Sat.Apr 19, 2014

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8 Guidelines For Friends And Family Startup Funding

Startup Professionals Musings

'Most entrepreneurs have learned that it’s almost always quicker and easier to get cash from someone you know, rather than Angel investors or professional investors (VCs). In fact, most investors “require” that you already have some investment from friends and family before they will even step up to the plate. You see, investors invest in people, before they invest in ideas or products.

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What are the most effective ways for an entrepreneur to argue that a convertible note should be uncapped?

Gust

'For a sophisticated investor, there are none, because an uncapped note just doesn’t make sense (see my answer to “If a startup’s valuation is $x, how much larger should its cap on a convertible note be?” ). For an unsophisticated investor (ie, friends and family) the only argument is that you’re both babes in the woods, and neither of you is legitimately able to determine a fair cap (aka a valuation) now.

Valuation 155
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How to grow an awesome community to fuel your social startup

The Next Web

'Nadia Hussain is the Community Director at Polyvore. When you’re starting a social company, building a loyal and engaged community is paramount. But that can also be one of the most nuanced and challenging elements of launching your startup. As employee #6 and community director at Polyvore, I’ve had the opportunity to watch our community grow and build relationships with many of our early users – some of whom have been on our site for more than six years now.

Community 155
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How To Determine What You Are Passionate About

Mike Michalowicz

'When you have passion for something it will get you over every brick wall, help you weather every storm, and even when you’ve been knocked down for the hundredth time, compel you to get back up and try again. You can’t build a successful business without it. No one can be a little bit passionate. You either have passion for something, or you don’t.

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Building Healthy Innovation Ecosystems for Your Projects

Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic

Every startup and innovation project exists within an ecosystem that either helps or hurts that project. As innovation managers, we need to keep a pulse of that ecosystem and make sure we're helping those innovation projects we're managing every step of the way. In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in

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And the hits keep coming at the Atlanta Tech Village as Jason Carter came to visit

Jeff Hilimire

'On Wednesday we (those of us at the Atlanta Tech Village) were honored to have Mayor Kasim Reed come and speak to us in the morning and Brad Feld in the afternoon. More on that. Then yesterday, Jason Carter (running for governor) came and spent several hours at the Village. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Jason several times and I’m a HUGE fan.

Atlanta 60
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Weekend Favs April Nineteen

Duct Tape Marketing

'Weekend Favs April Nineteen written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing. My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr or one that I took out there on the road.

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The single biggest reason most entrepreneurs fail in 2014

The Next Web

'Ali Mese is the CEO and founder of PIQERS. This post originally appeared on Mese’s Medium blog. Exactly two years ago today, I woke up at 5 in the morning. Yes, I was suffering from our generation’s new sleeping problem. It is caused by too much blue light, especially when you stare at your cell phone before sleeping, which leaves you awake after only a few hours of sleep.