article placeholder

Launch A Startup For The Price Of An iPad

Editor

By Elizabeth Yin (Co-Founder, LaunchBit) Lots of people ask us how expensive it is to launch a web business idea. That's obviously an impossible question to answer. But, getting your first customers to get some validation for your business idea -- now, that's not as far off as you may think. Getting there would probably cost you less than an iPad. So, skip the frenzied line at the Apple Store and buy yourself a web business instead.

This is how I would invest my saved $499 in a web business idea --

Talk With Potential Customers: In-Person, Via Skype, Or Phone

  • Recruit potential interviewees using Craigslist, Google/Yahoo Groups, Ning communities, Meetup.com, vertical-specific forums, alumni lists, malls/cafes where applicable. (Cost: FREE)
  • Vet interviewees using Google Forms, choose 3-5 different personas to interview for 15-30 min each. (Cost: FREE)
  • Pay interviewees $10-$20 for each completed interview. (Cost: ~$120)
  • Paper/scissors to analyze each interview to find patterns with Google Docs. (Cost: Free)

Find First Customers Through A Landing Page

  • Build a landing page without coding using Unbounce, Weebly, or Yola. (Cost: FREE to $25)
  • Buy a domain name for extra credibility. (Cost: $15)
  • Check landing page for clarity using FiveSecondTest to ensure clarity in messaging. (Cost: FREE)
  • Run Google Ads to the landing page, aiming to drive 200+ visitors to your site. We like to bid under $1 per CPC. You can find cheap keywords if you look hard enough... (Cost: $200)
  • Run Facebook or relevant blog ads to the landing page, aiming to drive 100+ visitors to your site. Facebook ads tend to be more expensive and vary a lot more than Google Ads. Blog ads will range in price. (Cost: $100)
  • Drive more online traffic through relevant forums, Q & A sites, etc, aiming to drive 50+ visitors to your site from a combination of these channels. (Cost: FREE)
  • Analyze your marketing channels and landing page tests using Google Analytics. (Cost: FREE)

With 350+ people now coming to your site, you should now have a good handful of people who are eager to be your first customers/users. Combine that with people you spoke with in-person/via Skype, hopefully you now have a good group of users/customers to work with as you start to think about your exact product/service.

... Read More...
Uncategorized3 min read
article placeholder

Founder & CEO Amra Tareen of Allvoices Talks To Women 2.0 About This Week’s Acquisition

Editor

Congratulations to VC-turned-entrepreneur Amra Tareen, founder & CEO of Allvoices, on the acquisition by Datran Media! Earlier this week, TechCrunch announced the acquisition of the citizen journalism platform, which raised $9M in VC and launched in 2008. Women 2.0: Congratulations on the acquisition announcement! Last we met, you were a panelist at our Women 2.0 conference at Stanford as the founder & CEO of Allvoices. How has your company evolved over the years, and how did you get to the acuiqision?

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Flying & Calling for (Nearly) Free with FoundersCard

Editor

By Emily Goligoski (Contributing Writer, Women 2.0) Holders of sleek silver FoundersCards the world over share a similar conundrum: stay shush'ed about the savings on business, travel and lifestyle or let others in on the secret. Because Women 2.0 believes in scale, we're spreading the word about the membership organization with this promo:

At $199, joining is a steal and will earn you large percentages off everywhere from Equinox gyms to Apple and international hotels (Barcelona's Hotel Arts, anyone?). To redeem, visit FoundersCard.com and click on Membership Inquiries. Complete form and enter "FCWMN11" as the referral code.

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Have An Idea Or Startup Working To Solve A Health-Related Issue? Apply To Join Rock Health This Summer

Editor

By Halle Tecco (Co-Founder & Managing Director, Rock Health) This summer, Rock Health will catalyze innovation in the interactive health space. Become one of the first startups to access our unrivaled community of experts and seed-accelerator program where a select group of health-related startups will partake in an intensive multi-month program, turning ideas into products and businesses.

Use what you’ve learned in other segments (gaming, informatics, design, etc.) to solve real, meaningful problems in health. At least one team member should be a developer. Check out the FAQ.

Apply to Rock Health's seed accelerator program for startups by Friday, May 13 at noon (PST).

Rock Health will welcome a group of developers and entrepreneurs with early stage ideas to San Francisco’s newest incubator, focused on health apps. Startups will receive a grant for $20,000 along with operational and strategic support, office space, and mentorship from a team of experts in tech, design, legal/IP/FDA, devices, consumer healthcare, clinical medicine and business.

... Read More...
Uncategorized1 min read
article placeholder

Kreeya’s Saroj Yadav Builds a Platform for Local Independent Designers, Beginning in San Francisco

Editor

By Saroj Yadav (Founder, Kreeya) I grew up in a small village in rural India. I learned the value of hard work from my parents who toiled hard all day in the fields. I will forever be grateful for the values of hard work and perseverance my parents instilled in me which pushed me to be an engineer and an entrepreneur.

When I moved to San Francisco, I wanted to shop for clothes by independent designers in the city. But there was no convenient way to do this. That was the beginning of my startup, Kreeya.

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Founder Alicia Morga of Consorte Media (acquired by Audience Science): “My Initial Idea Was Not To Build An Ad Network” – How Business & Industry Evolved

Editor

By Alicia Morga (Founder & CEO, Refleta) I ran Consorte Media for five years before it was acquired. When I started Consorte Media in 2005, it was verboten to say when fundraising that you were building to flip a company. Today, many angels are looking for just that approach. But every business, no matter the original idea or approach, needs time to figure out what it’s going to be –- especially if it’s going to be big. It also needs time to make mistakes, and we made plenty.

My initial idea was not to build an ad network.

But that’s often how building a company goes – the business always morphs and grows, and never ends up looking like the original vision. My vision of connecting Hispanic consumers with service providers who could offer their services to them in Spanish was inspired by my own culture, having seen the incredible lack of services addressing the Hispanic market.

... Read More...
Uncategorized1 min read
article placeholder

Startup City Poised to Turn Baltimore Into an Entrepreneurial Hub (Extended Deadline)

Editor

By Amy Dusto (Writer, Discovery News) Baltimore -- A city full of talent and ideas, the raw material for beginning businesses. Yet the actual amount of entrepreneurship happening doesn't always seem to match. Local entrepreneur and programmer Mike Subelsky noticed this and decided to give well-intentioned visionaries a kick start. He created a proposal for "Startup City," a twelve week summer program offering free workspace in Baltimore, $15,000 of seed money, mentoring, and workshops for ten lucky entrepreneurs, all to help them blossom.

"The actual problem we're solving is to tell the story for these ten companies in a visible way, [the story] about people struggling and succeeding," Subelsky says, "to show it's doable." The city should subsequently benefit from the action of more than just whirling brains, but solid ideas going into motion with economic development attached. As Subelsky drafted in the Startup City proposal, "All we need are a few success stories to create a chain-reaction of entrepreneurship." Then he sat on it for about a year, until one day his friend and tech-scene colleague Monica Beeman, founder of Vines to Vino and regional director of small business lender FundingUniverse Maryland, asked him, "Why isn't anything happening with this? Let's do this."

Apply to Baltimore City by Wednesday, May 4 (MIDNIGHT). Application available here.

... Read More...
Uncategorized1 min read
article placeholder

Intro to Python Web Programming in Los Angeles

Editor

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) Pasadena, CA -- Come and learn the Python programming language on Sunday, May 15 in Los Angeles. The Intro to Python Workshop will be taught by Audrey Roy and Katharine Jarmul, and assisted by Christine Cheung, Esther Nam, Jessica Stanton, Sandy Strong, and Sophia Viklund. The PyLadies are a group of women in Los Angeles who use and love the Python programming language -- and on track to increase the percentage of females in the Los Angeles Python community to 50%.

Never tried programming before? Not sure if you'll fit in? Don't worry. Intro to Python Workshop on May 15 in Pasadena is designed to be friendly to absolute beginners. Now, meet the PyLadies!

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

How To Get Started with Android Mobile Development

Editor

By Jean Hsu (Android Developer, Pulse) Several people have asked me what the best resources are for getting started with Android. There are so many Android code blogs with "working" example out there, it's hard to know what's the best way to get started.

I'd recommend starting at the official Android Developer site, as it has the most up-to-date documentation and plenty of basic examples, which should be enough to get you started on a basic application. Here are some other resources I've compiled for getting started with Android development.

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Partner event: Node.js Class Taught by Spoondate CTO

Editor

Spoondate Co-Founder & CTO Van Nguyen is teaching a 4 week course on Node.js starting May 9 online at CodeLesson. Learn how to create high-performance, server-side applications using JavaScript from the Spoondate co-founder building an innovative technology stack powered by Node on the server and JavaScript in the browser. This is a rare opportunity to learn Node.js programming from an experienced developer who's using the system in production today. For the full course outline and to register, click here. Class starts this Monday, sign up now!

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read