Archives for August 2013

How Do You Define Success?

NavalloI recently did an interview with a young entrepreneur named Jason Navallo who is collecting and publishing life advice on his website Navallo.net. Jason has some ideas for interesting things he may do with the site over time, but right now it is just a free resource full of life perspectives from interesting people. Well worth a browse. In the meantime, since I have a lot of early-career entrepreneurs as Scratchpaper readers, I figured I’d share my answers here.

1. How do you define success?

Achieving balance and sustainability. Finding something that stimulates you enough intellectually and pays you enough financially, but also gives you enough balance with other aspects of your life to be sustainable over the long-haul.

2. What is the key to success?

Finding work that suits your temperament perfectly and fits with your natural curiosity.

3. Did you always know you would be successful? [Read more…]

SEC Rules Threaten The Formation of Early Stage Capital

SEC SealThe Securities and Exchange Commission issued final Rule 506 permitting startups to use general solicitation when raising funds from accredited investors. As required under the JOBS Act, issuers under 506(c) must “take reasonable steps to verify” that all purchasers are accredited investors. The rule is effective as of September 23, 2013.

The SEC did not define “reasonable steps to verify,” stating instead that [Read more…]

Start-Up Marketing (Guest Post – Seven in a Series)

Jeff Berman has agreed to contribute a series on marketing for startups to the Scratchpaper community. This is the seventh in the series (table of contents here). Stay tuned for more.

How to Botch Marketing #6:

Your Positioning vs. Your Why

Dove Soap

The Story of Positioning

Fifty year ago, Ivory Soap dominated its category with its “99.44/100% pure” line. No one could compete with Ivory on clean, and so everyone else was fighting for 2nd place. Then, along came Ted Bates & Co., who positioned Dove Soap around moisturizing rather than cleanliness. Dove became the #1 brand in a blink, suddenly every marketer was scrambling to define their Unique Selling Proposition, and the idea of positioning became the rage.

What the Positioning Story Misses [Read more…]