Venture Founders is All About Startups
Many forms of help for starting a business
Venture Founders’ Managing Director, Will Keyser is the creator the Startup Owl website. It offers many free and paid services in the pursuit of enterprise: ventures in the for-profit and non-profit sectors.
Your startup needs all the help it can buy, beg, borrow, or barter. From bitter experience I know that you need every leg-up you can find. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
You will be amazed to find that saying, “I have a problem and I need your help”, will have people falling over themselves to provide it.
One of the characteristics that differentiate human beings from other species is their tendency to help others even when there is no expectation of future interactions.
Startup Owl
Startup Owl, the website was created by Venture Founders LLC and is a mine of information for startups and early stage businesses and many related subjects. It offers you free and paid help, hand-holding, mentoring, and good old fashioned, straight-talking advice from an elder who has been there and done that.
The connecting thread of the site is that entrepreneurship is a major contributor not only to the economy, but can also be a powerful force for changing the way business is done. This results in a strong focus on sustainability: a deep-felt desire and productive actions to make our society more just, kinder to the planet as well as creating real wealth, not simply money.
The purpose of Startup Owl offering so many free resources is to enable as many people as possible to realize their aspiration to start a business or other kinds of organization.
Services
Venture Founders has a range of very flexible services, both fee-paid and free. The beauty is that they can be turned on and off like a faucet, leaving you decide how much or how little help you need. The big rule about starting a business is that there are no rules. Some principles certainly, but the thing about entrepreneurs is that they are creative.
My clients encourage me to work both on business development and personal development. There is a lot of ground to cover meeting the very varied needs of different clients on things to do with setting up the business and running it in the early stages. But it’s a lonely place being an entrepreneur. Having a mentor who has received many hard knocks himself, means that the startup is a little less traumatic.
Business Plan Review
The knee-jerk reaction of many would-be entrepreneurs is “I must do a business plan.” Of course you must plan and cover all the bases that you would expect in a business plan. However, that is probably not the place to start. First you need to figure out what value you are going to deliver to your customers, then figure out the best business model to generate revenue. Only then can you work on the business plan. The business plan might be on the back of an envelope or a fully-fledged 500 page document full of tables and spreadsheets.
Whichever it is, it will be the work of you and your team – never subcontract the job – and having an outsider give you an insight on the plan, whatever its purpose, will really be validating or help you avoid some pitfalls that you did not spot because you are so close to your passion. Venture Founders can give you a business plan review in 7 days for a fixed price.
Advisory Board
William Keyser, the Startup Owl can offer you a one-man advisory board role in your new venture and will help with your own development as well as the establishment and growth of your business or non-profit organization.
Setting up an advisory board may seem a deflection from the primary purpose of starting a business. Thus it may make sense initially to have a single adviser to play that role to facilitate easy communication, while having an external sounding board. It is often a lonely road to establish a new business and even with all the confidence in the world.
You may be interested in have other voices on your advisory board, whether formal or informal. With a wide variety of business relationships and experience, both as a business leader and a business teacher, Will can help you put together a small team.
Federal Government Contracting
Venture Founders LLC is a Vermont registered company. Its DUNS Number is 079506829 and its NAICS Code is 541611 includes strategic planning and general management consulting) and the SIC is 8742054 (New Business Startup Consultant). Venture Founders is thus available for Federal Government consulting contracts.
Why should a business have a DUNS number? Because it’s a universally recognized classification system (over 150 million businesses); a sign of credibility that shows other businesses and institutions like banks that you are serious about your business, and that your financial well being and corporate image are important. It is a sign that you intend to comply with business regulations, and are not afraid to make your company pulbically viewable; if you want a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan or want to land a government contract, a DUNS number is required for any activity that involves the United States government, or any work with the United Nations.