Hi there, this question is a loaded one... Not the typical investing type question found here on Clarity - but... Since I do invest heavily, I will try to give you my two cents on the subject. I'm not a licensed advisor and this is purely conversational and by means a professional recommendation...
I don't live in Chicago, but there is a Co-Founders Lab there that provides networking opportunities to find fellow entrepreneurs and co-founders. Here's a link for more info: http://www.1871.com/cofounderslab-comes-to-chicago/
The best ones are done over the weekend. My favorite schedule for it is from Saturday morning until Sunday noon. You could make it a competition for people to build something to solve something specific. They have the liberty to do whatever tool they think best to solve that problem. Also, mak...
I'd like to recommend bringing this problem to your Advisors. Letting some third parties play in the business. Maybe your CMO and current team are concerned with the equity split or time it takes to bring someone else on and get up to speed. Have you considered bringing in a consultant to deep...
Having a prototype is essential if you want investors to take you seriously. So good job on getting that. It would be very good if you can also get a designer to also make 1 or 2 sleek representations of your vision for what some key screens of the app could eventually look like. These screens ...
Hi: It can be tough to focus on a market niche at first, especially when you believe in your solution. Yet your best results will come from focus--and you can expand later. Key considerations for you as you make your choice: * Where have you gotten the most customer validation for your platform? ...
The best way to do validation on this idea would be to acquire customers through Facebook ads (rich targeting makes you able to cohort users nicely). Then, you could manually pair people via email or through a simple text messaging exchange facilitated by Twilio. In this scenario, you could pro...
The answer to your question depends on a number of things: what type of entity the company is, what state it is organized in, and most importantly, what the organizational documents say. Generally, it is the fiduciary duty of the Board (if it is a corporation), and in some cases (e.g. Delaware)...
It depends completely on the legal documents you both signed related to his investment in the company. Those documents will either provide for "information rights" or not. If the documents don't stipulate to these kinds of rights, you are not obliged to show the investor anything.
Being both a Consultant to Startups and an Educator to young people like yourself, I commend you first on getting international experiences of any kind. And it's great you have a good business idea! Here's the beauty of applying to those companies - you can always say no or not pursue the job. A...