But every once in a while, startups make a pivotal decision that creates an undeniable shortcut to the finish line. We asked eight successful entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share the single best decision they ever made with their startup.

1. Choose The Right Co-Founder

People often liken a co-founder to a spouse: You spend more time with them than anyone else in your life, you have to be uncomfortably honest about difficult topics and, if all goes well, you stick together through thick and thin - or at least until a successful exit. I trust my co-founder completely and rely on her to provide a balancing perspective in all our important decisions. We've certainly made mistakes along the way, but we've borne the consequences of those mistakes together. We also genuinely enjoy spending time together, which makes the whole startup adventure a lot more fun! Our relationship has provided important business advantages since our clients, employees and investors can sense the mutual commitment we have to the company and each other. - Martina Welke, Zealyst

2. Get A Subscription At Mixergy

When we started our business in China, I noticed that many of the mistakes we made could have been easily avoided if we were surrounded by a community of entrepreneurs or mentors who could coach us or share their experiences before we went through the pain. Meeting them in person was impossible given none lived in China. I searched online for a community that would be able to share stories, conduct classes or give practical advice that would help our business. I came across Mixergy and, after watching three interviews, I signed up immediately. I can tell you the ten interviews/classes changed our business and my life. Mixergy gave me a place to generate new ideas and implement effective strategies, motivating me to continue fighting for financial freedom. - Derek Capo, Next Step China

3. Put Your People First

The best decisions we've made have revolved around people in almost every way. Great people make or break your startup, and bad hiring decisions can break it quickly. I feel like thus far we've made some great decisions around people. From my co-founder to early hires, everyone involved in Speek is here because they're capable, passionate and willing to take a risk at some level to make Speek happen. - Danny Boice, Speek

4. Say 'No' To The Wrong Clients

Early on, we discovered that clients who were not in alignment with our core values sapped 80% of our time and energy, leaving less room to amplify and scale what was working. Developing a process to weed out clients who were not in alignment and then empowering our staff to say "no" to those clients made room for us to say "yes" to the rights kinds of customers so we could serve them brilliantly and with joy. - Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

5. Find Underserved Markets

We have always been opportunistic about finding markets that are underserved where we do not face entrenched competition. For example, in the early days, we focused on serving clean tech companies, first in San Francisco and now, in the last year, in LA. We aggressively pursue new markets and new opportunities. Because we commit ourselves to these new markets and put a lot of resources into them, we are able to get first-mover advantage and become the dominant player. - David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

6. Do Your Own Market Research

At Star Toilet Paper, we have an obviously unique concept where there is no easy answer. That being said, in the beginning, my brother and I ensured that we did not outsource market research and business plan writing. We wanted to learn the ins and outs of our business and how we could enter the market. By doing this initial work ourselves (but making sure we let others do legal work effectively and ask questions when necessary), we understood our company like the back of our hand prior to entering the market. - Bryan Silverman, Star Toilet Paper

7. Focus Your Market & Prioritize Sales

As with most founders, we had ambitious plans but soon realized that to build market share, we needed to define "market" more carefully to demonstrate traction. Our initial goal was to launch in every physician's office, but in some traditional industries like health care and education, no one wants to be the first to try new technology. On the other hand, they will speak with you once you have proven credibility. We chose one market, one product and one focus. This helped us lead the team toward one goal and march in one direction together before we started adding features and other offerings. Focusing on market share through one customer base and product also allowed us to prioritize selling, receiving feedback, iterating and selling again to align with market needs rather than just building beautiful products. - Shradha Agarwal, ContextMedia

8. Just Start

I started. Sure, launching your own business can be a daunting task. There are a million reasons not to; you don't have enough money, you're current job is "secure," the success rate of startups seems scary and so forth. But at the same time, if you don't jump in, your success rate will be zilch. Plan carefully and think things through, but remember: You can't learn to swim if you don't get in the water. - Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

But AngelList is huge. For every top-notch team on the site, you’re guaranteed to find dozens of others that will eventually give up and move on. That's why we decided to create a collection of 100 top AngelList startups.

Just be aware that it’s not the definitive list, it’s merely a definitive list. In fact, there arere so many worthy startups on AngelList that it was very difficult to settle on these 100.

To make the collection a useful as possible, I chose 10 exciting startups for each of 9 categories - based on factors ranging from concept to design to traction (in my estimated order of importance). To round out the list, I added 10 more hot startups without regard to category.

Not every company on this list will be brand new to every reader (many have been covered in ReadWrite in one way or another), but I promise you'll find some new gems you’ve never heard of before.

Just as important, taken as a whole, the list represents a powerful cross-section of today’s best technology startups. It should be a useful jumping off point for entrepreneurs to find inspiration and for consumers to find something cool to try.

What startups would you add to or leave off this list? Share your picks in the comments below.

Category-Busting Startups

1. Thumb - A mobile social network that helps people get instant opinions.
2. Lift - A simple way to achieve any goal and track your progress.
3. Clarity - Online consulting. Find, schedule and pay for expert advice.
4. Gumroad - Enables creators to sell directly to their audience.
5. DuckDuckGo - A search engine with lots of extra goodies.
6. CustomMade - Connect with expert makers who can bring your ideas to life.
7. Science Exchange - The scientific services marketplace.
8. StoreEnvy - Shop the world’s most creative businesses.
9. Spindle - Discover and share what's happening around you.
10. Wanderfly - Visual travel discovery.

Consumer Electronics Startups

1. Leap Motion - Next-gen motion control.
2. Dropcam - A high-definition Wi-Fi video camera with remote viewing and two-way sound.
3. Space Monkey - Moves cloud storage into your home.
4. Boosted Boards - The world’s lightest electric vehicle.
5. Interaxon - Control games and more with your thoughts.
6. Memoto - A life-logging camera that lets anyone have a photographic memory.
7. Ouya - A $99 Android-based game console that’s just plain tiny.
8. Scout - Hassle-free home security that is sleek, secure and smart.
9. Double Robotics - Be somewhere else in the world without flying there.
10. Tindie - Etsy for electronics. The marketplace for makers.

Data Startups

1. Kaggle - Connect with a data scientist and find the answers in your data.
2. Chartio - Your data’s interface.
3. Chartbeat - Real-time data for front-line website handlers.
4. Mocavo - A genealogy search engine.
5. Freshplum - Brings the power of data science to businesses that sell electronically.
6. Origami Logic - Visual Big Data analytics for marketers.
7. Fliptop - A customer intelligence platform for marketers.
8. Umbel - Increases the value of your audience by measuring billions of audience traits.
9. Sift Science - Monitors site traffic in real time and alerts you instantly to fraudulent activity.
10. Swipp - Social intelligence platform generating real-time sentiment data.

Design Startups

1. Creative Market - Marketplace for handcrafted, mouse-made creative assets.
2. Mural.ly - Google Docs for creative people.
3. Strikingly - Gorgeous, mobile-optimized sites in minutes.
4. Codiqa - Build a real mobile website or app with no coding required. Fast.
5. Scoutzie - An exclusive network of the best mobile designers.
6. Divshot - Drag-and-drop interface builder for Web apps.
7. Smore - Design beautiful online flyers and publish instantly.
8. Forrst - Where designers and developers improve their craft based on feedback.
9. BrandCrowd - Buying and selling logos made easy.
10. Markupwand - Photoshop to HTML in minutes.

Education Startups

1. Treehouse - A better way to learn technology.
2. Lore - Reinventing classrooms for the Internet age.
3. Udemy - The world’s largest destination for online courses.
4. Memrise - Uses images and science to make learning easy and fun.
5. Minerva Project - A top-tier university for the 21st Century.
6. Boundless - Free digital textbooks with built-in study tools.
7. Skillshare - Learn real-world skills from incredible teachers.
8. BenchPrep - Unlimited access to hundreds of courses on all your devices.
9. Class Dojo - Behavior management software for teachers.
10. Clever - Online learning platform used by more than 3,000 schools.

Food Startups

1. Plated - Chef-designed meals you order online and cook at home.
2. Yummly - Search every recipe in the world.
3. Munchery - Home-delivered meals from local chefs.
4. Locu - Manage and design your menu in one place. Publish to many places.
5. Foodem - Connecting food sellers with food buyers.
6. Food Genius - Big Data for the food industry.
7. Love With Food - Sample the best gourmet food, delivered to your door.
8. Momentum Machines - Gourmet hamburger robots.
9. Caviar - Get delivery from your favorite San Francisco restaurants. Real time GPS tracking!
10. Wholeshare - Save money on good food by buying as a group.

Health Care Startups

1. CakeHealth - Track and optimize your health care for free.
2. OpenCare - Find health providers and book appointments online.
3. Counsyl - Prevent genetic disease before pregnancy with a DNA test.
4. Scanadu - Bringing you the medical tricorder. Check your health as easily as your email.
5. ShopWell - Your personal nutrition expert.
6. Ringadoc - A better answering service for a fraction of the price.
7. GymPact - Never miss another workout.
8. CareDox - Making health information easily accessible and securely portable.
9. Meddik - Get answers from people who have been there.
10. drchrono - Electronic health records built for the iPad.

News Startups

1. Umano - Interesting news read to you by real people.
2. Circa - News without the fluff, filler or commentary.
3. Guide - Turns the web’s news into TV.
4. Blottr - Wikipedia for news.
5. Newsle - Track your friends in the news.
6. Bloglovin' - Follow your favorite blogs and discover new ones.
7. Demotix - The network for freelance photojournalists.
8. Watchup - Your daily newscast.
9. Unfold - Your guide to all sides on every issue.
10. Communitee - The latest news from your friends and followers.

Publishing Startups

1. Submittable - Content submissions made simple. Accept and review digital files.
2. Marquee - Easier, faster, more beautiful publishing.
3. Inkling - Interactive books for iPad, iPhone and the Web.
4. Atavist - Quickly and easily tell a story through digital apps, ebooks and magazines.
5. Markerly - Promote your trending content, engage your audience, personalize and repeat.
6. Pen.io - Give your writing a home and an audience.
7. Storify - Make the Web tell a story.
8. 24Symbols - Access a world of free ebooks.
9. Libboo - Help talented authors get discovered.
10. Tactilize - Real-time publishing on the iPad.

Ventures For Good

1. Rally - Raise money for what matters.
2. NationBuilder - Community building software for every type of leader.
3. POPVOX - Your voice verified, quantified and amplified.
4. Vittana - Microfinance for education.
5. ElectNext - Data-driven politics from national to neighborhood.
6. Fundly - Online fundraising made easy.
7. Carrotmob - Crowdbuying for social good.
8. Causecast - Complete corporate philanthropy and employee volunteering platform.
9. Fundraise - Social fundraising.
10. StayClassy - Online fundraising software.

Take a look at the most recent TechStars Boston class. Of fourteen companies, about a third of them are targeted towards disrupting old industries rife with inefficiency, old business models and decades-old practices. These industries - manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, government, real estate and farming - have not fundamentally changed in years. 

These are not your typical startup accelerator-driven companies. TechStars Boston has tried in recent years to focus at least parts of its classes on companies that may not fit the typical notion of a tech startup, looking for companies, ideas and founders that have intimate knowledge of how disrupt an industry that others may ignore. 

“We love stuff like that. We love it when it is not sexy, something that has been very stagnant for a long time,” said Katie Rae, managing director of TechStars Boston, in an interview with ReadWrite. “Because, and you can bring algorithms to it, a whole bunch of different software products to it and people are blown away.”

Three companies from the most recent Boston class highlight how a startup can have a huge ceiling disrupting industries that haven’t changed in decades.

Freight Farm

Do you have any idea what it takes for most of your food to reach your dinner table? Probably not. And you don’t really want to know either. The human food chain is stuck in a logistical mess of shipping and receiving, where food can travel thousands of miles before it lands at grocery stores and restaurants. Millions of pounds of food are loaded into cargo containers every day and shipped across the world.

Instead of shipping those cargo containers, why not just leave them where they are and grow food in them? That is what Freight Farm does: use shipping containers (like the ones you see 18-wheeler trucks carrying) and rig them to be self-sustaining farms. Using solar energy, water filtration, sensor monitoring and the cloud, these containers turn into automated high-growth farms that take up less than an acre of space. 

What is a company like this doing in a TechStars class? It is not exactly “tech” per se…

“I would consider Freight Farm tech-enabled but it is in an interesting realm of hardware, software, old industry, disruptive. We like things like that,” Rae said.

Tech-enabled is the key phrase. Not every startup needs to be led by geeks writing algorithms on dorm room walls. Real-world industries can take the type of tech that coders and developers have been working on for years and turn it towards real world solutions, like feeding your community. 

When Freight Farm came to TechStars, it was led by a group of entrepreneurs that had been working on rooftop garden models. They realized that type of business wasn’t scalable. Rae and the rest of the TechStars selection process (which includes Angel investors and venture capitalists) recognized the idea, the drive of the team behind it and began thinking of business models. As of last week, Freight Farm had already raised $450,000 in revenue. 

Pill Pack

The pharmaceutical industry is huge. 

And basically broken.

Gone are the days when you had your neighborhood pharmacist that knew exactly what medicines you were supposed to take, at what time and how often they needed to be refilled. The corner pharmacist and apothecary have been replaced by big chain groceries and the likes of CVS and Walgreens. How do you fix a massive industry that is more interested in getting people to take drugs than providing care for them?

Take it to the Internet!

We often think the Internet makes us more impersonal. We are separated by physical distance, interacting through a computer from our homes or offices. Yet, the Internet now can be the place where we receive the most specialized and personal of information. What can be more specialized and personal than your prescription medicines? Pill Pack gets to know you, the drugs you need and when you need them through its website, then ships you a package with everything you need. The “pill pack” is kind of like a large dispenser where your prescription drugs are dolled into individuals days of the week and you can just rip it off the reel when needed. 

Pill Pack is going for the top of the spectrum of pharmaceutical brands. It wants to be synonymous with pharma-care, just like Coca Cola is synonymous with soda. Its founder, TJ Parker, grew up in a pharmacy – his father was a pharmacist – and knows what it is like to provide personal care on a human level. Again, it is not a tech company, but technology makes it possible. That is one of the reasons Rae and the TechStars team loved the idea of Pill Pack.

“For those of us under 55 or 60 (years old), we don’t realize that the primary care physician that used to coordinate all of your medications is basically gone. So, something like Pill Pack could actually be really beneficial for that industry,” Rae said.

LinkCycle

Manufacturing has grown in such a way that new business developments have been folded into old practices. Machines run at certain times and at certain specifications, with little consideration for waste or inefficiency. LinkCycle attempts to streamline that process with data science, giving manufacturers tools to better streamline their workers and machines with an app that can be carried around by a factory manager on an iPad. The app can manage scheduling, machine utilization, process control and equipment upgrades. 

For instance, if a machine would be cheaper to run at night, LinkCycle will tell you that, saving thousands in utility costs. 

“The willingness to pay is super high because either the cost savings or increased sales for them are enormous. All those dollars drop to the bottom line. So, the customers are happy,” Rae said. “LinkCycle is a perfect example of that.”

Team Focused, Industry Experts

What traits do companies like LinkCycle, Freight Farm and Pill Pack share? Each has a team behind it that intimately knows the industry it is trying to disrupt. These are not entrepreneurs sitting in a SoMa coffee shop looking for where the money is. These are company founders that care about changing how businesses work, making the world more efficient and have the expertise to do so. 

Rae says that the keys for successful startup companies trying to disrupt stagnant industries starts with the human passion and expertise. It then comes down to how big the industry is and the type of market the company is trying to sell to. Manufacturing and big-pharma? Ripe for disruption. Online CRM solutions or social photo apps? Not so much. 

“Selection is about the human beings,” Rae said of the process of choosing what companies make it to TechStars Boston. “Every single one of these, we fell in love with the founders, we fell in love with what they cared about and thought the industry was big enough and then we fundamentally think they are so different.”

This is a big deal. For years, HBR and most of the country’s leading business schools taught entrepreneurship as if the strategies, processes and techniques were some sort of amputated versions of the business models embraced by “real companies.” This no longer the case - the lean startup concept is being embraced by companies large and small, and is now taught at business schools globally.

Keep Failing Fast Til You Succeed

The principles of the lean startup - failing fast and continually iterating and learning – certainly pose a challenge to traditional processes at corporate behemoths – but Blank argues that adopting the lean startup model is now “essential for the survival of business.”

As Blank writes in HBR, “It’s already becoming clear that lean start-up practices are not just for young tech ventures.” Those tools now embraced by startups searching for new business models “also happen to have arrived just in time to help existing companies deal with the forces of continual disruption. In the 21st century those forces will make people in every kind of organization — start-ups, small businesses, corporations, and government — feel the pressure of rapid change.”

“The pattern is the same,” Blank added in an interview, only “the scale is different.”

“The world has changed. The rules that worked in the 1990s no longer work. It’s now a world of disruption.” Big businesses, Blank said, became so “focused on execution, they forgot how to innovate.”

The Evolution Of The Lean Startup

The lean startup model is not new. Blank first started piecing together the concept in 2000 and created The Four Steps to the Epiphany in 2003. (The book was published in 2005.) The Startup Owner's Manual was published in 2012. Blank’s revelation — that large companies execute while startups “search” — was the key to articulating the difference between big and small businesses. Blank recalls realizing there were “plenty of tools for execution, but no tools for search.” Ideally startups would be searching for answers, seeking the repeatable business model, finding out what’s salable.

A few years later Blank was teaching agile engineering, which is the idea that “instead of building a product in one lump sum, people build it in increments.” One of his students, Eric Ries, later wrote a book about the concept and named it The Lean Startup. The final piece was to create a framework “to keep score.”

The Evolution Of Business

In his HBR article, Blank predicts applying the lean start-up approach will help existing businesses “innovate rapidly and transform business as we know it.” Lean startup, he writes, is “a new strategy for the 21st-century corporation.”

In our interview, he added the lean startup is now about “continuous innovation inside existing companies.” It’s all part of the evolution of business, Blank explained: “Never underestimate [the impact] of stepping out of the box. Think different. Ask, ‘Why is this different?’ ”

The (Limited) Role Of Big Data

Like almost everyone else these days, Blank had something to say about the important of Big Data: “It’s not just about collecting the data, it’s about having insight into the data you collect, about making connections from the data.”

But Big Data analysis doesn't spell the end of the time-honored business precept of going with your gut, Blank said. Rather he believes using the data to make better decisions is what makes a company “explosive.”

Adding Big Data insights to business vision is the key: “Entrepreneurship will never be formulaic. Entrepreneurs see things other people don’t. They’re artists." For example, he concluded, “Steve Jobs represented the best intersection of art and science.”

Risk = Not Getting Your Hands Dirty

In the end, Blank believes companies get into trouble when they “fail to understand what customers want.” It’s easier to avoid failure if you “build a customer-centric business,” Blank said. “You need to get your hands dirty,” he said.

Thats why Blank warned companies to stop chasing “the romance” — the way you think things are, and start pursuing “the realities” — the way things actually are.

Steve Blank image from a 2012 Stanford Business School Interview on YouTube.

At any startup, the first hurdle is the lack of resources - lack of funds, lack of manpower, lack of time. Outsourcing – or relocating - the work can be a great to overcome those obstacles while controlling costs, increasing efficiency and even making workers happier

But it’s not a simple, one-size-fits-all process. In building my company - Dropmysite / Dropmyemail – I found that managing outsourcing was an ever-evolving combination of local and remote capabilities that stays flexible enough to meet changing conditions.

(See also Are Crowdsourcing And Outsourcing No-Nos For Startups?)

Learning The Hard Way: My Outsourcing Experiences

When we launched two years ago, for example, the whole development team was based in India. As a one-man founder bootstrapping the business, this allowed me to hire a team for much less money.

Plus, with India being 2.5 hours behind my Singapore headquarters, my productive workday was effectively extended. In the morning, I conducted business deals and meetings. Then, in the evening - as the team returned from their lunch - I would concentrate on working with them in real time over Skype on building our product.

After six months, I was able to sign up a local CTO to help build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that enabled me to secure funding. With some cash in hand, I started building a local team of developers to be able to improve the product more quickly.

At that point, I had two teams of technical workers in different locations – which started to cause problem. We had constant confusion, communication issues and lack of control. At this stage of the business we needed top talent, no low cost workers, so I ended the contract with the Indian team to focus on the local team.

So far so good, but soon my lead technologist decided to go back to Argentina for family reasons. He had consistently delivered good work so we decided to try a long-distance relationship. He hired a few ace developers for the Argentinean team and everything seemed like smooth sailing.

Eventually, though, the 12-hour time difference started to take a toll. Meetings were impossible to schedule and both teams were exhausted. Work delays proliferated, as even the assignments were received 12 hours later. We closed the Argentinian office, bringing one developers to Singapore.

(See also The Pros And Cons Of IT Outsourcing: Globally, Nationally And Locally.)

6 Outsourcing Lessons Learned

My experience with outsources taught me a variety of valuable lessons:

1. Keep Teams Together In One Place. Specific functions should be grouped in the same office and time zone to reduce miscommunications or time lags performing urgent work done. It also makes brainstorming sessions easier to coordinate to create better products.

2. Not All Functions Need To Be Together. That said, it may not be necessary for different function teams to be together. Front office teams (sales and marketing, for example) should be in their home market while the back office (IT and operations) can be anywhere.

3. Give Each Team A Focused Goal. Beyond stating the obvious, all teams need clear directions and key performance indicators (KPIs). Just as important, local and remote teams work better when staffed with self-starters who need less direct supervision.

4. Contract Remote Teams On A Per Project Basis. This frees them to do their work without having to rely on other teams to proceed. The offshore work should be completed parallel to that done onshore. If the remote team isn’t pulling their weight, this approach contains the impact, reducing contamination of other teams and projects. Finally, per-project deals make it easier to replace them if necessary.

5. Daily Communication/Alignment Is Critical. There needs to be constant two-way communication between teams. Remote technology development teams must make frequent reports back to the home base. The lead tech officer has to ensure that their work remains aligned to the overall company direction. Communication between business functions is also essential. Tech teams having to speak to each other, and also keep the salespeople in the loop so clients and partners stay informed.

5. Outsourcing Strategies Must Continually Evolve. Currently, Dropmysite / Dropmyemail keeps core functions and technical development in Singapore, but we have business development staff in India, Japan, and the U.S. And we have outsourced side projects to other locales, including Vietnam. The key is to find and execute the right strategy at the right time.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

But when a startup stars to become successful - and outgrows its all-hands-on-deck philosophy - the founder's job is to make sure that the company can properly scale to cope with the new reality. It's a good problem to have, of course, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

So we asked six successful founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share some of their growing pains and errors - and their advice for others in the same (lucky) boat.

1. Implement A Consistent Recruiting Culture

A big mistake is not implementing a culture adept at consistently recruiting talent for all jobs. One summer, we had to hire 20 teachers within two months. Our HR manager felt pressured to hire fast and didn't follow our interview process (blame me). We ended up hiring good teachers - but not excellent teachers. The excuses from the HR manager were pressure, time and the rigid interviewing process. The truth is that we hadn't built a database since our founding, and we wasted time looking for new people when we could have followed up with previously approved, highly qualified candidates. - Derek Capo, Next Step China

2. Let Top-Level Players Focus On Their Strengths

My CFOs and other finance professionals are financial experts and great at what they do. They also have strong client-service skills, but they are not salespeople. Business development is not their forte. When our company started expanding, I attempted to push my top-level players into that biz dev direction. I quickly realized that a growing company will be stronger if you manage your expectations about the strengths and abilities of your top-level team and don’t distract them with responsibilities better handled by someone else. Now, I let my executive team work to their strengths and look for other scalable ways to develop my business. - David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

3. Establish A Cohesive Company Environment

Company culture sets the tone for work ethic, creativity and productivity at a company. When our team was 10 people strong, we regularly took company breaks and played soccer tennis at the park. Whenever we took breaks, we did it as a unit - ensuring that no one felt like they were working harder than anyone else. However, when we grew to 20 people, the company departments started branching off and taking breaks on their own and leaving the office at separate times. It eventually turned into a culture where different departments felt like the other departments weren't pulling their weight. The company needs to define the work culture from the beginning and encourage team members to build a fun and productive environment. - Jun Loayza, Reputation Hacks

4. Encourage Ownership

As the beauty salon industry is projected to grow, our clientele and our staff grows. Our company culture has to be clearly defined by our top-level players. During our mini-meetings and mid-year or annual reviews, I always ask, "What do you think (about our training, our team, the support you are receiving, etc.)?" We recently had to increase our work hours to accommodate our clients. Instead of making the executive decision to change everyone's schedule, our top players gave me input on where to add hours. The biggest mistake I made was in hiring new employees without the input of top-level employees. We ended up with employees who refused to be respectful to teammates. Now, I have each employee meet candidates while I interview them to get to know them and ask questions. - Nancy T. Nguyen, Sweet T Salon

5. Offer Opportunities To Lead

Interns test leadership potential and team dynamics. We're gradually building staff, but the seasonal ebb and flow of interns give the staff an opportunity to lead a variety of personalities. Right now, we have 10 interns, but we've had as many as 20 people from every walk of life crammed into every corner of our office, challenging themselves and us in new ways while learning business skills. At this point, my team and I have worked with what feels like every type of individual out there. So even when it came to a direct hire for our Head of Marketing position, we knew that our top contender's enthusiasm, love of ping pong and positive "team spirit" attitude was a great fit. In turn, he's been an encouraging and collaborative leader. - Manpreet Singh, Seva Call

6. Create A Culture of Learning

My philosophy is that no matter how good we are at something, we could always be doing something better. Building a company is going to be messy, and mistakes are going to be made. In fact, if mistakes are not being made, I might argue that you're not pushing yourself hard enough. The goal is to make the mistakes in non-critical situations so those mistakes will be avoided in a critical situation. I'm very transparent with our top-level team about where I've fallen short and what I'm doing to improve my skills as a CEO. This has helped to create a culture where we're all learning together, and admitting you made a mistake is okay. - Anderson Schoenrock, ScanDigital

All these phenomena are part of an ubertrend I call Voyeurgasm - and it's changing our lives and maybe even your future.

CBS dedicates part of its website, called Caught on Tape, to videos like these. It's a nod to the global popularity of YouTube, which announced this March that it reached 1 billion monthly users who watch some 6 billion hours of video each month.

The History Of Voyeurgasm

Voyeurgasm, the "I like to watch" ubertrend, made its debut with the Rodney King beating in 1991, arguably one of the first surreptitiously videotaped events to make headlines. What came next was a host of candid moments caught by camcorders, surveillance cameras or mobile phones - a wave that virtually guarantees that one day just about everything will be digitally captured.

This ubertrend spurred a host of subtends, including reality shows, like MTV's The Real World, which debuted in 1992; Celebrity Worship Syndrome, coined in 2003 and propelled by "pixel paparazzis;" HDTV in 1998; helicopter police chases, including the infamous 1994 O.J. Simpson car chase; YouTube in 2005; and now Google Glass.

(See also Google Glass: What Do You Want To Know About Google's Internet Eyewear.)

The current concerns about Google Glass and the privacy issues its surreptitious use entails are just a preview of things to come. Here's how Voyeurgasm will reshape your future, including business ideas and career opportunities:

1-3. Streaming Media

With YouTube now receiving some 72 hours of video every minute, it's evident that growth of mobile videos opens many opportunities for entrepreneurs to create dedicated sites to harness the millions of hours of videos that will be uploaded each minute by 2020. Here are a few ideas that merit your attention:

1. Makeup Videos: A quick Google search suggests that this segment is wide open with Makeup Geek being the top player. Not only could beauty sites encourage the improved application of makeup, but they would also propel new makeup trends, like High Definition Makeup.

2. Nature/Underwater Videos: Nature and underwater video searches lead to YouTube channels - but YouTube is a general-interest destination and is not likely to be the first choice of dedicated birdwatchers or snorkelers. This presents an opportunity to sell outdoors or underwater gear to intrepid visitors.

3. Shopping Videos: We like to buy stuff, so we watch a lot of "unboxing" videos on YouTube. That means there is plenty of opportunity to create innovative shopping videos that provide visitors with quick, yet informative insights about buying particular products. Once again a search for "shopping videos" leads to positively benign results.

4. Video Recruitment

In the next four years, about 20 million college graduates will be looking for full-time employment. Since few possess relevant experience, a quick 90-second video might give a prospective employer a better insight into their talents. Monster accepts videos for recruiters, but few recruitment sites let you add video profiles. One new player, GetHired.com does play up this feature.

5. Looking At Cooking

As the Cox News Service reported back in Jan. 2007, "It's one of the ironies of modern life that cooking shows and books are so hugely popular when much of the time we eat on the move or settle down in front of the TV with a microwaved frozen dinner. The preparing, cooking, tasting and eating of food have become voyeuristic pleasures separated from physical reality." The trend is dubbed "gastroporn." While this segment may be well-covered by television networks, what about facility and supply management? Think kitchen demonstration studios or food prep staffers who specialize in optimizing food for video consumption.

6. YouTube Studio Rentals

So now you're ready to shoot your gastroporn or job-seeking vid - but how do you make it great? Some folks have beautiful decks or nice living rooms but few have access to camera-friendly backdrops, let alone the lighting setups needed to shoot professional-looking videos. It's odd that entrepreneurs haven't thought of opening up a national chain of "YouTube Studios" - facilities you could rent by the hour to shoot your talkshow or other viral inspiration.

7. Video Accessories

You have decided to become a pixel paparazzi- on a budget. So can you handhold your iPhone or Android handset to shoot your videos? Sure, but some kind of steady grip would be better. With the notable exception of UK-based Modahaus, which offers the iPhone Steady Stand ($20), few companies have staked out this product category. One Kickstarter project, the Paparazzo Light, failed - perhaps due to a lack of audience reach or functionality.

8. Surveillance Gear

A market research report from ReportsNReports estimates that the market for smart surveillance gear and video analytics will explode from $14 billion in 2012 to $39 billion by 2020. A poll conducted after the Boston bombing found broad public support for surveillance gear, with 78% of Americans saying they thought surveillance cameras were a good idea. Frankly, I'm amazed that those Russian dashboard cams are not more popular here in America.

Are you ready to leverage the increased transparency offered by Voyeurgasm? You know what they say, "There are people who make things happen, there are those who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened." This ubertrend offers the opportunity to do the first two at the same time so you don't have to do the last one. 

See also:

• 10 Compelling Ways People Plan To Use Google Glass
• 5 Socially Unacceptable Things You're Going To Do WIth Google Glass
• Google Glass: Our Lives Are Not Reality TV
• Google Glass: Is There Any Way To Jam It?

So we asked seven young founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) - many of whom have been through the acquisition process - to share reasons why an early-stage exit might not work out, along with their best advice for making sure things do go as planned:

1. Prepare Records And Documents

When there are different perspectives on how a company should be valued, it’s hard to reach a price agreement. Different visions about where the marketplace is headed can impact perceived value. And investors who want an unrealistic return on their investment can prevent deals from getting done. Practical and personal issues can also bring an acquisition to a halt, including technology differences that make integration difficult and key team members who don’t want to work for the acquiring company.

Proper acquisition preparation can help. All your accounting records should be in order, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Your corporate governance, legal records, HR and employee documentation should also be in order and easily shareable. - David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

2. Avoid A Funding Gap

Often, venture capitalists don't get involved with a startup until a larger amount of capital is needed, and this can create a funding gap.

The best piece of advice for founders preparing for an acquisition is to get ready for change. What used to be yours isn't anymore, and you need to deal with these changes in order to make the acquisition successful. - Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

3. Build Cash

One big reason early-stage exits go south is that as part of the due diligence process, there is an intense focus on the company financials. The debt you have and the cash you have in the bank matters. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs try to focus on keeping their tax burdens down by minimizing their taxable profits. While this strategy may make sense early in your business life, when you begin thinking about exiting, you want to have at least two years of higher profits. Get ready to write big checks to the IRS if you are thinking about exiting.

Second, investors want the company to have cash in the bank and debt to be low; this shows great company health. It makes it easier to justify getting a valuation at three to five times annual revenue. - Raoul Davis, Ascendant Group

4. Align Expectations

I've sold two companies, and both have had different outcomes. The main thing I would suggest is ensuring that your expectations and theirs are aligned. Many times, founders are so eager to get the deal done that they fail to consider "life after acquisition," and how this change will affect their happiness. The top three things to consider:

1. Operational roles, responsibilities, and expectations: Will you maintain your freedom to create?
2. Product road map: Where does your product fit into the acquiring company's overall strategy, and what happens if things change?:
3. Earn-outs and changes to the company What happens if the earn-out is tied to a result that you don't have any power to affect? What if the acquiring company gets acquired? It happens.

5. Practice Due Diligence

Whether a startup or Fortune 500 company, people looking to sell should practice due diligence on their own companies before handing things over to a prospective acquirer. Mistakes and oversights can be corrected, and if they cannot, the damage can be minimized. It will be very bad for your asking price if you are sitting at a negotiating table and your prospective buyer informs you that the contract for your biggest customer cannot be assigned, and that contract will have to be renegotiated. It will be even worse if doubts about your IP ownership arise as you are looking to sign the deal.

These sort of issues, and many others, are going to come to light one way or another. Make sure that when they do, you are the one in control of the situation by doing your homework ahead of time. - Peter Minton, Minton Law Group, P.C.

6. Avoid Under-Valuations And Mismanagement

Your company could be undervalued. If you wait a few more years and continue to grow your revenues, you will get closer to your maximum valuation. Keep in mind that acquisitions are often mismanaged, or the new leadership falls apart and hurts the brand. All the hard work you put into building your business could go down the drain. - Peter Nguyen, Literati Institute

7. Find A Culture Fit

Most important is culture fit. Whether you're getting acquired or merging with another company, it's equally important. We've acquired another company, and getting both teams to integrate and act as one under a mutual value set was crucial to the transition. We walked away from an acquisition opportunity because the cultures were not aligned.

Things to discuss and look for in action at a company are values, beliefs, outlooks and expectations. Other things I've found to be important are the company's risk tolerance, as well as its ability to change and adapt. As entrepreneurs, sometimes we forget not all companies are comfortable testing and pivoting. - Lauren Perkins, Perks Consulting

In our hyper-competitive global economy, startups are just as likely to find their first customers in Paris, France, as in Paris, Texas. The barriers to international commerce continues to crumble at a dazzling pace, paving the way for the rise of what SmallBizTrend’s Anita Campbell calls the “micro-multinational.”

Until recently, the designation “multinational” was reserved for giant corporations. This is no longer the case. In a 2007 report, the Council on Competitiveness quoted a USA Today survey revealing that, “of venture-backed software startups created since 1999, nearly 40% have employees outside the United States.”

More importantly for startups, “global firms received more than twice as much funding from venture capitalists as firms with U.S.-only operations.” In addition to targeting a wider customer base, internationalizing your startup can be a competitive edge in securing funding.

Launching a micro-multinational is a complex endeavor, a few critical best practices can help smooth the way.

Internationalize Your Company

In all likelihood, your company’s website will be the primary point of contact between you and potential customers around the world. While a reliable translator is indispensable, several elements beyond mere “Language” settings are essential to making international customers comfortable doing business with you:

Payment Flexibility: In the United States, most online purchases are made with a debit or credit card. This is not necessarily the case in remote regions of the world. Allowing customers to pay in a variety of ways can bolster conversions. Accept payments via PayPal, American Express’ FX International, Xoom or Moneybookers.

Local Support: Ideally, you will be able to hire - or contract - at least one representative in every country or region where you conduct significant business. If your budget doesn’t allow for local full-time employees, be sure to forge strong partnerships with suppliers and agents on the ground. Providing customers with local contacts helps builds confidence and can be a competitive sales advantage.

Maria Springer, co-founder of LivelyHoods notes that, “trust is key in markets swimming with empty promises and 'cheap' products. We train our Kenyan sales reps equally on customer service and product knowledge. Also, when an in-person conversation isn't possible, an unexpected phone call to the customer about their purchase goes a long way.”

At last resort, if you don’t have employees or third-party representatives on the ground, offer telephone or online chat support in the local language during local business hours.

Go “Glocal”

Beyond helping with efficient resolution of customer issues, having employees “in the field” gives your company valuable insights into local cultural idiosyncrasies. As Jake Ludington suggests, “Go local in each new global region by focusing on the full picture. Marketing communications need to be consistent with the region.” Your domestic marketing strategy may not translate to the international stage. Entrepreneurs should tailor their products, and especially the presentation of their products, to the target market.

This can be more difficult than you think. For instance, you may not know that in Malaysia, English-speakers say “yes” to indicate that they heard you, not that they agree with you. In Japan, meanwhile, discount pricing is often seen as a sign of an inferior product.

“Cultural fluency” is not easily acquired. A native German will liekly understand German culture better than even well-informed American. The best way to “go local in each new global region” is to partner with an expert, better known as a “market native.” Working with cultural ambassadors provides a deeper understanding of your target customers’ needs, which in turn enables more finely honed marketing.

Do Your Prep Work

“Many entrepreneurs in foreign locations express frustration in trying to reach customers outside of their own country, but their efforts seem halfhearted and more like bad excuses,” says Tristan Kromer, founder of Lean Startup Circle.

Locals will have the most accurate perceptions of existing demand for your product or service, so “start by going through your first- and second-degree connections on social media sites,” says Tristan. Fellow entrepreneurs may also be able to help. Talk to your friends and contacts and learn from their overseas experiences.

It is also worth consulting the experts. Attorneys specializing in international trade, intellectual property protection and foreign tax law; international accountants; and export officials are all valuable resources. Indeed, the federal government has an entire site dedicated to “helping U.S. companies export” (Export.gov: its market research tool is especially useful).

No one is saying selling around the world is easy, but it is easier than it has ever been. More lucrative, too.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

The Marketplace Fairness Act, sponsored by Democratic Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and Republican Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, would, for the first time, force Internet retailers to collect state and local sales tax. (Many states already force some retailers to collect sales taxes, though their rules don't apply equally to all online merchants.) It would also create a streamlined way for those companies to collect sales tax across 9,600 state and local jurisdictions.

Companies like eBay and anti-tax activists like Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform complain that the bill is just too complicated, although both have other reasons for opposing the measure — chief among them being the way it would formally end the Internet's (admittedly somewhat frayed) status as a tax haven.

The bill's detractors claim it will create massive confusion. The bill exempts online retailers who earn less than $1 million in annual out-of-state sales, although retailers like eBay are pushing to raise that cap to $10 million. EBay also complains that the bill's collection mechanism — which would require states to provide companies with software to help them calculate taxes in various jurisdictions — will significantly injure its many retailers and, by extension, eBay itself.

Amazon, by contrast, has thrown its support behind the bill. Since it already collects sales tax in many of the states where it maintains warehouses, the e-commerce giant would benefit if its competitors had to do likewise. The measure would also reduce any competitive disadvantage Amazon might face as it builds out its distribution network in pursuit of same-day delivery to major urban centers.

The bill now moves to the Republican-dominated House for an inevitable battle. But as the New York Times' Jonathan Weisman notes, "...the bill would now go to the House Judiciary Committee, not the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. That itself could ease the bill’s passage."

Is an Internet sales tax an idea whose time has come, or just more government overreach? Take our poll above, and let us know your thoughts in comments.

To learn more, we asked eight founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share their company policies with respect to work outside the office - and why it works for their teams.

It turns out that while many young startups do have entirely or partly remote remote workforces, they still feel it's important to have some sort of physical space for meetings and "collaborative" work. Many have offices they use some or all of the time, and others promote remote work as a privilege or perk.

1. Boost Productivity With Fridays At Home

At Scripted, we always work from home on Fridays and have a flexible vacation and sick day policy. Our office is simply a physical resource we use to collaborate and socialize. If on any particular day this resource isn't required or is detrimental to your productivity, then you don't need to use it. Plus, our Fridays from home boost productivity the rest of the week. We all love it. - Ryan Buckley, Scripted

2. Establish Asynchronous Collaboration

We've gotten the best results from a team that has the flexibility to work when and where they believe makes the most sense, coupled with a strong anchor in our office as the primary locale for everyone. I'd say more than 75% of the team's time is spent in or near the office, but most of our collaboration is done asynchronously using tools like Yammer, Trello, Salesforce and others. - Derek Shanahan, Playerize

3. Create A Culture Of Communication

Our team is based in San Francisco, Atlanta and Los Angeles. We are rarely in a room together. Agenda-driven team calls limit the ability to collaborate. We found considerable success in transitioning from an "emailing" company to a "calling" one. When you call a teammate with a question, you work together to create a solution. Impromptu conference calls with multiple offices are truly effective. - Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

4. Make Remote Work A Privilege

Our people work remotely only after they've been in the office for a while. I need to get to know their personalities first to make sure they understand our culture and interests. Then, they can work from wherever they want. Real-time collaboration tools like Skype, HipChat and Google Drive make it easy to stay in the loop, no matter where you are. - Jim Belosic, ShortStack/Pancake Labs

5. Set Up A Daily Huddle Call

We've implemented a daily huddle call at 1:11 p.m. This keeps everyone on the same page. Tracking our most important daily metrics together, going over 24-hour agendas and discussing bottlenecks are regular activities. We do not have an office, but we have four people who live locally and get together once or twice a month for lunch or coffee. Hiring locally and doing daily huddles helps greatly. - Joe Barton, Barton Publishing

6. Trust Your Employees

As a company whose entire company culture is established on the foundation of remote working, we really believe in flexible work. It starts at the beginning: you must hire with the knowledge that your employees will be independent and responsible and have the capacity to work from home. When you hire right and place your trust in these employees, collaboration happens and people are productive. - David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

7. Encourage Balance And Flexibility

Our team of five works on a remote basis, even though we're mostly located in New York. I just spent seven months overseas; it was difficult scheduling agendas and regular calls. Technologies like Skype, Ghat and iMessage made it work. We try to have balance and flexibility, and that’s what we pride ourselves on. Yvon Chouinard’s book, Let My People Go Surfing, gives insight into our philosophy. - Matt Wilson, Under30Media

8. Implement Productivity-Based Measures

Our entire company is remote and has great workflow tools in place. I agree with Mayer's decision since people blatantly took advantage of the policy. The incentives to be productive were not effectively structured. Your team needs compensation for productivity-based measures and salary. We developed workflows to require collaboration and transparency. Everyone can see what everyone else is doing. - Chuck Cohn, Varsity Tutors

Here's how it would play out: After an airline magazine declared 3D printers the next new thing, boss Michael Scott would buy one, install it in the office, and christen it by printing out a coffee cup. Ten hours later, after the cup was completed, Scott would hold the cup aloft as he outlined his vision of the future. Employees would watch silently as the hot coffee slowly distended the cup into a plastic teardrop, eventually rupturing and spilling scalding coffee all over Scott's lap.

Staples, Dunder-Mifflin's real-life competitor, undoubtedly has a different scenario in mind. But right now, that's about all most offices can hope to do with the $1,299 3D Systems' Cube 3D printer that Staples now offers. 

What Could A 3D Printer Do For An Office?

In all seriousness, 3D printers - which layer many tiny sheets of melted plastic on top of one another to build up the shape of a 3D object - have any number of possible applications. If you can work with a material strong enough, you can recreate virtually anything you'd like, from a plastic geegaw to, yes, even a gun. Car aficionado Jay Leno even uses them to create replacement auto parts.  

Manufacturing could use a 3D printer to "sketch out" parts. 3D gaming companies could print out 3D versions of their monsters for promotional use. Artisans can create objects that you can only imagine. If your business deals with the tangible, you might argue that you should have a 3D printer in your office.

(See also Just How Hard Is It To Get And Use A 3D Printer?)

But there's an argument to be made that 3D printing, in its present form, just isn't ready for general office use. And even if it was, the Cube 3D printer doesn't seem like the right device to break the 3D printing barrier.

With a few exceptions, today's 3D printing remains a hobbyist's tool, nothing more. I asked Staples to put me in touch with someone who could convince me of the need of a 3D printer as a general office tool. Instead, the company's public relations guy referred me to this sentence in the Staples press release: "For companies creating new products, 3D printing can make it easier to design and test new concepts, and decrease the time to market". 

Like what? Well, a restaurant could use a 3D printer to create new kitchen tools. Could you actually eat with those? Probably not.

Cube 3D: Locked Down And Complex

Even if you could come up with practical uses for a 3D printer, the Cube 3D printer might not be your best bet. While fairly easy to set up and use, a PCMag.com review of the Cube 3D found that of objects the site's reviewers tried to print - a Tardis, an owl, a teacup and others - success varied considerably: "About five were beautifully rendered; most of the rest were of decent quality though with some flaws, and about four were basically ruined," the site said. And that doesn't count a half-dozen aborted starts. 

Yes, you can print in either ABS or compostable PLA plastic, but just five inches to a side. And while some sample objects looked great, others looked covered in cobwebs. 

Neither the PCMag review nor an extensive CNET review revealed the printing times: on the order of two hours. CNET does, however, point out that the Cube requires online activation, can detect "third-party" print materials and requires leveling the print tray, applying glue to it, then soaking the print platform in water to remove the printed object. And that's if everything goes right.

Then there's the cost. $1,300 for a hobbyist's toy isn't cheap. And that's not counting the $50 per plastic cartridge holding 320 grams of material (0.7 pounds). Printing is expensive, whether it's 2D or 3D.

Perhaps feeling the competitive pressures that forced Office Max and Office Depot to merge: Staples seems to be looking for ways to entice customers into its stores. And being the first major retailer to stock 3D printers could help addressthat problem. For looky-loos and hobbyists, getting a first-hand look at 3D printing is a fascinating diversion - heck, you can even print out a doll and put your face on it. For general productivity, though, it's literally a waste of time of time and money.

(See also Why 3D Printing Will be The Next Big Copyright Fight.)

Lead image via Cubify

Struggling entrepreneurs around the world are in deep envy of Nick D’Aloisio’s business acumen. Last month, the 17-year-old sold Summly, his news-aggregation app, to Yahoo for a reported $30 million! If and when D’Aloisio starts another company, it will certainly be, to put it mildly, well-funded.

Of course, most entrepreneurs do not have access to that kind of cash. The average business takes years to break even, let alone post a profit. Two-time entrepreneur Jordan Eisenberg, founder of UrgentRX warns that, “Few things in a start up are more important than carefully managing cash. At the beginning, before you have investors, it is not unusual for you (and possibly employees) to forego salary for extended periods of time. Do whatever it takes to build your product and get it to market.”

While the founders of a company might be willing to forgo a paycheck for months on end to get their business up-and-running, their employees may not be so eager to make that sacrifice. To get workers to go along, cash-strapped entrepreneurs have to get creative.

Non-Monetary Incentives

Many startups simply do not have the money for any kind of traditional compensation plan. That's why so many entrepreneurs try to leverage equity. Taking on co-founders or compensating employees with a stake in the company can be a viable initial fix, but it isn’t always sustainable.

Fortunately, there are other low or no-cost alternatives to get people to do work on your startup.

StartupDigest, for instance, champions the Curator Model. The company finds talented individuals to manage or “curate” the digest for their home cities. Curators receive no financial compensation, yet management insists volunteers line up to lend a hand. Why? Because the platform lets curators distribute digests in their own names. It’s a win-win transaction in which no money changes hands.

As long as a curator is not a potential competitor, it allows collaborators to self-promote/and leverage the company's rolodex in exchange for some form of labor. When an employee or partner wants to spend his or her time performing tasks you need done, the need for monetary compensation can drop out of the equation.

Colleges and universities can also provide free labor in the form of interns. Offering mentorship in exchange for help at the office can pay divdends, especially since many college students bring a deep grasp of social media and other technological chops that make them capable of much more than just making coffee.

Life Hacks

Sometimes startups need to hire real paid employees. To land high-caliber talent at a rate you can afford, make your startup worthy of others' personal investment.

‘Life hacks’ don't cost a lot of money, but can make working at a startup more desirable than a better-paying position at a staid old-guard firm. Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook are well known for providing employees with everything from in-house chefs to daycare. Those are expensive, but ther are other tactics available:

• Flexible scheduling: Startups aren’t a 9-5 job so let employees come in when they want.

• Remote working: Forget Marissa Mayer. If employees are productive at home, let them work from there when they need to. At least they won't leave to go work at Yahoo.

• Public recognition: Praise in front of others for our efforts is an innate human need – leverage it to build loyalty!

Focus on offseting lower wages with fun, engaging and accommodating perks that don't cost the company a lot of money. It's the best way to compete for the talent you need.

Not evey candidate will sign on to a vow of poverty to work at your company, but there are people out there ready to take a bit less in order to become part of something special.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

So called "Bootstrapping" can be a boon or a bust; you might be missing out on the kind of fast growth a only major cash infusion can provide, but running lean has advantages too.

For insight, we asked seven experienced bootstrappers from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) to share, firsthand, the biggest benefits they've seen from bootstrapping - and what startup founders need to watch out for.

1. You Don't Need Money To Teach About Money

I bootstrapped my most recent startup because I didn't want to lose control of the creative direction before I had proven the concept and sales model. I'm working in an area which has little-to-no track record (financial literacy education for young kids by working with financial institutions as distribution channels), and I wanted to test it first before having to answer to someone who wants to do it his way. An upside to doing it this way is that I am acutely aware of my spending decisions and make them with much thought, but this can also be a downside. There is never a clear "right way," so I continue to bootstrap until my gut tells me otherwise and/or a great opportunity presents itself. - Darrah Brustein, Finance Whiz Kids | Equitable Payments

2. Don't Strap Your Startup Too Tightly

The biggest benefit of bootstrapping for me is that I own 100% of my company, which means I have the freedom to take it any direction I please. There are no outside investors with their own special interests. I am solely responsible for the success or failure of the company. This, in turn, causes some drawbacks as well. Advice and opinions from investors can be very valuable and beneficial to the growth of your company. In addition, their networks can also produce connections that weren't previously available. However, I've learned quickly that there are many successful entrepreneurs who are happily willing to give advice and direction without wanting anything in return. It's up to me to reach out and show genuine interest in their advice and experiences. - Shahzil (Shaz) Amin, Blue Track Media, LLC

3. Trading Growth For The Ability To Pivot Quickly

Contrary to what you might think, being in bootstrap mode actually makes pivoting easier. With a lean operation, the costs for dropping ideas and moving in a new direction are minor, whereas the sunk costs that come with pivoting with money can be nerve-wracking. The biggest drawback is the loss of opportunity for rapid growth. There can be instances where hitting your niche hard and fast is crucial to establishing yourself in your market. A cash infusion at the right time can be what saves your company from the startup graveyard. - Nanxi Liu, Enplug

4. Keep The Profits 

One of the most under-recognized benefits to not bringing in outside funding (in particular, institutional or VC money) is that it means if you create a profitable company, you can actually distribute and enjoy those profits - meaning you can have a positive (and ongoing) outcome outside of a liquidity event. VCs are not interested in receiving dividends - it's just not in their business model. They want cash to sit on the balance sheet, or even better, see it all thrown back into the business (even if there aren't necessarily good places to put it). - Michael Mothner, Wpromote

5. Focus On The Customer

The greatest thing about bootstrapping ColorJar is that our management team gets to do what's best for our customers, rather than our balance sheet. By all means, we're trying to run a strong business - and we've grown quickly - but if we want to take a calculated risk or go the extra mile for a client when it's not in the budget, we can just go for it and act quickly. The drawback of bootstrapping is managing the ebbs and flows of cash flow without a cushion, but banks can help there. Overall, we're a better company with a better process and better service because we've grown at our natural rate and not at the rate required by capital injection. - David Gardner, ColorJar

6. The Ability To Keep A Day Job

I bootstrapped my business for almost seven years while working 80 to 90 hours per week as an investment banker and later a VC. It was a significant personal sacrifice, but I was able to reinvest 100% of the cash flow from Varsity Tutors and a large percentage of my "day job" earnings into growing the business. As a result of that initial sacrifice, money was spent improving every aspect of the company's operations, as opposed to paying myself a salary. Since I had a day job upon which I could rely, it allowed me to be far more aggressive with the investments we made in improving the company. The downside was missing years of social activities. In retrospect, it was certainly worth it. - Chuck Cohn, Varsity Tutors

7. Don't Spend Money, Make Money

In my experience, the biggest benefit of bootstrapping was learning how to offer a great-quality service. Because we weren't funded, we had to make money, and the only way to do that was by offering a great service and hustling. Bootstrapping makes you grow as a person. It's tough, stressful and full of ups and downs. And those things teach you invaluable lessons. - Zach Cutler, Cutler Group
 
The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

That’s exactly the issue facing Pertino as it prepared to launch its cloud-based network launch last fall.

Where To Find Qualified Beta Testers?

Pertino’s concept was to build a cloud-based global network, requiring no specialized hardware or virtual private networks. The company envisioned a network affordable enough for small and midsize (SMB) companies with the security and performance of an enterprise network.

How the heck do you beta test a product like that?

Pertino CEO Craig Elliott turned to the Spiceworks.com community of more than 2.4 million IT professionals, centered around the company's free, ad-supported IT management tools for SMBs.

Elliott and many Pertino employees were already Spiceworks members, and they started with a 20-company private beta program that grew into “a community-exclusive public beta” involving 250 “Spiceheads.”

Spiceworks’ co-founder Jay Hallberg says three to four years ago the Spiceworks team was “dreaming big that someday we’d have a company launch within Spiceworks.” Pertino turned out to be that company.

Beta Testing Feedback Is Essential

While the usual point of beta testing is to find out if your product is good enough to launch, most initial offerings end up requiring signficant tweaks. “If you’re not thoroughly embarrassed by the first product you release," Elliott says, "you’ve overthought it, and you’ve come to market too late.”

Beta testing in Spiceworks enabled knowledgeable IT professionals to actually use the product and offer Pertino “incredible, first-hand feedback and insights,” says Elliott.

Todd Krautkremer, Pertino's VP of marketing, explains that, “Since so many members of the Spiceworks community work IT at small and mid-sized businesses, it was a way to treat SMBs as consumers… The Spiceheads provided feedback in real time [that] shaved months off what the normal development timeline would be.” Beta testing in Spiceworld gave Pertino “validation and the ability to go back to the drawing board based on the feedback,” Krautkremer adds. If you can’t make it in the Spiceworks community, how can you succeed in the broader market?

Speed Wins

Pertino didn't worry about launching its “private” beta to such a large community. ""In the world of open-source tech,” says Krautkremer, “to rest your laurels on defensible IP is not a recipe for success.” Patents can't protect you.

Instead, seizing the market as early as possible is the best way to become a dominant leader, says Krautkremer. It’s not necessarily being first to market,” Krautkremer continues, “MySpace was there before Facebook.” To win, your idea has to be novel and simple, and you have to pursue it aggressively.

So far, that approach is working for Pertino. The company publicly launched its product in February: "6,000 people downloaded it on day one,” Krautkremer says, and more than 300 Pertino networks were built.

Beta Test Tips

Sharing what he learned from the Spiceworks beta, Krautkremer offers tech companies 4 quick tips:

1. Use the freemium model: make it easy for potential customers to try your product.
2. Keep it simple: “Click, click, done wins. Click, click, click, done loses.”
3. Eat your own dogfood: use and test your own product.
4. Get to market first and then grow fast.

Oh, and find qualified beta testers to provide useful feedback before you make your product publicly available.

It's A Small Cyberworld

Not surprisingly, 95% of the state-affiliated attacks aimed at stealing intellectual property, which included classified information, trade secrets and technical resources, originated from China last year, according to the 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report. No organization, no matter how small, was safe.

"The big surprise for us was that there were a lot of small organizations being targeted for cyberespionage," Jay Jacobs, senior analyst with the Verizon RISK team, told ReadWrite. The targets included manufacturing companies, computer and engineering consultants and professional services firms that were "relatively small, even under 10 employees kind of small."

The attackers went after small outfits using the same tactics waged against big companies. In a way, the hacker strategy parallels the way investigators go after the small players in a criminal enterprise, hoping to flip them in order to implicate higher-ups. Only in this case, the hackers are frequently targeting small companies to lay hands on the trade secrets of their larger partners.

Roughly one in five cyberattacks in 2012 were to steal intellectual property in order to further a country's national and economic interests. The most common mode of attack was spearphishing, which involves sending an email disguised as coming from a colleague of the recipient. The message typically contains a malicious link or attachment.

Chinese hacking of American computer networks has placed a damper on relations between China and the Obama administration, which has demanded the country curtail its hacker army. On Monday, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, and Gen. Fang Fenghui of China met to discuss cybersecurity.

Other Attacks

Despite all the attention, cyberespionage was a distant second in terms of attacker motivation. Three quarters of data breaches committed last year was for financial gain, with the remaining 5% a result of hactivism, the report found. Verizon confirmed a total of 621 data breaches and more than 47,000 reported "security incidents," which included denial-of-service attacks.

Among the companies that suffered data breaches, 37% were financial services firms, 24% restaurants and retailers, 20% manufacturers, transportation organizations or utilities, and the remainder classified as "information and professional services firms." Malware was used in 40% of breaches. Three quarters of the compromises involved exploiting weak or stolen user names and passwords.

Discovering data breaches was not easy for most organizations. Verizon found that the time from compromise to discovery took months, and sometimes years.

Verizon worked with 18 organizations worldwide in gathering data for the report. The groups included national computer emergency response teams and law enforcement agencies.

No one found any cutting-edge methods used by attackers to break into networks, so organizations can go a long ways toward protecting themselves by focusing on the basics, such as stronger passwords and educating employees about bogus email.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Everyone wants to work for a hot startup. They’re hip, fun and run by passionate, creative people with exciting, innovative ideas. But working at that awesome startup can come at a cost to your career and your sanity. Consider these points before quitting your safe, secure position at a big, established company:

1. The Hours Are Long

Young companies building a new product or service from the ground up run on small teams, limited resources and no time to spare. And they expect their people to give 110% to the job. Your social life outside the office will likely suffer, and the pressure to stay later and later can make you feel like a deserter if you need to leave the office on time for personal reasons. 

2. The Pay Sucks 

Unless you’re a senior executive of a startup, your compensation may leave something to be desired. The bulk of startup funding goes into the operations and product first, and the people second. For the amount of hours you can be required put in each week, the pay may feel inadequate. The tradeoff that startups offer is the cool factor - plus equity and stock packages. And there may be perks like free snacks and lunches, beer kegs, discounted gym memberships, yoga classes, flexible vacation time, ping-pong, etc.

3. Big Egos Rule

Startups are built on exciting ideas from brilliant minds, but those can also come with egos. Like any workplace, many startups have a pecking order. While most startups advertise a spirit of open forum and democratic exchange of ideas, you may have to earn your stripes before your input is valued and your ideas are implemented. Visionaries are, understandably, protective of their visions, and you may find yourself in a work environment that feels more like a tyranny than a democracy. (Note: Please make sure you're not the one with the ego.)

4. Distractions, Distractions, Distractions

Startups pride themselves on a casual, hoodie-and-jeans company culture, the antithesis of the stereotypical corporate suit. Open, collaborative, cubicle-free working environments foster a sense of community and togetherness. But the frat-house vibe can also be counterproductive and result in a lack of oversight and structure. In this kind of less-than-professional office, employees may get too chummy, spending more time on Facebook, socializing, coffee runs and cigarette breaks than getting work done.

5. You Probably Won't Last

Many new startups suffer from the revolving door syndrome, struggling to keep a stable team. Sometimes they hired the wrong people, but sometimes the person shown the door is you. A recent study of 20,000 new hires by research firm Leadership IQ found that 89% of the time new hires failed, it was for ‘attitudinal reasons’, not lack of skill. Make sure you are a good fit for the startup before submitting your resume. If you do get the job, make sure to bring (and keep) a good attitude.

So Now What?

Keeping positive, staying loyal and consistently producing high-quality work is the best way to impress any company. Working for a startup can be a sacrifice of time and money, but it's also a commitment that can pay off if the company grows rapidly. Many startup employees move on to form their own companies or parlay their experience into an in-demand calling card. If you think you have what it takes, don't let these warnings slow you down.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

- Jack Kerouac, On The Road

Although I have worked in tech for more than two decades, I did not start there. After graduating college at the tender age of 20, I moved to Vermont, bursting with a plan to write a novel. It was my first unsuccessful venture. The project, as we say in the Valley, never made it to general availability. The beta was poor and the founder threw in the towel.

But I gained many benefits from this experience that proved extremely useful in future, more successful entrepreneurial endeavors. Living in a creative discipline – writing, painting, sculpting, music, performance, etc. – forces you to look at the world as a blank canvas every day. It requires you to rely on the power of your imagination from a cold start. Isn’t that exactly what great startup founders do? A blank page screams "create and invent." The failure mode of an artist is creating a poor copy of another one.

From Darwin To Denial

My colleague Geoff Moore captured how companies innovate at each phase of their lifecycle in his book, Dealing with Darwin. With the greatest respect for the brilliant taxonomy he bequeathed to the tech industry (crossing the chasm), I would argue the most powerful innovation elixir for any company is not dealing with Darwin, but dealing with denial.

Merriam Webster defines denial as a “negation in logic, ” and the greatest innovations are all about some kind of denial of reality, swimming against the tide of business logic or established engineering practices. Some of the greatest denial plays in the past few years worked against clear statements of logic - and here are five paraphrase of those propositions, along with the resulting winners and losers:

1. “Computers and smartphones need keyboards and tapping on glass is a poor substitute”: +1 Apple -1 Blackberry.
2. “Open source is not secure or robust enough for the Enterprise”: +1 Linux -1 Microsoft.
3. “People will never pay $3-$4 for a cup of coffee”: +1 Starbucks -1 Dunkin Donuts, diners.
4. “All my software must run behind my firewall”: +1 Salesforce.com -1 enterprise software vendors.
5. "To guarantee performance and security, you must use specialized hardware such as custom ASICs:" +1 Intel, Broadcom, VMware -1 dozens of dead or dying systems companies.

Finding Innovation In Fiction

I have a simple suggestion for the venture-inclined: crack open a novel. The more “out there,” the better. While Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow or James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake might be a bit much to chew, find something than takes you to a different time, a different place or a different character than what you are comfortable with. Read anything by Isaac Asimov or Don DeLillo and then write a business plan.

The gravity that comes with running a business can overwhelm our ability to look at something as a blank slate on which we impose our imagination. Maintaining an existing revenue stream weighs heavily upon our ability to transform technology or tinker with a successful business model. That’s why a big storage company did not build Box or DropBox, or a photography giant did not build Pinterest. How did Amazon build the greatest Infrastructure-as-a-Service company, AWS? My theory: It was already selling more novels than anyone else.

Novels, Not Movies

While movies offer a great escape from reality, they are short stories for the mind, not novels. You need to think about reading (or writing) fiction as a software simulator for your mind.

University of Toronto professor and psychology researcher Keith Oatley ,in his recent book Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction, has done the research to support this logic. It’s true folks: Reading fiction helps by removing the denial that drains our imaginations. The ability to shift your thinking beyond simply accepting the conventional wisdom is frequently a key success factor in building an innovative company.

When I was deciding whether to join my last startup, I was initially deeply skeptical about the viability of its technology. After the usual backdoor explorations with customers, one thing that got me past my technical concerns was an encounter of another sort. At the time, my son was reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for school and I snagged it after he was done. The book inspired me to remember how the power of an idea can upset a well-established order against tremendous odds.

So here is a thought: Instead of the afternoon coffee break, maybe our teams need a story break to step away from the drudgery and overwhelming flow of information flowing across our screens. Yes, exercise and down time is important. But maybe it’s time we suggest spending 20-30 minutes with Richard Russo or Cynthia Ozick. Let’s tune up everyone's ability to deny reality.

Google has started systematically upgrading the Google Places Dashboard. The Google Places Dashboard is the backend dashboard tool local business owners and local marketing experts use to build, manage and maintain their Google+ Page for Business and the business information that appears on it. The new Google Places Dashboard matches the newer Google+ look and aesthetic and adds new features and functionality.

Google seems to be taking its time upgrading its business listings management tools and migrating the information and tools from Google Places to Google+ Local. Outwardly, to consumers, the switch from Google Places to Google+ Local happened nearly a year ago. Since that time, local business owners have wrestled with both Google Places and Google+, while attempting to manage and optimize their online business listings.

Google Places Dashboard Update Highlights

New Design And Layout: Google has modernized its look with the push of Google+. The Google Places Dashboard now is consistent in design and layout with most of Google’s other products. Most of Google’s products now have the “Google+ look.”

Like Google+, the navigation options have been moved to the left side of the screen. The management of the Google+ Local page and AdWords Express ads has become easier, as the new dashboard provides separate tabs for both. It appears, however, that Google is doing away with the tab for basic stats and analytics.

Better Integration Wth Other Google Products: The new Google Places Dashboard includes a tab to allow business owners to manage their Google+ Local pages. This tab makes it easier for local business owners to gain access to the social features of Google+, such as sharing posts, photos and videos. If you do not have a Google account, you will not see the Google+ Local page tab on your Google Places Dashboard.

The previous Dashboard did not include direct integration or access to Google+ Local pages. It allowed a user to update standard business listing information, but there was no way to post to Google+ from the Google Places Dashboard. There was also frequently a delay before business information edits made on the Dashboard appeared on the Google+ Local page.

Faster Updating: Google has said that the new Google Places Dashboard promises faster updating. It has gone so far as to say that most modifications made through the new GPD will appear across the Google suite of products (including Google Maps) within 48 hours.

There are other new features in the new GPD that are not directly addressed in Google’s announcement of the new dashboard. Another dramatic change is the inclusion of service-based businesses without a physical location in Google+ Local pages. This allows business owners (like plumbers) without a physical address to now take advantage of the online exposure that a Google+ Local page can offer.

The new Google Places for Business Dashboard is a welcome upgrade to the previous version. Only time will tell if the upgrades make a real difference in helping local business owners take advantage of Google+ Local pages and gain the online exposure and local search results they want.

I think most women who know me would agree with this statement.

I know things. I know, for instance, that women on average make 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. I know that women are a minority in leadership positions in government and business. I know these things like I know that Jacoby Ellsbury is a pretty good centerfielder for the Boston Red Sox. I know, but I do not understand the how or the why.

What Did I Understand? Not A Damn Thing

So, when I found myself sitting at the Harvard Club in Boston listening to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg talking about her new book Lean In, I told myself that I know what she is talking about.

You know what? I don’t know a goddamn thing. 

Without knowing, I cannot understand. I cannot understand why there are less women in the field of technology. I cannot understand why there are less women technology journalists. I cannot understand that women face different external perspectives than a man in the work place and that, in turn, changes the dynamic of how they attain leadership or are perceived by coworkers.

Sandberg asked for a raise of hands from the crowd at the Harvard Club. First, she asked the men, “Has anybody ever told you that you were too aggressive at work?” A few men, including me, raised our hands. Most did not. Then she asked the same question of the women in the crowd.

Laura Fitton, evangelist at HubSpot, asks a question of Sandberg at The Harvard Club

Nearly every woman — a group filled with startup employees, marketers, public relations people and developers — raised her hand. This was a surprise for me. I am either completely naïve or conditioned to the gender stereotypes of our time. Probably both.

What Did I Learn? A Lot

Sandberg related a story about a performance review of a woman employee at Facebook. The performance review had labeled the employee as “too aggressive.”

“I took that performance review back to the people that gave it, both men and women and I said to them ‘can you tell me what she did that was too aggressive?' And they answered," Sandberg said. “Then I said to them, if a man had done exactly those same things would you have thought he was too aggressive? And to a person, they said no.”

Lean In is filled with anecdotes like these, presented to drive home how much of the inequality facing women in the workplace starts with misperception based on gender stereotypes and social conditioning. 

Sandberg writes:

Professional ambition is expected of men but is optional — or worse, sometimes even a negative — for women. “She is very ambitious” is not a compliment in our culture. Aggressive and hard-charging women violate unwritten rules about acceptable social conduct. Men are continually applauded for being ambitious and powerful and successful, but women who display these same traits often pay a social penalty. Female accomplishment comes at a cost.

In order to change something, you first must understand it. That is not always easy, especially when it comes to centuries of conditioned behavior such as gender stereotypes. It takes a high degree of self perception and awareness to realize that you don’t know or understand something. Sometimes that realization comes as a hard smack in the face, as it did with me listening to Sandberg speak at the Harvard Club.

“As men get more powerful and successful, everybody likes them better. Men and women,” Sandberg said. “As women become more successful, everyone likes them less. If we can begin to understand that, we can change it.”

Photos by Britta Schellenberg courtesy of Brightcove