First of all, I think it’s necessary to say sorry to the readers who e-mailed me about my lack of blogging for the past few weeks bar the Causerific intro blog. I had spent a lot of my time trying to finish up work on the project that my blogging suffered. Now that it’s done (for the most part, still in beta), I will certainly be more active with my blogging.

I was listening in on a chat between a journalist and two investors some months back at TechCrunch Disrupt in NYC, the premise of the chat was: how to find a gem in a pile of start-ups that spring up every day. Every single day, a typical tech blog like Mashable receives up to 50 pitches from Entrepreneurs or PR people looking to get mentioned, Journalists and investors aren’t spared either. During the chat, one of the investors lamented the rate at which his inbox filled up everyday and how majority of the people sending him messages have only built a website but NOT  a start-up.

There’s a popular misconception amongst most young entrepreneurs nowadays. The huge success seen by Facebook, Box.net, Youtube etc… has got young college grads thinking about driving Ferraris and working 4hrs a week from the beach. I enjoyed a webinar I watched where Gary Vaynerchuk briefly explained the differenece between “Unemployement” and “Entrepreneurship”. Unemployment can lead to Entrepreneurship but never confuse that with the belief that you are a “Entrepreneur” all of a sudden since you can’t find a job or you were fired.

Back to the previous discussion. There truly is a difference between building a website and building a start-up. A website is fully functional, it is a great idea and people would love it just like a start-up, but unlike a start-up, you and your roommate are the only ones using it. While I am not an investor, I think it’s completely understandable that most VCs and Angels will rather invest in an idea that several people like and already use than a mere website. I am a believer in the “get users first, then chase press and investment second” school of thought. Not only does it give you more credibility, but it raises both your value as an Entrepreneur and the value of your start-up. Most young Entrepreneurs that send me emails asking if I knew any Investors that could be of help barely have 5 users besides them and the fake profiles they’ve created. Get yourself some early adopters, I tell them. Look for people who love your idea as much as you do and get them to use your service. Push them to spread the word to their friends and co-workers, before you know it, you have several hundred people giving you feedback on how you can improve your service. In the next blog post I will talk about how to find these early adopters and how to market to them.

For young Entrepreneurs building start-ups, it’s important to note that most VCs, Angels, Journalists aren’t automatically sold on your “awesome idea”. They take a liking to you as a person and how well the “awesome idea” has caught on with the group of people you have built your start-up for. You most likely don’t have the $$$$$ to spend on ads and big marketing campaigns and so the only way you can go about building a user base is researching your niche, find out the people who are enthusiasts about the service you are offering, bring them to your site and get them to help spread the word. Soon enough you will be ready to have a tech blog cover you. In the mean time, work hard in the trenches and stop being unreal with your thinking that you can code a website, design it and start asking VCs for 100k the next day or asking WSJ to write a piece on you. If it were that easy, there will be 50 new Facebooks everyday.

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Outsourcing is something I do quite abit. I have been an advocate for well over 3 years now and have enjoyed it for the most part. It’s cheap, easy and time efficient. My favorite thing about Outsourcing is the fact that I could have a heap of work to get done before work time the next morning and if I don’t get through it all, I know I can have an assistant somewhere in a different timezone finish it up for me. Take for example the one time we were handling web development, design and branding for a new website and client. I had just started out with Gen Y startup and the section of it that handled website dev/design, so I felt the need to “show the S on my chest”. I didn’t care whatever it took back then and so I hired a team from countries around the world.

The new client had a bad experience with a previous supplier and was out of time, basically needed a turnover in less than 40hrs. I blindly took up the challenge and set out on a journey that I was 100% sure I wouldn’t finish, but the pride and need to make a point made me take it on anyway. I worked endlessly on the project but after a while it was evident I was running low on manpower and strength, that’s when I sent an email to my ever ready asst. in Lahore, Pakistan. It was 2a.m. in Baltimore USA but for him, it was the middle of workday. Suffice to say, somehow the project was done and delivered and the client is still with me till today.

Outsourcing also has it’s bad, actually very bad moments as well. It’s never going to be all rosy if you are into outsourcing some work. For people who are new to Outsourcing and don’t know people/teams you can pick as your partner or outsource team, it could be ridiculously daunting. Many take the decision process lightly and that shouldn’t be the case. It’s actually more important than hiring an in-house team because these are people you don’t know, never seen and have no clue whether their background and experience is only true on paper. You don’t know their style of work and have no control over how they do the work either. A close friend learned the hard way a couple of weeks ago when she picked out a team in India and handed them the reigns on a small project she was working on. She had 3weeks to get it done and so while she worked on the design section, she outsourced some of the dev. It’s been 6 weeks and the development is only 50% done. She lost that client and isn’t sure when the work will be done. Not all outsourced projects end up this way, neither are most of the developers looking for outsourced project, so don’t misconstrue the lesson of this post. You just need to make sure you learn to do the right things when you outsource.

To do List.

1.) Go through a trusted source. Merely doing a Google search of the word “outsource” will give you several articles on where to find great employees in other countries around the world. Elance is especially a huge meeting ground for tech work suppliers and people looking to outsource.

2.) Verify the information they give you. A lot of the people looking to take your work on fake their qualifications and experience. You must verify the information they give you and make sure all that work they claim to have done are actually their hand work. E-mail previous clients, call old employers…anything just to make sure you are not dealing with liars. If they lie about their previous work to win yours, you definitely don’t want them any where near yours.

P.S. A lot of suppliers do this, because most employers fail to verify any past experience.

3.) Keep good contact. Always stay in contact with whomever you do hire. Have skype meetings atleast once a week and build a closer relationship. Exchanging emails alone is never enough. Let them know that you mean business! Set up calls about twice a week or more depending the stage of the project or the amount of work required.

4.) Demand to see updates. This one explains itself. Don’t be led to believe you are closer to the finish line than you actually are. Most people fall victim of this.

In summary, Outsourcing can save you a lot of money and time IF done the right way. So do the right things to enjoy the experience.

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I have been unable to really blog as much as I would have liked to lately, but there’s a good reason. I have been quite busy with some consulting work I am doing for this amazing start-up called Gaucho and my own new venture: Videfy. The most important feature of these two startups is the real time capabilities they have both incorporated. If you have been paying attention to the developing trends in web2.0 these days, you’ll understand why. Everyone is starting to use the internet for everything: Moms who are looking to save and find coupons in stores can now find awesome deals by looking at the live savings stream specific to their location on Gaucho. Professionals who are looking to meet up with their friends for a couple after hour drinks can now look on loopt or foursquare to find out their location and prior movements. With videfy, Brands/companies will be able to keep a realtime interaction going with their many fans, update them on developments at the company via the most effective means of information dissemination…Video. With all the information being placed on the web, it’s no wonder everyone is looking to scrutinize them, get only those that matter to them and get them as soon as they are released.

Investors are also embracing this new trend. Ron Conway has been a big fan of startups that incorporate realtime features in their operations and it’s been evident on the two occasions I’ve heard him speak: TechCrunch50 and most recently Crunchup held in San Francisco a few days ago. Little advise to Entrepreneurs: Include Real Time in your startup. This is the time to do so!

Like i mentioned earlier, I am currently working on two innovative start-ups and I received couple of emails after a tweet I sent out some days back asking me about Videfy. I will write a detailed blog post about it soon, but in the meantime, I can tell you we are about 10 days from a beta release. Anyone, brand and studio is welcome to signup for invites and test it out.

On the other hand, happy thanksgiving to everyone! If you are looking for ways to save on black friday, there’s going to be a bunch of deals, coupons and stuff here.

Parting notes: Remember that Entrepreneurs are in it to come up with innovative ways to change the world, build something that makes people’s lives easier first and you will be rewarded for that.

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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Many young entrepreneurs are guilty of starting a Marketing campaign only after they have launched their product or their website has gone live. I have come to learn that it is a better idea starting much earlier, even before your prototype launches. Now this is a question that will certainly get varying answers from people but in my opinion, starting a marketing campaign pre-launch gives you more stature and improves your chances of getting funded when you go live. You don’t want to go ask for funds from VCs for your dating website when the only members of the site are you, your co-founders and some buddies from Math class. It’s not a good look!

The most popular complaints I hear from people about launching early are:

1.) They don’t want people knowing their ideas and stealing them, and

2.) They don’t have enough time to start a marketing campaign while working on the start-up and working a part-time job to bootstrap their efforts.

While these two points are valid complaints, I have reasonable counter-acts for each…and they suffice for me at least.

1.) When you are working behind the scenes, building your start-up and consider yourself to be in stealth-mode, it is understandable that you don’t want people knowing your idea and going to reproduce it. It’s too early along for competition and that kind of pressure, I get it. But from the time I have spent around other young entrepreneurs, I have come to realize that other people are too busy building their own ideas to throw it all out and do yours. Infact most people will think your idea is garbage when they first hear you pitch it, they will think ‘really? is that his idea? I think mine is much better’. Honestly think about it, how many times have you heard someone else’s idea and thought “wow, this is brilliant, I should do something like this”?  perhaps 5% of the time. Now of that 5%, how many times would you say “okay I am going to try my hands on this project and leave mine for a bit”. I think that drops it down to somewhere close to 0.5% at best. Everything in life is a risk. It is a risk becoming an entrepreneur, It is a risk putting your idea out there early but the rewards could be bountiful. Ask the guys at Viralogy. They started their marketing campaign early, no one stole their idea and they got loads of people sign up in the first week.

2.) I am not sure how you view marketing relative to your start-up, but in my opinion, it is an intrinsic part and not just an “add-on”. You need to pay just as much attention to your marketing as you do development. When people say they don’t have time to market because they are too busy developing, I find it hard to understand. I think their perception is misconstrued. You have to set aside the time to market, make it a part of the schedule. If you cannot afford to bring someone else on board whose sole task is to strategize and execute a marketing campaign, then cut back on the development time to market or simply work a few more hours. If you only have 7 hours/ day to work on your start-up, and you spend all of it on development, you need to re-distribute your time and start marketing atleast 2-3 hours a day. Get on twitter and tweet about it, create a blog where you write about what your start-up will offer once you launch, relate and interact with other bloggers e.t.c. Also make sure you create a splash page or a simple welcome page, say what your start-up is in a sentence or two, ask for their e-mails so you can update them on your progress and contact them when you finally launch. These are some great ways to rack up a customer base early on. Take for example Betterfly who have done a fantastic job marketing even before launching. They are prominent on twitter, have an informational web-page and have a dynamic blog going even before they launch fully. There is no way they won’t hit the ground running once they are fully launched.

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At this stage of development, my start-up is starting to take shape and things are finally beginning to fall into place. A section of the site will contain videos that cannot be downloaded or embedded and we struggled initially in deciding which of the available methods of doing this we would go with. Earlier this week though we found a way out and are working on that at the moment. I have severally found myself in a position where I have no clue what to do and could use the advice of someone who has experienced what I am going through. This brings me to the issue of Mentors and Start-ups. Many young Entrepreneurs try to avoid having an Advisor or Mentor on board, but I doubt that is such a good idea. The most popular reason why these ‘freshies’ do this is that they don’t like people telling them they are wrong or asking them to ditch one of their ideas because it’s not likely to work. I don’t like hearing that either. I don’t like people telling me my idea is not practical enough and that I should modify it, but I also know that it might be in my best interest to listen.

As far as Start-ups are concerned, a Mentor is someone who has been in the industry for much longer and has been involved in a number of startups himself/herself. The duty of this person is to advice you based on their experience and also help you out courtesy of the connections they have built while gaining that experience. Okay, that’s just a primary overview of what a mentor does. There are many other things a mentor brings to the table that could be invaluable and I will get to that in a minute. When looking to find a good mentor, make sure you look for someone who will add value to you in every way possible. A person who pays for servers and hardware for your start-up doesn’t automatically become a Mentor. There have been several scenarios where investors have become Mentors but it’s paramount that these people have been involved in other start-ups in the past as well. Finding a good mentor is not the easiest thing in the world but it’s not climbing Mt. Everest either.

With the advent of Social Media, it has become much easier to find people that will fill that position very easily. Sites like Twitter and LinkedIn are awesome places to find and link up with experts in your industry. While most Mentor – Founder relationships I have seen have been built and nourished offline, there is a rise in the number of founders meeting potential mentors online. The guys of MentalFloss did a Google search to find Samir Husni who turned out to be their Mentor. Samir had several years of experience with creating and marketing magazines. He knew what people will like to read and what they wouldn’t be so interested in reading, which made him a perfect Mentor in this industry. With his help and constant advice, they have grown Mental Floss into a household name.

I am not vast enough or experienced enough to know all the possible means of compensating Mentors, but I would imagine Cash payments and stock options are the most popular way. It is usually well worth the cost though, these people can help immensely so make sure you spend time researching your options and be careful making your final decision.

Here are a few other positives a good Mentor brings to the table:

• They have an outsiders view, and that combined with experience puts them in a position to see the good and not so good aspects of your start-up. They will then be able to advice you on how you can put yourself in a better position to succeed.

• They can open doors for you. Mentors usually know people who can be of help especially where it matters: Finances. They have connections with Angel Investors, VCs and can even hook you up with potential partners.

• They motivate you to go for more. Many Entrepreneurs are in business for the big bucks and so when you are doing well 2 years in, you might get a buy-out offer. In several cases, young entrepreneurs tend to jump on the offer, but if there’s potential to grow and be worth even more later, the Mentor acts as the ‘calm down’ factor who slows things down and steer you the right way.

• They hold your hands through the rough patches. Every Start-up goes through a trying period where things don’t seem to work out at all. These Mentors have experienced these testing times themselves and can keep you from giving up. They will offer a shoulder to cry on and push you forward, telling you things will get better.

Notice I said these are some positives a good Mentor brings to the table? A bad Mentor can completely destroy your dreams likewise. That’s an entirely different discussion however. So make sure you take time to look for a Mentor that will be right for you.

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Many people just know you as the awesome blogger and power woman behind Brazen Careerist, can you let us a little into the world of Miss Trunk?

I like to think that each of us working on the same stuff – figuring out who we are and what we want and how to get it. Those questions get progressively easier, but I’m not sure we ever get off the first one. That’s where I am, too.

Many young bloggers and Entrepreneurs say they draw inspiration from you, for example Monica O’Brien who is one of my favorite bloggers. Is there anyone you draw your own inspiration from?

Oh, I like Monica’s blog. She’s great at writing about gender. And, actually, I think that tons of bloggers are good at something. The trick is to find what you’re good at so you can inspire other people. Sometimes I find that watching someone figure out what they are good at is as inspiring as seeing someone be great.

Bloggers who I like:

Rebecca Thorman at Modite

Holly Hoffman – at WorkLoveLife

Lance, at Honey and Lance

Sam Davidson at Cool People Care

You put yourself out there on your blog posts and in a recent one, you explained why. Do you ever get people who give you bad feedback, send you emails criticizing you e.t.c? If you do, how do you deal with them personally?

I get emails criticizing me every day. I read them all. I like direct feedback, and sometimes, in person, people are hesitant to be direct. So I sort of like that people will just say anything on my blog — they spare no feelings there. Sometimes I think they are off base, and sometimes I think they’re right. In either case, I think about it. Because the way to get better is to be open to criticism.

A lot of young Gen Y entrepreneurs tend to get stuck after the idea is conceived and they’ve written their business plan. Can you tell us briefly how you started your first company? From the idea conception, through seeking funds, marketing and launching?

My first company was one I thought about for a year before I started. I knew I had intellectual property — math software from my investor’s company. I realized that I could buy math.com pretty cheaply, and then I looked around for what else could go on the site. I found out that Swarthmore College had a huge grant from the NSF to build math teaching tools, but Swarthmore had no idea what to do with them. So I put them on my site. And I decided that with that stuff, I needed to market to teachers. That’s how I figured out what my business was. It was incremental and I was very flexible. It’s important when you think of a business idea to know that a business is a bunch of very small, always changing ideas. It’s not one, big, stagnant idea.

You talk a lot about your constant quest for more funds for Brazen Careerist. Can you shed light on the effect of the sad state of the economy on securing funds for already established companies like Brazen Careerist? What about new start-ups run by novice entrepreneurs looking for seed funds?

There is plenty of money for companies that have a good idea. Really. The reason we ran into trouble is that we did not time everything well. But even when we were in really really bad shape, there was funding for us. You need to have all your ducks in a row to get funding. There is sort of a checklist of stuff you need. If you have that, you’ll get money. If you don’t have that, it is probably not the right time for you to get funding.

I have been told several times by many C.E.Os I have had the privilege of sitting down with that in business, it’s more about who you know than what you know. Do you agree?

Yes. Definitely. You need to be able to surround yourself with people who can fill in your own gaps in skills. I am constantly calling people for help and advice. I think young people don’t realize how often — each day! — very experienced people ask for help with an email or something like that. You need a network of people you can ask for help.

This is actually why Brazen Careerist works so well for entrepreneurs. Because for an entrepreneur their network is everything. And you need to be part of a community of people who can collaborate with you. That means you need to be talking with people to find out their ideas.

Also, entrepreneurs typically do not have useful resumes. They work for themselves and they change jobs a lot. Most people who are entrepreneurs also have been fired a few times: Not good for the Resume. Brazen Careerist’s ideas-based resume is perfect for the entrepreneur who is full of ideas and short on linear, corporate experience.

What are your views on the continuous rise and rise of social media as it pertains to company and personal branding?

My views? I don’t know. Is this controversial? It seems good for everyone. People telling more about themselves means that people can make better decisions about who to work with.

How did you start out as an entrepreneur? Most if not all entrepreneurs experience failure at some point, how did/do you deal with them? And how well do you handle rejection?

I keep trying. I have had a lot of failure in my life that I keep plugging away at so that it is not actually a failure. Most of how we approach life’s hardships is hard-wired — how optimistic we are. And you can test yourself to see the optimism you were born with. A friend once told me that entrepreneurs are optimists and VCs are pessimists.

The biggest thing about facing failure is to just get out of bed in the morning and try something else. Keep trying. Brazen Careerist ran out of money a few times. And we all just refused to give up.

What is the best advice you’ve ever got?

The more you know yourself the better you’ll be at getting what you want — in all aspects of life. You can know yourself faster by going to therapy.

When Penelope Trunk isn’t working, speaking e.t.c. what does she do for fun?

I think there is time in life to only do three things well. We spend a lot of our lives denying this, and trying to make it not true for us. But it’s true. So, like most people my age, I have time for work, kids and a significant other. That’s pretty much it. I mean, I work out a lot, but it’s not nearly as high a priority as the other stuff. The faster you can admit that you only have time to do three things well, the faster you can stop making yourself crazy trying to do more.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this! On a final note, give me and other gen Y entrepreneurs reading this one advice.

Be open to criticism. If someone thinks you can’t take it, you won’t get feedback, and you won’t grow.

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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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I recently came across this website called IdealPitch and thought I needed to share with other entrepreneurs. I am personally not so big on VCs but if you’ve been involved in a start-up in the past, you know that there comes a time when you really do need funds from an external source. I am almost at that stage and so I set out to look for ways of getting money from Angel Investors and funding groups. That’s when I discovered IdealPitch.

The website is pretty user friendly and easy to navigate. Its premise is this, get several entrepreneurs with innovative ideas on the same platform with suitable Investors and let them interact. Simple as that. The service lets you create a user account as either an Entrepreneur or as an Investor, describe yourself a little and start looking for matches. Entrepreneurs are allowed to give a brief pitch of about one paragraph or two explaining what they are looking for, occupation, expected ROI and so forth, while Investors are also allowed to do the same.

I particularly like this service because of how easy it is to use. It is sort of a very basic social networking site for people involved or looking to be involved in start-ups. I definitely encourage everyone to check it out. They are growing fast and have a vast collection of Entrepreneurs and Investors already patronizing them.

IdealPitch blogs here

IdealPitch is also on Twitter

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