Monday, December 14, 2009

The 19 biggest surprises of startups - by Paul Graham


1. Be Careful with Cofounders

2. Startups Take Over Your Life

3. It's an Emotional Roller-coaster

4. It Can Be Fun

5. Persistence Is the Key

6. Think Long-Term

7. Lots of Little Things

8. Start with Something Minimal

9. Engage Users

10. Change Your Idea

11. Don't Worry about Competitors

12. It's Hard to Get Users

13. Expect the Worst with Deals

14. Investors Are Clueless

15. You May Have to Play Games

16. Luck Is a Big Factor

17. The Value of Community


18. You Get No Respect


19. Things Change as You Grow

read them here: http://paulgraham.com/really.html

Thursday, December 10, 2009

VC Funding Season - by Mark Suster

START your process:

redlight

- January 6 – May 15th (green zone)

- May 16th – June 30th (yellow zone)

- July 1st – September 7th (red zone)

- September 8th – October 15th (green zone)

- October 16th – October 31st (yellow zone)

- November 1st – January 7th (red zone)

full articel: http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/08/funding-season-ends-next-week/

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

8 Tips for Alternative Funding (10-25k are enough for software startups today)

 
 

Sent to you by Thomas via Google Reader:

 
 

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Early-stage success factores


There are already thousands of web companies providing a wide range of services, so why will a brand new company make money? At the heart of a web 2.0 startup are several theories:
  1. Our new service will attract the following kinds of users: .....................
  2. They will use it for the following purposes: ..................
  3. Instead of a trusted brand, they will use a startup they've never heard of before because ......................
  4. Even though some of the value is social, we will be useful to the first users because ..........................
  5. Users will recommend us to their friends because ....................
  6. Big competitors won't be able to copy our features as soon as they notice us because ........................
  7. .................... will pay us $................... in return for ........................
  8. Once we get critical mass it'll be hard for new startups to steal our users because ..........................
http://blog.tlb.org/early-stage-theories