Starting a consumer-facing technology company or developing a new application to make a consumer’s life easier or more fun is an exciting journey. At this stage, you are all about the development, getting the product or service to market, and making sure it can scale. But neglecting the privacy implications of your product or service during the development stage is a big mistake that will come back to haunt you later.
Imagine, for example, that your dream of building a great company has come true and you are faced with an acquisition offer. During the customary due diligence phase, you quickly discover that your privacy house is not in order. Why?
As founders, you are likely very familiar with the multitude of obstacles that a successful venture must overcome: financing, management, creation and protection of valuable intellectual property, marketing, and building profitable and sustainable customer relationships. Another obstacle that is well known yet rarely labeled as such is “complexity.” In building a new venture, the old adage “keep it simple” remains an important philosophy.
A company’s culture is often established in its earliest days. Once ingrained, it can be very difficult to change. Although many founders recognize the importance of infusing a culture of giving into their enterprises, they wonder how they can go about it with limited time and resources. The answer should be apparent to every founder. Early stage companies can meet cultural challenges with the same tactics they use for meeting operational challenges with limited cash. When early stage companies don’t have cash, they apply “sweat” or “equity.” How do you apply “sweat” and “equity” to establish a culture of giving?
REST. You can’t build a great company if you’re exhausted all the time.
At one time or another, most startup companies work with a consultant or enter a contract with a strategic partner and are presented with a dilemma: should the company offer equity to the consultant or strategic partner in payment for services?
Human behavior and motivation has a critical role in the design of websites. Does the website for your startup cater to your audience and create a pleasant user experience?
Founders should make sure that their companies’ agreements assign intellectual property presently. In other words, an agreement should provide that the assigning party (the “assignor”) “hereby assigns” to the company the intellectual property in question.
One of the most common conversations I have with the founders of businesses involves how they determined a way to split the ownership amongst themselves. It is probably the first difficult decision new partners face together in starting a company. In many instances, the new founders decide that they are going to split ownership equally.
Founding a company can be an overwhelming experience, but for those founders looking to raise capital from angel or venture capital investors, deciding where to incorporate and selecting an entity type are two choices that deserve careful consideration.
After billions of dollars spent on ads, gigabytes of campaign emails and countless hours of productivity put into Nate Silver’s polling blog, Election Day is finally here. But don’t despair, entrepreneurs – there are plenty of lessons that your startup can take from the campaign trail.
