The best answer depends largely on your product and the available market. I have been a Value-Added Reseller and have sold products and services through VAR's. I helped one of my current clients set up their reseller and affiliate program. If your product can, in fact, be sold to your target market for $100. And, if your COG's before commissions is $25, that leaves you $75 for operating revenue. Let's break that down. A reseller will need to be paid commensurate with the amount of work involved in selling your product. If the product needs to be purchased in advance and, therefore, stored by the reseller, that also is a factor. If your product can be sold by more of an affiliate marketer without inventory and with little effort except to drive traffic to their site, that is a different situation. There is no easy answer with such little information. But, as a general rule of thumb, a reseller may want 35-50% of the retail sale. That amount also is included in your top line COG. Let's say that you settle for 50% commission to your sales channel. At $100 retail, that leaves you $25 operating revenue after deducting your above mentioned $25 COG. Can you run your company on a gross operating revenue of $25? Sounds like a slim budget. I'd love to know more about your product so I can give you more accurate and specific advice. The first phone call is free. Give me a call using this free call link... https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.com

I have built two software companies by hiring out the development work. I sold one for a decent sum during the dot com era (circa 1999). I remain a shareholder in the other one. I currently work with amazing development company on behalf of one of my clients. Here are some things to consider. 1. Do you really want to give up equity? If not outsource. 2. How fast do you want to get to market? If sooner than later, outsource. 3. How capitalized are you? If undercapitalized, either outsource offshore (which runs about 20% of US rates), or bring on an equity development partner. I offer a free call to first time clients. Let's chat and I'll give you some great advice from three decades of experience. Just use this link to schedule the free call: https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy Www.kevinmccarthy.com

No, I think outsourcing this is at worst dangerous and at best lazy. Furthermore, unless this is highly focused on a type of user, I wouldn't trust that you could build user panels that were really of my potential customers. And therein lies the rub. Without real customers, it's impact and value is low.

Given that you are marketing your ability to build websites and mobile apps, your website lacks a lot of credibility as compared to other vendors offering similar services. A few specific examples: Links to what might be apps that your firm has previously built, link to almost illegible screenshots of appstore listings. This shows poor design decisions and raises significant concerns about why you chose to do this. Too much text that says nothing. There is a lot of text throughout your site that for all of its verbosity doesn't give much detail about what you do, why you're the best at it, and why you should be trusted. No customer testimonials. This is a big red flag. Generally, the website does nothing to inspire confidence that your firm is a quality provider of the services you are offering. I would suggest you focus on simplifying your website significantly, emphasizing whatever recent projects you have done where your customers are willing to offer written testimonials, and link directly to the sites and/or mobile apps.

Your first point of reference should be experience. The most effective way to create your ToS is to consult with a lawyer who specializes in your industry. This also hold true for your that and any business legal document. It’s true that you can find different online services and templates to assist you, but the truth is that these documents could very well be null and void. Your business is specific and unique and your ToS should be the same way. I advise against copying your ToS or using one of the “easy to use” sites as they will almost certainly fail to include or capture everything. Read more: https://lawtrades.com/blog/protect-website-liability/ At www.lawtrades.com, we have plenty of experienced Terms of Service and Privacy policy lawyers who will complete it for you on-demand. I have seen PP and TOS prepared routinely for $599 or less, and these documents essentially serve as a “blueprint” for your business. (Full disclosure: I'm the founder/CEO). In my opinion, copying your competitors legal documents will not work for you in the long run. The odds are high that the business had their documents customized, and by copying and pasting you are claiming that your business has the same features and services which is highly unlikely. Hope this helped address some of your concerns. When you're ready, you make your request completely free at www.lawtrades.com to get a better feel for the process. Feel free to mention "clarity" for a discount :)

A generalized question can only get a generalized answer. The most significant accomplishment is validating that the product you have built is a fit with your target market. This is demonstrated primarily by engagement (the people who sign-up or who previously visited, continue to return) and secondarily by growth, ideally based on word-of-mouth or viral growth but effectively converting paid traffic is a great second prize. Other significant accomplishments include: Not running out of money Recruiting and retaining great talent who believe in the founders' vision. Your loved ones not thinking you're as crazy as they thought you were a year ago. I'm happy to talk to you in a call to give you more specifics about what you want to set as your goals more specific to your startup.

It really depends on your mission and from where you intend to drive revenues. Asking a guest to create an account and log in in order to send an email to your customers could be seen as a stumbling block. The more you can encourage visitors to reach out to your customers, the more your customers will have a great experience, On the other hand, you have to make sure you all the security measures in place so your customers do not get spammed through your site. Give me a call to discuss further. I offer a free initial call to first time clients. Use this link: https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult

Are you performing a large-scale customer study? Or is this just a smaller focus group gig? The primary rationale for hiring a user research recruiter would be to obtain a valid, representative sample for statistical inference. If the number of participants is small -- too small to be statistically significant -- then you cross this concern off your list. Presumably, you know who your ideal users will be. After all, they must be your future customers, right? So if you can't track them down now, then future marketing will be pretty hopless. You can probably contact them on your own without an intermediary. Another reason for hiring a recruiter might be to inject a buffer layer for impartial selection. Otherwise, you and your colleagues may inadvertently bias the selection process toward people who know you or are already too favorable. My experience in this area is not vast -- although it sometimes comes into play for larger corporate naming initiatives. So I may be missing other arguments in favor of hiring research recruiters. I'd be glad to hear those from other people so that I can learn something too.

Absolutely. And it is easy as your imagination.You can create it to fit your culture. That said, I believe that the biggest incentive is to tie compensation to the profitability of the unit. 1) Be sure to include everyone who touches outcomes. 2) Create a profit share by deciding how much you want to land in the hands of your employees. Be sure to use a net profit and be sure to account for future capitalization and cash flow. (Typically between 5-25%) 3) Divide the profit share by salaries or some other very obvious criteria. In other words, don't make it arbitrary or people will be dis-incentivized. 4) The profit share is always paid to the group, not the individual. 4) Be very involved in teaching net profit creation. They will need business acumen. Lastly, 5) While stock options and employee ownership may be a future goal, a profit share let's people hit the ground running, creates excitement right now, teaches needed business and finance skills and adds a fabulous team culture. Work with your unit to create the options or ownership they want later when they understand the principles and can help design the rules and criteria. I practiced this for over 20 years and the results were phenomenal. People grew the business, put cash in everyone's pocket, created an exciting environment and was in real time, not future time. It is magic. This is a quick answer. Let me know if you need more. I'm happy to discuss. Ruth Schwartz High Performance Advocates 530 802-2075

I haven't seen a deal structured this way. Usually they get 6-10% equity I exchange for some small amount of money ( ~ $25k ) and tons of mentorship. 15% for $20k seems high ( you are valuing your company at $133k ) but there might be more to it. Accelerators are great specially for unknown founders. It gives them a fair chance of connecting to the people that well connected founders have access to and really get a shot at proving themselves. The accelerator should have access to great mentors, investors and previous successful founders. It should also be vested in the success of the company ( thus the equity ). If you sell them equity for the $20k, you don't owe any money if you fail. They get equity ( in very favorable terms ). If your equity turns out to be worth nothing ( I.e your company closes ) it's a loss for them and you but you should owe any money. Best of luck!

It's generally not worth supporting additional languages at launch. Why add extra work when you don't even know if the network will take-off in English? Best to minimize the complexity for launch.

My suggestion would be to connect (face to face if possible, Skype otherwise) with a couple from each category of users quickly (and multiple genres if that is an important category for differentiation) and then look to work towards the MVP,before getting more feedback (and ideally sales). Important to get that some of your initial consults are with users/customers outside of your network to ensure there isn't some kind of friendly bias.

Success is entirely subjective and dependent on too specifics unique to your situation. For example, are you currently pursuing your app as a hobbyist, hopeful it will augment your spending money but not expecting it to replace your annual salary? Or are you expecting to raise outside investor money based on this definition of success? Even then, the metrics for an enterprise app versus a game, versus a utility are entirely different, regardless of what your financial expectations are. So given that none of us who can answer this question for you know enough about what you're doing, I can give you the most helpful generalized advice: Outstanding success of any mobile app, should be defined by user love. Of course, love can take many forms from addictive ("I can't quit you") to bliss ("everytime I use this, it just makes me feel better") but the sign of outstanding success of a mobile app, is that it is widely loved by the people that use it. They could use it once a day, a week, a month or whatever (again context matters), but that every time they use it, they love it. When users love something, they tell the creator, they talk about it publicly and on social media, and it's generally well reviewed (there can be exceptions). So you could define "moderate success" as being liked, but I really don't know why anyone would want to "settle" for moderate success. The experience of being widely liked is probably best experienced by a group of users going "man, I like what you're doing, but when are you going to do this, or I'd like it even more if it did this" If you're getting that type of feedback from a good portion of users, then you know you've still got a chance to get to being loved. Define success of your app by user love. Not even reviews (though they can sometimes be a barometer for love), pure love. Happy to talk to you in a quick call. I'm sure that with the missing pieces of information from you, I could quickly answer the question you're asking with the specifics you seek.

TL;DR -> Yes you will risk it if you don't perform a proper audit and migration from the original platform. Any type of architecture changes can 100% ruin your SEO if you are not migrating content and topics correctly. Many people assume this is limited to URI structure but underestimate the power of Topical hierarchy and the content, internal linking and URI structure which play a crucial role into any migration effort. If you have any questions about the migration process, give me a shout. Decent free migration checklist: https://searchengineland.com/site-migration-seo-checklist-dont-lose-traffic-286880

So long as the suppliers are able to deliver a basic level of service that would create a positive experience for the purchaser, I'd say that it's reasonable to conduct the experiment. Marketplaces always face liquidity issues in the early days. Happy to talk to you in more detail in a call to better understand your current MVP and roll-out plans and provide some more specific advice to you.

It entirely depends on the kind of business you have. If you have a tech startup for example, there are pretty reliable assumptions about each round of funding. And a business plan and financial forecasts are almost totally irrelevant to sophisticated tech investors in the early stages of a company's life. Recent financial history is important if the company is already generating revenue and in that case, a twelve-month projection is also meaningful, but pre-revenue, financial forecasts in tech startups mean nothing. You shouldn't give up more than 10-15% for your first $100,000 and from that point forward, you should budget between 10-20% dilution per each round of subsequent dilution. In a tech startup, you should be more nervous about dilution than control. The reality of it is that until at least a meaningful amount of traction is reached, no one is likely to care about taking control of the venture. If the founding team screws-up, it's likely that there will be very little energy from anyone else in trying to take-over and fix those problems. Kevin is correct in that the board is elected by shareholders but, a board exerts a lot of influence on a company as time goes-on. So board seats shouldn't be given lightly. A single bad or ineffective board member can wreak havoc on a company, especially in the early stages of a company's life. In companies outside of tech, you're likely going to be dealing with valuations that are far lower, thus likely to be impacted with greater dilution and also potentially far more restrictive and onerous investment terms. If your company is a tech company, I'm happy to talk to you about the financing process. I am a startup entrepreneur who has recently raised angel and VC capital and was also formerly a VC as part of a $500,000,000 investment fund investing in every stage of tech and education companies.

I did a quick web search for you and came up with Jeremiah Owyang's blog. I have met him and he's a genius. http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/09/22/checklist-develop-a-successful-advocacy-program/ Should answer all your questions. Re: tracking and measurement I'd say "PR mentions" is a good one, using online tracking code and discount codes leading to sales pages and revenue should be on your list.

Apple will allow a developer to register 100 UDID devices per 12 month cycle to test via TestFlight or HockeyApp. Having started with TestFlight, I would really encourage you NOT to use it, and go directly to HockeyApp. HockeyApp is a much better product. There is also enterprise distribution which allows you far more UDID's but whether you qualify for enterprise distribution is difficult to say. As part of your testing, I'd encourage to explicitly ask your testers to only register one device. One of the things we experienced was some testers registering 3 devices but only used one, essentially wasting those UDID's where we could have given to other testers. Who you invite to be a tester should be selective as well. I think you should have no more than 10 non-user users. These people should be people who have either built successful mobile apps or who are just such huge consumers of similar mobile apps to what you're building, that they can give you great product feedback even though they aren't your user. Specifically, they can help point out non obvious UI problems and better ways to implement particular features. The rest of your users should be highly qualified as actually wanting what you're building. If they can't articulate why they should be the first to use what you're building, they are likely the wrong tester. The more you can do to make them "beg" to be a tester, the higher the sign that the feedback you're getting from them can be considered "high-signal." In a limited beta test, you're really looking to understand the biggest UX pain-points. For example, are people not registering and providing you the additional permissions you are requiring? Are they not completing an action that could trigger virality? How far are they getting in their first user session? How much time are they spending per user session? Obviously, you'll be doing your fair share of bug squashing, but the core of it is around improving the core flows to minimize friction as much as possible. Lastly, keep in mind that even with highly motivated users, their attention spans and patience for early builds is limited, so make sure that each of your builds really make significant improvements. Happy to talk through any of this and more about mobile app testing.

There are a handful of great PR agencies for mobile consumer apps in SF & NY but for a consumer launch, a great PR agency isn't sufficient to garner widespread coverage. With so much actual product awareness for new apps being driven by Twitter (and to a lesser extent Facebook), traditional PR is insufficient unless the right people are also talking about it the day of launch. Look at Jelly's launch yesterday for a launch done right (at least from a marketing perspective). With no disrespect meant to PR firms, I really think that spending the kind of dollars they charge for launching most apps is a waste of money. I think with a good directed outreach by you as CEO, you can get enough influencers talking about your product, providing of course, it lives up to the promises. I think a PR outreach should really be invested in as the app scales, when the kinks have been worked-out, and when there is already a certain amount of buzz. But expecting that the first buzz will be ignited by PR firms is a risky bet.

I always suggest going "uncomfortably narrow" initially so that you can really dial in the user experience and build liquidity first. Going broad will be tougher as there's too much noise to signal. Also, it's best to fake the supply side initially of you can to improve the buyers side first, then figure out supply & quality afterwards if customers are buying and you've proven out a demand strategy that will work.

Simple answer. Wait. Happy to discuss this in more detail in a call if you feel that there might be circumstances beyond the actual user experience that might compel a pre-mature launch, but generally speaking, the app should be in a state of polish prior to app store review. Use Hockey App or Enterprise Distribution to continue to get user feedback before launching to the app store.

Whoa, start by reading the Lean book again; you're questions suggest you are making a classical mistake made by too many entrepreneurs who live and breath Lean Startup. An MVP is not the least you can show someone to evaluate whether or not building it is a good idea; an MVP is, by it's very definition, the Minimum Viable Product - not less than that. What is the minimum viable version of a professional collaboration network in which users create a professional profile visible to others? A website on which users can register, have a profile, and in some way collaborate with others: via QA, chat, content, etc. No? A minimum viable product is used not to validate if something is a good idea but that you can make it work; that you can acquire users through the means you think viable, you can monetize the business, and that you can learn from the users' experience and optimize that experience by improving the MVP. Now, that doesn't mean you just go build your MVP. I get the point of your question, but we should distinguish where you're at in the business and if you're ready for an MVP or you need to have more conversations with potential users. Worth noting, MOST entrepreneurs are ready to go right to an MVP. It's a bit of a misleading convention to think that entrepreneurs don't have a clue about the industry in which they work and what customers want; that is to say, you shouldn't be an entrepreneur trying to create this professional collaboration network if you don't know the market, have done some homework, talked to peers and friends, have some experience, etc. and already know that people DO want such a thing. Presuming you've done that, what would you present to potential users BEFORE actually building the MVP? For what do you need nothing more than some slides? It's not a trick question, you should show potential users slides and validate that what you intend to build is the best it can be. I call it "coffee shop testing" - build a slide of the homepage and the main screen used by registered users; sit in a coffee shop, and buy coffee for anyone who will give you 15 minutes. Show them the two slides and listen; don't explain, ONLY ask.... - For what is this a website? - Would you sign up for it? Why? - Would you tell your friends? Why? - What would you pay for it? Don't explain ANYTHING. If you have to explain something, verbally, you aren't ready to build your MVP - potential customers don't get it. Keep working with that slide alone until you get enough people who say they will sign up and know, roughly, what people will pay. THEN build your MVP and introduce it first to friends, family, peers, etc. to get your earliest adopters. At some point you're going to explore investors. There is no "ready" as the reaction from investors will entirely depend on who you're talking to, why, how much you need, etc. If you want to talk to investors with only the slides as you need capital to build the MVP, your investors are going to be banks, grants, crowdfunding, incubators, and MAYBE angels (banks are investors?! of course they are, don't think that startups only get money from people with cash to give you for equity). Know that it's VERY hard to raise money at this stage; why would I invest in your idea when all you've done is validate that people probably want it - you haven't built anything. A bank will give you a loan to do that, not many investors will take the risk. Still, know not that your MVP is "ready" but that at THAT stage, you have certain sources of capital with which you could have a conversation. When you build the MVP, those choices change. Now that you have something, don't talk to a bank, but a grant might still be viable. Certainly: angels, crowdfunding, accelerators, and maybe even VCs become interested. The extent to which they are depends on the traction you have relative to THEIR expectations - VCs are likely to want some significant adoption or revenue whereas Angels should be excited for your early adoption and validation and interested in helping you scale.

1. Evaluate available advertising options (cpm, affiliate, # of ads per page, pages per site, etc.) 2. Create a spreadsheet with your assumptions for each of the variables (some of the things listed above) 3. Plug in different traffic volumes and see how revenue changes based on the selected variables. Reality is typically different than whatever model you create, so another concept is to stop guessing and start testing! My $.02.

You could try a "widget" on the lawyer's site which facilitates getting generic questions answered for free. The idea being that in each practice area, there might be a handful of questions that they get asked frequently, and would commit to answering one-time. It could be used to qualify the web visitor (always a good thing) while satisfying the visitor by providing them an answer. Of course, the challenge here is that most lawyers might only be comfortable providing such watered-down generic advice, that the answers themselves wouldn't be very useful. But this way, you could provide value to lawyers somewhat comfortable with online discourse, while building up content. With enough lawyers and content, you could then expand the service to build towards your larger vision. But as John has mentioned, many entrepreneurs have and are actively trying to win with this type of idea and have often struggled. CaseText is a recent YC grad that is doing some interesting work in this area. Happy to talk through your product implementation.

From my experience, many start-up companies find new clients and win contracts via various freelancing platforms; these are not just for individual contractors. I've worked with companies helping them get started on freelancing websites and win clients. It takes time and effort to start, but once you have established reputation you get invited for jobs and re-hired. When using freelancing platforms your payment is secured which is important for start-up - not all sites offer this though, always read the small print carefully. You should also network locally. Find an event that is geared towards start-ups and surely someone there needs design work done. If you have any further questions, just give a call.