February saw many new funding deals for cloud, tech, mobile, SaaS and social media. Here’s the summary of new deals for February: (continue reading…)

The revolution in mobile computing for consumers is well under way and moving faster than any technology wave before. Following right behind it is the enterprise adoption of mobile applications. (continue reading…)

What is Venture Capital? Making Sense of the Funding Process:

We regularly get questions from entrepreneur’s seeking funding about the process, stages and jargon they read and hear in the market.  Here is a quick table that will help explain “what is venture capital” and how the funding process works.  Hope it’s helpful!

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The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, when working right, is a financial analyst’s dream. (continue reading…)

If you polled 100 residents of Utah as to why they live in this state, less than 5 would say because it’s the best place in the country to start a business or build a career. San Francisco, New York, Chicago and maybe Dallas or LA are the more likely answers for that. Despite this dated perception,located in Salt Lake City has surpassed MIT as the most prolific creator of new businesses to become the top University in the country in this category. Even more recently, Forbes rated Utah as the number one state in the country for business after examining factors like business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

Then, just in the last few weeks the State of Utah revealed that it anticipates a $400 million budget surplus, yes surplus. Despite the sometimes crazy things that come out of the Utah legislature, they must be congratulated on keeping Utah’s fiscal house in order. California has some lessons to learn from Utah.

Finally, Utah has become one of the top places for launching technology businesses despite its small population. With strong talent from its Universities, a healthy and growing venture community and a lifestyle that can attract experienced management, expect to see some exciting companies coming out of Utah for the foreseeable future.

It is true that to be an entrepreneur you must have a vision for your business and be unconstrained in your thinking about what’s possible; however, one of the most overlooked ingredients for success is never forgetting what it takes to survive. Sometimes just surviving long enough for your market to come alive or to figure out the right twist in your product or message is the difference between winning big and going under. (continue reading…)

Have you noticed that just about everyone you speak with these days is a ‘serial entrepreneur?’ It’s the vogue thing to be. Like consultants in the late 80’s and venture capitalists in the late 90’s, everyone is trying to spin their story, but as before, the substance is often lacking. (continue reading…)

Today 42 Ventures announced the addition of it’s newest portfolio company, Kickanotch Mobile, a Kansas City upstart that provides a mobile software platform for broadcasters and publishers to reach and extend their audience through native mobile apps that provide new ways to engage and delight.  Download and usage rates of the applications are soaring and Kickanotch’s easy to use analytics dashboard and control panel, make it simple to understand and target users with tailored features, promotions, advertising and offers.  The company is led by a young, high-energy executive, Andy Lynn who’s passion for mobile has driven the business into the forefront of its target market in just over 1 year.  It should be exciting to follow this dynamic enterprise over the coming months and years.

The proliferation of sales and marketing applications is growing at an unprecedented pace. Because of the tremendous value these tools can bring to businesses, the fragmentation and adoption of many new channels for marketing, the lower costs of cloud-based application development and the friendly environment for starting and funding new technology ventures, this deluge of new tools all makes sense. In fact, it seems likely to continue.

While investors and entrepreneurs are focused on how their tool is different and fills a new space, small and mid-sized businesses are overwhelmed and confused. A quick review of the tools available today for online marketing alone shows that for the last 5 years there have been over 5 new tools released to the market every week. That’s 5 X 5 X 52 or approximately 1,300 tools just in marketing and sales alone.    Think about what that means to a small or mid-sized business. (continue reading…)

When you read a story about a successful entrepreneur in the media, it’s important to remember that in almost every case it is being told after the fact, after the events and after the ‘success.’  By looking backward, the writer always knows how the story ends.  They have the luxury of shaping the events to show the path to success.  The hard edges are rounded off and miss-steps seem less important.  Too often the actions the leaders could have taken that may have delivered greater success and examples of other companies that followed a similar path and failed go unreported. (continue reading…)