Sir Luke Johnson: Online help for would-be founders; Keeping connected via the internet is more important than ever for entrepreneurs

March 27, 2013 Leave a comment

March 26, 2013 4:14 pm

Online help for would-be founders

By Luke Johnson

Keeping connected via the internet is more important than ever for entrepreneurs

Starting a business can be lonely, and keeping connected via the internet and online publications is more important than ever.

There are a host of websites and magazines for entrepreneurs, but no one who works for themselves can afford to spend hours a day surfing. So I have selected a handful of my favourite sites to save you time. I have not included typical blogs because there are too many and they are mostly rather personal.

The list is not in order of importance – I suggest you check all of the ones you don’t know to see which you like.

● Fiverr: A site that allows you to hire a freelancer anywhere in the world for just $5. It claims to be the world’s largest marketplace for small services. Order anything from a website revamp to a business plan.Freelancer : A similar marketplace, concentrating on IT projects starting at $30.

● Inc: A great US monthly magazine aimed at ambitious owners of growing companies.

● Quora: A website that solicits answers to important questions from unpaid and often well-known contributors, with an excellent section for entrepreneurs.

● TED: The website features videos of hundreds of short talks, many of which are about business and innovation.
● Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation : The world’s biggest think-tank devoted to entrepreneurship provides a huge repository of articles and data for every kind of business owner.

● Business Innovation Factory: Babson College is the leading university for entrepreneurship. This is an offshoot designed to invent new start-up models – the website includes more than 400 videos of entrepreneur stories.

● Springwise: A weekly email, which picks a dozen of the best new ideas from around the world. A regular blast of commercial imagination.

● The National Business Association and Federation of Small Businesses:Trade bodies for small businesses in the US and UK respectively. They provide bulk-buying benefits in areas such as insurance, and lobby government on areas such as regulation and tax.

● Ycombinator : a pioneering school for budding digital founders. Startup Weekend: co-ordinates 54-hour events where teams of would-be founders decide if they have a business. Kickstarter : the world’s largest crowdfunding platform.

● Freelancers Union : a US mutual for independent workers offering advocacy, education and services.

● British Library Business & IP Centre: A great facility to research markets. It also holds workshops and conferences and is free.

● Business RadioX: This talk radio station in Atlanta is largely devoted to interviews with entrepreneurs.

● Angel Capital Association and Angel Resource Institute: Two related entities, which represent US angel investors and provide education to both angels and entrepreneurs about everything from carrying out due diligence to pitching an idea.

● BusinessesForSale.com : This sells retail/consumer operations. Flippa :Specialises in selling digital properties. These sites are for those who prefer to buy an existing undertaking rather than starting a new one from scratch.

● The Real People Behind our Famous Brand Names : An archive of corporate histories, focused on the founders of well-known consumer products.

● Small Business Trends : Provides down-to-earth information and tips.

● StartUp Britain: I am biased, but our website is a terrific resource for early-stage UK entrepreneurs. With events and a directory of links, it is a one-stop-shop on taking the plunge.

lukej@riskcapitalpartners.co.uk

The writer runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of StartUp Britain

March 26, 2013 4:14 pm

Online help for would-be founders

By Luke Johnson

Keeping connected via the internet is more important than ever for entrepreneurs

Starting a business can be lonely, and keeping connected via the internet and online publications is more important than ever.

There are a host of websites and magazines for entrepreneurs, but no one who works for themselves can afford to spend hours a day surfing. So I have selected a handful of my favourite sites to save you time. I have not included typical blogs because there are too many and they are mostly rather personal.

The list is not in order of importance – I suggest you check all of the ones you don’t know to see which you like.

● Fiverr: A site that allows you to hire a freelancer anywhere in the world for just $5. It claims to be the world’s largest marketplace for small services. Order anything from a website revamp to a business plan.Freelancer : A similar marketplace, concentrating on IT projects starting at $30.

● Inc: A great US monthly magazine aimed at ambitious owners of growing companies.

● Quora: A website that solicits answers to important questions from unpaid and often well-known contributors, with an excellent section for entrepreneurs.

● TED: The website features videos of hundreds of short talks, many of which are about business and innovation.
● Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation : The world’s biggest think-tank devoted to entrepreneurship provides a huge repository of articles and data for every kind of business owner.

● Business Innovation Factory: Babson College is the leading university for entrepreneurship. This is an offshoot designed to invent new start-up models – the website includes more than 400 videos of entrepreneur stories.

● Springwise: A weekly email, which picks a dozen of the best new ideas from around the world. A regular blast of commercial imagination.

● The National Business Association and Federation of Small Businesses:Trade bodies for small businesses in the US and UK respectively. They provide bulk-buying benefits in areas such as insurance, and lobby government on areas such as regulation and tax.

● Ycombinator : a pioneering school for budding digital founders. Startup Weekend: co-ordinates 54-hour events where teams of would-be founders decide if they have a business. Kickstarter : the world’s largest crowdfunding platform.

● Freelancers Union : a US mutual for independent workers offering advocacy, education and services.

● British Library Business & IP Centre: A great facility to research markets. It also holds workshops and conferences and is free.

● Business RadioX: This talk radio station in Atlanta is largely devoted to interviews with entrepreneurs.

● Angel Capital Association and Angel Resource Institute: Two related entities, which represent US angel investors and provide education to both angels and entrepreneurs about everything from carrying out due diligence to pitching an idea.

● BusinessesForSale.com : This sells retail/consumer operations. Flippa :Specialises in selling digital properties. These sites are for those who prefer to buy an existing undertaking rather than starting a new one from scratch.

● The Real People Behind our Famous Brand Names : An archive of corporate histories, focused on the founders of well-known consumer products.

● Small Business Trends : Provides down-to-earth information and tips.

● StartUp Britain: I am biased, but our website is a terrific resource for early-stage UK entrepreneurs. With events and a directory of links, it is a one-stop-shop on taking the plunge.

lukej@riskcapitalpartners.co.uk

The writer runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of StartUp Britain

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Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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