Category: Social Networking
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Social Flowers: A $150K Virtual Investment
Social Flowers is an innovative idea! If you are part of a social network (and let’s face it…who isn’t nowadays) then using ‘Social Flowers’, you can send flowers, gift baskets, balloons to another member of your social network even though you don’t necessarily have their contact information, name, address etc.
Business Model:
Like most online flower stores, customers are charged for the actual items along with a service charge. Items range from around $35 and can go up to $200 or thereabouts. If you wanted to be even more extravagant than that, I’m sure Social Flowers will probably create something just for you and your social networking pal! Thankfully there is no distracting google ads etc so this is a nice clean site.
Some Core Functionality:
Here is how the process works.
- In a social network, the sender selects the Social Flowers application. The sender then selects the recipient of the flowers from their list of friends.
- When the recipient has been selected, the senders clicks on a link which takes the sender from the social network to the SocialFlowers.com website.
- At SocialFlowers.com, the sender chooses the flower selection, goes through checkout and enters credit card information.
- The sender is returned to the social network. The Social Flowers application inside the social network sends an email on the sender’s behalf to the recipient letting them know that they have been sent real flowers.
- In the social network, the recipient receives an email letting them know they have been sent flowers from the sender. The recipient clicks on the link in the email and goes to SocialFlowers.com where they are asked to provide an address for the delivery of flowers. The recipient is returned to the social network after a delivery address has been provided.
- Social Flowers fulfills the delivery of fresh flowers to the recipient from the sender using our network of over 30,000 local florists across the United States and Canada.
Likes:
This is a nice and simple business model and it’s interesting that a ‘traditional’ business like a flower delivery service is working to cross the web 2.0 digital divide and with luck capitalize on the relationships people are establishing online.
- A key ‘like’ is that I just plain haven’t seen this kind of business before so you have to tip your hat to the maverick that thought of the idea. For that reason alone, I wish them loads of luck!
Dislikes:
I have a few concerns:
- Will people really pay $40 to pay to send flowers to a person they have never met, don’t even know their real names or where they live? Isn’t part of the joy of giving seeing the persons face after receiving your thoughtful gift? My wife and Mother are lucky if I send them flowers using an online service – would I or most other people really be thoughtful enough to send flowers to someone they don’t ‘really’ know?
- The site is bland. The design could be much more innovative, especially as it’s supposed to appeal to the web 2.0 crowd. At this stage it looks like a template that they have been given by an interflora type company. Social Flowers is part of Florist One who state they are first and foremost a florist. That’s good to know but come on guys – turn the visual experience up a notch!
- I’ve received phishing emails telling me someone has sent me virtual flowers and the like. This may cause challenges for this business model given someone is receiving flower notifications from people they don’t know. Does Social Flowers still charge even if the flowers can’t be delivered or aren’t received?
Suggestions:
- As they are focused on web 2.0 market, try using some of the common tools of this space. Customer reviews, send to friend, bookmarking, community etc – If community members send each other flowers, add a card with a special reference number to your website so the recipient can write a ‘thank you’ and start a more personal dialogue with the sender via your site. This would create a lot more traction.
My Virtual Investment:
With my virtual $1M, I would virtually invest $150K as I don’t trust that virtual friends will really do anything more than send virtual flowers to each other. But perhaps the world really is crazy and I could be VERY wrong about this!
Andrew – Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community
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.
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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
User Points and Free Advertising within the Advisor Garage Community
We have just added a small amount of advertising on Advisor Garage to promote our new tool bar! We would like to offer our members the ability to promote themselves or their businesses to the community. You may have noticed that each member gains points as they contribute to the Community. Points are gained for inviting others, creating a blog posting, comments and so on.
We would like to offer active members free text or image ads for one month when they gain at least 250 points for relevant member content. So the small print here is the points must be gained for adding value to the community…if someone votes for your content you get points, if they vote it down you lose points. Nice and simple huh!
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.
Andrew
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com/community
Posted by kind permission of author
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
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!
The Art of Creating a Community
A good artical from Guy Kawasaki, founder of http://garage.com
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.
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
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
The Best Startup Strategy- Do What You Love, Or Do What You Know?
Which is the best way to go, and which has the highest chance of success? The answer is…
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
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
Micro Loans for Startups and Entrepreneurs
We have created the Advisor Garage Prosper Group for entrepreneurs and startups. For those that have not come across Prosper – its an online marketplace for people to people lending.
This Prosper group gives people the opportunity to give micro-loans to people and perhaps make a better return than they can putting the money in a CD or bank account. Worth checking out as you can lend as little as $50!
Our purpose for establishing this group is to help Advisors connect with entrepreneurs looking for micro loans before they get to the angel or venture capital stage. To join the Advisor Garage Prosper Group – click here:
https://www.prosper.com/groups/group_home.aspx?group_short_name=advisorgarage
We will reach out to Advisors first to offer them the opportunity to sign up – as Advisors join, we will communicate this additional Advisor Garage service to our 400+ entrepreneur members.
If you would like more information Time Magazine wrote an article about Prosper here…
(http://www.time.com/time/topten/2006/websites/01.html)
Any thoughts or feedback? Let us know – we would be glad to hear it.
Andrew
Founder
Online Social Media Expert Joins Advisor Garage – Reach out Now!
There is so much happening in the web 2.0 space. Mashups, social networks, photo sharing – you name it! It’s tough to determine what’s going to be the next big thing or the next big business opportunity. But one thing is for sure – if you work with an advisor that has been in this space and seen some of the successes and failures – your chance of delivering the next BIG thing to the market will be greater.
So, if you are looking for a social media expert to join your board or help with your young social media company, reach out to this advisor or perhaps one of the many others now within Advisor Garage.
| Advisory Pitch | Advisor | |
|---|---|---|
| Background in serial startups web 2.0, ranging form online photo sharing, social networking, mobile apps, to mapping solutions. I bring a strong background in product usability, deployment and profitability. I bring a deep network of high-end developers and designers to help get your idea into reality. Please find below potentials for my involvement in your idea. Media Campaign Strategy, Interactive Strategy, Sales Relationships Structuring/Negotiation, Marketing Plans, Quality Control release Managing, Qualifying and Establishing exceptional clients, Manage Client expectations and relationships, Overseeing and managing inside sales process, all while having a good time. Educating and the integration of new and emerging technologies. | wantzjt |
| Role Offered: | Board |
| Service: | Marketing |
| Industry: | Technology |
| Experience: | Less than 1 year |
| Remuneration Sought: | Equity |
Interested? Click here to reach out to this advisor…
And how’s this for a brief bio?
Online Social Media Expert. I can help to identify emerging and marketable business models & apps, in the verticalsof; mobile, social networking, b-2-b, mashups, downloadable social software, along many other web 2.0 emerging technologies.
Currently accepting request for board positions, advisory roles, or long term consulting relationships.
Specialties: Media Campaign Strategy, Interactive Strategy, Sales Relationships Structuring/Negotiation, Marketing Plans, Quality Control release Managing, Qualifying and Establishing exceptional clients, Manage Client expectations and relationships, Overseeing and managing inside sales process, all while having a good time. Educating and the integration of new and emerging technologies.
Member- Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Online News Association (OMA) Society for News Design (SND) Awarded- MIT Enterprise Forum Member
We really are getting some great people joining Advisor Garage!
Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com
Angels and VCs Added to Advisor Garage
 Since we launched Advisor Garage in November 2006, one of the most requested additions from our Entrepreneur members has been to give them the ability to search for Angels and Venture Capitalists.
We have now added angel and VC search functionality – stay tuned as Advisors create ‘Angel’ or ‘Venture Capital’ advisor pitches. Remember – if you have not yet created an ‘Elevator Pitch’ then you will not be visible within the Advisor Garage system. You can also have as many pitches as you wish – Create a new pitch today! http://www.advisorgarage.com/seekAdvice.htm Andrew |
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:
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A list of the most recent 15 Advisors to join and
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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:
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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.
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Thanks!
Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com
Latest 50 Advisory Pitches From Advisor Garage Through RSS
Keep improving! We believe that is one of the little secrets behind building a great networking site. We listen to customer feedback and use the system ourselves daily so we can continue innovating and creating new ways to make Advisor Garage better for members.
If you have not experienced RSS feeds before, RSS is a web feed format used to publish frequently updated digital content. It’s basically a way for people to access content quickly and efficiently.
We are pleased to let you know that we have added an RSS feed of the latest 50 Advisory Pitches on our core site Home Page (http://www.AdvisorGarage.com) so entrepreneurs can read and find the latest Advisory Pitches through browsers and RSS feeders. This should help entrepreneurs find great advisors much more easily!
Want to check out the latest 50 Advisor Pitches through your browser or feeder?
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdvisorGarageLatestAdviceOffered
For all those Advisors out there – don’t forget to update or create an Advisor pitch – otherwise you will be just a username on our site and in our feed.
Offer your expertise as an Advisor TODAY!: http://advisorgarage.com/offerAdvice.htm
Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com
http://AdvisorGarage.wordpress.com
Check Out the Advisor Garage toolbar from Conduit
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Want a great marketing tool for your site?
Conduit.com can provide your networking site with a State of the Art toolbar…as seen on TechCrunch!
Check out Advisor Garage’s toolbar – For all members wanting to stay in touch…http://advisorgarage.ourtoolbar.com/
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Andrew
Founder
http://www.AdvisorGarage.com
Advisor Garage 
