The easiest answer to this is something a mentor told me a few years ago when I was working on a niche app....she said "do you honestly feel like you could be passionate about this for the next 10 years"? That may not sound like it's relevant but it is...honestly that's the only thing that matter...
Hi: Congrats on getting your service app to this point. Fundraising takes a lot of energy and time--more time than you think it will. Instead of embarking on that journey right now, consider channeling your time and energy into generating sales: Bootstrapping the promotions and marketing to start...
There are so many opportunities to systemize the content production process. Make a detailed list of exactly what the end users wants to accomplish, how they can accomplish this (your secret sauce), and how it can be delivered. I'm happy to jump on a call to discuss details.
My suggestion would be to only spend time and energy on PR activity that serves a greater purpose than winning the contest. While this is a great excuse/reminder that PR is important, think beyond the startup battle. Look at this as an opportunity to tell your story. Here are some thoughts that...
There is certainly value in starting customer discovery interviews. And no reason to wait for the delay that creating a landing page and waiting to collect emails would take. I would just advise that you get clear on your hypotheses about who your target customer is so you talk to the right kind...
What's the business model for the freelancing platform? Have you looked at http://equitydirectory.com/? They are a startup concierge matchmaking subscription service for founders looking to share equity or cash/equity splits with contributors. Are you familiar with http://SlicingPie.com? I thin...
Like any sale, it's all about building a funnel and identifying qualified buyers. The best way to do this is to ask, who do we share a similar customer with that would like to sell what they do to our users, or that our product helps improve their product. Companies get bought when there's over...
No, I think outsourcing this is at worst dangerous and at best lazy. Furthermore, unless this is highly focused on a type of user, I wouldn't trust that you could build user panels that were really of my potential customers. And therein lies the rub. Without real customers, it's impact and val...
Get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Local-Advertising-Insider-Secrets-ebook/dp/B00B5KPMRA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433335127&sr=8-1&keywords=advertising+claude+whitacre (not an affiliate link) I'm a sales trainer, but Claude has put everything together in this book already so why reinv...
The better question may be why can't you find startup co-founders? I can see two main reasons why this might be the case. First, no one else sees the same opportunity. If this is the case, you may be on to unique value that no one understands, but that could also include the potential market. If ...