Laura Fitton

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• How does oneforty generate revenue?

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    We do it a bunch of ways, all of which involve helping innovators/developers generate revenue and build up their businesses.

• Have you encountered any difficulty being a woman in a male dominated field? Do you have any advice for women who might be timid about getting into the game?

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    Don’t be timid about getting into any game for any reason ever.

    OK that’s overstating it, but if you’re hung up on reasons why you’ll have a harder time (geography, gender, nationality, experience…) then guess what? You’ll have a harder time.

    For every obnoxious comment or uncomfortable situation I’ve encountered as a woman in tech there were also lots of times when I got more mentoring or more attention or more support.

    If you spend any time looking at an obstacle you’re wasting the resources you need to use clearing the obstacle. It’s ok to maybe notice it in passing, but don’t get hung up on it.

• How are you marketing oneforty? What have you found that works best and what is a waste of effort?

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    We do a lot of social media engagement – talking to fans, asking what needs to be improved, highlighting what our community is going.

    There’s also this weird and very fortunate “PR momentum” that seems to follow me around. We haven’t done proactive PR but we’ve got tons of coverage that we’re grateful for.

    Most of our active marketing is yet to come, in the planning stages… We’re trying to get the “product” really right first, at which point people start doing some of your marketing for you…

• Sounds like you gained some significant experience in evaluating investors - what should entrepreneurs look for in potential investors? Any red flags founders should be wary of?

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    Yes! Try to avoid totally crazy investors even if they are your only hope of raising. (We did succeed at this_.

    Your investors are team members and you want smart people who get your idea and can help you take it further down the field.

• Are your fingers hurting by this point?

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    Ouch!

• Where should a new entrepreneur in Boston start if they need investment? The valley?

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    They should start by building a demo. They should get themselves networked using sites like http://greenhornconnect.com to figure out where everyone is showing up at events. Then they should continually ask for advice in their network. Cold-calling anyone is unlikely to yield results.

• Hi, I'm currently developing a SaaS app for timesheet tracking, although this is a somewhat crowded market, I think I can introduce some differentiating elements. Do you think it's best to take the project to the end, even if it won't become profitable, or just try to find a better idea?

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    Are you asking me if I think you should keep killing yourself to run a startup that you’re convinced is doomed to fail?

    Um…

• Are you an xbox? Or more Atari?

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    Atari in the sense that the 80’s were the last time i seriously played videogames or owned a system. The only thing I love now is RockBand.

• I have heard of twitter parties how do you launch them?

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    Do you mean Tweetups? Generally you tweet a time, a place and some reason for showing up, and then you hang out with those who arrive.

    Here’s a great guide that our man @joselinmane (aka @BostonTweetup) made for helping others plan Tweetups: http://oneforty.com/BostonTweetUp/bostontweetup-recommend-tweetup-apps

• Who are your competitors?

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    Google.com is where most people go to try to figure out Twitter and find better Twitter tools.