The first step in the process is identifying your essential needs as a company. This may be your developer to build the website or a CEO type, both roles that will shape the vision of the company. Once you have moved beyond the essential parties, the ideas guy and the developer, it gets a bit tricky. There are many services that a startup will need in advance of or immediately after the launch which are essential to the company. These include legal work, marketing/PR and social media amongst others. The management team must decide what is worth bringing in house vs. hiring a company to do on a per project basis. I recently heard Justin Smith, VP at Zillow.com, talk about how having a marketing plan may be the most essential part of launching a startup. But it is up to the team to determine if they need a marketing person or they can hire a marketing firm for strategy.

Building a team around your needs as a company is essential to your success. If you don’t have any cash flow for 3 months, there is no need to hire an accountant. Additionally, many times you can find people that have multiple areas of expertise allowing you to save money. A web developer that also does graphic design may streamline the development process and save you money.

Once you have identified the talent that you need and want to hire, with little to no money, how do you pay them, especially when you are at the idea or development stage? There are quite a few options and this process is easier than you think.

1. The first and probably most popular practice is “hiring” or “obtaining” a co-founder. Most people start a company with an idea and then look to find a technical co-founder, who will be responsible for design and development of the site and actually building your product. They come in as a co-founder and get a piece of equity in the company and you work hand in hand with them to develop the product and strategy. In rare cases, I have seen people bring in non-technical co-founders for their expertise, but very often this can be accomplished through making them an advisor or board member, where you can gain their expertise without giving up any equity. It is also easier than ever to find a co-founder with many “find a co-founder” events popping up all over the place. I recently came across a new company founded by Jessica Alter called Founder Dating, which creates ways for people to meet their co-founders online and offline.

2. The second option relates more to non-founder positions where a startup may bring a service provider into the company as a partner. This makes sense in certain cases where the service provided is needed on a recurring basis. However, many entrepreneurs, in an effort to kick start their company, will make this offer without thinking of the long term effect on the company itself. Making an equity commitment to a service provider not only ties you to that provider but also dilutes your available equity, which may better be served to hire new employees. One thing to clear in advance of the commitment is that if they become an equity partner, it is not just for this job, but there is a written understanding of all the services that they will provide you and the duration of the commitment. Add a vesting schedule tied to this performance to cover your own ass as well.

3. The third option is used for companies that are in pre-launch and have some money in place. They hire employees at a set salary but they pay them only a percentage of that salary until funding is obtained. It works like a bridge loan in the sense that these employees see the vision, add value and want to be part of the bigger picture. They take anywhere from around 40-50% of the agreed upon salary and receive shares or options in return. They work and help the company obtain funding and once funded, they receive their agreed upon salary.

4. The last option is the hybrid. This is becoming a more popular option, where you pay a service provider a small percentage of the project and give them equity as well. KAYWEB Angels uses this model to invest in startups that need development. A big advantage to this is that not only are they covering their cost with your payments, but they are incentivized to be a bigger part of the overall project and help grow it into a big company from the earliest stage.

No matter what you choose, make sure that it is in the best interest of your company and you have written documentation regarding scope and payment terms before any money or equity changes hands. Protect yourself, your vision and your company.  Make sure you are thinking about the long term growth and success of your company and don’t get blinded by your immediate needs. Build towards the future and you will be primed for success.

You can register to attend the event at http://www.meetup.com/Miami-Lean-Startup-Circle/events/51569882/

Be prepared – You never know when your shot will come. You can get passed up, beat down and even sent packing, but all it takes is one call to get things started. But it is what you do in advance of that call that will often determine your success. As entrepreneurs, we are always one phone call away from something great happening. But we need to be prepared for that call. Have your elevator pitch perfected, work on your slide deck, and most importantly, have a plan to get people excited about your product and more importantly, yourself. Research your competition, know the industry and be able to take a call and give over the information needed at a moment’s notice. You never know when the opportunity will present itself. But as the saying goes, failure to prepare is preparing to fail. But now, once you have prepared, seize the day!

Seize the day – It is not every day that you get an opportunity that can change your career or business. Jeremy Lin was a guy who was passed over, passed around and was the 5^th choice for point guard for the Knicks. Various things all happened at the same time and he found himself as the starting point guard for the Knicks. It is a matter of him being in the right place at the right time and getting the opportunity of a lifetime, and he seized it. He worked hard to prepare for that moment and gave it all that he had and he has since turned that simple opportunity into a worldwide phenomenon. 

As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves trying to connect with angel investors, VCs, media outlets like TechCrunch, Mashable and Tech Cocktail to get our name out. More often than not, you get told that the idea isn’t good, you will never get funding or just a simple “we aren’t interested.” But the opportunities will come, whether it is pitching at a pitch event or a chance to meet the right person at a networking event. It is how we prepare for that moment that will turn it into something that will make your idea a reality or get passed over again like in the past. Use that opportunity to create a buzz, the kind of buzz that makes people talk about how upset they are for passing you over. Once you get that traction going, it won’t stop until you give them a reason to.

Leadership and success are contagious – When you look at the New York Knicks over the last two weeks, everyone’s first thought is that Jeremy Lin saved their season. They should not have won 6 games in a row. When you have a leader like Jeremy Lin, everyone starts playing better and others start contributing in big ways.

Over the last year we have seen this phenomenon twice in sports, first with Tim Tebow and now with Jeremy Lin. People want to attribute it to god or religion or some outside power, but the reality is they are able to do what they do because of the position they are in. Both play positions that make them the leader of the team. They both call the plays, have the ball in their hands and are responsible for deciding where it will go, who to pass it to and maintaining the pace of the game and their team. In both cases, they lead by example and gave their team the belief that they can succeed, no matter who they play against. Their leadership skills single handedly picked up their team and made them believe. A good leader does that and makes his employees better just through the excitement he creates. That excitement leads to better meetings, better phone calls and more productivity. These factors make the average employee an above average employee. A good leader will take that and keep it going, whether through direct involvement, meetings or other means to continue to pick their employees up and put them in situations that will lead to success.

Success leads to more success – As leaders put their employees and co-workers in situations that allow them to excel, they are able to create a chain of successes and not just a one-day surge. A leader’s job is to help maintain this, but many times it happens on its own. Success is like an avalanche; it gets bigger and bigger as it goes down the mountain. One success motivates employees to go after the next one. It is an opportunity to sell clients on the past success and it keeps going as long as that motivation is in front of them. Human nature is to sit back and celebrate/enjoy a success for a day or two but most entrepreneurs use the success to work harder. Remember that the avalanche has to stop at a certain point because there is a bottom of the mountain but you can make that avalanche as big as you want on its way down. Ride the wave and watch it grow on its way down.

It’s all about the right fit – The argument over Jeremy Lin’s long term viability as a point guard really comes down to one main issue, does the coach’s system make him a great player or is he a great player regardless of the system. While he definitely is not a system guy, Lin is most likely this good because the system plays to his strengths, but at the same time, he is talented and good at what he does.
A CEO or salesman may be great in whatever field they work in, but hiring them without having them prove themselves first is dangerous. You need to make sure that the people on your team are the right fit for both your company/team and industry. A fashion designer may have built a huge brand but that may not translate to a technology company. Or you may hire a great manager for the company, but if their management style is very corporate and you believe in a more open environment, that won’t work either. You need to find people with talent that fits your system, only then will you truly excel.

Obviously, basketball and starting a company are very different. But out of every story, there are great lessons that can be learned and carried over to all aspects of a business and how you run the company. Each of us may have learned different lessons from the Jeremy Lin story and we would love to hear yours in the comments below. There are also some great lessons on Next Web, which is worth a read.

Your reputation and how others perceive you will play an important role in all of your business dealings. Whether it is for partnership opportunities, investments or just networking, your reputation will precede you and others will often have an expectation. Whether it is from social media, online background checks or asking around your circles, information is very easy to come by and will play a big part in determining whether or not you succeed.

Let’s be honest, before meeting someone for the first time, whether for a date or business meeting, most people Google and Facebook search the person they are going to meet. You want to know what they look like, see some of the more recent things that they have done, see their interests, all for the sake of “knowing” who you are about to meet. While there is nothing wrong with this, it makes it even more imperative for people to make sure their reputation is kept in check.

First impressions often make or break a relationship. When someone googles you, what do they see? Is it the picture of you with your family on vacation or the party of you drinking and smoking up at some party (yes, I have actually seen pictures like this). Will they see posts from you or articles using foul language cursing others out or will they see someone who adds insight to the things that matter to them. Will they see someone bashing a religious or political point of view or will they see someone who posts about issues that affect us, regardless of affiliation.

One great example is last year I was on a college campus for a campaign my company was working on and I met a few students who kept in touch with business and career questions. They followed me on social media sites and I followed their posts a bit to see how college students are using social media. One day, I saw someone post a picture of a nude woman and then a video with a porn clip that they were sharing with their friends in a humorous context. I had spoken to that person the night before and made some introductions for a summer internship. I quickly texted her and said that I believed her account was hacked, which she told me was not the case – the picture and video were part of an inside joke from a party she went to. I told her that my contacts will ask for her social media information and if she wanted a job, she should take the picture and video down right away.

Social media is your way to share your “voice” with others and everything you do and post reflects as your point of view. Whatever you post helps people perceive you, and more often than not, understand you better than when you are trying to sell yourself to them. If you bash Republicans for their policies and call them names, you better hope that you are not meeting a Republican because they will already believe that you don’t share similar ideas. If you post that the government is stupid for pulling out all of its troops and we should send in more troops, you better hope your meeting isn’t with someone who has a son in the army. Every piece of information you type goes to create the reputation that others will use in evaluating you. You need to ensure that all posts you are tagged in or tweets that mention you do not conflict with who you are and what you want your perceived to be. If they aren’t, un-tag yourself, report it as spam or even unfriend/unfollow and block that person. Losing a friend is a lot less harmful than losing your reputation.

Your reputation is not just defined by a business reputation, but rather how employees, co-workers and even family view you. How you manage that with the content you post online will help shape you and how others perceive you. By being careful and aware of what you are posting on social media and what others post about you,  you can continue to manage the perception that is being created of you.

The biggest cost for a startup is often design and development of the website. There are three avenues that are available to entrepreneurs to a developer, a technical co-founder or hiring a developer full time or hiring an outsider service provider that does web development and design. In the first two cases, you are building your company and team and you can be sure you will get maximum value from those individuals. But when choosing or hiring an outside person to do you work, it is essential that there is a relationship other than “deliver and get paid.”

There are a few essentials entrepreneurs should consider in choosing a service provider including who referred them to you or their references, price, how they work with entrepreneurs and their value add.

References are essential. You want to know that the company or individual will do quality work but more importantly, that you can work with them. I have seen many entrepreneurs hire web designers oversees because they are cheaper only to spend more in the long run because the language barrier and way that the service provider works made the process much more difficult than it really is. I also know those that spent a lot of money and never launched their site because the quality of the work was so bad that they couldn’t create a minimum viable product. Brightmap, which was recently launched by Graham Lawlor, is a great way for people to get qualified introductions to service providers. But regardless of who refers you, do your due diligence now, meet the provider, make sure the products and services being offered meet what you are looking for, so it is less painful later on.

Pricing for service providers is always an issue. Entrepreneurs generally run on a shoestring budget if they have one at all. But when looking to hire, you must balance the price versus quality and make sure that you can get a minimum viable product that works, looks good and is scalable. But remember, price isn’t everything! Using a cheaper option, especially overseas, will cause a lot of language barriers, cultural barriers and will take away much of the control of your product from you. These need to be balanced against the cost savings in your final decision.

Hand in hand with pricing is have they worked with startups before, and if so, do they have a unique structure for entrepreneurs. If you go to enough startup and entrepreneurial events, you will often find service providers who work with startups specifically and have created programs that work with the budget and timing of an entrepreneur. For instance, my company works with one of the top 5 law firms in the world, which generally means high billable hours and large bills. While that is true, the partner who handles our account works with entrepreneurs and allows us to work on a payment plan so we get the best service possible while not breaking the bank at launch. Other providers such as the Corporate Tax Network, a national accounting firm, have a special unique pricing structure made to give entrepreneurs tax consulting and tax prep at a fixed fee that varies by startup. Service providers that are already involved in this entrepreneurial community will often offer you more value and more manageable payment terms.

While the provider you chose is giving you a quality product at a price you can pay, very often your provider can offer more. Lawyers who work with startups and VC firms may provide additional value and connections that need to be factored into the selection process. Maybe they can work in an advisory capacity as well. These additional things are important to consider as they will allow you to get the most bang for your buck and help you launch and grow your company.

Finding the right service provider takes a lot of research and a lot of luck, but if done right with the proper due diligence, you will be adding a value to your team and your company that will help you with a successful launch.

Yesterday, February 1^st, a new company Wahooly.com was supposed to launch at 4pm EST. They integrated with Klout.com and offered their first accounts as a perk on Klout. TechCrunch covered their launch with a post/article that was released at the exact time the site was supposed to be launched and the same was done on many other tech sites. The Wahooly.com site even had a countdown to launch for 24 hours and at 4pm, it shut off and said “NOW.” There was only one problem, the site never launched!

For over 3 hours, the only message on Wahooly’s twitter was “DNS is propagating, should be live for some as it makes its way across the world.” I am not writing this post to criticize the Company and I feel bad for Dana Severson, the founder, as he is doing all he can and I am sure that if he wasn’t bald before, he is now. But as I am sure he will tell you, the site itself and not the launching issues will define his site.

As the saying goes, failure to prepare is preparing to fail. The lesson here for entrepreneurs is not that you should hide your launch until the site is live but rather having a plan in place for all scenarios. I am sure the team at Wahooly wishes they had a plan in place to deal with this. Maybe it is in how they communicate and maybe it is delaying publicity until a day after the site is up. While we all want to get our site launched, it must be done in a manner consistent with a plan and that plan needs to have backup plans for things that may go wrong. This should be part of your cohesive strategy not just for launch but also for every aspect of your company.

Some of the things that could have been done:

• Email to everyone apologizing for the delayed launch
• Video message from the founder
• Use social media to update people on the issue and give a time when it will work rather than have people try continuously to visit a site that has yet to launch
• Take down the login page and post an apology

Remember, issues like this don’t destroy a company, but rather how you handle them will make or break your company. Turn the negative into a positive and provide users with more of a reason to come back and talk positively about you. Customer service is not just a department, it is a brand strategy and a lack of it at launch is indicative of a long-term issue. Team Wahooly needs to fix its brand image first, at the same time they fix the site, because their website is only as good as the users that join.

After thinking about this for some time, I realized that every social media site serves its own unique purpose and they are used in different ways. While some people view it as a popularity contest and accept requests from anyone, using the sites properly will lead to increased value for you and those connected to you. Below is a listing of the sites as I see them and some guidelines to using them effectively.

1. Facebook. This site is a true social networking site for friends to share content and pictures and keep up with each others’ lives. Friend requests should only be sent to actual friends or people you have met a few times. Facebook friends do not mean you are really friends but rather want to share content. If you don’t post any content of value, you will lose your followers. And if you get a friend request, you DO NOT have to accept it. Be selective as much of your personal information is shared on this site and there is nothing wrong with not friending someone or un-friending them if they add no value.

Tip: If you have someone you want to follow, like a celebrity, but you aren’t friends with them, subscribe to their feed instead of sending a friend request.

2. LinkedIn. This site is great for managing professional relationships and tracking those who you have done or continue to do business with. It allows you to see who is connected to whom and receive recommendations from people to boost your own profile. There are many people who use this site as a business “facebook.” And they connect to people that they want to meet, instead of connecting with people they actually are professionally connected with. This dilutes the value of your professional network and makes LinkedIn just another place for content sharing. Over the last 2-3 month, I think there is more of an emphasis on using LinkedIn for group management as opposed to just building your network. I think that LinkedIn is evolving and there will be some increased functionalities over the next year that will help make this site stronger and focused. But in the short term, build up your recommendations and try and keep your connections to real connections so that they may be leveraged the way initially intended.

Tip: If you are trying to connect with someone and the request does not meet any of the criteria that LinkedIn asks to confirm how you know the person, you should not be connecting with that person.

3. Google Plus. This is the most interesting social network on the internet now. It is growing rapidly and slowly gaining in popularity, despite the fact that most people aren’t quite sure how to use it. The integration into your Gmail page is great and a excellent way to take your email contacts and turn them into connections. I happen to think that “circles” are a great way to accept all friend requests and qualify them so you can manage the content that is being shared. To me it feels a bit more like a subscribe button. I think the biggest issue with Google Plus is that it lacks a lot of the creativity and functionality of the other sites; it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Tip: Use your circles effectively. Try and classify people properly and make sure that you tag your posts to be visible only for the circles that are appropriate.

4. Twitter. Many may argue that this should not be included in a listing of social networks as Twitter is a bit different. However with the ability to follow people, I think people use it as a means to be recognized. Most people follow people with a large following, and re-tweet, message and #ff people to grow their own following on the site. Not only does it not work in most cases, but it also drains on the quality of your twitter feed. Once you learn how to tweet effectively, it is essential that you post content that is relevant, timely and helps create a conversation. Using twitter correctly and following those who are relevant to you can be one of the best ways to gather information and knowledge. So it is imperative that it be used in a way that fosters this environment and is not a contest of how many followers you have. Remember, sites like Klout measures how far your messages reach, not how often you post or whom you follow.

Tip: You do not have to follow people who follow you. Having a large number of followers is great but you will often find that those with the most followers follow the fewest people. Only follow those whose content is interesting to you since the feeds move very quickly and you want to keep it as relevant as possible. 

The common theme with all of these is that you should not accept requests from or follow those that have no relevance to you. Less is more when it comes to connections as those few connections add value to your use of social media. Seeing your 4^th cousin once removed post pictures from when they were three may be cute but is often irrelevant and takes the place of more meaningful content. Focus on letting these sites work the way they were intended, to allow you to manage your true real life connections on the internet.

However, in my eyes, having a great team is more important and has a longer lasting impact on your company and more importantly, you as an entrepreneur. There is no one person that knows everything about business or starting a business. Some people are idea people and others are more process and execution oriented. Some people are great leaders and others can be great employees. Some people are great at design and structure and some are great at programming. Very rarely will two people have a similar set of traits from top to bottom. It is figuring out how to match these skill sets together that make a team successful.

The expression goes “know what you know, but more importantly, know what you don’t know.”  I would say that 75% of building a team is understanding this concept and being able to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Most founders of companies have limited, if any, technical knowledge on how to actually design and develop their website or product. They go out and have to find someone who knows what they don’t and start building a team.  As I wrote about in a previous blog post, just because you found a company or have an idea for one, it does not qualify you to be the CEO. Maybe you are a marketing person or a PR person. In those cases, you need to find a salesman and programmer.

Building a team is not just about compensating for missing skills sets; it is about identifying the traits that all team members must have as that will be the glue that holds you together. Maybe it is a love of travel for a new travel website or religious beliefs that you share that create some connection. Whatever it may be, this commonality is your 75% that hold you together and the combined skill sets make up the last 25%. How you assemble this team and use the collective talents will be what makes or breaks your company in the long run and define you as a leader. The team you assemble will be part of the company and set its culture for years to come.

Big reach and access to VC money based on your inner circle gets you to launch. But if your team can’t put out a great product or leverage its collective knowledge and resources to build the company beyond launch, your company will not have a chance to make it to the next level.

One of the cool things about being a founder is that you will always be the founder. No one can ever take that away from you and it is a part of the company’s history. However, every other position is negotiable and very often, the founders find that they are not right for those jobs. This may not occur at the outset, but often that is because everyone wears multiple hats and works to get everything done together. In the early stages of a company, there is very little separation of duties and tasks; everyone pitches in wherever they are needed. But as the company grows, management must grow into their roles and this is when it is essential to know your strengths and weaknesses.

It is also important to remember that you can give yourself whatever title you want at the onset, but that can easily be stripped from you as your company grows. When you grow the company and take on investors, part of the due diligence they perform will be focused on the management team in place. While you may think you are right for the job of CEO because you are the founder of the company, the investment may come with you being replaced by the VC’s own CEO. Getting fired from your own company is not a pleasant experience or something that anyone ever wants, but at the end of the day, it may be essential to your company’s growth.

Knowing your role and what you do well are essential. There is a tremendous difference between having an idea and executing on it. While title and roles in the company don’t matter much at the onset, they should still be real and something that you are capable of handling and growing into as your business expands. Outsiders and clients will view you in this capacity and you always want to put the best foot forward by being able to handle your job. And there is nothing wrong with just calling yourself the founder until you have time to figure it out. At least that way you will save some money on business card printing!