VatorNews - Vator contributor stories

Today's Entrepreneur: Duncan Davidson

by Sylvie Leotin, July 25, 2011 | Comments

No. 1 mistake: Timing; Davidson is a managing director at Bullpen Capital

Vator is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams. Today's Entrepreneur is Duncan Davidson, Managing Director at Bullpen Capital. Duncan is an investor and serial entrepreneur with a rich background. A self-proclaimed "experiential" -- which he defines as having a bent for experiencing different things rather than doing the same thing over -- he has ...

Today's Entrepreneur: Cindy Padnos

by Sylvie Leotin, June 29, 2011 | Comments

No.1 mistake: thinking that great technology by itself wins

Vator is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams. We are a diverse community of dreamers, builders, and trailblazers, who want to change the world, build great products/companies, and make an impact. Today's entrepreneur is Cindy Padnos, a trailblazing woman, and Founding Managing Director of Illuminate Ventures. Cindy is an accomplished entrepreneur, turned venture capitalist. Anyone ...

Why entrepreneurs should read Dostoevsky

by Sylvie Leotin, June 23, 2011 | Comments

Understanding customers: Lessons from great writers

A decade ago I embarked in a round-the-world literary adventure, reading classics from top authors around the globe. The Russians kept me in rapture for a while, and in particular Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment impressed me deeply. I was mesmerized by the author’s phenomenal ability to delve into the human psyche and into the brain of his characters. Working with early ...

Today's Entrepreneur: Albin Serviant

by Sylvie Leotin, June 15, 2011 | Comments

Subtitle No.1 mistake: Lack of realism

Vator is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passions and follow their dreams. We are a diverse community of dreamers, builders, and trailblazers, who want to change the world, build great products, and better the lives of others. Today's entrepreneur is Albin Serviant CEO of MXP4, a social music game company. Albin is a dynamic French entrepreneur with a passion ...

Today's Entrepreneur: Gagan Biyani

by Sylvie Leotin, May 4, 2011 | Comments

No.1 mistake: overlooking timing

Vator is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams. We are a diverse community of dreamers, builders, and trailblazers, who want to change the world, build great products, and better the lives of others. Today's Entrepreneur showcases the diversity of entrepreneurs on Vator, and gives our entrepreneurs an opportunity to share their journey with the ...

Today's Investor: Neal Hansch

by Sylvie Leotin, April 27, 2011 | Comments

No.1 Mistake: Following a "build it and they will come" mentality

Today's Investor is Neal Hansch, a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners. Neal, who got the entrepreneurial bug early in life, started his first startup when he was ...

Silicon Valley: Tech Frontier and Art Desert

by Sylvie Leotin, April 21, 2011 | Comments

Bridging the Arts and Tech Innovation Divide

In the past decade, the world has come to recognize the need for, and importance of, cross-discipline collaboration to solve the thorny problems that plague our planet today. There has been much ink and books on the subject. I wholeheartedly embrace the movement. One discipline has been missing from the mix however, that is the arts, still downtrodden in technology circles. ...

Today's Entrepreneur: David Barrett

by Sylvie Leotin, April 20, 2011 | Comments

No. 1 Mistake: Viewing entrepreneurship as a science

Today's entrepreneur is David Barrett, founder and CEO of Expensify. I met David a year ago, and was enthused by his resourcefulness and originality. I attended his "mile-high party," celebrating the one-year anniversary of his startup. The affair, held at a penthouse he was squatting in, was a delight as wait staff served up homemade hors d'oeuvres and donated wine. ...

Today's Entrepreneur: Richard Kang

by Sylvie Leotin, April 13, 2011 | Comments

No. 1 mistake: not building the right team

Vator is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams.We are a diverse community of dreamers, builders, and trailblazers, who want to change the world, build great products, and better the lives of others.We come from all over the globe, and from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. Some of us are fresh out of school, while others ...

Today's Entrepreneur: Kohl Gill

by Sylvie Leotin, April 6, 2011 | Comments

	No. 1 mistake: Feature-bloat Vator is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams. We are a diverse community of dreamers, builders, and trailblazers, who want to change the world, build great products, and better the lives of others. We come from all over the globe, and from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. Some of us are fresh out of school, ...
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The customer validation conundrum

by Sylvie Leotin, March 11, 2011 | Comments

Why is it so hard to get useful feedback from customers?

High tech startups rarely fail for a lack of technology; they mostly fail for a lack of customers. While entrepreneurs understand the importance of validating their products with customers, many struggle to derive positive results from those meetings. Good books and tips First of all, there are excellent books and blogs offering guidance to entrepreneurs in that regard. Four Steps the Epiphany has become ...

Shazam's 10-yr road to 100 million users

by Sylvie Leotin, December 12, 2010 | Comments

CEO Andrew Fisher shares his lessons learned building a mobile app that identifies songs

We’ve all heard songs on the radio that get stuck in our heads. We wish we'd caught the name or the artist. That was B.S. (Before Shazam). Today, thanks to Shazam’s music discovery service, we can discover and purchase songs on the spot, by simply pointing our phone towards the music source. The company has galvanized users around the world ...

Powerful listening drills for entrepreneurs

by Sylvie Leotin, November 23, 2010 | Comments

The four habits of highly-effective listeners

There is a long debate amidst technology entrepreneurs about whether or not, when and how they should listen to customers. The truth is, listening is not a binary activity. Contrary to common belief research has shown that there are four modes of listening. Fluent listeners masterly tap into those four modes to best suit any situation. This post aims to give technology entrepreneurs a ...

Founder Insights: Smule CEO Jeff Smith

by Sylvie Leotin, November 22, 2010 | Comments

	How Did Smule Find Its Groove? Innovation is the act of creating something new. But something new doesn't mean something loved and embraced. How do you build products customers don't know they'll eventually love? The best way to answer that question is to share a case study of Smule, a maker of popular musical iPhone apps. The idea for the company germinated from a computer music ...
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