Your Questions Answered by Industry Experts

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Answers from Industry Experts

Start-ups Partnership Development Strategic Partnerships

What is the best way to determine stock options/compensation when taking on a partner in startup?

Tom Williams answered: I very much disagree with Mark's assessment. You shouldn't compensate this person for the COO role until they are confirmed into this role and working full-time in this capacity. If they are a part time medical advisor, they should have a very small amount of equity to begin with. It would depend mostly on how much (if any) you've raised to date, but it would be unusual for an advisor to have more than 1% of the Company. Happy to talk to you about the details of your situation to come up with a fair offer that doesn't hurt your chances of raising capital in the future.

3 answers • about 10 years

Startups Recruiting Start-up Ventures

Do some serial startup founders, solicit ideas (open to receive them even just by email) to start another venture?

Trent Dyrsmid answered: I would suggest you search for and read out blogs. I can't think of any entrepreneurs who aren't also blogging. I have two blogs: brightideas.co and http://groovedigitalmarketing.com

3 answers • about 10 years

Music Start-ups Entertainment

Where are the big opportunities in music curation and why are companies like Google and Apple investing in it now?

Joseph Peterson answered: Music curation is something that greatly interests me as well, and one of my projects slated for 1-2 years out will be in that area. Don't forget that -- apart from being united by musical taste -- fans usually have MUCH else in common as well. Musical taste is a great predictor of other demographic features such as age, nationality, race, gender, region, economic class, and a million much subtler social characteristics. Fans of Steely Dan or Yo Yo Ma are different overall than fans of 50 Cent, Garth Brooks, or Lady Gaga. That's obvious, and you know it already. But keep in mind that sites like Facebook are valuable for advertisers, yes, for the eyeballs but partly because they can CHARACTERIZE those eyeballs and predict their behavior as consumers. You may be making a site that's laser-focused on music as such. But monetizing music has become notoriously difficult in the post-CD era. So you may want to look at non-musical ways to monetize music, based audience characteristics that various fan groups happen to share. If you're wondering about a brand name or domains, call me.

3 answers • about 10 years

Intellectual Property Copyright Law Corporate Law

If I come up with a coaching methodology / formula, is it protected under Copyright?

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein answered: (I'm a small biz attorney who helps people with copyright, trademark, and other IP law, and I'm answering per U.S. law.) As soon as you take your idea and put it into a tangible format (write it down, create an infographic, record a video), then that writing/infographic/video is automatically protected by copyright law. You can record the copyright on it too, which makes it easier to protect and get damages from other people taking it. But the formula itself would be probably protected under trade secret law or patent law. Patent law obviously takes a bit more effort, because you have to apply for the patent and get your application examined by the USPTO, which takes years and $$$. Keeping it protected under trade secret law means you have to make an effort to keep it secret (which may not work if you are disclosing it as part of your marketing efforts), such as keeping it confidential and requiring NDAs. As someone else said, the other terms you use might be protected under trademark law. If a member of the public would use those terms to link your products/services with the source of the product/service (aka, your company), then they could be trademark-able. There are some state law protections for trademarks, and you can also file to register the trademark with the USPTO and get more protection. Hope that gets your started!

6 answers • about 10 years

Facebook Marketing Facebook Advertising Facebook Ads

I want to target my Facebook ads at the behavior category of Big and Tall Clothing, but it's not visible. How can I turn it on?

Arlene Battishill, Ph.D. answered: If you're not seeing this feature in your Facebook account (in Ads Manager or Power Editor) it's possible that facebook hasn't rolled out this feature yet in your country. They roll out features on a country by country basis but typically start in the UK or USA in my experience. What country are you in?

3 answers • about 10 years

Management Consulting Business Development Investments

Founder, backed/incubated by a top university - 3 ideas to be executed same time through 3 diff corp. What's wrong with this scenario?

Tom Williams answered: There is nothing more harmful to a good idea than other ideas. By that I mean, the inability to decide which idea is worth pursuing over others, causes each idea to suffer when trying to distribute resources in support of more than one concept at a time. Your question presumes that the most important aspect of launching an online business is to have a site built. That's only where the hardest work begins. In order to achieve any traction whatsoever, a daily focus is required to optimize a site's messaging and conversions, optimize customer acquisition tactics, and iterate based on customer feedback. The idea that a single founder can achieve by having to do what is a full day's work for one site multiplied across 3 different sites is fraught with problems. You may wish to check my recent answers as I answered a question earlier this week about how investors perceive multi-product companies and their founders. The bottom-line being the idea that this is going to produce a more attractive outcome to investors is also one that has proven time and again to result in failure. Happy to talk all this through in a call if you'd like to dive deeper.

4 answers • about 10 years

Equity Research Corporate Development Investments

Where can I find a list of reputable Silicon Valley serial founders, who are accepting advisory board membership for startups based in Southeast Asia?

Tom Williams answered: There is no such list and that's not the way you'd make a connection with a great advisor anyway. First, your best advisor won't care that your company is based in Southeast Asia. Focus on identifying people who have significant expertise and credibility in your business area. Make your own list based on relevant experience and as a second filter, experience in building traction internationally. Then, start reaching out to them with very personalized appeals, relating what you do to their experience and why you think they might be interested in meeting you. As you get interest, you're next looking for personal chemistry. Do you build off of each other in your exchanges and do you feel inspired by and supported by this person? Once you go through this process as above, feel free to message me as I have a template I have shared with other clarity members that has standard equity offers against various levels of commitment for advisors. If in the meanwhile, you'd like to discuss the process of finding advisors in more detail, happy to do so in a call. Good luck!

2 answers • about 10 years

Real Estate Internet Marketing Internet Entrepreneur

Any ideas on creating a social referral program for new listings available for a real estate company? How to structure + incentive ideas?

Jordan Skole answered: This can be tricky. Generally I recommend paying commissions on revenue-generation events only. The reason being, if it is free to generate a lead then it makes it really easy to take advantage of the system. That being said, there are some ways to go about it. Calculate (you should already have this) your cost of acquiring a lead (CAC). That's your baseline. You can now set your referral commission at or below that CAC number. Since you only pay a commission based on the generation of a new lead you guarantee a positive ROI. A prize/sweepstakes is not a bad idea. Make sure to create a prize that really resonates with your target demographic (YES: set of All-Clad pans, NO: an iPad) I would run the program the first time based on your best estimates; if you expect to generate 100 new leads, and would normally pay $10-$15/lead then you can afford $1,000-1,500 prize. You can then adjust the process during future iterations based on: 1) The quality of the leads you received. Referrals are generally more valuable, but scam/spam leads are not. 2) The number of leads you generated. If you want to work through details in your specific case let me know, I'd be happy to set up a call to discuss further. Good luck!

3 answers • about 10 years

Charity Business Development Philanthropy

To post many business ideas so someone can run with it and create it. No need for monetary gain or recognition. Which website would be best?

Nick Eubanks answered: Funny I actually started a project *JUST FOR THIS PURPOSE* called AppDea.net. It got overloaded and crashed my server so the database is currently down, but I am moving it over to a telesc.pe install right now and will let you know as soon as it is back up. Cheers!

3 answers • about 10 years

Small Business Legal Advice

What permits/licenses and insurance would be necessary to let people sit in your air conditioned van for an per hour fee?

Anthony Pegno answered: Basic Errors and Omissions insurance should cover what your describing. There could be local/state laws concerning running the vehicle for prolonged periods of time, a call to your state department of permits should give you a solid answer to that.

3 answers • about 10 years

Web development Technology Technical Recruiting

What 3 questions to pose to a developer, to gauge his expertise level?

Hartley Brody answered: If you're not technical yourself, then you might not be able to gauge the efficiency of a candidate's algorithms or critique her code. But there are still some higher-level, more behavioral things that a non-technical interviewer should be looking for in a strong development candidate: 1. What are some tech blogs that you follow? Explain an interesting article to me that you read from one of them. The software development world changes all the time. Best practices are constantly evolving and new libraries are regularly released which make developers more productive. If a candidate doesn't keep up with the latest software news, that might be a red flag that they're not curious or trying to improve themselves. Also, having them explain a technical concept to someone who's non-technical is a great way to gauge their communication skills. Do they seem like someone you could work with and understand easily? Do they care about pausing to make sure you understand, or do they just drone on with jargon? If you feel overwhelmed while they're explaining this answer, imagine how you'll feel when they're telling you why the product has bugs or isn't going to be done on schedule. 2. Tell me about a time you ran into a big roadblock with something you were building. How did you get past it? It's inevitable that a software developer will get tripped up or have to solve some Gordian Knot. Everyone has to bang their head against the wall from time to time. Maybe an API didn't have the data they needed or some function was running too slow and they weren't sure how to speed it up. You're looking to see how they are as a problem solver. Did they come up with a clever but hacky solution? Were they methodical or did they fly by the seat of their pants? Did they go back to the stakeholders and see if the feature's requirements were flexible? Did they work on it for hours and hours trying new things? Did they ask for help from colleagues or on the internet? No right or wrong answers here, but you want to get the sense that this isn't someone who throws up their hands when they hit some friction. 3. Tell me about your favorite project that you worked on. What work are you most proud of? By asking them about the project they're most proud of, you'll get to see what it is that they value most. Maybe one candidate is most proud of a side project they built, even if it wasn't that technically complex, while another candidate is proud of their esoteric PhD project or some specific algorithm they improved. Again, no right or wrong answers, it really depends what type of candidate you're looking for. But it lets you see into their mind a bit, and get at some of the aspects that can make someone a strong development candidate. If you want to talk more specifically about hiring for your team, I'd be happy to do a call!

6 answers • about 10 years

Business Development Management Consulting Investments

What are the factors to consider when launching two to three startup projects/products under one corporation?

Tom Williams answered: It's best to keep everything in a single company to start with. Before going further with my answer, I'm compelled to tell you that launching multiple products *rarely* works and unless you have very significant prior success, most investors will take interpret diversification as a very negative signal. So just wanted to provide you that warning. You should do nothing in the early stage to your corporate structure to optimize to sell or spinoff what the Company develops. The reason for this is that it incurs legal expense prematurely and often limits your choices instead of facilitating the desired optionality. Investors almost always want "the whole hog" and also want to back a whole team focused on making a single product or service as big as it can get. Let an investor or buyer drive a spin out discussion, not the other way around. Happy to talk in more detail in a call.

5 answers • about 10 years

Facebook Advertising Real Estate Online Lead Generation

Would you recommend facebook ads to show real estate listing to buyer persona?

Jaron Ray Hinds answered: Of course and have in the past.. With FB's Open graph search you can laser target buyers and weed out tire kickers.. This is a no brainer :)

6 answers • about 10 years

Professional Services Product Development Product Marketing

What is the process of productizing a service? Also what are some good examples of productized services that have scaled?

Mark Fackrell answered: 2 different categories come to mind. H&R Block or other tax preparation services. The second is restaurants. This may seem like a product more than a service but I think it truly falls into the category of service, especially if you look at the national chains. Think Applebee's, TGI Fridays etc. The reason people go to these places is because of the experience they receive. The franchisors have created a system that generates nearly identical results nationwide. The first thing you need to do is figure out what makes your service superior to others out there, then you need to figure out how and why this is the case. From there you need to document it and make sure that you have a mechanism in place to ensure compliance. Granted that is a huge amount of work, but the basic premise is quite simple. You want all of the people you hire to do things more or less the way you would do them.

4 answers • about 10 years

Producing Film Production Commercials

To the film producers out there. How are you billing for shoot pre production? Items like pre pro planning, concept development etc.

Tracy Benham answered: Depends on size of project, time and location commitment. Day, project, hourly and change fees are all common for our small team. Large companies offer different pricing structures.

3 answers • about 10 years

Income Tax Negotiation Money

Close friend from outside the U.S asked me if I can use my account to receive money for his online payments. How much % should I charge him?

Aaron Vidas answered: Depending on average transaction size, number of transactions and the potential risks you are taking on (i.e what are you responsible for if your friends product or service isn't delivered on?). Anywhere from 2-20% could work depending on the above. As for accounting, I would recommend keeping the transactions in a separately coded lines of revenue and expenses so you can clearly show the in and out flow of money for his app. It will be taxed as income so you can include that in your fee if you wish. Also know that banks these days are very sophisticated with detecting fraud and money laundering so ensure you document the arrangement with your friend so you can easily show everything is on the up and up. I hope that helps!

3 answers • about 10 years

Internet Marketing Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Online Lead Generation

What combination of internet marketing tools are the top Fortune 500 companies or digital marketing agencies using?

Zack Rosenberg answered: The steps are the easy part. It's the execution. You can put together a great lead gen machine using content, cookies, and email marketing.

3 answers • about 10 years

Licensing Negotiations Licensing Agreements Licensing

We've been approached recently by several large companies to license our content, platform and app. Looking for pros and cons?!

Zack Rosenberg answered: Licensing a platform is a terrific way to generate revenue. We struggled to gain an audience to our site and didn't have the funds to market as heavily as we would have wanted. In came the offers to license. Margins were tighter, but the exposure to new customers made a world of difference.

3 answers • about 10 years

Startups Forecasting Start-up Operations

What average cost/head should be used for forecasting the cost or burn of an early startup team? (ie. $1mm covers a team of 5 for two years)

Tom Williams answered: Depends on where your team resides. In SF, you could use an average of $135k for all-in costs for each employee. In Toronto, you could probably drop that by 20-30k per person. But there are so many other factors related to burn beyond headcount that just using a headcount cost + overheard to estimate burn would be pretty inaccurate to reality of calculating a cash-out date. Happy to talk through the details of your situation in a call.

3 answers • about 10 years

Social Media Marketing Marketing Strategy Marketing

What are the top 5 ways to gain traction, early stage with a bootstrapped Startup?

Tom Williams answered: Competing in this category when there are so many dominant incumbents is really difficult. You'll need a product that significantly leapfrogs that of the existing leaders, which means it's likely mobile-first and focuses on a simplified, minimalistic user experience that delivers on the core use case of these apps. To answer your question as you asked it: 1) Build the best product in the category; 2) Find a few key reference users (Social Media Managers at known companies who are themselves influencers about social media management) who are willing to declare your product as better than anything else; 3) Make it easy for enterprises to adopt this and establish some use cases that demonstrate how the more users who use this within a group or enterprise, the better their business results are vis a vis social media. 4) Buy inexpensive ads (Twitter is likely best) promoting these case studies encouraging sign-ups. 5) Talk to everyone who signs-up and hold their hands and lead them to become advocates for your service AND paying customers. The challenge is that customer acquisition costs or even lead costs are high, driven up by the significant cash that the incumbents can afford to spend on acquiring new users & prospects. Virality has proven difficult to achieve in this product category so it's really a function of convincing users to flee their existing tool in favor of an unknown, unproven product. Happy to talk to you in detail in a call.

5 answers • about 10 years

Business Strategy Franchising Distribution

How would be the major differences between a centralised platform business model , a central franchise model & a distributed model?

Aaron Vidas answered: Before you weigh the pros and cons of different platforms structures it's important to think about who your customers are and how you want the business to grow. I help companies find their most profitable customers and have worked with pre-revenue to high-growth $70M+ companies in the SaaS, consumer products and professional service spaces. We usually start our work by aligning around what the vision for the company is asking questions like "Where do we want to be in 3 years? Why?" From there we think about how customers will encounter and use the product, asking: - "Is it a business where relationships and high company involvement is needed after a sale is made?" A centralised business model is a good fit (more quality control). - "Are we a service based business seeking to minimize risk while expanding?" Then a franchise model is better. A business model/structure tumbles out having clear answers to these questions. One business structure is not inherently better than another. You're just picking the structure that best facilitates your business goals. Don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to discuss your potential business model in more detail.

3 answers • about 10 years

Food Food Industry Food Safety

How do I correctly bottle my new food product? It's a startup venture. I am bottling a type of syrup into 8oz bottles.

Richard Chover answered: From your question it appears you want a shelf-stable (no refrigeration required) product with a long shelf life. There are a number a factors that will determine your products shelf life, to be clear, adding a seal is not the only requirement to create a shelf-stable product. The good news is that syrup has a low water activity, which means it will be easier for us to make it shelf-stable. My recommendation is to hot fill this product and use an induction seal. This process would then need to be validated with appropriate microbiological and sensory testing. I can setup a process that will create the product you desire with a shelf life that you and your customers would be happy with. If you would like to go into detail I would be happy to schedule a call.

2 answers • about 10 years

Can I use pictures from a 'global sports event', such as from http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/ to our website by citing credits on a dedicated page?

Simon Brody answered: I agree with my colleague. For the interest of clarification, the answer to your initial question (would you need to seek permission from the original (copyright owner). I believe my colleague was answering "No," to your second question are there standard policies for sporting event pictures. No, there are no universal rules. Depending on the sources there may be sites that allow you to license the material or have guidelines for your use. You would need to consult those sites for their policies. But, the answer to your initial question would be "Yes." You would be advised to contact the copyright holder. Without spending too much time looking at the site you linked "History of the World Cup" (and no time looking at the pictures being used). It may be that they a) got permission b) they feel that there use qualifies as a "fair use." They do specify that theirs' is a non-commercial use (presumedly for educational purposes) HOWEVER the credits section does ask potential copyright holders to get in touch if they take issue with their use. I am not saying that they are making "fair use" but it seems like they are doing what they can to indicate they are and to avoid claims of infringement. (Their attribution to the original photographer does not lend itself to any fair use right they might have -- but is probably done out of courtesy). I would recommend you speak to an attorney to find out if there is an easy way to get permission or license the content you wish to use. If you are making a noncommercial use for educational or other purposes that MAY be afforded some Fair Use protections that would be something you would also want to discuss. I hope this was helpful and added something to the original reply.

3 answers • about 10 years

Branding & Identity Retail Fashion Marketing

What is the most important attribute for a successful high-end lifestyle clothing brand to have?

Joseph Peterson answered: Your brand must conjure associations beyond the clothing itself. Fabric is only fabric. Attractive design matters, but market competition is enough to drive down prices. If you intend to ask a premium, then your product line must SUGGEST more than it literally is. Eventually, certain brands reach maturity and can point to an established reputation or high-profile adoption by the rich and famous. But you can start out by honing a brand "story" that captivates attention. Parts of that story are visual; others are verbal. Naming -- which is a large part of what I do -- is crucial when it comes to instantaneous unconscious communication. The right name tells your story for you on first contact with investors or consumers. Thereafter, it echoes in the mind, resonating with associations people bring to your product from their own experiences. Those associations add value. This is true whether you're a luxury brand or a maker of upscale outdoor gear like Patagonia, which takes its name from rugged South American highlands. In addition to your brand name, I would recommend paying close attention to all of your written copy. Make it unified and stylish ... in whatever way best fits your product line and intended audience.

10 answers • about 10 years

Online Marketing Entrepreneurship Web Services

How do you go about building a client base on a website where you help them?

Stanislov Krapivnik answered: It's the chicken or the egg question and in all truth you need both to grow each other. You need to figure out about the minimum level of businesses you need to keep customers coming back and back. Second, you need to offer those business a free trial period, say 3-6 months, so that you have the businesses that will attract the people, but the businesses are not throwing away their money on an empty project, while you are recruiting your people. You also need to market yourself and start early, while you are still setting things up. Get the word out: make youtube videos. Ask other sites to attach a link to your site. Write on blogs. Leave links on blogs (it is a bit of spamming but if the blog owners don't like it, they'll delete the link). Even better if you can do a trade for service with those same blog owners. Be creative and MARKET MARKET MARKET. There's an old Russian saying: not advertising your business is like flirting with a girl across a non-lit room.

3 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Mobile Games Mobile Advertising

What are the best ad networks to use in my mobile game for great ROI?

Jonathan Simon answered: I guess the best answer is, it depends. What kind of mobile game are you marketing? Who are you targeting? For what platform? (iOS, Android?) Different ad networks work better than others depending on the type of game. A good place to start would be MoPub, MDotM, Manage, and Insight.

5 answers • about 10 years

Innovation

How to go about developing a hackathon?

Jordan Skole answered: Start by organizing a Startup Weekend event. It is more like the franchise model, and they will provide lots of support for you, collateral, etc. The second time you can spin off into your own thing once you have the experience.

2 answers • about 10 years

Sales Marketing Strategy Online Lead Generation

What is the best way to grow the database for an international investment company without spending a fortune on advertising?

Humera Malik answered: Firstly - it is not always about spending a fortune on marketing and advertising. It is more about laws of physics than math. If you can put enough force into things that all increase the energy of that force - meaning, doing less isolated efforts of marketing but more integrated approach. Look at your target audience, where do they usually go for advice on international investments - Google ad-words is a good start but again, that is where active seekers would be found and you should have planned and implemented a good SEO approach. For passive prospects (not looking actively for international investments)- you would still need to generate interest through branding campaigns. This is again where, if you plan it well, perform research on the right channels for adverting to your prospects, some are free online, some are worth the spend. Also, look at your partners, and co-marketing campaigns in this time are a real asset as well. In a nut shell, there is not a cookie cutter solution and not one size fits all. If you spend more time planning, you will spend less money and less time will be wasted on execution of your marketing and advertising campaigns. I would be happy to have a call if you want to discuss this in further details and share some of our experience with such campaigns.

3 answers • about 10 years

Online Dating Mobile Marketing User Acquisition

How does the dating app Hinge market and acquire interest before they enter a new city?

Marius Kraemer answered: They are getting interest through their traction in other cities. Since they are already in 20 cities and have approximately half a million users if you look at their Android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.hinge.mobile.android), they can simply wait until one city "tips". This might also just be a strategy to artificially use scarcity since it works sometimes, such as with Mailbox(http://www.nirandfar.com/2013/07/psychology-of-scarcity.html). I think it doesn't really matter if they launch city after city, as they have $8M in funding and can just spend $5,000 on Facebook Ads and get 1,000 user in one city within a day. The effect of scarcity makes sense, if you are new and if you're a hyped startup such as Mailbox used to be. On the other hand, it makes sense if you don't have the resources to launch in many cities such as Uber, because they need the drivers first. I can also schedule a call, where I can tell you more about this as I've done a lot of apps and have a social network myself with Tennis Buddy.

3 answers • about 10 years

Business Model Innovation Business Strategy Business planning

What is Xiaomi truly selling?

Steven Hoober answered: Assuming links work here, a couple good articles: http://www.techinasia.com/xiaomi-reports-monthly-revenues-49-million-miui-android-ecosystem/ http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/09/06/heres-why-you-should-care-about-rising-chinese-smartphone-firm-xiaomi/ http://www.rioleo.org/xiaomi-miui-and-the-android-ecosystem-within-china.php In short, everyone wants a piece of the ecosystem game. Some is poorly thought out (Leap Motion is doing it badly) but for the core concept I refer you to Motorola's mobile phone business. Several times they have been the absolute dominant force in the industry. But, when you sell consumer hardware only, busts can follow booms. And did for them, many times. An ecosystem means ongoing revenue, not just periodic hardware sales. It means secondary market sales are the same to you, as the ongoing revenue is what you want, and it means increased stickiness. Apple lives by this, and embraces their customers being stuck on their products. There is almost no such thing as an apples-to-apples comparison consumers can make when the get used to your ecosystems. Perceived or actual switching costs muddy the waters for them, so you have them longer. Xiaomi is getting this sort of loyalty. There's other interesting issues having to do with their market. Play store, for example, is not really a thing in China. I can go on and on about this, so ask me if you have additional questions.

4 answers • about 10 years

Branding & Identity Marketing Business Strategy

Is changing my personal name (or use another name) good for business?

Stanislov Krapivnik answered: I lived in the US for 28 years before returning to Russia. My name is not easy for Americans to pronounce (anything outside of the Anglo-Saxon standard names seems to fit that category). Short version of Stanislov is Stas, so I went with that for them, but I never would change my name. Take pride in the name you were given and the culture you came from. Your parents gave you that name and you have it for a reason. Just because others don't pronounce it just right is no reason to throw away your culture. Oh and Misha is the short Russian version of Michael, if you americanized it, it would have to be Mike.

14 answers • about 10 years

Mobile applications Mobile Games Game Development

Any suggestions on how to reach and market to mobile game developers?

Austin Church answered: I'd start with messaging the admins of the various Facebook groups dedicated to mobile game development and asking if they'd be willing to 1) enable you to put up a post about the SDK, and 2) pin the post for a week so that you get a bit more visibility within those communities. You can also find the appropriate thread on the various mobile gaming forums and chime in there. I would recommend trying to be helpful 9 times before you ask for something once. You'll notice a much better response if you've become an active contributor to each community before you start selling your stuff, no matter how soft the sell and no matter how valuable the stuff. Hope this helps, Austin

8 answers • about 10 years

Beauty Blogging Online Advertising

Would there be demand for a platform that connects beauty brands and beauty bloggers for sponsored posts/advertorials?

Joseph Peterson answered: Beauty isn't my field -- not the cosmetic / fashion variety, anyway. But I see companies from other industries eager to pay bloggers for advertorials. So I assume that the same demand exists in the industry you're examining. I'd also imagine that such a database would make the process of connecting advertisers and bloggers much more efficient. If I'm right, then you have a promising idea. But you ought to be asking (1) the bloggers and (2) the companies who'd be paying to advertise. If they think it's a good idea, then you're off to a good start. Then you'll want to research existing platforms (if there are any) and assess your own readiness to build and market the service you have in mind. Good luck! P.S. If you get to the stage where you're thinking of a brand name for your project, talk to me. That is my actual field. So the beauty that primarily catches my eye is VERBAL beauty.

3 answers • about 10 years

Generating Revenue Idea Generation

To make 50k per month, what are some proven online business models? Which niches have good potential for this?

Arfan Chaudhry answered: I think you need to think outside the box. You can definitely make 50k a month but someone just giving you ideas is not going to help you. Remember Ideas are just 1% execution is 99%. Find something you're passionate about. Find a problem that people have daily that can be solved. But if you wan't ideas: E-Commerce is going to be really big over the net few years. Helping people increase their conversion rate will definitely make you over 50k a year if you can execute it right.

8 answers • about 10 years

Patents Legal Patent Applications

Can a patent that contain well known techniques published in books and has been in the public domain 1 year before filing the patent be approved?

Stanislov Krapivnik answered: I am assuming you are in the US? I'll assume you are. The fact that the patent has been approved proves that in the it can be, its a precedent and US law is precedent bound. As for lawyers, no you'll have to pay for your own lawyers.

3 answers • about 10 years

Online Marketplace Marketplaces

How to solve a chicken and egg problems for a marketplace like Uber? What is the best way to acquire demand side?

Dan Kurani answered: The best way to solve chicken and egg problems for marketplaces is to prove market need on each side independently first with a low-cost MVP-type test. Once you've proven the market on both sides with metrics it is much easier to leg in supply and demand with a strategic or enough funding to match a market on a local or niche level to ensure liquidity. For a deeper analysis, here is a post on medium that I wrote... http://bit.ly/1k2vYbY Also, feel free to schedule a call with me if you'd like to dig deeper.

3 answers • about 10 years

Technical Hiring Business Development Mobile applications

Where can I find programmers willing to join a growing mobile start up for equity only?

Tom Williams answered: You won't find anyone worth adding to your team willing to work for equity only, no matter how compelling your product and business is. The realities of the talent market for mobile developers anywhere is such that a developer would be foolish to work only for equity unless they are a cofounder and have double digit equity. Happy to talk about hiring and alternatives to full-time hires.

23 answers • about 10 years

Accelerators Startups Start-ups

Any examples of rural regions (I.e. <50K population), not in close vicinity to a college/university, that are successfully producing startups?

Stanislov Krapivnik answered: What kinds of start ups? You may find some scattered IT here and there but I highly doubt you'll find a lot of high tech. There are reasons why the term industry clusters was coined. High tech requires more than just facilities and infrastructure, it requires people and teams that are more than 10meters from each other start to degrade in performance. Simple reality. Also, hi tech heroes tend to want the thrills of a big city or a city and if not them, then their families...and good schools and so on. Setting up in the middle of no-where means a lot more expenses when you need to hire talented people and relocate them. As for Russia, out in the middle of no where we have a lot of farming start ups: huge intensive growth orchards in Chechnya, with a German partner. Angus ranches, fully automated, out in south western Siberia and so on.Agriculture or mineral/petro extraction rules in those areas.

3 answers • about 10 years

Programming PHP Web development

What is the best way to do a permissions system for a low traffic administration system, PHP preferred, but general suggestion is also valuable.

Ayodele Pompey answered: Hi, I have been a PHP developer for 13 years and have experience building enterprise applications. What framework are you using? Most PHP frameworks have a built in authentication and authorization mechanism. For example, Yii has a builtin RBAC system that allow you to define a hierarchical permission system. If you're not using a framework or you just want to implement your own system for whatever reason then you can utilize Object Oriented Design and implement a Base controller (if MVC) that checks the permission for each request. That won't use a lot of if statements. Probably need more info, to give definitive guidance. Hope that helps.

3 answers • about 10 years

New Business Development Entrepreneurship Business Strategy

What is the best and safe way to attract a developer in a business idea?

Cole Morgan answered: The simple answer is: good developers get paid. You have a few options that each come with different risks. 1. Find a development agency looking for equity projects. There are more out there than you would expect but be prepared to show them all the details. They are going to want to see that you've done ALL your homework. 2. Find a freelancer looking for passion project. This is hard. Really hard. Try places live Reddit to post what you're looking for with as many details as you can share. 3. Create a "simple-er" MVP. Can up just design a mockup and sell that to investors or customers first? Can you find a way to do it without coding? People will see value in a lot of ideas but the more you can show them that you've put time into the idea and have hard plans for success, the better the likelihood of finding someone for your project. Hope that helps!

4 answers • about 10 years

Marketing Strategy Content Marketing Content Strategy

We have decided to utilize a content marketing strategy to educate, inform our target enterprise customer via slideshare, what are the key metrics?

Sarah Brody answered: You could look at views to each slideshare to determine which pieces of content are most popular/resonating best with your audience, but the key metric here is really the number of demo requests you generate from this channel. You can include a different tracking token in each slideshare link that sends viewers to your website or demo page, and use that to determine which ones are leading to the most conversions.

5 answers • about 10 years

Exits Startups Valuation

How do you discount value of common stock?

Tom Williams answered: Hire an independent valuator. In the case of US companies, a 409A valuation has to occur at every priced financing round, so if you've had one done, that would serve as guide. But you might not even have the right to sell your shares. Your shares should be subjected to vesting and your voluntary resignation would likely cancel all remaining unvested shares. Even should you have shares to sell, if you have Preferred shareholders, it's likely that there are terms that might make selling your shares to a 3rd party difficult. Happy to talk in more detail about the specifics of your situation.

2 answers • about 10 years

Backend Development User Interface Mobile applications

Is Parse the best and easiest to manage backend for user accounts, IAP tracking, custom push, analytics and user data sets?

Emeka Onuzuruike answered: Parse is indeed one of the best for user accounts, IAP tracking, custom push, analytics and user data sets. You can watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0llIdtYNA on Youtube for some basic understanding of the Parse platform.

3 answers • about 10 years

Small Business Entrepreneurship

Is it possible to start a business with no money and no experience? How?

Etienne Fiset answered: Absolutely, now more than never! If you take aside the psychological factors (motivation, strong desire, etc.), business success in general is dependent on 2 key variables : money and time (*not* experience). You cannot start a business with no money and no time. But if you have either of the two, you can make it happen. As per how, with all the dogmatism of brevity I would say: The easiest is to create a service that you can learn and deliver yourself (zero cost, only requires time to learn the required skill - could be writing content, teaching a language, coding apps, walking the dog, etc). Check out craigslist for about a thousand more ideas. Even for a product, you can ask your first customers to pay for it in advance (to cover development costs) so you get the funds to pay tech peoples to create it. Either way, there are 3 skills you must master if you want to have success : - get good at asking questions to find where people's problem are (the seed of any business is in resolving a problem, so you got to stop talking and listen!) - get good at asking them what their ideal solution would look like (you would think that people already looked for a solution if they already know what it looks like, but this would be over-estimating human behavior - you will find many were not even *aware* they had a problem before you started asking) - get good at hustling to put this solution together for them and then sell it! One word of caution : the real challenge in starting a business is in finding a profitable niche that can sustain you over the long term doing work that you love. To achieve this, you must approach it the same way a child learns how to walk. By falling down, and trying back again. If you want a fantastic example of what this kind of hustle can create, look no further than Clarity's founder Dan Martell (check out the 'About Me' page on his website for a great example of the "entrepreneurs' journey") To get the proper mindset, I also suggest a total immersion in the entrepreneurial world : listen to podcasts (free), read blogs (also free), and invite entrepreneurs for lunch to pick their brains (ok, that one is 20$).

8 answers • about 10 years

Revenue Streams Monetization Business Strategy

What is the best way to monetize a strategic planning methodology?

Etienne Fiset answered: The previous answers are really excellent. Let me resume them quickly and add a fourth point which is critically important to help you putting all this together : 1 - keep in mind the psychological aspect to make sure you reach your goals : a book has a much lower value in people's mind than a training program, and for a pdf it's even worst - people are used to get pdf for free! To break this psychological link (pdf = low cost = you will never make much money out of it), consider creating a multimedia training program including both videos and the pdfs. Higher up in the 'value scale' is offering group coaching, and even better one-on-one consulting. 2- Be aware that the key thing your customers will be looking for is PROOFS. With so much hype all around, this is THE thing that will "make or brake" your goal achievement. So if you already implemented this strategic planning methodology yourself with great success, that's enough proof to get started. Otherwise, consider offering your methodology for free to a customer in exchange for a testimonial (proof). 3- Either way you go with this, offering part of your methodology for free is an excellent proof element and should be used as part of your marketing to generate leads. You can do that by sharing a pdf (or by doing a webinar). 4- Note that the real question here is : what business do you want to create for yourself? If you create your own digital product (pdf or others) and service line, you will have to manage the web 'infrastructure' and marketing but you will then have direct access to the customers (which is the real asset in your business, NOT your product). If you create partnerships for others to sell your product, you may make some money, but you will never be in contact with the end customer - hence you won't have any real asset to grow a potential business on.

4 answers • about 10 years

eBooks eCommerce Ecommerce Strategy

What's the best platform to build a e-bookstore?

Rebecca Gill answered: I think a natural choice is large provides like Amazon. However, if you want to sell eBooks on your own and maintain all of the revenue, then WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads would make excellent options. Both software packages are WordPress plugins and they make it very easy to deploy an e-commerce store for digital goods. Both plugins have strong development teams behind them and they have a slew of independent freelancers who can offer assistance if needed. I've used WooCommerce myself for multiple years and we've deployed many WordPress websites that use it. It has hundreds of extensions you can add on to it for maximizing the potential.

4 answers • about 10 years

Private Equity Startups

What is the best way to split equity for three founders?

Jordan Skole answered: You are thinking about it wrong. Don't think of your organization as a pie. Think of it as a house. When you add an extension (say a new kitchen) to your house, the value of your new kitchen now accounts for a larger *percentage* of your house, more than it did before. But something else also happens. Your house is now worth a lot more. I highly recommend you watch the series on raising money for a startup by the Khan Academy - http://robt.co/1u1wCsx

5 answers • about 10 years

Market Research Business Intelligence Competitive Intelligence

How much time do you spend on google (or other search engine) when you are searching informations on a specific topic ?

Martin Schneider answered: As a tech marketer - I am always looking for the fastest, cheapest yet reliable research in order to create competitive intelligence internal documents, stats for blog posts, etc. Some people live by the "if it isn't on the first page, it doesn't matter" when it comes to leveraging search engines as a research tool. However, often when we are looking for value, we have to realize that anything REALLY worthwhile these days from a content perspective is typically gated behind a web form, or nestled inside a blog post. So, expect to spend a few hours in order to get through all the form gates, and also make sure you're using as specific and direct search terms as possible - then getting more generic if results are not ideal. Some other tips: -Have a few "burner" email addresses setup with gmail or hotmail, etc. - these allow you to get content when filling out forms to get White Papers, Reports, Case Studies, etc. without your primary inbox getting stuffed with marketing emails. -In the form fill process, if available put "student" or "researcher" as typically sales reps pass by these "leads" when the form gets dumped into the CRM queue. -Don't forget specialty search sites and tools like Wolfram Alpha for more "numbers" derived searches. -Also, like your question here - always seek the wisdom of crowds in addition to machine learning algorithms! Hope this is helpful! Search on!

4 answers • about 10 years

Technology Computer Science Software Project Management

I am a computer science student with a project idea I am looking to build. How do I determine whether an app or a website is better to begin with?

Laurent Roger answered: Before building something, did you test your idea ? Life's too short to build something nobody wants ;) You can use clarity, sohelpful.me to conduct some interviews, build a landing page with quickmvp.com, unbounce or launchrock to validate that you solve a real problem. Then when your idea is validated, your can build a MVP (Minimum viable product) that might be for example a website (imho faster and easier to build than an app) to test your assumptions. Then if early adopters need functionnalities that really need to run as an app, you can provide them on pc, tablet or smartphone using your core web backoffice. If you want to discuss with me, feel free to have a free call here https://clarity.fm/laurentroger/white665 or here http://www.sohelpful.me/laurentroger

4 answers • about 10 years

Start-ups Software Development Private Equity

Where might I search for a technological co-founder in Chicago to lead in the develop of a mobile/web platform?

Gareth Hughes, PhD, MBA answered: I don't live in Chicago, but there is a Co-Founders Lab there that provides networking opportunities to find fellow entrepreneurs and co-founders. Here's a link for more info: http://www.1871.com/cofounderslab-comes-to-chicago/

3 answers • about 10 years