Up and Running Blog
Category – Starting a Business

Starting a Business

Market Intelligence, New Product Launch

Let’s talk about the big marketing question: What market intelligence do you have in hand to ensure a successful (and prosperous) launch to the market?

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Willamette Angel Conference

Yesterday’s Willamette Angel Conference (WAC) 2013 event invested more than $465,000 in four Oregon startups, highlighted by more than $250,000 in Portland-based Sonivate, which has developed a fingertip-mounted ultrasound probe that enables imaging while leaving both hands free to do work with simultaneous tactile feedback. Three other startups got WAC investment at the event: Amorphyx, [...]

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Powerpoint alternatives for investor presentations

Roughly 95 percent of slideshow presentations are still given in PowerPoint, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t evaluate other tools. We’ll run through the top alternatives and weigh the pros and cons. Google Docs Presentations A free feature in Google Docs (Trust us, it’s there; you just never use it.) If you consider yourself a [...]

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God Bless the Child Billie Holiday

Every time I hear the old blues song “God Bless the Child” I think of startups, bootstrapping, and owning your own thing. During the last few weeks I’ve had to explain to several people hoping for angel investment that their startup wasn’t getting into the finals for our local angel investment group, the Willamette Angel [...]

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Finding the right startup mentors

Startups at all stages benefit from the wisdom of advisors. These people typically complement the management team in some meaningful way. They are not on the board, so their advice is merely guidance. Still, if a founder picks the right advisors, she will receive a wealth of benefits. Advisors can serve as: A sounding board [...]

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Should I register for a DBA

Filing for a ‘Doing Business As’ name is usually nowhere near the top of a small business owner’s to-do list. It costs money, requires you to fill out paperwork and, depending on where you do business, might mean running an announcement in a local paper for a few weeks. Many people just put it off, [...]

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Social Media as a web-presense

When starting a new company it is surprising the number of people who still don’t consider a plan for how they will be perceived online. A web-presence is the digital representation of your company and is a key factor for attracting new business.   Often your web presence will be the first point of contact with [...]

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How to market your new tech startup

In many respects, software is like a baby. It starts off with an idea, you think through whether it is worth indulging your idea, then you plan your idea, and execute. Software often has a much longer gestation period than nine months though. Once the finished product enters the world there is much joy and [...]

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I made my way from Chicago down to Augusta, Georgia to check out a practice round of this year’s golf Masters, “A Tradition Unlike Any Other”.  This April tradition, despite it’s old school rules it is the most innovative sporting event in the world.  I figure as long as I’m hanging out down here at [...]

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Entrepreneur Zack Price is guest blogging his experience on the 2013 StartupBus as it travelled from Chicago to SXSW 2013 in Austin. On StartupBus a team of strangers, traveling at 60mph, had about 72 hours to conceive, build, and launch a startup. You can catch up with Post #1 in this series here, #2 here, #3 here, #4 here, #5 here, [...]

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