The Creative Connector - Ideas in Business, Marketing and Entrepreneurship » Startups

Yapta Helps Track Fare Changes on Your Already Booked Airline Tickets

David Isserman — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:06:07 +0000

Yapta is an innovative new site that helps you track fare changes in your airline tickets. If the price of your ticket falls, Yapta, for a small fee, will try to get you a refund or credit for the difference.

RareShare Gets Crunched

David Isserman — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 21:54:21 +0000

What an exciting holiday gift — a nice write-up about RareShare on TechCrunch. Feel free to check it out here.

Xtreme Products Launches Line of Electric Eco-Vehicles

David Isserman — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:57:23 +0000

Congratulations to friend and longtime client, Neil Roth, for the launch of Xtreme Green Products, a new line of 100% electric eco-vehicles. The line currently includes jetboards, police mobility vehicles and 2-person electric motor scooters. What an innovative concept and important contribution to sustainability.

You can check out the complete product line at XtremeGreenProducts.com.

Be Good and Become Great

David Isserman — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:00:31 +0000

Here is a must-read essay by entrepreneur, Paul Graham, which explores the principle that, as a startup, if you make something people want before you worry about making money, you will have a much better end-product and a greater chance of succeeding. He relates this concept to that of a charity organization, but goes on to differentiate the two. He uses Craigslist and Google as examples.

http://paulgraham.com/good.html

RareShare Goes Live as Social Network for Rare Medical Disorders

David Isserman — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:00:00 +0000

After months of working on our early beta, I’m pleased to let you know that RareShare is now LIVE!

The Site is free to all and works to connect those affected by rare medical disorders by creating micro-communities for each specific disease.

Currently, there are just over 500 communities (the most common of the rare disorders). We’re planning to add many more over the next several months…

SocialThing! Helps You Organize Your Digital Life

David Isserman — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:00:12 +0000

Congratulations to my friends over at SocialThing! I remember meeting the founder when they first arrived out here in Boulder (from my hometown of St. Louis). Since then they’ve managed to raise over $500k in venture capital and create one of the best aggregators for social feeds (FaceBook, Flickr, etc.) on the Web.

Selecting a Name for Your Company

David Isserman — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:00:51 +0000

Selecting a name for your startup can be one of the most challenging and one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make as an entrepreneur. Here are some tips to help you when selecting a name:

Be creative – the more unique your name, the more it stands out and is remembered
Check the availability of your domain – Use GoDaddy or another domain registrar to check if the name is available before making a final decision
Host a party — When renaming a company, host a naming party with partners and employees after hours to help brainstorm ideas
Seek the opinion of others – ask your friends, customers, and vendors what they think about the name
Visit the USPTO to perform a trademark search to see whether your name has already been trademarked

Saving Money While Running Your Startup

David Isserman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:00:54 +0000

Web entrepreneur, Jason Calacanis, published a great post titled “How to save money running a startup”. The post shares 17 great tips for saving $$$ during your startup phase and is a must read for any entrepreneur. My favorite tip is to “buy cheap tables and expensive chairs”. In my last company, The Selling Block, we did just that and saved thousands of dollars. Be sure not to cut corners on the chairs. That’s the only thing keeping you sitting comfortably at your desk all day long.

Raising Capital for Your Social Enterprise

David Isserman — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:00:45 +0000

Do you have an idea for a business that’s going to save the planet? Well now there’s good news if you need capital to fund that idea.

Several venture capital firms have popped up over the last few years that are dedicated specifically to helping fund socially-minded entrepreneurs. These firms not only invest in high-tech ventures, but are also willing to consider unusual business models, such companies that have nonprofit arms.

A primary difference between traditional venture capitalists and social venture capitalists is that social VCs are willing to accept lower initial returns (about 15% per year verse 30%) and wait longer for exits (7-8 years verse 5-7 years).

Here’s a list of VC firms that specifically fund social enterprises

Underdog Ventures
Island Pond, Vermont
http://www.underdogventures.com

Root Capital
Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://www.rootcapital.org/

ShoreBank Pacific
Ilwaco, Washington
http://eco-bank.com/

TBL Capital
Sausalito, California
http://www.tblcapital.com/

Good Capital
San Francisco, California
http://www.goodcap.net

NotchUp Teaches Us The Power of the Web

David Isserman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:04:05 +0000

NotchUp, an internet startup that helps companies recruit top-tier employees told a great story about its beta launch during its DEMO ’08 presentation. On January 21st, the Company invited 250 people to join a private password protected beta. One of those people then invited 100 of their friends and one of those people then invited 300 of their friends. For the demo today (8 days later), the Company told us that they now have over 50,000 users (and that they had to find a new dedicated host). Now that’s the power of the Web….