At the onset of 2012, many start-up executives around the world are sticking their copy of Lean Start-Up on the shelf, leaning back, and bemoaning the fact that they have a new...

Here's a nice little treat to kick-off the New Year!  Our Octane series is back!!!  Our guest today is Josh Feast, the Founder & CEO of Cogito Health in Charlestown. Cogito is pioneering...

As a tech startup, you'll need all the help you can get to attract software engineers and web development talent. You need to somehow differentiate yourself from all the other companies...

As we wind down 2011, I thought it would be helpful to highlight some of top blog posts from the year.  So, in no particular order...

Once in a while, someone who wants to get into entrepreneurship will ask me what I think they should do.  As I've said in a past blog post, I like these types of questions better than...

“He’s a star. Thank god he’s on the team”.  “He’s not scaling, it’s time to find a replacement”.  I’ve heard that line from too many CEOs about someone on their management...

Not usually the first thing you think of when starting a company, but where you want to end up impacts everything you do.  I sit on the board of ChatThreads, where we are in...

Always lots of ideas from entrepreneurs, angels, vcs about how best to raise Seed & Early Stage capital.  ‘Tis the season for end-of-year lists.  So, if good enough for “Top 10 NFL...

If you you think you want to be a CEO, what should you do?  I was talking to a former CEO who had a very successful exit almost two years ago. This a good friend who I have known...

I don’t blog a lot about the inner workings of Backupify but our recent launch of Snapshot for Google Apps has been very successful, and it seemed like a good time to use this example...

You know when you meet someone and at first you don’t really hit it off so well…you don’t seem to have much in common? And then, all of a sudden, you hit on a topic...

I had a meeting this week with a friend of a friend who was interested in getting into the Venture Capital Business.  I have a few of these meetings every year...

Wayfair is easily one of the greatest success stories in the Boston area over the past ten...

One of the most memorable lines in film history comes from “Field of Dreams.”  Shoeless Joe Jackson, a baseball legend from the early 1900’s, convinces an Iowa farm owner named...

Best practices for inside sales managers. An interview with Mark Roberge, VP of Sales at HubSpot, discussing how he blends science and process with the art of selling. HubSpot is a SaaS...

When they are asked about the defensibility of their businesses, I regularly hear entrepreneurs cite “first-mover advantage” as the basis on which they will compete and defend their margins. It has come...

Given Volition’s focus on bootstrapped high growth technology companies, we meet company founders every week that have built amazing companies with very little resources.  It never...

Startup founders have boundless ambition.  Most founders can imagine their platform concept having broad appeal and meeting the needs of many customers, with numerous...

We recently moved from Amazon on-demand “cloud” hosting to our own dedicated servers.  It took about three months to order and set up the new servers versus a few minutes...

Failure is not an option...it is a requirement...to future success. Failure gets a bad rap. It is actually an important element...

Scott Kirsner of The Boston Globe called them the startup equivalent of the Justice League of America. Seven superhero CEOs gathered on Friday afternoon at the...

There is a very interesting article on Venturebeat by Glenn Solomon with a great graphic produced by Cowen and Company that separates public Internet companies by growth...

I just finished watching great TED talk by Kathryn Schulz on Being Wrong.  Go ahead and watch it now… It starts slow, but bear with me. It has an important message.  Pay close...

With the recent passing of Steve Jobs the worlds of business and technology have certainly lost a real visionary and leader. Furthermore Steve represents someone that was...

Quiz... name a successful entrepreneur in Boston who...

Whether a startup’s initial Seed round is comprised of individual angels, seed-focused funds, larger VCs , or some combination of the three, when it’s time for the entrepreneur...

Everyone knows startups are hot. Fueled by a strong seed funding climate and several well-publicized successes there is seemingly a rush to start your own company. I'm a big...

When I was signing up for this year’s unConference, I was reminded how last year’s event was great because of the impromptu breakout sessions where it was fair game to discuss...

First impressions count and perceptions about your brand identity, offering and call to action all converge on the landing page.  It does not matter if the landing page is a product page with...