Typically people are going to want to see an example of your work. A success story. It sounds like you are still entertaining the idea though and most likely don't have a real-world example to showcase. If this is the case, I would suggest trying to start with a close friend or family member who happens to run a business or is in charge of training for a company. You simply need to get your foot in the door. Would it hurt to provide the service for free or at least severely discounted for the first client? You want to do whatever it takes to set the first example, so you can say "hey, look what I did for them." If you can prove that you are a producer, no one will ask for your qualifications, you've already shown them.

I probably use rabb.it api and integrate it clarity.fm

Donations of in-kind services generally cannot be deducted. Donations of in-kind items (clothes, food, computers, etc.) are deductible. But the amount of the deduction is basically up to the donor; they declare the market value of the items. This is obviously very subjective, but there are some large national nonprofits that publish list of suggested values. For example, the Salvation Army has a list here: http://satruck.org/donation-value-guide One note -- vehicle donations are treated differently. I believe that the deduction used to be the Blue Book value of the car; I believe that is now only the case if the car is used by the charity in their operations or donated by them directly to a person in need. Most charities that receive donated vehicles will sell them in an auction; in these cases, the amount of the deduction is limited to the amount that the charity receives for the vehicle (i.e. if the Blue Book value is $5,000 but the charity only sells it for $2,000, I believe the deduction is limited to $2,000). NOTE: I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. If you seek such advice, you should consult with a lawyer who specializes in this area. My response is based on my 13+ years of professional fundraising.

In my experience, VC's always want to know GAAP revenue because it's a way to compare apples to apples. We both know it's not perfect in that regard, and that cash is king, and they know that too, but that's the primary, standard metric. The good ones want to see both, so they really understand the mechanics of the business.

This is interesting, but not interesting enough. Not yet. You need to work further on your branding. What KIND of promotion for artists & designers? How is what you do DIFFERENT from anything else? What do artists & designers GET from you that they don't get anywhere else? Your target market are social creatures. Are there withdrawn, shy artists? Of course. But most either want to meet other people, or are aware they must meet new people to promote their work. So some kind of party is what I recommend. Start thinking about how you can accomplish this virtually, online. A red carpet event, a premier event, a good old-fashioned mixer. It cannot be just about you; somehow, you have to build in a way for the participants to mingle and do what you say your brand allows them to do: promote their work. Facebook ads can help you attract the right people. The question is, what are you attracting them to; why should they be in the room? Where do artists and designers hang out? Online and offline? Where can you get in front of them that they already congregate at? Your brand needs a shot of panache and a big reason for artists & designers to be attracted to it. The ability to promote their stuff is great, but they have to see for themselves how it affects them personally. That's how to get their involvement. And you want them talking about it--before you have this event. Get them to build the buzz, because they will do a much bigger and better job about it than you can. In fact, go out and find celebrity spokespeople to shoot quick videos about why they're supporting your brand. What they're getting out of it. These don't have to be world-striding celebs: local will do. But begin. You can build on these. Show user adoption. Excitement from the target market. Narrow down on their reason for being in the room.

When you publish information about someone without permission, you potentially expose yourself to legal liability even if your portrayal is factually accurate. Most states have laws limiting your ability to publish private facts about someone and recognizing an individual's right to stop you from using his or her name, likeness, and other personal attributes for certain exploitative purposes, such as for advertising goods or services. You can read more here: https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/publishing-personal-and-private-information Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath

You get the bravery to do the thing by doing the thing. Stop being in analysis paralysis and just get on with it. You build a business one step at a time, one action at a time. Just get on with it. Stop worrying about whether it will be profitable or not. You either want the thing or you don't. Do you want the desired result? Or not really? Every day you stand still you are being blown past by people who are already running the race. Get started. You are making far too much about the fear of failure. What's the worst that can happen? You lose all your money and have to start over. Big deal. Some of us have done this many times. That's what entrepreneurship is. Shut your thinking down and just get on with it. Or move on.

Yes, I did exactly that a few years back. A friend of mien and I launched a site with minimal functionality that was really just a landing page. We offered the opportunity to pre-buy a year's subscription to the service by allowing users to set their own pricing. Within the first 24 hours of the site going live, we had enough paying customers to validate the business and inform our iterative development cycle. Ultimately, we decided it wasn't a big enough business for either of us to get really excited about but it proves that it can be done. I also did that in my current business with a landing page that generated literally thousands of leads and hundreds of very qualified customers, which resulted in paid pilot contracts before the software was fully built. Build something that people actually *need* and you'd be surprised at what they're willing to do to get early access to it. Happy to talk about it in a call in more detail

You don't. Research the company and hiring manager or would be manager/leader to such things like their needs, recent prior events (& whom else would have been there), near future company goals, products and find a place within that need structure where you would add material value. Then craft what is called a Speculative Application. Get yourself into a position in which travel might be an option as part of your roles.

Honestly? Me. Admittedly, my focus is very narrow -- brand names and domains. But I see an appalling number of good startups begin by blundering in that narrow little area I know. Just as many get it right; yet even the fortunately named sometimes just luck out, without really thinking things through fully. Like playing darts blindfolded. In the early stages of naming a project and securing a domain, it's so easy. Later it can be horribly complicated or expensive. So I'd love to be there when people have their first discussions just to say, "What about ..." or "Please don't ..." or even "Yeah, that's a great choice ..." Much better than talking to the same people a year or two down the road once they've realized there's a problem.

Bids for websites/startups on www.flippa.com, if you want to get your startup funded the best sites are angel.co and gust.com its not technically a bid but the outcome is similar.

I love you, enjoy the journey.

If it's SaaS, you should be monetizing from day one. An MVP in SaaS is the minimal product that people will pay for, that's the starting point. You evolved the product from there. If it's a consumer app, that's a little more complicated. Often times, monetizing preemptively can stunt growth and kill the trajectory, due to lack of focus, user experience, etc. It's really a question of access to capital in this scenario.

Option 1. Before you muddy the waters go to a local bank and see if they can help. They may be able to provide you a short term loan. Option 2. Ask friends and family if they will loan you the money. Option 3. Get a pitch deck together and get on AngelList

immediaC has built and deployed more that 3000 website and mobile apps since 1998. Here are a couple of ideas for you to establish your credibility and built trust fast: 1 . Go do some pro bono for your favorite charity or non-profit. (We work with the local theatre, a few non-profit sports clubs and a food bank.) 2. Your own website's speaks volumes about your ability. Make sure it totally rocks. 3. While your teams previous work might not be part of your company's official portfolio, you can talk about their specific industry experience and success. 4. Work your networks. People buy from people they trust. Virtually every company out there is concerned about their online strategy, and how to be effective online. It is overwhelming for many businesses. They want a trusted expert. The people you already know, and the people who already know your team, are the easiest to establish trust with. Start with them. Happy to do a call with you if you like.

It seems like you are cash-strapped. Option 1 - you can do is give equity instead of cash. Option 2 - you can give experience and no cash. Both of these options will be slower than compensating cash. And, you will have to think about a marketing strategy once you get your MVP done.

I've been a commercial real estate broker for 5 years now and have ventured into a handful of business partnerships - some have worked and some have nearly ruined me. What I find, on a surface level, is that you must absolutely share the same VALUES and MISSION as your potential partner. Having even stake in the game also helps, as it avoids one partner eventually grabbing "the upper hand". If you are not bringing cash or equity to the table, be prepared to demonstrate how your hard work can be translated into $ value. If you have more detailed scenarios or questions, feel free to bounce them off me at anytime. Cheers! -S.

At Bearpaw Partners we get asked the question about content related posts all the time. As we all know Google loves fresh, compelling content. It sounds like you have plenty of content, just make sure its extremely relevant to the topic you are posting about. How often are you planning on blogging? Once a week, once a month? We would advise you to keep some of your powder dry and not fire off all the best content right away. Pending events may happen that you can capitalize on by posting some great content and piggy back on the "event". You also need to play around with the schedule to see when you get the most hits to the blog...day of week, time of day, season etc. There are other variables you should consider as well to really nail down your question. Feel free to ask away. Hope that helps.

I've been developing web and iPhone apps for a while and I usually recommend to first use the provided sharing mechanisms. They provide great flexibility and as well don't require your app to request permissions on external networks. Using the iOS SDK sharing components will also save you precious development time. The most important part is the content that will be shared. On that side, make sure all the content has a unique URL, and can be properly consumed on all plateforms, desktop and mobile. Pay a particular attention to the head meta tags of those pages. Open graph and Twitter tags are not optional anymore and help driver a better visibility on the networks your content is being shared onto. Don't forget to track with an appropriate analytics tool how your users use the sharing module. Then you can evaluate the pertinence of building something custom.

Don't pitch him anything. Find out what he thinks you should do, and ask what he's interested in doing. Maybe he'll suggest avenues for you to pursue. Maybe he'll come round and invest anyway. But there's a good chance you'll both get more out of a casual dinner if it's genuinely a casual dinner. You get to pick his brain. Bring your eyes and ears instead of a sales pitch and see what happens.

Get a tool like screencast or camtasia and narrate as you navigate your website. Its the equivalent of storyboarding and most freelancers should be able to relate.

I've done this in the past. I find the best way is to do it in person. I made a habit of walking on my downtown street between lunch and asking the local business owners about their challenges of their business. I don't know if there's a number...I think idea extraction should become a part of your daily routine. Here are some questions you can ask: So your business does X? What is your role in the business? What does a typical day look like for you? Can you walk me through the first couple hours of your day? What are the first few things you do each morning? How many customers are you working with a month right now? What’s been your best month? What’s been your worst? What are a couple activities you have in your day that you just don’t enjoy? Getting Deeper Thinking about the last couple days at work, what has been the most challenging part? What do you use excel for in your business?** What is the most expensive problem in your business? What’s a problem that you’ve tried to solve in the past but didn’t work for you? What would you like to do with you mobile phone, but can’t?

Google's official stance is that they are "roughly equivalent" and recommends to do what is technically simpler to implement (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk). With that said, I'd recommend a directory over a subdomain. Doing this consolidates signals to a single domain, which should then theoretically build more authority for all pages off of that single domain. This consolidation of authority results in rank increases, which have been documented here: http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official-stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating. A subdomain would split signals from the blog and the rest of the root domain content. So while Google "says" they're roughly equivalent, SEOs have seen tangible evidence that sticking to a single domain can be beneficial. If you're able to go with www.iconery.com/editorial/, I'd choose that. Hope this helps!

I'm a former retail buyer for Target and worked in the Home Pyramid/Division. In short, the easiest way to find buyers is to use Linked In. I have a short video on how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbfUMRHiq0. And you can find corporate email formats at www.email-format.com. Other ways: Trade shows are also effective; you can get the mailing address of retail buyers in attendance plus meet them face to face if they come to your booth. Also, network within your industry. You'll find your peers are wiling to trade buyer lists with you. But most important in contacting a buyer is HOW you contact them. Don't just bombard them with information about your product. Everyone leads with their product. But the ones that lead with their sales history, current retail distribution and marketing plan are the ones that get responses. Why is this information important? It provides a sense to the buyer for how your product might perform in their stores and takes some of the sales risk out of working with your company.

The honest answer is that it's not hard IF you have a great (remarkable) and cool product. I've placed our products such as DNA11 on csi:NY (entire episode centered around our art), The Amazing Spiderman, Today show and many more. For the most part they contacted us with interest. The way I got us on CSI is by doing something really outside the box. I literally wrote a letter (yes on paper) to the show's creator Anthony Zucker. I simply offered him a free portrait and told him I was a fan. 2 months later the producers contacted me and told me they had written an episode that would feature us. It was amazing to see our idea featured on one of the most watched shows on earth! This was more luck than anything but I had to put myself out there to get the opportunity. The worst thing that can happen is you get a no. Don't be afraid of rejection because 9 out of 10 times you will get rejected. All you need is one yes. Ok. Real tips: 1. Get on LinkedIn. Get a pro account. Many producers are on there and you can simply InMail them. You just have to make sure your pitch is solid. 2. Send free samples. Use research and hustle to find the names and addresses you need. There's no real easy way to get this info but there are several web sites that offer lists. 3. Never pay for placement. Ever. 4. Get on popular product blogs and get traditional PR on top tier blogs. Product researchers are often on these sites looking for the next big / cool thing. Again, you must have a really cool product for this to work. Once you get some momentum on these fronts you will magically begin to get lots of inbound Opportunties. That's when things start to get easy. However there's a reason they call it "earned media" HUSTLE! If anyone wants to brainstorm more or talk about tactics in detail contact me on Clarity.