"Being an entrepreneur can be lonely," says Mark Fletcher, winner of the Wired Magazine Tech Innovator Rave Award in 2005. "When I first started a business in 1987 I wished there was somewhere I could turn to for help."
Now there is. With the help of Elance providers, Mark, a "serial entrepreneur" – we'll get to that in a moment – recently launched Startupping (http://www.startupping.com/). Startupping is a community resource created for Internet entrepreneurs by Internet entrepreneurs; you can share information, ask questions and tap into the experience of people who have built and are building web businesses.
"Having a community to turn to for advice and support is incredibly valuable for people starting any business," says Mark. "While there are scattered resources, there isn't a central gathering place for Internet entrepreneurs."
To develop Startupping's entrepreneur community, Mark turned to the virtual outsourcing community. "I'm a programmer and software developer," says Mark. "I'm not a designer per se. So I've worked with providers like QuartSoft (Elance username: Quart) for web design, MetaLink (Elance username: metalink) for Windows programming, and Logo Design Company (Elance username: logodesigncompany) for the Startupping logo."
