StartupDigest Reading List – July 29, 2011

29/07/2011

For newcomers: StartupDigest Reading List is the members-only weekly email newsletter of the best articles in the startup world.

You can become a member for free here.

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Welcome back to the StartupDigest Reading List, the members-only guide to what you need to read in the startup world every week. 

By popular demand, we are now accepting applications to StartupDigest VIP for product, business development, marketing, and sales people too.

Check out this awesome success story and if you’re interested, apply here.

On to this week’s reading list!

- Chris

StartupDigest Reading List is curated by:
Chris McCann – Co-Founder, StartupDigest

 

 

StartupDigest Reading List is supported exclusively by:
Winners of Global Entrepreneurship Week’s Startup Open competition, sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, could win a trip to Liverpool to hang out with global entrepreneur experts or a year’s worth of mentoring from the founders of Redbox. Learn more about all of the prizes here and submit your startup here.

 

 

What You Need to Read This Week

Financings Options: Venture Debt
By Fred Wilson

Fred explains what venture debt is, the terms associated with it, and who venture debt is for.

 

Startup Weekend pep talk: It ain’t the code
By Jason Cohen

If you build a simple landing page that describes what your company will do and get 50 signups, you will be much closer to having a real company than a team that builds something that works beautifully but no one asked for it.

Most of Your Work Sucks
By AJ Kessler

The nature of creative work (including startups) is that you need to test and hone your ideas 1,000 times to get something fantastic.

 

What everyone should know about the human eye
By Lionel Barrow

A fascinating post about what people do while looking at the things you built. If you are interested in this topic also check out this post.

 

Startup Diaries: Getting Your First Customer
By Dharmesh Shah

A story and 5 tips about landing your first paying customers.

 

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London StartupDigest – June 13, 2011

14/06/2011

Below is an archived version of the London StartupDigest Events List – a weekly curated listing of the best tech startup events in London. If you would like to get next week’s digest on Monday, sign up here.

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I’m just back from Scotland where I was at a The Entrepreneurial Exchange’s annual conference for Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs at the amazing Gleneagles Hotel. One of the key speakers was the former CEO of Sage, Paul Walker and you can read about what he said here. Paul joined as the 6th employee back when they were a tiny startup in Newcastle making accounting software for the Amstrad PCW word processor! We often complain that there’s no British companies to act as inspiration for young tech entrepreneurs. Well, it may not be sexy but Sage, founded in 1981 now has a market cap of £3.7Bn and employs more than 13,000 people worldwide. It’s a true global leader and it’s great proof that British startups can get big and succeed on a global stage. By the way, Scotland now has its very own StartupDigest. You can subscribe here.
Meanwhile here in London this week sees the opening of InnovationWarehouse and they are running a series of events all week to celebrate.
Please remember, if you have any events to promote to the >4,000 subscribers of this list you can submit them using our online form.

London StartupDigest is curated by:
Scott Allison, founder & CEO, Teamly

 

What’s Going on in the London Startup Community

TechHub Tuesday Demo Night
When: Tuesday, 14th June
Where: TechHub, 76-80 City Rd, London, EC1Y 2BJ

TechHub Demo Night isn’t about pitching for funds, it’s really an opportunity to show the community what you’re working on, get some feedback, and see what others are toiling away on.

DirectorBar / Digital
When: Tuesday, 14th June
Where: Corney & Barrow, The Lounge, 10 Paternoster Square, EC4M 7DX

Digital edition of this forum designed for company directors to find opportunities, make contacts and seek advice. Tonight’s guest speaker is David Soskin, Author: “Net Profit: How to Succeed in Digital Business” and Chairman of Swapit.co.uk; Investor / Co-Founder of HOWZAT Media LLP; Director ofmySupermarket.co.uk; ex-CEO of Cheapflights Media.

Flagons Den Poker Night
When: Wednesday, 15th June
Where: Fox Poker Club, 93-107 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 5DY

Flagons Den is a social event for entrepreneurs who are looking to build teams to work on their ideas, or want to join teams to work on great ideas. This event combines that with texas hold’em!

London Web meetup: The Gamification of Websites
When: Thursday, June 16th
Where: Radisson Edwardian Kenilworth Hotel, 97 Great Russell Street, London

Kam Star, CEO of PlayGen, will present “A Beginners Guide to the Elements of Gamification” with some great examples and a basic methodology. This will allow you to understand what the building blocks of Gamification are and how you might be able to use these in your projects.

Namaste Beers and BBQ
When: Friday, 17th June
Where: 30 Albion Square, London, E8 4ES

London gaming Startup Namaste is throwing open the doors to its London HQ (and back garden) for a BBQ.

 

Top Upcoming London Startup Events

June 21 – TWiST London Meetup #4
June 21-22 – Cloud Computing World Forum 2011
June 22 – The Guardian – Activate London 2011

June 22 - British Library Business & IP Centre funding clinic
June 23 – Hacker News London Meetup
June 28 – Gateway2investment Open Office
June 30 – Gay Geek Drinks

 

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