Two years ago, I was watching the local news when an interesting and perplexing story took hold of the airwaves.  I looked up from my computer and read the headline on the screen:  “Girl Scout In Hot Water for Using Net to Sell Cookies.”  The news reporter then went on to discuss why this young girl was in such trouble.  As it turns out, the Girl Scouts of America strictly prohibits any sales method of the cookies that does not involve face-to-face interaction, citing the importance of that particular experience in the development of a young lady.  And that’s when it hit me:

What about those organizations that do not have those rules?  What about the organizations that are still relying on door-to-door sales?  Is door-to-door even really that safe anymore? Is door-to-door even scalable?  These questions, along with a hundred others, flooded my mind.  Despite this epiphany, though, I went back to my computer, the news rolled on, and like so many times before, I stored away these thoughts and forgot about them…that is, until about six months ago.

After graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, with concentrations in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, I accepted a position at a boutique marketing strategy consulting firm.  It was here that I met a very important person: my business partner.

Next to my office was a guy by the name of David Adams.  David had graduated from Babson College after a rigorous curriculum of entrepreneurship and strategy consulting.  Full of energy, enthusiasm, and always big dreams, we immediately hit it off.  We’d hang out, grab a beer, listen to music, and probably most importantly, discuss business ideas.  David was one of those classic entrepreneurial inventors.  In addition to all of his early, successful endeavors while at Babson College, David had entrepreneurship in his blood.  His dad: a successful online floral retailer.  His aunt and uncle: the owner of a wildly popular coffee roasting operation that retails coffee in major grocery chains.

One day, David had casually mentioned that he was excited about an idea he had regarding the selling of artisan products from around the globe, with an overall goal of boosting the standards of living in many of the third world countries from which these products would be sourced.  To me, it sounded quite familiar:  the selling of goods online to raise money and benefit good people.  Conjuring up that Girl Scouts story two years ago, I immediately relayed to him the need that schools, organizations, and non-profits had for an online fundraising solution.  Suddenly it clicked for us at the same exact moment: “What about an online fundraising platform for worthy causes and non-profits?”  And thus, our start up, CauseShare.com, was born.

Since that day, CauseShare has evolved into a robust platform that not only allows people to raise money for a good cause through direct donations, but also through the sale of popular products, including chocolates, flowers, and many others.  With complete social media integration, and easy sharing capabilities, CauseShare empowers users to rally the support of their friends across their social networks. As we like to describe it, CauseShare is the first “people-powered fundraising tool.”  And what’s better, it exists completely online.  The reason for this? Well, with the ever-increasing number of people using the internet, and the increased role that the internet has in our day to day activities, the need for fundraising to adapt to this behavioral pattern is real.  But even more importantly, with more than 1.8 million non-profits (not including “worthy causes” as we like to call them here at CauseShare), the need for an affordable (CauseShare is free to use!), yet powerful, online fundraising tool is of the essence.  Few non-profits have the budget to afford the overly priced, overly fancy services that companies like Blackbaud offer.  The ones that cannot afford these services are part of the massive long-tail of non-profits and good causes that need a friend and partner in the constant struggle to raise money.  But yet, the big guys like Blackbaud ignore them.  One look at their product offering for smaller organizations, and you will see that Blackbaud has no interest in spending money on developing effective tools for the little guys.  Is that fair? Do the small non-profits’ causes matter less because they have a smaller budget?  We certainly don’t think so.

CauseShare is 110% committed to the little guys; to the small non-profits, the small causes, the 5k race in a town of 1,000 that benefits breast cancer, and the scholarship foundation set up in a boy’s name who was killed in a tragic car accident.  We aren’t for the big budgets, the fat wallets, or the big wigs.  We are for the everyday person, the head of fundraising for a small-town chapter of the SPCA, and the young girl raising money for her mom’s masectomy.

We fully intend to transform the way people raise money for causes that matter to them, and we are not afraid to say it.  CauseShare is the number one champion for small non-profits and independent causes, and we will never stop striving to provide good people with exceptional tools that help them reach their fundraising goals.  It’s time the little guys are given access to a tool that was custom built entirely for them.  And that tool is CauseShare.com.

And to all of our small friends out there: Consider the playing field leveled.

To learn more about CauseShare, we encourage you to explore the following sites:

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/CauseShare

Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/CauseShare

Website:  http://www.CauseShare.com

Founders:

David Adams (@dmadams2)

Mike Kiser (@michaelkiser)

For many Entrepreneurs, it’s inevitable, that day when you stand before someone that could very much change your life in an instant. Pitching investors could be rough, torrid but could also be very fulfilling. In my case, I am certainly keeping an eye out potential investors since I am gradually closing in on the “closed beta” launch of my startup. In my case, I will need a good number of servers, need to bring in two or three people to join the team and as such will be seeking Angel Investment. I will be inviting beta testers in December and in January, making it public. The goal is to have as many brands, individuals etc… connecting with fans/customers via video with real time features. This will obviously require manpower and Investor funds.

Over the past 3 weeks, I have been preparing myself for the inevitable, and thought I should share what I have decided to be the key elements to preparing an Investor pitch. It will be my second time pitching investors and so I sort of have an idea of the kind of questions to look out for, the way they want to be approached and what they want the pitch to contain.

First let’s understand two things, these days you could either get an investor to give you money in exchange for Equity (a percent of you dear company) or convertible debt (borrow money to be paid back -most times with interest- and can be converted into equity under the right terms). It’s up to you as an Entrepreneur to determine which route is best for you. Personally I wouldn’t take $1million in convertible debt, that’s way too much debt on you in only your first few months of being live. I have decided that for my startup, I will be giving away some equity in exchange for the funding I will be getting.

I paid close attention to TechCrunch 5o some weeks back and saw a lot of Entrepreneurs talk about their startups. They were pretty much mass pitching, to not only the investors in the room, but investors following on TV, twitter, livestreams and so forth, so it was essential to be on their game. I particularly liked RedBeacon’s pitch and if you are looking to pitch an investor someday, you should watch events like these. You learn the key elements of a pitch, what should be in and what shouldn’t be. Here are a few ideas for you. Before going in to pitch an investor,

1.) Make sure you can explain you startup’s service in a sentence or two. Ofcourse there’s more to your startup than you can convey in 2 sentences but believe it or not, you need a punchline or should I say punch-sentence, that concisely describes you. It’s attractive to investors, and even to other Entrepreneurs.

2.) Make sure you are pitching the right person. Take for example, say I am an investor and I am all about tech, web 2.0 and real time data stuff. Say my last 4 investments have been in Twitter, Gaucho, Loopt, MeetUp. Won’t it be ridiculous of you to come up to me with a pitch about a new bio company you are looking to build? I think it just makes you the Entrepreneur look lazy, ill prepared and lacking focus…all traits of people Investors never want to do business with. So study the Investor, find out what they like to invest in, does your company fit well in his/her portfolio?

3.) Make sure you have a demo handy. It’s not enough to walk up to an Investor with just a biz plan and executive summary. Take a leaf out of Aaron Patzer’s book, carry you written pitch handy as well as your laptop to do a demo for every Investor you run into. Investors are easier to convince when you show them images and how things work than just a theory.

4.) Go prepared! There are those few questions that EVERY investor asks. Before you go in, make sure you’ve come up with a good answer for each. You don’t want to be stumbling on words or staring at the ceiling when they ask you a question, it shows lack of confidence and poor preparation. Maybe you need to watch sharktank a bit more to understand the workings of Investors if you are new to it, but they always want to know about the founders, the team behind the company, how do you intend to market the product? who is your competition? how will you keep your competition beneath you? how will you be making money? etc etc…

Finally, remember that investors are in business to make money too, so they will only invest in what they believe will benefit them. Does your company have a strategy that lets you and your financial backer make some profit in the end? This tremendously improves your chances, especially if you are already making money with that strategy. I will keep you up to date as things move along at Videfy. In the meantime I want to give special mention the the Gen Y startup of the week: CauseShare, a social fundraising platform built by Michael Kiser and Dave Adams. Thumbs up guys! keep it up.

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Ideas are the center of all the growth we have been able to achieve since making fire and the wheel all the way to iPhones and SUV’s. Someone had an idea to improve their lifestyle or the life of others and then put that idea into motion. More often than not we are seeing young entrepreneurs start to talk to each other, in classes, networking events, dorms and bars about ideas. What starts as chatter is starting to become reality with the way Gen-Y has taken an interest to entrepreneurship.

Our latest endeavor, the Rock Star Business Series, started as a conversation I had on the phone with Matt from Under30CEO. We were chatting about college students and how many of them are not as keen on the whole personal branding, social media thing that we are accustomed to with the outspoken group over at Brazen or 20 Something Bloggers. For how many people are using these new tools to find great opportunities, network and form business relationships, there are that many more that are job board hopping and hoping that something falls in their lap.

This conversation led to a business idea that was put together over 2 weeks. We plopped up a site, leveraged our networks and had sales coming in seconds after the sales page went live. Nice conversation, right?

The key here is that we spoke up. Many times people keep their ideas bottled in, thinking they are not good enough, or people won’t “get it.” They will.

They will because deep down we all want to be part of the conversation. We want to be in the loop and use our own connections or ideas to help out. This is evident in many businesses that are starting at colleges and universities across the world right now. Kids are using strength in numbers to kick start their business and most times do not look at it as a business, but as a project. Something fun to pass the time with friends and make some happy hour cash.

Gen-Y is an extremely collaborative group. We team up for sports, book reports, science fairs and our parents combined with genius marketing developed the “buddy system” for going to the mall or parks. Now that we are evolving and getting into situations where we can use our talents and ideas to make changes in business, we are looking to friends and other like minded Gen-Y’s to start companies with.

But, how do we get the conversation started?

The first step is to be proactive with your idea. You do not need all the answers as to how it will work to start talking about it. You only need a concept and an approach to bring it up. Getting the idea out in the open will allow others to give feedback, direction and to see if its realistic or not.

The way to take your idea to the next level is to know who you want to tell. If you are a marketing guy with a software idea, you need to start chatting with programmers, IT pros and others that can give you feedback and ideas. You can meet these people online, at networking events or in the classroom. When I needed a team of developers for an idea I had, I stalked the Computer Science building for a few hours with fliers and handed them out after every class. I organized a quick meetup at the sandwich shop on campus and got a few people to really weigh in on the idea. It was a great success and helped us solidify our startup concept.

Use online collaborative tools. For the new Rock Star course we have sent surveys to people we think are potential customers to get feedback and ask questions about the material. We have opened up the doors to previous customers and partners to test drive the platform and used things like Google Docs and forums to get people involved and testing out the concepts. There are tons of tools from communication platforms like Yammer to Basecamp to mind mapping software like MindMeister that can get others involved in the process without having to bend over backwards to give their input.

Once you have the conversation started, be sure to capitalize on the excitement and put your words into action. The best time to get active is when there is a spark about the project. Keep the good vibes and motivation going in order to blast off and start testing the idea, the product and the startup. In today’s economy, you can afford to get things to market quickly, test, test so more and then deal with the business end.

So, what’s your idea and how can we get you started? I’d love to help out in the comments.

This guest post was written by Greg Rollet, a Gen-Y Entrepreneur and Internet Marketer. His new course, the Rock Star Business Series, helps Gen-Y build their brand and their business with online tools and resources. You can also follow him on Twitter, @g_ro.

Photo by darek.zon

I have read many posts and heard alot of casts where people talk about quitting their day jobs or dropping off school to build their start-ups, that’s cool and all but make sure you take a minute or several minutes to rethink that decision. With the present state of the economy, I can see why anyone would give up on searching for a job and focus fully on their start-up. We’ve all read those fairytale stories of how Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard to found Facebook, how Tim Ferriss quit his corporate job to build a successful business etc… but we never read those stories about how Joe dropped out of college to build a start-up but ended up homeless and hungry. The world we live in glorifies those success stories but forget the failures, not realizing how important it could be in teaching young Entrepreneurs to make the right decision.

If you feel as a young Entrepreneur that you have enough money to last you through your entire start-up process, then by all means follow your heart. The thing people don’t realize is that the money is not the only element of gain about having a job while chasing a start-up dream. If you know that your current job consumes too much of your time and you need to have a less demanding schedule, here’s a thought: find a part time job, a consulting gig at a start-up and keep a cashflow rather than giving it up all together. I always encourage Entrepreneurs to try associating themselves with other start-ups. If you can get a job at a start-up, try your best to! It’s a learning process that will prove immensely valuable. If you can’t get a full-time job there, truth is that a lot of start-ups outsource some aspects of their jobs – cease this opportunity, be active on their blogs and community, study their moves and make sure you learn something. It will come in handy. Here are some reasons why having a job helps your pursuit of start-up success:

1.) It keeps the money coming in. There’s always money floating around silicon valley and Investors are always looking for promising Entrepreneurs to invest in, BUT they are now very very careful with how much they spend. It’s more difficult to get money from investors these days if you are a first time Entrepreneur and the state of the economy can be blamed for that. Most Entrepreneurs have now turned to bootstrapping as the way of funding their business. How can you afford to bootstrap if you don’t have cashflow? even if you have money saved up somewhere, do you know how long that will last before you need more?

2.) It offers the opportunity to gain some useful experience. If you have a job whether in a start-up or not, you are bound to learn a thing or two that would be useful later on in your career as an Entrepreneur. You might find yourself learning how to manage other people, how to make the right business decisions, marketing and so forth. The possibilities are many. Now imagine if you were working at a start-up, you will see first hand what it takes to build/run a start-up. You are bound to learn important lessons, lessons like how to pitch investors, how to find the right work force, effective marketing strategy, carrying out customer tests etc..

3.) Having a job means Networking Opportunities. A lot of people associate Networking with having time to travel from event to event. On the job networking might be over-looked but there are many stories of people building relationships with co-workers, bosses or even clients and have gone on to build successful businesses with the help of these people. I can’t count how many ex-google employees, ex-paypal employees that have gone on to build start-ups that are performing better than okay at the moment. These people took advatage of the people they met while working at their old jobs and the results are obvious. So if you are a recent grad, it helps to atleast try looking for a job, rather than just focus fully on starting up a business.

4.) Having a Job means something to fall back on. Whether you like to hear this or not, most start-ups fail within the first year. I know every Entrepreneur believe it can’t be them, we all expect to succeed! After all we are the optimists and those investors are pessimists. But what if you do fail? what then? Having a job means something you can fall back on in this tough recession period where it’s more difficult to find a new job than it is for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle.

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Every start-up shares the same primary objective: Get lots of people to join my service/use my product. It’s always the same regardless of what industry you are in and the Entrepreneurs with the best networking skills are the ones who have the best ride. Networking is all about finding people who could be of help to you and reaching out to them. It’s really an art and if done early and effectively, your start-up might actually have a chance. Research shows that 80% of startups fail and shut shop within their first 6-12 months, as a new Entrepreneur you must find like minded people to interact with and learn from so your startup can perhaps be in that 20% that survives.

Networking for your start-up requires you as an Entrepreneur to be confident, vocal and able to relate with people. It’s about being able to convince people that you are good at what you do, that what you do is great and they should be interested in what you have to offer. Picking who to network with is a whole different subject and that depends on you and your business, but it’s important that you start networking early on and do it right. It raises awareness for your venture, it helps you build up a potential customer base, mentors and even potential investors.

Here are some idea on how you can network early and effectively

1.) Set up a temporary welcome page on the internet while building. Here’s an idea that alot of start-up have employed recently and it works like a charm. Instead on being offline and completely behind the scenes while building your start-up, how about letting people know about you during this time? how about giving people the gist behind your business and getting them excited about it? The trick is to set up your domain name, put up a page that welcomes people, tell them what you are building, when you will go live and offer an opt-in e-mailing list if they want to be updated with news about the startup. It will surprise you how many people sign-up, boosting your potential customer pool even before you launch.

2.) Go to the After parties of events you can’t afford. I watched a recent presentation by Kevin Rose at the FOWA ‘09 in London and this was one of the points he made that I could totally relate to. Kevin is a guy I completely respect, he’s very daring, does things people consider against the norm and it always works out for him. For those who don’t know him, Kevin is founder of Digg and wefollow. Like me, many young entrepreneur know that we should be interacting with the likes of Chris Sacca, Ashton Kutcher, Dave McClure, Ron Conway etc… but the only way we could get to reach and pitch these people is at start-up events or investor conferences. The problem is though, it could cost up to $5,000 to get in. Step up After party. They are cheaper, easier to get in (you can volunteer to help on the night) and are more relaxed. Just remember to have a demo of your startup handy. Visuals work better than words, ask Aaron Patzer.  After spending several hours per day for 6 months building Mint.com, he embarked on a networking campaign. He got turned down by virtually everyone until he pitched a partner at First Round Capital outside a Networking event in 2006.  “I had a server running on a laptop in the trunk of my car,” Patzer says. “He waited a couple of minutes. I ran out and got the laptop and fired up a demo.” The rest is history.

3.) Exploit the Social Media channels. With Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and other social networks available these days, it’s easy to build a brand and build a following for it. Find people who can help you realize your start-up dreams and start connecting with them. Share information about your business, tell the world what’s new and what’s going on in your community. Follow/friend/interact with VCs, potential mentors, other entrepreneurs or anyone who indicates interest in your niche. In time, you will have a substantial network of people for your start-up. The means when you launch, you will lauch with lots of users versus no one if you are quiet during your building period.

4.) Foster relationships with Journalists and Media. Take the opportunity to build relationships with people that can put your start-up in the public eye. A lot of journalists and press people have blogs these days, are on twitter and it doesn’t harm to leave a comment here, retweet there and interact all over. By building a relationship with them you are improving your chances of getting a positive response when you ask for a favor. Take advantage of whatever you get; if you don’t shoot, you will not score.

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Last spring, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment among 18 to 25-year-olds was a staggering 16.1%. That was grim news for college grads, plenty of whom headed straight to grad school, or promptly moved their belongings into the family basement. If you are among this army of unemployed or underemployed young people, it’s time you considered another option: start your own business.

In the middle of a recession? Absolutely. Lots of great companies were founded in lousy economies: Trader Joe’s, Clif Bar, MTV and Wikipedia are among them. Typically there’s an uptick in startup activity during recessions. Why? Resources are cheaper, there’s an available talent pool, and big companies that are focused on keeping their heads above water often let quality and service go by the wayside. That all spells opportunity for smaller, innovative, and agile players. Besides, what have you got to lose? Probably not much right now. You’re young and you probably don’t have a mortgage and a family to support. And rumor has it that you don’t mind sleeping on futons or eating lots of Ramen. So if you’ve got an idea percolating, here’s how to get started:

1. Choose partners wisely. Of the entrepreneurs I surveyed for my book, Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business (McGraw-Hill, 2009), 64% had started companies with partners. There’s a good reason for that. A partner will minimize your financial risk and instantly expand your knowledge base, provided you choose someone with skills complimentary to your own. Do not sign on with “mini-me!” Your partner should hold your feet to the fire, but also be supportive when things get tough. Sound like marriage? It is, but riskier. So lay out the terms of your partnership in writing with an attorney. Be sure to address what happens if one of you wants out. One more thing: note that these points about partners come before we even discuss your idea. Every venture capitalist worth his or her salt will tell you that the team is more important the idea. Even if you never plan to seek outside investors, remember this mantra: it’s the team, stupid!

2. Don’t be a perfectionist. Launch your product or service fast and imperfectly, because the more time you spend planning and tweaking, the more time you give a competitor the chance to sneak up behind you and eat your lunch. And if you launch quickly, customers will typically help you adapt your product according to their own needs. When Sam Altman launched Loopt, a personal GPS-like mobile application, his first version was a flop with young women who demanded better privacy settings. The result: Altman took that customer feedback and used it to create a better version of Loopt — one that customers felt invested in because they helped create it.

3. Tap outside resources. They’re more plentiful than you think. You might start with your alma mater. Miles Lasater and Mark Volchek, the Yale University-based founders of Higher One, a financial services company that focuses on the higher education market, did just that. They sent out a selective mailing to prominent Yale alumni simply seeking out sound advice and ended up getting a chunk of financing as well. Also, don’t be afraid to ask people in your own industry for help; if they’re in non-competitive markets, they may be surprisingly helpful. Brian Adams, the founder of Restoration Cleaners in Houston, assembled a peer group of 12 dry cleaners in different parts of the country to help him learn about the industry, thus shortening his leaning curve.

4. Be a proud bootstrapper. It’s wildly difficult to raise capital right now. No worries. Sure, you need some cash, but probably not as much as you think. If you have a good credit rating (and you had better!), apply for a line of credit before you actually need it; draw your vendors into your company vision and negotiate favorable terms with them; ask all partners to tap into their own savings so that everyone has skin in the game. Remember that having limited resources often forces you to make better decisions and to be financially disciplined from the get go. This will serve you well as you grow. My Upstarts! survey revealed that while approximately half of the companies that had received angel or venture funding were in the black, nearly 80% of the self-funded companies were profitable!

©2009 Donna Fenn, author of Upstarts! How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success

Author Bio
Donna Fenn, author of Upstarts! How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success and Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack, is a contributing writer at Inc. magazine. An expert on small business trends and entrepreneurship for more than 20 years, she is also a community leader on Work.com, a featured expert on SBTV.com, and a blogger on Inc.com. She lives in Pelham, NY, with her husband, Guian Heintzen, and is the proud mom of two GenYers.

Social Media and Web 2.0 has really swept across the internet community like wild fire and the effects it’s had are remarkable. When I decided to start building my start-up, I knew my main obstacle would be the marketing aspect once I am done. This is certainly not because I lack the skills to successfully get the word out, but the resources I will have to work with on my PR and Marketing campaign are very limited. I am bootstrapping and will do so until the I convince the right investors that I am worth their coin. However, the emergence of Social Media has really cut down the costs of most marketing campaigns if you know how to take advantage of it.

When we say Social Media, one word immediately comes to the mind of the young, tech savvy individual – Twitter. Whether you like it or not, Twitter is an amazing platform for people to build and grow relationships. If you are an Entrepreneur and you are good at networking with other people, you can win several thousands of followers just from Twitter alone. On the other hand, there’s a whole lot more to Social Media than just Twitter. Websites like Facebook (0ffering fan pages or company pages), MySpace, Scribd, LinkedIn have all shown potency as a means to reaching a targeted audience.

I first heard the phrase ‘Social Media’ a little over 2 years ago, and have always been fascinated by how people jumped on the bandwagon. We are talking about a network of websites whose premise is to get people to interact with others. It first started off as people staying in touch with their friends and then it grew into getting to interact with friends of friends and so on. Today, the openness and the ease with which people can communicate with other people (friends and strangers) on these platforms have made Social Media Networks a revelation in the world of Marketing.

Three brands that stand out to me when I think about social media and businesses are: Zappos, Ford and Dell. Now you may say these brands are all popular names and it is only natural that people flock towards them. While I agree with that stance, I also still believe it takes some good strategizing to achieve what they have achieved using Social Media.

When I first examined the Ford Brand presence across the social media sphere, I imagined that these networking sites were built for Ford. Ford has taken a few specific networks, focused on them and built a community in each network. They also built a ‘media hub‘ that brings together all their feeds, networks and online presence in one place.  They have used Social Media to handle their PR effectively and this can be observed in how they dealt with the copyright infringement fiasco they dealt months back. Not only can Social Media win you new costumers, it can help you define your public image.

Dell and Zappos have done very well with Twitter especially. They have used this network to develop intimate relationships with their customers, announce new developments, get feedback and so forth. The success of these two companies can only inspire young, new Entrepreneurs like myself. Their stories have taught us the importance of building personal relationships with fans/customer, being open to their needs and being readily available to interact with them.

The moral lesson of this post is just to encourage every new entrepreneur, whether you are still in stealth mode or you have gone live with your product, learn to embrace Social Media. Study some of the success stories of companies on Social Networks and take follow their lead. I understand that not everyone is Social Media savvy and can handle Marketing for a start-up, in those cases you can always outsource. You can also look for firms that are specifically build for this purpose – to market for startups. People like Samir Belwani, Reem Abeidoh, Rebecca Ryckman are all brilliant Social Media Strategists with good experience. Remember that the startup journey is always a lesson, you might learn that you failed or learn that you succeeded, all that matters is that you learn.

I was once told that if I can’t explain my company and what it does in a sentence or two at most, then I have no idea what the company does. Ever since then I have tried to fit most of my ideas and soon to be start-up into a sentence and that task is not so easy. Maybe it’s not so easy because I always feel the need to explain in complete detail, thinking that will help the other party understand better and want to work with me. But really, most people that matter and could help grow your business rarely have the time to listen to your “detailed explanation”. They will rather hear a succinct description A.K.A. elevator pitch.

The term ‘elevator pitch’ has been coined with respect to the expected duration of the presentation. An elevator ride is usually short (bar power failures) and lasts about 60 seconds averagely. So the challenge here is can you win over a potential investor in 60 seconds? Many entrepreneurs and investors actually believe an elevator pitch could do more than a complete business plan that even includes the financials. I once watched a YouTube video a while back where a VC explained that he received about 100 new business plans every day, each plan averaging 45 pages. He went on to say he barely ever reads a complete plan, that most times the names on the team sheet, their experience and executive summary is enough to decide whether to keep the plan or toss it. He finished by saying over 60% of the deals he decided to fund was because of what he gathered from the first few minutes he spent with the entrepreneurs. First impressions could make or break your dreams!

There are two bits to a winning ‘Elevator Pitch’: Planning and Delivery. Both are completely important and must be treated as such. An elevator pitch is different from when you have to sit down face to face with investors where you have excel sheets to back you up and a number of PowerPoint slides. In this case it’s just you, so you must commit what you need to say to memory; you only have a minute after all.

Planning: This is the point where you sit down and think about what your company is, what problems it solves and then summarize well until it fits into a 50 second time frame. Everyone loves a product that solves problems so make sure you emphasize that when you are planning what to say. Here are a few pointers to help you plan.

• Be concise. They only have so much time to listen to you, so put your best foot forward and tell the other party right of the bat what you do. Research in detail what the problem is and how your product solves it. Have you personally faced the problem yourself? And is that what inspired you to come up with the product? No need for pleasantries beyond “Hi Mr. X, my name is Y and I have this product…”
• Prepare for Questions you could be asked and have a business plan plus financial in hand. The person you are pitching might have a bit more time and want to find out in more detail about a thing or two, so be prepared for questions so you don’t look stupid and get caught off guard. Remember to also have a copy of your complete plan in case he/she asks for it.
• What is unique about your product and what makes it different from others? Make sure to research your competition and have valid points about what makes you better than them. Never say you have no competition, there is always competition. It might not be close competition, but there’s always competition.
• If the product has launched and is doing well, make sure to point this out. Tell the other party that the company is already starting to make its mark but with the large market for it and how well it is being received, you are looking to expand.
• If you have already built a successful start-up in the past, include this in your pitch. It shows that you have experience and know what it takes to succeed in business, making you even more investment-worthy.

Delivery. This bit deals with how you physically pitch the potential investor. Have you ever heard that investors don’t invest in ideas? Well now you’ve heard it, they invest in people. So how you carry yourself and your persona does count for a lot. Here are a few things to remember:

• Be confident. Nothing is more attractive and comforting than confidence. If you don’t look like you are completely sure about your business, why would anybody want to invest their hard earned cash in it?
• Be Personable. This also has to do with the fact that investors invest in people. If they are unable to connect with you, they won’t want to work with you. You don’t have to act like a clown to make the guy laugh but you do have to make the person interested. If you must come up with hooks in your pitch or general discussion, then by all means, please do.
• Leave a calling card. It doesn’t have to be an actual card, it could be your business plan, you setting up a meeting e.t.c. just anything to make sure you will be able to reconnect after that day. It’s one thing to leave a lasting impression and another for them to be able to reach you after you might have successfully won them over.

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In my last year of college, there were 3 blogs I followed religiously: On Startups by Dharmesh Shah, Marc Andreessen’s blog and Paul Graham’s blog. While I am still a faithful follower of Onstartups, I end up visiting the other two not so regularly. Don’t get me wrong, they all have great articles on them, but sometimes I feel like the content of the last two get way too complicated for my liking. Many times the subject of discussion is Venture capital firms and how they work (especially Andreessen’s blog, these days however Paul Graham’s blog has such a diverse content range that there’s something for everyone). I am a Gen Y entrepreneur and really don’t have the connections that will secure me a deal with a VC so I don’t bother myself with them anyway. I applied to over 30 VCs for funding about 15 months ago when I was looking to start my first company and I got the same answer from all of them: “your idea is great and we are sure it will work, but it’s just too risky to invest in you. You have no proven experience in building a successful start-up. We invest in people, not ideas”. I ended up bootstrapping and securing a little bit of angel investment in order to get things going. At this stage in my entrepreneurial career, I have come to realize that I am not ready for VC money anyway or for anyone to tell me how to run my business so I am not particularly keen on those kind of discussions. Over the past few months however, I have found and followed some blogs that I can’t get away from for several reasons and have decided to share. These blogs appeal to any gen y (entrepreneur) or aspiring entrepreneur. I try to keep tabs on these blogs whenever I can, most times from the BlackBerry while at lunch, just because that’s the time my schedule allows.

Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist – Penelope Trunk:

I think majority of the Gen Y entrepreneurs who read blogs or even just articles on the web will agree with me when I say this blog is a one stop shop for the best tips on career and business. I have been reading her blog for several months now and it’s nothing short of inspirational. The difference between Penelope’s style of conveying a message and how others do it is always obvious to all. She rarely ever holds back and talks about anything and everything just so you get an understanding of why she says what she says. This blog has something for everyone, from how to start a career to how to fund  your start-up if you are looking into being an entrepreneur. Just take a look at the ‘Categories’ on the right hand side of the blog to gain an idea of what I am talking about. Her posts are very concise and brilliantly written that it challenges me to be a better writer and hopefully someday a role model like she is to many bloggers and entrepreneurs.

She is also the founder/CEO of Brazen Careerist, a company every gen y entrepreneur should check out and a society they should become a part of.

Find Penelope Trunk on Twitter.

Twenty Set – Monica O’Brien:

I have been reading Twenty Set for a while now but only recently reached out to Monica and found she’s just as awesome in person as her blog is. My favorite thing about the blog is how detailed and easy to understand it is. She writes about Generation Y and social media topics generally. She realizes that not everyone her blog caters to understands the several underlying concepts of her topics, so she tries to be as clear as possible. Everytime I read Twenty Set, I leave that lunch table with something new. There was a time I read a particular post of hers and it inspired me to write one on here. It turned out to be one of the most read posts I have ever written. That’s how much I learn from her.

If you are a part of Generation Y, whether you are an entrepreneur or not, Twenty Set is a blog you should bookmark and follow. If you are into social media or you are just looking to learn about it, then definitely check out the blog and reach out to her.

Monica O’Brien is on Twitter.

OnStartups – Dharmesh Shah:

As the name suggests, this blog specifically addresses issues on start-ups. Dharmesh himself is a successful entrepreneur and is founder of HubSpot. I like this blog for several reasons. First of all, Dharmesh started his first company when he was 24 years old which puts him in a position where he fully understands what it takes to be a young entrepreneur. So when he writes he doesn’t write in a ‘language’ we are unfamiliar with, instead he views and writes on startups from the perspective of the young people looking to build start-ups. Another reason why this blog appeals to me so much is because of the abundance of information for entrepreneurs generally. He talks about issues like picking the perfect people to join your start-up to topics like how to fund your start-up if like me, you are only just starting out and don’t have the “experience” Venture Capitalists look for before listening to your idea or reading your plan.

Dharmesh Shah is on Twitter.

Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel:

Author of Me 2.0, Dan is a Branding guru. He often brings in several other guest writers who are knowledgeable on the branding subject and there’s no shortage of information here. If you are looking to grow a business, you must learn to ‘Brand yourself’ and set your company apart from competitors in your industry. This blog consistently offers tips and tools to do this.

As a side note, I encourage every entrepreneur to grab a copy of Me 2.0 if you are yet to read it. As far as personal branding goes, it’s perhaps the top resource available at the moment. He also recently launched the Personal Branding magazine, which I am yet to read, but if his blog and book is anything to go by then I am sure it will be a hit as well.

Dan Schawbel is on Twitter.

Small hands, Big ideas – Grace Boyle:

Great blog! I actually found the blog because one of the people I had followed Tweeted a post from it and I checked it out. This was some months back and I have been hooked ever since. Grace works at a start-up in Colorado and so when she writes, it’s based on experience and what she has seen. I am a big advocate for learning from people who have lived through what they are sharing and not just based on what they’ve read somewhere. This blog covers the issues a typical gen y-er faces in trying to adapt to life after college. She talks about everything from friendships, work, start-ups and so forth. She also recommends some great articles every friday in what she calls “Friday Linky Love”, that’s a great resource for discovering other useful blogs!

Grace Boyle is on Twitter.

Young Successful Entrepreneur – Jun Loayza.

Jun seems to be everywhere on the social web these days and he deserves it. He is co-founder, along with Yu-kai Chou of Viralogy. I like the concept of his blog because it takes his readers through his life as he tries to build a start-up. He shares his struggles, the obstacles and success stories on this blog. A lot of young entrepreneurs will shy away from letting the world follow them as they try to build a business for several reasons, but not him. He doesn’t expect to fail, so what’s there to hide? And I completely agree and have become a fan of his blog.

An all round cool guy, Jun constantly writes guest posts on several social media hot spots including Mashable. This blog caters to young entrepreneurs with an eye for Social Media, so if you fall into this category,  I encourage you to read it and reach out to him.

Jun Loayza is on Twitter.

Modite – Rebecca Thorman:

I must say that I haven’t really been following Modite for as long as I have been following the previous six blogs listed here but in the little time I have been reading this blog, I have been really impressed. I am yet to personally connect with Rebecca unlike the rest of the people on this list, but from what she writes, I am sure she’s someone who will offer a lot in person. Modite deals with everything Gen Y.

She constantly gives life and career advice to the millennial generation and adds a personal touch to it by putting most of them on video. Her tips are things you can apply in your everyday life and begin to see the effects immediately. I encourage you to check out Modite, it’s a brilliantly blog.

Rebecca Thorman is on Twitter.

Whenever I talk to an audience or even write about the importance of having a good team on board, I never fail to share one of the best advice I ever got as an entrepreneur: A great team can make a bad product work, while a bad team will almost always make even a great product fail. The concept of a great team could be viewed in several ways and construed in many dimensions,but we all know when a team works well together and when it doesn’t. It’s always obvious.

I once spoke about this topic to a small gathering of young entrepreneurs in MD where I live and from my perspective, the ideas of a lot of the people in attendance were skewed. As far as I was concerned, they were ill-enlightened in their judgment of what makes a great team and what doesn’t. Just to clarify at this point, the age range of the people in attendance was around 16 – 27, so rationally they would be considered smart and aware. I wanted to get a better understanding of how some of these guys would pick their teams if they had the luxury of building their own start-up, so I came up with a game. I picked 5 people out of this gathering of about 30 people and they would be the ‘founders’. I asked them to come up with a team of minimum 6 people with whom they would build and grow their web 2.0 start-up. It was amazing the criteria with which some of the decisions were made. I had one guy who picked the oldest 5 people…he claimed they would be wiser, hence would “be better at business”. Turned out none of them could even code a web page, the most tech-savvy of them was average at best at basic HTML.

In my honest opinion, picking a team that would be great and make great things happen is a lot more complicated than making decisions based on how things look on the surface. It takes time, a lot of research, perhaps some rejection (from potential team members) and much more.

Individual Talent is NOT everything. Many times we tend to pay attention to stacking up the ‘Roster’ with the most talented guys, because we believe they will bring success. “They are good afterall, they know how to deliver the goods, isn’t this enough?” I believe not! For me, team chemistry more than anything sets the tone for success. A team with players that can effectively compliment each other will always laugh last. When I was hiring guys for my new start-up (currently being built), it was the first time I was ever having to bring people into my ‘wolfpack’ (which is now 4 by the way), I made sure not to look for people who were all round gurus, jack of all trade. Not only because they will be too expensive for a bootstrapped start-up but also because I worried about having too many ‘cooks on the same pot of soup’. I found a guy who was a genius with PHP, CSS and so forth but wasn’t necessarily the best designer in the world, I got a designer who is close to impeccable at his trade yet lacked the guile and class Google might look for in a developer or software coder. I sort of looked for people with different skill sets and had them partner up. I personally do not believe in having the best all-round guys to come on board with you and neglect team chemistry. If it was all about individual talent, Real Madrid would have won all the Trophies up for grabs in the past decade.

A good mix of Experience and youth never killed a start-up. All that talk about having only new guys on board a start-up is crap as far as I am concerned. I don’t like hearing it. Experience is the best teacher! If you have been through it, felt the joy of success and pain of set-backs, there’s no telling how much value you can add to a start-up. I believe having an experienced teammate on board just gives me a lot of confidence in them. I feel like they can spot a no-no far easier and more quickly than a novice, they can also come up with solutions for problems based on what they’ve seen and endured in the past. While the novice player is often enthusiastic and energetic, the experienced head brings the calmness, focus and tact to the table. Why not have a union of both if you can?

Professionalism is vital. I once read on the door of a Professor while in college that “Professionalism breads quality and efficiency”. Spot-on! in my opinion. Team members who will work well together must be capable of understanding that they are working with each other for a business and must constantly put their best foot forward. Characters that impair the progress of the team cannot be allowed on board. If one person slacks, it means the entire business slacks and this must be avoided at all costs.

They better be willing, not just able. Dedication, Dedication, Dedication! A great team comprises of people who are willing to sacrifice whatever they need to in order to see the start-up succeed. Whenever you have people on your team, ask yourself, are these people going to stay even when things get rough? Are they going to keep coding even when we can’t seem to get any Angel or VC to believe in us? Can they be willing to stay up several nights fixing bugs so we can meet our pre-set launch date? Are they willing to sacrifice their stipend when money is tight so we can advertise instead? I know it is a rarity to find people who will respond positively to these questions but those are some traits you want to look for in people you bring into the team.

On a final note, remember that a Start-up is like a fragile boat in the middle of wild waters, who you let on board decides whether you stay afloat or you sink!