Entrepreneurship & Innovation

AlleyWatch has posted 10 Rules of Thumb for Startup Investment Valuation. The rules include:

• Place a fair market value on all physical assets
• Assign real value to intellectual property
• All principals and employees add value
• Early customers and contracts in progress add value
• Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) on projections
• Discretionary earnings multiple
• Calculate replacement cost for key assets
• Look at the size of the market and the growth projections for your sector
• Assess the number of direct competitors and barriers to entry
• Find “comparables” who have received financing

Tim Draper set up the Draper University of Heros for 18-34 year olds to learn entrepreneurship. During this 8 week program every student starts a company and receives mentoring and coaching from experts. Student live and learn at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in San Mateo, CA. Tuition is $9,500.

FastCompany Co.Labs has an interesting guide describing how to make things people love. The process concepts to consider include:

• Processes are the circulatory system of a company
• Curiosity is what gets things done
• Processes are also products
• Great processes constantly evolve
• Pick smart tools
• Don’t forget the human part
• It’s worth the effort
• Stop fearing failure

BuzzFeed has posted 10 Books For The Innovator’s Bookshelf. The books include:

• inGenius by Tina Seelig
• A Curious Discovery by John S. Hendricks
• Spark by Julie Burstein
• Ninja Innovation by Gary Shapiro
• Do Cool Sh*t by Miki Agrawal
• The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
• Creative Intelligence by Bruce Nussbaum
• Business Brilliant by Lewis Schiff
• Brainsteering by Kevin P. Coyne and Shawn T. Coyne
• Change by Design by Tim Brown

A brief description of each book is given in the article.

AlleyWatch has a short article describing how to structure your board of directors and advisory boards. Some key factors include:

• Board should have an odd number of members to prevent deadlocks.
• Boards should be favorable to you, your vision, and the company.
• Board members should bring real relevant value to the company.
• Insure that outside board members aren't unduly biased toward a large shareholder. Loyalty should be to you or the company, and not a large investor.
• Attracting a big name advisor in your space is very important.
• Compensate your outside board members appropriately.

The 99u website has posted some interesting articles about money. The articles will help entrepreneurs, freelancers, employees, and consultants with common issues associated with working. These articles include:

• How To Prepare For A Salary Negotiation: A Check List
• Breaking Workplace Taboos: A Conversation About Salary Transparency
• A Non-Negotiator’s Guide to Negotiating
• How To Get Paid What You’re Worth & Other Negotiation Tips
• Are You A Serial Under-Earner?
• How to Budget for an Irregular Income

Stanford professor Jennifer Asker host The Power of Storytelling: Making Brands Come to Life webinar that is available on YouTube. The webinar describes the power of storytelling in business and life. A story:

• Has a beginning, middle, and end
• Has a goal, protagonist, hook, and action the listener should take
• Can be short (4 words)
• Is about the entrepreneur, product, business, and customer
• Creates an emotional relationship so that your customer becomes an advocate
• Transforms the listener because the protagonist is transformed
• About your company empowers teams to make rapid decision
• About your customer transforms your customer into your evangelist
• About what, how, and most importantly why in a consistent way is very powerful
• That lets the listener come to the conclusion creates an emotional connection

To develop your story, write a six word story for each stage of your life and look for themes.

The Stanford Career Development Center has a new tool called TREE to help you evaluate your career and map out possible career strategies.

The Kauffman foundation is reporting that new company creation is up since 2011. Most of the new companies have 1 to 4 employees.

Patty McCord was the Chief Talent Officer at Netflix from 1998 until 2012. She provides some interesting insights into attracting and keeping talent at companies. The most important factor is that they must believe. Belief is the most powerful motivator for keeping talented people engaged and preforming.