Startup Bites

Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

2012-08-23T23:47:00.003-07:00

I’m by no means a good programmer, but I know the basics and they’re incredibly helpful. [1] Knowing how to write code makes me 3-4x more efficient at my job. I get stuff done faster and provide leverage to my team.
So to you non-technical web professionals out there, whether you do SEO/SEM, affiliate, community management, blogging, PR, or business development: learn to code this year. Here are 10 reasons why:

Read the article at

http://www.giftrocket.com/why-marketing-bd-should-learn-to-code

Strategy Letter I: Ben and Jerry's vs. Amazon

2012-08-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

Building a company? You've got one very important decision to make, because it affects everything else you do. No matter what else you do, you absolutely must figure out which camp you're in, and gear everything you do accordingly, or you're going to have a disaster on your hands.
The decision? Whether to grow slowly, organically, and profitably, or whether to have a big bang with very fast growth and lots of capital.

Read the complete article at

http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html

Why I only work with startups

2012-08-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Directly tied to the sense of context, is having an impact in the company. When somebody is just starting out with their product, you’re helping to shape their vision, you can give good feedback and make use of your experience – in a sense you’re helping somebody achieve their dream and that’s a Great Feeling ™.
Working as an emotionless engineer, a faceless cog who just gets his part done in the big machine … well I’m sure you can imagine how that doesn’t even begin to compare.

Read the full article at
http://swizec.com/blog/why-i-only-work-with-startups/swizec/2936

The 5 Minute Guide To Cheap Startup Advertising

2012-08-06T11:18:00.002-07:00

The fantastic beginner's guide to advertising with very good tips about advertising on Google AdWords/Facebook, Posted by Dharmesh Shah on OnStartup.com

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/43774/The-5-Minute-Guide-To-Cheap-Startup-Advertising.aspx

So you’re going to take a cube job ?

2012-08-04T19:50:00.003-07:00

the excellent letter by James Currier, the exited founder and now founder of Jiff, to his alma mater on how to do something exciting instead of wasting your life at a cube job.

"Most people think that working for a big or known company will give them good experience. That’s kind of like saying learning to sit still for dental surgery is good experience. Sure, it’s an experience, but there are life paths where you don’t have to have dental surgery, or work for a big company, to have the best life. In fact, I would argue that you learn the wrong things working for a big company, and that it’s actually not good experience. A good experience is when you really make something happen in the world. Big companies teach you how to work through layers of bureaucracy and how to solve problems in very risk-averse ways — in short, how to make something happen in their organization. A big company is not the safe career choice. It’s the risky choice. It risks your mind and your life. "

Read the full article at

http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2008/08/20/ooga-labs/

Early Warning Signs of Startup Trouble

2012-08-01T11:00:00.003-07:00

This is a small snippet in a post making a different point, but it got me thinking about some of the early warning signs I’ve seen in starups who’ve failed.

Read the post at

http://bryce.vc/post/14265593179/early-warning-signs-of-startup-trouble

Don’t compete on features

2012-07-29T06:57:00.001-07:00

Very very interesting and useful read by Andrew Chen

"The “Ultimate Driving Machine” is a classic slogan that makes BMW compete based on position, not features."

Read the complete blog at

http://andrewchen.co/2011/07/11/dont-compete-on-features/

F**king Sue Me

2012-07-28T10:28:00.003-07:00

Very very interesting read.... I liked a lot

This lesson in total disregard for risk served me well. They say entrepreneurs are risk takers. I think of myself as too lazy and irresponsible to fully understand the risk.

Read the blog by Pud at

http://pud.com/post/10103947044/fucking-sue-me

Thinking Time

2012-07-28T08:18:00.001-07:00

If you don’t yet have such “Thinking Time” on your schedule, I suggest you to try it. The beginning of the week works the best for me. But maybe you’ll feel that the middle is actually better because it splits your work week and you get some kind of a break from your regular tasks.
In this age of Internet and social networks with all the fun distractions that they provide, it becomes more important to go away from it all at least for a couple of hours each week, sit down with a pen and a paper (or even an iPad running some notepad-type application), and just think it all through.

Read the interesting article by Jacob Gorban at

http://gorban.org/post/14162629940/thinking-time

Management Quality Assurance

2012-07-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

Interestingly, one of the first things that you learn when you run an engineering organization is that a good Quality Assurance organization cannot build a high quality product, but it can tell you when the development team builds a low quality product. Similarly, a high quality Human Resources organization cannot make you a well-managed company with a great culture, but it can tell you when you and your managers are not getting the job done.

Read the very interesting Ben's blog at

http://bhorowitz.com/2011/10/06/management-quality-assurance/