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College students, here’s what you need to do before launching a startup

This is an article that was contributed to Fortune Magazine. It originally published here.  

Time is your No. 1 asset, so use it wisely.

The Entrepreneur Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in America’s startup scene contribute answers to timely questions about entrepreneurship and careers. Today’s answer to the question “What can every aspiring entrepreneur do before college graduation to be more successful?” is written by Aaron Price, founder of the NJ Tech Meetup and rocketfuel.cc.

I started a business in high school. And another in college. And several more since. Here are seven things I did (or should’ve done more of) before I graduated to gain an edge:

Leverage school resources You know all of those old administrative buildings on campus? They house a ton of good information, and more importantly, good people. These people want to help you succeed. Sometimes, it’s literally their job. For instance, you might have an idea and have already come up with a name for your business. Might the name be a trademark violation? Should you consider a patent? There’s a great chance that your school has legal resources to help you navigate these issues. In some cases, they will even fund the legal expenses. In others, they might ask for equity and try to help you commercialize your idea (likely something you’ll want to avoid). Regardless, leverage the resources available at your school.

Make more friends Your future business partner or employees might be sitting next to you in class. Don’t start interviewing your classmates — you’ll lose friends fast — but seek out those who are thinking bigger. Share ideas. Hang out with them. Build real friendships and trust in each other. Talk about how you might solve a bunch of problems on campus — or in the world. You’ll start to click with certain people. The No. 1 question I get now is, “How do I find a cofounder?” While you’re in school, there’s a good chance he or she is right next to you. Tip: Set some ground rules up front. Who owns what? What if you disagree? Learn about equity vesting and do that. Working with friends is tricky, but if you talk about the tough stuff up front, it can save you a lot of headache in the end. I founded a company in college with my best friend. We broke up from the business, but still remain extremely close today, 15 years later.

Meet alumni The last thing I cared about when I was in school was the alumni. They were always coming around and telling me about their glory days, though I really didn’t care. But it turns out they can serve as really great connections, and there’s most likely an entire alumni relationship department at your school whose job is to maintain relationships with them. Have an idea for a flying car? Go talk to the alumni relationship team and see if they can find you someone who works at an automobile or aviation company. Likely they can make an intro for and you’ll be able to setup a call or coffee meeting. Do that 10 times and I guarantee you’ll find at least one great mentor.

Talk about your ideas You probably have a bunch of ideas. Don’t lock them up. Coming up with ideas is the easy part — it’s the execution that matters. See what others think, especially those outside of your friend group. Join the computer science club and talk to them. You’ll learn how to communicate your ideas more effectively and might recruit a few other people who want to join you along the way.

Build stuff You know what you have in school that diminishes quickly when you graduate? Time: your No. 1 asset. Use it wisely. Draw wireframes. Build MVPs. Come up with ideas and run user tests to see if anyone cares about them. Get creative. Recruit your friends to pass out flyers. Build simple landing pages against them. See what clicks. Throw out what isn’t and pursue what is.

Be smart about your social media use I’m so glad social media wasn’t around when I was in school. I still managed to do plenty of dumb stuff — it just wasn’t memorialized in quite the same way as it is today. Be authentic and be true to yourself, but keep in mind that you are building the brand of you and future you. It follows you around for the rest of your life. In college, it probably feels like no one is paying attention, but eventually it will catch up to you. Future you will thank you for being smart.

Write it down Blogging will help you build an identity and a following, which is helpful in many ways, especially when you launch something. More importantly, it’s a great place to log lessons you learn along the way. People will enjoy reading them, and by writing things down, you’ll be more proactively thoughtful about what you’re doing right and wrong. Future you will really appreciate that, and future partners and investors will respect it.

Your college years can provide some of the most fruitful opportunities to both learn and build great relationships. Use them wisely. I look forward to seeing what you build

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NJ Tech Meetup Goes To The White House

I just sent the following email to the members of the NJ Tech Meetup.

Hello!

I have some very exciting news to share. First, some background.

It's been almost exactly 5 years (4/19/2010) since I started this meetup. At the time my hopes were simply to get 20 of us in a room to help each other. How far we have come. We've now hosted many thousands of people at our events, seen presenting companies get acquired, been inspired and taught by some of the brightest minds in entrepreneurship, and most importantly, we've met new friends and colleagues among our 4,263 members.

There's a good chance you're like me and believe that technology and entrepreneurship is the foundation for the next major economic stronghold in this country. The role of the NJ Tech Meetup in that pursuit hasn't gone unnoticed. Groups like ours exist all around the nation with the goal of connecting people with big ideas. In fact, there are over 30,000 tech meetups in the US.

It's a thrill and honor to let you know that from those 30,000 groups, 40 of us have been invited to the premiere Tech Meetup at the White House, this Friday. Additionally, I'll be speaking about Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the event. It's being led by the CTO of the US, Megan Smith, and I'll be joined by tech leaders from as far as Orlando, Portland, and even Alaska.

Friday's event will be livestreamed. As soon as as have more details and the URL, I'll pass them along. Separately, if there is a startup-related message you'd like for me to bring to DC, please do let me know.

While the foundation for our strong NJ startup community is solid, there is still plenty of room for growth to make NJ a place where startups thrive. I look forward our next 5 years together and our part in that ecosystem. Speaking of which, come meet investors and hear from James Altucher at our upcoming meetups.

Thank you for your involvement in our awesome community. We've earned this opportunity together.

Sincerely, Aaron @NJTech @APstartup

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It's time for The Innovation University to be allowed to innovate.

As submitted to the Hudson Reporter, the Hoboken Zoning Board, and others:

As the founder of the NJ Tech Meetup as well as a proud Hoboken resident, I am writing to express my strong support for Stevens Institute of Technology’s application for the development of the Academic Gateway Complex, to be located on Hudson and Sixth Streets.

My relationship with Stevens began approximately 5 years ago when, as a Hoboken resident, I contacted the somewhat faceless university, pleading for a location to host our growing monthly gatherings.  The then-current administration was apprehensive, but agreed to allow our few hundred member NJ Tech Meetup to meet on campus.

Since then, the NJ Tech Meetup has grown into NJ’s largest technology and entrepreneurial community of over 4100 eager members.  Not only have we held our meeting on Stevens campus nearly every month for the past 5 years, I’ve had the pleasure to get to know many of its fine students, faculty, and administration.  I couldn’t be more impressed with their overall commitment to excellence and their dedication to collaboration with the town.  The NJ Tech Meetup would not be the entrepreneurial pillar that it is today without the support of Stevens.  I don’t just think of Stevens as the host of the NJ Tech Meetup, I consider them a partner in our pursuit of establishing Hoboken and NJ as an entrepreneurial and startup beacon.

As just one example of their support, when Hurricane Sandy hit Hoboken, the NJ Tech Meetup rallied to raise over $32,000 for the town through a crowdfunding campaign where we sold tshirts and hoodies.  When it came time to fulfill all of these orders, it was the fine students at Stevens who stepped up to the huge undertaking of packing and shipping every single order.

When local startups have asked for support in hiring talent and finding resources, it’s often the Stevens students and faculty who jump in to lend a hand.

I’ve been privileged to moderate the Stevens Innovation Expo and work with student teams, to witness firsthand the passionate work coming out of the university students and faculty.

Over the past several years, I’ve been welcomed by the new campus administration including Dr. Nariman Farvardin.  I’ve been honored and impressed by his commitment to be included in the community with some major decisions he undertakes, including the impressive Stevens Strategic Plan.  It’s clear he values the community input and wants Stevens to shine as a neighbor.

I’ve learned that Stevens long history apparently once included a wall between it and the town. In my experience, that wall is long gone and they are welcome, open, and eager to add as much value to the town as they are able.

When I first heard of this new development, I was unsure of what it may mean and not immediately certain I’d want to lend support.  As a resident and homeowner, I can appreciate the desire not to alter the community landscape.  However, Stevens fielded my questions and suggestions with sincerity.  As I understood the project, I grew more excited about its need and potential.  I understand that because of the Stevens community outreach, their plans for the space have since been adjusted to accommodate some of the community concerns. This exemplifies Stevens commitment to being a caring and consider neighbor in town.

I’ve seen firsthand how Stevens is desperately in need of new space.  I’ve watched as other regional academic institutions improve to attract the best talent.  I’m encouraged that Stevens is taking this major step forward in a modern innovation and academic facility.  They have proven to be a considerate and economically impactful contributor of all things in Hoboken.  

Please consider your support for this project and let’s all welcome this advancement in an institution in town in which we should all take pride.

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Most Post On Wired: How to Avoid #Hashtag Pitfalls: 7 Steps to Gamify Your Next Event

This article was originally written for Wired.

The only current way to track social activity at events is the hashtag, yet hashtags are misused, misunderstood, and misspelled. For event organizers it should be simple -- tell attendees your hashtag, hit cruise control and watch the tweets fly. However, what many people don’t understand is that solely using a hashtag can lead to minimal interaction and risks being a distraction. In fact, over 5,000 tweets are tweeted every second making it very easy for an attendee to get distracted and for your event to get lost in the mix.

So how do we solve the riddle of the hashtag? Gamification offers an event a simple yet impactful way to motivate and focus audience behavior while giving organizers a firmer grip on their event’s social media impact. Giving attendees the ability to compete and collaborate with their peers for real-world rewards using game mechanics incentivizes engagement and squeezes the hashtag for all of its social media juice.

How to use Gamification to solve your #hashtag #problems:

1 –Keep your Hashtag Simple. People have trouble creating legible sentences on their phones as it is, so giving an audience a long, hard-to-replicate hashtag complicates the issue further. By using a short (Twitter’s rules were created to keep us concise after all), easy to spell, unique hashtag you avoid hashtag misfires and make your results much easier to track.

2 – Use a Tool Since there will always be a percentage of people struggling to find and spell the right hashtag, why not give your attendees a tool that auto-populates it for them? Getting rid of human error will give you an accurate reading on just how much engagement took place at your event and let your attendees focus on the conversation.

4 – Reward your Social Media All-Stars On AND Offline It’s cool to get retweeted by the event organizer, but you know what’s even cooler: receiving real-world recognition for participation. Bridge the gap between online shout-outs and the real world by rewarding your best conversation driver with a prize. Prizes can be face time with a keynote speaker or a VIP badge, or even something to take home - regardless, the social impact of connecting online behavior with offline rewards is extremely positive.

5 – Choose the Right Prize Choosing the right prize will always depend on the event but using the SAPS acronym can help guide you to the wisest choice. Listed in most impactful to least impactful:

STATUS- a prize that socially separates the winner from the rest of the pack.

ACCESS- an award that gives users the opportunity to interact in a private or special way with your company or event leaders.

POWER- a prize that unlocks special powers. This could be the opportunity to moderate a panel or even change the rules of the game for others. And of course,

STUFF- yes, it’s that simple. People love stuff! It’s why swag bags exist and it’s why your most socially active attendees will keep the tweets coming.

6 – Build Technology into Your Event Technology should be used to drive interaction, not just as a tool to organize the conversation. The same tool you’re using to drive interaction should be used to kick off the event, announce winners and stoke conversation through Q&A’s, polls and surveys. This will help you gauge the temperature of the room and provide a great idea of what’s working and what’s not.

7 – Create Evangelists The idea of gamifying an event may be new to some, so be sure to have some ambassadors on your side to help spur the audience on. There should always be a handful of attendees familiar with the concept to lead by example and get the audience comfortable with the concept.

Gamification has been proven to be effective in focus attendee behavior and can truly elevate the ideas and networking at your next event. As long as you’re keeping your message simple, focusing your audience’s attention, and keeping it fun, you’ll have what it takes to #WinOverYourAudience.

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My post on AOL: Thinking of joining a startup? Read this before you do.

This post was originally contributed to AOL.

Perhaps you heard that WhatsApp was just acquired for approximately $19B by Facebook and you're interested in working for a startup. Maybe you even have friends who work for startups who tell you it's fun and challenging and you want in the game. Before taking the leap to join the next dot.com, dot.me, dot.io, or dot.anything, here are a few things you should know.

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There is no I in Jerz.

The Jerz.

(originally shared as a newsletter to the NJ Tech Meetup on 2/13/2014)

I recently had the pleasure of speaking about my involvement with the growing NJ tech community at NJ Startups Meetup at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. Thinking through my presentation, here if you're interested, crystallized my thoughts on where we are and from where we’ve come. We’ve made a lot of progress since the start of NJ Tech Meetup almost four years ago, but this is just the beginning. With our group up to nearly 3500 members strong, here are two ideas on how you can help the growing NJ tech community at large:

Be best in class.

We must be an order of magnitude better than our competitors. Whatever you’re working on, do it amazingly well. This may sound simple and obvious, but the impact of excellence – truly excelling at whatever you’re working on – betters the brand value of technology in NJ for all of us. This means making every pixel on your product really shine. Put more simply, a rising tide lifts all ships. #DownWithGarbageLogos

If you’ve attended one of my NJ Tech Meetup’s, consider yourself an ambassador of entrepreneurship and technology. Being an ambassador is as easy as telling your neighbor about a cool company you saw give a demo in NJ, then bringing him or her to a tech event (anywhere). The value of awareness is enormous for both our NJ community and the tech community at large. Spread the word and welcome those from around the state. While it’s all a lot of fun, it’s also incredibly important as I believe our industry represents the future of economic opportunity for our state and our country.

Speaking of awareness, did you know that there are now 11+ other tech meetups around the state? Princeton Tech Meetup just hit the major milestone of surpassing 2000 members! Great work Chris and Venu! There is probably a group near you. Support them:

Jersey Shore Tech - Asbury Park, NJ  Madison Tech Meetup – Madison, NJ  Montclair Tech & Media Startups - Montclair, NJ  Morris Tech Meetup - Morristown, NJ  NJ Tech & Startup Entreprenuers - Somerset, NJ  NJ Tech Gals - Hoboken, NJ  Mobile Application Developers of New Jersey - Hoboken, NJ  Montclair Entrepreneurs - Montclair, NJ  BrickCity Tech - Newark, NJ  Princeton Tech Meetup - Princeton, NJ  Scarlet Startups - New Brunswick, NJ  NJ Connect - Red Bank, NJ

Our NJ Spark Summit is soldout, but join the waitlist and we’ll see what we can do, or maybe we’ll run another one soon. Otherwise, hope to see you at the March NJ Tech Meetup with HopStop CEO Joe Meyer.

JFDI.

▪ Aaron

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"Let's Name Your Baby" Aaron Price at Founder Institute New York Jan 2014 from livecube.co

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Storytime with Aaron Price at the Montclair State University Feliciano Center For Entrepreneurship. 

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A History of NJ Tech Meetup & How The NJ Startup Community Needs You

A History of NJ Tech Meetup & How The NJ Startup Community Needs You from livecube.co

As presented at the NJ Startups Meetup at the State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ.  Get involved.  NJ needs you.

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How Founder Institute + NJ Tech Meetup + Gamification Summit = livecube

How Gamification Summit + Founder Institute + NJ Tech Meetup = livecube from livecube.co

Had fun putting together the story of livecube for the Montclair State University's Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship Event.

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“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” I say, build the table.

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Not interesting.

Interesting is the least interesting word there is to describe your product.  I hear it frequently from investors in talking about startups.  "It's interesting," "he's interesting."  Forget that.  "Interesting" is a cop-out.  Stop saying an idea is interesting and tell him what you really think.  He can take it.

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Say yes to yesware.

Old way:

1) Email prospect  

2) Present

3) Followup

4) Followup again

5) Hope they aren't out of the office

6) Followup again

7) Hope they aren't at a conf

8) Followup again.

9) Hope, hope and hope s'more.

1) Email prospect

2) Present

3) Followup

4) Wait

5) Prospect opens email.  You get notified.

6) Followup immediately.

7) Immediate response from prospect.

8) Prospect opens email again 1 week later.  

9) Followup immediately again.

10) Prospect calls you.

11) Sold.

This just happened to me as I was talking to a very large enterprise client.  And it's been happening since I started using Yesware.  Way better than hoping I was emailing when I was top of mind. Be timely.  Sell more.

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Hi Aaron, I saw on twitter that you helped introduce Social Bicycles to Hoboken. I am interested in doing the same for my city. I live in Green Bay, WI and it seems like it could be a viable business up here. How did you go about getting in touch with Social Bicycles? Do you have any tips for starting a bike share franchise?

Hi - If you email me your contact info I'd be happy to put you in touch with Social Bicycles.  It's a great service.  They would be best to help you answer these q's.

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NJ Interns: not as easy as you think

We've recently brought on some more help over at weCraft and, in the process, were reintroduced to NJ employment law.  As our friend Herb Moore at SorinRand reminded us, make sure your interns meet certain requirements of the dept of labor might not be so happy with you.

Companies in NJ can’t have unpaid interns unless certain wage and hour law requirements are met. Here’s a summary of how NJ labor law deals with unpaid interns: 

In NJ, a “trainee”, or intern, is exempt from the definition of employee when all of the following are met:

The training is for the primary benefit of the trainee;

The employment for which the trainee is training requires some cognizable trainable skill;

The training is not specific to the employer, that is, is not exclusive to its needs, but may be applicable elsewhere for another employer or in another field of endeavor;

The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to that which may be given in a vocational school;

The employer derives no immediate benefit from the efforts of the trainee and, indeed, on occasion may find his or her regular operation impeded by the trainee;

The trainee is not necessarily entitled to a job at the completion of training;

The training program is sponsored by the employer, is outside regular work hours, the employee does no productive work while attending and the program is not directly related to the employee’s present job (as distinguished from learning another job or additional skill); and

The employer and the trainee share a basic understanding that regular employment wages are not due for the time spent in training, provided that the trainee does not perform any productive work.

If a trainee does not meet all of the above-listed criteria, the trainee is considered an employee and must be paid in accordance with New Jersey’s wage and hour laws (i.e., minimum wage requirements).

Furthermore, New Jersey does have a “School-to-Work” test, that allows unpaid internship programs under limited circumstances.  The regulations provide that an acceptable School-to-work program must meet the following conditions to allow for non-paid activities of student learners at for profit and not-for-profit organizations:

The student shall be at least 16 years of age;

The activity must be related to a formal school-to-work transition plan for a student learner;

There is collaboration and planning between work-site staff and school staff resulting in clearly identified learning objectives related to the non-paid activities;

Any productive work is incidental to achieving learning objectives;

The student learner receives credit for time spent at the work-site and the student is expected to achieve the learning objectives;

The student learner is supervised by a school official and a workplace mentor;

The non-paid activity is of a limited duration, related to an educational purpose and there is no guarantee or expectation that the activity will result in employment; and

The student learner does not replace an employee.

Strict rules so be careful.   Hey NJ universities - let's get more official startup intern programs going, eh?

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Like our page. Win a lawsuit.

Lots of people have questions when it comes to the legalities of marketing promotions.  Some of them ignore the rules and end up with problems with the law.  I was chatting with my new friend Kristen from Marks & Klein when I popped in to checkout the NJ Tech Gals 1st meetup and she brought some wisdom to the issue.  Several people admitted to having no idea of these rules.  She emailed a few of us some clarifications that are important if you're considering a contest, sweepstakes, or lottery.  Kristen's legal smackdown:

"Generally, there are three types of online promotions:

Contests: Promotions where prizes are awarded primarily based on merit or skill. (Ex. Best poem writer/Winner of a trivia game)

Lotteries: Random drawings for prizes where participants have to pay to play. A lottery has three elements: prize, chance and consideration. Like we discussed last night, consideration could be “liking” a Facebook page, “following” you on Twitter, “joining” your Linked In Group, or “signing up” for your newsletter.

How do you avoid confusion? Eliminate the “consideration” element. Make sure no one has to “pay” for anything to enter your sweepstakes.

Also be careful about the value of the prize you are offering. Every state has different requirements – for example, New York requires you to post a bond and register with the state if your prize is over $5,000. NJ does not. But if you are letting people in different states enter your contest, you are subject to that state’s rules."

Tweet this post for an entry into our contest to win $1,000,000.  Oh, wait. 

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What is the biggest challenge for the NJ tech community in 2013?

I was asked by NJ Tech Weekly to address what I thought is the biggest challenge facing the NJ technology community in 2013.  Below is my response and something that I hope to help fix.