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Have you found the SBA to be of any value in launching your start up? We used the SCORE program and got some reasonably helpful advice but other than that, haven't seen much value.

Here's the link to the SBA and here's the link to the SCORE team.

Are we missing something?

Thanks.

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Maybe you could provide a link, I'm assuming this is something US specific? – David Mar 28 '11 at 17:38
good point, thanks - added links. – Warren E. Hart Mar 28 '11 at 18:17
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SCORE was useless for me. Waste of time. My meeting(S) were with a bunch of old guys who could not help but talk about their own business and each others' successes. Useless. Absolutely useless. Oh, they did a little name-dropping too. All they could really say was that a business plan was essential. – TimJ♦ Mar 28 '11 at 18:41
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I tried SCORE counseling and it wasn't terribly valuable. The counselor was nice, but technology startups weren't something he understood. I'm sure it could be a lot more effective with more traditional businesses. – Nicko Mar 28 '11 at 20:25

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I went to SCORE. The guy was really nice, but he was very old and honestly had no clue about technology or the applications of it. He was very successful at his company previously but all of his advice was the boilerplate stuff ("create a business plan", "Here are bank contacts for a loan", etc.)

I don't think it was unhelpful, and it probably really matters who you talk to. And, you definitely can't go wrong for the price of FREE. It probably depends a lot on the type of venture you are doing. I have the impression SCORE is more applicable for, say, opening a car wash or a laundromat or some small sole proprietorship brick & mortar entity than for someone with a tech startup looking for VC money.

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