Recruiting for Success: Tapping into Your Local University

People sometimes assume that a startup needs to be based in a large city or Silicon Valley to succeed. While both these locations might offer certain advantages to a new business, college towns can offer just as many incentives. The presence of colleges or universities in your locale can reduce your costs and allow you to form lasting and rewarding relationships with those institutions. Perhaps the most rewarding and beneficial aspect of running your startup out of a college town is the chance to hire willing, intelligent, and dedicated students. The opportunities and experiences found in smaller college towns can provide your startup with the resources you need to succeed.

Considering the Cost

Consider how expensive it would be to start and run a business in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York City. The cost of starting a business in a smaller college town can be significantly less than in a metropolitan area. Workspaces can be rented at a lower cost, and starting wages for employees, coupled with the lower cost of living, can greatly benefit your bottom line during your formative years.

Funds saved can be used for more important startup endeavors, such as marketing, attending conferences, or improving products. And while it might seem that there will be fewer opportunities to meet and interact with mentors and advisors, you might be one of a handful of young companies innovating in a specific area. You’ll have ready access to university professors who have worked in the corporate world and can provide invaluable insight into a particular industry.

Creativity and Innovation

Each new school year in a college town is beneficial for startups for many reasons. One of the most basic opportunities in a college town is the influx of new students every fall. Fresh faces and eager learners bring new skillsets and experiences.

Many students seek part-time employment to help support themselves or pay for tuition. Your business then has an affordable and available built-in workforce. Recruiting entrepreneurial-minded students will help you develop a driven staff, and being near a university that offers degree programs in business, advertising, design, and information technology will provide you with the opportunity to recruit some of the top students and young entrepreneurs in the country.

These employees can also help make your startup visible on campus with their ties to other organizations or clubs. They will usually know what’s popular with — and meaningful to — their peers and the school as a whole. With this knowledge, they can help propel your company forward by talking to others about it or promoting your products. Relaying your company’s message to different groups of consumers or potential clients is always a good thing.

Internship Opportunities

Many students will seek internships to enhance their professional and classroom experiences. Several majors may even require internships with local organizations to graduate. This is a great way for your startup to gain the insight and assistance of a dedicated employee without incurring any cost.

You also have your next potential full-time employee in an intern who already knows your company and its operating procedures. Finding interns can require a more focused effort than simply hiring part-time employees, but the long-term payoff can be well worth it. Through these opportunities, your company might be able to become an educational partner with a university’s internship program.

Practical Partnerships

The invaluable educational partnership opportunities form another great aspect of running your startup in a college town. These partnerships are a way to gain new resources and provide an educational opportunity in return. Your business can gain access to costly university equipment or programs that you wouldn’t have otherwise. This gives you the chance to foster a learning environment for students working with your company as well.

A great example in my own college town is Newsy. Its founder, Jim Spencer, was the vice president of content and answers at Ask Jeeves. When he decided to make the leap into the entrepreneurial world, he relocated to Columbia, Mo. By collaborating and partnering with the University of Missouri’s Journalism School, he was able to recruit top talent for his video-based news startup. In exchange, Newsy staff teaches courses, furthering the students’ education in evolving media, and it provides young journalists with access to a digital news facility. Various different economic development and investor organizations worked together in order to help Newsy make Columbia its home.

Many colleges or departments also require students to have a capstone experience during their senior year. Offering your company as a case study or viable research option can again provide students with an enriching educational experience. Specific courses might even ask you to present your journey and experience as an entrepreneur to students. This opportunity can give you a chance to reflect on the skills and determination that led to your success, providing you a platform to market your business.

University towns commonly have an ample supply of resources, talent, and enthusiasm for innovation and success. By partnering with a local university, you can take advantage of internship and part-time student employment possibilities, university equipment and forums, and a consistent foundation for networking and marketing. While all of these factors benefit your business goals, the true reward is guiding and educating future entrepreneurs and leaders.

Mike Brooks is President of REDI (Regional Economic Development, Inc.) in Columbia, Mo. REDI promotes positive economic expansion and provides increased economic opportunities in the Columbia area, assisting entrepreneurs, developing businesses, and companies relocating. As president, Mike led REDI in creating a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurship and business growth in Columbia. Mike welcomes anyone to reach out to him on LinkedIn or REDI at columbiaredi.com.

7 Opportunities to Save on Startup Expenses

Older, more established companies have the flexibility of deciding how to allocate their budgets and spend their available funds on the resources that make their

Startup Tips,Guest Post,YEC businesses more comfortable and easier to run. But as a young startup, you have no such luxury! Because it’s important to make every dollar count while your business

is still growing, you’ll want to take a look at the following seven opportunities to save money on common business expenses:

Expense #1 – Office Space

First of all, with many of today’s alternative office space options, it’s entirely unnecessary to run out and sign a

But if you absolutely must have a traditional office for your startup, contact property management companies in your area and ask to see non-traditional spaces or spaces that the agencies have had trouble renting out. With a little negotiation, you may be able to save big on spaces that would otherwise remain empty.commercial lease to house your startup. Instead, look into incubator spaces, co-working offices and executive office rentals – all of which can provide you with flexible office space options at a much lower cost.

Expense #2 – Office Furniture

One word: Ikea.

Although, more seriously, if the world’s leading producer of cheap furniture doesn’t appeal to you, consider seeking out used or consignment furniture stores in your area, hitting up garage sales for discount items or even pulling the extra furniture out of your parents’ basement. When your startup is first growing, all you need is some place to sit and work – it doesn’t have to be pretty!

Expense #3 – Office Supplies

When it comes to purchasing the necessary office supplies for your growing startup, the lesson here is that the best offense is a good defense. Instead of looking for ways to save money on the supplies you think you need, focus instead on eliminating the need for physical supplies. As an example, if you pursue a “paper free” office, you remove the need for paper clips, staplers, staples, hanging files and a host of other associated products.

If you absolutely must purchase some supplies, try cashing in some credit card reward points to fund these expenditures. It’s an easy, creative way to free up the extra funds needed to purchase your must-have office supplies.

Expense #4 – Shipping Expenses

While there’s no way to eliminate postage fees (if your startup ships out a physical product), you can cut back on the cost of packaging products by reusing boxes, picking up free shipping containers from USPS or even collecting serviceable packing materials from other businesses in your area (grocery stores, in particular, get rid of sturdy boxes every day).

And, when it comes to the actual postage fees you pay to ship your products, be sure to shop around to get the best rates. Yes, you’ll wind up paying something, but you might be surprised by the variability in rates that exists between today’s major shipping carriers.

Expense #5 – Employee Costs

The hiring and training of employees typically represents a startup’s largest expense. As such, take the following steps to minimize unnecessary expenditures in this area:

Consider bringing on new employees as independent contractors. This will minimize your tax burden and give you more flexibility regarding the costs associated with terminating employees who don’t work out.
Invest in improving your interview process. Training a new employee, only to have him or her leave down the road due to a bad fit, represents a tremendous cost to startups in terms of lost productivity. You can reduce this fiscal waste by enhancing your hiring process so that you’re more likely to wind up with suitable candidates.
Offer benefit reimbursements – not benefit plans. Although providing employment benefits will help you to attract better employment candidates, it isn’t cheap to set up group health plans or other benefits packages. As a cost-saving alternative, consider offering employees a set monthly reimbursement for benefits that they purchase on their own.

Expense #6 – Advertising

Established companies can run pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, run TV spots during popular programs and send out highly-effective direct mail pieces. You probably can’t.

Minimize your advertising expenses by taking advantage of “free” (as in, free outside of your time investment) techniques like SEO, content marketing or social media marketing. It’s possible to generate a significant amount of traction in this way, which can drive the sales volume needed to make traditional paid advertising methods a possibility in your business’s future.

Expense #7 – Professional Fees

One last expense that you’ll likely encounter as a startup is professional fees – that is, the amounts that you pay to accountants, lawyers and others for their services.

While you shouldn’t cut them out of your budget entirely, look for opportunities to barter services or products in order to get a discount on your bill. No matter what professional skills you have to offer, you should be able to find the common ground needed to craft an arrangement that benefits both parties, while saving you some serious cash.

Sujan Patel is the founder and CEO of Single Grain, one of the top Digital Marketing agencies in San Francisco, CA. With more than 10 years of Internet marketing experience, Sujan leads the digital marketing strategy for companies like Sales Force, Yahoo, Intuit and many other Fortune 500 caliber companies.

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

The Dropbox Story: From 0 to 100 Million Users: How a Simple Video Can Change Your Business

Startups: Is Your Public Relations Strategy Outdated?

There’s one thing that’s consistent in this world: change. This is no less true in business; industries have to evolve to keep up with developing technology and new trends. On top of that, they have to promote their ability to keep up altogether.

In the past, public relations required a client to pay a large retainer in order to be mentioned in a sidebar or get quick features published, promoting a service or product. Today, the future of PR is online, and it includes a combination of content marketing, SEO and thought leadership. Times are changing, and there are some things you should take into consideration when you’re making decisions about your startup’s PR.

People Want to See Results

In the past, PR companies weren’t held to meeting specific client expectations. They could always hide behind saying, “How do you measure credibility and authority?” Clients consistently felt screwed over by PR companies because they were paying a sizable retainer without any way to gauge the results. With online tools, you can now track exactly where leads and opportunities are coming from. The analytic tools that are available online — like Google Analytics, DoubleClick Ad Planner, WhoReTweetedMe, and Klout – can help you get a better idea of the results of placements.

To break down sales barriers and comfort people who have previously been shafted by PR companies, pay-for-performance models should be adopted. When I switched Digital Talent Agents to this model, our client base doubled and customer satisfaction increased. Retainers have left a bad taste in many people’s mouths and will continue to be used less. Don’t ride this dinosaur any longer than you have to.

Paper Is a Thing of the Past

Instead of grabbing your morning paper off the front porch, you likely get your preferred content on your tablet or phone these days. The future is online, so print editions are becoming archaic and far less beneficial. The focus won’t be on just the initial placement of an article, but on the potential effect of it going viral. Social media can accelerate media exposure just by having the right influencer sharing it with his networks. If you don’t get the social media boost you’re looking for, there are content aggregators, like Zite, that give your content another vehicle to reach the right influencers.

Google is also rewarding site owners for the higher amounts of quality content they have available. The easier it is to find your name and your article, the more exposure you will get; that allows for a tail benefit that can last much longer than a one-day feature in a newsletter. Magazines and newspapers are thrown away after one read and don’t give you the opportunity to amplify your media exposure, but an online post can be shared over and over again.

The Best Promotion Is Not Being Promotional

Personal and company branding will be extremely important in any PR campaign. The more you concentrate on building your brand, the more press opportunities will naturally come to you. People can see through a promotional piece pretty easily, so direct your efforts toward educating people as a thought leader. It’s the best way to promote yourself without seeming like you’re being promotional. If you just concentrate on a promotional piece to bring in leads, you’ll have a short-term gain. However, if you change strategy and start developing your own content as a thought leader, you have a short-term gain and you help build your long-term brand, which ultimately is more important. It’s what everybody should be working toward. Industries and approaches change, but your reputation can last if you play your cards right.

“Mad Men”-era public relations are a dying breed. Old-school PR companies companies may still insist upon paper press releases, a trusting attitude toward the “results” they’re producing, and promotional features that focus more on what your clients can do for you than what you can do for your clients.

But if you want to keep up with changing times, ditch these efforts, and focus on PR that gives you a high return on investment every single time. Insist upon results, and you won’t feel screwed by PR companies – you’ll feel empowered by them.

John Hall is the CEO of Digital Talent Agents, a company that helps experts build their personal and company brand through producing high quality content for reputable publications.

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.

Now check out 5 Rules for naming your startup.

Sequoia’s Aaref Hilaly On Women & Venture Capital: 12% Of Computer Science Grads Are Women

On Tuesday at TechCrunch Disrupt, co-editor Alexia Tsotsis moderated a VC panel with Mike Abbott (Kleiner), Aaref Hilaly (Sequoia), Naval Ravikant (AngelList) and David Tisch (Former Techstars now Box Group). The panelists discussed everything from what they are looking for in startups, to who should pitch them. At the end of the panel they discussed the big discrepancy in women vs men in the venture backed world.

On Tuesday we showed off this clip of David Tisch, talking about one of his biggest pet peeves about VC’s and women entrepreneurs. He’s witnessed (and so have many of our followers), VC’s tell women entrepreneurs that they need to bounce the idea off their wives. Tisch, called it like he saw it saying this tactic was bullshit. You can see that video here.

Abbott basically said they’re looking for the best ideas from the best people and those people could be men, women, black, brown, white, green or polka dotted, it doesn’t matter. Which is a really good position to take.

What Hilaly pointed out was the fact that we need more women engineers and more women entrepreneurs. At one point he challenged everyone in the audience to learn how to code.

Hilaly cited a statistic that only 12% of computer science graduates are women and that number needs to be more like 50%. There are great programs out there empowering women, at the youngest ages, to learn how to code. Code Academy and Girls who code clubs are great. Hilaly challenged everyone in the audience to help launch a Girls Who Code club at their local high school. Obviously, computer science needs to be embedded in anyone at an early age.

“If you have a daughter ,niece or friend, encourage them” Hilaly told the audience that this gap in computer science fields is a problem that everyone can help with.

Check out the video clip below.

Memphis native Kim Bryant was recently named to Business Insider’s most influential African Americans in Technology list for founding Black Girls Code.

10 Ways Subscription Sales Can Increase Your Startups’ Sales

TRY TO BUNDLE AND FINANCE

“Consider bundling your products into groups of commonly utilized items, and offering your customers the chance to pay for a “package” on a monthly basis rather than all at once. For example, If your average client buys 10 widgets a year for a total of $110, offer a package of 10 widgets for only $9 per month. Basically, you’re offering in-house financing. People love that sort of thing.”

– Robert Sofia | Co-Founder & COO, Platinum Advisor Strategies

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH CLUB

“Subscription plans that automate sales are a great way to get your product out to raving fans regularly. Whether it’s a cupcake, T-shirt or fabric of the month, giving regular access to your new and best sellers can build anticipation and brand loyalty.”

– Kelly Azevedo | Founder, She’s Got Systems

INCENTIVIZE GIFTING TO OTHERS

“We have a “Mod of the Month Club” where customers choose any one of our watches for a heavily discounted price (30-45 percent off retail). We always make sure to thank these members by offering them first-looks at our new merchandise. The best perk: we offer an extra strap ($15-$20 value) in the package when customers tell us they are “gifting” the watch, gaining us new customers monthly!”

– Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches

USE MEMBERSHIPS TO CURATE

“Subscriptions and memberships are a great way to offer customers the best of the best — wines handpicked by the best sommelier or this season’s must-have shoes chosen by a Hollywood stylist. Combine subscriptions with curators to offer customers the best of your selection.”

– Laura Roeder | Founder, LKR Social Media

HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS USE YOUR PRODUCTS

“Customers come back to companies whose products and services they use. A membership program that helps a client actually learn how to effectively use what they’ve bought makes it more likely that they’ll come back to you. That can include offering case studies, in-depth training and support far beyond the typical user’s manual.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

PROMOTE ACTION AMONG YOUR MEMBERS

“By positioning your membership or subscription as the best way to take action, you’ll inspire people to join. Very few things motivate people as much as spending money. If they are spending $50/month on your service, most people will actually do something with it, thus see results. These positive results become the best testimonials you’ll ever receive.”

– Sean Ogle | Founder, Location 180, LLC

START TO SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE

“Follow Amazon’s lead and implement a ‘Subscribe and Save’ program, where you give customers a discount for setting up a subscription. It’s an added convenience for the customer and it’s a nice revenue stream for the business.”

– Josh Weiss | Founder and President, Bluegala

CREATE COMMUNITY MASTERMINDS

“If you already have customers that are willing to pay for your products, there is an opportunity in bringing all of your customers together to share their ideas and network. By creating some sort of forum or mastermind platform, all of your customers will be able to enjoy an uncontested level of product support, fresh ideas, and new opportunities through your community.”

– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon

PICK YOUR PROBLEMS WISELY

“Examples of subscription services with high lifetime customer values include hosting, email marketing, and other self-service apps. The key to them is that they solve an ongoing problem. In other words, you don’t just need hosting for your website next week, you need it all the time! So, pair your product with a subscription that makes sense. For instance, web design and web maintenance packages.”

– Matthew Ackerson | Founder, Saber Blast

EVERY COMPANY IS A MEMBERSHIP!

“The key to long-term sales growth is developing a loyal customer base that you can tap into in order to sell new products and add-ons. And the best way to build customer loyalty is with a rewards program. Whether with points used to redeem reward items or randomly distributed benefits, any merchant can convert its customer list into a membership.”

– Michael Tolkin | CEO, Merchant Exchange

You can find more startup tips here at nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else.

How to Find the Right Venture Capitalist for Your Startup!

This is one match that’s certainly not made in heaven — you’ve got to toil and woo several partners to finally arrive at one that best understands you and your business, and is ready to commit to you in the long term.

I’m talking, of course, about your relationship with a venture capitalist. You’ve probably heard grieving entrepreneurs who, after signing the dotted line, are quite unhappy throughout the relationship with their investors.

But there’s nothing wrong with the venture capitalist (VC) per se. You just made the wrong decision. As an entrepreneur, you’ve got to choose the right VC to work with, because the right marriage can help define how successful your business will be and how happy you will be running it.

Here are 4 key points to consider for a happy and long-lasting marriage with a VC:

1. Expertise: Choosing a VC is just like a marriage — that is, it’s a long-term commitment. You need to court first to find out whether the VC is a right fit for you. Take the time out to research whether the VC has funded companies in the domain they are operating. Research to find out what companies they have invested in and what their level of involvement has been in each of those. Do they have potential conflicts (e.g., is the expertise a by-product of an investment in a potential competitor)?

2. Adding Value: Look for investors who can add value to your business and not just give you funds. The best marriages between entrepreneurs and VCs happen when the latter can contribute to the growth of the former and when it isn’t purely transactional. Entrepreneurs need to ask, when things get tough in my venture, will this VC be a part of the solution?

3. Term Sheets: This is where you really find out what the intentions are of the person putting in the money. Look out for exit clauses; if not clearly defined, ask for them to be. Although they are not cast in stone (I know of one venture where the exit was clearly defined, but deferred as the company entered a new vertical and that added to their top line immensely, adding to a bigger valuation), it helps to know what the person with the money is really looking for.

Term sheets are very carefully crafted to fool even the best of people into believing that they’ve struck a great deal, but in reality, for the entrepreneur, that’s not always the case. So if you’re at this stage, it wouldn’t hurt to have your term sheets validated by experienced entrepreneurs who’ve gone down this road and/or a lawyer who has the relevant experience.

4. Set Expectations: Many deals are left to ambiguity, either because of lack of clarity at the stage of getting into a deal or because of assumptions made by either party. It is very important to set expectations from both ends and be clear about it. Entrepreneurs need to build trust with their VCs and vice versa. If you don’t have trust at the beginning of the relationship, it is bound to cause heartaches at the later stage.

Whatever you do, do not take this relationship for granted. You are in it for the long haul, and giving up because of a failed marriage is the last thing that you want to do with your venture. So take caution before you enter into a contract.

That said, all the best with your pitch! If it has worked out well for you, I’d like to hear your experiences and what makes your marriage successful.

This post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Rahul Varshneya is a startup coach and the co-founder of Arkenea, an enterprise mobility and cloud solutions provider. He writes on starting up and mobile strategy at http://rahulvarshneya.com/blog.

In the Mouth of a Shark: Learn From ‘Shark Tank’

Have you seen “Shark Tank” yet? For entrepreneurs, it’s one of the best reality TV shows. Cable and satellite packages start at around $30 per month, according to www.directtvdeal.com. “Shark Tank” has five investors that are selected to sit on a stage that listen to entrepreneurs pitch their products and business ideas. After their pitch, the sharks decide whether or not they will be given money to fund their business ideas.

In the process, the entrepreneurs are asked a barrage of questions, sometimes humiliated, often laughed at, occasionally insulted and generally traumatized. Some of the sharks include Mark Cuban, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O’Leary, who created and sold “The Learning Company” to Mattel for $3.2 billion, FUBU clothing founder Daymond John and comedian Jeff Foxworthy. Despite the hostile atmosphere created by the sharks, participants could walk away from the experience with a big, fat check if one or more of the Sharks believe their business idea is a good one. Lessons can be learned from “Shark Tank” for entrepreneurs:

Find Your Niche

When an entrepreneur makes their pitch, reactions from the sharks can be pretty telling. If it’s an Internet-related idea and Mark Cuban doesn’t like it, no deal. If a clothing idea is rejected by Mr. FUBU, chances are the designer will be sent back to the drawing board. If an idea geared toward an infomercial is rejected by the infomercial expert, it’s back to square one. You can’t be all things to all people, but you should know your target audience and connect with them.

Use Your Passion

Coming from a place of truly enjoying what you do is key, and the sharks pick up on it. One investor came in with just an idea — a medicine dropper in the shape of an elephant for kids — and won investment dollars. AVA the Elephant is now sold in 10,000 stores in 10 countries. Founder Tiffany Krumins used her passion for helping kids to create a successful business.

Fill a Need

Find a need and create a great product to fill that need. ReaderRest Magnetic Glasses Holders from season three is one of the show’s most successful products. It calls itself a “simple solution for eyewear management problems” and allows the user to keep their glasses safely and securely within reach using magnets that automatically attach and self-center. Overall, sales went quickly from $65,000 to $5.5 million after the show.

Do it Better

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be successful; you just have to make a better wheel. BBQ sauce is nothing new, but sales of season one’s Pork Barrel BBQ sauces and rubs went from $5,000 to $3.5 million after their investment. Jamba Juice bought season three’s Talbott Teas in 2012. Both products took an ordinary item to the next level, doing it better than their competitors.

Sell the Dream, not Numbers

Some entrepreneurs start working their pitch with statements like, “I sold X amount of my product last year.” These people tend to get the worst deals from the sharks, or none at all. Sometimes the sharks don’t seem to care about numbers like $1 million in past sales, i.e. games2u.com, an excellent company that got no deal. Past numbers do not sell — the dream does.

10 Tools That Simplify Startup Collaboration

Producteev for Productive Collaboration

“I highly recommend cross-platform tool Producteev for collaboration. It’s easy to set up, easy to use, and fantastic for team members who are working on many projects at the same time with others. There is space to comment on projects to maximize productive collaboration, and it’s all about getting tasks done.”

– Doreen Bloch | CEO / Founder, Poshly Inc.

Try the New Basecamp

“The revamped Basecamp from 37signals has taken collaboration to a new level. It’s completely redesigned and rethought, and I can see the impact on our team already. It’s no Google Wave, but I’ll recommend it to anyone.”

– John Meyer | Founder/CEO, Lemon.ly

Facebook Member Pages Work

“Closed Facebook groups are nothing new, but I love how many mastermind communities are shifting into the platform to meet users where they already spend hours each day. In one such group, requests are posted around the clock, and it’s not unusual to see colleagues giving feedback and collaborating across time zones and over weeks and months.”

– Kelly Azevedo | Founder, She’s Got Systems

Trust the Team With Teambox

“We switched over to Teambox as our main project management system a few months ago. I have been pleasantly surprised by the unique functionalities it offers teams. Every week, I post conversations in a “New Idea” project that is then discussed in real time. The platform really allows everyone to piggyback on other ideas in order to come with something truly collaborative.”

– Logan Lenz | Founder / President, Endagon

Stick With What Works, Google Docs

“It’s not new but it’s solid. We use Google Docs for everything. In my opinion, it’s the simplest way to have multiple people work on one document and keep things organized.”

– John Hall | CEO, Digital Talent Agents

Join.me All the Way!

“Check out Join.me. It’s a super simple screen-sharing tool that I’ve been using recently, ever since I realized that Skype screen-sharing is terrible, especially when you’re working with someone on the other side of the country. It takes three minutes to install, and you’ve able to give or take away control from your collaborator. It’s also great for sales presentations.”

– Matthew Ackerson | Founder, Saber Blast

Go Zoho for Online Editing

“Zoho allows you to collaborate with its online Wiki, edit Word and Excel documents, and have live discussions. Brainstorming through email or any static site is incredibly difficult, as you lose the dynamic interaction of all participants. Sometimes, the energy created from a response is as important as the content of the comment. Zoho allows you to collaborate in real time.”

– Aaron Schwartz | Founder and CEO, Modify Watches

Asana Is Online Zen

“I’ve been using Asana a lot recently for collaboration and deadlines, and it’s got a simplicity and ease of use that’s hard to find elsewhere. It’s also free if you’ve got a small team, which helps keep your overhead low.”

– Colin Wright | CEO, Asymmetrical, LLC

Hammer Away on Yammer

“Yammer is much more than a company social network. Our Yammer feed has a constant stream of new ideas, articles and more. It’s a safe zone where we encourage employees to think differently without worrying about the minutiae. Yammer has facilitated cross-departmental collaboration and made our company more innovative.”

– Bhavin Parikh | CEO, Magoosh Test Prep

Work and Play With Skype

“Although it’s been around for a while, I still use Skype on a daily basis for collaboration. It’s great for brainstorming with my team, checking in with clients, and even a little “watercooler” chat — which can be challenging to spark with a completely virtual company.”

– Heather Huhman | Founder & President, Come Recommended

Now read this guest post from Jim Sposto, founder of Xtrant, the collaborative tool we use.

10 Must-Read Startup Tips for Young Brands

Everyone wants a “startup” these days. Everyone wants to be a “founder” with little more than a concept, an LLC filing, some Web real estate, and a dream. But how do you really get it done? In early stage brand building, traction is king.

You’ve likely seen the HBO Series “How To Make It in America.” It chronicles the story of two co-founders and their group of friends. There is luck, drama, rejection, implied success, real success, good marketing, poor marketing, and more luck. As difficult as they make it look in that wonderful series, they actually make it look easy. In reality, think less partying, more planning, and little dependence on gimmicks and luck. This being said, with the right approach it can be done. There is still room for innovation in textile manufacturing and fashion branding.

Starting a clothing brand can be one of the most worthwhile pursuits in all of startups. There are elements of: manufacturing, design, communication, marketing, probability and statistics, industrial engineering, timing, and the almighty of them all — foresight. There are so many variables that go into a success or failure. Right now (and I repeat, right now), we are somewhat succeeding. That being said, I thought I’d share some helpful hints.

Proof of Concept

Before a single shirt was manufactured, we had our initial concept feedback. “So, let me get this this straight,” the industry executive said. “You are going to manufacture in the States? You are going to use American-sourced fabrics? And you think you’re going to succeed in the textile industry?” Well, yes.

From July 2012 and through the fall, we focused on sales, feedback, construction revision, and regional media. Between Kevin and I, we bore the brunt of these tasks. Validation via earned media was the most difficult day-to-day task.

Through this initial stage, we were purely focused on “proof of concept” in our first test market — Dallas, Texas. The media response was great! And so, we continued. Active, driven, and confident men do want something more from their dress shirts.

Spring for Traction

After starting up in April of 2012 and launching the website in July 2012 (with only one product), we are now finally leaning into the Spring of Traction. Through the summer, fall, and winter of 2012, we were silently working on perfecting our first pieces, ginning up “first adopter” sales, building relationships, establishing brick and mortar presences, improving our supply chain, not paying ourselves, and paying our taxes. With that behind us, the fun begins. This spring is focused on the push for traction.

After the foundation that we’ve set over the past year, we can begin focusing on the brand’s opportunity and/or visibility to grow within several of our proven early-adopter demographics: professional athletics, military, collegiate, and metropolitan business.

The “How To” of This Blog

What does all of this mean to a young brand? It is a meticulous process that involves quite a bit of sacrifice, help, influence, and yes, just a little bit of luck. Here are some great tips that few in the industry will share:

Start with a concept that no one else is willing to attempt. Remember, it’s even better when people tell you, “Based on the industry precedent, this likely won’t work.”
The design and manufacturing process is expensive. Allot $20k-$50k for your first product run. You will need to achieve a volume of units manufactured to achieve reasonable margins.
Spend money on your branding and your collateral. I can’t say this enough.
Understand your supply chain and have a manufacturing backup plan when those sources, printers, and cut and sew shops are over capacity.
Spend money on your brand’s website and branding videos.
If you didn’t attend a top fashion design program, find a top designer who did and hire that person. Find a way to get that person on your team.
If there are no other options at the start, plan on pouring all of your personal income into the project for the first year or two.
Keep these elements at the forefront: be first to market, drive sales, gain traction.
Customers aren’t free. Find a natural pipeline that will serve as high-conversion customer acquisition.
Ask for help and be willing to pay for it.

The market is always looking for the next great idea; be willing to sacrifice to see it through. Design really well, depict great logo and lifestyle imagery, prove your concept in a transparent way, and then focus on gaining traction as you go. When you need the push, find a well-connected and cost-effective way to move your brand forward.

This post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Web Smith is a Sr. Analyst, Co-Founder, and Sports / Entertainment / Political Marketing Consultant and a student of strategy. Follow him at: http://www.twitter.com/web.

StartupTechGuy’s Air Travel Tips!

Our good friends at American Airlines have teamed up with Inc to give out some of the best travel tips for road warriors. What makes this smorgasbord of travel tips better than other “travel” sites is that American along with Inc have found people who are die hard road warriors, people who travel all the time. You can check that post out here.

I often get asked about my travel tips. Or if I host an interview in a hotel room on the road people ask me “how do you do it”. One of the cores of nibletz.com is our “sneaker strapped startup road trip” it’s being in the trenches with startups, like ourselves, chronicling them and telling their stories. Sure we could go out on the internet and sit in a spare bedroom and type all day but being on the road the better part of the last eighteen months has helped us connect in ways beyond our wildest dreams.

Having said that, I travel about 200-250 days a year. I’ve actually been traveling like this over the last 5 years, first with our previous media startup and now with nibletz. So here are some of the things that I do that may help.

When traveling by Air (we actually do a lot of travel by bus like Megabus and Boltbus, but we still travel by air as much as we can)

– Sign up for Startup America (it’s free) and then sign up for Business ExtrAA at American Airlines. American is one of the key sponsors and member benefits at Startup America. Check out the other benefits when you’re on their page, they will save the bootstrapping entrepreneur a lot of money that you can spend on more important things like development and iteration.

– Use American Airlines, use your Business ExtrAA account and book directly through aa.com one of the biggest quasi secret travel tips is that the airlines are now posting their best available online rates on their own websites. If you see a better price from a reputable website, a la Expedia, Hipmunk or Cheapoair then call American and tell them they can usually get you that same rate.

– Download the American Airlines app. Their App in it’s latest form, is a single mobile dashboard for your air travel including the ability to display your boarding pass on your phone.

Packing.

– No matter what you do and how long you’re going to be there pack a carry-on approved suitcase. Whenever you can use a soft suitcase not a hard shell suitcase. The idea here is to actually be able to carry the suitcase on the plane and not have to “gate check” it, especially if you have a tight connection. If you’re not connecting and you’re flying direct, there’s no real harm in gate checking.

– Make sure you have nothing in your carry on, purse, backpack or laptop bag that is not TSA approved. Unfortunately, even having that swiss army knife will get you delayed going through security.

– You have NO time for checked luggage. Carry on luggage doesn’t get lost, even when it’s gate checked. Gate checked luggage goes directly on and off the plane and skips the baggage handling process. (see above).

Check out these tips from the Inc Community of road warriors and American Airlines.

What to Pack.

– It all depends on where you’re going, what you’re traveling for and how long you are going to be there. Don’t overpack get everything in that carry on suitcase.

– I always pack a power strip and one of those extension cords with three outlets on it. Hotels are notorious for having just one outlet in a decent spot. When you can, put the power strip in your backpack or laptop bag, or at least the extension cord.

– Always pack an umbrella and a $2 poncho, just keep that stuff in your bag.

– Guys, a sport coat goes with everything these days and in the spring like this it can take the place of a bulkier jacket

– Go buy a Mophie juice pack or other battery charging device. I personally carry multiple things for battery charging.

At the airport
– wear slip on shoes if y ou can
– empty your pockets before you get to security except for your wallet and your phone (for your boarding pass)
– As you approach the security buckets start getting your stuff in place. You can always spot a rookie traveler based on how long getting ready for security goes.
– If the TSA agents have serious faces on, don’t crack jokes, but some are actually pleasant, I’ve done the Macarena a few times in the full body scan machine.
– Breathe, cooperate, repeat, remember everybody’s trip in their eyes is just as important as your trip. If you’re a heart surgeon with an open patient on the table then you really shouldnt even have time to read this blog post.
– Find your gate via the app but confirm your gate by the overhead screen
– Find the gate before grabbing a snack if you’re so inclined, and hungry.
– Sit as closely to the gate desk as you can and walk as briskly as you can when it’s your turn to board, the quicker you can get on the plane the better chance you have at getting that valuable overhead bin real estate.

On The plane
– Find your overhead bin and load it quickly
– get in your seat, put your iPad in the seat back pocket in front of you
– fasten your seatbelt
– You can use your phone until the plane leaves the gate
– Enjoy your flight
– If you didn’t check a bag you can turn your phone on when they touch the ground (and the crew says you can)
– Find your transportation app whether it be the rental car app, a taxi app or an uber app. Most rental car apps allow you to signal the rental car desk that you have arrived.

On Site tips
A lot of this comes from being a journalist but on site at startup conferences and events I pack as light as I can and recommend you do the same. When you can, leave the laptop in the hotel room, it’s a nice little way to have your main tool sitting ready to use after a long day. I’ve been amazed out how productive an iPad can be. To better understand it, 90% of the stories we posted from OneSpark and SXSW were totally produced and uploaded via iPad.

If your wireless plan dictates it, pick up a mifi device. We use Verizon and my mifi is on our shared plan. At big events and conferences, even when you can get onto an events wifi there are so many people on it that the connection is slow.

Try not to pick up too much swag. If you go to CES or SXSW you’ll have the opportunity to pick up hundreds of t-shirts, refrain if you can, t-shirts and other swag take up a lot of valuable space in your suitcase. Politely tell the swag peddler you don’t have room for it in your luggage.

My day back pack, when space permits, is a PowerBag sling bag, this bag has a 9,000 mah battery built in for charging my iPad and iPhone. On long events, battery drain is my single most frustration.

Perhaps this helped!

Kayak’s Programmers Feel Customer Pain, A Great Lesson In Customer Service

Kayak, the ultimate travel aggregator, was at one time a startup. Of course it was founded by Terry Jones the founder of Travelocity and the idea was the brain trust of Jones, and the founders of Orbitz and Expedia. Jones tells a great story about the formation of the company to Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson in this interview.

One of the coolest things revealed in the interview though, was Kayak’s customer service model. Now if you’re a frequent traveler, like myself, you’ve inevitably been on the phone with the customer service department of one of the big three (Travelocity, Orbitz or Expedia). Many of you may not realize, but Hotwire and Hotels.com are both brands of Expedia.

Because of my customer loyalty with Hotels.com (over 500 rooms booked since 2008) I get to talk to their top tier customer service, but even then that can be a bit painful.

Kayak has taken an entirely different approach to customer service. Jones reveals in the video interview that they decided not to have a call center and that most of the customer service would be handled via email. In that regard though, Kayak doesn’t even have a department to receive those emails. According to Jones they go directly to the programmers and engineers which make up 80% of their 200 person staff.

“It keeps staffing low” Jones told Carlson. He also mentioned that it makes the engineering team directly accountable to the end user and gets things done faster. Evidently engineers don’t like to be pestered more than once.

This actually speaks to the big email debate that’s been going on, on the pages of big tech this past weekend. If everyone approached email with the same veracity as engineers the results for any company, be it a big huge enterprise or a startup could prove very beneficial.

I’ve come to find over the past two months or so that even a quick “hey I got this message and I’m working on it” goes a long way with a customer, vendor, or reader.

Like many of my big tech colleagues, I receive hundreds of PR emails a day pitching new startups. Even sending them an email back that’s short, sweet and to the point, seems to make them happy.

Dear PR Person,

I’m sorry but the story you’ve pitched doesn’t fit into our current editorial strategy. Feel free to ping me back if there is an angle I’m not seeing and definitely keep me in mind for your other clients.

With that brief email I got a great story from a guest columnist and a different PR person sent another startup that was more in line with our strategy.

You can see Carlson’s full interview with Jones here at Business Insider.

Now read:

Vindicated: Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson deleted Mailbox too.

Traction Trumps Team When Going For The Million Dollar Round?

Raising Funds, Venture Hacks, AngelList,startup tips

(Photo: César Salazar of 500Startups)

Teams are great. A lot of people look at founders and teams, but of course the product has to be great too. That is unless you’re a founder with a track record for success, but all of that will be covered later.

Greg Kumparak is evidently back at TechCrunch. Kumparak was one of my favorite TechCrunch writers while I was “thedroidguy” we’d bump into each other all the time while I was on the mobile beat, Berlin, Barcelona and of course here at home. He left last year after the Arrington fiasco and apparently he’s back, writing about startups.

So let’s dive into the meat and potatoes of this post here, because that’s why you clicked on the link. We try and share whatever startup tips we can and one of the biggest things people want to know about is raising money. Specifically, startups in their earliest stages want to know how to raise millions of dollars so they can just “work” and not have to worry about where their next meal is coming from or how the rent will get paid.

Somewhere along the way though, $100,000 or even $500,000 was not enough. Everyone seems to be looking for that million dollar Series A round, or even more presumptuously they are looking for a million dollar seed round, or angel round. Regardless of the round, Ash Fontana, a venture hacker at AngelList, came up with the bullet points above when talking about raising a good million dollar round.

Like me, one of the first things Kumparak noticed in the slide is that product and team are crossed out. Traction is clearly circled. So now traction is the most important?

Perhaps this is right, but of course from the perspective of an AngelList venture hacker it’s absolutely right. AngelList thrives off traction. We actually learned that 500 Startups, startups, actually plan one startup a week that they will all follow on AngelList in unison. This way a 500 Startups, startup, is always trending on AngelList.

This real need for startup traction actually goes well beyond AngelList and can be a key performance indicator when your deal is being reviewed by investors.

In case you can’t clearly read the slide here are the key take-aways, things that your startup should already have before approaching that investor for your million dollar round:

– Enterprise startups need to have 1,000 seats at $10/seat/month

– Big enterprise startups need to have 2 pilot contracts with some $

– Social startups need 100,000 downloads and signups

– e-commerce “market place” startups need to have $50,000 in revenue per month

Fontana did disclose to Kumparak that these numbers are just rough estimates based on his insight and not actual numbers directly from the AngelList database.

While many investors talk about the importance of product and team it seems that when you get to the stage where you’re ready for a $1 million dollar investment (or more) the product and the team should already speak for themselves and the traction should tell their story.

Tell us what you think in the comments.

Source: TC

The Dropbox Story: From 0 to 100 Million Users: How a Simple Video Can Change Your Business

In a short five years, Dropbox has gone from 0 to 100 million users.

That’s impressive.

What’s even more impressive is the fact that they’ve done it with one of the most simple website designs ever. Since the first year, their homepage has featured only two main components—an explainer video and a download button.

They’ve also grown without spending money on advertising, and they’ve grown exponentially compared to the competition, despite the fact that there are dozens of similar services competing in the same space.

So what’s Dropbox’s secret? How did they grow so quickly with such a simple design, one explainer video, and spending no money on advertising?

Dropbox’s viral referral campaign

Dropbox started out by using Google AdWords as a way to reach customers. But they quickly figured out that they were spending $233 to $388 per customer acquired. That ended up being too expensive for what was a $99 product at the time.

Thus, they decided to switch to a viral referral campaign to attract more customers. This ended up being one of the keys to their success. Here’s how it worked: Dropbox users were encouraged to share the service via social media and email. If they did, they’d get extra space for free on their own account for every new person who signed up from one of their invites.

The result was that satisfied customers became brand evangelists who helped to get the word out about Dropbox. Due to the fact that they’d get something in return, i.e. free space, users liberally shared about Dropbox via Facebook, Twitter, email, and more. For every customer who was satisfied about the product, there were hundreds and even thousands of other people who were finding out about it and signing up. This resulted in a total of 2.8 million invitations being sent out over a 30-day period.

What an awesome viral campaign. It’s one of the greatest of all time, and Dropbox fully leveraged the power of referrals and social sharing.

But that’s not all that they did.

How a simple design and an explainer video helped Dropbox grow even more

Dropbox’s simple homepage design focuses visitors’ attention 100 percent on their explainer video. There aren’t any other links or any other messages that get in the way. When you land on the homepage, there’s only one thing to do—watch the video.

By focusing every visitors’ attention on the explainer video, Dropbox was able to get more people to watch and learn how the service worked. This in turn led to more sign ups because more people now understood how to use Dropbox. It’s a lot easier to click a download button when you know how something works and understand the benefit, and that’s what Dropbox was banking on with their 120-second explainer video.

The result was a 10 percent increase in sign-ups. That’s right—the explainer video led to a 10 percent increase in conversions. That may not seem like much, but when you do the math with 100 million users, that’s 10 million extra customers simply from using an explainer video. With an estimated $4.80 of revenue per customer (based on estimates from 2011), that’s an extra $48,000,000 in revenue per year. Not bad for a “mere” 10 percent increase in conversions.

3 reasons video worked for Dropbox — and can work for your business too

At this point, you may be wondering, “Why was the explainer video so important? What made it so successful?”

Here’s the answer:

Video is worth 1.8 million words: According to a study conducted by Forrester Research in 2009, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. It makes sense, when you think about it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video should be worth a couple million at least. Companies that don’t embrace video will need to hire a lot of writers.
Video leads to huge increases in conversion: Based on research from Internet Retailer, product videos increase the likelihood of a purchase by 85 percent. Additional research showed that product videos gave 52 percent of customers more confidence in their purchase decision. Using the word “video” in an email subject line has also increased open rates 13 percent and click-through rates over 92 percent. Based on another Internet Retailer study from 2012, 46 percent of people will share a video on Facebook, and 40 percent will email links. How’s that for conversion-rate optimization and viral social sharing?
Brain science shows why videos are effective: Simply put, our brains are hardwired to respond to videos. Not only are most people visual learners, but people retain 68 percent more information from video than from plain text. By using video, which stimulates both visual and auditory senses, you’ll make sure that customers understand your business 68 percent better than if they’d only read plain text.

Dropbox increased their conversion rate 10 percent by using a simple explainer video on their homepage. This 10 percent increase led to 10 million additional customers and $48,000,000 in extra revenue. This was all done with a 120-second explainer video that cost less than $50,000.

Was it worth it? Well, a $50,000 in exchange for 10 million customers and $48,000,000 in revenue is quite a return on Dropbox’s investment. If you have a business website and a product, I strongly suggest you consider investing in a simple video too. You may not see numbers in the millions like Dropbox, but you will increase conversions radically with a clear, effective explainer video.

This post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Andrew Angus is an author, speaker, and founder/CEO of Switch Video, a video animation company that produces simple videos that “explain what you do” in an engaging and compelling format. Andrew is a thought leader in the online video industry, writing and speaking about the brain science behind making your company’s story stick. He welcomes people to reach out to him on Twitter or Google+ and can be booked to speak on Speakerfile.

Now check out these other startup tips at nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else.

5 Tips for Young Entrepreneurs Who Want to Be Taken Seriously

I was a 21 year-old entrepreneur when the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. Given the unprecedented volume of dying startups, investors and other business partners became less and less inclined to partner with new companies — especially those led by young founders.

But I felt compelled to win over potential investors, customers, and team members. If I didn’t succeed, neither would my venture.

Here are some of the tactics I used to help establish my credibility as a young founder, and grow my business in spite of my age:

Show others that you’re committed to the venture. Find visible ways to demonstrate your willingness to serve the company. I was always the first person at the office. The signals founders send speak louder than their words.
Present yourself like the most successful people in your industry. Given that most of our revenue came from brand managers and advertising agencies, I couldn’t show up to meetings looking like the college sophomore that I was. I ordered and wore bespoke dress shirts with my monogram on my cuffs. When advertising buyers started our meetings asking where I had my shirts made, the subsequent discussions usually went well. Don’t take this too far and spend beyond your means, of course, but first impressions still count.
Find creative ways to inspire confidence. My team was fired up when well-known leaders like Fred Hoar, the late VP of Communications at Apple, and Dana Summers, Nordstrom’s former VP of Marketing and CIO, joined our board. Sometimes I would ask board members and other well-known advisers to come in and share their lessons with my team. Most leaders love to give back to motivated young entrepreneurs, and this helps improve your credibility in a very noticeable way.
Set and deliver on objectives. Goals and guidelines will go a long way towards establishing momentum and lifting team performance.
Develop your character. While nothing builds trust faster than delivering results, nothing destroys it faster than a failure of integrity. As you see your dream grow from an idea to an enterprise, your opportunities to cut corners will multiply. Grow your character as you grow your business so the latter doesn’t crush the former.

Kevon Saber is the CEO of Fig, a mobile startup focused on personal well-being. Prior to Fig, Kevon was VP of Sales & Marketing at GenPlay Games, a mobile games developer he co-founded which has created fifteen games and $40+ million in consumer revenue. Kevon holds a BS in Finance from Santa Clara University and a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Kevon and his family live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Saber is a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit 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.

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