Best of Sprouter: 25 high impact startup answers to remember
As of today, Sprouter is shut-down. In case you didn't know, Sprouter became a goldmine of actionable startup advice - directly from successful entrepreneurs and investors. Although the site started as a Twitter clone (more or less) the team later shifted their website structure to accommodate for live Q&A sessions from the likes of Mark Suster, Brad Feld, Aaron Patzer, and other high profile business nerds.
But last week, the Sprouter team published an announcement on their blog of the ‘shut-down'. Apparently they had run out of capital. Which, granted, you might expect with an expensive dev team and no revenue model. But that's all hindsight.
The focus of this post is on some of the best content Sprouter had to offer. Real answers from real people. Here are 25 hand picked high impact startup answers, originally posted on Sprouter, that every up and coming entrepreneur should read.
How I use Catch for Android to keep track of business write-offs (and other stuff)
Catch is a neat little app for Android (and iPhone, iPad) that I've been using lately to keep track of receipts that I can later write-off as business expenses. Because nothing annoys me more than having a stuffed pocket full of receipts that may-or-may-not ever make it to the 'shoebox' or wherever the hell you're supposed to keep these things.
The app itself is actually a feature-rich note taking solution - with a simple interface for writing text notes, saving audio recordings, and snapping photos. Plus, it's got the added benefit of 'tags' to help you organize it all.
The 'snapping photos' feature is the way I save these business related receipts. And to think of it - it could probably be done without Catch - but the nice thing is - with Catch everything is timestamped, I can tag it, and also enter a description at the time a particular photo was taken (cause the tax man likes details).
And of course, later on my desktop I can open up a spreadsheet (or accounting software), login to Catch.com and formally save and enter the details of the expense to the records.
Three Epic Heroes of Tech
We've all read about history's recent heroes like JFK, Malcolm X, and Henry Ford. But today, modern day heroes walk among us - and deserve recognition. They are working in all corners of civilization. Heroes in politics. Heroes in journalism. And heroes in business.
Of course, in this post, my focus is on the nerds. Here are three epic heroes of tech.
Elon Musk
After his first company sold for $300 million, Elon became co-founder and largest shareholder of PayPal. And when he and his buddies decided to sell PayPal for $1.5 billion, Elon cashed out with enough capital to fund even more ambitious visions.
22 Insightful Tips From Leaders in Tech
I'm on a mission to mine the archives. To find the most insightful, actionable ideas from leaders in tech. If you're battling on the front-lines to create a business that will impact the world - these 22 tips will aid in your fight.
Being a leader
As leader, you're not allowed to go out and have beers on Friday night and break character.
Scott McNealy
Co-founder, Sun Microsystems
Time investment
Most hacker-founders would like to spend all their time programming. You won't get to, unless you fail. Which can be transformed into: If you spend all your time programming, you will fail.
Paul Graham
Co-founder, Y Combinator
Goalscape Founder Shares His Business Insights
Goalscape is a promising young app that runs on the Adobe AIR platform. AIR has a plethora of interesting apps, yet Goalscape stands out among the crowd for business nerds because of its goal achieving focus.
In my recent review of Goalscape, I illustrated how the program is a a fascinating example of how beautifully designed software can help a person shift paradigm, change mindset, and become better at achieving their desired outcome. I think that, as simple as the software may be (it's still early in development), the way they have visualized a 'radial paradigm' of project management is a true innovation.
So who are the visionaries behind this innovative software?
I had the opportunity to get down to business with Goalscape Founder, Marcus Baur. In the interview session below, Marcus reveals some great insights about their software development experience so far.
How has your experience been in developing on the Adobe AIR platform?
Its been great. That's what OOP is all about. Not building everything from scratch, but instead building on a solid foundation. We have always aimed to provide a trusted management system that works seamlessly on all three major platforms - PC - Mac and web browsers. Adobe Flash/Flex/AIR was our only chance. It means that we depend to some degree on Adobe, but they seem to be a good bunch to depend on.
How to Sell a Product That is Still in Prototype
Huh, you can sell a product while it's still in beta? Of course. In fact, you can sell a product that is still in prototype. And I'm not talking about selling it to an investor, but selling it to your target customer. Heck, with a few enticing screenshots you could probably sell it in the conceptual stage. It all has to do with these three principals: how strong is your vision for the product (how much you believe in it), how well you can articulate the advantages (how detailed is your vision), and how easy you can make it for your prospective customer to make a buying decision (how good you are at selling).
These core principals combined will together form your…sales pitch. Yes: this is all about selling. And I know many of the software programmers & designers out there will cringe at the thought of having to sell an incomplete product. But once you understand that people aren't buying your product - it becomes easy. People are buying YOU. They are excited about YOUR vision and how it can help them. They trust you because of your unshakeable belief in that the product will do what you says it does (or eventually will do).
How to Raise a Billion Dollars of Startup Capital
You might assume that pitching to a VC is the only way to raise a huge amount of fast action capital for your innovative new startup. Yet there is an alternative strategy. And it involves pitching to foreigners.
A new company based in Alabama caught my attention yesterday as I read about their efforts to raise $1 billion of startup capital. It wasn't this lofty target that caught my attention, but rather, it was their strategy to make it happen.
The strategy involves taking advantage of the EB-5 Visa immigration program.
Manifesting Results in Business & Life
It is the spice of life which sparks action, manifestation, and results. Bolstered by momentum.
What is the spice of life? To me, it's anything from which you can absorb momentum from. Your friend buys a Ferrari: that's awesome - and you too are inspired to generate the income you need to buy one for yourself. That's momentum, and it started with your friend buying the Ferrari; the spark.
Momentum can also be harnessed from negative things. You're fumbling with programming C++ applications. You present a software beta to your business peers and your own friend says, "you've ruined this concept!". Turns out, his thoughtless comment was just the spice you needed. And you apply this momentum as an inspiring wave of motivation to make the program go above and beyond, creating a product better than anyone imagined. Silencing the naysayers.
More easily defined: the spice of life is any inspiring action, thing, thought, or experience. And from these inspiration acts a great wave of momentum materializes. Which is applicable to exactly what you are trying to accomplish. I'll reveal my exact postulation in a few moments, but first let's go deeper.
My Theory of Creating Value
I don’t agree with the old sentiment that, “It takes money to create money.”
Because this just simply isn't true.
Ben Bernanke’s printing press aside, it is innovation that creates money. Via new ideas, new skill-sets, new knowledge, and new paradigms of thinking to kickstart new ways of doing old things. My philosophy is that value is created by innovating a new way to reach a current objective [dibs on trademark].
And once you achieve that objective, you raise the bar and set yet another objective to reach for. Requiring innovation once again to achieve it. And such is the nature of perpetual human progress.
Vision. The Essence of Effective Business Strategy
Strategy, to define it simply, is a method for manifesting a desired outcome.
How well your strategy performs is effectively how good you are at manifesting reality. And as much that sounds theoretical, advances in quantum physics validates this statement. The law of attraction holds true.
Furthermore, it is your big, ultimate vision that is most essential to your success, not the strategy itself. Strategy is a means to and end result, and thus it cannot exist without a specific & precise result defined in advance. Your strategy is based on the results you want to achieve. Your vision.
What is the vision you have for your business in the end ? What does it look like when you get to where it is that you want to be? Specifically denominate the end results as elaborate as you can : in dollars, in time, in the impact you want to make, and in the results you want to create. And from this, you can deduce objectives...
