Wednesday, June 29, 2016
You Cannot Cut Your Way to Growth
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/29/2016I recently wrote about the war between driving growth and profitability and how you cannot successfully maximize both at the same time....
I recently wrote about the war between driving growth and profitability and how you cannot successfully maximize both at the same time. The key point was that driving growth requires an additional investment in your business, in the form of new sales and marketing activities, expenses of which put negative pressure on your bottom line. So what happens when that additional investment takes a short-term toll on your business?
Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.
For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Chicago's Startup Accelerators, Incubators & Co-Working Spaces
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/24/2016I have previously written about Chicago's exploding startup ecosystem . And, startup activity is organizing around certain startup ...
I have previously written about Chicago's exploding startup ecosystem. And, startup activity is organizing around certain startup accelerators, incubators, startup studios and shared offices in town. A few entrepreneurs asked me to compile a list of the key players in this space, so here you go.
Chicago Accelerators
Accelerators have a formal education curriculum and program.
Founder Institute
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses
Platform Venture
Sunshine Enterprise (for Woodlawn area companies)
Techstars
Chicago Incubators--Generalist
Incubators are lead by one organization, who co-locate many startups in one place.
Blue 1647
Catapult
1871
Seedary
TechNexus
The Cultivator
Venture Shot
Chicago Incubators--Specific
These incubators have a specific focus for startups they work with.
Arts Incubator in Washington Park (art)
Bunker Labs (veteran run)
Chicago Connectory (Internet of Things)
Chicago Fashion Incubator (fashion at Macy's)
Cisco EIR (internet of things at CIE)
Cleveland Avenue (food & beverage)
Coalition: Energy (energy)
Coalition: Impact (social impact)
DMDII (manufacturing)
DVX Labs (education by DeVry)
Elmspring (real estate)
Fulton Street Collective (art)
Good Food (food)
Healthbox (health care)
IHCC (hispanic run)
Insight Accelerator Labs (healthcare)
Impact Engine (social impact)
Indie City Co-op (video games)
Leap Innovations (education)
Lost Arts (makers)
Maker Lab (at Chicago Public Library
Matter (health care)
mHUB (manufactured products)
Panzanzee (social impact)
Pearson Catalyst (education by Pearson)
Propel (life sciences)
2112 (music/film/creative)
Windy City Harvest Farm (agriculture with Chicago Botanic Garden)
WiSTEM (female run)
Chicago Incubators--University Related
These incubators are affiliated with startups at specific universities.
Chicago Innovation Exchange (U-Chicago)
Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (DePaul)
HCB Incubator (Roosevelt)
Innovate (UIC)
LUC @ 1871 (Loyola)
The Garage (Northwestern)
UI Labs (Illinois)
University Tech Park (IIT)
Chicago Incubators--Venture Fund Related
These incubators are run by venture funds who co-locate their portfolio companies
Lightbank
Moderne Ventures (real estate)
New Coast Ventures
Ringleader Ventures
Sandbox Industries
Chicago Startup Studios
Startup studios or venture labs, build startups for third party companies or themselves.
Digital Intent
Incisent Labs
Insight Studios
L Street Collaborative
Prota Ventures
Roniin
Startup Foundry
Treehouse Adventures
Wavetable Labs
Chicago Co-Working Spaces
Co-working spaces simply allow many startups to rent smaller spaces or cubicles, with shared services, at affordable rates. But, it is typically only a real estate play.
Amata
Assemble
Be Office
Building Blocks
Carr Workplaces
coLab (in Evanston)
CoWorkers (in Wilmette)
Creative Coworking
Deskpass
Desklabs (in Lakeview)
813 Launch Pad
Enerspace
Englewood Accelerator
Forum
Free Range Office (in Wicker Park)
Fulton Carroll Center
Grind
Industrious
Inspire Business Center
Level
Logan Share
Next Door (by State Farm)
Next Space
Office Port
Offsite
Onward Coworking
Platform Coworking (in Wicker Park and Ravenswood)
Regus
Serendipity Labs
Space by Doejo
Spirtle Space
Suite Spotte (in LaGrange)
The Beta at BKB
The Shift
The Study
The Warehouse (at Lightbank)
WeWork
Work Better
Workshop
Workspring
These are everyone that I am aware of as of the date of this post. I am sure there may be others I missed or that are in development. So, please add others that you know in the comments section.
For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Provide Multiple Wins Throughout the Customer Lifecycle
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/23/2016If loyal, long-term customers are your goal, you need to romance them right from the start, and continue to wow them along the way with ...
If loyal, long-term customers are your goal, you need to romance them right from the start, and continue to wow them along the way with unexpected wins along the full customer lifecycle. At the end of the day, the earlier you understand it is less about you and your business or success, and more about your customer and their business or success, the sooner you are on the way scalable long term growth.
Rest the rest of this post in Forbes, which I guest authored this week.
For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
[VIDEO] Red Rocket's New Explainer Video
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/21/2016People are more visual in the way they consume content. That is why all the content marketers are adding photos and videos to their p...
People are more visual in the way they consume content. That is why all the content marketers are adding photos and videos to their pieces, to help promote conversions and social sharing. So, with that in mind, I am excited to share Red Rocket's new explainer video, to help you better understand exactly what we do. If anything strikes a chord, don't hesitate to reach out to us at the contact form at the bottom of this page. Hope you like it!!
Red Rocket Ventures Overview from Red Rocket Ventures on Vimeo.
For future posts, please follow us on Twitter at: @RedRocketVC.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
[NEWS] 2016 Moxie Award Winners in Chicago Tech
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/16/2016Congratulations to Maria Katris, Matt Moog and the Built In Chicago team for putting on yet another great Moxie Awards event tonight, ...
Congratulations to Maria Katris, Matt Moog and the Built In Chicago team for putting on yet another great Moxie Awards event tonight, celebrating the best in Chicago's digital tech community in 2016. Here is a shout-out to all of the winners:
Best Consumer Web Startup: BucketFeet
Best B2B Startup: Strike Social
Best New Startup: DRIVIN
Most Disruptive Startup: VISANOW
Best Social Impact Startup: Zero Percent
Startup of the Year: Uptake
Digital Agency of the Year: Rise Interactive
Best Consumer Web Company: Avant
Best B2B Company: Yello
Best Office Space: SAP Fieldglass
Best Company Culture: kCura
Breakthrough Digital Company: Uptake
Woman in Tech: Amanda Lannert, CEO of Jellyvision
CEO of the Year: Rishi Shah, CEO of Outcome Health
Congrats again to all of you, for doing terrific things in Chicago's tech ecosystem. Keep up the great work!!
For future posts, please follow us on Twitter: @RedRocketVC
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Lesson #238: Continue to Innovate Your Products . . . or, Die a Slow Death!!
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/14/2016Your core products or services are your lifeblood. They are what attract customers, drive revenues and enable a company to thrive. An...
[NEWS] Red Rocket Seeking Equity Stake in Your Business
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/14/2016Red Rocket has been fortunate to have been very busy with paid client work over the last few years. But, most of those projects a...
Red Rocket has been fortunate to have been very busy with paid client work over the last few years. But, most of those projects are 3-6 month "fixer upper" projects where we build the business plan, and the current management team executes the plan from there. For a team of seasoned entrepreneurs, that is the equivalent of handing "our baby" off to another set of parents to raise. And, often times, the devil is in the details in terms of execution, and a good plan can fall short if poorly executed.
We are on the hunt to get a material equity stake in a few companies that we can actually help grow over the years (not months). If you run a small business that needs help scaling revenues to the next level, we want to talk to you. Perhaps you are profitable (over $100,000) with some free cash resources to invest in new sales and marketing activities, but don't know how. Or, maybe you are open to growing through mergers or acquisitions activity, and are willing to use your equity to buy desired targets in your industry, but don't know how. We will consider opportunities in both the B2C and B2B space. Your business can be a digital technology company, or any other business we have experience with (e.g., retail, restaurant, consumer product, media), provided we think we can materially move the needle in terms of growing your business.
We will not take cash fees for services in these companies, but instead we will contribute our time, experience and relationships in exchange for a mutually acceptable ownership interest in your business: one that is material enough to get us to want to "dig in" with an active hands-on role for the long haul. I guess you could think of this like adding a later-stage co-founder to your business. We will want to have a significant voice within your management team and board room, to truly control our collective destiny to building a really big business together. No entrenched ideas or sacred cows, if there is a better way to building long term success.
So, if you are a flexible and open-minded entrepreneur with an exciting business looking for fresh ideas, new leadership or an experienced team to help take your revenues to the next level (or beyond simply being your lifestyle business), look no further than Red Rocket. If interested in learning more, please contact us here and tell us more about your business and financials for our consideration. We will only be selecting a few companies to focus on here, ones we think we can accelerate their growth the most, so we apologize ahead of time if we are not able to work with you under this model.
For future posts, please follow us on Twitter at: @RedRocketVC.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Successful Selling Only Begins With the Sale
Posted By: George Deeb - 6/02/2016Let’s face facts. Sales people love to close sales, because that is how they are incentivized, through sales commissions. Call it the th...
Let’s face facts. Sales people love to close sales, because that is how they are incentivized, through sales commissions. Call it the thrill of the hunt. And, most sales teams, sales managers and sales pipeline reports are all built around closing the sale. But, the sad reality is, closing the sale is only the first step in hopefully maintaining a long-term recurring relationship with that customer. That's going to require impressing them, time and time again, throughout the course of the relationship. Which means: you never really end the sales process at all. Let me further explain.
Read the rest of this post in Entrepreneur, which I guest authored this week.
For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.