10 Rules of Networking for Startups Networking is essential for startups: in order to build trust and credibility in your business you need to be visible and to make personal connections. Whether you…
When I was a kid, I read tons of superhero comic books. I fantasized about superpowers, but the storylines about heroes with massive Achilles’ heels really held my attention the most. They saved the world but had screwed up personal lives, made lots of mistakes, and often acted like complete assholes. In retrospect, I related to their flaws. And, probably not coincidentally, my favorite characters exhibited core weaknesses I had experienced: Spider-Man (immaturity), Iron Man (overconfidence/hubris), and Wolverine (rage). Ironically, when the character’s weakness comingled with the superpower, it would often spur them to succeed against impossible odds.
10 Ways to Leverage Facebook for Startups: Part 1
I know why I’m not a billionaire. Other than having the consistent self-sabotaging quality of destroying money in massive bonfires every time I sell a company, I also have a severe psychosocial disorder which makes me a horrible connector of people. Connecting people who can benefit each other is the most useful skill you can have on the entrepreneurial ladder of skills. When you help others make money by connecting them together, the world forces itself into the Möbius strip of success that brings the money right back to you times ten. Some billionaires are great at it. If I write Mark Cuban an email he responds in two seconds even though he doesn’t even know me. He’s a “Super Connector”. I know quite a few talented super connectors and they will be very successful as they grow into future Mark Cubans.[See, “How I Helped Mark Cuban Make a Billion Dollars and 5 Other Things I learned from him”.]
If you, the entrepreneur, self-publish a book you will stand out, you will make more money, you will kick your competitors right in the XX, and you will look amazingly cool at cocktail parties. I know this because I am seldom cool but at cocktail parties, with my very own comic book, I can basically have sex with anyone in the room. But don’t believe me, it costs you nothing and almost no time to try it yourself.
The rest of this article is really three discussions: Why self-publish rather than use a traditional publisher, why entrepreneurs should self-publish, and finally, HOW does one go about self-publishing.
ALL of the specific tasks that you need to perform in order to build a world-class content marketing program, from beginning to end. This is not high-level advice or courseware, but a detailed, real-world, 29-item task list and toolset, that includes everything you need to know and do. At the end of this play, you‘ll have a fully-operational, high-quality, lead-generating content marketing program, created in a fraction of the time it would take you to figure out all the best practices, tools, etc, required.
Includes five invaluable spreadsheet tools:
Includes pointers to essential third-party tools (most of which are free) that Dan’s already identified as best-of-breed, so you don’t have to waste time searching and evaluating.
Contains dozens of expert, insider tips that Dan’s gathered from seeing what works in the real world and what doesn’t. This is Dan’s personal content marketing plan, that he and others (including Mint.com) have used in order to build extremely successful, real-world content marketing programs.
Focus. Persevere. Hustle. Follow your gut. Put customers first. Don’t reinvent unnecessary wheels. This is just some of the smart, helpful and brief advice that iStartupLabs CEO Peter Corbett got from CEOs and founders over Twitter. Here, he shares the wisest words.
Declining cities could attract start ups/SMEs and create local incubators by offering (really) cheap real estate, equity investment, and more…
Many declining cities already have a consequent amount of underutilized and cheap real estate. These places could be transformed into shared office space, in order to create centers of innovation (similar to the Hub in San Francisco -acknowledging that SF is already a vibrant city, or Haarlem, Netherlands), which can inspire in the longer run locals to be more entrepreneurial and create their own companies. During the inspiration phase, many contributions pointed out examples of using empty building (in Seattle, New York, London and Bilbao, as well as Detroit). In Seattle, the project is a program of the City of Seattle, funded through multiple city departments along with various neighborhood groups, business improvement associations, and merchants’ associations.
“Incentive package” for the start-ups
— Cheap real estate: The city can give away free or very cheap buildings.
— Furniture: Steelcase could provide tables, chairs and other setup for offices (Thanks Ken) and common work facilities (kitchen, TechShop type of place, etc.) (Thanks Craig).
— Other amenities such as affordable housing (Thanks Josh).
— Funding:
For non-profit partners, corporate sponsors could underwrite the utilities to get these workspaces up and running, literally “empowering” a cause and their brand (ThanksCatherine).
Advantages for the city / the sponsor
— Tax revenue that the city wouldn’t be getting if the offices / buildings sit vacant.
— Shares in the companies: In exchange for free rent, you could issue the city some kind of convertible shares in the company. If the company ends up doing well (i.e., it’s the next Apple, Google, etc.) then the city reaps the upside and if not, then the shares aren’t worth anything and the city did its best to try and seed innovation (Thanks Rob).
— Places like these act as ideal laboratories for studying the way people work and collaborate, similarly to Workspring, a project that was spun off from Steelcase (Thanks Melanie).
— The biggest advantage of all: job creation. As Rob phrased it:
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Image source: Zfein.com
In the last year I’ve seen thousands of startup pitches while working with the AngelList crew, coached 100+ founders on how to communicate their product, traction and team, and worked with startups in fine institutions like 500 Startups, AngelPad and Bootup. I’ve also dissected 500+ emails from a recent seed round fundraising to map investor response. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Through thousands of pitches, I’ve found that fewer that 5% tell a great traction story.
Here are 10 tips that can help.
But first, let’s get one thing straight – this is the only thing that matters to investors ( ^ ) //follow the upper link to get the whole article
This is the best article about getting your startup on AngelList that I’ve ever read.
In the last year I’ve seen thousands of startup pitches and coached hundreds of founders while working with the AngelList crew. I’ve also seen how quickly the AngelList platform improves, giving startups new ways to reach investors with every push. This is about using those tools.
