Monthly Archives: January 2017
Why Great Companies Fail: How to Halt the Series B Crunch
Written on January 31, 2017 at 1:51 pm, by Amanda Maestri
First, some bad news: A Series B crunch may be upon us. According to Mattermark, in the first quarter of 2016, Series B rounds dropped nearly 40 percent, the largest reduction since the 2008 market correction. Over the last 30 years, we’ve seen many successful startups accelerate from just an idea to scale in just Continue Reading »
Bruce Cleveland presents the Traction Gap at Product’s that Count
Written on January 30, 2017 at 2:44 pm, by Amanda Maestri
Before “crossing The Chasm’, startups must first successfully “traverse the Traction Gap”. The Traction Gap is a period in a startup’s lifecycle that begins just after it releases its first product and starts its first go to market activities, and ends once it has demonstrated market validation with a positive growth trajectory. First investor in Continue Reading »
Bruce Cleveland speaks at Products That Count
Written on January 25, 2017 at 12:25 pm, by Amanda Maestri
Watch the video from the event here. DATE AND TIME Wed, January 25, 2017 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PST LOCATION Yelp Headquarters 140 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105 DESCRIPTION Products That Count is a community of product managers and innovators. If you want to be the first to hear about new programs, Continue Reading »
…What I’m Feeling in Tech Part 2: VR and AR
Written on January 17, 2017 at 8:34 am, by Amanda Maestri
Last week I started writing up some views on what I’ve seen so far, and my thoughts on technology moving forward. As we know CES wasn’t as good as years past as it’s starting to blur all it’s colors to be that mushy amorphous brown that no one likes trying to appease everyone but really Continue Reading »
The Interview
Written on January 17, 2017 at 7:55 am, by Amanda Maestri
If you sit down with a number of HR executives and ask each of them which questions companies should ask candidates during the interview process to ensure they select the “best fit” person, you will likely hear a spectrum of answers. Over time, companies tend to develop their own processes and/or techniques (e.g. psychographic testing) to Continue Reading »
Bill Ericson Judges Gigaom 2017 AI start-up competition
Written on January 13, 2017 at 8:12 am, by Amanda Maestri
Bill Ericson to judge Gigaom’s 2017 AI Start-up competition at Gigaom AI 2/15-2/16 in San Francisco. Gigaom will be holding our first annual competition for the AI start-up that delivers the highest ROI to corporate customers. The GAIN competition coincides with the annual conference Gigaom AI held in San Francisco, CA, February 15-16th 2017. AI Continue Reading »
CES as a proxy to let you know what I’m feeling in tech (Part 1)
Written on January 10, 2017 at 9:18 am, by Amanda Maestri
Every January all eyes are on CES, tech’s biggest distraction of the year. I think they do it that way so they can offset the loss created by Burningman every August. As Niko Bonatsos from General Catalyst tweeted: “We can’t do any deals this week. All of our associates are at Burning Man. Who will Continue Reading »
Phyllis Whiteley to Judge UC Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Boot-camp
Written on January 6, 2017 at 2:16 pm, by Amanda Maestri
Phyllis Whiteley joins the judging panel to choose the winner out of the 3 finalist teams of the UC Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Boot-camp on Friday, January 13, 2017, 10 – 12 noon, at Banatao Auditorium in Sutardja Dai Hall on UC Berkeley campus. Participants in the boot-camp include 80+ Berkeley students (engineering, liberal Continue Reading »