As a budding entrepreneur, you're given lots of advice, much of which is contradictory. Created by @jellyfishbloom and @theicebreak

1. Contradictory Startup Advice
…and how to navigate it
Christina A. Brodbeck (@jellyfishbloom), Co-Founder/CEO of theicebreak
An awesome iPhone app and Web site for couples.

2. Advisors People on FB/Twitter Partners
Investors Lawyers
Users Board Testers Intros
Co-Founders Journalists
Employees Uncle Sam PR
Bf/Gf/Wife/Husband/Time to find one…
Before you had 1 boss. Now you have
tens, hundreds, thousands, and if things go
really well…millions. And they all have advice.

3. A lot of this advice is contradictory,
which can make you feel like stopping
in the wrong place and giving up.

4. Advice like….raise more money
than you need or raise just enough

5. Like….monetize first or get to know
your customer first

6. Like….focus first on high
engagement or massive growth

7. Like….too much competition or
it’s an unproven market

8. Like….launch quickly and iterate or
get it perfect first

9. Like….the user knows best or
you know best

10. Like….we invest in the person but
we don’t fund single founders

11. Like….pay attention to the competition
or don’t worry about competition

12. Like….get out there and network or
just focus on building

13. Like….you need PR or your product
will speak for itself

14. This can all be maddening! Both are
right, but there is a middle ground.

15. The Middle Ground [More Advice]
• Your journey is different than anyone else’s, so listen to advice,
but make up your own rules and follow those. You are your own
middle ground.
• Know your story and tell it well. This is what will convince
customers, investors, advisors, new employees. This is your most
valuable asset. Spend time thinking and developing it.
• You are your best PR person. It’s all about relationships. If you can,
start cultivating them at least 1 year out before launch. If you don’t
have a year, start now.
• Offer journalists something. Write up an idea or skeleton and send it
to them. Offer to guest post. Also, be real; don’t “use” journalists -
they are nice people.
• Hiring a PR firm too early can bankrupt you. If you do have to hire
them, hire them AFTER you’ve got your story down.

16. • When working with a PR firm, set milestones. If you’re less than 6
months old and not big yet, you can’t afford a retainer. Do a short
term milestone-based contract instead (i.e. get in 3 outlets for launch).
• Your blog will get no traffic at first, and no one will likely know of
you. Reach out to influencers in your space with large twitter and
blog followings, and make them a part of your family/company.
Have them write on their blogs and accounts about you. Their
blogs get more views than yours.
• If you’re a “normal” consumer brand, tech press is good for raising
capital, but not necessarily for acquiring users. Do some tech press
to build buzz, but then move quickly to focus on outlets where your
users actually go.
• Focus heavily on engagement during private beta. Then focus on
growth as soon as you publicly launch. That way you don’t waste
initial “live” time on engagement.

17. • It’s hard to raise money as a single co-founder unless you’re a
rockstar. Most people aren’t rockstars
• You need someone to bounce ideas off of. Until you find a co-
founder, build an advisory board of people with the skills you want in
your co-founder. Fill your advisory board with people who have
the skillset your team lacks.
• Getting a product built is the most important thing, so to balance
product building with relationship building go to 1 event per week
pre-launch while focusing on building. After launch, go to at least
2/week for the first 6 months to focus on creating awareness.
• Offer to speak and volunteer at events and conferences. It’s cheap
PR.
• Don’t raise money until you have the core founding team in place,
know you work well together, and are sure of their commitment. Ideas
change, people don’t.

18. • Make sure when you do your first serious, structured raise that you try
to raise at least enough for 14 months of runway. Not too much,
not too little.
• Have an idea before you raise how far you want to take your
company. Do you want to get acquired or do you want to go all out
and IPO? Raise accordingly. Raise too much $ and you can limit
quick acquisition potential.
• Paying too much attention to competition can paralyze you. You
don’t have to proactively and religiously read industry news. Instead,
subscribe to 50 important people in your field, and follow them.
You’ll get most of the news you need.
• Social proof exists. It’s a fact. Build your profile early on Angelist,
but you don’t have to promote it until you have one big investor
onboard who can bring others in.

19. • The more new and innovative the thing you are doing, the harder
you make it for yourself. If you’re the first ones out there, it can be
harder to get funding until other tag-alongs appear and make noise.
• Don’t build a product that you’re not a super user of. Build with
passion.
• Get one major thing perfect, but not everything for launch. This way
you can launch quickly, and have at least the best part of the site feel
seamless. Fix the rest and the odds and ends as the site grows.
• You lead the ship and have the vision, but let your user’s and
usability testing results guide the way.
• You can test even without a product. Talk to your target
demographic early. Bounce ideas off of people from the get-go. Get
off your computer and talk to people. Talk to your would-be super
users about your idea early.

20. • You can user test anywhere (i.e. make paper mocks and go to a coffee
shop and set up a sign that says “will buy you a cup of coffee if you test
my product”)
• $25 Visa gift cards are your best friend for usability testing. They have
an automatic record (your credit card log, and fewer receipts to be lost).

21. Christina A. Brodbeck, @jellyfishbloom
Co-Founder/CEO of theicebreak
An awesome iPhone app and Web site
for couples.
It was originally given as a talk @FundersFounders
The topic of this presentation was inspired by
Mark Ferlatte (@ferlatte) and
Everrett Harper (@everettharper).