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Clarity

Stephen G. Barr

Phoenix, AZ, USA

Founder @ Startup Hive, Publisher @ SGB Media Group, Chairman @ Boardroom Advisory Services, Microsoft BizSpark and Startup America Partnership Member specializing in advising emerging tech startups. Expert in crowdfunding, real estate development, niche social network development, blogging, digital publishing & syndication, affiliate marketing, social media marketing and public relations.

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14 Reviews

18 minutes
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Crowdfunding Startups Blogging Digital Publishing Affiliate Marketing Real Estate Investing Business Strategy Strategic Partnerships Content Curation Cryptocurrency

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Crowdfunding

An advocate, thought leader and prime mover in the burgeoning crowd funding and impact investing industries. Publisher of syndicated "The Crowdfunding Times", Content Committee Chairman @ The National Crowdfunding Association, Contributor @ Crowdsource.org

http://www.crowdfundingtimes.wordpress.com

Cryptocurrency and Cybersecurity

Publisher of "The Daily Bit" and "The Cybersecurity Report" reporting on current and emerging cyber security technology, cryptocurrency, ICO crowd sales, blockchain, events, updated regulatory compliance & news.

http://transpartisantimes.blogspot.com/

Niche Social Network Development

An early pioneer in niche social network development and administration tracing back to the roots of the internet in the early 1990's using BBS lines, Usenet and early Yahoo groups along with vBulletin, phpBB, Simple Machines and other threaded forum software programs later transitioning to social network formats in 2005.

http://www.nichesocialnetworkdevelopment.blogspot.com

Affiliate Marketing

Publisher of "The Affiliate Marketing Publisher's Report" since 2007 as well as 40 other syndicated, digital publications utilizing multiple digital distribution channels in conjunction with launching and administrating national advertising campaigns for major Fortune 500 advertisers in partnership with Google, Ning, Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo, Commission Junction, DoubleClick, LinkShare, Share A Sale, PepperJam and other industry leading third party affiliate networks.

http://www.ampr.posterous.com

Real Estate

I have 25 years experience as a real estate salesperson, broker, appraiser, review appraiser & expert witness in NY, AZ, NV & CA. I founded and served as President of American Residential Appraisers located in Manhattan Beach, CA from 1991 until it's 1996 acquisition by Coldwell Banker Commercial, CBC. I am a featured real estate commentator @ Fox News and Co-Founder of real estate crowdfunding startup CrowdPad.

Start Ups - Advisory Board Chair

I have participated in the creation of over a dozen startup companies over the past 35 years and advised 61 startups listed on Angel List while running the Startup Hive incubator from 2012 to 2016. I've had two successful exits and am currently a senior advisor to a tech company setting up for an IPO in the fall of 2017. Winning team member @ Startup Weekend - Phoenix 2012. I work best with early stage, pre-revenue tech startups from conception through seed round up to A-Round, Sale or IPO.
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http://www.startupreviewjournal.com

Answers 13
Reviews 14

Answers

Stephen G. Barr answered

How to become a better introvert CEO?

Go to an industry convention/trade show and work the floor.

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CEO

Public Speaking

Startups

Stephen G. Barr answered

What is the best advice you've received when you were starting out in real estate sales?

As a young college grad at 21 I was mentored in real estate sales by Scott E. Cohen in NY and he taught me many things but the one that served me best for the next 25 years was to focus on listings and working with sellers as opposed to buyers. I've had many buyers buy through another broker or builder and I wound up with zero commission after working sometimes for months with them but if you control the listing you will get a minimum of 50% of the commission. Other than that I'd suggest to others to enter the career in a higher priced section of the country. I was selling in Rochester, NY and at that time my typical sales prices were in the 75K - 125K price range. I wish I had relocated to Southern, CA earlier in my career since the average sales prices there were 300K+ and since sales commissions are generally based on a percentage of the final sales price I would have made three times the commissions for the exact same amount of work.

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Real Estate

Sales

Real Estate Transactions

Stephen G. Barr answered

Angel Investors & VCs: What inspires you to invest?

#1 by far is "People". I invest in startups based on who are the people involved, how skilled they are in their respective roles, how I like them, what their product or service is and if I personally am interested in what they are selling.

#2 by crunching the numbers. They must have a viable revenue stream from paying customers. Too many startups I look at live off their seed round and eat that up and start their A rounds while still in freemium mode. By the time they get that far they had better be producing enough revenue to sustain their day to day operations and use the A round to diversify and expand.

#3 I do my own market research on the market segment and current and future competition. I like companies who are #2 or #3 in their respective market segment. It's a nice comfortable spot to sit and "draft" behind the #1 market leader. When they make a shift you can react by coming up with a revised or better version of the same product or service. Let #1 make the big mistakes.

#4 Lastly, I look at who else has invested in the company or if they participated in one of the many incubation programs out there. I have about a dozen or so angels that I track and about five or six VC firms. If one of my tracked angels or VC's invests I pay attention and most likely follow suit.

#5 I track potential investments by geographic region and general industry segment like this:

Silicon Valley - Big Data
Silicon Beach - Internet of Things
Silicon Desert - Mobile Apps
Silicon Prairie - Aerospace
Silicon Slopes - BioTech

For each category as above I try to track 3 startups in each.

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Fundraising

Finance

Venture Capital

Stephen G. Barr answered

How do I successfully raise money and awareness for my new company (BoatTests101.com) on Kickstarter or Indiegogo?

First thing to do is to research other crowdfunding sites other than the big two as neither was really meant to raise funds for startup businesses. I would suggest something in the nature of www.crowdfunder.com or www.seedinvest.com might better suit your needs.

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Crowdfunding

Kickstarter

Consumer Products

Stephen G. Barr answered

As an entrepreneur, how do you avoid wearing too many hats by finding what you're real strengths are?

As a one man band with an overflow of business at any given point in time I find that I have to wear all hats in my business so efficient use of time is critical for me. I follow these guidelines and it works well for me:

Take these four not-so-easy steps to be more in balance:

* Determine what's important to you. What do you value most no matter what?
* Keep those priorities right in front of your nose at all times.
* Say "No" to anything that detracts from your priorities.
* Spend your time on your priorities. Otherwise, they are not really your priorities. If you proclaim that your health is a priority, spit out the Twinkie and get moving.

Sit down with paper and pen, or PC and mouse. Answer these questions:

* What hats do you wear and what tasks come with each hat?
* What hats can you hang on the hat rack? You can always put a hat back on at a later date.
* In what order will you prioritize your hats? Hint: They can't all be number one.
* Have you delegated tasks and hats? Have you tossed unnecessary hats and tasks into the dumpster-o-life? Or do you keep precariously stacking hat upon hat?
* Have you made time for your physical, mental and emotional health? Remember, you can't give what you don't have.
* Are you laughing enough? Everyone will benefit if you get a grin.
* Cultivate simple pleasures that take less time and money. A walk with your family can be accomplished every week instead of waiting for the semi-decade wallet buster trip to Disneyland. Having more life balance is a choice. Choose or lose.

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Startups

Entrepreneurship

Stephen G. Barr answered

How much is LinkedIn really useful in terms of job search? some information related to success rate or similar quantification will be appreciated!

I found this blog post with a bunch of statistics for you:

http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-numbers-a-few-important-linkedin-stats/#.U7axqfldWSo

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Social Media

Market Research

Job search

Stephen G. Barr answered

What are three of your top favorite entrepreneur posts of all time?

This one by Jason Daley on whether entrepreneurs are born or made is a great one:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228273

Steve Blank is always an enjoyable read:

http://steveblank.com/2012/06/04/entrepreneurship-for-the-99/

You gotta love this one by Richard Branson

http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/09/screw-it-just-do-it-advice-from-sir-richard-branson-for-entrepreneurs/

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Entrepreneurship

Start-ups

Leadership

Stephen G. Barr answered

What characteristics should entrepreneurs look in a life partner?

Patience
Empathy

Note: I've been single 28 years.

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Building Relationships

Stephen G. Barr answered

How do you structure compensation for 2 advisors that want to be very actively involved / invested into our business that has sale potential soon?

I would need to ask how close you are to a sale? Also when you say these advisors want to be "involved/invested" do you mean they will be investing in the company?

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M&A experience

angel investing

Deal Structuring

Stephen G. Barr answered

VCs: What are some pitch deck pet peeves?

I look at dozens of pitch decks every week and by far my #1 pet peeve is the comparison reference or the "we are the airbnb of xxxx"

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Venture Funding

Funding

Startups

Stephen G. Barr answered

Meeting with a very senior executive.

Before you attempt to sell to the senior executive you need to find out from his team why they wouldn't buy it. The senior executive will defer to his team prior to making the decision to purchase so you're only assuring your failure by contacting him at this point.

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Sales

Sales Management

Sales Process

Reviews

I found out about FHA 203k program for rehabs by talking to Stephen! Great advise - I look forward to speaking again soon. Thank you - Bon @osonwanne

Source: Clarity

wow, Stephen is my savior. He was able to answer all of my questions and more. Thank you Stephen!!!
David Tran
BorrowFlex.com

Borrow Flex Source: Clarity

When Stephen said "I will be your advisor" I felt extremely lucky to have access to his vast knowledge for startups
He understood my situation based on very little explanation.
Stephen is personable, knowledgeable, responsive, diligent, relentless and incredibly helpful.
I give my highest reccomendation to Stephen and I am very happy to have him as my advisor for the msPad.

Sandy Ingold Source: LinkedIn

Stephen is a motivated professional with very high ethical standards who strives to give his best at everything he does. He is responsible, reliable, efficient, knowledgeable and a joy to work with. I highly recommend him.

Isabel Galvis Source: LinkedIn

Stephen is a great visionary leader and creative genius. He has the ability to see a vision through from inception to success. I highly recommend working with him.

Chad Penry Source: LinkedIn

I've known Steve Barr since the inception of Vintage Bass and the newsgroup that he started, and as a performer with 35 years of experience it was evident early on that Steve was on top of the game. He brought together a whole community and I was touched by many unselfish acts of kindness that he performed, in getting folks in the group to contribute to those in medical need or serving overseas in Iraq. There was nothing in it for him except to "do the right thing", and this is a quality that is all so rare in these days of the bottom line mentality

I find it a positive experience that he has crossed paths with one of the outstanding computer managers here at the Univ of AZ that works with me in my department, small world indeed!!

Phil Anderson Source: LinkedIn

Stephen and I buckled down to secure a win for our team at Startup Weekend Phoenix. He was a great startup advisor and mentor during the weekend and I'd love to work with him again.

Will Bradley Source: LinkedIn

Steve is a great source of both new ideas and nuances within the networking world. Whenever I think of new projects, I read Steve's recommendations before ever considering the idea.

Rabbi Alan Abrams Source: LinkedIn

Stephen is an always motivated person with excellent skills on internet marketing and social networking. Every time i had to share knowledge with him i got useful ideas for my daily work. It was really nice to work with him.

Omar Gomez Source: LinkedIn

Stephen Barr is a very savvy leader in the social media world. I had the good fortune of meeting Stephen through the Center for Progressive Leadership Fellowship Program, where I served as his faculty coach. Stephen is a dedicated community leader and has worked with several noteworthy clients. I highly recommend him for your consideration.

Andrew Ortiz Source: LinkedIn

Stephen has an unbelievable energy level that becomes contagious with all of the people he works with. He has a "can do" attitude - no matter what the task. His creativity is off the charts for solving problems outside of the box. He did a very good job for us at Sable Ridge.

Mary Ann Costello Source: LinkedIn

Member since March 2013