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If You Don’t Define Your Personal Brand the Market Will

Both Sides of the Table

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. I was 23 and had been programming computers, designing computer networks and selling software for 10 years. ” F**k.

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Technology Roles in Startups

SoCal CTO

I am looking for one or two startups that I can work with on their road to success as a virtual C-level officer, board member, advisor or other relationship. This is actually fairly common and I think it’s a bit challenging in that the technology roles (from technology advisor to CTO) in a startup vary widely.

Insiders

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Equity Investment Platform Preparation Best Practices

Startup Professionals Musings

In my years of advising startups, and also as an occasional angel investor, I still recommend this set of best practices to prepare you for platform applications: Formalize a business entity immediately. Collect target customer testimonials and advocacy. File a provisional patent or other intellectual property.

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Startup Weekend LA | An Insiders Story of a Startup on Steroids

Tech Zulu Event

The team needed would consist of at least 1 non-technical business person (me) and 2 or more technical people—designer and developer. I was only able to create a team with non-technical business people and a designer. Business Development (BD) worked on a business plan, market research and customer validation.

Startup 99
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Roping in the Legal Eagles

InfoChachkie

Your lawyer is a trusted advisor, but in the end, you run your business, your lawyer does not. In other words, find a lawyer who will take the time to understand the issues underlying your business and advise you how to best accomplish your objectives while minimizing your legal exposure. but They Make Great Guard Dogs. Do not do it.

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Most Common Early Start-up Mistakes

Both Sides of the Table

There is nothing wrong with non-founders – by design they are the overwhelming majority of companies. Get customer input. People design their products in a box assuming that they’ll show customers later and get feedback. Interview customers to better articulate their problems.

Startup 365
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Frank Addantes FounderBlog: Startup 5.0 – I’m just going to chill out for a bit… (OK, for a month…)

Frank Addante

We provide turnkey digital messaging appliances for enterprises, service providers and software developers to send marketing, e-commerce, CRM and customer service email. StrongMail’s software ensures reliable and timely delivery of their critical customer communications. SMS, MMS, Instant Messaging, etc.)

Startup 40