However, a promise from Dharmesh, the founder, was that “startup stars” would participate:

I have a long list of exceptional entrepreneurs I know well enough to arm-twist into participating in the community. Here’s a sample (in no specific order):

1. Adam Smith, Xobni
2. Drew Houston, DropBox
3. Jay Meattle, Shareaholic
4. Mike McDerment, FreshBooks
5. Neil Davidson, RedGate Software, Business of Software
6. Jeff Bennett, NameMedia
7. Brian Shin, Visible Measures
8. Sachin Agarwal, Posterous
9. Peldi Guilizonni, Balsamiq
10. David Cancel, Compete.com, Performable
11. Brian Halligan, HubSpot
12. Alexis Ohanian, Reddit
13. Andy Payne, angel investor
14. Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz
15. Don Dodge, Microsoft
16. Nivi, VentureHacks

The site was launched one month ago now. Where are the stars? I looked up the user accounts and tried to figure it out:

1. Adam Smith: 2 answers
2. Drew Houston: not found
3. Jay Meattle: 7 answers
4. Mike McDerment: not found (and no Mike with significant contributions)
5. Neil Davidson: 42 answers
6. Jeff Bennett: not found (there is a different Jeff who is a good contributor though)
7. Brian Shin: not found (and the Brians are like the Mikes, no significant contributions)
8. Sachin Agarwal: not found
9. Peldi Guilizonni: 7 answers (all on the first day – deserves extra points for trying)
10. David Cancel: 1 answer (on the first day)
11. Brian Halligan: another Brian
12. Alexis Ohanian: not found
13. Andy Payne: not found (and Andys can join the Brians and the Mikes)
14. Rand Fishkin: 13 answers
15. Don Dodge: not found (but understandable considering his latest adventures)
16. Nivi: 1 answer

My point is not to stigmatize those celebrities. They have better things to do. My point is that even if you are not as well connected as Dharmesh, you too can create a successful community. It’s not the stars that made that community, it’s the regular people like you and me.

The top contributors to the site are its two founders. And that’s how it should be: hard work by you the founder. That’s why I love the Internet, the great equalizer. You control your own destiny.

The only previous decent online forum covering that topic is the Business of Software forum of Joel on Software.

Which one is better? I’ll give you the quick answer first, then the long answer.

Quick answer: OnStartups.

Long answer: The StackOverflow software is just superior for navigating discussions. A major weakness of the BoS forum is that it’s hard to navigate and find old or related threads. StackOverflow has tags, questions can be sorted many ways, users can vote on them.

There is also a popularity system, badges and points, so users see it as a game. Best answers float to the top, so you don’t have to read an entire thread to extract a few lines of wisdom.

That being said, the main reason why StackOverflow was such a success for technical quesitons doesn’t carry over to startup “business” discussions. With software, there are clearly good answers. Either your 3 lines of code answer the question, or they don’t.

With startup discussions, it’s much more a matter of opinion.

The ironic part of course, is that StackOverflow was designed by Joel Spolsky. The same Joel who is behind the “Joel on Software” site. I guess Joel is teaching us a lesson: nothing spells owning a space as much as owning its top two leaders.

I wish everyone the same success as Joel.

Q: An investor has been pressing me to invest and needs A DECISION IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO, plus he is reminding me to stop publicizing my site and keep it strictly confidential.

He wants to put $xxK of his money into his developers in [third world country] to redo and significantly strengthen the site for rapid growth, in return for 10%.

He would not give me names of CEOs he’s funded as references.

He went to [fancy school], and claims that once the site is done, he can then draw on all his connections and angel funders to help it grow rapidly.

I am attracted by the offer, since I do not have the time or money to do all the social media etc necessary to make this site grow rapidly.

My tech cofounder engineer (with whom the investor will not speak) is against the idea.

How can I say this politely? Run. You are bein ripped-off.

How can any entrepreneur possibly fall for such an obvious scam?

Here are some hints:

• References don’t check out (if you don’t know how important references are when you are dealing with business people, read this).
• The money is fake, since the money supposedly invested goes right back into the pocket of the investor.
• High-Pressure sales tactics. There is no reason for the quick deadline, except to cloud the judgment of the entrepeneur. If you have never been exposed to such tactics, go to a used car dealership and ask about their deal of the day

Sadly, this entrepreneur had everything he needed to succeed. He and his technical co-founder seem to have designed the web site just fine on their own. And now the entrepreneur is considering dumping is co-founder for hollow promises.

Don’t fall into that trap.

I used to think that way too.

When I was an R&D engineer, I wrote the code. I made the product. I thought that sales and marketing were basically overhead.

Then I switched sides, worked with sales people for a while, and witnessed how hard it is to sell a product.

Those sales people had the same attitude: without them, there would be no customers and no money. Therefore, they were the ones really making the product come to life.

Reality is somewhere in between: Without sales, you don’t have a product, you have a prototype. Steve Blank makes an excellent case.

The Microsoft vs. Linux war didn’t help with the disdain toward marketing among software geeks, hackers and slashdotters. It feels good to believe that Windows succeeded mostly because of marketing and money spent by the mega-corporation.

If Linux had the marketing muscle of Windows, it would rule the world.

That’s beside the point.

Marketing Matters

You may have the most robust operating system, the best wiki or a twitter-killer, it doesn’t matter if no one knows about it and no one likes it.

You must design something that people want (market research), in a way that they can understand (usability) and make sure they can find it (market communication and public relations).

These are not overhead. If you get any of them wrong, you’ll have frustrated users at best, or no users at all. Not a fun situation.

Four Step Recovery Program

Here are four steps to help recovering programmers. They won’t turn a hard core hacker into Steve Jobs, but it’s a start:

1. Users are good: Whether you are trying to pay your bills or you code for the fun of it, recognize that you have an audience. It’s no fun writing code that no one uses. It’s so much more exciting to receive praise for your work from real people.
   So you will eventually have to open up and start listening and care about your users. They won’t be perfect. They may be clueless about programming. They’ll ask for features that sound basic to you, but they are your users. You will learn to love them.
2. Meet people face to face: There is so much you can do online. Sometimes, face to face interaction is more powerful than the best crafted tweet. Set yourself a target to attend at least one developer or entrepreneur meeting each month.
   Once you get into that habit, increase to two meetings per month. Be open, discuss your vision as well as your immediate problems and you’ll be surprised by the results.
3. Set aside one hour daily for active marketing: Software developers love to spend days and nights coding great stuff. Focusing on marketing, sales and customer activities is not quite as exciting. Put some discipline in place. A good starting point is to devote one hour per day of your time to work exclusively on marketing. And I don’t mean read the Web to learn about SEO.
   Spend one full, active hour contributing to forums, pitching to people, e-mailing journalists and other key influencers that may be interested in what you do.
   Does your web site have a success story from a real customer? Did you follow-up with the people you met at those meetings?
   The first week, send at least two e-mails a day to people you have never met. By the third week, your goal is to receive one e-mail a day from people you don’t know. Once you figured it out, just scale.
4. Chat with 3 Users: Geeks are particularly good at imagining what their ideal customer wants. Stop!
   Go and actually chat with a handful of your potential users. Listen to their interests, their concerns, why they would use your product, etc. You’ll be amazed every time. Just make sure that you talk to more than one or two. Does the target or three customers sound low? That’s because you haven’t done it yet.

There are many resources out there about SEO, A/B testing, how to write a press release (or not), create buzz, etc. Start paying attention. Because if you don’t, someone else will.

We were treated with a one hour Q&A session with Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun. He was very engaged, passionate and very willing to give advice, answer straight questions and address difficult issues. I believe all the entrepeneurs in the room appreciated the opportunity.

We also had a very informative meeting regarding a hot topic for us, entrepreneurs: how big companies do M&A. Or more directly, “what it takes to be acquired by Sun”.

Sun Black Box

We then took a tour of Sun’s technologies. As usual, the black box was the most popular item. We often hear of Google shipping containers full of servers. At Sun, we got to see one up close and personal.

I can only applaud when European entrepreneurs are exposed to Silicon Valley. That’s where the passion for startups is the most contagious and that’s the kind of virus I love to spread!

This week, the topic was market research.

The discussion included a two-box metric to find out if you have a real market or a niche. At some point, a member of the audience contributed this trick: he used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, to perform research, quickly and cheaply.

It’s indeed a great way to capture and measure feedback from thousands of regular users. It complements nicely another tactic, which is to setup Google Ad campaigns for potential products, which is quite smart too.

The only downside of Mechanical Turk is that the demographics is not highly sophisticated. What do you expect from someone who will work for cents? But you can compensate by the sheer amount of data you can extract from those studies.

That’s real market research. Better than what most people go through when they start a project.

While we are at it, it’s also been about 1,000 days since we embarked on the Fair adventure. Yes, about 3 years ago, we came up with the concept that you see today.

This is a great opportunity to thank the whole community, the people who helped us, gave us advice and supported us, especially since our launch last September.

Thank you all.

Don’t expect to drop by and pick up a check from a wealthy investor. Relationships take a long time to build and who knows you is still a key element to success.

So what is the best approach for someone out of town to spend some quality time in the Valley?

Where To Go

These are the top events to attend. Plan your trip accordingly:

1. Startup2Startup: organized by Dace McClure, this event has great speakers that will always get you to think about how to make your startup better. I always take away several great pieces of advice. But the crowd is also the best I have seen in Silicon Valley. 80% are CEOs of startups. No one is trying to sell you services. The event does a great job of combining an informal mixer, a formal presentation, and a directed discussion with smaller groups.
   
   When: last Thursday of the month
   Cost: $80 ($40 for startup rookies)
   Speakers:
   Networking:
   
2. Churchill Club: one of the more respected gatherings in Silicon Valley, it attracts excellent speakers. Compared to Startup2Startup, the attendance is definitely more conservative. If you are trying to meet VP and directors from established companies, this would be the place. Informal networking is average: the organizers don’t make any particular efforts to help you meet people, so make sure you brush up on your cocktail skills.
   
   When: depends
   Cost: $60+
   Speakers:
   Networking:
   
3. SDForum Startup SIG: SDForum is one of the larger non-profit organizations in the region and it organizes more than 10 events each month. Of particular interest to entrepreneurs is the Startup special interest group (SIG). It gathers a smaller crowd compared to Startup2Startup and Churchill Club. Speakers vary in quality but are usually good. The crowd is a mix of service providers (trying to sell you stuff – annoying), fellow entrepreneurs and software developers. It’s quite informal, cheap, and a great way to get started with meeting people in the Valley.
   
   When: third Monday of the month
   Cost: $15
   Speakers:
   Networking:
   

Those organizations don’t hold regular meetings but whenever they do, you should definitely try to attend: Y Combinator and TheFunded.com.

Also, European associations (France, Germany and others) get together regularly and organize meetings with broad appeal.

Those events gather people who actively want to meet new faces. If you wonder where all the people who are done with their startup go, check out the Computer History Museum. It’s a small valley secret.

Professional conferences such as OSCON, JavaOne or Web 2.0 are a good place to meet people, but registration tends to be expensive — sometimes up to $3,000 per person. A trick for entrepreneurs on a budget is to register for the free exhibit instead. A lot of the parties, awards and functions are accessible to people with the free badges.

Where To Stay

I assume you are currently bootstrapping your business and every dollar counts. Staying in hotels can become expensive quickly. Instead, make a few friends online. Many people in Silicon Valley believe in karma and are glad to help fellow entrepreneurs.

By staying at a friend’s place for a few days, you also increase your chance of making valuable informal contacts. All it takes is finding someone who shares your interests. When they involve starting a business, Silicon Valley is packed with people who want to help.

True story: A friend of mine met another entrepreneur on a flight back from Paris. The entrepreneur looked like an interesting fellow and he needed a place to stay, so I invited him to use my guest room a few days later. That’s a fairly typical story for Silicon Valley.

Repeat

Try not to be a one-time visitor. You stop by, you present an interesting story, but then you disappear. Don’t make that mistake. It’s better to come for a shorter period of time, say a week at a time, but then come back every few months, than stay once for a month and then go home forever. Again, relationship building takes time. Plus, coming for a shorter amount of time is probably less disruptive for your own plans at home.

Get to know Silicon Valley and come back more and more as you feel appropriate. Maybe eventually you’ll do the big jump and decide to move here permanently. You will know when it’s the right time.

If you are smart and have a great idea, you should be able to take it to its full potential.

Today it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. That’s why I decided to support the Founder Institute.

It was created by Adeo Ressi, the “Founding Member” of TheFunded.com. The Institute is for founders, by founders. To me, it makes a lot of sense that we should help each others. I can’t stress enough how many times a fellow entrepreneur gave me great advice or helped in more ways than one.

Apply to the Summer 2009 Bay Area program: it starts in less than a month and applications have been open already for a few days. The deadline: May 10th. but frankly, don’t wait!

PS: I am aware that this current program is restricted to the Bay Area, which doesn’t achieve all the goals I state at the beginning of this post. But Adeo is working on it…

If you are like almost everyone else, you didn’t make it. Now what? Exactly what did you lose by not making it to one of those two prestigious startup accelerator programs?

Money

You didn’t receive $15,000 in funding. Big deal. There is nothing that $15K buys that will make or break your startup.

You could have bought two months of fancy Web 2.0 PR (Public Relations), resulting in three articles bringing you 4,000 visitors to your site. You can do the same at no cost in about 30 minutes of effort.

You could have paid a graphic designer to make a flashy new home page for your site with lots of transparency effects. Instead of signing a fancy contract with a design house, you’ll have to be more creative and find a good graphic design student who will work for spare change.

But in the process you’ll learn a valuable lesson: “Cash is king” actually works against “ramen profitability“, meaning that when you have the cash, all kinds of service providers will happily take it from you and tell you how wonderful you are. It’s when you don’t have any cash and you need to convince people to stick their neck out that you find out who your real friends are.

Notoriety

Also known as bragging rights, it always looks good to say that you are part of a happy few. There is only one problem: your customers couldn’t care less. The VCs will care. Your entrepreneur buddies will revere you. All in all, it’s a small group of people.

What about those glowing articles in the New York Times? Only a handful of the 50+ companies that make it to such programs are actually featured with any significant visibility. If you were one of those, you’d learn something surprising: print media generates very little traffic.

Advice

Both Y-Combinator and TechStars will give you a lot of advice covering extensive aspects of starting a startup, from accounting to PR to term sheets negotiations. It’s great if you are the kind who learns by sitting passively on a chair listening to someone [EDIT: Paul Graham corrected me about YC's program: "Nearly all interactions we have with startups are about their specific situation: things like what features to build first, when to launch, what to say on the frontpage, how to deal with specific investors they're talking to, etc"].

If instead you have developed a habit of googling a topic to death, you probably can do without the classroom. There is so much information available online, you can quickly catch up on the topic you don’t know, on your own.

In the worst case, you an simply watch taped versions of those classes, since they are usually recorded and made available online.

Contacts

Frankly, in my opinion the best value is the contacts you make during and because of the program. You’ll meet people unexpectedly that will contribute and improve your startup in ways you couldn’t predict.

Maybe it’s an angel who loves your idea and writes you a check – a common fantasy. More likely, it’s a fellow entrepreneur who makes a side remark that changes the way you think about your product or market. Or a serial entrepreneur who makes an introduction to setup a key partnership.

Again, you don’t need a YC or TechStars badge to establish those contacts and foster those serendipitous moments. If you are truly motivated, a trip to Silicon Valley can be very cheap: find some friends, stay with them for free, and attend every party and function you possibly can find. Over two weeks, you will have met more people and made more contacts than you would during an entire YC program.

Again, success is under your control. You can make it happen.

Conclusion

Do you feel better yet?

The best advice I ever got: whenever you have the choice between worrying about what will happen, applying to a program, preparing a presentation, or making progress on your product… always choose the latter. Keep coding. Ignore the distractions. You’ll end up ahead.

That being said, I wish you the best of luck. It is great when you do get selected to one of those programs!