Startups Signing an NDA as an LLC

---

• Signing an NDA as an LLC
• Don't get ripped off when outsourcing the development of your product.
• Code held hostage , need guidance
• I conducted a study of 1,117 content marketers to learn what successful blogs do differently. Here are the top takeaways.
• Suggestions For Accelerating Cash Flow in a Launched App/SaaS
• how should i register my business?
• Company offers equity, but refuses to disclose cap table. Is this a giant red flag?
• Google adds for business idea validation
• How to get attention from the target market before launch?
• Dealing with likelihood of confusion trademark response
• Fair Co-Founder Equity

Signing an NDA as an LLC Posted: 11 Apr 2019 05:22 PM PDT I had been doing software freelancing for 3 years and I decided to establish my own Single Member LLC. In the past, I had been signing NDA with my name on it since I am not previously aware about LLCs. ​ I have a huge client and they will be sending me an NDA. My questions are: How do I represent my company on the NDA? Do I need to tell my client that I will be signing as an LLC? Is there a possibility that client will say no and I should sign personally not as an LLC? ​ My other question is, I have previous NDAs with various clients. Can I talk to them and void the NDAs I signed and issue another one so that I could sign those as an LLC? submitted by /u/engineerFWSWHW [link] [comments]

Don't get ripped off when outsourcing the development of your product. Posted: 12 Apr 2019 02:07 AM PDT I've just seen yet another post about "my outsourced development is possibly screwing me, what can I do", so I thought I'd write down some guidelines about how not to get screwed. I've worked as a developer and CTO in the tech industry for a decade, have used plenty of outsourced developers (both local and offshore) as well as built engineering teams. So here's my advice to not getting screwed. The Contract You must have a written contract with your developers. No oral agreements, no phone calls, no chats. A proper written contract. You should supply this contract, so that it meets your needs (since you're paying for the service here), rather than using a contract supplied by your outsourced developer, which will suit their needs. Get a lawyer to draft something up, find something on the internet, or even write something yourself - yes, there are traps there, but contracts are only documents which agree something, so even a self-written contract will put you in a far better position than none at all. The contract must specify that ownership in all intellectual property produced immediately transfers to you, or transfers on payment. The contract must allow you to terminate the agreement without any preconditions, and with minimal notice (say, 7 days at most. Try for immediate termination). Never agree to a contract with minimum fees or long termination periods. Code Do not allow your developer(s) to host the code themselves. Sign up for a GitHub account, and demand that developers use that as their code repository, with regular commits. It's your code, that you're paying for, so you need to have ownership and control of it. If any developer won't agree to this, do not use them. If they're not pushing code at least every 1-2 days, start asking questions. Get a trusted technical friend to look over the work the outsourced dev is doing. Do this in the first few days, and again in the first few weeks. You friend should be able to tell you if the code is being produced to decent levels of quality, or if its absolute rubbish. Break up work into chunks of at most 1-2 days, especially at first. Don't allow your developers to go away for a week, or a month to produce something, and deliver a ton of code at the end of that period. You should be seeing new code almost every day - if this is a problem for your developers, this is a red flag, and you should ask questions. Make sure your developer is using a common language and framework, so that you're not left with something that's difficult to recruit other developers for. For web apps, this means Ruby on Rails, Python + Django, Node.JS or PHP + Laravel. Maybe C# + ASP.NET if you're doing very businessy stuff. For iPhone apps, Swift. For Android, Kotlin or Java. If you're not confident to make this decision yourself, talk to your technical friend, because it's an important one. Hosting Don't use the same development company as hosting company. This basically hands control of your business to a third party, and you will be screwed if things go sour. If you're doing a web application, sign up for a Heroku account, and get your developers to deploy to that. Or a Digital Ocean or AWS account, though that's more complicated. If you're doing an iPhone or Android app, then make sure you own the Apple Developer account (or Google equivalent), and you control the app store submission process. At the very worst, find a second contractor to set up your hosting, so there's at least a division of control. Hosting for a web-app should be quite cheap. A basic production web-app setup on Heroku will start at around $200-$300 per month. If you're really desperate for cash, it can be made cheaper, and it will also get more expensive as you grow, but worry about that later. If you're being asked for thousands of dollars a month in "hosting", you're being ripped off - and there are outsourcing companies who do this, because it's easy money from the gullible. Working with outsourced developers Do a video call with them every day. Yes, every day, even if just for a few minutes. That way you get daily updates, hear about any problems quickly, and can start to build a good relationship. If you're working with a team, do this with the whole team. If they won't agree to this, don't work with them. If they won't do a video call, but only audio, be very suspicious - I once had a situation where we did interviews with a developer, who seemed to be good, but when they substituted another developer to actually do the work, but we only found out after a week because he claimed he couldn't do video calls. If they don't show good progress quickly, get rid of them. Don't accept excuses, you should be seeing code written very quickly. If they take a week to "set up a development environment", get rid of them. If they've only delivered 100 lines of code after a week, get rid of them. If you suspect you're being lied to, get rid of them. Talk to you technical friend here. If they're writing code instead of using a commonly available library, get rid of them (I once had a contractor write a half-assed S3 connector for a Rails project, instead of using a well-tested gem like Paperclip, and try to bill me for the time. That is so unacceptable it defies belief.) Remember to stay in control of the process. You're paying the money, so you control what's going on. You control what's being worked on, and the scope and timelines. These things are related, but do not allow a one-month contract to be turned into a six-month one by the developers - some are very skilled at this sort of thing. Expect to see a continuous stream of deliverables, and if you're not, or the quality isn't up to your expectations, start asking questions. Don't doubt your judgement - if you feel you're being fed bullshit, find a technical friend, or even another outsourced developer to ask questions of, review code, or just to talk to. Finally, don't be afraid to fire your developers. Unless you're doing start-of-the-art stuff like self-driving cars or AI, then developers are pretty replaceable. And if your current developers are not working out, fire them, and find other ones. This is true for individual developers, and for outsourced teams. They need to produce at an adequate speed and quality, and if they don't, get rid of them. If they're not producing work from the first few days, get rid of them. You'll be far better off in the long run. Trust your intuition here. submitted by /u/Ataraxite [link] [comments]

Code held hostage , need guidance Posted: 11 Apr 2019 07:40 PM PDT We are a idea stage startup / company related to fintech. I am the non technical founder . I don't have any cofounders yet. I was trying to find a tech service provider or a coder who can help me a MVP . After a few tries people running away with money to having no clue to what they have to do . Finally came across a tech professional who has a full time job and runs a outsourcing company overseas. We discussed the basics and agreed on 6K to develop a mvp. Progress was slow , and due to regulatory hurdles, i decided to go for a different approach and changed the basic business model. He said that the coding team is overseas and its easier for them to host the site themselves and code from their native offices. I asked him for a local copy few times so i have uninterrupted access to site so i can do my marketing and capital raising work without hickkups. In addition to the 6K i am putting in close to 2k for said hosting and development costs. The tech only meets once a month before the month end to collect another check for 2k and makes the changes which i suggest in site how it needs to be in a day or so and then its no progress or anything for next month. We are almost 6-7 months in this process. The developers he has have no design skills and have just set up a basic framework, which is like a basic old school wireframe. I am afraid if i tell the guy that I am not happy with the progress , i will loose all the work and he might go and market the idea somewhere else and i wont have the code either . Need advise . The business idea is fairly simple but no one has implemented it yet in the fintech field .. submitted by /u/Loop_di_loop [link] [comments]

I conducted a study of 1,117 content marketers to learn what successful blogs do differently. Here are the top takeaways. Posted: 12 Apr 2019 02:16 AM PDT In February I ran a big survey to find out what blogging & content marketing strategies are working best right now. A full 1,117 people responded in total, including a bunch of redditors. Two-thirds of them are blogging to make money or build a business. Their responses have given us some really interesting data with a 2.9% margin of error at 95% confidence. The best part: it's segmented by income level, so you can see what bloggers who earn over $50K per year do differently from lower-income ones. That may not seem like a high bar for income, but it's a good indicator that they are on the right path -- and I was also able to get input from Brian Dean of Backlinko and Andrew Warner of Mixergy to help turn the data into insights. (Mods, the full post is 4,700 words long, so per the sidebar I am asking for an exception to the "post the whole article" rule so that I can share the highlights here.) Here are the highlights: Blogs that earn over $50,000 per year put a lot of focus on email, using 343% as many email-collection methods as lower-income blogs. Longer articles are correlated with success. Bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year say their most popular blog posts are 2,424 words long on average: 83% longer than those from lower-income bloggers. Bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year tend to emphasize on SEO. Their #1 traffic source is typically Google organic search, and compared to lower-income bloggers they are 4.3 times as likely to conduct keyword research. Over 50% of bloggers say it has gotten harder to get traffic from Facebook over the past two years, and nearly one-fifth say it has gotten harder to get traffic from Google. Higher-income bloggers rate the importance of social media 19% lower than lower-income bloggers do. "Quality of content" is rated the #1 most important success factor among all bloggers. However, higher-income bloggers work much harder to promote their content than lower-income bloggers do. 70% of bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year say they are active or very active promoters of their blogs, compared to only 14% of lower-income bloggers. Google AdSense is the most popular monetization method bloggers use, followed by affiliate marketing. But for higher-income bloggers, AdSense ranks third: they are 2.5 times as likely to sell their own product or service as they are to use AdSense. 45% of bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year sell their own product or service, while only 8% of lower-income bloggers do. The most common challenge bloggers face is getting traffic to their blogs. Successful bloggers know their audiences well. 73% of bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year say they focus their content on the interests of a very specific group. Bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year pay content writers 3.6 times as much as lower-income bloggers do. Compared to lower-income bloggers, bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year are 10.3x as likely to use paid promotion, 5.8x as likely to publish case studies, 5x as likely to have a podcast, 4.5x as likely to publish video, and 3.7x as likely to publish interviews. Note that this is not a checklist of things that blogs need in order to be successful. These statistics are based on correlation and not necessarily causation. Adopting an advanced technique too early may even make a new business less likely to succeed. (E.g. Unprofitable startups will probably only become more unprofitable if they start using paid promotion for their blog content.) However, if you're just starting a blog for your startup or having trouble making yours perform well, it can be very helpful to see what higher-earning bloggers are doing differently and test emulating it. The key is to think about how those techniques fit in with the stage you're at, as well as what you are trying to accomplish and what would best serve your audience or target customer. The full results post includes 19 illustrated charts and expert reactions from Brian Dean of Backlinko, Andrew Warner of Mixergy, and more. Thanks to everyone who took the survey! submitted by /u/kjb123etc [link] [comments]

Suggestions For Accelerating Cash Flow in a Launched App/SaaS Posted: 11 Apr 2019 11:39 PM PDT To keep the backstory brief, I am a co-founder of an iOS app and SaaS tool for photographers (my wife is our other co-founder). Between the two of us, we have designed, developed, and launched an iOS app and web console for users. We offer two versions of our app; as a B2C (one time purchase) and a B2B (monthly subscription). Our B2B app/services is the higher earner and was launched just over 4 months ago. We are averaging about $2,000/mo in subscriptions; I work on this business full-time, handling sales, support, development, and customer engagement. Our advertising has consisted of App Store search ads, Instagram ads, and involvement in online communities. As it stands, the interest and support needs for the software eat up most of the day, leaving lesser time for new features and critical bug fixes (recently started farming out tasks to freelancers on Upwork). Short of cold calling potential customers, I'm curious of the experience of others who have been in a position where they are generating positive cash flow, but not a sustainable amount to continue surviving off of. This particular field sees customers often spending 2-3x our subscription price, for a leading competitor's software that is minimally more capable than our own. Many customers pay for a year of software in advance with our competitor, making them less likely to switch to us until their plan expires with their current provider. Perhaps worth mentioning, but we have a unique feature in the Augmented Reality space that we feel is immensely unique and capable of being licensed to e-commerce as its own entity, but that seems like more time invested in avenues that are unlikely to generate short-term profit. How would you accelerate cash flow, knowing you have a well-regraded product that does not necessarily have marketing appeal (too niche) for social ads but is competitively priced? Raising price to match competitor by offering a better quality product with less features? I know this is generic, but love reading this community! submitted by /u/davismalabaster8 [link] [comments]

how should i register my business? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 08:29 AM PDT Hey guys, im not sure if this is the right place for this. but i am starting up an online Digital Marketing and Web Design company. i have a business partner who does not live in the US. i have been doing research online and it seems that LLC is going to be the best option since i have a foreign partner. but what im stuck on is if it should be a limited liability partnership or an S corp ( im getting some conflicting stories online). i am trying to set it up to be as beneficial tax wise as possible. i own 51% of the company and he has 49%. any advice would be appreciated. EDIT: business partner lives in Egypt. Company is based in Wisconsin. EDIT 2: I have contacted a CPA and he said that my best course of action is to set it up as a single member LLC and just pay my business partner like a contractor. I will be getting some other opinions as well. Thanks for all the words of wisdom I really appreciate it! submitted by /u/pakyak1 [link] [comments]

Company offers equity, but refuses to disclose cap table. Is this a giant red flag? Posted: 12 Apr 2019 01:47 AM PDT Today I had a meeting with C-level people at a tech startup where I would be engineer ~#2, and they explicitly offered me equity as part of compensation. When I tried to find out what the equity would be worth (%,$), they clammed up and refused to say anything about it. Have you had experience with this? Is there any legitimate reason they couldn't tell me what percentage they were offering? Is there any good reason I can't know about the ownership structure? My gut tells me it's fishy. Thanks! submitted by /u/ignorant_peasant [link] [comments]

Google adds for business idea validation Posted: 11 Apr 2019 02:33 PM PDT Hi, I am thinking about starting a business, but I am not sure how big the market is. (I live in Denmark and I want to provide the service to all of Europe. ) ​ The cost of starting is about $20.000, which isn't too bad, but I'd still like to gauge the market size. ​ Would running an add on google with the product/service be a viable way to test the market need? Does anyone have experience doing this? And is Google even the best place to do this these days? Obviously facebook or Instagram could be options too. submitted by /u/jacobjuul [link] [comments]

How to get attention from the target market before launch? Posted: 11 Apr 2019 10:24 AM PDT Hi everyone, I've been deciding to try out a project for quite some time now. In the past few weeks, I've been working on a contact us API system for websites (businesses). It's nearly done but before burning money, I would love to figure out ways of getting attention from my target audience before launch. I do hear such activity occurring on forums and posts on Reddit. What I get confused on is the methodology of gaining early attention and users. How would one do this procedure? Was this process beneficial for your startups (or any kind of project)? Would you recommend this process or not? submitted by /u/azhan15 [link] [comments]

Dealing with likelihood of confusion trademark response Posted: 11 Apr 2019 01:09 PM PDT Hi. Today I received a response for a trademark for the name of my company. Unfortunately I was refused due to the fact that there is another company with a similar name. Note this is not the same name. The name is two parts and we share the first word and the word scope and scoop for the second part. However we are in a similar space I'm particularly concerned due to the costs of the .com website that I have already purchased. Is there any way to go about dealing with this? How could I have known ahead of time/avoided? And did I go in the wrong order by grabbing my site before trademark? Thanks so much for your help!! submitted by /u/ljschindel [link] [comments]

Fair Co-Founder Equity Posted: 11 Apr 2019 11:23 AM PDT Had an interesting conversation with a college friend over some beers this week. He is working on a mobile application for a niche industry and wanted my opinion on what a fair equity stake would be for his now co-founder. He has at this point paid for everything in the startup. Hosting, AWS, etc. He has done all of the design work along with 80% of the backend work along with 100% of the web work. He hired this other gentleman to help with the android and ios side. They got a long great and he asked if he (programmer) would be interested in joining on as a co-founder. Programmer wants to but also requested to continue to be paid upwards of $1200/month to cover his living expenses where he is at. My buddy asked me what I thought was fair equity to give to the "Co-Founder". Personally to me it sounds more like a hired individual but I understand that they work great together and the co-founder has taken great pride in this project. Maybe 5%? Maybe 10%? What are some of your opinions on what would be fair to reward the co-founder with? submitted by /u/tator22 [link] [comments]

You are subscribed to email updates from Startups - Finding problems and solving them!. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States