Startup Addict Musings

Version 2.0 of StartupAddict is finally up and running. I want to thank everyone who waited patiently as SA was converted from a custom php/mysql application to Drupal 5.x. To see why I chose Drupal for the Startupaddict platform check this earlier post. StartupAddict is community driven and only as good as its’ users, so please signup and provide feedback of where you would like to see SA go in future versions. SA’s user interface should get more aesthetically pleasing over the coming weeks now that we are rocking and rolling.

I have ambitious plans for the funding tab and plan to offer micro-payments and peer2peer lending components for investors and entrepreneurs. In addition early fall we plan on migrating to Drupal 6 and implementing OpenID to simplify signing in to SA and “going open” for third party social network integration.

Enjoy!

Tags: Drupal, StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

Drupalcon 2008 got underway today and a great day it was. Dries Buytaert the original founder of Drupal kicked off the event with a Keynote about the release of Drupal 6 (only a month ago) and a discussion on where Drupal 7 is heading. Like any conference my head is still spinning from information overload as the next generation of the various Drupal components are discussed.

As Day 2 looms, my decision to delay the launch of StartupAddict.com by 5 months in order to migrate the code to Drupal 5 is a better decision than I even imagined. SA 2.0 is officially ready as of yesterday, but will not likely go live until next week when the dust settles from the conference and the servers are provisioned correctly. Future updates and features should be very rapid for StartupAddict and I look forward to everyone’s feedback. More importantly what you think really works and what you would rather see eliminated.

I have to run to a networking event…but more to come and plenty of “semantic web” fodder from this conference that will fill at least a month worth of posts and discussion.

Tags: Drupal, StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

”

This is the first posting for Startup Addict on the wordpress platform since our move from the blogger platform. The old blog site will be up for one more week before we take it down fully. Please update your RSS/Feeds accordingly.

Hope you enjoy the new look and feel. The new blog site will allow us to better report startup news and explain the nuiances of how get the most from StartupAddict.com

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

The web entrepreneur community is underway. We are gearing up for a big marketing push, even though we are currently live in public beta now. To take advantage of the web entrepreneur community known as Startup Addict, be sure to do the following:

Sign up and create a profile among 5 different user classes:

1. Entrepreneur
2. Investor
3. Advisor
4. Service Provider
5. Job Seeker

Then tell the web entrepreneur community a bit about yourself and ambitions. From there click on Startup Central and search other users and startups that have joined the community. In addition you can also hit the browse key below the profile button in the header and search for users that way.

One of the more important aspects of Startup Addict and to take full advantage of the web entrepreneur community is too adjust your privacy settings to be public. Be sure to leave users comments on their whiteboards and give generous mojo where applicable.

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

Startup Addict has finally launched! The startup social network was intended for a memorial day launch and ended up being closer to labor day. Fast, Cheap and Quality….you only get 2 of the 3 when you bootstrap and I clearly didn’t get the fast (although cheap may be debatable at this point as well).

Anyway, very few bugs remain in version 1.0. I have about 16 bugs on my “to fix” list including the long awaited videoplayer on the homepage that will showcase both aspiring and successful entrepreneurs who are utilizing SA.

For those of you who forgot what SA actually is, no hard feelings since it has literally been a month since my last posting. The following clip will hopefully refresh your memory.

The programmers were clearly overwhelmed with SA (hence the delay) but at the end of the day I think we nailed the essence of it. Version 1 is the meat and potatoes and Version 2 will be the dazzling polish and web 2.0 fun we have all come to love.

I will only have a few more postings before I migrate this blog to blog.startupaddict.com.

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

We missed our deadline for launch by a little more than a week. The majority of the bugs will be under control and we can release the deluge of people on our pre-launch list. Entrepreneurs, Service Providers, job seekers, investors and advisors can finally sink their teeth into the most immerse social platform for starting startups.

Startup creation is similar to real estate “location” mantra, except the startup mantra is “networking, networking, networking”. No matter where you may be in the startup value chain or the startup process, you will be an essential piece of the puzzle at Startup Adddict.

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

We just posted the Startup Addict show open.

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict

The general word is out that Startup Addict is a social networking platform for entrepreneurs with big ideas. Aside from pooling all of the strengths of a social networking community, the true power of StartupAddict lies in the funding section of the website. The reason why we always say “join the startup revolution” (beside being catchy) is because it truly transcends all historical funding and investment approaches. Traditionally four approaches exist for the entrepreneur:

1. Personal funds
2. Friends, family, associates
3. Angels
4. Venture Capital

The Funding section of Startup Addict focuses specifically on the friends, family, co-workers portion of funding and facilitates the process in a peer to peer lending format. The stranger in Ohio (lender) can fund an idea and entrepreneur he believes in located in Florida (Borrower). The goal ensures “no good idea is left behind” for the entrepreneurs that would have otherwise had doors shut in their face. The holy grail of funding is VC if you are willing to sacrifice equity; and that is certainly appropriate if an entrepreneur or startup is in the scale phase. Pre-seed and seed funding for startups needs a better approach and while VC’s are adjusting their business models like Y Combinator and Charles River Ventures Quickstart, Startup Addict is meets the need for the masses. Remember Dream Big. Be Great. We will make sure lack of funding doesn’t get in the way of that.

Tags: StartupAddict.com by Startup Addict