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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
Entrepreneurs must identify ways to exit a business at the onset, which enables efforts to be directed to a goal, writes the builder of two companies. The author, now a venture capitalist, outlines four steps for doing so.
Robin Li is the Co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Baidu, Inc., and oversees the company's overall strategy and business operations. Since founding Baidu in January 2000, Li has turned the company into the largest Chinese search engine, with over 70% market share, and the third largest independent search engine in the world. In 2005, Baidu completed its successful IPO on NASDAQ, and in 2007 it became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index. Prior to Baidu, Li was already regarded as one of the world's top search engine experts. His hyperlink analysis, patented in 1996, is among the inventions that shaped today's search engine technology. Li worked as a staff engineer for Infoseek, a pioneer Internet search engine company, from July 1997 to December 1999, and as a senior consultant for IDD Information Services from May 1994 to June 1997. Robin Li received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Management from Peking University in 1991, and a Master of Science Degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1994.
As vice chairman of America Online, owner of sports teams and serial entrepreneur, Ted Leonsis has accomplished enough for many lifetimes. In addition, however, he uses the leverage of his position and his entrepreneur's drive to tackle a multitude of philanthropic goals.
Finding venture capital is a matter of securing the right fit between founder and funder, writes the author. Affinity with a investor helps, such as pursuing groups that finance the type of company that yours is, such as a minority- or female-led firm; also necessary is a plan outlining your company's financial prospects and a pitch for convincing investors that you can execute, the author notes.
A veteran media industry executive, Ron Bloom is the visionary CEO and business leader behind the founding of PodShow. Ron is ultimately responsible for PodShow's business units, team building, operations, financing and hyper-growth. Bloom was the chief strategist in securing PodShow's elite private investors, including venture firms Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Sherpalo Ventures. Bloom is often referenced as the author of the media industry's "5/50" rule and Fart's Law of consumer technology adoption. Ron Bloom is a former Chairman and Chief Executive Office of THINK New Ideas, a company he founded with PodShow co founder Adam Curry. He helped to build the Company to over 500 employees working out of 8 offices in the US and abroad, driving revenues from a start-up to approaching $100 million in less than three years. He led the company through venture rounds, an IPO, multiple acquisitions, a private placement of public equity, and, eventually the sale of the company for an estimated 350 million dollars. Prior to joining THINK New Ideas, Bloom again partnered with Adam Curry, acting as President and Chief Operating Officer of On Ramp helping it to become one of FORTUNE Magazine's "Top 25 Emerging Technology Companies of 1995. In recent years, he has worked with a range of companies, helping to develop technologies for the cable industry as well as helping to launch a company that provides technology solutions for Homeland Security. In his first career, Ron Bloom was a celebrated song writer and recording artist, having collaborated on several Top 10 hits, including Into the Night, which was a hit single twice. His musical talents and artistic perspective have helped to shape PodShow's products, marketing, services and talent relationships.
Medical foundations play a role in helping medicine advance through their philanthropy, but sometimes even the most well-intentioned of them can lose their way. Read more about how these foundations can stay focused on their goals.
Vinod grew up dreaming of being an entrepreneur. He was raised in an Indian Army household with no business or technology connections. When, at age 16, he first heard about Intel, he dreamt of starting his own technology company. Upon graduating with a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, he tried to start a soy milk company to service the many people in India who did not have refrigerators. He then came to the US and got his Masters in Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University. His startup dreams attracted him to Silicon Valley where he got an MBA at Stanford University in 1980. In 1982, Khosla started Sun Microsystems to build workstations for software developers. At Sun he pioneered "open systems" and RISC processors. Sun was funded by long time friend and board member John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In 1986 he switched sides and joined Kleiner Perkins where he was a general partner. There, he worked with Nexgen/AMD, Juniper, Excite, and many other ventures. In 2004, Khosla formed Khosla Ventures. Khosla Ventures offers venture assistance, strategic advice and capital to entrepreneurs. The firm helps entrepreneurs extend the potential of their ideas in both traditional venture areas like the Internet, computing, mobile, and silicon technology arenas but also supports breakthrough scientific work in clean technology areas such as bio-refineries for energy and bioplastics, solar, battery and other environmentally friendly technologies.
Toss the old notions of environmentalism into the recycling bin. Investor Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures shatters conventional wisdom of energy reduction, and instead encourages entrepreneurs to solve environmental problems via cost-effective, innovative, and scalable engineering.
Social responsibility is a driving force for Jim Kenefick, both in business and in how he gives back.
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