6
votes
5answers
405 views
Is there a place I can go to float my ideas and get feedback?
I have decided to take off an extended period of time and take one of my ideas to market. I have been an independent and very successful developer for over a decade. Bigger than that though I am an ...
1
vote
3answers
361 views
Costs of a “Cheap” Start-Up
What is the cheapest anyone has been able to get a Start-Up from idea to full-time employment?
3
votes
5answers
327 views
Early Start-Up Advice [closed]
What would you say is the most important advice you would you give to someone just beginning a Start-Up?
-1
votes
2answers
116 views
Music management , music recondition , music … music market what do you think about it? [closed]
Hello all
in my endless brain storming ( with my self ) i was thinking about the music industry how is the
music cataloging , or music recommendation or any other music niche it can be players or web ...
2
votes
6answers
1k views
Reasonable budget to prepare a shareholder agreement
What's a reasonable budget for forming a proper shareholder agreement in a new start up, formed as a corporation to be owned between 4 founder/shareholders? I understnad there's some variation ...
4
votes
11answers
563 views
What is the distinction between sales and marketing?
What is the distinction between these two? In today's era it seems one overlaps each other and I'm wondering whether in a startup these roles can be covered by one person. Is it effective? Is there ...
2
votes
2answers
176 views
Recommendations for Errors and Ommissions insurance carriers [closed]
Can someone please recommend a good insurance carrier for a comprehensive E&O policy? I have looked at Hartford but found their policy terms lacking. We are in Washington state.
2
votes
7answers
182 views
How do we know we're ready to grow?
Is it better to make the decision to hire based only on revenue growth? Or if you saved enough money to pay another salary for 4 months, would it be better to grow first and try to increase our ...
7
votes
8answers
2k views
Why would someone work in a startup?
I think the most essential question to ask before recruiting someone to work for your startup is to ask their main motivation to work in a startup.
Those of you that have experiences with recruiting ...
9
votes
8answers
582 views
What about health insurance?
Lately I have been considering quiting my day job and working on my website business ideas full time but everytime I sit down and run the numbers I come to the same consulsion, I can afford everything ...
4
votes
6answers
425 views
Is it worthwhile to get business insurance?
And if business insurance is worthwhile, at what stage should a startup consider purchasing it? After the release of a product or launch of a service? Or is it good to have it in place from the point ...
13
votes
9answers
1k views
Should SAAS have tiered pricing for different countries?
For a start-up providing a web-app to customers on a subscription basis, do you think that the benefits of different geographic pricing outweigh the downside?
My rationale is that while North America ...
4
votes
5answers
178 views
Can Twitter really help to get users to a community site, and why?
Can Twitter really help to get users to a community site, and why?
I have read recommendations to use Twitter to market a community site, but I really don't understand how or why it can bring more ...
2
votes
4answers
273 views
Legality of using sweepstakes to spawn viral twitter campaign
What if run a twitter campaign like so:
Tweet FooBarCompanyXYZ.com for chance to win $xxx.xx
Is this legal? Is there some sort of rules about sweepstakes, etc? I live in Arkansas. Do you have ...
4
votes
11answers
396 views
Why are international sales so poor compared to US domestic?
We sell software online. Our international trial to purchase ratio is abysmal compared to US domestic. I'm trying to determine why? Some possible answers:
Higher piracy overseas
PayPal and PO are ...
4
votes
9answers
839 views
MBA - Education Vs. Networking
What is more important in an MBA, the education one receives or the networking one gets?
In the field of entrepreneurship, the top ranking MBA school is a relatively unknown school called Babson ...
1
vote
6answers
499 views
What type of tech blog should I write
I have been programming for 14 years, in several languages, and I think if I am going to be serious about doing consulting work until I get my application done, then I should start a tech blog, to ...
3
votes
3answers
195 views
Where do you find a good trademark lawyer?
I am looking for a trademark lawyer who could help me with a trademark registration. While I am not looking for a specific contact person I am looking for a site that lists and maybe even rates ...
1
vote
6answers
253 views
How would you market your service to a start-up?
I run a web solutions business and have helped start-ups implement their web strategies. Although, at this point it is pertinent for me to proactively approach new start-ups that are cash-rich and can ...
2
votes
2answers
130 views
CrowdSourcing Publicity and finding the traditional media stories for small business
Where can I brainstorm to find (Different, Emotive, and Simple) stories about my small business in order to craft messages that will catch the attention of traditional media?
Where do freelance ...
2
votes
3answers
262 views
URL Logo Question
How do you add a logo so it appears in the URL address box in a browser? For example; Dharmesh has the Hubspot logo appear at www.hubspot.com in the URL address box. Thanks. -Kevin
2
votes
8answers
451 views
Approaching Programming/Project Managemenet from a non-technical perspective?
I recently asked a question of should I start dabbling into programming or should I stick to what I am good at: Sales, Marketing, Planning, Presentations, etc. The feedback was overwhelmingly pointed ...
2
votes
4answers
4k views
How many ecommerce websites are out there?
Our company is providing a service to ecommerce websites, and we're struggling to find reliable stats on how large our potential base is.
Does anyone know where to obtain a reasonable estimation of ...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
When operating an LLC, how do you pay company expenses?
When operating an LLC, how do you handle company expenses? Do you pay for them yourself and deduct them on your taxes (as it is a pass through tax entity), or do you pay for them from the company ...
5
votes
8answers
7k views
What does traction really mean?
I've heard alot from this forum about traction. I tried to look at the meaning in the dictionary, but I somehow can not relate it with a startup. So what does it mean by traction and how does that ...
5
votes
14answers
601 views
Why is my Tech blog not taking off?
I keep getting kudos from the many readers for the quality of content I maintain at DemoGeek.com but it looks like it's not taking off in a big scale as it would have. When I say it was not taking off ...
7
votes
6answers
368 views
Is there any money in building small utility websites?
I have some ideas for small web applications (e.g. a todo list manager, or calorie counter), but I wonder how much revenue they might generate. They would be very narrowly focused, but in my opinion, ...
12
votes
6answers
2k views
Where to start writing a Terms of Service / Privacy Policy?
I am interested in any advice / links / book references for writing both a terms of service and privacy policy in plain language that still offers me adequate protection. Startup is entirely web based ...
7
votes
6answers
8k views
How to estimate revenues/valuation of an advertising-supported internet website?
Do you have a rule of thumb that calculates approx. advertising revenues of a Website based on the traffic generated?
How form there can you estimate a valuation of the website?
Let's take some ...
1
vote
6answers
165 views
Stepping from the lion's head
I have a cracker of a web 2 idea. I know its market, I know the people and I know they're crying out for it. I'm also a developer of some 15 years, and have some management experience and exposure to ...
8
votes
10answers
897 views
Funding : where do I start?
I am starting up an internet company based on an original concept. My strategy is to, first build the architectural base and implement the main use cases of my website and thereafter, look for funding ...
3
votes
3answers
184 views
Getting feedback on an idea
I want to get feedback on an idea for a solution targeted at an industry that I have no experience in. So I'm on the lookout for an industry insider, sufficiently senior to get candid feedback from. ...
8
votes
4answers
845 views
How should founders treat their paid-in cash in a self-funded startup?
In a founder-funded company, how should the founders treat the cash that they contribute to the company? Should it be convertible debt? Equity (but the founders already have all the equity initially)? ...
3
votes
3answers
90 views
Resources on Non-Profits
Looking to launch as a non-profit and I am looking for
Recommended blogs.
Recommended books.
Recommended People/organizations to follow on twitter.
(can someone with reputation, please create a ...
30
votes
7answers
3k views
How to split up revenue between partners who contribute different amounts of work
My co-founder and I will soon launch a micro ISV. Our current agreement states that we split ownership 50-50. However, since we reached the ownership agreement the amount of work we have put into ...
3
votes
9answers
657 views
Thinking about creating small desktop games, who is this market?
I'm thinking about starting to build and publish small desktop games and
puzzles. My background is 10 years of server c++/java programming. No GUI experience, and no gaming experience. I just love ...
3
votes
8answers
1k views
Good web demo software?
I need to do some web based demos to customers of our product and are looking for a good product to use. I've used gotomeeting before but I think that it feels a little to non-serious.
What are you ...
0
votes
4answers
125 views
Advertising Sales
I'm looking for advice on how to sell ads on my website, which is password-protected. I have studied AdSense/BuySellAds/etc., but none of them will work acceptably for my site (password-protected ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views
How does one sell a startup?
Suppose one has a small, but profitable and growing internet-based company. How would one go about selling it? This company hasn't had a lot of exposure, so people might not just "know" about it, ...
0
votes
4answers
261 views
I am a small startup with little to no capital
I am a recent startup and capital is non existent, I would love my primary company focuses to be Inbound/ Social Media Marketing and Consulting, to best utilize my skills from a background of ...
4
votes
8answers
446 views
How to describe (and market) an app which doesn't fit any niche
We're a software startup and our app (desktop app) is basically a virtual folder manager where the virtual folders are also tags: you "place" files/folders into several virtual folders and you find ...
6
votes
2answers
334 views
When and how do you reward yourself?
(Note: I maintain a complete "firewall" between company and personal money, and the only way money goes through is with salary, loans, investments, or dividends.)
When I took the plunge a few years ...
0
votes
2answers
146 views
How do I engage an international student with a contract?
I'm considering hiring a software developer in Germany. He's a student so he's unlikely to have any type of corporate structure set up. I've had numerous conversations with him online, and we get ...
2
votes
3answers
339 views
Entrepreneurship podcast
Here is a podcast I found useful early on. It walks through some basics and you can listen in your own time:
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCastCustomAds.jsp?masterId=13431&cmd=tc
...
12
votes
9answers
1k views
Subscription revenue: $40 a year or $3-5 a month?
Hey there, I'm the founder of a site that helps families keep in touch. We're going to be buying our cash register soon, so we're figuring out our revenue model.
We're deciding between two types of ...
1
vote
4answers
373 views
what providers exist for phone services and web conferencing? [closed]
One of my startups uses ringcentral for a public-facing phone system, but i also have a need for teleconferencing and video chat. Are there deccent low-cost providers for both of those services ...
5
votes
8answers
1k views
Startup Mentor. Do you have?
It is not easy to do first startup. There are so many things which we don't know or we don't know the right way to do it.
Do you have startup mentor? How do you find Mentor ? Does successful statup ...
12
votes
16answers
2k views
Best way to get a good website for a small business
My partner and I are C++ developers, not web/CMS developers and we need a decent site for our company and product launch.
I have been dabbling with wordpress and Drupal, but the results are childish ...
5
votes
8answers
487 views
Startup Business Model - infinite partners
Here is my weird idea about startup Business Model.
Facebook, Twitter and most of all other web startups valuation is based on number of users. Then why user don't get cut? What if you give cut to ...
5
votes
7answers
5k views
How you decide your salary for your startup after getting funding?
No Salary before funding but what about after you get funding?
I think Mint.com CEO mentioned in presentation about @30K salary he took initially. How do you come up with that number? How do VC/Angel ...
