If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that there’s never a shortage of news about the hottest startups, the latest gadgets and useful tips to help grow your startup.

That’s why I’m happy to introduce The Coffee Table – a weekly roundup of the hottest startup stories to hit the blogosphere.

Handpicked by yours truly – I hope this roundup helps you discover useful new content you may have missed during the week.

The Coffee Table will be short and sweet so can read it while sitting back and enjoying a warm cup of coffee (or tea).

With that said, here’s the weekly roundup of what happened in the startup world.

Elevatr helps you build booming startups: Ever had an idea you just wanted to write down on paper? Then this is the app for you! Currently available on iOS, Elevatr describes itself as “a place to organise and amplify your business ideas.” 

Forget the Interns – Hire an Apprentice: In her post over at Inc.com  Suzanne Lucas examines the benefits of hiring an apprentice instead of going for the traditional interns. 

The Digital Elevator Pitch – How to Create Click-Worthy Social Media Profiles: John Clark says,”Your social media bios are the elevator pitch of the digital age.” In this post, Clark shares his best practices on how to make your social media profiles standout more.

Latin America’s wannabe Silicon Valleys have to face an inconvenient truth: The need for immigration: Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo takes an in-depth look into the startup scene in South America, and tells us why immigration is key to sustaining a thriving technology market.

7 ways to build and retain a strong team as your company grows: Over at TNW, Gary Swart – CEO of oDesk – talks about the recruitment process and building an epic startup team. And also equally important – he discusses how to keep your top players happy and stay with you.

What about you? Found anything interesting last week? Please share your links in the comments below.

It’s easy to call yourself an expert, but without something to show for yourself, you’ll be hard pressed convincing anybody to take you seriously.

The first step to establishing your authority on a subject is staying updated on all the latest industry news and putting what you’ve learnt into practise. There’s just no other way to position yourself as a credible source of information. And it’s how you separate between the posers and the doers.

Then logically, you’ll want to showcase your expertise in a way that’s helpful for your target audience. Usually in the form of a blog, podcast or ebook (or all three). That is, after all what content marketing is all about – delivering content that’s valuable!

So how do you start gathering all the information you need to stay updated on everything? Here’s short list of ways to get you started

6 Easy Ways To Follow Industry News

1. RSS Reader: Google Reader was the default choice, now that it’s retiring, Feedly is worthy substitute. Follow relevant blogs in your industry and keep those feeds organised with an RSS reader. If you’re into startups and technology, you might want to check out My Top 29 Favorite Tech and Startup Blogs

2. Google Alerts: Receive news updates delivered straight to your inbox. Get started my setting alerts for the following:

• Company name
• Website
• Product
• Names of executives
• Competitors
• Industry terms

3. Twitter Search: Sometimes breaking news hits Twitter first before its published on major online publications. Make sure to save searches for anything related to your industry and relevant hashtags.

4. LinkedIn Groups: This is where business professionals tend to hang out. Meaning that while you’ll be learning more about your industry, you can also expect to connect with other industry experts.

5. Relevant Blogs: Use Technorati to find the most authoritative blogs in your industry. A Google search with, “Keyword + Blog(s)” does the trick too.

6. Use Zite or Flipboard: These two apps are available on Android and iOS. I mainly use Zite for content discovery, and it’s a great way of keeping up with what’s happening in the world. Simply search for interests related to your industry and save them to your Quicklists.

So there you have it, six effective ways to begin collecting data for your content creation.

For more information, check out my post over at Cuutio: How To Stay Updated On Everything In Your Industry

What about you? How do you keep up with all the industry development – and what tools do you use?

Image by Dimitry B

 Dimitry B

If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that there’s never a shortage of news about the hottest startups, the latest gadgets and useful tips to help grow your startup.

That’s why I’m happy to introduce The Coffee Table – a weekly roundup of the hottest startup stories to hit the blogosphere.

Handpicked by yours truly – I hope this roundup helps you discover useful new content you may have missed during the week.

The Coffee Table will be short and sweet so can read it while sitting back and enjoying a warm cup of coffee (or tea).

With that said, here’s the weekly roundup of what happened in the startup world.

8 SaaS apps that are changing the way we do business: I probably check out app reviews at least an hour a day – I just love finding new apps. Over at TNW, Scott Gerber asks 8 successful entrepreneurs which SaaS apps have the potential to change how we do business.

Sales Leads On A Small Budget:  Want to generate more leads on a budget? Fred Wilson asks Russell Sachs from WorkMarket what their secrets are. Well worth reading if you’re sales are flat and need a little boost.

100 AngelList Startups To Watch: How Many Are New To You?: The folks at ReadWrite decided to gather a collection of the top 100 startups on AngelList – which one is your favorite?

Eye on Southeast Asia: 6 Tips for Growing and Managing a Multi-Country Startup Operation: Kiren – co-founder and CEO-Asia of Foodpanda - describes the startup scene in Southeast Asia and how startups have set up base in different countries to attract investors’ interest.

Why VCs should love hardware startups: Skip Fleshman – a partner at Asset Management Ventures - discusses the merits of hardware startups and highlight several examples for VCs to take a second look.

What about you? Did you find anything interesting this week? Please share your links in the comments below.