How can you benefit from our Enabler Round?

Six weeks ago we launched our UFOstart Enabler Round in order to prepare our product for market readiness. We wanted to improve what we’ve built so far - with a focus on UX for round setup and management. It has been a very valuable experience for us and we thank everyone who has contributed so far! But how can YOU profit from the crowd with only four more days left in our Enabler Round?

Startups

How many would-be startup founders do you think lie in bed at night thinking and dreaming about their business idea, but they don't know how to make it happen? Perhaps that sounds a lot like you, or how you've thought in the past. Sometimes all you need is a little help to get that great idea off the ground. That's where we come in. 

Are you ready to move from a dreamer to startup founder? Then, let's not waste another minute. We provide you with all the tools you need to get a jumpstart on your business. Through the power of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, you'll have the needed resources right at your fingertips. The process is really very simple. First, you tell us what your idea is. If the crowd is onboard with your business idea, you'll receive support in the way of funding, expert knowledge, legal information...basically everything you need to get started. Here's YOUR chance to launch a round on UFOstart and receive 10k in funding. You can apply directly here and start using the power of the crowd for your venture! If you have questions, our new help page will guide you in the right direction. 


Experts

Thank you to everyone who has applied to our platform job needs. We will contact you within a week of our Round close for further details on your new project! Have you been thinking about joining a startup but are unsure of the expertise and time you would have to commit? UFOstart offers a great, flexible working environment, which will allow you to leverage your expertise. Here are three job needs, which are still open for applications on our round:

• You are an organizational talent and have experience in the internet startup sector? Well, we are looking for a Chief Executive Assistant, the wingman to the UFO's pilot here! 
• You are a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) Expert and have experience with the necessary tools? Then you're well suited for our Need Planning and Initiation of an Ambassador Program, which will carry UFOstart around the globe. 
• You are a passionate individual with experience and a track record in the business development of internet startups? You can be in charge of building and expanding our business activities in the U.S. - apply as the Business Development Manager US now! 

If these jobs, or others listed on our round, would better suit one of your contacts than yourself you can share the need via facebook, twitter or LinkedIn. We recently implemented our Matching Feature, which gives you a suggestion of people to invite based on their LinkedIn Skills and the skills needed for the job! 

Investors

Last week we were able to further establish our UFOstart Mentor Concept. It aims to coach and jumpstart lean, crowdsourcing based Start Ups by offering access to our platform and a $10k investment. You can be part of our UFOstart business model as a mentor while giving a high-potential Start Up the opportunity to launch a round on UFOstart and therefore launch their idea. The concept revolves around a 10k paper check, which the mentor can give to a start up of his choice. If 7 criteria are met by this venture, one of them being a successful round close on UFOstart, the investment will be provided. forward with the investment. Your role as a mentor constitutes leveraging your network and your experience to coach the Start Up to a successful close, as well as spreading the word about our platform. - of course with an interesting benefit system.  We are looking for mentors in different locations around the world, please contact us if you are interested in becoming one of them!

 - aw

Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

UFOstart Live Community Hangout / Berlin Meetup 03-25

What is UFOstart about? What does it do for me? How can I be part of it? 

Join our Hangout on Air at 6pm CET/10am PST for more information on the UFOstart development and Enabler Round. If you are in the Berlin area you can stop by our UFOstart Berlin Meetup, which will be held at the same time.

We will add the Berliners to our hangout and will discuss the following: 

1. Product Development (where do we stand? how will we proceed? which jobs are still open?)
2. Business Development (what are our customer segments? what is our business model? which jobs are still open?)
3. Marketing (how will we approach the market? what are the next steps? which jobs are still open?) 
4. Q+A session

We recently launched our new help page, which might answer some of your questions. If not, you can always ask them via twitter (use #ufostart) or by posting in our  community forum. This blog will feature a live stream which will also be available as a youtube video afterwards.  See you online!

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

Incubators - where ideas are bred

Incubator? Why call it something with such early infantile connotations? Considering the young age of most successful founders, youth seems to be a great commodity in the world of tech startups. The name, however, describes the nurturing environment of these programs, in which an idea can hatch and evolve to its fullest potential.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of incubators for tech startups:


1. Mentorship

Good incubators are characterized through being key establishments in their start-up surrounding. They work closely with established entrepreneurs who contribute to the program through their wealth of knowledge from years of practical experience.  Not only do people like Paul Graham of Y Combinator have the experience of having been there before, but they also have many sample points of what kind of ideas have worked for startups and which haven’t simply by virtue of running an incubator.  Receiving such mentorship is provides the necessary guidance that young potential founders need - and does not only contribute to the evolvement of a start-up idea but also greatly shapes the personality of the founders.

2. Education

As the participants in the incubator are typically higher on technical skills and imagination than on business experience, the incubator plays an important role in teaching the necessary business competencies. Of course you can't actually teach entrepreneurship since most of it is "learning by doing". However, incubators have the immense benefit of teaching ways to strategically develop your business for a sustainable structure and successful execution. You can profit from a hands-on education with topics ranging from business plan writing, finance acquisition to marketing strategies. 

3. Quality Mark

Through the unique stewardship and education offered by incubators, participating start-ups are equipped with the necessary skill set and structural set-up for success. Founders, who have undergone a time within such a program, had to compete against others for acceptance and have shown perseverance.  Their idea has been reviewed by industry leaders and has evolved in an educational and nurturing infrastructure. Successful completion of an incubator program can be seen as a mark of quality for investors, potential employees and your general business surrounding. 

Participating in an incubator program is not a guarantee for success. It, however, indicates a high quality standard and equips you with the right pre-requirements. UFOstart values this standard and incentivizes successful incubator completion through discounts on our platform (here's a list of selected incubators). After completing such a program you will have a good setup, yet may lack in areas such as funding and assets. UFOstart lets you directly address these needs through our lean and personalized round structure - check out our Global Crowd Network now!

Furthermore, we are currently working on a program with which incubators can create pitch competitions, integrated in our UFOstart concept. If you are an Incubator and would like to learn more about our concept and a possible collaboration, feel free to contact us!.

UFOstart Live Community Hangout 03-18-'13

Welcome to our weekly Hangout on Air! Today's agenda consists of:

• Jobs on our Enabler Round (Tracking and BI, Product Virality Optimization, Multi Level Ambassador Program) 
• New matching feature for round invitations - why should you invite your contacts?
• Brendan (graphic designer) on "How to make an easy animation"
• Here's the link to his video
• More information with a list of links
• Q+A

Ask your questions via twitter (use #ufostart) or by posting in our  community forum at any time. This blog will feature a live stream at 10am PST/ 6pm CET, which will also be available as a youtube video afterwards.  See you online!

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

What's the link between Start-Ups and Mountaineering?

www.alpin-ism.com

A link between entrepreneurship and mountain climbing? Don’t entrepreneurs like to spend all of their time in from of the dim glow of a computer screen late at night? At first, the late night, caffeine-induced desk sessions seem to differ entirely from peaking a mountain. However, there are some links to be drawn between striving to excel in mountaineering and daring to innovate in the start-up world.

Personal Challenge

The act of conquering a mountain is yours and yours alone. Though you will certainly meet others on your way up, and it is not a completely solitary or non-competitive pursuit at all times, most of the real competition is with yourself. The drive of the mountain is to make it to the top, and when you see a sign that says the elevation has topped 10,000 you are asking yourself how much more to the top. Startup founders are not going to be inclined to settle for less than the peak, and are going to do everything to get to the top.

Peace and Quiet

Startup founder Paul Graham has laid out what potential computer entrepreneurs are interested in, in order to explain why places such as the Bay Area attract so many startup founders:

“Most nerds like quieter pleasures. They like cafes instead of clubs; used bookshops instead of fashionable clothing shops; hiking instead of dancing; sunlight instead of tall buildings. A nerd's idea of paradise is Berkeley or Boulder.”

When it comes down to it, the clean air, tranquility, and solitude of a mountain top can give you time to think and reflect, and get away from the thousands of thoughts and distractions of the office setting, giving truly novel and amazing ideas room to take shape.

Discipline, Preparedness, and Inventiveness

Any journey up a mountain – which is in effect an adversary that is monumentally huger, older, and has vanquished more challengers than you – requires some planning. You must work out when to start the journey, what time of year is best, how much water to bring, whether items like snow shoes, crampons, poles, ponchos, first aid, and flashlights will be required, and the most effective plan to reach the top. Sometimes you may have to get creative and improvise if your best laid plans do not go as you expected. Though both mountaineering and entrepreneurship both entail the spirit of risk taking, a good risk taker does not jump into any situation completely blind.

-bmt

Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

UFOstart Live Community Hangout 03-11-'13

Just another Hangout on Air? Not at all! 
Today we're introducing our promising new landing page. Also, we'll be explaining jobs that are listed on our Enabler Round. You can either tweet questions to #ufostart or post them in our community forum at any time to get them answered during the hangout. This blog will feature a live stream at 10am PST/ 6pm CET, which will be available as a youtube video afterwards.  See you online!



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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

Crowdsourcing Legal Questions

Crowdsourcing can answer such legal questions!

One of the great innovations of the internet is the ability for anyone to get answers to their questions in a short amount of time from multiple sources. This happens all across the internet, from more formal sites dedicated to asking and answering (think Yahoo! Answers or Ask.com) to the informal nature of polling a Twitter following for advice.

Quizzing a lawyer for legal advice is the original domain of hiring a professional for their knowledge and expertise, but it has yet to become a standard practice to turn to the internet when you find yourself in need of it. Why is that and what is the future of legal crowdsourcing?

Like many professions that are adjusting their business models in the internet age, there are no easy answers or guarantees on what will happen. However, with the emergence of sites such as Law Pivot and the increasing number of lawyers turning to social media and the web, there are definite trends to keep an eye on.

Clients Choose Their Questions, Not Their Lawyers

Law Pivot is a service designed by two lawyers that lets clients ask questions online, anonymously.

You can ask questions about a variety of legal topics that concern your startup: contracts, stock issues, employment, licensing, patents, trademarks, real estate, just to name a few. But when you tag your question and request a lawyer, you needn't only do so based on subject matter expertise. You can indicate, for example, that you need someone who's quick to respond.

You can then choose to send your question to the lawyers you choose or the ones LawPivot recommends, and you'll get an email when a lawyer responds to your question.

The interesting factor in the Law Pivot model is that clients can, but are not required to choose the lawyer they want to hear from. This is a big change from the past that allows the focus to be on issues, and therefore helps clients reach the best lawyer for them, without relying on formerly important factors such as word of mouth or advertising practice areas. This will be key for new companies and ventures that will be looking for both easy and inexpensive ways to take on legal issues.

Lawyers Can Use Public Answers to Bring in Private Clients

Though services such as Law Pivot or Rocket Lawyer can help clients take on basic legal issues and provide the more common and simpler legal documents free of charge, many clients will need more than just basic information. No legal issue is every truly free of complexity and that only becomes more true when business and money may become involved. So what happens when clients are no longer comfortable operating in the open, social area of the internet?

Now, many of these emerging services make it possible for clients to disclose their information “confidentially” to the website in question. Let’s set aside, for a moment, the wisdom of uploading to a faceless website the details of your aged parent’s capacity to make decisions or that dispute with your company’s key supplier. Let’s suppose that a critical mass of people is willing to take that risk and reap the rewards.

If that’s really how things evolve, that’s all well and good, but those kinds of transactions are not social. The whole premise of social media is that it is public, interactive and conversational; when you ask a question on Quora or LinkedIn, everyone sees it. Once you go behind the equivalent of a closed door and disclose your case in private with an identifiable individual, you are no longer in the realm of social media.

The good news is, of course, that anything that starts off public or online can be brought into real world, private meetings and working relationships between lawyers and clients. Because our legal system works, ultimately, in offices, court rooms and the specificity of individual cases, there is going to be a limit to crowdsourcing.

However, there will always be a role for legal advice online, and it is one that is still evolving and refining each day. Do you have questions on crowdsourcing? Please, contact us! Or if you have had experience working with crowdsourced legal advice, we'd love to hear about it in our comments. 

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!

UFOstart Live Community Chat 03-04-'13

Welcome to our weekly Hangout On Air in which we share company updates and give you a chance to ask all questions you might have. You can either tweet questions to #ufostart or post them in our community forum now and watch us answer them later! This blog will feature a live stream of the Hangout at 9am PST/ 6pm CET, which will be available as a youtube video afterwards.  

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Join our first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding! Connect with facebook on www.ufostart.com and calculate your Startup Value. Interested in how you can leverage the power of the crowd for your startup? Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter!