Must-Reads For Entrepreneurs: Why Startups Fail.

Startups.
A new website keeps track of startups that fail – and why: “What stands out to me is how many companies say they failed because of a ‘lack of market fit.
There are just so many people building things that they don’t have a customer for. It’s like, this is ridiculous! When you see them all at once, I can’t believe this many startups got funded.”
Customer Service
Is customer service better than ever or worse than ever? “The optimist in me says we’re arriving at a new day where folks like Tony Hsieh at Zappos are able to make the argument that great customer service is an investment in marketing – not a favor but a necessity.”
Intellectual Property
A bill cracking down on patent trolls is closer to becoming law: “On one side are tech firms and retail businesses who’ve been hit the hardest by the patent troll suits. On the other side, biotech and pharmaceutical industries have been particularly active in trying to keep the bill from changing patent litigation too much — because they rely on the system to protect their tremendous investments into new medical breakthroughs.”
Pricing

Airbnb is using big data to help its hosts set prices: “Price Tips, a feature that the company announced Thursday at its OpenAir conference in San Francisco, is a constantly updating guide that tells hosts, for each day of the year, how likely it is for them to get a booking at the price they’ve currently chosen.”
Mobile Payment
Here’s why many retailers remain skeptical of mobile payment: “The top reasons retailers cited for not accepting Apple AAPL -0.98% Pay were insufficient customer demand, a lack of access to data generated in Apple Pay transactions and the cost of technology to facilitate the payments.”
Energy
Here’s the case for a carbon tax: “These companies — the BG Group , BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and Total — are not taking a bold environmental stand. They are being pragmatic.”

Selling Online
Walmart is starting a new online shipping program, hiring tech employees and pledging to invest $1 billion in online operations.: “With less than one-sixth the online sales of Amazon, Walmart has been repeatedly outgunned and outsmarted by Amazon’s price-matching, robot-utilizing, competition-crushing machine.”
Human Resources
Wages are finally rising: “It is positive because higher wages means higher household income, which means more demand in the economy and ultimately higher topline growth for corporate America.”
A lawsuit filed in California last month raises questions for companies that track their employees by GPS: “In her lawsuit, Arias makes claims that include invasion of privacy and wrongful termination in violation of public policy.”
Social Media
Here’s what hospitals are doing to boost their ratings on Yelp, HealthGrades, ZocDoc and Vitals: “’My wish is that less effort would go to trying to look good and more effort in actually being better,’ said Bob Kocher, a former health-care adviser to President Obama who is now an investor in health-care IT.”
The Economy
McDonald’s says that a key sales measurement dipped in May, with weakness in the U.S. and some overseas markets: “The world’s biggest hamburger chain said Monday that sales at locations open at least 13 months edged down 0.3 percent last month. In the U.S., the figure declined 2.2 percent.”
Going Global
Here’s how profit and entrepreneurship could save the Middle East: “A RAND Corporation report found that the Israeli and Palestinian economies would stand to gain $173 billion over the next decade if an independent Palestine emerged tomorrow.”

forbes.