SMB

Amazon wants to make your cloud computing simple. The company announced Elastic Beanstalk on Wednesday. The application makes it easier to use Amazon's cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services. The new application lets developers quickly deploy and manage Web services such as storage, computing...

Having an actively engaged, independent board is a must for the long-term viability of any corporation. Unfortunately, there are still many management teams that feel that their prospects for long-term employment, as well as generous salaries and perks, are dependent upon a "friendly" board of direc...

According to the Small Business Administration, fewer than 30 percent of startups are still in business after 10 years. This is a pretty startling failure rate -- over 70 percent. Let's take a look at some of the causes of startup failure and what can be done to improve your chances of making your n...

Previously in this space, I've discussed the collapse of the venture industry since the bloodbath began with the collapse of two Bear Stearns funds. While publicly traded stocks have been hammered, the private market is undergoing its own painful restructuring. As of the first quarter of this year,...

Venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has launched a $250 million fund aimed specifically at startups that are developing social applications and services. Other investors in the "sFund," as it's called, include Facebook, Amazon, Zynga, Comcast and Liberty Media. In addition t...

Google has rolled out a new service that allows Gmail account holders to make voice calls to any traditional phone number from their Gmail account. It will require the installation of a voice and video plug-in, but users won't need to have a special phone number assigned to them. Google already has ...

Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October of 2008. It has been...

Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October of 2008. It has been...

Zuora, a provider of on-demand subscription billing and payment services, was cofounded in March 2008 jointly by Tien Tzuo, who serves as its CEO; Cheng Zou and K.V. Rao. It received $6.5 million in Series A funding later that month and $15 million in Series B funding in October of 2008. It has been...

Have you ever considered whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? You might think that there aren't many objective ways by which you can assess your entrepreneurial ability. Actually, there are. One of the quickest ways by which you can get some idea of your innate talents for entrepren...

Incorporating social media strategies into your marketing plan is no cut-and-paste job. You've got to know your clientele and what appeals to them, and you have to engage them in a conversation rather than simply spew offers at them. In fact, if you don't have the desire to commit yourself to social...

Social networking platforms can be powerful tools. Twitter strikes fear into the hearts of repressive regimes, and Facebook was nearly single-handedly responsible for the revival of Betty White's career. So how can something with that much influence be easy and unintimidating for a small-business ow...

Empty office space litters skylines, freeways and office parks. Once-busy hives of cubicles have become empty steel and concrete caverns. Their previous occupants met with a variety of fates: Some were victims of a deep recession; others were washed away by tsunamis of cheap labor in foreign lands; ...

Fast and cost-friendly video conferencing could son become as commonplace as cellphones at home and at work, and the firm Vidyo hopes to cash in on the trend with a new, specially designed architecture. The New Jersey-based startup recently took the wraps off an HD-quality personal telepresence it d...

As business offerings go, Go800's plan is simple: It gives mobile consumers a quick keyword connection to a call-back from vendors. The vendor's ad lists an easy-to-remember keyword, a ready-to-buy viewer texts that keyword to Go800, and a moment later the viewer's phone rings with a call from the v...