Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, June 05, 2010
BTS - premier, best-in-class experiential learning, support tools and results assurance company. say what?
BTS is the global leader in accelerating strategic alignment and execution.
For more than 20 years, BTS has been partnering with clients to build organizational commitment and the capability to deliver business results.
Our superior results are driven through: Business simulations and experiential learning solutions – the most effective way to help organizations understand, align and execute; in-depth customization – tailored delivery solutions, which provide relevant business context and real practice; and a results-focused approach that tracks performance and measures business impact.
Key Business Challenges We Help Solve
Leading corporations turn to BTS when faced with the following business challenges:
- Aligning the organization from the senior leadership team through individual contributors around the company’s strategy and key performance objectives Accelerating strategy execution at the enterprise or business unit level
- Improving business and financial decision making
- Transforming sales organizations to be business accelerators
- Enabling front line execution
- Developing high potential/ next generation leaders
- Implementing a culture of innovation
- Integrating newly merged companies
- Implementing value based performance measurement systems
- Modeling complex value chains for collaborative cost elimination
 Henrik Ekelund Chief Executive Officer and President of BTS Group AB. See theLeadership page for more information. |  Stefan Brown Nacka, born 1963. CFO and vice President of BTS Group AB. |  Jonas Akerman Connecticut, born 1963. President of BTS North America. |
As seen in WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120693258747476361.html?mod=MKTW
"To make the simulation as realistic as possible, NetApp, a Sunnyvale, Calif., data-management company, hired BTS Group AB of Sweden. BTS staff spent months dissecting NetApp's business, analyzing financial statements and interviewing executives. They also reviewed a paper written by NetApp co-founder David Hitz, describing the actions he thought necessary to maintain rapid growth."
GM Creates Venture Capital Subsidiary
GM Creates Venture Capital Subsidiary
2010-06-04
- Enhances company’s ability to pursue innovative technology
- Provides a path to establish partnerships with other venture capital companies
DETROIT – General Motors today said it has established General Motors Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary designed to help the company identify and develop innovative technologies in the automotive/transportation sector.
Leading the initiative will be Jon J. Lauckner, who is named GM Vice President and President General Motors Ventures, LLC, reporting to Stephen J. Girsky, GM vice chairman Corporate Strategy and New Business Development. Lauckner’s new position is effective July 1, 2010. He was GM vice president of Global Product Planning.
“We are constantly looking for ways to deliver the best technology for our customers,” said Stephen J. Girsky, GM vice chairman Corporate Strategy and New Business Development. “Our goal is to nurture these innovative technologies to help bring them to market, and to ensure our customers have access to the best technology available.”
General Motors Ventures, LLC, has been funded with an initial investment of $100 million, and is currently exploring equity investments in a number of auto-related technologies and business models.
General Motors, one of the world's largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908. With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 205,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM is the joint global automobile partner of World Expo 2010 Shanghai along with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation Group (SAIC). More information on the new General Motors can be found at www.gm.com.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
BookRenter raises venture money -- no one remembers varsitybooks? or chegg?
The Story Behind BookRenter
Like most students, BookRenter founder Colin Barceloux was frustrated with the high cost of textbooks, paying over $500 each quarter while at Santa Clara University. To help pay for textbooks (and other necessities like beer, food, and clothes), he worked as a campus mailman, and noticed a large number of discarded textbooks around campus. There were even huge stacks of books on the bookstore's "Zero Value Table," containing books that the bookstore wouldn't buy back. To Colin, something seemed wrong with the fact that a book's value could drop from $100 to $0 in a few months.
He started to collect all these unwanted books, and sold them online to students around the country. He realized that the practice of buying a book, using it, and selling it is really just a rental, and the idea behind the company was born. After working at a few other companies, Colin teamed up with two Santa Clara engineers to start BookRenter.
We have grown tremendously since the early days of selling used books for extra beer money, but our core mission — to make education more affordable for everyone — still drives us today.
Team
Mehdi Maghsoodnia CEO
Mehdi has over 20 years of experience building great teams and operating both startups and public companies. Before BookRenter, Mehdi was SVP of products and services at CafePress where he joined the team in the early days and grew the company to over $130M in revenues. Prior to CafePress, Mehdi was SVP of products at Intellisync where they had 90% ownership of the mobile sync market before Nokia bought the company for $450M. Mehdi held a number of executive positions at other Valley companies and currently sits on the board of FaceTime, Pbworks and Fotomoto. Mehdi is also a geek at heart and did his undergraduate studies at Berkeley and his graduate studies in computer science at Stanford. Mehdi's favorite topic in college was fuzzy logic by Professor Lotfi Zadeh.
Colin Barceloux VP of Business Development and Founder
Before founding BookRenter, Colin worked at Decide Interactive, an online advertising company focused on search engine bidding, where he worked as a Technical Account Manager implementing their solution for large clients, and opening up their first U.S. office in Sunnyvale. Decide Interactive was sold to 24/7 Real Media in 2006 for $40M. Just prior to founding BookRenter, Colin worked at Google in online advertising and at 24/7 Real Media as a Marketing Manager. He has a BS in Management Information Systems and a Minor in Information Technology from Santa Clara University where he graduated with Honors in 2003. Colin resides in San Francisco and is an avid snowboarder, basketball enthusiast, mountain biker, and golfer.
Steve Sneddon VP of Operations
Steve has held a wide variety of Engineering, Management, and Business Development positions at several notable Software and Networking companies. Prior to his retirement in 2007, Steve spent 11 years at Cisco Systems, mostly as Director of Business Development in their Strategic Alliances organization. In that group, his responsibilities included second-level management of several of Cisco's largest and most complex Strategic Alliances, including Microsoft, Intel, Sun, Sony, Phillips, EMC, and other worldwide brand-name companies. Steve also "wrote the book" on Ecosystem Partnering efforts, in which Cisco partnered with multiple companies in multiple product and service segments in order to pull together large-scale Solutions for large customer deployments. Prior to Cisco, Steve was a senior contributor at Lotus Development in Cambridge MA, where he worked for 8 years. While there he was the Chief Architect for Lotus Notes, and he led various technology efforts in the SmartSuite and Lotus Notes ViP teams. Before Lotus, Steve was Manager of Networks and Communications at Symbolics, an AI Workstation spinoff from MIT's AI Lab. Steve holds a BS in Physics from MIT and MS and ScD degrees in Physiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Justin McCarthy VP of Engineering
Justin brings both creativity and rigor to his leadership of the Engineering organization. Prior to BookRenter, he has held numerous Engineering, Product, and founding roles at growing start-ups throughout Silicon Valley. Most recently, Justin served in a General Management role at the online retailer CafePress.com, where he was responsible for the vision, product, and marketing of the CafePress Groups business. While studying Computer Science at the University of Rochester, Justin created a service that would presage his future career with BookRenter: after typical weekend of feverish coding, The Book Swap launched to overnight success, drawing hundreds of textbook classified postings from across campus in the first day of operations.
Michael Geller VP of Marketing
Michael has over sixteen years leading successful high-growth, entrepreneurial, consumer-focused internet business ventures at both fledgling startups and large behemoths. Prior to joining BookRenter, Michael co-founded Homestead.com, which Intuit bought in 2006 for $170M, and was an executive at Yahoo!, serving as the Vice President of Marketing and Business Operations for the broadband and mobile businesses. Most recently, Michael served as President of Tonic, a media and ecommerce startup focused on social good. He's also held various positions at Infoseek and Grant Thornton, where he had to wear a suit every single day. Michael currently serves as an advisor to a few venture-backed start-ups, and holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BSE in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he grossly overpaid for an early edition of his favorite textbook "Modeling and Control of Robotic Manipulators", thus proving he is truly a geek at heart.
Alex Mendez Director
Alex is a founding managing director of Storm Ventures. He was an investor and CEO/Chairman of Sanera Systems (acquired by McData) and served on the McData Board of Directors until 2007. He was also an investor/Board Member of Airespace (acquired by Cisco). His investment focus is on wireless, data centers (computing & storage) and software (Web 2.0 & Enterprise). Prior to founding Storm Ventures in October 2000, Alex spent twenty-one years in high tech at ROLM, IBM, Stratacom, and Cisco, holding several executive positions, most recently as an SVP/GM at Cisco. He was part of the founding team of Stratacom which Cisco acquired in 1996. Alex holds a BSEE from Stanford University, and an MBA from Santa Clara University (he serves on the Advisory Board of the GSB).
George Ugras Director
George joined Adams Capital Management in 1999 as a General Partner, from Apax Partners, a private equity firm in New York. Prior to joining Apax Partners, George was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Co. in New York, working closely with clients in the telecommunications and media industries, on strategic and operational issues for media and technology clients. He is currently a director of several private companies.
Marc Randolph Director
Marc Randolph is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur, high tech executive, and start-up consultant. Most recently Marc was co-founder of the online DVD rental service Netflix, serving as their founding CEO, as the executive producer of their web site, and as a member of their board of directors until his retirement in 2004. Prior to founding Netflix, Marc was on the founding team of more than half a dozen other successful start-ups in the e-commerce, media, enterprise software and portable device markets – all of which went on to IPOs or other liquidity events. He currently provides advice and/or sits on the advisory boards for numerous high tech startups in the areas of product marketing, product management, and general management. Marc also provides his time, talents and financial support to numerous local and national non-profit organizations. Among others, he is involved with the community foundation of Santa Cruz County, he has spent nearly 10 years on the board of the Gateway School (three as board chair) and he currently serves on the board of the National Hydrocephalus Organization. Marc is charming, handsome and modest; and whenever possible avoids referring to himself in the third person.
Tikiman Mascot
Every college has a mascot. We've enlisted Tikiman to represent our mission to make education more affordable, and he can often be found rallying students to rent their textbooks and save tons of their hard-earned money. He is also a symbol of our undying commitment to making sure every customer feels special and is delighted by their experience by renting from BookRenter. To learn more about him, visit his Facebook Page at facebook.com/bookrenter.
Startup guest post - Netfirms: Hosting: The Start Up's Hand Up
Hosting: The Start Up's Hand Up
Why Hosting Works
The field of technology is updated so rapidly that it can be hard to keep up with the latest editions, newest gadgets, and best protection. Couple that with beginning your first technology start-up and the task can go from difficult, to overwhelming, as quickly as it takes the latest story of Lindsay Lohan to circulate. Despite the daunting loom that this may seem to impart, there is help in the form of a hosting company.
What is the worst case scenario you could be faced with? Server down-time. Down-time communicates negatively with your clients as it causes frustration and instils doubt in your ability to provide prompt, quality service. Other issues you are potentially facing are viruses, bugs, system crashes, etc. As a small business, you may not have the time or man-power to deal with these complications thoroughly. That is where a hosting company comes to your rescue.
A Good Host
There are a various assortment of hosting companies available, some of them are the big names everyone has heard of, some are less known names. Google, Microsoft, HP, and Amazon are ones people have heard of due to their pivotal technological places. In the following paragraphs Rackspace and Equinix will be discussed. Before that though, let's look at what you should expect from a hosting company:
Is the company financially stable?
Are they expanding their resources?
What kind of tech-support do they offer?
Do they provide the services they promise?
Who else uses them?
Now to explore the some of companies mentioned.
Equinix
Equinix has been around since 1998, providing service for over three-thousand customers in eleven different countries over five-hundred different networks. They provide service for customers of AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Equinix has a twenty-four hour, seven day a week support system available to its customers that provides help with installation, troubleshooting, and other issues. Pricing is flexible and competitive, set-up to be customized based on what the client is seeking. Some of the drawbacks to Equinix for US users are the monitoring services and valuable asset protection in the event of IT downtime are available only for customers in Asia and Europe.
Rackspace
Rackspace has also been in business since 1998. They provide service for over eighty-thousand customers. Their overseas expansion is on a smaller-scale, with two centers in the UK and one in Hong Kong. Rackspace boasts a high-security capability, including key-card and twenty-four hour monitoring features. A different aspect to Rackspace is there billing protocol, which is based on individual customer usage of bandwidth. Rackspace only bills clients for the bandwidth they have used (versus the popular 95% billing), based on outbound bandwidth; that means not being charged for regular maintenance. Cloud hosting is a specialty for Rackspace. This is where websites are hosted on various servers that are connected; in short, that means you pay less.
There are multiple options available for tech start up companies looking to use hosting. The benefits are well weighed in your favour.
Bio
Netfirms, Inc. is the premier provider of web hosting, domain name search and registration, e-commerce web site hosting, e-mail hosting, e-marketing services and technology solutions. Our customers include families, small home offices, established businesses, and large corporations who need reliable domain name registration and web hosting services.
Why Hosting Works
The field of technology is updated so rapidly that it can be hard to keep up with the latest editions, newest gadgets, and best protection. Couple that with beginning your first technology start-up and the task can go from difficult, to overwhelming, as quickly as it takes the latest story of Lindsay Lohan to circulate. Despite the daunting loom that this may seem to impart, there is help in the form of a hosting company.
What is the worst case scenario you could be faced with? Server down-time. Down-time communicates negatively with your clients as it causes frustration and instils doubt in your ability to provide prompt, quality service. Other issues you are potentially facing are viruses, bugs, system crashes, etc. As a small business, you may not have the time or man-power to deal with these complications thoroughly. That is where a hosting company comes to your rescue.
A Good Host
There are a various assortment of hosting companies available, some of them are the big names everyone has heard of, some are less known names. Google, Microsoft, HP, and Amazon are ones people have heard of due to their pivotal technological places. In the following paragraphs Rackspace and Equinix will be discussed. Before that though, let's look at what you should expect from a hosting company:
Is the company financially stable?
Are they expanding their resources?
What kind of tech-support do they offer?
Do they provide the services they promise?
Who else uses them?
Now to explore the some of companies mentioned.
Equinix
Equinix has been around since 1998, providing service for over three-thousand customers in eleven different countries over five-hundred different networks. They provide service for customers of AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Equinix has a twenty-four hour, seven day a week support system available to its customers that provides help with installation, troubleshooting, and other issues. Pricing is flexible and competitive, set-up to be customized based on what the client is seeking. Some of the drawbacks to Equinix for US users are the monitoring services and valuable asset protection in the event of IT downtime are available only for customers in Asia and Europe.
Rackspace
Rackspace has also been in business since 1998. They provide service for over eighty-thousand customers. Their overseas expansion is on a smaller-scale, with two centers in the UK and one in Hong Kong. Rackspace boasts a high-security capability, including key-card and twenty-four hour monitoring features. A different aspect to Rackspace is there billing protocol, which is based on individual customer usage of bandwidth. Rackspace only bills clients for the bandwidth they have used (versus the popular 95% billing), based on outbound bandwidth; that means not being charged for regular maintenance. Cloud hosting is a specialty for Rackspace. This is where websites are hosted on various servers that are connected; in short, that means you pay less.
There are multiple options available for tech start up companies looking to use hosting. The benefits are well weighed in your favour.
Bio
Netfirms, Inc. is the premier provider of web hosting, domain name search and registration, e-commerce web site hosting, e-mail hosting, e-marketing services and technology solutions. Our customers include families, small home offices, established businesses, and large corporations who need reliable domain name registration and web hosting services.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco to Hold Second Annual Global Business Plan Competition via Cisco TelePresence
Leading global early-stage venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco today announced they will jointly hold the second annual global business plan competition for students aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. The competition will leverage Cisco TelePresenceTM, which enables collaboration through a live, face-to-face video network communications experience, to allow finalists from around the world to present their business plans in real time to a joint panel of DFJ and Cisco executives based in San Jose.
The competition is designed to elicit new technology-oriented ideas from aspiring college and university student entrepreneurs around the world. Fourteen finalists will be announced on June 22, 2010. The winner, who will be announced on June 29, 2010, will receive a minimum of $250,000 seed money. The winner will also receive professional feedback and mentorship from both DFJ and Cisco.
"I could travel to over a dozen countries, visit hundreds of universities, spend months meeting with thousands of companies, but instead I get to see the best of the best during one single day via the geographic reach of the DFJ Global Network and the magic of Cisco TelePresenceTM," said Tim Draper, managing director, DFJ. "Last year we held our first global business plan competition, and we were absolutely blown away by the caliber of the teams. These are resilient, nimble, and resourceful young entrepreneurs who follow their passions and make things happen. I have been in the venture industry for 25 years, and it's entrepreneurs like these that will continue to inspire me for the next 25."
Despite recessionary market conditions during last year's competition, 15 of the 16 finalists from 2009 are still going strong. Five of them have raised more than $500,000 in financing, and one team that closed their business has spawned two new start-ups. To learn more about these DFJ riskmasters, check out "Where Are They Now?"
"We are thrilled to partner with DFJ on our second global business plan competition and look forward to hearing innovative, bold ideas from student entrepreneurs all over the world. It's an incredible journey to take in the course of only one day, and it's made possible through the power of Cisco TelePresence," said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development at Cisco. "Cisco grew from start-up roots and is excited to help cultivate the next generation of start-up companies while at the same time continuing our long-standing strategy of investing in innovation wherever we find it."
Overall, Cisco has approximately $1.4 billion in venture capital investments under management and has been an early and active investor in major markets such as the U.S., China, India, Israel, Russia and Europe. Cisco is a strategic investor in start-ups and venture funds around the world and focuses on partnering with young, innovative companies.
Finalists will be selected on various criteria including the quality of the management team, technical innovation, addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency and financial projections. Click here to find out more about the competition. DFJ has a history of exceptional successes with business plan competition winners, including DFJ-backed DirectHit (acquired by AskJeeves in 2000 for $532 million), Webline Communications (acquired by Cisco for $325 million in 1999), and EnerNOC (ENOC) (IPO in 2007).
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ") backs extraordinary entrepreneurs everywhere who set out to change the world. DFJ achieves its mission through its DFJ Global Network of Partner Funds. Together, DFJ and the Network manage over $6B and have made more than 600 investments on four continents. With a 24-year history of success across diverse sectors and market conditions, DFJ has led the way investing in emerging technologies, from the Internet and life sciences to clean energy and nanotechnology. DFJ has been proud to back over 500 companies across many sectors including such industry changing successes such as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Athenahealth (ATHN), EnerNOC (ENOC), TicketsNow (acquired by TicketMaster), Feedburner (acquired by Google), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID).
About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
The competition is designed to elicit new technology-oriented ideas from aspiring college and university student entrepreneurs around the world. Fourteen finalists will be announced on June 22, 2010. The winner, who will be announced on June 29, 2010, will receive a minimum of $250,000 seed money. The winner will also receive professional feedback and mentorship from both DFJ and Cisco.
"I could travel to over a dozen countries, visit hundreds of universities, spend months meeting with thousands of companies, but instead I get to see the best of the best during one single day via the geographic reach of the DFJ Global Network and the magic of Cisco TelePresenceTM," said Tim Draper, managing director, DFJ. "Last year we held our first global business plan competition, and we were absolutely blown away by the caliber of the teams. These are resilient, nimble, and resourceful young entrepreneurs who follow their passions and make things happen. I have been in the venture industry for 25 years, and it's entrepreneurs like these that will continue to inspire me for the next 25."
Despite recessionary market conditions during last year's competition, 15 of the 16 finalists from 2009 are still going strong. Five of them have raised more than $500,000 in financing, and one team that closed their business has spawned two new start-ups. To learn more about these DFJ riskmasters, check out "Where Are They Now?"
"We are thrilled to partner with DFJ on our second global business plan competition and look forward to hearing innovative, bold ideas from student entrepreneurs all over the world. It's an incredible journey to take in the course of only one day, and it's made possible through the power of Cisco TelePresence," said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development at Cisco. "Cisco grew from start-up roots and is excited to help cultivate the next generation of start-up companies while at the same time continuing our long-standing strategy of investing in innovation wherever we find it."
Overall, Cisco has approximately $1.4 billion in venture capital investments under management and has been an early and active investor in major markets such as the U.S., China, India, Israel, Russia and Europe. Cisco is a strategic investor in start-ups and venture funds around the world and focuses on partnering with young, innovative companies.
Finalists will be selected on various criteria including the quality of the management team, technical innovation, addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency and financial projections. Click here to find out more about the competition. DFJ has a history of exceptional successes with business plan competition winners, including DFJ-backed DirectHit (acquired by AskJeeves in 2000 for $532 million), Webline Communications (acquired by Cisco for $325 million in 1999), and EnerNOC (ENOC) (IPO in 2007).
About Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ") backs extraordinary entrepreneurs everywhere who set out to change the world. DFJ achieves its mission through its DFJ Global Network of Partner Funds. Together, DFJ and the Network manage over $6B and have made more than 600 investments on four continents. With a 24-year history of success across diverse sectors and market conditions, DFJ has led the way investing in emerging technologies, from the Internet and life sciences to clean energy and nanotechnology. DFJ has been proud to back over 500 companies across many sectors including such industry changing successes such as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture (acquired by YHOO), Athenahealth (ATHN), EnerNOC (ENOC), TicketsNow (acquired by TicketMaster), Feedburner (acquired by Google), Interwoven (IWOV), Four11 (acquired by YHOO), Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID).
About Cisco Systems
Cisco, (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, this year celebrates 25 years of technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.
Renaissance: Zipcar submits filing for $75 million IPO
"Zipcar, the world's leading provider of car sharing services in North America and the UK, filed on Tuesday with the SEC to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering. The Cambridge, MA-based company, which was founded in 2000 and booked $139 million in sales for the 12 months ended March 31st, 2010, operates in 13 major metropolitan areas and on more than 150 college campuses. Zipcar is 23% owned by Revolution Living, which was co-founded by former AOL CEO Steve Case; other shareholders include Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners and Smedvig Capital. Zipcar plans to list on the NASDAQ under the symbol ZIP. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters on the deal, for which pricing terms and timing were not disclosed."
Stella Fayman: 3 Tips to Make Sure Your Startup Doesn't Get Ripped Off By a Credit Card Processor
Guest blogger Stella Fayman from transfs.com, a comparison shopping credit card processors on:
"3 Tips to Make Sure Your Startup Doesn't Get Ripped Off By a Credit Card Processor
When startups begin accepting credit cards as payment, they are likely to sign up with PayPal without doing much research. However, as business booms and revenue from credit cards grows, it's way more cost effective to switch to a credit card processor (merchant account provider). Be wary, processors are known to be tricky and take advantage of business owners who know little about their trade. Here are some tips to make sure you don’t get ripped off:
1) No cancellation fees allowed- Make sure to read the fine print from your credit card processing contract. You may be surprised to find a cancellation fee from at least $250 to several thousand dollars. This fee is a way of guaranteeing your loyalty to the processor, regardless of your satisfaction with their service. The good news is that getting rid of this fee should not be a problem: most salespeople have the authority to waive it. To avoid this problem, talk to the salesperson and make sure the fee is waived in writing either in the contract or as an amendment. As a startup, making sure to have the no cancellation fee clause is a great hedge in case anything goes wrong.
2) Only interchange plus pricing- The bulk of the processing fee goes to Visa and Mastercard—this fee is called “interchange” and is set in stone. Interchange-plus pricing is the fairest form of pricing structure for your business, meaning that you pay the interchange fee plus a constant markup which goes to the processor as a service charge. Having this structure ensures there are no tricky fees or hidden costs, unlike tiered pricing structures.
3) Comparison shop- Research shows that the best deal can be found by http://www.transfs.com comparison shopping credit card processors--at least five. However, make sure to compare on an apples-to-apples basis, and be sure each processor knows that you are actively shopping. You can easily make your bids more competitive by leveraging the power of comparison.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about processing, I blog about credit card processing at the TransFS blog or email me at stella@transfs.com.
TransFS is a comparison shopping site for credit card processors. Similar to getting multiple plane tickets from airlines using Expedia, TransFS lets business owners compare top quality processors on an apples-to-apples basis and makes sure they get the best deal by not having any cancellation or hidden fees, and only interchange plus pricing. TransFS also launched the Credit Card Processor Directory, where business owners can rate and read reviews about processors."
Warren Lee at Canaan Partners - lessons learned on selling a startup to yahoo
"Last month, Yahoo announced that it was acquiring Associated Content, a startup in which I (via Canaan Partners) invested in July 2007 and on whose board I served. While Associated Content is the fourth of my investments to be successfully acquired in the past few years (after Arroyo/Cisco, Broadbus/Motorola, Counterpane/British Telecom), I consider it to be by far the most personally rewarding and also at times the most challenging as well. Since our initial investment less than three years ago, the team has done a superb job of executing and grown every key metric substantially.
The following are some lessons learned and random opinions from my time with Associated Content."
1) Hire a great startup lawyer from the start.
2) Make necessary personnel changes – fast. And use a search firm when needed.
3) Appreciate passionate founders and teams – they make the company.
4) Be wary of acquirers proclaiming honorable intentions.
5) Why sell now?
6) Ignore the pundits.
----------------Yahoo! to Acquire Associated Content
Extending Leadership in Content With the Addition of 380,000 Contributors
SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Associated Content Inc. This strategic move extends Yahoo's ability to provide high quality, personally relevant content for the benefit of more than 600 million users as well as tens of thousands of advertisers. As Yahoo! enhances its social, mobile, local, and media offerings, the acquisition of Associated Content reinforces the company's longstanding promise to offer the best of the Web -- by combining Associated Content's approximately 380,000 contributors who provide rich and varied content on a broad array of passion points, with Yahoo's leadership in partnering with established content brands and the award-winning team of editors and experts from Yahoo!.
"Combining our world-class editorial team with Associated Content's makes this a game-changer," said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! Inc. "Together, we'll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network. These are important aspects of building engaging consumer experiences on Yahoo!, and one of the reasons why we're one of the most visited destinations online."
"The Associated Content team and our 380,000 contributors are looking forward to joining Yahoo! and to the opportunities that being part of a global Internet brand presents," said Luke Beatty, Associated Content founder and president. "Combining our crowd sourced content with Yahoo!'s distribution, world class editorial team and online marketing leadership will accelerate our growth as we continue to leverage our best-of-breed platform to deliver high quality compelling content on more than 60,000 topics."
For advertisers, this deal will expand Yahoo! into more topic areas and real-time content generation. The combination promises to offer advertisers even more opportunities to engage groups of passionate consumers in ways they will find uniquely appealing to their interests and tastes. Having insight into user intent through its leading search products enables Yahoo! to identify topics important to advertisers and users. Yahoo! plans to use Associated Content to create content around those topics and leverage Associated Content to contribute content to existing media properties. Associated Content also provides more opportunities for Yahoo! to partner and collaborate with publishers who can help the company shape the tremendous variety of content coming in, into something bespoke and even more engaging.
While current Associated Content content is U.S.-centric, Yahoo! expects to scale the platform globally.
Associated Content was founded by Luke Beatty in Denver, Colorado, in 2004. Associated Content receives more than 16 million unique users per month (comScore) and the editorial staff reviews more than 50,000 pieces of content per month, including articles, images, audio and video.
Yahoo! expects to complete this acquisition in the third quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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