Asks - Recent Threads

Advisor agreement

Aaron Reedy — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 19:10:40 GMT

Does anyone have an Advisor Agreement that compensates an advisor with equity? I'm looking specifically for one that works for an LLC and has some type of vesting schedule written in.

I found this online: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwNfGKCf8sfbQ19wWk9KWWVSc0U/view

It seems like a good start, but I'm not sure it applies to LLCs. I'm trying to not pay an attorney or find a template that could be very quickly (cheaply) modified by an attorney.

Thanks!

Brand architecture

Melissa Stefaniak — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 13:41:03 GMT

Jason Brewster and others!

One of the speakers this summer(I believe his name was James) came and gave part 2 of the Brand/Marketing workshop (part 1 was Lyons Brown). He presented some slides that went over how to formulate your brand ethos and the different aspects/dimensions. He had a framework that could help document/organize brand elements so you can share it with others who might join your team. Does anyone remember this and have these slides to share with me?

Or any other helpful resources or examples you have seen or done yourself?

Thanks!

Insurance Reimbursements and Federal Device Regulations

Alexander Singh — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 23:56:12 GMT

As we mentioned in the i.Lab reunion on Tuesday, we're interested in connecting with insurance providers to learn more about coverage plans and how the device reimbursement process works. We're also interested in connecting with individuals that have FDA experience. Would anyone be able to make an introduction?

American Polymer Company

Alexander Singh — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 17:11:42 GMT

The polymer foam manufacturers we've been dealing with have not been very on top of their production. We want to move polymer production to a company located in the United States. We've google searched and reached out, but if you have a personal contact anywhere, we would greatly appreciate an introduction.

Affordable housing in CHO

Melissa Stefaniak — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 15:48:28 GMT

Hi all,

I am currently figuring out what comes next for SBS and where I should be located. My draw is to be back in Charlottesville and am hoping to make that happen as early as October. I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for affordable housing - websites that list apartments or rooms for rent. Or if you know anyone looking for a roommate? I'd like to consider all options.

Thanks!

Will you vote on my SXSW panel?

Jason Brewster — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 20:49:52 GMT

We need your vote! Help shape the programming for SXSW 2019 and help our session be a part of next year's program.

We've submitted a session for SXSW 2019 PanelPicker® and we need your votes.

Incubators: A Startup Guide from the Field is a panel on a topic familiar to i.Lab incubator participants, effectuation. Vote here.

It takes just a few minutes of your time. Voting is easy! Here's how:

Create an account: https://id.sxsw.com/sign_up
Sign-in
Visit the submission page below before August 28:
Incubators: A Startup Guide from the Field
Click the “Vote Up” button on the upper-left side of the page
And if you're feeling extra generous, you can add comments on the page about the i.Lab, effectuation, me, etc.

Thank you! Look for an incubator announcement soon with an end of the month follow up.

45 sec pitch practice?

Dawn Cleveland — Wed, 08 Aug 2018 18:31:52 GMT

Anyone up for practicing the 45 sec pitches and refining them? Thursday am, pitch room. 11:00?

Anyone interested in wine-chocolate pairing session tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4pm? (also open to other timing tomorrow)

Nagea Delaya — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 22:53:02 GMT

What I'll have:

- Chocolate bars: Papua 70% and Bali 80%

- Port from Porto Bin No.27

- Sparkling red from Rosa Regale (I have limited amount of this)

- Shiraz from Jam Jar

Let me know if you have other suggestions. Also feel free to bring your favorite!

Final Ask

Jason Panek — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 23:33:45 GMT

We will be having to pack about 330 boxes in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, our boxes are not printed yet, so I cannot give you a solid date when it will happen.

What I'm asking is if you will come in one evening to help us pack all of our boxes. I will provide pizza, and non-alcoholic beverages. It will be fun...ish.

If you're interested, please let me know how to get a hold of you after this week - I will continue to be in the iLab.

Thanks everyone!

Team Management

Alexander Singh — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 17:27:50 GMT

Anyone have any best practices for managing a growing team? Right now we have 1 meeting a week, but I want to have meetings with various divisions and keep some information privy to some people etc. but I worry I don't have the time to manage everyone.

Stores in Richmond

Cordell Fortune — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 13:27:23 GMT

Does anyone know of any stores in Richmond that fit SheaMango that we can approach to sell in? I feel that there is a bigger market in Richmond for my type of products.

Non Profits

Cordell Fortune — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 13:22:00 GMT

We are trying to a find different non profits to donate a percentage of our sales we make at our upcoming events. Does anyone have any connections to any non profit that will be a great idea to represent?

Best practices for tracking the success of different marketing channels

Rebecca Perea-Kane — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 12:57:05 GMT

How do you track what is helping? A "how did you hear about us" question? Discount codes linked to specific channels? What has worked well for you?

thoughts on / criteria for - taking on outside work

Rebecca Perea-Kane — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 12:07:27 GMT

I know that Darius Nabors brought this up at one point talking about speaking gigs and I'd love to hear others' thoughts as well. How do you decide whether to take on consulting/contract/outside work? Why: I have a project opportunity to do a production run for another company that would pay well but I suspect it would mostly be a pretty enormous drain on my time. I'm hesitant to take on something that is not specifically moving Thicket forward but I'd really love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Cutting small pieces of glass / knowledge of glass or acrylic alternatives

Rebecca Perea-Kane — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 23:38:30 GMT

Does anyone have the capability (or know where to go) to get a 500+ glass/acrylic rectangles cut to 1.25" x 1"? Is this something for a laser cutter is capable of? I used to work at a frame shop and cut glass all the time when I was working there but I don't think that kind of glass cutter could get this tiny in an efficient way.

Also can you think of something other than glass or plexiglass that would do the trick?

Let me know!

Why: I've got a contract project for someone else and need a way to encase paper in an archival way inside a pendant. I can make bezels around the glass to 'frame' the pendants but I need some kind of protective glass or acrylic on the front.

Email Marketing Campaign

Jason Panek — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 14:29:57 GMT

We recently purchased a very large list of PTO/PTA president email addresses, and need to put together an email campaign.

Does anyone have any resources for putting together a high converting email, or know a content writer/marketing guru who might help us out with putting together our email campaign?

HubSpot

Jason Panek — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 12:58:43 GMT

Does anyone use a full blown version of HubSpot? I would love any feedback to determine if it's worth the $85 per month + $300 onboarding for the Professional level Marketing + Sales programs.

Verifying answers - is there a place to go where we can find all our Asks 2.0s?

Rebecca Perea-Kane — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 16:57:27 GMT

Jason Brewster mentioned to me this morning that we should be verifying answers to indicate that our asks have been handled but unlike Asks 1.0 I can't find a place where all my 2.0 Asks live (do we just have to scroll waaaay back on the thread?!). It used to be with 1.0 I could go to my venture page and see all of them - let me know if you've located this somewhere else for 2.0 asks.

Testimonials

Cordell Fortune — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 12:39:23 GMT

Do you remember when I gave out samples? Does anybody want to give a short testimonial on how you used SheaMango and how you it made you feel.

Best practices - bringing on part time employees

Rebecca Perea-Kane — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 12:37:16 GMT

Why: I'm planning to bring on part-time employees (not immediately, but imminently) and I'm curious if anyone has experience / thoughts / resources with that process and especially what kind of considerations or systems (I know Dawn Cleveland already touched on some of the accounting considerations) you implemented in the lead up to that (and also how you decided financially and logistically it was the right time).

Best practices - forecasting / budgeting with a very seasonal business

Rebecca Perea-Kane — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 12:24:53 GMT

Anyone have thoughts or experience with this? / Why: my business is extremely seasonal and the income and expenses happen at different times in the year (i.e. summer is when I need to buy a lot of materials - gold! - to make inventory for the fall but summer is not when I move a lot of product... in the fall I have a lot of sales but I've already bought materials and paid vendor fees so I have relatively few expenses). I use a cash flow spreadsheet (and Quickbooks) that has the info from 2017 and 2018 so I have some data to look back on but I'd love to learn more about best practices specifically when dealing with seasonality.

Managing a Facebook page - need emails of people that like the page

Darius Nabors — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 20:15:19 GMT

Has anyone managed a facebook page, I need the emails of the people that like the page. How do I get that?

Come on a hike in Shenandoah this weekend (Saturday)

Darius Nabors — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:58:57 GMT

Several folks have asked about hiking in Shenandoah, I would love to take people out into Shenandoah and show you how the 360 photo magic happens!

Do you like receiving postcards?

Darius Nabors — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:54:20 GMT

I am trying to figure out ways to market my 360 tours, one of my thoughts is to use QR codes on postcards and send postcards to people. They would get a picture of the National Park and a QR code that would take them on a virtual tour of that specific trail

Go on a virtual tour of Mount Storm King in Olympic National Park - https://poly.google.com/view/ba3SGagEvs4 - let me know what you think

Darius Nabors — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 17:17:23 GMT

Here is the tour - poly.google.com/.../ba3SGagEvs4