Start-up and tech businesses expect to pay a premium for new employees
The challenge of finding quality employees in technology is not limited to Silicon Valley and the other tech hubs in the US. Our friends across the pond are facing the same problems resulting from high demand but little additional supply of qualified individuals.
If you’re looking for new tech graduates for your new tech start-up or your existing tech business then be prepared to fight hard and pay a premium, as a new study shows tech skills are in demand and salaries are on the rise.According to figures from UK job search engine Adzuna there are over 2,697 tech start-up jobs currently available in the UK, that’s up 33% in the last 6 months.
Gangnam Style Personal Finance!
If you’re a startup, the personal financial side is just as important as the health of the company. Especially if your startup has early success, it can be very tempting to show that through visual cues. However there are drawbacks with going Gangnam Style:
This dance is the hottest thing since Samsung smartphones. In the past month, it’s been on Facebook walls across the internet, all over the WSJ, and lauded by the auto-tuned voice of this generation — T-Pain. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s time you caught up with the rest of the world and take a peek. Why am I talking about a Korean music video on a personal finance blog? What in the world does this have to do with money?
Most Important Rule in VC Negotiations
Raising that first round is hard, one would hope that with the experience, the subsequent rounds would be less challenging. However, each round and additional investor brings more partners into the business with what may be different end goals and needs than the founders. Knowing that negotiations are two-way streets can help a young company avoid some of these challenges.
Negotiating with potential investors is never easy. Here’s one option you never want to take off the table. Every once in a while there is a highly public kerfuffle among Silicon Valley investors that delivers an important lesson about funding for entrepreneurs. Last week it was Y Combinator founder Paul Graham’s leaked email warning start-ups not to take lowball offers from investors—and specifically from Google Ventures.
When Kickstarter Campaigns Go Bad
Kickstarter and other crowd funding sources are becoming a more popular way to raise the necessary small initial investment for many startup products. However there are pitfalls for using normal people as investors to your company.
What happens when supporters do their part, but you can’t do yours? Here’s how to avoid upsetting your new fans.Crowdfunding site Kickstarter seems like such a great way to bankroll a business undertaking. Come up with an idea, make your pitch, and watch the money that you need to undertake your new venture come rolling in.What happens when fans do their part, but you don’t?
Conquer New Markets in 3 Steps
If you want fast growth, go beyond the comfort zone of your first customer base. Here’s how to get started. Selling to the same old customer base can be as comfortable as staying snuggled up in a nice, warm bed. But that strategy can limit your company’s potential for profit and growth. Just ask Bill Burnett, co-founder and president of Fippex, which supplies a B2B portal allowing companies to easily share files and other content with their customers…
Does Your Startup Need A Technical Co-Founder?
In today’s startup landscape, practically everything can be outsourced. But when it comes to core technical skills, more and more entrepreneurs are opting to partner with technical co-founders rather than hiring someone for an in-house position. So how do you decide what’s right for your new company?
Why VCs Are Willing To Give Hyped Startups Absurd Valuations
Why has the billion dollar valuation become trivialized in startup investing? What started Facebook down a path where it would it reach a $150 billion valuation on secondary markets before going public at a $100 billion valuation, and then sinking to a $50 billion valuation within months? We were talking about these questions with the CEO of a startup that has itself raised more than $100 million in this environment. This CEO believes the answer to these questions are in the chart below,
How to Pick the Perfect Co-founder
Some good advice, especially the bit about getting the relationship down in writing, but I disagree with the initial premise. Sometimes the problem is so big that you need more than one programmer or business person at the outset. Also, I think it is critical to select someone with whom you have a good personal relationship with. There will be screaming, hurt feelings, and late nights. You will need a friend just as often as a co-worker.
When it comes to picking a partner, you can’t just go with your gut. There are steps to choosing someone perfect for your future business.If you are thinking about starting a business, chances are you can’t do everything by yourself.Take Microsoft. Bill Gates hired his high school buddy, Paul Allen, but it looks to me like Gates decided that Allen (net worth: $14.2 billion and also a programmer, not a sales or business guy) did not have what Microsoft needed long-term.
Profiting From the Speed of Change
A great startup opportunity isn’t always something that’s brand new or never been seen before. There’s a lot of value to be created in taking something that works in one market and making it accessible to a much larger market. Smaller, more agile teams, can accomplish the transition better than large, rent-seeking organizations.
In the past, business success was all about size: The large eat the small. Today, business success is all about speed: The fast eat the slow.But when change occurs, what do most organizations tend to do? They hunker down and protect the status quo. After all, it’s human nature to protect and defend.
One Thing Every Great Entrepreneur Does
You could easily extend these points to all managers. To use a sporting analogy, great managers are point-guards, not shooting guards. Teams scale better than individuals and the manager’s job is to get all team members operating towards the common goal.
Visions, strategies, decisions—those are all important. But not as important as this.CEOs of public companies are ultimately measured by their ability to increase company earnings, profits, and stock prices. Everything else—building a corporate culture, moving into new markets, crafting bold visions—is, depending on your point of view, either a driver of earnings or a luxury you get to focus on as long as the board stays happy with the company’s valuation.
