Tim Ferriss, Dwayne Johnson and More Dish Out Advice on Entrepreneurship, Success and Motivation
Tim Ferriss, Dwayne Johnson and More Dish Out Advice on Entrepreneurship, Success and Motivation.
From success secrets to interviews with celebrities, Entrepreneur TV provides you the resources and tools that will get you motivated and inspired to succeed.
On the second episode of Entrepreneur TV, learn from stars like: Patrick Dempsey Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Tony Hawk Tim Ferriss Amar’e Stoudemire Actor Patrick Demspey shares stories about show business, social entrepreneurship and tragedy.
Learn how Dwayne Johnson changed his career around to pursue his dreams.
Basketball star Amar’e Stoudemire of the Miami Heat tells you the difference between the court and business, while Tony Hawk discusses dreams, inspiration and motivation.
Entrepreneur and best-selling author Tim Ferriss discusses happiness, success and more.
To learn more, click play.
Watch the new episodes Sundays on REELZ at 8 a.m.
Mumbai Angels makes seed investment in Register My Marriage
Mumbai Angels makes seed investment in Register My Marriage.
Ten Strike Consultancy Pvt Ltd, which runs and operates Register My Marriage, was founded by management graduate Ankur Arun and lawyer Gaurav Sharma in 2014.
Prior to setting up Register My Marriage, Arun was director at financial services firm Jaypee Capital, while Sharma founded and operated his own law firm in Gurgaon.
“In India, the official registration of key life events such as birth, marriage, death and divorce is a cumbersome and highly fragmented process.
Documentation can also be problematic resulting in innumerable hours being wasted by both individual applicants and officials.
We are developing automation technology to solve this complex pan India problem,” said Arun in the statement.
“There is also strong social impact towards rights and participation in society for women and the poor.
Other recent investments made by Mumbai Angels include teae-tailing startup Vahdam.
Cloud-based content delivery platform WittyParrot raised Rs3 crore ($450,000) in seed investment from Mumbai Angels and a few Silicon Valley-based angel investors in December last year.
The angel investor had participated in the seed investment roundof human resources technology startup DoSelect, along with TV Mohandas Pai’s family fund 3one4 Capital in November 2016.
US Investors Lead $2.5M Funding Round In Kenyan Bitcoin Startup BitPesa
US Investors Lead $2.5M Funding Round In Kenyan Bitcoin Startup BitPesa.
BitPesa, a bitcoin payments startup that launched in Kenya in 2013 before expanding in Africa and beyond, has announced a $2.5 million round of funding.
The Series A funding round is led by Silicon Valley-based industry investor Draper VC, along with participation from existing investors, Cryptocoins News reported.
Series A investors are venture capital funds or angel investors willing to invest and take on the high risk common when investing in startup or early-stage companies, according to Investopedia.
Typically, this is when external investors are given company ownership for the first time.
“We are well on our way to achieving our goal of becoming the largest licensed payment company in the U.K., Europe and Africa that offers real-time settlement at wholesale FX rates to frontier and emerging markets, with best-in-class compliance and customer service,” Rosielleo said.
BitPesa enables African users to buy and sell local African currencies through bitcoin, with settlements directly transacting to and from bank and mobile money accounts in Africa.
Some of BitPesa’s clients include some of the fastest-scaling wholesale remittance companies and some Fortune 50 social enterprises, Uncova reported.
BitPesa operates in Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, DRC as well as the U.K. and Senegal, and can do transactions with more than 30 currencies.
Bitcoin mining giant BitFury made a “strategic investment” in the company in early 2016.
BRIEF-Laureate Education announces pricing of its initial public offering
BRIEF-Laureate Education announces pricing of its initial public offering.
Jan 31 Laureate Education Inc * Announces pricing of its initial public offering * Announced pricing of its initial public offering of 35 million shares at a price to public of $14 per share Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
Thinking Beyond VC Funding
The word ‘startup’ is currently used to describe technology companies or technology-enabled companies that have the potential to get funding from angel investors or VCs.
However, using that definition for a startup narrows the possibilities that the entrepreneur can pursue as a business because the kind of companies that VCs can invest in is a very small subset of the many kinds of businesses that entrepreneurs can pursue.
The VC Business Model Possibility Of An ‘Exit’ Is Critical Investors make money when they sell shares they hold in your company.
There Must Be A Reasonable Chance To Get More Than 10x Returns Because many of the ventures they invest in will fail, unless the few successful ones return 10 – 20 times the amount invested, the investor won’t make money on the overall portfolio.
Market Leadership Is Important: To get 10-20 times return on the amount invested, the venture must achieve a commanding position in a potentially large market … else the next round of investors won’t have any reason to buy the earlier round investor’s equity at a significant premium.
So, even if a venture is a reasonably profitable company, but not in a reasonably dominant position, the investor will not be able to sell shares (certainly unlikely at a good premium) even if the business is a reasonably satisfying one for the entrepreneur.
Scale Is Important Else the numbers just won’t work for the investors to get a decent return on their investment.
So, when entrepreneurs start with VC funding as a focus for their business, it narrows their choices to a small sub set of possibilities rather than a large number of possibilities that an entrepreneur can pursue if VC funding was not a criterion.
But these, and many other businesses, may not qualify for venture capital.
About The Author [Prajakt is the founder of Applyifi and the founding partner of The Growth Labs.
BRIEF-INVITATION HOMES PRICES INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING OF 77 MLN SHARES AT $20.00 PER SHARE
Jan 31 Invitation Homes Inc
* PRICING OF AN INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING OF 77,000,000 SHARES OF ITS COMMON STOCK AT $20.00 PER SHARE Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage:
Investment Round: Appsflyer, SoundHound, Button and Amplify
Investment Round: Appsflyer, SoundHound, Button and Amplify.
Four Venture Capital Firms Invest $56m in AppsFlyer Marketing data analytics startup AppsFlyer has secured an additional $56m (£45m) in its latest funding round, led by four global venture capital firms, as it plans to strengthen its existing business in Asia and develop its products.
It also plans to support its existing partnerships and operations in Asia, and explore merger opportunities.
“This funding round will help us continue to expand our capabilities and partnerships, especially in Asia Pacific, and to continue delivering the most efficient and powerful measurement platform for marketers,” said Ronen Mense, vice president for Asia at AppsFlyer.
“This funding round will continue to fuel our product development and advance our strategy to build the ultimate measurement platform for marketers.” SoundHound Secures $75m to Power Conversational AI Platform Audio identification and interaction firm SoundHound has raised a $75m round from strategic investors including Nvidia and Samsung Catalyst Fund to help it develop a massive conversational AI platform similar to Amazon’s Alexa.
The company’s eponymous audio detection app has already been downloaded more than 300m times, and last year the firm launched Hound, its voice-powered assistant for iOS and Android, and Houndify, which enabled other developers to integrate the technology into their own apps quickly and easily.
Series B Funding Round Raises $20m for Button Mobile monetisation firm Button is approaching its third year in operation, and is celebrating this birthday with a $20m Series B round of financing, led by new investor Norwest Venture Partners, as well as existing investors Redpoint, DCM, and Greycroft.
The funding will enable Button to continue investing in products and partners, expanding its global footprint beyond the 30 languages and 70 countries that it already operates in.
“Button as a company, the people behind the product, has also grown and continues to bring me more pride than anything else.” Startup Accelerator Amplify Closes Third Round of Investment Amplify, the LA-based startup accelerator, has has received $10m in its latest round of funding to help fuel its mission of nurturing local tech firms in the greater Los Angeles area.
The company has already invested $12.6m in 50 different startups over the course of its five years of operation.
Seed funding in place for Tencar to move forward with startup venture
The GLOW region isn’t exactly a hotbed of venture capital activity, so any founder might find it hard to get that first round of funding that is so critical to the success of a startup.
She now has access to $200,000 in seed funding through Launch NY and Excell Partners.
“We strongly believe our product will be life changing for colostomy and ileostomy patients,” Carrubba said.
We are extremely grateful to Excell Partners and Launch New York for this investment in our company.” Launch NY is a state-backed incubator for tech startups in WNY and Excell is venture capital fund created by the state. “We all know, economic development is a team sport and Georgann has a team behind her,” said Theresa B. Mazzullo, CEO of Excell Partners.
That kind of growth is certainly Carrubba’s goal, who intends to keep her business based in Batavia and manufacture the device she’s designed for colostomy and ileostomy patients that she believes will help them enjoy the kind of active lifestyle that can be difficult with current colostomy bags.
She calls her product Choice Cap. “Tencar and Georgann exemplify — are the poster child for — why this fund was created,” Mazzullo said.
She believes she will make lives better for patients and employ more people locally.
Entrepreneurship has become such a cool thing for people to do, but the hard work, and the 24/7, and the angst and the ‘Can I make it through the next step?’ that is something people don’t appreciate fully.” Carrubba said she knows she’s not done with the hard work, but yesterday’s announcement was a milestone in the process so far.
How to raise funding if your tech startup is not based in London
advice Amazon Apple Birmingham Cambridge Cardiff Glasgow Google investment Leeds Oxford scotland Scottish Enterprise Scottish Investment Bank Tech City Voices Roger Carson, co-founder of Encompass Corporation, shares his advice on how technology startups based outside of London can get access to venture capital funding.
Last year, a staggering £4.4bn was invested, either through equity or venture capital, outside of London.
The wealth of talent in many of the UK’s leading university towns and cities, generous incentives and tax breaks by the UK government, plus an array of generous funding schemes offered by many of the UK’s cities and regions have all contributed to tech hubs growing up in Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and elsewhere.
The British may not have generated tech giants such as Google, Amazon or Apple, but they are still leaders of innovation evidenced by the huge growth of M&A activity in the UK’s tech sector over the past few years.
So, as someone who’s secured significant funding in Scotland, what advice would I give to tech startups looking to secure crucial investment outside of the M25?
And what are the benefits of being located outside of London?
What are investors looking for?
When applying for incentives or funding, don’t just focus on what a city or location can do for you, it’s imperative to look at what you can give back to the city: government backed investor schemes especially will look more favourably on applications for funding that are about creating high value jobs – jobs that contribute to the local area.
Decisions, decisions I would not advise anyone to take on debt, simply because as soon as you start to borrow money you find yourself under pressure to service a debt or pay a loan.
Finally, if you think you have a really good idea, but can’t get people to invest, then it’s probably time to refine the idea – even the most successful businesses have to refine their business models.
8 Tips to Become a Millionaire This Year
8 Tips to Become a Millionaire This Year.
Millionaire.
Believe it or not, becoming a millionaire is a goal that can be achieved this year.
Developing a financial plan forces you to take action, instead of just talk.
Financial planner Scott D. Hedgcock, says that “when planning for a more secure future there are two inputs that are indispensable:” how much money you have and how much money you spend.
Likewise, the failure of those who do not follow a plan is unrelated to their wealth.” When creating a financial plan, consider the following: Focus on what matters most and don’t obsess over the past.
Focus on increasing your income.
Start following the money, and it will force you to control revenue and see opportunities.”
By giving your money more time to compound and keeping your rate of return as high as possible, you greatly increase your chances of reaching a seven-figure net worth,” writes Brian Feroldi on The Motley Fool.
Associate with millionaires.
Register My Marriage secures funding from Mumbai Angels
Register My Marriage secures funding from Mumbai Angels.
Delhi-based marriage registration portal RegisterMyMarriage.com has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from angel investor network Mumbai Angels in a seed round.
Ten Strike Consultancy Pvt Ltd, which runs and operates Register My Marriage, was founded by management graduate Ankur Arun and lawyer Gaurav Sharma in 2014.
Prior to setting up Register My Marriage, Arun was director at financial services firm Jaypee Capital, while Sharma founded and operated his own law firm in Gurgaon.
“In India, the official registration of key life events such as birth, marriage, death and divorce is a cumbersome and highly fragmented process.
Documentation can also be problematic resulting in innumerable hours being wasted by both individual applicants and officials.
We are developing automation technology to solve this complex pan India problem,” said Arun in the statement.
Other recent investments made by Mumbai Angels include teae-tailing startup Vahdam.
Cloud-based content delivery platform WittyParrot raised Rs3 crore ($450,000) in seed investment from Mumbai Angels and a few Silicon Valley-based angel investors in December last year.
The angel investor had participated in the seed investment roundof human resources technology startup DoSelect, along with TV Mohandas Pai’s family fund 3one4 Capital in November 2016.
Gerard Adams and Gary Vaynerchuk Discuss ‘Real’ Entrepreneurship
Gerard Adams and Gary Vaynerchuk Discuss ‘Real’ Entrepreneurship.
On this episode of Leaders Create Leaders, Entrepreneur Network partner Gerard Adams meets with serial entrepreneur and thought leader Gary Vaynerchuk at the 2016 South by Southwest conference.
For Vaynerchuk, it’s been his competitive spirit that’s always motivated him.
People have to understand that things don’t happen overnight and you have to put in the hard work.
Today, most people are raising money, trying not to burn through it or burning through it and hoping to make it to the next round — that’s not the method you should be using.
To learn how you can be successful, click play.
See more episodes of Leaders Create Leaders Season 1 and 2 on Gerard Adam’s YouTube channel.
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We provide expertise and opportunities to accelerate brand growth and effectively monetize video and audio content distributed across all digital platforms for the business genre.
Click here to become a part of this growing video network.
3 Essentials for Spontaneously Mentoring Your Star Employees
Part of the enormous value of the napkin talk isn’t that you are necessarily going to paint a crystal-clear picture of your employee’s future; the point is you are expressing to your employee that you want them there, you see them in your company future and, most significantly, you care.
Today, the path up the ladder is significantly more unpredictable and complex.
Because of this, the importance of a great napkin talk conversation is more powerful than ever.
The best napkin talks visualizing with your employee what their long-range professional future may look like.
This exercise can be powerful in a mature company, but even more important if you are currently a smaller company or a start-up.
It also helps crystalize in their mind that they indeed have a future with your company.
If there is any danger in having a napkin talk, it’s that your employee will take the conversation literally.
Obviously, there are a lot of factors that can interrupt their path — most notably their own performance and effort.
The napkin talk is a conversation better had sooner than later.
Most importantly, it shows them you care.
The 10 Most Funded Startups Founded by Women in NYC
The 10 Most Funded Startups Founded by Women in NYC.
Today, I take a look at the 10 startups in NYC that have raised the most amount of equity funding since their launches that have at least one woman on the founding team, using some data from our friends at CrunchBase.
I have included some additional information as well, such as year of first funding, date of last funding, industry, number of rounds, and founding date to further the analysis.
In order to maintain a focus on conventional tech startups, pharmaceutical and biotech companies were removed from the data.
How to Build and Maintain Strong Relationships
How to Build and Maintain Strong Relationships.
How do you maintain relationships with busy, important people and continually improve them?
Well, I can tell you this much right up front — it doesn’t happen without effort and consistency.
The good news is, anyone is capable of doing this if they just practice the right habits and come at it with the right intention.
So in today’s solo round on The School of Greatness, I’m sharing things I rarely talk about — how I maintain hundreds of quality relationships with people who are incredible influencers.
More from Lewis Howes
10 Ways to Market Your Business Online for $500
The internet provides unlimited potential in terms of customer reach and opportunity, and while there is some online marketing that can be done for free, most effective strategies require a marketing budget.
My agencies focus on performance-based digital ad buys and influencer marketing — both of which require a sizeable monthly budget.
I spoke with ten business owners and asked them to share their best tip for marketing online with a $500 budget.
“With Facebook ads, you know exactly where every dollar goes.
“With a small monthly budget you aren’t going to land a major celebrity, but you can strategically align your business with a handful of local influencers that can help put your product or service in front of a large audience.
Create an animated whiteboard video.
The goal is to get your infographic published on additional websites that will help expand your exposure.” 8.
Invest in your email marketing appearance and effort.
“As a hands-on business owner, the time I have available to do marketing is very little.
Even with just a $500 monthly budget, you can test and optimize, finding ads that convert.
The Founder of Namco, Creator of Pac-Man, Dies at 91
Masaya Nakamura, founder of game maker Namco, passed away on Jan. 22 at the age of 91.
Before being awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government, the entertainment pioneer got his start with children’s toys, Variety notes.
Namco launched in 1955 as Nakamura Manufacturing, which operated mechanical horses on the roof of a department store in Tokyo.
The firm later underwent a name change to Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company — NAMCO.
It was 1980’s Pac-Man, however, that helped Namco (and Nakamura) make a name for itself.
According to the Associated Press, the hungry yellow dot’s 8-bit design was inspired by the image of a pizza with a slice cut out.
Nakamura reportedly chose the word “pac,” or “pakku” in Japanese, to represent the sound of Pac-Man devouring his prey.
In the fall of 2005, Namco merged with toy and game maker Bandai to create Bandai Namco Holdings — the third-largest video game entity in Japan.
Six months later, that game development arm of the company became Bandai Namco Games.
Bandai Namco did not immediately respond to PCMag’s request for comment.
Fintech startup LatiPay raises US$3M from Jubilee Capital, others to expand to Singapore, US
Fintech startup LatiPay raises US$3M from Jubilee Capital, others to expand to Singapore, US.
Latitude Technologies, an Auckland-based online payments company which operates under the brand name LatiPay, has secured US$3 million in Series A funding from Singapore-based venture capital firm Jubilee Capital Management, with participation from Tuhua Fund, Zino Fund (both based in New Zealand) and an angel investor.
These four investors are the latest to fund this fintech company, whose existing shareholders include Jim Rogers (Chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests).
With this capital, LatiPay will onboard more merchants onto its platform, in addition to expanding into Singapore and the US.
Started a year ago by Peter Wei, LatiPay allows Chinese consumers to pay for goods and services using Chinese Yuan whilst merchants receive full payment for goods or services direct to their local bank account in their local currency, at no cost to the merchants.
Chinese payers can make payment through their preferred bank payment channels (19 Chinese banks) or leading e-wallets such as AliPay or WeChat pay, JDPAY and Baidu wallet.
The startup launched operations in Australia in December 2016, and will expand to the US and Singapore in May this year.
Latipay is the third investment by Jubilee Technology Fund, which has a target size of US$100 million.
In November, Jubilee announced the launch of its new fund Jubilee Tech Fund (JTF) with an initial kitty of US$30 million.
It plans to raise a total of US$100 million for JTF.