Could Your Startup Benefit from Microsoft Ventures?

Could Your Startup Benefit from Microsoft Ventures?
Maintaining Control of the Sales Process
What is Siri? And Does Siri Have Competitors?
Women Business Owners: Are You Following Finerman’s Rules?

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 04:00 PM PDT

microsoft sign

Up until now most people thinking about Microsoft might have thought software. But the tech giant announced this week it would also become a leader in aiding entrepreneurship as well.

Writing on The Official Microsoft Blog, Rahul Sood, general manager of Microsoft Startups, introduced Microsoft Ventures, a global effort combining several Microsoft programs currently proving funding, mentoring, and guidance to entrepreneurs worldwide.

In the post, Sood explained:

Today, Microsoft is announcing the creation of Microsoft Ventures, a coordinated global effort that offers the tools, resources, expertise and routes to market by providing mentorship, technology guidance, seed funding, joint selling opportunities and other benefits.

BizSpark

The new Microsoft Ventures effort combines and strengthens programs Microsoft already has in place with new programs still being built.

One of these existing programs is BizSpark. The initiative provides software including Windows and Office, Visual Studio, Windows Azure and additional support to promising and visionary startups at no cost. Microsoft says the program currently serves 50,000+ members in 100 countries on 6 continents.

Accelerators

The accelerator programs offer immersive 3 to 6 month experiences for early stage startups including mentoring, technical guidance and an opportunity to build connections. To be considered, startups must have a full-time founding team, less than $1 million in capital funding raised, and must be developing a technologically driven solution to solve a real world problem.

Microsoft already operates accelerators in Bangalore, Beijing, Paris, Seattle and Tel-Aviv and will be adding new accelerators in Berlin, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro soon.

Funding and Community

Finally, Sood says Microsoft Ventures is creating new resources to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

For example, the company will be expanding its existing Bing Fund to provide seed money directly from Microsoft for startups already experiencing early success. Neither Sood nor the Microsoft Ventures website are specific about the amount of funding likely to be offered or the criteria for companies to receive it.

Microsoft also says it has built partnerships with 200 startup focused organizations globally including Startup BootCamp, Enterprise Ireland and Telefonica's Wayra. The company says it will continue to expand this community to make further investments in entrepreneurship globally.

The company has provided an easy way for entrepreneurs to learn more about the opportunities available. Microsoft Ventures offers a simple sign-up form to allow interested entrepreneurs to be notified as soon as program applications become available.

Microsoft Photo via Shutterstock

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Maintaining Control of the Sales Process

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT

sales process

Staying in control of your sales process is a big part of sales success. It's easy to let emotion or distraction or someone else derail you if you aren't careful. Maintaining that control comes from regulating yourself and there are a couple of aspects of that self-regulation that we're going to explore. They include self control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, and innovativeness.

Self control is very important in the sales process. Being able to control your impulses while in a sales meeting or on a call helps you maintain control of the situation and position yourself as a professional. You never know what a prospect is going to say – no matter how well you prepared. Being able to control how you respond can be a game changer.

Trustworthiness and Conscientiousness Go Together

People like salespeople who are honest and have integrity. These are people who follow through on their commitments and tell it like it is. There will be times when you cannot provide the solution the prospect needs. You should tell them so. Don't tell them you can help and then try to create a solution. They'll see through it. Those who are honest and do what they say they will do are the ones who win over the prospect and build long term relationships.

Remember that sales is about relationships. You don't want to be chasing after new clients all the time because you are losing current ones. You want to add to the foundation. Trustworthiness and conscientiousness are key to relationship building.

For me, adaptability goes along with self control. Can you bob and weave? Can you think on your feet? In sales, this is a great skill to have. When a prospect throws you a curve ball, how you react – or respond – matters.

Along the same lines is innovativeness. Coming up with solutions and ideas shows your prospect that you are really thinking about them and trying to help them solve a problem. We sell best when we match a solution to a problem. Sometimes our solution needs to be tweaked a little to fit the problem the prospect is experiencing. The ability to innovate during the sales process can be the difference between getting the sale or losing the sale.

When you realize that you are responsible for the success of the sales process you will make sure that you are staying in touch with your skills and techniques.

Remember, the prospect is looking to you to help them solve a problem and to be the expert in your field.

Sales success Photo via Shutterstock

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What is Siri? And Does Siri Have Competitors?

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT

what is siri

If you own a recent iPhone or iPad, you know what Siri is. For those who don’t, we’re going to briefly explain Siri, including what it does, and some alternatives to Siri.

Siri is the name of a module for voice commands on Apple devices. Siri lets you control the iPhone with your voice. You can ask Siri questions using your voice — without typing. Siri answers in a human-sounding voice, also.

You can use Siri to search the Web, send emails, find text messages and read them to you out loud, post social media updates, make phone calls, and even set up appointments or reminders. You can also use Siri as a dictation device to dictate notes you want to remember.

Because of those types of activities, Apple calls Siri a “personal assistant.” Siri is built into recent-model Apple devices so there is nothing for you to download. It’s already available.

Apple says that you don’t need to talk slowly or pronounce things carefully — you can speak in a natural voice. There’s no need to “teach” it — although like most voice recognition programs it does get better the more you use it, as it does learn to recognize your speech patterns.

Siri was launched with a media campaign that featured Samuel L. Jackson in one commercial (embedded below). At first, while Siri was still a novelty, people wrote about it and used it. But after a while, the romance with Siri soured. people found that it wasn’t 100% accurate. One report put accuracy at under 70% in delivering correct responses.

The way it works is that your requests and commands to Siri are uploaded to Apple servers somewhere, interpreted, and then a response comes back to you.

Some companies, like IBM, at one point banned Siri on privacy and security grounds, because it’s not clear what happens to the queries and whether they are saved by Apple.

There are alternatives. These are considered two of the best:

Google Mobile Search for Android – Google has voice activated search for Android devices. You can request a variety of things.

Dragon Mobile Assistant – By Nuance Communications, the makers of Dragon voice activated software, comes this mobile assistant.

Our take: while Siri and other mobile assistants hold promise, they aren’t at the point where they can be relied upon 100% of the time with 100% accuracy. However, if you are looking for a way to be more productive in your daily work, these mobile assistants can cut down time.

Image: Apple

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Women Business Owners: Are You Following Finerman’s Rules?

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 06:05 AM PDT

Finermans Rules Forgive me as I pontificate on the joys of middle age (it will only take a minute). There is something glorious that happens when you cross that magical line of actually being mature enough to have an opinion on something and stand by it. It doesn't have to be true for everyone – it just has to be true for you.

When you have that epiphany, it feels like a big, fat, oppressive blanket has been lifted off your shoulders. You suddenly "get" the world and you're okay with it. It's that "Things I know for sure" kind of phase in your life. Once you're in it – people will notice.

That's what I get from Karen Finerman (@karenfinerman), CNBC's "The Chairwoman," CEO of Metropolitan Capital Advisors, mother of two (yes two) sets of twins and all around super woman of Wall Street. And now, the author of Finerman’s Rules: Exerts I'd Only Tell My Daughters About Business and Life. I received a review copy of the book and placed it on my summer reading list.

If you're a woman in business, it goes without saying that you're going to want to read this book. It's guaranteed to get you emotional. Think of this as the working mom versus stay at home mom debate kind of topic. Except that it's targeted toward working women, who they are and how they are at work and how being that way has probably worked against them.

So You Want to Get ahead in Business…

While Finerman's Rules is written as a guide book for women in any professional situation, a lot of these rules come directly from her experiences on Wall Street and in a corporate environment. By saying that, I mean – not necessarily entrepreneurial. It's just a different overall culture and situation.

That said, let's get you a flavor for some of these rules:

“Realize that working from home is like a sexual fantasy: It (mostly) doesn't work out in the real world.”

Oh yeah, this one got my emotion up for sure. I've worked in corporate and I currently work from home and it totally works for me. I also work onsite with clients and that doesn't work for me.

This is what I mean when I say that you will have an emotional response to some of these rules; you will cheer at some and jeer at others. That's what makes the book so much fun:

“Recognize there still exists a serious double standard and plan for it: A man who takes a few hours to go to his kid's soccer game is considered a great dad. A woman who does the same is 'unprofessional'.”

I'm on board with this one. I don't like it and I recognize that it exists. And this is what I like about Finerman's writing in this book. She's just telling you what she's experienced and what's true for her. It may or may not be true for you, but you will find wisdom between the covers of this book.

There are more rules, but I'm going to let you stew on those two until you get your own copy of this book.

Let's move on to how to live inside the rules.

A Framework for Success for Today's Working Woman

Don't worry. This isn't a preachy book at all, Finerman shares a framework that she's developed to survive and thrive in today's working environment. Here's a short summary:

Frame the problem: Clearly define the problem and eliminate the noise.
Take your emotions out of the equation: Oh yes, women do get caught up in the emotional thing. Lose the emotion when you're making decisions.
Know your options: While Finerman is a big believer in NOT taking polls to make your decisions, she also advocates making sure you've done your research and have as much information as you need to make a good decision.
Recognize what needs to be decided and what doesn't. When you have a big decision to make, wait as long as you can to decide because new information may present itself that will help. But don't sweat the small stuff – decide as quickly as you can. (This is my favorite one).
Cut your losses: If one of your decisions doesn't go as well as you'd like – cut your losses and move on. Stop holding on to a bad decision and wishing it would have gone differently.

But Wait – There Are Even More Rules

There is so much good stuff in this book. You'll find even more rules to help guide you on your road to success; eight rules to finding your personal style, ten rules for raising kids as a working mom and everything in between.

All of Finerman's rules are delivered in a frank and engaging writing style through her own personal stories and professional life experiences . The only thing I thought was sort of ironic was the subtitle of the book: Secrets I'd Only Tell My Daughters About Business and Life.

They aren't secrets and she's not just telling her daughters – she's sharing it with the world – and it's worth listening to.

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