Startups Looking for advice on where to begin |
- Looking for advice on where to begin
- Is New Mexico LLC perfect for strictly online businesses operated by foreigners?
- Commandments to Startup Success
- Equity and compensation question.
- Starting a YouTube channel to teach college students about the startup industry.
- Fundraising from Mexico vs. the US
- Responsible for marketing? Here's some practical advice for coming up with high quality content ideas.
- Considering a jump into StartUpLand... lmk what you think
- What's the simplest product you have ever charged customers for?
| Looking for advice on where to begin Posted: 03 May 2018 10:25 PM PDT Hi All, I'm hoping this group can help with the most basic advice for someone with what is right now, just an an idea. We are a group of three fledglings ready to escape the golden cage to spread our wings and fly. At the moment and we have an idea we NEED to see come to life. Among us we have the talent & resources for research, insight collection, strategy development, MVP product definition, UX, and identifying resources required to execute MVP. What we don't have at the moment is funding, design & development to prototype, test, showcase and build upon. We are excited and overwhelmed at the same time. If this sub has any recommendations on how we could/should think about moving forward, and what supportive resources there are out there which we can turn to to help build, it would be greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Is New Mexico LLC perfect for strictly online businesses operated by foreigners? Posted: 03 May 2018 03:44 PM PDT I'm running a consulting / development business and I'd like to form an LLC in the US. I have had past experiences with Delaware but the ongoing cost/requirements are not really that attractive, so I started looking for alternatives and I came across New Mexico. From what I hear: - No annual report/franchise tax - Cheap state filing fee - Private Is there a gotcha here? I'm looking for a state with 0 internet tax (I do consulting) and no state annual report headaches or franchise fees. P.S. I'm not from the US [link] [comments]  |
| Commandments to Startup Success Posted: 04 May 2018 01:17 AM PDT Will start by quoting Ben Horowitz "Every time I read a management or self-help book, I find myself saying, "That's fine, but that wasn't really the hard thing about the situation." The hard thing isn't setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal" —- Ben Horowitz Startups are hard and by ensuring that one is clear on some of the following aspects, the chances of failure can be brought down dramatically. Founders Vs Investors Understand the difference between them. No part time co-founding. Founders are a part of the journey, investors have a stake in the journey. Similar financial and intellectual sync, you will not succeed if your motivations are not the same. more ... http://startupanalytics.co.in [link] [comments]  |
| Equity and compensation question. Posted: 03 May 2018 06:01 PM PDT A friend of mine ran a business buying and reselling certain items. Long story short he no longer does this but has systems that he developed that streamlines the process. He's offered to allow me to use the systems and his credit card to do it myself and scale it into a large company. I have a startup background and I believe I can scale this. I will be doing this full time and he will consult when needed but will mostly be occupied with his career in finance. What is a fair way for me to be compensated and to split the equity of the company? Overall we are friends first so I'd like to know what you guys suggest. [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a YouTube channel to teach college students about the startup industry. Posted: 03 May 2018 04:11 AM PDT Hello, So I'm a current undergraduate that's tried founding a startup before and also am going to work at one overseas this summer as part of a program my college runs. To give back to the community, I've decided to create a vlog/informational channel to help others like me – basically telling them about the life of a startup intern, how to secure such an internship, and other tips and tricks that I've picked up along the way like market validation, sourcing for partners, etc. It's not really for profit or anything; just decided it would be a cool project to consolidate my experience so far (and what I'll learn in the future too) while helping those who plan to follow a similar path. It's going to be my first experience with Youtube and filmography/video-editing, so is there any advice that you could give? Mainly about how to produce quality/relevant content (engaging, too!), and how to gain traction in the early stages. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Fundraising from Mexico vs. the US Posted: 03 May 2018 12:51 PM PDT I'm currently torn about making a decision and I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts about or experience with this. I'm the founder of a startup that does authentic travel experiences in Latin America. Currently I'm based out of Mexico and I really love living here. I have two inactive co-founders who had too much debt so decided to take their corporate job offers. I didn't have debt so stayed. We've been in operation for 2 years and we've received a seed investment of $50k USD from an accelerator program. We've been growing strongly but our team is basically me and one other person. I've been putting off fundraising because we keep making more money, extending our runway. Also, I am not big on networking (yes I know it's crucial) and fundraising but I realize it's something that I have to do. I have been debating whether to stay in Mexico and raise less money (cost of living is of course much lower here) and hire Mexicans (or sponsor visas for gringos) or go to the US and build the team there, having to raise basically double what we would have to raise in Mexico (500k v. 250k). There are a lot of other nuances to this situation such as the fact that I am on the down-low looking for a co-founder to join me who has a stronger finance/fundraising background. I know a lot of stratups who struggle to get funding in Mexico, but I would imagine it's not easy in the US either. I don't have an MBA and started this company right out of college (Penn) so I don't have the most relevant network to tap into. Right now we have enough money to get through December/January assuming we don't make any additional money (which of course we will). I'm 25 and want us to either quickly take off, raise money, hire people, and grow a ton, or shut things down and move on with my life and explore other opportunities. I love my company and I have a very strong passion for what I do. I'm looking for some advice and insights into the situation. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 May 2018 03:34 AM PDT If you work for a startup, especially an early-stage startup, you're probably wearing many different hats. You might work on refreshing some website copy on Monday, stand up a PPC campaign on Wednesday, and hit publish on an email course by Friday. That's all well and good, but when you spend all of your time buried in day-to-day marketing activities, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. And if you don't have a specific, strategic intent behind everything you publish, then you are essentially just "winging it." What does "winging it" lead to? - Testing every half-baked idea that you read on a blog or forum - Trying to replicate strategies your competitors are using, often with poor results - Making assumptions that can send you way too far down the wrong path - Poor overall performance, which can crush your confidence (and your career prospects) We don't want ANY of that to happen. So, here's some practical advice for coming up with high quality content ideas that align with your broader organizational goals, have real value or meaning to your audience, and give you a better chance of driving meaningful results for your marketing campaigns. Strategy #1: Ask your audience what they want to hear from you"No shit, Sherlock!" came the reply. This isn't exactly groundbreaking advice, but it still needs to be said. That's because, just like maintaining a proper diet and exercise regimen, most of us KNOW we should be doing this, but we fail to do it consistently. You need to make direct connections with members of your target audience and get to know them well. You should have a comprehensive understanding of their needs and interests. Don't be afraid to ask them directly! Also, it's easy to focus on uncovering what kind of topics you should cover, but don't forget to discuss formatting and delivery methods. You might be surprised that most of your customers prefer to watch video content or listen to audio guides. Here are some specific methods for connecting with audience members and uncovering topic ideas... Active: Surveys, Focus Groups, 1:1 Outreach Passive: Read the comment section, Listen on social networks, Lurk on forums, Read product reviews This stuff doesn't scale easily, which means most other people aren't doing it either. And THAT means if you commit to doing it, it can become a source of competitive advantage for you and your company. Strategy #2: Use internal resources to share customer insightsThis might make you a little uncomfortable, but you're going to have to talk to people in other parts of the company. Folks in product management, product development, sales, or customer success can be fertile sources of content ideas. Why? Because they are often doing research of their own and/or have frequent, direct interactions with customers. If you can get 30-60 minutes of their time, grab a conference room and ask them things like:
In some cases, these conversations can get pretty technical. You should be prepared to take good notes and spend some time thinking about ways to take complex topics or detailed processes and translate them into plain language. Your ability to uncover these ideas and present them in a way that is both valuable and easy to understand can make the difference between "Meh." and "OMIGAH!" Strategy #3: Mold external data points to fit your audience's needs/interestsEvery day, trustworthy sources are publishing research and detailed reports about technological innovations and industry trends. These documents are usually about 20-40 pages and are filled with a bunch of charts and tables. In other words, nobody reads them. They skim the executive summary, copy a line or two, and share the resource on social media to make themselves look smart. Don't be that person. Be the person who is actually smart. The one who studies the research and pulls out the meaningful findings so that they can use them to further their own initiatives. It's not sexy, but some of the best growth strategies require stomping around in the mud for a while before they payoff. If you can do the hard work of filtering through dense material and pulling out the golden nuggets, your audience will repay you with engagement and, more importantly, conversions. This is one of the single best methods for delivering value, building trust, and establishing your company as a trusted authority in the space. The most important part of this strategy is how you deliver the information. You can't just republish the good parts. You need to add your own data and stories, swap out technical jargon for language that your customers would use, and package it all up in a format they actually want to consume. If you can do all of that, there's a good chance you'll see much more meaningful results from your effort. What happens next?So, let's say you've used the strategies above to put together a substantial list of content marketing topic ideas. Now what? Here's where you should go next... PrioritizationYou need to prioritize your topic ideas based on some kind of criteria. This can be real or perceived SEO value, customer demand, timing/alignment with feature launches, resource requirements, pretty much anything you can think of. The point is, not all topics are created equal. Find the ones that seem to be most impactful for you right now and start there. DocumentationFor each topic idea you decide to pursue, you should document a handful of critical elements:
ExecutionIf you're strapped for money or resources, you might be taking this on yourself. In which case, Godspeed. But, if you've been given a budget, you should know that freelancers are your friends. If you've done the legwork to uncover topics that are tied to specific needs and interests of your audience, the work of a freelancer writer will almost always generate a positive ROI. To make things easier, put together some onboarding materials/workflows (Ex: style guide, customer avatars, checklists, Asana/Trello teams, etc.) before hiring anyone to streamline the process. Above all else, remember that quality trumps quantity, but consistency is still important. If you go dark for six months because you get tied up with another project, you risk losing touch with your audience and having to start over from scratch. Performance Tracking and OptimizationUnfortunately, your work doesn't stop after you hit publish. Quite the contrary, in fact. Now you have to determine if all of your hard work actually paid off...and you do that by tracking KPIs. Maybe you are trying to maximize your open rate, or your click through rate, or your number of shares, or your video watch time, or your trial sign up conversion rate, or any of 100 other marketing metrics. Whatever is important to you, make sure you have a method of tracking it before you put another content pieces out into the world. Otherwise, you'll have no barometer for the effectiveness of your approach. When you're first starting out, make educated guesses on what formats, lengths, timings, and delivery methods will be most effective. As long as you have the right tracking measures in place, you should soon be able to tell which areas show promise and which ones are floundering. Double-down on the strategies that show early signs of traction and watch the flywheel start to gain momentum. Stick to it for the long haul and you'll have yourself a respectable, sustainable growth pattern to build on top of. [link] [comments]  |
| Considering a jump into StartUpLand... lmk what you think Posted: 03 May 2018 07:26 AM PDT Hi all, I'd like some takes on a job situation. I'm currently a tech consultant (think D/A/IBM) nearing my first anniversary with the firm. I'm pretty dang satisfied with my experience, to be honest. Some days suck but I love my team and feel good about the skills and experiences I've developed on my resume in such a short time. That said, I have a nagging interest in startups (worked on one in university and loved it) and recently started thinking about my next step, aiming at a jump to a big tech (Longshot) or startup after a year, 18 months, or 2 years with my firm. I threw a few feeler applications out there towards product manager type roles in post series A startups to guage the interest I'd receive back. I ended up hearing back from a post-series B startup who wants me to interview for a role called "Strategy and Engagement Manager". Essentially the company provides software to healthcare providers to help them utilize data more effectively. This role works with the customer in a consultant like fashion to solution the software to fit client needs and then ultimately goes back to the dev teams etc and helps manage the completion of the work. Honestly, this is fairly similar to my work now, though I work for one huge client and dont have as much of the sales element, to my estimate. I checked on LinkedIn and the others in this role are almost all former consultants with healthcare exp (like me, but with more experience and fancier undergrads). Basically... What do you think? My key concern is trajectory... I'm not exactly sure what path this sort of role will be put me on and how that will compare to my path within my firm (which is stable and I'm largely happy with). But if I know that my long-term ambitions lie in StartUpLand, maybe this is a good opportunity to make the leap I'm eventually going to make anyway... Here is some more info on the new role: Strategy & Engagement Manager Salary: 70-100K Equity: .01-.03% (via options) NYC location (50% travel) TL;DR: Weighing whether I should leave my current gig with a large firm where I'm generally happy for a similar role in a startup environment with more uncertainty but potentially more excitement. Lmk what you think. [link] [comments]  |
| What's the simplest product you have ever charged customers for? Posted: 03 May 2018 06:20 AM PDT What's the simplest product you have ever charged customers for? I'm building out a small product that I think will be too simple to charge for. Is this just a fallacy that I have in my head? or will people pay for simple products that help them achieve something small in their workflow? For example, nomadlist is just a aggregation of information to help digital nomads find cities to work from. It's hard to charge for just a list, so the maker of nomadlist created a community that you have to pay to join. Do you have examples of something like this where something auxiliary was needed to start charging? [link] [comments]  |
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