Anyway, Hopefully these 10 tips will help those Geeks, like myself who are moving into a startup or entrepreneur role, understand that technology is second and business if first.

10. In Business Coding is 1% of your Company

I can tell you first hand when talking to a VC or Angle Investor the actually code, methodologies, and/or programming language is almost as important as the color sock you wear that day. The Geek inside you needs to get out and think more like that suit, think like a business man and NOT like a coder! Knowing from experience I spent hours, days, maybe even a week perfecting some of my code and making sure it looked perfect with all the proper indentations and 80 character limits. Although with all this work, if no one knows you and/or your product, will anyone care? Better yet, imagine if you have this amazing code, but never release it. You get so sucked into perfection that you wait 2 years or more until someone else out there releases a free barley functional copy that does only 5% of what your software does, but you can ACTUALLY download it. To me, perfect code is like brain crack, you will get sucked into the details that no one cares about when you should be posting it up on a website and saying next version out in 2 weeks. Think iteratively, and understand that users realize everything is a beta, bugs happen in the computer world, just look at Microsoft.

9. 1 year is not long term

I know Financial gurus think in quarters and geek normally think in days, maybe weeks, depending on the various methodologies. In the real business world getting the right PR person to promote your product and get traffic can take 6 months. Even with a digg and techcrunch post that only covers the tech world, what about all those other people that probably could use your product. I know myself I get sucked into the RSS tech world and do not realize how many other people are surfing the web who have no idea what twitter is, right? Getting a product out the door and fixing buggy code is a daily task, but putting systems in place to either automate your marketing system and/or download/purcahse process can take more then your daily 1 week iteration.

8. Show me the money

I was recently talking to a VC about how they are betting on 1 of the 30 investments to hit it rich and pay off all the others. Think about it, 1/30 is a 0.03 or 3%. So if they plan to invest in you, they are hoping for a 30x payoff (if not more) and realize it could be a total flop. On the other side, they are looking at things that actually have a “monetized” approach. Being sites to save the world is great (I know I have tried with Hippy Green) but with VCs its about the bottom line. How are you planning on making that 30x back within 5 or 10 years, donations? You can hire all the best programmers in the world to build your revolutionary product, but if you can’t monetized it, no one will invest in it. In the business world and real world, the money talks and the website walks.

7. Be the first to admit you don’t know your Mom

People think they know something, when most of the time, they have a concept or idea in their head. Your target market, such as our Mom, might be the perfect person to pitch, but audiances make strange decisions. I will be the first to admit I need to find out more about my own audiance (here on my blog!). Knowing your marketing and “thinking” you know your market are 2 totally different things. Sometimes people do the total opposite of what would make perfect sense. For example, say you built a revolutionary diet website, and since everyone in America is fat (at least thats what I hear), you think 1% of market, gold mine! Well thats great and all, and yes diet and fitness are big markets especially during new years, but do you realize why? There is this little word called retention. Everyone wants to look like a super model and fit into those smaller sizes, but for most this is just a thought/dream that takes a fast turn to nowhere. Retention is needed in order to have a successful product. You either need to be retaining your current customers, or making sure you get enough new customers to make up for the ones who are dropping out. Talk to your actually customer, invite some of out for drinks and/or food. If you think you know your audiance, then get them to be the fist to signup and see how difficult it is.

6. Give Customers some Lovy Love

I have to give a shout out on this one, Gary Vaynerchuk at Wine library tv who has more love for his audiance and customers then I have ever seen. You need to be passion about what you are doing and support all of those people who are supporting you.

5. Remove features BEFORE the deadline approaches

Feature rich applications and programs do not mean better product. Think of simple elegant products, like a simple search box where you type in a search and get web results, better known as Google. They have an advance search, but keep it simple stupid with their main search. Building products/concepts can take time and adding more and more features that only 0.001% of your market require, may not be the best idea, especially right out of the gate. I know when building products, feature creap is a problem, just add this and that… before you know it, your product sucks because you have too many features! Take them out especailly if their hold you back. One of the best advice I recieved was if you can’t build the feature in a week, its too big of a feature. Break down the cycle and move towards a iterative apporach. Think of 37 Signals, their products are lean and mean.

4. Tell a friend about your idea

FEEDBACK! Seriouly their is nothing like taking an idea to the next level then getting others to become FANs of your products. You need a “cult” enviornment or following of “groupies” (Yes, Twitter followers count), but you need to tell others about your product. Why? Well, to start its a great way to get people mentioning your product to frineds. Telling your friends is another way to “get things done” because they will tend to ask you about it each time you see/speak to them. BUILD A FOLLOWING

3. Design before Function

Just look at the ipod and how this small device has changed the music industry and all the people who listen to music. Every time I am walking around New York City I am thrown back by how many people have those white headphones and cords. Almost all headphones that you would buy at a store from the 80’s until the release of the iPod, were black headphones. Since Apple is always killing the design they decided to give the iPod white headphones, which has created fashion statement in some case. Apple put design before function and made a killing! My iPhone has always looked the same, yet their are software updates that are fixing some of the functional/bugs that I have been dying for, such as deleting multiple emails at a time. So if you get 100+ emails a day, clicking 1 by 1 delete, ugh!

2. READ, READ, READ

Reading is a great way to not only LEARN from others, but stop you from making the same mistakes. Yes, mistakes happen and as an entreprner you will make them, but you can help your chances of “making it” but reading about how others did it. Get ideas and see what has worked (or hasn’t) and follow the great leaders. If you need some help, check out the Geek Guru Book Club.

1. Mentors Find Them, Leverage Them, Treat Them like Gods

Mentors are everywhere in your life and as a inspiring entrepreneur you should not only lean on mentors to help you, but in the process you will find others that could use your help and have them lean on you. I know I have been building my business network one person at a time. You need mentors to push you and ask questions as well as to follow up with you on your passion/ideas/business. Entrepreneurs tend to be all over the board with ideas, but with mentors to help push and guide you in a direction, you can reach your goals faster. Even if your in college or high school, a teacher might be your mentor. Even celebrities such as Richard Branson can be a mentor, just pickup a book they wrote and learn. Also don’t forget to give back, be sure to treat your mentors and take them out (dinner, coffee, golf?).

These 10 tips for moving from a geek to a startup entrepreneur should help give you a boost in the right direction. I know I person have been working on improving and bettering my best with these tips above.

What tips/ideas do you have for geeks who want to be entrepreneurs?

Anyway, to continue my posts of some cool links that I have found and wanting to “spread” the word of other sites that deal with money, so here they are.

On Money Making - By far one of the best blogs I have read for personal development, business development, and inspiration about making money. Be sure to check out his article on Forrest Gump’s Guide to Becoming a Gazillionaire. If you like some of the posts also check out the simple dollar.

Okay, so if you think you know all or something, maybe you should create a blog (if you don’t already have one). Everyone has some knowledge, well you can harness it in a form of a blog and make money from various ads (Adsense, Text Links Ads, your own). So for the bloggers out there, check out Daily Blog Tips a great resource and if your not a blogger, start one.

Start Upping a great resource for anyone who is looking to make money online.

Click bank the retail leader of digital products. Trying to bust out and sell some ebooks or just get users to signup for a product, check them out. I posted about the idea of a easy startup selling ebooks in the past and plan (building) an entire site dedicated to it. Check out some tips on getting your blog to work.

Need help figuring out where your money is going? Check out wesabe, their software is pretty slick and very useful. I also know they ask for some “personal info” to help with pulling the data, but if you are super parinode, just pull the data yourself from your online banking and upload it, so this way their is not direct connection. Also check out mint.

The last link is more of a post, it was a little while back, but wanted to share it with everyone. Learn everything you needed to know about finance on the back of 5 business cards.

Early this week I got pitched a business like this and it just blew my mind. I have heard of the buzz around network marketing, but thought, scam, etc, well I was wrong. I have already broken even with just 2 sales! Basically you are signing up for a ebook that you can sell for $67 and you get a 50% rip! Think about it, you sell 2 and you just broke even, better yet that 3rd sale is pure profit of $33.50. This system WORKS and is exactly what most people want. Simple, easy, and a great stepping stone with online marketing and sales. Just to give you a taste of the product, I want to give you a FREE 35 page ebook about the lies of Network Marketing. Just click here and scroll down and fill out the Name and Email form. If you like what you see, you can then continue on and order the Renegade Network Marketer. I do NOT want to pressure you into buying anything, hey you DON’T have to. I am just saying, if you every wanted to even TRY and start a small business, why not now and why not online.

If your thinking I am pitching you, well you can take it or leave it, but just keep in mind, you can build passive income today that pays for your life tomorrow. I seem to be spending more time getting back into the business and NOT saying NO! (I know I need to “be like Tim” and say No to people as well as FOCUS on what I am trying to accomplish.) I need to build/start a business that is making money for me right out the door. This network marketing system works, and you get access to all the “how-to’s” and information you need to make money as well as learn their system and how to rip this system off and create your OWN! Think about this as a short term investment, start a business with a $67 investment, break even with 2 sales of $67 bucks. Read what they are teaching you and build your own system in which you use affiliates to spread the word and create a viral marketing campaign.

I am constantly reading books (or ebooks) about make money online and actually focusing on the fact that I NEED TO MAKE $100/day in Passive income by Feb 2008. How am I going to do this, well there are a lot of ideas, but this one, is just icing on the cake. I have always wanted to get into selling and pitching ebooks, but have not dived in deep with them. I wanted to build a test system that would help teach me what I need to know. Well after paying $67, I have a system that DOES ALL THE THINGS I NEED AND MORE! I have all this knowledge about the internet and IT, but I am not monetizing it. I am getting beat by a 14 year olds in the Philippines. (Imagine that!) Who is REALLY making money online.

So if you are a reader and do not want to be pitched, well wait for the next post, but if you are interested in trying to start a business and don’t want to drop hardly any money and take a small risk, what better opportunity then the renegade network marketer. Seriously, what business can you start and break even with 2 sales of a product that almost sells itself. One thing I have learned this past summer is Google Adsense makes hardly enough money to pay for beer. You need to think big if you want out of the “rat race”. Selling something like an ebook which pays for itself after 2 sales, DO IT!

I know your thinking, but John I do not want to get into selling ebooks, I have a passion for (insert topic here). Well let me first start by saying, you need to learn sales to be a successful business person. If your not selling, your not making money. So why not practice and improve your sales techniques as well as LEARN something for a low price of $67! Seriously, you could be making money right now by using their proven system. I do NOT plan to start pitching these type of affiliates on my blog and am working on starting up a couple of separate blogs, but I know that their are entrepreneurs that read my blog and looking for another source of passive income.

So take a look and signup for a FREE Copy of “The 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing” an ebook that taught me a lot about network marketing!

Lately I have been DOING what my man Tim Ferriss has suggested in his book The 4-Hour Workweek. I have been spreading the word or dare I say love, I have for this book. I have already gotten a huge response from it as well as started to change my daily habits (with the help of others).

I now only check my mail on my iPhone while I am standing in line or waiting for something. Tim suggest you check it twice a day, but since I am starting a business my focus is on getting #$&!* done rather then having a “boss” who is kicking and screaming at me to finish/fix something. I have also cut down on my “net surfing” to a very minimum. Only Google when looking up something that is specific to the task at hand. The past 2 days I have not checked out engadget and feel that I have not “missed” anything. This has saved me tons of time and I am surprised at how much time I was wasting constantly reading either rumors, buzz, web 3.0 crap, or whatever. By not checking out these sites everyday you don’t really miss anything. Worstcase you will pick it up again on someone’s del.icio.us feed or hear about it through a friend. I have found that having a group of people who tag articles on del.icio.us and going through my own network, just skimming at article titles (only read the ones that matter) helps cut down on the clutter (I try and do this once every 2 to 3 days).

Anyway, thinking about this news and time it takes to absorb all this information makes me think if theirs a market out their for speeding this process up. Last night while not sleeping I came across aiderss through a Google search for news. I wanted to see if someone is creating a site to rank stories and allow you to insert your own RSS feeds and get them ranked, well it sounds like they do! The last time I saw something like this or similar to this was corank, but corank is a bit more community driven.

Anyway, I was just contacted by aiderss and should be getting on their beta testing tonight. I will post up a review next week (if I get access) and tell you want I think. I am also hoping that paul gets his crawler up on ec2 this weekend, good luck! I got a couple of news ideas and might think about trying to code them starting August 1. I am still trying to figure out what kind of startup I want to do, so many ideas so little time! I have been doing a lot of market research as well as trying to get some bids (estimates) on the hardware that might be required for some of these projects. Again, I am hoping to start coding August 1st for this “new company” and get a beta launched ASAP.

Whoa, long post… So what is this post about anyway, well I am a news whore and I want to stay “in the know” but not “waste my time” with stories like turning myself into a Simpsons Character thanks digg. So do you think their is a market for a website that does it, or should you take someone else’s advice.

Anyway, I am off to Boston for the weekend of finishing up some backlog projects as well as some collaborative thinking with some friends over a pint. If you are in the boston area and a reader, please contact me and I will let you know what bar I will be at, always enjoy meeting fans!

I meetup with a mentor/old boss who gave me some words of wisdom. I spend the rest of the day discussing ideas/projects with my dad as well as stopping by Barnes and Nobel looking at new books. I guess I am a free rider when it comes to this because I have recently been buying books via Amazon one for the price and two because I also use them to make money. Oh, I also stopped by the New York Web Entrepreneurs (Web2NewYork) for a pint, some networking, and to hear about some startups. There was plenty of buzz web 2.0 company that stopped by. Expotv gave a nice presentation as well as, prerollr who presented how they embed ads onto video and much more. They launched today and have gotten various media coverage. I also heard some great things about Associated Content.

Anyway, tomorrow will be a coding day and I hope to bust out some of the problems I have been having the past couple of days. Check out the links above and since I am in startup mode, I also wanted to throw my hat out there and see if anyone was interested in jumping in on a project. I know Y Combiniator always likes to see a 2 person company and since I may be applying for them on October I just wanted to throw it out to my readers.

*Update*: prerollr changed their name to revlayer