NBV meeting schedule

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Bootstrapping Tools

I am going to start to keep a running list of ways to do things that could cost a fortune, but can be done for very little when you are starting up a company.

Ever since the dot.com era, young entrepreneurs seem to believe that the only way they will be able to achieve lift-off of their company is using venture capital.  In fact, the vast majority of successful startups don't use VC financing - certainly not in their early stages. 

Marketing & Branding

Logos.  It is so easy to spend a fortune developing a logo.  Sometimes, rightly so.  However, for a startup, you need something that is nice, remarkable even.  But you can survive if it is not yet an icon. 

Rather than paying a design agency a lot of money to come up with a limited set of ideas - Crowdsourcing design ideas is an incredibly effective way to go.

99designs.com is such a site.   You can get a number of designers working on your logo needs for free, then you pick the best of the bunch and work with them to completion at a budget you can manage very carefully.




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