Startup Tips Archives - Page 38 of 66

Why Mobile is a Whole New Thing & How to Do It Right

From WSJ Accelerators

If you are still thinking that mobile app and web development are a niche or future priority, you need to adapt to today’s reality, and fast. According to Pew Internet, 31% of American mobile Internet users say that’s the primary way they access the web.

We’ve now reached that critical inflection point where more people access the Internet from mobile devices than computers.

As with any platform shift, today’s mobile revolution means major implications and big opportunities for businesses. The problem is that too many companies have underestimated the radical change that mobile brings about. They think of mobile as simply an extension of the Web, rather than an entirely new platform, and they look at the smartphone as just a smaller computer with a lot less memory and processing power.

12 Must Have Tools for Managing Leads & Contacts

Question: What do you use to share leads and contacts seamlessly among virtual team members?

WORKetc

“I use an SaaS software product entitled WORKetc. This software is customizable so all team members, or only a select portion of your staff, can have access to leads.”

Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

Act!

“I love Act!; it stands the test of time. It is a very easy interface; the search functions are great, and the ability to convert the customer data to Excel to do direct mail or constant contact campaigns is very attractive. Most of our customer data is from organizations looking to book our CEO clients for events, and Act! allows us to keep organizations updated on our clients and activities.”

Raoul Davis, Ascendant Group

Streak

“We live in our email inboxes at work, so it makes sense to have a CRM system that seamlessly integrates with our email. Since we use Google Apps for Business on the Poshly team and Gmail is our preferred email provider, Streak is a phenomenal resource for us to share leads and contacts with ease among all of our virtual team members. Our correspondence and contacts are in one place. “

Doreen Bloch, Poshly Inc.

Salesforce.com

“Salesforce.com seems like one of the “big guys” now, but it’s still a nimble tool that allows companies large and small to organize leads. The product forces your team to be disciplined in tracking, and following up with, sales opportunities. We now have a much clearer idea of the sales funnel, and we don’t let opportunities fall through the cracks, which is pretty critical to any startup!”

Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

Highrise

“We use the 37signals software program called Highrise. It’s great because everyone on our team can collaborate from wherever we are. We share a database of contacts and can constantly see an up-to-date snapshot of each team member’s outreach, share notes, and assign tasks. The mobile app is especially helpful for on-the-go access. It has helped streamline our CRM efforts in a big way.”

Brittany Hodak, ZinePak

Zoho

“Zoho is a fully customizable CRM solution that allows our team to organize and track leads to convert them into clients. The full functionality of Zoho allows our team to effectively optimize sales through customized reports on the success of leads by source, industry and other indicators. Best of all, it’s free for up to three users, and you can integrate/sync it with Outlook. “

Fehzan Ali, Adscend Media LLC

Close.io

“Close is a new tool that makes it very easy for our sales and accounts teams to seamlessly share info. The beauty of Close.io is they’ve integrated literally every key feature you can think of to make sure other team members know exactly what’s happened with any given contact. Close.io has been a complete game changer for us, and it has increased our efficiency substantially. “

Sunil Rajaraman, Scripted.com

Google Docs

“It’s old school but it works. We don’t claim to have a fancy CRM, and I expect a salesperson to call me after this article gets published, but we’re perfectly happy sharing an Excel spreadsheet and taking copious notes. We can also download segmented email lists from Mailchimp and import customer data from PayPal, Google Checkout, and Eventbrite. All the information is there for us. “

Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences

ConnectWise

“ConnectWise is a customizable system that allows us to manage all of our resources in one location, facilitate collaboration, and ensure streamlined operations. It serves as a database for sales leads, opportunities, and contacts and is an efficient tool to track status and time on tickets and projects. Most recently we are integrating ConnectWise into a new quoting system for seamless end-to-end workflow. “

Dave Smith, TekScape

Salesforce and MailChimp

“We use MailChimp for all our email campaigns directed at new community members, and we use Salesforce as a CRM for potential ad sponsors. Both solutions work well with our virtual team members.”

Patrick Curtis, WallStreetOasis.com

Dropbox

“I’m a big fan of Dropbox. Being able to access documents, spreadsheets, contacts and more without having to email back and forth has made our business more efficient. We share certain folders in Dropbox. The documents and files within the shared folder are updated whenever a user makes changes to the original. Also, access to the folders is easy to obtain and can even be done off Dropbox’s mobile app.”

George Mavromaras, Mavro Inc. | Praetor Global LLC.

Ruby on Rails

“We’ve created a built-from-scratch CRM in Ruby on Rails over the last five years that allows us to seamlessly allocate leads among virtual employees. We have 35 full-time and 35 part-time employees and 1,800 tutors — all operating from home. Building a system for our own very specific needs was far more expensive, but has been far more powerful than any CRM we’ve ever tested, such as Salesforce.com. “

Chuck Cohn, Varsity Tutor

Marc Andreesen: High Functioning Businesses Aren’t Disneyland

We’re all familiar with the stories of founder relationships gone sour. It’s a common tale:

Founders arrive on the scene with a hot new product. Raise crazy amounts of money. See enormous traction and get tons of hype from the press and their peers.

Then, out of the blue (it seems), there’s division and strife. One founder leaves, or is ousted. Lawsuits, hard feelings, drama.

It would be easy to chalk this up to the youth culture of startup land, and Silicon Valley in general. It would be easy to say that if founders were more mature when they were handed millions of dollars of venture capital this wouldn’t be such a common story.

Maybe there’s truth there, but according to Marc Andreesen’s latest tweetstorm, dysfunction in the highest levels of any business is normal. We like to think of building businesses as dispassionate, analytical endeavors: figure out what makes money and do that.

But what if there are fundamental differences in how the founders see themselves making money? Suddenly, even the smartest, most analytical people are at a stalemate. Throw in the passion for their companies that most founders have, and it’s no wonder there are hard feelings.

According to Andreesen, that’s okay.

Moral? Business is stressful.There’s constant conflict, emotion, even anger. Building a company is an intense experience, period. Harnessed properly, this is the crucible out of which high performance and great results emerge. Satisfaction of overcoming challenges.

To quote Jim Barksdale, “This isn’t a family, and I ain’t your daddy.” But together we can build great things & make our grandkids proud.

Are you building great things? Then it’s time to take a deep breath and expect some drama.

What’s the Number One Thing At Your Startup?

From Angela Tran Kingyens

A few weeks ago when Boris wrote about overcoming decision paralysis, I shared a comment that I make important decisions by evaluating my choices based on how they align with my core values. For years now, I have been encouraging nearly everyone that I meet to take some time to reflect on his or her values for this exact purpose (among many others).

People often talk about the importance of leading a value-driven life or business, but what exactly are values? They are at the core of our happiness, the source of our inspiration, and foundation of our close relationships. They serve as our compass and guide our decision-making. They shape our character both in our personal lives and at work.

4 Quick Lessons in Scaling Your Startup

My startup experience began in college at what ended up becoming a very successful company. After graduating, I moved on to a corporate role at IBM. As I learned the ropes at an established company, I continued investing and advising startups on the side. Finally, two years ago, I founded my latest company, SimpleRelevance.

Through each career move, I’ve learned the value of practicing an intentional business strategy. Putting short and long-term goals against decisions and challenging my own choices has been the best way for each of my companies to pivot and evolve. Here are few of the lessons I’ve learned in my latest endeavor and over the years:

Fast Cash Doesn’t Sell

Telling a prospect that you’ll earn them $20 dollars for every $1 dollar they spend on your solution seldom works. It seems too good to be true. While your promise might still stand, it can’t be the sole selling point of your product or service. In the customer’s experience, there probably was someone who couldn’t deliver on such a bold statement before you.

To beat a potential customer’s skepticism, it’s important to offer proof of credibility. This can be done using case studies or testimonials from past and current clients, through trial period offers or product guarantees. For SimpleRelevance, we know there is a certain amount of noise in the marketing services space, but we’ve found continuous success for each client on each campaign, and have the proof to back it up.

Find the Right Target

Make sure the person you’re talking to has a stake in the conversation. In the past, I spent time and energy explaining the importance of using my solution to the wrong person because I was looking to get my foot in the door. It never worked out well. If the person isn’t directly impacted by your value proposition, they’re not likely to make the purchase or even hand you off to the right person.

Find the person responsible for showing results in the specific part of the business your product affects. For us, it’s often a CMO, director of marketing, or person in charge of email marketing. These are the folks who feel support and recognition for increased sales directly correlated with email personalization. They’re the people who are actively seeking new, better technology to make their lives easier. Find someone who would get the pat on the back for choosing you, and you have potential for a real conversation.

Find Your Differentiator

There are a lot of industries that seem crowded, including marketing services. Recognizing the amount of noise in your space is key to fighting it. For SimpleRelevance, there is often a misconception about who our competition actually is because of the plethora of buzzwords that describe the industry: email marketing, email service provider, email optimization, digital marketing, etc. There are thousands of companies who fit in each of these buckets, but very few who are direct competitors offering the same outcome.

Going through the TechStars process taught our team the importance of being thoughtful about how we position ourselves against our competition. It’s absolutely mandatory to be crisp, concise and to the point about what we do. This eliminates confusion from jargon and shows our prospects how we can truly help them. We’ve actually got ours down to about 10 words: SimpleRelevance plugs into existing tools to optimize an email at the individual level. Spend time refining your real message and differentiating factor so when a prospect compares you to your competitors, you’re able to explain exactly why you’re the better choice.

Scale Thoughtfully

Finally, when founding a startup, the inability to scale properly is an often overlooked internal issue. There is no shortcut leading a company from under 10 employees to 40-plus. Instead, each department must mature at the same rate, or at least close to it. Product, sales, marketing, operations and customer service all require equal attention to detail and support. When things get out of sync, the business loses equilibrium, which causes unnecessary internal hurdles.

Some startups take growth where they can get it and expect things to even out on their own. That works sometimes, but more often than not, these issues can cause even a five-year old company to implode. Remember, happy employees make a company successful, and instability threatens that.

There are many more lessons I’ve learned from founding SimpleRelevance, but all of these suggestions have one principle in common – be thoughtful. Successful businesses aren’t built in a year and they don’t materialize out of thin air. But with deliberate choices, the right message and the right team, yours will come together with time.

Erik Severinghaus is the founder & CEO of SimpleRelevance, a Chicago-based company focused on digital marketing personalization. Prior to that he received a patent while in IBM‘s IT Optimization organization, and helped co-found iContact – a leading Email Service Provider.

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.

Why You Shouldn’t Care About What You’ve Done

From Satya Patel

At Homebrew, Hunter and I are very focused on “Why” a founder has chosen to start a company and what motivates him or her to attack the specific problem or opportunity he or she sees. But also important is the “how”, the approach the entrepreneur has taken to address the opportunity. Often, when we starting talking about the “how”, we hear about a lot of different ideas being considered and experiments being run in an effort to find product/market fit. But at the seed stage, entrepreneurs often focus only on what they’re doing without being equally attentive to what they’re learning. “Being busy” by itself does not equate to building a company. You should be learning with every step so that you can find a scalable model of success.

Focusing on the key questions and how best to answer them

To create an organization that learns and doesn’t just do, I’m a big advocate of the scientific method approach to building product (and companies more generally). The scientific method is a simple framework that can help startups focus, experiment, learn and iterate quickly and effectively. Below is a description of that method along with a simplified example of an experiment we ran at Twitter (not the actual data).

How to Know If You’re An Awesome Founder

From Rob Go

Since I posted my Seed VC Decision Tree, one of the most frequent requests I’ve gotten is to define what makes an “awesome founder”. I’ve hesitated to define this because I think evaluating founders is very subjective and I hate to make anyone think I have a particular checklist or profile of founder that I’m looking for. Since starting NextView, I’ve worked with founders of a wide variety of backgrounds, experience, and attributes. Many of these founders share some common characteristics, but if you put them all in the room, I think you’d be surprised at their differences as well.

But, I try to respond to my readers as best as I can, so here’s my best attempt. I think there are many dozens of attributes that awesome founders have, but here are the four that I find to be nearly universal:

The David and Goliath Guide to Innovation: Don’t Always Solve New Problems

We’re always looking for that untapped holy grail of a new market. Something super niche. Something that no one else thought to go after. It’s exciting. It’s sexy.

And as entrepreneurs, we’re programmed to ask ourselves:
What new problems can I solve?

But why don’t we ask ourselves more often:
How can I solve problem X better than company Y?

We’re becoming so programmed to look for the “new”, that we’re becoming averse to solving existing problems, better.

Maybe it’s because it’s just plain daunting to think about going up against a Goliath when you’re a David. And even if you’re incredibly confident that you’ve found a better way to do things, there are a million reasons to talk yourself out of going up against a heavy hitter. It’s intimidating.

But actually, it happens all the time. Some of the most successful companies of the last couple years didn’t come up with an idea that required a new market. They solved old problems in new ways.

Take Lyft and Uber for example—going up against the Taxi unions. Stripetaking on PayPal. KISSMetrics and Mixpanel taking on Google Analytics.

What it really comes down to is finding a way to do things better (whether it’s a new problem or an old one), and knowing what and where your advantages are.

In his book, “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”, Malcolm Gladwell takes the stance that David, not Goliath, actually had the advantage in that battle.

“It is because of, and not despite, David’s size and unorthodox choice of weapon that he is able to slay the lumbering giant[…]most people underestimate the importance of agility and speed.”

“David’s sling is a devastating weapon[…]Then we have a big, lumbering guy weighed down with armor, who can’t see much more than a few feet in front of his face, up against a kid running at him with a devastating weapon and a rock traveling with the stopping power of a .45 caliber handgun. That’s not a story of an underdog and a favorite. David has a ton of advantages in that battle, they’re just not obvious.” -Malcolm Gladwell

So how do you take on a Goliath?

We recently interviewed Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds (BSA). He opened up about his experience and the challenges of taking on his Goliath, and diving head first into a dinosaur of an industry: online banner advertising.

“I was pretty naive going into it. Had I known it was a David & Goliath situation, I probably wouldn’t have done it. But that’s the beauty of being naive and being able to take a fresh perspective on an industry with a ton of baggage. Just being able to go into it with a fresh set of eyes and looking at how you can break down a problem at the most simple level, and how you can help people solve their problem.” -Todd

When he entered the market in 2008, he was up against the then dominantAdBrite. It seemed like they had all the advantages: a huge existing customer base, a big team of sales people, tons of options for advertisers to place ads, tons of features, etc. But AdBrite was clunky, and they were complicated.Todd saw a better way — a need for massive simplification.

And that became the key difference for BSA. They sold ads at fixed 30 day rates. And that was the only option. They focused on making it incredibly simple for publishers to get ads up on their site, and easy for them to get paid.

“I found a better way to get advertiser money and ‘Robin Hood’ it over to the publishers.” -Todd

What it came down to is that he really understood the product that he was trying to build, and he really understood the problem that he was solving. So he was able to articulate that really well to folks who he had identified as having that same problem.

Then, he just looked for them online. And the hard work began. He emailed, he cold called, he built personal relationships anywhere and everywhere he could. He hustled.

Fast forward about 6 years and BSA has a team that spans worldwide, they’ve got an established customer base, brand, infrastructure, etc.

“It’s always going to hard for any company to launch a new thing. That’s an important lesson for folks starting out for the first time, and maybe people launching their first company to understand.

While you may think you’re up against Goliath, because they already have a customer base, and they have tech, and they have a team, and they have money and all those things, it really is much more of a level playing field than you might think.” -Todd

Listen to the full interview with Todd on The Rocketship Podcast or subscribe on iTunes to receive all of our founder interviews.

Joelle Steiniger is Co-Founder of Small HQ, currently building HookFeed, a Stripe analytics app. She’s also writing How to Build a Rocketship and co-hosting the Rocketship Podcast.

Follow her on Twitter at: @JoelleSteiniger

This post originally appeared on Medium.

How to Know Which “Exit Strategy” Investors Want to Hear

From Shockwave Innovation

You’ve just completed a great investor pitch with heads nodding and good interaction. You’re about to ask “Does this opportunity interest you enough to explore an investment?” when instead you get a final question:

“One final question. What is your exit strategy?”.

Oops, the last two times you got this question you were met with a sour look. The first time you wanted to show you aren’t looking for a quick-flip and so you answered something like, “We’re not even thinking about selling the company or doing anything crazy like an IPO”.

The next time you decided to show the investor you want everyone to get a payday and so you answered something like, “We’ve already identified six companies that surely will want to acquire us as soon as we’ve reached $5M in revenue. They are A, B, C, D, E and F”. In this blog post I’ll explain why you got the sour looks and suggest a different response that aligns nicely with both company and investor interests.

4 Reasons You Need a Cofounder For Your Startup

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it will not be possible to clone yourself during your lifetime. Major bummer, right? That means that uttering, “If only there were two of me, I could get this done so much faster!” under your breath is never going to be a viable solution for getting something done, no matter how much you will it to happen. That includes starting a business. I’m sorry.

With that cold hard truth out there in the open, let’s talk about an alternative. If it’s physically impossible to be in two places at the same time, what’s the next best thing? As I pondered this question while trying to decide whether or not to leave my secure, well-paying corporate job to start my own company, I began to consider enlisting the help of a partner in crime.

How I Found (and Pitched) My Co-Founder

There is no shortage of stories on co-founders. For every horror story about a business partnership gone awry, there are glowing commentaries about perfect, made-in-heaven matches that joined forces to conquer the world. Don’t believe me? Do a Google search. There are thousands of thought leaders arguing passionately on both sides of the issue. As with most things in life, the truth can probably be found somewhere in the middle.

For me, the decision to start ‘ZinePak with a co-founder came down to the simple fact that I thought it would be more enjoyable with someone else. I knew that the company— which creates custom publications for celebrities, brands and VIP-style ticketing for special events — would likely start out as a home-based business with freelance partners. I didn’t like the idea of being isolated.

My co-founder Kim Kaupe and I were co-workers at an advertising agency. Although we didn’t know each other all that well, I enjoyed working with her and thought our complementary skills (my background was in entertainment and hers was in magazine publishing) would benefit the business. When I told her about ‘ZinePak, I positioned it as a soft pitch.

“I’m planning on doing this new thing,” I said. “I think it’s going to be a lot more fun than what I’m doing here. You’d be really great at it, too. What do you think?”

Formalizing Our Relationship

A few days later, she said, “About that thing you’re doing. It sounds pretty cool. I’m in.” That night we went to Starbucks after work and sketched out an idea of what the company would look like. How much capital would we need? How would we get customers? How would we get vendors? Did we need employees right away?

We made our best guesses to each question and decided we would figure the rest out along the way. We agreed on an equity split, did a Google search to determine what corporate structure was most appropriate, and set up email addresses at our shiny new domain name. And with that, our business partnership was solidified.

Could Kim and I have spent months formalizing a 60-page partnership agreement and trying to map out every single hypothetical for the next twenty years? Of course. But we focused that energy on building an amazing company instead. We still don’t have a full-executed partnership agreement. We’ll probably get around to it one day, but in the meantime, we both trust each other to do the right thing.

The Benefits of a Two-Founder Team

Although I don’t have children, I imagine that starting a company alone must be something like being a single parent. In the early stages of a business, a startup requires almost around-the-clock attention. I didn’t get seven consecutive hours of sleep in the first 18 months of ‘ZinePak. The sleep I did get was filled with dreams (and sometimes cold-sweat-inducing nightmares!) about the work awaiting me in the morning.

The same way parents divide the responsibilities of raising a child and celebrate milestones together, co-founders can divvy up the workload and share in the accomplishments of their growing company. (We like to joke that ‘ZinePak is out of the toddler stage and onto the pre-school stage. Top of the class, naturally!) The benefits to this approach are many:

You can take a (real) break. Having a co-founder is like a permission slip to be at less than 100 percent on your bad days. It makes things that are nearly impossible for a one-(wo)man-show — like calling in sick or going on a vacation — much more plausible. And it makes the best days even better, because there is someone celebrating every victory with you.
Make better decisions. And there’s no law that says you have to agree with your co-founder 100 percent of the time. In fact, it’s better when you don’t. A certain level of discord means that you’re both championing opposing views. This creates an opportunity to discuss the merits of each viewpoint and ultimately decide which direction is better for the future of the company.
Focus on what you’re good at. When Kim and I started ‘ZinePak almost three years ago, our approach to dividing workload was, “I’ll work on whatever you’re not working on!” While it wasn’t ideal, it gave us both a chance to become intimately familiar with every aspect of our company. As time went on, we learned how to focus our efforts based on our mutual strengths — which, luckily, are complementary in almost every way, so we’re both able to do the day-to-day work we love while continuing to evolve our company. This is an important ingredient to making our relationship — and our company — work.
Double your odds. While having a business partner is, admittedly, not as cool as having a carbon copy of yourself running around, it’s much less creepy — and doubles your odds of being in the right place at any given time. Whether it’s an important event where you need to talk to dozens of people or simultaneous meetings on opposite sides of the globe, having someone you can trust to represent your business with the same level of integrity and passion as you is a huge advantage.

I encourage all would-be founders to look for a partner to take the wild ride of entrepreneurship with. No one but your co-founder — not your spouse, roommate, investors, or employees — will understand the experiences you have or the impact they have on you, both personally and professionally. Just like an awesome roller coaster is more fun if you’ve got a friend sitting next to you, starting a business with a partner can mean twice the excitement, creativity, enjoyment, and reward.

Brittany Hodak is the co-founder of ZinePak, a custom publication company that creates fan packages for entertainers, brands, and athletes. She holds an M.S. in Marketing from CUNY Baruch’s Zicklin School of Business and a B.A in Public Relations from the University of Central Arkansas. In 2010, she was named to Billboard’s 30 Under 30 List. More recently, she and her co-founder Kim Kaupe were named to Advertising Age’s 2013 40 Under 40 List.

Rap Genius: Make Shitty Products First

From First Round Capital

At 12:30 p.m. on August 19, 2009, Tom Lehman entered the first line of code that would eventually become Rap Genius. By 6:22 p.m. the same day, he finished the first NibzNotes28 version of the site. It took less than six hours to build something that now attracts 40 million new users a month, raised $17 million in VC funding, and very recently stirred up and survived an internet-wide controversy (which may only make it more popular).

That first day, breaking down the meaning of “Killa Cam” by Cam’ron, Lehman designed and implemented what are still the site’s most-used features. So of course, we had to have him speak at First Round’s last Design+ Conference, where he shared the three words that made Rap Genius possible, then and now.

“The first version of Rap Genius was really bad — it sucked, and I’m glad it sucked,” he says. “Only in its sucking could it have taught me the secret of how to build things on the internet, and that secret is ‘worse is better.’”

What does this mean in practice? Lehman, like the website he co-founded five years ago, is only too happy to explain.

8 Tips You Should Read Before Raising A Seed Round

Minutes before the first meeting of my startup’s seed round, a wise advisor pulled me aside. “This is going to be wild,” he warned, with a knowing smile. “Brace yourself.”

Several months later, after raising $850,000 for my startup, ReelGenie, the ride has stopped (for now). I hopped off the fundraising roller coaster with memories of unexpected thrills, a few bruises, and many lessons for the future.

Here are eight things that I know now that I wish I’d known then:

Network like there’s no tomorrow. You never know where you’ll meet a future investor. ReelGenie’s investors include professors of mine from years ago, former co-workers, and individuals who I met at an event and loved spending time with. Put yourself out there. Unless you’re already rich and/or famous — and if you’re reading this article, that’s probably not the case —investors won’t just flock to you.
Cast a wide net, smartly. Most people you talk to will say no. So play the numbers game. The more potential investors you speak with, the higher your chances of success. But I say that with two caveats. First, do some homework so you’re targeting people who are likely to love your deal, rather than wasting time with those who won’t. Second, stay organized. Keep track of every communication you make. If you can’t convince an investor that you’re equipped to handle fundraising, good luck convincing them you can run a company.
Seek out points of validation. If I never hear the phrase herd mentality again, I’ll be a very happy man. But the reality is that’s how fundraising works. Investors don’t want to be alone if the ship sinks. Lock down a few smart investors early. Get early adopters and evangelists for your funding, just like you do for your product or service. And find a lead investor. He or she doesn’t have to put in the most money, but a respected investor running the process will give others more confidence in your deal and help speed things up.
Find investors who can do more than just write a check. Chances are you’re relatively inexperienced and going up against competitors with deeper pockets. So how do you tip the scales in your favor? Use the fundraising process to find helpful advisors. The best investors are those who can give you strategic guidance, make introductions, and write a big check (today and in your future rounds). Not all investors are good for your company. This is especially true in the current environment of the Series A crunch. Plan a few steps ahead. Your fundraising goal should be to find long-term partners, not a short-term cash infusion.
Valuation is what the market will bear. Just because your friend raised $5 million at a $15 million pre-money valuation doesn’t mean that you should too. Investors are willing to pay what they think the company’s worth, so don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Securing ample funding for your company should be a higher priority than your dilution. With that said, shop around. Don’t accept the first offer. The earlier you start fundraising and the less desperate you seem, the better your chances of getting multiple bids — and a valuation you’ll be excited about.
Don’t let fundraising take over your business (or your life). As the CEO of a company, your first priority is running the company. It’s not rocket science, but it’s hard to keep that perspective when fundraising season rolls around. The emotional strain is inevitable. One day you’re riding high off a great meeting, the next day you‘re sadly marveling at how many different ways someone can tell you no. It’s important to put your blinders on. Set aside time for fundraising each day. If you do, you will get things done. Finding customers and motivating your employees will come more easily. As your metrics improve, so will your odds of raising money and your valuation.
You can raise money outside of Silicon Valley. Most of our investors are on the opposite side of the country, in Washington, D.C. Listening to entrepreneurs, you’d think raising capital is harder than getting a bill through Congress. It’s not. As Tech Cocktail recently reported, the D.C. angel scene is alive and well. And there’s money to be found in your city, too. You don’t need to move to the Valley. But you do need to be tenacious in networking (see #1) and understand what investors in your area are looking for. Tailor your pitch to your environment. And if that doesn’t work, hop on a train or a bus to meet with investors in other cities. Now more than ever, capital is mobile. You should be too.
Say “Thank you.” A lot. One of my favorite books is Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Twenty-five years (and two degrees) after I graduated kindergarten, it’s amazing how the simple lessons of life haven’t changed. Remember, investors are deciding whether to give you money. A great business plan is worth less if you’re a jerk. So be thoughtful. Say thank you when someone makes an introduction or takes a meeting. Follow up. Be a giver, not a taker (and read Adam Grant’s fascinating new book to learn what that means). Put a personal touch on every call or email. By simply being polite and respectful, you’ll give yourself a leg up in fundraising, if not in all aspects of your business.

David Adelman is the Founder and CEO of ReelGenie, an online platform that revolutionizes the way stories are told and shared. David is also Founder and CEO of Reel Tributes, the premier producer of high-end documentary films. Reel Tributes’ films preserve timeless stories and memories for families and family-owned businesses.

Which Social Media Platforms Are Best for Your Startup?

From Tailwind

In this new age of social media marketing, many make the mistake of posting the same type of content on all of the different forms of social media platforms. In actuality, the different social media platforms have differentspecialties and setbacks that make them unique. While we don’t recommend just using one form of social media, we do recommend knowing each platform and their strengths well so that you can choose the best form for your particular message and/or content. Here, we’ll review many popular social media platforms, along with what is unique about them and what they are good for.

Facebook

Facebook can be an ideal platform for businesses because of its huge user base. While people have taken notice to the fact that many younger people no longer prefer Facebook as their first choice regarding social media platforms, it still holds the vast majority of users with over 1.19 billion, making it a great source to get the word out with an awesome reach.

Facebook is ideal for longer messages- perhaps big news about your company, due to status updates allowing larger amount of characters than any other platform. One thing that Facebook is usually not a good fit for is actually selling items- save this for some of the other more immediate, actionable platforms. Instead, use Facebook as a platform for branding and displaying personality. Use Facebook to let consumers see news about your company, topics that you’re company is interested in, your company culture, etc. This is the platform where followers will come to love your company/brand for who you are, in turn causing loyalty.

Instagram

Instagram is a newer and more contemporary platform that more and more businesses are beginning to use. It’s a fun and extremely visual way to show off your brand, especially if you have eye-catching products to offer. Instagram is a remarkable way to create interest and curiosity about your company and getting people to want to know more.

When posting pictures, make sure to provide a caption with information about what is going on in the picture. If it’s a product, provide a link to where they can find it. However, your Instagram shouldn’t be all products. Show fun things going on at your company, relevant and intriguing images, etc. Instagram is also a great way to show usage situations- show people actually using and experiencing your product; followers will be able to see what the experience looks like, further peaking their interest. The rule of thumb here is to make sure that whatever you post is eye catching and appealing. Don’t post boring or fuzzy photos.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an often overlooked platform by many businesses, but its purpose is to create something invaluable that everyone needs- social networking. In these modern times, LinkedIn is vital to create and maintain business connections in order to take advantage of them when relevant to do so.

If doing any B2C or especially B2B marketing, LinkedIn is a great way to reach out to others and get onto their radar for when they may need your product/service. Because of its emphasis on copy rather than visuals, LinkedIn is more prevalent of those offering a service rather than a product (not to say that those offering products can’t see benefits from the platform as well).

Another helpful aspect of LinkedIn are the social groups/discussions that it provides, based around common interests, industries, communities, etc. This gives you the chance to get involved in discussions where you can both contribute and learn more about anything that you may be having trouble with. LinkedIn is THE platform to establish your authority and show others that you really know what you are talking about and that your company holds value. LinkedIn is an ideal place to post links to your company blog or other such informational links to provide further information on your company and what you do.

Pinterest

Of course, here at Tailwind, we are partial to Pinterest and are very aware of its enormous potential, but we promise to remain unbiased for the purpose of this blog post. Pinterest is renowned for its content sharing format. Using Pinterest, you can post videos, photographs and additional images to various boards based on subject. Whereas LinkedIn is a copy oriented platform, Pinterest is quite the opposite, with an emphasis on visuals. This makes it ideal for businesses with products whose main appeal is their imagery (for instance, clothing).

Pinterest is one of the platforms where sales can be a main goal, due to its aspirational nature. Those visiting Pinterest are typically looking for ways to improve their lives, and they often even conduct specific searches to find particular items that they are searching for. Additionally, people can click your pins, which will lead them back to your website (or wherever you would like to take them), making for a good conversion rate. While sales is a sound goal for Pinterest, it shouldn’t be the only goal kept in mind when pinning content. Pinterest is actually another great platform to show off your company’s brand and personality. Don’t just pin items from your website- pin items that you are interested in and know that your customers would be interested in as well. You can also create boards centered around your company and its culture- maybe even one centered around its employees- without it being all about the product/service that you are offering. After all, customers do love to get to know the company that they are doing business with.

Twitter

Twitter’s appeal comes from the fact that it is quick-paced and in the moment. It has become extremely popular due to this and the interactivity that it provides. Businesses who want to have real-time conversations with consumers will enjoy using Twitter. Using Twitter Search or tools like HootSuite, you can even conduct searches on people tweeting about topics or companies that would be relevant to your company and contribute to discussions going on about them in Twitter. It shows consumers that you’re taking notice of what they’re talking about, you want to communicate with them and you can provide help.

Twitter isn’t just for replying, however. You can makes your own posts requesting feedback and opinions, and like Facebook, you can also post (short) news regarding or relevant to your company, as well as any quick updates that you would like your followers to immediately know.

Vine

Vine is another new platform that many businesses have implemented into their social media plan. Its appeal is the personality and fun-side of your company that it can reveal, along with the fact that its videos are 6-second loops- in today’s society people are impatient and won’t sit through much, but almost everyone has 6 seconds to spare.

Like Instagram, Vine is also great to show (quick) usage situations, so people will see your product/service in action. We think the most important thing that Vine can do is to show consumers that you are a fun, interesting and dynamic brand that is willing to keep up with the times to please their consumers.

Now that you know a little bit more about many social media platforms, next time you post on social media, you can think to yourself, “Which one of these platforms will best help me get across the goal that I am trying to accomplish?”

This post originally appeared on the Tailwind blog.

Making It Add Up: Understanding the Financial Sections of the Business Model Canvas

Any successful founder can tell you the financial section of your business model canvas should not be ignored, even if you tend to look at your finances and find the subject to be tedious or a bit overwhelming. This kind of thinking leads some foundres to simply ignore this aspect of their business and hope it all works out. This is why a business plan is so crucial. It forces business owners to take a close look at their finances and how the rest of their plans regarding their business strategy, products, marketing, and sales will meld together to create the profitable business they’ve been working so hard to build.

Having a plan in place before jumping into business is an essential step to take if you are looking to maintain a viable business. If you are looking to secure a bank loan or want to win over investors, the financial section of your business plan is one of the most essential components, according to Elizabeth Wasserman, contributing writer for Inc. A business financial plan is even important for those businesses that aren’t seeking financial support, as it will become a roadmap in which you can steer your business to financial success.

Cash Flow Is King

Your cash flow projections provide investors with the information they need to determine if your business will be a good credit risk. Information from your balance sheets, sales forecasts, and other assumptions make up your business’s cash flow statement, which has to account for every dollar that comes into and goes out of your business. This shows potential lenders and investors whether or not you will be able to meet your commitments within that agreed upon timeframe, especially the repayment of any loans.

Projecting Business Income

Within your business financial plan you need to include an income statement that will forecast your businesses profits and losses for the next three years. The income statement, in essence, is your business’s bottom line. It includes numbers from your sales forecast, cast flow statement, and projections about your expenses. As a new business, your income statement would need to include your projected sales and your expected expenses. After your expenses have been subtracted from your projected sales, you’ll be left with your net income. It is this number that banks and investors look at to decide if your business will be a good risk.

Making It All Add Up

Your financial plan isn’t complete until you’ve dealt with the assets and liabilities that weren’t included in your income statement. The balance sheet is used to project the net worth of your business at the end of each fiscal year. When completing a balance sheet, it is important that your assets and liabilities are perfectly balanced. If you are seeking financing and your numbers don’t add up, you’ll be asked to explain the inconsistency. The best way to ensure your balance sheet adds up is to focus on listing your assets first, then move on to your liabilities. If they don’t balance perfectly, go back and find out what you missed. Never just plug in a number to make the two sides match. This can make you look sloppy and may end up costing you in the end.

The financial section of your business plan is intended to help you see where your business stands in regards to how much financing you will need. It also helps potential investors in determining whether or not you are a good investment. They will want to know when their investment will pay off and exactly how much of a return they will get, according to Investopedia. To ensure you get the backing you need to get your business up and running, you want to make sure the financial section of your business plan includes the right information and is error free.