![[SLIDESHARE] Chicago's Exploding Startup Ecosystem](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhorV7f3RabrdaxqEyRK1RWd9s7Ck5Tv6LKekgLt5ONaaFjHTSv_Y8YFeBxzKo5l8DROVIsn6CPNXqWbU97oB3RP097NuXEMmeP8FbF7aIfAAQt2UreYtz77BflOrpa2BWaCqlnt5Ebf-Sk/s1000/blog-chicago+ecosystem.jpg "[SLIDESHARE] Chicago's Exploding Startup Ecosystem")
![[VIDEO] Tips for Eliminating 'Friction' in Your Customer Journey](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY7fVtNQDeJCbkOXb7wD1HX5LE0XaxAqmAdSI4J7RJ_9qdgj04zvZRa9IdJvXHtK-XQKKMi3E3sMEyAq_Ev-ycckB6lNMA9czMhDpjb0TdMYDTfYhg44jgHnEjt-tukzAa3gkckdwp0N8eWltcDooxVqNVYjelItYHUT5kYrURWLKOxv578z-OKQvQSt6J/s1000/asbn%202.24.25.png "[VIDEO] Tips for Eliminating 'Friction' in Your Customer Journey")
![[VIDEO] Strategies for Creating Successful Sales & Marketing Plans](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLmKa8BDaS7xH0K4fqJO8DFzC3y_56PEqAHwFmf9pwS5_dlGtj12sD-zds18kWyP9XnfEbjSbB4kyRQ-Kot9cn0-omuLecHkqTeQvcW2kKOPSVDAGDBGELvst-qYiPD2O44vWuXvR30db6rKNH65S5tirqodmwYUmvfCGjMQB7ptjuvov_RVLdFYej8fhU/s1000/asbn%201.31.25.png "[VIDEO] Strategies for Creating Successful Sales & Marketing Plans")
![[VIDEO] How Strategic Partnerships Can Propel Your Business](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1vagRPuaQOJuPWvxMJbHdyXTzxg2hWCoRXs2VB_ZXcdx6MgryHfNlFI7K-o9yVaJj6aMPvaUgfepzTjGZCG_BxCDoAC6-6fwW6iC697fikB9ajytTC6aqGMzAIsUyakNYhR5QQF1DkkAWmBpvx4qP7gLFfwIizXYKR57_Y-ZFBqF1P8868XtvDYtL0z5Y/s1000/asbn%2010.4.24.png "[VIDEO] How Strategic Partnerships Can Propel Your Business")
Monday, December 30, 2013
How to Start a Business in 8 Key Steps
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/30/2013For those of you who have not already started a business, or are trying to figure out how best to start your business, this post will help y...
Monday, December 23, 2013
Lesson #161: Create an "Everyone Sells" Culture
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/23/2013The common fault in the thinking of many entrepreneurs is that revenues will only be driven by the sales team, and the sales team alone....
Thursday, December 19, 2013
[NEWS] Nominations Now Open for the 2014 @Techweek 100
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/19/2013In case you want to nominate any key individuals in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles for the 2014 Techweek 100 lists in each of those cities...
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Is Entrepreneurship Learned, or Wired Into Your DNA?
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/18/2013The age-old question of whether or not good entrepreneurs are born that way, or if such entrepreneurial skill sets can be learned continues ...
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Avoid the "Death Zone" of Venture Capital
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/17/2013Do you have revenues of $5-$10MM and profits under $3MM a year? Are you a company looking to raise outside capital for the first time? If ...
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Top Digital Trends for 2014
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/11/2013The other day, my colleagues at Ensemble , the digital services alliance, were doing our planning for next year. We were discussing the key...
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Red Rocket's Best Startups of 2013
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/10/2013Red Rocket gets introduced to a couple hundred startups each year, in the normal course of doing business, or via our involvement with F...
Friday, December 6, 2013
Business Lessons from NBC's "The Sound of Music Live"
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/06/2013Last night was NBC's live production of "The Sound of Music", one of my favorite musicals. I thought there were a couple inte...
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
How to Model a 10x Return for Investors--The Bare Minimum to Get Their Attention
Posted By: George Deeb - 12/03/2013Most entrepreneurs simply approach venture capitalists asking for money “hat in hand”, without educating the investor on how the investor wi...
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Make Sure to Research Before Choosing Crowdfunding
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/27/2013As a quick history lesson, before the JOBS ACT was passed in 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission limited private company investment...
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Top 4 Traits VC's Desire in Startup Founders
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/26/2013Having a great, defensible business idea in a scalable market is only part of the puzzle to attracting venture capital. A more important pa...
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
How to Calculate Equity Split Between Co-Founders in a Startup
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/20/2013There are a lot of variables that go into calculating a fair equity split for a startup team. These key factors must consider each employee’...
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
What Type of Entrepreneur Are You?
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/19/2013The other day I read an interesting book called Entrepreneurial DNA , by Joe Abraham, the founder of BOSI Global, an operating partner to ve...
Chicago's Startup Scene Is On Fire
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/19/2013When I started iExplore in 1999, Chicago was jokingly referred to as a “flyover city”, as the big venture funds in Boston or Silicon Val...
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Try to Kill Your Startup, Before You Start
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/13/2013Earlier this year, I was sitting on a venture capital panel with Joe Dwyer of OCA Ventures, who made a very interesting comment. He was cou...
Monday, November 11, 2013
Lesson #160: Don't Be Overly Infatuated With Your Own Startup Idea
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/11/2013Back in Lesson #50, we talked about the importance of being passionate about what you are building at your startup . And, that passion ...
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
If You Build It, They May Not Come. Budget Ahead for Startup Marketing.
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/06/2013I am not sure how many of you remember the 1989 film, Field of Dreams , starring Kevin Costner, who plays a farmer who builds a baseball fie...
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Why Startups Run Out of Money Too Fast--And How Excubators Solve The Problem
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/05/2013Over the last five years, Red Rocket Ventures has consulted or mentored more than 500 startups -- nearly all of them suffering from the same...
Monday, November 4, 2013
[NEWS] Red Rocket's "101 Startup Lessons"--Now a Downloadable eBook
Posted By: George Deeb - 11/04/2013Red Rocket started writing its " 101 Startup Lessons--An Entrepreneur's Handbook " back in March 2011. Over two yea...
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
3.5BN People Online by 2017--Think Globally ASAP
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/30/2013Earlier this year, Cisco forecasted how large the world’s Internet-using population would be by the year 2017. The data was quite staggeri...
Monday, October 28, 2013
[NEWS] Join Red Rocket at the 4th Annual Entrepreneurial Bash--Save 30%
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/28/2013Red Rocket is a sponsor of the 4th Annual Entrepreneurial Bash , presented by the Association for Corporate Growth . The Entrepreneurship B...
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
The Top 4 Reasons VC's Bias Technology Startups
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/23/2013I have had hundreds of startups reach out to me at Red Rocket looking for fund raising assistance. Most with hungry, passionate entrepreneu...
Monday, October 21, 2013
Lesson #159: Never Stop Recruiting (Even If No Current Openings)
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/21/2013Back in Lesson #106, we talked about the importance succession planning for all positions within your company. But, in the event you ...
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Out With MBA's--In With Masters in Entrepreneurship
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/16/2013Back when I was in college (a 1991 graduate), an MBA was a heavily coveted degree. The best business schools were heavily demanded, and gra...
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Lesson #158: Understand Your Brand Positioning (An Al Jazeera Case Study)
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/15/2013Back in January 2013, Al Jazeera, the Qatar based news agency, announced the launch of Al Jazeera America , a new U.S. based news agenc...
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Comparing 'Shark Tank' to Venture Capital Reality
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/09/2013I am sure many of you have watched an episode of Shark Tank on ABC. The show allows a startup entrepreneur to pitch their idea to a panel ...
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Lesson #157: Consider Sharing Part-Time Executives Between Startups
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/08/2013The cost of a proven C-Level executive inside a startup can be around $250,000 per person. When adding together a CEO, CMO, COO, CFO an...
Thursday, October 3, 2013
The Excubator--A New Type of Startup Incubator
Posted By: George Deeb - 10/03/2013Incubators/accelerators are starting to play a key role in the development of startup ecosystems throughout the U.S. and world. According to...
Monday, September 30, 2013
Lesson #156: How to Find a Co-Founder for Your Startup
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/30/2013Often times, a startup entrepreneur has a good business idea, but doesn't know how to build the product. Or, the entrepreneur has de...
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Startup Survey--Looking For Tech Startups With a Couple Years of History
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/25/2013Ensemble is working on better understanding what makes startups successful, by comparing various tactics used between those businesses and ...
New York or Chicago for Startups? MentorMob Compares Both.
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/25/2013MentorMob is a rapidly growing startup in the B2C education technology space. The company was founded in Chicago in 2010, and was one of t...
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
A Blueprint for Startups--Try to Kill It Before It Starts
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/24/2013Starting a business for the first time is one of the most rewarding, challenging, exhilarating and scary journeys an entrepreneur will face ...
Monday, September 23, 2013
The Unlucky 13 Reasons Startups Fail
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/23/2013As the Managing Partner at Red Rocket Ventures , I have had exposure to over 500 startups in the last few years. I have seen really good st...
Lesson #155: Best E-commerce Platforms for Small Business
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/23/2013Choosing an e-commerce platform for your online store can be a daunting experience. There are many providers new, old, and truly tested,...
Monday, September 16, 2013
Lesson #154: Entrepreneurial Lessons from "Breaking Bad"
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/16/2013Breaking Bad on AMC is one of my favorite television shows of all time. With the series ending this month, I figured I would honor th...
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Lesson #153: Healthcare Benefits Decisions for Startups (Post Obamacare)
Posted By: George Deeb - 9/10/2013With the passing of the Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as Obamacare) in 2010, many of the business impacts of that law are st...
Popular (All Time)
Popular (30) Days
Tags
