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There is way too many areas to cover while starting a tech business or launching a product. You have to: Learn how to code, make sure it is good code, design a quality looking website or app, learn marketing with on-page and off-page sales techniques, SEO, and other items. It just seems like too much to do by myself. It would be much easier with a good team.
And that's why my Fastlane Competition business was formed: http://www.VentureMarks.com. We can't go at it alone, and working with a well balanced team allows us to not get overwhelmed.
Before I begin, I would like to thank MJ for his book/forums. Reading your book was the first step in a series of events that brought me to this point of my life, and meeting the team that I have formed in order to work towards my goals. Before reading your book, I had no interest in starting any type of business, and all I knew was the slowlane mindset. Entrepreneurs can be made, and not born.
The Platform:
Venturemarks is a platform that connects Developers with Entrepreneurs and their Qualified Projects through a system that rates the likeliness of success of the project.
Entrepreneurs will be given badges, or "Marks" for each milestone they achieve in their efforts to help their venture become successful. This can be things like gathering Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers to writing out a detailed business proposal to would-be investors and making an eye-catching video.
Developers can browse the new and innovative projects from these very entrepreneurs and choose how they would like to be involved in the project(s) by placing bids, whether it be for a full-equity stake for compensation or anywhere inbetween.
The Team:
Andrew - When I first got involved in entrepreneurship, I wanted to learn how to code. I got good at it, but not great. And you have to spend years or decades to become great in order to launch a quality product. After meeting Joe (see below), I began studying marketing and SEO and will take the lead on that area of our venture. In the past few months, I have been consulting crowdfunding campaigns after cracking the ranking algorithm for Indiegogo.com. I plan on launching a book/guide on this in connection to our business to make this area of expertise more passive while I focus on marketing the business. Before I rant on too much about myself...
Joe - Joe is one of those great developers that I was talking about before. If you want it build, he will execute it to perfection, and it won't break. I am lucky to have him on the team with me covering the areas that would otherwise take me years to learn. Joe is a member of the forums as well. He has the skills to work in a cushy 6 figure job, but decides to dedicate 100% of his time to the business. He is serving as the lead for getting the platform up and running. As of Oct. 6th, the landing page is live in order to get an early start on attracting a user base. While he does have previous business success in the marketing/SEO/advertisement field, his main focus will be programming.
Jonathan - Jonathan has the creative side that most of us lack. If you want something designed in photoshop, or a fancy promotional video, he is the go-to guy for this. I do not see my skills ever being at his level in this area, no matter how many years I tried. Jonathan is also working alongside joe on the development side of the platform.
Alexander - Alexander is working alongside Joe and Jonathan in the Los Angeles, California area to get the platform up and running. He is a very useful member of the team combining his abilities in development and sales with the emphasis early on with getting the VentureMarks platform up and running.
AJ - AJ lives with me in the Phoenix, Arizona area. While he has a background as a programming analyst, his main role here will be to assist with the marketing aspects of the business. With the number of social platforms and other marketing strategies, these tasks will be split up to lead to a greater chance of success.
The Investor and The Lawyer:
VentureMarks has a business lawyer working alongside us to make sure all the contracts and legal aspects will protect our financial and personal interests in the business we are starting. We also have an investor involved to help ease the burden of starting up the business.
Notes:
Along with my blog entries for the Fastlane competition, I will provide a weekly update of our progress through this thread for all to follow. I am going to place a large emphasis on the "failures" we have along our journey, so those of you can learn from them.
We will also have a blog/informational section to help teach our clients marketing skills to help make their businesses successful. I see instructional videos/guides for HTML and CSS looked for all the time. I want to add a marketing and SEO equivalent to this on the internet.
So far our greatest challenge we foresee is getting developers work for equity instead of for money-only on traditional freelance websites. This is where we came up with the Marks system: A set of badges projects and teams earn to demonstrate to programmers they have the marketing, and business skills it takes to become successful. They range from the ability to attract a large number of social media fans, to having a top of the line marketing video, and other items. We will also offer a "part equity, with a reduced cost" option to help ease the transition into this new mindset.
I would love to hear any feedback on our business, and any suggestions on how to address this obstacle of getting programmers to work for equity. Thought?
And good luck to everybody else in the fastlane competition. My email is on my site if you need any help. I have learned a lot in marketing so far and would love to share my abilities with anyone else that is serious with getting their business started. I will also make a thread on the INSIDERS forum with some more detailed strategies on our launch.
Thanks for reading,
Andrew
And that's why my Fastlane Competition business was formed: http://www.VentureMarks.com. We can't go at it alone, and working with a well balanced team allows us to not get overwhelmed.
Before I begin, I would like to thank MJ for his book/forums. Reading your book was the first step in a series of events that brought me to this point of my life, and meeting the team that I have formed in order to work towards my goals. Before reading your book, I had no interest in starting any type of business, and all I knew was the slowlane mindset. Entrepreneurs can be made, and not born.
The Platform:
Venturemarks is a platform that connects Developers with Entrepreneurs and their Qualified Projects through a system that rates the likeliness of success of the project.
Entrepreneurs will be given badges, or "Marks" for each milestone they achieve in their efforts to help their venture become successful. This can be things like gathering Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers to writing out a detailed business proposal to would-be investors and making an eye-catching video.
Developers can browse the new and innovative projects from these very entrepreneurs and choose how they would like to be involved in the project(s) by placing bids, whether it be for a full-equity stake for compensation or anywhere inbetween.
The Team:
Andrew - When I first got involved in entrepreneurship, I wanted to learn how to code. I got good at it, but not great. And you have to spend years or decades to become great in order to launch a quality product. After meeting Joe (see below), I began studying marketing and SEO and will take the lead on that area of our venture. In the past few months, I have been consulting crowdfunding campaigns after cracking the ranking algorithm for Indiegogo.com. I plan on launching a book/guide on this in connection to our business to make this area of expertise more passive while I focus on marketing the business. Before I rant on too much about myself...
Joe - Joe is one of those great developers that I was talking about before. If you want it build, he will execute it to perfection, and it won't break. I am lucky to have him on the team with me covering the areas that would otherwise take me years to learn. Joe is a member of the forums as well. He has the skills to work in a cushy 6 figure job, but decides to dedicate 100% of his time to the business. He is serving as the lead for getting the platform up and running. As of Oct. 6th, the landing page is live in order to get an early start on attracting a user base. While he does have previous business success in the marketing/SEO/advertisement field, his main focus will be programming.
Jonathan - Jonathan has the creative side that most of us lack. If you want something designed in photoshop, or a fancy promotional video, he is the go-to guy for this. I do not see my skills ever being at his level in this area, no matter how many years I tried. Jonathan is also working alongside joe on the development side of the platform.
Alexander - Alexander is working alongside Joe and Jonathan in the Los Angeles, California area to get the platform up and running. He is a very useful member of the team combining his abilities in development and sales with the emphasis early on with getting the VentureMarks platform up and running.
AJ - AJ lives with me in the Phoenix, Arizona area. While he has a background as a programming analyst, his main role here will be to assist with the marketing aspects of the business. With the number of social platforms and other marketing strategies, these tasks will be split up to lead to a greater chance of success.
The Investor and The Lawyer:
VentureMarks has a business lawyer working alongside us to make sure all the contracts and legal aspects will protect our financial and personal interests in the business we are starting. We also have an investor involved to help ease the burden of starting up the business.
Notes:
Along with my blog entries for the Fastlane competition, I will provide a weekly update of our progress through this thread for all to follow. I am going to place a large emphasis on the "failures" we have along our journey, so those of you can learn from them.
We will also have a blog/informational section to help teach our clients marketing skills to help make their businesses successful. I see instructional videos/guides for HTML and CSS looked for all the time. I want to add a marketing and SEO equivalent to this on the internet.
So far our greatest challenge we foresee is getting developers work for equity instead of for money-only on traditional freelance websites. This is where we came up with the Marks system: A set of badges projects and teams earn to demonstrate to programmers they have the marketing, and business skills it takes to become successful. They range from the ability to attract a large number of social media fans, to having a top of the line marketing video, and other items. We will also offer a "part equity, with a reduced cost" option to help ease the transition into this new mindset.
I would love to hear any feedback on our business, and any suggestions on how to address this obstacle of getting programmers to work for equity. Thought?
And good luck to everybody else in the fastlane competition. My email is on my site if you need any help. I have learned a lot in marketing so far and would love to share my abilities with anyone else that is serious with getting their business started. I will also make a thread on the INSIDERS forum with some more detailed strategies on our launch.
Thanks for reading,
Andrew
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