Welcome to Startupping, a resource for Internet entrepreneurs. When I started my first company, ONElist, back in 1997, there were precious few resources for the newly minted Internet entrepreneur. I had never dealt with any of the aspects of starting a company, from the legal aspects of creating a corporation, to dealing with investors and raising money, to hiring people, to scaling an Internet service, to designing and refining the service, and to marketing and PR. Nor did I know anyone who had dealt with any of these things. Inevitably I made mistakes.
Much has changed in the last 10 years, and there are now some resources on the Internet for entrepreneurs. But they are scattered, uneven, and incomplete. Entrepreneurs are still at a knowledge disadvantage. I created Startupping to address this problem and to help entrepreneurs. I want to take the mystery out of the process of starting and running an Internet company.
There are four main areas of the Startupping web site:
The Startupping Blog
The Startupping Blog will contain posts on a regular basis about all aspects of being an Internet entrepreneur written by people who have been in the trenches. From interviews with experienced entrepreneurs, to lessons learned, to summaries of discussions on the forums, the Startupping blog will be updated several times a week. Point your news aggregator to our
feed to always stay up to date with the blog.
Discussion Forums
The
discussion forums are the heart of the Startupping site. There are forums for each of the different areas of starting an Internet company. Ask questions of other entrepreneurs. Share experiences, including the good, the bad and the ugly. Find out how sausage gets made.
Wiki
The
wiki is the knowledge base of the Startupping site. Here you will find pointers to helpful resources. You will also find sample legal documents, including term sheets and convertible notes. And there is a glossary of applicable terms.
Blog Aggregator
The Startupping site has three ‘planet-style’ blog aggregators, which makes it easy to read what
Angel Investors,
Venture Capitalists and
Entrepreneurs are blogging about. Or you can take the lists of feeds and add them to your own aggregator.
Startupping will work best as a community. Entrepreneurs don’t start out knowing everything about the process of starting a company, and situations and solutions change with the times. This is the site I wish had existed back when I started my first company. I’ve invited many of the successful entrepreneurs I know to participate. It’s my hope that through Startupping, we will be able to help people get started and become successful, and in turn grow the community of new Internet entrepreneurs.