Hey there. I've been transitioning my career to mobile for years now, and have been shifting my areas of expertise to account for the consumer shift in their use of smartphones. Most consumers now check email on a smart phone. A growing percent of inline traffic is happening on a smart phone. This means marketers have to adjust tracking and attribution tools (Atlas) to do better cross-device measurements. On the tactical side, creative have to be mobile optimized, whether it's responsive design websites, or mobile email templates. Feel free to schedule a call if there is a specific business or marketing challenge I can help you solve.

You could also try to establish a group of analysts that would meet with you (virtually or in-person) that would act as an advisory group, in exchange for seeing their product inputs considered, or possibly a period of free use of the app. The best way to find out their motivations for signing up is to ask a bunch of them. If you approach them by saying you want to pick their brains as subject-matter experts, you might find they are interested in providing input, which is exactly what you're looking for. You could also look for a local or online association of analysts or researchers, and see if you can give a presentation to them on what you think the top app needs are, and see what feedback you get.

No. Good question. The quality varies from town to town, but in my experience the larger the city the more valuable it is. Here's the issue: newbies to business don't know where to find good customers, and so they join networking organizations like this because they believe it will help them. Fact is, it probably won't. Again in my experience over the past 20 years, organizations and events like this tend to be filled with newbie businesspeople trying to find customers. And if you're all trying to find customers, it's not going to be effective. Since most business owners don't have a good 30-second commercial or consistent qualifying process, these meetups are filled with bad attempts at conversation and pushing of self-centered agendas. In the town I've been in for the past 5 years, my early experience of this sort jaded me so much I got the impression no competent businesspeople existed here and I developed my operation internationally instead. This, as I have found out over the past year helping local friends develop a television network, is untrue; however, my experience with the local Chamber, BNI, after hours meetups etc. demonstrated the competent business owners are NOT at these events. They're in their offices, getting good customers. What you're likely to find is a bunch of insurance and mutual fund salespeople looking for people to push product at...and that gets old really fast. If you want to network for business, I recommend identifying good prospects and pursuing them individually...doing information interviews to discover their true pain points...and qualifying with a consistent method. The idea that you're going to casually meet someone at an event, have a good conversation, and that will lead to an order is fantasy. Are there exceptions? I'm sure people will pipe in with them...but they are flukes and there are much more straightforward methods to get clients. There is no legal or business requirement for you to be a member of the Chamber or any other networking organization, and I personally believe it's a waste of valuable time.

A fresh game plan is key. I've been there. Every artist is different. I'd suggest creating categories for the level each artist is at. I look at them as race horses. Each horse daily changes its location around the track- until someone wins at something. Managers have a super hard job of constantly keeping things moving and networking with the right people. But you have the challenge of keeping your artists happy whilst being realistic. If we had a call I'd like to suggest we do an audit of a day in the life of you. What are all the moving parts you have going? What can you do to create a structure and a simple action plan that will help you and your artists get some real wins. This biz is tough BUT I can help you get clarity.

Unless you are Elon Musk you will hardly find an investor willing to put money into 2 ideas of the same group. As a founder you may think you are highly creative because you have several ideas, but the reality is that to an investor you are ringing one their #1 Alerts. That is you have no focus or clarity and hence your hedging or betting on two things because you are not sure which one would make it. Pick one and then try to raise from investors.

It depends on what you mean by "Visualized Data." Do decision makers use graphs, charts, dashboards, etc? Yes of course. Are there some visualizations that wouldn't be of any value to a decision maker whatsoever? Also yes of course. You can't show me a word cloud if I work as a portfolio manager for a bank and expect me to make any decisions from it. That being said, the social media team might be able to. It all depends on the audience, and whether or not you're making patterns they care about easier to detect. If you are talking about graphs/charts/dashboards, what I would do if I was in your shoes is I would try to make one dashboard with (say) 3-4 graphs inside of it, and then I'd show them that dashboard and say something like, "You know, I've been thinking about that conversation we had. And I definitely appreciate the point you made about fluff visualizations. But I also really think there's at least a few charts that would be really valuable to you. I whipped a few together (on my time, not yours!). Do you have a few minutes that you could spare to come have a look at them with me?"

Let me google that for you http://www.tampabaycopack.com/company.html http://www.manta.com/c/mm2w4l8/the-american-bottling-company http://www.manta.com/c/mthcq94/southeast-atlantic-beverage I'm sure the management and salespeople of these companies can give you all the information about regulations, since it's their core business.

I have worked in brand development for over a decade. Have you ever thought about doing a high end concierge service? People answer questions and send pictures to have high end goods and gifts selected for them. Give me a call! I would love to brainstorm!

Hello, I would suggest to make a clear difference between your - skill set and - market differentiation. I think, the answer highly depends on your current situation. What's your current level in photography in terms of photography and relevant business skills? Do you already have first clients? What do you stand for in the market? What we did in our studio is the following: We tried out a few different things, found what works best for us and focussed quite narrowly on that topic. We reached a very high skill level in that topic and could build up a clear market profile. With further growth and a bigger team with a broader skills set and interests, it makes sense for us to widen up and work different markets. That helps to break seasonality and reliance from a single market. Most important things for us is to market for different segments in a different way. So, the question to answer would be: where is your starting point and what are your next reasonable steps to progress in your photography business? I belive, there is no answer that fits for everybody. Happy to elaborate in more detail by phone. Best, Fabian

I would love to advise a few ideas to get your online business going. With a background and expertise in Internet Marketing, I believe that a blog could be a great way to increase your client way. Additionally, with content marketing, you can offer your services and clinical advise across the Bay area for your current and future client base. Lastly, we can discuss a robust social media and ad words based visibility engagement campaign to help you grow your business in the bay area. I would love to speak with you on the phone to answer any follow up questions. Have a wonderful day.

I've found that with the saturation of retail on social media sites in general, the best way to make a sale is to target the right people who are already looking for what you offer... For you: I'd recommend using highly targeted Facebook Ads (Target by age & gender plus any other things you know about your audience/buyers in terms of things they are interested in). You might also research companies who provide holistic relief for hot flashes, find their facebook pages and create a filter for your ads to target fans of theirs. You could see a HUGE return on just $100 Facebook ad buy. Good Luck and let me know if you'd like to schedule a follow up call; I'd be happy to walk you through the setup and some additional strategies!

Two things that immediately come to mind would be use of webinars, that allow for audience participation, covering a specific topic of interest to your audience for either a small attendance fee or as part of a premium subscription. I would lean more towards the premium subscription for the recurring income. The second would be to make regular book and audio resource recommendations from Amazon, providing your Amazon affiliate link to pick up the resource.

You could sell your website on flippa.com or http://www.websitebroker.com/ they have the fill in metrics you need to provide. I have bought and sold a couple of sites on flippa and it actually works.

I am a patent attorney generally on the patent owner's side. Signing such a clause should make you nervous. You don't want to be responsible for the major company's infringement. The major company is likely getting more benefit out of using your software than your company is making by selling licenses. The previous gentleman's answer is incorrect. Anyone can be sued for patent infringement if they make, sell, or *use* the claimed invention. It depends on the claims in the asserted patent. Based on experience, it's much more likely that the larger entity would be sued for infringement. A patent infringement case could cost anywhere between $350k-$5M+ USD. http://www.cnet.com/news/how-much-is-that-patent-lawsuit-going-to-cost-you/ In order to properly answer your question, I would need to know why you feel it's "very unlikely" that someone would sue the major company for using your software. If the major company won't back down on this provision, the best thing you can do is determine if you need IP (defense) insurance. If a patent attorney determines that it is necessary, raise the price of your license and get IP insurance.

Monetization is a FUN topic when you have a (1. targeted following who (2. wants what you have to offer (or is actively seeking it). You've already got people raising their hands but you need to move them from "rented space" (social media) to "owned space" (an email list that you own.) Adding too many steps to the equation just spreads your workload wider and pushes your end goal into the future. There is a very tactical approach that will convert these followers to customers but you've got to convert them to email list subscribers before they can be converted into paying customers. This is basic sales funnel 101. ;) My suggestion is to take snippets and offer those as a Free ebook or cheat sheet or even a practical guide with an end result in mind. It should be GREAT content, free content, that leads them to your email list. (Make this decision strategically --look at some data to see what converts best) From there, you can upsell your paid offers/ product(s) to your email subscribers. The Free offer can be posted directly on your social media updates (periodically ), you can also make custom Facebook tabs that push folks to your email list, and there are more options depending on the specific platforms you are using. You can add a blog (later) and post relevant content that leads them to sign up for your email list/free offer as the "call to action" at the end of the posts. BUT I wouldn't focus on this first because it's counterproductive if you already have an active following. Building trust and serving these people with valuable content will almost always guarantee they join your list and purchase your offers. The real issue that holds people back is consistent execution. So just go execute. ;) All the best!

That's definitely a tricky audience to get in front of online, since those generations aren't on social media nearly as much. Here are a few recommendations: 1) Target a younger audience (and/or baby boomers, who have a stronger online presence than seniors). Figure out how to market your service to younger folks by tailoring your messaging around them wanting to preserve memories of their grandparents/parents/etc. I'd also push hard on the gifting aspect here. 2) Run a test campaign with Facebook ads and use the age targeting setting to display your ads to baby boomers. (This is also a good segmentation technique for millennials if you choose to go with the "grandparents" messaging.) 3) Find other organizations with a similar audience and think of interesting ways to partner with them. What other sites do members of your target audience visit? Are there other apps or services that would complement your site nicely? Contact those folks and strike up conversation, learn more about their businesses, and suggest some potential ways you could help each other gain more customers. 4) Leverage your positive reviews and ask your happy customers to tell their friends about you! Given the demographic you're after, this will more than likely be via word of mouth (not social sharing or email forwarding), but WOM is the most enticing "referral channel" for this group anyway. Best of luck, and feel free to let me know if you'd like to chat further & come up with some more ideas together.

Try with http://mattermark.com/ they have a great list already compiled

It's true that link building has become more difficult and the game has continually evolved. Back in the earlier years of my SEO career we used to engage in comment posting on blogs and forums as a way to get backlinks easily. We no longer engage in these activities unless they're under very specific circumstances. First and foremost you never really want to have the attitude of "let me try to manipulate the search engines". You may not get caught tomorrow or in a month but eventually it will catch up to you and when it does the amount of work trying to lift a manual or algorithmic penalty is simply not worth the risk. I am mainly talking about people who use this as their primary means of link acquisition. On the other hand there are cases where it's OK to do it. But it should be approached with a different mindset. Your thoughts should be somewhere along the lines of: How can I post a thoughtful and substantial comment that will provide clear value to the readers? If you do this and other site visitors find your answer actually useful, then having the link could provide some value as an interested user or potential client might follow it to your website. If you are doing this with a purpose that's other than just link building there could be some benefit. I wouldn't do it in any other case. Any company that is just trying to get links to their website is not looking at the long term big picture. The best way to earn links is by doing real company stuff. You want to earn natural links and diversify. Sticking to one method is not a good idea. Now for some practical advice. For example if you donate to charities they might provide a link back to your website. If you offer a scholarship for students, .edu domains will be willing to link to you. Sign up for HARO and respond to as many interview or PR requests as you can. If you host events there are tons of opportunities to list the event and link back to your website. The most important thing to remember is that your anchor text should be natural and its quality over quantity with links.

Disclaimer: - I am NOT a lawyer and am only providing links to resources, not legal opinions or advice. - I have also been out of the industry for a few years and this is a fluid landscape, so continue monitoring the latest news, court cases, etc. Quick recommendations: - Join the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and attend one of their conferences. Their legal panel is quite knowledgable and the cost to join and attend events is reasonable. http://www.fsta.org Quick overview: - Fantasy sports traditionally have clear protection in federal legislation as contests of skill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_Internet_Gambling_Enforcement_Act_of_2006 http://www.fsta.org/?page=FSandGambling - The less luck (and therefore more skill) required for a given fantasy concept, the less likely it is to draw scrutiny. - Laws governing cash payouts are on a state-by-state basis. Research the state laws and look at several rules/terms of use of established fantasy sports vendors for hints at what their legal counsel has suggested prior to consulting your own legal counsel. - Make sure the legal counsel you hire has a clue about this stuff before hiring them or ask the FSTA if they can provide a referral. - If a business is ultimately determined in court to be guilty of gambling, the legal structure is unlikely to offer protection to the owners personally. Additional thoughts / resources: - Generally speaking, "skill" is a combination of factors including method of selecting players, size of roster / starting lineup, ability to modify a roster via trades & free agents and the duration of the fantasy period (i.e. season, month, day). - There are multiple lawsuits currently pending that could set precedence for daily games. Details on the legal proceedings regarding daily fantasy: http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2013/02/20/did-comcast-invest-in-fan-duel-too-soon/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2013/05/24/lawyer-who-sued-fanduel-brings-another-gambling-lawsuit-against-winner-of-draftday-contest/ http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1907272 There are two potential outcomes - a negative decision could drastically alter the fantasy sports world while a positive decision upholding daily fantasy as a contest of skill could result in the market being flooded by daily games from the huge media companies CBS, ESPN, etc who are sitting on the sidelines in part because of the legal uncertainty. Regarding money, I'm not clear on the specific legalities, however a pretty obvious thing is that collecting money with a promise to pay it out and then not delivering is fraud. For customers, it's a huge trust issue, therefore the contests with a long-track record or a policy of escrowing funds develop a strong following. Regarding licensing, again the best source is FSTA.org, however a generic answer is to steer clear of trademarks (including images) of the professional sports leagues and teams. Statistics are public domain (confirmed by legal precedent - see FSTA), but you'll likely want to subscribe to a stat provider as real-time stats are pretty basic expectation by customers. Conclusion: - Do more research by reading the aforementioned articles and searching online for more current articles since things can change quickly. - Talk with the FSTA if you're serious about getting into the industry - the value of their research and the panels at the conference is well worth the money, let alone the networking opportunities. - Ultimately you're running a business and if you don't position your concept and execute well, it doesn't matter how fun & cool the industry is.

alibaba.com

The terms of any investment are unique to each company. So it's hard to answer your question in generalities. That said, for Silicon Valley companies, convertible notes usually have a cap set at $4-5m with a discount that is either set (15%) or that is determined by a factor of time. I've seen North American companies at a similar early stage that are outside of the valley raise at as low as 3m cap. Generally speaking, every round of funding is usually a 10-20% dilution, sometimes as much as 25%. You want to use standard docs, and not complicate anything. Happy to talk through your specific situation and tell you what I think would be fair for both parties.

A good deck doesn't sell a terrible story, but a bad deck can ruin a great story. Your primary goal should be to distill your story down to 10 slides max, with as *few words as possible* on each slide. Images, product shots and graphs are all more impactful than words. A good outline is as follows: 1) Vision 2) Problem 3) Market Opportunity 4) Team 5 & 6) Product Details 7) Traction / Evidence 8) Competitive Differentiation 9) Plan of attack / use of proceeds 10) Contact info / closing point. Happy to review your deck over a call. I've helped hundreds of Clarity founders with framing their investor presentations.

The only due diligence a good angel will do are any of the following: 1) Ask anyone who they know that also knows you what they think of you; 2) Use your product to whatever extent possible. 3) Look at what others have invested in that may be competitive. 4) Talk with others who have failed with a similar idea. 5 ) Review legal docs related to the actual investment. In rare cases, an angel may ask to take a deeper dive on analytics but this is in very specific circumstances. Anything more than that is the sign of a likely bad angel investor who is likely wasting your time.

I vehemently disagree. I would recommend not following-up with any angel investor who asks you for a business plan. You yourself should be able to credibly articulate how you envision the next 12 months unfolding and especially how you intend on spending the money you raise, but that's about it. Financial projections for a two-month old startup are an even bigger waste of time. You want to be clear on the spend side but basically, the most you could have figured out is a working assumption on the customer acquisition cost.

Hi. Parse should do the job ( https://www.parse.com ). We've successfully used them at Vuzum across many native and hybrid apps on both iOS and Android.