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Category: Entrepreneurship

  • A Case For Thank You Notes

    Have you ever been in a situation where you want to leave a strong, positive impression upon someone? Have you ever interviewed for a job? Have you ever received a birthday card from a relative? Have you ever been… You get the point.

    We have all experienced moments when we feel as if we should show our thanks and appreciation to someone.

    As a young adult I fear that my peers don’t say thank you correctly. Every situation requires a different approach, especially in the professional setting.

    A text message carries the right amount of weight to thank a friend for doing a small favor. A phone call to a relative is appropriate when they send you a birthday card. Yet, in a professional setting these methods of “thanks” are not suitable.

    The Problem

    In my short-lived experience attempting to hire interns I have seen this problem firsthand.

    Every individual I have interviewed (between 5 and 10) did not send a follow-up thank you. No email, no phone call, no thank you note. One student went as far as to send an email with further qualifications but forgot to mention his appreciation for my time.

    This is not an ego driven approach to hiring. I don’t care if someone thanks me for my time. In this instance principle takes precedence over my desire to be “thanked.” I was, and still am looking for a candidate that goes above and beyond.

    We haven’t hired anyone yet.

    The Solution

    So what gives? Why do I care so much about being thanked? Why do I even think this is a problem to begin with?

    I’m nervous that the handwritten thank you card is dead.

    For people my age (18-30 years old) the thank you card is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when looking for a job. Even beyond job hunting, a thank you note carries immense weight.

    Who doesn’t like receiving something in the mail? Not your email inbox, but your physical, actual mailbox. You like it, I like it, everyone likes it. Receiving a handwritten piece of mail still elicits the same excitement today as it did 10 years ago.

    So, do yourself a favor, make someone’s day – send them a thank you letter.

    After your next interview, send a thank you letter. After your great-aunt sends you a $22 check for your 22nd birthday, send her a thank you letter. After you experience great service at a business, send them a thank you note.

    Why? Because of the law of reciprocity.

    The law of reciprocity rules the land. Go out of your way to make people feel good and they in turn will go out of their way to reciprocate.

    Thank you notes are your secret weapon. Use them often and use them wisely.

    A Template

    Writing a thank you note is simple. You should be able to jot one down in under 5 minutes. But, in case you cannot you can use this template.

    Dear ________,

    I wanted to send you this short note as my way of saying thank you for ___________. I greatly appreciated ________, and __________.

    I look forward to ________ with you soon.

    Best,

    Zach

    For example, your note could read…

    Dear Mike,

    I wanted to send you this short note as my way of saying thank you for the birthday present you sent me. I greatly appreciated the sunglasses, and the fact that you went out your way to send them to me.

    I look forward to catching up with you soon.

    Best,

    Zach

    I actually sent that note to Mike a few months back. His response was:

    Thank you notes work. Use them.

    PS Mike does sell some great looking sunglasses with an awesome social entrepreneurship twist. When you buy a pair of Waveborns, you’re helping fund life-changing cataract surgeries around the world. Thanks again for the shades Mike.

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  • 75+ Practical Resources, Tools and Books for Entrepreneurs (Curated List For 2015)

    75+ RESOURCES FOR ENTREPRENEURS

    Please bookmark this page.

    I have spent countless hours searching the web for tools, resources and books that every entrepreneur should consider using, reading and referencing. Whether you are a team of one, or a team of many, you will find this page useful.

    This list has been broken down into stages of business development. At each stage there are 5 to 10 different tools, resources, and books that have been popular this year.

    I have no affiliation with these companies and their products. Rather, I just like you, have found myself searching for these tools time and time again. I have simply taken the time to organize them all in a central location.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

    1. Getting an idea
    2. Forming a plan
    3. Finding a partner
    4. Building a foundation
    5. Getting your first user
    6. Collecting user feedback
    7. Creating business process
    8. Finance and accounting
    9. Marketing to the world
    10. Growing your enterprise

    GETTING AN IDEA

    At the core of every business is an innovative idea.

    What value does your company provide? What pain point does your idea relieve? How do users benefit?

    Posing these questions to yourself is a good place to start when trying to identify a business opportunity. Here are a list of resources, tools and books that can help you generate a great startup idea.

    Resources

    IDEAS FOR STARTUPS

    If coming up with an idea for a startup equals coming up with a million dollar idea, then of course it’s going to seem hard. Too hard to bother trying. Our instincts tell us something so valuable would not be just lying around for anyone to discover.

    -Paul Graham

    HOW TO GET STARTUP IDEAS

    Why is it so important to work on a problem you have? Among other things, it ensures the problem really exists. It sounds obvious to say you should only work on problems that exist. And yet by far the most common mistake startups make is to solve problems no one has.

    -Paul Graham

    YCOMBINATOR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

    15 seconds to answer a barrage of YCombinator interview questions will help any entrepreneur find holes in their startup idea.

    REQUESTS FOR STARTUPS

    A weekly newsletter of ideas that investors, companies, and influencers would like to fund.

    MUSK LEVEL

    Up-vote style website with ideas that only Elon Musk would consider exploiting.

    DEVELOPER IDEAS

    Sign up for this newsletter if you want a bit of inspiration on what you should build next. You can expect four ideas and one open source repo in your inbox every week.

    CAMPFIRES

    Gather ’round as a few of our favorite designers share tips, insights, war stories and more.

    Tools

    JAVELIN

    Software platform to help entrepreneurs and startups identify customer needs, validate new products, and reach product market fit.

    ELEVATR

    A fast, beautiful, and fun way to capture, organize, and share business ideas.

    MINDMEISTER

    MindMeister is considered the best online mind mapping software currently on the market. With its award-winning online version and its free mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, users are able to mind map at school, at home, at the office and even on the go.

    Books

    MADE TO STICK: WHY SOME IDEAS SURVIVE AND OTHERS DIE

    Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions.

    A WHOLE NEW MIND: WHY RIGHT-BRAINERS WILL RULE THE FUTURE

    The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic “right-brain” thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn’t.

    Technique for Producing Ideas

    This classic creative problem-solver walks you through a proven, step-by-step process to producing powerful and purposeful ideas and shows you how to: — Gather the raw materials — those of your immediate problem and the materials which come from your store of general knowledge– Work over and incubate these materials in your mind– Shape and develop an idea for practical use.

    How to Get Ideas

    How to Get Ideas shows you – no matter your age or skill, your job or training – how to come up with more ideas, faster and easier.

    How Breakthroughs Happen

    Andrew Hargadon argues that our romantic notions about innovation as invention are actually undermining our ability to pursue breakthrough innovations. Based on ten years of study into the origins of historic inventions and modern innovations from the lightbulb to the transistor to the Reebok Pump athletic shoe, How Breakthroughs Happen takes us beyond the simple recognition that revolutionary innovations do not result from flashes of brilliance by lone inventors or organizations.

    FORMING A PLAN

    Once an idea is in place the next step is writing out a plan.

    Booooring, I know. But absolutely necessary.

    Without a plan you are doomed from the start. Take a look at these resources, tools, and books that will help you map out a timeline for your company. The first step from idea to business happens here.

    Resources

    WRITING A BUSINESS PLAN

    We like business plans that present a lot of information in as few words as possible. The following business plan format, within 15–20 slides, is all that’s needed.

    -Sequoia Capital

    Autopsy

    Lessons from failed startup companies.

    START JUMPER

    StartJumper provides future-ready business plans free of charge for anyone to be inspired by or use. With each business plan are brand assets such as business names, domains and professionally designed logos you can buy.

    Startup Lawyer

    Startup Lawyer is a resource for participants of the startup ecosystem. Articles are generally legal in nature but topics may include current events as they relate to the startup ecosystem.

    Tools

    KNOWLIUM

    Over 90% of startups fail within the first 5 years. Knowlium aims to change that with a web application that guides you through the process of business discovery, planning and management.

    PRODUCTPLAN

    ProductPlan is the easiest way to plan, visualize, and share your product roadmap.

    STARTUP DOCUMENTS

    Startup Documents knows that starting a company can be confusing. That’s why we aim to simplify the process. Whether you’re wondering when to incorporate, or what the difference is between a C Corp, S Corp and LLC, we want to help you make the best decisions for your startup.

    TERMSFEED

    TermsFeed allows you to create the legal agreements easily and online. No software is required.

    DOCUSIGN

    he future of business is digital. DocuSign helps businesses of all sizes easily and securely sign, send, and manage documents in the cloud, with unmatched availability and legal enforceability.

    Books

    The Lean Startup

    Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

    The $100 Startup

    In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau shows you how to lead of life of adventure, meaning and purpose – and earn a good living.

    ZERO TO ONE

    The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

    FINDING A PARTNER

    With a plan in place it is now time to start building your foundation. But wait, what do you do if you don’t know how to make what you are envisioning? Or what about the other way around, you don’t know how to fund, organize, or properly plan what you are envisioning?

    Ah, now is the time to find a co-founder. Don’t fret, working with others is pertinent for success. Here are a list of resources, tools and books to help you find the perfect partner for your startup venture.

    Resources

    STARTUP WEEKEND

    Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities.

    BETAPARTNERS

    We’re ready to get started. Connect with us to describe your project now. Our contractors iterate quickly, work meticulously, and communicate effectively, so your project is successful.

    HOW DO I FIND A TECHNICAL CO-FOUNDER?

    Unfortunately this is a classic problem. “How do I find a really hot single girl to go out with?”

    -Drew Houston

    Tools

    COFOUNDERS LAB

    Are you looking for a like-minded entrepreneur who can provide the skills, resources, or capital needed to turn your business idea into a reality? Don’t have your own idea but looking for a great one to be a part of? If so, you came to the right place.

    MEETUP

    Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face.

    COLLAB FINDER

    Find cofounders, collaborators and other makers to help build your project.

    FOUNDERS NATION

    Founders Nation is a platform for entrepreneurs and founders. We built it to connect dreamers that wish to make the world a better place through innovation and technology.

    Books

    BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP ESSENTIALS

    BUILDING A FOUNDATION

    With your idea, plan, and partner in place it is now time to build a foundation. In order for your idea to grow into a successful business you will need to invest time and money upfront.

    Spending those precious resources properly is tricky. Here are a list of resources, tools and books to help you decide what to do in your early days.

    Resources

    GOOD USER INTERFACE

    A Good User Interface has high conversion rates and is easy to use. In other words, it’s nice to both the business side as well as the people using it. Here is a running idea list which we’re evolving.

    GOOGLE TRENDS

    What search terms, news items, and “things” are trending across the world and in your neighborhood.

    Tools

    Userium

    Catch common usability problems before user testing.

    PROTOTYPING ON PAPER

    Take pen and paper ideas and build a working prototype.

    GENERATOR

    Drag & Drop any blocks to make a quick structure for your startup site.

    QUICKMVP

    QuickMVP is the easiest way to test your ideas, without wasting time or money.

    MARVEL

    Turn designs and sketches into iOS prototypes, then record and playback exactly how users interact. No coding required.

    NAMIUM

    Naminum is a company, startup and website name generator designed to make your namestorming sessions smoother.

    BALSAMIQ

    Balsamiq Mockups is a rapid wireframing tool that helps you Work Faster & Smarter. It reproduces the experience of sketching on a whiteboard, but using a computer.

    Verify

    Verify lets you test screenshots of your design work to gain valuable insights on your users’ expectations and reactions to your apps and websites before writing a single line of code

    Compass

    Compass is made for executives who seek visibility on how to improve their business’ ROI without having to rely on an analyst or a consultant. Compass automatically prepares best-practice reports and benchmarks for your weekly and monthly business meetings.

    VALIDATELY

    Take the pain out of user research. The easiest way to recruit testers, launch tests, and analyze results.

    Books

    THE WEALTH OF NATIONS

    In his book, Smith fervently extolled the simple yet enlightened notion that individuals are fully capable of setting and regulating prices for their own goods and services. He argued passionately in favor of free trade, yet stood up for the little guy.

    THE HUMAN SIDE OF ENTERPRISE

    McGregor understood, anticipated, and helped point the way toward what may well emerge as a future model of work, organizations and society that is rooted in core assumptions driving participative, interdependent, authentic, inventive and productive relationships.

    IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE

    Based on a study of forty-three of America’s best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management — action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices — that made these organizations successful.

    HOW TO WIN FRIENDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE

    For more than sixty years the rock-solid, time-tested advice in this book has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives.

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    GETTING YOUR FIRST USERS

    With your minimum viable product built it is time to get your first user.

    For many entrepreneurs this can be a difficult task. Push your, “fear of selling” aside and remember that your idea provides real value to the user. Use some of these resources, tools and books below to get those first few interested people using your product or service.

    Resources

    GETTING FREE PRESS FOR YOUR STARTUP

    • How to make sure people remember what it is your startup actually does
    • Find the reporters that can actually help you (and you can, in turn, help them)
    • Get featured on the sites you want for your business

    Killer Startups

    KillerStartups.com is part of a family of sites including Fundable.com, Launchrock.com, and Bizplan.com. We are joined by over 600,000 startup companies and the 14 million backers, investors, and supporters who love them.

    Launching Next

    Home to more than 5,000 new startups, startup ideas and great business ideas. We showcase startups to our thousands of readers. If you have a startup, we want to hear about it!

    /R/STARTUPS

    Welcome to r/startups, a community for all backgrounds, levels of expertise, and business experience. We are a forum of entrepreneurs working towards unbiased and anonymous feedback, advice, ideas, and discussion.

    Tools

    BETALIST

    BetaList is the place for early adopters to discover upcoming internet startups, and for startup founders to share their startup with the world and get early user feedback.

    ERLIBIRD

    Our campaigns empower product owners to reach a global community of real-world users.
    Recruit and run a targeted real-world focus group for beta testing, user experience testing, or market research.

    STARTUPTABS

    Startup Discovery Engine – Join our community of individuals who love discovering and promoting startups

    BETA TESTER HUB

    Build a user base of dedicated early adopters for your startup

    Startup List

    StartupLi.st is a place to find, follow, and recommend startups.
    It naturally caters to early adopters.

    Books

    HOOKED: HOW TO BUILD HABIT-FORMING PRODUCTS

    Hooked is a guide to building products people can’t put down.
    Written for product managers, designers, marketers, startup founders, and people eager to learn more about the things that control our behaviors.

    CONTAGIOUS: WHY THINGS CATCH ON

    Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender.

    GROWTH HACKER MARKETING

    A new generation of megabrands like Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb, and Twitter haven’t spent a dime on traditional marketing. No press releases, no TV commercials, no billboards. Instead, they rely on a new strategy—growth hacking—to reach many more people despite modest marketing budgets.

    COLLECTING USER FEEDBACK

    Great, your first few users have tested out your MVP. Now the fun really begins.

    You need to collect their feedback and understand what aspects of your product or service they like and don’t like. You need to get in the users head and fine tune your companies founding idea. Your users generate your revenue – you ought to listen to what they have to say.

    Resources

    CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT FOR STARTUPS: WHAT I LEARNED TALKING TO 500 CUSTOMERS IN 4 WEEKS

    I recently spent more than 100 hours talking to Groove customers. Here’s what I learned…

    HOW TO INTERVIEW YOUR USERS AND GET USEFUL FEEDBACK

    One of the lessons I learned after killing my first product was that I needed to pay better attention to how I was gathering feedback. That experience showed me that I had a fundamental misunderstanding on how to actually go about getting good feedback.

    12 TIPS FOR EARLY CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT INTERVIEWS

    A few months ago, I gave this talk to an entrepreneurship class at Columbia Business School, and once again the list and messages evolved. Below you can find my latest thinking.

    Tools

    USERVOICE

    All-in-one product management platform makes it easy to collect feedback, prioritize features and nail product releases

    ZENDESK

    Zendesk makes it easy to support customers when they need your help. Zendesk also makes it easy for them to help themselves when they don’t.

    LIVENINJA

    LiveNinja is a simple video chat tool meant to humanize your online experience. One customer at a time.

    USERSNAP

    Usersnap is a visual bug tracker for everyone working on a web project. Usersnap makes collaboration with colleagues & clients easy and professional.

    BUGHERD

    Your clients report issues by making annotations right from the site being worked on. BugHerd turns these into full bug reports with all the info you need to fix the problem.

    DOORBELL

    You can send feedback to Doorbell from anywhere, just forward the emails from your “support” or “help” addresses to the one that Doorbell gives you.

    TALKTOUSERS

    A professional UX team at your fingertips, with one line of code. Your users leave point-and-click feedback. UX experts crunch the feedback. You get in-depth reports.

    TAWK.TO

    tawk.to is a free messaging app that lets you monitor and chat with visitors on your website or from a free customizable page

    Books

    THE ENTREPRENEUR’S GUIDE TO CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT

    Customer Development is a four-step framework for helping startups discover and validate their customers, product, and go-to-market strategy, developed by Steve Blank and an integral part of Eric Ries’ Lean Startup methodology. Focused on the Customer Discovery step, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development is an easy to follow guide for finding early adopters, building a Minimum Viable Product, finding Product-Market fit, and establishing a sales and marketing roadmap.

    THE FOUR STEPS TO THE EPIPHANY

    The book offers the practical and proven four-step Customer Development process for search and offers insight into what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture.

    LEAN CUSTOMER DEVELOPMENT

    How do you develop products that people will actually use and buy? This practical guide shows you how to validate product and company ideas through customer development research—before you waste months and millions on a product or service that no one needs or wants.

    CREATING BUSINESS PROCESS

    You are in a great position right now. You have a ton of user feedback that is infinitely valuable to your startup company. Now is the time to implement that feedback and get ready to scale.

    You are going to build business process, and you are going to kick some ass while you do it. Here are some great resources, tools and books on how to make your business scale-able and agile from the start.

    Resources

    Creating Process in Business

    Creating process is a milestone for a start-up company, because process implies that you have a product or service that is in demand. To increase the likelihood of successful growth and development the organization must standardize the way it produces their products.

    BUILDING A BUSINESS PROCESS CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

    High-performing companies make business process improvement a core competency. These leading firms share a common characteristic: they continually find clever ways to improve the process of process improvement.

    HOW TO BUILD SYSTEMS

    Systems are rules, policies, and procedures that trained individuals can repeat as your company grows and run independent of you.

    Tools

    SlimWiki

    Beautiful wikis for teams. Wikis don’t have to be ugly, complex and hard to manage. Welcome to the future of the Wiki.

    TEAMPASSWORD

    Everybody hates being locked out. With TeamPassword, your team’s shared logins are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, keeping your projects moving.

    SLACK

    Team communication for the 21st century. With Slack, you don’t need to wait around for the next email or that elusive meeting invite.

    ASSISTANT.TO

    Book meetings with one email. No back & forth. No double bookings. And it’s free!

    DO

    With Do, you can easily and delightfully see what you have going on. Meetings, participants, and the important info all at your fingertips.

    Books

    THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

    The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Management is the definitive book that explains the industry frameworks and best practice methodologies Theodore has used to help many organizations implement BPM across their organization.

    FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

    When your startup was a weekend side project you could get by with fledgling accounting practices. Now that your startup is a full-on business you need to get your books in order.

    Here are a list of great resources, tools and books to manage your finances, send and receive invoices, and keep your money in order.

    Resources

    HOW CROWD-FUNDING IS CHANGING EVERYTHING AND WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOUR STARTUP

    “This isn’t always appropriate, and it depends on your business,” Mittal says, but crowd-funding tends to make sense in this context for hardware plays.

    HOW TO FUND A STARTUP

    Let’s start by talking about the five sources of startup funding. Then we’ll trace the life of a hypothetical (very fortunate) startup as it shifts gears through successive rounds.

    -Paul Graham

    VENTUREHACKS

    We’ve founded companies like AngelList and Epinions, invested in companies like Twitter and helped start companies backed by Sequoia, Benchmark, and Kleiner.

    CDIXON BLOG

    Personal investor in technology startups, including Kickstarter, Warby Parker, Stripe, Pinterest, Foursquare, Flatiron Health, Bloomreach, Stack Exchange, Optimizely, Skype, Sift Science, Oyster, Behance (acq by Adobe), TrialPay (acq by Visa), Smart Things (acq by Samsung), OMGPOP (acq by Zynga), Truaxis (acq by Mastercard), DocVerse (acq by Google), ScanScout (IPO), Invite Media (acq by Google).

    Tools

    BAREMETRICS

    One click and you get hundreds of metrics & insights from your Stripe account.

    CHARGEDESK

    Managing our payments right in Zendesk, and not worrying about invoices or refund notifications lets us to help customers faster. ChargeDesk enables us to save time and money, while improving customer satisfaction.

    Alex Flint

    GUSTO

    Run payroll in 1 minute on your phone. Pay taxes automatically. Make payday a celebration for everyone on your team.

    EXPENSIFY

    Streamline the way your employees report expenses, the way expenses are approved,
    and the way you export that information to your accounting package.

    INDINERO

    inDinero is your entire backoffice. We take care of your accounting, file your corporate tax returns, and manage your payroll. Focus on what matters most, and leave the rest to inDinero.

    BALLPARK

    Our beautiful, web-based invoices and estimates make it easier than ever to get paid and discuss projects with your clients and colleagues.

    FRESHBOOKS

    FreshBooks customers spend less time on paperwork, freeing up 2 days per month to focus on the work they love. What would you do with that extra time?

    SUSH.IO

    Reconcile Stripe transfers with Quickbooks, Xero and more in just a few clicks. Save time and get accurate data in real-time.

    BENCH

    Bench is the online bookkeeping service that provides you tax-ready financial statements from professional bookkeepers.

    XERO

    Accounting software with all the time-saving tools you need to grow your business. Xero is always secure and reliable and our experts are here to support you 24/7.

    Books

    TERM SHEETS & VALUATIONS

    Term Sheets & Valuations book includes an actual term sheet from a leading law firm with line by line descriptions of each clause, what can/should be negotiated, and the important points to pay attention to. A must have book for any executive, entrepreneur, or financial professional.

    START UP FINANCING

    MARKETING TO THE WORLD

    Are you ready for explosive hyper-growth? You better be, at this point you are ready to let the world know about your startup company.

    Your process is in place and your books are in order – all you need now are thousands of paying customers. Here is a list of the best resources, tools and books you can use to help your marketing efforts.

    Resources

    INBOUND.ORG

    Welcome to the internet’s smartest marketing community. Inbound.org is an online hub where good Marketers come to get better. You have an idea? Share it. You need to find or post a job? Do it. You want to connect, interact, comment, & learn? Well my friend, you’re in the right place…

    HUBSPOT

    HubSpot was founded in 2006 as a result of a simple observation: people have transformed how they live, work, shop, and buy, but businesses have not adapted. This mismatch led Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah to create the vision for the inbound experience and to develop HubSpot’s platform to support it.

    PETITHACKS

    Small hacks, fast growth.

    MOZ.COM

    Inbound marketing is complicated. Moz’s software makes it easy.

    Tools

    MARKETO

    The #1 marketing automation solution for organizations of any size.

    GLEAM

    Marketing apps designed to help you grow your business.

    CUSTOMER

    Your messages will feel more personal when they’re perfectly timed and triggered with an advanced rules-engine.

    Mailchimp

    Join more than 9 million people who use MailChimp to design and send 600 million emails every day.

    HOOTSUITE

    Manage social networks, schedule messages, engage your audiences,
    and measure ROI right from the dashboard.

    BUFFER

    Buffer is the best way to drive traffic, increase fan engagement and save time on social media.

    Books

    VIRAL LOOP

    Many of the most successful Web 2.0 companies, including MySpace, YouTube, eBay, and rising stars like Twitter and Flickr, are prime examples of what journalist Adam L. Penenberg calls a “viral loop”–to use it, you have to spread it. After all, what’s the sense of being on Facebook if none of your friends are The result: Never before has there been the potential to create wealth this fast, on this scale, and starting with so little.

    TRACTION

    This book introduces startup founders and employees to the “Bullseye Framework,” a five-step process successful companies use to get traction. This framework helps founders find the marketing channel that will be key to unlocking the next stage of growth.

    THE REFERRAL ENGINE

    The power of glitzy advertising and elaborate marketing campaigns is on the wane; word- of-mouth referrals are what drive business today. People trust the recommendation of a friend, family member, colleague, or even stranger with similar tastes over anything thrust at them by a faceless company.

    PERMISSION MARKETING

    The man Business Week calls “the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age” explains “Permission Marketing”—the groundbreaking concept that enables marketers to shape their message so that consumers will willingly accept it.

    GROWING YOUR ENTERPRISE

    Sweet! Everything is going well. Users are happy, your team is working well and the company is growing.

    Now it is time for you to put on a different one of your many CEO hats. Your job now is to grow your enterprise. Here are the best resources, tools and books to make sure you scale effectively.

    Resources

    UPDATE MY VC

    Use our Email Template to send your VCs a monthly update about new products, metrics, recruiting priorities, and important questions.

    F6S

    F6S is the network for Founders with the highest-ranked Startup programs globally, 5,700+ Startup orgs, 110k Startups and 1k+ deals. Thousands of F6S’ers a day apply to accelerators, pitch investment funds, post or apply for jobs, get free deals and grow.

    DEALROOM

    Direct and secure access to the world’s most sophisticated investors at your fingertips

    ANGELLIST

    Raise money online, with investments as small as $1k. You pay nothing—investors pay a carry.

    Tools

    GROW

    Powerfully simple business intelligence (BI) dashboards for small and medium businesses. Track the right metrics. Lead with confidence. Crush your goals.

    JAZZ

    Over 4,000 companies have made 100,000 hires with Jazz

    HOMERUN

    With Homerun you create job openings that reflect the unique strengths of your company. Stories people want to share.

    HOCKEYSTICK

    The investor relations tool for private companies. Companies share metrics and updates with investors. Investors track portfolios and get insight into fund performance.

    CHARLIE

    Charlie combs through 100s of sources and automatically sends you a one‐pager on everyone you’re going to meet with, before you see them

    LESSON.LY

    From new employee onboarding, to customer support training, to sales enablement training, Lesson.ly is everything you need to get your teams up-to-speed and keep them there.

    Books

    GOOD TO GREAT

    Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.

    WHO

    In this instant New York Times Bestseller, Geoff Smart and Randy Street provide a simple, practical, and effective solution to what The Economist calls “the single biggest problem in business today”: unsuccessful hiring. The average hiring mistake costs a company $1.5 million or more a year and countless wasted hours. This statistic becomes even more startling when you consider that the typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50 percent.

    HERE COMES EVERYBODY

    With accelerating velocity, our age’s new technologies of social networking are evolving, and evolving us, into new groups doing new things in new ways, and old and new groups alike doing the old things better and more easily.

    GET STARTED

    I hope you got something from this curated list. If you have a resource, tool, or book that you think I overlooked please leave a comment and let me know.

    PS If you got something from this post, please remember to share the comprehensive list with your peers, entrepreneurial friends and mentors.

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  • Notes From My Failed Startup

    I am 20 years old. When I was 18 and a freshman at Pitt I co-founded a company with two friends.

    We founded GymBro. GymBro sold protein powder and other nutritional supplements on a subscription basis. It was really, really fun, plus it gave me an excuse not to pay as much attention to my academic studies.

    Now, almost a year after we abandoned the idea I am ready to reflect. My time spent working on GymBro was an invaluable learning experience. It is interesting to think about what we did at the time, and how I would approach similar situations now. There is no better way to retain what you have learned than to write it down.

    That is the goal here.

    Have a Plan

    “Business plans are old school and a waste of time”, that was the general sentiment I found in my research before launching GymBro. My co-founders and I took this to heart.

    We had no plan, no guide, no road-map. We were three college guys with an idea and that was about it. Looking back on it now, this is where we failed most.

    It may be cool to start up a company with only an idea. But if that is the case then there is no company. Without a plan an idea is just that, an idea.

    GymBro was doomed from the start. We never took the time to formulate how we wanted the business to run, how it would execute day to day, and most importantly how it would grow.

    We didn’t need a 30 page business plan, we simply needed a plan.

    Build a Foundation

    Without a foundation (technical, organizational, legal, etc.) any idea, minimum viable product, or business is screwed. This was the second fatal flaw (of many) that we encountered at GymBro.

    We had no building blocks in place to support or grow our business.

    Technologically we had no advantage over our competitors. We barely even had a functioning website. We rushed through the process of building our online store and that hurt us in the long run.

    Organizationally we never assigned roles to one another. No one knew what there responsibility was. Frequently the three of us were unsure what we could be doing to help the company grow.

    The three of us thought we could sprint past the basics and end up at the finish line. Ultimately, the opposite happened – every time the business took one step forward we would end up moving two steps back.

    Without the proper foundation in place we were doomed from the start.

    Provide Real Value

    It is surprisingly easy to get people to give you money. It is surprisingly difficult to get them to do it again.

    GymBro aimed to generate monthly, recurring revenue from customers.

    This never happened.

    Customers did not want their supplements delivered to them on a monthly schedule. Some preferred bi-monthly, tri-monthly, or even quarterly. At GymBro we had no way to letting customers choose their subscription frequency.

    Instead, we provided the one option that we could program into our website – a monthly subscription. After half a year of stagnant business we all realized that we were doing something wrong.

    We were not providing the customer with what they wanted. We were not giving them any real value.

    We could convince people to order from us once, but after that they were gone. We did not give them a reason to come back – we did not provide more value then our competitors.

    In order to retain customers you need to provide extreme value.

    Peter Thiel writes about this in detail in Zero to One.

    Act on Feedback

    At GymBro users frequently communicated to us the importance of quick shipping. We listened, sort of.

    In retrospect, we were extremely fortunate to have such vocal and open customers. We had an amazing opportunity to learn exactly what our customers wanted. Sadly we did not execute on this.

    We listened when customers talked. We took a genuine interest in hearing what they had to say. Ultimately though, we did not act upon the information they provided.

    When the people who give you money give you feedback you should do something. I wish we had put more time, money and effort into taking action on our customers feedback.

    Making progress is difficult. You are only shooting yourself in the foot if you do not listen to the people who generate your revenue.

    More on GymBro

    Even though we went out of business we still had fun doing it! Here is more information about GymBro, including our application to a startup accelerator in Pittsburgh, a progress report, and a newspaper article.

  • GymNear – AngularJS Project Update

    Two months ago I posted about an AngularJS side project that I had planned to begin working on. Over the past 8 weeks I have broken ground and launched an initial 1.0 app. I have gained an understanding of AngularJS, built a website that I am proud of, and had fun along the way.

    GymNear.com is a simple to use and effective app that helps users find a gym or fitness center near them. Users enter in a location and the app responds back with a list of gyms nearby.

    In my original post I wrote about how difficult it was to find a gym when google searching. I went as far as to say, “Scouring Google search results for ‘gyms near Reston, VA’ always proves a waste of time.”.

    Which is ironic, because I am now entirely relying on the Google Places API to serve content.

    I ditched the idea of scraping the internet to create my own database of gyms and fitness centers. Instead I went with Google’s API. Google has a fantastic database with more information then I would have ever been able to successfully pull together. The issue Google faces is when it comes to displaying that information to the end user.

    A google search of “Gyms near Reston, VA” will still be a waste of time. Intermixed with the good results are advertisements and unrelated content. With GymNear.com the user is presented with 20 of the closest gyms, that is it.

    Essentially, all I have done is made a simplified Google. It works, it is easy to use, and it provides immediate value, I am really happy with where it stands.

    Design

    I decided on a minimalist design for GymNear. When looking at competitors I thought there was a great opportunity to differentiate GymNear with clean, simple design.

    Other websites that offer the same functionality look like they are from 2002…

    With GymNear I knew I wanted something that looked both modern and simple.

    Functionality

    In the spirit of not having to make the user think (thank you Steve Krug), I have limited GymNear’s functionality. The only thing a user can do on the site is enter a location and click on a link.

    Initially I wanted to include reviews, ratings, directions and any other information that I could find when returning results. I decided against this, at least for now in an attempt to make GymNear as easy to use as possible.

    By providing bare-bones functionality the user gets exactly what they expect, while also leaving the window open for future features to be added.

    Tech

    Creating GymNear with Google’s API has allowed me to bypass nearly all “back-end” development. The entire application is built in Angular, and I have not yet set up a node server on the back-end.

    Currently GymNear works by sending an API call to the Google Maps Place Service with the user entered location. It returns an array of objects which I then display on the page. When a user clicks on more info I pass that specific gyms place_id to Google’s Place Details API which returns another object with a ton of relevant information.

    Essentially, what I have made is a website that makes a ton of requests to Google.

    I have yet to set up a Node server, but that is a top priority. GymNear serves an entire JavaScript page to the browser which makes conventional SEO impossible. Prerender allows for AJAX heavy websites to be crawled effectively by search engines. Prerender runs on Node, and I have no experience setting up either.

    In addition to configuring Prerender I am also planning on implementing UI Router. I would like to create 50 or so pages that serve content for specific locations. For example, gymnear.com/boston, or gymnear.com/atlanta. I think creating webpages like these would work well and help Gymnear rank higher for specific search terms.

    Hopefully between Prerender and Angular UI Router GymNear will be able to get picked up by search engines.

    Moving Forward

    Building version 1.0 of GymNear has been a blast. I will continue to post updates as more people use the application, and as new features and technical updates are made. If you are going to teach yourself a language or framework, this is the way to do it. Find a project and simply plug away.

  • 1 Tool to Increase Your Productivity

    3 weeks ago a co-worker of mine introduced me to Trello. When he told me about the online software I thought it was called Jello. I was massively disappointed when I realized that it was not named Jello.

    After showing me the software I saw how powerful it could be. With our collective endorsement our company slowly but surely adopted Trello at work.

    I have been using Trello in the weeks that have past. It has been instrumental in helping me be more organized, focused, and productive. (I have no affiliation with Trello, and their software is free to use.)

    What is Trello?

    The Trello help website sums it up best.

    Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in a process.

    The interesting and captivating aspect of Trello is how simple it is. You use the software and create “boards”. With each board you make “lists”, and within each list you make cards. Inside of a card you can write notes, create checklists, and upload files. Trello is fundamentally simple. There are no confusing features – it is refreshingly easy to use.

    What makes Trello powerful is how you can customize it for any situation. Currently I use Trello at work in a small team setting. I use it at home as a personal organization tool. And I use it with others outside of work to collaborate on ideas. Trello is extremely versatile.

    Trello at work

    When working in small teams communication is priority number one. Number two on that list is organization. Trello serves as a platform where both can interact seamlessly.

    Before Trello our workflow from account managers to developers was complex. It involved dozens of emails back and forth, searching for scattered files across Google Drive and DropBox, and occasionally having to sit down one on one to address confusion.

    With Trello we now have everything organized on a single board.

    Developers have lists with their name on it. Account managers place cards on these specific lists. Within each card is a file with a project brief. There is also a checklist for what needs to be completed, and a due date assigned for when it must be finished. Upon completion developers place their cards in a review list. Account managers then move that card to a final done list.

    Although it may sound like a more convoluted system it is actually much simpler and easier to work with.

    Another benefit comes from writing notes within cards. Many times I have been asked if I completed client work and could not remember. I would then look back through emails and saved files simply to determine if something I thought I had completed had actually been done.

    Writing notes within a card creates a documented trail of what has been completed.

    Trello for personal use

    Trello extends beyond work. At home I use Trello to stay on top of my personal tasks.

    I have a Trello board called “weekend to-do list”. Throughout the work week I write down what tasks I want to accomplish over the weekend. When and idea pops into my head on Tuesday it get’s put on this board.

    Before Trello I would wake up on Saturday morning and spend an hour writing down a list of tasks I wanted to do. Or, more frequently, I would wake up and create no list.

    Although my weekends were more spontaneous a month ago, they have been much more productive as of late. I have found myself more focused, attentive, and dedicated. I follow through on my “weekend to-do list” , and accomplish more than before.

    Trello also serves as a platform where I can share ideas with my friends and family.

    I have created boards for different business ideas. On each board I add a friend or family member who might be interested in collaborating. My Trello board shows them what I have been working on, and also lets them contribute easily.

    Trello has replaced and improved upon my previous attempts to be organized. It is the one tool I would recommend to individuals and teams that want to organize anything and everything.

  • Should I go to College?

    At the end of this post there is a poll. It asks, “Should I go to college?” If you have a moment, please answer either yes or no. Thank you.

    This August will be the first August that I am not going to school. At 20 years old I have never lived through a fall semester without going to mandatory classes of some sort.

    I am an outlier. Nearly all of my peers are enrolled in either a two or four year university. Most everyone I know is ecstatic about returning to campus in the coming weeks.

    Working full-time, commuting, and taking on more responsibility has made me feel older, wiser, and more experienced.

    But, at what cost?

    8 months have gone by since my decision to leave the University of Pittsburgh. I think now is a good time to reassess my situation and determine if I should plan a return back to school in the near future.

    About me

    I am going to tell you a little about myself and where I am currently at in my life. I am going to tell you where I want to go, where I want to be, and who I want to become. Please let me know if going to college would be beneficial on this journey.

    Demographics

    • I am 20 years old.
    • I am a white man.
    • I have completed some college with no degree.
    • I am single.
    • I am employed.

    Academics

    • I scored a 1900 on my Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
    • I achieved a high school GPA of 3.6.
    • I enrolled in 10 Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
    • I was accepted to DePaul University, NorthEastern University, Drexel University, and the University of Pittsburgh. I did not get accepted to Villanova University.
    • I attended the University of Pittsburgh and had a GPA of 3.1.
    • I have 51 college credits.

    Entrepreneurship

    Present

    Currently I work at a start-up company outside of Washington, D.C. My business card says, “web developer” on it. I write a lot of code, I learn a lot of best practices, and I dabble in design.

    The CEO has a passion for teaching others. He mentors me. I have had one on one conversations with him about start-up financing, how to hire the right people, and how to build process. He has a passion for educating, and I am always a welcome audience. I am learning a lot from him.

    The lead web developer has taught me how to be a professional. He has helped me learn to “slow down”, be more organized, and think more.

    I work in an open office. I learn a lot from everyone – account managers, sales people, everyone.

    Future

    I recently did an in depth goal setting session. I have outlined goals for the next three years of my life. Those goals align with who I want to be, where I want to be, and what I want to be doing in the future.

    In the future I want to be in business. (In the present I want to be in business.) In the future I want to collaborate with others. I want to continue learning new things. I want to be fundamental in building something that is useful, effective, and provides value.

    I know I am passionate for a lot of things. I want a shallow knowledge of a breadth of topics, with a deeper knowledge in only a few.

    With this information in mind, should I go to college?

  • YC Fellowship Application – Future Employee Benefits

    Y Combinator announced the YC fellowship program earlier this week.

    YC Fellows will receive a $12,000 grant and advice from the YC community for 8 weeks (from mid-September to mid-November) to go from an idea to a startup. Fellows need an idea or a prototype and the ability to work on this full-time for 8 weeks.

    If you are unfamiliar, Y Combinator is a seed investment firm targeting startup companies. The combined market capitalization of all the firms YC has invested in is over $30B.

    I have replicated the YC fellowship application questions here on my blog. (Keep in mind there are 120 word limits on every question.) Below are my answers where I outline a company called Assure.

    What is your company going to make?

    This company provides benefits to employees of the sharing economy.

    Independent contractors miss out of the benefits that come with full-time employment. Assure changes this.

    Assure bridges the gap between full-time employee and independent contractor. Assure provides retirement contributions, medical insurance, and general liability insurance to members of the sharing economy.

    In two sentences, say the most impressive thing about this team / startup.

    I want to do something important. I want to create something of value.

    Please tell us in one or two sentences about the most impressive thing that each founder has built or achieved.

    I dropped out of college when my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. A month later I was hired full-time as a web developer with skills I taught myself.

    Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you’re making?

    A lot of my peers are oblivious to the benefits that come from being a full-time employee. (Something I have learned only recently after being hired full-time). Retirement contributions (401k), medical/dental insurance, and general liability insurance are the three areas I have a touch of experience in.

    The sharing economy is expanding. A large number of jobs are tied to this industry. That number will continue rising.

    Assure provides the safety and security employees need to maintain the growth of the peer to peer sector.

    What’s new about what you’re making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn’t exist yet (or they don’t know about it)?

    Providing benefits to employees who are independent contractors is not new.

    Currently a contractor at Uber has scattered benefits. They have an IRA for retirement savings. Then, general liability insurance to protect their interests while working. And finally medical and dental insurance from their parents.

    Assure brings these three interests together. Contractors wish to legitimize their employment. They will turn to Assure when they want their retirement contributions matched. When they want more protective liability insurance. Or when they turn 27 and no longer qualify for their parents medical coverage.

    Who are your competitors, and what do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don’t get?

    Companies that hire full-time employees are competitors. As are insurance companies that cover individuals.

    Companies that hire full-time employees limit potential customers. While Insurance companies provide similar coverage to what we offer.

    Our competitors are too slow to adapt to the sharing economy. Assure is agile enough to adapt as the peer to peer employment market grows.

    How will you get users? How do or will you make money? How does this become a giant company?

    Assure must educate people to turn them into users. Assure must provide information that allows millennials to see the value of working in a sharing economy while also receiving traditional full-time benefits. There is a knowledge gap.

    Assure collects monthly premiums from members. Premiums are aggregated and invested. Profit is made from investment income, not premiums.

    Assure is a component of the sharing economy. Employment opportunities are changing. Workers in this new economy will want benefits, Assure makes sure that happens.

    Applications for the YC Fellowship are due by Monday, July 27th, two days from the time this post was published.

    If you have feedback, please share it. I would appreciate hearing it before I press the submit button on Monday!

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  • My 3 Year Personal Growth Strategy

    Last week I outlined a strategy for writing down goals. This week I am sharing my 3 year, 1 year, and 90 day goals, as well as my strategic road-map to get there.

    If you have never written down your goals before you should.

    A mentor of mine reached out after reading last week’s post and reaffirmed the importance of goal setting.

    If you are serious about achieving your objectives it is imperative that you take the time to write out a plan.

    3 Year Goals

    1. I oversee operations of the technical department at my current employer. I manage, teach, and help new employees get on-boarded and integrated in our processes.
    2. I maintain an open source web application with an active and happy user base. I create a platform where others can make an impact on the web.
    3. I own a duplex. I live in one of the apartments, I rent out the other for supplemental income.
    4. I teach a course at General Assembly and participate in local MeetUp’s on the weekends. I am active in my field and help others learn skills that I have mastered.

    1 Year Goals

    1. I work directly with the marketing department to create an industry benchmark report. I have a good knowledge of data analysis software such as Pentaho, Mondrian, Saiku, and Hadoop. I help teach other employees how to use these software.
    2. I receive positive feedback and initial traction for my online web application. The start of a community is evident and others have begun contributing to the project I started.
    3. I live at home, and I save my money. I invest passively through an IRA account and maintain a long-term time horizon. I have a credit card and have started building a credit reputation.
    4. I participate in a local MeetUp, and have connections with a few of the organizers. I have built a small network of resources that I can interact with.

    90 Day Goals

    1. I improve process for our production department. I contribute with other developers to create protocols and guidelines for code development, testing, and deployment. I have written the first draft of what will become a guidebook for new employees.
    2. I have written a business plan. I have mapped out what I would like to build, how I would like it to grow, and who I want to be involved. I calculate every step I need to take to create a successful web application.
    3. I transfer funds that I am currently actively managing into a more passive account. I have my direct deposit automatically contribute to my long-term investment account.
    4. I help teach interested friends and family how to write code. I work with a few people on the weekends to teach them the basics of front-end development.

    The Goals

    The list above is the result of visualizing where I want to be 3 years from now, 1 year from now, and 90 days from now. Each goal from the 3 year section correlates with a goal in the 1 year section, and each 1 year goal correlates with a 90 day goal. The overarching goals could be labeled as;

    1. Career advancement
    2. Open source application
    3. Real estate
    4. Teaching.

    After this visualization process I wrote out why I wanted to achieve these four goals, and how I would know when I have achieved them.

    Career Advancement

    I want more responsibility, I want to learn by doing. This goal is intended to help me learn the in’s and out’s of managing others and hiring new employees. I want to take this experience and use it to help me when I start my own company. I want to advance my career over the next 3 years in an attempt to learn as much as I can before launching my own venture.

    This goal will be fairly obvious to realize. As the company I currently work at grows, members from the initial team will take on more responsibility. I want to be a  part of this expansion. I will accumulate a wealth of knowledge, and actively share it.

    Open Source Application

    I want to create something that others find valuable. By creating an open source project I will be giving other people an opportunity to join a community of like-minded individuals. By engaging with people who have similar interests I will grow my network and build my personal brand.

    This goal will be realized the day that other members of the community maintain the project. The moment where I am no longer the individual tasked with maintaining the application will be the day that I know users are happy and engaged. I want to spur the creation of something that others find immense value in.

    Real Estate

    I want to save my money. I want to retire when I am young. Buying real estate is a strategic investment for the future. I intend to live in the first property I buy, and with the purchase of a duplex I will have an opportunity to diversify revenue streams. I will also learn rather quickly how interested I am in becoming a landlord.

    This is another goal that will be obvious to know when I have achieved. The day that I sign my mortgage and have a set of keys in my hand will be the day that this goal is realized.

    Teaching

    I get great personal satisfaction from helping others. Teaching a topic or skill requires mastery of the topic. By helping others I will be getting personal satisfaction as well as further mastery of topics I enjoy.

    I will have met this goal when someone I have helped mentor has created or done something they are proud of. My teaching and mentor-ship will have played a role in their success.

    Steps to Take

    To achieve the above goals I will need to lay out distinct and actionable steps to take. This is the final aspect of a goal setting session, after completing this section you will have a road-map that you can begin to follow. If you struggle with creating these steps, remember that you can always add or subtract a step from your plan. This is a fluid document that you are creating.

    Career Advancement

    Steps required for achievement Deadline for each step
    Master and innovate upon existing processes at work. 90 days
    Create and implement new processes that help improve productivity and reduce costs. 1 year
    Further gain the respect and trust of my peers and coworkers. 1 year

    Open Source Application

    Steps required for achievement Deadline for each step
    Conduct market research and narrow down the possible application ideas. 90 days
    Search for others who are working on similar projects or who share a similar vision. 1 year
    Reach out to my network and actively share what I have been working on. 1 year

    Real Estate

    Steps required for achievement Deadline for each step
    Don’t wastefully spend money. Immediately
    Save and invest my money passively. Immediately

    Teaching

    Steps required for achievement Deadline for each step
    Meet up with peers that share similar interests in programming and development. 90 days
    Learn and be aware of the foundations of Computer Science 1 year
    Master HTML and CSS, the dive deeper into JavaScript, and JavaScript framework. 2 years

    What Happens Next?

    Obviously I have a lot of work to do.

    I have already gotten started on a few of the objectives I laid out above. Now, and over the course of the next 90 days is the time to buckle down and hit some of my milestones.

    Please feel free to mimic the content above. This strategy has helped me immensely, and I hope you can use what I have written as a model to create your own plan.

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  • Thinking About Goals Isn’t Enough

    In ten days I will turn 20 years old. And, as with every birthday, I will reflect on the year past.

    On my birthday I set aside time to think of goals that I would like to carry out over the next 365 days. In the past, these objectives have ranged from personal to professional, entrepreneurial to academic.

    This year, unlike the 19 preceding ones, I intend to write down my goals. As I have recently learned from a mentor, writing down your goals is a difficult but necessary step towards achieving them. Thinking about something you want to do is easy and pleasurable. Writing it down, although more difficult, makes that thought more concrete and feasible.

    How to write goals

    Fortunately for you and I, many smart men and women have figured out a fairly straightforward formula for goal setting. I’ll be sharing the techniques that I have recently been taught, but keep in mind there are plenty of other good resources for goal setting (I’ve listed some at the end of this post). The most important thing is that you go a step beyond thinking about your goals and take the time to write them down.

    Here is the 5 step process I have adopted and use for my personal goal setting.

    1. Visualize your life 3 years from now, 1 year from now, 90 days from now. Write a short paragraph about where you are, what you are doing, what a typical day in your life is like. Describe what you see and feel.
    2. Take your 3 year visualization, 1 year visualization, and 90 day visualization to build goals. Write an affirmative, present tense, quantifiable, and specific sentence (or two) that correlates with the short paragraph you have already written. Start with your 3 year goals, then 1 year and 90 days. A 3 year goal should build on a 1 year goal which should then relate to a 90 day goal. Write down 3-6 objectives for each time frame.
    3. Write down why you want to achieve the goals you have outlined above. Do this for every 90 day goal, 1 year goal, and 3 year goal. What benefit will be achieved?
    4. In a few brief sentences describe what achievement will look like. How will you know you have hit your goal? Again, do this for every time period.
    5. Create a list of steps required to meet your goal. What is the deadline for each step? Do this for every 90 day goal, 1 year goal and 3 year goal.

    You will now have an outline for how you can achieve your goals.

    Writing down these goals, and the steps that you plan to take to meet them is surprisingly challenging. Yet, it is by writing your goals down that the next step, actually implementing them into your life is made easier.

    By planing and attaching deadlines to specific actions you will find yourself more dedicated and focused while being less stressed and worried. Going beyond thinking about goals is not easy, yet the long-term reward is well worth the struggle.

    Goal setting resources

    Groove blog

    UC Berkeley – goal setting

    NPR – writing down goals

    Michael Hyatt – goal setting

    Ted Talks – goal setting

    SMART goals

  • Reading List for Young Entrepreneurs

    Next week I am going on a short vacation. Which, after six months of working full-time, has allowed me to understand why adults have always loved taking time off at the beach.

    The beach is a place where you can lay out, read a book, and do nothing. You can simply relax. Now more than ever have I looked forward to this prospect.

    Relaxing and taking time away from work presents the perfect opportunity to focus on personal development. For a few days you can forget about the client project you need to build and solely concentrate on yourself. For me, this means reading.

    Books are great (I would have never said this while I was still in college). Taking a few down to the beach while on vacation is a must, and for the past week I have been researching, reading reviews, and deliberating on what books I would purchase and take with me this year. Finally I came up with a list – the theme, entrepreneurship.

    Zero to One – Peter Thiel

    During my research I found a variety of different reading lists. On every list that was geared towards start-ups, entrepreneurship, or business Thiel’s Zero to One was on it.

    After researching further, this book seemed like a must read. A paragraph from the websites about page sealed the deal;

    The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Copying others takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace; they will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

    How Breakthroughs Happen – Andrew Hargadon

    Hargadon is a graduate professor of technology management at University of California, Davis. Reading his How Breakthroughs Happen will serve as a substitute for no longer attending college classes. A short summary of his publication convinced me to purchase the book;

    How Breakthroughs Happen takes us beyond the simple recognition that revolutionary innovations do not result from flashes of brilliance by lone inventors or organizations. In fact, innovation is really about creatively recombining ideas, people, and objects from past technologies in ways that spark new technological revolutions.

    The American Challenge – Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber

    Published in 1967, The American Challenge is by far the oldest book on my summer reading list. I came across it while reading an article on Peter Thiel’s book recommendations. Thiel said of the book, “[it] got a lot things right, but certainly there were things that didn’t quite happen, and you always have to ask yourselves why they didn’t. This whole category of past books about the future is a very interesting one, and that is one that I always recommend very strongly.”

    Hooked – Nir Eyal

    I came across Nir Eyal’s Hooked while researching books related to product development. Eyal is a successful business man who presents the “hook model” of engagement. A short summary of the book says;

    Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.

    Resources

    There are plenty of places online to find other reading suggestions. Here are a few tools I used to help create this reading list for young entrepreneurs.