Startup & Entrepreneurship
News, opinions and advice on starting and building companies.
Why shake-up Twitter’s management team? #makemoney
Earlier this month, Twitter announced a shake-up at the top. CEO and co-founder Evan Williams stepped down and was replaced by COO Richard Costolo. Trouble in tweet-land? If it wants to reach its goal one billion users (and actually make some coin), things will need to change.
How a branding business became a condom company, in 10 days
Sebastien's plan was to present that model to the likes of Donald Trump and convince him to donate a portable shelter every time he builds a condo (for placement in areas struck by natural disasters). And convince Richard Branson to donate a flight to Doctors Without Borders every time a First Class ticket is sold. But like any entrepreneurial adventure, the universe had different ideas.
If you owned Anthill (the business), how would you make it more profitable (quickly)
Last week, Anthill was the victim of a theft. The loss was felt immediately, not simply due to its effect on morale but also because the loss involved some important documents and many human hours of productivity. Now, there are two things that we can do: (1) Sulk; or, (2) Devise a way to turn a positive into a negative.
What is the Groupon-model and why is it relevant to your business?
In business circles, Groupon will, for a long time, be known as the Chicago-based startup that scored itself a $1.35 billion valuation within a year of launch. For the rest of the world, it is a website that harnesses collective buying to get consumers cheap products and services. But for ambitious startups, the model could also be employed to sell their own goods and services (and never buy advertising again).
What’s the most important entrepreneurship lesson you have ever learnt? Here’s mine.
I'm often asked, 'What's the most important piece of advice you can give new business owners?' After much thought, factoring in seven years of interviews and coffee meetings with hundreds of entrepreneurs, from single person operations to international masters of the game, such as Bill Gates and James Dyson, and having built my own business over this time, there is one piece of advice that trumps all others.
Your chance to tell the NSW Government what you really think.
This question was presented with an offer to voice my views and suggestions at the next SBDC board meeting on Thursday 21 September. Now, as many Anthill readers probably know, I'm not based in NSW. So, I don't feel qualified to answer. But I do know that close to 40% of Anthill readers do live in NSW. As such, I'm turning the question to you. If you have a suggestion for the SBDC, this is your chance to tell the PTBs (powers-that-be) what you think.
Registration now open for 2011 Angels Conference
"Angels without Borders" will be the theme for the upcoming conference, which will feature an international guestlist of speakers and participants. Early-bird registration includes choice of accommodation and closes 26 November.
ASSOB’s five-million-dollar resurrection a positive sign for capital seekers
The Australian Small Scale Offerings Board, the National Stock Exchange's largest capital-raising platform for showcasing unlisted companies for investors, posted a $186,000 profit for the fiscal year ended June 30, coming from a loss of $4.8 million the year previously.
Debt-hole Surfers. Let’s rat ’em out!
They surf the cusp of legality and debt recovery. They know that what they do is illegal but they are happy in the knowledge that the cost versus benefit of chasing them is too high. They know too that these same things will keep them off debt registers. What do you do to rat out the rats?
Who is Sebastien International? (Other than some bloke with a comfy couch in Chatswood)
The motivation behind last month's 'casting-call' is now no longer quite so mysterious. It seems that Anthill blogger Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin has been chosen to take part in an online marketing campaign that will see him circuit the globe and follow his plans to create the world's smallest multi-national.
What your business can learn from computer games
I've been trying to work up a new equation. Could it be that business models that demand a certain (albeit tiny) amount of exertion from the customer, in return for a proportionate (or slightly greater) and guaranteed reward, are more likely to build brand loyalty than those which provide a solution that's seemingly effortless to achieve?
British born entrepreneurs wanted for TV series
It seems that Anthill has, somehow, gained a reputation as a fertile source of Australian entrepreneurs with TV appeal, much to our bemusement. You could say that we've unintentionally found ourselves with the role of Australia's casting couch for the entrepreneurial community (without the traditional perks).
How to get the clothes off your employees
What happens when a clothing swap takes up shop in your company's break room? The Clothing Exchange, a five-year-old Melbourne-based company, is selling the idea by promoting swaps in corporate environments. And while the concept itself may not be revolutionary, it could give employees a creative outlet for expanding their fashion and social consciences.
Just what is crowdsourcing anyway?
When I first heard the term, crowdsourcing seemed to be just another in a long line of combined words the technology industry just love to smugly smush together because they adore acknowledging their own intelligence. I might sound bitter. And you would too if your professional life was governed by editors who happily employ bat-wielding goons to work anyone over if caught attempting such invention.
Re-design someone else’s website with Stylebot
Have you ever thought about turning over the design of your website -- your precious digital home -- to the great unwashed? A a new Chrome extension was launched yesterday that allows visitors to access and modify the CSS for any web page (not just their own) from within the browser.
Checkmates: Couple’s chess club and bar idea wins angel grant
A few months ago, when her partner was having trouble finding work, Jasmine Costello encouraged him to learn chess as a way to take his mind off the job rejections. Rich loved the game so much that it led to an entrepreneurial brainstorm that recently earned the couple the 2010 Commander Business Grant. They call it Chess-Nuts.
Talk to this rental guru. You’ll never view the ladder in your garage the...
In this week’s interview, Leon and Garry talk to Shannon Cooper, entrepreneur and rental guru from the startup Rentoid. He shares what drives his passion and how his company, dubbed "the eBay of renting", enables users to rent out a wide range of products and services – everything from corporate jets to Rubik's Cubes.
Entrepreneurship motivates staff. Not carrots or sticks.
The role of entrepreneurship in corporate strategy goes far beyond trying to get innovative products to market or gaining an edge over your competitors. It helps to set the culture of an organisation that affects staff retention, engagement and productivity. So how do we motivate our employees into adopting this new culture?
There are smarter ways to beat banner blindness than showing cleavage
This article is the fourth in The Anthill Guide to Online Marketing for Small Business (and Startups) series. Last time, we identified common terminology associated with online marketing and revealed how some websites artificially inflate Page Impressions. Today, we continue this theme and look more deeply into the science of online advertising, so that you may talk like an expert, and get ROI!
No good deed goes unpunished [Anthill’s response to the whinging 30 to 50 year-old...
Since extending the reach of Anthill's 30under30 awards to include 5over50, it feels like we’ve received nothing but criticism. Sure, enthusiastic ‘upstarts’ and ‘restarts’ have entered in droves. But the majority of direct feedback we've received can largely be paraphrased in three words: "What about me?!" So, after a short period of festering, here are my own (and very sincere) 24 responses to these 30 to 50 year-old critics.
