SMB

Angel investing groups are still going strong despite the economic downturn. Although private equity financing dates back to the Sumerians, the current incarnation really began after World War II. The trend has accelerated since the first whirlwind of dot-com businesses in the 1990s sought private f...

A year ago, I suggested that the Software as a Service and cloud computing industry was entering a new stage in which vendors would begin putting greater emphasis on expanding their sales channels to broaden the addressable market for their solutions. Anyone following the SaaS/cloud computing indu...

The discussion so far about the iPad -- a discussion that has officially engulfed the mainstream media and leaped the shark tank to include appearances on David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon's late-night shows -- has focused on the potential for joining media-hungry consumers as a third screen on their...

The "trickling down" of enterprise computing features to smaller businesses has long been a part of life in an IT universe governed by Moore's Law. In many cases, this is largely seen in the data center, where SMBs have access to server and storage performance once exclusively reserved for enterpris...

Given the growing popularity of mobile devices and the great many applications to go with them, you would think that this new niche had plenty of room for newcomers. Many of those newcomers, though, will find it difficult to capture a great deal of consumer attention. Places like the Android Market ...

In this business climate, the road to striking a venture capital deal is difficult for both funder and fundee. Small startups with big ideas obviously have a harder time finding VC firms willing to take a chance on them, but those VC firms themselves are under added pressure to make the correct deci...

A startup developer of technology that helps publishers better connect sales with affiliate marketers has closed on seed funding from First Round Capital, Google Ventures, and such individual investors as LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. The financing for the company, VigLink, will be used to take the...

The majority of global markets are growing significantly faster than the United States. Bill Gates has even stated that in the 21st century, a business must use e-commerce to survive. In this economy, thinking outside the proverbial box and expanding a company without taking on significant overhea...

So you've sought intellectual property protection for your patentable invention, or you've trademarked your logo. Do you think your startup is now protected? This alone may not be enough. Technology entrepreneurs may understand the importance of protecting their intellectual property, such as tradem...

Big businesses often use big bucks to go green. Small businesses, on the other hand, haven't a dollar to spare even for a good cause like saving the environment. Shouldn't they just pass on the whole green scheme -- at least until the economy improves? Not necessarily. "Effective power management is...

Facebook, meet Facecard -- a digital-age marriage of e-commerce and social networking, and that's what the founders of Edo Interactive intended in 2008 when they came up with the idea of prepaid debit cards, or Facecards. In fact, if you ask Edo Interactive CEO Ed Braswell the classic Facebook statu...

On March 21, 2006, Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey sent out the first tweet: "Just setting up my twittr." A mere three years later, in February 2009, Twitter had approximately 4 million visitors. At that point, Twitter set an audacious goal of one day reaching 1 billion users and becoming "the pulse ...

It is rather challenging to hit a moving target when it keeps changing directions. That's a bit like how Cameron Brain, CEO of Open Box Technologies, felt when he set his sights on a particular business market while still in college. In 2006, Brain and a group of classmates at Rensselaer Polytechnic...

A rose by any other name can raise quite the stink, making the act of localizing Web sites to fit foreign cultures all the more thorny. Even if the product is as sweet as ice cream, it's possible to leave a bitter taste in consumer's mouths. "Ben and Jerry launched their 'black and tan' flavor of ic...

You might say that entrepreneur Alan E. Hall lives in two business worlds. Don't complain to him how challenging it is to grow a business in today's fragile economy. He knows those struggles firsthand as a business owner. He also knows how next-to-impossible it is for startup business owners to find...