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Call for Applications: Investors’ Circle Committed to Women-Led Social Enterprises, Seeking More To Apply By August 5

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By Nick Flores (Director, Investors' Circle) Hopefully you've seen the recent press, highlighted in established periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal and Inc., that cites a study focused on the role of women in angel investment organizations. The University of New Hampshire discovered that when these groups have more than 10% women in their membership, the number and/or size of investments increase, thereby dispelling the stereotype that female investors are more cautious.

Perhaps this is the reason why Investors' Circle, which is 28% female, has already funded 10 companies this year -- five of which are led by women.

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ROI [Return Of Ignoring]: Social Media for Entrepreneurs, Startups

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By Maria Sipka (Founder & CEO, Linquia) There is an inordinate amount of tick boxes for entrepreneurs when looking to build a profitable business and reputation for their aspiring brand, and one tick box that is becoming increasingly popular is the various channels within social media and digital, and how they can be utilized as a marketing strategy.

Social media is a relatively new concept (in the great scheme of things), and as marketers grapple with its nuances -– think of the evolving spectrum of Google analytics or understanding the difference between engagement and spamming on Twitter -–

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My First Year as an Angel Investor at Apricot Capital in Boston

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By Jennifer Lum (Angel Investor, Apricot Capital) I've been angel investing for a year now and I’m thoroughly enjoying it! I started investing so that I could collaborate with top entrepreneurs and investors.

I invest through Apricot Capital with my co-founder Peter Wernau. We've invested in 8 companies and are thrilled to be working with a stellar group of entrepreneurs. Our first investment, Peekaboo Mobile, was acquired in April 2011 and our second investment, OnSwipe, closed a Series Awesome in June 2011.

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How to Use Lean Startup to Stop Insanity and Denial

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By Sue Kim (Founder, Dress Me Sue) It's been the most unexpected turn of events. I'll start at the beginning.

Two years ago, I got bit by the startup bug and then proceeded through all manner of motions at entrepreneurship. One of my major mistakes was thinking one could do a startup on the side if one just worked hard enough. I first tried to juggle the startup alongside a consulting biz. Then shut down the biz in favor of a full-time job [fact: I actually thought this would work].

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Building on a Mobile Platform: Why iOS Today, Android Tomorrow

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By Christine Herron (Director, Intel Capital) If you're figuring out which mobile platform to launch on, here's a quick sketch on why you should choose iOS today, but maybe start with Android in the future.

  1. Are you a designer or a developer? There's a "cultural incumbency" for iOS with designers, so you tend to see better designed apps on iOS. Not to mention, iOS offers "pixel perfect" layout, so it's easy to get the design just as you like. On the other side, Android requires that you design for multiple layouts, which is just as complex... Read More...
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How To Lose An Investor Before You Finish Speaking

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By Cynthia Kocialski (Author, Start Up from the Ground Up) When speaking to someone about the new product or the business proposition, there is often the moment when you know that you have lost your listener.

One misspoken comment and everyone wants to leave as soon as possible. They’ve made their decision and they want you to stop wasting their time. It’s their gut reaction.

What are some of these turn–offs?

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Pipeline Fellowship Announces Call for Applications: NYC, Boston

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By A. Lauren Abele (COO, Pipeline Fellowship) The Pipeline Fellowship announces a call for applications in New York, NY and -- for the first time -— Boston, MA.

The Pipeline Fellowship seeks to increase the number of women angel investors (only 13% of U.S. angels are women1) through its six-month angel investing bootcamp, which is specifically designed for women who are first-time angel investors. While Fellows come from a variety of backgrounds (law, finance, healthcare, the arts, small business, and more), they all share a common interest in learning to invest for good.

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Former Polyvore CEO Launches Joyus, Raises $7.9M Series A

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By Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (Founder & Chairman, Joyus) Eleven years after founding my first company, I've discovered that embracing my inner entrepreneur again is more difficult than I had imagined it would be. This whole experience leading up to the soft launch of Joyus has made me think a lot about why women don't start companies at the rate men do -- and why, despite the trend, here I am on my second startup.

One thing I know for sure: It helps if entrepreneurialism is in the blood. My parents, both doctors, ran a medical practice for over 30 years. My father loved running a small business.

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Customer Development Tip – Poke Your Bruises

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By Cindy Alvarez (Head of Products and Customer Development, KISSmetrics) When you hear a customer complain about your product, do you: Change the subject? Immediately promise that you’ll fix it? Focus instead on the positive feedback and the parts of your product that they really like? Think to yourself, “what a jerk”? Oh, come on, we’ve all thought that sometimes.)

But seriously, we tend to do the first 3 because they minimize cognitive dissonance: that uncomfortable feeling we get when our brains try to wrap themselves around two contradictory ideas. (in this case: “I’m a good product manager and

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Two New Programs Designed to Bolster Ranks of Female Entrepreneurs in Michigan

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By Chris Knape (Business Editor, The Grand Rapids Press/Mlive.com) A $700,000 grant will help launch two programs later this year geared toward helping Michigan women start their own businesses and help foster female business leadership.

The Michigan Economic Development Corp awarded the Inforum Center for Leadership the grant to help it launch ACTiVATE, a technology commercialization program, and to provide connections to Astia, a global non-profit geared toward developing female entrepreneurs and leaders.

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Developing Consumer Products Using Design-Centric Approaches

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By Karen Zeller (Contributing Writer, Women 2.0) As a female entrepreneur who has successfully sold her second boutique consumer goods company, Dante Pauwels is always on the move for solving design related challenges. She has recently sold her share of her second company, originally "Dante Beatrix" now Beatrix NY, a New York based children’s accessories company.

A graduate of Stanford University’s Product Design Program, she has been drawn throughout her career to solving problems through brainstorming, continual investigation and incremental improvement. Here is her advice

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iOS Dev Camp Debriefing: There Is No I in Team, and Other Cliches

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By Anna Billstrom (Developer, Momentus Media) I occasionally spend an entire weekend, almost 24 hours in the day, hunkered over my computer in a fluorescent room, amongst others also lit by the back glow of their MacBooks. I can’t really explain this to non-technical friends and family. It’s San Jose, it’s July, it’s sunny... what exactly is the desire to continue working all weekend?

What seems so obvious to me, is that we are like crazy scientists or inventors in our castles, making Frankenstein. So of course we’re going to work all night, every night, because we’re so goddamn eager.

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Why A Patent Application Should Be Your Startup’s First Investment

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By Jill Hubbard Bowman (Intellectual Property Attorney, Independent) Nearly every business model has a core technology. Your core technology may be a consumer item such as a back scrubber for the elderly, or it may be an online game, a smart phone or web application, or new plant variety, a pharmaceutical, or a better bra.

Whatever your core technology, the first thing you should do before you drop tens of thousands of dollars on web servers, manufacturers, SEO, and t-shirts or mugs with your company logo, is to file a good patent application. This is especially true if you have already spent over $10k paying people to help you develop it

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