As 2012 comes to an end, I thought I'd put together a 'best of' list of VC Cafe's stories throughout the year. It seems like 2012 was the year of throwing spaghetti on the wall by founders and investors alike, in the hopes that some of it would stick. It was nevertheless, an extremely productive year, packed with content and news.
There are however, many clever ways to acquire users in the early stages, when your startup has no brand recognition. In the post, "Introduction to Growth Hacking for startups" we went through the basics of these techniques. Below are a few examples of startups that use Growth Hacking to get their word out and bring new users to their service.
Nearly 100,000 new developers created applications this year for the App Store, which rakes in 4x more revenue than Google Play. With the number of App Store applications now topping 1 million, application discovery platform Appsfire has released a fascinating end of year infographic about the App Store.
Make learning and development a key resolution in 2013. If you're a startup, you are by definition competing with the smartest people in the world - either large companies or fellow entrepreneurs who are hoping to disrupt large companies. Your skills can both enrich you and increase the chance of serendipity, the "magic" moment when seemingly unrelated concepts form an orignal thought in your head.
This was just too good not to share. In a nutshell, start by talking to customers. Come up with a minimum viable product and test product market fit. Avoid building junk that users aren't asking for. Did you find something that is repeatable and scalable in your tests? now it's time to find a business model that captures the value for the product or service you are providing to customers.
Today I had the chance to join my talented colleague Ido Green on GDL-IL (Google Developers Live) focused on what Google's Campus London and newly announced Campus Tel Aviv have to offer for entrepreneurs.
UK's Prime Minister David Cameron has announced the appointment of Saul Klein to UK Tech Envoy to Israel. Mr Klein will promote the growing UK-Israel tech partnership between the two countries, working with the recently established UK Israel Tech Hub and UK Israel Tech Council. He will lead UK tech missions to Israel, bring Israeli start-ups to Britain, and host tech events in both countries; helping UK tech business to compete and thrive in the global race.
I'm thrilled to share the news that today, 9 months after the launch of our beloved Campus London, Google announced the launch of Campus Tel Aviv, a floor in the new Google Tel Aviv office, dedicated to entrepreneurs, developers and startups.
There is no doubt that mobile devices are transforming healthcare.
It would not surprise me if you had recently stumbled across the term "collaborative consumption" while roaming the World Wide Web. The Peer-to-peer movement seems to be making waves of technological revolution, harnessing the power of local communities in ways and in a scale never before possible.
Back in May this year, the Kauffman Foundation published a very interesting paper titled “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY… AND HE IS US” - Lessons from Twenty Years of the Kauffman Foundation’s Investments in Venture Capital Funds and The Triumph of Hope over Experience.
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