Tips and feedback for geeky entrepreneurs

Big financing rounds, rapid growth, headline-grabbing exit – these are the things often demanded of startups. But this strategy could be fatal for many.

Japan's electronic giants once ruled the world, but now they are losing billions of dollars a year. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes looks at what went wrong.

Adam Osborne became a Silicon Valley legend when he introduced the world to the first portable personal computer in 1981. But instead of becoming the Google of the 80s, Osborne prematurely announced

This is part of my Startup Advice series I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs - both young and more mature - whether they should join company “X” or not.  I usually pull the old trick of answering a question with a question.  My reply is usually, “is it time for you to earn or to learn?”

How do you know when the time is right to make the leap?

My greatest fear as a startup founder isn’t to fail, it is to become a zombie startup. Kind of like in the 6th Sense when Bruce Willis doesn’t realize he is dead and tries to have a nice dinner with his wife, there are startups out there who are still “operating” but might as well not be.

Quick! How do you design distributed scalable software that does many small things to achieve a common goal? Most of you shouted “discrete services!” at the screen, others kind of shook your heads at the buzzword soup in that line. And that’s okay too.

Wine for Android will soon let Android smartphone and tablet users run Windows software. Is this overkill for mobile devices, or a big challenge for Microsoft?

Big data! If you don't have it, you better get yourself some. Your competition has it, after all. Bottom line: If your data is little, your rivals are going to kick sand in your face and steal your girlfriend.

British Software Engineering Grads work in Silicon Valley for a year and bring their experience back to the UK. Silicon Valley Internship Program (SVIP)

Therapists don’t tell you what to do. Rather, they ask probing questions that get you to discover for yourselfwhat is true for you, your situation, and what you want.

You’re smart. You’ll make good decisions. But you also get bogged down in daily minutiae and putting out fires, meanwhile missing the big picture.

That’s where this article comes in: To splash cold water on your face, forcing you to face reality and continue to defend or change the important choices inside your business.

What follows is your startup therapy session. Having to think through and answer these questions forces you to identify what you need to do today to seek profits and growth.

Starting a business in France is an adventure. Ever heard the horror stories of Italian bureaucracy? Well – France has it too! When you go through this adventure you will encounter stamp-fetishism, physical paper obsessions, snooty bank employees, and stamp-wielding government employees.

Richard Yu tells AllThingsD that while carriers like alternatives to Android and Apple, it remains to be seen whether consumers will bite. Meanwhile, Huawei plans more Windows Phones.

Un petit nouveau dans l’écosystème des accélérateurs:The Family. La structure, qui « ouvre » officiellement dans quelques jours, va proposer un programme de mentoring pour les startups, sans durée limitée dans le temps. The Family n’intègre pas la mise à disposition de locaux ou d’espaces, mais réunira régulièrement ses jeunes entrepreneurs dans un appartement à Paris, et une mission rafraîchissante dans une maison à la campagne.

Fondée en juin 2012, la jeune pousse a notamment mis au point une application iPhone qui permet à ses utilisateurs de créer des sites mobiles directement depuis cette application.

Le montant officiel de l’opération n’a pas été dévoilé mais serait proche des 15M $ selon les estimations de Techcrunch.

Il s’agit de la première acquisition de GoDaddy réalisée sous la houlette de son nouveau CEO Blake Irving, arrivé le 7 janvier dernier.