It’s hard to believe that it is May already as a third of the year is complete and summer is almost here. With graduation season upon us, perhaps the entrepreneurs of tomorrow will want to take a look at the most popular startup stories from this week in our Weekly Wrapup. This week we’ve got more pitch deck suggestions, dealing with PR disasters and learning from failure. Also, we discuss some new data surrounding angel-backed companies, founders as long-term CEOs and how intellectual property effects innovation.
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How to Avoid Making PowerPoint Your Enemy: Tips for Your Pitch Deck
The idea that PowerPoint is evil is not new. But on Monday, the New York Times rekindled discussions about the pitfalls of its use during presentations when it published a story on the U.S. military titled “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint.”
The article details both the complexity and the duration of the slides the military utilizes for its briefings, and contains the rather damning quotation from General McChrystal, leader of NATO forces in Afghanistan, who when shown a particularly convoluted graphic (see below) during one briefing said, “When we understand that slide we’ll have won the war.”
What to Do When a PR Disaster Strikes Your Startup
Thursday was a good PR day for the social buying site Blippy. They were featured in two New York Times articles. But Friday wasn’t so great, as the major technology blogs reported that credit card information from its users were found on Google. An hour later, Blippy responded with a post on its blog, explaining that the leak was months old and affected only four beta users, not current Blippy users. Later, they amended the blog post to include an apology. News of more credit card leaks continued on Saturday. Of course, Blippy is by no means the only startups to suffer from potential public relations disasters, and it remains to be seen what, if any, impact this has on the site.
Blippy’s response, including the need to re-edit its official announcement, demonstrates the importance in responding quickly and correctly to a crisis.
Learning From Failure: One Startup’s Story of What Went Wrong
Devver, maker of developer coding tools and TechStars 2008 graduate, announced last Monday that it would be shutting down after being active for nearly two years. News of a startup closing up shop is never a fun thing to hear about, but fortunately many lessons can be gleaned from the experiences of the entrepreneurs. Today, co-founder Ben Brinckerhoff provided just such lessons with an insightful blog on the Devver journey and why he and co-founder Dan Mayer are choosing to move on.
Angel-Backed Companies More Likely to Succeed, Says Harvard Study
A new study published by professors at the Harvard Business School shows that angel-backed companies are more likely to succeed and show more growth than those funded by venture firms alone. Researched and written by William Kerr and Josh Lerner, the report found that companies with angel funding see between 30% and 50% higher growth figures in terms of website traffic, are more likely to survive for four years, and are also in a better position to receive further rounds of funding.
For the Long Haul: Do Founders Make Better CEOs?
Ben Horowitz of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz wrote an interesting piece Wednesday on why he and partner Marc Andreessen look for strong founding CEOs when investing in companies. Founding CEOs are the kind of entrepreneurs that run their companies from the early development stages and are not replaced by a professional CEO as the company grows and builds. In this lengthy but worthwhile read, Horowitz provides insight into what makes for a great founding CEO, and why he believes they are more likely to help a company succeed than a professional CEO.
Intellectual Property and Innovation: Who’s Got It Right?
Companies that rely on fair use generated $4.7 trillion in revenues and $2.2 billion in value added – roughly 16.2 percent of U.S. GDP in 2007. This is among the findings of a report released yesterday by the Computer and Communications Industry Assocation. The report based its findings on what it dubs “fair use industries,” which includes educational institutions, software developers, Internet search and Web hosting providers, and manufacturers of consumer devices that allow for the copying of copyrighted programming.
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