Great situation you have found yourself in! Good for you! What your friends are doing and putting you through is common. When I have given out shares I calculate several things: 1. time they will be involved in the company. 2. the value they provide in the scalability of the business - not th...
The marketing strategy should include identifying filmmakers and where they are so that you can make them aware of the app. This could include attending film festivals, looking at online film related groups and identifying ways to share the details and offer product presentations. For example, I ...
The tax rules will vary depending on what country you want to incorporate and where you will operate your business. The type of entity you select will also impact this answer. If you are looking to form a corporation in the United States, then startup costs incurred prior to forming the corpora...
My suggestion would be to only spend time and energy on PR activity that serves a greater purpose than winning the contest. While this is a great excuse/reminder that PR is important, think beyond the startup battle. Look at this as an opportunity to tell your story. Here are some thoughts that...
There is certainly value in starting customer discovery interviews. And no reason to wait for the delay that creating a landing page and waiting to collect emails would take. I would just advise that you get clear on your hypotheses about who your target customer is so you talk to the right kind...
What's the business model for the freelancing platform? Have you looked at http://equitydirectory.com/? They are a startup concierge matchmaking subscription service for founders looking to share equity or cash/equity splits with contributors. Are you familiar with http://SlicingPie.com? I thin...
Like any sale, it's all about building a funnel and identifying qualified buyers. The best way to do this is to ask, who do we share a similar customer with that would like to sell what they do to our users, or that our product helps improve their product. Companies get bought when there's over...
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 val...
I have become a Stripe convert. The simplicity and straight forward pricing is great. The platform works seamlessly. Previously I was a big proponent of Paypal but now after a few months with Stripe I am not ever going back. I have not had one issue at all compared to having at least a dozen issu...
This is akin to asking: "How much does a car cost?" The most annoying, yet fitting, answer is: "It depends." Are you asking about software? Will you be creating and sending invoices? Do you have employees and HR needs? Do you have a website? Need one? Will you be managing IT needs on-site? Are...