Intellectual property, post #12 of “Startup Briefs”
It drives me crazy that entrepreneurs don’t know the difference between patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and trademarks/service marks. How could you be so uneducated? More startup legal issues; this time intellectual property....
Legal issues, post #11 of “Startup Briefs”
One of the first thing that inexperienced entrepreneurs want to do is actually start the company, which means form the legal entity. I counsel them to wait until they need to do this. At the beginning you need to do this if you...
Value proposition, post #9 of “Startup Briefs”
As the school year gets underway, and I prep for practical, outside the classroom entrepreneurial education, I am reminded of the importance of value proposition. Sometimes that term gets bandied about as part of...
Funding: wrap up and conclusions, post #8 of “Startup Briefs”
Remember that funding being like painting a room. The fact is, painting is the last step – after sanding, repairing holes, sanding again, primer, etc. This analogy is applicable to funding for first-time entrepreneurs because you...
Funding: structure, post #7 of “Startup Briefs”
Raising money for a startup is hard. It takes a long time. It is distracting, meaning that you might not advance your business since you will be spending so much time fundraising. And, finally, you may not be successful, in which...
3×3: Experts on funding
Last week, the University of Pittsburgh’s student accelerator, Blast Furnace (run by my colleague Greg Coticchia) teams heard from three experts on funding early stage companies. The Blast Furnace is the University of...
The customer, post #3 of “Startup Briefs”
What is more important than your idea? More important than your startup? More important than you? You got it – your customer. Most first-time entrepreneurs don’t focus early enough on their customers: who they are, what their...
The idea, post #2 of “Startup Briefs”
How do you come up with the next big idea? How do you come up with an idea that is worth risking your time, expertise and talent? Your career? Where do ideas come from anyway? Let’s take a look at a few ways that I have seen...
Innovation @ U Pitt
The University of Pittsburgh has a lot of exciting things starting around innovation and entrepreneurship. 2014 promises to be a ramp-up year for new entrepreneurial initiatives, starting with the campus-wide Innovation...