Regarding Social Media Sites similar to FaceBook or LinkedIn... is proceeding with a working product with a moving Business Plan a more viable direction to take to achieve funding/growth or should a business plan be produced before having an actual working model. What are most investor's looking for in terms of a solid business? Is there a strategy you would be a more effective plan?

Investors look to a working business before looking at a business plan generally. There are some exceptions to this if the idea is REALLY big, but these days, it’s more about “grow and show”.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
1. item 1 2. item 2 3. item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
Paragraphs are separated by one or more blank lines: The first paragraph. Another paragraph.	The first paragraph. Another paragraph

Hi Mark, What's your opinion on the decision tree around bootstrapping versus taking very early stage investment? What are some of the traps to be wary of in terms of frien...

Answered by Mark MacLeod – Partner, Real Ventures

There are many questions here, each of which are complex with multiple objective and subjective parts. So, some highlights to think about: - If you can delay funding, you ... (more)

I have a new idea in terms of an advertising service, geared towards fortune 500 companies, I do not want to proceed unless I have some interest from some companies how do ...

Answered by April Dunford – Product Marketing Expert.

Selling to large companies is all about building relationships. You aren't going to get in front of them without working your network to get introduced to people inside the... (more)

What should I look for in a potential investor?

Answered by Bryan Watson – Director, NACO Posted in Money

Not ALL money is good money. As one of my colleagues says, some of his investments have lasted longer than some of his marriages. Because Angel investments are fairly illiq... (more)

What are things that we should be looking in a programmer when outsourcing? If so, what are things to look for in our programming team?

Answered by Scott Rutherford – Founder, UserVoice

Ability to communicate, both in terms of setting expectations and being able to explain back to you what you want. I mean obviously you want someone who is technically comp... (more)

With a huge number of new startups being launched every day and the attention span getting shorter, how important is it to launch a polished product in terms of design and ...

Answered by Matt Meeker – Co-founder of Meetup.com

In my view, most important is to launch with a polished experience. That doesn't mean your product needs to be fully-featured, where it has every bell & whistle you'd ever... (more)

Sign up for Sprouter