Tag Archives: Business

Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction

“Sramana Mitra’s Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction is a book for our time because it’s something real out of Silicon Valley. No more stories about legendary VC fundings of startup-to-IPO in six months. …This book has some fascinating histories of the different paths people take to entrepreneurship, and the difficulties they face. I would only have wished each of the interviews to be longer and deeper, because every story is worth telling.” – Fast Company

In a world battered by economic crisis, Sramana Mitra believes entrepreneurship is the only sustainable path forward to a healthy economic world order. And core to the success of entrepreneurial ventures today is the invigorating art of bootstrapping. Sramana Mitra–a serial entrepreneur, strategy consultant and Forbes columnist–takes aim at this essential route along the roadmap to startup success with Bootstrapping: Weapon of Mass Reconstruction (Entrepreneur Journeys Vol. 2; BookSurge; June 1, 2009; $16.95 paperback).

Along with the incisive analysis and commentary that have popularized popularized her blog “Sramana Mitra on Strategy” and Forbes columns, Mitra showcases a dozen successful entrepreneurs and their lessons from the bootstrapping trenches. Overflowing with lively entrepreneurial tangents, theories and behind-closed-doors-experience, the book rises to the level of economic policy discussion while simultaneously offering practical advice from experienced bootstrappers. Important issues like doing more with less, getting started with little or no capital, and validating the market on the cheap are discussed with the likes of Om Malik of GigaOm and Greg Gianforte of RightNow.

In her characteristic narrative style, Mitra shepherds established and aspiring entrepreneurs through another inspiring and page-turning expedition into venture land, a territory she hopes will be claimed by many more in the years to come.

“From my perspective it is clear that small business must be a top policy priority,” explains Mitra. “Let us hope that in the coming decade the number of small businesses will double, then triple and quadruple. For here is the most powerful engine of economic growth and sustenance. Here is our way back.”

More Praise for Bootstrapping:

“Mitra clearly has a passion for small businesses. This useful volume is largely comprised of interviews with the founders of such companies. Her skilled questioning prompts a discussion of the many issues involved in starting and growing a business. The entrepreneurs share wisdom and insight useful to any budding or existing business owner. The reader will be struck by the vision, inventiveness and sheer determination of these entrepreneurial heroes, who operate businesses that are successful but far below the radar. A highly relevant and timely work on entrepreneurship’s role in economic reconstruction.” – Kirkus Discoveries

“Sramana’s work on bootstrapped entrepreneurs is an inspiration in these tough economic times. The solutions to our economic problems ultimately lie with the entrepreneur who brings imagination, resourcefulness and good old-fashioned elbow grease to tackle old problems in new ways, create new solutions and new industries. It is all too easy to forget this, particularly when we feed on the depressing daily diet of endless bailouts and hear trillions of dollars being thrown around. A great entrepreneur can do a lot with ten thousand dollars. This book is a good antidote to the depressing mood of these times.” – Sridhar Vembu, CEO of AdventNet and Zoho, Bootstrapped to over $50 million in annual revenue

“In the end, a true entrepreneur will not be denied. What Sramana captures with simple grace are the riveting personal stories of modern day business alchemists, who mix vision, pragmatism and relentless effort to forge creative new and successful ventures. Her collection of interviews will make for an engaging, educational read, for those in the entrepreneurial space, those considering joining the game and those just plain curious about the formative innovators whose efforts provide outsize social returns of the most concrete and enduring nature.” - Don Hutchison, Silicon Valley Angel Investor

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She has founded three companies, is a columnist for Forbes, and writes a business blog, Sramana Mitra on Strategy (www.sramanamitra.com). She has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Via EPR Network

Bitrix’s all new Intranet Portal 8.0 – Collaborate, Communicate and Socialize

Bitrix Inc., an enterprise 2.0 software company that develops portal solutions for businesses, announced the all new Bitrix Intranet Portal 8.0 – designed to revolutionize online collaboration.

“The new version of the product embodies the principles of Enterprise 2.0. We call them “Three Cs” – Collaboration, Communication and Corporate Culture. The perfect integration with MS Office Outlook, built-in instant messaging server, collaboration tools and personal dashboard – they all allow companies to improve business efficiency and enhance decision making.” said Sergey Rizhikov, CEO of Bitrix, Inc.

The Bitrix Intranet Portal 8.0 is a real breakthrough in Enterprise 2.0 solutions. For the first time in IT history, the unique instant messaging server, XMPP/JABBER, has been built right into an Intranet Portal. All you need is to install one of widespread clients for JABBER – Miranda IM, Trillian Pro, Adium or any other, depending on your operating system (Windows, MAC, or UNIX). Connecting through your mobile device also just got easier. Any handset will get along and all you need to do it to synchronize your handset with the portal. Once you are logged in you can see who all are online, chat with colleagues, share files with them and even set your mood status.

Two-way integration with MS Office Outlook - Bitrix Intranet Portal has complete, two-way synchronization with Microsoft Outlook contacts, calendar (appointments) and tasks. Now you don’t need to flip between screens to keep track of your meetings. You can add events to the Outlook calendar and your personal portal calendar will be automatically u p d a t e d.

Booking a meeting room - Bitrix Intranet Portal 8.0 allows you to see which rooms are available and when, streamline and manage scheduling processes in real-time, request equipment or setup services at the time of booking. It’s a dream come true for anyone who schedules meetings — and anyone who has to attend them.

Personal dashboard – Bitrix Intranet Portal 8.0 allows you to customize the layout of the main and personal user page according to your personal preferences. You can modify the look and feel of the portal page by including different columns such as events, working groups, company news and RSS-feed information about weather, traffic, etc. A few clicks and your personal portal is ready!

Proactive Protection – build in Proactive Protection Module is a robust combination of proactive filter (Web Application Firewall), disposable passwords, fast and effective anti-malware, protection of authorized sessions, activity control, intrusion log, Control Panel page access blocking by IP, Stop List and integrity control tools to defend against the majority of Internet risks.

Check out the Bitrix Intranet Portal 8.0 today with a 30 day trial offer: http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/intranet/demo.php#tab-trial-link 

You can even test a live system – just visit our virtual lab: http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/intranet/demo.php 

Bitrix Intranet Portal 8.0: http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/intranet/index.php#tab-ver8-link 

Proactive Protection Module: http://www.bitrixsoft.com/products/cms/features/proactive.php

 

About Bitrix

Bitrix, Inc. specializes in the development of content management systems and portal solutions formanaging web projects and multifunctional information systems on the Internet. Bitrix specialists, by their considerable efforts and skill, developed the Bitrix Site Manager software—a standalone application that provides complex web solutions. This software tech-corp was established in 1998 by a group of IT specialists. Bitrix continues to hold a leading position in the web development market, always offering high-standard solutions to its clients and partners.

Via EPR Network

Start-Up Weebiz.Com Launches With The Promise To Give Away 1.000.000€ To Its Most Influential Company

Weemagine, a Portuguese Web 2.0 startup, is launching Weebiz.com (its first product). Weebiz is just like a business expo, but with the utilities of a social network, where companies from all around the globe can leverage their business contacts to find opportunities and achieve success.

To promote and incentivize further networking, Weebiz is going to offer a prize of ONE MILLION Euros to its most influential company.

Registering a company and using Weebiz is free, although there are First-Class accounts that give company profiles an Authenticated badge as well as other advantages like permanent business headlines, unlimited products, etc.

All First-Class accounts will be eligible to win the 1.000.000€ challenge and the winner will be the company that uses Weebiz to its full potential (which will be determined by a score, calculated according with a formula available at Weebiz.com).

João Santos, General Manager of Weemagine, believes that “In a moment of economic uncertainty and fragility, more and more companies are finding that the internet is a platform bursting with opportunities. Web 2.0 applications and social software have proven to be highly efficient and cost-effective tools whose usefulness is nowadays unquestionable. So, in a moment when businesses must find new markets and clients, partners and alliances, new ways to promote themselves and their brands, Weebiz aims at providing them with exactly the kind of new approach to business that they need to succeed in the rough economic environment of today.”

About Weemagine:

A technology startup based in Leiria, Portugal. Weemagine is an ambitious project of a small team of enthusiastic, senior year students and recently graduates from the University of Coimbra.

Via EPR Network

LinkedIn is out pitching for a major round at the staggering $1B pre-money

The rumors across the valley are that LinkedIn is out trying to raise a new round at $1B pre-money valuation. They are using the service of the New York based secretive investment bank Allen & Co. where the Managing Director Dave Wehner seems to be engaged with the effort to help LinkedIn secure its next round of funding.

There were clearly rumors over the past months that LinkedIn was looking for potential sell out as one of the rumored suitors was News Corp., but as it often happens nowadays after you fail to sell out you are raising a new round instead at preferably huge pre-money valuation to keep your company alive until IPO and M&A markets improve. Similar deals were done by many web 2.0 start-ups from the valley and among others are Slide, Ning, Federated Media and most recently Meebo.

If those rumors turn out to be accurate it will be one of the most expensive private venture deals in recent history. So far LinkedIn is said to have taken $27.5M in total over three rounds. They have also claimed publicly they will reach anything between $70M and $100 million in revenue in 2008. Yet if this is true that they need new round before their exit it means they are barely profitable.

The latest numbers from LinkedIn are as follows: over 20M registered users worldwide, more than 1M new users get registered on their social networking site each month and the average user is said to be 41 years old making around $110,000, which the company says allows it to charge advertisers $75 per thousand impressions.

However, both Quantcast and Compete do report for no more than 4 up to 5M uniques per month to their site. 

This past January, cofounder and board chairman Reid Hoffman told the Sydney Morning Herald that the company will most likely file for an IPO before 2010 if “he isn’t first tempted to sell to one of the suitors that have inquired about buying LinkedIn. Hoffman wouldn’t identify the suitors.” This simply sounds like invitation for the suitors to sweeten their offers.

More about LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 20 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.

Through your network you can:

  • Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
  • Be found for business opportunities
  • Search for great jobs
  • Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
  • Post and distribute job listings
  • Find high-quality passive candidates
  • Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

LinkedIn is free to join. We also offer paid accounts that give you more tools for finding and reaching the right people, whether or not they are in your network.

LinkedIn participates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework and is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union. All relationships on LinkedIn are mutually confirmed, and no one appears in the LinkedIn Network without knowledge and explicit consent.

LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California and is funded by world-class investors including Sequoia Capital, Greylock, the European Founders Fund, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

More about Allen & Co

Investment bank Allen & Company has been involved in a number of high profile mergers and acquisitions in the past. Interesting for the Allen & Company is the privacy the investment firm seems to be working in as argument for which is the absence of even a basic site for the company on Web. Perhaps they don’t like publicity. Yet, we have found the firm’s contact details, which can be found among the other links on the end of the story’s page.

For Allen & Company, there’s no business like financing show business. The investment bank serves variously as investor, underwriter, and broker to some of the biggest names in entertainment, technology, and information. Viewed as something of a secret society, the firm has had a quiet hand in such hookups as Seagram (now part of Vivendi) and Universal Studios, Hasbro and Galoob Toys, and Disney and Capital Cities/ABC. The firm’s famous annual retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, attracts more moguls than a double-black ski run (Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and eBay CEO Meg Whitman have attended). Brothers Herbert and Charles Allen founded the company in 1922.

Key people and executives for Allen & Company LLC are as follows:

  • Non-Executive Chairman Donald R. (Don) Keough
  • President, CEO, and Director Herbert A. (Herb) Allen
  • Managing Director and CFO Kim M. Wieland

More

http://www.linkedin.com/
http://blog.linkedin.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2008-01-20-linkedin_N.htm
http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/05/whats-happening-at-linkedin-is-it-getting-bought/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/05/allen-co-pitching-linkedin-at-1-billion/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/linkedin
http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/allen-and-company
http://uk.techcrunch.com/2007/11/28/more-linkedinnews-corp-reports-coming-in/
http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/27/source-yes-linkedin-and-news-corp-are-working-on-a-deal
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/04/29/linkedin-prepares-lucrative-push-europe
http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/09/linkedin-launches-platform-redesign-a-better-business-social-network
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/serial-entrepreneur-with-the-golden-touch/2008/01/22/1200764231508.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
http://500hats.com/
http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/20/trends-secretive-new-york-bank-allen-co-gets-into-silicon-valley-media-tech/
http://www.hoovers.com/allen-&-company/–ID__51026–/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
http://quantcast.com/linkedin.com
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/linkedin.com?metric=uv