Tuesday, April 26, 2011

FU40 Reached More than 300 Members Today


The linkedin group, for business founders/owners/co-founders, which was started in 2008 has reached 300 members as of April 25, 2011. The founders and members would like to give thanks to to people who stayed loyal to this group even when there were 50 members and no activity.

I, Manny, encourage everyone to maximize this opportunity to learn and connect with other founders. There's a advice group, as well as a startup group and just recently a twitter group, http://twitter.com/#!/fu40group.

Fu40 group, http://fu40.bjmannyst.com

Thank You to Everyone!!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011

When Approaching Investors It Is Important To Know the Answers to the Following Questions -




What does your company do?
What's new about what you're doing?
What do you understand about your business that other companies don't?
How will you acquire customers?
How will you make money?

Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors?
If you've already started working on it, how long have you been at it?
If you have a demo, can anyone view it?
How long will it take before you have a prototype? A beta? A version you can charge for?
Why would your idea be hard for someone else to duplicate?

What are the biggest unknowns or risks in your idea (what keeps you up at night)?
For each founder, please list: name, age, school, degree, email address, personal URL (if any); and present employer and title (if any)
What products or companies have any of you built before? (Include URLs if possible)
How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet?

If you're already incorporated, when were you? Who are the shareholders and what percent does each own?
If you've previously received funding, how much did you take and at what valuation(s)?
If you're not incorporated yet, please list the percent of the company you plan to give each founder, and to anyone else (advisors, etc.).
If you expect to have any major expenses beyond salary, hosting and development tools, what will they be?
How long do you expect to work on this idea?
Do any founders have other commitments for the next 12 months?

Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project?
Was any of your code written or product designed by someone who is not one of your founders? If so, do you have the right to use it? (Open source is OK)
Please share one personal fact about each founder that helps us understand who you are as a person.



Monday, April 11, 2011

Why a Clear Focus Is Essential to Success

Six key reasons why you should keep things simple in the beginning

By Martin Z

Here are the common sense reasons why a laser focus is more likely to lead to start-up business success:

1. Time to market is critical. It takes too much time to build processes and products to capitalize on a broad strategy. Meanwhile, small competitors will appear, seize your business opportunities, and steal your targeted customers.

2. It's important to keep infrastructure costs low. Every business needs some basic equipment and infrastructure, and ongoing development costs. Attempting to roll out the big dream internationally all at once costs lots of money. Getting more money is hard, but not as hard as building the big infrastructure and getting it right the first time.

3. You need to be nimble. Every successful start-up I know has had to dodge and weave or pivot quickly as they learn what their customers really want, and what really works in product design and marketing. Bloated products and the grand unifying theory of everything won't allow you to adapt quickly to market changes and mistakes made.

4. Innovation leads to market leadership. Success requires market leadership in your product area, and it's easy to see that pushing more products and services dilutes your focus and attention. Market leadership isn't a one-time thing, it means continuous innovation, or you will be left behind.

5. Maintaining quality is key. The more you try to do in parallel, the harder it is to maintain quality. Remember the old maxim that "you only get one chance to make a great first impression." Customers are fickle, and good quality and good customer service is hard, even with a focused product.

6. Personal bandwidth is limited. When things become too messy and complex, and even you are not sure of priorities, people get disillusioned, tired, lose motivation, and tend to give up easily. A laser focus is easier to communicate, easier to manage, and more likely to get done quickly and well.
Saturday, April 9, 2011

How to Avoid a Social Media Lawsuit

How to Avoid a Social Media Lawsuit

Businesses are utilizing social media to develop their brand and connect with customers. They often overlook the legal ramifications that could arise. Here's what to watch out for. By Lou D

1. Properly identifying yourself and offering full disclosure is not only recommended, but required by the Federal Trade Commission. If you're a company that is paying bloggers to write about your product or if you are a blogger writing about a product you've received for free or from a client, you need to disclose that information. Failing to do so amounts to improper and false reviews. Another simple way to look at this is your Twitter account: many employees who speak publicly about the company but also about their personal lives need to make it clear that they are employed by this organization but also that their thoughts are their own and not opinions of the organization, simple additions to a Twitter profile.


2. Whether it's in the hiring and recruitment process or when an employee is legally employed, setting a clear and specific standard for social media usage and guidance is a requirement. Defining what your employees can and cannot do, both in the workplace and at home, needs to be spelled out. If you fire an employee for something they've said on Facebook or on another social network, that needs to be spelled out in your own company's policy or you could be subject to a wrongful termination suit.


3. In social media, users and businesses upload content (photos, videos, etc.), often including copyrighted material. Do you have a legal right to repost a photo or video without proper attribution? Just because content is online does not mean it can be reposted. Every time it happens you are open to a $150,000 violation, but it's all about self-policing at this point.


Manny’s Opinion: We live in a world where it’s simply too easy to share, store information whether legit or not, at no cost. However, I and others need to realize that personal self-judgment is really the only tool that can make a difference. Companies should never collect, share information which is unnecessary to perform a task and should make every possible effort to protect and dispose of information responsibly. People willing to risk the lives, and safety of others should disclose their real names and not hide behind anonymous titles. Finally, I think we all can agree that what’s on the internet cannot be an effective assessment of people or companies.

Finally Please seek more professional help for your self or your company. Founders.

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