Happy Birthday Twitter: Twitter Turns 6!

Today is Twitter is 6 years old. It is no longer the fresh new internet baby, instead Twitter can be jealous ofPinterest, the new internet baby darling. Some interesting facts about Twitter:

1. Twitter reached 500k users 1 year and a half after launching
2. Twitter reached 1 billion tweets shortly after 3 years.
3. Today Twitter easily has more than 250 million tweets per day.

What I also find fascinating about Twitter, and internet technology in general is just how quickly new technologies change the way we communicate, find interesting and relevant information, and market our businesses. Even more interesting to me is how women use Twitter, and why many people say more women are using Twitter than men. Check out this excerpt from a fascinating Twitter infographic:

See the infographic and read the rest on ForbesWoman

Vanity Fair Solicits Votes For Sexiest Cartoon Characters: Fun or Inappropriate?

Oh, Vanity Fair. I really do like your magazine. I have been a subscriber for over 10 years. I have given the subscription as a gift to many, many people. I like your writing. I like your features. It’s one magazine I actually find time to read (as a working mother of three little boys, reading for fun does not make it high on my to-do list).  But I have to say I am appalled by this content. Here is the official poll on the Vanity Fair web site:Poll: Which Animated Movie Character Was Drawn with the Most Sex Appeal? And here is a tweet from @VanityFair  about this contest:

In a world where we constantly position women and girls as sex objects and expose girls to a plethora of inappropriate sexual images way too early in their lives, is this the kind of “fun” poll that a smart magazine like Vanity Fair should be supporting? I realize that they appeal to an adult audience. I also realize that this is not the first time they have content I think crosses the line between cool, fun, appropriate, and vulgar and inappropriate. I distinctly remember this cover because my six-year old asked me all kinds of questions I didn’t think should even be in his little six-year old mind when he saw it:

Read the rest at Forbeswoman

Oregon’s Angel Business Plan Competition Model: Coming to a state near you?

As someone very involved through what my company does,  in helping entrepreneurs and small businesses succeed, I have immersed myself in the start-up world here in Oregon where my company is based. Oregon has five major business plan competitions across the state. Throughout the year (most of them in the Spring) these competitions put together an LLC group made up of individual investors to create business plan competitions where the winner gets an investment (usually a convertible note) of anywhere from $150,000 to $350,000. The first angel competitions in Oregon were theBend Venture Conference in 2003, followed by Angel Oregon in 2005, then the Oregon Angel Fund (OAF) in 2007,  the Willamette Angel Conference in 2009, Southern Oregon Angel Investment Conference in 2010, and most recently the Gorge Angel Conference started in 2011.  All told in 2012 these conferences and the OAF (not a conference but an Angel group funded by the Oregon Government, with 1.5 million dollars in matching funds every year) will invest just under four  million dollars in to 9-10 companies. For the most part, all the companies will be Oregon companies (some conferences have official rules about where companies are located, some don’t).

Here is how the Angel Conferences and business plan  competitions work:

Read the rest at Forbeswoman

Pitching Your Business vs. Planning Your Business

I feel like recently, as the Lean Startup movement gains more and more traction (I love the Lean Startup principles) and there are more incubators, accelerators, innovation centers, etc. helping startups get off the ground, that I’m hearing more and more this idea:

“you don’t need a business plan, you need a great pitch”

While I absolutely agree that a great pitch is critical for any high growth startup thinking of pitching Angel Investors or Venture Capital firms, I am puzzled by this idea that you need a pitch but not a plan. When I talk to people  who run incubators and accelerators, they all give me the same song and dance. Full disclosure: as the CEO of Palo Alto Software, the developers behind LivePlan, a Software as a Service online planning solution, it is in my benefit to have every small business and every startup write a business plan. But nonetheless, I run this business because I truly do believe in the tools that we produce and truly feel that planning will make startups and small businesses more successful. So, back to this idea of a plan vs. a pitch and what a startup really needs to be successful in today’s landscape. Let’s make the assumption that you don’t need a plan. That what you need is a fantastic pitch. A pitch where you presumably need to talk about:

• Your special sauce. Why your product or service is what this world needs.
• Your team. Why you are the ones to make this happen.
• The competitive landscape.
• The market, and how you will reach it.
• How much you will sell, (i.e. your forecast) over the next 12 months, and then the next few years.
• How much it will cost you to sell (i.e., your Expenses).
• Your implementation plan/timeline to implement.
• How you will use the investment you are asking for (most likely it will match a Profit & Loss you have done).
• What investors will get for giving you their money.

Read the rest on Forbeswoman

The Modern Business Traveler: Top 5 Things That Will Keep Your Travel on Track

In the past two weeks I have been traveling for my company, talking about our new product, LivePlan, and have unfortunately had to endure canceled flights, delays, and re-bookings on all my trips. Let me give you a quick recap of the issues I have encountered recently, as I think they are common to anyone who travels for business:

1. My trip two weeks ago was supposed to be a fast one nighter in Los Angeles, as I was speaking at an SBDC Development conference for about 100 people. I planned to fly out of Eugene at 5:00 p.m., land in Burbank at 9:30 p.m., drive to the hotel, sleep, do a presentation at 9:15 a.m., drive back to Burbank, catch my flight and be back home by 6:00 p.m. My flight was booked out of Eugene via San Francisco. It turns out it was cloudy in San Francisco that day, which meant terrible delays. I got to the airport and realized there was no way United was going to get me to Los Angeles that evening, and if I didn’t get in that evening, I would not be able to get to my speaking engagement on time the next morning. I was starting to panic when I saw that Allegiant Air had a direct flight that evening from EUG to LAX which was leaving in 50 minutes. I could get a one way for $160. Done I thought. Perfect. I waited for a United agent, and explained I just wanted to buy a ticket on Allegiant, as United was not going to get me to LA in time for my speaking engagement. She agreed that they were not going to get me there, but then told me that if I didn’t take the outbound flight, I would invalidate my ticket back.  I was NOT asking for them to book me on Allegiant, or even pay for the fare. I was simply asking for them to make sure my return flight was not canceled because I did not board the outgoing flight. Nope. She couldn’t help me. She suggested I call the United phone number. So, standing right in front of her, I called the phone number. I got an agent that understood what I wanted to do, but proceeded to tell me that my ticket, which cost $485, would need a $150 change fee, and then the difference between the one fare was $1,500.  So let’s recap:

1. United could not get me out on time.
2. Allegiant could, and I was willing to pay for the ticket.
3. To keep from invalidating my return flight, I had to pay roughly $1,300.

I calmly explained to the agent that I was not asking for any money, and in fact all I wanted was to deal with my flight issue myself, and let United off the hook. The agent was smart enough to understand, and after a 15-minute hold time (where the minutes ticked by and I wondered if I would be able to make the Allegiant Air flight that was now taking off in 35 minutes), he came back and let me know a manager had approved the changes without any fees. I know that if I had been angry, screaming and yelling, he probably would not have talked to a manager. But instead I enlisted his help, explained the situation, and knew I had him on my side. I was able to buy my Allegiant Air ticket, contact Alamo rentals to change the pickup location for my rental car, and run to the gate. Problem solved. Had I not acted like my own travel agent and charmed the customer service agent, I would have missed my speaking opportunity.

Read the rest on Forbeswoman

Is “Find Work-Life Balance” Just Code for “Feel Guilty?”

It’s great to be back. If that sounds insufficiently guilt-ridden, sorry. I’m happy to be back at work. No ambivalence, no self-flagellation. It’s great to earn a paycheck again. It’s magnificent to get coffee, use the bathroom by myself and be around grownups. Even meetings are fun, though that feeling will surely pass. So today I’m outing myself as a happy working mom, despite the pressure women with kids often feel to sound miserable and conflicted about the “choice” to work.

Susan goes on to make sure the readers know she enjoyed staying home, loved a long maternity leave, and will revel in her weekend with kids all day. But she makes the point that she chose to go back to work, is happy, and refuses to feel guilty. Amen to that! I feel like more than half the battle for women who work is striving for the supposed balance. Why is it that men feel less inclined to stress out about this ever so tenuous balance? It’s not that they don’t feel torn to have a balanced life. It’s not that fathers don’t want to spend more time with their family, their kids.  So what gives? Why is this a bigger issue for women?

Read the rest at Forbeswoman

I Hate My Teenage Daughter: Comedy at the Expense of Women and Girls

In the past few months I have been bombarded with advertisements about a new show on TV : I Hate My Teenage Daughter. The other night, with now new shows on, the kids asleep, and me too exhausted after an evening strategy meeting to do anything else, I succumbed and watched the pilot of the show. I’d like to pretend that I only watch TV worthy of my time, and that I never watch crappy TV. That unfortunately is not the case. I have been know to rubberneck to terrible shows like  Teen Mom, and soap operas like Private Practice. I am not above watching crappy TV. But I Hate My Teenage Daughter takes the cake. With nothing else on TV, I still could not bare to sit through the 30 minute show. It was badly written, with a terrible laugh track, and worse yet, stereotypes moms and teenage girls in the worst way possible. The moms are portrayed as the dumbest, most insecure, petty, women. They are terrible parents, and even worse, incompetent women. They apparently can’t dress themselves (in the first few minutes of the pilot one of the moms is unaware she is wearing a pajama top to work), and certainly can’t parent or even support themselves. The teenage daughters are also dumb, dress like sluts, and don’t do anything but be mean to other kids, skip school, and plot how to be horrible to their mothers.

Read the rest at Forbeswoman