Where is the rage! Where is the power of the internet to shame the authorities? These girls have voiced their yearning for freedom and real democracy and have been martyred for it.
Having done this myself (and mentored a few others), try developing product management skills - it'll force you to grow your business savvy, it'll force you to work with engineers not only on technical stuff but also on management and schedules. You'll eventually work with sales folks, support engineers, and eventually, customers too. And you'll learn to communicate with all these groups. Good luck.
Dump Chase - many banks will create an EIN for you - Wells Fargo does - and they do a pretty painless job of setting up a business account without all these hassles. I've used them for several start ups I've done so far. Plus they have a pretty decent online portal that helps you keep all this organized. Plus a nice trick that most don't tell you about: banks will charge you a monthly fee ( $20 approx.) to have a checking account, but if you open a savings account also and fund it periodically, they waive the charge. If you set up a rotating transfer each month of $100 back and forth between the two accounts then you don't incur any charges - voila, free checking! Good luck.
this one's easy - depending on your budget (I'm assuming you have almost none but one never knows): Advertise in travel magazines, hit up some of the travel agencies that cater to your demographic, call some of the travel apps and website services to partner, hit up all the blogs in your space, combine that with a press release targeting the industry publications and reviewers ( it's actually pretty cheap to do - check out Marketwire or others like it). I'd probably also give some of the dating websites a shot - you might get some traction from sites that cater to singles and travel that way. Try the vacation clubs too - many of these cater to singles also - could offer them co-branding opportunities.
Given your demographic I'd also post in University/ College sites. When it comes to hostels/ bed and breakfasts, you can probably contact some of the industry organizations to get lists and partnership or advertising opportunities - and of course call up hostels in some of the bigger cities to have them put up a notice for you. Get a list of journalists that write for travel sites and magazines and send them an intro email - maybe you'll get lucky and be picked up by one or two, offer an exclusive interview if they pick it up ( and stick with your promise).
All of this is legwork, but (except for the advertising) it's pretty cheap to do - just a lot of salesmanship - which is laborious but I figure you have more enthusiasm than money.
Start by looking over the documentation on YC's site - a lot of great free legal docs and frameworks to use. Most of this would cost you a ton if you went to a lawyer directly.
The choice between LLC and Corp. depends on your business and tax status. Cost is a lot less for LLC, and also a lot less of a pain to do - taxwise it's also simpler. Corporation has other advantages because it's a separate entity that comes in handy to shield yourself from some personal liabilities. Again, it depends on what you're doing.
Incorporation depends on your needs - many choose delaware - they make it easy and cheap but there are hidden issues. Alternatively you can incorporate in your state - in California it's a bit more expensive but a clean process.
I'm not a lawyer but I've done several start ups so some of this comes from my own experience.
yep - an identical lift. I'm sure NBC lawyers will be getting a hello call from the Apple guys soon. Though this isn't the first time NBC legal beagles screw up - years ago they redid their logo and had a hugely expensive launch to rebrand themselves - only to find out that a a TV station out west already had the exact same logo - oops.
Thank you - that's great advice - I've been a fan of this site for some years now - posting occasionally. I'm also painfully aware of a lot of people trying to sell services ( annoying - I get these a lot on my own blog and biz email), I just thought that so many of these young start ups could use some advice to build business models, create marketing programs, or just plain have an objective third party to bounce ideas off. Too many good ideas don't get the traction they deserve, and too many bad ones drag on for too long in my opinion. My goal, is more to help and make some side income while I build my own business - so far all the investments I've had are entirely to feed my developers - I've raised money from friends and family and I refuse to spend it for anything other than building the business they invested in. Once I get some revenue then I'll justify taking a salary, but not while I'm in development.
Thanks for your thoughts - I am sensitive to the purpose and value of HN, I don't want to see it overrun with Craigslist -type offers either.
That's kinda cool actually - a support group for people thinking of a start up - given that more and more folks see this as a viable option (and probably the way the US will launch into the next wave of innovation) - there will probably be a demand for places to go and just ask plain questions, get coaching, or just support when it's late and you think this is going nowhere and all you need is a pep talk. I'm game.
Depending on what your business idea you should find folks that you mesh well with and who bring skills that you lack - you can't be everything to everyone so find experts that share your vision. If you need a sales or marketing guy, you can find them too - but be sure that's what you need. Know your market, know your product and then figure out how you'll make your business work - only then will you have a better idea of the sort of marketing, and sales folks you'll need. Start by reaching out to friends and trusted folks to leverage their smarts, reach out to their networks for help and build on that. Good luck - I love foodie stuff - sounds like a cool idea.
True - but unless your extremely lucky or well connected the probability of success is super low. Throwing together and app to find a sandwich shop is one thing - building a viable business plan and launching a business is entirely different and requires a lot of time to think, understand, research and evaluate to improve your chances for success. Use this time to do the research, talk to your prospective customers, observe and learn from potential competitors, it'll help you understand your market ( or if there even is one ) and find your niche. Once you have all this - at least you'll be better informed to make a decision to pull the trigger or not - at a minimum you'll be able to make a case for yourself to friends, family and potential investors.
good luck
I'm 52 - a real dinosaur, but I've been hooked on startups since the late 80s - and with few exceptions have never stopped. The drag for me is that when I was 30 they said I was too young - now I get the looks that I may be too old. All BS of course, because being a start up founder is all about commitment, risk, passion and flexibility. You have to have 1000% commitment not just for yourself but from your loved ones - if they're not on board with belt tightening and living off credit cards at times, with you working 18 hours a day - 7 days a week, with the inevitable ups and downs, high probability of failure and willing to hang in there in the bad moments ( because a great start up founder must maintain a positive and optimistic perspective to their team - translation: you're family will bear the brunt of pent up angst). Then this isn't for you. On the other hand, it's thrilling to be in the middle of a hot space, building your dream, exchanging ideas with bright people, understanding a market better than anyone else, most importantly the joy of learning new stuff and doing new stuff every day and of expanding your skills beyond what you thought you could do then do it. Notice I never mentioned money - if that's what you want, then stick with your job because it'll provide what you need. Jobs, Gates, Zuckerberg, etc, never ever mention that they do it for the money - it's never about the money.
I'm in a start up that's developed techniques using UDP to allow someone to roam across wifi - in other words we have managed to reduce the tcp delays and time outs to provide consistent and reliable handoffs between wifi zones and devices - regardless what of the network provider. The technology also allows hot handover between femto and wifi too. Right now we're mostly focused on a mobile app to improve broadband delivery of content to mobile users in shopping malls, commercial zones, etc. but that's low hanging fruit. Eventually we believe that this can be integrated in mobile apps to let others us this for true mobility while running broadband services.