VentureBeat

How startups lose at Buzzword Bingo

I had the pleasure (and occasionally the pain) earlier this week of watching more than 50 companies demonstrate new products and answer questions from a panel of judges at the TechCrunch 50 conference in San Francisco. While watching I live Tweeted my reactions to every presentation from the stage. Very early on the first day I started a series of tweets where I played a game of Buzzword Bingo.

Many of the presentations were exceptional, including… Continue Reading

Incorporating social media: There’s no magic bullet

Searching for help in determining how to incorporate social media into your business can be a frustrating process. A Google search for ‘social media consultant’ returns over 20 million results – and most of them offer very similar, one-size-fits-all suggestions based around the adoption of popular (and often faddish) tools and services.

Successful social marketing isn’t as simple as installing a set of apps and regular Facebook updates. There is no magic bullet. Determining the right… Continue Reading

Starting Up 101 – Harnessing the power of analytics

[Editor's note: This is the third in a series of practical advice for entrepreneurs -- things you're probably aware of but are likely to forget in the rush of launching a business.]

You’d be surprised how many startups don’t see the value in their Web traffic data.

All too often when I meet with a startup, the only statistics the owner has on hand is a basic set of website logs from their web hosting company - logs which they rarely have analyzed or looked at… Continue Reading

Should web businesses adjust their development plans for HTML 5?

Google Wave, the search engine’s dynamic new communication service, stole the show at the company’s Google I/O developer conference earlier this month. But any business with a web site should also be looking at something else Google spent time talking about: a new version of the HTML code used to build interfaces for any web site, HTML 5. This revised version will make it easier for sites to offer more dynamic interfaces to users. At… Continue Reading

Starting up 101: Choosing your core collaboration tools

[Editor's note: This is the second in a series of practical advice for entrepreneurs -- things you're probably aware of but are likely to forget in the rush of launching a business.]
At the outset of starting your business, you’re likely collaborating with your cofounders via phone, in-person conversations and tools such as email, IM, iChat, etc. But how will you continue to collaborate into the future?

You could continue using rough tools for quite some time,… Continue Reading

Startup 101: Naming your startup

[Editor's note: This is the first in a series of practical advice for entrepreneurs -- things you're probably aware of but are likely to forget in the rush of launching a business.] Today whether you are opening up a new retail store in San Francisco or launching the next Facebook or Twitter you should select a name with an eye towards findability , i.e., how easy it will be to find online (or offline, for… Continue Reading