VCWear.com, which started as a joke by Andrew Hyde (StartupWeekend.com) and Matt Emmi (OneButtonLife.com), sells thought inspiring t-shirts poking fun at the venture capital industry and tech-entrepreneurs. New t-shirts can be “funded” for $500, which gives you:

• Your shirt “made” and will be available for sale to everyone at $25
• 40% of all future revenue from your shirt ($10/shirt)
• Your name/company info and “message to the world” on the shirt page
• The shirt you chose to fund
• Bonus “iFunded this shirt (over your startup)” shirt

Some of these are so clever, I may even decide to fund one! 

Dave Balter, one of the leading specialists on “Word-of-Mouth” marketing and the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, has published a free e-book (approx. 119 pages) on the how to successfully use word-of-mouth marketing to build buzz around a company, product or service. This is a great resource and best of all, thanks to Dave, it’s free!

Click here to download the book. (approx. 2.4MB pdf)

For those that require a hardback copy, click here to buy it online at Amazon.com.

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