Most advisors get between .25% to 1%. 1% assumed they are VERY important and will be active in either recruiting or raising capital (2 of the most important areas). Advisors don't do it for the equity - at least they shouldn't - what they want more than anything is recognition from you publicly that they've been helpful to you + feedback loop (follow up) that you're listening and implementing their feedback. Hope that helps.

For background, I'm an active board member for two charities, am a past board member of CIRA (which runs the .CA domain) and am a graduate non-profit governance essentials course from the Institute of Corporate Directors. I also built Canada's first crowdfunding website that distributed over $3m to charities from over 115,000 members and in the process interacted with literally hundreds of charities on social media and cause marketing. Every board member needs to be willing and able to raise funds. I believe that every board member of a small non-profit (less than $250,000 in operating budget) should be able to raise at least 10% of the annual budget. Also important is values alignment ensuring that the board member understands and agrees with what the organization stands for. Finally, as much as is possible, ensure that each board member brings a missing skillset. Social Media competency in one, accounting in the other, for example. Final piece of advice is that good board members should be hard to get. The commitment of time and energy is significant and so therefore, anyone who is willing to join without much convincing or discussion is probably someone who isn't going to be prepared to do the heavy lifting. Happy to talk to you in a call about board composition or anything else. I have a huge passion for helping the non-profit sector and especially grassroots organizations like yours.

We use github for code hosting, issue tracking system and specs ( the wiki portion ). Dropbox for large files like designs, videos. Basecamp for collaboration and discussion coupled with real time chats over hipchat. I bought into the appcelerator promise a while back but had since abandoned it for native development. It depends on your app but our app would look and behave significantly worse had we not gone native. Hope this helps, call me If you need more info.

I would google bunch of SEO related keywords (like "how to rank high on Google" or something like that).. see who pops up in the SERPs. If SEO people/company can't SEO themselves.. that tells you a lot about them. You don't take diet tips from overweight people. You don't take investment tips from homeless people. Don't take SEO tips from people who don't SEO themselves to get business. My 2 cents.

Hi, I think there is a 20/80 rule that applies here too where 20% share is of the quality and great content while the rest is in how well you promote it. We've been doing that too and saw good share on our personal blog at Omnicore. One more tip that I can give is to bring in experts as the Ego-bait posts get shared a lot. e.g http://backlinks.com.au/link-building-strategies-2014/ If you're interested in putting the content marketing plan in action for 2014, set up a call. Best Wishes, Salman

TL;DR; Yes it's bad, without understanding context. Doing this, or any other organization rule needs to be considered based on the culture of the company and the goals. It's dangerous to take this one action out of context as to Buffer's purpose in building their organization. Is it good? For some, that haven't been doing it from day 1 - I'm going to say no. My experience shows that most companies don't have a strict pay scale, and many would get upset by this. Also, it's a personal thing - maybe your team don't want this. We do this internally at Clarity (everyone on the team knows what everyone else makes) but we don't publish this to the world. I do agree that transparency helps teams focus on whats important, and can get ride of political issues, but it can also introduce other issues if it's not part of a bigger vision. It's like assuming if you wear black turtle necks, blue jeans and new balance shoes like Steve Jobs, that you'll be a better designer. That's not how it works. my2cents

With 17+ years in PR, and my work as chair/co-chair with the MIT Enterprise Forum in Chicago, let me add to what has already been said. You have two industries (aka targets) to approach - technology & advertising. Try to include a demo video in your media pitch/kit. Create and tell a story to reporters as to why you created your startup. What need did you see? Is it from personal experience in the ad industry? Something you experienced that was a real pain. Something that you said to self "there has got to be a better way." Find out from your financiers who they have funded and then research to find out which reporters wrote about those companies. I would also suggest putting out a press release. PR Web is relatively cheap, and can help with SEO. If you need a media list I also have a suggestion. Feel free to contact me.

Here's my rule for numbers. 100 target customers that I've done customer discovery interviews with. 10 customers (who've paid / given me money) 25 who are active beta testers. I usually use that order of things as well. I like to get early adopters to give me money to validate their feedback, then 25 to give product feedback to test usage & retention, but in parallel I talk to as many potential customers as possible to learn.

Since you do not have a duty to disclose prior art to the USPTO, you could approach your competitor and try to negotiate a license for their patent pending technology. However, there are two caveats to this approach. First, your competitor does have a duty to disclose prior art to the USPTO. If they learn about the prior art in the course of negotiations with them for a license, they would need to disclose that prior art to the USPTO if the patent has not yet issued. The patent could be declared invalid if they later sued an infringer and it came out during litigation that they did not disclose known prior art. Second, it is much easier to notify the USPTO of this prior art while the patent is pending than after the patent issues. You would only have to pay $180 and would have six months after the application was published to file the prior art with the USPTO (under the new rules of 37 CFR 1.290). The USPTO will only consider written documents, so there would need to be some kind of published document relating to the prior art you found, such as a company brochure showing or describing the feature. I would be happy to assist you with this matter whether you decide to negotiate with your competitor or submit the prior art to the USPTO.

Steve Blank has already covered this in depth in his book 4 Steps to the Epiphany, as well as a video here: http://startupweekend.wistia.com/medias/tao3s8hf7l My approach is based on his outline, with a twist. 1) I try and conduct the interviews at the customers office or place of work, at minimum on their devide (computer, mobile phone) so I can ask to see how they work. 2) I never try and sell them on a the solution, but work hard to truly understand if/where the problem is. 3) Always provide guidance to the conversation, but ask open ended questions. 4) Ask questions like "What do you do 3 minutes before, and after, you do that action (or use our product)? Other tips would be - Write down the words they use. Metaphors and taxonomies are VERY important to ensuring your product is approachable. - Use 3 simple slides: Problem, Current Solutions, Proposed Solution Hope that helps.

You have two questions. One is how to actually establish a price or pricing plans, the other are tactics most useful after pricing has been established. I think Laura provides some great tactics around pricing but as I read her answer, I think it addresses the tactics part less than the pricing part so I'll focus exclusively on how to find the right price. First, I'd suggest you go to http://www.harrisonmetal.com/ and scroll down the page to find their workshops on pricing. I've attended their class on the subject in-person and they have published the course materials on their site. Pricing is part art, part science. It comes from understanding what other offerings exist in the marketplace and how your offering differentiates. So for example, customer development that focuses on understanding how your customers perceive your offering against competitive offerings would provide clues and insights into whether it might make sense to price your offering higher or lower to your competitors. Pricing is also entirely dependent on it's related messaging. Decisions are made and confirmed by two entirely different parts of our brain, and so appealing to intuition or emotion without providing context for the logic/rational part of the decision will often fail to complete the sale. Happy to talk to you about any of this in a call with you, if you'd like.

Staff augmentation vs. project work in A&D are really two different companies. Another key segmentation is work that requires certification (NATO Clearance, secret clearance, Airbus/Boeing training, etc). On staff augmentation, a lot of young firms start off bringing in good ex-employees of the majors and and targeting the supply chain. Often the majors Boeing, Dassault, etc like it when subs use talent that already know the primes practices. If you are targeting project work, you need to define if you are selling skill or price. If your the best team for converting major assemblies into a stream line lean process, you need to clearly define that and sell it into the targets. In all cases, you are likely to get your first customers in the supply base. The supply base is likely trying to win a bid or execute a current contract. They want to mitigate risk using temporary labor, especially if you are in a EU labor market. If your model is to sell outside of the Primes, for example selling aerospace talent to boat manufacturing, I would stick more to project work with a few key initial clients. Create an iconic success. I would also look at the UAV market. There is a lot going on there. Often the people creating UAV's are more controls focused, they might like having someone else be there air frame team. I was heavily involved in the lean manufacturing movement at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing. Mostly on F/A-18, but also C17, 787, UAVs, etc.

Anyone who tells you that the branding and design isn't important is smoking meth. Your brand is one of THE MOST IMPORTANT things related to your company and product. It is the firs thing someone sees and it is your FIRST impression. Because of that, your prospects will make a slew of initial judgements based solely on your branding and design. They will decide whether you are reliable or not. They will decide whether you are an authority. They will decide whether you are honest and telling the truth about your skills. If you are trying to position yourself as an authority (I hope you are), do you think that having a website that, hypothetically, looks like it was made by a 10 year old will help or hurt? How many times have you gone to a company's site, or looked at their brochure, etc. and laughed and IMMEDIATELY discounted them as being full of cr*p? I'm sure you can remember doing that-- we all have. It's the equivalent of me setting up a meeting with a new client after they have heard about all my awards and walking in dressed in a windbreaker from the 90s, a torn up (and not in a good way) pair of jeans, and with dirt all over my face. You know what they'd do? Pretend they weren't in. The same goes for you. Your marketing is an INVESTMENT, not an expense. You are investing in your company and hoping to build an empire for yourself. You know what separates McDonalds from the local burger joint? It isn't their great food-- the local place is leagues better. It is marketing-- that is why McDonalds is worth BILLIONS and the burger joint is about to shut down. McDonalds treats marketing as an investment. The burger joint treats it like an expense. Who ends up losing more money? You can either pay 10 bucks and make back 100, or "save money" to pay 5 and end up making nothing. Cut costs on things that don't matter-- not on your marketing. If you are ok dealing with my slightly abrasive, no-BS attitude, you're welcome to set up a 10 minute call with me so I can tell you exactly what you need to do to build an empire. You can't get better advice than from a Forbes-listed marketer of the year. Talk soon.

Place looks great. Wish I lived closer ;) While there are a number of tactics that could get you more people coming to your website, my concern is that those who do visit are unlikely to complete a booking given the number of steps in your registration process. I think there are a number of "quick wins" (things that you could do to increase sales that don't require too many changes to your existing website) that are possible by making the existing website more efficient. I'm not a travel expert but I am experienced in online marketing and conversion optimization. Happy to talk to you in a call if you're interested in understanding these quick wins.

I love what Lee said about being yourself but staying on message. And Ali was right: choose your goals then plan backward from them. Twitter is a tree: the more your water, fertilize, and prune it, the stronger it will be. Here are a few quick tips: · Actively prune inactive and spam accounts to keep the number of people you follow less than the number who follow you. · Talk to thought leaders, especially people who have more followers than you. Engaging them in conversation will put you on the radar of all their followers. · Give public "high fives." Compliment other people's work, writing, products, and thoughts, and 95% of them will like you. · Use TweetDeck to create custom streams based on the niches you're target, and Buffer App to schedule the delivery of new content. I have to use Buffer; otherwise, I'll sometimes forget to post my stuff! · Be yourself. I can't stress that one enough. · Keep in mind that bigger isn't necessarily better. Again, what is your goal? If you're trying to network in your industry, than a smaller following might be appropriate. If you're selling info products, then you'll need lots of people entering your sales funnel. · Have fun. I believe that people prefer to follow winsome people. · Stay consistent. Your following will grow steadily as long as you're posting steadily AND engaging people in conversation. · Be really generous. I believe that people prefer to follow generous people. · Go read one hundred blog posts about how to grow your Twitter following. By the time you're finished, you'll be the expert. Come back and teach all of us "experts" something, okay? Austin

Carolyn's points are spot-on. Tactically speaking, I would suggest that you make contact with the recruiting partners at the top VCs. Greylock, a16z and others have partners specifically focused on helping their portfolio companies with recruiting. Cold calls and emails with a "I'm an entrepreneur that has built two companies, one of which grew to X in Y time, and the other grew to X in Y time. I'm interested in exploring opportunities within your portfolio who are looking to scale-up their growth and sales" should get some discussions initiated with these recruiting partners. Stage of company matters too. You're more likely to find a fit with a company who is post a $1m seed raise and already scaling-up. I'd also think a lot about what role you're interviewing for. The problem with a generalized entrepreneurial background is that it can be perceived as "jack of all trades, master of none." So in order to improve your resume, you might be best to be 2nd to a great growth lead or be the first hire under a VP Sales. Also, I'd suggest that you research the ages of the founders. If they are under 30, they are more likely to be biased to hire younger talent, but over 30, that bias often swings the other way. I'd recommend you call Carolyn if you want help on how best to present yourself to prospective employers. I'm happy to talk to you about your background and experience and recommend more specifically the kinds of companies and roles that might be the best fit for you. Best of luck!

Whenever I think of skills, the first one I think of is people skills. I think that is the most important type of skill-set to have. Knowing how to treat and talk to people is beyond important in the workplace. When you know how to talk and treat people, it really doesn't matter what kind of product you are selling. When you make it about the person and not the product, walls fall down. Learning how to read people and get a feel for their personality has really helped too. It's a shame more management teams don't take the time to learn and teach this to their staff. I hope that helps!

Spend zero time worrying about building your personal brand. Spend all your time focused on achieving your goals building your business. Simply put, the best way to build your brand is to achieve success. Let others evangelize you, whether it be investors impressed with your growth, customers who are delighted by the product/service you provide, or even your employees talking about what a great leader you are and what an amazing work environment you create or how brilliant you are and how you're revolutionizing the industry you're operating in. These are all so much more important than the attention you could get by public speaking, blogging, doing interviews, etc. A Company can be artificially inflated by someone able to create attention but it is not a sustainable path to success. Others singing your praises is so much more substantive than promoting yourself.

Balanced Payments or Stripe

You should be writing it yourself if you're new to it -- you need to build your voice! -- unless you have access to high-profile guest bloggers whose posts can potentially draw more attention to your blog in its early days. They can promote their posts throughout their own networks, which in turn puts your blog on the radar of people who follow them.

Hi, Walter here. Assume I am your potential customer. I see your website because I am searching for related power industry information. I am in the searching stage, not ready to buy. No idea about your company reputation, nor have and idea of who you are. The Know, Like and Trust factor is missing. Hard to be your customer in the above circumstances. If you ask me to pay a subscription fee to access the information I am looking for, I will look some place else. --- Here is my answer: 1. Need to build up you and your company to your potential customers. a. Tell your Avatar, that's your target customer. your story on how and why you are solving their particular problem in a video, a free video story. b. Include a call to action in the email, mostly providing more updated information on the matter by email. So you are requesting the potential customer email (Opt-in) c. Once you received the email, send a comprehensive, value loaded email with things as: Infographic with statistics about your avatar problem and pointing toward your company on how to solve it. Add a video following up to the one on the Opt-in form where you got the email to start with. Remember it takes and average of 7 presentations for a sales conversion. So present the opportunity to take action every time you send and email along with value. You are building TRUST by stepping on the customer shoes and helping him up. So you will have to Opt-in options on all you emails out. Once to subscribe to your videos series and one for a survey to closely identify the customer problems and desires. Today's marketing is about story telling. Follow up with powerful value to them and build up you email list. There, in the mailing list is where your power is. That's you sales pipe, the communication channel to build your relation to your potential customer and convert them to customers when the Know, Like and Trust is build. My friend, MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I've used a ton of different plugins and services to create and sell online courses, and here's the best combination I've found: WordPress + Gumroad + ProductPress 1. WordPress: You'll use WordPress to host your course content. I typically put each lesson in a new Page. 2. Gumroad: Use Gumroad to sell your course, handle payments, and to communicate with your customers. 3. ProductPress: the ProductPress plugin will allow you to connect your WordPress site and Gumroad account together. As soon as someone buys your course on Gumroad, they'll automatically be emailed login information for your WordPress site. It's only $39 (one-time fee). More information here: http://productpress.me

TAX is US. For export paperwork (free tax delivery) is India. Use business location may in delaware for lower state tax

There's a couple things to take into consideration. Do you want to host the software yourself? If not, look into ticketing solutions like EventBrite or similar. If you're willing to host it, there's a ton of really good solutions available as plugins for WordPress. I work for Modern Tribe, and we make one called Events Calendar Pro which you could use with EDDTickets or WooTickets to easily make this type of website very, very quickly and easily.

If you'd like a Forbes-listed, Marketer of the Year as your mentor... feel free to set up a 10 minute call with me. If you look at my reviews and do some research on me, you'll quickly see why, if you want an empire, you should get my advice. My average client grows by approximately 1,400%. That's insanity.