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If Your Target Market Doesn’t Bite, Fish Somewhere Else

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By Elizabeth Saunders (Founder & CEO, Real Life E) The Challenge: As a woman business owner myself and a confidante to many others, I knew that many women business owners felt stressed out and overwhelmed. Given this knowledge, I initially targeted the marketing of Schedule Makeover(TM) time coaching and training toward female entrepreneurs. Many women wanted to know about the services -— and even cried about how stressed out they felt —- but they rarely were willing to invest in themselves.

The Solution: Appearances on major blogs like Lifehacker and I Will Teach You To Be Rich put my name in front of people

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5 Things Every Startup CEO Needs to Know

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By Erica Zidel (Founder & CEO, SittingAround) Last week, I had the honor and privilege of being recognized by the White House in their Champions of Change series for the work I am doing to promote babysitting cooperatives and make it easier for families to find high-quality childcare.

I spent the day in DC touring the White House, meeting with other young CEOs, and being interviewed on camera for the White House blog. (Pro tip: if ever you’re invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, do not make that the day you decide to break-in your too-small, non-breathable patent leather heels. Take it from the woman who lacked this foresight.)

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More Than Just Speed Dating for Co-Founders: Startup Monthly

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By Vadim Slavin (Program Content Manager, Startup Monthly) Working with your co-founder is often likened to marriage. You are bound to spend so much time together on your new startup that it's no wonder the metaphor comes to mind. You are rearing your baby (idea) and often worry about your budget (budget). The parallel goes on and on.

If so much depends on finding a good partner, how do you choose one? Well, one way is to go on many dates and test the waters, get to know people, try to imagine what it would be like working together. Well, easier said than done.

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Getting Early Adopters, Acquiring Customers and Monetizing

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By Poornima Vijayashanker (Founder & CEO, BizeeBee) I’ve gotten some requests recently to write a post on how we’ve gotten early adopters at BizeeBee and how we got them at Mint. I hate to burst everyone’s tech bubble but there is no secret for getting early adopters. I also want to address two concepts in this posts: getting early adopters vs. methods for customer acquisition.

The reason for the dichotomy is that an early adopter is essentially a product tester and evangelist. They will stick around forever and are highly critical to the success of your business because they promote your product, but to me they are not really customers.

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Date An Entrepreneur — The Female Edition

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By Heather Payne (Head of Sales and Marketing, Pinpoint Social) (Based on “Date an Entrepreneur” by Bridget Porowski and “Date a Girl Who Reads” by Rosemarie Urquico)

Date an entrepreneur. Date a girl who spends her money on iPads and web apps instead of trips to the mall. A girl who doesn’t mind being told that her idea isn’t going to catch on. One who’s kept a running list of things she’s wanted to change since she was a kid.

Find an entrepreneur. You’ll know that she is one because she will always have her smart phone out. She’s the one skimming TechCrunch and Women 2.0, the one who can’t stop

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Why Are Women Business Owners So Reluctant to Raise Their Debt Ceilings? (Raise The Roof)

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By Rieva Lesonsky (Contributing Writer, Small Business Trends) Just 41 percent of the women entrepreneurs surveyed plan to make capital investments in the next six months. Nor are they eager to take on new outside financing. Instead, PNC found, most women business owners are funding their businesses with credit cards and personal savings. Nearly 60 percent use a business credit card and 44 percent are using personal or family savings to finance business growth.

We all know it’s tough to get financing these days, but I think these statistics reflect ongoing issues among women business owners just as much as they reflect the state of

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Working Women Hot Topic This Week

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By Darah Hansen (Contributing Writer, Vancouver Sun) Catalyst has published a new study linking women's career success to on-the-job sponsorship by someone in a key position:

“Good sponsors can supercharge a woman’s career by providing her with access to essential networks, bringing her achievements to the attention of senior-level executives, and recommending her for key assignments,” Ilene H. Lang, President and CEO of Catalyst, said in a media release.

“Effective sponsors also provide career coaching and

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Learning to Be a Lean Startup: Interview with Elizabeth Yin of Recently Pivoted LaunchBit, an Ad Network for Email

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By Cass Phillipps (Executive Producer, Failcon) I had a chance to chat with Elizabeth Lin on the mistakes made in her first startup. She is now the CEO and Co-Founder of LaunchBit, an ad network for email. Learn more http://launchbit.com.

Cass Phillipps: Before LaunchBit, I’ve heard you founded and lost a fair amount of time and money on an unsuccessful startup. Can you give me a little bit of background on that?

Elizabeth Yin: I previously had a social shopping web application that my friend and I worked on for about 1.5+ years

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7 Reasons To Start A Company While In School

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By Swathy Prithivi (Head of Corporate Development, Sonim Technologies) Rockstar career trajectories aren’t about playing it safe. Luckily if you’re in school, starting a business might be the smartest risk-free career move you could make.

While in graduate school at Northwestern last year, I was a student by day and the co-founder of a social gift recommendation startup, Present Bee by night.

Drawing from my experiences, here are the top 7 reasons for starting a company while you’re still in school:

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Interview with a Plasma Physics Ph.D Dropout Turned Energy Entrepreneur: “Physics is Like a Bootcamp for Your Mind”

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By Danielle Fong (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, Lightsail Energy) One month ago, I was interviewed by Jane Affleck as a profile piece for my Alma Mater, Dalhousie University.

Interviewer: You “started” a PhD at Princeton… why did you stop? Was it boring? Did you feel driven to just do your own thing?

Danielle Fong: I was more temperamentally suited towards my own thing -– though that was only part of it. I entered a program in Plasma Physics to focus on fusion energy –- the process that powers the sun. I thought that with a few good ideas, we could

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BeCouply Presents at NewME Accelerator Demo Day

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By Becky Cruze (Co-Founder, BeCouply) As detailed in a previous post, my boyfriend Pius Uzamere and I co-founded a tech startup called BeCouply. BeCouply is the mobile app that helps couples have epic social lives by making it easy to discover new date ideas, capture special moments and connect with other couples.

Pius and I are part of the inaugural class of the NewME Accelerator, the first accelerator in Silicon Valley that is focused on minority-led startups. The nine-week program, which is based in Mountain View, CA with co-working space in San Francisco, is the subject of CNN’s Black in America 4 with Soledad O’Brien, which

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Business Models: The Forgotten Middle Children of Startup World

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By Andy Barkett (Engineering Manager, Facebook) I hear a lot of elevator pitches. The most common conclusion to the pitch is, “Well, what do you think of my idea?” Honestly, I love most of the ideas and yet hate most of the pitches. It’s hard to answer, because the question can mean three different things:

  1. What do you think of my cool product idea? -OR-
  2. What do you think of my idea for a new business model? -OR-
  3. How do you like my business plan?

What’s the difference between these questions?

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