Mexico Startups Take On Online Education and Stock Image Purchasing!
Congratulations to TutorOnline and Capptu.com, two web based platforms built to create efficiency in online education and stock image purchasing.
These two companies are well suited as Mexico's SmartCamp winners for their smart approaches to an ever growing need for imagery in marketing and on-the-spot education!
What's their story? TutorOnline is an online tutoring platform where any student can have access to a private tutor through our virtual classroom; anytime, anywhere.
Global Industry Analysis, market research firm, projects that by 2018 the global market for tutorials will reach $102.8 B USD, more than 30% will be coming from emerging markets. TutorOnline aims to be the leading online tutoring in Mexico and Latin America.
Capptu.com is a crowdsourced web platform designed to create a community of stock images that allows amateur and professional photographers to have their photos available for sale in a marketplace where potential buyers can acquire licenses. Purchasers can also convene competitions to order "on-demand" photos for any given particular purpose.
Capptu uses SoftLayer as their main server which gives support to all our back-end platform functioning.
Thanks again Capptu and TutorOnline for participating! Follow their stories @TutorOnlineMx and @Capptu.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Congrats to Macrolynk and Saul Haro, the President and CEO on their award from CNN!
![Macrolynk_Social-Tile-[V1]](http://advanced911.inmotionhosting.com/~socialbusinesssa/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/macrolynk_social-tile-v1.png)
Congrats to Macrolynk and Saul Haro, the President and CEO on their award from CNN!
They just won the CNN Expansion Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2015,!
We recognize their work in "How Combining Social and Supply Chain Led to Exceptional Management.".
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An Entrepreneur's Thoughts -- in a plane ride bite size snack!
While flying to Dallas, I sat beside a serial entrepreneur! He shared some interesting points with me that were impactful in his quest for entrepreneur success -- of which he has had at least 3 successful exits!
Here's what I drew as I talked to him!
Infographic: Power of Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship
I love this Infographic of the Silicon Valley ranking of cities for entrepreneurship!!!
The top 5 scores were:
- Menlo Park,
- Mountain View,
- Palo Alto,
- Sunnyvale,
- Redwood City
Did you see that there is a geographic dominance of Northern California? The top 4 Silicon Valley cities in the MIT rankings possess 20 times the average start-up quality as California's median city!!!! WOW!
Top 5 Personal Habits of Successful Entrepreneurs!
I was reading a few articles on entrepreneurship and the secrets of success of the entrepreneur themselves, vs just the company. Here's the Top 5 Personal habits that I found in common across all the articles in both first time entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs as well!
- Prioritize! 81% of the top entrepreneurs (value of $3.2M or greater and successful exit) make one the night before for those priorities that are most important.
- The Early Riser! 44% get up and going an average of 3 hours before they officially start "work"
- Get Help! 77% of those who are successful have an adviser!
- Networked Connectors. 79% network 5 or more hours a month.
- Return that call. 86% return all their calls in the same week they were received.
Some great habits here that I will adopt as well !!!
Growth Hacks for Startups!
Small is beautiful ! Listening to your clients! Just some of the essentials ways to grow with some cool hacks!!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/jOAiOiBiKKo]
5 Insights From VC Meetup and Panel for Enterpreneurs
I love to learn and share those learnings so here are 5 things I took away:
- Validate the good idea. Over 50% of new apps and products fail. Those that success have been vetted and tested. The advice they gave was to have as many people as possible provide you feedback as quickly as you can. That could be through Kickstarter or just creating an MVP!
- Either be or hire a Tech Geek! The VCs validated that every company today is competitive through technology (well, just about!). The discussion was that every company is a tech company so either the founder or her right hand person needs to be steeped in the knowledge of technology.
- Network. Networking is crucial to a successful startup. All the VCs said that they bet on the person first, the idea second. In order for them to bet on you, they need to know you and trust you! Take the time to get to know those who might fund you!
- Have a business plan. This factoid amazed me. Over 50% of those companies that come into a VC come in with a great product but no business model. Make sure you think through both the offering and the way that you make money.
- Dream big and have confidence. A lot of success is trying again and again and not being afraid of hearing no Facing rejection can be tough, but ensure you have the confidence to wirhstand it. One entrepreneur said he was turned down for funding over 20 times before he was funded, and is now a successful serial entrepreneur. Be passionate about what you bring to the table.