10 facts that help in the success of start-ups

Here are 10 facts that help in the success of start-ups, according to a Harvard study:

1-Serial entrepreneurs are more likely to build successful startups than first time entrepreneurs.

2-Who is more likely to get a VC's check; a founder who failed at their last venture or a founder who succeeded? If it's the same VC firm, the failed entrepreneur.

3-Is running a successful venture skill, luck or timing? Successful entrepreneurs are skilled at timing the market.

4-Success breed success.

5-Are companies that are funded by top-tier VC firms more likely to succeed? yes in general.

6- If a startup's founder has been successful before, how important is the VC? If a startup is founded by previously successful entrepreneurs, then the VC firm doesn't really matter.

7-Where do most entrepreneurs get their ideas from? From former employers.

8-Will VCs give the same entrepreneur funding on their next venture? Not usually. The same venture capital firm that funded you before probably won't give you money again.

9-Who closes VC funding faster, a serial entrepreneurs or a new founder? Serial entrepreneurs receive venture capital faster than first-time entrepreneurs.

10-Who receives a higher initial valuation, seasoned entrepreneurs or new ones? New entrepreneurs.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-some-startups-succeed-and-others-fail-10-fascinating-harvard-findings-2012-1?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SAI%20Select&utm_campaign=SAI%20Select%20Mondays%202012-01-23#do-serial-entrepreneurs-have-a-leg-up-on-first-time-entrepreneurs-1#ixzz1kIrfLUym

Louis Rhéaume
Infocom intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis

16 great quotes by tech entrepreneurs

Here are 16 great quotes by tech entrepreneurs:

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple: "I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance."

Max Levchin, former CTO of PayPal: "The very first company I started failed with a great bang. The second one failed a little bit less, but still failed. The third one, you know, proper failed, but it was kind of okay. I recovered quickly. Number four almost didn’t fail. It still didn’t really feel great, but it did okay. Number five was PayPal."

Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn: "You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down."

Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr: "So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard."

Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable: "We are really competing against ourselves. We have no control over how other people perform."

Jason Calacanis, founder CEO of Mahalo.com: "There is no luck, you work hard and study things intently. If you do that for long and hard enough you're successful."

Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter : "Be a user of your own product. Make it better based on your own desires. But don't trick yourself into thinking you are the user."

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, gave a speech to Bishop DuBourg grads: "Expect the unexpected, and whenever possible, be the unexpected." Those words are from Lynda Barry's novel 'Cruddy.' I've carried them with me for some time. There's a lot in my life I wasn't expecting. One is the realization that I stood at this pulpit and delivered a reading for my own graduation...15 years ago. Unexpectedly, I'm old."

Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga: "Not having a clear goal leads to death by a thousand compromises."

Mike Maples, managing partner at Floodgate: "It's not the entrepreneur that failed. It's the business that failed. In life, you win some and lose some. The trick is to fail aggressively. And to not have everyone take it personally. Not leave regrets in the playing field. Not everything is going to work in life."

Google's Matt Cutts on TED: "A few years ago, I felt like I was stuck in a rut, so I decided to follow in the footsteps of the great American philosopher, Morgan Spurlock, and try something new for 30 days. The idea is actually pretty simple. Think about something you've always wanted to add to your life and try it for the next 30 days. It turns out, 30 days is just about the time to add a new habit or subtract a habit - like watching the news -- from your life."

Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare: "It there's something you want to build, but the tech isn't there yet, just find the closest possible way to make it happen."

Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Venture: "Markets come and go. Good businesses don't."

Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator: "Running a startup is like being punched in the face repeatedly, but working for a large company is like being waterboarded."

Marc Benioff, co-founder of Salesforce: "The secret to successful hiring is this: look for the people who want to change the world."

Steve Jobs: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”


Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis

New internet entrepreneurs models: work is shifting toward a peer-to-peer model

According to VC Christina Cacioppo of Union Squares Ventures, today represents a very good time for new Internet Entrepreneurs. Access to capital is easier, there is a proliferation of tech incubators and a new trend is also very important: work is shifting toward a peer-to-peer model.

In a recent blog post she mentions:

"The first two decades of the modern internet broke industries built on distribution monopolies (e.g. music, news) and facilitated coordination between the consumer and the provider without the need for a middleman (e.g. hotels, car rentals.) The same will happen for a large fraction of our work, especially in cases where the work is standardized or employers "distribute" their workers to pools of customers.

One reason to create firms is the coordination and signaling problems of situations with imperfect information and transaction costs. As technology increases information flows and decreases transaction costs, individuals can leave their old employers and strike out on their own. Their livelihoods will still depend on providing valuable services in exchange for fees, but they'll do so as freelancers - and on their own, they'll capture more of the value generated by their work.

Just as blogs allowed talented writers to build audiences without being affiliated with large media organizations, and as Twitter and Tumblr allowed news- and tastemakers to succeed outside of established news or media properties, new web services will allow individuals to engage with customers without needing to work for a firm. These free agents, disaggregated and newly empowered, can promote and sustain themselves with new tools: Opez caters to service professionals, like bartenders and hairdressers, and allows them to build followings independent of their employers, while Vayable and SideTour provide marketing and transaction-processing for neighborhood tour guides. Hiptic helps graphic designers promote their work, while Zerply helps creative professionals do the same, and InterviewStreet lets programmers show off their skills.

As technology creates new free agents, it's also changing the notion of "work" to be less time- and location-specific. This is especially true of work that can be done easily at a distance. Workers who can't differentiate themselves using their reputation will be commoditized. This summer, web services were launched that allow you to order up a proofreader (Kibin), blogger (Contently), tutor (LearnBop), language partner (Verbling), car ride (Ridejoy), science researcher (Science Exchange), cooking instructor (Culture Kitchen), mystery shopper (SpotCheck), or transcriptionist (Mobile Works) from your browser. The Mechanical Turkification of work has begun.

Between identified, liberated individuals and the nameless, faceless drones of Mechanical Turk lies identity: does it matter who performs the task at hand? If the worker's background, skills, or experience matter, there's likely to be higher variance in demand for a particular person's services, and free agents will be sought after and chosen by reputation on services built for those purposes. Less-skilled people are likely better suited for tasks for which identity doesn't matter, and other marketplaces that don't include a concept of reputation will provide access to a global pool of workers."

A peer-to-peer model of work means that individuals can replace many SMEs or large firms in the delivery of specific mandates. With specialisation, individuals can offer a better ratio Quality/price than certains firms. With the Internet, mobile Internet and social networks, there are many opportunities for future Internet entrepreneurs.

Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis

For more info read: http://www.usv.com/2011/11/what-comes-next.php

Montreal Start-ups festival: challenges and motivations of entrepreneurs

Direction Informatique magazine did an interesting 5 minutes video on the challenges and motivations of entrepreneurs during the Montreal start-ups festival. Video in French and English.

http://bcove.me/cmgyovo5

Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com