Andrew Warner is the founder of Mixergy.com, a online resource guide for ambitious, entrepreneurs. Last year, he sat down with one of the Co-Founders of Y-Combinator.com, Paul Graham.
Y Combinator does seed funding for startup companies. Seed funding is the earliest stage of venture funding. It pays for your expenses while you’re still getting things started.
Paul and his team make small investments (rarely more than $20,000) in return for small stakes in the companies they fund (usually 2-10%). They’ve helped more than 172 companies with seed funding and expert advice on how to successfully launch a company.
In this interview, he discusses the different characteristics that help entrepreneurs stand out from other companies seeking financial help.
I chose this interview to share because I was recently looking up information on seed funding. As I started reading more about the company, I realized that Y Combinator is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs in the early stages of development.
Andrew Warner is the founder of Mixergy.com, a online resource guide for ambitious, entrepreneurs. He recently sat down with the Founder of Monster.com, Jeffrey Taylor.
Jeff, who recently turned 50, has a very young spirit. In the interview with Andrew, he talks about the risks with starting a company and using profits from his advertising agency to fund his monster idea. The highlight of the interview has to be when Andrew questions if Jeff sold the company prematurely.
Jeff’s response, “Eat Dinner when Dinner is Served.” Very funny, but true.
Groupon, is an online based company that offers special deals to various cities in the United States. The company launched itself in 2008 and in 2 years has expanded into 300 markets and 35 countries.
Google is near a deal to acquire Groupon, the popular online discounter, for as much as $6 billion. At that price, Groupon would be one of Google’s largest acquisitions. (2nd Biggest Acquisition: $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, the display advertising giant, in 2007.)
The deal is worth $5.3 billion with an additional $700 million earnout based on performance.The average Groupon deal offers 50 to 90 % off retail goods and services, from restaurant certificates to skydiving lessons. It has grown beyond local stores to work with retailers like Gap, which offered a nationwide deal this summer.
(Gap sold 440,000 units and generated $11 million in revenue from advertising deal with Groupon)
Groupon’s success has helped turn the company into a cash-generating machine, signing up more than 12 million registered users and reaping more than $350 million in estimated annual revenue.
Mashable.com recently posted 2 article’s about Google’s new acquisition and the penalties the company may face due to complaints filed by competitors and regulators.
Click the links below to read more about Google & Groupon:
“Don’t follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.”
- Unknown
There’s a time in life when you have to decide when to listen to the advice of your friends and when to go with your gut.
There’s nothing wrong with advice from your peers, but the wrong advice could cost you lots of money, and more important, Time. (See Just My Thoughts: Time Management)
When you’re asking a specific question that relates to a business or organization, make sure the person your asking the question to has a decent amount of knowledge in the subject area. (In other words, make sure they’ve done their homework. )
There’s nothing worse than listening to someone who has no idea what they are talking about. (This applies to Family and Friends.)
I’ve seen too many friends with creative ideas let someone else discourage them from their goal. Believe in yourself and accomplish your goals in life.
Last year, I switched my hosting company to Godaddy.com and they have exceeded my expectations thus far. I’ve been very impressed with their customer service representatives, 24/7 Technical Support, Database Back-up assistant, easy-to-install applications and other features that separate them from companies like 1and1 and HostMonster.com
I recently read an article on Mashable.com about Godaddy publishing a new default domain extension, .CO.
For all practical purposes, .co domains are the same as .com domains; that means they are available to everyone and come on a first-come, first-serve basis. One of the biggest advantages is the fact that they are already widely recognized.
More than 20 countries, including the UK (.co.uk) and Japan (.co.jp), already use them for their country-specific domains.
I’ll have to conduct more research on the topic before I jump on the .CO bandwagon. Until then, I’ll keep using my .com websites.
Jon Crawford, Founder of Storenvy.com, recently sat down with Andrew Warner at Mixergy.com to share how he bootstrapped his company by selling over $1 million in t-shirt printing services.
