General questions
Getting started
- I'm new to entrepreneurship. How do I get started?
- Are there on line resources to help me learn entrepreneurship?
- I am new to entrepreneurship. What are some good books to read / blogs to follow?
- How are B2C and B2B businesses different in a startup setting?
- What is the difference in the time it takes to build different kinds of ventures?
- E-Seminars from MIT Bootcamps
Startup administrivia
- Bank Failure - timely updates on important developments, given Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)
- How do I start a company?
- What insurance coverage do I need and when should I get it?
- What do I need to know to procure business insurance for my startup?
- What service providers should I hire to get going quickly?
- How do I keep track of all my business contacts?
- See all 8 articles
Startup / Entrepreneurship Frameworks
Finding your way around the Boston startup landscape
Networking and outreach
Glossary
License and legal disclaimers
MIT Specific questions
Navigating startup resources at MIT
- Quick start guide for student entrepreneurs at MIT
- I am thinking of applying to MIT. What resources are available to help me start a company here?
- I don't have money to hire a lawyer. Who can help me with my legal questions?
- What MIT organizations are involved with entrepreneurship?
- Are there any hackathons at MIT?
- Where can I learn more about the Sandbox fund?
- See all 8 articles
Academics at MIT
Engaging with MIT students and alumni
Hiring MIT Students
For international students
Competitions and Prizes at MIT
Startups founded by MIT alumni
Coaching and Mentorship
Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship
- What services and support can I get at the Martin Trust Center as a current student or postdoc?
- What services and support can I get from the Martin Trust Center if I am not a student?
- How do I book a room at MIT?
- I am getting ready to raise money. Can someone at the Trust Center introduce me to an angel investor?
MIT Fuse - 3-week mini accelerator during IAP (January)
MIT deltav
Free or discounted services for startups
General / Overview
Incorporation
Productivity and backoffice tools
Business systems
Career Choice
Deciding whether to start a company
- Am I too old to start a company?
- Am I too young to start a company?
- I don't have any startup experience. Can I still be a founder?
- Should I start a company, join a startup or join a big company?
- How much should an entrepreneur expect to earn in the first five years of the company?
- 12 Key Insights about the Founder Journey
Ideation
Idea selection
Team Building: Leadership, Management and Culture
Building a team
Managing a team
- How do I get my team to work together well?
- My functional teams aren’t talking or coordinating with each other. How do we deal with silo thinking?
- How do I manage remote employees effectively?
- What is the key to maintaing a positive team dynamic?
- How do I run effective meetings?
- How often should I have meetings?
Managing conflict
Entrepreneurial leadership
Organizational structures and processes
Development of Culture
Testing your MVP and Finding Product/Market Fit
Validating hypotheses via MVP Testing
Measuring traction
Testing the business model
Primary Market Research
Getting started
Product and usability research
Subject recruitment
Interview techniques
- How many interviews do you need to build a good persona?
- How do you build a discussion guide for a detailed interview?
- What are some magic phrases to help me run an open-ended interview?
- Is it a good idea to start a customer interview with an “on a scale of 1-5” question?
- What if every conversation with a new interview subject is a whole new conversation?
- What if you keep hearing the same thing over and over?
- See all 7 articles
Quantitative Research
Doing primary market research in another country
Secondary Market Research
Secondary Market Research on the cheap
Strategy
Examples / Cases
Turning a consulting business to a product business
Planning
Board of Director Considerations
Founders' Decisions
Founder dating
Equity split
Difficult decisions
Common mistakes
Basics of Finance (i.e. managing money)
Getting started with your financial scoreboard
- What are the key concepts in managing finances for a startup?
- What do I need to know about revenue models or forecasting?
- What do I need to know about operating expenses?
- When should a startup become cash flow positive?
- What makes a startup investable or fundable?
- What are some common mistakes in financials for first time founders?
- See all 8 articles
Financial Statements / 5-year forecast models
Legal
Getting started
Hiring your first lawyer
Company formation / incorporation
Founder's Agreement
Everything about stock and stock options
Intellectual Property Protection
- Why do entrepreneurs need to protect their technical and scientific innovations?
- How can I protect my innovations? I’ve heard of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, etc.
- I don’t have the resources to sue someone who is infringing. Why bother patenting my invention?
- How do I get a patent? Can I prepare a patent myself? I can write a good technical description.
- What experience should I look for in a good patent attorney or patent agent?
- What if I told someone about my innovation? Is it too late to protect it?
- See all 23 articles
NDAs
Immigration Law
Employee or Subcontractor?
Marketing and Sales
Marketing Presence
Inbound and Content Marketing
Online Advertising
- Why would I use digital advertising at an early stage?
- How can I quickly test a value proposition with digital advertising?
- Where does digital advertising fit into my overall marketing strategy?
- What is the overall process for implementing an digital advertising campaign?
- How do I plan my advertising campaign?
- How much should I spend on digital advertising?
- See all 19 articles
Go to market strategy
Growth hacking
Sector Deep Dives
Resources for learning about industry sectors at MIT
Healthcare
- What types of Innovations/Ideations require regulatory approval?
- Which is the best route to take my idea/innovation to market (FDA or EU) so that my startup does not sink with VC funding?
- What groundwork or think tank do I need in advance so that my innovation gets a successful regulatory approval and makes it to market commercialization?
- What's the best regulatory pathway I should take for a successful regulatory approval and market access?
Tough Tech / Deep Tech
Social entrepreneurship
Product Design
General Product Design Guidelines
User Experience (UX) Design
Design for software products
Design for hardware products
Product Development
Managing Software Development
- How can I get things done when everyone is a part-time contractor?
- How do I prioritize features versus bugs?
- How can you speed up software development?
- As a non-technical CEO, how do I know if an engineer isn’t goofing off if I’m not watching them all the time?
- What is a good ratio between developers and software quality assurance people?
- What is a good ratio between time spent in development versus software quality assurance (SQA)?
- See all 8 articles
Hardware Development
Software Development
Prototyping
Working with an industrial design or product design agency
Request for Proposals (RFP) / Request for Quotes (RFQ)
Planning projects
- Are you a feature, Product or Company ?
- How long should it take to develop a product?
- How detailed should the project plan be in an early stage startup?
- How rigidly should you adhere to your project plan?
- What do I need to know to create a realistic project plan if the work is outside my area of expertise?
- How can we get better work estimates? My developers are constantly off by a factor of 2 or more.
- See all 7 articles
Product Management
Business Model and Pricing
Determining your Business Model
Hardware Business Models
SaaS business models
Marketplaces
TAM (Total Addressable Market)
Determining Pricing
Scaling - Manufacturing
Rapid Prototyping (RP) Versus Mass Production
Common manufacturing processes
Design for Manufacturing / Assembly (DFM/A)
Sourcing Components
Final assembly
Lead times
Offshoring, Reshoring, Rightshoring
Scaling - Process and Infrastructure
Customer service
Raising money - equity based
Fund raising - overview
- Negotiating Your First Term Sheet: Tips and Traps for the Unwary - brownrudnick
- A beginner's dictionary -- venture capital
- What do I need to know about fundraising / investment?
- Is there a book that teaches you how to raise money?
- When should I fund-raise?
- What do I need to know about Term Sheets?
- See all 10 articles
Raising an angel or seed round
Convertible notes and safe notes
Pitching to investors
Managing your investors
Raising money - crowdfunding
Raising money - Grants, prizes and accelerators
Many thanks to Dr. Chris Jones of iRobot for running a seminar at MIT in July 2017 on how to navigate the SBIR/STTR system.
Introduction to SBIR / STTR
Phase 1 and Phase 2 SBIR / STTR Awards
Eligibility for SBIR / STTR grants
Applying for an SBIR or STTR grant
- What is the application process for an SBIR / STTR proposal?
- How many people apply for each SBIR solicitation?
- Why should I to talk to an SBIR sponsor before applying?
- How do I connect with my SBIR sponsor whom I have not met?
- How do I figure out which SBIR sponsors to target?
- When can I apply for an SBIR award?
- See all 10 articles
Writing a great SBIR proposal
Accelerators
- Which accelerators focus on space?
- What are some options for commercial accelerators for startups?
- What accelerators are in the New York City area?
- Which accelerators don't take equity?
- Which incubators and accelerators focus on food tech?
- Which accelerator focuses on agriculture tech?
- See all 12 articles
Other grants and prizes
Pitching, Presentations and Public Speaking
Pitch deck templates
Preparing for a talk
Human Resources
Hiring
Firing
Work-Life Balance
Readings on work life balance
Anti-Fragility in the face of crisis
Starting and running a business in tough times
- Should I start a business when the world is in crisis?
- What are investor sentiments in the midst of a global crisis?
- What can companies do to drive revenue during a global crisis?
- What can companies do to cut costs during a global crisis?
- Comprehensive resource guide for founders & investors during uncertain times
Fund raising in tough times
Pitching, virtually
Maintaining cohesiveness and alignment in a virtual team
- How can I maintain my own sanity as an entrepreneurial leader in a challenging situation?
- What are the upsides of working remotely?
- How do I build relationships with my virtual employees?
- How can I deal with loneliness during an era of social distancing?
- Pro-tips from TechStars on staying sane
- Pro-Tips on TechStars for managing your business
Keeping a virtual team organized and accountable
Transforming in-person interactions to an online format
- How do I virtualize all the channels of communication in the office?
- What do we gain and lose by going from in-person to virtual?
- How do I maintain good interactivity in an online meeting?
- How do I hold a keynote talk on line?
- How do I give a talk online and manage the tech and audience at the same time?
- How do I hold a virtual networking session?
- See all 7 articles
How to use technology to help us go virtual
- How do I prepare team members who are not comfortable with technology to go virtual?
- What do I do if I have low bandwidth?
- What is the difference between an online meeting and an online webinar?
- Should I use all-in-one platforms or best-in-class tools for each type of interaction?
- What tools can help me convert scheduled meetings to an online format?
- What tools can help me convert hallway conversations to an online format?
- See all 7 articles