Category Archives: Startups

Business Development, Startups

Miami is now the second most entrepreneurial city in the U.S

StartUP SAFARI Miami

Miami With the highest startup density in the country at 247.6 startups per 100,000 people according to the Kauffman Index. Its privileged proximity to both New York and Silicon Valley will allow this emerging ecosystem to consolidate its position as an entrepreneurial hub with the arrival of accelerators and VC funds.

OPPORTUNITY

Rather than trying to be the next Silicon Valley, Miami is following the lead of emerging tech hubs like Austin and Boulder and is focusing on its strengths. Anon/off relationship for more than 25 years Miami and tech have been having an on-again, off-again relationship since the 1990s, when it hosted some of the top media and financial firms from South America. One of the most iconic companies of that era was Patagon.com, a Miami transplant from Argentina that sold 85 percent to Santander for $585 million. It also served as a springboard to some of the pioneers in the Miami tech scene today, such as Juan Pablo Cappello, Constancio Larguia, Silvina Moschini, and Peter Kellner, co-founder of Endeavor. A lot has changed since those days. A new Miami tech scene came about seven years ago when “some of today’s most relevant players started forming and getting together,” as The Miami Herald’s Nancy Dahlberg put it. Florida International University hosted its first Americas Venture Capital Conference (2010), Susan Amat co-founded The Launch Pad at University of Miami (2008) and soon after she started Venture Hive, Miami’s most iconic incubator.

The StartUP SAFARI Miami

Two Days of Powerful SAFARI Talks

STARTUPS, INVESTORS, AND ACCELERATORS ALL OVER MIAMI WILL OPEN THEIR DOORS FOR NETWORKING, WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, PARTIES, AND MORE!

Startup SAFARI Miami is an adventure into one of the fastest-growing startup hotspots in the Americas. Flourishing amid a culturally-rich, tropical atmosphere, Miami’s startup ecosystem attracts talent, resources, and ideas from around the globe.


Set your own agenda and visit founders, VCs, coworking spaces, and accelerators in their own offices to create meaningful connections.

Come swim, snorkel, or scuba dive deep into Miami’s startup scene with Startup SAFARI Miami.

Host a session! Plan a workshop! Sign on as a sponsor! Volunteer! Attend! Participate!

See for yourself.

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Business Development, Business Growth, Corporations, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Startups

4 ways to ScaleUp your Business From Startup mode.

As your organization becomes a more complex organism, you’ll find that your team can no longer fit at one table. At this point, you need to play a more sophisticated game. If team members are chaotically chasing each business challenge, or even worse, you, the CEO, are kicking the ball into the goal and making every decision, you’re still playing toddler game. This is bad for your team, and your business will suffer.

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As CEO, it’s your job to get off the field and start coaching your team on how to play a less chaotic version of the game: any team sport, when played well is a beautiful metaphor for building a functional team and scaling your business.

1. Start defining the function of roles.

Your early-stage team was likely comprised of people who like to do “a little bit of everything,” which means they probably won’t enjoy giving up responsibilities. But if you don’t start asking employees to narrow their focus, scaling will become pretty much impossible. Whether it’s turning your “marketing person” into an entire team with specialized roles, or restructuring your organization so employees can divvy up responsibilities in a more effective way, functionalist roles can be a painful process. You might even have a few employees leave because of the changes you make.

But this is a crucial part of building a big, well-oiled scale-up. And keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that employees can’t be creative or take on big, ambitious projects. You should still encourage big risks and creativity — just make sure they keep spending a majority of time on functional priorities.

2. Find amazing coaches to guide your team.

Hiring good managers is one the best things you do for your business as you scale. I know many founders and startup employees think  “management” is a bad word, but look at it this way: managers are the people who take care of the dirty work — metrics, quotas, reports, systems, processes — and empower your team to take on the big, interesting challenges. With effective managers in place, your engineers, marketers, and other employees can spend more time doing cool stuff, and less time worried about all the little things that have to get done to keep your business running.

After hitting around 25 employees, I suggest moving toward an 80/20 workforce: 80 percent DO-ers and 20 percent coaches. You probably won’t have a tough time finding great doers (hopefully you’ve already hired a lot of them), but finding great coaches can be a challenge. At minimum, great coaches need to lead, inspire and be above the minor quibbles and BS that can happen as your company grows.

3. Prepare your new players for success.

You can’t expect people to “hit the ground running” and just “get it done” if you don’t have a clear on-boarding process. Most startups neglect on-boarding for far too long, but all eventually hit a point where new employees don’t just “get it.” The time has come to make a concerted effort to set your new hires up for success.

You should invest a few days (or even a full week) getting people acquainted with all the different aspects of your business. At BiZion Group, we give people a crash course in entrepreneurship, because this is what we teach.At SynerMedia, we give people a crash course in Marketing, because this is what we Do. Everyone on your team should, at minimum, understand what your business is doing, who you’re up against and why you think you’ll win. Every single person on your team should be able to give an effective elevator pitch.

4. Take care of your team, both on and off the field.

Do you have systems in place to support the health and well-being of your employees? I’m talking a 401(k), “SelfDirect” generous paternity and maternity leave and other perks that companies should provide once they’ve left scrappy startup territory. Making this a priority will keep morale high, encourage vital employees to stick with you and make it easier to bring in critical, high-level hires in the future. It’s just the right thing to do.

This is a general overview of some of the things to keep in mind as you transition into scale-up mode, but there are tons of other tough issues that will pop up as you grow: Do you need a CFO? How should you set up your team? What are the appropriate compensation plans for the sales team, engineering team, etc.? When should you get involved in what’s happening across the company? Seek support from other entrepreneurs and your advisors to help answer the big questions that pop up.

Going from a startup to a scale-up means big and sometimes uncomfortable changes, but these growing pains are all part of the fun of taking your business to the next level. Start by Outsourcing a team and learn how to scale up work with a outsourcing team.

Good luck!

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Business Coaching, Business Development, Business Growth, Business Technology, Mastermind2020, Public Speaking, Startups

MeetUp for Growing Business

This Scale IT Up event is an amazing experience designed to assist entrepreneurs in learning specifically what it takes to build an even more successful company, connect with other like minded business owners and see new ways to scale up your business!

Discover new ways to create revenue streams!!screen-shot-2016-09-25-at-3-21-11-pm

The E-Accelerator program will be introduced and has been developed for anyone that is serious about learning the mindset, systems and accountability that are necessary for creating a successful business! At the event you will learn the UNTOLD SECRETS and proven concepts that successful entrepreneurs utilize everyday to WIN in business.

Our Business Growth Club is deliberately different to other business networking groups.

MasterMind2020 has a very conversational style driven by a different light theme every week and we might have 1 or 2 speakers.

We expect a success panel to react to whatever you are saying and join the conversation. The whole meeting is conducted sitting down and you will enjoy plenty of time to say whatever you like in optimistic and positive way, There are absolutely no rules at all.

RSVP to the Next Scale IT UP meetup.

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Business Innovation, Business Technology, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Mastermind2020, Startups, Strategic Planning, Strength Training

Best Conferences for Entrepreneurs under 30

 visionary 
MakingTheShift Foundation

If you’re an entrepreneur under 30 years old and you’ve attended a few business conferences, you may have found them geared toward a different generation. Even if you’ve attended a conference that targets young entrepreneurs, perhaps it was run by a different age group and therefore came across as less than authentic.
Below are seven conferences that deliver the goods for young entrepreneurs, many of them managed entirely by young entrepreneurs.
1. HustleCon

HustleCon began in 2013 and is managed by Sam Parr, who is 25 years old. The crowd includes techies, but is geared toward non-techie founders. It follows a TED-event format, but is less uptight and more fast and loose, like a startup. Attendees learn how to start and run a business with practical advice from successful entrepreneurs such as Tim Westergren of Pandora, Arum Kang from Coffee Meets Bagel and Matthew Brimer from General Assembly.

2. HOBY

Geared toward high school students, HOBY attendees are between 15 to 16 years old and get to experience three to four days of community building and leadership training, meet leaders from their regions and provide service. This event is geared less towards the business sense of the term entrepreneur and more to future leaders looking to create opportunities and solve problems.
3. Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) National Conference.

This event celebrates student entrepreneurship and teaches what isn’t heard much from Silicon Valley, which is that it’s OK to stay in school and still run your business. Scores of entrepreneurs share their stories about how they founded and grew their businesses and what they learned in the process.
4. TEDxTeen

TEDxTeen gets straight to the need for inspiration, and puts young people in a place to get juiced up about changing and impacting the world.

5. Nexus Global Youth

Nexus Global Youth boasts an international dynamic with more than 2,000 young people from 70 countries focused on philanthropy and impact investing. Nexus breaks those barriers for young entrepreneurs who may have felt isolated from professional networks in their regions. If social entrepreneurship is your thing, this is an event you’ll want to attend.
6. Thiel Summit

Founded by billionaire Paypal founder Peter Thiel and geared for those 25 years old or younger, the Thiel Summit brings together the brightest minds in technology and social entrepreneurship for community building. Speakers are attendees themselves, and the event crowdsources panel ideas. Attendees walk away as friends and the benefits of attendance continue after the conference is over through a private Facebook group and meetups.
7. Next Gen Summit

Next Gen Summit is managed by 19-year-old Justin Lafazan. At the 2015 conference, startups raised close to $1,000,000 from investors. The Next Gen Summit provides young entrepreneurs with resources they need to be successful, such as social capital, education, inspiration and investment. The oldest speakers are 25 years old.

8. Entrepreneur Nigth – Power Team International.

Don’t miss one of the Best Entrepreneur Events Helping Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners everywhere achieve over the top outstanding results! And there is no cost (regular price $97 includes your FREE Gift) when you register with this link: www.success2020.com/mastermind2020

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Business Development, Business Growth, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Strategic Planning

How to Launch a Business in the Sharing Economy?

As a tech CEO who often traveled on pleasure and business I’ve been Intrigued by the growing popularity of peer-to-peer platforms like Airbnb and Uber, After seeing how Them can turn any house into a hotel and any car into a cab, many entrepreneurs have been hoping to discover the next peer-to-peer market—one they can leverage to enable members to monetize not just their possessions, but also their resources, talents and passions,

Beth Buczynski, author of Sharing Is Good. How to Save Money, Time and Resources Through Collaborative Consumption, credits the growing popularity of sharing-economy startups to a consumer base that’s fed up with corporate domination and has shifted its values toward more mindful choices.

“We’re choosing to support people-minded companies and products that provide real value, prioritize efficiency, slash waste and cultivate solutions.”

“We’re finding this in peer-to-peer models that cut out the middle man and allow us direct access to each other and the goods or services we need.”

Two essential elements of successful peer-to-peer ventures are community and density. “[These businesses don’t] work without people who care, are committed to the behavior and trust each other,” “And sharing is easiest when the space between us is smallest. That’s why cities like San Francisco and New York have become hotbeds of peer-to-peer sharing.”

Think you know what will be the Airbnb of fill-in-the-blank? Relying on independent contractors to deliver the experience and service you need to succeed takes careful planning and execution—much of it different from that of traditional businesses. Whether it’s dog-sitting or car rental or handyman services, the launch of a successful peer-to-peer platform depends on sharp screening, extensive training and streamlined delivery.

“Take the time to look for real problems that need real solutions—problems that can be best solved by communities themselves,”. “Then provide the infrastructure so they can.”

Here are some factors to consider.

1. Start with supply.
While many entrepreneurs assume that identifying (or creating) robust demand is the first requirement of a viable peer-to-peer launch, it’s equally important to cultivate a ready stable of suppliers.

“You need to get the supply infrastructure in place before you can push the demand side, and make sure the market is in equilibrium,”. A company targets prospective suppliers known as “Taskers” through Facebook and Google advertising focused on the company’s core demographic and ZIP codes.

The same principle applies to scaling. Before TaskRabbit considers expanding into a new city, it ensures that the necessary suppliers are there.

“We typically have hundreds of interested Taskers who have signed up for the service prior to launching in a city, and we make sure in every ZIP code the supply and demand are at an equilibrium,” noting that since TaskRabbit captures email addresses and ZIP codes from interested and potential participants, it’s a fairly easy process.

FlightCar seeks public relations and press opportunities, as well as word-of-mouth through referral programs.
Since launching in 2013 in Boston and raising a total of $20 million in venture capital.

Building the peer-to-peer component is all about understanding different ways to market to people so you can feed the marketplace on both sides.
FlightCar seeks public relations and press opportunities, as well as word-of-mouth through referral programs.

Building the peer-to-peer component is all about understanding different ways to market to people so you can feed the marketplace on both sides

2. Conduct extensive screening and training.
As inclusive and socially positive as the sharing-economy ideology may seem, not everyone who applies will be a good fit for your business. Even though they’re not your employees, your providers are the face of your business, so it’s crucial to train them accordingly.

Once recruited, prospective candidates complete an online application with both written and video components, which are then screened and, if approved, forwarded to company headquarters. There, the candidates are reviewed again and, upon approval, receive a confirmation email asking them to log in and build their profile. After that, they must view 12 online training videos and take tests on what they’ve learned.

“They’re on the front line, so it’s all about integrating your culture and what you expect”

3. Foster trust.

Positive online reviews and ratings are also crucial for gaining consumer trust and generating leads. Indeed, transparency is everything in the peer-to-peer world.

4. Keep payments simple.
It’s all about automation, so you’re going to want to streamline it as much as possible.

do not accept cash. “If we were to take cash, how would we handle that cash, and how would we get it back to the company? All of that paperwork can be mitigated through technology today.”

The entire process is paperless and automated. Use deposit on money debit card.

5. Focus on brand-building.

By nature, a successful peer-to-peer service has a built-in community of people who are engaging with and talking about it. Smart entrepreneurs will harness this momentum to develop a more robust brand, enhanced by the availability of compelling content.

create the best high-quality content that’s motivating and makes people feel inspired,”

To your success

Andres Hurtado Rangel

www.mastermind2020.com

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Business Coaching, Entrepreneurship, sales, Startups

“Whatever it takes” means 24/7/365 availability

I’m addicted to freedom and congruence – and I do whatever it takes to create freedom, whether that’s making money, getting fit, building solid relationships… I do whatever it takes, and I never compromise

“Whatever it takes” means 24/7/365 availability. ordinary people will tell you that you need “balance” – “Don’t work too hard”, “Take it easy”. But if I love my business, why is doing business bad but playing golf all day is good? I work very smart.
Only losers can’t understand that your business can be (and should be) your passion, hobby, mission and purpose.
Success is not only about money, we know that – and words like “addiction” and “fanaticism” are used here in the context of commitment. How do you know whether you’re addicted to success or not? See what you do and think about and talk about and you will know your addiction.

Addiction to success in every area of your life means commitment without compromise, retreat, excuses, or waste. Someone who is addicted to success is like that drug addict – complete focus, no distraction, total commitment. They take responsibility for achieving their goals. Winners are like Jeff Olson, self-made multi-millionaire, a success in every area of his life. He was playing baseball in a successful team and made a decision to quit the baseball in favor of his business. Being an expert in baseball, unless you’re a professional, does not put money in the bank.

to your success,

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