A Budding Entrepreneur

The New Way to Distribute Enterprise Software

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:56:00 +0000

See my most recent post here.

Cheers,

Andre

About me || http://about.me/acharoo

Twitter || @acharoo

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:47:00 +0000

Hey all --

After a few years, a couple of iterations, thousands of users, and an amazing ride, I've decided to move on from my role at Viewpointr. With our launch at Summit Series, current positive feedback, and the relationships we've made to date, I feel that now is the right time for Kent Fenwick, our technology co-founder to lead the charge and move the company forward.

Since September, I took some time to evaluate my current goals and explore new opportunities. Of course, I will continue to serve as an advisor to Viewpointr.

I'd like to thank all of you, the Viewpointr community, for your help, feedback, and continued loyalty towards Viewpointr.

My very best wishes,

Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Help me || http://viewpointr.com/acharoo
Follow me || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Learn about me || http://andrecharoo.com

NYU Guest Lecturer for Venture Capital Intensive

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Today, I was a guest lecturer via conference call for a class at NYU entitled "Venture Capital Intensive".

The instructor, my good friend, wanted me to shed some light on the venture capital industry from the perspective of an entrepreneur.

By way of summary on the lecture and as a follow-up for the students, here are the major questions that were posed:

***

What is Viewpointr?

Viewpointr is a community of people helping people. Think of it like "Twitter for Helping People". We are trying to create the easiest and simplest way to get help and give help online.

Why is it competitive?

Everybody needs help in their everyday lives, however, there is no place on the web where you can get high quality help from specific types of people in real-time. As a result of providing the easiest way to get help and give help, Viewpointr will know the types of people that your friends can put you in touch with, which is currently difficult to find on the web.

***

In looking at the position of each player, here is our perspective on each of them:

Aardvark -- Search-based questions answered by people.

Quora -- Wikipedia for questions and answers.

Formspring.me -- Ask questions anonymously.

Fluther -- Crowdsourced Q&A.

Viewpointr -- Personalized Q&A (Twitter for getting help).

***

Amongst our competitors such as Aardvark and Quora, a total of over $50 million has been raised in the Q&A space to attack this problem, but, none of their products help you understand your social graph from this perspective, which we believe is extremely valuable.

What stage are we at?

Viewpointr has recently released an alpha product which can be found at http://viewpointr.com. The company was a featured presenter at Summit Series, an invite-only conference for 750 top entrepreneurs. The conference's attendees included Bill Clinton, Mark Cuban, Russell Simmons, and many more. Here's a pre-recorded version of the presentation we gave at Summit Series -- http://blog.viewpointr.com/viewpointr-summit-series-dc-2010.

Who are the current investors by type?

The company has raised a small round of Garage Financing which consists of friends and family and an early stage VC based in Silicon Valley.

Why did your investors decide to make an investment in your business?

While I don't want to speak on behalf of our investors, I believe the reasons why they invested were a combination of (1) team -- highly capable of positioning Viewpointr as a contender in the Q&A market; and (2) product / vision -- our product offering as the potential of becoming the easiest and simplest way to get help and give help online.

How do I think about valuation?

Currently, the way I view our valuation is primarily around the amount of capital we will be looking to raise and the percent of the company we'll be prepared to sell. Other factors will include the amount of capital our competitors have raised relative to our traction in the market.

At the moment, the company has raised financing through convertible debt offerings, which has effectively, postponed or kept valuation discussions to a minimum. At the time we raised financing, the product was not launched yet and I don't believe it would have been fair, given the amount of money we were raising to sell any equity in the business.

Lessons learned from prior term sheets.

The major term sheet we were offered was during our second iteration back in 2008, when we were focused on a recruiting model around Q&A. The primary lesson learned was to ensure we have enough traction in the market prior to raising venture capital, especially as first time entrepreneurs.

Why look at capital in the US relative to other places?

The amount of "smart capital" in the US relative to other places is virtually uncontested at the moment. As an entrepreneur, one of your goals in order to raise money is to put yourself in a place where you have a higher probability of success. Being amongst a group of super angels, and serial entrepreneurs is more important than just where to look for capital. However, more often than not, the place where these individuals reside is where the most capital resides as well. And, right now, I believe it's in (1) Silicon Valley; (2) Boston; and (3) New York, which btw might replace Boston as of recent.

***

Please let me know if you have any additional questions about the venture capital industry from my perspective or about my business specifically. Feel free to ask your questions on Viewpointr so the entire team can respond -- http://viewpointr.com.

It was a pleasure to speak to the students of Venture Capital Intensive.

I look forward to hearing your feedback on our discussion and thoughts on Viewpointr.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Help me || http://viewpointr.com/acharoo
Follow me || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Learn about me || http://andrecharoo.com

How to Make It in America

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:17:00 +0000

8 Gems of How to Make It in America:

My new favorite show on HBO is called "How to Make It in America" and here are the gems from each episode (8) that summarize how to make it in America pretty well.

Check out my post on Untemplater -- http://su.pr/3JLGMN

1. Everybody’s got ideas. Don’t tell people what you’re going to do, show people what you’ve done. AND Don’t let one failure hold you back from trying again.

2. Put yourself out there and create opportunities to be noticed.

3. What’s your plan? Think outside of the box.

4. Put in the necessary amount of time to work at your craft.

5. Often times it’s not your first idea that will hit. It could be the second, third, or fourth, but if you don’t stick it through, you may never know.

6. When you lose one thing, you gain another. Keep your head up.

7. It’s never going to be easy. Bank on going through a roller coaster ride.

8. Roll with the punches. Never give up.

What do you think? Does this sum up in a nutshell how to make it in America?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Help me || http://viewpointr.com/acharoo
Follow me || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Learn about me || http://andrecharoo.com

My First Amazon Book Review: "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:23:00 +0000

I've just finished reading "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick. It was a great read! I highly recommend it. It was so incredibly insightful that it inspired my first book review on Amazon.

Check it out -- http://amzn.to/cxdMfe.

In addition to enjoying the book, this evening, I had the privilege of meeting the author, David Kirkpatrick, at a book signing and interview event with Michael Arrington at The Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco. The interview was very fun and enlightening to listen to. Here's a summary of the interview on Techcrunch.

If you've read the book or plan to, let me know what you think about it.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Help me || http://viewpointr.com/acharoo
Follow me || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Learn about me || http://andrecharoo.com

Learn How to be Confident

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Check out my most recent blog post on Untemplater.com entitled "How to be Confident" -- http://bit.ly/9hh2mx

1. Follow your instincts

2. Have a story

3. Jump in with both feet

4. Run your own race

5. It's ok to be ridiculed

***

My partner, Justin Lee added:

1. Haircut

2. Dance

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

My Summit Series Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 18 May 2010 16:19:00 +0000

This past weekend, I had an incredible opportunity to present at an amazing invitation-only conference called Summit Series -- http://dc10.summitseries.com/.

I was among 4 other awesome companies -- Airbnb, Wearpact, Profounder, and Fast Society.

The competition was right before President Bill Clinton's keynote address. Very cool. Here's a summary of some of the major talks that were given at the conference.

Btw -- the above picture was created by XHTMLized.com, our front-end development company. Couldn't do it without them. They're awesome!

***

Since I don't have the footage of the live presentation yet, here's a recording and walk through our short (3:18 minutes) pitch:

What do you guys think?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Learn How to Think Big

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:54:00 +0000

Check out my recent blog post on Untemplater -- http://bit.ly/9sABIw

Summary -- 5 ways that have helped me think big:

1. What's your vision?

2. Fight the resistance

3. Don't be complacent

4. Continually generate ideas

5. Move past fear

What do you think?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Re-Launching Viewpointr Next Month

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:04:00 +0000

Just wanted to drop a quick note about the re-launch of Viewpointr -- the easiest way to get help and give help online.

The development is coming along very well. See our company blog post here for details -- http://blog.viewpointr.com/re-launching-viewpointr.

We will be launching next month :)

Stay tuned via Twitter and Facebook.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

A moment of genius...

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:52:00 +0000

The journey of building a startup is probably one of the craziest roller coaster rides one could ever put themselves through. It's not easy by any means, but there's some sort of gratification when things finally come together that's really difficult to explain. The only way to which I can describe it is "a moment of genius..."

Working on a startup has a tendency to amplify your highs and lows. The beauty is that the highs are phenomenal! But, the lows are sometimes extremely depressing. Nevertheless, with the help of God, family, friends, partners, supportive people around you, etc. you can push through those times to reach these unexplainable moments that seem to peek themselves every now and then and simply make everything you're working on, worth it!

Seth Godin put it perfectly in his book entitled Linchpin -- "Brilliance comes in tiny bursts. The rest of the time, you're doing work that most any trained person could do." Very true.

The Viewpointr team had one of these moments that I call "a moment of genius" last week. Throughout the nearly 3.5 years I've been working on this idea, things have never come together so perfectly as it did and has from that moment onwards.

As a result, we have decided to re-launch Viewpointr. See our most recent company blog post for the details here.

I must say that the moment of genius my team experienced has made the entire 3.5 years worth the journey!

***

By way of encouragement to those of you who think you don't have good ideas, or that you're working on something that hasn't manifested yet, don't give up or you'll just sell yourselves short. Seth Godin again put it perfectly in his book Linchpin, "they don't have ideas that are valued because they're not investing in their art." What does Seth mean by "art"? Art is your business, writing, music, teaching, preaching, engaging, leading, all of it.

The question becomes how do you create a situation where you can spend the time that's needed to create and perfect your art. This is where one needs to be as creative as possible. The problem I feel is that not enough people think about creating that situation or even think about how to create that opportunity for themselves.

I think there are 2 components that can help create your moment of genius:

1. Create time to work on your art -- Stop focusing on living day-to-day and spend time thinking about creating a situation where you can spend more time perfecting it. How? There's no right or wrong way. Again, from Seth Godin (as you can tell, I'm a big fan of his), "if there were a map, there'd be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map." Do whatever you have to. Raise money from friends and family, partner with people, work nights, consult, generate revenue from day 1, etc.

2. Spend time on your art -- Once you've created an opportunity to work on your art, spend as much time as you can working at it. The more time spent on your art, the higher probability you will experience a moment of genius that could change your life, your world, or the world at large.

At face value, those two steps may sound easy, but they're not. However, as you work at them, I'm confident that you're bound to experience a moment of genius that will make everything worth it!

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Untemplater Blog Post: Learn How To Take Risks

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:12:00 +0000

Here are 5 ways I've learned how to take risks, especially in my 20s. It'll probably change when I turn 30, but here they are for now:

1. Don't have a Plan B

2. Attach your goals to your livelihood

3. You don't have to know all of the facts

4. Be apt to change

5. Fail fast

Click here to see the entire blog post on Untemplater.com -- http://bit.ly/a1Snn4

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Scrappy Startup Test #1 -- Message ALL of your friends for feedback!

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:28:00 +0000

You know you're a scrappy entrepreneur if you've just emailed all of your friends asking them to try out your new site -- guilty!

This is exactly what I did last week Thursday. I messaged all of my friends on Facebook (which may have been many of you) asking to try out my new website and provide some feedback on it.

Some of you may have found this annoying or asked yourself, "why is he spamming me?", or both. However, when you're a scrappy entrepreneur, you've got to be able to do anything and everything to make something happen. And, one of the first tests that a scrappy entrepreneur should pass is to be able to message all of their friends and ask them to try out their new product.

In my case, Viewpointr is a consumer-oriented startup that is not particularly targeted to anyone specific yet. So, my friends feedback can really be helpful especially in terms of: determining who we should be targeting, and also, providing thought processes through every step of using the site, commenting on the user interface and functionalities of the site.

This point was recently re-enforced by Dan Martell, Co-Founder of Flowtown at an event a few weeks ago organized by Tracy Lee at LiveUmbrella.com entitled "How to Run a Scrappy Startup." Dan mentioned the #1 test to see if you are a scrappy entrepreneur is if you have the guts to email all of your friends asking them to try out your site and beg them to give you feedback on it.

So, here I am imploring you, all my readers.

I would like to put you in touch with a particular type of person that you want to connect with... in return for your feedback on Viewpointr.

***

Go to http://viewpointr.com:

1. Fill in your request.

2. Sign in through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail.

3. Invite me: andre@viewpointr.com, so I can easily point your request to the people you've requested.

In return, all I ask is for you to please share your feedback (i.e. bugs, suggestions, likes, dislikes, etc.) -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

I appreciate your help in advance.

If you dig Viewpointr:

Fan us on Facebook (http://facebook.com/viewpointr)
Follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/viewpointr).

I really appreciate your support!

Cheers,
Andre
http://twitter.com/acharoo

P.S. Have you spammed your friends for your startup? What was the response? Did you get any good feedback?

Take 3 - Viewpointr Preview 2.0 Releases Today!

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:54:00 +0000

If you have followed my blog since I started it back in 2007, you may know that I have been working on a startup that has evolved a few times now. Initially, the company was called nkdGuru and then changed to ProspectLinker, and now has been changed to Viewpointr. There's good reason behind each of the iterations. Check out the company story here.

When speaking to people who haven't seen me in a while, but know that I'm working on an internet startup, I always tend to explain how it's funny to see how ideas evolve overtime. I've read about it many times from serial entrepreneurs. However, I didn't realize it when I first started that often times, the idea you started with, won't be the idea you end up with or the one that may be successful. The key is being committed to it and seeing it to fruition, no matter how many times you have to change.

Well, there's something different about this time around. My girlfriend asked me the other day, "What's so different in this take than the previous ones? Why do you feel like this one is it? Because, from someone on the outside looking in, you've been confident and extremely excited about the past two iterations." The question was good one and I felt that I should share it with others, hence, why I'm writing it on my blog.

The reason I believe this 3rd take is "the one" is because:

- it's based on real interactions from users on ProspectLinker.

- it's not entirely based on a business plan, but rather, on a real product with users.

- the value proposition has never been clearer.

- it's a part of an exciting market opportunity that others have recently helped validate such as Aardvark and Formspring.me.

- it's clearly differentiated.

- it's focused on creating value for users first and foremost.

- it suggests exponential user growth due to a viral component that was previously missing.

- it's scalable as it leverages the network effect.

- even though we've changed a couple of times, we have remained consistent to our vision -- to help people get advice from others who are outside of their network.

All of these reasons don't guarantee success by any means, but if anything, it suggests that we're persistent, dedicated and will die trying ;)

Check out this new iteration of Viewpointr, try it out and tell me what you think. Learn more about it on our blog. Share your thoughts in the comments below, Facebook, Twitter, or on the Viewpointr Feedback Forum.

***

Btw -- have you had a similar experience in your startup? How many times have you changed your product, business, or blown up your code? I recently heard a stat that shows the best startups change directions around 7-8 times in the first 5 years. Hmm...Interesting.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

My Professional Life Story so far...

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:29:00 +0000

Check out my new blog post on Untemplater.com entitled "Are you the ideal candidate?"

It's a bullet point run down of my professional life story, a few challenges I faced and currently face, and the things I have done to help overcome them.

I was pretty hesitant to share this info about myself, however, I honestly feel that it could help others in achieving their professional goals in life.

Hopefully, it will for some.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Untemplater Blog Post: Why should you veer off the paved path?

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:53:00 +0000

Check out my recent blog post on Untemplater.com. Shared some advice that is particularly targeted towards students.

Let me know what you think.

Click here:
http://untemplater.com/self-improvement/why-should-you-veer-off-the-paved-path/comment-page-1/#comment-1388

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Great Book Recommendations from 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:23:00 +0000

At the beginning of last year, I set out to read at least 12 great books. How did I decide on which ones were great? Unless a book is recommended to me from people I trust, I rarely will read it. So, thanks to all my friends and friends-of-friends who recommended these great books that I read over the past year.

Here's a bit about each one and what I got out of it:

1. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

I have a tendency to compare my startup to other major successes in the market, and according to Gladwell's book on Outliers, most times, there are other reasons of why they became so successful. Reasons that are outside of your control like their culture, their generation, their friends, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Here's a short post I wrote about the book earlier in the year.

Gladwell explains how success in our lives often comes from people outside of our core group. How do you network to find your own outliers is a good question to ask yourself? He examines the best, the brightest, the most famous, and the most successful and asks the question -- what makes high-achievers different?

2. Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama

After being a part of history, I definitely wanted to read a book about Barack Obama, however, I didn't want it to be too political. I wanted to learn about Obama before his Presidency and Dreams from My Father was recommended to me as that book.

Obama takes you inside his thoughts from his youth and childhood upbringing. You would think that someone who has become the President has always dreamed of becoming the President. Not the case with Barack Obama. He didn't know what he really wanted to do.

The book takes you along an unusually honest journey of his pursuit to find who he really is, his background, his family, his ideals, etc.

The best part of the book is to know that it was written before he became famous, before he became the President, and before any of this happened. It is a raw memoir of the young Barack Obama.

3. I Will Teach You To Be Reach by Ramit Sethi

This book was written by a friend of a friend, Ramit Sethi, who's story is very inspiring to me. Ramit is a Stanford grad who worked on a few startups during school, dabbled in venture capital for a bit afterwards, co-founded PBwiki (now PBworks), a venture-backed startup which is now the world's largest provider of hosted collaboration solutions for business and education. However, that's not all. He's now the author of Iwillteachyoutobereach.com which gets over 250,000 readers per month. He also published this book, which became an immediate #1 Amazon bestseller. Impressive huh?

The book really provides a practical guide to your personal finances in the areas of budgeting, saving, banking and investing. Got great tips out of it. It's especially geared towards young people between the ages of 20-35 years old.

4. Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

This book was very timely because currently in the "bits" marketplace, many of the tools and applications we use online on a daily basis to get information and connect with others, are free or moving towards free. So, it begs the question -- if you're building something online right now and it's geared towards the consumer market, some portion will have to be free in order for you to compete.

The book received a fair amount of controversy due to Chris Anderson's conclusions that essentially a generational and global shift is at play where those below 30 won't pay for information anymore. Malcolm Gladwell quickly responded with his thoughts on the book in the New Yorker, which got a lot of attention as well.

5. Yes We Did: An Inside Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand By Rahaf Harfoush

This book hits home a bit, because Rahaf Harfoush is a Canadian who got the incredible opportunity to work on the New Media team for the Obama campaign. She's also my partner Justin Lee's friend from high school. Pretty cool!

She takes you inside the entire online operations of the campaign from start to finish and shares all of the strategies they used to make the campaign a success. There are some great nuggets of effective social media tips in this book.

Check out this post I wrote about it after reading it earlier in the year.

6. The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan was quite a thought-provoking read. It's about the impact of the highly improbable. Nassim Taleb has spent his life obsessed with the probability, uncertainty and the fragility of human knowledge. In this book, Taleb essentially says that people don't account for highly improbable events. It's unpredictable, but yet, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable than it really was. Taleb is saying that as humans, we are hardwired to learn specifics when we should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and fail to take into consideration what we don't know. Therefore, we're unable to truly estimate opportunities.

What's pretty incredible is that Taleb founded a hedge fund based on his theories called Empira Capital, which actually Malcolm Gladwell goes into more detail about than Taleb does in Gladwell's book What the Dog Saw. His fund's trading philosophy is predicated entirely on the existence of black swans, and on the possibility of some random, unexpected event sweeping the markets. Taleb's fund apparently "made a staggering amount of money for his fund" during the recent financial crisis of 2008-2009.

7. Trust Agents by Chris Brogan

In today's market, it's all about building your brand and reputation, most of which you can control online. Chris Brogan is the king when it comes to using social media tools to build networks of influence that can positively impact your business and in this book, he shows you how to become a trust agent. What is a trust agent? Trust agents are simply "digitally savvy people who use the Web to humanize businesses using transparency, honesty, and genuine relationships."

8. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

In this book, Dan Ariely applies the irrationality of human decisions and actions to the emerging field of behavioral economics (in fact, behavioral economics is behind some of the thinking for the Obama campaign). In a series of experiments, the author strives to prove how these irrational behaviors are not random, but because they are systematic and repeated over again, predictable.

A timely example is the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 which showed psychology and irrational behaviour playing an influential role in the economy's functioning. This is opposed to the conventional economic model based on the assumption that individuals are rational and able to make optimized decisions using cost-benefit analysis. The book makes us aware of how we distort our perception of reality and encourages us to use this awareness to navigate through indecision.

9. Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary Vaynerchuk is probably one of the most intense, energetic and passionate people you'll ever hear speak. Check out a video of him here -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4. Gary is a motivational speaker who helps people realize their goals and passions in life. Crush It is no different. Gary essentially channeled the same energy he has behind his talks into each page of this book, which isn't too long, but just enough for you to get the point -- that you can turn your passion into a career. Gary built his wine company into a $60 million business and he shares his experiences as well as a step-by-step guide of how he used social media tools to help grow his company.

10. Viral Loop by Adam Penenberg

Viral loop is essential for any startup founder who is focused on the consumer internet space. This book discusses the magic per say behind truly viral companies and how today's smartest businesses grow themselves so fast on incredible scale and start with so little. Adam breaks down all of the various components necessary to creating a viral company and backs them up with stories and case studies of companies including Hot or Not, Netscape, Ning, Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, and Facebook. If you want to know what's essential in creating a viral company, this book is a must read.

11. What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

As you can see, I really enjoy reading Malcolm Gladwell books. This one is simply a compilation of his favorite work from The New Yorker, where he's been writing since 1996. The stories are quite diverse. The book is separated into 3 parts: (1) Obsessives -- minor geniuses (about interesting people who aren't that famous); (2) Theories -- ways of organizing experience; and (3) Predictions we make about people. Malcolm tries to question where people get their ideas. He believes "the trick to finding ideas is to convince yourself that everyone and everything has a story to tell. Our instincts as humans, after all, is to assume that most things are not interesting." Gladwell tries to fight that and examines a number of things that may not be that interesting in the grand scheme, but it could lead to some things that are.

12. Tribes by Seth Godin

Tribes is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read. Seth believes that the internet has empowered everyday people to lead and make change more than ever before. He argues that the only thing that holds us back or keeps us from realizing our potential is fear of criticism and fear of being wrong.The book has numerous nuggets of information and advice. I tend to dog ear pages that I find helpful or useful and want to remember, and in Tribes, I think I dog eared almost every other page.

My first post on Untemplater: 8 Ways to Avoid Mediocrity

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:52:00 +0000

As mentioned, I've started writing on Untemplater, a blog focused on breaking the template lifestyle for students and young professionals. The founders have written this cool manifesto, an ebook essentially of 6 inspiring stories of people embracing the untemplated lifestyle. Download it here.

Here's my first blog post:

http://untemplater.com/business/career-business/8-ways-to-avoid-mediocrity/.

Hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

--
Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

I'm an Author for Untemplater!

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:38:00 +0000

Today, a cool new blog launched called Untemplater. It's a blog focused on breaking the template lifestyle for students and young professionals. This is something I'm pretty passionate about. Fortunately, I've been given the opportunity to be an author for the site. The major topics I'll be writing about are entrepreneurship and business. You can subscribe to my posts here.

Check out Untemplater on Facebook and Twitter to see what they're up to. Meet the other authors here. They are a group of very talented people who all have interesting stories to share and a desire to see young people reach their full potential.

I am excited to be part of a group who wants to see everyone work where they want, live how they want, and be who they want to be!

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #11

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:36:00 +0000

#11 - What is the timeline from start to finish as far as seeing results in a startup? How long should you mentally prepare for when you start a company?

I believe it's important to manage your own personal expectations, and unfortunately, many people don't, and thus, give up too early.

What's your take on this? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

See previous tidbits here - #10, #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #10

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:54:00 +0000

#10 - How do you stay motivated when everyone around you may have a paycheck and you don't?

How do you stay motivated? What do you think are the keys to staying motivated, especially in the early days?

See previous tidbits here - #9, #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #9

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:01:00 +0000

#9 - How can I be sure someone else is not working on the same idea I am right now?

What do you guys think? Have you worked on an idea and then found out that someone else had a similar one? Did it bum you out? Did you give up after finding out?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

See previous tidbits here - #8, #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #8

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:39:00 +0000

# 8 - What tips do you have on writing a business plan? When you should you typically write it?

Check out a recent post I wrote with some supporting arguments about when the right time is to write a business plan.

What has been your experience? At what point do you think is the best time is to write a comprehensive business plan?

See previous tidbits here - #7, #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #7

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:14:00 +0000

#7 - How should I craft my pitch if I don't have a product yet? Should I even pitch my idea before building my product?

What do you guys think? Have you pitched an idea to investors before building a product? What was your feedback? What was your experience?

See previous tidbits here - #6, #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #6

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:36:00 +0000

#6 - You've got no money. How do you go about raising financing for you idea?

Some people feel that they shouldn't involve their friends and family, especially family with their business endeavors. What do you think?

See previous tidbits here - #5, #4, #3, #2, #1

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com

Tidbits of Advice from a Budding Entrepreneur - #5

noreply@blogger.com (Andre Charoo) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:18:00 +0000

#5 - How should I divide up my company? Is there a criteria I should use?

Cheers,
Andre
http://andrecharoo.com

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Follow me on Twitter || http://twitter.com/acharoo
Blog || http://andrecharoo.com