Mark Cuban, (entrepreneur, VC, Dallas Mavs owner, blogger, Landmark Theatres owner, Magnolia Pictures owner, HDNet chairman, etc.) posted some thoughts on on patent law on his blog BlogMaverick. His solution to patent law is basically summed up in two steps:

1. End all software patents
2. End all process patents

“It is easy to complain,” he writes. “Much harder to come up with solutions. Many won’t like what I propose, but who wants to make lawyers happy anyway?”

He proposes that copyrights are enough to protect software, and the benefit of creating a new process is creating the idea and using it in a business to your advantage. “ Afraid that some big company might steal the idea ? That is life,” he says. “When you run with the elephants there are the quick and the dead.  That is a challenge every small company faces.”

He goes on to list benefits of eliminating process and software, such as: reducing courtroom costs, improving the efficiency of the patent office, ending “the ridiculousness current patent arms race,” saving jobs, etc.

Naturally, Cuban’s comments are drawing plenty of discussion in the industry. He’s been actively engaged in the discussion in the comments on his blog post, and has responded to a couple people on Twitter:

Larry Dignan at ZDNet says that despite all the “whining,” any reform on software patents is unlikely. “Nothing is going to happen. Congress is a mess. Patents will always take a back seat to things like making interest payments, debt downgrades, elections and an economy that is sucking wind,” he says. “As a result, the thermo nuclear patent game will continue. Companies can whine about lawsuits and sky-high bids for patent portfolios all they want. Their time may be better spent acquiring patents.”

In the meantime, the public “whining” will likely go on. It’s quite interesting to see how the big players have taken to not only public means of dispute, but their own PR vehicles (like the Official Google blog).

The word disruption is thrown around way too much.  It’s often used to describe ideas that are not disruptive.  Recently though, I’ve noticed a trend of YCombinator backed startups that follow a similar theme: Go after an industry or process that is excruciatingly painful and make it better. Sure all startups are about solving a pain point, but in the case of Hipmunk and others, the pain is chronic and unbearable.  

Find Something Tied To A Process That Consistently Sucks

Some things are just a pain and never ever change. The industries that can be hipmunked are ones that you repeatedly ask yourself "Why hasn’t anyone made this better?" It can’t be a temporary cure either, it needs to be a full blown relief of pain. In the case of HelloFax , it seemed like a silly idea at first to most. Fax machines are a thing of the past it would seem, but in reality they aren’t. With all of the innovation we’ve had, trying to send a fax is still a pain. EFax is cumbersome and real fax machines are far worse. Every blue moon, there is no way to do anything other than send a fax. It’s still horrible. With HelloFax, they took a process that consistently sucks and made it just work.

Simple And Clean Interfaces Come First

One of the best ways to make a product enjoyable and easy to use is with an interface that is simple+clean. Give the user what they want, the bare essentials, and make the information easy to digest. It’s not about being the prettiest either. I love the hipmunk interface, but it’s not whiz bang beautiful. It’s clean, simple, and organizes information well. The flow of information should come first and foremost in a clean interface. Problematic and painful industries usually have a high amount of friction between the customer and information. They usually want to access or deliver information in a fast manner, but it often takes way longer than they would like.

It Will Probably Be Unsexy…So Make It Sexy

The industries most ripe for disruption are usually the unsexy ones that no one wants to touch. That’s okay, look at it like the startup version of the popular teen movie "She’s All That". Find the ugly one and turn them into something absolutely beautiful. It’s not in the DNA of unsexy industries to think about everything else in this article. That’s why they’re unsexy and people despise them. The travel industry? Absolutely boring. Look at email. Everyone thinks that email is long dead and gone, but at the end of the day it’s still widely used. Companies like Groupon and Thrillist are growing faster than any other company before. They figured out how to leverage an unused, unsexy asset and make it work for the user.

Take a look at Square.  Payment processing is a sleezy, unsexy, and just headache of an industry.  Square took that and turned it on its head.  They added a beautiful interface and made it frictionless for real world merchants to have a payment processing engine without the headaches involved.  

Call Out Your Competitor

Don’t be afraid to call out your competitor and wage war. You should be respectful of course, but it’s okay to stir the pot. Look at Salesforce. They proclaimed the end of downloadable desktop software and Marc Benioff was no stranger to letting the world know the companies that are his enemy. His spat with Microsoft is supposedly one of the greatest things that ever happened to the company!

Deliver Great Support

Most unsexy industries don’t have a love for customer support. It’s not that they deliver bad customer support, it’s just that they don’t deliver GREAT customer support. Zappos for example… they sell shoes. Who would have ever thought that a shoe retailer could be an iconic company? Well, Zappos is really a company with great customer service that happens to sell shoes. If you have a passion for support that mirrors Zappos, you can extend the great experience you deliver with your application to the real human interaction you may have with customers.

Look For An Industry That Rarely Changes

I’ve always believed that those who get comfortable and think they are immune to disruption are the most likely to be disrupted. Having a large customer base makes large incumbents feel like they will never leave. In actual reality, they will, but they just need a great solution… your solution. Problems don’t make people change. Problems make people search for a solution. Until a good solution exists, they stick with the current one. It’s like a do while loop of seemingly neverending pain. Do deal with pain while looking for a better solution, until you find a better one.

Work Towards Building Fanatics

The hipmunk mascot is barely a year old I believe, but boy do people love that little critter. Some have even created fan art! In a short period of time, Hipmunk has created valuable brand equity and fanatical customers. Some companies never get to achieve that. If you’re able to resolve pain, finding fanatical customers will happen a lot faster.

Be Disruptive, But Respectful

It’s fun to shake things up, call out your competitors, and make a lot of noise, but always be a gentleman or a classy lady. Have logic and let people see the rationale behind your argument. You should always have an answer that is more than "just because". Show those trapped in the Matrix why your solution is better and will free them from the pain that currently exists. Use a loud mouth and PR to get the world’s eyes on you, but deliver sound logic. There is a thin line between being passionate and just being insane. Rationale is usually the difference.

Focus On Power Users

Not every solution should do this, but I noticed that it worked very very well for Hipmunk. A lot of the people that I know who are Hipmunk users, travel VERY often. Sometimes you just want to focus on the normal users, but you can get fanatical users and strong advocates by solving the pain for those that have it the most often. A person that travels multiple times a month with long flights is much more likely to want your solution when you first launch/unproven than a person that travels a few times a year, often for vacation+light work travel. Hipmunk, padmapper, hellofax, and others are just the start. The number of processes that are beyond painful run deep and present a world of opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs. What other industries are ready to be "hipmunked"? My vote: the domain purchasing industry. Someone should "hipmunk" Godaddy .

Originally published on OnStartups

You’re Doing Something You Love

This is key not only early on, but for the long haul. I know it sounds cliche and you hear this from everyone, but it’s one of the most true and consistent pieces of advice given out in the startup world. Startups are a marathon and even though you often hear about the good times, you will rarely hear about the difficult times. There are always more difficult times than good times. Any normal person would just give up, pack it up, and return to the real world. If you absolutely love what you do, then there is a higher motive there that will keep you going on. The work you do needs to transcend being "work" and become even more than that.

You’re Making Revenue

Getting somebody to give you their credit card and their hard earned cash is way harder than most think. For some companies it will happen easily, but for most, it just doesn’t. If you start making revenue that can pay your most basic expenses, you’re on the right path. The difference between zero dollars and one dollar is huge. If you have figured out how to bring your first dollar in, you might be ready to take things to the next level. If those dollars are rapidly growing, even more reason to continue onwards.

You Know The BIG Vision

This is key and often an awkward point for most aspiring entrepreneurs. It’s a side project, two guys in an apartment, nights, weekends,etc., so how is it possible to imagine going from that to being a multi-billion dollar company? It just feels really weird thinking about that, right? DON’T LET IT. It’s a point you can get to, but it will never happen if you don’t start to formulate those thoughts. Zuck started FB at one college with one photo, but I bet you he knew exactly what it could become one day. Having a larger vision to aspire to will motivate you to accomplish something grand. It will make you feel as if you are taking on the world, which you often will be. Realize that it doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen to great companies. Here is the one question I ask all startups I meet that ask me for in-depth advice: "If you succeed to your fullest extent, how will the world be a different place in five years?"

Your Big Vision Does Not Have A Ceiling

The problem with big visions is that the excitement of this big vision can often cloud the ceiling that it may have. You have to be going after a vision in a large market that has a very high ceiling. You won’t get 100% penetration or possibly anything near it, so the market has to be large enough that you can continue going forward. Niche businesses can be nice, but they often lead you down a path of boredom. You hit your peak, make your money, but soon realize there isn’t much more left to be done. You do either of two things: get bored, quit, and give up OR you try a new riskier direction. The riskier direction option can work, but it means that your initial business wasn’t large enough. Find the big vision within a large market that has a lot of untapped potential.

You Are Ready To Be Selfless

This is a lesson I’ve recently spent a lot of time thinking about. I think it’s one that not enough people talk about and is the most important thing an entrepreneur can know before going full time on a startup. You have to be 100% selfless. It is no longer just about you. You are really last on the totem pole. You have responsibility to more than just yourself or another cofounder. It’s such an important piece of the puzzle that it needs to be broken down into three further points below.

You Have A Responsibility To Employees

Everything you do has to have the well being and care for your employees in mind. Every decision you make will have a small impact on your life, but it will have a large impact across the lives of so many others. It might even be 5 people at first, but those 5 people have family members, kids, loved ones, and many more that depend upon them. If you make a selfish or poor decision, it will end up having an impact on a large chain of people. Expand from 5 to 50 then 500 and you are now responsible for the lives of many many people. One of the people working with us hard at Onswipe has a young kid. One night on Skype when we were announcing our plans to expand I saw their kid walk into the room. That moment forever changed my life. I realized I was now responsible for so many more people than myself. If I screw this up, it impacts so many other individuals.

You Have A Responsibility To Customers

Customers will depend on your service working in order to do business and some core functionality of what makes them tick. You need to realize that the decisions you make will have an impact on those customers and their customers. They have trusted a core piece of their business to you. The product decisions and pricing decisions often have an impact on companies. Your customers trust you to perform a function and you need to keep yourself healthy for the long haul.

You Have A Responsibility To Investors

Your investors have probably been pitched by hundreds of other entrepreneurs throughout the year. They chose you and maybe a select few others to go take on the world. You have a responsibility to do well by them. If they are angel investors, they have trusted you with the money they have earned through the same exact hard earned blood, sweat, and tears you are currently going through. If they are venture investors, their job is to pick the best of the best. They have to provide returns to their LPs and also risk their reputations on your company. Yes, many venture backed companies fail, but they will go in expecting the worst, but hope for the best.

Keep in mind, you don’t need to hit all of these points. You may just be at the idea stage and be nowhere close to achieving anything listed above. That’s okay as I wish I had these points when I started as an entrepreneur. The points in this essay were adapted from a talk I gave at Plusconf. I will be giving a more polished and refined version of this talk at Columbia University in New York City at 7 pm this Friday – Details: http://bit.ly/gLzVHK.

Originally published on OnsStartups.com

Partners will contribute funds to "existing proven models or develop new programs and efforts to help entrepreneurs." Partners include Google, Facebook, Intel, HP, and IBM (see full list here). 

Facebook will host 12 "Startup Days" this year aimed at providing early-staged companies with engineering and design support on the Facebook platform. These are monthly events for building apps and sites that incorporate social technologies. 

"In addition, we plan to stay active within open source communities and are proud of what we’ve contributed in the past," says Facebook’s Doug Purdy. "Open source technologies continue to be important to startups that are scaling and growing quickly. They allow entrepreneurs to spend more time working on their products."

"Over the past few years we’ve been contributing to a wide range of existing projects, from PHP to memcached to Varnish and many others," adds Purdy. "We also open source our own projects, ranging from major pieces of infrastructure (most recently HipHop for PHP) to small tools that make developing all sorts of software faster and easier (such as XHP and Three20)."

Intel is committing $200M of new investment in U.S. companies for the project, and is serving on the board. IBM is investing $150 million to fund programs that promote entrepreneurs. HP is investing $4 million. Google’s contributions have yet to be revealed.

"America’s story has been forged in large part by entrepreneurs who have against great odds created innovative products and services that have changed the world – and created millions of jobs," said Steve Case. "Our nation once again looks to these creative risk-takers to unleash the next wave of American innovation, and I am pleased that President Obama has made supporting and celebrating entrepreneurs a major priority of his economic strategy. I am honored to chair the Startup America Partnership, and look forward to working with the White House to champion the creation of new start-ups, and help accelerate the growth of speed-ups."

The partnership will not target specific entrepreneurs, but will spotlight and connect programs and institutions that directly target entrepreneurs. So says this FAQ page.

 

This feeling usually just persists though. How does one get over this fear? I think there are a few key points to consider:

People Don’t Care About Your Startup

This is actually good at the early stages and it allows you to make mistakes, fix bugs, and get things right before a larger set of users show up. I know it feels like your friends, family, the press, or investors might think your startup sucks unless you add all those cool features in your brain before launching, but really they aren’t watching as intently as you think and they will also forgive mistakes.

Real Users Are Great For Feedback

When you build a web application privately, it’s easy to miss A LOT of things. Not until you have real people who aren’t close to it using it do you get feedback on what users will feel, think, and use your application. The sooner you get this feedback, the sooner you can correct those things and improve.

More Features = More Complicated

The longer you develop the more complicated your application will get. You rarely hear people say “I stopped using that site because it was too simple and easy.” What you hear instead is “I don’t get it”, “it’s too confusing”, and “there are too many options”. By launching earlier, it’s more likely you’ll have a application with less complexity.

Minimize Time Wasted

The more you build that’s wrong, the more time you wasted creating it, and there’s more time required to unwind what you built. You won’t find out what’s wrong until you launch.

Rapid Improvement Helps

By launching early and making rapid improvements, you show everyone that you are listening and improving quickly and are an application to watch.

Birds Gotta Fly

In regards to fear of failure in general, you can’t succeed if you don’t launch.

Originally published on ConversionRater.com

On Quora, someone asked, "What is the process involved in launching a startup at SXSW?" It’s a great question that many entrepreneurs have no doubt asked themselves, and are currently asking themselves as the huge event, in Austin Texas draws near (March 11-20). 

Crowley is a great person to answer the question, having launched Foursquare at the event in 2009, only to have it blow up and become the poster child for a whole sector of the social media and mobile app landscapes – the location-based service. 

In a nutshell, in case you’re wondering, Crowley’s advice is to "hustle to get something built," tell people (friends and strangers) about it, search for what people are saying about your product on Twitter and respond as much as possible, set up a forum dedicated to the product, and have someone at home keeping an eye on things while you’re busy at the event. 

As alluded to, Crowley has given advice to entrepreneurs (via Quora) in the past. Back in November, he gave 6 "pieces of advice for entrepreneurs" in general:

1. Stop sketching and start building
2. Don’t let people tell you your ideas won’t work
3. Build early and often
4. Don’t let a lack of technology get in the way
5. Hire the best people you can find
6. Don’t get distracted

He elaborated on each of these, but you get the idea. 

When asked last month, what drove him to become an entrepreneur, Crowley said, "Never really started foursquare (or dodgeball) for the sake of starting a company… we just built things we wanted to use with our friends and the rest just kind of happened." 

That might be Crowley’s most important lesson of all. 

Crowley recently made the cover of the 2011 Trends Issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. 

The winner of the contest will receive $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits, mentoring sessions, and premium gold support for one year. The winner may also receive an investment from Amazon.

All finalists will receive $5,000 in AWS credits and all qualified participants will receive $25 in AWS credits.

Adam Selipsky

Contestants will be judged on originality, potential and how their business uses the pay-as-you-go platform offered by AWS. The challenge is open to people in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Israel.

"In the three and a half years we’ve been operating these services, we’ve been blown away by the innovation we’ve seen from hundreds of thousands of customers in a wide range of industries. One of the things we look forward to all year is the creativity that comes from the contestants in this challenge," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President of Product Management and Developer Relations for Amazon Web Services.

"By opening up the contest to start-ups and entrepreneurs in other parts of the world where AWS is being rapidly adopted, we expect to see the most exciting competition to date."

Participants in the challenge are required to submit an online application form by August 26, 2009. Finalists will be announced in early October. Each finalist will be profiled in an online video on the AWS website where registered customers can vote for who they think is the best contestant.

In late October, the finalists will be flown to Silicon Valley to present their business ideas to a panel of AWS executives and participate in an event with an audience of start-ups. The winner will be announced that evening.

"The eBay marketplace is a community rich in innovation and entrepreneurial spirit," says eBay Marketplaces President Lorrie Norrington. "The Sellers Challenge helps underscore this simple truth, and along with the powerful selling tools available on eBay, signifies our fundamental commitment to ensuring the success of our sellers."

eBay will choose four winners for the contest, and each of them gets $25,000 in business grants, as well as marketing advice and "assistance" from eBay. Meanwhile, eBay hopes to get more people to use its services exclusively for conducting their business.

Participants in the challenge must build a business plan using only tools offered by eBay. They must submit the plan along with an accompanying video in one of the following four categories:

- Current or former members of the Unites States armed forces;

- Individuals or small businesses who have not sold on eBay;

- Part-time sellers who want to go full-time on eBay; and

- Full-time eBay sellers who want to grow their business further.

The submissions will be judged by eBay and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, who is offering entrepreneurial tips at the Sellers Challenge site.

"Because entrepreneurship is central to the economic welfare of the United States, the Kauffman Foundation is pleased to see companies such as eBay work to inspire entrepreneurs everywhere," said Thom Ruhe, director of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation. "We are always proud to work in partnership with organizations that support our mission: to help individuals attain economic independence and entrepreneurial success."

There will be 8 finalists selected – 2 from each category. Selections will be made based on perceived business challenges and obstacles, clarity of business plan, "passion for using eBay," and appropriateness to contest theme. Buyers and sellers will be able to vote on  finalists, and the most popular one from each category wins.

The study by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers at Duke and Harvard found that most U.S. born technology and engineering company founders are middle-aged, with the average and median age of 39.

The majority (92%) of founders had bachelor degrees, 31 percent had master degrees, and 10 percent had PhDs. Close to half of the degrees were in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. One third was in business, accounting and finance.

"While education clearly is an advantage for tech founders in the United States, experience also is a key factor," Vivek Wadhwa, lead researcher, Harvard Law School Wertheim fellow, Duke University executive in residence, said.

"That a large number of U.S.-born tech founders have worked in business for many years also is important in understanding the supply of tech entrepreneurs."

Close to half (45%) of the tech startups where started in the same state where the founders received their education. Of the tech founders receiving from California, 69 percent later went on to create a startup in the state, 58 percent did the same in Michigan, 53 percent in Texas and 52 percent in Ohio.

The top universities were tech entrepreneurs were most likely to earn their degrees include Harvard, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, MIT, University of Texas, University of California-Berkeley, University of Missouri, Pennsylvania State University, University of Southern California, and University of Virginia.

"Because entrepreneurship is an indicator of economic vitality in regions and across the country, this study raises important policy questions about how to foster greater tech entrepreneurship to boost economic growth," Robert Litan, Kauffman Foundation VP of Research and Policy, said.

Rafe Needleman aptly describes it as “a YouTube for entrepreneurs.”  But, silly as YouTube can be, Needleman and many others still feel Vator.tv has a real shot at success.

“[I]t could work very nicely for all parties involved,” writes Needleman.  “The site’s focus makes it a better destination for people who are pitching businesses than either an undifferentiated video site like YouTube, or even a business-focused social network like LinkedIn.”

Nonetheless, some problems may arise.  Andy Plesser – who actually likes Vator.tv – points out, “Some skeptics might wonder if an open forum is really the way to get an idea funded.  Will ideas be compromised through this sort of exposure?   Will a backer really become engaged by watching a 2-3 minute video clip?”

Then there’s the “spam factor” to consider, which, to be honest, might better be described as the “idiot factor.”  Forgive my bluntness, but after tuning in to about four minutes of American Inventor last night, I’d lost all hope for the human species, and the contents of Vator.tv could produce the same result.

Vator.tv has promise, however, and it’ll be interesting to see how this experiment in online video works out.