From Hottosplitanatom.com:

 The biggest hurdle that growing startups run into has nothing to do with technology. It has nothing to do with Marketing. It’s not monetization or venture funding. No. What will sink even the best company faster than you can say “employee option package” is the lack of team work. No matter how smart the members of your team are, if they spend most of their time bickering over control of the project, nothing will ever get done.

From John Cook:

Zillow.com has increased the number of homes that it collects information on and improved the accuracy of its online home valuations, known as Zestimates, by a national average of 12 percent. The Seattle company, backed with $89 million in venture funding, said it now has data on 80 million U.S. homes and valuations on 67 million of those homes. With an estimated 91 million homes in the U.S., Spencer Rascoff has some information on more than three-quarters of the homes in the country.

Seth Godin has an interesting post on dumbing down your site and the types of customers that delivers.

The extreme end of startups.  I am familiar with StartupWeekend, SixHourStartups (Seattle), and see this trend continuing.  More at Digg on the 24 hour startup.

The key question is can a viable business be built in just a few hours?  What are the issues that face such a startup?

Results are less than stellar…  We spoke with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and Wikia a while ago and we spoke about his plans to monetize the UGC (User Generated Content) model.  Good to see that it has launched, now only time will tell if it will work.

John Cook is reporting that Imperium is delaying their IPO.  Is that because the conditions aren’t right for the startup or the recent ouster of Martin Tobias?  Is there an IPO market for renewable energy startups?

Guest Contributor: Jason Hausske

Companies don’t fail because they lack a product… they fail because they lack customers…. Which means entrepreneurs must be effective and comfortable in front of early customers.

Following are some seemingly basic ideas that if applied would greatly improve the chance of early sales and customer success… and will ultimately improve your chance of business success.

Sales is not “pitching” - Talking to prospects is not like pitching your company for investment, or getting in front of a crowd to present your ideas … You should be focused on identifying problems, seeking to understand those problems and then figuring out how to solve them…. This requires listening, probing, digging… ultimately trying to understand the explicit pain and the impact on the business of that pain.

This is not about you or your product… this is about your potential customer’s pain. Put your product and it’s features on the back burner - your focus is in identifying problems or creating opportunities, not in “selling” your product.

Listen, don’t talk - this really isn’t brain surgery… anyone can do it… but you must be GENUINELY interested in seeking to understand your customer and their problem. 90% of sales people don’t do this well… this may be one of the biggest differentiators between marginal and great sales.

Managing the sales process is like managing a project. You need to outline explicit next steps and get agreement with customers on those steps… and then follow them. There’s nothing worse than ending a “great” call with a prospective customer and then being unclear about when you’re going to speak next.

Pretty basic, huh? Just try it… I guarantee you’ll have a different relationship with your customers, better insights into your product and a much better chance at success.

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Jason Hausske is a business development executive who’s been involved in growing early stage businesses in the Northwest for the past fifteen years. He currently resides in Boise, Idaho and is providing business development coaching to a handful of early stage companies. Jason can be reached at jason [at] ‘lastname’.com.

There is always a lot discussion about finding a co-founder, what to look for them, etc. However, what if you are a co-founder of a startup and you suddenly find yourself on the way out? If it is against your will, what do you do?

I was recently contacted by someone who was being kicked out of their startup. Obviously, there are a lot of things at play in a situation like this. First and foremost, we can be hurt, confused, angry and vindictive. Fortunately, this individual was approaching the issue very even keeled. Nonetheless it was a very difficult situation.

The startup had just received an angel round of funding and the other co-founder had recently brought in additional people. And as often happens, people began to disagree with the focus, priorities and next steps for the early stage company. These kinds of disagreements can be very beneficial as they help flesh out the key issues and opportunities that face the company and the team. However, if the co-founders aren’t working well together, it can get bad.

In this case, there was growing turmoil and a lack of trust among the team. After the proverbial ax fell, he asked me simply “What should I do?”

My advice was pretty simple. Put together a log of what happened, create a file for all paperwork relating to the creation of the company and also the amount of work and personal money that you put into the startup. Most importantly I said, don’t get emotional. You need to document everything you can from ownership, roles, responsibilities, and long term commitments.

Also, speak to a lawyer immediately. They can help you understand the legal issues that you are working with. If you do not speak to a lawyer things can get out of hand very quickly. You need a neutral third party to negotiate and settle this issue on your behalf.

As I understand it, things were settled between the two parties. They are not going to be working together, but at least they can all move on…

Now, this entire episode brings up some interesting points:
1) How to gauge potential co-founder relationships?
2) Hope for the best and plan for the worst.
3) What to do when the situation explodes?
4) How to move on…

How to gauge potential co-founder relationships?
I have seen many entrepreneurs look for a co-founder that has certain skills, connections and financial assets. However, what is often overlooked and I would argue is more important that the rest is can you trust this person? A co-founder relationship is often compared to a marriage and that is very accurate. Can you argue and completely disagree with this person and resolve issues in a way that works for both parties? Remember, you going to create something that didn’t exist before. Can you trust this person to respect your opinions and to look out for your best interest? The flip side is also important. Can you do the same for your co-founder.

If this is all sounding a bit lovey-dovey, it should. You may well spend more time with your co-founder than you do your spouse or significant other. Once the product is launched, will you and your co-founder be able to speak to each other in the morning?

Hope for the best and plan for the worst.
Have a clear agreement in writing that lays out responsibilities, expectations, ownership levels, etc. Do not let it go to chance or plan to discuss it later. A potential acquirer will not wait for the founders to work out their squabbles. Hammer out the hard stuff early and you won’t have to worry about it later when it gets really crazy. No one plans to kick out a co-founder, but it does happen. Plan for it and try to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

What to do when the situation explodes?
Take a step back and ask yourself one simple question. How do I best maximize my position in the company and still respect myself tomorrow? You have every right to fight for what is yours. However, don’t get personal and never ever think that you can completely do it on your own. Even entrepreneurs I know with a JD won’t negotiate with another lawyer. They understand that their bias and direct relationship with the problem can hamper their ability to resolve the matter. Bring in an outside counsel that comes referred from friends and colleagues. No brainer, but make sure that the lawyer is familiar with your space.

Also, on a personal note, it is important to talk to friends and colleagues that you can trust. We all get a little too caught up in the here and now and have a hard time stepping back from our current situation to see the bigger picture. It certainly happens to me. It is important to call friends, counterparts, and even family for advice. Most of the time we simply need to take a deep breath and hear an outside opinion.

How to move on…
Start your next big thing. Get back to work and learn from your mistakes. I am sure there is another social networking site that is just waiting to started!

From the co-founder - his feedback on this posting:

I am still a little amazed that some of these law firms don’t push founders to iron out these unplanned situations and include them in the founding documents. It would have been a complete shame if one of the parties decided not to negotiate and wanted to take the situation to court or arbitration. That probably would have destroyed the company.

Founders often focus too much on the business plan of the company and let the external “experts” handle the legal transactions. This doesn’t always work. For ALL aspects of a start-up, founders should ask themselves what would be the 5 worst things that could happen. The discussion that comes from these questions will first help you understand how your co-founders view difficult situations and will hopefully put everyone on the same page and set expectations for the future. This discussion alone may make you question if a long term business relationship will work out.

I arrived in Portland this afternoon in preparation for tomorrow’s startup event.  Should be a lot of fun as we have a number of local startups that are registered.

For tonights’s tech event in Seattle, we picked up two iPhones that will be given away to a couple of lucky entrepreneurs. Register now; space is limited to 200 people. nPost will also be hosting an event in Portland next Wednesday. Sorry, no cool phone giveaways, but drinks specials for the first 25 attendees.

Details for the event this evening in Seattle:

Columbia City Theater
4916 Rainier Avenue South
Seattle WA 98118
(map)

URL: http://wiki.npost.com/index.php?title=NPostWiki:Npostconnect