February 26, 2007

Dan Shapiro from Ontela on startups: You need a place and you need time

Category: Entrepreneur — by Amit D. Chaudhary @ 9:51 pm

Ignite Seattle Dec 2006 featured a mini talk (maybe 3 minutes) by Dan Shapiro from Ontela called Founding and Fundraising and had some practical advice for Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneur.

The meat of it:

    • The what (idea) is not important, the who and how is important

      Find some smart people, get people who complement you, not are clones of you.

        • To create a startup, you need a place and you need time

          So, first go find a place where you can meet, discuss try out things. And create the time to make things happen. Time for the serious things is not really weekends and evening hours.

            • Find a way to make do without salary for 12 months, atleast 6 months and get together maybe U$50,000 together

                This would get you ahead of initial prototype and to Angel\VC funding and salaries.

                  • Raising money is takes a lot of time and effort

                    Dan spends more than 50% of his time raising money and creating contacts.

                    Here is the video of the talk