Author: jeromekatz
Before they were famous. 15 startup pivot to fame –
1. Pinterest began as a mobile shopping app called Tote
2. Android pivoted out of being an operating system for cameras
3. Flickr was an online role-playing game as Ludicorp
4. Groupon began as a consumer activist site called The Point
5. Instagram was a copy of Foursquare called Burbn
6. Nokia started out as a wood pulp mill
7. PayPal originated as a way to exchange money via Palm Pilots
8. Rovio made 51 games before Angry Birds.
9. Shopify started as the founders needed an online shopping cart for their snowboard business
10. Slack was an ICQ tool for a startup called Tiny Speck
11. Twitter came out of a failed podcasting business called Odeo
12. Turntable fm was a mobile bar code-scanning startup Stickybits
13. Woot began in 2004 as a way for Matt Ruttledge’s 12-year-old wholesale electronics distributor to clear out unsold inventory
14. Yelp began as an automated system for emailing recommendation requests to friends.
15. YouTube began as a video dating site called Tune In Hook Up
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St. Louis Character: How serial entrepreneur Mike Golomb became the king of ugly Christmas sweaters – St. Louis Business Journal
SLU Entrepreneurship MBA alum Mike Golomb gets profiled.
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Knockin’ on the Bank’s Door: Why is Self-Employment Going Down? by Alina Malkova :: SSRN
This study analyzes a decline in the ability to obtain financing as a potential explanation for the observed decrease in the U.S. self-employment. The shrinking of the U.S. bank branch network since 2010 and the increased average borrower-lender distance reduce the accessibility of credit institutions for borrowers. To evaluate the impact of the CMA on entry into self-employment, I disaggregate the self-employed into two categories: entrepreneurs whose businesses depend on business loans (incorporated self-employed) and other self-employed (unincorporated self-employed). Using a novel data source (the Community Advantage Panel Survey database), I find that the proximity of credit market institutions has heterogeneous effects on the transition to self-employment. An improvement in the CMA increases the likelihood of transition to incorporated self-employment. But for the unincorporated self-employed, the effect is the opposite: the probability of transition to unincorporated self-employment decreases, and workers of this type are more likely to switch to paid employment to be able to receive non-business related loans. The paper discusses the implications of these results for different policies.
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Investible founding startup teams for fundraising
Believes in shared core values and “complementary skill sets” to lead to team success. (Look for it in the slides).
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Opportunity Heuristics | Neal Cabage
Neal has great visualization skills. Here it is a pentagon for opportunities. He has a triad circle model for business model archetypes and a matrix for product competencies.
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Invest in Lost Spirits Distillery: Meet the “Willy Wonka” of Booze. – Playboy Magazine. | Wefunder
From 2010 – 2017 Lost Spirits was a top 5 craft distillery with a fiercely loyal cult following. Bottles regularly went into the hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars each at auction. In 2017 we opened a new kind of distillery concept in Los Angeles. One that combined our love for experiential entertainment with our love of science, and fine spirits. The LA distillery complex is now home to a fine dining restaurant, an elaborate series of tasting rooms, and an industry leading organic chemistry lab. The distillery itself incorporates a dazzling and whimsical show with everything from holograms to roving victorian gardens and submarines.
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Due diligence template request list for startup fundraising from investors | by Alexander Jarvis | Medium
Due diligence overview. Links to a template. best feature is advice to entrepreneurs on how to prepare for due diligence. From Alexander Jarvis.
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Watch: Reporter caught not wearing pants during live broadcast – UPI.com
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Gretchen Goldman’s CNN interview, in which, just off camera, she did not change into pants.
That well-lit, tasteful room she was speaking from was strewn with toys, her computer camera balanced on a chair. Goldman’s husband snapped a picture of the scene, and the next day she posted it on Twitter, side by side with a screenshot of her CNN appearance. “Just so I’m being honest,”
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The Value of Mistakes – YouTube
Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop and CEO of Clark-Fox Family Foundation, reflects on how questions make you sharper and that it is ok to make mistakes.
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Jerome Katz's Entrepreneurship Blog 