A Great Startup Business Resource

Many of us have some to be a “startup” purely from an idea that we had and have acted to make it come to fruition. But along the way, we are bombarded with so many intricacies of being a business, much less a startup business.
I know personally I often have many question about everything from finances, to legal issues, to patents and trademarks.  The list seems endless.

I cam across a great resource today that I wanted to pass along to anyone who is interested and is also in need of much of this info.

It is an aggregate of some Y Combinator posts and looks to be a pretty extensive list.

You can check it out HERE.

Cisco Looking To Help Entrepenuers

I came across this post yesterday about a new program Cisco is going to start a national program aimed at helping entrepenuers develop.  

Cisco is targeting business-wannabes in Phoenix, Washington D.C., and Northeast Ohio. According to a report in the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland, Cisco is developing an entrepreneur training program with the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (Eli), which received an undisclosed cash injection from the network giant. Eli aims to begin training teachers in the coming months.  

Should be an interesting item to keep your eye on out there.  Nice to see them in the local DC area.

Where to Find Your Angel

There is starting to be a lot more chatter around the DC area revolving around funding and investments.  Many often equate this this funding with Venture Capitalists, but this is not always the case.  Another very important piece of this puzzle are the Angel Investors. 

 There was a great post at CenterNetworks written by Charlie O'Donnell, Co Founder and CEO of Path101, an angel investment firm out of New York City.  It was a great read I think all of us/you possibly looking for a boost of financing to place into making your ideas come to life.

His first piece of advice, you dont always find a hot date in the bar, so you probably wont find angels at those networking events.

the same thing as trying to meet someone great in a bar…   Sure, it happens, but the odds are against you.  They don't know you, you don't know them.   You don't have any idea what the other person is looking for, what they value, or whether they're even really in the market at that moment.  Maybe they're just getting out of a bad relationship, or in an angel's case, just lost some money in a bad deal–in your niche, too.  Plus, in general, there are way more potential angels NOT going to angel events than actually going.  Similarly, the number of single people far outpaces the number of people who hangout in the hottest singles bars and clubs.

So where exactly do you go looking then ? 

Your target angel list should include the top 30 most successful people you can find in your space–not that you want to include all of them in your deal, but you need to talk to a lot of people because you're going to get a lot of no's.  The biggest reason why you want these people in your deal is because they can vet your idea.

And don't always be looking for just a check.  Many angels have a wealth of just good ol' experience and if you listen close enough, you may find something more valuable than the money you are searching for.

One Step Forward DC, Two Back

It seems that the DC area cant get the monkey off its back, no matter how hard we try. As you have read here, as well as elsewhere, there is a groundswell of a pretty cool tech community building here in the DC area. Granted we are fighting many stigmas and preconceived notions about the area and its viability to produce solid startup ideas, nonetheless we continue to try. A little help would be nice though.

On the heels of a great Mashable event in DC the other night comes a not so glowing review. Those of us that were there had a great time chatting about the various projects everyone is working on, for profit or just for fun. It is continued evidence of a the great vibe here in the area. So to be honest I was more than a little disappointed to read an article from the Washington Post recapping the event. Dan Beyer’s started out with

Washington has been trying to build a Web 2.0 community for more than a year. A cluster of AOL alumni, local college graduates, and people in their 20s and early 30s are trying to show that D.C. can be, if not Silicon Valley, a major presence for social networking Web sites, user generated content and cutting-edge Web apps.

and I couldn’t agree more. It was how he finished off the article that took me a back a bit.

Therein lies one of the big issues facing the local Web scene. Local venture capitalists are pretty skeptical of these companies, many of which have big ideas for the Web but little idea about how to make money from those ideas.

…

Unclear what some, or all, of those companies do? Join the club. (Hey–I’m not a luddite–I use a bevy of Web 2.0 tools in my daily life and know what the programming framework Ruby on Rails is. I even like white boards, the method of choice for diagramming sites in meetings. But it’s not clear how all these ideas are going to turn into businesses.)

It is absolutely true that the VC business is just that, a business and they need to be assured of a promising return on their investment. But a little enthusiasm for the local team would not hurt would it. And while he is looking around to see what startups have viable money making business plans, he should look elsewhere. Is it only the local companies who need to find the holy grail to get funding ? I doubt it. Lets see, I am not sure even now, Twitter has a business model. They have a user base and that seems to be enough for them, because if you build it and the users come, money will follow some how or another. Has he seen some of the shitty products out there that have actually been funded … why do you think TechCrunch has a “Dead Pool”? and I don’t see too many DC startups on that list.

What kind of got me even more was his down tone on the local companies. We have an uphill battle we are fighting here to begin with and it does not help when the local mainstream media continues to question the locals attempts at success. Interestingly enough at the Mashable event I had a was chatting with Nick O’Neill and Aaron Brazell and Nick made mention he was happy to see some of the Post writers at the event, and how a lot of what is written in the local press is so negative about the community. So I was very happy to see this post the next day by Post writer Kim Hart. But then it was all tempered by this dash of negativism.

As a growing community, we need all the help we can get, especially from the mainstream media. Like it or not, that is how many get their news. Unless that news becomes a little more positive the road will be long and hard to show people the possibilities are here. A long road yes, an impossible drive, No.

Are DC Startups Developing a Complex?

There is obviously a lot of good things happening here in the DC area with regards to our local tech community and some of the startups that are being born out of it. But I can’t help but feel that many of us here have developed a bit of a complex, whether we know it or not. I am as guilty as the next person. I mean one of the reasons I started this blog was to bring some more focus onto the great things happening here in the area. I have been so happy to meet such good people in the process who are doing great things and fighting the good fight to get their glimmers of ideas to come to fruition. However, I think we have developed the “We are trying to start a company here in DC and its definitely not Silicon Valley, or Seattle, or Boston, or …”. Many of us are constantly striving to find that tangible, or intangible thing we seem to be missing here is DC and many a posts are being written and comments left on the subject.

All that being said, this idea of the complex popped into my head the other day while catching up on some reading I had set aside. The article I was on was a Washington Post article featuring LaunchBox Digital. We have written about LaunchBox here before after we saw one of the founders interviewed on The Social Times and Nick O’Neill. At the time it seemed like LaunchBox was the perfect company at the right time for DC. A local incubator that was going to help get the blossoming tech community here off the ground. The firstpart of the article was about some actual funding the group received lately from some local investors. What caught me off guard was the next part.

San Francisco ? Isn’t that somewhere near Silicon Valley ? Don’t they have lots of VC money out there ?

I’ll be honest, I was a bit surprised, and frankly a bit disappointed. And I wasn’t the only one. I saw a comment by Ann Bernard, CEO of WhyGoSolo a local DC startup

My thoughts exactly. For a firm that proposed to help support and grow the local “DC” tech community, I am not sure this was a terrific first step.

So with this in mind, is it surprising to think that we may have developed a bit of a complex ? How can we not to be honest ? A local firm decides to invest their first bit of cash on the other side of the country ? I think it will be very curious to see how many local startups actually get selected to participate in LaunchBox08, their summer startup incubation program along the lines on Y-Combinator.

So what do you think, complex or not, or just growing pains ?

Silicon Valley: Arrington’s Twisted View

Yes we all know it is true, when we think “Start Up” we think Silicon Valley. There is no argument there. Here at East Coast Blogging, we often wade in and ponder this what’s and why’s that make the valley such a special place. We also look at the other areas that are smaller, yet very good tech hubs where startups seem to gravitate and thrive.

I was reading my feeds and came across Michael Arrington’s response post to a post by Glenn Kelman, CEO of RedFin. Glenn’s point was

None of us thinks Seattle is ever going to be much like Silicon Valley. We believe instead that what other cities can learn from Seattle is how to be different than the Valley, not the same.

It is a good post and I invite you all to go check it out. But this post is not about his post, rather the Arrington response. More specifically, one statement he makes in the post

But the best of the best come to Silicon Valley to see if they’re as good as the legends that came before them. It’s a competitive advantage to be here. And if you aren’t willing to take advantage of every possible advantage to make your crazy startup idea work, perhaps you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.

I have one question (and excuse my language) but who the fuck does Michael Arrington think he is? I will give him the first thought , I agree, there is definitely an advantage to being in the valley. But honestly, who is he to question peoples motives and abilities to be entrepreneurs ? Does he have some insight into the will and motivation of people scattered across the world who have great ideas and are working to build something of them ? No he does not. There is not a cookie cutter for an entrepreneur. Some have time and resources to dedicate and maybe move to the valley, but others like myself, have a family, a sound job, and roots in the areas we currently reside in, and we have to make do with the resources available to us. How dare he question peoples will ? Sure I have the will, Ann Bernard certainly has will, as do the thousands of other out there who have a passion for their ideas and are striving to reach their goals. Michael Arrington does very well to show his true colors and prove what many call his over arrogance.

Michael, I am an entrepreneur. I may not live in the Valley, or the promised land that you seem to have ordained yourself “god” of out there, but I will do what I can to make my ideas come to life. Is entrepreneurship about a location ? No. It is all about people working on their dreams, and in my dream the background is the Capitol, the White House, and the Smithsonian, not an arid valley in central California.

Another East Coast West Coast Thing

I am always fascinated about the talk of the differing cultures between the east and west coast tech scenes.  There are many posts about this phenomena.  I saw one shared in Google Reader today, by the way the shared items in reader is awesome and I always get to read great stiff shared out by my friends.  Anyway, today Andrew Wright pointing to an article in Valleywag which referenced a Forbes list of the tope venture capitalists.

According to the post, New York VC’s only made up 2% of the list.  They had an interesting take on some reasons for this:

asked many VCs why East Coast investors don’t prosper to the same degree as those based here, and the answer is consistent: Back east, VCs are too focused on the downside, on squeezing something out of a startup that has failed, on turfing out entrepreneurs when a young company hits a bump in the road. In the balmy clime of northern California, venture capitalists are a sunnier lot: They’d rather have a small piece of a large pie, or so they claim.

So is it patience ?  Is that the reason VC’s on the east coast do not fare as well as their west coats counterparts ?  Maybe this is true.  The east coast VC’s are obviously a bit more conservative with the $$ and maybe they do pull the string a little too early.  Any thoughts on this out there ?  Whats your take on the east vs west coast vc scene ?

DC Reminder: Social Matchbox DC

Just wanted to give everyone a quick reminder before we got to the weekend about a cool event taking place next Monday, January 28th at 6-8:30 PM.

The event is a great idea that plans to

bring together DC startup community members to discuss jobs, ideas and collaborative opportunities.  Participation is free.  Registration is required.  This event is not open to staffing agency representatives.

I am looking forward to going and getting a glimpse of the DC startups that are out there making things happen.

Here is an update we received today from the event organizer

With eight days to go before the event more than 20 companies from the startup community have signed up and plan to send representatives.  Among them are: ClearSpring, CrossMine, CustomInk, HotPads, iBelong, Hungry Machine, Intridea, Mixx, Ozmosis, Positive Energy, Razoo, Visual CV, WorthPoint.  comScore was also invited and will be joining us.

Over 100 people are expected to attend.  Registrants include at least: 41 developers, 2 development managers,  1 user experience designer, 1 QA engineer, 5 systems engineers, 5 marketing and PR professionals, 3 sales reps, 4 operations managers, 10 executives, 3 corporate recruiters, 2 data/business analysts, and more than 31 others who we can’t classify based on their registration information.

Location:
TeqCorner, 3rd Floor, 1616 Anderson Road, McLean, VA 22102

Schedule:
6-7 networking
7-7:30 startups get 2-3 minutes to talk about who they are and what they are looking for (no demo)
7:30-8:30 networking

Let us know who plans on going ?

Mixx Hits 100 Days, and Going Strong

I had totally missed this news on the Mixx blog, but was reminded of it when I saw this post over at Centernetworks. But it seems that our local DC startup Mixx hit the 100 day mark and has good news to report. According to the blog post:

• We’re now averaging hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month
• There are tens of thousands of registered Mixxers – 78% of whom have personalized their Mixx pages with more than 10 category tags
• Mixxers have created more than 700 groups, and counting
• So far, more than 5 million votes have been cast
• We now have a library of more than 50,000 tags submitted by Mixxers
• Mixx buttons have been found on the websites of some of the biggest media companies, including USA Today , Reuters, The L.A. Times, Slate, Forecast Earth from The Weather Channel, and Kaboose, with more on the way
• And it’s not just the big dogs! Many very cool and interesting blogs have added a Mixx button, allowing Mixxers to get great information from diverse sources

I am confident they will continue to grow and prosper in this space. They have some good plans moving forward to include an API, a Facebook application, and most importantly SCHWAG ! Yes, we can pimp our local friends over at Mixx as we are out and about around town and the world.

I Would Define a Startup As …

Well actually that brings up a good question. Last week, Allen over at Centernetworks had a post “How Do You Define a Startup?” . He laid out a few criteria, or questions rather, to get us thinking about what qualifies as a startup:

• Is it based on funding? If a company has funding of any size, can they still be considered a startup? Angel round = startup, Series A = not a startup?
• Is it based on level of “live”? If they are in pre-alpha, alpha or beta, are they automatically a startup?
• Is it based on employee count? If the company has more than x employees - Erick on TC called a 14 person company yesterday “tiny”
• Is it based on time? If the company is in business a year or more, no longer a startup?
• Is it based on revenue? If the company generates over x amount in the first year, no longer a startup?

I had to chuckle a bit at this post. The other day I started a DC Area Startup Wiki where I wanted the DC community to be able to go in and add local startups. One reason was to bring together the community with the hopes of further building said community and also to let people know some of the great things that are taking place in the local area.

What was funny was that the night I created the wiki, there was a ongoing conversation between a couple of us, Nick O’Neill, Peter Corbett, and myself, as to what should be considered a startup to put on the list. We came to the same conclusion Allen came to, it is hard to define a startup. So I decided to let the list speak for itself. Let it grow organically and let it sort itself out. My intent is to showcase local companies really, “startup” or not.

There was a pretty funny response post to Allen’s post over at The Drama 2.0 Show.

So what about it ? Leave a comment and simply continue the sentence I started as the title, I Would Define a Startup As … and lets see what we can come up with.

Next Page »