Questions
How do you feel about giving away free licenses (original price: $2000 ) to universities, charities and open source projects of your software to spread the word? Is it a good idea? Shall we...
In order to keep your share unchanged and avoid loans, could it be possible to think of setting up a foundation to get government grants and/or donations, and have the foundation's main project to...
441 points
The first step in any startup must be coming up with an idea and this seems a big first hurdle. A lot of people seem to come up with these ideas either to address problems they are experiencing...
173 points
What are your top three reasons for not leaving a job or career path that you absolutely hate to start your own small business?
Went to see (and enjoyed) the movie Avatar. I've been thinking about how the conventional wisdom says capitalists are evil, greedy, self serving, and a danger to the common good. The very real cost...
I'm starting a web site with another founder that proof reads university and college student's papers and essays. Users upload an essay and pay us then they get an edited of the paper back and a...
Suppose you are evaluating an idea for commercial viability. You look to see whether there are competitors. Of course there are, because there always are. How do you judge whether the market has an...
303 points
I'd love to hear personal stories around this one. I know people who have lived on credit cards for months, incurring quite a bit of debt while they're out looking for funding (big risk). I also...
223 points
Any success stories out there where someone with a full time job managed to start a business in their spare time? If so, how did you do it? How do you stay motivated? Did you do it alone? On a...
136 points
We're just employing our first people in the US (currently have employees in the UK). I understand that not all companies recognise all the same public holidays. There's a list of public holidays...
Traditionally businesses have grown through hiring employees, building and acquiring assets, establishing branches and subsidiaries, etc. but with this comes high overhead, segregation of duties,...
I am thinking of launching online advertising campaigns for my product. I have a few choices: Google Adwords targeted banner advertisement at niche forums Affiliate program I understand that...
871 points
I know, Evan Williams asked for donations from users while he was running Blogger.com in its early days but that was then. Is a donation button for a web app in beta tactless, in these times? what...
I'm working on defining a partnering agreement to be the technical co-founder on a SaaS startup. The founder/CEO has the experience in the service industry which we are targeting, but found that...
I'm about 70% done with a Windows based application that my market research anticipates about 250,000 users. I would like to partner with a serial software/web entrepreneur who can setup the...
Our monthly subscription is 30% less than our competitors. We also do not charge a set up fee, whereas, most of our competitors charge $400-600. I think our product is "as good" or better than any...
So it looks like I'm making the switch from full time employee to self-employed contractor due to the job market -- there's just not a lot of work in my area for C++ programmers. I'm working for...
161 points
I have a web based application for consumers. Customers sign up. What are the best tactics to incent/encourage my customers to refer their friends to sign up? Would appreciate any and all...
I am putting together a privacy policy and terms of service. I have read these two posts: http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/2783/where-to-start-writing-a-terms-of-service-privacy-policy...
460 points
With a subscription based web application aimed at businesses: Is it better to set the initial price at the high end of what you expect people would pay and lower it if it becomes necessary, or...
