1.
Before You Launch:
Things to Consider Before Beginning a Startup
Presented by Ju-Don Marshall Roberts
October 2013

2.
About Me
☞17 years at The Washington ☞J-Lab’s New Voices Board
Post
☞J-Lab’s New Media Women
☞Restart No. 1: NewsCorpEntrepreneurs Board
owned Beliefnet
☞Work with various startups
☞Restart No. 2: Beliefnet was
sold; had to start over,
rebuilding and training new
team for the new company
☞Restart No. 3: Everyday
Health

3.
Are You an Entrepreneur?
☞Is this really for you?
 Are you a solo act or can you lead
others?
 Will you devote the necessary time?
 Do you have the resources or
resourcefulness to make this work?
 Are you overwhelmed or excited by
challenges?
☞
Resources:
 Dan Isenberg’s entrepreneur checklist http://bit.ly/1cvaFby

4.
If
“You”
Build It, They Might Come
☞If they know and trust you –
your personal brand
‒ What have you already
done? (reputation)
☞If you can sell the package of
you and your idea effectively
‒ Are you believable?
(passion)
‒ Are you credible?
(experience)

5.
If
“You”
Build It, They Might Come
☞But they won’t stay without a fight
 Don’t rest on your laurels.
 As fabulous as you/your
idea/your product are, you
will be in a death match for
audience and revenue.
 You may be a visionary, but
can you execute?

6.
Good Ideas Are Not Enough
☞Market opportunity
 It may be a brilliant project, hobby or
distraction but is it a business?
 Are you solving a problem and for whom?
 Do enough people care about the problem
and would they be interested in your
solution?
 Is it scalable?
 Do you have the skills, time, resources to
make it work?
☞
Resources:
 Dan Isenberg’s business opportunity checklist http://bit.ly/1cWunQb

7.
Know the Competition
☞Who are your competitors?
 How will you differentiate your
product or service?
 Does your product or service
compete with or complement them?
 Is market strong enough to support
another product in this category?
 Use free tools to analyze your
competitors and sharpen your
positioning.
☞
Resources:

Measurement and comparison tools: www.similarsites.com, www.similarweb.com,
www.quantcast.com, www.alexa.com

8.
Define and Refine Your Idea
☞Summarize your idea
 Is it clear? Does it convey value, differentiation,
excitement?
 Create an informal advisory group and pitch them. Do
they understand it? Would they use or fund it?
 Survey random people to test the idea/market.
 Use others’ questions/comments to refine your idea.

9.
Is It Worth Your Time?
☞How will you support
the site and yourself?
 Advertising may not be
enough to sustain your
business; do you have
alternative revenue
streams in mind?
 Other options: Grants,
sponsorships, services,
crowd-funding, events,
products, etc.
 Subsidize income:
Freelance, PT work
☞
Resources:


Sustainable business models for journalism http://www.submojour.net/
Sample business models from CUNY’s Tow-Knight Center http://bit.ly/H2adaj

10.
Can You Build the Right Team?
☞You’ll need a team that you trust and that
trusts you
 Hire (or team up with) people with passion.
 Find people with complementary strengths,
expertise.
 Strive not to be the smartest person in the room.
 Build a culture, not just a business.

11.
Can You Lose the Emotion,
but Keep the Passion?
☞Your passion is your driving force
 Allows you to effectively motivate your team and
yourself.
 Provides inspirational leadership.
☞Unchecked emotions are dangerous
 Leads you to blind adherence or belief in your own
ideas in spite of indicators or team feedback.
 Results in erratic decision-making.
☞
Resources:

Article: Lead and motivate – not just your team, but yourself, too http://bit.ly/1hZ1oZP

12.
Stay Committed and Focused
☞Good ideas need time to grow
 Do your due diligence to make
sure your ideas are sound and
then give them time to work.
☞Avoid chasing every shiny new
penny
 Distractions (nonstrategic
pursuits) will likely be corrosive
and impact the execution of your
actual priorities.

13.
Know When to Pivot
☞Recognize when a
strategy is flawed
 Wrong assumptions.
 Marketplace changes.
 Audience shifts.
☞Seize the opportunities
you cannot afford to
miss

14.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
☞Build a solid foundation
 Make sure what you create or
sell is replicable and scalable.
 Invest in the infrastructure,
teams, technology to
adequately support your
initiatives.

15.
Be True to Yourself
☞ Define your brand or others will define it for
you
 Your Advertisers.
 Your Competition.
☞ Remember your differentiator

16.
Don’t Fear the Disruption;
Be the Disruption
☞Never stop challenging your
assumptions
 Why won’t your product work
“tomorrow”?
☞Figure out the game-changer in your
niche and become it
 Lessons from legacy media
 Gamification

17.
Advice From Founders
☞Build an advisory board.
☞Don’t expect your plans to
go exactly as planned.
Donna Byrd
Publisher,
The Root;
Co-Founder,
Kickoff Marketing
@by_donna

18.
Advice From Founders
☞Stay laser-focused on what
you are trying to accomplish.
 Don't let VCs, funders or staff allow scope
creep to kick in. If you have a great idea,
then don't let anything get in the way of
building or perfecting that.
Jim Brady
President & Editor,
Digital First Media;
Founding GM TBD
@jimbradysp
☞ Avoid growing too fast.
 Quick success doesn't mean long-term
success, so stay cheap until the long-term
path is clearer. No big staff expansion or
fancy real estate.

19.
Advice From Founders
☞Turn a competitor into a mentor
 Build a partnership, where you share ideas with
each other, ask questions, and build a mutually
beneficial relationship. Befriending your
competition and developing a pathway to
strengthen both businesses is what some of the
most successful entrepreneurs are doing today.
Amy Webb
Founder and CEO,
Webb Media Group
@webbmedia
☞Ask the “dumb” questions
 I see a lot of bright young people miss great
opportunities simply because they were too
embarrassed to ask for clarification.… There's a big
difference between confidence and hubris. It's
easier to be flashy and act cocky. It's a lot harder to
find quiet inner confidence and to be comfortable
asking people for help, or admitting when you
don't know something.

20.
Advice From Founders
☞Dig deep to find your
purpose. It matters for
everything.
Hamet Watt
Investment Partner,
Upfront Ventures;
Cofounder,
bLife and MoviePass
@hametwatt
☞Don’t underestimate the
work required.

21.
Advice From Founders
☞Establish a terrific group of
advisers.
Greg Behrman
Founder & CEO,
NationSwell
@GregBehrman1
☞Avoid not having a detailed
and executable Action Plan
 You have to prioritize what is really
important from what is not.

22.
Advice From Founders
☞Establish shared values
 Talk openly with your founding team and establish
your shared values. Then hire for them, teach
them and be true to them.
Tom Gerace
Founder & CEO,
Skyword;
Founder,
Gaither
@tomgerace
☞Don’t blindly adhere to a model
 Your model helps you understand the levers in
your business, but it's always wrong in ways you
don't expect.

23.
Advice From Founders
☞Have a partner
 Building a company is hard - it's a big existential
struggle - and nothing improves one's odds of
success more, or makes the process more
enjoyable, than a another person to share the
crusade.
Oliver Ryan
Founder & CEO,
Social Workout
@eauryan
☞ Avoid Editing Yourself
 In the face of bleak prospects or long odds, the
tendency is to second guess and to avoid risk,
i.e. to narrow the vision, and to be quick to
dismiss "crazy" ideas.… This doesn't mean that
you embrace every half-baked idea, but that you
allow ideas to live for a while, before settling on
a course of action. Innovation is a very fragile
process, and it can be so easily killed without
sufficient vigilance.

24.
Resources for Startups
☞Entrepreneur’s 2 Weeks to Startup
☞CUNY Online Entrepreneurial Journalism Bootcamp
☞JStart: Resources for Startups
☞ReadWriteWeb’s Legal Resources for Startups
☞Quantcast: Traffic and Demographics
☞Alexa: Traffic
☞New Business Models from the Tow-Knight Center
☞Entrepreneur and Business Opportunity Checklist
☞SuBMoJour: Database of Startups and Business
Models
☞Similar Web and Similar Sites: Measurement and
Comparisons
All links available here: http://bit.ly/19SYB5o

25.
Thank You!
https://twitter.com/jmarroberts
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jmarroberts
https://www.facebook.com/jmarroberts
ju-don@ju-don.com
jmrmediaconsulting@gmail.com