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Justin.tv - thisweekin - TWiVC #06 with Jason Calacanis

Great advice for Startups looking to raise money in this episode specifically, although you should watch every week.

Video: This Week in Venture Capital Episode 6 (Download)

This Week in Venture Capital is a combination of startup analysis and startup advice from Jason Calacanis’ burgeoning ThisWeekIn empire. Mark Suster is the host. Jump to 33:05 for a solid block of…

An interesting post by Dorsey Whitman partner and employment lawyer Gary M. Gansle on how employers can use social media with respect to prospective, current, and former employees.

I’ve never had a guest post on my blog before. But I’m thrilled to start with this one. It’s a great story about determination & passion and it’s by Nick Crocker who starts at Boxee today.

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In a recent post about how to join a startup Bijan Sabet said:

“There are a number of…

Startup Metrics for Pirates (Lean Startup Intensive, May 2010) via @Davemcclure

vhtv:

via Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Corner (Download)

There are products that become companies. And there are companies that come up with a product. @ 13:53

The 2 hardest parts of running these companies: #1 is recruiting and #2 is talking people out of quitting. @ 25:55

I don’t believe there is such a thing as the venture capital industry… you’ve got 20, 30, 40 boutique venture capital firms that do really well over time and you’ve got 660 firms that will generally very much break your heart as an investor if you invest in them. @ 43:06

Standard Start’s mission is to streamline the process by which great ideas become businesses. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the entrepreneurial agenda through educating entrepreneurs and providing them the tools to succeed. Standard Start wants to build a community where knowledge is shared freely and people work together to create and build great companies.

One of the biggest impediments startups face is the high cost of legal services. While there has been a great deal of work in producing open source funding documents, there are many other documents that could be standardized to reduce costs.

Lawyers play a necessary role in the startup ecosystem. The amount many charge for simple agreements, however, is ridiculous. Most attorneys have stock agreements that they customize for each client. Why doesn’t the community just draft standardized agreements that are fair to all parties and make them free to use?

That’s why our first initiative is to create standardized service-provider agreements and adviser agreements for early stage startups. While we already have a number of attorneys developing the documents, I wanted to reach out to everyone in the innovation community  to make it a more open process. If the community trusts the documents are fair to both parties, we can remove a significant barrier to innovation and success. If you’d like to get involved, contact me at jacob@standardstart.com for more details.

Jacob Brody

Founder, Standard Start