Your Winning Startup Idea: You First (3)

This is the third blog posting on Creating and Moving your own “Winning Startup Idea” into the real world.  The first posting “Create that Winning Startup Idea” included techniques to create your own winning startup idea and the second post You’ve Created Your Winning Startup Idea ~ First Steps (2)/ gave some tips on how to qualify the idea to make sure it’s really the one that you should be investing your heart, soul and time on.

So what do I do next when moving a Winning Startup idea forward? If the idea has really grabbed me my temptation is to start figuring out all of the pieces that are needed to move it from idea to real business.  To start thinking about the people I’ll need to find, figuring out how to test the idea, how much money it’s going to need and the 101 other elements.  It’s at about this time when you need to figure out a few things before you start getting carried away.

Normally at the top of my list is how do I fit in with this idea?

For a product let’s consider just a few of the different steps in the process from idea to real product:

• Developing product drawings (Engineering Skills)
• Developing a prototype (Engineering)
• Prototype testing (Engineering)
• Determining how to produce it in larger quantities (Engineering)
• Testing the Market (Marketing)
• Determining Price Point considering the margins required by the sales channel (Marketing)
• Sanity checking the numbers (Production costs vs. price point to sales channel) (Finance)
• Understanding and selling the product into the sales channel (Sales)
• Marketing the product to retailers and the end consumer (Marketing)
• Managing the invoicing, customer service, tracking cash (Finance etc)

These are just a few broad steps on the road to making a product idea real.  This list is by no means all inclusive.  The point here is that there are multiple component parts necessary to build a business whether it’s a product, service or website.  When you are sure this idea is the one, begin to map out what the idea needs and to overlay that with your own strengths and capabilities.  This will act as a pointer for you ~ it should help make obvious who you will need to find to join the team either actually or virtually.

Thankfully whether your winning startup idea is a product, service or website there are some relatively fixed ‘categories’ that need to be considered whatever the business. Here are some of the key categories and a few thought jogging questions, there are many more:

The Customer:

• What are their needs?
• What are they prepared to pay for? How Much?
• How do they buy products like this? A store / website / telephone / television? 

Competition:

• Where do customers currently buy or go to use products like this?
• What products or services do they offer?
• How much do they charge?
• How do they sell and market their products?
• How many competitors are there?

The Product:

• What does it need to do?
• How will it be much better than what the competition offer?
• Who can prototype and build it?
• How much does it cost to produce?
• What is necessary to produce it?
• Who will produce it?

Sales:

• Where will you sell this product?
• Who will sell it for you?
• How will you pay them? Salary or commission or both? Yes, there are sales people who will work for just commission (Blog Post to come)

Marketing:

• How does it meet the customer need?
• How is it better than what the competition offers?
• How much can we reasonably charge?
• Are we looking for volume of customers or a select group of customers?
• What do customers need to know that will make them want to buy it?
• What are the ways to tell potential customers about the product?
• How much do they cost?
• Are there any ways of telling potential customers about the products cheaply?

Some of these questions may not work for your idea but most should.  As you go through them more questions should pop up. And don’t worry if you don’t know all of the answers, you won’t. Fact. But you will probably be able to make some really educated guesses in the areas that relate to your personal strengths and won’t have a clue in those areas that are too far out of your own skills and experiences ~ another good pointer the types of people you will need to flesh out the idea and really start the tactical planning of “How to Launch Your Winning Startup Idea”. But again, that is the subject of another blog posting.

I hope this posting helps. Again, questions, comments, relevant rude remarks always welcome and ‘Yes’ this posting could have included much more, in fact, it could have gone on for at least another 50,000 words but like most entrepreneurs I have a tendency towards ADD. Let me know where I should dive deeper and I’ll do my best!

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

NOTE: I grant permission for every reader to reproduce on your website or blog the article you are now reading. But copy this article ONLY, without any alteration and please Include the copyright statement. (NOTE: I am giving permission to host on your website this article AND NO OTHERS. Reprinting or hosting my articles without express written permission is illegal, immoral, and a violation of my copyright.)“Copyright © 2007, Advisor Garage LLC. Advisor Garage Blog. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reprint this article on your website without alteration if you include this copyright statement and leave the hyperlinks live and in place.”

Sorry Guy It’s Not So Easy: The Flip Side of Entrepreneurship

This is a guest posting by Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, a company that enables people to buy homes online. He offers a counterpoint to my posting about how easy it is to make millions of dollars with “user-generated, long-tail, Web 2.0, social-networking, open-source content.”

---

Last month, Guy called James Hong and Markus Frind heroes for running multi-million dollar websites like Hot or Not and Plenty of Fish in their underwear. Their stats are jaw-dropping: twelve billion page views, 380 hits per second, two hours of work a day.

Lately I’ve been thinking how hard, not how easy, it is to build a new company. Hard has gone out of fashion. Like college students bragging about how they barely studied, start-ups today take care to project a sense of ease. Wherever I’ve worked, we’ve secretly felt just the opposite. We’re assailed by doubts, mortified by our own shortcomings, surrounded by freaks, testy over silly details. Trying to be like James or Markus has only been counterproductive.

And now, having been through a few startups, I’m not even sure I’d want it to be that easy. Working two hours a day on my own wasn’t my goal when I came to Silicon Valley. Does anybody remember the old video of Steve Jobs launching the Mac? He had tears in his eyes. And even though Jobs is Jobs and I am nobody, I knew how he felt. I’d had the same reaction–absurdly–to portal software and more recently to a Redfin, a fledgling real estate website.

“The megalomaniac pleasure of creation,” the psychoanalyst Edmund Berger wrote, “produces a type of elation which cannot be compared with that experienced by other mortals.” Jobs wasn’t just crying from simple happiness but from all the tinkering, kvetching, nitpicking, wholesale reworking, and spasms of self-loathing that go into a beautiful product. It was all being paid back in a rush.

Like the souls in Dostoevsky who are admitted to heaven because they never thought themselves worthy of it, successful entrepreneurs can’t be convinced that any other startup has their troubles, because they constantly compare the triumphant launch parties and revisionist histories of successful companies to their own daily struggles. Just so you know you’re not alone, here’s a top-ten list of the ways a startup can feel deeply screwed up without really being that screwed up at all.

1. True believers go nuts at the slightest provocation. The best people at a start-up care too much. They stay up late writing Jerry Maguire memos, eavesdropping on support calls, snapping at bureaucracy, citing Joel Spolsky on Aerons, and Paul Graham on cubes. They are your heart and bones, so you have to give them what they need, which is a lot. The only way to get them on your side is to put them in charge.
2. Big projects attract good people. If you aren’t doing something worthwhile, you can’t get anyone worthwhile to work on it. I often think about what Ezra Pound once said of his epic poem, that “if it’s a failure, it’s a failure worth all the successes of its age.” We’re not writing poetry, but it matters to us that we’re trying to compete with real estate agents rather than just running their ads. You need a big mission to recruit people who care about what you’re doing.
3. Start-ups are freak-catchers. You have to be fundamentally unhappy with the way things are to leave Microsoft, and yet unrealistic enough to believe the world can change to join a start-up. This is a volatile combination which can result in group mood swings and a somewhat motley crew. Thus, don’t worry if your start-up seems to have more than its fair share of oddballs.
4. Good code takes time. One great engineer can do more than ten mediocre ones especially when starting a project. But great engineers still need time: whenever we’ve thought our talent, sprinkled with the fairy dust of some new engineering paradigm, would free us from having to schedule time for design and testing, we’ve paid for it. To make something elegant takes time, and the cult of speed sometimes works against that. “Make haste slowly.”
5. Everybody has to re-build. The short-cuts you have to take and the problems you couldn’t anticipate when building version 1.0 of your product always mean you’ll have to rebuild some of it in version 2.0 or 3.0. Don’t get discouraged or short-sighted. Just rebuild it. This is just how things work.
6. Fearless leaders are often terrified. The CEO of the most promising start-up I know of recently used Hikkup to anonymously ask his Facebook friends if we thought his idea was any good. Just because you’re worried doesn’t mean you have a bad idea; the best ideas are often the ones that scare you the most. And for sure don’t believe the after-the-fact statements from entrepreneurs about how they “knew” what to do.
7. It’ll always be hard work. Most start-ups find an interesting problem to solve, then just keep working on it. At a recent awards ceremony, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tried to think of the secret to Microsoft’s success and could only come up with “hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, work.” This is an obvious cliche, but most entrepreneurs remain fixated on the Eureka! moment. If you don’t believe you have any reliable competitive advantage, you’re the kind of insecure person who will work your competition into the ground, so keep working.
8. It isn’t going to get better–it already is. In the early days, start-ups focus on how great it’s going to be when they succeed; but the moment they do, they start talking about how great it was before they did. Whenever I get this way, I remember the Venerable Bede’s complaint that his eighth century contemporaries had lost the fervor of seventh century monks. Even in the darkest of the Dark Ages, people were nostalgic for…the Dark Ages. Start-ups are like medieval monasteries: always convinced that paradise is just ahead or that things only recently got worse. If you can begin to enjoy the process of building a start-up rather than the outcome, you’ll be a better leader.
9. Truth is our only currency. At lunch last week, an engineer said the only thing he remembered from his interview was our saying the most likely outcome for Redfin–or any startup–was bankruptcy, but that he should join us anyway. It’s odd but the more we’ve tried to warn people about the risks, the more they seem to ignore them. And since you have to keep taking risks, you have to keep telling people about them. You don’t want to be like Saddam Hussein, who never prepared his generals for invasion because he couldn’t admit he didn’t have nuclear weapons.
10. Competition starts at $100 million. A Sequoia partner once told me that competition only starts when you hit $100 million in revenues. Maybe that number is lower now. But if you do something worthwhile, someone else will do it too. Since you can’t see what’s going on behind a competitor’s pretty website, it’s natural to assume that all the challenges we just went over only apply to your company. They don’t, so keep the faith.

read more | digg story

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

PlanHQ: A $750K Virtual Investment

PlanHQ.com is an online Business Planning and startup development tool.  Doesn’t sound very sexy does it but you’d be wrong. Having been crazy enough to start three different businesses, I can painfully testify that writing and even more challenging…sticking to the thinking within a good Business Plan is extremely tough.  Plan HQ is an innovative web application that helps entrepreneurs and startups not only create a business plan, but allocate tasks and track progress across the key players. If Plan HQ gets the kind of traction it should then Plan HQ will be a great little business with any number of service and product extensions for the entrepreneur.  Move over 37Signals!

Business Model:
Plan HQ has a nice and simple business model…all elements of the application are hosted by Plan HQ. No downloads, no maintenance, no hosting, no contracts – If Plan HQ does work out for you or you stop needing their service, just leave.  Think ‘Salesforce.com’ for business planning.  Plan HQ offers a 30 day free trial (http://www.planhq.com/signup/) and then the fees are based on number of users on a monthly basis.  So membership types and prices:

Mini   = $9 month / 3 users / 5 active goals
Small = $24 month / 5 users / 10 active goals
Professional = $49 month / Unlimited Users / 10 active goals

Some Core Functionality:
The Plan HQ Product is sub-divided into some management categories that are usually ‘key’ for most startups and early stage companies and of course there’s a ‘Dashboard’ so you can manage and track the imperative tasks. Management ‘uber’ categories include:

• The Dashboard - Covering main tasks, actions, upcoming goals, financials
• The Market  – Your Markets, the Competition, Customers and basic market and customer analytics
• Goals - Actual Goals, Add new goals, confidence of achievement and more
• Financials - Performance, Indicators, graphs 
• The Business Plan Document itself
• Team – Who have you got, who do you need

Likes:
I really like the Plan HQ business model and the product itself, it’s especially relevant for those businesses that are focused on moving towards significant growth and the Venture Capital route.

• The Product seems to cover the key elements of what a young company needs to focus on and allows enough configuration that the users are not ‘locked in’ to Plan HQ already good business management methodology
• I hate to put it like this but for those ‘new’ to building businesses from just a plan, the product can really help ensuring the key team members focus on what’s important to any business but especially the ‘young’ business…Customers, revenues, the team and fund raising.
• As its a web ap, this product is especially helpful for a distributed or virtual team and also for bringing angels, other investors and advisors easily into the key decision making process.  It could actually help get Advisors pulling their weight by locking them into real trackable actions. Wow! Could this product really do this?

Dislikes:
Not so much dislikes as potential questions and ‘like to sees’:

• Paypal as a form of payment.  As a small business owner I don’t like adding my credit card to ongoing online services.
• The positioning is ‘Create, update, track and collaborate around your business plan’. Business Plans eventually fall by the wayside as the business scales and grows beyond a certain stage or size.  As a ‘virtual’ investor, I’d like to see how all the data captured through initial usage and the service ’scales’ with the business. i.e. beyond the business plan and becoming an ongoing discipline and tool for managing the business ongoing.
• I’d like to see a referral program and a ‘Reseller’ model.  For example, a startup I’m involved with ‘Advisor Garage’ (http://www.AdvisorGarage.com)  has 1000+ entrepreneurs, angels and VCs onboard.  This is a service many of our members would probably like to use – can our company ’subscribe’ and offer the Plan HQ service to our members for a fee?  I hope so! Let me know if any Plan HQ folks read this…

What’s unclear:

• how the data exports or integrates with other systems – i.e. quickbooks etc
• Are the ‘Permissions’ configurable? Will all signees be able to access all data? Would a CEO want that?

My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would ask PlanHQ to include me in their ‘Virtual Investment’ plans to the tune of $750K. Once they establish this market, their are so many obvious product extensions that driving great revenues will be easy and hey…they have the tool to manage those new businesses.  Great job Plan HQ!

http://www.planhq.com/

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

read more | digg story

Interview: Some good advice – Andrew from Advisor Garage

Advisor Garage and the Advisor Garage Community is an online service for entrepreneurs to connect with Advisors, Angels, Venture Capitalists and other entrepreneurs. It was established by three people – the founder (Andrew Makunas) and two really fantastic tech guys. Another interesting interview from Loscreador. Let’s find out more…

The idea for Advisor Garage came to Andrew Makunas at Harvard Business School. He was guided by various advisors there who helped him realize his ideas and start his various businesses. Advisor Garage hopes to achieve that same goal, but for entrepreneurs all across the world.

Advisor Garage is still in the initial stage, but promises to be a huge success with the every increasing number of talented entrepreneurs and always helpful guides who want to help. Andrew has taken these both and created a wonderful combination.

In this insightful talk with Los Creador, Andrew tells us what he wants Advisor Garage to achieve and the journey that still has a long way to go.

Los Creador: How did you get the idea for AdvisorGarage?
Andrew Makunas: As an entrepreneur, I realized that one of the most challenging and time consuming tasks for entrepreneurs is the ability to connect with great advisors, investors and new team members. In my case, it took months to get everything lined up to get my businesses really thriving. Advisor Garage was created to make that process much easier and faster. Speed is critical when starting businesses because every day without revenue is a day closer to failure. If AdvisorGarage can help connect the dots for an entrepreneur then they are much more likely to realize their startup dreams and objectives.

LC: What’s Advisor Garage all about?
Andrew: Advisor Garage and the Advisor Garage Community is an online service for entrepreneurs to connect with Advisors, Angels, Venture Capitalists and other entrepreneurs. The core site allows entrepreneurs and advisors to search according to their interests and needs so they can reach out to people that can help them move their businesses forward. The newly launched Advisor Garage Community site gives members the opportunity to connect right now with other Entrepreneurs, Angels and Venture Capitalists members through the free blogs, forums and networking groups. They can build up their personal entrepreneurial network through a ‘linking’ system with private messaging.

LC: Skilled and experienced advisors would be the bedrock of AG. What is your plan to attract such people to your site? What do you offer them?
Andrew: There are multiple ways that Advisors find out about AdvisorGarage. Perhaps the most important is member referral or recommendations. AdvisorGarage has grown to include hundreds of advisors through word of mouth. In addition, the management team reaches out to their own personal network and alumni of their own business schools and encourages them to join. But the real ‘hook’ for advisors is to discover fresh new entrepreneurial talent and great new businesses. Advisors and investors love the idea of discovering new innovative people and businesses and Advisor Garage and the Advisor Garage Community are good channels to do this.

LC: How many people are involved with AdvisorGarage? Tell us a little more about them?
Andrew: Advisor Garage was established by three people – the founder (me) and two really fantastic tech guys. The interesting thing about the team is that none of us work full time on Advisor Garage – we frankly cannot afford to as we do not charge for the service and will not do so until much later. What we would ideally like to do is to take any revenues we make, when we make it and channel is straight back into product development. We have already mapped out where Advisor Garage is going and the services we would like to provide for our members. We would like to pass every dime the site (eventually) earns into improving the services and offerings for the members rather than paying expensive salaries. For those reasons, we build and manage Advisor Garage during our long nights and too short weekends. Part of the entrepreneurial journey I guess!

LC: What are your plans for the future of the site?
Andrew: Ah ha! If only I was allowed to tell you! What I can say is that now that we have the basic Community site live (http://www.AdvisorGarage.com) we would like to refine and improve it and from there we have another two or three key services that revolve around helping entrepreneurs with their key challenges at various stages of development.

LC: How did you begin your business networking?
Andrew: I don’t think I ‘business network’, I think I generally enjoy spending time with people and both new and old contacts. Its not a conscious effort, meeting and working with people is something I just plain enjoy.

LC: Which site do you visit everyday other than your own?
Andrew: Techcrunch.com

LC: Who are your idols in the IT space? What is it about them that you think is really great?
Andrew: There are too many people – if pushed it’s probably Guy Kawasaki. What’s great about Guy? He tries to give back to the broader entrepreneurial community and the upside of that is it also builds his personal equity and brand.

LC: What is the greatest challenge to your success? How did you or plan to overcome it?
Andrew: The greatest challenge to our success (and still is) is building a comprehensive member focused site that delivers the range of services that can really help them and their businesses without cash. Could we go out and get cash from angels or VCs? Probably, but we want to focus the business on our members rather than on the bottom line so we struggle every day to manage and improve the site from our own personal savings.

LC: What was the one main reason for starting something on your own?
Andrew: I can’t help it. I’m an entrepreneur! I basically come up with new business and product ideas on a daily basis. The shower is usually where it all happens! Some ideas ‘stick’ others disappear when the next idea comes along. I’m compelled to pursue the ones which stick. Advisor Garage was one of those.

LC: What is the one accomplishment till date you’re most proud of?
Andrew: Aside from the personal stuff, probably designing and launching the world’s smallest, safest fire escape ladder which is now a permanent exhibition in New York’s MOMA and being sold in multiple accounts. It feels good to have brought a product to market which saves lives.

LC: What’s that one big dream or accomplishment you are working towards?
Andrew: The next iterations of Advisor Garage and related services will be the next set of accomplishments. In terms of dream – to help a significant number of entrepreneurs build great and successful businesses world wide.

LC: Time to play soothsayer. What according to you is the next big thing?
Andrew: I’m not sure there is truly a next big thing – I thing all next big things come back to the consumers. If they don’t then they are destined to be the next big ‘has been’.

LC: Any advice for other web entrepreneurs out there?
Andrew: Whatever you want to try, give it a shot. Don’t worry too much about Business Plans, its better to get it out there and modify and build as you get customer feedback. Pick the right team members from day 1. Get some good advisors and leverage them until they squeal!

LC: How early in life did your relationship with computers/internet start? Tell us about your first few interactions with technology.
Andrew: This will show my age but my first ever computer was when I was about eight or nine. It was called a Sinclair ZX81 and that was closely followed by the Sinclair Spectrum, the Commadore 64, and the Apple LC…after that I’m afraid I sold out to Windows machines and so after that point the computers stopped being memorable.

LC: Which was the first company you worked with? What did you do there?
Andrew: The first company I worked for was Procter & Gamble. I was a brand manager for Cover Girl cosmetics – a bit weird for a guy but it taught me some good lessons on marketing and delivering great products to consumers.

.

LC: Can you elaborate on your hobbies and what you enjoy doing to pass your time?
Andrew: Spending time with my family and martial arts – a combination of JKD, Muy Thai and mixed martial arts. It’s a great way to get your mind to switch to something aside from entrepreneurialism.

LC: Where are you based now? Any plans for the immediate future.
Andrew: I’m in New Jersey right now. Immediate plans for now are email this to Los Creador and go get some lunch.
BTW, please check out our new Community site . A shameless plug but as we have a zero dollars marketing budget I won’t apologize too much

Thanks for the interview…

Andrew

read more | digg story

The Art of Doing It Yourself by Vivek Wadhwa

You don’t have to wait for venture capitalists or angel investors to lend a hand. Follow these tips to get the ball rolling on your own. If you have a great idea that can change the world, then bootstrap your way until you can prove it. Funding will come just when you don’t need it.

I founded two tech companies, co-produced a Hollywood film, and helped raise close to $100 million in private and public financing. Over the years, I’ve also mentored dozens of entrepreneurs. There always seems to be a catch-22 — you need seed financing but no one will give you a cent until you have a marketable product. Ironically, raising millions of dollars is always easier than raising thousands.

BEYOND IDEAS.  A myth propagated by business schools is that the way to build a venture is to create a great business plan, perfect your elevator pitch, and present this to venture capitalists. If that doesn’t work, you knock on the door of angel investors.

Ask any entrepreneur who has called on venture capitalists and they will likely tell you that it is almost impossible to even get calls returned. If you get lucky and are invited to present your idea, the due-diligence process will drag on for many months while you mortgage your assets and survive on hope. If you do hit the jackpot, you are required to trade away your first born in exchange for an investment.

To be fair, most business plans don’t deserve funding. Venture capitalists receive hundreds of plans every week, and few are worth the paper they are printed on.

read more | digg story

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

Posted by kind permission of author

Venture Capital: The Good, Bad, and Ugly by Vivek Wadhwa

There often comes a time in the life of a startup when the founder must decide if it’s better to own a small piece of a big pie. That’s because bootstrapping can only take you so far. When you’re lucky enough to reach the stage where you have a product that customers really want, a business model that works, and a management team that is itching to take over the world, start weighing your options.

Raising millions through venture capital allows you the luxury of not having to watch every penny. You gain experienced investors who can help you focus on the big picture and plan your growth strategy. But there are many strings attached to this money—it’s practically like getting married.Let’s start with the good that comes with venture capital money.

1. Experience, advice, and mentoring. Whether you work in the tech world or the film world, the principles of building a business are the same. Those who have done it before can provide tremendous value. Venture capitalist firms are usually staffed by experienced executives who have not only been successful on their own, but have also watched dozens of startups succeed and fail. They can guide you through your journey.

2. Objectivity. What drives the most successful entrepreneurs is their vision and their determination to succeed at all costs. It’s very easy to believe your own press and lose objectivity. Having experienced partners there ready to throw cold water on you can provide a healthy balance.

3. Networking. It’s always about who you know. Venture capitalists maintain extensive contacts with other venture firms, executives of firms with whom they’ve done business or served on boards, investment funds whose money they manage, and so on. Their Rolodexes are usually worth more than their weight in gold if you don’t want to make cold calls (see BusinessWeek.com, 06/06/05, “”Ask for Help—and Offer It”").

4. Recruitment. It is hard to know what to look for when you’re interviewing for all the diverse positions you have to fill (see BusinessWeek.com, 05/19/06, “Countdown to Product Launch, Part III”). What do you ask when you’re interviewing a lawyer, for example? How can you tell if the VP of sales is more adept at selling himself than your product? Management teams are usually the top priority of venture capitalists, and they’ll help you recruit the best.

5. Credibility/prestige. During the first couple of years of your startup, you’ll feel like adding “we’ve never heard of you either” to every conversation. You can’t even get the local press to write about you. Yet everything seems to change when you complete an investment from a venture firm. It’s like joining a special club that gives you respectability. Even customers feel more assured when you tell them about your strong financial backing.

6. Shared risk. Things will go wrong. The market will tank at some stage, deals will fall through, and key employees and customers will defect. Venture capitalists usually have deep pockets and keep reserves for subsequent rounds of funding. Good venture capitalists will support you when things get tough.

7. Big picture. It is very easy to be focused on your product and market and lose sight of the forest. With the hundreds of business plans that VCs review every month, they develop a good feel for the trends.

8. Exit assistance. Nothing lasts forever. If things are going well, you will want to climb the next mountain. But the best strategy may be to cash out and start again. Your venture capitalists will watch for the best exit strategy.

All this seems too good to be true. What are the downsides?

read more | digg story

37signals profiled in Time Magazine

At 37signals, a company with just eight employees whose Web-based collaboration software is used by thousands of small businesses, there isn’t time to sit around a conference room sipping latte and deconstructing memos. Come to think of it, there isn’t even a company conference room. There are just a couple of cubicles, loads of brainpower and three simple goals: make useful business software, make it easy to run, make money selling it. Repeat.

An article with some great ideas and lessons for entrepreneurs. Worth a read! 

http://www.advisorgarage.com/community/node/128

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community
 

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Venture Capitalist Gives Entrepreneurs Funding Advice

One of the most honest and insightful interviews with a Bay Area Venture Capitalist on entrepreneurial fund raising. A complete, not to be missed interview for anyone interested in venture capital fund raising, startups, entrepreneurs or general ‘business’ Includes advice for getting a VC attention, what motivates a VC and more. A useful article!

Please DIGG this article if you agree…

read more | digg story

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: KillerStartups Founder Top Ten Questions and Answers

Top Ten Questions and Answers from the Founder / CEO of KillerStartups for the just launched entrepreneurial community site on AdvisorGarage.com. KillerStartups is one of the latest and one of the fastest growing startups sites. Challenges, tips, tricks, motivations and more covered by this fast moving web 2.0 company founder.

1. Tell us about ‘KillerStartups’.

KillerStartups.com is a user driven internet startups community. Entrepreneurs, investors and bloggers are staying updated on up-and-coming internet startups using our blog platform, where internet entrepreneurs submit their startup to see what others think about it.
Our vision: “Tapping the wisdom of crowds to find the next internet big thing.”
We deeply believe in the power of crowds and we want to put it to good use, detecting in an early stage what’s going to be big.

2. What was your motivation for starting ‘KillerStartups’?

Basically I read a lot Fred Wilson’s A VC blog and Techcrunch. I also personally love startups, so basically what I did was to create a mashup of Digg + TechCrunch and that’s how KillerStartups.com came to be.

The motivation is to provide a site where the million of people involved in the internet business can participate in a community to try to pick the next internet big thing.

3. What were some of the early challenges?

Well, when it comes to internet startups, technology is always a challenge. We started out using pligg.com, a digg.com/meneame.net script but really couldn’t catch up with the growing traffic and customizations we wanted it to do for us. We needed to develop everything from scratch, and that always delays your execution plan. In our case, it delayed us 1 month.

4. How did you overcome them?

Asking lots of questions to my friends, having lots of meetings with smart people, and putting long long hours.

5. What did you learn from these challenges?

Normally when you create a startup things are, or at least seem to be, harder because you lack financial resources. If I had money to launch KillerStartups.com,  something I believe is that I’d have lost tons of money that could’ve done on a shoestring (as I did).

6. How did you get early traction for your site?

MyBlogLog.com helped a lot at that time, and still does. I remember I launched on January 20th and at the same time registered as a member on MyBlogLog. I placed the widget on killerstartups and visitors started coming in to check it out. Right now we’re very close to become one of the top 50 communities there.

Then, because we created unique content in an everyday basis, people at Netvibes added us to their list of blogs, which helped also quite a bit.
And the rest was word of mouth that did the job of promoting KillerStartups. Users that liked our site told their friends and kept growing that way. A few days ago we were 6,800 in Alexa, which encourages to keep going to reach our goal: 50,000 unique visitors per day.

7. What mistakes did you make, if any? And what were the consequences?

Lots. Too many to mention here, but the funniest one was the day we migrated from a shared hosting to a dedicated hosting with another company. My background is business, not technology, so I was asking for help to different people to set things up. When I did the migration, the DNS took 2 days to propagate so basically we were down for 2 days. Can you imagine the pain? Now I sort of laugh about it, but back then it was pain, pure pain. What I learned from that is to let the techies do their work.

8. What’s next for Killerstartups?

We’re heavily working in our redesign, we’re changing the look and feel of KillerStartups to a more visually appealing image. We’re following our users advice. Also we keep working on new Content partnerships. Already have content deals with profy.com, centernetworks.com, everybodygoto.com and several more high-quality blogs. They’re interested in displaying KillerStartups content in their blog, and so we have a win-win situation.

9. What do you hope to achieve with your business as it grows?

We hope to create a vibrant community interested in the internet startup scene, in creating new opportunities. In terms of traffic, we’re aiming at 50,000 unique visitors per day, as I mentioned earlier.

10. What would be a few suggestions, tips and tricks you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Nothing new really:
Follow your dream, Visualize your success, Focus on the goal, and work as if your project were already successful. Work hard and enjoy the ride, being an entrepreneur is a way of life.

Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

read more | digg story

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

The 5 IMPERATIVE Steps to Starting a Business the Smart Way

A No-Nonsense Guide to Starting Your Business The Right Way. Don’t Fall Victim to the MOST commmon Mistakes!! A MUST READ For all aspiring entrepreneurs!

read more | digg story

My First Startup. What Did I Do Wrong? What Would You Do Different?

When the founders of X-It Products saw a billion-dollar rival imitate the design of their popular new fire-escape ladder, they didn’t have much hope that their tiny start-up could survive. Amazingly, it has. Andrew couldn’t sleep one night in his dorm at Harvard Business School. The smoke alarms were blaring again. Andrew assumed that the alarm

read more | digg story

The Art of Creating a Community

A good artical from Guy Kawasaki, founder of http://garage.com

read more | digg story

Online Business Networking Exchange: The Advisor Garage Community

So what if you could combine the focus of OpenCoffee Clubs – introducing investors, experts and entrepreneurs in a relaxed environment – with the scope and reach of LinkedIn?

One possible solution is offered by the Advisor Garage Community, which gives you the opportunity to build your own personal network. This makes for an interesting additio

read more | digg story

San Diego Group launched in Advisor Garage Community Site

A member of the recently launched Advisor Garage Community Site has just set up with San Diego networking Group.

Groups are a ‘members only’ section of the Community site that offers private forums, blogs, networking event creation, invite others, post videos, images and a whole lot more.

The proclaimed purpose of the San Diego group is “a business forum for those in the San Diego area, and those who would like to connect with folks that are in the area.

Please share your expertise, questions, requests for assistance, and intel on items of business interest relevant to the San Diego area – I look forward to networking with you!”

In the San Diego area and would like to network with other entrepreneurs, startups, advisors, angels and business people? 

Check it out:  http://www.advisorgarage.com/community/node/55

Not in San Diego – Why not come create your own Group for wherever you are and build your own entrepreneurial network.

Andrew
Founder

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

Softlaunch of Advisor Garage Community

So, after lots of hard work the Advisor Garage Community site is now live! http://www.advisorgarage.com/community/

The Advisor Garage community site has taken us quite some time to create and there will be little bugs here and there so please don’t go too crazy with us as we continue to improve it.

The Community site includes a significant amount of tools for Advisor Garage members such as:

Groups:
The ability to create a group for members with similar interests, locations and so on. Group members can create Group specific content such as email, private messages, events, blogs, image galleries and so on. As a member of Advisor Garage you might want to consider creating your own Advisor Garage ‘Group’.  Perhaps based on your location, area of interest or expertise, or relating to your Startup.

Groups can create their own personal network, invite others, create member only forums, blogs, events, private message and email each other, share videos, stories, experiences, and a whole lot more – creating a focused network for all members.

Anyone can be a moderator of a new group. Start one today!

Build your Personal Network:
Start building your own personal network by reaching out to other members and requesting they become a ‘Buddy’.  Buddies can private message each other, keep track of buddies recent posts and more.

Blogs:
Why not create your oww Advisor Garage blog today and begin to get your thoughts and contributions ‘out there’.

Forums:
You know what forums are – so just go join in! Or be one of the first and start the topic discussion.

Events:
Know about or want to create an event for others to attend? You can do that now from your Advisor Garage community navigation bar for all members or perhaps specific members of your Group.

Polls:
Interested in how members would vote on any particular question? Create a poll today and see what the Community think.

Private Messaging:
Contact a community member via Advisor Garage Private Messaging.

NOTICE: Advisor Garage Core Site Members Will Also Need to Create a Community Site Account as well as regular folks.

Although Advisor Garage core site members may already have a user name and password for the core site, those members will also need to create an Advisor Garage Community Site account. Why?

Because we would like to keep the data between the two sites separate given the more ‘viral’ nature of a community site.  We came to the decision that it would be better for user privacy if the main Advisor Garage site and the Advisor Garage Community were linked but not sharing the same user information. That’s why you’ll need a separate account for both – by all means use the same login and password for both if you wish.

The downside is that all new members of the community will need to create a user account.  The upside is your personal information is even more secure AND it only takes a short time to create an account with a lot less user information as ‘required’.

We hope you enjoy the Advisor Garage Community site – its taken a lot of late sleepless nights.  Its still early days so there may be a few teething troubles…let us know if you experience any and we’ll jump right on them.

So – Check it out! http://www.advisorgarage.com/community/

Andrew
Founder

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

606Tech.com: Interview with Advisor Garage by Kristen Nicole

606Tech.com were nice enough to ask for an interview about Advisor Garage, here’s the article:

  Advisor Garage is a company that was founded for Entreprenuers by Entreprenuers with the hopes of growing opportunity for both ends of the business spectrum–the experienced and the start-ups.  With Advisor Garage, those looking for advice, funding, capital and mentorship can find the resources they need to guide them in the right direction when it comes to starting their own company from the ground up, or taking their fledgling company to the next level.  Advisor Garage also grants those that have been sucessfull participants in the industry a chance to help others, stay abreast of what’s going on in the business world, and invest in ideas they believe are worthwhile.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with Andrew Makunas, founder of Advisor Garage. 

What’s the story behind Advisor Garage? How did it come to be?
Advisor Garage came about through one of those typical ‘Aha’ moments that most Entrepreneurs experience.  Having already started two companies, I well and truly had the bug!  There really is nothing like starting a start-up.  The one hesitation from company number three wasn’t an idea…they pop along like buses at a bus stop– it was ‘Do I really have to pull all those resources together again, all those different people that can help me find the cash, develop the product, those first few customers, set up the company and so on. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an online service that connected me to those people in minutes rather than months?”  Aha, Company number three – Advisor Garage.

What is the purpose of Advisor Garage?  What problem does it solve?
The purpose of Advisor Garage is to bring entrepreneurs and young businesses together with great business advisors who have significant experience in getting VC and angel funding, closing customers across different verticals, marketing on a shoestring (or even a big) budget, the IPO track, you name it.  From day 1 we were focused on creating a secure and confidential service so Advisors could meet, evaluate and engage with Entrepreneurs with some anonymity and decide to get involved based upon the real value of the concept or young business. 

Let’s face it; experienced and successful business people don’t like to get ‘out there’ too much because they have limited time and don’t like to be harassed.  Advisor Garage gives them the ability to find and evaluate great ideas, and as all communications are private and through the system, they can commit when they are ready.  Advisors can search for a range of great opportunities in the market, without exposing them so they can gain equity in hot companies, share some of the lessons learnt over a successful career with the next generation while maintaining their privacy from the crazier, irrelevant ideas.   

Likewise, Entrepreneurs can search Advisor Garage for the ideal advisors for today’s need or problem and likewise, Advisor Garage will be there for them for tomorrow’s need or problem too. 

For example, Advisors & Entrepreneurs have a ‘My Advisor Garage’ which includes a one click ‘Not Interested’ or ‘Interested’.  If the person reaching out to them is not interesting, click the ‘Not Interested’ and Advisor Garage send a polite but firm email telling them so. 

The advisors that participate in your program; how do you find and gather them?
Advisors come from multiple sources: our founder attended Harvard Business School and we have some pretty fantastic alumni across multiple industries, for example, something like 60 - 70% of the Fortune 500 include Harvard alumni on the Exec team.  We have reached out to many of them and asked them to join Advisor Garage, and quite a few have.   

Another big source of referrals are Advisor recommendations encouraging other quality advisors to Advisor Garage.  It also helps that the Advisor Garage team has been through multiple start-ups, so they already have a pretty good network of contacts across the venture capital community, angel investors, business people, and so on.   

Lastly, we encourage our 250+ entrepreneurs to refer others – its amazing how powerful our own network can be–and Advisor Garage helps people leverage their own network because as more people sign up and refer others, it bring more great people into the community. Much easier than the coffee shop referral drive by meetings most entrepreneurs are used too… 

How would an advice seeker best utilize your service?
That’s easy…Sign up, create an elevator pitch and go searching for an Advisor that can help you with today’s need – Funding? Customers? Sales Plan? 

How are the relationships developed between advisors and advice seekers?
Entrepreneurs can search for through Advisor’s pitches across multiple categories (Fundraising / Sales / Technology / Operations / and so on)

Advisors can also search through Entrepreneur’s elevator pitches. 

If either side see a pitch that looks interesting, they can reach out to that person via Advisor Garage. 

 How will Advisor Garage grow?
Advisor Garage will grow if it continues to add increasing value to Entrepreneurs and Advisors.  We have an aggressive development plan which means we will be bringing more and more tools and functionality to members so Entrepreneurs can speed up the launch of the startup and Advisors can find more and more exciting companies to work with and perhaps gain equity in. 

Seeing as growth is somewhat dependant on the willingness of users to refer others to Advisor Garage’s services, could it be considered a necessary viral growth of a different nature?
Being viral is something we actually worry about…we want ‘word of mouth’ rather than viral.  Advisor Garage is all about quality rather than quantity – for us, the value of the site is the quality of the candidates so do we want viral? No. Do we want referrals? No, we NEED referrals.  We are three people who want to make something happen for other entrepreneurs and for Advisor Garage. We have no, and I mean ‘NO,’ marketing budget so it has to be all about the customer experience and members realizing that they get value if they bring other quality people like themselves to Advisor Garage.  We are actually discussing with our members if, at some point in the future, we should cap membership, so we only bring onboard recommended Advisor & Entrepreneurs when someone resigns from Advisor Garage.  The decision isn’t close to being made yet but it really is all about quality – the right Advisors and the right Entrepreneurs who will change over time rather than everyone on the planet. So Advisor Garage is the about the right entrepreneurs and Advisors working together to create the next generations of world class startups. ”

Interview by Kristen Nicole, 606Tech.com
For the Article: http://www.606tech.com/fullarticle.php?artid=344

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

Top Ten FREE Traction Building Ideas for a New Networking (Or Other) Site

The dot com era proved that just building it isn’t enough.  The chicken and the egg issue exists -you need customers to get customers…and attempting to launch a networking site, is that issue on steroids. So, how to get traction? 

Here are Ten Traction building Ideas we are trying:

1)  Email Your Friends:
Find everyone you know that relates to your target market and introduce them to your website via email…as you know them, leverage every piece of emotional capital you have with them to encourage them to take a look at your new site and join.

2)  Ask Your Friends to Refer Others:
If you send an email to people who are your target market, clearly articulate why it is valuable to ‘THEM’ (not just you) to join your site…and then ask and make it easy for them to refer people they know.  Here’s an example of an email I wrote that asks for a referral -

“Please forward to anyone that may be interested…entrepreneurs, advisors, people with Blogs, press contacts etc! Even forwarding to four or five contacts will make a big difference for us! 

Happy New Year and thanks!

++ 

I’ve just discovered a new web service bringing potential business advisors together with entrepreneurs and early stage businesses.  For Advisors – It’s a great way to discover new deal flow and get involved in a hot new company. For Entrepreneurs – a great way to take your business to the next level in 2007!

The site is called Advisor Garage – http://www.AdvisorGarage.com and was recently featured in Business Week!

Please sign up and forward this email to great advisors and entrepreneurs.
++

After three or four weeks of steps 1 & 2 we found that we had begun to get a few people onboard…So now what?

3)  Write a Press Release and get it OUT there…
I can almost hear a few folks swallowing and already considering looking for the next blog…it really isn’t that tough and it isn’t expensive.  In fact, its FREE!  Don’t believe me?  Consider signing up to PR Leap (http://www.prleap.com/learn_more).  Not only do they have some good articles which explain for dummies (like me!) how to write a press release but they also offer a free submission service to multiple channels such as Google News, Google Search, Yahoo! Search, Topix.net, Technorati, MSN, Ask News, Moreover, NewsNow and others.  According to their website – PR Leap is the best way to send your news release(s) to all major search engines, newswires, and websites. And basic accounts are free!  

So what happened with us?  Well we signed up, created a one page press release (took about 30 minutes), submitted it and it was approved earlier today. It will appear tomorrow.  If you are interested, the link to the press release is: http://www.prleap.com/pr/61185/

The basic plan (read…Free) comes with stats, so I’ll let you know in a few days if the press release was actually read by anyone and if it was picked up by any sites, bloggers, press etc.  Let’s see how good PR Leap and our press release writing skills are!

4)  A Personalized Toolbar:
A great startup called Conduit (http://www.Conduit.com) offers people the opportunity to create their own, personalized toolbar for FREE.  Conduit has a wizard embedded within their website which takes you through the setup process step-by-step.  It took about twenty minutes and once you’re done, they create a link to your toolbar download site which you can then share through an email signature or through a click through download on your new networking site.  There are a number of cool ways to tailor the toolbar…your branded search, create links to particular pages on your own site, add weather, a radio and so on to make sure its a value download for your customers.

5)  Design Your Site with the Customer In Mind and Make Inviting Others Easy
If, like us, your marketing budget is measured by the quarters rattling around in your pocket, then do your site a favor and design it so the ‘Invite Others’ button is never far away.  No matter what page the users happen to be on.  Bold it, make it big, underline it if you have to but referrals from happy customers are always easier to get than attracting new customers. 

6)  Friends & Contacts Revisisted:
Do any of your friends know anyone in the press or people who have blogs ?  Well you won’t know until you ask…ASK! 

7)  Join Linked In (http://www.linkedin.com)
If you haven’t already, consider joining linked in.  Yes, its another networking site, and you could consider them the compeitition (In your dreams!)…but after joining you can search through the directory and find people that may either a) be interested in joining your site or b) encouraging others to do so.  If you aren’t a member already, take a look

8)  Groups & Forums:
Are there Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com) or Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) or other online forums that include the types of people you want to attract to your new networking site?  If so, join them but beware…most groups want members to contribute to the discussions and no groups appreciate spam.  So find the best forums for your target customers, join and spend some time getting to know what subjects are being discussed.  Give it a week or two then jump in and add some value…and make sure that your post includes your email and perhaps the web address.  If it is valuable, then members may check out your new site…

One last thing, if there aren’t any good groups with your target customers…consider creating your own…and make it it feeds your new networking site.  Here’s one I started and yes…I know it only has a few members…but its more links in the internet for your website which appears in your google or Alexa results: http://groups.google.com/group/Harvard_Entrepreneurs_Startups?lnk=oa&hl=en 

9)  Write to your Existing Members:
Do you have a few members?  If so, email them occassionally (Not every day!) and remind them of the value of your site…perhaps highlight a particularly useful tool or feature of your website.  Maybe reach out to some of the individual members and ask them if you can write about them joining the site, a person feature if you will.  At the bottom of each of these emails…give them a few sentences (above for example) to send on to others they know.  Stress how much you would appreciate their help and how important they are to you and your young business.

10)  Drum roll….badda badda badda….Create a Blog!
Here’s hoping that a blog is the tenth and most valuable means of getting the message out there about a new networking site. 

Good Luck!

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

NOTE: I grant permission for every reader to reproduce on your website or blog the article you are now reading. But copy this article ONLY, without any alteration and please Include the copyright statement. (NOTE: I am giving permission to host on your website this article AND NO OTHERS. Reprinting or hosting my articles without express written permission is illegal, immoral, and a violation of my copyright.)“Copyright © 2007, Andrew D. Ive, Advisor Garage. Advisor Garage Blog. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reprint this article on your website without alteration if you include this copyright statement and leave the hyperlinks live and in place.”
advisor garage

Hot and Growing Company Seeks Investors / Advisors

Buji Products (Cade Labs) is a fast growing private company producing the only poison ivy protection system with SPF 24 sunscreen designed to stop the itch before it starts.  Buji joined Advisor Garage to find investors who could help them consolidate this success and build upon it.

There are multiple challenges launching a products company some of which include:
1)  Demand: Identifying & confirming the ongoing customer demand
2)  Production: Developing great products that conform to regulations & retail requirements
3)  Aligned Brand Package: Designing not only a great product but ensuring all elements of the product ‘work’ for the target consumers: product, packaging, marketing, price, copy – the list is almost endless
4)  Gaining Retail Distribution: Tough - especially the first retailer who is ‘taking a risk’
5)  Early Customer Adoption: Targeting the right consumers and gaining early adopters
6)  Growth: Capitalizing on the initial success to increase distribution and launch additional products and extensions.

Buji Products has achieved the top 5 milestones above and are moving forward to increase distribution and potential additional products – what this means for an investor is that most of the key obstacles that could stop this company from being a real ‘business’ have already been resolved…now its just a quesion of how Big and Successful they can become!

1)  Demand – Buji Products are already being sold!
2)  The Buji Product line is created by Cade Laboratories LLC
3)  Buji Products select high quality ingredients and place equal importance on what their products don’t contain—dyes, fragrance and other unnecessary potential irritants. The packaging is fresh, impactful and has strong shelf presence. All imperative when consumers make their purchase decision within the first 2 seconds of seeing a product.
4)  Buji Products have already secured some key retailers for these products both in stores and online: Rite Aid / REI / Kenco / Hudson Trail Outfitters / Campmor
5)  Gaining Early Adopters: Here’s some feedback from one happy customer “”I recently contracted a severe case of poison oak. I\’ve been highly allergic all my life. This was my first bad case in over 25 years. I was suffering for about 2 weeks, despite anti-biotics and steroids. Finally, after trying every home remedy and over the counter product we\’d heard of my wife brought home a tube of buji wash. At that time I still had several areas effected and did a \”test\” on the two worst ones. After one wash, both areas quit itching and immediate I experienced reduced swelling. After a few hours I took another shower scrubbing everywhere with buji wash. Within 12 hours my poison oak was well on the way to disappearing.”

We are glad to see companies of this quality join Advisor Garage looking for Advisors to help with investment and moving the company forward.  This is well worth considering from an investment perspective. If you are interested in finding out more…

Elevator Pitch	Seeker
	buji is seeking both investors and certified fund-raising professionals in providing/securing a $3 million equity contribution to allow the company to extend its premier poison ivy product line into an expanded portfolio of active-body skin care products, focused on preventing common skin care conditions of active consumers. Market research, consumer trends and intuitive knowledge all reaffirm the business opportunity for establishing the first naturally-based active lifestyle skin care line in the mass market. The company, which was formed in July 2004 and has distribution at Rite Aid, REI and other accounts, is seeking its first equity capital raise. The company, which operates on an outsourcing platform, has been founder funded and financed and is seeking this infusion to expand its product line, grow distribution and fund marketing and operations.	buji

Role Sought:	TBD
Remuneration Offered:	Equity
Service:	Fundraising
Business Experience:	11-15 years
Industry:	Manufacturing
Industry Experience:	6-10 years
City:	Chicago
State:	Illinois
Country:	United States of America

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advice seeker…

A few recommendations for Others looking for Great Advisors or Investors:
1)  Create a great Elevator pitch within Advisor Garage that will ‘WOW’ the Advisors to want to connect with you (http://www.AdvisorGarage.com)
2)  Login to Advisor Garage and go searching for Advisors – some have put themselves in the Angel or VC category – others haven’t but within their Advisor pitches mention an interest in potentially investing
3)  Reach out to the right Advisors and if they are interested (based on your elevator pitch) then they will respond.  Their username will then appear in your “MyAdvisorGarage”.

Be proactive-create some great pitches(http://www.advisorgarage.com/seekAdvice.htm)

Go looking for great Advisors within Advisor Garage – we have five hundred plus now…

reach out to the ones that can really help sky rocket your company!

and tell others about Advisor Garage – this will bring more Advisors and entrepreneurs into the system which will ultimately help all members…

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

Are You Ready for Venture Capital Investment?

Is your company ready for a VC investment? Perhaps you have already been through a round of angel funding, have locked in your first customers, have some key members of the management team onboard and begun to see your business grow.

As the founder of your company you already know what other pieces of the successful business puzzle are needed before your business is ready for the significant growth that it should and could achieve. Part of that equation may be securing a financial backer that will be with you for the long haul…if that’s the case, it might be time to consider venture capital investment. 

What Are VC’s Looking For?
The obvious answer is ‘well that depends on the VC’…this is true, to a degree.  We probably met 25 different VC firms and they all seemed, at least initially, to want very different things.  But after a time, a pattern seemed to emerge…they all seemed to be interested in nearly the same things but the weightings they placed on each differed.

What were they? 

i) The Team
The strength of the team was almost everything!  Even the best business model with customers clambering for the product can still fail if the wrong team is at the helm. Likewise, the right team can take a mediocre business and make it shine. 
ii)  The Opportunity
How big could this business be?  Will it be a $10M or a $100M business in five years?  How defensible is it?  Who are the Competitors?  Who are the potential customers? VCs are trying to determine - Risk VS. Reward.  VCs need to deliver a return on their investor’s money…as a certain number of companies fail, they need a 3 or 5 or 6 X of their original investment.  The actual number obviously depends on a number of factors.
iii)  The Differentiator/Uniqueness:
Why is this business different? What does it have that other companies do not?  What will make customer buy from this company? 
iv)  Exit Strategy:
How can we (as VCs) realize our investment? Read – How can we get our multiple back? Will this company be acquired? Can it be a candidate for an IPO? Or will it bumble along for many years make a steady but unexciting profit?  Guess which ones the VCs will invest in…

After working through the above, part of the equation for success is to be ready to take a VC through the business opportunity that your company represents as impactfully and as compelling a presentation as possible.  Sometimes even the best businesses fail to get funding or even interest from the first few VC meetings because they are not ready to present…perhaps they have not refined the message enough, or realistically thought through the real world challenges of the business…or perhaps that just don’t present well.

When we went through the VC process, we made sure we met with the VCs we were less enthusiastic about first…we almost considered them practice before the big date with the VCs we wanted.  This helped us refine our thinking, messaging and presentations skills.

Another route to consider is getting together with an Advisor that can prepare you for those critical meetings that could means a million dollars or more being invested in your business.  Considering how critical this cash could be to the success of your startup, your employees and you, that would be really worth considering…

 If you are interested in connecting with an Advisor that can improve your chances of locking in that big money…consider reaching out to:

Advisory Pitch	Advisor
	“You never get a second chance to make a first impression” applies to pitching investors and your “slide deck” is not your presentation, you are. Before approaching your most likely investors prepare, focus, practice, polish, your pitch so that your passion comes through credibly and confidently. You wouldn’t give them a draft of your business plan, don’t give them a draft of your presentation either. Role Offered: Ongoing Service: Fundraising Industry: Technology Experience: 15-20 years Remuneration Sought: TBD An Associated Press award-winning broadcaster and Certified Management Consultant by The Institute of Management Consultants, since 1992 Tom has been a communications coach/consultant to senior executives in presentation, public speaking and media skills. He has more than 20 years of on-air media experience and over 16 years’ strategic-communications consulting experience with entrepreneurs to officers and senior executives of international companies including IBM, Roche, MIT, Millipore, Bosch, and others. His clients successfully develop and deliver focused, effective, and memorable messages, internally and externally, including effective use of the Web, print, and broadcast media. He delivers regular presentations at the Harvard School of Public Health, Institute of Management Consultants, Society of Professional Consultants and numerous national and international organizations.	tom@kennedygroupboston.com

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…

If you are considering raising a significant amount of cash for your early stage company, being ready for Venture Capital meetings will take time and if there is one piece of advice we were given that really helped throughout “Make sure you seem in demand and do not appear desperate or needy” – meeting with VCs is almost like a first date…confidence and excitement are critical for success.

Good luck!

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |

World Class CTO, Strategist and All Round Business Advisor: Need One?

I have to say that we have been lucky to get some GREAT advisors joining Advisor Garage and offering their expertise to help entrepreneurs move their early stage businesses forward.  As the founder of Advisor Garage I see them all as they sign up…but sometimes, even I’m surprised by the quality of Advisors that decide to join and offer their services…this is one of those times!

The most recent Advisor to join Advisor Garage has world class experience and would be a valuable addition to any advisory board, ongoing support or even interim management.

Take a look at this advisory pitch and let me know if you agree…

Advisory Pitch	Advisor
	Dr. Schmidt has been developing strategy for technology companies and leading operations in C-level positions throughout the post-boom era. An executive at AOL’s Greenhouse incubator described him as the ideal first hire because of his ability to identify priorities and deliver on them, whether what is required is strategy, leadership, or hands-on grunt work. Educated at Harvard and Cornell, after earning a Ph.D. in computer simulation Schmidt went on to early work as a software architect and project manager. Working as CTO or COO, he has led, among others, an education joint venture of Oxford, Stanford, and Yale universities and a health IT company that provided critical care software to America’s largest HMO. Recently, Dr. Schmidt has been providing technology leadership and strategy to portfolio companies at a private equity firm.	pschmidt

Role Offered:	Ongoing
Service:	Technology
Industry:	Healthcare
Experience:	11-15 years
Remuneration Sought:	TBD

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…  

If you are transitioning from early stage startup to fast growing company, then Pschmidt could be what you are looking for to take your company to the next level and with credentials like this, having Pschmidt onboard could help you through the venture capital quagmire…

Best of luck.

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |