Brad Feld, a prolific VC blogger at the Foundry Group/TechStars, recently posted an item telling entrepreneurs contacting him to get a gmail account (instead of emailing from their current employer). Expanding on his post, here’s the seven other things (as an observor of the startup and venture capital world) I’d recommend new companies/founders doing:
1. Get your own domain name.
I’m constantly amazed at startups–even Internet startups!–who don’t yet have their domain name reserved. Come on folks, it’s something like $10 a year for a domain name–and if you haven’t checked to make sure your domain name isn’t already owned by someone, you’ve got some big problems down the line.
2. Put up a simple web site.
It’s a miniscule amount for hosting a web page. The site doesn’t need to be fancy, and in fact, shouldn’t be — think logo and general email address — but without it, it’s pretty hard to get credibility.
3. Lose the hotmail or yahoo email address.
Use your own domain (see number 1) for email (or gmail, if you must). When people are constantly being bombarded by spam and viruses from some of the older, free email services, it’s tough for them to pick out your real funding pitch from the Nigerian email spam.
4. Get a postal address, even if it’s a PO box or suite.
In this day and age of virtual companies, an office isn’t expected (particularly for an early stage startup). But, it very much helps to be able to have a hometown — whether that is Santa Monica, La Jolla, Irvine, or whatever — rather than being located “in cyberspace somewhere.” It’s particuarly important if you’re looking at local investors who are specifically looking in a local region for investments.
5. Order business cards
Yes, I know these are antiquated, but it’s still useful (especially for constantly harried, forgetful journalists and venture capitalists being constantly pitched) for folks to remember who you are and your company. Again, these cost nothing and are a necessity. I often have startups approach me to cover their companies, yet don’t even have a card to hand to me–so much for that elevator pitch!
6. Get your own cell phone, for your startup.
Lots of startup founders have employer provided cell phones–and unfortunately, use them for their startup calls. I’m not a lawyer, but that’s bound to get you in trouble. Not to mention, it’s awfully confusing when you call a startup and you get a voicemail box for someone at Oracle, or Yahoo, or whatever.
7. Make sure your voicemail is professional. (Corollary to 6).
Nothing fancy, but celebrity voicemails or “Whassaup?” don’t convey much credibility in your business skills. This is usually the result of someone using their personal cell phone for their startup, and forgetting to change their voicemail message.
