I agree with Joseph: an objective assessment from a professional will provide the balanced insight you're looking for. You can accomplish that very inexpensively with a Clarity call ... or a couple of calls to different experts. Here are some of the things we'd want to know (and which you can as...
Hello! This is a great question, alimena many new self-employed or entrepreneurs face. When I started consulting 10 years ago i started mentoring people in this exact situation - you know you're good, but you feel like your skillsets are diverse and you obviously want to do something productive t...
I moved to SF from Michigan for my startup a few years back, best decision ever. Lots of events, lots of talent and very accessible vc's. Its all quite natural. Just get into the mix. there is literally events all day everyday somewhere in the San Francisco Bay area. Use some of the free ticket...
I would create an account with Manageflitter and/or Followerwonk - both integrate with Twitter. I know that many people feel negatively about Twitter but here's why it's great, especially for your quesiton: There are no privacy settings. Facebook and LinkedIn have tons of walls you run into w...
1. Differentiate Between Days to Produce and Days to Create I pre-schedule which days (and time blocks in those days) will be for money making activities (literally those activities that are directly linked to income generation such as being on stage and speaking, in a room with my clients, closi...
Below is a link to a resource I provide my investors. The 50 questions are specific to product design/development but the 15 categories are questions that apply to any industry. If you can answer these questions about your deal you will have gone a long way to avoiding the common pitfalls in the...
Chartmogul is the best one I've found. There are many great ones though. You can even use open source analytics software to build your own.
The idea of an MVP is 'minimum, viable' ... If you feel you need a "good amount" of funding, I would challenge if you are minimum enough. Obviously, without knowing the details of your product, your ideal customer, or what need you will solve, it is hard to help expose what is necessary in an MV...
Don't pitch him anything. Find out what he thinks you should do, and ask what he's interested in doing. Maybe he'll suggest avenues for you to pursue. Maybe he'll come round and invest anyway. But there's a good chance you'll both get more out of a casual dinner if it's genuinely a casual din...
Interesting question - curious as to why you want to start this business if you have no IT background? Ultimately it depends if you're bootstrapping to start with or have a lot of capital to invest - broadly, unless you have a technical cofounder I'd say you have a fairly daunting task ahead of y...