Startup Founder Lesson - Don't Be Murderous
This is the latest in our occasional emails with ideas on startup PR, updates from Propllr and shout-outs to folks deserving of shout-outs.
A New Office
First things first - as many of you know, Propllr has finally gone legit, with our first office, in Chicago's hot west loop neighborhood, right behind Union Station.
Keep your eyes peeled for the office-warming invite, and in the meantime, my Instagram feed has a bunch of shots from our window.
Thoughts and Advice for Startups
- What does your startup stand for? Propllr took a look at our own principles and shared the experience and outcome in our Onward/Upward blog.
- Startups should value PR for its "silent benefits" even more than tangible ROI, says Upfront Ventures' Mark Suster.
Lessons for Startup Founders
- Don't let your idealism turn you into a murderous kingpin.
- Just because Y Combinator invites you speak on hardware design, don't think you can't make mistakes.
- If you want to make a funny company video, don't be the opposite of funny.
What We're Fixated On
- Madeline is bummed that Chipotle delivery's not all that.
- Mark is nervous about the real reason Wal-Mart is closing some of its stores.
- Betsy is thinking not all apps are all that great, and that some outright suck.
- Josh loves seeing startup momentum in his hometown of Columbus (Drive Capital, CrossChx, Tradovate, etc.)
What We're Listening To
- New My Morning Jacket (finally)
A New Client
- The Medical Memory: The average person forgets up to 80 percent of medical information shared by their doctors, and half of what they do recall is incorrect. The Medical Memory solves this problem by giving doctors the ability to easily video-record conversations with patients and to offer them secure online access for viewing and sharing videos with caregivers.
Some New Friends
- Deborah Jackson is making moves at Chicago-based payments group Arrow Payments. Giving companies a compelling alternative to Chase and Braintree.
- Shane Stiles of Gate39 quietly and humbly gets stuff done. With a small team and no fanfare, he's created a powerful tool for alternative investors to track hedge fund performance with data direct from their brokers. Like what my old employer tried - but failed - to do over a period of 5+ years with millions of dollars.
An Old Friend
- Know anyone in the luxury fashion biz? Marcela Shine has a very cool new startup -Scientific.ly. Social benchmarking for luxury goods, with other categories no doubt to follow.
Onward and upward,
Josh
PS - Don't want to get this email anymore? Let me know directly - I don't trust robots to get the job done (and neither does the Pentagon).