Building your team

What happens when you have a great idea, but no one to help develop your concept?  Well statistics show that the average person will let the idea die or eliminate the possibility of success in their minds.  How do you find a team to help develop and grow your dream?  Where are all of the other go getters hiding? 

Well I don’t have all of the answers, but in recent weeks I found a few options that have brought me a little closer to accomplishing my goal of creating an application that could revolutionize communication as we know it.  It started with an idea.  Then I looked online for the answers.  I found quickly that no incubator or investor wants to work with a sole proprietor, because there is no team unit established.  A team can be cultivated together, but a sole proprietor needs a team built, which in itself is a challenge.  After facing the hard reality that I needed a team, I did what most people do I tried to think of people I know.  I thought I had the perfect person to join my team as a cofounder, but I quickly found that this person had no follow through.

The question at this point became what should I do next? Where do you find people that are interested in developing a new business?  Well, after finding an incubator program I admired, I found a company called the CoFounder’s Lab.  This website is filled with doers.  People signed up on this website are looking to join a start up, looking for someone to join their start up or open to collaboration.  I met a potential cofounder for my project and we have been collaborating on our projects for the past few week.  This was the best initial option for starting our team.  What obstacles have you faced?  Do you know of any other websites that connect business people?  Are you interested in collaborating?  I hope you are enjoying this journey.  I look forward to your thoughts.

Incubator Programs

An incubator program is “an organization designed to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services that could include physical space, capital, coaching, common services, and networking connections.”  

Recently I have been researching various incubator programs as well as funding sources to help both develop and expose my companies products and services.  The more I research I find the more I am sure that finding the right incubator or investor will make the difference between a successful venture and one that reaches a plateau at half mass.  Although I am sure this is the best option for my company and I it may not be a good fit for you.  Let’s examine how the current market place works with new businesses and products. 

The most recent experience I have with the current market place is developing an app I will be launching early next year.  The app market is enormous and constantly growing.  There are more than 675,000 apps available via the Apple App Store and Google Android store not to mention more than 25 billion downloads in the Google Android store alone.  What does this mean for developer?  Well one thing that is abundantly clear is that there is a huge billion-dollar market for their products and significant outlets for distribution.  What are the down falls?  The major down falls are the amount of competition and the dynamic shifts in technology.  Technology is a long way from the standard black and white monitor that took immense amounts of coding to get a dot on the screen or the black and white tube television that weighed much more than today’s digital devices that can fit in your pocket. 

            After addressing the information above you can clearly see that both beating the competition and maximizing exposure are vital to emerging success.  One Incubator program I have came across while I was traveling this summer is Tech Stars, which is a company base in Boston and New York.  Although there are more than 900 incubator programs nationwide, Tech Stars’ success rate and overall benefits have sparked my interest.  It’s great to have a product that could change the way technology works for consumers, but if you have no outlet to ensure its exposure and success that product will never blossom to it’s full potential.  Currently I am still in search of a good fit as far as incubator programs and investors, but I am well one my way to getting the information I need to make an informed decision.  What do you think?  Are incubators good or bad?  Comment or connect with me on Facebook and let me know.

Legal Consultation

Movis Media Group is a media management and consulting firm that focus on taking projects from concept to completion.  While researching entertainment representation for my company I was referred to a South Florida attorney tat has worked in the entertainment industry for more than a decade.  He has been a practicing attorney since the 1970’s.  His expertise is entertainment law and consulting.  I met with Mr. Black to discuss what legal steps I needed to take in order to build a secure foundation.  I outlined the details of how Movis Media Group operates as well as what projects we are developing or plan to develop over the next few years.

         Some of the things we discussed in our initial meeting are non-circumvention, non-compete and non-disclosure agreement.  We also discussed legal fees and retainer fees.  Mr. Black specializes in contracts, copyright, trademark clearances and business organization.  He has worked with some of the industries leading artists.  He also advised that it is important work with attorneys that special in the area in which you need counsel.  For example, we discussed trademarking my company branding and logo.  Mr. Black suggested a trademark specialty attorney. 

         We also discussed what fees are necessary to secure sufficient protection.  The initial start up costs would cover securing the initial structure. After meeting with Mr. Black and addressing my legal concerns I decided he is a great resource for knowledge.  His experience and background are more than I could have expected for initial consultation.  One of the best things about Mr. Black is that many people know his work and his business is spread through word of mouth.  I heard about him through a past client and when I connected with him I realized other people I have worked with have also entrusted their legal guidance to Mr. Black.

What’s next?

There are many legal issues that plague the entertainment industry.  The rapid growth in technological advances has opened doors to more copyright and intellectual property theft.  Due to the undefined lines in copyright and intellectual property laws are often violated.  During my undergraduate degree instructors often stressed the importance of obtaining written permission for copyrighted images and music.  They recommended websites like creative commons and Getty images that allowed use of their products free or at a discounted rate.  Although the options are there many people still use, download and pirate protect products.  This is partly because everyone else does it without consequence.  Social Media and rapid advances in technology have blurred the lines of what can and should be shared.

Recent economic studies have showed changes in how and what people do and purchase.  Rachael Botsmon best described this new economic model as collaborative consumption.  Collaborative 

 Consumption describes the rapidexplosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting,gifting, and swapping reinvented through network technologies on a scale and inways never possible before.  This new model has becoming extremely successful and profitable as seen with companies such as task rabbit, eBay and Craigslist.  This also applies to the great successes of mobile apps.  The intellectual property protection for these companies and many like them were secure long before anyone knew these types of products and services were released.  How was it done?

The Facebook feud was one of the more famous and exploited stories of intellectual property theft.  This was such an explosive and interesting story that filmmakers made it into a movie.  It didn’t due to bad in the box office, but how did it play out in the courtroom?