Nibletz Staff - 80/87 - Serious Startups

Techstars NYC Is Back At it

When people talk about accelerators, they talk about one of two things. They discuss the much-feared bubble and whether or not an accelerator in every town is a good thing.

Or, they talk about the Big 3: Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars. We all know these accelerators have produced successful companies, and they are easily the most coveted spots in the country.

But even the Big 3 have issues sometimes. Techstars NYC has not been without drama in the last year or so. Last year Managing Director David Tisch left, but his replacement Eugene Chung was fired just weeks before Demo Day. 5 months later, Alex Iskold was named the newest Managing Director. In an internal email, interim Managing Director Nicole Glaros wrote, “Even at Techstars, we have really struggled, especially this last year, to really capture the potential of the community. We did a lot of things wrong, and we learned a lot.”

The time has come to see just how much the program has learned.

In a blog post yesterday, Alex Iskold announced the application period for the spring program.

Great companies are a mix of science, art and (who are we kidding) luck.

The art is innate but the luck is altogether out of our control. It’s the science part with which we can work. There is a science behind making great companies and we, collectively, are getting better and better at it in NYC and around the world.

Iskold goes on to to outline the qualities his program will look for in founders:

Vision
Passion & Energy
Intellectual honesty
Domain knowledge and experience
Flexibility

He also reminds companies that they are looking specifically for big ideas with big markets: “Often times we run into wonderful ideas that can bootstrap and be a great lifestyle business, but not venture-backed one. Since Techstars is in the business of making money for our investors, we can’t fund these opportunities but we are still very happy to help, in any way we can.”

Techstars NYC has definitely had a rough year, but hopefully they really have learned from those mistakes. Iskold represents new leadership and possibility, and of course, they do still have the prestigious Techstars name.

If you’re interested in applying, the early deadline is December 6th and the final one is December 31st.

Startup Dirty Laundry: Why Cofounders Fight (Infographic)

Common wisdom is that starting up with a team is better than going it alone. Many accelerators and VCs won’t even talk to first time entrepreneurs who haven’t built a team. There are just too many responsibilities for one person to reasonably handle, especially their first time around.

A great team of cofounders really can make for an awesome startup journey. Good partners share the work load and the stress. That means they understand where you’re coming from when the stress gets to be too much, and they can help encourage you. Along the same lines, there’s nothing better than celebrating success with the people who helped you get there.

On the other hand, two or more passionate people, stuck together with little money and lots of stress? Even marriages crumble in that situation, and the cofounder relationship can also go sour if disagreements aren’t handled responsibly. In fact, according to this Funders and Founders infographic, 62% of companies fail because of conflict on the founding team.

Some of the arguments outlined here are pretty silly. “Who’s going to clean up the pizza?” “I work more than you?” Please. As for the first, just grow up and clean your own mess. And working hard? If you’re worried about how much your partner is working, you may have picked the wrong cofounder.

There are plenty of real fights that come up, though. Discussions about equity can be volatile, but Funders and Founders recommend splitting everything equally and moving on.

And what about work/life balance? Startups can be all-consuming, not just because of the amount of work there is to do, but because if you’re doing it right, you also love the work. Funders and Founders suggests that there should be nothing outside of the company, but we disagree. It’s understood that people do other things, and your company will be better if you recharge every now and then. Communicating openly with your team about other commitments will make this issue a lot easier to navigate.

And what about the size of the founding team? Statistically, two person teams are the most successful. (Good news for the Nibletz team!)

Check out the rest of the infographic below.

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Is Applits A Quirky For Smartphone Apps?

One of the cool things about startups is the collaboration that happens when you put smart people together. In the hardware space, New York-based Quirky is growing. The startup allows wannabe inventors to submit their ideas online. The community votes on which should be developed, and Quirky’s experts build it.

Last month they announced a $30 million investment from GE that also includes opening up GE’s patents to Quirky inventors.

Now, a startup out of Ohio State University is doing the same thing for apps.

Keith Shields and Joshua Tucker are both engineering students at OSU, but they also run Applits. The company has a similar submission/vote/develop model as Quirky, but they also monetize by offering development services to anyone.

Each month, hopeful app creators submit their ideas, which go through a vetting process. Chosen ideas are put up on the site, and voted on during Voting Week. The winning idea goes through business model development, UI and design stages, and final a final development before it’s submitted to the App Store.

The company already has a few apps in the App Store and are seeing traction on their site.

Our Q&A with the Applits team is below. Check them out if you have an idea you love enough to develop, non hipster-style.

What is your startup called?

Applits: An App Idea Competition

What does your company do?

People submit their app ideas to our website, the community votes on those ideas, and we bring them to life.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Keith Shields (CEO) and Joshua Tucker (CFO) are co-founders of Applits and are current engineering students at the Ohio State University. They are both from Marcellus, New York.

What problem do you solve?

We help people who have innovative ideas without the tools to create them see their ideas come to life.

Why now?

With technology constantly growing, we felt that it was crucial to have the public have a voice in deciding what products get created. This is why we created Applits.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We have created 7 great apps that are being used by many people and are available for download on iTunes.

What are your next milestones?

To get more awareness forApplits.com and our new #AppForCharity campaign where we will donate December’s winning app’s profits to a charity for one year.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

@ApplitsOfficial @_keithshields @JoshuaRTucker

Dublin’s Ger Kelly Is Building Startups Hipster-Style

Where most publicity hounds would be alluding to and making subtle jokes about hipster-dom, I thought I’d approach this story with a sense of seriousness.

Then Ger Kelly answered my Skype call with a full-head fur hat complete with earflaps. Headgear aside, Ger is a self-proclaimed non-hipster, which we all know is one of the first signs someone could actually be a hipster.

Ger’s also the creator of Hipster CEO, an iOS app that lets you become the CEO of a simulated startup. Think of it as something like The Sims but completely centered on the idea of bringing a new company to life (and without things like physical bodies, cheat codes and the ability to make your characters have babies while you chuckle.)

Growing up in Dublin, Ger’s been a footballer (soccer player) since he was a kid. Unlike his counterparts playing games like The Sims, though, he was playing Championship Manager, a game “with just numbers and words,” Ger says, where you, the user, are in control of managing a soccer team.

Fast forward through life a bit and he’s found his way to startups. It’s not long before people realize he can develop apps, a sought-after skill if ever there was one.

If you’ve been in the tech space for long, you know it’s quite a regular occurrence for people — regardless of whether or not you know them — to come up to you and say things like, “I’ve got this great idea for a new app!”

As he experienced this phenomenon, Ger had a bit of an ‘aha moment.’ What if there was a way that anybody — tech-savvy, entrepreneurially-minded, or ‘none of the above’ — could answer that question for themselves.

Hipster CEO was, like, birthed, bro.

From there, Ger set out on a mission to show people “how hard it really is to pay attention to and build your stuff.” He’s been developing since the beginning of 2013, and he’s got no plans of slowing down anytime soon.

His second ‘aha moment’ has come more recently. Though the app’s numbers have been on a steady rollercoaster, they have become an addition to his progress, success, and happiness so far.

I don’t mind working my ass off; I’m actually putting food on my table.

Eventually, Ger wants to create something along the lines of a “virtual startup world where people are getting startup skills without having to risk life savings.”

As for me, I’ve been playing Hipster CEO for about two weeks now. I’m already on my third startup, and I can’t help but wonder if I might have an ‘aha moment’ of my own while playing.

Will I come up with my next big idea while assigning an employee to a marketing campaign?

Will I have a better idea of what to do the next time I’m deciding how many kegs to purchase for the office?

Will I start calling my colleagues “bro” more often than I already do?

Visit hipsterceo.com to download the game and find out for yourself.

Tyler Sondag is a startup connoisseur with a hand in anything and everything you could imagine. Hailing from the ever-developing Northwest Mississippi, an alum of Saint Louis University and currently a transplant to St. Louis, Missouri, one of his main missions in life is to get and keep young people engaged in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Follow him on Twitter: @MrSondag.

3 Ways To Build A Credible Network

Entrepreneurship gets easier over time if you have a strong network. As you become more successful you also become more credible, and other successful and credible people will want to associate themselves with you. But business owners lead busy lives, and sometimes they need to push themselves to effectively foster these relationships. Here are three steps you can take to build your own network.

UTILIZE THE SNOWBALL EFFECT

My network has grown extensively as I meet other entrepreneurs and publicize my projects. The snowball effect has started to kick in: the more people I meet, the faster my extended network grows. I divide my efforts into two areas: business and after-work engagements.

In 2013, I set up a board of advisers. We’ve held two meetings so far. One board member is a competitor of my manufacturing company RoyalPak, another hired me for my first job, and yet another was the broker on an acquisition I considered. My board has already recommended three potential acquisitions in various industries.

Four major lenders have approached me to help out, financially or otherwise, on future projects. They found me mostly through word of mouth.

My closest friends are also entrepreneurs. On our off hours, we act as a support system for each other, we talk a lot of shop, and we make introductions when appropriate.

INVEST IN YOUR NETWORK

I hear and read a lot about the value of contacts, and how they can be leveraged. Most entrepreneurs would argue that a huge network has its advantages, but it’s not easy to capitalize on. Much like owning a business, it takes a lot of time and a lot of hard work. That’s why I use the term ‘investing’ when I talk about building a network.

As the owner of an events business, I’ve been thinking for quite some time about how to appeal to small business owners who, like me, are looking to invest in networking but need a more targeted approach. Events are a crucial part of the entrepreneurial experience. They’re places to learn about other entrepreneurs and make connections that can help make or break your company, and I recommend you invest time and energy into attending them. But certain types of events eventually outlive their usefulness.

If you’re a growth-oriented entrepreneur, you know what I’m talking about. We’ve all sat through keynotes and panels, some of which contained tidbits of useful information or showcased highly successful business owners, but ultimately leave you wanting to bust out into the lobby. And we’ve been thrilled or disappointed, depending on whom we were able to connect with after the event.

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME

We’re all busy with operations, and we occasionally need to step out and converse with other entrepreneurs from different industries to talk about common successes and challenges, with the potential to agree on synergistic business opportunities.

To find (or create) events that are worth your time, try reaching out to your personal network as a research play. Most small, focused, invite-only events are tough to search, which is what usually makes them valuable. Who might be aware of them, so they can refer you to them? (Having an “in” never hurts either, of course.)

For my part, I created The Entrepreneurship Society to stage quarterly invite-only events in Toronto that bring together established, growth-oriented business owners for evenings of high-level networking. Five featured entrepreneurs will speak for a few short minutes about the ups and downs of their business lives, but the events are ultimately about talking shop.

A big part of entrepreneurship is developing a network and figuring out how to use it to help expand your business. Finding more like-minded, growth-oriented owners is a worthwhile investment.

Bill Hennessey owns two distinct, Toronto businesses: RoyalPak and Oxford Beach. RoyalPak manufactures and packages a range of cleaning products at a 17,000-square-foot facility. By day, Oxford Beach runs experiential marketing campaigns to help clients reach their target audiences. By night, it creates, promotes and executes events for young professionals. He was a finalist in the 2012 FuEL Awards celebrating Canada’s best young entrepreneurs.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

How To Snatch Up The Best Tech Talent

When it comes to hiring the right talent, some startups excel at attracting and closing great engineers, while others run into trouble in this area. If you find yourself falling into the latter category, don’t fret–our recruiters are here to help with some advice.

Our team specializes in the technology sector (specifically within emerging markets), so we understand what it takes for startups to land in-demand engineers. We do it every day and we put together the following tips to help you get those positions filled.

Have a good understanding of where your company stands–and hire accordingly

Most startups can’t compete with the compensation packages from–or the reputations of–companies like NetFlix, Google and Facebook. The good news is that most engineers understand this. Great engineers with degrees from the likes of MIT, Stanford and Berkeley will come to the startup world for the challenge, collaboration and impact. If you’re one of 10,000 engineers at a huge company, moving to a smaller team of ten where you can provide input on architectural decisions and strategy can have huge appeal.

Having a greater impact on the product and decision-making are recurring themes amongst candidates we talk to. A company’s mission, DNA and culture are also a big draw. Recognize this and really sell these aspects of your company during the interview process. And don’t forget equity. Having a piece of the pie for a promising company is a big attraction for many.

Court every candidate–even if they might not be the right fit right now

Inviting someone to interview is just that – an invitation. It’s the same as inviting someone to your home. If people are friendly and candidates have a good experience, they’ll remember that and become a brand ambassador even if they don’t get hired.

A company should always provide VIP treatment, especially to those engineers that don’t make it through the interview process. Remember how powerful word of mouth is, and that people are much more likely to be vocal about negative experiences. Understand that the hiring process also reflects a company’s culture in general. A painful interview process is a red flag to a candidate that it may not be the ideal environment for them.

Be aware of the importance of work-life balance–especially for more experienced candidates

For the most part, companies now recognize that mandating a 50+ hour work week is not acceptable to most candidates, but this point bears mentioning. There’s a dearth of engineering talent, so engineers have more options and choices than ever before. Candidates are usually turned off by brutal environments.

People have lives, friends, hobbies, children and a million things going on other besides work. While employees should be invested deeply in a company’s success, they can’t be expected to spend every waking moment working. Startups that value work-life balance will attract the most people.

Don’t drag out the hiring process–you will lose a great candidate to a competitor

One of our recruiters has a great saying related to this: time kills all deals. The longer the hiring process takes, the less likely you are to successfully land a great candidate. Talented people typically don’t stay on the market for long. Process duration is somewhat dependent on the level of the role–we’ve seen it take anywhere from less than a week to more than three months.

However, if a company really knows what they need, a solid candidate should be able to make it from first contact to offer in about two weeks, provided there aren’t scheduling conflicts that delay interviews.

Mike Tumasian and Mike Bearden are recruiters with Riviera Partners, a technology recruiting firm based in California.

How To Sell Paradigm-Shifting Products

If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. But if you introduce antiseptics to the medical community before The Germ Theory of Disease is discovered, then the world might fire you and drive you insane. That’s literally what happened to Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian physician who made the claim that doctors’ unwashed, dirty hands carry diseases that kill patients.

Semmelweis was dead at 47 after two weeks of brutal beatings and mistreatment in a Viennese insane asylum when Louis Pasteur developed Germ Theory a couple decades later. Few attended Semmelweis’ funeral. Today, the tendency to automatically reject contrary evidence is often called the Semmelweis reflex and you experience it every time you find yourself pitching to a dial tone.

The question is, how do you market your ground-breaking service or product and avoid Semmelweis’ ruin? Here are three guiding principles: Lead with whatever rings a bell, show beats tell and a soft sell.

Lead with whatever rings a bell: When explaining your unique business to prospective customer, limit the details to those which apply to the customer. They are less likely to reject your idea as foreign if you meet them on familiar territory. However, you also never want to connect your product or service to something familiar. This creates misunderstandings and can result in negative assumptions. You can’t create opportunities from the inadequacies of your competitors if you gloss over your differences in a failed attempt at clarity.
Show beats tell: Visual aids, video, trials or samples are a must if you hope to overcome any aversion prospects may have to the daunting mental task of learning about how your unique offering works. If you present the information in an overwhelming or confusing manner that makes too much work for the prospective customer, they’re sure to close their minds and deafen their ears to what you have to offer. I found that when we switched our sales tactics from mere cold calling to leading with an example of our service in action, that prior experience made prospects far more receptive to the idea behind it.
Make a soft sell: It’s like Newton said — every force is met with equal and opposite force. So it stands to reason that the harder your sell, the more adamant your prospects’ resistance. They may never have encountered anything like your business before, but they certainly know their share of pushy salespeople. And, since novelty is naturally met with skepticism, you have to meet doubt with patience and understanding so that you can take baby steps toward a successful conversion. Our prospects typically connect with us at at least three points of contact before a business proposition is formally discussed — the trail sample we offer, the follow-up introduction once they experience the sample and finally, an appointment with a sales representative.

It may be too late for Semmelweis to enjoy the recognition and success he deserved, but it’s up to you to ensure that others develop an adequate appreciation for what you’re doing to improve their lives. Apply these principles to create micro-marketing experiences and develop a customer base that will follow you from nameless anomaly to paradigm shifting phenomena. Along the way, your biggest skeptics can become your most enthusiastic believers — all because you broke down barriers before they laid more bricks.

Manpreet Singh is Founder and President of Seva Call, a local startup that helps consumers find high quality local professionals in minutes.

The 8 Biggest Challenges These Founders Overcame

QUESTION: WHAT IS THE BIGGEST, MOST SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE YOU’VE BEEN PRESENTED WITH TO DATE, AND HOW YOU DID YOU RESPOND?

FIRED FROM MY FIRST STARTUP

“I started a tech company in 2009, and our growth exploded right out of the box. We grew faster than our small little mom-and-pop team could manage. Some investors made an offer to buy the company, and I jumped at the offer. I really thought their business acumen would take us to another level. Yet from the day we sold the company, I regretted it — we lost all momentum. And one day, I thought all of our social media accounts had been hacked because I couldn’t log in anywhere. I called the office, and I had been fired from the company I started. It was so painful, but having that door slammed on my face caused me to be open to new ideas and better ways of doing business. I hate that it went down like that, but in the end, I learned tough lessons that make me a better businessman today.”

– Shaun King | Founder, Upfront

FAMILY CO-FOUNDING GONE WRONG

“I’ve been through a business bankruptcy, but that was far from my greatest challenge. The most significant entrepreneurial hurdle for me was watching my relationship with my business partner — my cousin and best friend — go to ruin over a business dispute. Once we split, both of us realized how much we had taken the other person for granted, and we grew to have a new-found appreciation for one another. I responded by deciding that I would always put relationships first in my life. I worked to repair the damage that was done and have since re-evaluated how I balanced work and life.”

– Luke Burgis | Director, ActivPrayer

OVERCOMING MARKET CONTRACTION

“I began my first business in 2005, which primarily served print magazines in business and interior design. A couple of years into my entrepreneurial journey, the decrease in advertising dollars and housing sales and the increase in online journalism, paper prices, and postal rates created the perfect storm in my client base. Instead of staying in a shrinking industry, I started to explore new opportunities and to cultivate an entirely new market. It took a couple of years to recover and gain traction, but now my company is positioned for growth by helping the increasing number of stressed people to accomplish more with peace and confidence.”

– Elizabeth Saunders | Founder & CEO, Real Life E®

COMPLETE EMPLOYEE SABOTAGE

“This is a lesson that is unteachable in the classroom, and something that has made me a smarter stronger business person. When your top salesperson decides to take your client list and go rogue, you’ve got some problems — especially when that person was one of your best friends. It really forces you to separate business and personal relationships. At the time you feel betrayed, but if you don’t recognize human beings’ instinctual behavior, you’re only kidding yourself. This happened to me when I was running my ad network. One of my employees left our client list of emails, and was out soliciting the business we had built over the last five years. It’s a reminder that you always have to innovate and provide higher value to win service-based deals. Stay sharp and always progress.”

– Andrew Bachman | President, Scambook.com

GROWING TOO QUICKLY

“It sounds like the best problem to have — there’s more demand for what you’re offering than you can fill. But the reality is really rough. I chose to go ahead and accept work, understanding that if I worked around the clock, I would only just be able to meet my deadlines. It about killed me a couple of times over. Slow and steady growth means that you’re building something sustainable. My approach meant that I was scrambling to continue to grow in the long run because I was doing things that just didn’t scale.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

COMBATING ETHICAL DILEMMAS

“Over the course of my career as an affiliate, there have been many opportunities to make more money at the sake of harming customers unknowingly. When everyone in an industry is competing with shady tactics and pushing you to do the same, it can really put you in an interesting situation, especially when a lot of money is at stake. I decided early on that I won’t cheat people or harm customers, and that I will never compromise for money. It’s just not worth it. People should always trump profit. Since this decision, I’ve been tested many times — at some points, ethical dilemmas nearly put our company out of business — but every time I’ve been tested, I am glad I stood my ground and took the high road.”

– Nick Reese | CEO, Microbrand Media

BREAKING INTO A NICHE WITH A BAD REPUTATION

“These days, people are so skeptical of any product that involves making money online. While my business isn’t directly related to this market, there are components of it. The biggest challenge has been framing my marketing in a way that shows people I don’t fall into the sleazy, unethical group of marketers who over charge and under-deliver on their products. I’ve been able to overcome this by being brutally honest over the course of three years on my blog and through social media. Potential customers see how genuine I am with all of my dealings, and then trust that I’m not out to hurt them. And a good return policy doesn’t hurt either.”

– Sean Ogle | Founder, Location 180, LLC

ADDING NEW EMPLOYEES

“When we went from just myself and an intern to having a full-time staff, that was the biggest challenge. Financially, it was really different because there are so many other costs to think about such as office space, unemployment insurance, payroll services, and equipment upgrades. From a human resources perspective, that time was the biggest challenge as well because we had to implement a lot of rules and standards that I hadn’t previously needed. Vacation days, flexible scheduling and, I hate to say it, but office politics became something I suddenly had to manage on a regular basis. “

– Caitlin McCabe | Founder & CEO, Real Bullets Branding

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

13 Pieces Of Startup Advice You’ll Never Forget

QUESTION: WHAT IS THE ONE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER BEEN GIVEN?

ALWAYS TRY AGAIN

“Seven years ago, I was at a barbecue talking to a family friend –and I was in a funk. The startup I had co-founded just 9 months earlier had gone belly up. The family friend (a successful entrepreneur) gave me priceless advice that day: keep your head up and move on to the next one. He told me his first two companies had failed. He said the biggest regret you’ll have is if you don’t keep trying.”

– Pete Kennedy | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Main Street ROI

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN…

“…doesn’t mean you should! As entrepreneurs, we’re often drawn to the new, the exciting, the latest and the greatest. And we see opportunity in almost everything, which means we have a wealth of options that we can choose to pursue. Often though, what we say “no” to defines whether we’ll succeed, much more clearly than what we say “yes” to.”

– Lea Woodward | Founder, Inspiring Ventures

SPEAK WELL, LISTEN OFTEN

“Use your ears and mouth in the correct proportion!”

– Eric Corl | President + Co-Founder, Fundable.com

FOCUS ON TRAFFIC

“In regards to online businesses, once you have incoming traffic on a consistent basis, then you can figure out the rest of the business because it gives you the ability to test new features and revenue streams out.”

– Rishi Shah | CEO, Flying Cart LLC
WHERE’S THE MONEY?

“My dad once told me: “Money is littered on the street, you just need to know how to pick it up.” For a long time, my startups focused on getting users and funding, as oppose to earning revenue. When I finally focused on using my skills to create revenue, I realized just how easy it was. People are always willing to pay for something that they want or need, no matter the state of the economy.”

– Jun Loayza | President, Ecommerce Rules

KNOW, OR LISTEN TO THOSE WHO KNOW

“We are where we are today because I’ve surrounded myself with generous teachers and mentors who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with me. By listening to the teachings of those who’ve done what you are trying to do, you’ll save you a ton of time and the pain of going through some obvious mistakes. Leverage other people’s knowledge wisely.”

– W. Michael Hsu | Founder & CEO, DeepSky

TRY TO TAKE ACTION

“Before I was old enough to remember, my father posted a handwritten sign in our basement that read, “You won’t get stronger by just thinking about it.” I read it so many times that it eventually became my motto in life and in business. Everyone aspires to be great, but you must take action to make your dreams a reality.”

– Phil Frost | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Main Street ROI

LEAVE EVERYTHING BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT

“Growing up in the Scouts, my dad would always tell our troop that every campsite had to be left better than we found it. Now I apply that to everything in my life. When I travel, I try to find a way to make impact on the local community; when I meet a person, I try to somehow make a positive impact on them. In business, I want everything I touch to turn out better than when I found it.”

– Matt Wilson | Adventurer in Residence , Under30Experiences

YOU NEVER FAIL UNTIL YOU GIVE UP

“Many people don’t try something because they are afraid of failing. Other try something and want to succeed, but give up after they don’t get the result they are looking for. What you must understand is that there is no failure — only feedback. You don’t really fail until you give up. If you are still moving toward your goal, you are succeeding, even if you don’t think you are. Never give up.”

– Louis Lautman | Founder, Supreme Outsourcing
IT’S OKAY TO MAKE MISTAKES

“As an entrepreneur, you’re venturing into uncharted territory. That means you don’t have a map, let alone directions on how to do everything right the first time. Realizing that it’s okay to make mistakes as an entrepreneur was very freeing for me. It allowed me to try new things and grow in new directions, and see every experience as a learning opportunity.”

– Elizabeth Saunders | Founder & CEO, Real Life E®
NEVER SETTLE

“I don’t remember who told me it, but it’s stuck with me. The mindset can be summarized in the following quote: “Everything always ends well. So if it’s not well, it’s not the end.” I always remember this quote whenever I have a bad day or start doubting a project I am working on. With this in mind, I know that more hard work will get me to the destination I am seeking.”

– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon
NEVER STOP ASKING FOR ADVICE

“Always keep asking people for guidance. More likely than not, people are happily willing to give you their input. Some may be good and most bad, but you always walk away with some new knowledge or insight to a particular view you didn’t have before.”

– Raul Pla | CEO and Founder, SimpleWifi and UseABoat

ALWAYS VERIFY EVERYTHING

“Trust, but verify. You may think you know something, but you need proof before you act like it’s fact. Assuming things without verifying them is a good way for an entrepreneur to be taken advantage of. Treat your investments — of money and time — wisely.”

– Jordan Guernsey | Founder, Molding Box

Improve Your Bottom Line By Local-sourcing Customer Service

Quality customer service can turn first-time customers into loyal clientele, while one bad interaction can easily turn them away forever. Startups often overlook the importance of customer service in the early stages of a business. In all too many cases, businesses will put anyone in a customer service role without any regard for their experience or without any systems in place to handle complex situations.

Many founders underestimate the amount of time, energy and resources it takes to run a successful customer service operation. It is a good rule of thumb that once a business has seven full-time employees managing customer service inquires, it is time to outsource operations—and that does not mean to another country.

Research customer solution agencies based in America because even those with a basic understanding of customer service principles are no match for knowledgeable, talented call center employees whose professional careers revolve around customer satisfaction.

Here are the top five reasons why business owners can benefit from outsourcing (or rather local-sourcing) their customer service operations:

Retention—Qualified outsourcers understand that every customer interaction is an opportunity to increase the customer’s satisfaction and thus increase customer retention rates. Knowledgeable and trained agents in tandem with creative programs or product offerings can lead to large increases in satisfaction and retention.
The ability to scale—Outsourced customer care provides ultimate flexibility. An outsourced provider who has a large amount of agents at their disposal can quickly scale up or down based on demand. This includes seasonal spikes such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day.
Upsell/Cross sell opportunities—Outbound telemarketing is considered obtrusive and can breed a lot of ill will between a customer and a company. Smart companies take the opportunity to upsell/cross promote their customers who call them directly. Professional call centers are especially skilled at finding the right moments to suggest other products and services. A skilled outsource provider can increase a company’s revenue by up to 20% by simply upselling or cross promoting to the customers they already have.
Access to world-class capabilities—The costs associated with purchasing and maintaining best in class technology is prohibitive for most companies. A professional call center has the ability to provide in-depth reporting amongst other things. For example, at a moment’s notice it can pull up every call that came through in a certain area code in the last day, week, month or year. It can determine how long calls are in duration and they also have access to every call that ever comes in.
Diversification—Even companies who have some success managing its customer service in-house choose to outsource part of its operation. This is because it can embrace the benefits of partnering with another entity that has expanded and targeted resources, as well as a fresh perspective. Also, in case of internal equipment failures or other catastrophes, it can quickly transition customer service functions without a loss of customers and revenue.

Gabriel Bristol is widely recognized as one of today’s most talented call center CEOs because of his track record of developing turnkey solutions, effective customer care and sales programs for small and medium-sized businesses across various industries. He combines more than 20 years of successful executive management experience with impactful leadership and igniting stagnant businesses and transforming declining operations. Bristol’s approach is personal, insightful, forward thinking and provides strategies that result in customer service excellence.

How I Balance Entrepreneurship And Fatherhood

Being a young entrepreneur isn’t easy. Being a new dad isn’t easy. Put them together and you’re like a freshman, driving the lane against LeBron James. But it can be done — and here’s how I’m doing it (or at least trying to do it).

The day my wife gave birth to our son Luke, my professional life of running an ad agency immediately melded with my personal life. We’d recently won the Dove digital business, which was a very big deal for us. I couldn’t afford the luxury of taking time off since tending a growing startup — just like a newborn — is an “always on” gig.

Case in point: The day Luke was born was the same day we launched our first Dove campaign, and I took conference calls from my wife’s hospital room. I know that sounds a bit extreme, but I had a choice to make — and I chose both. (Those calls from the maternity ward must have won me some brownie points, as we’re still going strong with the Dove brand three years later.) Now that my son is already four, the lessons he teaches me are endless. Last year, he watched me string up Christmas lights — until he decided that it would be more fun to take the box of lights and throw it on the ground to see it smash all over the concrete.

I was pretty startled, needless to say, and raised my voice: “LUKE! What did you do?!?” On cue, Luke ran to his room sobbing, where he promptly buried himself in the corner, crossed his arms and repeated, “Me mad at you daddy!”

It broke my heart to see how much my five words could affect him. My mind raced 16 years into the future, where I could see Luke telling the Christmas lights story to his parole officer in jail.

STARTUP LESSONS, TODDLER-STYLE

A few days later, as I told the story to a co-worker, it made me think about my staff and how my words affect them, too. Although they don’t run to their rooms sobbing, I’m pretty sure I’ve made a few of them run to their LinkedIn accounts looking for a new job. As parents and as leaders, we sometimes have to take one step back and use a mistake as a teaching moment rather than a scolding one.

Teaching moments with my son are a lot like my startup career. Luke is now at that age where he says “Why?” a lot. It’s not enough for me to bark commands like “Pick up your toys” or “Put your rain boots on” anymore. I have to offer explanations, like, “Pick up your toys otherwise you’ll lose them” and “Put your rain boots on so that you don’t get sick and wet.”

The same principle applies when we’re coming up with campaigns for any of our clients. Our consumers won’t buy a product simply because we tell them to; they need to understand why.

It’s something that we like to ask ourselves: “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” In other words, is what we’re asking our consumers to do worth it? From “liking” a Facebook ad to clicking on an app, is the reward worth what we’re asking them to do? (If only I could get my son to stop clicking on apps!)

Here are a few tips that have helped me make parenthood and startup life work together — most of the time:

Location, location, location (it matters). I chose an office space within three miles of my house, which in Los Angeles is unheard of. But this allowed me to easily juggle the 24/7 startup life with the 24/7 life of a parent. I can leave the house, drop off my son at pre-school and be at my office, all within 15 minutes. Working near home is an absolute must.
Have perspective. It probably goes without saying that becoming a parent puts things into perspective, but perspective is incredibly important for a young startup. It’s too easy to get caught up in any of the many problems that come across your desk on a given day. I remember the first day that my son, Luke, was able to crawl to the front door and reach out to hug me as I came home. I know this sounds clichéd, but my worries completely went out the door at that moment. Seeing the big picture is paramount, as a parent and a founder.
Be scrappy. Raising Luke helped me to be more resourceful — or scrappy, as we like to say in the startup world. The first time he puked on me, I didn’t have a perfect little towel to wipe it up with, so I took the back of my other sleeve and wiped my shoulder. Anything to clean up the mess and move on. Same goes for the startup world — you’re usually very limited in resources when something goes wrong, so you have to make it work with what you have.

Having a kid and running a startup at the same time isn’t easy, but these have been the most rewarding years of my life so far. My advice to fellow founders? Take the plunge and have a kid or two or three — it’ll make you a much better entrepreneur!

Anson Sowby is the Founder & CEO of Battery Productions, helping brands create and distribute video content by combining the data from a media plan to influence the creative production.

7 Steps For Leaving Your Work At Home During Vacation

When I finally made the leap to starting my own consulting company, it was with a sense of totality. I, a serial executive for various startups, had finally realized that I didn’t want to be behind the scenes anymore. I was ready to be numero uno. Entrepreneurship seemed to be everything that working for a company wasn’t. Plus, I have three rambunctious boys at home. Wasn’t it time to have that relaxed morning routine with them?

All those dreams came to a screeching halt when my consultancy grew to an agency with more projects than I knew what to do with. My husband came home to be my developer and I hired qualified help as quickly as I could. But it wasn’t enough. Soon I found myself 10 pounds heavier, in chronic pain and suffering from an ulcer…at 33 years old. When I broke down while watching Les Miserables in my basement, the solution was crystal clear. I was working 14-hour days, sleeping poorly, visiting the doctor regularly, and growing my client base at a rate even I couldn’t pace. I finally asked myself:

What is the point of having complete control over your time if you don’t ever, EVER take a vacation?

So I informed my husband and partner that we’d be taking the entire month of July off. In April it seemed like a great idea. As June grew closer, I became much more apprehensive. How would the business function? Who would lead my merry band of workers? How would projects get completed?

Whether you are leaving for a week or the entire holiday season, the following steps can help you breathe a little easier while you’re basking in the Bahama Breeze:

Build up your team. This might not work if you are a power-hungry boss that belittles her employees. But if you hired them because they are smart and capable, trust them to be smart and capable. You will need to assign your projects to team members well before your departure so that they can be introduced, sit in on calls or meetings, and learn how you speak to and interact with that particular client, project or vendor.
Designate a project manager. Red Branch Media operates under the assumption that everyone does what they do best…and that’s it. But with the leader gone, that model simply won’t work. So we looked for someone with project management experience to lead the team. Sure, I could have trained someone to do the job. However, it would have been difficult for them to go back to their former tasks when I get back.
Change your billing structure. If you rely on sales to make payroll or projects with big checks to cover costs, you may want to shift that model before your vacation. Make sure your payroll is taken care of by looking into small business or back office tools to automate the process. If your clients will agree to it, spread out your payments so that you still have revenue while you are gone.
Get your finances in order. We’re heading to Europe. And while we’ll have phones in order to be in touch with our kids, we are expecting the unexpected. So we’re doing our best to eliminate any financial headaches while we’re gone. We’re paying ahead on all our bills and paying down any credit balances in case that sleepy little hotel in the hillside doesn’t take Visa.
Double up on work. In order to take July off, you have to work extra hard in June. In fact, by my estimate, we’re working nearly three times as hard. But there is a rationale to this; you cannot enjoy time off if you know you left something undone. Especially when your baby, I mean, BUSINESS, is hanging in the balance.
Work hard and reward your team. We have deadlines to meet. If we don’t meet those deadlines by the time our flight takes off, we’re going to be hard pressed to pay for this vacation. So we’re asking everyone to pitch in a little more and a little harder. We’ve implemented a bonus structure to that end. By the time we’re gone, they’ll think running this office is a piece of cake!
Don’t sweat the small stuff. I know NONE of it feels like small stuff. But it is. While our businesses and clients loom large in our own lives, the weight of the world is not actually on our shoulders.

Learning to let your business survive (or maybe even thrive) without you can be a valuable tool for you, your team andyour clients.

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. She leads Red Branch Media, an agency offering marketing strategy and content development. A consistent advocate of next generation marketing techniques, Hogan has built successful online communities, deployed brand strategies in both the B2B and B2C sectors, and been a prolific contributor of thought leadership in the global recruitment and talent space.

6 Tips To Bring Your Crowdfunding From Crickets To Traction

Ok, tell me if you’ve heard this one before. An entrepreneur gets a crazy idea that just might work. She validates through getting out of the office, asking people what they think, and setting up a landing page for her awesome beta. Then she decides to launch a crowdfunding campaign to get some buzz and some funds to keep the dream alive. So far, so good, right?

Now, this entrepreneur has been around the block a bit. It’s her second venture, and she knows that nothing happens on its own. So this entrepreneur studies, and prepares, and does everything she can think of before the campaign to make sure it will be a success.

The big day comes, the campaign launches, and… crickets.

A slow trickle of donations come in from friends and family, a few shares on Facebook and Twitter, and then silence. The momentum grinds to an alarming halt…which is when the panic sets in.

What did she do wrong? Why didn’t all that prep work pay off? Where are all those people who said they loved the idea?

I am, of course, the entrepreneur in the story, so I can tell you that all of your plans and prep may prove useless once you hit that “launch” button.

But I can also tell you what to do better, and how to change all of your marketing and outreach mid-campaign to try to create change. Because no matter what you do, you’re going to have to make a bunch of changes during those first couple of weeks.

Here’s what you can do to go from crickets to traction:

Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

I had a plan, and for the first few days I stuck to it. But it was only when I started looking at the analytics for everything I did, that I understood what wasn’t working. In my case I needed to tweak my Facebook ads, cancel my StumbleUpon paid discovery, and consider very carefully whether the people I was reaching on LinkedIn really cared about my project (hint: no).

I also had to look carefully at the actions that brought viewers to the site, the types of comments that got engagements on Facebook, and the types of ads that got clicks. Because of all the analysis, I was able to make quick changes on almost every front: Facebook, Twitter, the Indiegogo page itself, ads, and blogger outreach.

Which brings me to your next big action:

Focus

Once you’ve figured out what works, tighten everything up to include only what is working. Get rid of the rest. You might think that a certain ad will eventually pay off, or your may be in love with your description on the crowdfunding page, but if it isn’t working now it won’t work later. Have the courage to take away everything that isn’t getting results, and pour all of your time and resources into the few actions that are getting results.

I noticed that my Facebook posts only got likes and shares if they had pictures, and that tweets specifically asking for help did better than ones that didn’t. Videos did better than images, and tweets with mentions of key people did better than blanket announcements. I also saw that I needed to reach out to each person multiple times before they would take action.

Let Go

This was the hardest one for me, but this article is proof that I’m now embracing my own lessons.

If you’re too hung up on making everything look great, no one will be able to connect with your story. If I came on here and told you that we launched and saw instant results, and then continued with our plan from the beginning, it wouldn’t be a story. It isn’t interesting, and it isn’t true.

Allow yourself to really connect with your audience by sharing what this journey is like, and how you’re responding to the challenges. If you’ve had a slow day of donations, don’t write an email to your backers saying what a great day it has been. I don’t mean you need to share every detail about the ups and downs, but you do need to let your guard down and be real with people.

Get In There

No one would care if a faceless automaton opened up a crowdfunding campaign with slick marketing and flashy ads. The people backing your campaign want to hear about you and your story. They want to connect with the story of why you’re doing what you’re doing, and who you are as a founder.

Our campaign started out with almost no mention of me and was pretty sterile. But startups aren’t about shiny ads and slick marketing campaigns, they’re about the struggle. We changed our strategy from trying to look like the big guys, to showing our audience how we were working, and the steps we were taking to bring our product to market. I still think we have a long way to go in this area, but we now know how important it is to introduce our future community to the individuals behind the project.

Improve the Ask

When we launched, I thought we would do a lot of asking people for money. And at first we did, but there’s only so many emails you can send that ask people to part with their cash.

I thought about what we really wanted from people. Yes, we hope that they go to our crowdfunding page and contribute, and that is of course important. But we’re also using the campaign to build our community, and for that we need people to like us and want to stick around. One of my advisors put it very nicely when he said, “Money only gives you money, but a devoted follower gives you recognition, a community to talk to, feedback, traction, social proof, many more followers…and also money.”

So we changed from asking for money to asking for things that would help us in the long term – shares, feedback, advice, and criticism. We turned to our friends to ask what could make the campaign better. This made them more likely to head to the site and check it out, to give us truly valuable feedback, and sometimes even ended in a new contribution as well. Once we understood what we were really asking, we were able to connect with more people and begin our (still fairly small) snowball.

Keep Going

This is the most important one. Crowdfunding, as with anything a startup does, is a crazy ride. If you’re doing well it’s insanely busy with answering questions and responding to backers. If you aren’t doing well, it should be insanely busy with figuring out why not, and doing what you can to fix it. But we are entrepreneurs because we stick to it when others would shut off the lights. We believe in our ideas, and we will do what we need to do to get them in front of the world.

You never know which tweet, post, or article will be the one that gets you lots of attention, feedback, and contributions. A random tweet from us led to a conversation via Twitter with Shia LaBeouf, which ended in a donation of $10,000 and a bunch of retweets for our campaign.

I’m not saying this will happen for every campaign, but I can guarantee that it won’t happen if you aren’t putting yourself out there, reaching out to your audience in every possible way, and figuring out the story that you need to tell your backers.

So keep going, evaluate and adapt, and hang on for the ride of your life.

Laura Fredericks is the founder of Describli, a new community connecting readers and writers. She began her crowdfunding journey on October 22^nd, and changed everything about it two weeks after launch. She now has modest traction on the campaign, and hopes to continue using her own tips to reach crowdfunding success. You can hear more about her journey on Twitter and Facebook. You can also be awesome and check out Describli’s campaign on Indiegogo.

Featuring.me: Because Musicians Need To Make Money, Too

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about a startup that is innovating the booking industry. Today we’re featuring another music industry startup called featuring.me.

There’s no doubt that musicians–and artists across all disciplines–can often struggle to make money on their art. As great as the Internet is, it has also paved the way for expectations of free music, videos, and articles. However, if we continue to not pay artists for their art, we’ll soon find that we have no art to consume.

That’s why startups like featuring.me are great news. Maybe they’ll work. Maybe they won’t. But, eventually we’ll find a model that allows to creators to make art without always sacrificing those little comforts, like food and shelter.

Check out our Q&A with featuring.me below:

What is your startup called?

Featuring.Me

What does your company do?

Featuring.Me is a new online platform for interactive, customizable and adaptive music. At its most basic, fans can customize elements of their favorite artists music. Lyrics, melodies, stories, solos etc.; whatever means the most to them. Fully realized, Featuring.Me represents an entirely new art form – a paradigm shift that will change the way we create, experience, enjoy and think of music.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

Featuring.Me is co-founded by Gregory Green and Felix Sedal. Greg has extensive experience in business, marketing and IT, and is a guru of “getting things done”. Felix is an independent musician and producer who moonlights as a medical doctor.

What’s the story of the idea? Where did it come from?

Featuring.Me was created after Felix and Greg serendipitously found themselves living together in Melbourne, Australia. Felix was in the midst of an artistic odyssey, exploring the notion of creating music that exists in a multitude of forms. Greg was completing his MBA at the University of Melbourne, studying the emerging wave of mass customization, and looking out for the right idea to nourish his entrepreneurial ambitions. One night, over a few drinks, Felix and Greg exchanged their respective visions of the future of art and business. From this, Featuring.Me was born.

Where are you based, and what’s the startup scene like there?

We were founded in Melbourne, Australia, and are now considering where the US home should be, either Nashville or Austin. Both would be fine choices, the hardest part is choosing! Both have great things going for them. With Nashville, there’s a great convergence of entrepreneurs, investors and visionaries, all happening within a relaxed and down-to-earth culture. Austin is the weird little city that is easy to love, has the creativity and technology that we are looking to foster. So is it to be Music City, USA or the Live Music Capital of the US? Watch this space for more!

What problem do you solve?

Featuring.Me is a vision of a sustainable music ecosystem and economy. It seeks to further the artistic relevance of music (to fans and artists alike) whilst creating viable new financial opportunities for all players in the industry. The problems we solve are myriad; how to offer extra value to consumers whilst ensuring that artists are paid fairly for their work, how to engage the growing number of fans looking for deeper involvement and interaction with the music and art they love, how to evolve the musical art form and business model in a way which is positive for all parts of the industry, how to allow artists to retain control of their vision within the emerging paradigm of mass collaboration, and how to create a true model of mass customization in music.

Why now?

The technology is ready, artists are ready, and fans are ready. The music industry could do with a revitalization of the value of music. An alternative to the commoditization of music as a meaningful art form. Now is the perfect time for our platform where an artists fans are able to more deeply engage with the artists they love and the artists can better sustain themselves by spending more time on what they are good at, creating music.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

The platform is up and working, with a number of patents around the technology. We are taking in revenue and onboarding artists. We are currently private beta testing the fourth iteration of Featuring.Me with select artists and their fans. There is a growing core team of eight people working on the project, partnerships with several production houses and independent record labels, numerous artist signed on as supporters and content creators, and an increasing network of supporters within the music and business communities, in both Nashville and Austin.

What are your next milestones?

Always getting the next artist, the next studio or the next label on board! We are considering funding options, self funding has its benefits, as does finding good capital partners. Our aim is for a broader invite only beta launch of the platform mid next year, with a preview showing at South By South West in March.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

http://about.featuring.me or @featuringmeteam