This post was originally posted on my cofounder’s blog: the Arel English Journal of Opinion (AEJO). Arel is the cofounder and CEO of Vitogo.

By Arel English.

For about the past 10 months, I’ve been using Kanban boards to manage everyone on the Vitogo team. Kanban boards help visualize jobs and projects, and give everyone on the team a better idea of how each piece of the project fits into the bigger picture, and when to work on what.

This past week, I went out to Shelter Island, NY to help a community sailing program get ready for the summer, which involves hundreds of tasks, some huge, and some tiny. Since Kanban has worked so well for Vitogo, I decided to see if I could use a Kanban board to improve productivity in a physical work environment at the sailing center.

The first step was to set up the Kanban board in the workshop with all the jobs that needed to be done. We started by breaking up large jobs into small manageable tasks, and writing them down on post-it notes we call “cards”.

Above is the beginning of our Kanban board. The Queue is where all jobs and ideas are placed. E+A is Elaboration and Acceptance, where a card is broken up into smaller more manageable tasks, rejected as unneeded or redundant, or simply moved on into “In Progress.” In Prog. is where cards go when someone is working on them so that everyone knows that they don’t need to worry about that task. Finally, Done! is where finished cards end up. It’s satisfying to move a card to done, and it’s also nice to see your team’s progress as the Done! column fills up. The last area on the board is Express. The “Express Lane” is for tasks that have a high priority. An example of an express lane job in software development is a big bug. An example at the sailing center is if someone crashed a boat that needed to be fixed right away.

After about a day working with the Kanban board, we realized we needed a way to visually split up the different types of jobs, so we added different colored post-it notes for the different work areas.

As you can see, yellow cards were for sailboats, green for anything land based (like cleaning up the shop), blue cards were for motorboat jobs, and pink cards were for anything on the water (like fixing a dock).

Later, we added a sub-category called On Order to the “In Progress” column to indicate a task that was waiting for a part to arrive before it could be finished.

You can see below that the number of tasks we had to get through added up quickly:

Here is a before picture of the sailboat, motorboat, and on land work that was in the Queue waiting to be done.

An In Progress picture.

And a Done! picture. The motorboat is already in the water.

A before picture of some of the dock work.

And after pictures.

And the dock moored out on the water in the Done! column.

Before starting this experiment, I was skeptical of a Kanban board’s ability to make a productivity improvement in this type of work environment, especially with only three employees and a fairly small number of big jobs that needed to be completed. In the end though, we were able to accomplish about as much in one week as we have in about three weeks in past years. Some of the productivity gains were attributable to simple things like making fewer trips to the hardware store because of better foresight about what was going to be needed, other big gains in productivity were from not forgetting small details that can waste large amounts of time because of setup and clean up time. Another big productivity gain came simply from everyone knowing exactly what to do once they finished a task, without having to confer with someone else.

There were more than just productivity gains from using the Kanban board though. Each member of the team felt better about doing more unpleasant work, because they could see how it fit into the bigger picture, and there was an overall boost in morale around seeing cards fly from the Queue to the Done! column.

Seeing that Done! column filled up feels great for everyone on your team.

So the bottom line is, if you aren’t already using a Kanban board for your project management, you should give it a try. You’ll probably love it. There are also some awesome online Kanban boards you can use which are especially useful for managing distributed teams. My favorites are Trello and Lean Kit Kanban. Trello is totally free, has some great features and has an alright iPhone app. Lean Kit costs money, but has a free tier, an awesome iPad app, and some cool ways you can split up columns  - adding an “On Order” sub section to “In Progress,” for example.

So, try out Kanban boards, regardless of what you’re managing. It’s a great way to increase productivity, while keeping your team focused and happy.

Say hello to “Morris” – our new Vitogo mascot (version 1.0)!

I was trying to come up with a new 404 page for Vitogo, and ended up drawing a startup mascot in the process. He’s a “gym monkey” – get it? It’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for a while, but it wasn’t really that high on our list of priorities. But, I’ve been working on getting better at using Photoshop, so it seemed like it would be a good project for the day.

Here’s what he’ll look like on the 404 page. He’s really upset that you couldn’t find the page you were looking for:

Anyway, it got me thinking about other startups that have adopted mascots and why it might not be such a bad idea. Below is a great interview with Alexis Ohanian – founder of Reddit, Breadpig and Hipmunk – about designing an effective logo for your startup:

Watch the interview on Bloomberg (I couldn’t get their embed code to work).

 Alexis has designed some pretty iconic logos and has great advice for startups who want to incorporate a mascot into their branding. First, it’s important to have a great product. A cute mascot won’t save a bad product and it might even backfire on you if you aren’t careful (à la pets.com puppet or Microsoft paper clip). If done right, however, a mascot can endear and inspire your fans in ways a plain logo can’t. In the words of Alexis, “You can’t really feel a connection with just a font.” A mascot can remind your users that there are real humans behind your startup and give them another way to remember your company.

I find that I actually feel more enthusiastic about companies that have cute mascots (and I’m way more likely to put their sticker on my laptop). It’s a fun way to market your company and engage with fans.

Here are a few of my favorite startup mascots. Let me know if you know of any more!

1. The GitHub Octocat

The octocat is by far my favorite startup mascot. I was hoping that there was a better story behind it, but apparently, GitHub cofounder Tom Preston-Werner was looking for a fun image for GitHub’s 404 page, found the Octocat on iStockPhoto, and purchased a limited-use license for around $50.

The octocat’s fame and notoriety has grown since then, with a full blown Octodex of octocat versions designed by people affiliated with GitHub. I think my favorite is the Nyantocat.

2. The HootSuite Owl

So maybe I have a slight bias toward owls, but the HootSuite owl is pretty awesome. It’s also very relevant and memorable, considering their name. Bonus points for turning it into a real life mascot.

3. The Reddit Alien

It wouldn’t be right not to include this guy on a list of startup mascots. Loved by Redditors, the Reddit Alien appears on t-shirts, watches, and soap. He even has his own twitter account.

The alien was designed by Alexis Ohanian in April 2005 using PaintshopPro5. You can read all about how the Reddit logo was created and take a look at the very first drafts.

If you’re looking for a full list of startup mascots, there is a good list on Quora.

“Make the decision, make it with confidence, and the world will be yours.” - Jaren L. Davis

People always ask us why we aren’t on Android. We built for the iPhone first, and now that we have an app in the App Store, we are focusing on iterating on that one app. I can’t imagine having to push updates for two different platforms. We just don’t have the resources for that right now. We didn’t really put a whole lot of thought into whether we should build for iOS or Android first – my cofounder and I are both long time Apple users, so it just didn’t seem to make sense to build an Android app.

What platform to build an app for first does seem to be a question that a lot of people have, and I was looking to practice doing stuff in Photoshop, so I made an infographic about it.

Enjoy!

]]> http://unsolicitedadvice.org/2012/06/01/which-app-should-i-build-first/feed/ 0 iphoneDogCostume bomobite iphoneDogCostume Mobile Platform Shopping Guide http://unsolicitedadvice.org/2012/05/29/infographic-resume/ http://unsolicitedadvice.org/2012/05/29/infographic-resume/#comments Tue, 29 May 2012 20:37:53 +0000 Erica Virtue http://unsolicitedadvice.org/?p=345 Continue reading →]]>

I thought it would be fun to make an infographic resume, so here it is! Give it a click if you want to see it bigger. Let me know if you would like me to make one for you!

“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.” – Jack Welch

 I recently switched to Strava to track my bike rides, and it got me thinking about what makes some products so much better than others. Of course, design and UI/UX are incredibly important, as is having a product that works. But, sometimes you come across a product that is special – its creators seem to really “get it.”

Strava is an excellent example of a product that gets it. I’ve used pretty much every fitness tracker in the App Store, and while I really like some aspects of each of these apps, I couldn’t find anything that nailed tracking for cycling until I found out about Strava.

So, what sets Strava apart? I think that Strava’s real competitive advantage comes from its focus. Instead of trying to track every possible fitness activity, Strava focused on cycling (they also have a separate app for running). Even better, the product was built by actual cyclists. They clearly understand their target market and have included features that only a real cyclist would think of.

Culture

Cyclists definitely have their own culture. Even within cycling culture, there are subcultures of roadies, mountain bikers, downhillers, weekend warriors, and (I hate to include them) hipsters. Cycling culture even has its own language (If you’ve ever bonked, gotten road rash, and you know that aero bars aren’t just for eating, then you’re probably a cyclist).

Strava really embraces cycling culture. You can give “kudos” to your friends for their rides, check out your “suffer score,” or become “KOM/QOM” (King/Queen of the Mountain) for a segment of your ride. Strava also gets that competitive cycling revolves around clubs and it lets you search/add clubs in your area.

These might not seem like major distinguishers, but they demonstrate that Strava understands and identifies with its customers. These little touches make you feel more at home with the app and I find myself spending more time on the Strava site because of it. The cultural features of Strava are something that someone who didn’t know anything about cycling would never have even considered adding to their app.

Competition

Cycling is a competitive sport. Even casual local criteriums and Cat 5 road races can get competitive. Strava captures the competitive nature of cyclists with its Segments feature. “Segments are user-created, user-edited, and designate a portion of route where users can compete for time.” If you’re the fastest rider on a segment, then you become the KOM/QOM. Segments can be climbs, sprints, descents, time trials, or loops, and they can get really competitive. The Three Sisters segment in Central Park has been ridden 33,569 times.

I find Strava’s segments incredibly motivating. They’ve really captured cyclists’ competitive nature and also provided a great way to discover new routes and get you out riding and using the app more.

Community

Strava has cultivated a great community of users. The site is very social and encourages you to interact with other users (not just your friends). Whether you are competing for KOM of a segment, searching for a local club, or following a Pro, Strava helps you feel more connected to the local cycling community.

Data Analysis

Strava also does a good job of serving up the data that you want, without bombarding you with meaningless statistics. Again, they focus on just the factors cyclists would find meaningful – time, speed, cadence, elevation, and power. I am sure that with the amount of data that they are collecting, they could spit graphs and charts galore at their users, but I think there is real power in keeping things simple. This is another area where Strava was able to identify what metrics their users would care most about because of their cycling expertise and experience.

What’s your Competitive Advantage?

If you couldn’t tell, I really, really like Strava. But I’m not alone on this one – Strava has more 5-star reviews than I’ve ever seen for a fitness app in the App Store. I think Strava is a great example of a product that gets its competitive advantage from its team. Its creators made a product to solve a pain point that they actually had, which I think is much more powerful than creating a product to solve a problem that you think other people might have. When you truly understand your customers (and you are your best customer), then YOU are your startup’s competitive advantage.

I was at the New York Tech Meetup (NYTM) tonight and got to see demos from some awesome companies. For those you you who don’t know, NYTM is a monthly meetup  where 9 or 10 companies get 3 to 5 minutes each to demo something cool to New York’s tech community (geeks, investors, entrepreneurs, hackers, etc). As of today, there are 23,458 people in the Meetup group, so if you want to get tickets, you’ll have to act fast! They are released in three batches every month. Last time they sold out in a couple of minutes.

Here is a recap of the startups that demoed at the NYTM on May 9, 2012:

Sensible Text

Sensible Text is a project from Jacob Andreas, which he created during the last HackNY Student Hackathon. Students were given 24 hours to come up with something awesome. In 24 hours, Jacob created an unnecessarily predictive text editor, which completes your sentences using common Google searches, Pride & Prejudice quotations, and/or text from strangers.

The editor is sort of fun  - and impressive considering he built it in just 24 hours. I’m not entirely sure why you would use it … but since Jacob is planning of pursuing his pHD at Berkley, practicality isn’t something that he has to worry about.

Jacob isn’t sure what his plans for the text editor are, but Version 2.0 will likely include more sources to pull form, such as the Wall Street Journal or maybe even Twitter.

Audigram

Another HackNY Student Hackathon project, Audiagram is the “first music bookmarking app on the Internet.” You can use it to build collections of music from sites like YouTube, Soundcloud, and Tumblr, find and follow artists you like, and share what you’re listening to with friends.

As for copyright issues, the creators aren’t too concerned – they figure that it’s not as big of an issue when you are just linking to an outside source and not actually hosting the content yourself. We’ll have to wait and see if they find otherwise the hard way …

Plum Perfect

Plum Perfect analyzes your photos to suggest complimentary beauty products, clothing, or furniture.

Plum Perfect sounds like they really have their color matching technology figured out. Since photos under different lighting conditions can look different, Plum Perfect color corrects each photo before analyzing it.

Their technology doesn’t discriminate … guys can upload photos too!

Folio

Folio is a “lightweight marketplace of digital goods for professionals.” When a graphic designer creates an image, for example, she can upload it directly from her desktop to Folio’s online marketplace.

Folio sounds like a great alternative to stock photo sites and a good place to find designers. I’m definitely going to check it out!

Launch.it

Created by father-son team Brian and Trace Cohen, Launch.it is a place where you can post and share your launch story. The creators seem to have big dreams for h platform – they are convinced that it is going to change the PR industry.

It’s an interesting idea, but it’s going to require mass adoption to really work.

Aereo

Aereo definitely stole the show tonight, with the crowd bursting into spontaneous applause several times throughout the presentation. Based on the core fundamental belief that choice must be introduced into the TV market, Aereo’s unique technology gives you the ability to watch live HDTV on up to five devices – for $12 per month!

The Aereo antenna.

Remember how you used to be able to pick up a TV signal using the bunny ears on your TV? Well, Aereo works on the same principle –  each Aereo user is assigned a miniaturized, private, remote antenna, which is kept in Aereo’s data center in Brooklyn. Your individual remote antenna is used to access over 25 broadcast channels, which have always been available over public airwaves, but which you weren’t able to access because the technology to pick them up didn’t exist. Signal and switching is all done in the cloud.

As you might suspect, Aereo has drawn the ire of TV networks. Soon after Aereo announced intention to launch on Feb. 14th., the company was sued by all the major broadcasters.

Right now, Aereo is just available in the NYC area and Brooklyn. Membership includes 40 hours of remote DVR storage and usage on up to five devices.

Simply register online. New members will receive a 90-day free trial. There is no application to download and no box to buy and no equipment to install.

It also works with AirPlay!

Square

Most people know about Square’s card reader, which accepts credit card payments on your Android, iPhone or iPad. Tonight, Square sent two of its Square U representatives to talk about Pay with Square - an app that allows you to pay without taking your phone or your wallet out of your pocket.

The Square U reps did a good job presenting, but I was surprised that Square didn’t send someone who knew a bit more about the product. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to learn anything more than what we could have read on Square’s website.

DISQUS

Disqus (a community-based commenting platform) was the last presenter. They’ve made a lot of new updates to the service, which you can see on blogs like AVC. The new Disqus lets you see when other users are typing, what else is trending, and which users are most active. You can even “mute” users that you’re sick of listening to.

In the next few weeks they will be rolling out more new features that take advantage of Disqus’ reach and scale.

This was a great Meetup (and my favorite NYTM so far) – I can’t wait for the next one!

“My words and my ideas are my property, and I’ll keep and protect them as surely as I do my stable of unicorns.” - Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale.

Intellectual property (“IP”) refers to “creations of the mind” – such as art, books, and inventions. Similar to owning a piece of physical property (land, a house, a boat, etc.), ownership of intellectual property comes with special rights. Sounds interesting, but why would a startup founder care? Isn’t this just going to be a waste of time and money?

If you are creating a logo for your business, a website, design mockups, wireframes, or a prototype, then you are creating IP. Unless you keep track of your IP and make sure that you protect it, then you could end up in a situation where you can’t do anything about someone who has copied your code, stolen your idea, or ripped off your logo/design. Additionally, you could end up in a situation where someone else accuses you of stealing their IP.

You’ve probably heard of trademarks, copyrights, and patents, but you might not know the difference or how to protect these different types of intellectual property. In this post, I’ve provided a brief description of each type of IP, along with what you can do to protect it. If you would like a quick (and fun) video overview of IP, you can watch ”The Laws of Ring Pops” by Etsy‘s General Counsel, Sarah Feingold.

Copyrights

Copyright protection is available for original works of authorship that are fixed in tangible form. People usually think of copyright protection in relation to books or music, but your website design, content, and code are all also eligible for copyright protection.

However, copyright law is extremely rigid and protects only the actual expression of an idea – not the idea itself. You can get copyright protection for your actual written code, a blog post on your website, or your design, but copyright won’t protect any of the ideas underlying these expressions. If you want to protect the underlying idea, then you should look into patents, which are discussed below.

You don’t need to do much to obtain copyright protection for your work. Copyright protection begins as soon as the work is created and it lasts up to seventy years after the creator’s death. A copyright is created as soon as it is “fixed” in a copy or phonorecord for the first time (publishing it on your website will do the trick).

What you can do: Put “© Copyright [Startup Name] [Year]” in the footer of your website and in a comment in your code.

Read more: Copyright Basics – United States Copyright Office

Trademarks

Trademarks are available for words, symbols, devices, or anything else that serves to identify where goods or services are coming from. This means that your startup’s name, colors, and logo are eligible for trademark protection. The only catch is that you must actually be using (or intend to use) the mark in relation to your business.

You don’t need to register to obtain a trademark.  However, your trademark will only be protected after active use of the mark in commerce in connection with the product or service. Before you choose a a mark or a name for your startup, you should conduct a preliminary trademark search and a basic Google search to avoid infringing on someone else’s identical or similar trademark. You can search the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database of registered trademarks using their Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). You can see if your domain name is available using Whois or GoDaddy.

You should be ale to obtain trademark protection if your mark is fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive. If it is generic or merely descriptive, then you probably won’t be able to obtain protection. For example, “Apple” is arbitrary when it refers to Apple Computers, but it’s generic if it refers to an apple grower.

What you can do: Do a trademark search and a Google/domain name search before choosing your startup name. Put a ™ after your startup’s name and/or logo.

Read More: Basic Facts About Trademarks - United States Patent and Trademark Office

 Registered Trademarks

Have you ever wondered why some companies put an ® after their name and others put a ™ ? The ® can only be used if you have registered your trademark with the USPTO. As mentioned above, you don’t need to register your mark in order to protect it, since you can establish rights based on use of the mark in commerce, without registration.

However, owning a federal trademark registration on the Principal Register has some advantages, such as putting everyone on notice that you own the mark, a legal presumption that you own the mark, and the ability to sue over the mark in federal court.

If you want to register your trademark (and start using a fancy ® after your startup’s name), you can do so on the USPTO website. It will cost you $275.

Patents

Patent law protects new, novel, and non-obvious inventions such as games, software methods/processes, chemical compositions, devices, machines, and business methods. A patent is a grant given by the government that allows the inventor to exclude others from using or selling the invention for a limited period of time (generally, 20 years).

There are three types of patents:

1. Utility Patents: Any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.
2. Design Patents: A new, original, and ornamental design for an article of manufacture.
3. Plant Patents: An invention or discovery (and asexual reproduction) of any distinct and new variety of plant.

The alleged societal benefit of patent law is that it creates a financial incentive to innovate.  The societal drawback is that it reduces competition, reduces the spread of innovation, and creates deadweight legal costs.

Investor, Brad Feld, is another long time advocate against software patents – he thinks that “they are (a) invalid constructs, (b) totally unnecessary, and (c) a massive tax on and retardant of innovation.”

If you are interested in learning more about the software patent debate, you can watch Patent Absurdity, a short film that “explores the case of software patents and the history of judicial activism that led to their rise, and the harm being done to software developers and the wider economy.”

Patent Absurdity from Boris Loukanov on Vimeo.

What you can do: Fill out an Invention Disclosure Questionnaire (Example) to help you (and your lawyer) decide whether you should be filing a patent application.

Read More: General Information Concerning Patents - United States Patent and Trademark Office

Trade Secrets

Trade secret law protects any information that can be used in business that is sufficiently valuable and secret to afford an economic advantage over others. Trade secrets can include technical information, such as formulas or software code, or business information, like customer lists.

There is no federal protection for trade secrets in the United States. Rather, each state has its own laws. The best thing that you can do to protect your startup’s confidential information is to have your employees and contractors sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). Just don’t ask a VC to sign one.

What you can do: Ask employees/contractors who are exposed to your startup’s secrets to sign an NDA.

Read More: The International Guide to Privacy – American Bar Association

A Note About IP Ownership

If there are other people contributing to your startup, it’s critical that you obtain an IP assignment from all of them. If you don’t have your designers, developers, or other contributors assign all of their rights in the intellectual property that they are creating for your startup, they could end up owning the IP, instead of your startup. I have already touched on this issue in a previous post, but this is one of the reasons that you should incorporate your startup as soon as you and your team begin creating IP.

What you can do: Incorporate your startup and make sure that all contributors sign an agreement that assigns all their rights in IP to the company.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This blog is a public resource for general information. Nothing in this blog or any link should be used as a source of legal advice. If you have a legal issue – do not rely on this blog (or any blog, for that matter). You should get a lawyer.

This post was originally posted on my cofounder’s blog: the Arel English Journal of Opinion (AEJO). Arel is the cofounder and CEO of Vitogo.

By Arel English.

One of the best things that you can do as a first-time startup founder is to go out and seek advice from others who have done it before. But, how can you tell if the advice you’re getting is any good?

Since starting Vitogo, I’ve talked to investors, entrepreneurs, and developers about business, entrepreneurship, raising money, and pretty much anything else you can think of related to starting/building/running a business. Most people are eager to give advice (even me apparently), especially former company founders. The only problem is that there is a lot of bad advice out there that can send you down the wrong path and even ruin professional relationships you’ve developed. Below is some of the worst advice I’ve gotten:

Bad Advice #1: Quit Your Job, Quit Everything – You Have to Work Full Time on Your Startup

I hear all the time: “No one will take you seriously if you aren’t working full time” or “You won’t get anything done if you aren’t full time.” The bottom line is that whatever you’re working on is likely going to take you way longer than you want it to and may never turn in to anything. Your chance of hitting a wall because money runs out is pretty high unless you have a ton of money saved up. The startup world is a game of attrition to a certain degree, so if you can’t afford to last a long time, you likely won’t succeed. Find a job (or keep your job) so you can pay your bills. Then, work hard to build your dream project. You’ll know when it’s time to go full time.

Since starting Vitogo, I’ve worked a bunch of jobs, including teaching sailing lessons, construction, and working as an extra in TV shows and movies. You probably aren’t going to be in a position to raise money for a long time anyway, so you shouldn’t care what an investor may think about how you’re paying the bills while you start your startup.

Bad Advice #2: Raise Money Pre-Launch, Otherwise You Won’t be able to Raise Money

This is easily the worst advice I’ve had in the past year, and it came from a trusted and successful entrepreneur. The advice was to focus hard on raising money pre-launch, because you only get two chances to raise money (pre-launch or after gaining significant traction), and that since I didn’t have much money, I needed to raise right away.

The problem is, NO ONE who isn’t either family, friend, or a fool will invest in your idea if you haven’t built a successful company before. Even then, it’s typically hard to raise money for an idea. Investors don’t like to lose money (just like most other people), so they want to see some assurance that their investment will give them a return. Not just a return in fact, a really good return.

If you want to raise money for your startup, build a company that fills the requirements investors always say they are looking for: something magical that will make them a billion dollars and make them famous. Seriously though, if this is your first go at things, you’ll have to demonstrate some pretty solid results and potential before anyone will start to take you seriously.

Bad Advice #3: Don’t Start Anything Until You Find the Perfect Team

If you wait for conditions to be perfect, you’ll never start anything. If you have a great idea for a company or product, start working on it today. If it’s really that awesome, you’ll attract awesome people to come work with you as you build it.

If you aren’t a developer and need to be to build your company, you can still make wireframes and other planning documents to show around, and prepare for when you find that developer. Also, once you’re ready to build your product, you have two choices:

1. Get off your ass and learn how to build it by taking some classes. You’ll also meet some great people to work with.
2. Pay someone to start building it and go out and learn how to be a developer at the same time.

The biggest fallacy about waiting for the perfect team is that even if you think you have the perfect team, chances are it’s not perfect, and the makeup of your team is going to change as you progress.

So just start.

Bad Advice #4: You need to work 24/7 365 on your start-up! Everyone else is Working that much! 

There is this idea out there that you need to work on your startup constantly. That you should be working all day and night and never take time off. Well, let’s be serious, that doesn’t make sense. You aren’t productive after a certain point, you need a social life, and you have to take days off. You’re going to be smarter, more productive, and get more done if you limit the number of hours a day you work. Also, take at least one day off a week to go do something fun and cool. It’ll make the rest of your week far more productive and fun.

Now, there is an exception here. You don’t want to be the critical path in your own business, so make sure that no one is waiting on you before they can move on with whatever they’re working on. Sometimes, that does mean crazy hours and long stretches without a day off, but seriously, find the time to take a break.

So, yeah. Take some time off. Enjoy yourself.

Bad Advice #5: Apply for Accelerators, you Gotta Apply!! 

Ok, hear me out. There are a lot of accelerators out there these days and applying to them takes a huge amount of time, especially if you make it far along in the process. It can also be a huge distraction for your company and team. You should be focused on building a great company, and part of that is pushing forward quickly and making big decisions. You wouldn’t want to hold off on signing a lease on office space because you might get into an accelerator, or count on money that likely won’t come. You also wouldn’t want to build a great network in say New York City, then move your company to Philadelphia to join some accelerator that let you in.

The other big consideration is, what are you going to get out of the accelerator? Is it worth the 6% – 10% you’re going to give up in order to get three months of office space and $16,000 – $20,000? Remember, 20K isn’t actually very much money. You can make that on the side. Is the connection to ‘mentors’ you may be able to just call or email yourself worth the equity?

I’m not saying that being in an accelerator isn’t valuable. I’ve never been though one, so I don’t know. I’m just saying that you need to weigh the opportunity cost of applying, considering that you most likely will not get in.

Bad Advice #6: Don’t Bother Incorporating or Worrying About Legal Stuff

This really depends on your individual circumstances, so there isn’t a hard and fast rule about it. Erica Virtue wrote a great post on this topic. Check it out.

So What Now? I Shouldn’t Talk to Anyone? 

You should talk to lots of people and get tons of advice, just take it all with a grain of salt, and really think about what’s going to be best for you and your business. There are a lot of smart people out there with a lot of great experience to share. Just remember that everyone’s experience is different, and what worked for one person won’t necessarily work for you. Also, remember that things change really quickly, so someone who hit it huge a few years ago may not have the best advice for today.

Finally, remember that I’m just another jerk who could be giving you really bad advice. So, keep that in mind.