fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Founders announces first Mothership Series release of 2021
By: Drake V. Harper
Tags: Food And Beverage, Spirit, Drinking, Founders, Releases

Founders Brewing Company announced Maple Barrel-Aged Frangelic Mountain Brown will be the 16th release in the taproom-only Mothership Series and the first release of 2021.

Frangelic Mountain Brown is aged in bourbon barrels that previously housed maple syrup, adding complexity to the existing sweet and nutty coffee notes of this brown ale. Courtesy Founders Brewing Co.

Frangelic Mountain Brown is aged in bourbon barrels that previously housed maple syrup, adding complexity to the existing sweet and nutty coffee notes of this brown ale, according to Founders.

“Brown ales aren’t usually considered a flashy beer style, but this one certainly has some flair,” said Jeremy Kosmicki, Founders brewmaster. “In fact, it’s pretty jam-packed with amazing flavors like hazelnut, coffee, maple, oak and bourbon — all perfectly balanced into a solid brown ale base.”

Maple Barrel-Aged Frangelic Mountain Brown will be available in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles and on draft beginning Jan. 27, exclusively in both the Grand Rapids and Detroit taprooms.

The Mothership Series features ultra-limited, brew team favorite beers only found in bottles at Founders’ taproom locations. Previous Mothership Series beers have included: Frootwood, Passion Fruit Gose, Blushing Padre, Detroit Double IPA, Devil Dancer, French Toast Bastard, Oktoberfest, Pale Joe and Mucho Lupu.

Posted By: Grand Rapids Magazine on December 27, 2020. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
TVP 2020 Year In Review
By: Tribeca Venture Partners
Tags: Tech, Year In Review, Founders, Startup, Venture Capital

TVP Managing Partners — Brian Hirsch (L) and Chip Meakem (R)

A standard year in review letter seems almost impossible as we close out 2020…where do we begin. We won’t even try beyond recognizing a few key thoughts. Our deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of all those lost or critically impacted by the pandemic. While we still face tremendous uncertainty entering 2021, we also see a distinct light at the end of this dark tunnel. In a testament to technology and innovation, Americans across the country are now being vaccinated with a known plan to vaccinate the entire population in 2021. We are incredibly optimistic that public health in December 2021 will look nothing like December 2020.

This year pressure-tested our portfolio founders, CEOs, and management teams in ways that no one could have predicted. We have been inspired by the hard work and dedication of our teams. While trivial in the grand scheme of public health and social issues facing us all, we thought we could use this impossible 2020 Year In Review to acknowledge their perseverance while managing personal health and safety.

We wish everyone a safe and healthy holiday season. Can’t wait for 2021.
Who Is Paul Allen — Life Insider Blogger
By: Rishiraj Lodhi
Tags: Founders, Paul Allen, Google

Paul Allen was an American Industrialist, Businessman, philanthropist,author, investor, media personality and business Personality. Paul Allen was the very famous investors and businessman in Silicon Valley United States of America. Paul Allen was the co-founder of Microsoft, He co-founded Microsoft in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America with childhood friend Bill Gates. Paul Allen was also billionaire businessman.

Read It

What is Microsoft?

Here is the information about Paul Allen -

Date of birth — 21 January 1953

Birth Place — Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Died on — 15 October 2018 ( 65 Year’s)

Died in — Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Parents — Faye G. Allen ( Mother ), Kenneth S. Allen ( Father )

Family — Jody Allen ( Sister), Faye Patton ( Niece), Gardner Patton ( Nephew )

Occupation — businessman, investor and philanthropist

Education — Lakeside School, Washington State University

Net Worth — $20.3 billion ( 2020 )

Paul Allen was born on 21 January 1953 in United States of America. Paul Allen was a very intelligent from childhood. Paul Allen spent most of his time learning and running computers because since his childhood he was interested in computers. As a result of this passion Paul Allen set up Microsoft in collaboration with Bill Gates in 1975. Today Microsoft is the biggest software creating company in the world. The software of Microsoft is Windows’ most famus software in the world. Paul Allen was also the founder of Paul Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Paul Allen was a great philanthropist and investor, he never married. Paul Allen joined his sister — in — law Alan in 1986 and set up a company called vulcan inc. which implemented all types of Paul Allen business and all his philanthropic work. He was also included in 100 most influential people in the world. Alan his friend Bill Gates set out a new direction in taking the computer revolution that was being created in the United States of America. Really their work was unforgettable. This world will remember their work always. Paul Allen was died on 15 October 2018 due to cancer disease.
How to Create the Ultimate ‘Use of Funds’ Slide for your Pitch Deck
By: Matthew Wilson
Tags: Founder Stories, Use Of Funds, Fundraising, Pitch Deck, Founders

Positions BEFORE People

We all want the cream of the crop when hiring for those first few positions at a startup––those so-called A-Players––ultra-high achievers who share our same passion and enthusiasm for 80-hour workweeks, smashing through milestones and GSD (getting stuff done). But in reality, A-Players only belong in the highest-impact positions.

Moreover, it’s simply too expensive (and not feasible) to attract, select, develop, and retain these top performers for every last position on the org chart.

Lastly, high performers aren’t going to add much value if they’re engaged in work that isn’t essential to the company’s business strategy.

Therefore, before we go looking to hire the A-Players we think we need, we must first identify the strategic work that is most crucial to the company’s success metrics. As Huselid, Beatty & Becker highlight in their 2005 HRB article,

“…it’s surprising how few companies systematically identify their strategically important A positions — and then focus on the A players who should fill them.”

Common Misconceptions: What IS Strategic?

To better understand this people management strategy, we can divide the specific work of our organization into three groups, as described by Huselid, Beatty & Becker:

Strategic work: has a profound impact on the creation of customer and economic value. Support work: enables the strategic work. Surplus work: at one time may have created value for the company, but no longer contributes much to its strategic success––work that remains in a company for reasons of tradition, politics, or inertia.

In the startup world, we can largely ignore surplus work since it typically only applies to larger, mature organizations. However, when cash is finite and the end of the runway is visible, strategic and support work are vital.

Furthermore, it’s easy to convince ourselves that certain positions are inherently strategic. However, (perhaps with the exception of the Co-founder(s)/CEO) determining whether a position is in fact strategic depends entirely on the unique needs and goals of the organization.

For example, software developers are most strategic to an enterprise SaaS company, whereas the Marketing Director is most strategic to a consumer hardware company.

Only once we identify our most strategic positions can we then begin hiring.

So how do we determine what positions are most strategic? By identifying the strategic capabilities unique to our organization.
Startup Investors: What Are The Skill Sets Space Capital Looks For In A Founding Team, With Managing Partner Chad Anderson
By: Mindset Startup Community
Tags: Startup Lessons, Founders, Space Capital, Startup, Venture Capital

Startup Investors: What Are The Skill Sets Space Capital Looks For In A Founding Team, With Managing Partner Chad Anderson

Mindset Clip #314

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCzM--SIwlU&list=PLNStBS9BlnPX59oAN2kC0-OLLV9Zmh5oz&index=5

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*Gain access to all full length investor interviews by joining our Mindset Founders Slack Community for FREE. Here’s your link to register today: https://mindsetacademyondemand.com/slack-free-access

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#venturecapital, #startups, #fundraising, #startupinvestors, #capitalraise, #founders
5 Ways to Deal With Criticism
By: Taylor Washington
Tags: Criticism, Entrepreneurship, Founders, Mvp Development, Self Improvement

It’s a skill to be able to deal with criticism. Often, people take criticism as a personal attack, rather than as a possible constructive suggestion. However, criticism, specifically the constructive kind, can often help you to improve yourself, your business, or your product. Here, LystenNetwork lists five key ways to deal with criticism.

1. Take a Step Back

No pun intended. Before you get defensive or immediately brush off criticism, take a step back from it. Unless the criticism is actually personal, try to realize the feedback wasn’t an attack at you, but instead simply feedback. Explore its validity. Is this criticism from someone you trust? Or someone who may have something to gain from you being discouraged? Is this criticism constructive, such as: “Your app wasn’t very intuitive.” or is it destructive: “Your app is horrible because it isn’t Twitter.”?

2. Respond

There are at least two ways to respond to criticism: ignore it or respond to it. You should know when to do which of these two. If the criticism is personal or destructive, simply ignore it and wash your hands of it. But, if the criticism has the potential to be useful, such as genuine feedback on your product, respond to it. Again, avoid becoming defensive. Instead, engage with the person. Ask them to elaborate, to give you examples if applicable, or to even hop in a Zoom call and show you what they’re talking about. You want to listen to your users if they have something valuable to say. If you end up engaging with them, be sure to thank them for taking the time to give you feedback.

3. Re-Evaluate

This step could occur for either option from the Respond step. It may be time to re-evaluate if you are receiving similar criticism from other people. Revisit what they are complaining about. Do you need to rethink your business or product based on this criticism? Or, is it possible that the criticism is stemming from a different problem? Maybe you haven’t accurately described or pitched your product or business and it’s causing your consumers to be confused about what you’re providing. Make a genuine effort to step out of your shoes and into your critics’.

4. Learn

Criticism can often be a learning experience, even if the person giving the criticism is wrong or misunderstanding a concept. Learn how to take criticism and how to apply it too. Apply the suggestion to the role or product or business, not to yourself. Learn how to receive feedback and how to turn it into fuel to improve.

5. Adapt

As your business gets more popular, you’re going to be in the public eye more and more. Think about how often Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or even Jack Dorsey are in the news. Thousands of critical comments, posts, articles, tweets, and even news segments are based on them. Eventually, you must adapt to be comfortable with receiving and ignoring criticism and knowing when to do which of the two.
Resumão
By: Inventos Digitais
Tags: Empreendedorismo, Startups Brasil, Startups, Founders, Thecode

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
Starting
By: Paddy Tan
Tags: Founders, Blackstorm, Startup, Starting

Starting

Few things not to do when you first start your business:

- You dont need a physical office

Save that money and work from home or even a cafe and is still cheaper than paying rental monthly

- You dont need an accountant

Until some money starts coming in that can help pay yourself, transportations, and until you get that first warning letter from the authorities

- You dont need the latest gadgets

Not the latest iPhone, iPad or laptop. Have something that works first to do your excel spreadsheet and proposal. Get a simple working device and push most of the stuff up to the cloud to do your stuff

- You dont need to look expensive

Dont spend unnecessary money to impress others, just dress clean and proper with a good pair of walking shoes. You need that to walk miles and keep that back straight to push you further as your run the business

- You dont need to eat at expensive place

Let the discussion be the focus and not the taste of the food. Do meetings at cafe, a rented meeting room and focus on the content and the deliverables. You can eat better but with folks that support you when you hit that first million dollar

- You dont have to borrow money

Make sure you figure it out as much as possible on the business model and how you are going to make profit for your business. Trial and error until you start seeing some money rolling in. Take risk but not the stupid ones to borrow money to look good, to eat expensive and nothing delivered.

Go long and not just short term gain

- You dont close sales just by texting

Face to face discussion always beats texting and calling. Dont assume that your clients dont want to see you at least once a month. You can explore new opportunities just over that cup of coffee to know the direction of the business

There are many 'Don’ts' out there but start off with these and maintain it for as long as you can. Even if you hit it big, live simple, run simple, and pass these down to the next generation of successors to build a solid business empire.
Startup Pitch Posture 1
By: Henry Ukoha
Tags: Fundraising, Founders, Entrepreneur, Startup, Pitching

Image by <a href=”https://pixabay.com/users/graphicmama-team-2641041/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1453895">GraphicMama-team</a> from <a href=”https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1453895">Pixabay</a>

Dear Entrepreneur,

Avoid the urge to be defensive of your idea when pitching to investors.

This is something I have observed with most first-time founders too passionate about their idea they fail to realize and acknowledge the uniqueness of the other person in the room.

When pitching to potential investors as a first-time founder, don’t be too fixated on the objective of raising money from that investor. Understand that the investor will be accessing your business from a different lens than you may be blind to. Seek to understand what that is.

Focus on the questions they ask and if you don’t have any genuine response be willing to admit you don’t know.

Whatever the outcome, always leave the pitch with tips to improve your business through their reactions and the questions they ask.

In case of a NO, ask for feedback, most investors will be willing to give that.

Regardless, take time to learn from each pitch experience, make the necessary improvement, and go get 'em.

Keep building! Keep growing!
Startup Investors: The Significance Of Passion & Ability Within A Founding Team, With Jason Kraus of EQx Fund
By: Mindset Startup Community
Tags: Eqx Fund, Startup Lessons, Founders, Startup, Venture Capital

Startup Investors: The Significance Of Passion & Ability Within A Founding Team, With Jason Kraus of EQx Fund

Mindset Clip #313

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4NcaRVWXTk

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

*Gain access to all full length investor interviews by joining our Mindset Founders Slack Community for FREE. Here’s your link to register today: https://mindsetacademyondemand.com/slack-free-access

*Gain FREE access to investor interview clips, organized by interview topic by subscribing to our YouTube channel today: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdr70xJrIQce7H-fYhV7P3A?sub_confirmation=1

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WE COULD ALL LEARN FROM MCKINSEY’S BALLSINESS ✨ DAILY SPARK
By: Liesbeth Bakker
Tags: Founders, Inspiration, Skin In The Game, Startup, Entrepreneurs

Yesterday I went for lunch with an old friend who now works with one of the big 5 consulting firms. We discussed how cut-throat their practices are when it comes to delivering value for their customers. They tend to go all out and then some, if not their full investment does not yield any return as their fee is gain based.

Where a McKinsey comes in as an avalanche bringing in an overwhelming team of resources trying to control every tiny detail so they can bend it to their advantage in reaching that one overarching goal, startups tend to do the opposite: their game is to be as lean as possible! Especially in emerging markets where founders tend to hedge their bets in running several ventures in parallel. As a consequence, they never go all in as there is always one of the ventures which seems to be showing enough potential to just keep ploughing through…

SPARK OF THE DAY

I’ll not ask you to copy McKinsey in their “my way or the highway” practices, nor to question being lean. I do wonder though: does hedging bets equal not putting in the right level of skin in the game, hence you’ll never be desperate enough to go that extra mile or two?

Where do you stand on the McKinsey scale of ballsiness?

I wish you a wonderful weekend ✨
Together, we are fourpercent
Tags: Depression Treatment, Year In Review, Founders, Mental Health, Canada

It’s no surprise the topic of COVID-19 has changed our mindset and perceptions. It has been a wild year for most, and in so many ways on how we approach life. For us, what started out as a passion project has become a steadfast journey.

As a team, we’ve spent the better part of this year identifying our purpose. We evaluated our strengths, defined our focus and established a direction that aligns our common interest with that of the world. We knew from the outset that we wanted to tackle the subject of depression head-on. What we didn’t anticipate was the whirlwind of change that followed the impact of one little bug.

COVID brought out both, the worst in us and the best in us. We began as a larger team but pared down to two individuals with a singular focus. It redefined us; what was intended as an app geared towards relationships and communication on mental health has evolved into a for-profit social enterprise determined to change the way we converse every single day.

Together, we are fourpercent, and in 2020, we took note of six common areas that contribute to depression. In return, we will develop three unique local products (services, platforms, apps) to tackle this global issue head on. We do this by churning 100% of our profits to seek change and invest big in social growth, and in user wellness; all entirely committed from our local actions.

This is not a light undertaking and we know we have our work cut out for us. But we also believe we are the right team to tackle the challenge. A team of mission-driven, data obsessed, behaviour focused individuals; who jointly believe that the work we do today, defines the actions we apply tomorrow.

We are the driver of all possibility, free from politics and hierarchies. We make sure everything we do is done with grit and heart, executed to the best of our ability, to create global change by way of local actions.

The culture of our team is built on this very foundation, and we do it daily. Our objective is clear. Make real, tangible impacts. Within us, around us and with you.

To a better 2021 and beyond,

Tm & Solida (founders)
Day 18 — Prototyping. Building a prototype to test with young…
By: Bob Weishar
Tags: Founders, Founder Stories, Startup Lessons, Lean Startup

Day 18 — Prototyping

Today I started building a prototype for this week’s sprint based on my brainstorming and research from yesterday.

I started by iterating my conceptual diagram from yesterday:

v2 Conceptual Diagram for solving Health Independence

Prototyping the Solution

With the concept in place, I laid out a high-level approach to how we might deliver content.

High-Level Content View

The pieces the diagram was missing:

A hook: something to get kids interested from the very beginning. Personalization: A one-sized fits all approach doesn’t fit anyone. How might we make content relevant for the user? Why: How might we connect to each user’s why?

Because we already have the platform, today I focused mostly on adapting the content for this problem and audience so we can test it with users.

1. Iterating the Hook

One approach to a hook that I believe could be effective is story. Games do it extremely well — something our audience knows all about. I built this prototype within a prototype a few weeks ago in a tool called VideoAsk and built the animation in Adobe Character Animator. (Check it out and let me know what you think!)

2. Iterating Characters

With a hook in place, I quickly realized most of the app had kid avatars vs. young adults. It was time for our characters to grow up.

Growing up before my eyes

3. Iterating Content

Kids teaching kids is an approach I’ve been informally testing through the Invincible Kids Network. So I integrated a few of our videos so I can test the approach.

I also started updating copy in the app for our problem:

Iterating the app copy

What’s Left

1. Psychosocial Section

Psychosocial skills are a huge aspect of managing a chronic condition and we need to do it right. I got a little stuck, as our previous content just doesn’t really fit for an audience that lives with the chronic condition. Will need to come back to it.

Iterating our demo app on the Simulator

2. Adult Skills

I started researching available solutions for teaching the “adult” skills, but I haven’t started our approach.

Insurance: How might we help young adults utilize their own insurance plan?

Appointments: How might we help young adults get consistent care, even when they’re on their own?

Prescriptions: How might we help young adults fill prescriptions independently?

Tying back to the driving analogy, I came across a really fun YouTube video showing the basics for learning to drive. I found the vast majority of comments were from teens learning to drive — and who were just too scared to get behind the wheel. Perhaps an approach we can implement for these other skills?

3. And most Importantly…Getting Feedback

I’ll continue building this content tomorrow, but most importantly it’s time to get some feedback from real users.

Until tomorrow…
One Of The Biggest Challenges For Purpose-Driven Founders
By: Marketing Magnet
Tags: Purpose Driven, Founders, Business, Marketing, Business Challenges

I always see founders in purpose-driven organizations as a bit more intrinsically motivated.

And the thing with these values minded entrepreneurs is that they often care more about their mission than anything else.

And that is a good thing.

Except with this level of passion, hustle and growth mindset, they are so often BURNED OUT.

I often hear the same complaints:

“I can’t trust anyone to do it for me”

“I hired a (team, agency, consultant) and they screwed me.”

“My salary range is low and the talent I find lackluster”

“We are growing so fast I often have no time to think”

The beautiful part of business is that you can be insanely successful and altruistic.

I don’t talk about self-care, or work life balance or any other burn out cliché in these moments.

I change the conversation to the real issue at hand.

It’s desperation.

The problem with desperation is… it’s not a place to make decisions from.

Your last bad hire, agency relationship, poor VC partner or project was most likely caused because you felt like you were running out of time for progress and threw your effort at the first solution that landed in your lap.

No wonder it failed.

Now — as a founder myself — I know my worst decisions were made in times that felt desperate. But if I had given myself more room and time to make changes, I would have been able to avoid those hail Mary pitfalls.

I now always triage potential clients for the desperation. We peel back the layers to uncover the real goal they want to fix and start there.

That’s how you run an effective business. That’s leadership. That’s a winning strategy. That’s the ultimate secret to success.

What do you think is the biggest factor in stopping desperation in this fast-paced world?

Tell me all about it. Hit reply and share your story with me.

Karen
Lancer son entreprise est un marathon et non pas un sprint - Madeleine [Tomojo]
By: Tristan Delafosse
Tags: Founders, Animals, Startup, Interview

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

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The economics of Airbnb
By: Sammy Abdullah
Tags: Airbnb, Entrepreneurship, Founders, Startup, Venture Capital

Airbnb just went public in a debut that’s been widely celebrated. We dug into the company’s prospectus and learned some interesting facts about their business and travel trends.

Cash flow is highly seasonal. ABNB makes all it’s money in Q3. As you can see, that’s pretty much the only quarter in which the company is comfortably EBITDA positive in any given year. This is due to the fact that the bulk of ABNB’s customers travel in Q3, hence revenue is earned at that point.

Airbnb generated EBITDA. During 2017 and 2018, the company did generate material positive EBITDA. In 2019, they swung back to a loss due to rising costs across the board, and it looks highly likely they’ll burn again in 2020.

Airbnb generates significant free cash flow. Thanks to unearned fees, which is the payment customers make when they book a reservation, Airbnb does generate free cash flow even in years where they are unprofitable. Cash flow is especially strong in Q1 and Q2 when customers book their stays, and then declines in Q3 when many of the stays actually occur (see seasonality above) and Airbnb has to pay those reservations out to the host. Airbnb keeps 15% of every booking.

Strong founder ownership. The three founders (Brian, Nathan, Joseph) own 14.1% to 15.3% each. This is an extraordinary level of ownership for a 3-founder company going public. This is due to two things: strong free cash flow generation and more importantly the ability for Airbnb to raise capital at consistently high valuations.

Covid hurt a lot. Bookings in Q2 fell to $3.2bln whereas in Q2 2019, bookings were $9.8bln. That’s a 67% decline. The rebound in Q3 of 2020 however was dramatic as demand for travel exploded.

Short trips are in. Thanks in part to covid, people are taking shorter trips. “Short-distance travel within 50 miles of guest origin has been highly resilient, even at the peak of the business interruption in April. Short-distance stays were one of the fastest growing categories prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This growth was further bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as many guests chose short-distance trips instead of long-distance travel.”

Airbnb’s prospectus provides a very interesting look into travel trends and the economics of running a marketplace.

Visit us at blossomstreetventures.com and email us directly with Series A or B opportunities at sammy@blossomstreetventures.com. Connect on LI as well. We invest $1mm to $1.5mm in growth rounds, inside rounds, small rounds, cap table restructurings, note clean outs, and other ‘special situations’ all over the US & Canada.
THE CONTINUOUS WONDER OF EVERY IDEA BEING UNIQUE ✨ DAILY SPARK
By: Liesbeth Bakker
Tags: Ideas, Execution, Entrepreneurship, Founders, Unique

One of the things I love about working with entrepreneurs and startup founders is that no matter how often you think you hear the same idea repeated, in their execution they always turn out so very different…

I remember 5 years ago: two ambitious young founders joining one of our programs, already managing a small team, eager to professionalise and grow their tech company selling a similar sales software application… the one taking the startup route pitching their value proposition and onboarding investors to grow exponentially, the other staying off-grid growing their customer base referral by referral…

They may have begun from a similar starting point, but after every one step they took forward there paths drifted slightly… and so, fast forward, five years later, you sit across two founders who each found success with a very similar idea from the get-go, but now leading two very different companies both ready to expand their footprint internationally!

SPARK OF THE DAY

Every founder has their vision, their focus, their resources and constraints… there is no one path to success! So there is also no need to be afraid of competition or people stealing your idea… the great thing about being a founder in an emerging market is that that market is big enough for everyone to take a share…

And to do so on your own terms!

I wish you an inspired rest of your day ✨
Startup Investors: Winning Characteristics Of A Founding Team, With Jason Kraus of EQx Fund
By: Mindset Startup Community
Tags: Founders, Startup Lessons, Startup, Venture Capital

Startup Investors: Winning Characteristics Of A Founding Team, With Jason Kraus of EQx Fund

Mindset Clip #312

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEk8-_2SCGI

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*Gain access to all full length investor interviews by joining our Mindset Founders Slack Community for FREE. Here’s your link to register today: https://mindsetacademyondemand.com/slack-free-access

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#venturecapital, #startups, #fundraising, #startupinvestors, #capitalraise, #founders
Build An Audience Before You Build A Brand
By: Farhan Merchant
Tags: Branding, VC, Consumer, Founders, Brand Strategy

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Regardless of mass or niche, the consumer startups that will flourish in the next decade, in my opinion, will be content-to-product brands.

Two prime examples in both mass and niche addressable markets:

Glossier: Glossier was born out of a beauty and makeup blog ‘Into the Gloss’ started by stylist Emily Weiss. She saw a gap in the market for a millennial-focused beauty brand, and after taking years of data from ITG’s own product reviews, feedback from its readers, and expertise from cosmetic chemists, she launched a line of cosmetics under the name Glossier in 2014. The company is now a unicorn, valued at $1.2B+, having raised a total of ~$190M over the last 6 years. Weiss says that she sees Glossier as a content company: she thinks of her products as content. Hodinkee: Hodinkee was founded as a niche watch blog by ex-banker and watch aficionado Ben Clymer. Seeing the engagement and connection they had with the community they built, Hodinkee moved on to launch their own e-store, ‘Hodinkee Shop’ as an authorized retailer for certain brands and has even entered into partnerships with watch brands to create collaborative limited edition watches. The store also sells vintage timepieces, its own line of watch accessories and straps, and recently launched Hodinkee Insurance for watches. The company is now valued at $100M+ after raising a $40M Series B round in the first week of December.

The long-term success of a product depends solely on its quality. However, the biggest initial advantages of building a brand on top of a community are:

Quick & engaging feedback, making it easier to develop and test products

Higher brand recall

Higher brand loyalty

Higher probability of word-of-mouth publicity

In the words of Glossier’s President Henry Davis -
Rockstars don’t scale.
By: Joe Maruschak
Tags: Founders, Leadership, Startup

Rockstars don’t scale.

Having used the phrase ‘Rockstars don’t scale” a few times in the last 2 weeks, I thought it would be a good quick topic to write about.

It had come up in conversations around transitioning from a pure all founder startup to a scaling startup. Some initial traction has been achieved, and now the workload is growing, there is revenue, and it is time to hire.

Founders, more often than not, try to be superheros, and often, they are. They have spent their lives pushing, being best of breed and standout performers at whatever they are doing. This is a typical path early on in ones personal development. We are socialized and trained to excel. School teaches us, and rewards us, based on individual achievement.

Personal rewards and advancement at work are based on being an upper percentile ‘stand out’ performer.

This changes when you want to grow a company. In simplified math, if you are an exceptional performer and doing 150% 0r 200% of what a ‘normal’ human can do, you are doing great. The challenge is that you cap out and cannot go beyond 200%. If you were to hire 5 mediocre people that output 50%, they would exceed your output. If you can take them up to 70 % productivity, they would greatly exceed your output, and if you can get to approach 100% of their potential, they would be more than double your output, week over week, year over year.

This is how things scale. The compounding effect is amazing.

This is the challenge. We spend all our lives trying to be a rockstar. If you are a founder of a startup, now it is time to consider a change of approach. If you want to scale, you need to focus your energy on growing your people. If you help them to be the best that they can be, the benefits are huge, and you will reap the rewards.
Announcing: 2TF Fellowship’s Class of 2020 Cohort #2
By: Second Time Founders
Tags: Tech, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Mentorship, Founders

2TF Fellowship is an 8-week program for leaders who are committed to practicing conscious leadership with peers.

Request an invite to be a part of our upcoming fellowships here.
Building Platforms around Human Beliefs
Tags: Platform, Startup Lessons, Founders, Startup Life, Startup

Building Platforms around Human Beliefs

Human nature craves acceptance and belonging. To be part of something that relates to our beliefs. That is what puts us at ease.

Most large platforms and communities exist as a horizontal layer. LinkedIn for Work. Facebook for Personal. Nextdoor for Neighbors.

​There is an ocean of opportunities to build sizable platforms around human beliefs. Most of these are controversial. Why? Because there ardent supporters and haters for each. Let us look at some examples:

Cultural Values: Ranging from the conservatives to the liberals.

Political Values: Varying from the extreme left to the far right.

Hunting, Fishing & Trapping: One side believes this is part of the human legacy. The other side views hunters, anglers and trappers as animal killers.

Public vs. Private: One set believes in public services infrastructure. The other set believes private is the way to go. A classic example is public vs. private schools, all the way from elementary to college.

Besides these large markets, many smaller segments exist. And there is still economic value in building these platforms. These are only a handful of examples. I’m sure enterprising founders will come up with many more.

Smaller Cultures

Smaller Religions

Smaller Schools Alumni Networks

Two simple methods create platform value:

Identifying and bringing the supporters together on the platform.

Influencing the neutral crowd to become supporters.

For instance, let us imagine a platform for first-time adult hunters. Now, let us segment the market:

Hunters who have already been hunting for a while. They are happy to find a voice through the new platform.

Hunters who are exploring taking up hunting. They will look upon the community to help them ease into hunting.

Non-hunters with a related interest or a cause that appeals to them. For example, conservationists, climate change advocates, nature lovers or wildlife content creators.

Everyone else.

The first is an obvious target market segment. The second could be sizable depending on the influencing ability of the platform. And the third could be huge. There is high economic value in moving the neutral crowd onto the platform.

Needless to say, there is a good way and a not-so-good way to build any platform:​

A good way is not to polarize the non-believers further to become haters.

Human beliefs have complex roots. Best to avoid disturbing them. Keep the platform simple and positive. This combination creates a powerful pull factor for a larger target segment.

As a founder, the key to starting a new platform is to understand your beliefs. And pick the one that you care for the most. The startup journey will get a tad bit easier.​

Let’s Talk: If you have a true experience that resonates, please send me an email.

Original: https://www.visionpassage.com/building-platforms-around-human-beliefs.html

VisionPassage Newsletter: https://www.visionpassage.com

#startup #founders #startupfounders #startupjourney #startupstories #startupsuccess #lessonslearnt #startupideas #platforms #human beliefs
Introducing a Founder’s Guide to Navigating Sexual Harassment
By: Katharine Jiang
Tags: Fundraising, Entrepreneurship, Founders, Investors, Sexual Harassment

“As an entrepreneur, if I experience sexual harassment from investors, where do I report it and how will I be protected?”

The #MovingForward co-founders heard this question at a founders’ dinner in November 2017. We were dismayed to learn that entrepreneurs, who are not considered employees of VC firms, aren’t protected under standard workplace policies or federal or state employment law.

So what should a founder do if they experience sexual harassment? What rights exist? What actions are available?

Through the years, entrepreneurs have reached out to our team asking these questions. Not everyone knows what to do in these situations, nor should they be expected to. We hope that this guide can serve founders in the wake of sexual harassment and answer common questions that arise. While sexual harassment is the main focus of this guide, much of the content and policies within could apply to founders facing racial harassment and other forms of harassment.

“Although as a founder, you may not have an employer-employee relationship with VCs, there are still actions you can take to bring a stop to the harassment.” — My Options and Rights, pg. 4

We created this guide to help founders better understand their rights and options in the face of unwanted sexual attention, and to offer tools and resources for learning and healing. The guide has been vetted by our legal counsel and includes case studies from founders who have faced sexual harassment in the past.

“One piece of advice we heard over and over again from founders who have experienced harassment is to do your due diligence before taking action.” — Thoughts from Founders, pg. 15

We hope this guide will help empower and support founders or anyone else facing workplace harassment outside of an employment context. We’ve made the guide available as a PDF and have also created an open-source version. Anybody can recommend additions by commenting directly on the open source version and we hope that this living document will grow and evolve in the years ahead.

We’d appreciate your help in sharing the guide with anyone who might benefit from the resources and perspectives represented.

Share on socials such as Twitter and LinkedIn

Share in founder networks you may be part of

An example post you may consider:

The @MovingForwardVC team just created a Founder’s Guide to Navigating Sexual Harassment During Fundraising. If you know someone who was sexually harassed or may find this guide helpful, please direct them to this new resource.

If you have any additional experiences, challenges, or ideas to elevate, you can reach us at hello@venturemovingforward.org.
Use cases solved by Kubernetes in Industries
By: Akurathi Sri Krishna Sagar
Tags: Containers, Industry, Kuber, Vimal Daga, Container Orchestration

ARTH - Task 16

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services, that facilitates both declarative configuration and automation. It has a large, rapidly growing ecosystem.

Containers are a good way to bundle and run your applications. In a production environment, you need to manage the containers that run the applications and ensure that there is no downtime. For example, if a container goes down, another container needs to start. Wouldn’t it be easier if this behavior was handled by a system?

That’s how Kubernetes comes to the rescue! Kubernetes provides you with a framework to run distributed systems resiliently. It takes care of scaling and failover for your application, provides deployment patterns, and more. For example, Kubernetes can easily manage a canary deployment for your system.

Source: What is Kubernetes? | Kubernetes

Market Share?

Companies — Challenge faced — Solution Provided by Kubernetes

Challenge :

Launched in 2008, the audio-streaming platform has grown to over 200 million monthly active users across the world. An early adopter of microservices and Docker, Spotify had containerized microservices running across its fleet of VMs with a homegrown container orchestration system called Helios. By late 2017, it became clear that “having a small team working on the features was just not as efficient as adopting something that was supported by a much bigger community,” says Jai Chakrabarti, Director of Engineering, Infrastructure and Operations.

Solution :

“We saw the amazing community that had grown up around Kubernetes, and we wanted to be part of that,” says Chakrabarti. Kubernetes was more feature-rich than Helios. Plus, “we wanted to benefit from added velocity and reduced cost, and also align with the rest of the industry on best practices and tools.” “Kubernetes fit very nicely as a complement and now as a replacement to Helios,” says Chakrabarti.
Configuring Apache Web Server on Docker
By: Sukesh Seth
Tags: Containers, Python, Website, Docker, Ansible

Ansible is a great tool for IT automation and system configuration. Here, I’m going to show how to prepare a system for Ansible & then configure the Apache Web Server with Docker on another system.

Configuring Ansible

Prerequisites for Ansible:

Since Ansible uses Python the only prerequisite for Ansible is a system with Python installation.

Let’s configure Ansible:

Install the pip package for virtual environment and create a new virtual environment.

2. Now activate the virtual environment.

3. Install Ansible.

4. Create a new directory for inventory, create ip.txt file in that directory to store the list of nodes/hosts and add the location of the directory to the ansible configuration file.

5. Check the ansible configuration.

Launching Docker Container & configuring webserver in it using Ansible

We will be creating an Ansible Playbook which is nothing but a simple YAML file containing instructions for configuration.

In the YAML file, first, define the hosts.

- hosts: host1

2. Then we have to define the tasks that the ansible will perform in the host systems. Our first task would be to configure the Linux package and docker repository and installing the required packages.

3. Our next task would be to create a working directory to store the webpages and copying the contents to that directory.

4. After this, we need to enable and start the docker service and pull the Apache Web-server image from docker hub.

5. Once everything is ready then launch the Apache Webserver docker container with working directory mounted to the directory “/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/” of the container and allow the traffic on webserver port through the firewall.

Our web-server is launched in the Docker container!!
Docker คืออะไร? ใช้งานเบื้องต้นอย่างไร?
By: Chonladet Nidhinandana
Tags: Docker, Containers, Technology

Docker Desktop overview

Docker Desktop is an easy-to-install application for your Mac or Windows environment that enables you to build and…
Edge Computing Needs Containers Like Pancakes Need Syrup
By: Cristovao Cordeiro
Tags: Edge Computing, Containers, Kubernetes, Docker, Ubiquitous Computing

Edge Computing and Container Technology are growing into billion dollar markets, but how are they related to each other?

Let’s keep things plain and simple, and go straight to the point. Do you now what Edge Computing is? What about Containers?

Edge Computing

By definition, Edge Computing is about moving the computing power and data management capabilities to the edge of the network, closer to where data is being generated. This is sometimes simplified as near-data processing.

Container Technology

A container is simply a portable software application, packaged with all its dependencies, which can be executed in isolation from other processes. Some of the most popular Container tools and Container Orchestration Engines are Docker and Kubernetes.
ทำไมถึงควรใช้ non-root ใน container
By: Teerawat Namsricharoensuk
Tags: Containers, Container Security

Just say no to root (in containers)

I get asked all the time about the different security measures used to control what container processes on a system can…