Instigator Blog

When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. The Board probably existed beforehand, but was made up only of the founders. Once funding takes place, the angels or VCs will want a seat at the table. There’s no surprise there.

But there’s another kind of board that’s equally important. In some ways it’s more important (although it doesn’t have any control over the business), and that’s the Board of Advisors.

What many first-time CEOs might not realize is that they may need to setup an Advisory Board as a condition of receiving financing. Venture capital firms like to see CEOs with strong support (beyond the Board of Directors) and that’s what the Advisory Board is there to do. It’s unlikely you’ll have an Advisory Board before you get funded, but it will very likely come up after.

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Launching a startup isn’t easy. But what you quickly realize is that the real work comes immediately thereafter.

Our launch of Standout Jobs at DEMO was a big success. We generated plenty of buzz, brought in some great customers and the product held up to the initial onslaught of traffic, users and feedback. And for about 1 day I felt like everything was under control. Oops…

The honeymoon ended pretty darn quickly.

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First-time startup CEOs don’t have it easy. Regardless of how much previous experience they might have - whether it’s in business or from school - thrusting yourself into the role of startup CEO is like tossing freezing cold water in your face every day. Jason Goldberg recently left as CEO of Jobster and he reflected on his experience in 12 Learnings From My First Turn As Startup CEO.

What’s certain is that Jason (and any other first-time startup CEO) walks away with a ton of lessons learned. Most of which are hard earned, regardless of whether the startup is a success or not.

Looking at Jason’s points, I wanted to add my own thoughts…

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When does the life of a startup really begin? Is it at the moment when you first have the spark of an idea? Is it when the company is incorporated? When you hire your first employee? Raise your first angel financing?

How about 2 weeks before you’re set to launch?

Recently, I announced that my startup, Standout Jobs, is launching at the end of the month at DEMO 08. If you’re not familiar with DEMO it’s a very highly regarded, well organized event around product launches. Many of the companies presenting are startups, but not all of them. About 70 companies are invited to attend and spend 3 days promoting their products and businesses. The most challenging part of the entire event (according to most people) is the 6-minute demo presentation you give on stage. As Seinfeld once said, “People are more afraid of public speaking than dying.”

DEMO runs from January 28th to January 30th. It’s near Palm Springs, California … so I’ll be getting out of the miserable weather and heading for some decent sun.

And so, with just over 2 weeks to go, we’re sprinting to start up. And this isn’t just a one pony race either, we have to sprint on multiple tracks, simultaneously.

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Buzz alone won’t guarantee startup success, but it certainly can’t hurt.

In the glorious Web 2.0 startup world that many of us live in there’s a lot of noise. To stand out from the noise, startups need to do more to draw attention. Some startups are great at this. The folks at Xobni for example. They blog, use video, and spend a good amount of time promoting themselves. And much of that was done pre-launch.

Most startups don’t really have a comprehensive strategy for generating buzz and marketing. To a degree, this is understandable — they’re focused on building the product. And the strategy of “build a product people want to talk about” still holds plenty of water. Build something people really love and that might be all the marketing you need.

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