Martin Zwilling

LATEST ARTICLES ( 3466 )

• Primer On Funding Trends for Early-Stage Startups

  

  If you are new to the entrepreneurial world of startups, you are likely confused by the terminology of seed-stage, lean startups, micro-VCs, and Super Angels.... Read more

  Posted on 01 May 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Business Communication is Not Just Talking Loud

  

  Effective communication is an absolute requirement for successfully starting a business, but it doesn’t come naturally to many entrepreneurs. Communication is... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Ten Ways to Optimize Your Investor Pitch Time

  

  The average length of a funding pitch to angel investors is ten minutes. Even if you have booked an hour with a VC, you should plan to talk only for the first... Read more

  Posted on 29 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Start Up Investors

  

  If your startup is looking for an angel investor, does it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down... Read more

  Posted on 28 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• For a Services Business, a Blog Trumps a Website

  

  Blogging has come a long way in the past few years, from a social release for narcissists, to today’s required vehicle for promoting your consulting business an... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Skip the MBA If Entrepreneur is Your Lifestyle

  

  I don’t have an MBA. I used to fear that this would put me at a disadvantage in starting my own company, but now I’m convinced that it may be the other way... Read more

  Posted on 26 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Motivate Your Startup

  

  Potential startup founders are always looking for ideas to implement, when they should be looking for problems to solve. Customers pay for solutions, but there... Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Startups With Real Revenue Can Get Venture Capital

  

  I just read the Q1 2011 report from CB Insights, which shows venture capital is back. Overall, investors put $7.5 billion to work across 738 financing deals wit... Read more

  Posted on 24 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER, FINANCE

• Social Entrepreneurs Don’t Need Profit For Success

  

  A term I’m hearing more and more these days is “social entrepreneur.” In the simplest of terms, these are people who seek to generate “social value”, rather tha... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• How to Market Your Startup to People Not Like You

  

  Face reality. As an entrepreneur, you should assume none of your customers is like you, yet I find that most entrepreneurs assume just the opposite. Customers... Read more

  Posted on 22 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Technology Attacks the Business Card

  

  In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business... Read more

  Posted on 21 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Four Common Startup Issues Which Threaten Survival

  

  The best survival guides tell you how to be proactive and avoid the probabilities of ending up in a worst case scenario. Of course you need to learn how to... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Entrepreneurs Must Minimize Friction For Feedback

  

  Entrepreneurship is not a job for the Lone Ranger. Every startup requires building and maintaining effective relationships with people, including partners,... Read more

  Posted on 19 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Look For These Five Qualities of a Great Solution

  

  Every entrepreneur wishes that he could predict whether his idea could be the “next big thing,” before he spent his life savings and years of energy on it. Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Six Key Factors in the Right Outsourcing Decision

  

  Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company,... Read more

  Posted on 17 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Many Websites Look Like Zombies to Google Search

  

  A while back I emphasized how important is to have a company website these days (Publish Your Website Or Customers Won’t Find You). I should have added that a... Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2011 COMPUTING, SOCIAL MEDIA, TECH

• Some Startups Forget to Validate a Business Model

  

  Many entrepreneurs work hard on the proof of concept (technical), but skip any proof of the business model (revenue flow). In other words, once they are... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• If You Need Angel Investors, Avoid These Startups

  

  We are talking about angel investors here, meaning people who invest their own money in early-stage startups for a share of the equity. Read more

  Posted on 14 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Five Ways a Business Mentor is More Than a Friend

  

  Friends tell you what you want to hear. Mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you don’t need the mentor anymore. In... Read more

  Posted on 13 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER

• Some Startup Opportunities Are Losers Today

  

  People are always asking me for an inside tip on Internet sites that will be “the next big thing.” Those are hard, since someone has to invent something... Read more

  Posted on 12 April 2011 BUSINESS, CAREER