|
| AIEA News Archive |
|
|
|
AIEA News
The Austin Inventors and Entrepreneurs Association News Feed. Stay tuned to updates on upcoming events of interest and other association news.
Got News?
Add this news channel to your favorite news aggregtor.
Last Updated: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:45:18 +0000
|
|
|
Author: Ken Berlack
Have a listen to this podcast (from the Capital Formation
Institute) featuring UNH's Jeffrey Sohl, the leading expert on angel investing. Sohl talks about latest trends he sees in the angel market, and goes into detail on the nature of angel groups compared with individual angels. This podcast gets a little choppy toward the end, but it's worth your time to check this out (especially if you're interested in looking for angel backing).
09/11/2006 09:09 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin-based United Devices provides software and services that link companies' computers and systems around the world to centralize control.
Company officials say the new office will allow United Devices to meet increasing demand from current and potential customers, particularly those businesses adopting grid solutions to consolidate large-scale data centers and manage high performance systems.
09/11/2006 09:08 AM
|
|
|
|
Nineteen Austin-area businesses were recognized for outstanding business accomplishments during the Sixth Annual Greater Austin Business Awards held August 30 at the Hilton hotel. This year’s theme, “Summer in the City”, incorporated all that’s hot about regional businesses.
Thom Singer of Wells Fargo served as the Master of Ceremonies with award presentations by KVUE, KXAN, Univision, KEYE and News 8 news stations.
“What an evening!,” said Wade Cooper, Partner with Jackson Walker and the 2006 Event Chair. “All of the businesses nominated are outstanding. Our region would not be one of the best places in the nation to live and work without the wonderful accomplishments of our business community.”
09/11/2006 09:07 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin ranks high among U.S. cities when it comes to innovation, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.
The city had the third-highest number of patents in 2005 -- 1,705. That follows No. 1 ranked San Jose and No. 2 Sunnyvale, Calif., according to information gathered by Chicago-based intellectual property advising firm ipIQ.
The company went in search of places where American innovation was alive and well outside of Corporate America.
IpIQ's Reed Albergotti headed the analysis, which explored more than 12,000 U.S. cities ranking them by gross number of patents. Albergotti says the technological migration of companies and independent inventors illustrates the resilience of the national economy.
Austin is the only city outside of California in the top five. Among other Texas cities, Houston ranked No. 11 and Plano placed at No. 17.
09/11/2006 09:06 AM
|
|
|
|
Heightened second quarter investing in semiconductors is believed to be one reason why Central Texas reported its strongest venture capital quarter in two years, said The Statesman. A 134 percent increase was achieved from a year ago, after $170.5 million was raised 21 companies.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association conducted the survey. It was the best performance since the second quarter of 2004, when 22 companies raised $188.9 million.
09/11/2006 09:05 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin – Do you know a business that could be a winner?
The Greater Austin Chamber announces the finalists for the Sixth Annual Greater Austin Business Awards event that will be held Wednesday, August 30 from 5:30-9 p.m. at the Hilton Austin, 500 East Fourth Street.
Created in 2001, the Greater Austin Business Awards continues to set the standard for business excellence in the Greater Austin area. In the past, the Awards recognized only Chamber members. This year marks the first time that the Chamber will recognize companies across the entire Greater Austin business community including businesses in Georgetown, Leander, San Marcos, Buda and all other cities within the Central Texas region.
09/01/2006 08:59 AM
|
|
|
|
AUSTIN -- UnWired Buyer, Inc., a provider of real-time, interactive mobile notification and transaction services, today announced it secured $6.1 million in Series B funding.
Gefinor Ventures led the round with participation from Accent Texas Fund I, LP, Aegis Texas Venture Fund, DFJ Mercury and other investors. The funding will be used for product development, marketing and customer acquisition for UnWired Buyer's voice- based e-commerce platform.
"We believe that UnWired Buyer will be a significant player in the global market for mobile commerce, which is expected to grow to $10 billion by 2010," said Wes Cole, principal at Gefinor Ventures. "UnWired Buyer combines unique VoIP-based technology infrastructure with widely adopted mobile phone technology. The company's proven solution brings the power of mobile e- commerce to the mass market, allowing Internet retailers to reach new and existing customer segments -- truly anyone who carries a mobile phone. This investment demonstrates our confidence in the exciting mobile e-commerce market opportunity, the Unwired Buyer product and the team's ability to grow the business."
09/01/2006 08:58 AM
|
|
|
|
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal Online
Neil Grimwood once missed a meeting because a Post-it note he'd stuck on his computer as a reminder fell off. That inspired him to invent a small rubber disk with strong adhesive on the back to serve as a stick-anywhere, mini bulletin board to which lists, photos and other papers can be affixed with push pins or thumb tacks.
In 2004, after years of fruitlessly marketing what he called StickDots to large companies, the Marina del Rey, Calif., inventor entered a Staples Inc. contest for inventors called InventionQuest. Winners of the contest receive $25,000 and up to an 8% royalty. Mr. Grimwood didn't win, but the office-supply chain sometimes grants contracts to runners-up. In this case, the company agreed to carry the product under the Staples brand name, rechristened it TackDots and now sells packets of eight for $3.99.
09/01/2006 08:58 AM
|
|
|
|
BlabberMouth L.P., the only public relations firm to offer its clients 100% representation by senior-level practitioners, announced today that it has been named agency of record by Austin Technology Council (ATC). Founded in
1992 by George Kozmetsky and IC2, ATC is Austin’s preeminent member-driven association that exclusively represents the interests of the technology community in Central Texas.
http://austin.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=84950&type_news=latest
09/01/2006 08:57 AM
|
|
|
|
Crosslink Capital and Goldman Sachs co-led with participation from existing investors Austin Ventures, BlueStream Ventures and MFI Austin.
Bruce MacNaughton of Crosslink Capital and David Campbell of Goldman Sachs will join the company's board of directors.
Boston-based investment bank Revolution Partners acted as the placement agent.
The new funding will be used for growth in the U.S. and in Europe.
Along with the funding, the company named Tim Lucas as its new chief financial officer. Prior to joining Surgient, Lucas served as director of financing for the Canadian, Latin American and government business unit of SAS Institute Inc., a software company based in North Carolina.
09/01/2006 08:57 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal - 11:58 AM CDT Wednesday
Wintegra Inc. has withdrawn its initial public offering, citing unfavorable market conditions.
Wintegra delayed its IPO last month after lowering the initial asking price for its stock price to $12 to $14 a share. The company was proposing to trade under the Nasdaq symbol WNTG.
Wintegra originally filed its IPO on Feb. 17.
Austin-based Wintegra is a semiconductor design and software firm. The company has about 100 employees and operations in the U.S., Israel, Canada and Scotland.
08/07/2006 08:53 AM
|
|
|
|
Winternals & Best Buy/Geek Squad Settle Federal Lawsuit Austin - Austin -- Winternals Software® is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to settle the copyright infringement lawsuit it filed in April against Best Buy and its subsidiary, Geek Squad.
As part of the agreement, Winternals and Best Buy have entered into a three-year business relationship whereby Best Buy's Geek Squad and other computer service and repair employees will be licensed to use a variety of Winternals’
and Sysinternals’ software programs, including Winternals’ flagship ERD Commander. The industry-leading software is a system repair and data recovery tool that boots a dead computer into a familiar Windows-like, point-and-click environment for rapid system recovery. It helps users restore deleted data, reset passwords, copy files to and from unbootable systems, edit the registry, and access restore points on a dead Windows computer.
Sysinternals is a web site dedicated to advanced utilities, technical information, and source code for Windows that is sponsored by Winternals.
08/07/2006 08:52 AM
|
|
|
|
AUSTIN -- Crossroads Systems, Inc. (Pink Sheets:CRDS), a leading provider of Business Information Assurance (BIA) solutions for guaranteed access, resiliency and security of enterprise information, today announced that the European Patent Office has issued the company a Certificate of Grant for European application EP 1 044 414 B1. This European patent is the equivalent to Crossroads U.S. patent 5,941,972 covering storage routers and a method for providing virtual local storage and access control -- a security feature for preventing unauthorized host access to shared storage devices.
08/07/2006 08:52 AM
|
|
|
|
AUSTIN -- Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRFT), a leading information technology consulting firm serving Global 2000 and other large enterprise customers throughout the United States, announced today that it has secured a $52 million credit facility with SVB Silicon Valley Bank and KeyBanc Capital Markets. The new credit facility, which replaces Perficient's existing credit facility with SVB Silicon Valley Bank and KeyBanc, will be used primarily for acquisitions.
08/07/2006 08:51 AM
|
|
|
|
By Cheryl A. Sweet
You've got an ingenious idea that nobody has thought of yet.
What next? Welcome to the patent process, a maze you must navigate to bring your invention to fruition.
"There are lots of misconceptions about patents," says Mary Sarao, co-author of The Everything Inventions & Patents Book, who strongly suggests hiring a patent attorney.
"Skimping on attorney fees would have cost us dearly in the value of our final patent," says Sarao, who invented a niche poster board with her sister and co-author, Barbara Pitts.
With retail sales topping $10 million, their invention is netting the sisters up to $300,000 annually in royalties.
08/07/2006 08:50 AM
|
|
|
|
Agreement Includes $10.5 Million Payment to Crossroads, 2.5 Percent Ongoing Royalty for Certain Products Austin -
AUSTIN -- Crossroads Systems, Inc. (Pink Sheets: CRDS), a leading provider of Business Information Assurance solutions for guaranteed access, resiliency and security of enterprise information, today announced it has settled its outstanding patent litigation with Carlsbad, California-based Dot Hill Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: HILL), a provider of storage networking solutions. In the settlement, Crossroads will receive a one-time $10.5 million cash payment and a 2.5 percent ongoing royalty on net sales of products utilizing Crossroads patented access controls technology.
Originally filed October 17, 2003, the lawsuit claimed that Dot Hill sold solutions that violated U.S. patent Nos.
5,941,972 and 6,425,035 which cover the ability to control access between hosts and storage devices in a networked storage environment. Crossroads is the exclusive owner of these patents. In exchange for the one-time cash payment and running royalty, Crossroads granted Dot Hill a nonexclusive license to these patents and the parties settled all claims arising out of the litigation.
07/24/2006 08:32 AM
|
|
|
|
AUSTIN -- SmallCapVoice.com, Inc. today announced that a new audio interview is available at SmallCapVoice.com. The featured guest is Manny Shulman, president of Infinity Acquisition Corp. Inc. (OTC:IFQJ). Mr. Shulman provides us with his personal insight into the recent reductions to the issued and outstanding shares and lets us know what we should expect from his company in 2006. The interview can be heard here at http://www.smallcapvoice.com/ifqj/index.html.
07/24/2006 08:31 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal - 7:21 AM CDT Monday
* Print This ArticlePrint this Article
* Email this ArticleEmail this Article
* ReprintsReprints
* RSS FeedsRSS Feeds
* RSS FeedsMost Viewed
* RSS FeedsMost Emailed
Austin's PulseWave RF Inc. has landed $30 million in venture funding, which ranks as one of the largest recent funding announcements in Central Texas.
The Series C funding round was led by Oak Investment Partners. In addition, existing PulseWave RF investors, including Austin Ventures, Bay Partners and Genesis Campus, also participated in the round.
07/24/2006 08:31 AM
|
|
|
|
Creatives Bring National Experience and a Women’s Point of View to Virtual Advertising Austin - Austin - ThinkKitchen, a newly-created virtual advertising agency, has just launched its new website www.thethinkkitchen.com.
Think Kitchen, based in Austin, Texas, is the brainchild of Pat Epstein and Jeanette Tyson. Each woman has more than twenty years of experience in agencies known for their creative flair.
"We wanted to be able to think outside the usual big-agency constrictions. For that matter, we just wanted to be able to think outside," says Pat Epstein.
07/24/2006 08:30 AM
|
|
|
|
By ERICA R. DAVIS
Editor's Note: This piece is part of a series on how entrepreneurs secure financial backing to launch their new businesses.
When Ellen Carroll moved from Seattle to Kingman, Ariz., she says she knew the town's need for a speech therapist could work to her advantage.
Ms. Carroll, 27 years old, got a job in the Kingman school district as its second full-time speech therapist, working with students in preschool through junior high school. Ms.
Carroll says she has a "gigantic" caseload at the Kingman schools and that showed her that starting her own speech therapy business could be lucrative -- and helpful for the town of 26,000 people.
07/24/2006 08:29 AM
|
|
|
|
from ©2003 Dr. Joseph Sommerville
Make statistics work for you rather than against you The use of statistics in a presentation is a double-edged sword. When used appropriately, statistics can make a presentation more credible, more persuasive and more authoritative. Used inappropriately, they can make the presentation less interesting, less effective and less audience-centered. It’s unlikely you’ll have a room full of statisticians, so you need to find ways to translate those numbers for a lay audience. Here are some tips on how to make statistics work for you rather than against you.
07/10/2006 08:24 PM
|
|
|
|
For the little guys, staying home may be a smarter strategy.
May 25, 2006
Giants like Intel, Oracle, and Microsoft may get a big bang for their bucks by offshoring research and development to India and China. But setting up operations overseas may not be the answer for smaller companies that need to cut costs and develop high-tech products at lightning speed.
Rising salaries, competition for talent, a high attrition rate, and a lack of senior-level engineers in offshore hubs like Bangalore may override the benefits of offshoring for startups, according to panelists at the Red Herring Spring conference in Monterey, California.
07/10/2006 08:23 PM
|
|
|
|
FORTUNE Small Business Magazine
by Jeanne Lee,
(FORTUNE Small Business) - If you cash out of a flourishing small business, what's next? Another startup is likely to be all-consuming, yet retirement would probably bore you. For an increasing number of entrepreneurs, the middle ground is angel investing, in which wealthy individuals give financial backing to budding companies.
07/10/2006 08:23 PM
|
|
|
|
By JAMES CAVERLY
If you've got a business idea you can't stop talking about, why wait to flex your entrepreneurial muscles? Here are five tips to get an idea out of your head and into the marketplace.
07/10/2006 08:22 PM
|
|
|
|
By REBECCA BUCKMAN
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal Online
Giants are on the prowl in Silicon Valley. The prey:
start-ups.
Two of the most formidable hunters are Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp., each aiming to forge ties with -- and sometimes acquire -- promising companies that make software and other products for big businesses.
At a big, closed-door meeting with Silicon Valley venture capitalists last month, Microsoft's chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer, boasted that the Redmond, Wash., company bought 22 companies over the past year, some of them Northern California fledglings. IBM made 16 acquisitions last year, including several referred to the company by a special, 20-person venture-capital outreach group that IBM set up in 2000.
07/10/2006 08:22 PM
|
|
|
|
from Andrew J. Birol
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
When a company’s growth begins to dwindle, boardroom meetings grow strained and the finger pointing starts.
Executives cry out, "We need a new strategy! We need to hire better people! Our culture is to blame! Our compensation is wrong!" The founder, if he or she is still around, sadly states, "We have more people, resources, and money than ever. But now we are so big we can’t even get out of our own way!" Embarrassed, a politically perceptive staffer serves up a popular buzzword. "Intrapreneurs! What we need are Intrapreneurs!" The "hip" executive explains that Intrapreneurs are "Inside Entrepreneurs" who will follow their founder’s example. The Intrapreneur, he or she promises, will buck the corporate malaise, risk his or her career to get things done and, is willing to "do the right thing to serve the customer".
__
06/30/2006 09:29 AM
|
|
|
|
Protect your idea, your brand and your creative work Ideas are a difficult thing to protect, because they are so easily imitated or copied. We don't yet live in the world of Star Trek where you can just have a replicator instantly make you an exact duplicate of physical things like a cup of coffee or some exotic alien delicacy, but we can easily duplicate the ideas of others, such as copying a piece of written material, using a similar brand name, or creating a product in imitation of someone else's product.
06/30/2006 09:28 AM
|
|
|
|
From Scott Allen,
Your Guide to Entrepreneurs.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
What are they? What qualifies (and what doesn't)? And how do you file one?
What is a trademark?
Simply put, it's a brand name. More formally, it's "a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others." (USPTO) A service mark identifies a service rather than a product.
Trademark protection only applies to a particular category of goods or services, although a single trademark owner may use it in multiple categories. For example, Nike Inc. owns the mark on a variety of shoes, clothing, sporting goods, etc., but Sweden's Nike Corporation could not prevent their use of the name because Nike Corporation's trademark was for heavy machinery, including hydraulic lifting jacks, pistons and presses.
06/30/2006 09:28 AM
|
|
|
|
From Scott Allen,
Your Guide to Entrepreneurs.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
What are they? What qualifies (and what doesn't)? And how do you file one?
What is a patent?
A patent for an invention is the grant of property rights to the inventor by the government. It is the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention in the country in which the patent is filed.
International treaty provides for patents to be recognized and protected in most countries, although enforcement often presents a major challenge.
06/30/2006 09:27 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal
by Jonathan Selden Austin Business Journal Staff
* Print This ArticlePrint this Article
* Email this ArticleEmail this Article
* ReprintsReprints
* RSS FeedsRSS Feeds
* RSS FeedsMost Viewed
* RSS FeedsMost Emailed
Asuragen Inc. -- the offspring of Austin biotech laureate Matt Winkler -- just ended its first round of investment funding with $49 million.
To be fair, $35 million of that came from the proceeds of the sale of Winkler's Ambion Inc. earlier this year, but the amount is still about $7 million over the company's own target of $42 million and well ahead of similar ventures'
first-round funding bottom lines.
06/30/2006 09:26 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal
Four former Motive Inc. execs have banded together to launch a new software company called Spiceworks Inc.
Based in Austin, Spiceworks was founded by CEO Scott Abel, a Motive co-founder; vice president of marketing Jay Hallberg, former vice president of product management at Motive, Francis Sullivan, former Motive vice president of technology and Greg Kattawar, former Motive vice president of development.
06/17/2006 01:01 PM
|
|
|
|
Intrinsity Inc., an Austin design technology company, has received an investment from Applied Micro Circuits Corp. in return for a stake in the company.
AMCC (NASDAQ: AMCC) is a supplier of embedded PowerPC devices, and is located in Sunnyvale, Calif.
The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but as a result of the deal, Intrinsity plans to increase its engineering staff by 20 to 30 employees and boost tool research and development efforts in order to advance its
Fast14 silicon technology.
06/17/2006 01:01 PM
|
|
|
|
By Antone Gonsalves
TechWeb.com Fri May 12, 7:54 PM ET
The number of visitors to the top 10 social-networking sites soared in April, attracting nearly half of all Web users, a market research firm says.
ADVERTISEMENT
The top 10 sites collectively grew 47 percent in the United States from the same month a year ago to 68.8 million unique visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The sites reached 45 percent of active Web users.
06/17/2006 01:00 PM
|
|
|
|
Many small business web site owners are not even aware that they have access to a variety of statistics and analytics about their web site. Many more have discovered them, but have no idea what to do with them. This article explains how the general and advanced statistics that web analytics packages generate can contribute to the success of your ebusiness.
06/17/2006 12:59 PM
|
|
|
|
By SUZANNE VRANICA
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal Online
The Internet is helping small businesses alter the way they sell themselves.
Some small-business owners are forsaking traditional advertising venues for online advertising -- including ads in search engines Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. and free listings in online classifieds sites like Craigslist. Others are using Internet firms like Spot Runner Inc., which help small businesses create affordable commercials and buy air time for those ads in local television markets -- something that's usually too costly for smaller firms.
06/17/2006 12:59 PM
|
|
|
|
Google’s commitment to openness is also on display with Google Trends, which lets users access data about the popularity of search terms over time and then filter that data by city, region, or language.
“We’re giving you the keys to Zeitgeist,” Mayer said, referring to the list of top search terms known as Google Zeitgeist that Google publishes.
Such access is sure to be welcome by anyone doing Internet-related research and by marketers in particular.
06/04/2006 08:23 PM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal
* Print This ArticlePrint this Article
* Email this ArticleEmail this Article
* ReprintsReprints
* RSS FeedsRSS Feeds
* RSS FeedsMost Viewed
* RSS FeedsMost Emailed
Austin chip design company Zilker Labs Inc. raised $8 million in a third round of venture capital.
New investor HIG Ventures participated, along with previous investors Sevin Rosen Funds and North Bridge Venture Partners. John Kim, managing director of Miami-based HIG Ventures, has been named a "board observer" at Zilker.
06/04/2006 08:22 PM
|
|
|
|
By KATHERINE MEYER
From The Wall Street Journal Online
The Internet spawned so many weird gizmos and bad business ideas that mocking dot-com duds became something of a sport in the post-bubble era. But some ideas still stand out for pure silliness. These are products and services that attracted lots of publicity -- and, in some cases, millions of dollars in funding -- before folding.
In the earlier days of the Web, "nobody seemed to care if there was a real business there," said Alan Meckler, chief executive of Jupitermedia Corp. and Internet industry pundit.
Take CyberRebate.com, which thought it could make money by giving stuff away for free. The online retailer, founded in 1998, sold an assortment of goods at heavily marked up prices (some items going for up to 10 times their retail values), but promised customers a hefty rebate that often amounted to 100% of the purchase price.
06/04/2006 08:21 PM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal
Tokyo Electron Ltd. is launching a new venture capital program to target seed and early-stage technology companies.
The new wholly-owned subsidiary, TEL Venture Capital Inc., will be based in California and plans to invest up to $10 million annually. TEL Venture Capital says it will invest in a "wide range" of areas worldwide.
06/04/2006 08:21 PM
|
|
|
|
by Mark Calvey
Private equity firms continued to outperform the Standard & Poor's 500 in 2005's fourth quarter despite a lackluster market for initial public offerings, according to Thomson Financial and the National Venture Capital Association.
One-year venture capital returns decreased to 15.6 percent in the fourth quarter from 17.9 percent in the third quarter.
06/04/2006 08:20 PM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal
IBM Corp. has agreed to buy Austin software company BuildForge Inc.
Financial details were not disclosed.
BuildForge's technology helps companies automate their software development processes, as well as meet audit and compliance mandates. Privately-held BuildForge, a former member of the Austin Technology Incubator, has been on an upward trajectory since moving out of the incubator. The company exceeded its fourth-quarter revenue expectations by
25 percent and was on track to double in size this year.
BuildForge has 50 employees.
06/04/2006 08:20 PM
|
|
|
|
By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
Generating initial sales is among the toughest challenges for new businesses. We asked Neil Platt, vice president of sales and business development at six-year-old CashEdge Inc., for tips on attracting customers and building a sales force. He faced this task in 2000 on joining the New York-based provider of online financial applications for banks, credit unions and wealth-management firms. The privately held company now has more than 450 customers and eight full-time sales professionals.od=RSS_Startup_Journal&sjrss=frontpage
05/22/2006 09:20 AM
|
|
|
|
by Alexander Soule
Journal Staff
* Print This ArticlePrint this Article
* Email this ArticleEmail this Article
* ReprintsReprints
* RSS FeedsRSS Feeds
* RSS FeedsMost Viewed
* RSS FeedsMost Emailed
WALTHAM -- Polaris Venture Partners is wrapping up a venture fund estimated to reach at least $800 million, the first closing of an estimated $8 billion that Boston-area venture capital funds are expected to raise this year.
[After the newspaper went to press, industry newsletter Private Equity Analyst reported on Friday that Polaris had closed the fund at $1 billion, though it did not cite a source for the information.]
05/22/2006 09:19 AM
|
|
|
|
from Michael Jones, President of Userplane Stepping into the conference room, I realize that I'm headed into an appointment with very little information on what's about to happen or with whom I'll be meeting. I know the names of the participants, but would not recognize them if I passed them on the street. Nonetheless, I'm pleased with the opportunity and eager about what may materialize from this gathering.
05/22/2006 09:19 AM
|
|
|
|
From Scott Allen,
Your Guide to Entrepreneurs.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
Why every entrepreneur should have one
Your friends and family, the Web, periodicals, and even casual acquaintances can provide you with a steady daily flow of information regarding news, industry developments, and opportunities. Industry analysts, consultants, employees, and good networking contacts can share their expert knowledge with you regarding particular situations and needs you may encounter. But only a mentor can truly share wisdom with you on an ongoing basis.
05/22/2006 09:18 AM
|
|
|
|
from Erica Olsen, M3 Planning
The simple way to keep your business on track You don’t have to kill a tree or shut down the office for a week to create a successful strategic plan. In fact, you can create a successful plan for your business in just one day. It doesn’t have to be an overwhelming or a monumental task. It doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy. Just grab a few key people in your organization, turn off the phones and let’s get started.
05/22/2006 09:18 AM
|
|
|
|
Carnival of Entrepreneurship #9 at MooreThoughts Attorney Nathan Moore hosts this week's Carnival of Entrepreneurship at MooreThoughts. You definitely need to check out his blog. The side-by-side dialog between Nathan and his wife Sarah is really fascinating, although it does take a bit of getting used to it. I've never seen anything quite like it.
This week's contributions include:
* Turning your hobby into a business
* Managing fear to lessen your risk and maximize the reward
* How to delegate without hiring anyone
* Making tax preparation as unobtrusive as possible to your business
* Which states have the best (and worst) tax laws in regard to business expansion
Next week's edition will be hosted at Just For Small Business. Visit the Carnival of Entrepreneurship Home Page for more information on reading, contributing to or hosting the carnival.
05/16/2006 08:41 AM
|
|
|
|
U.S. News and World Report yesterday featured an e-mail interview with entrepreneur and futurist Thomas Frey, Senior Director of The DaVinci Institute, on the future of small-business start-ups. The interview talked about two major trends in entrepreneurship:
Confluence of Influence
"This has to do with the do-it-yourself-content movement, where bloggers, podcasters, and others have been given a voice. The single points of influence from the past have changed, and now several million people will have a voice in what's going on. The trick is to find the people who can influence your particular industry and figure out how to get them to say something nice about you."
Certainly major media outlets continue to carry a lot of weight, but there are more and more people who are "slightly famous", or, more accurately "niche famous". Within an industry or market segment, their opinions can carry as much or even more weight than major media. This makes it more important than ever to proactively network, because these people are best reached through relationships, not pitch letters.
05/16/2006 08:40 AM
|
|
|
|
Austin Business Journal
The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce has created a new technology division and and angel investor network to help economic development activities.
The technology division will be led by Randy Baker, president and founder of Tuanis Technology. Baker is also vice chairman of technology for the chamber.
It will work with the chamber's economic development efforts to grow the local tech sector by: uniting technology related organizations, working with local entrepreneurs and young companies to grow their organizations and bridging the gap between the technology companies and the traditional business in the community, among other activities.
The new Central Texas Angel Network, or CTAN, will help local entrepreneurs gain access to capital to start their businesses. CTAN will work with the Central Texas Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization (CT-RCIC), the Texas Technology Fund, and universities to identify opportunities in early stages of development.
"Angels are necessary to keep the start-up environment thriving in the region," says Jamie Rhodes, chairman of CTAN and CEO of Perceptive Sciences Corp. "With this group, businesses will no longer have to look outside Austin to find angel funding and central Texas angel investors will have access to quality deal flow without leaving town."
The chamber's Opportunity Austin initiative, now in its third year, is a 5-year, 5-county economic development plan to create 72,000 jobs and a $14 billion positive economic impact on the economy. In 2004 and 2005, 47,600 jobs were created.
05/16/2006 08:39 AM
|
|
|
|
By JULIE BENNETT
Now is a good time to borrow the money to buy a franchise, say small-business lenders. Banks and finance companies are "flush with capital," which puts start-up franchisees in a good position, says Reginald Heard, national accounts manager for CIT Small Business Lending in Livingston, N.J.
Many local bankers who shied away from franchise loans only a few years ago are granting them today.
Here are three tips for those seeking loans to fund a franchise purchase.
05/16/2006 08:38 AM
|
|
|
|
| |
|
 |
|
