Startup Links
Amanda Peyton on Start ups (Y Combinator Start up | Message Party)
Sales forcasting for start ups (Will Price of Widgetbox)
Internet Business Models of the Tech Stars (David Cohen of Tech Stars) (no enterprise 2.0 excluding SaaS & not much “data” which is curious)
What should I send investors (pitch decks from Venture Hacks)
How much money should I raise? (Nivi & others weigh in on a hot start up topic: 12 to 24 months of runway–18 months was another answer)
List of Start up Incubators (Robert Shedd)
What We Would Fund (Paul Graham of Y Combinator)
Pricing Strategy (simple pricing models explained at the Idea Sandbox–if you’re creating software you will probably want to read something specific to software also)
Do More Faster by Brad Feld and David Cohen of Tech Stars (preorder from Amazon for less than $20–release is October 19th, 2010)
Templates for Sales Forecasting with Excel (Microsoft)
Small Business Template Gallery (SCORE)
Ramith Sethi on Lifestyle Design and Cheap Travel
5 Whys
TBA & Cash flow resources
Generic Resources for Tech Entrepreneurs and Start ups
Paul Graham
Tech Startup Incubators
Founder Institute
Tech Stars
Y-Combinator
Launchbox Digital
(see also above list)
Interesting Tech Companies
Founders Collective Company Investments
Betaworks
(TBA)
Compassion in Politics: Christian Social Entrepreneurship, Education Innovation, & Base of the Pyramid/BOP Solutions 
Refael’s post on MBA Startup hacks is pretty decent:
http://blog.rafaelcorrales.com/2010/06/mba-startup-hacks.html
Arguably the 5 core aspects of the consumer development model:
http://andrewhargadon.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/12/creating-startups-the-right-way.html
Teaching Tech Entrepreneurship (includes links Steve Blank are critical to learning the discipline)
http://steveblank.com/2010/12/07/the-lean-launchpad-%E2%80%93-teaching-entrepreneurship-as-a-management-science/
Steve Blank talks about the state of start ups in 2010 vs. the past (5, 10, and 15 years ago). It suggests the risk profile for tech entrepreneurs is much lower these days than in the past:
http://steveblank.com/2010/11/24/when-its-darkest-men-see-the-stars/
Andrew Hardgadon’s list of recommended books:
http://andrewhargadon.typepad.com/my_weblog/reading.html
1) Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise by Byers & Dorf
2) The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber
3) Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
Two other books probably worth checking out:
1) The Entrepreneurs Guide to Customer Development by Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits
2) Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup by Feld & Cohen
I’m also interested in checking out:
Mastering the VC Game: A Venture Capital Insider Reveals How to Get from Start-up to IPO on Your Terms
Cheap logo development for under $200 (I think 99 Designs & Crowdspring are best):
http://www.logonerds.com/
http://99designs.com/
http://www.crowdspring.com/
Logoworks is $300+
http://www.logoworks.com/
MaRs in Canada hosts an entrepreneur toolkit:
http://www.marsdd.com/entrepreneurs-toolkit.html
MaRs also hosts an Entrepreneurship 101 video course:
http://www.marsdd.com/ent101
This in particular should be interesting to current & future social entrepreneurs:
http://www.marsdd.com/blog/2010/12/20/social-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-a-very-likely-love-story/
A related organization also has this primer on social enterprise in Canada:
http://sigeneration.ca/primer.html
Pitch Decks for between $99 and $199 (I think most are $199 assuming about 20 slides in the deck or about $10 bucks a slide):
http://www.pptsalon.com/
Some of the crowdsourcing design sites have presos for around $200 I believe as well.
This is a pretty decent post on the secret of success for start up entrepreneurs:
http://www.inspiredstartup.com/the-secret-to-starting-a-successful-company/
Interesting set of resources from MIT
http://enterpriseforum.mit.edu/mindshare/resources/
Entrepreneurship resources at Duke (I don’t imagine this is the best list from Duke, however)
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/cei/resources/
Entrepreneurship resources at Berkeley:
http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu/resources/index.html
Wharton small business resources:
http://whartonsbdc.wharton.upenn.edu/links.html
Industry research at harvard:
http://www.library.hbs.edu/guides/company-industry-and-career-research.html
At the end of the day–I think “deep customer research” & getting inside your customers mind & understanding their pain points & what keeps them up at night (particularly in relation to your product) may be the best resource for early stage entrepreneurs
Mega-list of technology accelerators
http://blog.shedd.us/321987608/
Startup Lawyers by region:
http://giffconstable.com/web-startup-lawyers-list/
Venture hacks list of tech startup lawyers:
http://venturehacks.com/articles/social-lawyers
Angel List:
http://angel.co/
Two best places to get specific online startup advice:
Quora
Namesake
(Hacker News, Linked in, and Twitter are an honorable mentions)
A decent resource for picking email (all the top options available I believe):
http://freelanceswitch.com/resources-directory/communication/newsletters/
The next is for bare-bones bootstrappers, but these brochure templates for HP are nice:
http://www.hp.com/hho/smb_hp_create/brochures_presentations.html
These are decent too (from Stocklayouts):
http://www.stocklayouts.com/Templates/Free-Templates/Free-Sample-Adobe-InDesign-Template-Design.aspx
I’m curious how helpful this is to early stage startups (virtual business incubator):
http://journeypage.com/pricing.php
Lead Capture Forms:
http://www.aweber.com
http://www.unbounce.com
http://www.woofoo.com
http://www.loopfuse.com/pricing.php
I think AWeber & Unbounce are probably the best because they are more intergrated & let you A/B test very easily. I also know that AWeber, Unbounce, and Woofoo are used throughout the web world.
Gamification & game dynamics:
http://www.bigdoor.com/gamification-101/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/25/scvngr-game-mechanics/
Also check out Amy Jo Kim of Shufflebrain (look at YouTube & Slideshare.net) as
well as the famous Jesse Schnell presentation at Dice 2010.
Further, I’ve created my own amended version of the SCVNGR game mechanics list which is more comprehensive.
If you plan on gettting an App developed–this has links to get app bidding (Get App Quotes):
http://appmuse.com/
http://www.iphoneappquotes.com/
This speaks to the issue of business models a bit:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/10/teardown-13-ways-10-million-revenues/
Bootstrapping Your Business Successful Company
http://www.amazon.com/Bootstrapping-Your-Business-Successful-Company/dp/1593373872
This is for start ups in the social collaboration or wiki space:
http://workingwikily.net/resources.html
Book summaries:
http://bookoutlines.pbworks.com/w/page/14422648/Business
Personal MBA has a couple summaries as well. You may have to sign up for his email list for most of the summaries.
Also Claude Hopkins Scientific Advertising as a PDF (its part of the public domain….I believe so its legal):
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:hoKESx50BJUJ:www.scientificadvertising.com/ScientificAdvertising.pdf+claud+hopkins+and+scientific+advertising&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiI0wVqIU5glVqrbUWOKFnKL-cwQBZin65I1i6SYOCBUEJyKFSwvn9VxqnVwBPKVDuXLSpj1rBfkRYxj9JfngEpwKEbly0CdIyB8j-2yHVJFh9OstQrEg-9CPmo7FUWfDi-5MAd&sig=AHIEtbQ_XHfG0PuCmuici5lOcbcMofO7gw
Work on stuff that matters by OReilly:
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-fir.html
Core principles for start ups (Guy Kawasaki makes the same case essentially)
Some interesting reflection on hiring/working with designers:
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663266/quora-on-designing-an-organization-that-designs-better-products
A short conversion checklist for start ups:
http://darrenrush.com/2009/12/landing-page-optimization-checklist/
Here is a decent list of Twitter tips which speaks to resources like listorious. I don’t think it tells you how to think about Twitter, however:
http://www.careerthoughtleaders.com/library/social-media/twitter-the-networking-barrier-buster-25-tips-to-take-advantage-of-the-webs-best-kept-job-search-secret/
Mental models–interesting:
Quora, Quora, Quora
This has an extensive list of whitepapers on various social media tools & platforms:
http://www.socialbrite.org/sharing-center/reports/?d=1
DIY Planner is another GTD resource:
http://www.diyplanner.com/
Epic Win and http://www.stickK.com/ are apps about behavioural change. (ie to encourage yourself to change for good)
This is all direct marketing related:
Some headlines from Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples:
http://www.procopytips.com/tested-headlines
Claud Hopkins is also aclaimed, but I don’t like it all that much.
Also Gary Halbert:
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletter-archives.htm
Facebook & Ecommerce:
http://gigaom.com/2011/04/07/will-facebook-ever-be-an-e-commerce-powerhouse/
This isn’t must watch, but interesting from Princeton (if you do decide to watch it fast forward to about 3:30 to bypass the intro) Also, the lesson learned is a) genuinely learning from early failures b) using start up education as b-school education :
Super helpful–popular storylines:
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/07/what-people-tal.html#axzz1HDFBrinY
Get a real college education by Douglas Adams:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704101604576247143383496656.html
Subscription & freemium are two of the better models:
http://mashable.com/2009/07/14/social-media-business-models/
I guess what you are selling: data, access to an app, access to a network, or content is the key.
Startup tools & resources (aka apps for startups along with some networks) from Steve Blank:
http://steveblank.com/tools-and-blogs-for-entrepreneurs/
Here are a couple interesting presos relevant to start ups:
http://rishidean.com/presentations/
Before and After Magazine (good for design it appears)–for designers & power point presentations:
http://www.bamagazine.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=72
Quick overview of business basics–mostly marketing:
http://www.slideshare.net/Alistercrowe/exponential-business-growth-exponential-business-growth
VOIP Call Recording. Its for the Mac–its mostly for content based start ups, but it is a way to re-purpose content you create in the future for other platforms:
http://voipcallrecording.com/
If you are a lean start up or follower of Steve Blank and/or Eric Ries, this is interesting:
http://www.lean.org/Events/WebinarHome.cfm
A great HBR article on identifying great opportunities (its mostly a positioning & value proposition matrix):
Click to access KnowingAWinningBusinessIdeaWhenYouSeeOne.pdf
Jeffrey Pfeffer–more for professional service firm startups:
http://www.jeffreypfeffer.com/pfeffer-research-scholarly.htm
Here are some more startup resources:
http://www.caycon.com/resources.php
Email marketing tips based on actual stats:
http://www.synotac.com/blog/website-design/10-billion-emails-cant-be-wrong-the-latest-email-research/
Greatest headlines of all time (???)
http://www.synotac.com/blog/advice/the-100-greatest-headlines-of-all-time/#more-903
Online marketing ecosystem:
http://www.synotac.com/blog/digital-marketing/new-marketing-ecosystem/
Readability score:
http://www.synotac.com/reading-level/
Interesting ways to learn about new trends:
http://www.clicker.com/web/mit-world/
Not sure what other relavent channel Clicker.com has.
Budgeting for early-stage internet startup companies:
Logo Design Resources from David Airey:
http://www.logodesignlove.com/best-logo-design-resources
File under cool–business model generation app for iPad (it seems more precarious–but it would be a nice way to :
http://www.businessmodelalchemist.com/2011/05/business-model-toolbox-for-ipad-bmtbox.html
Increasingly, there seems to be a movement away from businesses in which you trade time for money. (at least for the entirety of the business).
Built to Sell speaks to these issues of scalability (I don’t know if they speak to the professional services space).
Video services from Panda Motion:
http://www.pandamotion.com/
Replace myself outsourcing–for virtual assistance type work:
http://www.replacemyself.com/
Here is a short explanation of USP–I think its possible to have a shorter one–which can be explained without mad-libbing together all 6 parts:
http://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/value-proposition-positioning-statement-and-how-to-create-one/
Also, the USP doesn’t necessarily have to appear in all communication. A 10 to 15 second pitch merely needs to contain the core of the message.
Time management with time mapping:
http://juliemorgenstern.com/newsletter/2006/ezine0506.htm#may
More time & productivity resources from Julie Morgenstern:
http://juliemorgenstern.com/LearningTools/Downloads/
Another time management worksheet. This one is very simple, but may be more comprehensive in terms of actual hours of the day (ie not just 9 to 5) than other worksheets.
We do have 168 hours, after all and even 50 + sleeping leaves a lot of down time for work/life balance.
http://www.my168hours.com/main/manage-your-time/
Free design resources:
http://designinformer.com/2011/high-quality-free-design-resource-websites/
Here is an interesting model of innovation, which is iterative:
http://www.innovationinpractice.com/innovation_in_practice/stepbystep-innovation-method.html
An interesting self-test or self-coaching exercise on Stress management:
https://www.harvard-samsung.net/hbspCourse/hmm10/stress_management/stress_management.html
PR & marketing podcast that is worth checking out:
http://www.pitchrate.com/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=4819
The power of small wins (ie motivation):
http://www.progressprinciple.com/research
Positive thinking/positive psychology:
http://www.shawnachor.com/
Search for him on Youtube for his TED talk
Here is an interesting time breakdown from solo entrepreneurs:
http://havefundogood.blogspot.com/2011/07/playing-with-time-how-to-create-time.html
Conquering your ok plateaus (with deliberative practice & feedback & journaling & personal best practice:
http://www.therebelution.com/blog/2011/02/pushing-past-the-ok-plateau/
You can watch Johnathon Foer…..I recommend starting at 6:40 to get to the meat of his presentation:
For B2b startups (ie SaaS) B2b leads videos:
http://vimeo.com/user5906521
Here is an interesting webinar:
http://b2bleadblog.com/2011/07/insidesaleswebinarreplay.html
Here is an interesting product he mentions in the interview:
http://www.insideview.com/cat-products.html
1. Split test (identity tech to do it in best way)
2. you can drop your pre-recorded message on voicemail
Franklin Covey recognized 1 rep can capture 7500 permissions in a year (dont limit to email).
2 qualities of entrepreneurs:
1. dogged and relentless
2. not afraid to embarrass themselves
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150308381267546
Fun & interesting tumblr on mindset & startups:
http://ifindkarma.posterous.com/
Fear/courage:
On the myth of first-mover advantage:
http://www.humbledmba.com/startups-in-stealth-mode-need-one-piece-of-ad
Inspiring story of human achievement:
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20051201/ping-fu.html
Books on leadership/management:
http://www.manager-tools.com/our-favorite-books
A couple more business books:
http://internetindependence.com/business-books
This is a really interesting article–which serves as a tool:
Click to access MarketBusting%20-%20Strategies%20For%20Exceptional%20Growth%20(HBR%20March%20-%20April%202005).pdf
I think this translated into the business model template or combined with various vectors for innovation could be interesting.
Very, very cool. Look forward to purchasing & reading the book by the author.
Also, the globalsolve.com website has interesting resources.
Here is an interesting presentation on failure from a former Netscaper–The lesson learned for startups seems to be “Lets make better mistakes tomorrow”:
http://businessinnovationfactory.com/iss/video/bif7-angus-davis
This is more relevant to me:
Negotiation academy at the Slate:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slates-negotiation-academy/id474638723
Unschooling
http://www.uncollege.org/resources
Business Innovation Factory (Elab) partnership with Babson:
http://www.businessinnovationfactory.com/projects/elab
MBA Mondays:
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/mba-mondays/
Brad Feld on Term Sheets:
http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2008/06/revisiting-the-term-sheet.html
This speaks to the higher ed space, which is my core focus in terms of innovation and startups (its more meta, vision, & strategy vs. Tech Crunch):
http://highereducationmanagement.wordpress.com/
Indirectly helpful: science of creativity:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2010/03/boost-creativity-7-unusual-psychological-techniques.php
Brain at Work Resources (Neuroscience):
http://www.your-brain-at-work.com/resources/index.shtml
Link building tips for Neil Patel:
http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/01/09/10-hard-hitting-link-building-tactics/
An odd place to put Ben Franklin, but I think its appropriate:
http://www.bartleby.com/1/1/
This is about productivity & info overload & email:
http://blog.mindjet.com/2012/02/reigning-in-the-information-deluge
Udemy has a number of lectures on pitching, startups, entrepreneurship, & strategy:
http://www.udemy.com/lectures/
Price innovations at Ernst & Young as well as a focus on team:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1698
This 7 minute video is a segment which summaries the issue:
http://www.udemy.com/how-to-build-a-successful-company/
Pricing Strategies:
http://blogbschool.com/2010/10/27/pricing-strategies/
Sales training:
http://www.businessballs.com/salestraining.htm
A potentially helpful motivation theory:
http://www.businessballs.com/davidmcclelland.htm
Herberg may also prove helpful (although there is overlap):
http://www.businessballs.com/herzberg.htm
Here is something about learning evaluation:
http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm
Resources & tools for entrepreneurs–Chuck Esley:
http://eesley.blogspot.com/p/resources-and-tools.html
Not sure this is super-relevant–I’ve only watched 1/2 of it. I’m putting it here to remind me to watch the other half:
http://www.eller.arizona.edu/speakers/2008/gaut.asp
A simple article on systems & process:
http://www.bookyourselfsolid.com/small-business-leadership-advice/2-free-process-maps-to-help-you-automate-your-business/
Being right vs. taking risks (dealing with criticism)
http://blog.asmartbear.com/criticize-create.html
Software as a service startups and B2B startups should look at:
Top Sales Influencers
http://www.topsalesworld.com/topInfluencers.php
You could also look to top sales training orgs.
http://www.trainingindustry.com/sales-training/top-company-listings/2012/2012-top-20-sales-training-companies.aspx
There is a research firms which provides “objective” evaluation of the effectiveness of various sales training companies. (the top ones at least).
Also, the INC top 2000 is helpful….along with various other rankings–which suggest values, revenues, or other KPIs/metrics.
Some possible links for win-win & conflict resolution:
http://www.mediate.com/
http://www.rbenjamin.com/
The U of Colorado has a small resource on negotiation skills:
http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/negskill.htm
Principles/Laws of Negotiation:
http://knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/worldcafe/power/
Mediation:
http://www.factoradr.com/pg8.cfm
(although this doesn’t seem to provide answers to me–except the dealing with hardball negotiators article)
http://www.factoradr.com/pg7.cfm
Mindtools on Win-Win Negotiation (i believe these are all borrowed by Ury, but I haven’t checked):
http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/NegotiationSkills.htm
Interesting research on entrepreneurship related topics:
http://mawder.com/published-papers.html
Landing page (not sure of exact features). I’ve seen decent implementations, but others that include Kajabi in the URL–which seems odd.
http://www.kajabiapp.com/features/examples
Also, remember to check out public speaking on Youtube & the National Speakers Association
Virtual Speaker Series
http://www.virtualspeakerseries.org/members/?page_id=1317
Empact (conference):
http://www.empactsummit.com/
Gazelles (free & includes tools):
http://www.gazelles.com/view_free_webcast.html
Backpocket COO (DVDs):
http://www.backpocketcoo.com/training_DVDs.html
Family Business books:
http://www.galliardgroup.com/readinglist.aspx
Duct Tape Marketing Resources list (focuses on the online space):
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/resources
Challenges of entrepreneurs (based on a survey by the Kauffman foundation):
http://www.kauffman.org/visualizing-forbes-kauffman-fasttrac-entrepreneurship-survey-results.aspx
Free sales resources (original link from Sales Gravy):
http://www.salesgravy.com/shop/home.php?cat=259
Entrepreneur resources from the Toliet Paper Entrepreneur
http://mikemichalowicz.com/resources/
Looking at various sales 2.0 & sales automation & closed loop marketing type stuff:
http://www.ballistix.com.au/user/register
(you have to provide your info)
Haven’t looked at this specific one, but plan to perhaps do so in the future.
Looking for discontinuities:
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121218152804-4444200-changes-in-the-rules-of-the-startup-game
Opportunity identification.
Peter Thiel’ Startup Class (I think all the classnotes are available here):
http://blakemasters.com/post/22405055017/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-9-notes-essay
Pay per click infographic:
http://community.constantcontact.com/t5/Social-Media/24-Hours-in-the-Google-Economy-INFOGRAPHIC/td-p/65079
The freemium stuff is interesting:
http://www.vccafe.com/2013/03/07/the-ultimate-startup-intelligence-tools-list-2013/
They seem to have a wide array of data to learn from.
It may be easier to work with someone who specializes in CRM, closed loop marketing, copywriting, or online sales funnel development and optimization. (aka sales 2.0). Each of the technology providers seems to have a certification program too.
Here are some options:
https://www.optimizely.com/partners
I believe Google still has a partner program as well (or certification for Landing Page Optimization and Conversion Rate Optimization type needs).
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Growth Hacker TV:
http://www.growthhacker.tv
Steve Blank/Lean Startups:
http://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
Tips for Spying on Competitors
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229350
Quicksprout Marketing University
http://www.quicksprout.com/university/
Hiring Consultants & Trainers/Outsourcing:
http://www.mosaichub.com/
http://blog.crowdspring.com/2013/11/twitter-link-roundup-200-small-business-startups-innovation-social-media-design-marketing-and-more/#startups
https://matchist.com/
Growth Hackers Facebook Group (wonder if there is a Linked In group too)
Hmmm….
http://premierespeakers.com/
A number of apps for startups:
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3025342/a-nearly-complete-online-toolkit-for-startups?utm_source=facebook