StartupNation Blogs

To follow up on a previous post requesting feedback on topics and offering to highlight members of the community, I learned of Outspoken Media, Inc.—an internet marketing startup that was founded in January by three women who wanted more for their clients. Partner Rae Hoffman just finished 20th in the recent Startup Mom competition, an [...]

When you consider your business model (which includes your marketing efforts), you generally concentrate on these core components:

Why will people pay you? (money, votes, donations)
What does it cost you to sell your item…margins?
What protects you from competition, price-feature battles?
How will you turn an agnostic audience into loyal customers?

Early on when transactions had no costs, doing [...]

Recently, I was contacted by a PR firm (Attention) and asked if I would profile Blake Mycoskie on my blog(s). I’m ashamed to say how long it’s taken me to turn this piece around, however seeing the latest ATT commercial featuring Blake after a long day of meetings (at my day job) shamed me into finishing. My [...]

Obviously John Wooden is not on my advisory board, but he is in my Pantheon-of-Wonderful-People.
Quote to consider
No written word, no spoken plea Can teach our youth what they should be; Nor all the books on all the shelves It’s what the teachers are themselves. Given to John Wooden by his Father upon Graduation And now [...]

This example is why newspapers and TV must reinvent themselves, or die.
Obama is Lincoln v2.0
Taking a page out of Lincoln’s Handbook on How To Be A Good President, Obama is everywhere in the community: at dinner, on The Tonight Show, at the soup kitchens, in meetings, on The Hill. He’s like the “Where’s Waldo?” of Presidents. He’s [...]

This has become my new mantra and quite honestly, I wish I would have seen the light a little earlier.  However, as a small business owner swamped with trying to make sales, market the business, oversee the day-to-day operations, and oh yeah- create the product, I just never saw where “having lunch” had a worthy [...]

Entrepreneurs are different, that’s a common theme on Startup Nation.
We work differently. We think differently. And, by the looks of my Startup Nation profile pic, we dress and wear our hair differently. But, maybe that’s just me.
A case in point: I went shopping with my friends. They’re your average corporate hard-charging, salary-seeking, bonus-pimping 40-hour-a-weekers.
Now, as we [...]

When I first started social venture labs, I drew inspiration from companies who were classic examples of triple bottom line organizations like Burt’s Bees and Life Is Good. The owners of these kinds of companies went from living out of their cars or without running water, to earning over several hundred million while including communities [...]

I just attended an event where Edie Hilliard gave a short talk on her experience in the radio industry. We all want to be “on the list.” It almost doesn’t matter which one—it could be anything from a VIP list for an event to an approved vendor or being the go-to guy. A certain amount [...]

I remember very clearly my first trip to the principal’s office.   I was in the second grade and in trouble for “stealing other kid’s lunch money”.   As much as it sounds like the calling card of a bully, I can assure you it was nothing like that.   It was the early 80’s and jelly bracelets [...]