The One Minute Entrepreneur

Daniel Tenner writes that the best solution for entrepreneurs is not always the one you know.

Every problem may look like a nail at first, but if you spend a minute thinking about it, and consider other possible types of solutions, you may realise that a screwdriver may be better suited. A good set of questions to ask yourself during that one minute is:

• Do I actually know what the problem is?
• Do I know the extent and impact of the problem?
• Who is the best person to fix this problem?
• Does this problem actually need to be fixed?

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Video: Startups as Guide for Life

In this video, serial Web-entrepreneur Patrick Hunt looks lessons learned as an entrepreneur that have can help us reach our human potential.

Video: Derek Sivers presents The Art of Profitability

Derek Sivers – Art of Profitability from Derek Sivers on Vimeo.

In this video, Derek Sivers presents: The Art of Profitability.

The book, The Art of Profitability by Adrian Slywotzky provides 25 different models of profitability presented in examples you can relate to your own business, making you realize profit-sources you’d never thought of before.

21 Fundraising Tips for AngelList

Active Angels Ty Danco and Dharmesh Shah have posted 21 funding tips for Startups looking to leverage AngelList:

AngelList may be a game-changer, but most of the same rules are still in place. Angels still look for the same elements in a startup as always: a strong team; meaningful milestones; a differentiated product in a big potential market; capital efficiency and so on. Therefore, the excellent advice listed in OnStartups, Venture Hacks, AVC, Ask the VC, Both Sides of the Table, and the like still applies. What for now is unique to AngelList is the speed and efficiency with which they can harness an all-star network of active investors in front of a breathtakingly large, qualified stream of startups.

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Video: Building Companies with a Purpose

In this video, Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal, discusses building companies with a purpose from an entrepreneur’s and investor’s perspective.

The Startup Law of Comparative Advantage

David Ricardo’s economic Law of Comparative Advantage says that two parties can both gain if, in the absence of trade, they have different relative costs for producing the same goods. VC Jeffrey Bussgang writes that too often, entrepreneurs ignore this law and spend their time on the wrong things:

Unfortunately, I see too many founders ignoring the entrepreneurial corollary to this law, the Start-Up Law of Comparative Advantage. I’m no David Ricardo, but it seems to me that if entrepreneurs followed this “law”, the gains to their start-ups would be akin to the gains attributed to free trade. Here’s why: founders are typically gifted, multi-talented, versatile professionals. As such, they get sucked into spending time doing things that they may be better at than the others in their organization on an absolute basis, but that, comparatively speaking, they are worse at in relation to the handful of things that they are uniquely suited for.

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5 Lessons Learned from a 5-Year Entrepreneur

Erik Wolf has posted his lessons learned after five years of being an entrepreneur:

“Sales” doesn’t work. Everyone hates the “buy me” salesperson — that guy or gal armed with a briefcase full of brochures, hurling business cards at every warm body they see as if they were throwing stars, pitching product to anyone who will listen. So why is is that at some point, just about every small business owner BECOMES that person? Obviously, we all need to sell stuff in order to feed our families, but I’ve found that my business is most profitable when I stop pushing to sell and try actively to help instead. Nobody cares what I’m selling them, nobody cares about the features of MY service the way I do and no one is going to read my brochure. My customers are business owners with needs, challenges and sometimes problems. Understanding those needs/challenges/problems and articulating solutions is how I have always managed to demonstrate value and win business.

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ExtremeTechChallenge Offers Grand Prize Time with Richard Branson

 
While there are all kinds of Startup contests out there, few can offer a prize as compelling as time with Billionaire Richard Branson. That’s the tempting prize being offered by the ExtremeTechChallenge.

The ExtremeTechChallenge aims to bring out the best entrepreneurs and provide them with cash, infrastructure and world-class mentorship to launch groundbreaking ideas. Whether you’re just starting to put your ideas to paper, or have customers already using your product, participating in this contest may end up changing your life.

 
Who should apply? “We are seeking applications from relatively young start-ups who have raised less than $1 million. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, and we do encourage all start-ups to apply.”

Submissions are due by August 31, 2014.