Tumpang: One to Watch!

As never before the ability of online networks has the potential to shape the world.  Tumpang is preparing to take advantage of this dynamic by offering people who come together online the ability to put their joint purchasing power to work. 

The Tumpang model is interesting.  Manufacturers are asked to discount their products if Tumpang can guarantee a group purchase of a certain quantity of items.  Then, within their site, they offer the items for sale at the discounted price providing enough people agree to purchase the item at the discounted rate.  As individuals the customers may not be able to get these ‘bulk’ discount prices – as an online mini-purchasing group, they suddenly have more power.

Tumpang is currently focused on the Chinese market…but are making moves to go international.  There are two obvious challenges at this point:

Products are often country specific so although they have international plans, this may not translate well for the mini-groups.  Will a German purchaser be interested in a kettle for the Malaysian market? See my point?

Most of the products on the site at this point seem relatively low quality i.e. Tumpang does not seem to be striking deals with Apple, Panasonic etc but rather more unknown brands. However, as their purchasing power and traction increases this should give them more negotiation strength with the bigger, more popular manufacturers.

So, Tumpang is one to watch.  This crowd purchasing approach could create another shift in online purchasing.

Andrew
Founder -Advisor Garage
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community

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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

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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…

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Top Five List for Building Your Personal Community Site Brand

You are a brand! What me? Yes You!  How many online accounts do you have? How many online communities are you a part of?

If the answer is more than one then yes…you too are a brand.  The question is, are you making the most of your brand?

Top Five Personal Brand Building List:

1)  Brand Image:
Pick a personal photo or icon and use it consistently.  If you have multiple accounts with sites such as Facebook, go back to each of them and use the same image for each.

2)  Brand Messages:
If you are like me, whenever you sign up to a site, the goal is to get through the sign up process as quickly and pianlessly as possible right? Wrong.  Open a blank word document, look at one of your online profiles, cut and paste the text into the word doc and then spend ten minutes thinking through what you specifically want people to know about you.  Rewrite it, tweaks, polish, refine.  When you are happy, go and post that set of personal brand messages into all your profiles.  So consistent brand image and now consistent brand messaging.

3)  Brand Coverage:
Which sites have you joined?  How many?  Pick those that mostly closely align with what you want to get out of being part of a community site and focus on a small number.  Get those profiles perfect!

4) Share of Voice:
Spend time in those communities that you really want to be a part of, sharing, adding value and being part of the group.  Build up your Share of voice in those groups, be a ‘go to’ person if possible – ‘Can’ those memberships that you joined one wet rainy afternoon and now don’t have time or motivation to continue.

5)  Brand Equity:
As you get more involved, keep refining your positioning within the communities – make sure that your profile improves as you do.  Keep it up to date and your brand will strengthen and grow.

Just a few personal branding thoughts – in a nutshell, focus, clarity, consistency, and activity. Add them together and your online personal brand can be a global powerhouse and who knows what benefits that will bring!

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

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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!

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The Art of Creating a Community

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

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Advisor Garage Community Online Networking

If you want to find the Advisor that can make all the difference to your business, Or want a way to centralise and manage all the advisory opportunities and make connections, well, the Advisor Garage is perfect for you.

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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

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Build Your Entrepreneurial Private Network with Advisor Garage

Our thinking was that the linking or networking functionality was extremely useful…but it would be even more useful if the people were all linking together for the same reasons. So entrepreneurs are linking together to help each other, entrepreneurs are building a network of advisors to move their businesses forward and Advisors are linking to e

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Help Penetrating the Japanese Market: IT, Mobile, Oil / Gas, Chemical, Plastics, Agriculture, Food

Having launched new products into new markets I can honestly say that it is always more challenging and takes more time and resources than you can ever imagine – especially if you are not ingrained in the business culture of the new countries. 

Inc.com (http://www.inc.com) included a number of articles in their April 2007 edition focused on “Going Global”.  One of my takeouts from those articles was that you really need someone who has been through the creation and development of new businesses in your target market if you want to optimize your chances of success.

Within Advisor Garage we have advisors from pretty much every country you can think of and covering every continent across the globe – combine this location presence with a broad array of experiences and the Advisors within Advisor Garage could be critical for any company wanting to take their strong national foundations and begin to expand their business foot print abroad. So, if you are looking at penetrating new markets and have Japan in your sights – you should probably reach out to one of the most recent Advisors to sign up to Advisor Garage…

Username :	Paulownia
City:	Tokyo
State:
Country:	Japan

Advisory Pitch	Advisor
	Entry strategy for Japanese market.	Paulownia

Role Offered:	Short term
Service:	Other
Industry:	Services
Experience:	More than 20 years
Remuneration Sought:	Fee

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…Advisor Garage is a free resource for entrepreneurs and advisors – helping them connect so young businesses can move their businesses forward. Come along and take a look…

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Fund Raiser, Best Selling Author and Business Growth Guru

Often dubbed a growth architect by his clients, this Advisor thrives in overcoming business start-up challenges, positioning each company to achieve its highest potential. He is well known and respected in his field both nationally and internationally, developing start-up, pre-revenue and middle market businesses within a range of industries, offering advisory services and professional speaking engagements including conferences, workshops, telephone seminars and university appearances. This Advisor is a best selling author, assisting hopeful entrepreneurs worldwide with publications in The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Investors Business Daily.

This Advisor began his career at Price Waterhouse, later developing his own successful real estate syndication firm. His proudest accomplishment to date was in the successful creation and marketing of Financial Fax, a personalized newspaper of selected stock market information. Financial Fax was sold to Los Angeles Times in 1995, at which time it was widely distributed throughout the investment community. In 1990, this Advisor founded his current business, Growth-Logic. In this role, he does what he most enjoys – teaching other entrepreneurs and business leaders how to be extremely successful.

An out-of-the-box strategist, he advises companies on ways they can be more profitable in their entrepreneurial ventures using innovative means. As Americas Business Growth Guru, Joel’s media-coined title, he accelerates organizational growth, helping both new and existing businesses recognize their greatest potential and retain their competitive edge in our growing global marketplace.

Advisory Pitch Advisor

  After raising more than $10 Million, I lead a team that built a financial publishing company that I grew nationwide. I later sold it to the Los Angeles Times. Now, I work full time with entrepreneurs who are trying to raise capital, sell their products, and otherwise growing their businesses. I am all about successful entrepreneurship and helping others to make it happen. sharefax

Role Offered:	Board
Service:	Growth
Industry:	Services
Experience:	More than 20 years
Remuneration Sought:	TBD

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…

Reach out to Joel today if you have a business that could benefit from his help! 

Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Would You Like to Launch a Business in India or China?

All business pundits agree – there are significant and increasing opportunities for starting and building businesses in China and India but there’s one big question:

“How do I go about it?”

Well, Advisor Garage would like to offer a potential solution – find a person that has started and grown businesses in each country and reach out to them with your elevator pitch.  If your elevator pitch interests them, start building the relationship and who know’s where it may lead… perhaps refining the business, marketing and sales model. Perhaps finding investors, the first few customers and key employees.  Advisors can make all the difference between a dream of great things and making them happen both at home and abroad.

“But where to find these successful entrepreneurs / advisors in India and China?”

China:

Username :	andy.wang@ebaotech.com
City:	Shanghai
State:
Country:	People’s Republic of China
Management Bio:	2000 – Current, Co-founder, eBaoTech Corporation, with HQ in Shanghai, China. Main business is to provide next generation core insurance software to both life and non-life insuers worldwide, eBaoTech is already one of the largest ISV with a complete focus on insurance industry in Asia. 1997 – 1999, Consultant, MicKinsey & Company, China 1995 – 1997, MBA, Harvard Business School

Advisory Pitch	Advisor
	Would love to talk to people who are interested in starting up a business in China.	andy.wang@ebaotech.com

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

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…

India:

Advisory Pitch	Advisor
	I am doing my third start-up in India and would be delighted to offer practical advice to entrepreneurs looking to start a business in the country.	dagarwala

Role Offered:	One off
Service:	Other
Industry:	Finance
Experience:	11-15 years
Remuneration Sought:	TBD

Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…
++
But the reality is there are a number of advisors, in multiple sectors offering to become advisors to companies that excite them in China, India, the UK, Latin America and a range of other countries and regions.

Go dig around within Advisor Garage – You may be suprised by who you find…and how much value they can bring…

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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Advisor Garage – Globally Reaching Entrepreneurs and Advisors!

Member recommendations and word of mouth is a wonderful thing!  Thought I would share some recent information about the countries that are discovering Advisor Garage.

This is the most recent website rankings for Advisor Garage in some key countries:

United States            30,532
Pakistan                    31,476
Turkey                      151,167
Poland                       174,313
India                          180,894
Canada                      222,707
United Kingdom         521,936
China                         541,736

This reach is reflected in which Advisors (and entrepreneurs!) are joining…we have added two elements to the Advisor Garage home page which gives some insights:

1. A list of the most recent 15 Advisors to join and

2. An RSS feed of the fifty most recent Advisory Pitches so entrepreneurs can read through them quickly and efficiently (http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdvisorGarageLatestAdviceOffered)

How the Global Reach is translating into new Advisors with just the latest 15 Advisors:

Latest Advisors   rhoucken - Hamburg, Germany   rreiner - Toronto, Canada   Carlossol - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil   selethia - Ladson, USA   artemgoncharuk - Arlington, USA   dmitry.kachaev - Arlington, USA   pavan - Bangalore, India   prasadt - Philadelphia, USA   soconnor - Menifee, USA   TechSpin - El Segundo, USA   aa97m03 - Alexandria, USA   TNNW - Levittown, USA   pauchterlonie - Austin, USA   alecbeckett - Providence, USA   mhawarey - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The reality is that the United States is still the dominant country in terms of interaction and entrepreneur/advisor signups but we are also getting some great advisors joining from multiple countries…China, India, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina and so on.

Wonder what would happen if we actually had a marketing budget? the Mind boggles!

Want to add your Word of Mouth Power? Send contacts the following:

+++
A colleague has just launched 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 hot new companies. For Entrepreneurs – it’s a great way to take your business to the next level in 2007!  It’s called Advisor Garage –  http://www.AdvisorGarage.com and was recently featured in Business Week!

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

Thanks!

Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com

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