5 Predictions For Equity Crowdfunding In 2014

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Quarter and Penny

Equity crowdfunding (ECF) will change considerably by the end of 2014. The introduction of Title II of the JOBS Act on September 23, 2013 gave entrepreneurs the ability to publicly advertise their need for funding. Title III is expected to become law in the spring of 2014 and will provide entrepreneurs with a much greater investor pool, as unaccredited investors will then be able to participate in ECF.

Once the JOBS Act is passed in its entirety, ECF will become the predominate method entrepreneurs use to raise capital for their endeavors. With these major shifts in the financial markets, some important occurrences are predicted to emerge throughout the year, with the top five being listed below.

2014 Predictions in Crowdfunding

 1) Up to $1 billion in equity transactions will occur worldwide in 2014 based on industry trends from the past two years.

The 2013 crowdfunding report by Massolution stated that around $5.1 billion in transactions occurred globally in 2013. That’s around a 100 percent increase from 2012 when $2.6 billion was raised. The report also stated that $204 million was from ECF. Assuming that the global crowdfunding market will again experience a 100 percent growth rate next year, and regulations will allow for more people to participate in ECF, ECF could produce between $500 million to $1 billion transactions in 2014. This is especially true as more investors realize the potential ROI in ECF.

2) Equity crowdfunding will become a global phenomenon as countries begin to utilize it to maintain their economic competitiveness. 

In some countries such as Finland, the United Kingdom, and Italy, ECF is already legal. The United States is also well on its way to legalizing ECF by adopting Title III of the JOBS Act. This law will allow almost any investor to participate in ECF sometime next year. Global participation in ECF will eventually occur as more countries develop laws to deal with the legal matters revolving around ECF.

A new report produced by Richard Schwartz for the World Bank estimates that the annual total market potential of the entire crowdfunding industry would average around $300 billion by 2025. China’s potential could reach $47.6 billion, while Europe and central Asia could reach $13.8 billion.

3) Title III of the JOBS Act will be implemented by the SEC by mid-year in the US, but will be slowly embraced by the industry due to its complexities for platforms and users. 

The SEC proposed rules for Title III of the JOBS act on October 23rd. Once approved, it will allow non-accredited investors to participate in equity crowdfunding. Title III will introduce a new crowd to ECF; however, due to regulations and limits on how much an entrepreneur can raise, it will not be used as much as Title II in 2014. For example, it is likely that entrepreneurs who use Title III will only be able to raise $1 million in funding, and crowdfunding platforms will be required to register with the SEC. Title III will eventually be noted as a major milestone for the crowdfunding industry, just not in 2014.

4) In North America, more than half of companies using equity crowdfunding platforms will use the new Title II rule to advertise their need for funding. 

Title II of the JOBS Act was introduced earlier this year on September 23, 2013. It lifted the 80-year-old ban on general solicitation, allowing business owners to publicly advertise their need for funding. According to EquityNet’s data, about half of the new companies listed on the site are utilizing Title II to reach a broader audience of investors. More entrepreneurs will likely begin to adopt this rule in 2014.

5) Many ECF platforms will no longer be in operation by the end of 2014.

The market share will eventually gravitate to the leading platforms with the largest populations and most advanced crowdfunding tools. This means that as 2014 progresses, the industry will experience a shakeout. Some sites may have difficulty complying with new regulations. Other sites may decide may wait for regulations to become finalized. Either way, situations like these are challenging for any company operating in the crowdfunding industry. In fact, sites like fimbex and crowddiligence are already no longer in operation. More will follow by the end of 2014.

Judd Hollas is a pioneer in the field of crowdfunding with multiple patents granted for web-based capital marketplace systems. He is the founder and chief inventor of EquityNet and continues to lead the Company’s efforts to create and introduce innovative new products and services.

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From Twitter To Kleiner Perkins, Michael Abbott Knows About Culture

Michael Abbott TechCrunch Disrupt

*Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of a mini-series featuring talks with Michael Abbott. See the previous posts here and here

Company culture matters because companies are made up of people, and people are social creatures. The nature of the workspace environment is going to have an indelible impact on how an organization functions. By fostering the right culture you will be able to promote actions and interactions that will be beneficial to your end goals. At the same time you have to be wary of some subtle pitfalls that can cause unexpected problems down the line.

A small number of up and coming industry directors were recently able to sit down and have a chat with Michael Abbott about some of these issues. Abbott is an expert resource on enterprise infrastructure, who is well known for taking Twitter from about 45 engineers up to 200 in two years. The group chatted about company culture, how it evolves, why it is important, and how it should be directed to the benefit of the organization. He noted that company culture is generally set by the time the tenth employee is hired.

That means that it is very important to implement the routines and procedures that you want in place from the very beginning. These will naturally permeate the business as it expands over time. However, he also stressed that company culture can be difficult to maintain through periods of rapid growth and hiring.

An interesting takeaway from the conversation was the idea of heroics. Great feats of dedication, investments of time, and moments of genius may be able to keep a site alive despite underlying issues. The problem is that heroics don’t scale, and you can’t count on them in future situations. It will be easier to scale when a product is built with a solid stable infrastructure that can support dramatic spikes in a company’s popularity.

Company culture is what defines the way a business works. It consists of the social norms of the team you are creating, and thus is a very subtle, but powerful tool for directing the way a startup grows. It is generally defined within the first 10 employees but should be designed to scale as the company grows, with value placed on quality coding and products.

Written by Alaina Percival, Head of Developer Outreach for Riviera Partners, a leading technical recruiting firm in Silicon Valley.

The “Must-Attend Conference for Entrepreneurs” Everywhere Else Tennessee is headed back to Memphis this Spring. We’re releasing the first 50 tickets for 50% off exclusively to our newsletter subscribers on Jan 13th. Don’t miss your shot by signing up here!

14 Personal Qualities All Startup Leaders Share

QUESTION: WHAT’S ONE PERSONAL QUALITY YOU THINK ALL GREAT STARTUP LEADERS SHARE?

PROBLEM-SOLVING ABILITY

“Road maps always change on the journey of making a company successful. Great startup leaders are those who know how to handle change well, and come up with new solutions when unexpected roadblocks get in their way. This ability allows the startups with great leaders to keep moving forward while the others perish or start a cycle of mediocrity.”

– Lawrence Watkins | Founder & CEO, Great Black Speakers
VISION TO EXECUTE

“More important than the ability to fly is knowing where to fly. Successful and productive startup leaders are so in-tune with their ultimate vision that they can effectively utilize and allocate their limited resources to generate the greatest return investment. Vision also helps entrepreneurs make important decisions about what opportunities to pursue and which ones to decline.”

– Kent Healy | Founder and CEO, The Uncommon Life
PERSEVERANCE TO MOVE FORWARD

“All great startup leaders know that forging a new path is not simple and there will be adjustments along the way. Without losing faith or getting distracted from the goal, leaders with perseverance can keep their team motivated and moving through setbacks.”

COURAGE, COURAGE, COURAGE

“A great leader sees not only see the potential success of their company, but also the tremendous risk of failure that comes with it. It takes someone with true courage to understand that risk and continue down the path day after day, even if this path to success is difficult, not always obvious, and full of temptations to quit.”

– W. Michael Hsu | Founder & CEO, DeepSky
CREATIVE MODERATION

“No one person can come up with all the right answers. While a founder may have come up with the original idea behind the product, the ideas from customers, employees, and advisors make that product great. Having an open mind and creating settings for collaborative creative thinking can go a long way.”

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

“Founding a new company is risky business and the bravery is commendable, but you can’t let it get to your head. Early successes are what builds momentum, but they can also jade a leader from what’s best for the business when an ego begins to grow. Set that ego aside, listen to your employees and advisers and make informed and smart decisions to move your startup forward.”

– Benjamin Leis | Founder, Sweat EquiTees
ABILITY TO FOCUS

“Great startup leaders are very focused on their goals and accomplishing what they set out to do. Without focus, businesses would be scattered and move everywhere but forward.”

– Angela Pan | Owner/Photographer, Angela B Pan Photography
HUMILITY

“As leaders, it’s easy to get caught up in the ‘I can do no wrong’ mentality. It’s difficult to accept failure after a long history of success. However, admitting when you are wrong — and solving the problem before it gets worse — is essential to the future of your startup. It takes a lot of strength to admit that you’re wrong, but the results are worth their weight in gold.”

– Justin Beck | Co-Founder and CEO, PerBlue
THE POWER OF PERSUASION

“Particularly during the early days of a startup, leaders need to be able to effectively pitch something that doesn’t fully exist to multiple audiences such as customers, investors, and existing and potential employees. Leaders have to demonstrate passion and use their powers of persuasion to ensure other people buy into their vision and help bring it to fruition.”

– John Berkowitz | Co-Founder & Vice President of National Sales,Yodle
AN ARROGANT AIR

“I have found that the most successful startup leaders are absolutely arrogant about their talent, their idea, their product, and their capabilities. I’ve seen investors invest in arrogant CEOs because they not only have confidence, but they have a commanding personality that says, ‘I’m going to succeed, no matter what, and you’re lucky to be a part of this deal.'”

– Jun Loayza | President, Ecommerce Rules
REAL PASSION

“Most other qualities and characteristics differ and more often than not, one entrepreneur will swear by something that another entrepreneur swears against. But the one thing every entrepreneur has in common is passion for what they do. Without passion, the business will die.”

CURIOSITY

“As a startup leader, you can never stop asking the question, ‘Why?’ Curiosity should run through your veins, as you believe there is always a better way to do something. We get into this business to create change, but don’t ever stop being curious.”

– John Meyer | Founder/CEO, Lemon.ly
UNRELENTING DETERMINATION

“Every single one of the most phenomenal entrepreneurs I know are scrappy. I define scrappy as unrelentingly determined no matter what you throw at them. This goes far beyond perseverance, and includes traits of creativity and a general lack of trepidation. It’s the ability to pull off the ‘impossible’ and make it look routine.”

– Seth Kravitz | CEO, Technori
GUTS

“All startup leaders need to embrace uncertainty, thrive when on the edge, and be willing to fail over and over again until they succeed. They need guts!”

– Alexis Wolfer | Founder/CEO, The Beauty Bean

 

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons. 

What I Learned About Entrepreneurship From Running

Last month, I ran a total of 120 kilometers, which included running my personal best in an unexpected half marathon. I spent a lot of time on the road — just me, some music, the sound of my (sometimes ragged) breathing and most importantly, my thoughts.

One of the recurring themes to pop into my head while running in the last month was the similarity between how I was progressing as a runner and how I could potentially apply the same mindset to running my company.

Here’s a list of the things I learned about entrepreneurship from spending time on the road, running:

WORK ONLY WHEN YOU’RE PRODUCTIVE AND FOCUSED.

I used to motivate myself to go running in a very reactive, threatening-kinda way: I would decide to run a half marathon and I would “demand” (of myself) to run specific distances in specific times. This meant that regardless of how I was feeling, I had to meet those requirements.

During my latest stint, I decided that I wasn’t going to set myself the goal of running in a specific half-marathon. Instead, I decided to run just because I loved it.

Sometimes, when I started running I could feel that my body didn’t respond or that I just wasn’t in the mental space to run, so I would cut my run short and went home. On the flip side, sometimes I planned to run 5km but ended up running 10km instead, because I was feeling good. That’s a 2x return when literally doubling down on that good feeling.

Entrepreneurs are guilty of this. We force ourselves to work, even when we’re not being productive. Stop. Get up, do something else that’s not related to work, and when you are in the zone, double down and achieve an insane amount instead.

AVOID BURNOUT.

Earlier this year, I got greedy and for about a week, I pushed myself too hard, aggravating an injury. Instead of just stopping, I kept pushing. The result was that I developed a severe case of shin splints that kept me out of running for two whole months.

As entrepreneurs, we know how to push (hard) and we know how to use adrenaline to fuel us. Burnout is, however, a very real threat that should not be considered lightly. The problem with injury or burnout isn’t the pain; it’s the frustration. Once you’ve injured yourself, there are no more shortcuts; you have to do the time.

So avoid it. Sleep well and try get eight hours of sleep a day. Eat healthily, exercise regularly and immerse your energy into non-work things too. All of this will help maintain your entrepreneurial fitness and ability to be consistently ambitious and driven.

REWARD YOURSELF.

When I eventually recovered, I decided to go for a weekly sports massage to help prevent shin splints. The massages turned into more of a reward, and I balanced the purpose of the massages between getting pampered and doing the preventive work on my muscles. I love this downtime, and it became a big motivating factor for me to run even more.

The same is true with work. For me personally, money isn’t enough of a motivating factor to work hard or do more. What does work is to reward myself with experiences. On the expensive end of the scale, that’s been via travelling as much as I can. On a more regular basis, I reward myself with a bottle of fantastic red wine.

The key is to connect the dots between the work and the experience, knowing that both need to be present to be able to draw that line.

NURTURE CONSISTENCY.

Running every second day has become a routine for me. This consistency is one of the primary drivers behind my ability to run 120km last month; it became a habit, which I could consistently get to.

I’ve seen the same scenario with my inbox. All of us get a boatload of email, and it’s probably the #1 complaint of busy people. But when I’m disciplined and keep my inbox neat and clean consistently, I avoid the problem. As soon as I lose that consistency, it becomes a mess.

As entrepreneur, these little habits are key to helping you consistently get stuff done and move forward. Consistency is your friend.

SHED EXCESS WEIGHT.

Running with excess weight is hard work. Now I’m not obese, but you probably won’t see me on the cover of GQ either. So about six weeks ago I started the Paleo diet, and I’ve since decreased my body fat by 5 percent. It makes running a lot easier.

In business and in work, excess weight can take many different shapes and forms. I used to be very guilty of taking responsibility for things I either didn’t need to do myself or just weren’t important. I was really bad at prioritizing my time. When I focused on only doing the most important things every day, I immediately got more done — and I was happier.

Shed the excess weight on your to-do list; you’ll run easier afterwards.

RUN YOUR OWN RACE.

Whilst running my last race, I realized that we’re always competing. We’re always measuring ourselves against other entrepreneurs and their companies. We read about how they do things, how they manage to be successful and how we should be applying all of those things to our own lives.

Just like you are doing, reading this now.

But this is YOUR life. In every race, you can only run against yourself and try to improve on your personal best. What the other runners and entrepreneurs are doing shouldn’t influence the way you run your own race.

Do things for yourself, be a little selfish every now and again, and most importantly, invest in yourself.

 

Adii Pienaar is the ex-CEO & Founder of WooThemes. He has a passion for helping other entrepreneurs, making new mistakes (of his own) and as such is working on his new startup, PublicBeta. He is also a new dad, ex-rockstar and wannabe angel investor.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

The Slow Revolution of Private Equity

Jobs Act, Title III, Crowdentials, Crowdfunding, Cleveland startupBy: Rohan Kusre, COO // Co-Founder, Crowdentials

After months of restless anticipation, there is finally some substantial progress towards the implementation of the JOBS Act. It has been exactly one month since the Title II rules- the ones based around general solicitation- went into effect and the SEC is moving forward with implementing the next portion of the monumental legislation.

Title III, the poster child of the JOBS Act, is focused around the sale of private equities in an open market. It is as groundbreaking for the industry as it is controversial in its own right. There are as many proponents of the crowdfunding bill as there are naysayers and today the SEC discussed the proposed rules that would provide the infrastructure for equity crowdfunding to take place.  Platforms such as EarlyShares have been waiting for these exact rules in order to set in motion their part in facilitating the sale of private securities.

There have been claims that equity crowdfunding will result in a ‘ghetto stock market’ due to the high risk of fraud and the low barrier to entry. There have also been concerns about the cost of properly keeping up with SEC regulations. Currently, an investment group will spend anywhere between $50,000 and $100,000 in due diligence and this begs the question of how such practices will be handled at a smaller scale for investments that will be under $20,000.

Well, where there is a will there is a way. Solutions are already in place for companies wishing to utilize the new legislation as the SEC continues to implement it. Companies like CrowdCheck provide quick and secure diligence reports while companies such as Crowdentials assist with making sure your investor is accredited among various other compliance needs. Sure, the waters of the JOBS Act regulations are currently a bit murky but there is a lot of money to be made within these environments and those that take advantage of it will be handsomely rewarded. So when can those interested to utilize the new legislations expect to be able to do so? This is where it gets a bit tricky.

Title II of the JOBS Act, which went into effect one month ago on September 23rd, and it allows for companies that are making a private security offering to be able to use public advertising in order to get the word out. While the JOBS Act itself was signed on April 5th, 2012, the SEC didn’t release the proposed rules until July 10th of this year. This seems to be an ongoing trend as the SEC has delayed the implementation of the whole act by several months multiple times.

There is hope that this trend will be broken as the SEC held a live webcast today where the commission discussed the rules surrounding equity crowdfunding. Once these rules are posted to the Federal Registrar (this usually only takes a few days), they will be open for comment and the ball will be rolling to get this brand new industry up and running.

With industry experts waiting to pounce on the opportunity to help out investors and entrepreneurs navigate through the dense regulations of the JOBS Act, those on the fence about joining the crowd should feel a sense of assurance in doing so. CrowdCheck, Crowdentials, and several other industry leaders are poised to iron out the wrinkles as more and more people get involved with Title II and Title III of the JOBS Act.

Choosing The Right Finance Software For Your Startup

Running a small business means that you have to become a bit of an expert in everything. It’s not enough to be good at what your business does, you also need to be able to plan, manage logistics, handle the marketing of the business and perhaps the bit that most entrepreneurs enjoy the least: manage your finances.

 

Startup Tips, Startup Finance Software

(image credit: WikiCommons)

Whether you are a running a small consultancy business or a large scale non-profit, being able to track your spending and income is essential to running your enterprise efficiently.

Using Microsoft Excel is certainly an option that many people go with, but in reality it is not a great option and there are many very cost effective software solutions that will help make your business more profitable and save you time.

Here’s what to consider when looking for finance software for your business:

Do You Want A Hosted Solution?

In the past is was more normal to buy some finance software on a disc and install it on your local computer, but there are now a wide range of accounting packages available which are hosted “on the cloud”.

Buying software outright is still an option, but for most businesses a cloud based accounting package has a few notable advantages:

  • There is a relatively affordable monthly cost
  • Upgrades are regular and often automatic
  • You are likely to have constant technical support
  • You can access your accounts from anywhere
  • Your accounts are automatically backed up online
  • It may be possible to integrate with other services


Talking About Integration

That last point is an important one because many cloud based finance packages will have the ability to integrate with any other services that you may need as part of your business model.

You may think that you only need a stand-alone piece of software to handle your required accounts, but by integrating other services that you use (or may use in the future) you can often automate tasks and at the same time gain some powerful data.

Consider what services you already use online that could be integrated, for instance:

  • Business banking; automatically download your bank statements to fill in new transactions
  • Invoicing and quotes; invoices can be automatically added to accounts and payments tracked
  • CRM software; track your marketing channels, customer relationships and costs all in the same place, giving you a powerful opportunity to marry your accounts and cost of sales to your marketing costs and income.

Even if you don’t use these types of software yet, consider whether you will eventually want to. Many businesses miss out on opportunities because they don’t know what is available or they over-estimate the complexity of getting set up.

Thinking About Features

Finally of course you need to consider what features you want from your finance software. You may not really know what you need, so this exercise will help you to get your head around what actually needs doing.

There are a few features that are common and contained in most solutions and some other more specialist ones that might be helpful. For instance, you might want the ability to track inventory and control stock, or the ability to create invoices within the system and automatically send payment reminders when invoices are due.

The most essential features are likely to be things like reporting of profit and loss and financial analysis which will let you see where your money is going and what level of profit you are making.

If in doubt, look at the feature lists of a few finance options and note down any features that you think you need and any that you might find useful. You can then use these notes to weigh up the cost/benefit of your various options and select the most suitable solution.

Mike Spalding works as an IT technical consultant at Advantage.co.uk. Advantage specialize in business management and finance software for small businesses and social enterprises (learn more about the options here).

Startups: Content Could Be the Key to Crowdfunding Success

Amanda L. Barbara headshotBegging might not be so bad.

In its early days, the popular gaming blog Penny Arcade was run purely on donations for more than a year.

“The word crowdfunding hadn’t been invented yet,” said Jerry Holkins, one of the site’s creators. “Back then, people simply called it ‘begging.’”

As the site grew, it became dependent on advertising dollars, but the founders yearned for those early days. They launched a Kickstarter campaign to see if their “begging” model could work again. Their fans overwhelmingly said yes, donating more than half a million dollars to remove ads from the site.

Great content made the difference for Penny Arcade. Dedicated gamers were hungry for the site’s comics and commentary, and they were willing to break out their wallets to support the content.

You, too, can use content to win fans and accelerate your crowdfunding efforts. By providing useful information your audience wants, you can ask for financial support without coming across as spammy or feeling like you’ve resorted to begging.

4 Tips to Make Sure Your Content Hits the Mark

1. Know your audience. Who are they? Where do they live? What are they passionate about? You can’t provide your audience with valuable information if you don’t know who your audience is and what interests them.

Author Janna Leyde is a great example of what can happen when you truly understand your audience. Janna’s father suffered a traumatic brain injury from a car accident that occurred when she was 14 years old. Janna hoped to write a memoir about dealing with the injury. She reached out to survivors of traumatic brain injuries and their families, with the goal of reaching one new person each day to talk about her Pubslush campaign to write her untold story. Her supporters donated more than $15,000 to make her book, “He Never Liked Cake,” a reality.

2. Provide fresh content. Don’t just regurgitate the things everyone else is saying. Be innovative enough to stand out from the crowd, sharing your own unique ideas and insights. Use your creativity and branding power to create a special voice and style people can associate with you.

The content shouldn’t be too self-promotional, either. If you are providing valuable information and unique insights, word will spread, and your brand will earn trust.

3. Engage with your audience. It’s important to not just spew out information, but to also allow readers to comment and create a conversation. The Internet gives businesses unprecedented access to directly interact with customers — use it! Respond to comments, engage in conversations on social media, and always provide a way for your audience to get in touch with you.

4. Know your business model. If you were courting investors in the real world, they would ask dozens of questions about your business, your goals, and where their money will go. While your online campaign might be soliciting hundreds or thousands of micro-investors, the idea is no different. Know your business model and industry inside and out so you can be ready to answer any question that comes up.

Content marketing for a crowdfunding campaign is essentially the same as content marketing for a product or service. People aren’t just investing in the project you’re raising funds for — they’re investing in your brand. By providing valuable information to your audience, you can build trust and interest and drive traffic to your campaign — without having to beg.

Amanda L. Barbara is Vice President of Pubslush. Pubslush is a global crowdfunding publishing platform for authors to raise funds and gauge their audience for new book ideas and for trendsetting readers to pledge their financial support to bring books to life. Follow Amanda on Twitter

Why Can’t We Be Friends: Social Sharing and SEO

By Markerly’s Christine Beuhler 

Markerly, startup tips, startups

No one can seem to agree: is SEO out of date and obsolete or still worth it? And what are social signals? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed.

SEO and Google

Google doesn’t seem to like SEO much, which is understandable. So-called “black-hat” techniques (simply bad SEO practices) have made it their business to dupe search engines for years to get their clients in the top rankings and first pages of results. That bad name given by these techniques has pervaded SEO to the point that using SEO makes some companies uneasy and worry about its legitimacy as a method to getting more.

Content and Social Signals

Google’s phasing out of SEO means they have turned to other means to populate the top rankings, in this case social signals. The rule of thumb of social signals is the more times a piece of content is shared (the more likes, mentions, tweets, retweets, +1′s, etc.) the higher quality content it is, and generally the higher in the rankings it will show up. In fact, about half of the traffic to sites is now coming from social sharing instead of searching.

Creating quality content which is ALSO popular is not easy, but it is a more consistently reliable practice which makes sense to people. People like something, they share it, it’s a pretty simple concept, as opposed to monkeying around with technical SEO terms that they don’t understand and which seem to insist on changing anyway.

Marrying The Two

So the two have their differences, but it’s easy to see that social sharing and SEO affect each other. Their relationship is becoming intertwined, so what’s an entrepreneur/blogger/business owner to do?

As long as searching is still around, (and I’m pretty sure Google isn’t taking a vacation anytime soon) won’t SEO always be necessary? In that case, what still matters when it comes to SEO? To create harmony between the two groups, here are some areas where to marry SEO AND great content for optimum results.

(If you haven’t already, go take care of your content. Seriously. Social sharing is great, but it’s not king. Content is.)

1. GREAT Headlines

The function of a truly great headline is that it grabs, intrigues, and entices you into reading the full piece, usually in 8 words or less. A tall order, especially when stats say only 20% of people read your piece past the headline. No pressure or anything. But headlines are also a great opportunity to state clearly what your piece is about, and the words you select are a big contributing factor when it comes to online searching.

Pro Tip: Personally, I’m not a fan of “shocker” headlines, because after reading, I often feel manipulated, meaning my perception of the headline did not align with my perception of the article. You don’t ever want to give your audience a feeling of being used. They will determine that you are “not worth it” and they won’t come back.

2. Keywords

Carefully selecting keywords will really help out the people who are trying to find you, but it also helps you narrow down what your post is actually ABOUT. Sometimes, you start off having no idea what you’re talking about until the end, when the big picture slowly comes into view and you grasp it. Kudos for that, keywords!

Pro Tip: Longer phrases often help out more than shorter ones. Competition for one or two word phrases can be extremely fierce, so the more specific you are, the more likely you are to to bring in the kind of traffic you’re looking for.

3. Images

When choosing titles, captions, and alt text for your images, make sure they are tightly relevant to your topic and this could help bump up your content even more.

Pro Tip: Blocks of text can be scary and intimidating to the reader, but engaging images keep the eye flowing through the entire piece, especially if they’re funny images or have funny text.

4. Video

This one may surprise you, but stats show that video automatically ranks higher in Google Search over any other type of content. This a huge plus for your rankings, but having video content also sets you apart by switching up the medium of your content, making it more exciting for your regular readers.

Pro Tip: Show your personality and be engaging in how you move and talk. Try to turn off your anxieties about being in front of the camera and always focus on how to best help people. So as always, keep your content fresh and lively, because that’s what matters the most. But using some of the tips shown above can make sure you’re found by the right people, while keeping your content prevalent on social media. See? They don’t have to fight.

Check out Markerly’s blog about the future of content and why you need a content strategy, here.

J.D. Power’s 10 Things I’ve Learned in Business

JD Power, Guest Post, Startup Tips, Business lessonsBy James “David” Power III

  After fifty years working with a range of companies—as well as founding and running my own company, J.D. Power and Associates—I have observed a good deal, and come away with a few thoughts about how to have the best shot at success in business.
The businesses I’ve seen grow, adapt, and thrive are the ones that keep a focus on satisfying customers by listening to them, anticipating their needs and desires, and maintaining their organizations’ prioritizing of these principles.
Whether I’m speaking with business school students or seasoned executives, I find that my advice incorporates ten basic lessons I’ve learned throughout my career.
1. Listen—to your customers, your employees, and your stakeholders. 
I have witnessed too many car manufacturers move further away from achieving satisfied customers by refusing to listen to them. One example that sticks in my mind is that of Peugeot back in the 1980s. They were trying to broaden their appeal and expand their share of the American car market, but they were unwilling to listen to customer complaints about difficulties starting their advanced fuel-injected cars. Peugeot was an early adopter of fuel injection, and American customers were “flooding” the engine by pumping the gas, something that was necessary in conventional engines at that time. Customers saw this as a quality issue, but rather than hearing this as a problem, they held fast, confident that fuel injection was superior from an engineering standpoint. No doubt they were right, but by not listening and adapting to their customers they lost them, and by the early 1990s they had to abandon the American market.
2, Remember who the client is. In a B2B world it is the organization or business you serve, not just the guy or gal sitting across from you.
This is important from two perspectives. It is critical that you not serve the desires of the representative assigned to work with you to the disservice of the organization. On the flipside, you must feel empowered to not let that person become an obstacle to the organization receiving the information necessary to take full advantage of your services. I frequently encountered a situation where the person assigned to work with us put up roadblocks to information reaching further up the chain of command because it undermined his own position within the organization. I worked around this by sending letters directly to top leaders or using the press to get out the critical information, knowing that it was only when our message could not be ignored that true change for the organization could occur.
3. Empower your employees to be curious, to do the right thing for the business, to speak up. You need the right kind of leadership and a strong culture to make it work but there is nothing more valuable.
At J.D. Power, if an employee came up with an idea, they owned it. This engendered tremendous initiative and loyalty, and may have been one of the greatest keys to J.D. Power’s lasting success.
4. Relationships matter, but they need to be built on a bedrock of respect and trust, not just friendships.
I never approached business relationships as requiring glad-handing or wining and dining. In the beginning, I simply couldn’t afford it, but as J.D. Power’s success widened, I found that true relationships with executives came from providing them with the clear, actionable information they needed to do their jobs, not time on the golf course.
5. Have empathy, be kind.
Of course this applies to all of the individuals in your own organization who come together to provide the support you need to run your business—from your CFO to the cleaning crew. It’s a Golden Rule in my book. I found that it inspires employees to show that you care about them enough to acknowledge them, and ask about their families. Another example is with regard to my clients. Sometimes I didn’t agree with what they were doing, or I knew that they were in an unwinnable position. I felt a compassion for them and always tried to make sure that our information was there to help them.
6. Be willing to look at situations from unusual directions to seek the “truth.”
Don’t be afraid to take a counter-intuitive position in order to generate better ideas. The Jesuit education I received at the College of the Holy Cross provided a basis in questioning the status quo, a trait that has served me well.
7. Accept change.
I really believe that you need to anticipate changes, be flexible, and move with the trends. We are in the Information Age today. The rise of the Internet and its impact on retailing is the most recent example of the ways companies must adapt in order to survive, but there has never been a time when change was not actively underway.
8. Stay true to your values.
Part of your brand is what you are—and, at the core, what you are is made up of your values. Whether you are an individual or an organization, you must keep your compass aligned to the virtues that guide you. At our company, I really felt that we kept the organization focused on the “Three I’s”: Independence, Impact, and Integrity.
9. Find information and inspiration in the work of others.
I have long been a student of the writings of Walter Wriston, Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming, and Alvin Toffler. Their observations are still compelling today, as are myriad others who can offer insight and perspective that will be invaluable to your pursuits.
10. Don’t “torture the data till it confesses.”
Don’t be blind to all but the good news you may want to hear. Consciously or unconsciously interpreting information that comes across your desk in a way that supports past decisions rather than illuminates needed improvements is short-sighted and won’t bring you closer to the satisfied customers who will ultimately dictate your success.
These ten principles guided me through a successful and satisfying career. The individuals I dealt with who shared a similar view of business invariably had the respect of clients and colleagues, and the markers of success were realized for them as well.
Dave Power is the founder of J.D. Power and Associates. Stories from fifty years in the auto industry are shared in the new book, Power: How J.D. Power III Became the Auto Industry’s Adviser, Confessor, and Eyewitness to History. For more information, visit www.davepowerbook.com.

Rob Woodbridge and The May-Boss-Weil Continuum of Mobile Apps

Rob Woodbridge Everywhere else cincinnati

Rob Woodbridge gave an interesting talk during Everywhere Else Cincinnati. “The Top 4 Mobile Business Models and how to Optimize Them for Revenue” was a title that may seem bland and boring. So many times at conferences you see sessions entitled things like, “SEO for eCommerce,” or “Optimize Your Facebook page for Conversions,” or “The Perfect Investor Pitch,” or some such thing. More often that not, these are the sessions that attendees leave after 5-10 minutes out of boredom. However, this session ended up being one of the most enjoyable of the conference.

Rob Woodbridge Everywhere else cincinnati

In the first, of what actually proved to be many, sessions that required audience participation, Woodbridge called four audience members to the stage – interestingly one of the participants was Jared Steffes who spoke the following day. Woodbridge lined the four up on the stage, three on one end and one on the other and Woodbridge in the middle (Not sure how I did not get a picture of the formation, but @_everywhereelse got a pretty good one here). This formation represented what Woodbridge dubbed the May-Boss-Weil continuum of mobile apps.

May-Boss-Weil Continuum

Woodbridge’s continuum is a really good way to think about the life-cycle of mobile apps. There are more than 1.7 billion applications available in the various app stores and with the average number of apps per smartphone at 41. Woodbridge argued that the great majority of these apps are crap. But, some really useful applications live on forever.

May

The May of the continuum represented the Mayfly. The Mayfly has the shortest lifespan of any animal on the planet, lasting from one to three days. This section of the continuum contains the majority of mobile applications, and was represented with the three audience members. This end is were the one-off apps live: the fart noise makers and the knock offs of Angry Birds.

Weil

The Weil in the continuum is named for Ray Kurzweil, Director of Engineering at Google who argues that in the near future, technology will enable humans to live indefinitely. This end of the continuum is where the Google Maps and Twitters and Evernotes live, possibly forever.

Boss

Rob Woodbridge Everywhere Else Cincinnati

The Boss is named for the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen. The Boss sits right in the middle because, as Woodbrige put it, he is not really retired and he is not really going 100% anymore; he is neither too old, or too young, just the Boss. Woodbridge argued that this is the part of the continuum that application developers should shoot for.

The continuum holds because, Woodbridge went on, application developers are chasing the almighty download. This is a losing strategy, and there are many other metrics that are a much better indicator of quality than downloads; namely average monthly/weekly/daily usage. According to Woodbridge, “Chasing downloads is chasing death.” Rather, the best approach is to build something that is great, and monetize in one of the four ways outlined in Woodbridge’s discussion:

1. Brand Reinforcement

This strategy really only applies to established companies and works best for physical products. Woodbridge brought up the examples of the Krispy Kreme and Stella Artois applications. The Krispy Kreme app lets users know when they are close to a store and will notify the user when the donuts are “Hot Now.” The Stella application allows users to find close bars that serve Stella and sort by various filters such as distance and rating. This value-add approach is a great way for established brands to engage mobile.

2. Freemium

For the freemium approach to work, you must build a really awesome product that people use. Evernote is the best example of a freemium application. The success of Evernote particularly, and the freemium model more broadly, lies in the usefulness of a product. The oft-quoted remark from Evernote’s CEO Phil Libin speaks to this: “The easiest way to get 1 million people paying is to get 1 billion people using.” Build something awesome, and people will pay for an upgrade.

3. Premium

This one is fairly simple, just charge for the app. Be it $.99 or $999.99, charging an upfront fee is a simple way to monetize an application.

4. Data

This is a unique approach. Woodbridge brought up the example of Ubiqui Health. Prior to launching any product, Ubiqui surveyed doctors and patients about health issues, particularly which issues with a real lack of information and data available. It soon became clear that there was a real lack of data around migraines. Thus, they built a migraine tracking application and sold the data to pharmacies and doctors. There are plenty of ways to employ this approach, but it takes some creative thinking.

While, certainly, there are many different avenues through which to monetize a mobile application, the four highlighted by Woodbridge offer the greatest chance at success. Woodbridge finished on a note that we can all agree to, “Banner ads fu*king suck!”

Andrew Thompson is the Managing Editor of TechFaster

 

How To Create Value In All Your Business Negotiations

We all want to create value during a negotiation, but that’s only possible if we’re willing to collaborate and connect with our counterpart. Instead of reaching an unstable agreement with an annoyed and resentful associate, we should try to build a relationship that is firm and long-lasting, a relationship that satisfies everyone. It’s important to leave the negotiation table smiling, shaking hands, and happy that we teamed up with a good partner.  Value is directly linked to power in negotiations. The way we use that power influences both the deal and the people’s we’re negotiating with.

Startup Tips, Guest Post, Steve Brown

Share information

You have goals and so does your opponent. The problem is that you haven’t met before and you don’t know too many details about each other. What should you do? If you want to build trust, you should start by sharing information. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to reveal your whole game plan, but you can start sharing small things about yourself to see whether or not your opponent is willing to do the same.

Ask questions

You won’t be able to reach an agreement if you’re not familiar with each other’s goals. Therefore, you should ask smart questions. Prepare your questions before the meeting and you can be sure that your counterpart will do the same thing. The more information you share the better chances you have to come across a mutually satisfying solution. A negotiation involves two parties, so everyone has to be willing to share and receive information. Reciprocity is one of the most important factors that can lead to a successful outcome.

Multiple negotiation problems

Negotiations can’t entail a single problem only. Such complex process involves a partnership that might come with many problems down the road. Keep in mind that a long-lasting partnership requires respect and faith, despite the fact that the parties have to negotiate a price. You have to focus on developing a strong working relationship that brings benefits to both sides. Spot and prioritize the issues when you prepare for a negotiation, and note that a bigger number of issues will boost and improve the number of resources that will eventually be shared, which creates value in the negotiation.

Stevebrown2Use your negotiation skills

Patience, a truly analytical mind, time, and the belief that communication will help you obtain a better result, are essential skills of a successful negotiator. It’s equally important to be a good listener and pay attention to what your counterpart wants. Ask questions if you want to understand the position and requirements of your opponent, and don’t forget to express your own demands and opinions. This negotiation might fail, but maybe you will meet again someday and that’s why you should leave the door open for potential opportunities.

Add resources to create value

If you want to create value, think of ways to add new resources when the problem related to limited assets is leading to a conflict. Contacting another supplier or closing a subcontract with a party that both sides fancy are two ways of handling the problem. You always have to come up with creative solutions that are mutually beneficial if you want to build a long-lasting partnership.

Stevebrown3Trade-offs is vital

Never compromise too much because that won’t create value and it will reduce the resources you can negotiate. Instead, you should go for trade-offs. You give away something and your counterpart offers you something else in return. This approach will surely help you close a better deal. Creating value in negotiations might be a tricky task, and the truth is that it can happen only if both parties are willing to solve the problem in a creative way and reach an agreement that benefits everyone. You can improve a business negotiation only if you collaborate with your partners to reach valuable trade-offs.

Creating and claiming value in negotiations is every business person’s dilemma. You may have a good deal to offer that is valuable and worth taking into account, but you’re expecting the exact same thing in return from your counterpart. Good communication skills and teamwork are essential in a business negotiation. If you want to win, or at least reach common ground, you must be ready to compromise without having to give up your hopes and dreams.

Steve Brown is the writer to this article. He regularly posts his high quality posts in top most blogs. The site http://www.thegappartnership.com.au is the negotiation specialist and provides their workshops in 12 languages in over 50 countries.

 

Start-Up Founders Beware

Startups Beware, Robert Hartline, Call Proof, Startup Tips, Nashville startup

The average underperformer lasts 10 months in the average organization. Imagine the amount in salary, benefits, and training that costs you. The numbers are staggering. That is money you could be putting into other pieces of your organization to actually make you money as opposed to helping pay for someone’s Candy Crush habit. If someone is underperforming and can’t seem to fix it, it benefits you and the company to simply part ways.

When that underperformer is in sales, you could be damaging your company’s reputation even more than you realize.

Here are some tips to keep in mind while hiring and running a team of Sales Reps:

  • If you interview someone who seems too good to be true, they probably are. Although there is the occasional exception, a good sales guy generally isn’t looking for a job. When their talk and ego are as big as the city they’re selling in, chances are they will never sell anything.
  • beware1Before you start the process of training a new sales rep, have them dive right into the action. You’ve never really seen this person in action, and the only way to ensure it’s really worth putting all of your time into them, is to see if they’re really cut out for the position. Give them some of your worst leads, the ones you know for a fact will not purchase your product or service. The goal here is not to watch them fail; it’s to see how they react. If they dive right in and can brush off being rejected and make the next call with the same drive and energy as the first, you know this person may be just what you need. Once they’ve proven themselves, you can then train them to the fullest extent. If you get someone who refuses to try or that gets overwhelmed, they probably won’t make it in your company anyway.
  • Your salesperson is saying something right now in an online demo or appointment that can turn off a prospect, and if your team keeps saying it, you’ll waste good opportunities. You should record demos, marketing, and follow up calls with customers; this will prevent wasteful practices that will turn off possible customers. Most people will continue to make mistakes, not because they want to, but because no one is coaching them the right way. Record them and review often at first, and every now and then later.
  • As the founder of a start-up it is very easy to get sucked into hiring sales reps that may not necessarily be the right fit for what you’re looking for. It’s important to take your time and hire the right people. Resources when starting up are generally limited, and wasting them on people who aren’t right for you could prove costly in the long run. Consider asking a mentor or fellow business person to assist in the second interview, as a second opinion, to something you may have missed in the initial interview.

 

  • beware2A Salesperson working in a start-up is very different than someone coming from an organization with a lot of resources. Be careful with someone with a lot of experience from a fortune 500 company where they got spoon-fed.  You are looking for someone who is a self starter, who doesn’t need hand holding.  If you are in the lean start-up phase, you don’t have a sales manager to oversee that person.  You’re the founder, building your product and looking at the big picture, not making sure that your sales person is out marketing your product.  Think about outsourcing your sales management to a person that works outside your company to only manage daily activity so that they stay on track.  A sales manager working for you on a part time basis should spend about an hour a week on the phone with you and your salesperson just covering activity.  You can find experienced professional sales managers for one sales person for about $400-600 a month.  Many of these people are retired but love mentoring sales people and can provide your staff a coach to reach out to and get feedback.
  • Don’t be afraid of the recent graduates coming right out of school.  They can be molded into great salespeople and can be very coachable, as long as they’re not planted in your start-up and forgotten about.  You will need to nurture them and keep them challenged and motivated.

 

Remember, accountability and performance are everything when looking for and managing a sales reps. Don’t be the next victim of a bad salesperson.

Robert Hartline, the founder of CallProof, created CallProof to help solve a problem he saw in his company each and every day. He observed that there was no accountability for day-to-day sales activity and decided to build an app to create just that, accountability.

 

 

Reaching Your Zen: Relaxing Before an Investor Meeting

Startup Tips, Investor Tips, Guest Post, Tony MonteleoneAn investor meeting often means your livelihood. You’re about to ask a bunch of people to trust in your idea and help you fund it. You’re rightfully excited, and even a little nervous. The only issue is that when you’re nervous, you aren’t performing well, and the investors standing in front of you can see it. To really knock it out of the park in an investor meeting, you’ve got to calm down and slow down. There are a few ways to help you reach some inner peace before you dive into the shark tank.

Slow Down

There’s a theory that says wise people speak slowly. That doesn’t mean they speak in long, drawn out syllables. It means they’re thinking about everything they say before they say it. It’s not even noticeable to the people they’re speaking to.

But slowing down isn’t usually in any person’s head before an investor meeting. From the minute you hear the investor meeting is scheduled to when you jump in the car, your mind is going 150 miles per hour. You’re going over things again and again in your head, trying to make sure that you’ve got your pitch as nailed down as you can.

Here’s the thing, though: once you get into the car, there’s nothing more you can do. You’ve already prepared as much as you can. Think of it like a bride on her wedding day. It’s easy for her to get worked up on the day of the wedding, worried that something might go wrong. But on the wedding day, after she’s zipped up into her dress, there’s nothing more she can do. That’s her chance to just relax and enjoy the day. The same concept applies to you and your pitch. Once you’re on the way to the meeting, it’s time to just slow down, relax, and realize you just can’t cram another memory into your brain.

Avoiding Amygdala Hijack

On your brain stem, the second gland before the brain is called the amygdala. This little gland controls what we call the “freeze, fight, or flight” response. The amygdala produces adrenaline, and it can hijack your brain. When you’re faced with a situation that jumpstarts your amygdala, it fires in .8 milliseconds and it takes over your brain. Your brain—even brains with the highest of IQs—is unable to reason. The only thing you’re thinking about is fighting or getting out of the situation.

After your brain is hijacked, it can take up to 18 minutes for your brain to regain control again. If it happens five minutes before your investor meeting starts, you can kiss your investors goodbye. Countering an amygdala hijack isn’t easy, but it’s possible to avoid it by just staying away from drama. Don’t talk to your angry significant other, and don’t call your estranged brother who’s asking for money. Just keep your mind clear and focused on the task.

Counteracting the Amygdala Hijack and the Positive Hijack

If you do let your brain get hijacked by the amygdala, there are ways you can counteract it. If a tiger was attacking you, your amygdala would take over, and you would either fight the tiger or run away from it. If your brain gets hijacked, do something you wouldn’t do if a tiger was about to attack you. Drink water, sit down, or lean against a wall. This slows you down and calms you down, and helps to counteract the 18 minutes of hijack you’re about to face. In fact, a mark of high-level leaders is the ability to sense a hijack coming on and do something to counteract it ahead of time, like going for a walk.

Your other option is the positive hijack. In a similar way to the amygdala hijack, you can trick your brain into being completely calm. Smells often do that, or things that remind you of something happy. My positive hijack, for example, is listening to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It reminds me of my brother and my childhood, and puts me in a happy place before an investor meeting.

Do what you have to do to calm down before a meeting. In the long term, practice slowing your thinking. In the short term, avoid drama and focus on good things. Take your mind away from the stress. If that’s eating a giant ice cream cone, do it. Find your positive hijacks and use them to dominate your investor meetings.

Tony Monteleone(@StartupTony) is a serial entrepreneur and does Business Development for PERQ, a marketing technology and promotions company that specializes in increasing online and in store traffic for businesses. He also serves as the Indianapolis Chapter Director for Startup Grind.

 

How LaunchHouse Redefines Social Networking

Todd Goldstein (l) and Dar Caldwell (r), co-founders of LaunchHouse

Todd Goldstein (l) and Dar Caldwell (r), co-founders of LaunchHouse

 

Like many of today’s adults who are past the traditional college roommate stage of their lives, Mitch Turck shares a house with others who are saving money by living together. But unlike those who have cobbled new housing arrangements out of financial stresses, Turck was one of 19 applicants for nine available spaces in two homes. Previously based in Pittsburgh, the entrepreneur researched accelerator programs, applied for this unique startup “neighborhood,” then picked up and moved in August….to Cleveland.

The city commonly known as the “Mistake by the Lake,” Cleveland might be the punchline of many jokes. For entrepreneurs looking for a cost-efficient and supportive base from which to grow a startup, however, this Midwestern location offers some seriously kick-ass perks. A lot of those benefits are thanks to LaunchHouse (http://launchhouse.com), a startup accelerator that came on the scene in 2008. Home to more than 200 companies through its co-working office program, LaunchHouse added two actual houses to its leasing options in April. Located just around the corner from its 23,000 square-foot main facility, the two residences are filled with entrepreneurs like Turck. They come from a variety of locales, two from as far away as China.

“Why would anyone ever move to Cleveland?”

The question is posed, and promptly answered, by Todd Goldstein, Chief Executive Officer of LaunchHouse. Along with co-founder Dar Caldwell, Goldstein has been at the front lines of creating this tight-knit startup community.

“This is bringing interest from all over the world,” says Goldstein. “Only 30 percent of the applicants for the housing were from the northeast Ohio region. We’re here in Cleveland asking what early-stage entrepreneurs need. They need social, cultural, and educational support. They need an ecosystem.”

And what an ecosystem it is. Entrepreneurs who reside in the two houses and those who use the co-working spaces at LaunchHouse enjoy more than just hot coffee. There’s the expected: whiteboards, first-come-first-serve desks, private offices, copiers, conference rooms. And there’s the decidedly unexpected: a gigantic open production space housing enterprises ranging from landscapers and agricultural suppliers to videographers and fashion designers; hens housed in the parking lot; a puppy following Caldwell as he gives a tour; 3-D printers; Gigabit broadband with super-fast Internet access.

In-house eggs + Gigabit connectivity = LaunchHouse ecosystem

What?  The same space that has in-house fresh eggs also boasts connectivity rivaling that of Google Fiber’s Kansas City Startup Village. LaunchHouse partnered earlier this year with OneCommunity (http://onecommunity.org), a nonprofit established in 2003 that owns and operates a high-speed all-fiber network spanning 24 counties and over 2,000 miles in northeast Ohio. Experienced at providing data service for more than 2,300 public institutions, OneCommunity first worked with LaunchHouse to bring the high-speed Internet to the 23,000 square feet of co-working space. The two enterprises turned the corner, literally and figuratively, when they partnered to extend the service to the two LaunchHouse entrepreneurs’ residences which are located on a quiet side street just off the busy commercial setting of the accelerator’s Lee Road location. Think of it as northeast Ohio’s first “fiberhood.”

While the high-speed connectivity is certainly a draw for those who want to live in an entrepreneur house or pay as little as $125 per month for 24/7 access to the co-working space, it’s the social connectivity fostered by LaunchHouse’s leadership that really makes it work as a startup accelerator. For instance, Caldwell, Goldstein and the five partners they’ve added to the LaunchHouse team since 2008 host 20-25 MeetUp groups per month. There is always something going on at LaunchHouse.

“They’re all encouraged to use the space for free,” says Caldwell. “We have hackerthons here, workshops, our ‘Whiteboard Wednesdays’ when we brainstorm ideas. It’s an open community.”

Social, social, social: the startup’s version of real estate’s “location, location, location”

For Jeremy Handel, managing partner of Handelabra Studio and Handelabra Games (http://handelabra.com), the openness at LaunchHouse benefits his creativity – and his business. The videogame developer took the much-worn path tread by many entrepreneurs: from attic office to coffeehouse office to traditional office. That last one, with its traditional rents, proved too expensive; Handel moved to LaunchHouse about one year ago and became one of their portfolio companies. (LaunchHouse invests in selected startups).

“Initially, I moved here because it’s cheaper,” says Handel. “But the number one selling point is the social. I get up and walk around, talk with people to see what’s going on. It’s the first place that has felt collaborative. Here, an idea shared is grown, not stolen.”

And Turck, who is growing his Vendalize (http://vendalize.com) local search tag startup both in the entrepreneur house and in the co-working space, agrees. “In an office by yourself, you have to motivate yourself. When you’re socializing with others, the pace is faster. It’s easier to work harder.”

Juli Kaylor Gray has covered traditional business topics, as well as offbeat fare ranging from lenticular art exhibits to the “wedding-on-a-hike minister,” in her ten years as a freelance writer and magazine editor. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, she’s a focused Tweep at @QuirkyCleveland and a distracted blogger at http://quirkycleveland.com/.