Execution

Execution, the key to success in the world of startups. It's been three weeks since my cousin pitched my brother and I on joining the founding team of his new tech startup. Three weeks has flown by, it seems just like yesterday we were in the AIC at Western brainstorming on the whiteboards. In three weeks we have gone from nothing to having wire frames done for our website. So what has happened in three weeks. Well we hired one of the most educated and experiance CTO's a startup could as for. PH.d from Yale, double master to go along with that. Worked directly will bill gates, declined a top developers position from NASA, oh yeah he has over 40 publications and a patent what we get to utilize for our business. Wait, why would this guy decline a job from NASA to work with a bootstrapping startup? Yeah I asked myself the same thing for hours. Turns out he has seen his success and wants to give back to the startup world. Basically, this will be his hobby from now on :).

Not only did we get a stellar CTO, we just brought on a very talented graphics designer as well who is already designing wire frames for the website. Wow this process is going smoothly. Its all about your team, what resources do the individuals bring to the table and how are you going to execute throughout the startup process. 

The power of social media

Here is a great video of how entrepreneurs are changing the world and how we intake news around the world. Enjoy

Clay Shirky: How social media can make history | Video on TED.com

The stress is building

It all starts with the basic idea of wanting to be self employed and wanting to solve a problem that arises in the market. That all fine and dandy but then its crunch time, there are several key components in a successful business. Anyone can dream up the next big thing, but the talent is in the execution of the business. Currently were in a bind and trying to make the decisions to fly to Palo Alto and try and raise VC or bootstrap the entire business. Without funding our business will be entirely operated by the four founders. That means everyone of us is going to be working day in and day out on operations and financing. Right now were are in a pinch try to decide if we should raise VC.

Here is a great article about VC questions and what there looking for in a successful business.
http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/18/good-question-the-eight-best-questions-we-got-while-raising-venture-capital/

CTO interview

Saturday was a very exciting experience for my self and business partners. We have been actively looking to hire a full time CTO for our new media business. We had a gentleman by the name of George reach out and contact us about the available position. I asked for a resume with all previous experiences and a cover letter. Our team was blown away by the previous experience and the credentials of this individual. George had a PhD from Yale in computer sciences and a total of three Masters degrees from Yale as well. George is extremely well educated graduating as the number one student from Yale university. George has founded two business as well which he sold he few years back. George has worked directly with Bill Gates in the development of a very complex mapping system for the Bill and Malinda Gates foundation. George is so advanced in his field, Bill Gates gave George 22 days to complete and implement an algorithm for a mapping system that shows how malaria would spread in a third world country. George solved the problem in 10 minutes, when he had 22 days to do the job.

We are extremely excited to have George as our CTO. Not only is he experienced he holds an international patent for a mapping technology that he created which we plan on utilizing for our business. Hopefully George can help us take our business to the next level with his superb development skills.

HIRING

Today our team had a great experience weeding through resumes of potential CTO's. We came across a very interesting resume that stood out from the rest. What stood out? Maybe the Ph.D. from Yale and the two of the masters he achieved from Yale as well. We have been through a strenuous hiring process trying to find the right for our media business. I am currently working on my third business project and actively looking for a CTO to lead our team of developers. This weekend we have a meeting setup for an in person interview for our Yale Ph.D. candidate. I will keep you updated with the results of our meeting.

Media

I want to share a couple website that I look at on a daily basis for news and information in the entrepreneurial world.

http://techcrunch.com/ is a great website for up to date content the the tech world. TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news. Founded in 2005, TechCrunch and its network of websites now reach over 10 million unique visitors and draw more than 33 million page views per month.

TechCrunch operates a global network of dedicated properties from Europe to Japan, as well as specialized industry websites and sections, including MobileCrunch, CrunchGear, TechCrunchIT, GreenTech, and TechCrunchTV.

CrunchBase, TechCrunch’s database about start-up companies, people and investors, has become the leading statistical resource for technology companies and transactions.
The company hosts major conferences and events, including The Disrupt series, The Crunchies Awards, and various meet-ups worldwide serving as community platforms for industry conversation and collaboration.

http://mashable.com/ - Founded in 2005, Mashable is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. With more than 40 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new websites and services, and offering social media resources and guides. Mashable’s audience includes early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. Mashable is also popular with bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users — an increasingly influential demographic

http://startups.com/ -
Stop wasting your time trying to find the right answer for your business questions. You’re not alone.
We know you have business questions that need to be answered right now. That’s why we’ve put together a great team of Hosts composed of successful entrepreneurs, seasoned businesspeople, academics, advisors, and many more willing to give you a hand.
Not only that, our community of users will be available to give you their best answer to any question you might have. With all these people ready to answer all your questions, it would be difficult to not find the answer to the business question that’s eating your brain.
Don’t forget to give those that need help an answer, there’re plenty to go around, and more than likely you know the answer to a couple.At Startups.com you’ll find your business question answered within minutes. Useful answers, fast and free.

Blue Ocean

After reading Blue Ocean Strategy, it has really opened my eyes to potential markets and business decisions. When developing a new business to it critical to enter a blue ocean market and not enter into the bloody read ocean of competition. Some people often get confused about blue ocean entrants and product line extensions. It is important to understand the difference and the meaning between the two. Blue ocean strategies typically remove key components of a market to completely revolutionize the industry and competition. When thinking about business ventures it is key to fully understand who your competitors are how your going to tread in the blue ocean market.

Gate Keepers

This week was a very exciting week for our startup. I had the opportunity to speak with Ashton Kutchers manager about a potential business opportunity. It's crazy to think about how a 20 minute phone call can either make or break your business. Our business is dependent on talent a acquisition which means our pitch is very crucial for success. We are keeping our fingers crossed in hopes of a potential partnership with Ashtons team.

Client Meeting

Tomorrow is a big day for my business. I have scheduled a meeting with a top celebrity to possibly endorse my product. I have to keep his/her identity confidential for legal purposes. With the procurement of this person we will potentially drive over 1 million unique viewers to my website post launch. Things are starting to get very exciting as we approach our official beta launch date. If I could give one piece of advice when pitching an idea to a prospecting client, it would be to deliver the message confidentially and have a very strong passion for your product. One pitch may make or break a potential business deal. Remember, according to Guy Kawasaki, practice your pitch at least 20 times. 

What does it take to be an entrepreneur?

Today I was approached by a stranger and was asked if I was the guy who developed the new social networking concept from last quarters management 491 class. I was quite shocked and kind of thrown off guard. He went on to ask several questions about being a small business owner and what it takes to reach success. I replied and told him execution. Everyone can come up with the next big social networking idea or the next tech service. The problem is the ability for the idea to be executed.

When developing a business the most important aspect of the business is the team and the individual resources that each person posses. 90% of new products fail. The majority of the time its not the product that fails, its the execution of the team which leads to the failure. When developing a business there will be several minor failures throughout the process. The team that pivots from these failures are the ones that make it. A business needs to be able to evolve over time and with customers needs. If you have the idea, build a team and execute your idea.  

Being the little guy

In our industry it is all about who you are and who you know. At this point in our business we are trying to acquire talent on a regular basis in order to expand our total talent to fan interactions. Getting in contact with top managers and agents in the industry is one the most frustrating and difficult tasks for our company. For example when communicating the Jessica Simpson and her team we first had to get into contact with someone who knew her agent. After that we were sent to her business manager who then pushed us off to her attorney for contract reviews. Yeah it doesn't sound that bad except for the fact that they receive hundreds of business inquiries a day. How do we differentiate our selves and get our business to the top of the line? Persistence is the key, the more you bug them the more they want to handle the business and get it taken care of. You can never be afraid to fail, even the largest tasks. It takes hard work and persistence to achieve your highest goals. Just tell yourself if you fail don't be afraid to stand up and keep pushing forward.

Who are we?

Today was an exciting day at our startup Zeetme.com. Without giving away our business model I will briefly explain what problem we are working on solving. Currently athletes and celebrities are very popular on Twitter and Facebook. There is one problem, their content sucks. This is something that is just starting to trend, poor content from verified accounts. Fans want content that is thought provoked and behind the scenes of their favorite athletes and celebrities, not "I'm heading downtown for a hot-dog". Our goal is to solve this problem. We have developed a new exclusive and personalized social networking platform that solves this exact problem. With hours of brainstorming and trial and error we have developed something tailored for every fan in the world.

We have been actively looking to hire a CTO for just over 6 months. Today was our day, we found a software engineer / computer programmer from Microsoft to join our founding team and to become our CTO. Vince is going to take our business to the next level. Being a college student, it is really exciting to be able to say I have actually hired someone for my own business.

Who am I?

Being a college entrepreneur is a difficult but rewarding task. There is no better time than college to put your extra time and effort into a project such as a lean startup. Business is my passion. I want to spend time this quarter writing about the behind the scenes operations of a new startup business. I currently co found two different online e-commerce businesses, one being in sports and nutrition and the other in social media platforms. I plan to focus on the social media platform for this blog.