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If you are one of those people who consumes every bit of Silicon Valley management science you can find, you will be familiar with Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. If you aren’t — for some reason — his writing will be a breath of fresh air, compared to the rest.

Horowitz was a little known figure for most of his time in the Valley, until his blog, swagger, swearing, and love of hip hop made him one of the most entertaining smack talkers and truth talkers in our industry.

Here’s how he got his start:

Sarah Lacy: How did you first get involved in Silicon Valley?

Ben Horowitz: I was actually a student at Columbia in New York. I got a summer internship at Silicon Graphics, and I had no idea what ...

To maintain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced and increasingly remote world, companies must find efficient ways to educate their extended networks. Keeping remote vendors, franchisees, investors, and sales representatives up-to-date on products and services is necessary to survive in our hypercompetitive global economy.

In decades past, keeping external partners in the loop required printed training materials, on-site presentations, and travel expenses. Today, an extended enterprise learning management system (LMS) enables companies to quickly and conveniently educate team members on products, services, compliance policies, and company standards.

A Gallup report found that 74 percent of employees don’t feel engaged or informed...

Time and time again, I run into mid-continent entrepreneurs who think sales should be a personal experience. Out in Silicon Valley, I have found that a lot of startups stick to self-service platforms rather than human salespeople.

So who’s right? Well, it depends on what’s for sale and who’s buying.

METRICS MATTER: CAC AND ACV

Both approaches can work, but the key factor isn’t where your startup sits on the map. Instead, to choose the right sales strategy, take two things into account: customer acquisition cost and annual contract value.

Let’s start with CAC, or Customer Aquisition Cost, which describes the cost of acquiring a single customer. To calculate CAC, divide the cost of acquiring customers by the num...

Don’t miss out! Check out the previous chapters here:
–Chapter One
–Chapter Two
–Chapter Three
–Chapter Four
–Chapter Five

CHAPTER SIX (Bonus): Leverage Your Email Footer

In This Chapter:

• Leverage every inch of the emails you send
• Use your footer as a way to share important details

Before we bid adieu—We would love to share something that could really help you and it takes literally 15 minutes to implement, and will save you countless hours of time in the future.

Email footers are generally one of the most poorly utilized pieces of daily communication. Think about it for a second. How many emails have you sent and received? Of the received emails, how many footers have you paid attention to?

None, right?

That’s because most people eith...

When we begin working with a brand new client, they’re usually expecting for us to focus on the essentials.

Building their applications, designing the best user experience possible, focusing on their branding, messaging, etc.

That isn’t to say we don’t do this; we do this better than most, but we also focus on one other key attribute that often shocks our customers, our focus on their customer service.

Why do we do this?

Why is this important?

It’s simple.

We can build the best web apps, mobile apps, wearable apps, software and brands on the planet for our clients; but if they don’t have their customer service on-point, none of that matters.

They’ll lose users before they are even able to win them over, and they’ll destroy their brand.

Ima...

Here at Startups, we hate the term “free money.” But, it’s one that people throw around a lot when they’re talking about grants. The reason we don’t call small business grants “free money” is because they take a lot of work to get. And there’s a lot of competition, so oftentimes that work doesn’t even result in a payday. Sure, you don’t have to pay back a small business grant the way you do a business loan — but it’s certainly not “free money.”

However, we also understand that small business grants can really boost a startup, if they qualify. And it’s not like other forms of startup funding — like venture capital, angel investment, and even crowdfunding — don’t also take a lot of time and effort. So we thought we’d throw together some reso...

Got questions? Ask thousands of world class expert mentors from Clarity.fm!

Once you’ve selected a target audience how do you value market size?

 

Let’s say I have defined a target audience for my startup, defined a clear problem to be solved and the type of customer I want. How do I go from there to calculate the market size? Are there any good free tools out there for entrepreneurs and investors to figure out the monetary size of the market or to estimate the number of potential users?

Serena De Maio, Brand Builder, Marketing Strategist, & Entrepreneur, answered:

Let’s take the example of Uber, shall we? You have defined the following target group: 30-40 who use taxis but that are dissatisfied with the current ...

In late 2013, I felt a strong calling to help build a tech company. That urge to create connected communities through empowerment became my life’s mission.

Those ambitions were the inspiration for my startup, Feel Free. The company was designed to bring people together through technology. I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into making Feel Free a success.

When I founded the company, I never thought I would one day decide to give up my equity and walk away from my passion project.

Startup Success

Feel Free was intended to foster physical spaces where people could connect and collaborate. We wanted to create designated areas in coffee shops and co-working spaces that would encourage face-to-face interactions.

Visitors would use our app to au...

When it comes to small business loans, you have two options: private and government loans. While private lenders may be reluctant to take a risk on a new business or startup, government business loans were created specifically to boost small business in the United States.

As a result, you might find that it’s easier to secure a small business loan from the government than it is to secure one from a private lender.

Most government business loans are managed through the Small Business Association (SBA), which partners with lending institutions that actually distribute the money.

Because the loan is backed by the government — meaning if you default, the government pays of the balance — banks and credit unions are more likely to take a ...

Leading a startup company is nothing like leading a big, established company. Startups are focused foremost on survival, while big companies direct their efforts toward growth or in the worst case, slowing decline.

Startup founders don’t get the luxury of looking too far down the road.

It’s natural that many entrepreneurs start companies with a task list that looks a lot like it did at their old job. After all, they’re likely coming from an established career in a big company. Big companies (usually) have the critical infrastructure in place and as inefficient as they may be, workers are free to look much farther down the road.

Startup founders don’t get the luxury of looking too far down the road. They don’t get to spend inordinate amounts...