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Facebook IPO–The Death of Innovation?

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Is Microsoft Innovative? Not as much as they use to be. Yet at least they are alive and not on life support. Is Yahoo innovative? How about RIM, or HP. These companies are a decade away from their last innovation. What is it about these companies that mutated their innovative gene to boring?  I submit [...]

The Funded Top 20 VCs–Which DC VC Made List?

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  Which DC-area VC finished in the top 20 of The Funded’s Top VCs?  Here’s a hint, he’s based in VA, he invests nationally and is one of the most active VCs headquartered in our area. The rankings were the result of a poll on the TheFunded.com which bills itself as an online community of [...]

The Problem Problem

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You’re an entrepreneurial startup CEO problem-solving machine.  You take on and dispose of issues faster than Kim Kardashian goes through husbands. As soon as you sniff a problems it’s disappeared faster than a politician’s promise after election day. Which can be a good thing or…. at times could be the problem in itself. How can solving problems create [...]

Five Influential Stealthy Women of #DCTech

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Many of DCs most influential Women in Tech are highly visible. Most of us know the fabulous and tireless tech advocate women like Cooley’s Katherine Ferguson, Speakerbox’s Lisa Throckmortan and Tech Cocktail’s Jen Consalvo. Yet there’s a number of ladies who are building great enterprises while contributing to the growth of the DC regions technology [...]

Q1 2012 DC Venture Capital Risk Tolerance

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If you raised seed capital from a DC VC last quarter you are part of an exclusive club.  Only 3 firms raised seed capital from DC firms last quarter from VCs headquartered in our region and 2 of those companies got money from Virginia’s CIT. CIT is a state-sponsored fund chartered to make early stage [...]

Summer Technology Travel Plans

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  Here’s a infographic courtesy of Microsoft regarding people’s summer travel technology plans. Legal Notice: I am a Windows Champions blogger and I received loan of a laptop and may receive other awards from Microsoft to post my opinions about Microsoft products. At times Microsoft supplies prizes for use in contests like this one. I [...]

Tech Cocktail’s Readers Poll–Top US Angel Investors 2012

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Tech Cocktail polled readers asking the question who are the Top Angels in the US.  The results. (As Seen In Tech Cocktail) Rank   Angel Investor Percent of Votes 1   Glen Hellman  18.92% 2   Lauren Flanagan  16.76% 3   Ron Conway   12.43% 4   Dave McClure  5.95% 4   David Cohen 5.95% 6 [...]

Souping-Up Your Sales Engine

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I’ve worked with many a CEO who acted and failed as their company’s Chief Revenue Officer…. spelled S A L E S P E R S O N. The problem with that is while most entrepreneurs have the ability, the drive and audacity to sell, few of them have the patience to stick with the [...]

Silicon Valley/NY/DC VC Sector Investments

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Every one knows that more companies raise money in Silicon Valley than any other US region.  How about by sector. In every sector Silicon Valley outperformed Metropolitan DC and New York. Maryland’s concentration on health sciences seems to be paying off as Biotech is consistently the strongest performing sector in the DC region and the [...]

DC VCs – 5 Quarters of Investments #VC #DCTech

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No VC did more deals last quarter than New Enterprise Associations (NEA), which isn’t unexpected since the bi-coastal firm with US offices in Chevy Chase, Baltimore, New York and Sand Hill Road, is arguably the number one Venture Firm in the world.  NEA completed 4 out of their total 24 transactions in the DC region last quarter. [...]