startup | Fast Company

WalmartLabs Brings "Two Pizza Teams," Startup Culture To Walmart Empire

BY Nidhi SubbaramanMon Jan 30, 2012

Nine months after being gobbled up by Walmart, the company formerly known as Kosmix is leading the retail behemoth's innovative efforts in mobile and online retail. "We've been given a lot of flexibility… and been empowered," cofounder Anand Rajaraman tells us. READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

In Social Business, Pay Sales Teams Less And Customer Service More

BY Francine HardawayMon Jan 23, 2012

If we prioritize business growth, we are almost always prioritizing transactions rather than relationships. We compensate sales teams much more highly than we compensate customer service or marketing teams. This is wrong. Anyone can bring in a customer once--but what does it take to keep that customer and unlock his value?READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

Marketing Emergency: Nobody's Making Content Worth Reading

BY Francine HardawayTue Jan 17, 2012

  There are better things to do with time and money than produce content no one will read or see. "Content marketing" is king, but not if you create the wrong content, or bad content.   READ»

ENTREPRENEURSHIP | Comment

10 Brand-Building Steps For Beginners

BY Francine HardawayTue Jan 3, 2012

Your resolution for 2012 is to finally get into social media. Here are 10 tips for reluctant beginners to blaze a branding trail.READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

What Causes Silicon Valley Envy--And How To Fix It

BY Francine HardawayMon Dec 19, 2011

From Santiago to Seoul, Shanghai to Sao Paolo, there are startup outposts and events for entrepreneurs connected through social media and best practices. And everywhere it is the same: smart, wonderful people with good ideas and a massive case of Silicon Valley envy. What’s missing in these cities that causes local entrepreneurs to feel so inferior?READ»

BUSINESS | Comment

Startup Favo.rs Does What LinkedIn Should Be Doing

BY JD RuckerSat Dec 10, 2011

We've seen sites in the past blaze a trail in a niche only to be usurped by a slightly better concept. That's one of the unstated goals of Favo.rs, a startup that hopes to take the professional relationships model of LinkedIn and put some weight behind the connections.READ»

DESIGN-A-DRINK | Comment

Flavor Saviors uFlavor Refresh The Beverage Business With Billions Of Tastes, On Demand

BY Kit EatonFri Dec 9, 2011

If you could design your own flavored beverage online, then click to have it "printed out," would you? How about if you could share it and earn a part of the profits? Welcome to uFlavor's app-like drinkable future.READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

Le Web Highlights Shifts In Global Startup Culture

BY Francine HardawayThu Dec 8, 2011

Startup culture is increasingly moving from the U.S. and the U.K. to the developing world. Nothing is a better example of this new cultural universality than Le Web, this week's tech conference in Paris, where 3,500 people from 60 countries have come to see each other and worship at the altar of innovation.READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

Is Daily Deals Dashboard Frugalo The Cure For Groupon Fatigue?

BY JD RuckerWed Nov 30, 2011

Daily deals dashboard Frugalo launched this week, providing a central hub for shoppers to consolidate their deal hunting and reduce the barrage of notifications they receive from all of the sites.READ»

TECHNOLOGY | Comment

"We Want To Be The Pandora Of Learning"

BY David ZaxMon Oct 31, 2011

So says the co-founder of MentorMob, which turns educational content on the web into step-by-step "playlists."READ»

INNOVATION | Comment

Road Trip! Founders Of YouTube, LinkedIn, And Others Tackle Brain Drain In Malaysia

BY Lydia DishmanFri Oct 28, 2011

StartupMalaysia.org brought Silicon Valley ideas to the tropical shores to encourage entrepreneurship--and hear a little local hip-hop.READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

Your Tech Startup Has Launched; Now It's About Staying Afloat

BY Francine HardawayMon Oct 24, 2011

We are approaching the end of a cycle in the tech community, with a more Darwinian time ahead. Companies that have grown fat on investor money are less well-equipped to sell products; in a way, you're fortunate if you haven't been funded, because you probably have customers. Now is the time to appraise your business model and perhaps accelerate your customer development. READ»

STARTUP

Want To Know More About Bruce Nussbaum's Creative Capitalism? Read On

BY Bruce NussbaumTue Oct 11, 2011

As I wrote earlier, design’s decisive turn away from old business to the new startup model may be one of those rare inflection points that determines historic trajectories. It comes at a moment when there is enormous dissatisfaction ... READ»

MANAGEMENT | Comment

Bill Nguyen: The Boy In The Bubble

BY Danielle SacksMon Oct 3, 2011

Bill Nguyen launches startups with haste, never researches the competition, and makes the same mistakes "again and again." So why do people keep giving him so much money?READ»

DESIGN | Comment

LaunchRock: A Startup That Helps Other Startups Hype Themselves

BY Christina ChaeyMon Oct 3, 2011

LaunchRock helps startups lure thousands of users--before they even debut.READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

The Startup As Celebrity

BY Prasad ThammineniMon Sep 12, 2011

Tech startups are getting the high-gloss treatment lately as Hollywood celebs flock to invest in them and entrepreneurs become celebrities themselves. This glamorization--though it's causing people to cry "bubble"--isn't necessarily all bad. READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

Overcoming Corporate Culture Challenges When Your Company Spans The Globe

BY Francine HardawayThu Sep 8, 2011

How do you build a corporate culture when your staff is spread out between India and the U.S., headquartered in San Francisco with employees also scattered through places like Phoenix or Hawaii?READ»

LIFE IN BETA | Comment

Why America is "Bleeding Competitiveness"

BY Anya KamenetzWed Sep 7, 2011

For more on outsourcing, competitiveness, and education, read this month's Life in Beta column.In the face of a likely double-dip recession, there's a lot of free-floating anxiety about American competitiveness. As both a tech ...READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

3 Marketing Tools For People With No Time

BY Francine HardawaySat Aug 20, 2011

Small businesses are not typically early adopters of web services, but there are so many time-sucking tasks they must do. Scheduling tweets used to be laborious. So did finding the right people to follow on Twitter. So did scheduling lunches. All these small problems add up for a person with limited time. It’s a real relief to have them automated; here's how to get started.READ»

LEADERSHIP | Comment

Smaller Businesses Have The Edge When It Comes To Social Media

BY Francine HardawayWed Aug 3, 2011

When it comes to social media and engaging customers, the advantage is on the side of the small, the new, the nimble. Large organizations must break down silos, invent new processes, and protect against employees not close enough to the company's vision to embody it. But the little guys can trot out the whole team to meet customers wherever they are, whether it's online or on the road. READ»