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"\r\n\r\nAs we get closer to the New Year, the ritual of making resolutions begins and we all flock to the usual patterns: we want to to eat healthier, work out more, get promoted, or spend more time with our kids and family.\r\n\r\nThese are with no doubt worthwhile goals, but I\u2019d like to pose an\u00A0important challenge for founders: Make learning and development your key resolution in 2013.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re a startup, you are by definition competing with the smartest people in the world \u2013 either large companies with more resources than yours or fellow entrepreneurs who are hoping to disrupt large companies.\r\n\r\nYour knowledge can make the difference between failure and success. Learning a new skill can also increase the chance of serendipity, the \u201Cmagic\u201D moment when seemingly unrelated concepts form an orignal thought in your head.\r\n\r\nConsidering picking up new skills? I've gathered a comprehensive list of resources for startup learning. Let\u2019s get started!\r\nUdacity\r\nUdacity\u00A0offers a range of free online courses from top University professors. A few of the top courses include:\r\n\r\n\tIntroduction to Artificial Intelligence (CS271):\u00A0Includes machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, robotics, and natural language processing.\r\n\tHow to Build a Startup (EP245)\u00A0by Steve Blank: You\u2019ll learn the key steps of the Customer Development process. How to identify and engage the first customers for your product, and how to gather, evaluate and use their feedback to make your product, marketing and business model far stronger.\r\n\tAlso worth subscribing to is\u00A0Venture Lab\u00A0\u2013 a series of startup courses online from Stanford University, for free.\r\n\r\n\r\nUdemy\r\nStartup courses from\u00A0Udemy, a crowdsourced platform for learning:\r\n\r\n\tLearn how to raise money for your startup:\u00A0The most popular course on Udemy, gathering advice from 7 founder CEOs including Naval (founder of AngelList), Dave McLure (founder of 500 Startups) and others. Learn how to raise capital from angel investors and venture capitalists (and how to decide who you should target).\r\n\tSocial media marketing for startups:\u00A0How to use social to launch, position your messaging and get distribution.\r\n\tStartup Hiring: How to attract, hire and retain the best people.\r\n\tHow to Bootstrap Your Startup: Everything you need to start your business \u2013 how to take an idea on paper and bring it to life.\r\n\tStrategy Mapping Selling: Business-to-business sales and marketing \u2013 advanced selling and marketing strategies for major and key account sales.\r\n\r\nTechnical courses from\u00A0Udemy:\r\n\r\n\tLearn how to make iPhone and iPad apps\u00A0in 1 hour without any programming knowledge.\r\n\tLearn Ruby on Rails, an incredibly powerful and highly scalable object-oriented language, with this ten step tutorial.\r\n\tLearn to Develop an iPhone or iPad App in 4 Weeks.\u00A0A step-by-step guide for aspiring developers with no coding or Objective-C experience.\r\n\tBecome a Web Developer from Scratch!\u00A0Learn all the programming languages needed to become a web developer from scratch.\r\n\tAdvanced Google Analytics:\u00A0Learn all about RegEx, advanced segmentation, intelligence alerts, custom reporting, event tracking, virtual page views, Ecommerce tracking, and custom variables with practical exercises.\r\n\r\n\r\nCoursera\r\nCoursera\u00A0also offers free online courses given by professors in top universities:\r\n\r\n\tProgramming Languages\u00A0by Dan Grossman of University of Washington:\u00A0Investigate the basic concepts behind programming languages, with a strong emphasis on the techniques and benefits of functional programming.\r\n\tCryptography II\u00A0by Dan Boneh, Stanford University Professor: Learn about the inner workings of cryptographic primitives and protocols and how to apply this knowledge in real-world applications.\r\n\r\nCoursera is a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.\r\nedX\r\nHarvard and MIT created\u00A0edX, an online learning platform with great content.\u00A0edX currently offers HarvardX,\u00A0MITx\u00A0and BerkeleyX classes online for free.\r\n\r\n\tCS184.1x: Foundations of Computer Graphics\r\n\tCS169.1x: Software as a Service\r\n\r\nSkillshare\r\nSkillshare\u00A0lets you learn skills from other people. Really interactive way of learning:\r\n\r\n\tHow to turn ideas into infographics\r\n\tSchools for brands:\u00A0A really cool idea enabling brands to offer courses. For example, check out this\u00A0GE Skillshare school.\r\n\r\n\r\nCodecademy\r\nPick up your programming skills from\u00A0Codecademy. Interactive way to learn how to code :\r\n\r\n\tJavaScript\r\n\tHTML/CSS\r\n\tPython\r\n\tRuby\r\n\r\nYouTube\r\nYouTube has its own channel dedicated\u00A0to educational content at\u00A0YouTube EDU.\u00A0It contains a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.\r\n\r\nLore\r\nLore\u00A0(Learn + More), formerly known as CourseKit, has some great courses on deck. It\u2019s also beautifully designed.\r\n\r\n\tNarrative and Comms Design\u00A0by Portland State University\r\n\t3D\u00A0modeling, rendering and animation\u00A0by Penn University\r\n\r\nKhan Academy\r\n\u00A0Khan Academy\u00A0has a huge range of free educational videos. A few selections:\r\n\r\n\tHedge Funds, Venture Capital, and Private Equity:\u00A0Similarities in compensation structure for hedge funds, venture capital firms, and private equity investors.\r\n\tRaising money for a startup from an angel investor:\u00A0Learn pre-money and post-money valuations are.\r\n\tHere\u2019s a video on\u00A0Series A funding from a VC\u00A0to get you inspired to start:\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJj5NpWUXQ\r\n\r\nIt is essential that you take steps like these in order to be prepared for the challenges and competition ahead. And there\u2019s no better time to get started than the coming year. As Steve Jobs said, \u201CStay hungry, stay foolish!&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nImage Credit: Frederick Florin/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2012/12/30/learning-should-be-your-top-2013-new-years-resolution/1/>