As a startup, the ability to create publicity for your business at minimal to no cost can be invaluable. We've listed below some of the more creative ways that we've seen our portfolio companies and others attract the media.

MAJOR CONFERENCES SEEKING STARTUPS TO FEATURE (AT NO CHARGE)

Conferences are a great venue for educating influencers about your business, plus they're fun! For a useful guide on how to gain PR from high-profile startup conferences, check out

Conference Tips For Startups: Where To Go And What To Do Once You Get There , and 15 Tips from Keith Ferrazzi: Conference Commando.  For a full list of major tech conferences, see technologyconference.com .  For a database of major startup competitions or large events that help startups promote their business, see this very helpful database from SocialCompare.

hackNY is not really a conference, but definitely will help boost your profile.  (We're a sponsor.)  Selected startups show a demo of their API at the beginning of the hackny hackathons and - just as importantly - are encouraged to stick around to help the hackers integrate your code into their projects. This is a chance to impress NYC's next generation of code powerhouses, many of whom will be looking for summer internships.

PERSONAL COMPETITIONS

NYC Venture Fellows: Selective, international program to help successful entrepreneurs take their ventures to the next level. Each year, 20-30 "rising star" entrepreneurs from New York City and around the world are selected through a competitive nomination process.  Established by NYCEDC in conjunction with Fordham University, the program is designed to:

- Assist successful entrepreneurs in scaling ventures that have the potential to create jobs in NYC

- Encourage international and non-NYC entrepreneurs to open offices in NYC

- Build connections among entrepreneurs, established NYC companies, and international businesses

I list many other elite programs for "young leaders" in a talk I gave at NYU on squeezing maximum value out of school.  See the section on "Selective Programs" (slide 35 and there after).  I'll be blogging more on this topic soon.

BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITIONS

For an exhaustive list of business plan competitions, check out MIT Global Startup Workshop's list.  Of course, keep in mind that business plans are a very poor predictor of a successful business. 

Some of the most noteable contests:

TechStars Startup Madness: March Madness-style tournament bracket of 64 startups meeting the following requirements

- Haven't raised funding of $250,000 or more and haven't generated revenue of more than $250,000 in a single year.

- Have a live, usable public site or an accessible demo on their home page

- Have not already been in the TechStars program - this is not for TechStars companies or alumni companies

- Must be an internet, software, or hi-tech company

Global AWS Start-Up Challenge: a way for promising start-ups to get noticed and compete for an opportunity to win up to $100,000 in cash and AWS credits. Eligible start-ups that are using the AWS cloud computing platform can submit an entry into the contest which describes their business plan and use of AWS paid services

The Buckminster Fuller Competition: The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design challenge awarding $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity's most pressing problems. It attracts bold, visionary, tangible initiatives focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning solutions are regionally specific yet globally applicable and present a truly comprehensive, anticipatory, integrated approach to solving the world's complex problems.

William James Foundation Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition: The William James Foundation (WJF) seeks to identify, promote, and support entrepreneurs who have financially viable ways of integrating social and/or environmental sustainability into a for-profit business model. There is a processing fee of $50 to enter the competition. Competitions have three rounds: Executive Summary, Full Plan, and Public Presentation.

Participants: Entrants can be of any age or from anywhere in the world. The business must either not have started yet, or be in start-up phase.

Award: The cash and in-kind prizes as a whole are worth more than $100,000

NUDITY

If all else fails, you can always take your clothes off.

(Photo from laverrue)

  One of the first steps I took when I joined ff Venture Capital was to launch a lending library (the original social media). It's a very cheap employee benefit and more important, a way to promote a culture of both learning and knowledge-sharing. I think every company would benefit by having a small lending library.  I moved into many of my old textbooks/research materials from writing my book.

I asked our intern Franklin Bi to research technology tools to track books checked in/checked out. He did a little research, but we didn't find any good tools. We also jointly decided that the overhead cost of setting up and managing the system wasn't worth it. It's much easier for the library to operate strictly according to the honor system.

I also asked Franklin to write up a one-page summary of the rules of the library, which we could post next to the books. 95% of people would have written up 5 bland bullets and moved on to the next project. Franklin, to his credit, did the assignment with style, wit, and creativity. I've attached below what we printed out and put next to our lending library.

When I was applying to business school, I asked my colleague at Bear Stearns, Michael Margolis (now of Maric Capital Fund L.P.) for some advice. He observed that successful people "do the mundane in a sublime way". Franklin's execution of this project is a great example of that principle in action.

ff Venture Capital Lending Library Guidelines

Please borrow no more than one (1) item at once
"Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus." - Tony Robbins

Recommended borrowing period: two (2) weeks
"I would rather have a good plan today than a perfect plan two weeks from now." - General George S. Patton

Treat these books with regard for future readers
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." -Francis Bacon

Recommend and share books you like with others!
"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

By the way...
please feel free to contribute books from your own collection!

If you plan to retrieve your book(s) later, remember to write your name inside the cover.

If you would like to donate a book permanently, write "ff Venture Capital" inside the cover.

If you read this whole list of guidelines and
it was the most leisure reading you've done in the past week,
please borrow a book.

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." - P.J. O'Rourke

Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uberculture/2058870277/sizes/z/in/photostream/

David A. Boillot, Susan Klein, and Ed Reitler of Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt did a great job representing me in finalizing the terms of my joining ff Venture Capital. However, I definitely have to admit that executing the agreements took much longer than I had hoped. Although fortunately my cost was capped, it still cost time and effort for all the parties involved.  I agree with Mark Suster we would have benefited by having more meetings with all the players in the room.

I asked Ed to write up some thoughts on how startups and principals in general can best work with lawyers. Following is his counsel, with some edits from me.

Ten Tips for Entrepreneurs when Working with Lawyers

by Ed Reitler

1. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the fee arrangement. Discuss alternative arrangements such as caps, deferral until financing and equity as a form of payment. One of the biggest sources of friction between entrepreneurs and their attorneys comes from a lack of clarity surrounding billing expectations. Attorneys are expensive when billing by the hour. Avoid the sticker shock that attends opening invoices from attorneys by having an agreement in place before engagement.

2. Be efficient with their time. Don't use your attorney as a psychologist or sounding board for all your thoughts; this will raise costs tremendously. Unless of course you want to use them for that purpose, although they're not necessarily trained to do so. I recently worked on the sale of a company by an entrepreneur. His company meant a great deal to him and I was sensitive to that. However, it got to the point where drafting sessions turned into therapy sessions that included lengthy soliloquies. The client did not want to pay me and my team to listen to this, the deal size really couldn't support the additional legal fees, and we really didn't want to hear it.

3. Clarify how work responsibilities will be shared between partners and associates at the firm. Be wary of working with large national footprint law firms that turn you over to inexperienced associates in an effort to keep their costs down. Make sure that an attorney who knows what he/she is doing is responsible for the work product. Finally, make sure that you are asking your attorney whether you need to consult a tax attorney or consultant in any company formation, equity compensation, conversion to a C corporation or financing (whether you are getting liquidity or not).

4. Ask your attorneys to help you prioritize the projects for your company that require legal assistance. Cash is like oxygen in early stage companies. Concentrate on the mission critical legal items first. Save legal expense where you can by deferring projects when you and your attorney agree that they need not be taken care of immediately.

5. Ask your attorneys to explain in basic terms any terminology or jargon that you don't understand. Never sign something you don't fully understand.

6. Invite your attorney to attend Board meetings (and not to charge for taking minutes) so that he or she will have a better understanding of your business and will be able offer insight on operational and legal matters. In many cases they'll be open to doing that, since it gives them more insight into your business and exposure to other board members.

7. Engage counsel early, especially if developing intellectual property that will be a key asset in your business. This is also critical when issuing founder's stock, restricted stock or options to employees in order to manage the tax consequences. A simple oversight early on can be highly expensive later.that's most easily demonstrated by the various people harassing Mark Zuckerberg for founder's stakes in Facebook.

8. If your time is limited, ask your attorney to highlight what issues are most important, particularly in transactions such as a venture financing. Find out what you really need to focus on so that you don't get overwhelmed in detail and fail to take away what is most significant. Often, there are certain aspects of a venture financing that are negotiable and others that are not. You will save a lot of time and money by engaging an experienced venture attorney who can educate you on what you can push back on in a term sheet and what is a non-starter with the VC.

9. Give your attorney context when asking him or her to execute a particular task. There could be an alternative structure that more effectively achieves your goal. The more attorneys know about your business, the more helpful they are likely to be (see attendance of board meetings above).

10. Ask your attorneys what questions you should be asking so that additional relevant issues that you might not have been aware of are raised.

On Thursday, July 28th, DreamIt Ventures New York will be hosting a presentation by me on "How to Recruit Rockstar Team Members to Your Startup". I'd really appreciate your feedback on my draft slide deck, below.

"David Teten will share his insights on the issues and challenges of building a great team in an early-stage company given the hyper-competitive market for talent.  You'll learn how to effectively identify, woo, and sign rockstar talent.  .  Space is limited, so please register now for this special session, presented by DreamIt NYC and Pillsbury Winthrop.  "

WHEN: Thursday, July 28 at 6pm

WHERE: DreamIt NYC, 28 West 27th Street, 11th Floor

RSVP via TicketLeap:  http://dreamit.ticketleap.com/dreamit-speaker-david-teten-best-practices-in-hiring-firing/

It's been very exciting to see such a strong response to our recent research study on "Best Practices in Private Equity and Venture Capital Deal Origination", published in the Winter 2010 Journal of Private Equity. 

To our knowledge, this is the first systematic study on this topic; we have not found any other in-depth research on origination by either academics or practitioners. In leading this research, we are leveraging our experience working with a wide range of top-tier investors and our proprietary dataset of the origination practices of over 150 institutional investors globally with whom we have conducted in-depth interviews. We also have presented on our research to dozens of conferences, funds, and investment banks globally, gaining additional insight from audience feedback.  My coauthor Chris Farmer of General Catalyst provided critical insight, particularly on the venture capital industry.  Our research associates, Yujin Chung (Andreessen Horowitz) and Neha Kumar (Anklesaria Group), provided invaluable quantitative and analytical support.  I also want to thank my former colleagues at global research firm Evalueserve for their help in conducting approximately 1/3 of our surveys, and for additional background research.

A wide range of publications has now featured our research:

- 3/29/11: Business Insider, Five Best Practices In Sourcing Investments

- 3/29/11: Axial Market Blog, Where the Deals Are - Best Practices in Sourcing Investments

- 3/14/11: Bloomberg Radio, Teten Discusses Private Equity Deal Origination (Audio file)

- 1/13/11: Pensions & Investments, Study: PE firms spend hours on investments they'll avoid

- 1/3/11: Global Corporate Venturing, Chasing the rabbit: deal origination best practice

- 12/6/10: Financial News/Private Equity News, Four Ways Buyout Funds Can Increase Dealflow

- 12/10: Mergers & Acquisitions, Where are the Deals? Private Equity Funds' Best Practices in Sourcing Investments

- 10/5/10: Institutional Investor, Where Are the Deals?

- 9/6/10: Buyouts News, Need to Meet: David Teten

- 6/10: Harvard Business Review, Time for Investors to Get Social

I've embedded below the sanitized slides from a presentation we've made on our research to some investor conferences and privately to various private equity funds and investment banks.

The Inside Numbers on the Job Market and the Impending Hiring War

How to Conduct the Perfect Interview

Understanding your cost to hire.

Employment Screening, beware and be aware

Social Network Recruiting - Beyond Employee Referrals

Turn disgruntled applicants into raving fans!

Finding Top Performers

After further investigation, I found out that some corporate firewalls were blocking the site, presumably because they had misclassified Teten.com as a site that employees were using to search for new jobs.

Getting our site whitelisted took much more time than I would have liked, and we're not done yet.  My colleague Taimur Hassan prepared the chart below, a list of some of the major web security and corporate firewall providers, and links to check your website's status.

For your recycling, here is a sample email we used to request a change in our classification:

Hello,

 

I write on behalf of http://www.teten.com/ because I believe it is misclassified in your database. As a result of its classification, it is inaccessible to many users behind a corporate firewall, who are potential clients for us.

 

The site is currently categorized under "Job Search & Career Development," but it is actually a boutique investment bank. Please let me know if any other information is necessary to make the appropriate change in classification. Thank you for your time.

And here is a sample response we received from Websense:

Thank you for writing to Websense.

 

The site you submitted has been reviewed. It is appropriately classified and filtered accordingly:

http://www.teten.com/ - Financial Data and Services

 

This has been verified using the latest database publication which will be available for download shortly.

 

Please note that it is your customer's organization's local administrator who determines what categories are to be restricted. If your customers would like to access this site, we recommend that they contact this person and request that either the category or specific URL be custom-permitted.

 

To ensure proper filtering of this site and others, please make sure that your customers' Websense product is configured to download database updates regularly.

 

If you continue to have problems with this site being incorrectly filtered, please let us know.

 

Thank you for your inquiry,

 

The Websense Database Services Staff

The heritage shows.  Speed of Trust is written in a very similar style to 7 Habits, and I mean that as praise.  It contains reasonable advice, based on the author's work with clients, and is seasoned with anecdotes from Stephen M.R.'s clients and family/personal life.  It discusses five 'waves'; thirteen 'behaviors'; and the four 'cores of credibility' that inspire trust.  I know management consultants are often mocked for their love of the numbered list, but there's a reason why they use it: it enhances recall for the reader.

Echoing Ronald Coase's argument for why firms exist in the first place, Stephen M.R. argues that a high-trust workplaces receive two main benefits: they get things done faster, and at a lower cost.  This certainly echos my own experience, both inside and between firms. 

What's particularly interesting to me, given my experience building Circle of Experts, is how economic capital can be used to substitute for social capital in building trust.  The whole power of an expert network is that it allows a customer to very rapidly open up a high-trust conversation with a source, without all of the lengthy relationship-building that historically was necessary.  This can reduce the amount of effort required to build trust.

I think that the book has a lot of wisdom and encourage you to take a look.