trussi's comments

I'm assuming you're a smart person who can make $100k+ in a real job. If so, add a guarantee that you'll pay back the full borrowed amount within one-two years if you don't make the go-no-go milestone. This option opens up more funding sources. For example, an older relative with savings in the bank near retirement will need that money, but not for a few years. If it were a typical investment scenario where the money was borrowed and if the company failed, the money was not repaid, that person could not invest because they need the money.

The other option is to get a loan from a local business development department. I don't know what ON looks like, but most cities in the US have these types of BD programs that have a goal of creating jobs in the community. Relatively easy to get, just have to jump through a few hurdles. The requirement in my town is the "get rejected by a traditional funding source." Haha...that's a pretty easy thing to do!

I would be very hesitant to receive any money from a professional investor at this point in your startup. You'll have to give away too much of the company and you'll have a boss that has your balls in a vice for the rest of your time at the startup.

Wait for professional investment until your profitable and then it makes way more sense.

Keep us posted!

If a Swedish company owns the IP and the IP is on servers there, US courts can't touch it.

How can a US court have any jurisdiction on a corporation or a data center in another country? I think it would pretty difficult for a US court to exercise authority over another country's legal system.

The only option the plaintiff would have is to take legal action in whatever country the IP was located in (i.e. they'd have to sue in Sweden).

If you pick a country that doesn't respect US trademarks or patents, then the plaintiff wouldn't have a case.

Even if they might have a case, picking a small, remote country would substantially increase their legal costs, which would deter them from pursuing legal action.

With all the patent BS going on now, this seems to me like it's a viable option to reduce risk.

I just want to hear from somebody who understands this ownership/operational structure and has (or has not) decided to implement it.

If you're attorney costs less than their attorney, you're most likely going to leave an opening for you to get screwed in the future. Even if your other founders aren't dicks, a future investor might be (i.e. screw over bob and kick him out or you don't get my money).

Remember, this is like a pre-nuptial agreement. You have to write the agreement as if you are going to get a divorce.

You want to make sure you cover owner equity distribution in the agreement. If the other founders are pulling money out of the company, you should get an equal share.

And you might want to consider a buy-out clause. This gives the other founders an option to buy your shares. They will really like this. And you might give up some upside, but still walk away with a nice pile of cash. Make sure to structure it as best you can, so it's your option to take or not take. This gets tricky, but is doable.

If you really think there is some potential for the company to make some serious profit, you need to go find a $350-500/hr attorney to help you get into the right agreement.

First, ditch consumer. They don't pay and are very fickle. Lots of lookie-loos. And it's really hard to actually solve a problem for them because they don't even know it's a problem.

B2B is way more lucrative. Getting a SMB to pay $100-500/mo for a product that adds value is easy. Try getting that amount from a consumer!

On the site UI: design, colors are good. Make the tabs animated so it scrolls through the features.

On the content: you are stuck where I (and most other techies) get stuck. You are focusing on features. You have to focus on the benefits. Answer the question: what's in it for me.

I see there's a bunch of features. Strip all of it down to 2-3 things. That's it. You have to focus everything into 2-3 key things. And you have to present them as benefits to the customer. For example, 'distribute to social media' is a definitely a feature. 'Share your pictures with all your friends in one click' is a benefit (I think).

Think of it like this: a feature requires the customer to connect the dots to answer the question of 'what's in it for me'. a benefit connects the dots for them. It's like the "because..." of a sentence.

On the product: my goal with all my b2b work is to try to simplify the process until it takes zero clicks to perform it (i.e. fully automated). if something takes 3 clicks, figure out how to get it to 2 clicks. If it takes 2, get it to 1. And if you can get 1 click down to zero clicks, you have reached productivity nirvana! :)

Second, you have to pick a really specific niche in SMB to go after. DO NOT BUILD A ONE-SIZE FITS ALL PRODUCT! You will fail.

Pick Info Management for dog groomers or Info Mgmt for funeral homes. Go very specific and build a product that is custom-tailored to that niche. This reduces competition, decreases customer acquisition cost and will get you delighted customers.

Once you pick your niche, you have to fully understand that customer and their processes. This is impossible for you to do unless you were a dog groomer in a previous life, so you'll have to find some subject matter experts (SMEs) and pick their brains.

Then, pick the part of their process that is the most painful for them, that technology can help fix and that they will pay money for. Solve that problem and you make money.

You might get lucky and your existing product will cover some of what's needed to solve that problem, but it might not. You'll probably want to identify SMB niches that you think might have a problem related to info management as your starting point.

The biggest thing you want to be aware of is that when you are talking to SMEs, keep a wide open mind and ask all sorts of questions. Don't try to force your product or your presumption of what their problems are. You will most certainly be wrong.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Here's what you're advantage is: access to good, cheap developers.

Everybody and their mother is trying to find good, cheap developers.

You are the bridge.

Don't go the traditional consulting route though.

Here's your strategy: provide a one-stop shop for a biz dev founder 'looking for a co-founder'. You can't fart without finding 10 of them.

Only pick ideas that can be quickly monetized (no social, mobile BS...stick with B2B SaaS applications).

If you can float the cost of development (i.e. no out of pocket expenses for the biz dev founder), you take a nice chunk of equity.

You get IP rights (unlike a traditional consulting gig) and you hold the keys to the kingdom (i.e. you keep all source code on your servers under lock and key; biz dev person doesn't get access to source code unless he/she writes you a big check).

Think of it like a technical incubator, where all you're looking for are ideas.

This is a really powerful business model I think you could really knock out of the park!!

Let me know if you need any help on execution! And keeps us posted on your progress.

I bounced from SaaSaholics once I saw it was a generic message board. That won't cut it these days. Gotta have a more social UI.

A $65k developer can follow directions.

There's no such thing as a successful CRUD product anymore. Everything has been commoditized.

To answer your specific question: you have a lifestyle business. At $100k, you are in the friends and family range, not angel range. F&F can fund a lifestyle business. Angels won't fund a lifestyle business.

To give you some critical feedback...

$100k will not give you a 2 year runway. That's a 10-14 month runway. I don't care if you live with mom and dad, eat top ramen for every meal and don't shower to save on your electric bill...you can't make $100k last 2 years. And if there is ANY chance of a lawsuit, forget it.

You described your competition as 'a solidly established market leader'. Have you ever built a business that took market share from the single incumbent? If not, you have no chance in hell of success. If you have done it before, then you might have a chance. Of course they are a 'horrendous' company with a crappy UX, crappy customer service, etc. However, you're assumption that 'offering better service' is enough to take market share is simply unrealistic.

If it takes you 2+ years to get to ramen-profitability, this is absolutely a waste of your time. The risk-versus-reward is simply absurd.

There are SO MANY opportunities for a hacker out there, that you really shouldn't waste your time on this opportunity. I realize this is the best idea you have right now, but don't bite on it.

Keep looking for a better opportunity. You really don't have to look that hard to find a much more reasonable (i.e. lower risk, higher chance of success and bigger upside) than this.

I would highly recommend segmenting your market and really narrowing it down. Pick one niche of SMB and custom-tailor your product to them. The more you can narrow this down, the better (by geography, # of employees, revenue, industry, years in business, age of owners, etc).

The reason for narrowing down the market is so that you can really understand your customer. You need to know their business inside and out. It's those minor nuances between similar market segments where the juicy opportunities are.

For instance, realtors in a primarily tourist areas are quite different from realtors in primarily middle class, white suburban areas. The home buyers are very different, which require different approaches on the realtors' part.

Once you pick your niche (say < 40 room mom-and-pop hotels in summer vacation destinations in the southwest), then figure out what other functionality you can add into your existing functionality that creates some synergy.

For instance, if they use (i.e. pay money for) an email manager (like constant contact), then figure out how to tie your social media manager into an email manager.

This is a much easier sell: 'You already pay $10/mo for Constant Contact. It doesn't allow Social Media management. Our product costs the same, has all the functionality you use in Constant Contact. Plus it manages your social media for you'.

The hook is an existing product they pay money for. Then replace that product with your product by adding some new sizzle.

If you already know .Net, so go with .Net. You don't have time to learn a new language.

Don't get swept away with the romance of a new language. .Net is a proven technology. It will be able to do whatever you need it to do.

And between DreamSpark and BizSpark, there's no licensing costs.

Do you want to bounce your ideas off somebody else? Or vice versa?

Do you just want to meet others interested in startups?

Can you provide some background on yourself? Your profile is blank and doesn't include any contact info.

[Below is a bit harsh, but use the critical feedback to grow and improve. I'm honestly trying to help, not just criticize.]

What are you and the other biz dev person doing all day?!

What value do you (and the other biz dev) bring to the table?

From my perspective, you two should be busting your balls selling. One should be selling the product to customers to gain traction. The other should be selling the product to investors.

You both should be on the phone, road, plane, train or in a lobby waiting for a meeting all day, every day.

You don't need a product to sell first. That's a first-timer's excuse for not getting out there and making it happen.

It seems like you really need to step up the hustle level here.

I'm available via phone and email anytime to discuss this further. Feel free to reach out any time. Like I implied above, I want you to succeed and would like to help in any way I can.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Anything consumer-based requires a huge user base because you can only charge a small amount per user. Huge user bases take time (read: a lot of money) to build. And users are very finicky and not very loyal. They get bored easy and move on to the next hot thing.

This idea of building the huge user base first, then trying to figure out how to monetize it later is way too risky for me. One false move trying to monetize it and your entire user base just disappears. No thanks.

To summarize, my opinion is that, based on my limited experience and common sense, B2C products are way more risky than B2B.

I think B2B is much less risky with a lot more opportunity to actually make some money. It's (relatively speaking) very easy to monetize a B2B product. And there are so many niches that it's very easy to find a product that adds value.

My comment of not quitting your day job if you're going after B2C assumes you are trying to bootstrap your startup. You simply don't have the money to bootstrap it. If you are going after VC money, then you'd have to get the VC money before quitting the day job. However, you won't be able to get the VC money til you can prove your product can gain hundreds of millions of users. It's a catch-22.

My advice for anybody looking at doing a startup is to stick to the boring B2B market. Don't get swept away with a grandiose idea of building a hundred million user product. Even the most pedigreed players in this space can't figure out how to manufacture huge users bases (i.e. Color).

Most mid and small cities have some sort of business development program. The goal of these programs is to generate jobs in the local community. I googled 'reno business development program' and came up with this link: http://www.nsbdc.org/

The business development program I'm in provides hours with a life coach (for time management), marketing consultant, SEO consultant, web designer (I don't use this one), a CPA and a lawyer. They also provide introductions in the community.

I think the stated output of the program is a polished business plan. Everybody in the tech scene scoffs at business plans (and most of it is justified). However, if you want any financing, you'll need one. And it's actually a very powerful tool to help you focus and answer questions you haven't thought about yet. A business plan is really for you, not anybody else. At least that's the value I'm getting out of it.

The program is not internet startup specific, but you really don't need that (I'm assuming you've never started a business before). You need help with the basic nuts and bolts of operating a business.

The primary benefit I get out of it is accountability. You commit to certain milestones. Then you're on the hook to deliver. Personally, I really need this type of support.

---Hiring a Designer---

This one is very tricky because design is so subjective.

I used oDesk to find my designer.

I'm very picky about design aesthetics, so I can be kind of demanding. I looked at a bunch of portfolios and tried out a couple designers before I found my guy.

I would give fairly specific instructions that still had some room for artistic interpretation. I was partly evaluating their ability to read directions (most people suck at this), turnaround time and the quality of the work.

Again, being subjective, the quality was really just 'do I like it'.

I ended up working with a Romania designer that speaks perfect english, turns out great work and is really fast. The only downside is that I pay $25/hr for him, which I think is pretty high for outsourced design. He's worth every penny because of his efficency and the fact we don't have to go back and forth iterating a bunch of times. Usually his first pass only requires one round of minor tweaks.

One note of caution would be to not get too picky with minor stuff. Perfection is the enemy of good enough. You're just going for good enough.

---Technical Support Clarificaiton---

I was referring to finding technical talent/resources/people, not the specific operational task of 'tech support' or 'customer support'.

---Engaging Potential Customers---

Coming from a similar background, it's pretty scary, isn't it?! :)

It's actually not that scary. The hardest part is just doing it. People are nice and want to help you out.

Leverage your network for potential customers.

Make sure your first interactions are with lower-value potential customers; preferably customers you have a personal/existing relationship with. You don't want your first customer interaction to be with a high-value target because you will fall flat on your face! Inevitably the customer will ask you some really simple obvious question about your product/service and it will completely blindside you because you never thought about it. Yea...get those questions out of the way in the lowest risk environment.

The purpose of your first interactions is to feel out the space you are trying to work in. Do they have an existing vendor providing the same/similar services? How much is that service? Do they like it? What do they like best? What do they like least? What's it missing? What pains are they having (probably not within the space you are trying to be in, but very important question to identify other synergistic opportunities)? How can you help?

Notice it's really going to be a lot of asking open-ended questions and listening. Common sense stuff, but most people screw it up and talk too much.

Talk just enough to establish expertise and trust, then shut up and let them tell you want to build.

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Wow, that was a long response. Good thing I get paid by the word. Haha.

Did you connect with Lloyd? It sounds like he could use your services.

Good for Lloyd and RippleQ.

All that should make his job of finding technical talent much easier.

However, obviously something is askew if what you said is true and yet, he can't find any technical talent.

I'm actually meeting with him next week to see if we can figure it out.

It might be at a city level, a county level or at a state level. There's also the federal option of the SBA.

They are not that hard to find. Just call your city's mayor's office or town hall and ask.

This is a great question.

The short answer is to license the IP between several corporate entities.

Here's a structure that offers a huge amount of protection and risk reduction:

-You own 100% of Company A

-Company A owns all IP

-Company B licenses the IP from Company A

-Company B is an operational company (with a merchant account, employees, office, etc).

Any potential litigation will target Company B because it's exposed. However, you structure the licensing agreement between Company A and Company B such that:

-Company A is indemnified of all of Company B's transgressions

-Company A has very little value because most income is paid to Company B as the licensing fee. You want Company B to essentially be worthless, which means it's not a big target for lawsuits.

Company B would probably be a US-based company. However, Company A could be based in another country, which would further reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit touching the IP.

So you get to operate in the US, but still protect your IP from litigation. The best of both worlds.