7 Ways to Motivate Your Startup Team — Without Giving Away Equity

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 18 2012) Productivity

Startup entrepreneurs live, eat and breathe their companies. Catching a quick catnap under your desk counts as a good night's sleep. But how do you get the same level of commitment from mere employees? Typically, the answer has been to award them significant chunks of the company in the form of stock and options. It’s not just greed. Sharing equity in your business early on can lead to complex problems as your company grows. Luckily, there are ways to motivate workers without giving away the store. 1. Show them you care. Tech entrepreneurs are notorious for their lack ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Starbucks

9 Ways to Convince Your Parents to Support Your Startup - Not Just Financially

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 16 2012) Productivity

For many young entrepreneurs, getting their parents’ support for a new venture can make a huge difference - emotionally, practically and even financially. But it’s not always easy to explain to Mom and Dad why, instead of getting a “real job,” you’re putting everything on the line to create a new technology startup. It can be done, though, and these youthful startup veterans explain how: Tip #1: Don’t get too full of yourself. “Show your parents that you have thought [your idea] through to the long term, not just what you hope happens in six months,” says Kelsey ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Chile   Facebook

Stop Flying Blind: Use Big Data to Benchmark Your Startup

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 14 2012) Marketing , Productivity

Most startups fail. Nine out of 10 never amount to anything more than fond memories and a forgotten Facebook page. One reason is that they often lack a clear picture of exactly how they’re doing until it’s too late. But there are tools designed to help you assess your startup's progress compared to similar companies. The best way for startup founders to improve their chance of success is by learning to make better decisions. But if you want to make better decisions, you need better data. And that’s where Startup Compass comes in: It’s designed ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Startup Genome

How and Why Your Startup Should Go Virtual

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 14 2012) Productivity

Comment Mentions:   Internal Revenue Service   Russia   Sara Sutton Fell

Is Entrepreneurship for Everyone?

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 10 2012)

Not long ago, serial entrepreneur and founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council Scott Gerber offered his prescription to Fix Young America. In short, Gerber believes entrepreneurship can cure a lot of what’s wrong with the American economy. Yesterday on Salon.com, those ideas came under attack as an Occupy imposter - instead of representing American’s youth, the post contended, they’re shills for “the most noxious aspects of the bipartisan status quo.” Gerber can defend himself, but in criticizing him, the authors seem to be condemning entrepreneurship. And that needs defending. To give them their due, Salon authors Daniel ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Scott Gerber   Adam Goldstein

From Founder to Alchemist, Why Titles Aren't Trivial

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 9 2012) Recruiting

The current technology boom is, on most fronts, quite unlike the dotcom boom of the late 1990s. But one aspect that both seem to share is a fascination with titles - both yours and your teams’. Many startup entrepreneurs are returning to the creative titles of the 1990s. Is that really a smart move? Ranjith Kumaran, founder and CEO of PunchTab (which creates instant loyalty platforms), and co-founder of YouSendIt, where he was the Chief Technology Officer (he’s still on the board) acknowledges the “topic of unique, creative and alternative titles keeps coming up as of late.” Kumaran says it ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Ranjith Kumaran

8 Hard-Earned Insights Into Raising Startup Capital

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 8 2012) Funding

Approaching investors for the first time is a daunting exercise for any startup. Regardless of whether you’re raising venture capital, approaching angels or still trying to figure out where to get started, it’s critical to stay level-headed about what you’re really pitching - and what it’s actually worth. The best way to do that is to leverage the hard-won experience of real-world startup. So we asked a panel of eight successful young entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) about their startup funding successes (and failures) and the lessons they learned. Turns out that while every startup ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   San Francisco   Young Entrepreneur Council   YEC

4 Stupid Legal Mistakes That Can Kill Your Startup

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 8 2012) Legal

Everyone knows Dickens’ famous opening from A Tale of Two Cities. But “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." is only the beginning of the line. The sentence continues: “it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” It’s that second part that makes the quote an apt metaphor for life in a startup - and a dire warning to entrepreneurs. When you’re starting a company, your job is to be super-smart and achieve the best of times, while avoiding the dumb mistakes that can lead to the worst of times ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Coca-Cola   Charley Moore

The 3 (or 4) Character Traits it takes to Create a Successful Startup

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 4 2012)

Want to know the second most comon question from startup entrepreneurs? (The first, of course, is “Where can I get money?”) It’s “What traits do successful entrepreneurs share?” They’re not asking about tangible things like good ideas, great teams and adequate funding, but, rather the inner characteristics that set apart the founders of successful startups. No doubt you’re motivated, but that’s not even close to enough. And there’s no doubt you have to be optimistic, perseverant, energetic and at least a little bit lucky. But if you really want to know how how an entrepreneur ... (Read Full Article)

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5 Ways to Bootstrap Your Startup

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 3 2012) Marketing , Productivity

The conflicting (frequently unsolicited) advice startup entrepreneurs too often hear is enough to make you tune it all out. Either you’re told that you need to go big and grab all the angel or VC money you can get your hands on, or that you should start small, do it on your own, and retain control of your company. But bootstrapping a startup is not easy, requiring discipline and fortitude, as well as ingenuity. But entrepreneurs who have done it have discovered some best practices to increase th (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Internal Revenue Service

Angel vs. VC: Which Investor Is Best for Your Startup?

Explore ReadWriteWeb (May 2 2012) Funding

Getting financing for your startup is rarely easy, but if you approach the wrong investor, you can make it even harder than it has to be. “How can there be a ‘wrong investor’?” you might be thinking. “Don’t I just go with whoever is willing to give me the money?” It’s not quite that simple. Approaching the wrong investor is kind of like asking someone who’s married out on a date. Not only will they turn you down, but they’ll probably think you’re an idiot. Many first-time entrepreneurs mistakenly lump angel investors and venture capitalists ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Rieva Lesonsky

3 Ways to Stop Fighting With Your Team!

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 30 2012)

Conflict between founders and team members is among the most insidious problems that can cripple a startup company. Problems can arise on teams of just two or three people, and even in startups that work with regular freelancers or independent contractors. Often, conflict starts so subtly you hardly notice it. But if you don’t take steps to stop the problems, these clashes can hurt your authority, your team’s morale and ultimately your business. There are several everyday conflicts many startups face. Here are three of the most common types of employee problems you’re likely to encounter - and ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Rieva Lesonsky

Top 5 Ways To Freak Out Potential Investors

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 30 2012) Funding

No one believes they have an ugly baby. And all entrepreneurs are convinced that their businesses are better than the other guy’s. So chances are you’re sure (or at least really hopeful) investors will be lining up, eager to put money into your business.  Angels, VCs and banks take a more clear-eyed approach. If they see any of these five warning signs, they’re likely to put away their wallets and head for the hills. Whether you’re looking for private equity, venture capital or angel investors, there are some common warning signs practically guaranteed to scare investors ... (Read Full Article)

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Startup Hiring: The 10% Solution

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 23 2012) Marketing , Recruiting , Productivity

Comment Mentions:   Dropbox   Venture Hacks

Sharing Office Space - 6 Things to Worry About

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 20 2012)

When you're launching a business, you're always on the lookout for every possible way to cut costs. One of the smartest - or maybe the dumbest - ways to save money is to share office space with a bigger company. It all depends on how well you understand the dos, the don'ts and the special risk factors. I know, because my company, GrowBiz Media, tried this not once, but twice, during our early years. Let me share what I learned (the hard way) about the pros and cons of sharing space. Consider these factors before you move in: 1 ... (Read Full Article)

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36 Startup Tips: From Software Engineering to PR and More!

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 16 2012) Marketing , Productivity

This is a collection of startup tips covering software engineering, infrastructure, PR, conferences, legal and finance. They describe best practices for an early-stage startup. We hope that you will find these tips useful, but also please remember that they are based on subjective experiences and not all of them will be applicable to your company. These tips originally appeared as separate posts on the BlueBlog, the blog of AdaptiveBlue. [Ed: Alex Iskold is founder and CEO of AdaptiveBlue, as we (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Michael Arrington   Amazon   Delaware

How to Choose a Startup Incubator

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 16 2012)

Incubators are hot. There are more than a thousand in the U.S., and the proliferation is causing some tech-industry watchers to fret. The flock of incubators is spawning a glut of wanna-be entrepreneurs ready to quit their jobs, commit their lives to a 10-week incubator program and end up with nothing but broken dreams and a souvenir hoodie. But that's their problem. Your problem - if you're building a cool startup and you don't have millions from Andreessen Horowitz - is how to choose the incubator that will nurture your company and launch you toward fame, fortune and ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Harvard Business School   Andreessen Horowitz   Stanford

12 Deadly Grammatical Errors Startups Must Avoid

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 14 2012)

Can the difference between "it's" and "its" actually affect the fortunes of a technology startup? You might be surprised. If you're working with a startup, odds are you're wearing a half-dozen hats and doing too much with too little. Often, this means that founders are writing their own website copy, press releases and blog posts. Too often, that results in grammatical errors that reflect poorly on the startup. Sponsor Developers may not care, but other folks do. When you're composing copy, no matter if it's for the company website or a tweet, slow down a ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   TriNet

8 Things Instagram Did Right

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 11 2012)

With its billion-dollar sale to Facebook, Instagram instantly became the latest poster child for startup success. In just 551 days, the photo-sharing mobile app zoomed from zero to 30 million-odd users, and 10 million U.S. visits by March 2012, up 1000% since December 2011. Its valuation outstrips that of the 116-year-old New York Times. An amazing run, and it wasn't all just luck, though the company enjoyed plenty of that. To boost its chances to win the startup lottery, Instagram did eight very important things right. Sponsor 1. Instagram Operated as a Nimble Start-up Despite its meteoric growth ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Greylock   San Francisco   Sequoia Capital

When Do Startups Need In-House IT Help?

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 11 2012) Marketing , Productivity

An ill-timed technology meltdown can be catastrophic for a vulnerable startup. Perhaps you are about to blast an email marketing message, or just trying to find an important file. And then it happens: frozen computers, corrupted files, wireless blackouts. Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed fast. That much is easy to figure out. Much harder to answer is what's the best, most efficient way to prevent and cure these kinds of potential catastrophes. Sponsor Technology meltdowns are not just a theoretical concern. I know, because my own startup has been hit with them. I had one standing ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Rieva Lesonsky   TriNet

4 Ways to Avoid Hiring Your First Employee

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Apr 9 2012) Marketing , Recruiting

It happens to every moderately successful entrepreneur or startup. At some point in your growth trajectory you realize you can't go it alone anymore. To get to the next step, you need help. But the transition from a one-person-show to actually hiring your first "real" employee runs you smack into an overwhelming number of rules, regulations and taxes - and lots of other ways to mess things up. No worries. There are ways to get help - without actually having to commit to hiring "real" employees. Sponsor These four approaches can help put off that day when you enter the realm ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Internal Revenue Service   Rieva Lesonsky   TriNet

How to Start A New Business in Less Than 50 Hours

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Jan 29 2012)

Just about every weekend someplace on the planet a peculiar series of meetups is happening called Startup Weekend. The idea is to bring together a group of people, many of whom have never set eyes on each other before, to form new ventures, many of which are tech-related. So far the model seems to be working: each weekend on average has produced two or three companies. According to the master website, more than 5,000 startups have been created since the process began, and some 2,000 just in the (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   France   Kauffman Foundation   Norway

5 Tools to Improve Your Idea Before You Write a Line of Code

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Dec 27 2011)

5 Tools to Improve Your Idea Before You Write a Line of Code By Sean Ammirati / December 26, 2011 3:00 PM / View Comments Tweet testtube2.jpg In my last post on ReadWriteStart, I talked about how, in many cases, it wasn't an advantage to build your start-up in stealth mode. As a continuation of that theme, I thought it would be interesting to explore five tools you can use to iterate and improve your startup idea before writing one line of code. There is nothing worse than building a tool no on (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Sean Ammirati

5 Tips for Creating an Internship Program for Your Startup

Explore ReadWriteWeb (Dec 13 2011)

5 Tips for Creating an Internship Program for Your Startup By Audrey Watters / May 27, 2010 2:00 PM / 2 Comments Tweet Share filing_may10.jpg As more and more college students look for internships, hoping to gain valuable work experience prior to graduation, startups would be wise to create strong internship programs. That was the message of Richard Bottner, founder of the college recruiting firm Intern Bridge and Mark Babbit, founder of the internship matching service YouTern, in a talk yester (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   The New York Times