Books. http://www.sandimetz.com/products

This list of gadgets that many full stack Ruby developers find useful in their work: 1) A mechanical keyboard offers a satisfying typing experience and can reduce strain during long coding sessions 2)Noise-canceling headphones or high-quality earphones help developers focus and block out distractions in noisy environments 3)An ergonomic mouse or trackball can provide comfort and prevent repetitive strain injuries 4)A portable hard drive or SSD is useful for backups, storing project files, and transferring data between different machines. Remember, the gadgets you find most useful may depend on your personal preferences and work style.

Great question - my firm builds and helps migrate/support dozens of mobile apps each year. There are several questions that need to be answered before a reliable estimate can be given. For example, are you strictly seeking a native mobile app? If so, which platforms? Will the mobile apps shared a backend with the existing web application, or will it be stand alone? have you outlined the UI and UX yet? produced wirefarmes, technical specifications documents or any information architecture outlines? Simply put, there are items in most mobile app projects that do tend to require more time investment (which next to the location of where you build the app is of course the most important driver of cost/quality): this would include things like UI/UX, API documentation, Technical Documentation and Testing- most of the time, the actual core development of an application (assuming you are investing in the above appropriately) comes down to block and tackling and just executing the strategy you lay out ahead of time. All of that being said, based on the limited information I have now, this certainly sounds like an application that could be on the faster side of the delivery timeline. If you'd like to get a few drilled-down and accurate tiers on pricing, timeline and some suggested next steps, feel free to reach out and we can discuss further over a quick call.

In the clients I have worked with, the buzzword I'd use is "alignment". Alignment between your organization and this prospective CEO, in terms of values, vision and execution. Assuming for a moment that you'd only look at experienced people that have some level of skill to speak of, think not of who they are, but of whether they can make your company how it should be. Thus the common pitfall is 'if they succeeded with that other company, they'll do well with this company too!'. That is often not the case. Most startup CEOs have a mix of failures and successes - not all of which were in their hands - but true lasting success between CEO and company only happens when they have a revitalizing effect on existing strengths and culture in your enterprise. Happy to talk more at length if you'd like ! Best, Arjun

This is a poor way of trying to sell SaaS products and other software. Unfortunately, it's also the ONLY way most people in the field know how to do it. I've written several times about the reasons demos fail to sell. Here are the links: http://www.salestactics.org/why-demos-fail-to-sell/ http://www.salestactics.org/how-saas-vendors-get-it-wrong/ http://www.salestactics.org/saas-sales-problems/ This is a great opportunity for you to set up a sales process that's effective now, rather than wasting resources on a broken model.

Not necessarily. As long as you have the stocks to be issued. Have a prior contract agreement between owners of what equity is available, the vesting period. (Some do it on % base points per year, i.e. 50% in year 1 and 50% in year 2, or 1k hours worked) if they walk away in first year they take what has been accumulated. Or is the vesting automatic? - not recommended. LLC, only allow for equal member ownership rights, but and you all save money having bonuses rather than salaries, equity is a good way to offset that as well. So I'm short- there are other factors to consider more than actual valuation which at the end is just a guess since you have no outside investors and large sales (I'm assuming) Offer a %, of the business if is LLC. You could have a limited partnership LLC as well. Or if is a C or S Corp you can definitely offer shares at book value which at this point would probably be in the .00001 or less range per share.

There's no real magic to it. If you, personally, own the show, then you can certainly put together some pitch materials, and "shop" the show around to the major syndicators. See http://www.ranker.com/list/television-syndication-companies/reference You can do this directly, or through an agent. It's often believed that to do this kind of thing at one of the major Television markets, such as NATPE in January (for the US market), and MIPCOM , which occurs in Cannes, France in April (for the international). But you may find that contacting syndicators directly BEFORE the markets, since they're at the markets to SELL the shows in their libraries to the broadcasters. As the Host, however, you may not truly OWN the show, so you'd need the consent/participation of the show owner (likely the TV Station on which your show airs) in order to do this.

The answer -> http://textrhino.tumblr.com/post/19492822693/apportioning-equity-how-we-answer-the-age-old

Congrats on your steady growth on Twitter and YouTube - that's definitely a good sign that you're on the right track! Sponsorship, brand integration, product placement, reviews, and endorsements are all good ways to make more income with your YouTube videos. Sponsorship would be like a regular, ongoing company that is mentioned at the start and/or end as helping make the video/show possible, brand integration would be making a video based around the company's product or service, product placement would be using the company's product briefly in a video, a review would be sharing your thoughts on the company's product or service, and an endorsement could just be saying at some point that you found a company with a product or service that you like and think your audience would as well. Hope that helps and otherwise if you would like more information on any of those or ways to get companies involved, please feel free to request a call with me!

We need to work on MVP and customer validation : how can we make the offering more specific and does this get a positive pickup from potential customers? When I work with my startup clients, we spend an incredible amount of time just summarizing the problem and how you are solving it. This needs clarity of thought as well as some data to back up user sentiment - "do we really need this?" Let's talk about prevalence of letter writing in your country and if assisted or outsourced writing helps your consumer solve a problem.

I've been a consultant, both independently and through two of the "Big 5" consulting firms, for the majority of my career. I've recently discovered that I have a serious aversion to time-based billing, that's been buried deep down in my subconscious for a while. Because of this discovery, I've been trying hard to break the direct bond between hours worked and income generated. The concept of value-based billing can be very appealing in this regard. The co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks, Mike McDerment, wrote a pretty interesting and entertaining eBook on the subject, called Breaking the Time Barrier - http://www.freshbooks.com/breaking-the-time-barrier It's worth a quick read, if for no other reason than to experience a different way of thinking when it comes to billing for services. Here are some of the stumbling blocks I've experienced, when trying to put value-based billing into practice - 1 - Finding the clients who are willing to take the time to hear you out on the approach 2 - Finding the clients who can appreciate the approach, however if you get through #1, #2 seems to be a bit easier, since their minds are already open enough to consider it 3 - Waiting out the time it takes to find and educate the "right" clients, as Mike describes them in the book, when you have bills to pay :) I do feel that value-based billing makes a lot of sense for both the client and the service provider. One thing that value-based billing does well is resolve the paradox between the client's goal of having a project delivered at a reasonable price and the service provider's goal of generating revenue, which, by nature, are somewhat at odds from the outset, since the client usually wants to pay for the fewest # of hours possible (whether they admit that or not, that's another story), while the service provider wants to put the time in it takes to get the job done right.

From what I have heard from some successful crowd fund raisers. You are better to spend time getting yourself organized before you start your campaign. Make sure you have a least a team of four people and ensure that everyone knows there role and the tasks that they are responsible for.

The quickest way is to hire a private teacher to work with you hands-on. That's also a little spendy. If you're good at self-motivation, there are thousands of tutorials on various app-building techniques that you can walk through. They exist as articles, videos, interactive projects — there are lots of options. But the most important part of learning any new skill is to build experience. No amount of preparation or study can stand in for solid hours of real experience. You have to start building to start creating the mental models that are required to conceptualize computer programming. And those are kind of like balance, or juggling: they have to be experienced, not learned. I have quite a bit of experience building various software applications, so if you'd like help putting together a DIY curriculum, send me a request for a 15-minute call.

The short answer is both. As an entrepreneur, 15 year seasoned professional sales consultant for 5 publically traded companies, and digital marketing strategist with Google's only global business partner, I can understand and respect the nature of your question. In the past, before the internet was a medium that the masses used to educate themselves...companies relied on traditional media to drive inquiries to salespeople. Salespeople were trained to overcome objections and close the deal. The message that was oftentimes delivered by the salesperson was inherently influenced by their desire to close business and the consumer knew it. Nowadays, you have an internet educated consumer that has consumed multiple websites and media and if the digital advertising and strategy are delivering the right message, they may not need to actually speak to a salesperson to make a buying decision. Many times people convince themselves without ever even speaking to a sales person, especially if there are 3rd party websites that validate the messaging you're trying to communicate on your own website. Depending on your product or service however, sometimes it is necessary to speak to knowledgeable trusted advisor in order to finalize the transaction and a strong salesperson always pays a company more than he or she is being compensated (hence the math of commission). If you have any follow up questions, please reach out to me and I'd be happy to work with you.

I have no experience in this other than the fact that I have done some research regarding the launch of a iPhone app for a previous employer. But seeing as no-one has answered yet I thought I'd point you to this: http://advertising.apple.com/promote/ I know nothing about the effectiveness of this platform, but from what I understand Apple will advertise your app to users of other apps. Hopefully that's at least somewhat helpful. :)

So this is a great question and requires a relatively complex answer. And this is NOT legal advice. The first answer is that No, in most cases do not patent the invention yet. Often a provisional patent will do just fine, much cheaper and faster to market. Most inventor patents out of the gate are a waste of time/money. Additionally, one license negotiation piece is that if you have the Prov Patent Application, (PPA) then you can have the licensee pay for the cost of YOUR patent. I recently interviewed licensing expert Stephen Key, NYT Bestselling author of One Simple Idea about this topic. You can listen if you'd like for free here: http://baconwrappedbusiness.com/stephen-key/ Hope this is helpful

This is a great question and an important one as well. I would start by identifying: Who is your target market? How will they use your product? On the go? On their laptop or on their mobile device? What kind of technology does your product need? Can it be built as a simple website or does in need to be an app (i.e. you need push notifications, integration with other mobile apps, etc). On the other hand, how much time and budget do you have? Typically a responsive website is faster and cheaper to build than an app and will get you out the door faster.

You should leverage angel.co to help you target who to go after.

You'll need to get much more specific. WHO is the audience? WHY would they want these "gadgets"? What problems are you solving, for what audience, that they will pay you to fix? Do you know what size problem warrants your involvement? Honestly, your question is so vague right now it can't clearly be answered. Niche it down. You're matching up a buyer with a seller. Who are these people?

I don't think you can find a single perfect example because that will be based on that particular company in that particular industry. But what you can do is look for a series of landing page best practices. My book, The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period! includes many of those best practices that directly affect PPC as well as other areas of marketing. You can also find the free cheat sheet at www.webmarketingchecklist.com. You also might want to check out this article here: http://searchengineland.com/why-my-optimized-landing-pages-trump-your-seo-and-ppc-landing-pages-everytime-167430 as well as the book Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash.

it totally depends on what your site is built in? Let us know

Because men think they are experts at everything lol.

Given the other discussion about lack of females showing up as experts, perhaps a Ladies Only category might be of interest to some. Throwing it out there #itsachickthing

Make sure you've setup advanced analytics. You'll get a better picture of which conversions were direct, and which ones were assisted by another channel. Use tags and make sure your urls include all the detailed parameters - note that savvy users might truncate that link, so use a link shortener (like bit.ly) to mask it.

We (corporate leaders) should indeed measure contribution but also engagement, innovation, adaptability and growth. Because these are "gray" or "squishy" areas, they're uncomfortable for many managers to use as metrics of performance assessment. Asking leaders who work in a metrics-based environment how they "feel" about someone's intangible skills and abilities is tough and can be uncomfortable. It's also a potentially dangerous area to wade into when it comes to equality of pay, promotions and ratings. Because such a low percentage of leaders are able to effectively evaluate talent, performance metrics serve as a guidepost. The smartest and most innovative leaders and companies can and should see beyond performance and use less easily measurable but more effective indicators of success.