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Funnels are essentially inverted pyramids that are divided into stages. The objective is to move through the funnel from top to bottom, while trying to lose as little as possible in each stage. Unfortunately, a perfect funnel would be – you talked to 100 companies, and every single one became a customer, or you talked to 20 investors and all wrote you a check. Perfect funnels basically don’t exist in real life, that’s why we are going to talk about strategies and methods for getting to as close to a perfect funnel as possible....

While nearly 90 percent of employers say they would watch a video resume if it was submitted to them, only 17 percent have actually viewed one. In other words, most employers have little idea what to expect when they receive a video resume, let alone how to evaluate it. Video resumes are perfect for letting you know immediately whether a candidate is worth the interview. That’s why even if you haven’t yet encountered a video resume, it’s important for you to know how to evaluate one....

Develop Conversational Interfaces Conversational interfaces won’t replace more traditional touch interfaces, but for some types of application, a conversational approach is more natural. Conversational UIs are also a great way integrate your application with platforms users are already familiar with, like Slack, Facebook Messenger and WeChat. – Vik Patel of Future Hosting Improve Personalization Options Consider providing a personalized interface. Whether you’re basing it on purchase history or a user’s attributes (age, gender, interests, etc....

Because of this, these types of outbound marketing are dwindling just as quickly as the attention spans of our consumers. According to TheMinistryofTruth.com, Americans now hold their interest online at a rate slightly less than that of a goldfish. With streaming on-demand video, people have become much less tolerant of hard sales pitches, out-of-the blue advertising campaigns and other marketing tactics that disrupt their activities. The opposing inbound marketing is often associated with content marketing....

Some companies, especially startups in the early stage, are content just to see the number of visitors rising without working towards improving the sales funnel. Sooner or later, they’ll have to rework this process if they want to see real success. Turning visitors into customers relies on two important factors. First, you must find out what makes visitors want to purchase from a website. Second, experiment to figure out how to easily nudge visitors through the sales funnel....

Just like you have to learn how to use a magic wand before you cast spells, you have to learn how to use this pen before you decide to make your imagination into a 3D reality. If you are a beginner and want to learn everything about the working of a 3D pen here is a guide for you telling you how to. How Does it Work and What Can You Do With it?...

“We will continue to nurture the innovation that is constantly emerging throughout the Midwest by investing in some of the region’s best entrepreneurs and those yet to be discovered,” says Guy Turner, managing director of Hyde Park Venture Partners. Hyde Park Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in upcoming and promising technologies across the Midwest alongside the Midwest’s largest angel investor organization, Hyde Park Angels. Together, the two entities have a potent amount of experience, a dynamic network, and a high capacity for investments....

On an individual basis, hackers might have a litany of reasons why they want to hack your website; however, with the development of large hacking groups, their motives for attack may be more focused and goal-oriented. To put it simply, members of hacker unions will set aside their individual needs in order to achieve the primary motive of the collective whole. The question then becomes, what do these hacking groups actually want?...

Participants in the conversation included, Hamet Watt, a board partner at Upfront Ventures, Jenny Fielding, managing director at Techstars, Jon Goldman, a venture partner at Greycroft Venture Partners, Nicole Quinn, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Ryan McIntyre, managing director at Foundry Group. For those with less time on their hands, here is a summary of some of the topics we discussed: Each VC Approaches Investments Differently Unfortunately there’s no real cookie cutter answer as to how VC’s approach investments at key stages like seed, series A and later stage investments....

According to the most recent statistics, the average Class of 2016 college graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt. That number is up 6 percent from last year, and is only expected to increase as the availability of state funds dries up for public institutions and costs increase for private ones. Meanwhile, according to recent studies from the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, one-half to two-thirds of Millennials in the country are interested in pursuing entrepreneurship....

If you work at a firm that’s being disrupted, it feels like you’re under siege. The press has written you off for dead, you’re losing customers, and making progress seems like it’s one step forward and two steps back. It’s twice as hard as it used to be. It may also not be clear what your next step should be. Do you push your company to be more like the disruptor?...

There’s physical health and then there’s your mental health – building a company can take a toll on both in very serious ways. Ask any entrepreneur who’s been through the “trough of sorrow” or had to wind down their startup. So for the month of June, we are devoting our series to the psychological aspects of starting and running a business with “The Psychological Guide to Starting Up.” We’ll spend the month…...

VPNs are supposed to keep your information safe and security from hackers. Unfortunately, some VPN providers don’t live up to that mantra, with security breaches and vulnerabilities plaguing many that don’t take their task as seriously as others. It appears that Kaspersky falls into that category, as the company has announced that it has patched a major flaw in its Secure Connection VPN that could’ve given hackers a lot of power of user information....

That’s right, according to data from Exstreamist, kids between the ages of 2 and 18 are watching an average of 1.8 hours of streaming services per day. Whether it’s Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, or any of the dozens of other streaming websites, kids have taken binge watching a lot more than they used to. Mostly because, it’s easier than ever before. To make matters worse, the National Wildlife Federation used these statistics to put that in perspective....

No single hero comes to mind. I am inspired by many entrepreneurs and particularly value those who take the time to write and share their stories so I can learn from them. I read Patrick Lencioni’s book, “The Five Temptations of a CEO” and loved every word. It’s incredibly easy to want to be liked and admired and to avoid necessary conflict, and yet those things are at odds with building a great company....

In 2009, Eli’s Dirty Jokes actually became the first web series licensed by HBO and Cinemax for TV broadcast. The series brings hilarious dirty jokes to life with charming narration as told by Eli, a real octogenarian accountant with a not so smooth delivery. It was recently announced that the Los Angeles based digital studio Collab is planning to relaunch the animated series with a new season of episodes, available exclusively through Vessel....

Now, there is. Apps have always been popular with consumers, but they’re especially vital in helping children learn to code and other technical skills. Swift Playgrounds, a new (and free) tool to help people to learn code using Apple’s Swift developer language, is making waves as the next big thing in accessibility to teaching code. Announced by Apple back at WWDC 2014, Swift Playgrounds is making learning to code as engaging and painless as possible....

The company reckons that dim displays are one of consumers’ biggest gripes with new laptops, and has sought to rectify the issue with seven new laptops. Costing between €899 (~$995) and €1,499 (~$1660), the laptops all promise displays that can manage up to 500 nits of brightness — typical laptops get between 200 and 350 nits. Lenovo announced updates to loads of its Yoga and ThinkBook laptops, but these are our top picks....

Tel Aviv was the latest stop on the tour, and despite a tough competition, the judges declared four winning startups were up to the challenge of moving on to the final event in D.C. in May. The Tel Aviv Challenge Cup winners are: In the Education category, Lingua.ly presented its digital language learning platform, which combines an online dictionary with a smart, personalized flashcard system to teach beginner through advanced learners via web immersion....

LinkedIn was already known as a company that championed stock compensation for its employees. In 2015, it paid out $513 million, 17 percent of its revenue. Then it projected a drop in stock price this year. Paying employees in stock works great when stock is rising: The employees get more and they’ll work harder (or smarter) in order to keep their gravy train going. But when the future brings nothing but slowly dropping valuations, employees are taking a pay cut that’s not their fault....