LaunchBox Blog

I am often asked for advice from entrepreneurs with respect to their businesses and raising angel or VC funding. Often, given the context and situation, the advice I give is pretty general. I think there are some key learnings that are valuable to all entrepreneurs though. They were apparent to me from spending the past 12 weeks working with the 9 LaunchBox08 portfolio companies and the LaunchBox team.

Andrew Nachison, the co-founder of iFocos, a strategic partner of LaunchBox Digital and the organizer of the annual WE Media confernece, attended LaunchBox08 Demo Day. He shared a number of great outside observer insights in his blog post. I will summarize them here:

1. Technology is critical - have a developer on your team

2. Know your target audience

3. Develop and launch quickly, iterate often

4. Find advisors and mentors

5. Be bold, take risks

The past 12 weeks have flown by. It has been a very rewarding experience for all involved. Our 9 portfolio companies have done a phenomenal job developing their offerings and building their businesses. Our advisors have been tremendously supportive with their time and advice mentoring the entrepreneurs. Our sponsors have been generous with their time and services. Demo Days were a hit - great attendance of angel investors, VCs and bloggers in both Reston, VA and Palo Alto, CA; great presentations and product demos by the 9 companies.

John McKinley - LaunchBox co-founder shares his impressions on the 12 weeks of Launchbox08 and each of the 9 companies on his blog.

We're also very appreciative of the coverage we received over the past year from:

Techcrunch
Silicon Alley Insider
GigaOm
The Social Times
Somewhat Frank
East Coast Blogging
VentureBeat
Tech Confidential
Venturewire