Ideas at Found+READ

#1 Home Business Idea

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 10:23:18 GMT

- Another questioner wondered, \” What\’s the most valuable way for a PR person to contact you?\” Jeremy suggested trying to \”start a conversation by saying why the information in the press release has value.\” For him, \”personal relationship building has the greatest value.\” Heath offered three \”good- care practices\” for working with him as a journalist: (1) \”The power of the idea is key.\” (2) Understand what FC does. (3) Contact me by e- mail and don\’t call to see if I received your message. Tom said,...

Trust your Gut. Always.

Ben Young — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:18:18 GMT

Everyone has heard about going with your gut, trust your gut feeling. That’s as little as most people know. I’m going to share with you a bit more about your gut feeling and how to follow it.

A gut feeling is a physical response to your subconscious weighing up all known factors to a decision and arriving at a result. Your gut is signaling to you the best option. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink discusses how using thin slicing and gut feeling you can make just a good a decision as with all the information you need.

This is why you should follow your gut feeling. It is very quickly summing up the best decision with everything you know. Your gut is also taking into account subtleties like body language and feelings or other information you may have consciously decided to push aside.

Not too long ago a friend asked me to do some Web Development for him. The project was small, wouldn’t take much time and I’d be doing him a favour. My gut said no don’t do it. However I went ahead. Two weeks in I realised why i stopped doing that line of work; having to jump to the clients every request and comprimising my high work standards. Gut Feeling 1, Ben 0.

Recently I faced the problem (or opportunity) of receiving two job offers at once. I then had to pick and choose. It was simple my gut feeling was one job. I wasn’t sure why if i put the jobs side by side they were the same. I went with my gut. After having lunch before ringing to confirm I realised that this job would be more fun. Two months later I have not regretted that choice Gut Feeling 1, Ben 1.

In the first instance I was clouding my conscious with the fact it was a friend. My gut told me immediately no. That was the right decision and again with my job it was the best decision. I have made many other important decisions this way following my gut such as entrepreneurial ventures, moving from one end of the country to another, changing universities and many risks. I haven’t regretted one yet!

Lesson: Trust your gut. Always. You will be more decisive and make better decisions consistently.

Go Big or Build Slowly

Zvi Band — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:15:35 GMT

Since I am a budding entrepreneur, this is intended to be a “Question of the Day”. If need be I can re-write this any way you want, or you can edit it as well, thanks!

While working a full time job, I have devoted my nights and weekends to developing a community-powered marketplace, which I feel will be incredibly successful. I have bounced the idea off many people, and they seem to be excited about the site and the movement it can create. I now, however, stand at a fork in the road. All I need now, is to get the word out to people. Since this is a consumer-oriented application, I feel going the standard Web 2.0 route and getting blogger attention and “going viral” will not work for this application, and will simply end up wasting away on a web host like so many sites do nowadays. So, do I Go Big (get venture financing) or Build Small (scrape together whatever funds I have to eke out some small print ads). It seems the tech entrepreneurial world is torn right now, with half the crowd saying “get funding” and the other half saying “VC is evil, do it yourself.” What are your honest thoughts on the matter?

Choosing the Right Vendor

Wayne Mulligan — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:31:20 GMT

After recently going through the process of finding web development and design firms for my latest venture, TickerHound.com, I decided that I wanted to write about my experience a bit. I think by having worked on both sides of the fence I can offer a unique perspective for other entrepreneurs that may help to make their lives easier as they embark on their web ventures. I hope everyone enjoys it :)

Travor shoudl write for FoundRead

Christina Wodtke — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:06:05 GMT

Check out his article on hiring for start-ups. He’s got some good stuff.

Seeking clients

Kejal Shah — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:35:09 GMT

Idea: A broker website for car rentals.

Detail: All the car rental cos will have to register with us.
Any customer wanting a car on rent can look up the website, find out the best deal and rent a car.

Revenue: Cut from each deal

Question: We are tech guys with no industry experience. How can we approach or start approaching the car cos to hook on with us?

Founders battle negative word of mouth

Santosh Dawara — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:47:40 GMT

All Founders start with the best of intentions. Surprisingly often, carelessness leads to things going wrong early in the life of a product or service.

Thanks to the personal structure of the web (or as others call it, new media), a Founder, or CEO can immediately take the soap-box and reassure his customers that all is well and the damage will be fixed. The objective is to reassure your customer base that the direction and underlying values of the startup have not changed.

I would like to have your thoughts and past examples of how Founders and CEO’s in the past have managed to do this well and have seen their companies through a negative public mood.

To CEO or not to CEO?

Ronen Hirsch — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:10:12 GMT

I am one of two founders in a new initiative – potentially a startup company. Both of us (as well as the company vision and concept) come from a creative background – we are both (firmly grounded with a good grasp and background in technology and business) artists. One of the core qualities of our lives is a relaxed approach to work – which means that we take the time to make the time to get things done right – and we will not compromise this quality in our lives.

While this is (arguably) all good and well – we feel that our business entity requires an additional energy. A driving day-to-day energy that will fuel the infrastructure processes that support business. Out of respect for our personal choices and to the business we are founding we have decided to seek a third partner – codenamed “The CEO”. A person who’s motivation and energy are suitable for the day-to-day bustle of getting (and keeping) a company up and running. Someone who can provide us with the conditions we need to help her create the conditions she needs to run a successful business.

One of our consultants who is assisting us in business strategy and fund-raising resisted this suggestion. He offered that one of the assurances that investors are looking for is to see that the founders are actively involved and committed to the company – that they are not merely seeking to make a quick-buck and then leave the company to fend for itself. Our counter argument was that this 3rd partner demonstrates a clarity and maturity of the founders that realize the critical role of good management and that are taking measures early in the process to ensure the company infrastructures include this critical facility.

Though this is an interesting conversation that deserves attention – I would like to point out a more subtle aspect. The (unspoken) subtext of the conversation was that when it comes to investors – there is talk of appearances – to make them feel that things are OK. This carries another more subtle (well hidden) subtext – that things as they are (well thought out, well intended, respectful of personal and business needs, etc.) are not OK – that they need to be disguised to appease. This was our wake up call – where the issue was (for the time being) resolved.

We decided to continue our search for “the CEO” – that third partner that will support our personal needs and those of the business. We will give thought to the form of the shape of the partnership and make sure that it is also supportive of personal and business needs of all the stakeholders. We are siding with straightforward truthfulness and honesty!

Blah Blah Blah...But Still Clueless

Nathan Schorr — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:57:57 GMT

Hi everyone:
I’m 23, with a great idea, convinced 3 others to quite their jobs and help me program and build what I know I will be the next ESPN but online…Blahsports.com (shamless plug- sign up for beta testing please!).
The site is only days away from launch, just wrapping up some details. While most of the team is plugging away the keyboard, I am busy drawing up a business plan to present to startup incubators (Y Combinators type of programs). The thing is that I know we have a wonderful idea and are targeting a niche market, I still have to draw up financial plans which includes the pricing for our banners (our first way to monetize will be ads). That’s where my problem starts, I have absoluty NO idea on how much to charge, where I can get sponsors (banner clients), should I put banners up on the homepage right from day 1, should I use Adsense to get our first dollars? ...I know the internet is chalk full of info but there is just so much to go through and I was hoping that I could get some juice out of the readers of Found|Read. However I am sorry if these question are to elementary…but the worst question is the one that goes unasked ;-)

Young founders of a stable student loan company - MyRichUncle

Lee Castle — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:52:17 GMT

I wanted to submit this idea. Its about the founders of MyRichUncle, Raza Khan and Vishal Garg. They were 21 when they founded their student loan company in 2000 backed by a few investors which included Michael Robertson and now they are 29 years old and their company is publicly traded listed on the NASDAQ and other international stock exchanges. I wanted to suggest this story because at a young age they have managed to become a stable player in the loan market and I wanted to know how they managed to develop the skills at 21, how hard did they have to work, any setbacks, negative aspects, investor relations problems and finally how do they manage a company with 80 employees or so at 29?
And guys, pitch in some questions too.

If you guys want to learn more go to www.myrichuncle.com

In addition, I wanted to know more because i saw a few press articles on them and they really didn’t cover their struggles. Most of them covered their entrepreneurial drives but really didn’t mention setbacks. So, vote on it if you like it.