Funny I actually started a project *JUST FOR THIS PURPOSE* called AppDea.net. It got overloaded and crashed my server so the database is currently down, but I am moving it over to a telesc.pe install right now and will let you know as soon as it is back up. Cheers!

Basic Errors and Omissions insurance should cover what your describing. There could be local/state laws concerning running the vehicle for prolonged periods of time, a call to your state department of permits should give you a solid answer to that.

If you're not technical yourself, then you might not be able to gauge the efficiency of a candidate's algorithms or critique her code. But there are still some higher-level, more behavioral things that a non-technical interviewer should be looking for in a strong development candidate: 1. What are some tech blogs that you follow? Explain an interesting article to me that you read from one of them. The software development world changes all the time. Best practices are constantly evolving and new libraries are regularly released which make developers more productive. If a candidate doesn't keep up with the latest software news, that might be a red flag that they're not curious or trying to improve themselves. Also, having them explain a technical concept to someone who's non-technical is a great way to gauge their communication skills. Do they seem like someone you could work with and understand easily? Do they care about pausing to make sure you understand, or do they just drone on with jargon? If you feel overwhelmed while they're explaining this answer, imagine how you'll feel when they're telling you why the product has bugs or isn't going to be done on schedule. 2. Tell me about a time you ran into a big roadblock with something you were building. How did you get past it? It's inevitable that a software developer will get tripped up or have to solve some Gordian Knot. Everyone has to bang their head against the wall from time to time. Maybe an API didn't have the data they needed or some function was running too slow and they weren't sure how to speed it up. You're looking to see how they are as a problem solver. Did they come up with a clever but hacky solution? Were they methodical or did they fly by the seat of their pants? Did they go back to the stakeholders and see if the feature's requirements were flexible? Did they work on it for hours and hours trying new things? Did they ask for help from colleagues or on the internet? No right or wrong answers here, but you want to get the sense that this isn't someone who throws up their hands when they hit some friction. 3. Tell me about your favorite project that you worked on. What work are you most proud of? By asking them about the project they're most proud of, you'll get to see what it is that they value most. Maybe one candidate is most proud of a side project they built, even if it wasn't that technically complex, while another candidate is proud of their esoteric PhD project or some specific algorithm they improved. Again, no right or wrong answers, it really depends what type of candidate you're looking for. But it lets you see into their mind a bit, and get at some of the aspects that can make someone a strong development candidate. If you want to talk more specifically about hiring for your team, I'd be happy to do a call!

It's best to keep everything in a single company to start with. Before going further with my answer, I'm compelled to tell you that launching multiple products *rarely* works and unless you have very significant prior success, most investors will take interpret diversification as a very negative signal. So just wanted to provide you that warning. You should do nothing in the early stage to your corporate structure to optimize to sell or spinoff what the Company develops. The reason for this is that it incurs legal expense prematurely and often limits your choices instead of facilitating the desired optionality. Investors almost always want "the whole hog" and also want to back a whole team focused on making a single product or service as big as it can get. Let an investor or buyer drive a spin out discussion, not the other way around. Happy to talk in more detail in a call.

Of course and have in the past.. With FB's Open graph search you can laser target buyers and weed out tire kickers.. This is a no brainer :)

2 different categories come to mind. H&R Block or other tax preparation services. The second is restaurants. This may seem like a product more than a service but I think it truly falls into the category of service, especially if you look at the national chains. Think Applebee's, TGI Fridays etc. The reason people go to these places is because of the experience they receive. The franchisors have created a system that generates nearly identical results nationwide. The first thing you need to do is figure out what makes your service superior to others out there, then you need to figure out how and why this is the case. From there you need to document it and make sure that you have a mechanism in place to ensure compliance. Granted that is a huge amount of work, but the basic premise is quite simple. You want all of the people you hire to do things more or less the way you would do them.

Depends on size of project, time and location commitment. Day, project, hourly and change fees are all common for our small team. Large companies offer different pricing structures.

Depending on average transaction size, number of transactions and the potential risks you are taking on (i.e what are you responsible for if your friends product or service isn't delivered on?). Anywhere from 2-20% could work depending on the above. As for accounting, I would recommend keeping the transactions in a separately coded lines of revenue and expenses so you can clearly show the in and out flow of money for his app. It will be taxed as income so you can include that in your fee if you wish. Also know that banks these days are very sophisticated with detecting fraud and money laundering so ensure you document the arrangement with your friend so you can easily show everything is on the up and up. I hope that helps!

The steps are the easy part. It's the execution. You can put together a great lead gen machine using content, cookies, and email marketing.

Licensing a platform is a terrific way to generate revenue. We struggled to gain an audience to our site and didn't have the funds to market as heavily as we would have wanted. In came the offers to license. Margins were tighter, but the exposure to new customers made a world of difference.

Depends on where your team resides. In SF, you could use an average of $135k for all-in costs for each employee. In Toronto, you could probably drop that by 20-30k per person. But there are so many other factors related to burn beyond headcount that just using a headcount cost + overheard to estimate burn would be pretty inaccurate to reality of calculating a cash-out date. Happy to talk through the details of your situation in a call.

Competing in this category when there are so many dominant incumbents is really difficult. You'll need a product that significantly leapfrogs that of the existing leaders, which means it's likely mobile-first and focuses on a simplified, minimalistic user experience that delivers on the core use case of these apps. To answer your question as you asked it: 1) Build the best product in the category; 2) Find a few key reference users (Social Media Managers at known companies who are themselves influencers about social media management) who are willing to declare your product as better than anything else; 3) Make it easy for enterprises to adopt this and establish some use cases that demonstrate how the more users who use this within a group or enterprise, the better their business results are vis a vis social media. 4) Buy inexpensive ads (Twitter is likely best) promoting these case studies encouraging sign-ups. 5) Talk to everyone who signs-up and hold their hands and lead them to become advocates for your service AND paying customers. The challenge is that customer acquisition costs or even lead costs are high, driven up by the significant cash that the incumbents can afford to spend on acquiring new users & prospects. Virality has proven difficult to achieve in this product category so it's really a function of convincing users to flee their existing tool in favor of an unknown, unproven product. Happy to talk to you in detail in a call.

Before you weigh the pros and cons of different platforms structures it's important to think about who your customers are and how you want the business to grow. I help companies find their most profitable customers and have worked with pre-revenue to high-growth $70M+ companies in the SaaS, consumer products and professional service spaces. We usually start our work by aligning around what the vision for the company is asking questions like "Where do we want to be in 3 years? Why?" From there we think about how customers will encounter and use the product, asking: - "Is it a business where relationships and high company involvement is needed after a sale is made?" A centralised business model is a good fit (more quality control). - "Are we a service based business seeking to minimize risk while expanding?" Then a franchise model is better. A business model/structure tumbles out having clear answers to these questions. One business structure is not inherently better than another. You're just picking the structure that best facilitates your business goals. Don't hesitate to contact me if you'd like to discuss your potential business model in more detail.

From your question it appears you want a shelf-stable (no refrigeration required) product with a long shelf life. There are a number a factors that will determine your products shelf life, to be clear, adding a seal is not the only requirement to create a shelf-stable product. The good news is that syrup has a low water activity, which means it will be easier for us to make it shelf-stable. My recommendation is to hot fill this product and use an induction seal. This process would then need to be validated with appropriate microbiological and sensory testing. I can setup a process that will create the product you desire with a shelf life that you and your customers would be happy with. If you would like to go into detail I would be happy to schedule a call.

I agree with my colleague. For the interest of clarification, the answer to your initial question (would you need to seek permission from the original (copyright owner). I believe my colleague was answering "No," to your second question are there standard policies for sporting event pictures. No, there are no universal rules. Depending on the sources there may be sites that allow you to license the material or have guidelines for your use. You would need to consult those sites for their policies. But, the answer to your initial question would be "Yes." You would be advised to contact the copyright holder. Without spending too much time looking at the site you linked "History of the World Cup" (and no time looking at the pictures being used). It may be that they a) got permission b) they feel that there use qualifies as a "fair use." They do specify that theirs' is a non-commercial use (presumedly for educational purposes) HOWEVER the credits section does ask potential copyright holders to get in touch if they take issue with their use. I am not saying that they are making "fair use" but it seems like they are doing what they can to indicate they are and to avoid claims of infringement. (Their attribution to the original photographer does not lend itself to any fair use right they might have -- but is probably done out of courtesy). I would recommend you speak to an attorney to find out if there is an easy way to get permission or license the content you wish to use. If you are making a noncommercial use for educational or other purposes that MAY be afforded some Fair Use protections that would be something you would also want to discuss. I hope this was helpful and added something to the original reply.

Your brand must conjure associations beyond the clothing itself. Fabric is only fabric. Attractive design matters, but market competition is enough to drive down prices. If you intend to ask a premium, then your product line must SUGGEST more than it literally is. Eventually, certain brands reach maturity and can point to an established reputation or high-profile adoption by the rich and famous. But you can start out by honing a brand "story" that captivates attention. Parts of that story are visual; others are verbal. Naming -- which is a large part of what I do -- is crucial when it comes to instantaneous unconscious communication. The right name tells your story for you on first contact with investors or consumers. Thereafter, it echoes in the mind, resonating with associations people bring to your product from their own experiences. Those associations add value. This is true whether you're a luxury brand or a maker of upscale outdoor gear like Patagonia, which takes its name from rugged South American highlands. In addition to your brand name, I would recommend paying close attention to all of your written copy. Make it unified and stylish ... in whatever way best fits your product line and intended audience.

It's the chicken or the egg question and in all truth you need both to grow each other. You need to figure out about the minimum level of businesses you need to keep customers coming back and back. Second, you need to offer those business a free trial period, say 3-6 months, so that you have the businesses that will attract the people, but the businesses are not throwing away their money on an empty project, while you are recruiting your people. You also need to market yourself and start early, while you are still setting things up. Get the word out: make youtube videos. Ask other sites to attach a link to your site. Write on blogs. Leave links on blogs (it is a bit of spamming but if the blog owners don't like it, they'll delete the link). Even better if you can do a trade for service with those same blog owners. Be creative and MARKET MARKET MARKET. There's an old Russian saying: not advertising your business is like flirting with a girl across a non-lit room.

I guess the best answer is, it depends. What kind of mobile game are you marketing? Who are you targeting? For what platform? (iOS, Android?) Different ad networks work better than others depending on the type of game. A good place to start would be MoPub, MDotM, Manage, and Insight.

Start by organizing a Startup Weekend event. It is more like the franchise model, and they will provide lots of support for you, collateral, etc. The second time you can spin off into your own thing once you have the experience.

Firstly - it is not always about spending a fortune on marketing and advertising. It is more about laws of physics than math. If you can put enough force into things that all increase the energy of that force - meaning, doing less isolated efforts of marketing but more integrated approach. Look at your target audience, where do they usually go for advice on international investments - Google ad-words is a good start but again, that is where active seekers would be found and you should have planned and implemented a good SEO approach. For passive prospects (not looking actively for international investments)- you would still need to generate interest through branding campaigns. This is again where, if you plan it well, perform research on the right channels for adverting to your prospects, some are free online, some are worth the spend. Also, look at your partners, and co-marketing campaigns in this time are a real asset as well. In a nut shell, there is not a cookie cutter solution and not one size fits all. If you spend more time planning, you will spend less money and less time will be wasted on execution of your marketing and advertising campaigns. I would be happy to have a call if you want to discuss this in further details and share some of our experience with such campaigns.

They are getting interest through their traction in other cities. Since they are already in 20 cities and have approximately half a million users if you look at their Android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.hinge.mobile.android), they can simply wait until one city "tips". This might also just be a strategy to artificially use scarcity since it works sometimes, such as with Mailbox(http://www.nirandfar.com/2013/07/psychology-of-scarcity.html). I think it doesn't really matter if they launch city after city, as they have $8M in funding and can just spend $5,000 on Facebook Ads and get 1,000 user in one city within a day. The effect of scarcity makes sense, if you are new and if you're a hyped startup such as Mailbox used to be. On the other hand, it makes sense if you don't have the resources to launch in many cities such as Uber, because they need the drivers first. I can also schedule a call, where I can tell you more about this as I've done a lot of apps and have a social network myself with Tennis Buddy.

Assuming links work here, a couple good articles: http://www.techinasia.com/xiaomi-reports-monthly-revenues-49-million-miui-android-ecosystem/ http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/09/06/heres-why-you-should-care-about-rising-chinese-smartphone-firm-xiaomi/ http://www.rioleo.org/xiaomi-miui-and-the-android-ecosystem-within-china.php In short, everyone wants a piece of the ecosystem game. Some is poorly thought out (Leap Motion is doing it badly) but for the core concept I refer you to Motorola's mobile phone business. Several times they have been the absolute dominant force in the industry. But, when you sell consumer hardware only, busts can follow booms. And did for them, many times. An ecosystem means ongoing revenue, not just periodic hardware sales. It means secondary market sales are the same to you, as the ongoing revenue is what you want, and it means increased stickiness. Apple lives by this, and embraces their customers being stuck on their products. There is almost no such thing as an apples-to-apples comparison consumers can make when the get used to your ecosystems. Perceived or actual switching costs muddy the waters for them, so you have them longer. Xiaomi is getting this sort of loyalty. There's other interesting issues having to do with their market. Play store, for example, is not really a thing in China. I can go on and on about this, so ask me if you have additional questions.

I lived in the US for 28 years before returning to Russia. My name is not easy for Americans to pronounce (anything outside of the Anglo-Saxon standard names seems to fit that category). Short version of Stanislov is Stas, so I went with that for them, but I never would change my name. Take pride in the name you were given and the culture you came from. Your parents gave you that name and you have it for a reason. Just because others don't pronounce it just right is no reason to throw away your culture. Oh and Misha is the short Russian version of Michael, if you americanized it, it would have to be Mike.

I'd start with messaging the admins of the various Facebook groups dedicated to mobile game development and asking if they'd be willing to 1) enable you to put up a post about the SDK, and 2) pin the post for a week so that you get a bit more visibility within those communities. You can also find the appropriate thread on the various mobile gaming forums and chime in there. I would recommend trying to be helpful 9 times before you ask for something once. You'll notice a much better response if you've become an active contributor to each community before you start selling your stuff, no matter how soft the sell and no matter how valuable the stuff. Hope this helps, Austin

Beauty isn't my field -- not the cosmetic / fashion variety, anyway. But I see companies from other industries eager to pay bloggers for advertorials. So I assume that the same demand exists in the industry you're examining. I'd also imagine that such a database would make the process of connecting advertisers and bloggers much more efficient. If I'm right, then you have a promising idea. But you ought to be asking (1) the bloggers and (2) the companies who'd be paying to advertise. If they think it's a good idea, then you're off to a good start. Then you'll want to research existing platforms (if there are any) and assess your own readiness to build and market the service you have in mind. Good luck! P.S. If you get to the stage where you're thinking of a brand name for your project, talk to me. That is my actual field. So the beauty that primarily catches my eye is VERBAL beauty.