Tara Hunt

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• If I built myself 80% of a great product and I'm about to launch it do I still need a great team or it would be better to find an investor?

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    Why don’t you launch it? I don’t understand. You need the 20%? What happened to MVP?

• When entering a market where the competition have more capital, resource and current market share how do you succeed in 1) making your product more relevant and used by the consumers/end users 2) gain market share 3) Survive and grow with the little capital i have Is it worth entering such a market (i.e. IM systems)

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    Number one, more capital doesn’t mean they will ‘win’. Sure, they have more runway, but I’ve seen companies take that runway off a cliff. Get smarter. Get leaner. Test and test some more. Release quickly and often.

    I don’t know much about the IM system market, but if you have something worth building that will change people’s lives, you will grow the user base to get to the traction that will get to the funding.

    It won’t be overnight, though. So you need to get smart and determined through the hard bits.

• As a business person, how do you find the passion for a venture and turn it into a product? We all have things that we are passionate about, but rarely turn them into something tangible.

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    The key is to stay feeling passionate while you are doing the unsexy hard, day to day, heartbreaking, backbreaking work to make that product. That’s the difference between an entrepreneur and everyone else. :)

• I'm an aspiring entrepreneur trying to come up with my first solid ideas for a web-based business. I've come-up with a few dozen different ideas in everything from online stores to apps, but nothing has felt "right." What are your suggestions for developing an idea I can test out and maybe run with? Maybe focusing on one particular model to emulate would help?

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    I’ve never been down with ideas that are brainstormed. I’ve always been more fond of ideas that solve needs. Look to the holes, the gaps…the needs. What experiences in the world can you help make better? How can you improve people’s lives? That’s where the idea should come from.

• Simple, but ambitious idea + small team with mostly junior developers, no product yet, no funding yet. What to do next? Build prototype first in our spare time and then get the seed funding?

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    In short, yes. Build a small minimum viable product prototype and test it. See if people want to use it in the first place. You can also try and raise some F&F money to help you focus your time on it.

• Hello, I'm Celia- junior editor @ Cool Hunt, Inc., an editorial press agency based in LA. We are developing a story for SELF China about successful, inspirational women with their own businesses. We are currently looking for subjects in Canada, Mexico, France, and Tokyo. Any suggestions? celiacoolhunt@gmail.com

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    Well…I’d volunteer. There is also Sarah Prevette (Sprouter), Leila Boujnane (tineye.com), Louise Guay (myvirtualmodel – exited years ago) and you may want to contact Beehive Holdings in Vancouver for some other ideas.

• What is a good way to "date" cofounders? I go to local startup events and meetups, but it seems difficult to get to know someone well enough to invite them to start something that will last for many years, working closely together day in and day out.

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    Have you tried a hackathon? You will actually be able to work with someone on a project over a weekend this way and it may be the start to a beautiful relationship.

• What is the best way to find partners and convince them to work for shares, not salaries?

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    A partner works for a piece of the company. If they want salaries, they are employees.

• I have a product idea. I do not know the process to go about do it. I have diagrams of the working principles, work flows, scenarios. I need a developer. What should I do?

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    Can you test it without building it? One of the best examples I ever heard was when David Weekly spoke at the International Startup Fest and he said, “almost every great idea can be tested on a mailing list.” It was a lightbulb moment for me.

    When you think about how you could boil down what you are doing to test on a mail list, on a NING network or even on a Wordpress blog, could you build an MVP to test with people? Once you get stats and some traction, you could probably raise a bit of money to hire a developer.

    Here is an example: some friends of mine were doing a startup in Montreal where they are connecting people together that want to workout with others (Trainingmobs.com). They didn’t have a developer at the start, so they started by creating a NING network and organized mobs through there. Once they proved that people liked doing this, they were able to raise some money and hired a developer to build the site.

• What are the best strategies to find a competent technical co-founder? I believe markets are ready for a beta of US Patent 7,089,319, a social in-the-browser Skype type SaaS. I have been using freelancer markets for a while, unfortunately with less success than desired...

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    Wow. That’s your pitch? ;)

    Lots of people are on the lookout for a technical co-founder, but as I stated in a previous question, a co-founder is as delicate a decision as a spouse. I don’t know if freelancer markets are the place to be. I’d imagine many freelancers enjoy the non-commitment. I’d attend more startup events and hackathons where people are looking to start something. Then spend lots of social time with people you click with up front. Remember: you are going to spend a great deal of time together over the years.