Why You Shouldn’t Learn To Code For Your Startup

I get emails like this one all the time:

I am wondering if I could ask for help for a friend. Mike, a good friend of mine, has been working on a startup idea. …He is looking for really great co-founding developers who can help him build out the product in a short period of time. I am wondering if you could tap into your network for leads. Many thanks in advance!

I wish I could help. It can be very difficult for a non-technical entrepreneur to find a technical co-founder if he/she doesn’t already have friends who code. And these days, just about everyone would tell Mike to skip the talent search and learn how to code himself.

Journalists in TechCrunch, Business Insider, Fast Company and dozens of other publications, including VentureBeat, write frequently about how you, as a non-technical founder, are up a creek if you don’t learn how to code. Even Harvard Business School students are learning how to code – despite paying very good money to learn business skills. In short, if you’re starting an Internet company, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about how important it is to know how to code.

Silicon Valley has followed suit. In the last two years alone, online education companies have developed a variety of courses to teach programming skills. Companies like Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, Treehouse, Codecademy, EdX, and Lynda, are just a handful of the many companies serving the programming education market. For those who prefer to learn in person, there are now a wealth of choices in developer training camps too, including Hack Reactor, Coder Camps, Dev Bootcamp, and the Hackbright Academy. These camps hold class every day for several weeks, teaching basic front-end and back-end skills.

The real reason startups fail (hint: it’s not bad code)

On the surface, it would seem the solution for finding a technical co-founder is to become one yourself.

But you have to question whether turning non-technical entrepreneurs into developers is really the best solution for starting a company. Startups become successful when they have users and customers — and they die when they don’t. Tech startups don’t fail because they have poorly written code. If you look at TechCrunch’s deadpool of startups, almost all listed companies failed because they ran out of money. They didn’t have enough users to make their business model work.

I started my first company, Beat the GMAT, without knowing how to program at all. Didn’t matter: I built a loyal following of prospective MBA students for my blog first, which was focused on solving GMAT problems. Later, this audience became active participants in my first forums. Finally, I hired developers to build the most recent version of my site before selling it to Hobson’s. Had I focused on building the site first, I’m not sure that’s how things would have panned out.

Don’t get me wrong: Increasing the opportunities for people to learn is great, and those who want to learn how to program definitely should. But if you’re learning how to code merely to launch a startup, you’re wasting valuable time.

The economic tenet of comparative advantage suggests that people should become really good at their core skills, use them effectively to make money, and then hire others to complement their skills. So, if you are mediocre at acquiring customers and know nothing about programming, shouldn’t you work to become awesome at customer acquisition rather than become a bad developer? I would’ve expected Harvard Business School to understand this better than anyone.

Paying it forward

In the Valley, entrepreneurs and investors often talk about how so many seed startups fail because they can’t get enough customers to become profitable. But we shouldn’t just talk — we should do something. That’s why Elizabeth Yin and I started Hustle Con: to teach non-technical entrepreneurs tactical tips in acquiring customers to build a sustainable business. Others, such as Noah Kagan, have done the same in creating his course called “How to make your first dollar.” And, there are a smattering of meetup groups trying to teach marketing and sales for startups.

But we can do better. If you know something about lead generation, sales, and marketing, I encourage you to pay it forward and teach other entrepreneurs to improve their customer acquisition skills. And finally, to the would-be founders out there: Stop talking about learning how to code, and instead, start hustling.

Eric Bahn is the co-founder of Hustle Con, a one-day conference on July 9, 2013 in Mountain View, CA. Hustle Con features successful entrepreneurs who will talk about how they grew their companies from $0 to $5M in just a couple of years, how they raised money, and how they grew an audience before releasing a product. Join us with this special code to get 25% off: yec-hustler

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.

Sequoia’s Aaref Hilaly believes everyone should know how to code.

6 Reasons To Start Your Startup Now!

You don’t have to have a Harvard MBA to know that the economy hasn’t climbed out of its slump entirely just yet. Household debt has grown, unemployment remains relatively high, and Americans aren’t spending the way they once did. With all these obstacles, you’d think it would be the worst time to start your own business. But a struggling economy presents opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs — you just have to know where to find them.

1. Real Estate Is Cheap
With so many businesses failing in recent years, commercial real estate is widely available. Do your research — find a space that’s conveniently located and reasonably priced. Once you narrow the field to a few candidates, play hardball with your prospective landlord. If you can’t get a reduced monthly rent, try to get other concessions, such as paid utilities, free renovations, or lease termination flexibility.

2. Staffing Will Be a Breeze
With the national unemployment rate hovering just under 8 percent, there are a lot of qualified workers out there looking for a good opportunity. Dig deep during the interview process to find folks who share your vision and passion. You should get a lot of resume submissions, so be discerning. When you interview candidates, try to get a sense of who’s in it for the long haul. Overqualified applicants may intend to coast through a job until the one they really want comes along.

3. You Have Protection Against Unemployment
When layoffs and cutbacks are rampant, the best way to avoid being fired is to be your own boss. You may not be able to control how successful your business is, but you can control every decision, work every hour of every day, and if your business fails, it won’t be because some faraway board decided to cut 10,000 jobs. Success or failure lie primarily in your hands when you run the show.

4. The Economy Doesn’t Matter
When Steve Jobs dropped out of college to found Apple Computer in 1976, the United States was coming out one of its worst recessions in recent memory. Do you think his parents thought that was a good idea? Ambition, intelligence, and drive are three entrepreneurial essentials that cannot be stopped, even by the weakest economy. If you surround yourself with the right people, create a work-friendly environment, and keep customer service at a high level, you can succeed in any economic climate.

5. History Is on Your Side
Not only Apple, but CNN, Microsoft, and Burger King were all launched during recessions. Add to that MTV, Hyatt, FedEx, and General Electric and you’ve got an all-star roster of American success stories. The founders of these companies didn’t let a challenging economy stop them from pursuing their dreams. If the entrepreneurial bug has bitten you, waiting around for three years won’t increase your chances of success. Work hard, market yourself aggressively, and don’t take no for an answer.

Final Thoughts
When you do pull the trigger on that startup, make sure you save on costs wherever you can. Market your business for free through social media, hire free labor from students looking to bolster their resume with internships, and negotiate with every contractor and vendor. Remember, they’re more likely to give you a discount in today’s economy. Success is out there waiting for you, so don’t let it wait any longer.

If you have a business idea in mind, what are you waiting for?

Andrew Schrage is co-owner of the MoneyCrashers.com Personal Finance website. The site strives to educate readers on a wide variety of topics, including how to budget for retirement, tips to increase your income, and the best small business credit cards. Schrage hopes to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives as they work to gain and maintain financial freedom.

Image: Transitionaldata.com

Here It Is, The Secret To Entrepreneurial Happiness

During our childhood years, measuring success was as simple as counting gold stars and smiley face stickers. In high school and college, we relied on report cards. But how do we determine success now, as entrepreneurs?

In Southern California’s bustling startup scene, known as “Silicon Beach,” many professionals leave the comfort of a steady paycheck to pursue the American dream of starting something they can call their own. And after numerous conversations with like-minded entrepreneurs, we found that many of these entrepreneurs measured their venture’s success not in dollars, but by their own satisfaction or happiness.

It’s no secret that money can’t buy happiness. In fact, according to an oft-cited study by Stanford University economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman, once you’re pulling in a salary of $75,000, any additional dollar earned does nothing more to increase personal life satisfaction.

So if happiness cannot be bought — and yet we use it to measure our business success — what can we do to attain it? Over the last decade, researchers in Positive Psychology have discovered a number of behaviors that boost happiness. To boost your own, practice these four behaviors:

1. Create a social circle of like-minded entrepreneurs.

Two heads are better than one when it comes to problem solving. A team of entrepreneurial peers can see what escapes our own attention, point out pitfalls ahead of time, and become a sounding board for critical decisions and actions.

Commit to creating a circle of like-minded entrepreneurs in which no money is exchanged between members.

2. Give your time away.

Many entrepreneurs think that devoting every waking moment to their company will ultimately be the key to success. But when you spend time helping others instead of yourself, your sense of time expands.

Professor Cassie Mogilner, a researcher on happiness and time management atthe Wharton School, explained this recently: “The results show that giving your time to others can make you feel more ‘time affluent’ and less time-constrained than wasting your time, spending it on yourself, or even getting a windfall of free time.”

Whether it be through mentorship, volunteering, showing interest, or lending an ear to a friend, giving time to others expands your sense of time and results in greater life satisfaction.

3. Set attainable goals.

The art of goal-setting can take years to master. As entrepreneurs, we all have big goals, and to experience success we have to learn to break large goals into smaller goals that are within our daily reach.

Try creating one goal per day that you want to accomplish outside of your day-to-day emails and meeting commitments — then do everything in your power to turn this into a lasting habit.

4. Practice gratitude.

There are a variety of ways to practice gratitude that entrepreneurs can easily incorporate into their daily routine. One approach is to set aside time every week to write thank you notes, sent via snail mail or over email.

If you thank a client, that’s expected. But if you thank someone for an unexpected task, research from Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California suggests that your mind becomes more sensitive to positive interactions — and less sensitive to negative ones.

By practicing gratitude, you will begin to cultivate a chronic state of happiness.

Happiness is the new gold standard.

The traditional gold standard for measuring professional success is money, yet entrepreneurs almost always cite happiness as the highest-priority goal for attaining success.

Do you already practice any of these four happiness-promoting behaviors? If not, try integrating them into your daily practice today.

And guess what? Happiness can also lead to better health, more energy, productivity, and yes — more money.

Dmitriy Katsel is the founder of Spring Theory, an organization that matches corporations with universities in semester-long collaborations to explore solutions to big challenges. Sara Gershfeld, behavior analyst and founder of LoveMyProvider, also contributed to this article.

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.

Earning Your Leadership Stars and Stripes

For many of us, the Fourth of July conjures up images of fireworks, hotdogs, and the unofficial start of the summer season. But when we celebrate Independence Day, it’s also important to reflect on what our founding fathers gave our nation as well as the lessons they can teach us about great leadership.

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. They were lawyers and merchants, farmers and large plantation owners. They were educated, wealthy men. They signed and pledged their lives, fortunes, and honor to ensure that the 13 colonies could establish a sovereign nation, truly leading others by their example.

In today’s workplace, most people equate leadership with a specific position or job title. But you need more then a title on the door to have followers. True leadership is the ability to influence people to achieve a better result for an entire organization or group.

The most effective leaders have a very strong sense of self; they understand the qualities that make other people want to follow them and they know how to adjust those qualities when circumstances require them to do so. The most effective leaders are those who:

Know their own strengths and limitations;
Create and effectively communicate a positive, realistic vision;
Motivate and inspire followers to reach their potential;
Look beyond their own self-interest and encourage others to do the same;
Anticipate and manage conflicts fairly and objectively;
Exhibit self-confidence;
Respect and maintain personal and organizational values;
Are fair, reasonable and compassionate;
Instill trust; and
Behave consistently.

These leaders develop and articulate reasonable goals and hold people (including themselves) accountable. They are prepared to make difficult decisions and balance the sensitivity of individual needs with organizational needs. Employees not only recognize their power and authority but they accept it and follow these trusted leaders willingly.

There are two ways to get people to do what you want: compel them by using your “position” power or persuade them by using your “personal-relational” power. In certain situations, compelling your team to do something based solely on your position power may work best to meet production needs. But a consistent approach of, “Do this because I said so” will not serve you well in the long term because it will limit your ability to develop “personal-relational” power.

Persuasion requires developing relationships based an understanding of what makes people tick and what motivates them. The trick is to figure out how to influence and motivate your staff through the effective use of both the proverbial carrot AND stick.

An honest assessment of your leadership qualities will enable you to capitalize on your natural strengths and work to improve those you find more challenging. Ask yourself, “What kind of leader do I want to be?” and “How do I want to be perceived by those reporting to me?”

Then, create a written credo summarizing your values, beliefs, and management philosophy to help you focus not only on what you want to accomplish but how you want to do it. These are important considerations not only because it will enable you to develop effective relationships but also because it will enable you to complete the tasks at hand more effectively, making YOU more valuable to your organization.

To be a good leader, it is critical to develop management skills relating to delegation and feedback. Differences in employee abilities, skills, and style are inevitable and must be managed in order to meet workplace demands. Leaders who learn to recognize these differences and flex their leadership style to meet those needs will be more successful at managing and motivating their employees to achieve organizational objectives.

To delegate effectively, always operate under the principal that you can never be too clear. Here are some tips:

Take the time to explain the goals and objectives. If everybody from administrative support to senior staff understands the overall objective (which typically can be explained in 3 sentences in less than 30 seconds) or how their segment of the project ties into the overall goal, they will be more invested in the project and better serve the needs of the organization.
Let people know how you want information to be shared (via e-mail, voicemail, meetings, etc.), who else is working with them, and any other peculiarities specific to this project. Most importantly, let them know how best to approach you throughout the project if they need clarification or further instruction. Do not allow yourself to become a choke point or source of frustration for your team.
Set specific deadlines – “ASAP” is meaningless. So is “In a few days.” Try, “I need it in an hour,” or “I need it Wednesday afternoon.” Leave no room for ambiguity. Setting specific deadlines and allowing your team to manage their own workload will ameliorate your constant need to hover and inquire, “Is it done yet?” to the relief of both you and your team members. It is equally important that YOU adhere to team deadlines. Lead by example. Again, if you become a choke point, you will frustrate members of your team and ultimately sabotage your own career.
Provide on-going feedback to allow for corrections to be made as the project progresses. Capture those “teachable moments” along the way to strengthen your team. When delivered properly, feedback not only creates trust and cooperation; it focuses on improvements, both possible and those actually achieved. It increases skills, improves employees’ confidence and enhances your personal-relational power.

On-going, informal feedback enhances the formal appraisal process because staff members receive messages throughout the year offering immediate corrective action for very specific behaviors. The formal review can than be used to reinforce those message and focus on systematic goal setting to ensure the professional development of each person for the benefit of the individual as well as the organization.

Keep in mind, not all managers are leaders, but every leader is a manager. Your goal is not simply to make everyone happy (or miserable), but to understand how to capture individual talents and get the best out of each contributor. In his address to officers of the Virginia Regiment, George Washington once said, “Remember that it is the actions, and not the commission, that makes the officer, and that there is more expected from him than the title.” These words are still pertinent today. When you focus not only on the “what” of what it takes to be a successful leader but also on the “how,” you will see your sphere of influence grow and your career soar.

Kathleen Brady, CPC is an iPEC-certified career management coach with more than 25 years of experience helping people identify and realize their professional career goals. In GET A JOB! 10 Steps to Career Success (Inkwater Press, 2013) Brady shares her secrets for navigating the job search process from start to finish as well as practical exercises for job seekers at every level. GET A JOB! is available at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, and other online retailers. For more information, visit www.careerplanners.net.

Forbes called this startup conference a Must Attend.

Startup Tips: 9 Challenges To Partnering With A Bigger Company

Question: Are there any disadvantages to partnering with a company much bigger than yours, and how do you manage them?

Where’s the Control?

“The chief disadvantage of partnering with larger companies is loosing control over timeline and positioning. Typically, you are rate-limited in progress by how fast the larger organization can move, and you won’t be able to directly control the channel partner to do what you want. You can’t manage your partners, but what you can do is set firm expectations and legal obligations from the onset.”

– Victor Wong | CEO, PaperG

Watch the Time Sink

“Bigger companies, by their nature, move much slower than your company. Keeping things moving can be a struggle when you aren’t use to dealing with as much bureaucracy.”

– Wade Foster | Co-founder, Zapier

Beware of Bureaucracy

“When working with a large company, it is important to recognize that it may take some time to identify the appropriate contact, and that the person you’re working with may or may not have the influence or bandwidth to get things done. Consequently, these relationships are time-consuming to build and can take a lot of effort for a small team to manage effectively.”

– Garrett Neiman | Co-founder and CEO, CollegeSpring

Just Word of Mouth?

“Partnering with a larger company can be great, but when it comes down to it, you are just another word of mouth for them. You sometimes do more work for them while they just let your name “appear” with them. Do what works best for you and do ask yourself if you really need to partner with them. If not, then don’t even jump on the boat.”

– Ashley Bodi | co-founder, Business Beware

Getting Lost in the Shuffle

“A good partnership means that you have to have clear communication, which can be tough when you’re dealing with a company with multiple layers of stakeholders — each of whom may leave her position, veto a step or otherwise make the partnership more difficult to deal with. It’s not impossible to deal with, but when you have fewer personnel to shepherd a deal, it’s something you need to be aware of.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

Feature Creep!

“When you partner with a large company, beware the “just add one more thing” disease. Large companies are used to getting what they want and will try to push you to write more features, add more support or customize your business around their needs, sometimes to the overall detriment of your business.”

– Nathan Lustig | cofounder, Entrustet

Retention vs. Innovation

“Working with partners much bigger than you are rarely works out. Big companies are often very inflexible, slow moving, and sometimes require massive contracts that take months to negotiate and that they have no hesitation about pulling out of very quickly. The culture at many big businesses is about “job retention” rather than “innovation”, and biz dev people often keep themselves busy with meetings that go nowhere while trying to cover their behind. Despite numerous attempts, and thousands of hours, I’ve never had a partnership that made a big difference to our bottom line.”

– Matt Mickiewicz | Co-Founder, Flippa and 99designsAdjust Your Timelin

“Manage your expectations regarding timelines. Everything takes forever in larger bureaucracies. Decisions have to be reviewed and approved by three layers of management and usually one committee — the red tape can really hamper your plans if you’re not realistic about the timelines you’re working with.”

– Brent Beshore | Owner/CEO, AdVentures

Don’t Be Bullied

“A bigger company can sometimes bully you around since you are the smaller partner. You can easily manage the relationship by being very clear with expectations and and terms of the relationship.”

– John Hall | CEO, Influence & Co.

Now check out: Learn to pitch BEFORE you raise capital.

Why The Perfect Startup Pitch Isn’t A Pitch At All

Everyone loves a good story. Some of our favorite stories are from movies we watched as children. They all have the same ending: “…and they lived happily ever after.”

We know the ending before the movie even begins, so why do we watch them? We watch to see the journey. The journey that started with a struggle or a problem is finally resolved as the prince and princess ride off into the sunset.

So why, then, do most investment pitches start with, “And my company is the next Apple or Facebook”? I mean, that’s the fairytale ending, isn’t it? That our startup is the next multibillion-dollar company?

Apple and Facebook didn’t start out as multibillion-dollar companies. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built their first product, the Apple I, on the mere vision that computers would be used by consumers — at a time when computers were exclusively used by businesses. Through innovation after innovation, Apple evolved into the company we know today, but the journey was not done without its struggles. (If you want to get the full picture of all the company’s struggles, read the nearly 600-page biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson.)

Besides, as an early-stage startup, there are no great revenue numbers to put on a slide – only predictions. You may have a business plan, but it could completely change tomorrow.

What you do have is a story. You have experienced a problem or seen a need. Now you are actively working to provide a solution to that problem, or fill that need. Not only that, there have been bumps in the road thus far and there will be even more in the future — so your determination and passion to get the job done needs to show.

For example, my company provides expiration date management software to the grocery industry, but my investment pitch never starts out with, “I made Date Check Pro, and it will make millions!”

Instead, I start out by describing how I used to work in a grocery store. I checked far too many expiration dates on far too many cereal boxes, and realized there had to be a better way.

The goal of starting with the story is to show that you are personally connected to the problem you are looking to solve, and that you are the right person for the job.

Knowing this, investors are more likely to connect with you, the entrepreneur. One of our investors — Peter Layton, a former partner at Goldman Sachs turned serial entrepreneur and angel investor – told me recently, “I invest in people first and the idea second. I want to hear the entrepreneur’s experience with the problem they are looking to solve, their passion to solve it, and how they plan to do so. If the story is good, I am more likely to invest since I know there is a good founder behind the idea.”

So before your next pitch, remember these key tips:

Share your story instead of pitching your company.
Keep it short — six minutes or less.
You’re running an early-stage startup. You don’t have perfect financial projections or a fireproof business plan. Include your plan to grow the company into your story, but be open to suggestions.
Practice, practice, practice. Yes it’s a cliché, but you don’t write your story in one sitting. How could you tell it perfectly on the first try?
Remember: You’re not “pitching,” just telling a story. Relax!

Andrew Hoeft is the founder of Pinpoint Software, Inc. His company has created Date Check Pro, expiration date management software that allows for proactive management of inventory and will be launching a second product late 2013. He is a co-founder of StartupMKE, a founding member of StartupWI, and a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater studying entrepreneurship. In addition, his company is a member of the Gener8tor accelerator program which provides numerous resources to start-up technology companies.

Now read: Why bootstrapping might be the smartest choice you make

3 Reasons Women Should Pitch Their Startups More Often

Women entrepreneurs don’t pitch as often as their male peers. I encourage women to step up to the plate, whether it’s asking for capital to fund their startup, or asking for a raise at work.

In 2012, only 16 percent of startups pitching to angels in the U.S. were women-led, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. Out of that 16 percent, 25 percent secured funding.

3 benefits of pitching your startup:

Feedback

Pitching your startup is a way that you can receive advice and suggestions from potential investors that can help your business model get closer to meeting market needs.

Connections

Don’t view pitching as a zero-sum game, where you either get funding or you don’t. Instead, view pitching as an opportunity for you to meet key influencers. While a potential investor may not be interested in investing in your startup, she/he may know someone who might want to learn more and, by pitching, you increase your network, as well as you chances of securing a relevant introduction.

And yes, capital.

One of my favorite sayings is, “If you want money, ask for feedback” (and we come full circle…). Pitching is an opportunity for you to share your startup, engage people, and secure funding. Whether someone wants to invest on the spot, or you receive a referral to a potential investor, remember that putting yourself out there can get you closer to raising capital.

Need a pep talk before venturing out to pitch? Check out the Pipeline Fellowship Blog, which features candid interviews with members of our community, as well as an Entrepreneur Prep section.

Article originally posted at Ideas Lab.

Natalia (aka Ms. Oberti Noguera) is Founder and CEO of the Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women philanthropists. Natalia holds a BA in Comparative Literature & Economics from Yale. Women’s eNews recognized her as one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century for 2012 and Business Insider included her on its 2013 list “The 30 Most Important Women in Tech under 30.” You can find Natalia on Twitter (@nakisnakis).

A programmer’s guide to getting hired by a startup

Why Bootstrapping Might Be The Smartest Choice You Make

One of the earliest and most critical decisions an entrepreneur must make is whether to self-fund a startup by bootstrapping, or raise outside funding through venture capital. The implications of each decision are significant.

How you fund your company will help determine its chances of success, its scale, its long-term prospects, and ultimately, your relationship with it.

As an entrepreneur who has invested significantly in my own company, I believe that bootstrapping is the best option. It’s never easy, and it’s not always glamorous, but bootstrapping will force you to become a better, stronger entrepreneur with a more vibrant business. Here’s why:

Creative Freedom: The creative and executive freedom that entrepreneurs have at the beginning of their projects is priceless. Bootstrapping a company with your own funds protects that freedom without the (often stifling) accountability to an outside voice protecting its investment. When you bootstrap, you are that voice — and you’re the creator too. Even if you supplement with outside funding down the road, bootstrapping gives you far more control over your own business in those critical early days.
Smaller = Scrappier: With less capital to work with, you will be forced to start small, test your assumptions carefully, and then scale up. Along the way, you will learn about your products, markets and customers more intimately. And if you make mistakes — as all entrepreneurs do — they will almost certainly be smaller in scale and impact. Meanwhile, you will learn to become a scrappier, more vigilant founder.
Better Products: Another advantage of a limited budget is a greater focus on your products and services. The pressure of a shorter runway will force you to get your products right. When every last dollar matters, you need to pay attention to your customers and their needs by building a superior offering. That insight and dedication will increase the likelihood of generating revenue and building a brand more quickly.
High Stakes (But Higher Rewards): As a bootstrapper and founder, you are your company’s original (and only) shareholder. As a result, you will retain control and equity. Bootstrapping also aligns your incentives with the success of the company: If it fails, so do you; if it succeeds, you succeed too — and at higher multiples. This also keeps ownership clear and manageable; no other investors will claim parts of the company or impede the important, rapid decisions you have to make in a startup’s early days.
Smarter Decisions: You will rarely be as cautious with other people’s money as you are with your own. Bootstrapping will almost certainly make you a better manager and incentivize you to intelligently grow your business. Learning how to do more with less is one of the most important skills of an entrepreneur — and a key principle of 21^st-century business.
Better Profit Margins: Bootstrapping a business is one of the best ways to stay lean, which will do wonders for your profitability and valuation. Plus, companies running with low overhead, often enjoy a much larger profit margin. If they succeed and begin to consider exit opportunities, a low-cost margin can have a dramatic impact on earnings, which is a common basis for valuation. One of the most compelling ways to increase your exit multiple is to cut costs — a skill that bootstrapping entrepreneurs understand well.
Faster Progress: Bootstrapping usually keeps a company’s runway short — with less cash, there is less time to get a company off the ground. This is one of the greatest motivators to quickly build a product and get it to market. Rapidly testing and iterating on your offering is an efficient and cost-effective way to develop a product. It will also dramatically increase your chances of success. Outside investment often reduces that pressure, creating a cushion that can add months or even years to your timeline.
Less Outside Influence: Raising outside investment often attracts a great deal of attention, particularly when the investors are high profile or the deal is widely publicized. While glamorous and exciting, it also raises your profile significantly. In contrast, entrepreneurs who bootstrap have a major advantage: They can operate in relative secrecy for a period of time, staying off the radar as they fund their own operations. And that can make all the difference in maneuvering around competitors and building a great product .

Every entrepreneurial venture is different, of course. The one constant, however, is that success depends on an entrepreneur’s ability to execute effectively. And my years of experience as an entrepreneur have taught me that bootstrapping is a powerful, fulfilling, intelligent way to execute.

Jay leads Innovation at Best Drug Rehabilitation. In his startup experience, he has built a digital marketing agency, a content network, and an e-commerce store. Jay speaks in the Bay area about social media marketing, SEO, and current trends in the internet-startup industry.

Now check out 5 tips to succeeding in an emerging industry.

3 Components Of An Indispensable Product

At Shop It To Me, we believe companies can disrupt a market and have long-term loyalty not just by building a great or insanely fun product, but by building an indispensable product.

Look at some of the services today with the most avid users — Google Search, Apple’s iPhone (when it first came out), Twitter, Etsy, eBay, Pinterest — all have one thing in common: they have built a product that is indispensable for certain audiences.

What is indispensable?

So, what exactly is an indispensable product? I believe you can divide it into three different components:

1. An indispensable product solves an important or meaningful problem.

Every indispensable product out there solves important problems for its users. VCs often refer to this as as the “aspirin” vs “vitamin” scenario (whenever you have a headache or pain, aspirin is a must-have; vitamins are a nice-to-have).

There’s a reason Google Search is so popular — it is indispensable in two ways. Users of Google search trust it to give them answers to the most important questions. For advertisers, Google SEM and SEO has traditionally been the best place to find customers with active intent to buy their service. Selling your amazing new tax software for businesses? Get to be at the top of the search results for “business tax software” and you’ll have the huge number of highly targeted leads you need to crush your quarterly goals.

2. An indispensable product has no good substitutes.

To gain real traction, an indispensable product not only needs to solve an important need; it must lack good substitutes when it first comes out. Your product won’t be indispensable if users can easily find an alternative.

When the Apple iPhone first came out, there were no other products remotely like it. It was terrible as an actual phone, but it was the only phone out there for consumers that would let you actually search and view real web pages (as opposed to just mobile versions), or see your emails in a visually appealing and simple way.

If you want to build an indispensable product, you need to make your product unique for the customers you are going after — you can’t just be a slightly better version of a popular product and expect people to switch.

3. An indispensable product is ideally something you need on a frequent basis.

The third point is not a true requirement of indispensability, but an important attribute if you want to build a habit and get frequent usage. If people find your product indispensable but only need it once every 5 years (or once at all), you may have a great product, but you won’t be building a habit for when competitors enter the space. On the other hand, if people need your product frequently, you have the ability to train them to be accustomed to your service. This will keep users coming back long after other competitors make similar products (think of the millions of people still using MyYahoo! 10 years later).

A quick test for indispensability

So you think your product has all three of the criteria for an indispensable product. How do you know for sure that it’s indispensable? Here’s one easy test: take it away from your users and see how they react. If people start screaming that the service you provide is gone, there’s a pretty decent chance you have an indispensable product.

Think about the products that are indispensable to you. Smartphones, webmail and Twitter are all indispensable to certain people. Think of how people tense up when their phone goes missing for 15 minutes, or how a reporter would feel if they could not access their Twitter feed and had to wait until news appeared on a website.

From inadvertent tests, we know our Shop It To Me emails can be indispensable. Every once in a while our emails get delayed. When that happens, we often hear about it not only from our data but from our support box — users email us demanding (occasionally with profanity) why their salemail has not yet arrived. And with our new product, Shop It To Me Threads, we occasionally test the waters of indispensability by asking user-testers how they would feel if we removed certain features. We’ve had a number of features that users say are “really great” that we removed from our system because they didn’t notice when they were gone.

So for all of you working on the next big thing: as you build out your product, and start prioritizing features, figure out what parts are needed to make your product more indispensable. Focus your energies on that. You’ll build a stronger product and have a much larger chance of turning your idea into a wild success.

This post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Charlie Graham is the founder and CEO of Shop It To Me, an intuitive personal shopping assistant that knows what you want and delivers it on sale in your size.

Are today’s “world changing” startups, really world changing?

Startup Tips: 5 Simple Ways To Collect Customer Feedback

Steve Jobs is famous for downplaying the importance of customer input, claiming customers don’t know what they want until they’ve seen it. While that philosophy has so far worked phenomenally well for Apple, most products can’t be developed in a bubble.

Even before we built our first product prototype, we spent countless hours speaking to would-be customers to gather suggestions, feedback and input. While most founders see the value in conducting market research in one way or another at the start of the development process, all too often they fail to continue this interaction. Companies should make a point of gathering feedback from customers throughout the entire development cycle — basically as long as you’re in business.

Here are five easy ways to get feedback on your product:

1. Customer Surveys

The most efficient way to garner feedback from customers is through surveys. To ensure the highest response rate possible (usually a typical rate of response is around 5 percent, and 10 percent or higher is exceptional), we recommend keeping the survey to a maximum of 15 questions. Include questions that relate to the overall industry your product fits into and whether or not customers would like to participate in any future product testing or marketing events. We use Google Forms for short questionnaires and SurveyMonkey for more in-depth surveys.

We used information from our latest survey to not only improve our product, but to ask for product reviews, case studies, more in depth feedback calls and of course to gain a larger picture of the space we play in — Google Apps.

2. Support Forums

Support forums aren’t a revolutionary idea, but the most successful forums are highly interactive. Customers should be able to give their input, comment on others’ ideas and see that you and your support team are taking active roles by responding to every single request. We use Zendesk for our forum, as well as ticketing and overall product support.

We’ve already added 15 of the most popular customer suggestions left in the forum to our product and have another 15 slated for development in the coming months. Could we have thought of those 30 ideas on our own? Probably. But ideas are generated a lot faster when you can ask a customer base of 12,000 companies what they’d like to see. Plus, you never have to worry if you’re adding features people will actually use.

3. Let Customers Provide Feedback Inside the Product

To make sure you’re gathering input from customers on an ongoing basis, include an easy way to leave feedback directly within your product. While some companies choose to pop up a review or feedback form on the third or fourth login, we chose to add a feedback window users can view or hide as they please. The widget is set up to track the exact page users leave feedback for, giving us an even better understanding of issues, suggestions and engagement on different facets of the product.

4. Wireframe Reviews

In the earliest stages of product development, we showed wireframes — the bare bones of the product UI — to “trusted testers” using Protoshare and GoToMeeting. Our user experience designer actually gave control of his mouse and keyboard to the tester, giving them a task to accomplish within the application and closely watching how they went about accomplishing said task. Feedback from these initial reviews surfaced several early problems with the product layout, including a very unpopular “edit” icon.

Today, we continue to create wireframes and set up UX and creative reviews for every new feature we develop. Everything from colors, layout and copy are up for criticism.

No matter what your product is, if you’re solving a real problem, there are people out there who want to see it solved too. Comb through user groups and forums to find your first trusted testers. These people should be experts on the area your product addresses and have real experience working with competitive products or their own self-made workarounds. Keep in mind that if you can’t find at least a handful of people willing to help with wireframe reviews, it may be time to take your idea back to the drawing board.

After you’ve released your product and have actual customers walking through wireframes, find a few unhappy customers who aren’t afraid to voice their concerns. Don’t take criticism personally — it only helps to move your product further along.

5. Feature Contests

Feedback has been so abundant that we decided to launch a feature contest. During the month of the contest, 59 feature requests, 155 votes, 87 comments and over 2,500 views were counted. We incentivized our customers to participate by ensuring the winning feature would actually be built into our product before the end of the year.

Participation was so high that we decided to choose not one, but two winners and shared the results with our entire customer base via the company blog, social media outlets, an email newsletter and even through a Google Hangout On Air.

If you make an ongoing effort to gather customer feedback throughout the product development process, at the end of the day, you’re left with better ideas, a more robust product — and a loyal customer base who knows you actually care about their opinions.

David Politis is the founder and CEO of BetterCloud, the maker of FlashPanel, the number one cloud management tool for Google Apps, and the Google Apps resource site, AsktheGooru.com. Follow him @DavePolitis.

Where do you go offline to connect with other entrepreneurs and startups?

What College Graduates Know That Small Business Owners Don’t

By Margaret Lyons, Customer Success Manager for InfoStreet, makers of SkyDesktop, a free Cloud-based desktop.

On May 22, 2013, I earned my Bachelor’s Degree.

Yet, I’m not your average college graduate. I spent a good ten years immersed in many facets of the business world before coming to the realization that my future had to include higher education if I was to attain all of my life goals. During the last four years, I’ve attended school full-time at community college and later a university all while working full-time as Customer Success Manager at InfoStreet, Inc. During this time, I’ve had the unique opportunity to engage with undergraduate students as well as CEOs on a daily basis, and the time that I have spent in this unorthodox situation has clearly demonstrated to me that there is one very important thing that most college graduates know that many small business owners do not: college graduates know the cloud.

Now, my statement may shock you. Or, perhaps you’re not surprised – after all, today’s graduates are learning about the latest and greatest in business, technology, and communications in their coursework. But this is the plain truth: college graduates have experience with the cloud in a way that many small business owners do not. And this experience gives college graduates an edge that small business owners may miss out on.

Today’s college students interact with the cloud on a daily basis. As an example from my personal experience, both the community college that I attended as well as the state university that I am graduating from use a cloud program called Moodle as a staple of the learning experience. Moodle is a system that allows professors to calculate and report grades, administer and score tests, and collect and track assignments, among other uses. Just ten years ago, when I began dabbling in community college courses, all of this happened on paper, or on personal computers. Communication was slow and inefficient. Today, Moodle lets me contact any of my classmates and my professor with one click. I can begin an online discussion relevant to the course on a message board that reaches the entire class, and I can check my grades and get a clear snapshot of my standing at any time of the day. Beyond Moodle, students at my university also have access to a cloud system that is used to register for courses, pay fees, track degree progress, print unofficial transcripts, and even purchase textbooks. This inherent cloud proficiency means that many of today’s college graduates are entering the workforce with a skill that many small business owners do not have. Like those of our generation who grew up with computers in our classrooms, today’s college graduates have an ability that no generation before has had the opportunity to learn.

The cloud offers small business owners this same variety of functions and flexibility, which increases company productivity. In my professional life, I interact with CEOs of small businesses every day. I keep track of my contacts in a basic cloud CRM system called InfoStreet CRM, one of many cloud CRM options available. I schedule my meetings via the InfoStreet Calendar. I compose, proofread, and share documents using Google Drive. I host online webinars via MeetingBurner. Nearly 90% of my day is spent working in the cloud and using the cloud to my benefit and the benefit of my company. I am able to communicate with clients and partners, track information that is pertinent to my position, and save time while using the cloud. The same is true for my company’s CEO, as well as our employees. The cloud is not only our product, the cloud is what gets us through every day.

Why aren’t more small business owners taking advantage of the benefits that the cloud offers? Although I certainly can’t speak on behalf of all small business owners, I can tell you that the ones that I speak with often come to one conclusion: they aren’t familiar with the cloud and are therefore reluctant to make the move. This is certainly a valid concern. Luckily, companies such as InfoStreet exist (shameless plug – I happen to think we’re pretty fantastic). At InfoStreet, not only do we offer small business owners a multitude of cloud apps to choose from to get them started, but we also invest in our customers’ and partners’ time. We offer full support, if you need it, and plenty of written online support if you don’t.

Cloud apps exist for any business need you could imagine: accounting, employee scheduling, customer appointment setting, file sharing, calendaring, email, project management, customer relationship management, e-signatures, online meetings, and the list goes on. The first step a small business owner needs to take is to get out there and research, either on their own or with a partner. With any reputable cloud service provider, a small business owner can explore the cloud at no financial risk to their company. Learning about the cloud and then putting the cloud to work will allow small business owners to keep up with recent college graduates – and the business world – and will help companies increase their growth while saving time.

With so many options available to simplify your life and increase your company’s productivity, why would you wait any longer to explore the cloud? If you’d like to see what InfoStreet has to offer, visit www.infostreet.com.

15 interview questions to ask your next startup hire.

Learn to Pitch BEFORE You Start Raising Capital

It only took about six months of deal flow and a handful of “pitches” before I realized that most entrepreneurs are really, really bad at “selling themselves” and “pitching” their ideas and companies to investors.

I cringe every time I listen to a great start-up idea or read a well-written executive summary, and then watch in horror as the founder stumbles and trips throughout the “pitch.” So many good ideas and businesses never get funding and/or fail to receive the benefits of a properly funded startup – all because of a poor presentation during the “pitch.”

The sad part is that as I’m sitting there taking notes, I’m thinking to myself, if only I could have spent a few hours with this poor guy or gal BEFORE his/her presentation. We could have highlighted “this or that,” deleted a whole section here, added more about “this” and not talked about “that” –then they probably would have at least gotten a second look and due diligence follow-up.

This is not the only way to give a “pitch,” but hopefully it will help improve your presentation and increase your chances of obtaining funds. By following these eight simple suggestions you’ll be setting yourself apart from the other poor “pitches.”

1. Tell us what you do in as few words as possible.

Maybe it’s me, but it seems like most Angels and VCs are people with type “A” personalities. We have short attention spans and don’t like to waste time. Give us the “short version,” and if or when we ask questions, then you can provide us with more details. The first thing we want to do is understand what it is that you do – in plain and simple English. Next on the list, we want to know what problem you solve and why your solution is important to your customer.

2. What’s the plan? How does it scale?

As investors, we aren’t always interested in your product, but we are interested in “returns.” Your mission statement is important to me, but what is really rolling around in my head while you’re up there giving us the “pitch” is: Will this work? Is this the right guy/gal for the job? How much money will we be able to make when we sell our shares? Does this thing scale? Explain to me how you are going to market and grow the business. Most investors are in it to make a profit, and if your business doesn’t scale, it probably won’t be very profitable. I’m not interested.

3. Talk about the team.

This is very important to investors. Don’t just put up a slide of your team and their past job experiences. Tell us why you’ve assembled this team for this opportunity and highlight your expertise. We know everyone has to start somewhere. Personally, I like to see and hear your passion about the product. Because, I know that passionate people find ways to get things done when they hit the “bumps in the road,” and there will always be “bumps” along the startup highway. Startups are hard; passionate people can make it over the “bumps”.

4. What’s your go-to-market strategy?

Your great idea is useless if no one hears about it or knows it even exists. So many people spend time developing a great product, only to find out no one wants it. How are you going to get it into the hands of your customers? What is your Marketing plan? What is your customer acquisition cost? Do you have any sales channels besides your sales team?

5. What is your competitive advantage?

Chances are that you’re not the first person to see this problem and offer a solution. There are probably about 28 people working on the exact same problem in some form or another. As VCs, we have probably heard a “similar” pitch within the last several months, if not weeks. More often than not, it’s not about the idea, but about “execution of that idea” that we are all betting on. Tell us “what it is” that your team brings to the table that can help you out-execute your competition – your IP, your marketing advantage, your knowledge or your network?

6. Let us touch and feel your product.

A short demo or actual product sample is really key. I want to use it, at least see it. Is it simple? Does it solve your customer’s problem? Is it easy to use from a user’s point of view? We don’t need to understand all the features or really any of the code – I just want to know that it’s clean, works and is simple to use. It’s hard to invest in things that look too complicated and things we can’t fully understand.

7. Expose your weaknesses before we do.

Successful people understand their strengths and weaknesses. Go ahead and acknowledge your weaknesses because I guarantee that everyone in the room is asking themselves: What is it that I don’t like about this? Where are the holes in this plan? What’s holding me back from investing in these people? Does this team have what it takes? Let us know about the risks you see moving forward and tell us how you plan to handle them. Be honest.

8. Show us the FINANCIALS.

It’s hard to forecast projections for an early stage company, but show us what you’ve got; we know they’re probably wrong anyway. Explain what it will take to double or triple the sales and what kind of timeframe you will need to accomplish this. We also want to know your “breakeven” numbers. Plus, as investors we don’t particularly like to see the funds going to Founder salaries; we want you spending money in marketing, development, and sales. Oh, and make sure you tell us how much money you are trying to raise. What’s the Ask?

This isn’t the only way to get funded, but I hope it helps. If you nail these 8 key points in the “pitch” and can answer some basic questions about your product, valuation, and your competition, you’ll have a much better chance of raising funds and building your awesome company.

Dr. Tony Ratliff is a dad, dentist, entrepreneur and investor in the Indianapolis Start-up Community. He practices dentistry throughout the week, but has a passion for angel investing, business strategies, technology and start-ups. You can follow him @drtonyratliff or check out his blog Venture Capital, Start-ups and Dentistry.

Founder Spotlight: Steph Beer, Co-Founder NSight2 Day

Using our consumer-facing platform, 4MeNU, nsight2day helps individuals and organizations truly engage with one another. Using innovative tags, users can share information with their network in context. We call these messages Gems. Follow her @stephbeer.

Who is your hero?

My grandfather, who is Swiss (this makes sense if you know me).

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Don’t be low-end. This means low margin, but it also means don’t behave badly. The other piece of advice I love is don’t “trade up” when it comes to who you spend your time with. Your friends matter more than ever when you’re starting a business, and just because you meet flashy people doesn’t mean that the originals aren’t worth their weight in gold for you as a person and an entrepreneur.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

We were a B2B team that tried to build a B2C platform. Stick to your strengths. Also, build a few similar offerings for several different types of client/customer groups and then see how hard it is to sell to each. There are big differences between selling to an individual, a university, and a Fortune 500 company. Each is a unique challenge; you may be better or, um, less well-positioned to sell to them.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

Yoga. Setting your mind straight can make or break your morning.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Always try to pay based on performance and limit all your fixed costs. Try not to sign a lease (that goes for yourself and for your business).

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Stop going to tech meetups (unless you’re recruiting) and start talking to more senior people who have decades of business experience. More pointedly, stop listening to people who have launched successful businesses by “asking my friends from my financial services days to invest.”

There are a lot of people who are professionally/socially well-positioned to win in the startup environment, and their stories aren’t that interesting or helpful to most entrepreneurs. Actually, just avoid the whole “founders cult” to the greatest extent possible (this gets back to staying close with old friends).

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

When we have consistent revenue that covers our costs and lets our original investor make his money back (and returns that are greater than or equal to the returns he would have gotten had he put his money into an index fund) — that’s it.

How To Avoid Hiring The Wrong Person For Your Startup

“He sounded so capable in the interview!”

“I just don’t know what happened. It seemed like she had exactly the right experience we were looking for!”

“The whole team loved him, so we just went with it.”

Perhaps you’ve uttered these words yourself, or heard them from a hiring manager who is experiencing frustration and buyer’s remorse when a new hire turns out to be a dud. Hiring someone who fails to meet expectations is a huge headache, especially when it was your job to vet them in the first place.

But there are ways of making sure that you don’t get snowed by someone who is good at making a first impression, but bad at delivering results. Here are the key things to do when hiring that’ll guarantee you never hire a dud again:

1. Make them show, not tell.

After your initial screen of incoming candidates, you should have everyone that you are seriously considering do a trial task that is representative of the work that they’ll be doing if hired. The point here isn’t to get free work done from candidates, it’s to see what they will actually do when presented with certain goals and constraints.

Choose something that takes two to three hours, requires a familiarity with relevant skills, networks, or industry knowledge, and will force them to draw upon resources that they’ll have at their disposal while working for you. Simulate a mini version of their work as closely as possible.

If I were hiring a director of development, I may ask them to a) identify a likely funder of my organization, and b) outline a proposal to see how they organized their approach. If I were hiring a manager of partnerships, I would have them a) identify three new organizations that they think would make good partners for me, and b) ask them to show me how they’d make first contact with these organizations.

Tell the candidates they can ask you questions as they are working on the trial. Good people will nail the project, but great people will hit it out of the park after clarifying a few things with you and asking for guidance on key points.

Have all of the candidates do the same task, so that you’re comparing apples to apples. You’ll find that only the most motivated candidates do the task, and you’ll immediately see who is more thorough and puts time into it. You’ll also see whose judgment is most aligned with your actual work. You can teach skills, but judgment is hard. Design the task to show how good their judgment is.

2. Be painfully thorough.

Everyone likes to ask things like, “What would you do in this situation?” or “How do you think we should face this challenge?” These questions show insight into how a candidate thinks and reacts to your organization’s realities.

Far less popular are the simple, boring, background questions—the grungy details of their past work—that actually illustrate what they’ve been able to accomplish. By the time someone is a finalist under consideration, you should be able to answer each of the following questions for, at the very least, their last three jobs:

What were they hired to do?
What resources were they given to work with?
What challenges did they face?
What outcomes did they create, or what accomplishments did they achieve?
Why did they leave that role?

If you ask these questions to your top two or three finalists, you will get a much better sense of which of them has actually accomplished more relevant things.

Yes, this takes time. Yes, it can get boring. But until you have a clear sense of these things, you don’t really know what you’re dealing with in their history. It’s easy to assume things about someone’s past; it’s harder to take the time to uncover those details. This is critical information.

3. Be consistent.

Whatever your interview process, make sure it is consistent across all incoming candidates. Choose your interview questions wisely, and seek help on this if you aren’t sure what to ask. Once you have the questions, you should develop a basic rubric—even if it is qualitative—so that scores are at least mostly consistent across interviewers and across candidates.

When you are narrowing in on finalists, you should have them interview with your entire team (if it’s small enough), or at least everyone they will be working with closely. Make sure you give your team members specific, unique questions and rubrics to use, otherwise they’ll likely ask repetitive questions and re-run the same conversations with the candidate over and over—which limits your ability to get new insights and further evaluate how good of a fit that candidate would be.

4. Resist optimism.

The biggest mistake the hiring managers make is being optimistic, hoping that this candidate is “the one” and not objectively trying to determine if they really have the skills and background required to do the job. Making idle small talk, using favorite “oddball” questions (e.g. “If you were a kitchen appliance, which one would you be?”), and spending too much time selling them on the opportunity are all unhelpful things that hiring managers do when they are clouded by optimism and eagerness to hire.

And the opposite isn’t smart, either. Using hardball questions, intimidation tactics, and giving trick questions or tests are equally unhelpful.

The best approach is to be calm, measured, balanced, and consistent. Your gut reaction to people is relevant, but is not substitute for measured due diligence. Take your time and be thorough—you’ll thank yourself later!

Nathaniel Koloc is co-founder and CEO at ReWork, a Colorado-based start-up that connectes talented professionals to hiring managers at for-impact companies. Nathaniel is an 2011 Unreasonable Fellow and a member of the YEC.

This huge startup conference is all about startups everywhere else, do you have your early bird tickets?

image: YEC