Ownership vs access
Hi fellow founders,
Do you use and trust the productivity app Evernote? The recent Evernote update causes the author of this week's must-read article to worry. Evernote shifted its business model, and is perhaps transforming into a different product. Users are getting used to licenses and freemium models, but those models can change at the whim of the operators. We as founders should be careful not to alienate people from these models if we wish to continue using them. What would you have done if you ran Evernote?
Also read about Clinton's new policy agenda, product-market fit, SF pride, scale-up vs startup, and how raising too much money can damage your startup.
Have a nice weekend!
Must read
You should worry about this Evernote update, even if you don't use it
The recent Evernote update is a stark reminder that when using SaaS services you are essentially trusting a service with your data. You don't actually own the product, like say a paper notebook that allows you to do whatever you want to it. What would happen if for example Google decided to stop with gmail or Facebook did the same thing? Should we worry what this change represents?
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Culture
Clinton tackles tech’s biggest issues in new policy agenda
Most startups will have other things on their mind, but politics influences the success of the startup scene in several ways. In her new technology policy agenda Clinton describes how she wants to tackle tech's biggest issues. Recently graduated students will be happy that she plans to forgive student debt for starting entrepreneurs.
The real Product Market fit
Marc Andreessen describes his definition of the product market fit as follows: "The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it – or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You’re hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can." This article describes why!
Silicon Valley comes out in full force behind SF Pride
It's pride season and Silicon Valley is joining the San Fransisco pride parade with unicorns and rainbows.
Techies: Hannah Swann
“I think at the end of the day, if you’re struggling with something, or having a bad day, or wanting more overtime, I think the most important thing to always remember is you are number one, the company isn’t. It’s so important to focus on yourself and not lose yourself in the noise that is all of this stuff.”
Modern Entrepreneurship
Top 20 reasons startups fail (Infographic)
Startups fail all the time. These are the top 20 reasons why. Learn from the mistakes others made!
Weird, or just different?
We all have assumptions we didn't even know we had, and we have to realise that the opposite of them may also be true. This video describes that we cannot just assume that something that is the case for one person is also the case for another on the other side of the world. We can call that weird or just different. How do you deal with this in your startup?
Don’t mistake a scaleup for a startup
"They’re completely different animals, and they require different leadership, skills and focus."
Growth
Lead generation tactics that get the best results
With limited resources at their disposal, startups need to focus on effectiveness for their lead generation tactics. This article describes which lead generation tactics give you the best quality.
Finance
From losing money to a 51% profit margin in 5 months
Getting outside cash is expensive. Raising money from investors or banks wil come at a price. This startup decided to save money by looking at all expenses, costs and contracts and by doing so saved enough money to increase the profit margin to a healthy 51%.
Why raising too much money can harm your startup
This article describes some of the reasons why raising too much can harm your startup. But there is no right answer to how much you should raise. Fundraising is an important process, not only to validate your idea and progress since your last round, but also to grow your business when revenue alone is not enough.
Thank you
#startup is now Startup.Chat
Yeah! You have read our Curated till the very end, so here's your special FYI: We've negotiated and acquired the Startup.Chat domain. Obviously this will look great on stickers, but we're also going to re-do the entire page. If you have any feedback on the page, feel free to reply and help us make founders excited to join!
See you on the inside?