bringhub Makes Brick & Mortar As Easy As Ecommerce

As if startup life isn’t crazy enough. The Pantelides brothers decided to build the alpha product of their social marketplace from 3 different cities in 2 different countries.

Now they’re all in the same city–LA–and looking forward to the launch of bringhub, a platform that allows shoppers to discover local shops while enjoying the ease of online shopping and same day delivery. They will be launching a private beta later this month in LA, but they have ambitious expansion plans after they prove their model.

bringhub could be the bridge between the local movement and the “now economy.”

Check out our Q&A with cofounder and COO Philip Pantelides:

What does your company do?

Discover, Shop, Deliver

bringhub is a social marketplace that enables people to discover the best shops in their city, share with communities they trust and purchase products, delivered conveniently on the same day.

We connect shops in cities with their interest groups through a unique social networking experience. Our platform is developed around a social interest graph built specifically for shopping, so users & shops can make recommendations to people who are the most interested. Shops can have closer interaction with their customers, who have a more immersive online purchasing experience. Our beautiful SHOP WINDOWS marketplace lets users experience the store in the next best way to a real visit & gives retailers a new distribution channel to showcase their store.

Our positioning as an aggregator for courier partners both offline (Local courier companies) & online (e.g. postmates, deliv, Uber, Lyft…) allows us to offer same day delivery at an affordable price to customers (starting at just $6.99). We utilize existing infrastructures & improve the productivity of individual retail locations, making them more profitable & therefore bringing back revenues to the region. Our approach allows these local retailers to compete with national e-commerce companies due to the effective use of a location-based distribution tool, negating the need for high warehousing overheads. The supply chain becomes more efficient, resulting in the acceleration of delivery times for customers.

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds?

We are the Pantelides brothers: Dominik, Oliver & Philip.

As brothers we have naturally known each other for a long time & as a result work exceptionally well together. Previously, each of us took a separate path, gathering extensive experience in different areas. Now with bringhub our combined and complementary skill sets, passion and love for creativeness are our driving force to success.

We bootstrapped bringhub & built an alpha version of our product from three different cities and two different countries, all with the power of online collaboration tools – proving our team dynamics & productivity.

Where are you based?

We are based in and will be launching bringhub in Los Angeles, CA. Due to the lack of public transportation, a spread out & diverse population, & a large number of great shops, LA is the perfect starting point for bringhub. We hope to bring revenue back to regional retail through the convenience of same day delivery, a more immersive online shopping experience, & the social discovery of shops in the city.

What problem do you solve?

It is difficult to discover great shops around us – current platforms such as yelp are ineffective at showcasing stores in a way that is satisfactory to retailers & ratings can be easily swayed by paid for or fake reviews. People want an emotional online shopping experience, convenience & faster product delivery – people expect convenience & a great product experience as standard with the development of the “Now Economy”. Social e-commerce is still not a personal experience and does not represent real life buying behaviors. City retailers are looking for new distribution channels to compete with e-commerce & need a better way to communicate with their customers online. The courier industry is in need of new business revenues, with the decline of document delivery.

Why now?

Shopping promenades, malls and high streets have steadily decreasing revenues due to e-commerce becoming simple and comfortable. We are bringing back business to our cities through a new kind of social marketplace combining community and convenience.

Currently, people have limited options for shopping and sharing stores & products with people they trust in their cities. Although there is a current focus on location-based online shopping, flash sales or discount models are proving to be unsustainable & no one has quite found the secret sauce to represent stores online. Price value is the key & great physical stores always offer a more personal buying experience than traditional e-commerce.

There are two facets of localized retail: Customer service values & high quality products. Social e-commerce is the solution to transfer this experience from brick & mortar to the web. Retail marketing through current social media channels does not have a good ROI due to the message being lost in the noise. With bringhub stores & brands can target marketing to the people who are most interested in purchasing products to achieve better conversions. Same day delivery has been dubbed the savior of brick & mortar. However current models based on high courier commissions or in-house delivery fleets are unsustainable. bringhub makes same day delivery affordable, scalable & sustainable.

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

bringhub is proud to partner with laedc.org & the Los Angeles Chambers of Commerce who endorse our vision of bringing revenue back to local retail. We have recently partnered with on of LA’s largest couriers Now Courier Services. bringhub now has access to over 300 couriers to execute same day delivery in the Los Angeles area ready for launch. bringhub is currently selecting & partnering with the best stores in LA. If you have a recommendation for a store you love please tweet us @bringhub or email us at hello@bringhub.com. If your store would like to be showcased on bringhub for free please visit http://bringhub.com/Partner/ for further details.

What are your next milestones? Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?

bringhub will be launching in Los Angeles this Fall please sign up at http://bringhub.com/ to be the first to #shopyourcity.

In the mean time connect with us on fb.com/bringhub or tweet us@bringhub and tell us how much you #loveyourcity. To follow the bringhub journey please check out http://blog.bringhub.com/.

bringhub is currently raising a seed round for details please visit https://angel.co/bringhub & spread the word.

How To Hire A Programmer If You Can’t Code

I’m one of those founders who can do everything besides code. Marketing? A breeze. Accounting? Accounted for. Operations? Cake walk. Code? I’ll be right back!

Not being able to code has put a damper on my ability to hire the right programmer and further grow my businesses. I have hired three programmers who all seemed fantastic and brilliant during their interviews, but ultimately couldn’t deliver. I always blamed the programmers (it was their fault for misleading me about their true abilities). But then again, maybe the fact that I’ve had the same experience three times means that it had more to do with me than I would like to admit. As a founder, you need to be able to correctly assess the programmer you hire. But the question still remains, “How can I hire a programmer if I don’t have a programming background?”

For people who are code illiterate, I just might have unlocked the secret to hiring the best programmer available.

STEP 1: CONSULT PROGRAMMER FRIENDS

The first thing I did was reach out to friends who are programmers for other companies or who currently lead a team of programmers. One friend of mine, Ravi Patel, was generous enough to sit down with me and explain the hiring process he uses. I was able to get a better sense of how to approach first-round interviews, ask key questions, and judge responses. This was a great way to get my feet wet before the interview process started.

STEP 2: ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

If you ask the wrong questions in an interview, you have no clear way to accurately measure the programmers’ ability. To avoid this, here are some questions to guide you:

“Tell me a little about yourself and your background.” I like to get to know the person, to learn how they first started programming, and hear some of the things they have built. While they share their stories, try to see if you can picture yourself and your team working with them on a daily basis.
“What hours do you prefer working? During what times are you most efficient?” This question helps me get a sense of how the programmer works. I personally need a programmer to be available during 9-to-5 hours, mainly to help our staff with any problems they might have. However, I don’t mind if they work whenever they are most productive.
“What are your current time commitments?” It’s important to know what else they are currently working on to see if they can truly commit. Only hire programmers who can commit to your company 110 percent.
“Do you see yourself as a project manager, a developer, or both?” This question can be a little tricky to answer. I want a project manager who can help me design new features and interfaces. I want a developer who can follow exact directions so they can build what we need. I prefer hiring programmers who can do both.
“How would you manage a team of programmers?” The key things to look for here are leadership skills and whether they can lead by example. I don’t want a programmer to take the back seat once they have a team to manage. They shouldn’t be afraid of getting their hands dirty.
“How you would fix these issues?” This is a make-it-or-break-it question. Provide a few examples of problems you’ve encountered in the past. Present them with the exact same problems to see how they would fix them. Their answers should be similar to the solutions you used, or better. If they can’t give a concise answer, that’s usually a good indicator that they are not the right person for the job.
“I need this done over the next couple of weeks. What steps will you take to finish them on time?” Present them with a few things that need completing urgently and a few things that need doing over the next few weeks. Listen to how they plan to finish each thing and ask them for an approximate time frame.
“What would you do to ensure that our servers are up 100% of the time?” If our servers crash, we lose money, our clients lose money, and most importantly, we lose clients. If the programmer I’m looking to hire has some database and server knowledge, they need to explain to me how we can maintain 100 % uptime and what flags we can implement to give us alerts on any impending server crashes.
“If I need something that you have never done before, how would you approach it?” I ask this question to see how they approach situations that they have typically never been presented with before. Usually, I look for how they would research a solution and if they are the type of person who enjoys a challenge.
“Here is what I expect from you.” Let the applicant know from the outset what you expect from them. Tell them how much commitment you expect: if you want them to be available during weekends, if they need to be available at odd times in case of big issues, what they are expected to build, etc.

STEP 3: BRING IN THE EXPERTS

These questions give me a better sense of who the top three or so programmers are. After I select my top candidates, I ask the same friends to help me interview them for the second round. During this stage, we ask more technical questions to better expose the talents of the finalists. If you don’t have any friends who can help, try contacting a nearby programmer through LinkedIn as a consultant. After you receive feedback from an expert, you should be in a good position to pick the right candidate for your team.

As a friend once told me, a decent programmer you get along with is much better than a brilliant programmer you can’t stand. The decent programmer can always learn through experience and research, whereas the brilliant programmer probably can’t change his personality enough to suit.

Shahzil (Shaz) Amin is the founder and CEO of Blue Track Media, a performance-based online advertising company that specializes in customer acquisition through multiple digital channels. His first company was formed after high school and his latest one, Plugged Inc., focuses on selling and manufacturing headphones. He’s always looking meet new people and learn from their experiences. His hobbies include playing sports, eating wings, and laughing.

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.

Angel Investors Find Startups At Angel Capital Expo

On November 21, 300 accredited investors will invade the Microsoft offices for the 14th bi-annual Angel Capital Expo. They will meet 12 different startups who will all be given a chance to pitch their companies.

“But, Monica,” you say, “why are telling us about an event in Mountain View? I thought Nibletz was the voice of startups everywhere else!”

We are! Which is why we’re very excited to be a media partner for the Angel Capital Expo. The event may be in the Valley, but it is produced by the Keiretsu Forum, a global network of accredited investors. The Keiretsu Forum has 1,100 members in 27 chapters that span 3 continents. By their estimates, that makes them the largest network of angel investors in the world. Their signature event, Angel Capital Expo, features startups from around the world, brought together to pitch to a room of interested investors.

The Keiretsu Forum is unique because it is not a fund. They don’t invest as an LLC, and the members are not required to put up a certain amount. Rather, the members of the Forum facilitate deal flow by sharing resources and due diligence. In other words, each individual investor makes his or her own decisions, but they do so in the support of a large community of other angels.

So, who are the lucky 12 companies who will be presenting to a room full of actual investors? Most of them are in the series A or B phase and have already secured some kind of funding. They span industries from healthcare to real estate to technology. We’ll be featuring several of those companies in the coming days here at Nibletz.

The schedule on the day of the event is intense. A full morning of pitches, followed by a short break, then more pitches. After the event, interested investors can sign up with companies to start the due diligence process.

The way I see it, the Angel Capital Expo is like your typical Investor Day, except it actually ends with real deal flow.

Nibletz And Everywhere Else Are Moving Out Of Beta

It’s hard to believe its been almost a year since I came on as Nibetz CEO. In that time, you’ve helped us host not 1 but 2 national conferences, tell thousands of your startup stories and foster countless new friendships.

Like any startup though, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. We’ve constantly been striving to get better. Your feedback has played an invaluable part in helping us make the necessary changes to continue to improve.

I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish and the way our team has dealt with obstacles and adversity.

The support I’ve received from those closest to me and from all of you that make up the heart of this new, bustling community has been nothing short spectacular.

Looking back, I’ve come to view the first two iterations of our conferences as our alpha and our beta.

Everywhere Else Memphis taught us the importance of community engagement and rallying behind the local support. Everywhere Else Cincinnati taught us how to deliver great programming and facilitate meaningful connections.

Neither event was perfect, but I am grateful to the advisers and all of you who continued to believe in our mission over the last few months. Your insight has been a driving force to the direction we take take going forward.

With our alpha and beta behind us, I am excited about the coming changes to Nibletz and The Everywhere Else Conference Series.

In order to provide the caliber of experience you would expect from a finished product, we will be moving Everywhere Else Memphis back a few months. You will notice a new emphasis on quality connections and startups over quantity. We will also be highlighting those things we all love about Memphis: Beale Street, blues, and BBQ

Lots more details, including something I’m super excited about (and I know you will be to!), will be released in the next couple of weeks. If you’ve already purchased your tickets, thanks, and we look forward to seeing you at the new and improved event.

The conferences aren’t the only change we’re making, though. Monica Selby has joined me on the founding team as editor-in-chief. Monica is passionate about highlighting the best startups everywhere else, and she has some great ideas for new ways to do that. In the short time I’ve worked with her, I’ve realized that Monica is a great teammate and a huge asset to this company. I am really pumped to call her a partner.

One of the first things she will be spearheading is our new weekly newsletter, which will keep you up to date on our very best startup features as well as our conference plans. Go ahead and sign up on the right, takes 2 seconds.

Like I said, we’ve learned a lot in the last year. I want to thank all of our readers, friends, and partners for all of the support and encouragement. We sincerely would not be where we are without you.

I could not be more excited about the next year and all the changes it will bring. As we continue to learn and grow, we are better able to fulfill our mission as the voice of startups everywhere else.

See you in Memphis.

3 Best Practices For Startup Hiring

hiring It’s really hard to teach someone how to hire, how to manage, and how to lead. Like many things, it’s usually best to learn on the job, practice, and improve after making a lot of mistakes along the way. The problem is, as a startup, you can’t afford to make a lot of mistakes when hiring. You also can’t afford to wait too long to hire when the business is scaling quickly.

I thought I’d share my top three best practices when making a first hire (and in some cases, any hire). As a caveat, this is coming from a first-time entrepreneur, who has never directly hired anyone in the past, and generally believes in the goodness of man/woman.

For a senior hire, hire someone with experience. For a junior hire, hire the smartest person you can find. If you’re lucky, find someone who has smarts and experience. Our first hire was someone who actually had retail/online/consumer experience. This is something that I have had for exactly 2.5 years (since the company was founded). My co-founder and I knew what we were good at, but also knew our weaknesses. It was critical for us to find a person that could bring all the industry expertise and knowledge we could no longer fake. Our first intern (and eventual hire) was someone with exactly zero work experience. She was willing to work in whatever role we needed her for that particular day. She is also very smart. Although her role has changed over time, she was exactly the utility player every startup needs.
Take your time. Every single person we have eventually hired, including our first employee, has gone through a trial period with us before joining full time. This is not always possible, especially for a hyper-growth company. The point is that you want to take your time with your first critical hires. The people who don’t agree or understand this philosophy are people you don’t want to hire. People truly passionate about a company in its early stages and truly passionate about filling a role for that company will be patient and understand the reason for a “trial period.” It’s not because you think they are mediocre or not the best possible candidate. It’s because when people believe in something, they’re willing to fight for it. That goes both ways, and is important to understand.
Fit is as important if not more important than anything else. Startups equal tight quarters, big personalities, too much to do, and too little time. If you have a virus in the mix, it can be devastating to a startup’s success — whether it’s a bad case of the chicken pox or a bad teammate. Find people you like to work with, because you are going to be spending more time with them than your girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, friends, and so on. Everyone does not have to be identical or like the same things. That can be a problem as well. Instead, they should fit together like a jigsaw puzzle — as complementary sides that work as a whole.

Side note: I have no clue if chicken pox is caused by a virus, but I thought it had a nice ring to it and I will check Wikipedia shortly.

The theme here is to hire with caution. New hires (and especially your first hire) can make or break your company. It should not be taken lightly. Building a team is one of the most important things you can do as a founder. If you’re good at it, it might be all you do one day. If you have the slightest sense that your first key employees are not going to get the job done or do not have the fortitude to survive a startup environment, cut your ties and fire fast. Personal relationships are the most important things I have in my life. But as a founder, I understand that I am running a business. It is bigger than myself. I have investors, customers, vendors, and suppliers to worry about. If something is not working out, fire, rinse, repeat, and build until you get it right.

This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post.

Raaja Nemani is Co-Founder and CEO of BucketFeet, a Chicago-based e-commerce company that creates artist-designed footwear. Raaja’s international travels—which include a trek through the Himalayas and a dive with great white sharks—inspired him to launch BucketFeet with co-founder Aaron Firestein in 2011, as a platform to celebrate artists from all over the world. Now selling in over 10 countries, Bucketfeet has built an artist network of 1,000 artists from over 30 countries. Raaja injects his love of design and global community into BucketFeet’s mission, which aims to find a different artist to design every pair of shoes and provide consumers original footwear that stands out and tells a story.

Boulder Startup Announces Thousands & Thousands Of Tiny Robots

This morning Modular Robotics announced a Kickstarter campaign that will bring “thousands and thousands of tiny robots” into the world.

Modular Robotics is the company behind Cubelets, magnetic blocks that can be snapped together to create robots. The toys have experienced some popularity. Time had this to say about the products:

Think of them as gateway drugs into the world of robotics: First, you learn about the basic concept of robotics by connecting Cubelets. Then, using the API, you get a taste of programming. Then you’re hooked, learning C and making your Cubelets do all kinds of things.

Next thing you know, you’re a engineering student at MIT and, boom, high-tech labor shortage over. You’re welcome, America.

Lofty goals for a small company in Boulder, but with its newest creation, Modular Robotics is just raising expectations even higher. After 2 1/2 years of development, Modular Robotics is launching MOSS.

MOSS follows the same idea as Cubelets: tiny robots that require no knowledge of electronics or coding. However, MOSS allows for more dynamic building. Cubelets were blocks that clicked together. MOSS incorporates spherical ball bearings and “rare earth” magnets to connect the modules. The magnets create joints and hinges, allowing the wheels of the car above to actually turn like regular wheels.

With the launch of MOSS, Modular Robotics is also rolling out a few iPhone apps that will allow builders to control their robots from their phones using bluetooh technology. Robots and remote controls in one toy? I’m sold.

Most toys and consumer electronics are built outside of the United States, but Modular Robotics thinks they know a better way. They’ve built a factory in Boulder and all parts of MOSS will be assembled right there. “We get to build robots that help us build robots,” they point out on the Kickstarter page.

Smart toys are increasing in popularity as the world changes. There are competitors in the space, like New York-based Little Bits. However, Modular Robotics offers a simpler experience. Pull the toys out of the box, click them together, and watch your robot work.

The Time excerpt above plays perfectly on every parents’ deepest desire: for our children to be successful. In past years parents plopped their kids down in front of Baby Einstein in hopes of increasing their intelligence. Today’s savvy parents know that if our kids are exposed early to STEM, they may actually have a job later in life. (Unlike most of us, who wasted our time with silly humanities degrees…)

MOSS is officially on Kickstarter, and backers will be the first customers with access to the new toys.

Atlas Demos The Next Fitness Band At Techstars Austin

As a college track coach and marathoner, my husband swears by his GPS watch. I have plenty of friends who love their FitBit or Nike FuelBands. I have to say, though, I didn’t really get the whole wearable tech, fitness analytics thing. Why can’t you just go for a run and do a few crunches for crying out loud? Why the hell do we have to measure EVERYTHING?

I didn’t get it, that is, until I stumbled across recent Techstars Austin graduates Atlas Wearables.

The idea for the Atlas wristband came when CEO Peter Li developed a platform to help motivate his fellow students at Johns Hopkins to get fit. He realized that most of the tools out there only measure subsets of fitness–number of steps for example. He realized customers really needed in depth analytics on what works and what doesn’t.

With that understanding, Atlas is focusing their efforts on showing the type, speed, and quality of the exercises, helping consumers understand what they need to do to lose weight and get fit.

What makes Atlas unique is that it’s not a one-sport wonder. That GPS watch my husband loves will never be able to tell me the quality of the push ups I just did. The Atlas wristband aims to do that, as well as track analytics across other sports like swimming, yoga, and cycling.

It’s an understatement to say that Li and his cofounder Mike Kasparian are qualified to build this type of product. Li has a masters degree in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins. Kasparian studied electrical engineering at Boston University, then designed circuitry for defibrillators at Philips. Combine that with a mutual love of fitness and sports, and it’s obvious this team knows what they’re doing.

It’s still early days, though. Last week the Atlas team graduated from Techstars, but we all know Demo Day is just the beginning. In the coming months, the team will test the wristbands with local gyms and personal trainers to see how well the technology works and what features need to be included. They have already started work on the next iteration and will be offering a small batch to a few early adopters. (Reserve yours here!)

Fitness and health awareness is growing quickly. Consumers are beginning to understand the importance of a good sweat to get and stay fit. Atlas is poised to bring good old-fashioned exercise into the 21st century.

And, it looks like I might finally jump on board, too!

5 Legal Steps Founders Should Take Right Now

Every founder’s dream is to see their company grow. But taking a business to the next level often requires seeking outside investment. To ensure that a company is prepared to receive investment, and to make use of the opportunities and challenges that growth creates, there are a number of crucial, yet often overlooked, legal steps to take. Here are five of them.

Chose the right legal entity.

The corporate structure you chose determines your company’s taxation, allocation of profits and losses, record-keeping requirements, and general structure. When incorporating your company you have several options. The most common include an LLC, S Corporation and C Corporation and your choice should depend on your goals and objectives. While your entity can be changed down the road, you can avoid this by working in close consultation with your lawyer and accountant from the get go. If you plan on seeking investment soon after starting your business, establishing a C Corporation at the outset may be the best option.

Put a founder’s agreement in place to guide internal affairs.

If you’re starting your company with another person or group of people, a founder’s agreement is absolutely essential. A founder’s agreement creates the framework of your partnership and governs the internal affairs of your company’s operations. Your agreement should outline the duties of the founders, key decision-making processes, as well as how disputes and unforeseen circumstances will be handled; however, before you go forward with these have an attorney from a law firm such as Legalzoom review the document before signing the agreement to ensure that everything is in order.

There are bound to be bumps in the road as your business grows, so it’s best to have a comprehensive document in place from the beginning that will govern how decisions will be made.

Have a good non-disclosure agreement.

Non-disclosure agreements (“NDA”) are critical to establish in any business relationship where confidential information may be shared. People who have access to your company’s confidential information must have defined standards about how they can use and access this information. Ensure the obligations of confidentiality extend beyond the term of the NDA, as this information is essential to the integrity of your business.

Protect your company’s “IP”.

The core of your business is your intellectual property or “IP.” As such, you must legally protect your property by filing the proper trademark, copyright or patent applications. This ensures that you have recourse to protect it, if infringement occurs. But not only should you be keeping these traditional protections in place; you need to ensure that you are contractually maintaining ownership rights over any intellectual property being created for your company by any outside contractors. These protections help you maintain the core of your business.

Make sure your documents are in order.

Anyone looking to invest in your company will conduct extensive due diligence. This will include looking over your company’s books and reviewing your corporate documents, agreements and contracts. They will want to know you have appropriate licenses, permits and reports, and that you are adhering to all existing contracts with employees and service providers. This will show potential investors that you are professional and free of potential legal obstacles.

Having your legal house in order ensures that your company is ready to take advantage of investment, to grow, and to handle the challenges that will arise. Think ahead and imagine where you want your company to be, and then make sure that you’re prepared to get there.

DISCLAIMER The content in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should contact a qualified attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem.

Tricia Meyer is managing attorney of Meyer Law, a forward-thinking boutique law firm providing top-notch legal services to clients ranging from startups to mid-sized companies to large corporations in a variety of industries including technology, telecom, financial services, real estate, advertising, marketing, social media and healthcare. Learn more at MeyerLawGroup.com and follow us on Twitter @Tricia_Meyer or@Meyer_Law

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Should Startups Offer Unlimited Vacation Time?

QUESTION: SOME COMPANIES ARE PAYING PEOPLE TO TAKE VACATIONS (OR OFFERING UNLIMITED VACATION TIME). WOULD YOU DO THIS IN YOUR BUSINESS? WHY OR WHY NOT?

DON’T CREATE ENTITLEMENTS

“Lifestyle companies looking to implement liberal vacation policies should do so with some caution in order to mitigate their legal risks. The word “unlimited” invites trouble. Research “return on work” environments where generous vacation allotment is contingent upon job performance. This type of implementation ensures that time off is perceived as a reward and not an entitlement.”

– Christopher Kelly | Co-Founder, Principal, Convene

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY OF HOURS

“A lot of business now are virtual. It isn’t about where you are in the world, it’s about your commitment to your business. I believe it isn’t the amount of time you spend on a project, it’s about the quality of your work. If an employee feels as if they are more productive at home or somewhere else, by all means. Just get the work done.”

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

WHO’S ON YOUR TEARM?

“If you’ve got a team full of intelligent, self-motivated people working for you who truly enjoy doing what they do and achieving milestones, this can be a great strategy. If, however, you have a team made up of trained monkeys (or their human equivalent), your productivity will plummet.”

– Travis Steffen | Founder, WorkoutBOX

STRUCTURE IS STILL NEEDED

“I wouldn’t give people unlimited vacation time because it opens up a can of worms. Some people will take advantage of it more than others, which will cause resentment among the staff. I also wouldn’t pay people to take vacation. I think that most mature, sensible employees can manage a few days off at their discretion. If they can’t, then there’s a bigger problem that needs to be addressed.”

– Alexandra Levit | President and Founder, Inspiration at Work

TRUST YOUR TEAM

“We currently offer unlimited vacation time at my company. Since everyone works remotely, they’re able to do their work whenever is most convenient for them. As long as their work is completed, they’re able to take vacation days throughout the year – or work from wherever their travels take them.”

– Heather Huhman | Founder & President, Come Recommended

IT’S A TERRIBLE IDEA

“Startups are filled with hard workers that love what they do. Because of that, they’re prone to workaholism and burnout. By having unlimited vacation, you open up major problems. Bad employees will take too much time off, causing major culture/team issues. And good employees won’t take any time off — infinity and zero can be difficult to differentiate in the mind, and pressure says to take none.”

– Jason Evanish | Co-Founder, Greenhorn Connect

VALUE CREATED, NOT HOURS WORKED

“I build startups, not corporations. I therefore prefer to have no office space and a virtual team all over the country, and base performance on value-created, not hours-worked. My team understands they can take breaks or vacations whenever they want to, as long as they complete their objectives. It’s a challenge to hold people accountable only if they’re the wrong people.”

– Jun Loayza | President, Ecommerce Rules

IF I HAD THE MONEY, HECK YEAH

“I’m a big believer that rest and recovery, both mental and physical, makes for team members that aren’t just more happy, but also more creative and more efficient, too. Emphasizing and even incentivizing people to go on vacation, where they can really escape and re-group from crazy startup life, will only pay back in dividends.”

– Derek Flanzraich | CEO and Founder, Greatist

TRY EMPLOYEE VOLUNTEERISM

“Working for a startup employees often work around the clock and at times can need more work. While our business was developing, some employees found they didn’t have enough full-time work. In order to provide them with a consistent full-time salary, we decided to pay them to volunteer to make up for the missing hours. Supporting paid volunteer hours has built morale and developed a cool culture.”

– Jason Jannati | Co-Founder, greeNEWit

VACATIONS DEMONSTRATES RESPONSIBILITY

“At Her Campus, we don’t have a set number of vacation days for employees per year. Everyone is expected to work their hardest and do their best possible job at their job, and we leave it up to them how much vacation time they want to take. This way, employees feel control over their own schedules and recognize that they are valued by the results of their work rather than by the hours put in.”

– Stephanie Kaplan | Co-Founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Her Campus Media

BALANCE IS KEY

“It’s a great model if you balance it with performance measures and guidelines. Employees have to be accountable to perform and should be rewarded when they work hard to get things done quickly. If it’s all about performance, they’ll hold each other accountable, both on taking too much vacation and on not taking enough.”

– Susan Strayer LaMotte | Founder & Principal Consultant, exaqueo

POTENTIALLY A DISASTER

“Zappos pays certain people to leave after finishing their training program. This makes sense. Paying people to take vacation time does not. Businesses pay for productivity, not for vacations. In the short run, employing this type of policy may be good for publicity and promoting a cool company culture, but it’s a disaster in the long run. A great culture can co-exist with structure.”

– Luke Burgis | Director, ActivPrayer

IT MEANS MORE PRODUCTIVITY

“We do offer unlimited vacations. We want to foster a culture of trust and responsibility. The more flexibility you give employees, the more responsible they feel. Instead of counting hours or vacation time accrued, they work hard and stay late when they need to and then take a break to recharge when they need to. The company and the employee both benefit.”

– Bhavin Parikh | CEO, Magoosh Test Prep

TRY FLEX TIME INSTEAD

“I think vacation time is incredibly important, but even more so, flexible time. If you allow the people working for you to do what’s important to them, such as attending a family event, going to the doctor, surfing, or taking a class, and then make up the hours at other times, they don’t typically need unlimited vacation.”

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

HAPPY LIFE MEANS HAPPY EMPLOYEES

“Work-life balance is increasingly important in today’s fast-paced environment. I believe that travel and taking time off are essential to make sure that employees are happy and focused at work.”

– Abby Ross | Co-Founder & VP Operations, ThinkCERCA

500 Startups Batch 007 Knows They’ll Never Be Normal

What happens when you put the founders of 30 startups together on the first day of an accelerator?

They make a music video. Of course.

By now 500 Startups is pretty well known for the video each new batch makes at the beginning of the program. Each video is a humorous introduction to the latest cohort and often points to some funny aspect of startup life. Batch 006 parodied Macklemore’s hit Thrift Shop, and Batch 005 produced Sh*t 500 Founders Say.

This week, 500 Startups announced Batch 007. (And we’ve already covered one of their new companies.) Besides MailLift, there are 29 companies in the newest batch, including a biotech company, an electric skateboard company, and a micro-publishing platform. There are even a few “unsexy” startups that are innovating things like inventory management.

We love 500 Startups here at Nibletz because even though the accelerator is in the Valley, they always bring teams in from around the world. This cohort is no different. They hail from places like Sweden, the UK, Italy, Brazil, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, Milwaukee, and Nashville. 500 Startups is also does diversity pretty well. There are 5 female founders (not their best, but still pretty good), and a dozen teams are from outside the United States.

And for their video, batch 007 remade the popular song Royals. Filled with move in day antics–including a game that involves buckets on heads?–the video claims that this new batch will never be normal. No Y-Comb envy here; the newest batch of 500 Startups is ready to go.

Check out the video below, and find out more about 500 Startups Batch 007.

The Aha! Moment: When Lightning Strikes

Reshma Chamberlin is a double-transplant. From India to New York and currently St. Louis, her life has been full of stories. And the same goes for her partner-in-enabling-others-to-tell-stories, Elizabeth (Beth) Buchanan. The pair is behind Muzio, an app that self-proclaims to be “the easiest way to curate the best of life’s adventures into one little package to share and enjoy.” And many would agree. How many times have you taken a bunch of notes, pictures or videos on a business trip or vacation and wanted to share them in an organized way (but haven’t been able to)?

“How do you capture the essence of an experience in an easy-to-capture way?” That’s the question that led to Muzio’s first ‘aha moment.’ Beth had just come back from a trip to Cape Cod when she was showing Reshma some of her pictures. The conversation went something like this:

Beth: “I had such an amazing time! Look at all of these wonderful pictures I took!”

Reshma (looking at pictures): “Beth, this is boring.”

And, thus, the two decided they needed to do something about that. Muzio was born.

So Reshma and Beth, who were (and still are) running a design firm, B&C Designers, headed to the Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World conference in New York City this past May. It was an on-course conference; they were meeting some great people, making awesome connections and learning a thing or two. Everything was great. But then things got better – much better – when they heard a woman named Angela Jia Kim present a concept called “finding your ‘lightning rod.’”

What’s a lightning rod (in a metaphorical sense, of course), you might ask? “A lightning rod is that thing that gives you career satisfaction, helps you achieve your monetary goals and makes you happy all at the same time,” Reshma said. “When she talked about the lightning rod concept something clicked. At that moment we realized we needed to pause everything else and just focus on this [Muzio]. We couldn’t expect it to do what we knew it could do and wanted it to do if we’re not focused on it 100%.

And the third ‘aha moment:’ being able to knock out Muzio’s entire launch plan in a two hour plane ride after a sleepless night transferring in and out of airport wings and waiting lines and wallowing through multiple canceled flights and hours of layovers. “When we finished that we knew we had our lightning rod. This is what we were supposed to be doing,” Reshma finished.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to be the next Benjamin Franklin to find your own lightning rod. Think about it – or don’t. Either way, you’ll know when lightning strikes.

Learn more about Muzio online at http://muzioapp.com/ and follow them on Twitter: @MuzioApp.

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.

The Biggest Deal In Shark Tank History Comes Just In Time For Halloween

Last Friday Shark Tank returned with one of the creepiest pitches ever. Former Clear Channel Communications executive Melissa Carbone walked in with a snarling zombie in tow, and as the pitch continued a scarecrow, clown, a chainsaw murder came out of the display to terrorize the sharks.

“Don’t eyeball me. I will kick your tush back to Texas,” Mark Cuban informed the chainsaw-wielding actor.

The founder of the Ten Thirty One Productions, the company behind the popular LA Haunted Hayride was looking for $2 million dollars to expand her business to New York. Despite earning $1.8 million in 17 days, many of the sharks disagreed with Carbone’s $20 million valuation.

“I’m an expert in high-octane scare,” Daymond John said. “Put on a piece of jewelry and walk around where I grew up. That’s a high-octane scare.”

He went on to offer $2 million for a 40% stake in the company. Carbone paused before countering: $2 million for 20%.

It took Cuban–whose face showed nothing but disgust at the beginning of the pitch–about 2 seconds to jump in.

“I’ll take that,” he said, slamming his notebook closed.

And, just like that, the biggest deal in Shark Tank history is done. Cuban, of course, is well known for his wide portfolio and often unusual investments. As the segment ended, he told the other sharks he believes the future of entertainment is in experiences.

However, a lot of sharks argued that Carbone’s company will never see the kind of profit she projected. We all know that not everything goes right when we launch new endeavors, and Ten Thirty One’s plans are ambitious. In 2014 they plan to launch a series of horror campouts along the West Coast, as well as a New York Haunted Hayride in October. They have some–sorry–scary goals. Still $2 million from Mark Cuban can’t hurt.

Find out more about Ten Thirty One Productions at their website.

The Founder’s Dictionary: Buzzwords For Every Entrepreneur

There’s a secret language in the startup world. Once you become a founder, words that have no meaning to your regular friends suddenly mean everything to you.

When I first got ~~stuck~~ involved in the startup world, it was months before I had the courage to ask someone what the hell a VC was. I kept thinking it would be awesome if there was some kind of dictionary for this stuff. A cool one, you know, with great design and in an app.

Well, the infographic below is not that resource. Nope, the folks at Udemy and Column Five Media took a much lighter look at startup vernacular here. We all need to take ourselves a little less seriously, and after reading this, I bet you’ll never throw these buzzwords around without giggling a little.

For example, you thought an “angel” was an early stage investor, right? Wrong. Angels are actually the spirits of deceased founders and CEOs who may or may not dwell in the water cooler.

Or, for those of you so impressed with your iteration…turns out an iteration is really just the same product with a number after the name. I.e. iPhone5 whatever.

Check out the whole infographic below for a lighthearted look at the world we’re all living in.

by Column Five Media.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.