If the possibility of success exists and you have explored, crunched the numbers and proven to yourself that it does, then having the will to follow through on a difficult project becomes an order of magnitude easier. You won’t be constantly interrupting your work by asking yourself “Can this really work?”.
Should I seek a technical co-founder?
A lot of startup entrepreneurs think that by partnering with a designer or coder is the way to go. Some of the time it is IF you are a coder yourself and you know this guy for at least a year or so (compatible personalities, skillset, work ethic, mutual respect…). But, if you are a sales oriented person then having technicians as partners will clash. My route if I didn’t know how to code: 1) …
Selling leads
In my experience in software as a service it is better to just charge from the beginning. Now, I do have a free offer, but only LATER when the concept is proven, the marketing is refined AND I want to prevent anyone from undercutting me – how can you undercut FREE ? You could of course combine the two concepts and just start accumulating leads for them. Then contact them however you want (beware of …
What shit jobs did you have?
My personal list of shit jobs: Before started college: Trainee Accountant (two weeks) – I was just sitting around and listening to grown women gossip all day. It was pure torture as they wanted me to participate as I was the only man there. I left screaming out the door almost. Computer assembler (2 months) – It was fun at the start, but became too repetitive and quantity was the name of the game, not …
Do people know what they want?
I made this mistake many times early in my ventures – Asked people’s opinion, but not for the order when testing. Bad mistake. People don’t know what they want, they know once they see it and you know what they really want once they spend money on it in sufficient quantity.
How to have a breakthrough in sales?
No one wants to be the first. It’s the usual human pack behaviour and social proof hurdle. As some famous banker once said: “Assume the appearance of power and you shall be given that power.”.
There are no good domains left!
Many, many short(ish) domains are still available if you are creative. Search alternative phrases on thesaurus.com or find some popular suffixes on dotomator.com. I would rather rename the company (a couple of bucks) then buy an expensive domain that matches it. Google has gone away from exact match quite a bit to brand match. I always register a brand-able domain without keywords and a few keyword rich ones. Have never bought a domain off the …
How to start a startup
You prove the concept in a limited way before you commit any additional time and money. Sometime this can be as easy as searching for any profitable competitors. This of course doesn’t mean that you won’t have to change direction or your strategy in some way or even completely once you start getting bigger and you have a lot more data that either show you are on the right track or not. The data comes …
Crowdfunding vs Private Equity
The web is awash with glowing screams of interested parties promoting the idea that crowdfunding is and will continue to replace classic “private equity” – Angels and VCs. I agree about the point that it will disrupt Angel investors and it might impact VCs if the amounts raised grow larger still. The problem is that the crowd funds things they deem “cool”, fall for empty marketing lingo and support the projects based on ideological and …