they are also looking up businesses online to get more information about a business. Is your site mobile friendly? More than likely it’s not. With Notixtech they are “taking your business mobile” so others can find you and learn more about your business in the palm of their hand. They made Business Beware mobile, so get your phone out and check it out. 2.  idesignyourlogo.com  – What’s the one thing that people see and immediately should think of your business/brand? Yes, a logo! Some companies can charge a crazy amount to design a logo but these guys let you sign up for a day (each day increases by $2 th...

Quiero compartir con vosotros este post leído en El Blog Salmón sobre las 20 preguntas más importantes que debe hacerse a sí misma una start-up. También es válido para otras empresas que no sean de nueva creación. Aquí dejo las 10 primeras preguntas: ¿Cuál es tu propuesta empresarial? ¿Está dirigido tu producto o servicio a un mercado viable? ¿Que diferencia tu producto o servicio a la competencia? ¿Es posible llevar al negocio a niveles importantes? ¿Qué compromiso tienes para hacer lo que hay que hacer? ¿Cuáles son tus fortalezas? ¿Cuáles son tus debilidades? ¿Qué precio están dispuestos a pagar tus clientes? ¿Qué poder tienen tus clientes? ¿Qué poder tienen tus suministradores? Leer el post original con las 10 preguntas restantes aquí .

Reading this post by Martin Zwilling at Forbes' blog about Innovation makes me think about iFacturas. We sure have developed an innovative tool that allowes self-employed professionals bill on the go and at the point of service directly from the smartphone (iPhone and Windows Phone 7) and hopefully, iFacturas will turn into a Revolution. The way I see it, professionals will soon use iFacturas to invoice on the go at the time they get the accounting automatically done. For the moment, only professionals from Norway and Spain can take advantage of our tool, but soon it will also be available in the US among other countries. Read here a part of the original post: Great startups these days start with innovation, and then take it up a few notches to make it a revolution. An example is Google, who turned a new search technology into a tool that most of us couldn’t live without. As an entrepreneur, how do you know if you have the potential to innovate, and what are the steps to get...

I've just read this very interesting post by Martin Varsavsky in his blog. He is a very well known entrepreneur in Spain and in many other worldwide countries. And this time he talks about those American entrepreneurs that come to Europe and realise that, though the market is huge, there are many differences and succeeding here responds to the ability to understand the differences between the US and Europe. Here I cite part of the original post: While not all Americans love Europe, many, mostly from the Blue States, do. People in San Francisco or New York City dream of spending part of their life in Italy, France, UK or Spain, and some do make it over.  Not many go to the extreme of moving over here and giving up their US nationalities as I did. But after 9 years of being a tech entrepreneur in Europe and being forced to choose between Spanish or US citizenship, I chose Spanish and stayed in Madrid. As a tech entrepreneur, I found Europe, in general, and Spain, in particular, ...

Quiero compartir con vosotros este artículo leído hoy en el blog ApuntesGestion .com en el que nos muestran 109 recursos para que crees tu propia empresa: Cito aquí los primeros 22: Estartap , blog de emprendedores. En este blog tienes multitud de información y noticias sobre todo lo relacionado con el mundo de emprender y la nueva empresa. Emprendedores.es , en esta web encontrarás todo lo necesario para montar tu nueva empresa. Emprendedores TV , la televisión de los emprendedores. Así se define esta televisión donde encontrarás experiencias de empresarios y conferencias grabadas. Creaciondeempresas.com , portal que te ayudará a crear tu propia empresa desde sus inicios. Importancia  de la redes sociales para emprendedores. http://gestionpyme.com/  el blog del día a día en la empresa. PAEM (e-empresarias) , en esta página web encontrarás ayuda y consejos para la mujer emprendedora. Video  que explica el proceso de innovación En la  página web de empr...

Tal como refleja este post de PymesyAutónomos.com, son muchas las empresas, principalmente de nuevas tecnologías, que deciden apostar por una estrategia de precios en la que todo es gratuito inicialmente y cuando obtienen una considerable número de clientes, cambian a servicios de pago. Tal como se advierte en el post, como parece lógico, acaban perdiendo gran parte o la totalidad de sus clientes en el momento en el que empiezan a cobrarles. Existen estrategias alternativas que pueden ayudarte a rentabilizar a tus clientes. Lee el post original aquí .

A post from Both Sides of the Table by Mark Suster has the whole story . Here is a part: In my ongoing quest to get you good transcripts of the wonderful interviews we’ve done in the past, I present you with one amazing interview here with  Tom McInerney  – a friend, co-investor, former entrepreneur turned angel investor and “wizard of Oz” behind the scenes at the uber hot startup  Klout . What is wonderful about this interview is that I got Tom on the record on: what angels look for and how they work? lessons learned from his days as an entrepreneur some fun, big tech issues like privacy, net neutrality, location-based services and real-time data The interesting thing about working with angels (the tech founder kind) is that they’ve all run their own startups before so there is instant resonance with what you’re going through, the issues you’ll face and how to best help. When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issue...

It's correct. It's not an easy task. But so it shouldn't be either. But the belief that it is the goverment who creates or "gives" employment is hard to beat... A post from VentureBeat by Ilja Laurs has the whole story . Here is the last part:   In addition to the issues stemming from a strictly controlled workplace, Europe’s efforts in VC suffer from an extreme naiveté. As the birthplace of the VC model, the U.S. has considerably more experience in VC enterprises, and, as such, operates with a more mature view. In the most intimate way, American VCs have seen the rise of Google, Twitter and Facebook. They know the ins and outs of their formation, they are familiar with the risks they took and they know the intricacies of their success. Also, thanks to their experience, VCs in the U.S. understand that the parameters of the classic business model do not apply to the businesses they back. While European boards are focused on profits and revenue from the get...

Nice story for a nice product. Instagram has changed the way I take and distribute photos. A post from TechCrunch by MG Siegler has the whole story . Here is a part: There have been few startups that have gotten as hot as quickly as  Instagram . The photo-sharing application for the iPhone surged past  100,000 users  less than a week after they first launched. In less than three months,  they hit a million users . Now they’re well north of 1.5 million users. Not surprisingly, that kind of growth has attracted a lot of interest from investors. In fact, many of the big players were fighting for a chance to get in on the startup’s Series A, we’ve heard. And now, we have a winner. Benchmark Capital  is leading Instagram’s $7 million Series A round. Also participating is initial investor  Baseline Ventures  and angels: Square’s  Jack Dorsey ,  Chris Sacca  (through his Lowercase Capital fund), and Quora’s Adam D’Angelo . Benchmark’s...

Here is another post from my VC RSS feed. A primer in raising money! A post from Both Sides of the Table by Mark Suster has the whole story . Here is a part: If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where  Mark Jeffrey  & I break it down on This Week in VC.  A summary of what we discussed is below: Popout Not 100% in order of the video, but close.  All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC ” tab) 1. Will a VC sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement)?  No. If they did they would be in constant violation because VCs often see 3-4+ companies in every market that they operation.  NDAs would make it impossible to do business.   Asking for one to be signed shows naïveté. 2. What is the VC process? Meet with one person from the firm – partner or associate.  If you ...

I've starting following some Venture Capital blogs. Here is the first post in my blog: A post  from  A VC   by  Fred  has the whole story. Here is a part: This is going to feel like a continuation of  yesterday's post  which was a continuation of  last week's post . But it is what I am thinking about so it is what I am posting about. I love what  @Bryce  wrote  about mobile on his blog yesterday : By their nature, these phones were born social. They were built from the ground up to connect us. First with voice, then with text. Now, they’re packed capabilities like photos, videos and a wave of native and web applications. We’re just beginning to catch a glimpse of what a powerful and disruptive force they can be. Not just to incubent handset manufactures and telcos but to social movements and government regimes.  I’ve made clear my belief that we’re in the midst of a massive global reinvention. Not just a shift...

I've put two stories below. Other investors are partly very sceptics. The startups however, very glad to accept this investment offer, which are also on good terms. What do you think? A post from techcrunch.com by Chris Yeh has the whole story . Here is a part: Editor’s note : Guest author  Chris Yeh  is an independent angel investor and VP of Marketing for PBworks , one of his investments. He has been involved with Internet startups since 1995. His Twitter handle is  @chrisyeh . Update:  This post refers to DST as the investor in Start Fund  when it actually is Yuri Milner personally investing, along with Ron Conway’s fund SV Angel. The big news this morning is  Yuri Milner’ s announcement that  DST  and  Ron Conway  will be investing $150,000  in *every*  Y Combinator  startup on a no-discount, no-cap convertible loan. Many people have already weighed in with instant reactions—”It’s a bubble!” “It’s the greatest thi...