16 Great Startup Posts from March

Some great posts in March all around issues for Startups.  Hope you enjoy.

1. If I Launched a Startup- The Startup Lawyer, March 17, 2010

   Great advice on initial steps of setting up a Startup.

2. 9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere- Life Beyond Code, March 29, 2010

   You would have met many smart people who live a mediocre life. There are MANY of them. You might be surprised why this is the case.

3. Death By Competitive Analysis- Steve Blank, March 1, 2010

   Trading emails with a startup CEO building an iPhone app, I asked him why potential customers would buy his product.  In response he sent me a competitive analysis. It looked like every competitive analysis I had done for 20 years, (ok maybe better.) And it made me sad.

4. How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?- Startup Company Lawyer, March 14, 2010

   After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out  that there are now four sets of “open source” equity seed financing documents.

5. Granularity and Consistency of Startup Metrics- SoCal CTO, March 11, 2010

   Tim Berry has a great post on Why I Hate Those Huge Market Numbers tells us that he doesn’t like to see business plans with multi-billion market numbers used as the basis for projections. It’s the old – 5% of massive market gives us a big number. I agree completely: If it makes you feel better to give me that number in passing, okay, go ahead, but don’t put any emphasis on it.

6. The Exit Disconnect- Ask the Angels, March 25, 2010

   I’ll admit to having a bias towards exits and focus my review of a potential investment on the exit potential.  I do sometimes get impatient when the investment proposal has little or no information on the exit path. Even where an exit strategy is proposed, the descriptions demonstrate either limited information about what it will take to structure the exit or look like a last minute addition to the plan to ensure that that box is ticked.

7. Employed with a side of startup- A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks, March 8, 2010

   Advice on how to balance the two.

8. The 10 Most Tempting Software Startup Categories- OnStartups, March 1, 2010

   I’ve been in the software startup business for a long time. One thing I have found interesting is that amongst first-time software entrepreneurs, certain “patterns” of applications kept recurring. Time and time again, entrepreneurs are tempted by one of these application categories. Not that it’s always a bad thing.

9. Evidence that Facebook Works as Marketing Tool- The Entrepreneurial Mind, March 2, 2010

   While we hear about the power of social media as marketing tools, especially for those trying to bootstrap their businesses, but just how effective is it? New research from Utpal Dholakia and Emily Durham of Rice University takes a look at this question. The study is featured in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review .

10. How to Ask for an Introduction- Tony Wright dot com, March 9, 2010

    Great advice on asking for introductions. 

11. Ten rules for better founding teams- High Contrast, March 22, 2010

    Things you need to get in place among your founding team.

12. Perfection By Subtraction – The Minimum Feature Set- Steve Blank, March 4, 2010

    I worry a bit and suggest you Don’t Subtract - Restart to Find the Minimum Viable Product, but Steve’s post is great.

13. How to schedule meetings with investors- Venture Hacks, March 22, 2010

    Title basically explains this one.  Great advice based on the scheduling meetings around AngelList.

14. PR for Startups- Tony Wright dot com, March 2, 2010

    My startup (RescueTime) has enjoyed some pretty ridiculously good PR (online, print, and video). It’s not a surprise that the most common questions that we get from other founders are about PR. How do you get press and the blogosphere talking about your product?

15. What’s the vision?- Venture Hacks, March 26, 2010

    High concept pitches are great for getting your foot in the door (“It’s Friendster… for dogs!”). But once you’re in the building, pitch a bigger vision. I’ve been talking to a lot of startups that apply to AngelList and most of them don’t have a vision that would separate investors from their money.

16. Overnight Startup Successes Usually Take Years- Startup Professionals Musings, March 29, 2010

    Every startup founder knows implicitly that startup success is a long hard road. Yet we always dream that we are the exception to the rule. So once in a while it’s good to look at some facts to temper our imagination. I was reading an article written by marketing guru Seth Godin a while back where he mentions that “it takes about six years of hard work to become an overnight success”.