(Cary Betagole wrote in to tell us about early lessons learned building a startup with partner Jonathan Kriner)

My business partner Jonathan Kriner and I are newly minted startup entrepreneurs. We first embarked on our startup journey with a polished business plan in hand and fantasies of angel investments during the idea stage. Unsurprisingly, this way of thinking has been deemed unrealistic by established entrepreneurs, intellectual property lawyers, chief technology officers and accountants. So in the past few months, we’ve leaned down our approach, taken incremental steps toward making our idea a physical reality, and in the meantime, discovered ways to begin learning about our user’s needs right away.

First off, the notion that we would receive funding in the idea stage was not only unfeasible, but not in our best interest. Investors are more interested in putting their money behind a team they believe in than an ‘idea.’ The life of a startup presents endless chances to ‘pivot or persevere’, so while the idea is ever changing, the founding team is one of the few constants.

The question has become: how can we conjure up some sort of demo or physical representation of the idea, begin testing it on a user community, and demonstrate to investors that there’s value?

While we’re still in the process of assembling a team to construct a demo, we’ve been able to use wireframes, mock-ups and an animated video to make contact with our potential users and begin learning where our product’s value lies, and where we need to make changes.

At first, Jonathan and I decided the best option would be to use sites like Craigslist, Elance and oDesk to seek out a CTO as a cofounder. We received over 100 responses, including a few from well-qualified programmers. But none were very impressed with our compensation package—a share of the equity and the rights to the third bedroom in our house.

Though a stiff market has thus far precluded us from finding our tech cofounder, our online ads have put us in touch with over 100 potential users, from bands to graphic designers, A&R guys and booking agents to recording studios. And we’ve made the best of it.

Among those who reached out, we met up with an animator named Jay O’Meara (http://www.toomuchmetal.net/), who is creating the tutorial video on how to use the site. We’ve also met bands and industry professionals, who have helped us begin booking shows in our basement venue.

We have been able to use wireframes and mock-ups of the site—put together by our incredibly talented Creative Designer, Kelsey Jones (http://klcjones.com/)—to begin the process of validated learning, even before the release of our first official minimum viable product. By explaining the fundamental value proposition, and basic functionality, we’ve been able to maneuver our vision to fit the needs of our users.

Developing a minimum viable product means having the courage to test your assumptions now rather than later, and it means having the humility to listen to what your users want.

We came to realize through our meetings that musicians seem particularly interested in the market research elements of our site, and the way they allow bands to learn more about the identities and desires of their fans. In turn, we’ve begun developing additional market research metrics for our Alpha, in the hopes that we can split-test at least 13 or 14 to discover which are most useful.

Alex Markovitz, keyboard player and vocalist for a cool new band called The Day Life (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thedaylife/the-day-life-album), explained to us that the measure of his band is not how much music they sell, but how many true fans they have. His band seemed higher on playing house shows than formal venue shows, because they can gig more and have more personal contact with old and new fans alike. As a result, we’ve tailored our project-planning platform to gauge community support, in order to guarantee a better degree of certainty in an event’s eventual success.

Usability experts and tech entrepreneurs have stressed the importance of a slimmed down demo that tests initial assumptions, first and foremost, without the clutter of additional features.

We think the learning we do now will help make our cycles of validated learning even more productive once our demo makes it to the Beta test phase. Of course, we need that day to come sooner, rather than later.

In a startup, everyone has to sell something or the company dies! How do you sell if you are not a sales person? The answer, for the non-sales folks is as simple as selling their expertise to drive improvements, cost savings and efficiencies. Everyone has an opinion and they share that opinion however, are they doing that constructively or are they wasting their time? Here’s how to encourage and foster an environment where everyone sells. If you are interested in shifting the norm and turning your non-sales folks into sales junkies, who look for every opportunity to tell you how to make improvements, save money and thrive, then read on…

It’s your responsibility as a leader to hire the staff, set the standards and grow the business however; it’s easy to let people fall into their roles and out of the sell-to-survive mentality. This will help you reset the paradigm and turn everyone into entrepreneurs selling their ideas to you – everyone wins because they will find things you missed! Remember, you don’t know everything and the best leaders find innovative ways to get their teams to enthusiastically embrace improvement!

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(This guest post was written by Jennifer A. Klear, Esq., media and technology law attorney)

Great article in the WSJ today about problems start-ups face in selecting names. It discusses the potential for trademark infringement and how some companies have already lost thousands of dollars in disputes over the company name. Here’s a link http://online.wsj.com…

While the article discusses potential risks in choosing a company name it does not discuss how to avoid them. One easy way to avoid possible trademark infringement is by doing a search on the Internet for the name you propose using. If there is already a well-established company with that name, chances are it’s not worth using. On the other hand, if the company is not in your same geographic territory and provides a service or product far different from yours, it is worth exploring further. At this juncture, you may want to perform a trademark search on the US Patent and Trademark Office’s website and/or consider contacting a lawyer. A lawyer can help perform a deeper search of the potential trademark and assist you with trademark registration should you encounter any opposition, which may likely occur.

I’ve been having a good deal of conversations lately with students about the concept of the “entrepreneurship” major.  More specifically, whether or not I believe it truly prepares you for start-up life.  I posted my thoughts over on my personal blog.  Feel free to chime in.

Read the full post here.

(This guest post was written by Ryan Bukoski, start-up enthusiast)

Everyone knows the age old question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” A similar question could be asked regarding startups: “If a startup has an outstanding product, but no one has been made aware of its existence, is it really that great a product?” No matter how amazing your product offering may be, if you’re not taking the necessary steps to market it, then it will never see the light of day, and you’ll be nothing more than any other run-of-the-mill schlub with an idea. So network you must!

In today’s social media focused, locally-centric driven environment, it is simply unacceptable to not be networking with other like-minded individuals, both in your field and in your surrounding neighborhoods. People are talking, and it’s up to you to include yourself in the conversation. It gives you the ability to get your name and your company to be heard, and it allows you to incorporate your two cents, which you can use to steer the conversation towards piquing the interest of others to ascertain what you can bring to the table.

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…and if you really believe that, you’ve already fallen prey to the endless amount of horrid advice available everywhere in the world today for an entrepreneur.

Often when we have genius ideas, we are unsure of how to go about bringing them to fruition.  Part of your planning process will undoubtedly involve the (sometimes unsolicited) opinion of others who believe that they have something in the way of knowledge or resources to offer. Although it is true that reliable advice and guidance are key ingredients to long term success, it is also true that you must use your entrepreneurial savvy to know what to use- and what to leave on the table.

Here are a few ways you can up your chances of getting great feedback and superb guidance as you develop your ideas:

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(This guest post was written by Ryan Bukoski, start-up enthusiast)

Like many people I’m sure, I was brought up and taught the ideologies that nothing comes easy and if you want something badly enough, you’ve got to go out and get it yourself through a combination of a strong work ethic and an even stronger desire to achieve the goal you’ve set for yourself.  The benefits/results are two-fold; first is the feeling of self-accomplishment in knowing that you gave your all and were successful with your endeavor.  The second isn’t necessarily as cut and dry, and it’s the impression you leave with those around you.  In other words, if you bust your hump, whether you realize it or not, it won’t go unnoticed to those around you.

Fast forward to my first job, starting at the bottom of the totem pole for a start-up.  In an office of less than twenty people, I knew everyone and everyone knew me by the end of my first week, mostly from hand delivering their lunches to each of their desks.  This intimate setting was perfect; everyone knew the roles of one another, and more importantly, everyone held each other accountable for their workload, and if you screwed up, you were sure to hear about it.  Conversely, if you did your job correctly, efficiently, and most of all, exceptionally, you would seldom hear your name.  This seems like no big deal, but it’s something that C-level executives within earshot surely notice in a start-up office, however subtle it may come across over the span of weeks and months to everyone else.

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