nice web mail app: http://markmail.org/
1 year ago.
The Idea Investor: The Idea Investor is probably very familiar with the space your company is targeting. These are in some ways the very best types of Angels because to some degree they validate your idea. There investment is based on the Idea and there is little emotion around the table (always good). If you can get them onboard they can open doors into partner relationships and just generally good advice. You will spend most of your time convincing the Idea Investor that you and team are the right people to attack this problem (as they likely don’t have a strong relationship with you or the team). Often an influential Idea Investor makes a good early board member for the company.
1 year agoAs the economy slumps, many entrepreneurs are looking past consumer Web sites to focus on products and services for companies
1 year agoThe Chinese tend to extend negotiations well beyond the official deadline to gain advantage. On the final day of your visit, they even may try to renegotiate everything.
Be patient, show little emotion, and calmly accept that delays will occur. Moreover, do not mention deadlines.
Chinese counterparts smilingly and politely or even enthusiastically say ‘No big problem’ or ‘The problem is not serious’, they usually mean ‘There are still problems.’
haha….. some random scribd doc contained that bit of info
excellent … RAILS PRESENTATION ON SAAS COMPANY: http://www.shindigital.com/site/blogpost/8
1 year ago* Mar 25th, 2008 @ 07:03 am
* Posted by: David Cohen
How early is too early?
I got an email from an applicant today asking for clarification from us on just how early is too early for TechStars. They cited the fact that we said “Nothing is too early. We’ve accepted companies with no more than an idea…” on the web site.
This particular company has an idea, two founders, and a splash page. I emailed them and asked if they had a prototype or other early progress on the idea. And if not, I wanted to know if they had built other stuff in the past that we could check out. This prompted their request to clarify our position on investing in idea stage companies. So here is some insight:
1. As investors, we obviously would like to be confident in your ability to actually deliver on the concept you’re thinking about. At a minimum, this means we need to see some demonstration of talent. It doesn’t have to be extensive progress on your current idea. But it has to lead us to believe that you’re somebody who can deliver. This is why we ask you to reference stuff you’ve built in the past on the application. Idea people with no history of execution or at least tinkering will have a tough time getting into TechStars. And a splash page isn’t going to impress anybody.
2. We’ll probably receive 300+ applications again this year. So progress on an idea is very likely to be at least a “tie-breaker” against other companies with great ideas.
3. We believe strongly that natural founders do stuff. They play. They tinker. They just get going without waiting for someone to tell them it’s ok to get going. They know that this is the only way to turn an idea into something of value. So we look for that.
So I suppose the best answer to the question “How early is too early?” is if you’re an idea stage company that is so early that it a) hasn’t even started on a product and b) have founders with no demonstrable history of doing anything related to what you’re proposing, then it’s probably too early. This doesn’t mean it won’t be a huge success. But it probably does mean you’re too early. Fortunately, this is a pretty low bar. You can get over it by ripping out a quick prototype or pointing at something that demonstrates that you’re talented and capable. So go for it!
from techstars
1 year ago
