• Mahbod Moghadam, Founder of Rap Genius
• Shawn Setaro, Editor-in-Chief of Rap Genius
• Corentin Villemeur, New Media Director for G-Unit Records & General Manager of Thisis50.com
• James Lopez, Co-Founder of The Phat Startup
• Anthony Frasier, Co-Founder of The Phat Startup & Founder of TheKoalition.com

The event was dope as hell. We got a huge turnout, with 85+ people, including ~25 people from outside of Columbia, including Mick Boogie, the famous mixtape DJ. All the panelists previously knew each other, and I knew all of them personally as well (James and Shawn in-person, Mahbod and Anthony from the Internet, and Corentin from a Rap Genius party the week before), so there was really good chemistry between everyone involved.

The theme of the night was the business and life lessons found in rap music, and each panelist brought something different to the discussion. James and Anthony talked about how coming from bad circumstances themselves, they could relate to rappers’ stories. James specifically quoted a Kanye line about how he didn’t play the cards he was dealt, instead he changed them. Mahbod was really funny and entertaining, and he did give some good advice, including the tip not to deal drugs if you go to an Ivy League school. Shawn, a huge fan of Jay-Z, brought a really intellectual standpoint to the table. Corentin, as somebody who’s in constant contact with 50 Cent, was able to give us an insight about how that man works and thinks.

What stood out to me the most that night was something Shawn said. He said there were two kinds of really successful people: the Diddys and the Jay-Zs. Diddy was someone who became successful purely because of how hard he worked. He had been grinding his ass off since he was young, and you’re either born that way or you’re not. But then you have the Jay-Zs, the people who are able to become successful because they take the time to really evaluate and understand every situation they’re in. This is how Jay-Z, in the cultural eye, has really never made a business mistake. He’s smart about every decision he makes. This is something that anyone can aspire to become. This hit home hard, because I wasn’t really raised with a work ethic inbred into me, so I had to acquire one. Some of my most successful friends have been hard workers since day one, and props to them, but either approach ultimately works.

Corentin also said something he personally heard from 50 cent, which was “who you know gets you there, what you know keeps you there.” And because the game has changed so much, and you can get anyone’s email within a couple hours nowadays, it’s not really a problem of knowing people anymore. It’s a problem of actually being able to offer something of value to them.

But everyone took away different things from the panel. If you’re interested more in the topic, I would check out The Phat Startup—this is what they’re all about, teaching entrepreneurship through hip-hop. You can also check out the event photo album here. Thanks to CORE (Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs) and CUSH (Columbia University Society of Hip-Hop) for co-sponsoring the event. And thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed the event!

SELECTED COVERAGE

• Bwog (Columbia University Official Blog)
• Jada Ashley Says

This entry is cross-posted from the blog of one of our board members, Zach Schwartz (CC’16). You can read it as originally published on his site, here.

1.  To the extent that it is feasible, fund your own project.

Telling is 100% bootstrapped.  We’ve put in our own money, we’ve given up our full time jobs, and we take no salaries.  At some point in the near future we will need to raise money, but bootstrapping instills financial discipline that is critical to keeping an early stage business above water.

It makes a difference when you have “skin in the game.”  We feel the pain every time we spend a dollar (and believe me, we feel the pain of every dollar we are not earning).  Not having cash in the bank forces us to negotiate everything, to be creative with payment contracts and to constantly prioritize what to invest in and what to outsource.

Mitra and I have relied heavily on our personal networks and have simply asked for help.  It amazes us how generous people have been.   People want to help; all you have to do is ASK. 

Bootstrapping also forces you to quickly build a “no frills” minimal viable product to test the market. There is simply no time or money to build the “perfect” product, but this is a good thing because the quicker you get your product into people’s hands, the faster you will start learning something.

2.  A good co-founder is someone who holds the mirror up to your face for you.

Before Telling, Mitra and I worked together for 8 months at another publishing startup in San Francisco.  We went through hell and back working at that startup, but we cultivated a deep understanding of what we each cared about, our strengths, our weaknesses and working styles.  We had such a good understanding of how we would work together and what roles we would play that it should have been relatively easy to just start executing when we started Telling.

But it has not been easy.  The past 6 months have exposed our weaknesses in communication, they have exposed our respective egos and insecurities, and they have exposed how scared, uncertain, and crazy we sometimes feel.

You need to be able to share the worst of yourself with your co-founder and trust they will still work with you to make you and the venture successful.

Needless to say, you need to find someone who complements your skill sets. You both have to believe wholeheartedly in the core mission of your company and the meaning of your brand.  Outside of this, it is best if you disagree.

Mitra and I disagree, all the time.  It is draining. But that is okay.  Telling is attempting to bridge business and art, technology and art, and we, as founders, embody the natural tensions that keep these worlds apart.  But this tension is also the source of our creativity and helps us stay true to our mission.

3.  Plan to make money from day 1.

It is trendy these days for consumer web businesses to build an open platform, create viral loops, get zillions of users on your system and then figure out how to monetize.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with this model, I think it devalues some good things about a more classical approach to business (i.e. make a good product and sell it to a market that wants it).

When someone is willing to pay for your product or service, it means something.  It means you are delivering actual value and simply put, this is what all businesses should strive to achieve.

When you take someone’s money, you actually feel responsibility of delivering exceptional service to the customer every single time they use you product or service.

Even if you charge 1 cent for your product or service, do it.  You will amazed at what you learn about the actual value of your product or service.

4.  Care about design.  

Good design is not about pretty colors and making things look beautiful.  Design is a systematic method of building and iterating on a product and business so that you end up with something people can use intuitively.

Good design starts with asking yourself these questions over and over again:

• What problem am I solving?
• What needs are we trying to address?
• What are people going to stop doing once they start using your product?

Then, it is important to prototype your idea.  This means drawing out each feature of your product and iterating on it.  MyBalsamiq is a great tool to draw out each and every frame of your product or service.  Take your drawings out into the market and ask people if your product/service is something they would want if it exists.  Get feedback and draw some more.

Next, build your minimal viable product, get it out into the market, collect feedback, and build again.

We must have gone through this process 8-9 times before we released our beta version.  Our idea literally started with emailing pdf stories to people via MailChimp and has since morphed into digital media platform where art and technology co-exist and enhance each other.

5.  Can’t code? Then learn how to read code and find the right developers.

Many non-technical founders struggle with not being able to build or iterate fast enough because they can’t code.  While this is a frustrating handicap, you can build a product using the right contract developers.  My advice is to not be cheap, stay local, and find developers who understand how the end consumer will use your product.  Look for people who have a background in design or design thinking.

Most importantly, if you can’t code, learn just enough so that you can at least read code and piece together how your developer is architecting the solution.  It will open the lines of communication with your developer and save you from getting ripped off.

Last, but not least, make sure to take the time and write a full functional specification for your beta product.  Ensure that you and your developer have the same understanding of what the spec means and try to account for each and every edge case in advance.  It is a lot of grunt work up front, but you will be glad you went through it when things start breaking.

If you have an idea, you owe it to yourself to build an early prototype and test your idea.  Go out and build.  You can always get a job later.

Article by Avanti Prahlad (Columbia ’04).

Telling is a digital media company focused on excellent storytelling.

Convinced that the time has arrived for San Francisco to step into the literary world, and for the world of art and letters to join forces with Silicon Valley, we offer a subscription service unlike any other: one that marries art with technology, and refuses to compromise on either.

Literature has been hit hard in 2013, print publishing having begun its rapid decline. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has tried—and failed—to “create content”. Unfortunately, the heroes of hacking are somewhat clueless about the deliberate and painstaking process of writing, editing, and publication.

Telling is a company run by representatives of seemingly warring tribes: a writer-editor from the world of publishing and art, and a business woman, from the world of Pepsi-Cola and satellite technology.

At Telling, we bring reading, art, and listening of the finest variety to subscribers world-wide, daring to call our work both high art and joyful entertainment. We also distribute through our own digital platform—in fact, we insist upon it.

Telling offers the essence of a fashion magazine, the sensibility of a literary journal, and the joy of a radio storytelling programme. With a kick from Silicon Valley to make the experience of reading, listening, and viewing a perfect pleasure, Telling is 21st century media.

www.tellingreads.com

You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn!

You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn

1.  Startups will be able to raise money from all Americans—not just wealthy friends/family/angels and venture capitalists; and
2.  Startups can raise capital without knowing their investors personally.  (Under current law, in order to get money from an angel or a VC, you have to be acquainted first.)

This will create unprecedented opportunity, both for entrepreneurs and for ordinary investors who have been forced to sit on the sidelines.

Once the new law goes into effect, startups and other private businesses can go directly to the public to raise seed capital.

As your company grows, investment-based crowdfunding can provide a bridge between institutional rounds.  It will enable entrepreneurs to raise more money at lower cost—and with fewer strings attached (board seats, control provisions, and the like).

One of the most exciting applications of this new rule is that startups can accept investments from their customers.  If anyone can see the long-term value in your company, it’s your early adopters.  Allowing customers to invest makes them “stickier” to your brand, more likely to stay loyal and spread the word.  So investment-based crowdfunding isn’t just a financing strategy—it’s also a smart marketing strategy.

And it can be a smart complement to institutional capital. There is definitely a value to experienced professional investors. At their best, VCs can offer great advice and contacts. But there is also a value to adding investment-based crowdfunding: lower cost capital, less dilution, more control, and terrific sales and marketing benefits.

If you’re interested in raising money for a startup using investment-based crowdfunding, you should proceed with caution. Securities law is no joke–and what you don’t know can hurt you.  That’s why it’s important to work with experts who can shuttle you through the process in a safe, professional way.  Beware of anyone who tells you that it’s easy; and think long and hard before you take advice from someone who doesn’t have a background in law or the capital markets.  The paradigm is much closer to Morgan Stanley than Kickstarter.

My colleagues and I think the opportunity is so big that we founded a company to help entrepreneurs raise capital using these new tools.  It’s called PubVest (check us out at www.pubvest.com).

One question we’re often asked is, what’s required of a company seeking this kind of funding? We won’t know everything until the SEC finishes writing its rules, but we have a pretty good idea.  It’s basically the same disclosure that a smart institutional investor would require–a solid business plan, the name of officers, directors, and 20%+ shareholders, financial statements (that have to be audited if you’re raising more than $500,000), a description of the company’s existing capital structure as well as how the company intends to use the new money it raises.

Our team would be delighted to chat with Columbia students and alums interested in raising capital.  We especially like working with businesses that seek to do well for their investors while also doing something good in the world.

Even though the JOBS Act has been passed and signed, it won’t go into effect until that SEC rulemaking is finished (at some point this year).  In the meantime, we’re happy to answer any questions about what investment-based crowdfunding might mean for you.

Adam Kaufman CC’04 is CEO of PubVest. You can contact him at adam@pubvest.com.

From now on, you can learn about our latest events, and see pictures from past happenings, on CORE’s Facebook page, which has also been refreshed with our new branding. In this blog, we instead want to offer useful tips, advice, and interviews with entrepreneurs, technologists and professionals in the startup community. We will of course have a certain bias towards featuring Columbia students and alumni, but we know that valuable advice comes from all sources.

If you want to stay in touch with the latest articles and postings, we urge you to follow CORE on social media and to subscribe to our newsletter; we’ll be featuring previews and summaries of our latest entries so you’ll always know about the latest updates. On the other hand, if you’ve worked in an entrepreneurial role or company, we would love to feature your advice and commentary, so please feel free to reach out to us using the contact form at the bottom of our site.

Well, without further ado, then, let’s get on with it! As always, we appreciate your feedback, so feel free to shoot us a note and let us know what you think as we move forward.

You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn

Also, check out his website!

You can find her on Twitter and LinkedIn

Also, you can check out her website!