The goal here at ReadWriteStart over the last year or so has been to provide a place where first-time entrepreneurs and early-stage startups can find curated advice, tips and information to help them launch successful ventures. This is the nature of the entrepreneurial community; to help others that want to follow in your footsteps.
Some might say…
Last month we began a series of posts about “new logistics” with an overview of how companies can leverage Web-based tools for international marketing. These days, with the power of the Web and related technologies, logistics encompasses so much more than just moving widgets from point to A to point B. The new logistics provides sustainability…
Every now and then a product comes along – either from a startup or as a project within a larger company – that seems to meet a worthy need but just doesn’t find its legs. Sometimes great ideas are pushed on us too quickly, or are ahead of their time, and other products capitalize on this market months and years down the road. As
Mark Suster is one of those unique venture capitalists in that he has experience as an entrepreneur prior to joining the VC world (or the “dark side” as he calls it). Twice, in fact. That’s why he calls his blog “Both Sides of the Table,” because he has literally sat at both sides of the negotiating table. It’s this experience as both an…
When it comes to saving money at an early-stage startup, labor is one of the most difficult areas to penny pinch. If you care deeply about your product and your idea, it’s hard to not want to go out and hire the very best employees and contractors, but this isn’t always in the budget of a new venture.
CrowdFlower is one way startups can save…
Failure. All startups fear it. Many, at one point or another, encounter it. There’s no denying that failure is a big part of startup culture. Some of the best and brightest preach the “fail fast” methodology, wherein quickly launching and fixing small failures can help avoid “the big one.”
Whether you subscribe to this practice or not, the…
There is a lot of competition out there in startup land, and often times similar companies launch around the same time and are pitted against one another in head-to-head competition. This was the case in 2007 when personal finance startup Mint launched less than a year after competitor Wesabe. Over time, it would be Mint that would win over the…
Device convergence is happening everyday as new tech gadgets combine the functionality of previous devices into one handy solution. I first experienced this when the iPhone replaced both my previous phone and my iPod. Not having to carry both devices around all the time was a huge step forward for a music fan like myself, and now we overlook simple…
Question and answer services are the new hotness. Facebook recently rolled out the option, and ex-Facebookers founded the popular new service Quora that is dedicated to them. But one of the more fun implementations of this dynamic is Formspring.me, which lets individuals answer questions directed at them.
Many notable techies are on the…
First it was the heated angels vs. venture capitalists debate, and then the infamous “angelgate” Bin 38 meeting. These and other happenings are still the talk of the startup investment scene, and at the epicenter – a notorious gang of in-betweeners known as “super angels.”
Whether you agree with this nomenclature or prefer to call them “micro…
It has long been said that “the clothes make the man,” and if that man is on the cutting edge of technology, he’s probably an iPad owner. So what better way for the fashionable male of 2010 to properly outfit himself than by designing his own dress shirts on an iPad? This is what international startup Blank Label hopes will happen thanks to the…
There is no denying that Steve Jobs has mastered the art of the keynote, but some might say his style is getting a little old and predictable. Many of Jobs’ presentations are certain to kickoff with some statistical data overview, then launch into descriptions of new products loaded with verbiage like “magical,” and of course, “boom.” And who could…
Zoho provides businesses with wide selection of hosted enterprise productivity and collaboration solutions, including email, documents, wikis and more. The suite of applications is an alternative to Google Apps, which includes popular services like Gmail and Google Docs. Today, Zoho announced it has released tools for the Google Apps Marketplace…
Startup Weekend, an organization dedicated to the worldwide education and proliferation of entrepreneurship, has made a name for itself over the last few years with its unique weekend-long events. Over 17,000 participants have attended one of the organization’s 120+ global events, from which over 560 new startups have launched. Thanks to a grant…
These days, blogging isn’t just about sitting down at a keyboard with a cup of coffee and writing a wordy post. Blogging now also means sharing pictures, video and other media, and it means doing so at a moment’s notice from wherever you are. WordPress, the Web’s most popular content management system, has supported mobile blogging with its…
Earlier this summer we told you about the launch of Firefox Home, an iPhone app developed by Mozilla that allows users of the popular Web browser to take their bookmarks and browsing history with them on-the-go. Since a full-blown mobile Firefox client would likely be turned away by App Store reviewers, the handy app has been a decent compromise…
Y Combinator founder and master essayist Paul Graham is an indispensable source of wisdom for startups whether they read his advice online or soak it in first-hand by attending YC. Recently, however, Graham felt that many misunderstood what exactly goes on at the unique entrepreneurial breeding ground, so he “wrote something explaining that in…
Just last week, Roku, makers of popular set-top media streamers, announced the launch of its brand new line of players. With 1080p HD streaming and competitive price-tags, the new Roku players looked to lure away customers excited about Apple’s refreshed Apple TV. Now that pot has been further sweetened. Tuesday, Roku announced a partnership with…
Anyone who has lived in a crowded residential area or apartment complex knows that accessing the Internet is often as easy as logging on to an unprotected wireless network. With the growing number of Wi-Fi enabled devices, wireless connectivity has become the go-to standard for both individuals and businesses, making network management and security…
Today at the RIM (Research in Motion) developer conference, the BlackBerry makers introduced a new member to it’s family – the BlackBerry PlayBook. The PlayBook is a 7-inch “professional” touch screen tablet device which features a 1024×600 display, multi-touch gestures and a 1 GHz dual-core processor. One of the more interesting features, for fans…