Brian Wong is the CEO and Founder of Kiip, a mobile app rewards platform that lets brands and companies give real world rewards for in-game achievements. We had the chance to sit down with him and he shared his tips on how to make the most of PR and branding for your startup.
Focus on Your Personal Brand
Ideas are a dime a dozen, what investors are really looking at are the people who came up with them. Have a good idea? Great. Have a good team? Even better. If someone is going to fund your idea, they want to make sure you can execute it, so pay attention to the image you portray to potential backers.
Stand Out from the Crowd
Find what makes you unique, and use it to your advantage. Whether it’s what you studied, what you do for fun, or jus...
I have insane anxiety. But I’m not supposed to tell you that.
I’m supposed to create a facade of confidence that says all of the decisions in my life and all of my outcomes materialize with full certainty. My career, résumé, awards and success should be nothing but a shining reflection of confidence and brilliance.
That’s all bullshit.
I wake up in the morning and I freak out. I go to bed at night and I freak out. It doesn’t end. It didn’t end after growing companies, selling companies, making money, or any of the other bazillion “final reasons” why we think it will all disappear someday.
My anxiety is here to stay. So I have to deal with it. And I’m guessing if you’re reading this, you do too.
Essent...
One of the sayings I hear from talented managers in product development is, “good enough never is.” It’s inspirational, always calling the team to try harder and do better. It works to undermine excuses for poor or shoddy work. And, most importantly, it helps team members develop the courage to stand up for these values in stressful situations. Especially in teams that are managing by objectives (or OKRs), the pressure to deliver is intense. Under such pressure, the temptation to cut corners, to quit prematurely, or to hand off shoddy work to another department is overwhelming. It requires courage to stand up and say: “this work is simply not good enough. Sure, we could get away with it, but that’s not how we work.” Good managers work hard ...
Convertible debt can solve a very common problem for early stage startups: it allows founders to delay determining the value of their company and still take money from investors.
Let’s say you come up with an idea for a coffee-flavored lemonade stand. You don’t know if this will be a total flop or the next Starbucks, but you need $50 to get this lemonade stand launched.
You go to Uncle Earl. He’s willing to contribute $50, but since you can’t figure out what the value of the lemonade stand is—it’s not even launched yet!—he agrees to give the $50 now and figure out what percentage of the business he will get later.
Earl only agrees to do this because you offer him 3 financial incentives which make it interesting to ...
With today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving and competitive market, a lot of companies decide to create a board of advisers that can give them fresh ideas and recommendations to keep up with today’s world.
For small companies, creating a well-run advisory board can give them an edge over their rivals. An advisory board that is composed of experienced people can help a company increase sales and flourish in their chosen industry. Seems pretty straightforward, right? But not a lot of companies do this or, if they do, do it right.
The Basics: What is an Advisory Board?
An advisory board is a group of consultants who provide advice and give support to the management of a company. They have no authority or power to arbitrate in corporate matters. The...
When beginning a crowdfunding campaign, it’s important to evaluate your network and establish exactly who will make up your base of support. The success of your crowdfunding campaign will largely rest on how effectively you communicate your launch within your various networks. Once you’ve identified a group of potential backers – it’s also important to structure your rewards tiers in the most compelling way possible. Take into account what is most interesting to your group of potential backers and structure your rewards tiers in the most compelling way possible.
Your network can be divided into four main groups: friends, family, customers, professional contacts, and audience.
Your friends include those you see on a regular basis.You...
Business strategist and consultant Roberto Candelaria has been in the business for years, and is a pro when it comes to sponsorship. Roberto has experience working with big brands like BMW, DELL, Disney, Hilton, State Farm, Wells Fargo, and Zappos. He sat down to talk us through the ‘RELAT’ model – his top tips for landing a corporate sponsorship for your startup.
Represent
Know who you are as a company and what your mission and values are. Strive to work with companies that share a similar vision and will compliment your company rather than turn it into something it’s not.
Establish
Determine what you want to have sponsored, and plan out your timelines. Look at this as creating your business plan for what the sponsorship will look like. Th...
Crowdfunding is an incredible tool for entrepreneurs seeking capital at any stage of their business. Startup businesses can validate their idea through a rewards crowdfund, giving them great traction to share with potential investors through a follow-on equity crowdfund.
A successful rewards crowdfunding raise (typically offering pre-orders of a product), is becoming a common precursor to raising equity investments from prominent angel investors seeking an equity stake in the company.
Angel Investors and Equity Crowdfunding
Before crowdfunding, angel investments were often found within an entrepreneur’s own network. Family, friends, and close business associates were all pivotal in an entrepreneur’s search for capital, due to a ban on the p...
Determination, according to Paul Graham’s essay, is the best predictor of startup success. Determined people, he says, have three qualities: discipline, ambition, and willfulness.
Successful startups are extremely rare compared to the number of startups ever started. It means that at least one of these three qualities is rare in people. Which one? Let’s look at them one by one.
Discipline is simply doing what you’ve planned to do. It requires a plan, any plan, and your execution of it. Discipline is straightforward. So why would it ever be a problem? It is not difficult to make a plan. Most people get that far. But the doing part is more difficult—it requires something less than what we n...
Data Visualization expert Bill Shander shared with us his tips, tricks and best practices for converting your data into compelling communications, regardless of your audience or the medium. Bill has over 2 decades of experience decoding data and helping clients communicate big ideas online – from startups and nonprofits to global corporations. Want to learn how to put data to work for your startup? Read his advice below.
The Four Main Types of Content
In order to engage readers of all interest levels, you have to create different types of content for your audience. The first type is “Water Cooler Content.” This includes things like headlines, visuals, and quick, 30 second or less videos. Think of these like a movie preview. 80% of people w...