Startup Advice

November 2012 The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself. The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they're something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing. Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all began this way. Problems Why is it so important to work on a problem you have? Among other things, it ensures

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. While every entrepreneur starts with a dream of making a dent in the universe, most end up discovering that it is more about survival. Skepticism looms large and the struggle is often tougher than expected. The challenge is to deal with the ups and downs. The initial euphoria of a new company subsides and eventually one has to face the real world: a place full of skeptics. An entrepreneur must learn to cope with all these things and still remain fo

September 2001 (This article explains why much of the next generation of software may be server-based, what that will mean for programmers, and why this new kind of software is a great opportunity for startups. It's derived from a talk at BBN Labs.) In the summer of 1995, my friend Robert Morris and I decided to start a startup. The PR campaign leading up to Netscape's IPO was running full blast then, and there was a lot of talk in the press about online commerce. At the time there might have be

Failure, says one prominent start-up CEO. In a presentation to b-school students, Kim Kovacs, Founder and CEO of software company OptionEase, shocked the students by telling them that she hopes they fail. In an 8-minute video excerpt from her talk at UC Santa Barbara, Kovacs describes why “failure is my favorite word at my company now.” She even, she says, doesn’t hesitate to hire people who have been fired from other companies. The strategy seems to be working.

One of the biggest mistakes that prevent a successful startup from happening in the first place is the one thing that everyone clamors and screams is all-important: a detailed business plan. Because what’s the point of a business plan if you can’t seem to get your startup off the ground? If you find your company struggling, you might end up throwing that business plan out the window anyhow. Maybe it’s time to hit the streets, beat some bushes and knock down some doors. Here are a few good reason

How does a side project become a profitable full-time company?

Taking your business idea from dream to reality is a road paved with blood, sweat, and tears. If you’ve heard stories about overnight crowdfunding success or multi million dollar investments and are planning on coasting on your product or idea’s storyline, you might as well pack up and go home now. Ideas take money to move from that imagination to reality, but more importantly they take time and effort. The opportunities to gain funding for your brand are definitely there, but it’s important to

At its broadest level, a board has two fundamental responsibilities: To ensure compliance and to improve company performance. However, as any directors will know, in practice it’s rarely this simple, with a heady mix of egos and senior level corporate experience clashing on a regular basis, each bringing their own agendas and experiences. In extreme cases, boards can ‘blow up’ at the detriment of the business – famously happening with both the National Australia Bank over hedging losses and The

Entrepreneur. It's a tough word -- both to spell and to call yourself. Being an entrepreneur brings with it a love of leaping head first into the unknown. Life-long entrepreneurs love new challenges, and live their lives in a constant growth phase. One of the common resources an entrepreneur turns to is a mentor. Asking for advice and bouncing ideas off of others is essential to the success of an entrepreneur's journey. I've been fortunate to have a variety of mentors over the years, and I can't

Regardless of the industry you are in, you can be highly successful if you live by these very simple ideologies. Like many business owners, I wasn't born to be an entrepreneur, I never planned on running a business, and I most assuredly had no experience in successfully growing one. However, over the course of my nearly 21 years of business ownership, I have learned a few things that have helped keep the bumps and bruises to a minimum while maintaining double-digit growth year over year. Regardl

There are excellent articles on business promotion, marketing, and sales strategies. However when it comes to strategic planning for running an enterprise especially in the small and medium scale sector. The entrepreneurs are often found groping in the dark. The purpose of this article is to uncomplicate this complicated process and present it in an easy to understand “How to” format. This article is positioned for an entrepreneur with some management education or background running an enterpris

Starting a new business is like having a baby. I’m no expert in raising kids, yet I know that when your first baby is born you’ll always seek your parent’s advice. The same thing applies when you have your first startup, you should find your parents (mentors) for your newly born baby (startup). Yes, your mentors will be your new parents. You’ll need mentors that have gone through the ups and downs of an entrepreneur’s life. The mentors should be experienced entrepreneurs that previously built tw

You have great ideas and you're passionate about them. So where's your path to great success? Let these golden rules of successful entrepreneurs guide you. Tweet A successful entrepreneur can be defined and measured by a number of different standards. But an extraordinary entrepreneur possesses qualities and strengths that make them stand out from the crowd. They build on life's lessons, rather than resent and resist them, and they demonstrate a keen wisdom, often beyond their years. Perhaps the

Editor’s note: This is Part II of a two-part guest column written by legendary Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures. In Part I, he offered suggestions to help founders determine if, when, and how to avoid hiring a CEO. You can follow him on Twitter at @vkhosla. As a founder, there sometimes comes a point in your company’s growth trajectory when you need to hire a CEO or president from the outside to get to the next level. This can be an incredibly difficult decisi

Ben Yoskovitz is the CEO & Co-Founder of Standout Jobs, which offers Reception, a software product to help companies build more engaging and interactive career sites. Companies can give candidate’s the information they want and market their jobs more effectively. He’s also an active blogger on startups and entrepreneurship at Instigator Blog. One of the hardest things for startups is hiring great people. And one of the big reasons is that too few startups devote enough time to hiring; they’re to

The journey from the corporate world to the startup world might seem simple to some. There’s no reason you can’t take what you learned working at a successful, established company, apply it to your startup and expect the same results, right? Wrong. Entrepreneurs who come from a corporate setting need to “unlearn” what has been ingrained in their brain for so long, or they risk putting their startup at jeopardy. Here are a few important points and comparisons to keep in mind when making the trans

Every entrepreneur has been there, standing on the ledge of a cliff, looking at the ground below. Knowing that if they leave the safety of their day job, they may or may not make it to the ground safely. But something inside them knew that they just had to jump. They had to see if their idea could float. And so they made the leap. They fought through the fear and made it happen. I want you to know that we’ve all been there, multiple times. Fear is just something that comes with being a business

Entrepreneurs are the ones who throw away the rule book and write their own. But at some point along the way, they realize they’ve thrown away the rule book. Hence all the tips and tricks and advice and how to’s and to do’s and to don’ts. But advice often reflects personal experience, rather than universal truths. I surveyed entrepreneurs, and they offered these tips: be more ambitious; be less ambitious; age matters; age doesn’t matter; don’t have a delicate ego; don’t have an inflated ego. And

Entrepreneurs have many characteristics in common with one another, and the authors of The Risk Takers say that's no coincidence. Find out what ten traits entrepreneurs share that contribute to their success. America has always been a beacon of entrepreneurialism because it is so deeply rooted in our history. Our country was founded and then settled by innovators willing to sacrifice old certainties for new opportunities. The people who came to America a few hundred years ago looking for a bette

My life revolves around startups. I read about startup news and trends over my morning coffee. I spend my days advising my portfolio companies and interacting with members of the startup community. I travel to conferences regularly, where I meet startup founders outside of my city. Because of my immersion in the startup world, I’ve witnessed a lot of trip-ups. Here are six common misperceptions about launching a venture – and what you should know: “I need venture capital.” Despite how some start

Not all startups will require a large team to get a product online and scale quickly. There are examples of single technical founders or even a team of 2-3 people building the initial frameworks for rapidly advancing Internet startups. You will see this type of startup more commonly in mobile app stores where the barrier to entry and profit margins are very high. But even websites and other startups can thrive in an environment with very few team members. In this article I’d like to delve into t

You may be a fact and logic-driven leader, but others don't think like you do. Learn to get your point across through emotional connection. Have you ever stood before an audience, uncertain whether you are truly connecting with them? Or, have you spoken to an employee who appears to be getting the message--but whose actions later tell another story? To you it's simple; communicate your thoughts and the facts quickly and concisely and anyone will understand. Not true. Facts and statistics may tel

Every time I hear about a new startup that is in stealth mode, I wonder what problem they are hiding from whom. Of course they pretend that they are trying to avoid alerting competitors prior to launch, but too often it becomes an excuse to move slowly in a world that’s all about getting to market fast. I believe stealth makes sense for large companies who can be sued for “pre-announcing” a new product to stall the market or kill a competitor. It also makes legal sense to never disclose the details of your patent application, before the product ...

Try to find a VC or Angel investor to throw lots of money at you so you can continue to develop the product (and pay for things like rent, food and a new car.) There’s two things wrong with this strategy: 1. The numbers don’t work for you In the US (arguably the largest VC market in the world) about 1,500 companies receive VC funding and 50,000 receive Angel funding per year, according to Venture Capitalist David S. Rose of Rose Tech Ventures. And half of those that do get funded, go out of busi

Here's how to motivate employees to get more done--no extra money or real effort required. Want to dramatically improve your employees' performance without spending any money? Want to dramatically improve your own performance without taking classes, attending seminars, or buying cool new gadgets that promise lots but deliver little? It's easier than you think. Here's how: Create self-esteem incentives. We all work harder when we feel respected and appreciated. (Obvious, but really easy to forget

A new survey offers tough medicine for bosses. How can you thrive in a grass-is-always-greener world? The Internet has made it easier to find nearly anything, whether it's that perfect picture for your new apartment, the coolest new restaurant in town, a rare collectible or--apparently--a new job. And, according to a new CareerBuilder survey, that means companies need to face some stark realities about the behavior of today's employees and job seekers--namely, that the two groups are one and the

How to Write the Perfect Email: The 9-Step Script for Emailing Busy People Perfect Email by Gregory Ciotti If you want to get in touch with successful people (aka: BUSY people), you need to know how to email them. Despite the buzz around social media, far more people use email to communicate than any other online medium^1, and business today still gets done over email, not through tweets. Today, I’m going to show you the elements of the PERFECT outreach email, and how you email busy people the r

The founder of 42Floors offers a crash course in e-mail etiquette for entrepreneurs reaching out to high-profile contacts. shutterstock images Tweet You think your e-mail in-box is out of control, right? Just imagine what VCs, angel investors, and other high-profile folks are facing. These extremely busy people must be buckling under an e-mail avalanche. But that doesn't mean it's impossible that you, as a entrepreneur with a relevant business proposal, may still need to reach them from time to

"It's natural to doubt when it comes to promoting your business, new programs or yourself as an expert. Entrepreneurship is about getting out there and doing it anyway, even if the fear, worry and doubts outweigh your confidence." "A debilitating mindset I see is that overnight success is possible. These young entrepreneurs are inspired to start their own business by witnessing individuals that are currently successful. They study the success story instead of the origin of that success story, wh

A spin-off is merely a startup spawned by a mature parent (company), and conventional logic would dictate that it has a survival advantage over the lowly startup. Yet spin-offs seem to most often fail to launch in the real world. I was part of one myself a few years ago, and felt the pain, so the phenomenon has intrigued me ever since. My first thought is that spin-offs are like struggling adolescents with over-protective parents. When companies spin off a division (sometimes called a demerger or deconsolidation), they naturally want it to grow and succeed on its own merits, just ...

The first person you hire will have a vast amount of power and influence in your organisation – no matter what their job title – because they will be the first “outsider” to shape your day-to-day culture. So how can you ensure that you make the right choice when it comes to hiring employee number one? Is the time right? “Needing to employ someone” is not the same as “needing some things doing” and you confuse the two at your peril. When you hire someone to be part of your organisation you’re mak

Even in an uncertain job market, a December 2011 survey by human resources software maker Cornerstone OnDemand and Harris Interactive found that 21 million U.S. workers planned to change jobs this year, costing companies an estimated $2 trillion. The survey also found that the solution to keeping employees might lie in better performance management, including employee performance reviews. Only 37 percent of respondents felt that they were given useful feedback by their managers during their revi

Many startups scramble to create a "minimum viable product," or MVP, to get a version of their product to market quickly for testing. It’s a great way to cost-effectively test a website or app with real users. But be careful, if your MVP is too minimalist, it could torpedo your company's future. Guest author Matthew Zehner is the CEO of ZehnerGroup, a digital agency that specializes in launching Web startups and innovating established businesses. The issue is that an MVP is usually the customers’ first exposure to your product, and a bad first impression could have long-lasting consequences ...

Have you taken a liking to the ambitious ways of Donald Trump or Richard Branson? Are you interested in building your very own business empire? Well this article here will fill you in on what it takes to build a successful business empire. Successful entrepreneurs know exactly what they want and do visualize themselves doing it. They know “what” they need to do to achieve their entrepreneurial vision and they go ahead to establish “how” to do it. They establish through intensive but targeted net

Have you ever had trouble closing a deal or convincing someone of your worthiness? Most people have this problem or at least have had this a few times in their life. In Business, mastering the technique of persuasion is known to be the key to major success and can be the difference between a pat on the back or a slap in the face, figuratively speaking. Read on for a little insight into the art of persuasion in the world of business. 1. Give and you shall receive When someone does you a favour, y

Don’t you just hate hagglers? The people who complain about your price points being too high… especially when they try to negotiate you down, right? I wish I could tell you that I have a solution to stop people from complaining about your price points. But I don’t. What I do have is a solution to get those complainers over the fact that you have a price that is “high”. And more importantly get them to not only accept your high price points, but also feel good about handing over their money to yo

By virtue of doing what I do for a living, I spend a decent amount of time reading, watching, and listening to information related to management. Whether in the form of articles, videos, interviews or keynote speeches, I am always interested not only in what is being said about good management, but how it is being communicated. And frankly, I have completely run out of patience for both. The fact is, too many people who speak and write about management don’t even try to say anything original. Wh

A while back I received a discouraging note from an entrepreneur with a patent and a medical software application who couldn’t find a dime of investment, and was grousing that seed funding just wasn’t available anymore. After exchanging a couple of notes, I concluded that she was more likely a victim of item #1 on my reject list below, rather than a drought on seed funding. Too many people still believe the urban myth that you can sketch your idea on a napkin, and people will throw money at you. Fundraising is indeed brutally tough at all stages ...

While walking a potential investor through my first company’s office, he suddenly stopped to take a few deep breaths. I thought something was wrong until he told me, “I’ve never felt such powerful energy!” As a 21-year-old entrepreneur, I had taken our company culture for granted until that moment. In the course of building my first and second companies, I learned firsthand that a startup’s culture is built on its founders’ true values. With this in mind, I set out to discover and define my own

Not all entrepreneurs need a business plan. Most start-ups succeed because the founder had an authentic vision and clarity of purpose, not a well-written document. While not all planning is bad, the content that most business plans focus on has little to do with the reality that will actually emerge. Instead of agonizing over a document, focus on identifying exactly why your business should exist. Clearly articulate the bigger goal at hand, whether you call it vision, purpose, or calling...

Are you trying to find a way in the door to compete for brand dollars? As you've probably learned, you have plenty of company. Few digital startups have the relationships in place to generate instant clients from major brands or agencies. It's a Catch-22 situation because these business owners need to demonstrate examples and case studies to get in the door, but they can’t generate highly relevant examples and case studies without first getting in the door. Here are five tips to help open the do

Startups are famous for their innovation, freedom, and rags-to-riches culture, and while not everyone can or wants to be a part of a startup, there’s still a lot to learn from what goes on in these organizations. Finding happiness, focus, and motivation are just a few of the cues everyone can take from startups that can lead into success and achievement, both personally and professionally. Read on to learn about these and more secrets from startups that we can all learn from. Some of the most su

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. I like to say to first-time entrepreneurs, picking a VC is more permanent than marriage. If you pick the wrong spouse at least you can get divorced. Keeping a blog has been great because so many entrepreneurs have written me with questions about their companies and I’ve gotten to know many of you personally through the process. In these many exchanges similar questions crop up. One theme

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. It’s very tempting. It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) prominent industry luminaries to be closely associated with the company. It’s done partly in hopes of gaining their wisdom but it’s also done to portray the company in a positive light through association. So do advisory boards really add value? And if you decide to have one how do you best implement it? In m

Working for a start-up is attractive—sometimes magnetically so. The job descriptions usually include phrases like “casual, fun office environment” and “room for rapid advancement.” And as you answer questions on their non-traditional job application (“If you were a reality TV show star, which one would you be?”), you imagine yourself balancing on a stability ball in yoga pants and a t-shirt, collaborating with like-minded colleagues over chai lattes. It’s true that joining a start-up can be a fu

Here’s an email exchange that I had in the past 24 hours with an entrepreneur. Remember, I try to answer all of my emails and be responsive to any inquiry. This was a random one (of which I get between 25 and 100 each day). Entrepreneur: I just wanted to touch base with you and see if you are taking on new startups right now. Me: Can you send me a paragraph and I’ll tell you if it’s something we’d be interested in. Everyone else to bcc: Entrepreneur: It’s difficult to accurately describe the com

“Pivot” may be an overused word, but whatever you call it, changing course isn’t easy for startups. If general advice about pivoting is too abstract, these case studies can give you an idea of what triggers a pivot and what kinds of changes to make. From: Zoora, a marketplace connecting independent designers with young women who want unique, customizable fashion. To: Bow and Drape, a fashion brand that offers customizable clothes to mature women. The Story: The Zoora team realized that young wom

There are three things every business needs to have in place in order to succeed people, product and visibility. With the right talent and product in place and visibility in the market, money is easy to find and resources abound to make your dream a reality. As part of their commitment to deliver the resources entrepreneurs need to build viable and long lasting business. Startup America had my company, Leverage PR come and deliver a presentation last month for their learning series on How to Bui

I dropped out of college to pursue my business goals instead of completing a degree. While I wouldn’t say that college is a waste of time for everybody, I do think that there are plenty of important entrepreneurial skills that just aren’t covered in obtaining a traditional education. So, if you’re thinking about pursuing your own startup business, I recommend brushing up on the following skills, either instead of or as a complement to your ongoing education: 1. How to handle SEO. Business is dig

Which page of your website gets the most visitors? If you're like most businesses, your About Us page is at or near the top of the list. That's great--unless you treat your About Us page as an afterthought. After your site gets potential customers interested in your products or services, they naturally head to your About Us page--often within three to four clicks--to make sure your company is the right choice to provide those products and services. That's why your About Us page is often your web

Advertisers spend millions of dollars to motivate us into purchasing things that we probably don't even need. Think about automobile commercials. In them, you virtually experience the speed, smell, and luxury associated with owning the car of your dreams. This kinesthetic experience may be very real, even pleasurable, for the 30-second duration of the commercial. But if you continue to think about owning that pricey vehicle it will create something in your brain called cognitive dissonance. This

Now here’s a problem you either have or wish you had: Your startup is growing so fast that you need to hire more employees to keep up… stat. But this is a process you shouldn’t rush. The reason? Adding people is a big step and it’s important to take stock and lay out a plan for how your company will be organized before hiring anyone else. Otherwise, the strain could, in time, cause sever problems that you may not be able to overcome. Here are five ways for prepping your company’s infrastructur

Selling a brand new product or service is tough. And a startup selling to big companies is one of the hardest jobs around. Your product is still being built. Your team is still gelling—or coming apart—or both. You can’t afford marketing support and you have few (if any) customer references. You’ve got only a few bucks in the bank. And, worst of all, you aren’t at all sure how well the rest of the team is going to execute once you actually close a deal. high five To give you a hand, below are 9 ...

Recruiting is one of the most important jobs an entrepreneur has in the early stages of setting up his or her company for success. After all, people are the most valuable resource at any company, and when you bring in a co-founder, you’re starting a new relationship that requires nurturing and mutual support. It’s very important to approach this task with enthusiasm and transparency. Bootstrapping a startup is an excellent way to validate your assumptions about the company you plan to start. Res

Summer is over and entrepreneurs are cranking up for the fourth quarter, hoping to finish the year big. Now is clearly not the time to let your energy level slip. Even if your passion for work is no longer enough to drive you, you can't afford to disengage even for a second. Sustained energy and razor sharp focus come from within, not from a caffeinated beverage or other external stimulants. Here are six ways to help you develop a core base of energy: 1. Get a good night's sleep. I hear about pe

This article is the first in a three-part series about naming your startup; on Thursday, we’ll discuss creating names, and on Friday, we’ll discuss testing names. Naming can be one of the most difficult challenges in the early stages of a startup. But while many people have written about the topic, few have actually codified the process to help entrepreneurs succeed in the endeavor. This guide breaks down naming into individual steps with detailed, practical suggestions that can be applied to al

I dropped out of college to pursue my business goals instead of completing a degree. While I wouldn’t say that college is a waste of time for everybody, I do think that there are plenty of important entrepreneurial skills that just aren’t covered in obtaining a traditional education. So, if you’re thinking about pursuing your own startup business, I recommend brushing up on the following skills, either instead of or as a complement to your ongoing education: How to handle SEO. Business is digita

Scaling is hard. Really hard. As we have seen with the recent speed bumps at highfliers like Groupon and Zynga, taking "lean startups" from foundation to creating sustainable, scalable, profitable business models is a very rare and special task. So I'm highlighting a few companies outside of the Google/Amazon/Facebook pantheon that have built large, sustainable, profitable business models at scale. Recently, I wrote about Akamai, a company with strong network effects that successfully transition

As companies grow, they create routines and processes. Management seems to think this will make their companies more efficient. It might, but routines and processes also sap employee energy. And fast growth, and high rates of change, are all about employee energy. How can you energize employees? With random moments - praising employees on the spur of the moment, doling out spot bonuses, or unexpectedly paying for a nice dinner out, for example. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but the routin

There's a lot more planning and strategy involved in marketing a new brand than many entrepreneurs anticipate. Poor execution can derail even the best product. What’s the first thing a new brand should consider when it comes to marketing strategy? The first step a new brand should take when developing their marketing strategy is making sure that they have a strong understanding of their target customer. Without this, it's easy to create messaging that is too broad or that doesn't address the cus

A little under seven years ago, Kevin McCarthy, Greg Rogan and I – a bunch of naive 21 year-olds – began our pursuit of starting a digital media company. We had the basics that any founders need to succeed – heart, hustle and some interesting ideas. However, looking back, there are some things I learned the hard way that I think all first timers should be aware of as they get their start, and that I’d like to share. While most of these things will still need to be learned the hard way for first

When developing products, an entrepreneur, startup, inventor or small business can rarely assume that the market will wait or that a competitor will not introduce something smaller, better, faster, and at a lower price point. Therefore, reducing time-to-market (TTM) is a key requirement for business success and can be a competitive advantage for those that do it right. Here are a few areas to consider that will help your organization improve time-to-market: • Product specification • Fast prototy

One can find literally hundreds of books, articles, and websites on how to make a successful presentation about your startup to a potential investor. Not so much on how to handle the questions investors may ask. While many of the two hundred or so startups that Startech looks at each year know how to deliver a compelling presentation, it is a source of constant amazement on how few entrepreneurs know how to effectively handle questions that inevitably come from such presentations. Many angel gro

Explainer videos are made to inspire people and to excite them about what you have to offer. For startups, the most important element is to gain attention, spark interest and generate business. Animated explainer videos have a deep impact on human psychology, thus allowing startups and other businesses to use it to acquire new customers and build reputation. Explainer videos have helped many businesses increase their revenue by 10 to 15%. The World Wide Web is oversaturated with information and

All of you know I run by own businesses and have done since a young age, but last year – @NickBellUK took me into NewsInternational to manage the mobile products for The Sun. I wanted to share my experience one year in, how I balance the two careers in tandem and what lessons I have learnt that are transferrable. Let’s begin with the Start Up part. My business, Venevi Enterprises has been moving swiftly, we have been continuing to innovate in the digital space, particularly in mobile and we have

In the world of #StartupPR, when we aren’t in the process of creating and executing flawless, killer PR strategy; we’re selling startups to the media. And we are consistently doing so effectively and successfully. Because we understand the golden rule of pitching the media. If you can pitch Grandma – you can pitch anyone. You may be thinking, ‘My grandmother? she doesn’t even know how to work an iphone!’ Which is exactly our point. The key (among several others we’ll dive into later) to successf

Its time to kick off my Skillshare class on Sustainability. I will do a post each week this month (on Mondays of course). I will do office hours on Google Hangouts on Mondays at 6pm eastern for 30 minutes all month. We will do a project together which is to create a sustainable business model canvas. And there are groups you can create or join to allow you to collaborate with each other to complete the project and the class. To join today's Office Hours on Google Hangouts, please check out the S