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What I learned in my first month of running a startup accelerator

One of the things I focused on is trying to make the program a lot more structured than YCombinator and modeled it around a finishing school that I always wanted.

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Microsoft Accelerator
Photo: dr-hempel-network.com

I have been the CEO of the Microsoft Accelerator for the past month. There are 11 companies as part of the batch and it has been an exciting ride. One of the things I focused on is trying to make the program a lot more structured than YCombinator and modeled it around a finishing school that I always wanted. Here are the top things I learned.

1. Dont try to change an entrepreneur’s idea. They have to come up with something they like themselves. This seems fairly trivial. There are many incubators and seed funds that believe if you dont have an idea, but are great entrepreneur material, they will “give you ideas”. That rarely works. Entrepreneurs have ownership and pride only for things they believe “they came up with on their own”. Anything borrowed (even if its a clone or knock-off idea from a US startup) is theirs. They will put more wood behind their idea than anything you ever propose.

2. Indian entrepreneurs have varied expectations from accelerators. One entrepreneur wanted “execution” help in actually doing the design (preferably a full time designer and user experience person for a few weeks to do it) and another wanted better quality food at the cafeteria. Some think the biggest value proposition of an accelerator is the “quality of the space” (i.e the physical location), while another thought the value was the other startups who would egg them to get better.

3. Regardless of what you offer, there’s always someone offering more or better, which I think is the “grass is greener on the other side syndrome”. If I had a penny for every time someone said “I have heard YCombinator founders get XYZ” or “500 startups gives more ABC”, I’d have enough money to fund all the startups for a year.

4. Indian companies need a lot more user experience and design help than any US company. I have invested in over 20+ companies in the US and about 11 here in India. Its extremely hard to find good user experience talent in India. This is a different person from someone that just does Photoshop and illustration. We interviewed 23 “highly recommended” designers and user experience professionals in India. Most were average and were still charging rates from $20 / hour to $100 / hour. No negotiation.

5. The Go-to-market challenge is largely under-appreciated in India among founders. Many need more help here than any other area, but tend to relegate the problem to “lets hire someone to do that”. Unless one founder is deeply involved in the customer development process, we largely build technology for the sake of it.

Business

40 Good Brand Name Ideas for Great Business

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Good Brand Name Ideas

Choosing the good brand name ideas can be a complicated thing. Because names are prayers. So, you should choose a nice and beautiful name to be easy to remember by customers. Besides to take any name you should not originate, you must match it with what goods or services you sell.

For those of you who are still confused about choosing your store name and looking for a suitable name. Here’s a list of store name ideas that could be your reference in naming your new store!

List of Good Brand Name Ideas for Clothing, Accessories, and Food

For those of you who have a food, beverage and other stores and so on, here are some unique and beautiful names that can be your reference in choosing a name for your store, among them the following:

  1. Glamorous Styles
  2. Fashionistars
  3. Healthy Buns
  4. Dazzling Store
  5. Green Groceries
  6. Fresh Finds
  7. Stylish Nails
  8. Finest Craft
  9. Food Frenzy
  10. Fun Pantry
  11. We Eat
  12. Food Fair
  13. Food Hut
  14. Foodie Club
  15. Buddy Beverages
  16. Funky Mart
  17. Beast Feast
  18. Crash Cuisine
  19. Choco Blast
  20. Dine Court

List of Ideas Name Shop Cake and Flowers Aesthetic

If you have a flower store or a cake store, there’s no need to worry here’s a list of ideas for the name of the cake and flower shop that could be your reference when you’re looking for a beautiful special name for your store:

  1. (Your name) Florist
  2. Sweety Bakery
  3. Bread Stations
  4. Happy Bakery
  5. Flower Aura
  6. Velvet Boutique
  7. Queens’ Cake
  8. Blissful Clothes
  9. Fresh D’Fleur
  10. Sassy Queen
  11. Batter Up
  12. Delight Doughnut
  13. Heaven Boost
  14. Top Dessert
  15. Petal The Flows
  16. Flora Essence
  17. Bless Florist
  18. Lilly Silly
  19. Violet Luv
  20. Azalea dew Florist

Why Does Our Shop Need a Good Name?

In the business world, choosing good brand name ideas is very important, because the name will reflect the survival of the store. So, choose a nice and beautiful name. But, did you know there are some underlying reasons why you should choose a shop name with a nice and aesthetic name? Here are some important reasons, namely:

As a differentiator between your owner and the other store

Choosing good brand name ideas is also a differentiator where this will distinguish your store from the other. But, make sure you’ve chosen the store name for what you’re selling.

Forms of Professionalism and Special Features

The choice of good brand name ideas is also one of the hopes to make the front shop become a lot of customers. The unique store name is also one of the characteristics and forms of professionalism.

Besides, you should also choose a suitable and bright color. We sure the store name you’re going to make not only reflects the bad business value but is also free of negative connotations so that later will give a positive effect to the coming buyers.

Build a Good Branding

Aside from selecting an excellent shop label, you must also establish a solid brand, such as acquiring customer trust, because it will allow you to connect with a larger marketing audience.

Easy to Remember

Through giving unique and memorable good brand name ideas, customers will be able to remember the business present in the middle of society. Businesses both offline and online, business names are like magical powers to strengthen brands in the middle of society. This will give a special benefit to the development of your business as more and more people will know and know your business. So this will make marketing easier later.

Final Words

In conclusion, considering the good brand name ideas also need to be careful in choosing it, not until you choose a sentence or word that has a negative meaning and it will have a negative impact on your product. 

That’s the importance of choosing a store name to look professional and memorable for customers to remember with your product. Besides, keep the confidence, quality and quantity of goods to keep customers using your products and stores.

Read Also: 10 Important Things to Have in Life for Financial Success

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Tale of 2 Media: NYTimes vs. Rest of Main Stream Media

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NYTimes vs. Rest of Main Stream Media

Businessweek has a good piece on Old media.”the story of American newspapers in the 21st century. The industry has reached a near-crisis point. Many dailies are losing circulation at an alarming rate, and local newspaper ad spending fell 3.1% last year, to $24.4 billion, while Internet advertising rose 17.3%, to $9.8 billion, according to Advertising Age.

I stand corrected. Only NYtimes is doing well and my piece on Death of Main Stream Media is not true points to one thing.

The ones that are figuring it out are going to win no doubt. There is room for that, but the other ones are going the way of San Jose Mercury News. What separates the NYTimes from the SJMercury?

1. Indepth nature of reporting: The Times really has some great “firsts” and breaking news besides having some really good in depth reporting. I have heard many folks in the Bay area talking about spending Sunday morning reading the NY Times. Not so with the Mercury (even though its a local newspaper)

2. Faster to adopt social media. The NYTimes adopted videos, podcasts, blogs way faster than anyone. I guess that points to innovation, but I think its just adapting to new (changed) circumstances.

3. In depth technology specific reporting: Look back at Techmeme. The number of times NYTimes made the list is FAR greater than SJ Mercury. Why technology? Most of the “people” who are “digital natives” are from the technology industry.

What do you think?

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10 Important Things to Have in Life for Financial Success

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Financial Success

In today’s modern life, it is very important to prepare various important things like financial success. With uncertain global economic conditions right now, there is no harm for you to start preparing your own future.

Money’s not everything but money is a very big influence on someone’s life. If you want to live comfortably then you have to be financially successful first.

The Key for Financial Success

Success can be interpreted in various ways one of most common is in terms of financial success. If you can be independent and are able to support yourself then you belong to this category.

Unfortunately, being financially successful is not easy. Apart from being smart, you have to own a few factors that make your career or business even more fluent. What are the keys to success? Here’s the list.

1. Health

Health is the main factor that you must have for financial success. You’ve certainly heard that health is something expensive, right? This is true because if you are sick then you not only have to pay for medical treatment but you also cannot work or earn an income.

It doesn’t matter if you are single, married, old or young, everyone needs good health. Maintaining health does not have to be done in an expensive way, but the results will definitely be very profitable.

2. Family

You may have had a fight with your family over some issue. Even so, family can be a support system for your life especially when it comes to financial success and emotions. Although it’s not good to be financially dependent on family, at least family can be a place to rest if you feel emotionally burnt out.

It is important to remember that family conditions are different for some people. If you feel your relationship with family starts to become unhealthy, reducing the frequency of meeting with them is always a good idea.

3. Friends and Business Networking

The more friends you have, the more relationships you have. More networks mean you can collect more information or opportunities for your career. Not only that, the opportunity to build a business is also greater if you have lots of acquaintances.

Friends can also be a place to get advice about business, financial success, etc. Even so, be careful in building relationships or friendships. Make sure you have boundaries and don’t mix personal matters with work or business.

4. Skills

To develop some skills is not an easy job because it requires a very long process. Life skills such as communication, negotiation, management, and appearing and speaking in public can give you benefits for your career and business.

In the highly competitive job right now, owning some skills will be a great help because it will open up new opportunities for financial success.

5. Discipline

There is no financial success without applying high discipline. Even though people usually underestimate it, discipline plays an important role in forming a person’s character and personality.

People who are used to being disciplined will have good time management. They will be more organized and will not like to delay work. This is a very important trait in the work field.

6. Education and Knowledge

Education plays a big part in achieving financial success. According to several studies, those who are more financially stable tend to have a good educational background. Even so, good education does not always mean you have to graduate from a well-known school but is more like the knowledge possessed.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Jim Rohn – Entrepreneur

People who are aware of the importance of education will always try to continue learning, especially learning new things like technology. Even though you have to learn from younger people because what is important is the knowledge you get.

If you want to focus on business, the ability to learn new things is a very important skill. This is because the world will always develop, so like it or not, your businesses have to innovate. Without innovation, the business you build will die and not develop.

7. Gratitude

Life does require money, but money is not everything. Therefore, you don’t have to always focus on seeking profit alone because this can make you a greedy person who doesn’t want to be grateful.

Being grateful doesn’t always mean big things, but small things must also be grateful for. One example is about financial success. You should be grateful for the big or small profits you get because you have worked hard to get them.

You will be more satisfied and more aware about the important role of the people around you if you are diligent in being grateful.

8. Dare to Take Risks

Please take a note that what is meant by being brave enough to take risks only applies if you already understand the risks and benefits. When making a decision, of course there are only 2 possibilities, which is success or failure.

Considering that both have their own consequences, before taking action it is highly recommended to seek more information or ask other people for advice in order to minimize high risks that will occur.

Never make a decision on something that you don’t understand, especially when it concerns finances and business.

9. Compassion

As previously explained, life is not always about finances or yourself. Helping other people or the environment through charity can give you a satisfaction that cannot be explained.

Helping other people does not have to be in the form of material things but you can give your knowledge, time, energy, information, and so on. One of the most popular is becoming a volunteer in various humanitarian organizations.

10. Passion

If a goal or desire is the beginning of starting something, then passion is what makes you persist. If you feel you already have passion in one field, then you just need to try hard in that field.

You need to remember that everyone has different passions so never underestimate other people. Instead of interfering with someone else’s business, it’s better for you to take care of your own passion, right?

These several important things above are assets that you must have to be successful in your career and financially. You need to remember that financial success is not only about material things but also about personal quality. So, don’t just focus on other people, focus on yourself. OK?

Read Also: United Nations States World Economy to Slowdown, What’s the Reason?




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