Best of TWiST 2010

I’m a huge fan of This Week In Startups AKA TWiST which is a fabulous show about Startups (DUH) hosted by legendary entrepreneur Jason Calacanis. Every week he interviews interesting founders and CEOs from well-known companies and popular startups. Each show is educational and most important of all entertaining. He also has a segment called Ask Jason where viewers can send in questions that he answers on the air. The other popular segment is Shark Tank where new startups can call in to the show and pitch what they do and the viewers and Jason and even his guests get to rate the pitch and the idea of the startup. It’s fun and a great way to learn about the art of pitching.

Anyway, here are my top 10 favorite TWiST episodes of 2010.

10. Howard Morgan, Co-Founder of First Round Capital and a 30 year veteran of the technology industry. (#44)

9. Alexis Maybank, Founder & President of Gilt Groupe (#58: Lovely & brilliant found of mega successful empire)

8. Sky Dayton, Founder of Earthlink, co-founder of eCompanies, Founder and Chairman of Boingo (#49: Great stories)

7. Niel Robertson, Founder and CEO of Trada (#47: Charismatic & entertaining)

6. Jody Sherman, CEO of Ecomom (#80: Mastermind of word of mouth marketing)

5.Jessica Jackley, CEO of Profounder and Robert Wolfe, Founder of Crowdrise (#96: Great works by good people)

4. Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy (#94: Khan explains how he created his groundbreaking academy)

3. David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals (#46: Brutally honest & so refreshing)

2. Page Craig (#85: Fascinating entrepreneur with many interesting stories.)

1. Jason talks to Penn St. (#40: Jason shares personal experiences with students. Touching & so interesting)

Here’s a playlist with all 10 episodes

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Secrets of the Startup Sages

What better way to learn how to launch a startup than to get advice from those who’ve proven to be successful with their own startups? Here is a collection of excellent wisdom and advice from some of the best startup sages in web history. Also included are links to their blogs and twitter profiles. Both resources are still alive and offer valuable information that only adds to their impressive body of work.

Evan Williams (Blogger, Odeo, Twitter)

Twitter: @Ev

Blog: http://evhead.com

Advice for Startups (1995 long before Twitter)

10 Rules for Web Startups

Several video interviews during Odeo days

Loic Lemeur (seesmic)

Twitter: @LoicLemeur

Blog: http://www.loiclemeur.com

Top 10 Things for Startups

Think Global Not Local

Jason Calacanis (Mahalo)

Twitter: @JasonCalacanisBlog: http://www.calacanis.com

How to save money running a startup (17 really good tips)

Startup Handbook: How to identify and deal with the slow masses, knowledgeable skeptics, and savvy dreamers.

Guy Kawasaki (Truemors, AllTop, Garage)

Twitter: @GuyKawasaki

Blog: http://www.GuyKawasaki.com

The Art of Innovation (Speech with Slides)

The Art of the Start (Speech)

Michael Arrington (Techcrunch)

Twitter: @TechCrunch

Blog: http://www.techcrunch.com

Startups Must Hire The Right People And Watch Every Penny or Fail

Michael Arrington and 13 Startup CEOs at Web 2.0 (Video)

Gary Vaynerchuk (Winelibrary.TV)

Twitter: @GaryVee

Blog: http://garyvaynerchuk.com

Legacy is Greater than Currency

The DNA Game

Final Thoughts on Startups:

This was just a sampling of the vast amount of excellent information available today about startups from the masterminds who’ve been successful with their own startups.

I selected the cream of the crop here and included many video presentations as well. Does following all of this advice ensure successful for your startup? I doubt it.

However, it will only help you avoid many of the mistakes that others have experienced the hard way. Perhaps you can become of these startup sages someday sharing the lessons you’ve learned!

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