Gust

FEBRUARY 22, 2014

As such, creating a functional clone of Gust (including all the features under the hood, and ones that have not yet been released), using world-class engineers and state-of-the-art, 2012 project management in Ruby on Rails, would take roughly 20 person-years from soup to nuts (figure about 1/3 of that in product/UX/UI and 2/3 in actual coding.)

Belarus 107

Belarus Kazakhstan Portugal Accredited Investor 107

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

Exchanging equity for services is worth negotiating with legal counsel, accountants, engineers, and even sales people. Your funding strategy is a key part of every business plan, so don’t hesitate to check out the real alternatives. Partner with distributor or beneficiary.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Gust

JANUARY 13, 2013

But a depth of knowledge in a specific discipline, like computer science or engineering, allows you to understand that business as well as run it. More important are standard business, finance, and economics courses. Build a business plan early on. ” Study entrepreneurship, but major in something else.

Entrepreneur 180

Entrepreneur Seed Money Social Network Business Plan 180

Gust

OCTOBER 7, 2012

Don’t talk directly to potential investors until you have the business plan and other basics complete. Most startups need funding before shipping, and investors expect to see your website to validate your business plan. Prime the investor world. Tune your website. These things can’t be done while in stealth mode.

Stealth 131

Stealth Entrepreneur Incubator Engineer 131

Gust

JULY 19, 2014

I’d suggest that you browse through the Gust investor search engine for investment groups (and accelerators, incubators, business plan competitions, et al) that are relevant to your startup (by location, industry, type of organization, etc.),

Angel Groups 142

Angel Groups New York Deal Flow Incubator 142

Gust

MARCH 9, 2014

It’s not uncommon for me to see a startup business plan “mission” to be the “premier brand” for their product, yet their marketing budget in the financials is trivial. This combination will almost certainly get your plan tossed by potential investors, who understand all too well the need and cost for marketing in today’s environment.

Marketing 146

Marketing SEM Viral Social Media 146

Gust

AUGUST 29, 2012

Somebody asked me in email what investors look for in the marketing portion of a business plan and/or business pitch. What works? What’s credible? What are investors looking for? . Caveat: generalizations are dangerous. I see three essentials: . The market-defining story.

Marketing 119

Marketing Social Media Sales Cycle Angel Investor 119