Misinterpretation of the Technology Adoption Lifecycle Model
There are two versions of the technology adoption lifecycle model. The original version (introduced in 1957 at Iowa State College) describes the market acceptance of new products in terms of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The process of adoption over time is illustrated as a classic normal distribution or "bell curve."

The second version is an adaptation of the original that includes a gap in the bell curve, between early adopters and the early majority. This essentially splits the adoption process into three distinct phases, an early market and a mainstream market, separated by a period of time called the valley of death.

Top 10 Mistakes in High Tech Marketing

Warning: I haven't gotten any business funded past the seed round. I am no expert but... this just seems like how its done after the umpteenth time, and I would like some feedback. This is perhaps a little cynical, but its 1:30AM and I wish I didn't have to spend weeks writing these things.

1) Decide what you want to build, how long it will take to build it, in what stages it will be built, how many people should work on it, and how much those people cost.

2) Figure out all the support required to turn what you built into a business: office, lawyers, sales people, marketing, website, and figure out how much that stuff costs. If this is your first business, you will probably greatly underestimate these costs. Ask for help.

3) Add up all the costs. Break your project into 3 phases: Seed, Angel Round, VC Round, that being a small product/featureset, a larger product/featureset, and the product/featureset that makes you ginormous. Outline the VC stage even if you intend an earlier exit.

4) Figure out what a chart should look like to make 10 times the value of the budget required in 3 years. Make this chart in Excel. Critique yourself about this number. If it seems like total bullshit, you can't sell it. If you aren't skeptical enough, it is certainly totally bullshit. Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 until 4 is right.

5) Write a story about the market, connecting your costs and the generation of value. Throw in some trends you've noticed and business plan speak you've learned from weblogs.

6) Typeset and print so its pretty, with lots of charts: Pies, Bars, Histograms.

7) Show it to people who know what they're talking about, or people with money, or both, and get their feedback. Reiterate the process until someone gives you money.

Write a Winning Business Plan in 7 Steps - Startupping Forums

# Get representation. You want a broker and a lawyer working on your side of the table. In his book Tenant's Handbook of Office Leasing, Stanley Mark Wolfson writes that "using a building's broker to negotiate a lease for you is foolish and stupid."
# Measure the space. Don't automatically believe the square-footage amounts -- or worse, approximations -- the landlord tells you.
# Put a cap on rent increases. Try to get a fixed percentage rate of annual increase. Or tie rent increases to some real-world index, such as the consumer price index, though doing that could be risky. "It depends on what you think the market will do," says Greg Gunn of Cottonwood Realty Services LLC, in Salt Lake City.
# Get a cancellation clause. The landlord wants a five-year lease, but you worry you'll outgrow the space. Gunn suggests negotiating for the right to cancel the lease after three years if you pay for unamortized costs.
# Make sure you have the option to renew. Try to lock in the renewal rate, too, says Andrew Johnson, managing director of Johnson Commercial Brokerage in Los Angeles. "If you find the market is lower, you can always renegotiate," he says.
# Minimize restrictions on your ability to sublease. If you grow, you want to be able to move and sublease the space. "The 'use' clause should be as vague as possible," says Johnson.

Five Ways to Save Money on Office Space, Cost Controls Article - Inc. Article

"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."

Elancer - April 2007: Mark Fletcher

An entrepreneur’s guide to negotiating a Series A investment. For optimal results, apply these hacks liberally before you sign a term sheet. Apply regularly at each term sheet and startup thereafter. This is a work in progress…

Venture Hacks — Term Sheet Hacks

Put your docs online.
Scribd is a free online library where anyone can upload. Use our embeddable
PDF player to publish and view documents right in your web browser. Try it out!

This is cool. You view business documents in PDF format through a nice widget, then you can download them ad PDF, word or text. They have all kinds of stuff.

Scribd - Home - Lots of Useable Business Documents Online

This site will show you deals to get you extra miles, between any two cities, for any airline. Nice, for frequent flyers.

MileMaven.com: Earn the Most Miles on Every Trip

Limited liability companies, or LLCs, are becoming more and more popular, and it's easy to see why. They combine the personal liability protection of a corporation with the tax benefits and simplicity of a partnership. In addition, they're more flexible and require less ongoing paperwork than corporations. We can help you quickly and easily set up a new LLC or convert your existing business into an LLC. Below is our simple 3-step process:

Dirt cheap incorporation. $250 includes corporate logbook and seal.

Limited Liability Company or LLC - Form a llc in 3 easy steps

I like Sun products. I use Solaris. I buy Sun Servers. I recommend Sun products. I tell people to buy Sun stock. I have had good experiences with Sun Support. I participate in the local OpenSolaris Users' Group. I believe in Sun as a company.

But Sun's website is a piece of shit. It is terrible. It is difficult to navigate, downloading anything is a pain, finding anything is impossible, and if anything is broken you can always rely on the outsourced web staff to not fix the problem. Which happens frequently. I have had Sun sales staff inform me that ever since their website was outsourced, these problems have plagued them. Gee whiz, who would have thought?

I want to believe in Sun, but its hard when they make the ENORMOUS MISTAKE of outsourcing their website development. They are a technology company, and their website BLOWS.

Here's one example that just pisses me off:

The Sunray 2. Here it is "From $249. (US)"

So click there and it still says "From $249 (US)." Now click "Customize it." It starts at $374. There is a non-optional license for each Sunray 2.

One moment it starts at $249. The next moment it is $374. What kind of total bullshit is that? The kind that makes me buy from someone else, thats what kind.

Of all the companies on planet earth, Sun has the LEAST excuse to have a bad, slow, crappy website. And yet they do. And they're supposed to be recovering. Well guess what? By the looks of their website, Sun is rotten. Rotten to the core.

Fire whoever was in charge of this, and get someone competent. And hire a westerner or two in the website department.

Sun's Website is a Piece of Crap

Welcome to Startupping

Startupping is a one-of-a-kind community resource created for Internet entrepreneurs by Internet entrepreneurs. It is a place to share information, ask questions, and tap into the experience of others who have built and are building web businesses. Read blog posts about startup issues, participate in our discussion forums, and view our wiki resources, including sample term sheets and a glossary. For more information about the Startupping site, see our about page.

A new community for startups. Forums, wiki, etc. Interesting. As featured on /. They need more people, so recommend this and get it to the main page. Which is to say: gold star.

Startupping - A Community for Entrepreneurs