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Startup Library

Seed Accelerator™ Startup Library

Some of the main goals of the Seed Accelerator™ team are to inspire you, to educate you and to help you succeed in starting and growing your new venture. Below you will find a selection of our recommended reading, blogs, resources, and tools. Because we are startup entrepreneurs ourselves, we keep sourcing, testing and using new tools and resources ourselves, which - once passed our quality measures - will be placed in our Startup Library. Enjoy!

Recommended Reading

Entrepreneurship & Success

• Should You Be An Entrepreneur? - Take This Harvard Business Review Test to find out!

• 5 Questions for Prospective Entrepreneurs - Pre-qualifications to find out if you've got what it takes to succeed.

• 12 Surprising Facts About Entrepreneurs - Interesting facts & figures about entrepreneurs.

• Kevin Rose's 10 Tips for Entrepreneurs - Kevin Rose, Digg's founder, reveals 10 insightful tips for entrepreneurs.

• What exactly makes Entrepreneurship so hard? - Any idea?

• 12 Reasons People Fail and are Less Successful - Common causes that prevent people to succeed.

• Entrepreneurs: Do you Know your Blind Spots? - You think you know it all?

• Eight Rules To Brilliant Brainstorming - This will help you to get the best out of any creative brainstorm session.

• 15 Success Ingredients for Emerging Entrepreneurs - Our Seed Accelerator founder shares some of his entrepreneurial views & insights.

• 53 Ways to Become a Better Entrepreneur - Do you want to become a better entrepreneur? Well who doesn’t, right?

• Skill vs. Luck in Entrepreneurship - Failed entrepreneurs most likely to be successful in the second venture?

• The Art of Innovation from the Hacker's Perspective - Great overview of many compelling inventions and innovations.

• Why do entrepreneurs flock to loudmouths as mentors? - Insights from a mentor to help you choose your mentor.

• Can an ADDer Become a Billionaire? - Yes indeed! Our hyper-active and dyslexic founder fully agrees with the content of this article.

• Lessons Learned in Getting Rich! -  Tips & tricks from the richest man in England.

• Australia: World's Best Entrepreneurs - Global study reveals that Australians are the most entrepreneurial people in the developed world.

• 'How-To’ Guide for Protecting Entrepreneurs Big Ideas - Laying out the options for budding entrepreneurs as they consider how to move forward.

• Three Myths About Starting Your Own Business - Getting a company going is hard and takes sacrifices: more than 50% of companies fail in their first 5 years. Shaun Rein explains 3 mythes based on his own insightful lessons learned.

• Is an MBA a Plus or a Minus in the Startup World? - Guy Kawasaki argues that MBAs are not needed in the startup world and startup entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa argues that his MBA is essential for his business success.

Startups

• What is a startup? Eric Ries shares his understanding of what makes up a startup venture.

• 50 Ugly Truths of Starting Your Own Business - Just so you'll know....

• Startup Hacks: An Early Stage Checklist - Useful list of things to keep in mind in the early stages of your startup, sponsored by the school of hard knocks.

• 10 Reasons for a Bare Bones Business Start-up - Good reasons to keep your business start-up (whether online or off) lean and mean at least in the early years.

• Mistakes Start-Up Companies Often Make - A perspective from angel investors.

• Running a Startup is Sexy, Building Business is Boring - You decide!

• Why 2010 is the Perfect Year to Start a Company - Steve Jurvetson of VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson explains why he thinks the future looks bright for ‘disruptive’ startup companies.

• The Top-10 Start-up Vows - 10 vows that will assist every entrepreneur who is starting a new business.

• A Vision Beyond Virtual - How to best communicate when starting a new venture.

• Seth Godin’s 7 Tips for Startups in a Down Market - Seth shares his golden tips.

• Guy Kawasaki: Advice on Making Your Venture Successful - Seasoned advice for starting & managing new ventures.

• Startup Therapy: Six questions to ask yourself regularly - This will keep you sharp!

• 5 Startup Tips From the Father of Gmail and FriendFeed - Paul Buchheit shares his advice on launching startups.

• A Cautionary Tale About Partnership - Lessons learned about adequate legal protections between founders.

• Adventures of a Startup CEO: No Guts No Glory! - Podcast in which Warren Packard (MD of Draper Fisher Jurvetson) and Andrew Frama (CEO of Ooma) present 10 lessons for building a successful start-up.

• Seven Ideas for Building Your Team - You are a founding CEO starting a company and you need help. Building your team is a complicated, tricky business.

• Fresh Business Ideas - Timeless business ideas from Robert Kiyosaki.

• 25 Ways to Jump-Start Your Business - 25 tested strategies, which range from thoughts on leadership to advice on how to motivate employees to ways of reducing IT costs; offering a significant pay-off.

• The 4 Key Elements Of A Massively Scalable Startup - Four interdependent commonalities that always seem to exist; they are easy to describe, but very difficult to achieve.

• Startups Or Behemoths: Which Are We Going To Bet On? - Who are the real creators of innovation and new jobs, thus trully driving the economy...? Startups or large enterprise organisations...? 

• What To Look For In A Business Co-Founder - Entrepreneur Jason Baptiste shares his experience and wisdom to help you find the best co-founder.

• Scaling Startups - On his own entrepreneurial blog startup expert and engineer Chad Dickerson sums up some of the key elements in growing and scaling up a startup.

• 8 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Business - Serial entrepreneur Don Rainey shares his best lessons learned.

Business Plan

• Strong Business Plan is Most Important When Investing in Start-ups - Ultimately a strong business idea matters most to investors! Hence, why Seed Accelerator helps you with it.

• How to Write a Business Plan? - Great tips to help you succeed.

• Useful Tips for Writing a Business Plan - By the VC experts from Sequoia Capital.

• How To NOT Write A Business Plan - Great insights and tips from VC investor David Cowan.

Funding & Finance

• What makes you think YOU need funding? - Serial entrepreneur Bart Jellema shares his views on funding and bootstrapping.

• Investor Background: Do the Research - Due Diligence is a must for investors, but entrepreneurs should conduct their own due diligence.

• Seed Funding Options For Entrepreneurs - Where to find funding and how to get it.

• 5 Personal Finance Mistakes That First Time Entrepreneurs Must Avoid - This could save you a lot of $$$!

• Angel Power: An Angel Survey - How do Angel investors think? What are they looking for in startups?

• Are you investor ready? - What do people really mean when they talk about a company being "investor ready"?

• How Terms are Related to your Valuation - Terms of VC endearment: Forget the valuation, what’s the real deal?

• Does your team look and feel like an A team? - When an investor looks at a management team, how do they decide if it's an A, B or C grade team?

• How to Negotiate a Term Sheet - Tom Taulli defines key terms and sketches out common pitfalls for entrepreneurs negotiating a term sheet with VC's.

• Keeping Your Investors Informed: 7 Dos and Don'ts - Guidelines about what to share and what not to involve your investors in regarding your startup.

• The new face of Venture Capital - Explaining the rapid rise of crowdfunding.

• How Much Money To Request For Your Startup - Our advice is: as little as possible, because bootstrapping usually is the best way to succeed in the first startup phases.

• How To Learn About Angel/VC Term Sheets - Gabriel Weinberg shares some useful insights and facts about term sheets.

• Basic Elements of the Angel Investor Pitch - The 11 key elements to complete your pitch to potential investors.

• Understanding a VC’s Seed Funding Policy is Critical - Entrepreneur Mark Suster explains the ins- and outs of seed funding by VC's.

• The Bootstrapping Secrets of Great Entrepreneurs You’ve Never Heard Of - Forget VC funding. Real entrepreneurs fund themselves!

Product & Customer Development

• SCRUM Methodology - Overview of the SCRUM software development methodology that is gaining widespread popularity.

• Extreme Programming - A gentle introduction to this Agile process.

• Product Development 101 - Presentation that summarises the process web start-up Mahalo Answers followed; get inspired to get yours going quickly too!

• Getting Real: the business, design, and programming philosophies of 37signals - Developer of web-based software used by over 1 million people and businesses in 70 countries.

• How to Run a Customer Focus Group - Provides invaluable feedback to help you better develop your product for your customers.

• Built to Learn and be Lean - Eric Ries reflecting on 'The Lean Startup':  finding out what customers want before building it so that the team can be as lean as possible.

• How to Develop Your Customers Like You Develop Your Product - Slides and videos of Steve Blank where he describes the customer development model he describes in his book Four Steps To The Epiphany.

• Three Keys To Creating A Great User Experience For Your Product - Your product is just like a book. You’re telling a story to your customers and they’ll remember only a select few moments from what you tell them. What are these moments?

Recommended Blogs

These blogs will provide you with useful knowledge, thought provoking insights, lessons learned and inspiration!

• Helping You Succeed! - By Seed Accelerator founder Patrick Driessen

• TechCrunch - The leading source of news and rankings of tech startups from around the globe. 

• Entrepreneurship - Largest not-for-profit organisation stimulating and supporting entrepreneurship.

• Businessweek Innovation - Updates and reviews on innovation.

• OnStartups -Everything about software startups.

• Scum Log by Jeff Sutherland -The co-inventor Scum: an Agile development framework.

• SmartCompany  - Australian business and technology news & opinions.

• Venture Hacks - Serial entrepreneurs and early-stage angel investors Babak and Naval share their advise for startups.

• Wired - The latest biz tech news.

• Thoughts in Time by Sean Glass - Compelling startup blog by South African entrepreneur and angel investor Sean Glass.

• For Entrepreneurs - Expertise, wisdom and resources for Startups and Entrepreneurs.

• Silicon Alley Insider - Bringing the real news from the startup and growth scene in SF.

• LeadershipNow - Supporting, inspiring and educating genuine leaders.

• Steve Blank - Retired serial entrepreneurs shares his startup knowledge and experience.

• The Growth Guy - Weekly insights from Verne Harnish for growing leaders of growing companies.

• Startup Marketing - Unlocking Startup Growth.

• Visual Management - Explains the practice of using information visualization techniques to manage and optimise project management and software engineering.

• VentureBeat - Provides news about innovation for forward-thinking executives.

• Startup Lessons Learned - By entrepreneur, technologist, author and lean startup mentor Eric Ries.

• Platsforms and Networks - Thoughts about platforms, network effects and entrepreneurship written by Professor Tom Eisenmann (Harvard Business School).

• To Be An Entrepreneur - How to decide if starting a business is really for you?

• Tech Observer - Technology business news, opinions and analysis.

• Web Strategy - Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang shares his digital strategies and thought leadership.

• Help a Startup Out - HASO is the classified site for startups to post their needs and get help from the startup community around them.

• VentureBlog - Compelling startup and investment blog by VC David Hornik.

• New Rules of Work - Useful advice, news and stories about leadership by Jason Moore.

• StartupNation - Useful startup and business advice plus networking with fellow entrepreneurs.

• 37 Signals - About web design and usability.

• Joel Spolsky - Well-known NY based software developer who shares his views on software development, business and the Internet.

• Seth Godin - Marketing guru, author and startup supporter.

• Paul Graham - Serial entrepreneur, investor, author, blogger and founder of Y Combinator (the leading US based startup accelerator).

• Guy Kawasaki - Outstanding serial entrepreneur, early-stage investor, startup mentor, innovator and author who shares his views and insights as investor and startup expert.

• Master of 500 Hats - About Geeks, Entrepreneurs, & Startups in Silicon Valley, written by Dave McClure (entrepreneur, startup mentor, seed-stage investor, blogger, and internet marketing nerd).

• The Redeye VC - A view of the startup ecosystem by leading early stage VC Josh Kopelman (CEO at First Round Capital).

• O'Reilly Radar - One of the best tech business and startups blogs.

• Fred Wilson - Musings of VC Fred Wilson in New York City.

• Andrew Chen - Startup executive and fund raising specialist, who is focused on advertising, product marketing and social media.

Recommended Resources

• Inc. Magazine - Leading American magazine for entrepreneurs.

• Mashable - The leading news website about social media.

• RedHerring - The leading technology magazine.

• reddit / startup - Social news website on which users can post links to content on the Internet.

• StartupNation - Community by and for entrepreneurs.

• ThingBuzz - The hottest new products everyone talks about.

• TechCrunch - Profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.

• AaplNow - Apple news from around the web.

• The Next Web Australia - Technology news and reviews of Australian startups and Internet companies.

• TechVibes - News from the tech community.

• e27 - Discovering web innovations in Asia.

• Mixergy - Great list of interviews with entrepreneurs you should listen to.

• OnRead - Read thousands of books online and for free.

• Technorati on start-ups - Internet search engine for searching blogs, which competes with Google and Yahoo!.

• StartupPhase - Resources to help you grow your new business.

• Engadget - All new tech gadgets explained and reviewed.

• Pluggd.in - The inside story about tech business.

• Startup Questions - Questions & answers about startups.

• ReadWriteStart - Rich resource and guide for first-time entrepreneurs and startups.

• AngelBlog - Best practices for angel investors and entrepreneurs.

• InnovationTools - The world's largest website focused on business innovation & creativity.

• Hackers News - Compelling tech startup & technology news from around the globe.

• SpringWise - Inspiring source of new entrepreneurial & innovative ideas.

• ChubbyBrain - 40,000+ Angel and VC-backed startups and investor profiles.

• Pajama Entrepreneur - Features compelling self-funded and angel-funded startups.

• Dynamic Business - Magazine for Australian Small Business entrepreneurs.

• iPitch - Connecting Australian startups and investors.

• Startuply - Job board for startups and job seekers.

• KillerStartups - Showcases the best and most compelling new tech startups.

• Social Approach - The hottest buzz on the social web about new startups.

• StartUps - Website for business people and entrepreneurs to ask business questions.

• Home Business Journal - Exploring the world of home business and affiliate program revenue generation.

• Delimiter - Australian technology news and interviews.

• VC Journal - Australia's VC publisher.

• Mixergy - Where ambitious upstarts mix.

• NewsTwit - Read news from around the globe the Twitter way.

• Ask The Angels - Forum for entrepreneurs, startups and angel investors.

Recommended Tools

• Disqus Comments - Great comment system for your website.

• Aqua Notes - To write down your genius ideas while under the shower or in the bath tub.

• SendGM - Sending out group messages with ease.

• Leading Resources - Offers a great range of free leadership tools.

• MeetWithAgenda - An easy way to manage your meetings for effectively and efficiently.

• Ideone - Ideal tool for programmers who want to test code.

• TraceBullet - Great tool to test any website.

• SliceHost - Very cheap server-space.

• RULE.fm - Great app to manage all your people, work streams, documents and much more.

• GIT - The fast version control system for your software coding.

• Xobni for Outlook - Xobni's Outlook add-in saves you time finding email, conversations, contact info & attachments.

• Own Your Venture - Equity Simulator tool makes understanding the impact of raising money for an early stage venture transparent and easy to grasp.

• VNC Free Edition - Remote control software which lets you see and interact with desktop applications across any network.

• Instant Domain Search - Helps you find out if the domain name you just came up with is still available.

• BabelXL - Handy online translation service.

• Google Patent Search - Read and download over 7 million of patents and patent applications.

• SproutPitch - Present your startup elevator pitch to the world.

• Function.me - Various useful apps to check and manage web domains, including a handy domain cleaner.

• TransFS - Comparison engine that can save businesses and average of 40 percent from their credit card processing.

• Clicktotweet - Easiest and simplest way to promote and advertise your stuff on Twitter.

• You Send It - Great online tool to send and share large data files.

• Microsoft BizSpark - Via Seed Accelerator you can get your enrolment code, giving you free Microsoft software for your startup.

• PivotalTracker - Free project management tool perfectly suited for managing development features for a small team.

• FishMemory - Solution that combines hierarchical to-do lists with reminders. It helps you to remember all that needs to be done!

• FileZilla - Free, fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.

• WhatTheFuckIsMySocialMediaStrategy - Can tell startups to “identify relevant and compelling hooks”, and “humanise the brand by driving the audience conversations”.

• 123People & Pipl - Helps you perform due diligence on individuals.

• Tiny Grab - Screenshot sharing made simple.

• Innovation Tools - The world's largest website focused on business innovation and creativity.

• Brainstorming - The Brainstorming Techniques Resource Center offers the best articles, books, tools and software for brainstorming and idea generation.

• Dropbox - Free and easy to use "fileserver" for sharing any files across team members.

• GetApp - Finding the right application(s) for your company.

• 100 Web Apps - The 100 most useful web apps for everything you will possibly need.

• DisciPlanner - Get disciplined and succeed!

• Sample Business Plans - Great overview of sample business plans per business type and industry.

• Sun Startup Essentials - Receive discounted Sun hardware, software and support for your startup.

• Venture360 - Great software application which helps entrepreneurs identify the key strengths and weaknesses in their business plan prior to engaging investors. 

• Quickthumbnail - The fastest way to resize your pictures and images.

• Subversion - Enterprise-class centralized version control for the masses. 

• Viral Marketing Calculator - Amazing calculator for determining your online user growth.

• ProofHub - A supple way to manage projects around the globe.

• EggZack - Publish your content everywhere at once.

Recommended Videos

Please click here for an overview of our recommended videos.

Recommended Books

Please click here for an overview of our recommended books.

Inspiring and Thought Provoking Advice & Quotes

Please click here for our selection of entrepreneurial advice and quotes.

Any suggestions?

Do you know of any compelling information resources or content to complete the above overview? Please feel free to send us an email, so we can share it with the rest of our community. Thanks!

For more detailed information and answers to most of your Seed Accelerator™ related questions, please see our FAQ page, or click here.