

From Cubicle to Startup in 27 Days - halcyondaze
http://akkuo.com/from-cubicle-to-startup-in-27-days/

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JangoSteve
Good writeup. There were a couple things you probably could have done better
(which you probably know).

* Nevada LLC - Half the time I've seen people do it, it's not worth the effort to form a company outside your actual state of operation. Especially not for an LLC, which is already not well suited for companies which plan to take outside investment at any point.

* LegalZoom - This is also usually not worth it. You mentioned in your post that LegalZoom is a major part of your expenses so far. Did you take a few minutes to actually look at your state's website for creating an LLC? Here in Michigan, it's literally a one-page form that takes less than 2 minutes to fill out, with a $25 filing fee. And yet, I meet people all the time here who used LegalZoom to form their LLC.

* Filing an LLC simply for personal protection - A lot of people don't realize that simply filing an LLC does _not_ protect your personal assets. Someone can still try to sue you personally and it's up to the court to decide if your LLC is valid and protects you personally. Filing is easy. But you have to actually operate on a day-to-day basis like a real company for it to hold up in court should the time come. This means doing things like doing _all_ transactions through a separate company bank account, presenting yourself as a representative of your company when you meet potential partners or customers (e.g. making sure your LLC is on your business card), using the LLC for all legal docs, dealing with applicable business insurances, etc. IANAL, so be sure to look up the actual rules of the game for your state.

* Kickstarter title - I didn't think it was that good. It doesn't even mention "iPhone" in the title, so I would have had no clue what you're talking about without visiting the page and reading up.

I don't want to sound like this is all negative though. This was a great
writeup of your experience. I especially liked the points about developing a
physical product.

EDIT: By the way, your homepage is awesome, especially the "Charge Ready"
slide.

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ucsdsu
Hey JangoSteve,

Great points man! We definitely should have looked into California LLC
practices a bit more, however we just knew it's an $800 filing fee per year
here and we'd experience more taxation than in Nevada.

I think I forgot to mention it, but we did set up a Corporate Checking Account
and got Credit Cards in the company's name and that's what we purchase
everything through.

Great feedback on the title and I'll make sure the next one does better.

Much appreciated for your time and insights! Jon

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mustpax
As you realize, your video needs a lot of work. You need to focus more on the
product less on you or your company. We don't see any actual footage of the
cable being plugged in, just some rather plain mockups of how it could work.
You have a working prototype, show it! Better lighting, better editing and
better sound also help give your product more credibility.

This is a good first draft, you just have to go through a couple more
iterations.

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ucsdsu
Hey Mustpax,

Agreed...It was done with a friend who didn't have much time to spare, but it
was better than what I could produce on my own.

Definitely agree with you on not focusing on us(company) and more on the
product. Funny how it's a no-brainer when you look back at it, but during the
filming we just simply forgot.

We'll focus on a top-notch video on the next project we work on.

Thank you for you time and feedback man! Every little bit helps. -Jon

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moorage
Hey -- thanks so much to the founders for this well-thought write up. Learned
a lot.

