Kawasaki, Moritz and Graham – Fireside Chat

Fireside Chat in Silicon Valley

At Garage.com’s Revenue Bootcamp this year, Guy Kawasaki (Garage.com), Mike Moritz (Sequoia Capital) and Paul Graham (Y-Combinator) frankly discuss what it takes to make it in a Silicon Valley startup. Required watching for all aspiring entrepreneurs!

From Building 43 website: ”

Two of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture capitalists say even the best ideas can be worthless without passion.

In the concluding session of Revenue Bootcamp, two money men – Mike Moritz, Sequoia Capital and Paul Graham, Y Combinator – sat down with Guy Kawasaki, managing director, Garage Technology Ventures to discuss the realities of venture capital funding in the technology industry – and the passion needed to succeed.

The day-long Revenue Bootcamp held July 10, 2009, on the Microsoft campus in Mountain View, Calif., brought together some top-notch experts to share tips, hints, lessons and advice about how to increase traffic with Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and face-to-face meetings.

This video, “Fireside chat,” is the last in a series recorded during the one-day conference organized by Kawasaki.

InOneWeekend 2009 Ready to Launch!

The second InOneWeekend will be launched at the University of Cincinnati’s Tangemann Center, where 100 people will gather for a total entrepreneurial immersion weekend. The keynote session will kickoff with Ali Rowghani, the CFO and VP of Strategic Planning for Pixar Studios on Friday afternoon. Following the Pixar keynote, the group will begin to ideate and create the next InOneWeekend company! More than 100 people participated last year with a waiting list that was longer than the participant list.

Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the entire lifecycle of a startup in one weekend! Register here!

Garage.com hosts Revenue Bootcamp Conference

Guy Kawasaki, Founder of Garage.com

Garage Technology Ventures presents Revenue Bootcamp, a conference for entrepreneurs to energize their strategies for generating revenue. While venture and angel investment appears harder and harder to get, bootstrapping and generating revenue are ideal solutions for young companies.

The conference covers maximizing traffic, generating leads, online advertising, non-traditional monetization strategies, and raising capital. Attendees will hear from industry experts and from entrepreneurs in the trenches, including Chris Anderson, author of Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Charlene Li, author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital, and Garage’s own Guy Kawasaki.

Check out the conference at http://revenuebootcamp.garage.com/

Tim Berry’s “10 Things I Hate About Your Business Plan”

from American Express Open Forum

Tim Berry’s musing on business plans rings a lot of bells here. It truly gets to the heart of the matter — entrepreneurs are much better at creating their innovative companies than they are at crafting their plans. Preparing business plans takes a lot of work and a lot of help. Check out these 10 things and see how many hit home!

Cincinnati Innovates!

Put on your thinking caps and start creating ideas. If you have an idea that you think might just fly — submit it online to Cincinnati Innovates and you could win money to get your idea launched. CincyTech, The Haile Foundation and TaftLaw along with a host of supporting organizations have created the Greater Cincinnati Regional Innovation Competition that will start on May 1. The deadline for all entries is September 1 — so get started and start thinking!

Cincinnati Innovates

Advisory Boards – Guidance for your Biz

It’s lonely at the top — and your board of directors may not be as available or have the best perspective on testing ideas you want to present to your board of directors. John Mariotti blogs some great ideas at American Express Open Blog along with more links to download information on board of advisors.

One other way to use your board of advisors is on an ad hoc basis. While you may want to convene an advisory board meeting several times a year, most advisors welcome the occasional phone call or lunch meeting one-on-one to help you think through issues. And for the cost of a lunch, you can get some pretty good advice.

Warning: Make sure that when you ask for advice, that you take the opportunity to use it or communicate why your attempt at using it did not work. Do not make these meetings 100% update on the business. Advisors can read updates ahead of time — focus on the future and decisions that need to be made — not history!

Leveraging LinkedIn!

Guy Kawasaki writes 10 great ways to use LinkedIn to help your business. LinkedIn has become an integral part of the fabric of the business web. Over 8 million users and growing with connections growing stronger every day. Use any or all of these ideas to energize your company!

Welcome to 2009!

Happy New Year! 2008 is history, and many are happy to have it become history! The economy and the election dominated the news in the last quarter — but now we are off to a fresh start. Here’s a few newsworthy items to consider!

There are plenty of lists to consider in the New Year. Guy Kawasaki suggests Ten Tiny Things Every Small Business Owner Should Do in 2009. Click here and scroll down in the American Express OPEN Forum!

If your venture-backed company went public this year, you were part of a very small group of seven. These seven comapnies generated $551 Million in liquidity — the lowest in 5 years. Here’s a summary from the Yahoo Finance!. Read more…

The National Venture Capital Association published their Q4 2009 survey with over 400 members participating. Needless to say, the outlook is very conservative at best. Read more at NVCA Annual Survey Forecasts Challenges for Venture Industry in 2009!

The Blog “Small Business Labs” generated the list of Top Ten Small Business Trends for 2009 featuring economic, demographic and tecnology trends. Read more here!

2009 will challenge us in many ways. As Richard Currier, marketing guru at the Park City Marketing Institute,  has always said, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness!” Start innovating your way out of this recession and into success!

How to Get on Santa’s List

Guy Kawasaki, Founder of Garage.com

Think like an investor when you are raising funds! What would you like to hear from an entrepreneur when he pitches you? Guy Kawasaki blogs another winner column with the
The No-Bull-Shiitake Investor Wishlist
See if your plan and pitch will make it on his list.

Due Diligence – Your Personality is Showing

Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital

Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital Partners writes “Seeing Both Sides: VC Perspectives from a Former Entrepreneur.” In this blog on due diligence, he highlights what is truly learned during the phases of due diligence — not just the facts — but the way the entrepreneurs provide information, how they react and the essence of their true entrepreneur personality.

Entrepreneurs need to know that it is the whole package — the diligence and the interactions during due diligence that reveal all to the VC.

Click here to read the full blog…