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20 Questions Before Launching a Startup

1. Why am I starting a business?

2. What kind of business do I want?

3. Who is my ideal customer?

4. What products or services will my business provide?

5. Am I prepared to spend the time and money needed to get my business started?

6. What differentiates my business idea and the products or services I will provide from others in the market?

7. Where will my business be located?

8. How many employees will I need?

9. What types of suppliers do I need?

10. How much money do I need to get started?

11. Will I need to get a loan?

12. How soon will it take before my products or services are available?

13. How long do I have until I start making a profit?

14. Who is my competition?

15. How will I price my product compared to my competition?

16. How will I set up the legal structure of my business?

17. What taxes do I need to pay?

18. What kind of insurance do I need?

19. How will I manage my business?

20. How will I advertise my business?

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Mark Cuban’s Startup Rules

1. Don't start a company unless it's an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, it's not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but aren't as expensive to pay.

6. An espresso machine? Are you kidding me? Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom. There is nothing private in a startup. This is also a good way to keep from hiring executives who cannot operate successfully in a startup.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the most inexpensive way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista, ask yourself why, then use it. It's a startup so there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

9. Keep the organization flat. If you have managers reporting to managers in a startup, you will fail. Once you get beyond startup, if you have managers reporting to managers, you will create politics.

10. Never buy swag. A sure sign of failure for a startup is when someone sends me logo-embroidered polo shirts. If your people are at shows and in public, it's okay to buy for your own employees, but if you really think people are going to wear your branded polo when they're out and about, you are mistaken and have no idea how to spend your money.

11. Never hire a PR firm. A public relations firm will call or email people in the publications you already read, on the shows you already watch and at the websites you already surf. Those people publish their emails. Whenever you consume any information related to your field, get the email of the person publishing it and send them a message introducing yourself and the company. Their job is to find new stuff. They will welcome hearing from the founder instead of some PR flack. Once you establish communication with that person, make yourself available to answer their questions about the industry and be a source for them. If you are smart, they will use you.

12. Make the job fun for employees. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them.

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There’s no such thing as a 9 to 5 in this world.

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It all starts with an idea

The clock read 2am. Our team was sitting around the living room table working on FLTR, our first startup. During the previous four months, our team had seen every up and down we thought possible. It seemed like one day we were signing a $100,000 contract, and the next we were struggling to scrounge up $5,000 just to stay alive. On top of our financial issues, our lack of experience caught up with us. We had wasted thousands of dollars on legal fees, and our team just couldn’t stay organized. Morale was at an all time low.

We are a bunch of Millennials, so when the going got tough, we turned to the Internet. With years of Google mastery under our belts, we knew there had to be some application to help young startups get off the ground. After hours of scouring the web, we came up empty handed. Not one tool existed that could solve all of our problems. We reached out to other startup teams to figure out the solution, and soon we realized that no one had an answer. In that moment, siëo took shape. If nobody was going to solve this problem for us, we were going to solve it for everyone.

Our three-man team had an idea, but we had no idea whether it would work. So, we spread our idea. siëo became contagious. In a flash, we had a dedicated group of 13 that started building siëo from the ground up. From design to development, our team covered every need. Even with our core solidified, si��o attracted interest from everyone that heard of our journey. From students to professors to presidents, siëo became a name that people wanted to associate with.

Months later, siëo now stands as a startup built from a desire to inspire. siëo not only wants to help you build your business, but siëo wants to help you find your idea. So, stay curious. When others complain about problems, be the one to quiet them with your solutions. In doing so, refuse to accept the norm. Instead, create the norm.

That’s what we did, and that’s what brought siëo to life.