Comments on: 7 Things to consider before launching a startup

By: Sacrifice your health for your startup : Credit Debt Banking News | CDBN

Sacrifice your health for your startup : Credit Debt Banking News | CDBN — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:21:13 +0000

[...] Trunk (yes, she has insights upon both sides of this issue) upon how all-consuming her association is: "I'm desperate. … You're regularly sick, though not take-a-day-off-work [...]

By: DodaPedia » Blog Archive » New gender gaps for the new millennium

DodaPedia » Blog Archive » New gender gaps for the new millennium — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:39:32 +0000

[...] this translates to the VC world is that you need to spend TONS of time away from kids doing a startup. For women to do that, they need to be compensated more than [...]

By: mr luggage

mr luggage — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:51:57 +0000

i agree with all the reasons

By: choupress » The First 90 Days of an Entrepreneur

choupress » The First 90 Days of an Entrepreneur — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:24:04 +0000

[...] their experiences. Ask them to become your mentor or advisor. They can seriously prevent you from running into some walls that they ran into when they were doing [...]

By: Mark W.

Mark W. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:15:28 +0000

Practical advice I forgot to include here. Enter emergency contacts in your cell phone address book under the name "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) for first responders. More background and information can be found at the Wikipedia page -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_case_of_emergency

By: How grateful are you? And what are you grateful for? « Politicoholic by Nisha Chittal

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:43:12 +0000

[...] by the recession. But, when you're worrying about making ends meet or finding a job or funding your company, who can actually relate to these [...]

By: Camille

Camille — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:54:44 +0000

I absolutely agree. I think Penelope is putting so much time into chasing money that she is not thinking about ways that her service can be earning money. Who is actually running this business? She is generating content for the blog, but beyond that who is developing content that will keep paying customers coming?

I, like, many others had no idea that there was an actual business attached to this blog. Why has this been a secret? There are hundreds if not thousands of great minds with great ideas who are reading this blog and are evidently willing to help you be successful….for free. Harness woman, harness!

By: Aaron Erickson

Aaron Erickson — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:08:27 +0000

You always give me frank advice, so heres some for you…

If you need money, your business model is broken.

I read this site all the time, and I have yet to figure out how as a client, how I would make money in 6 months.

Right now, as you know, it is all about the short term. So here is the thing… would you pay money for your own advice, since you have to make payroll *tomorrow*?

Exactly. Companies are struggling to make payroll, the could care less about if they are retaining 20 somethings. In fact, the only reason I think they would leverage your advice right now is so they could do the opposite, attract fewer twenty somethings, maybe drive a few to quit, and make it easier to layoff via attrition vs increase unemployment insurance premiums.

In about 2 years, this idea will be good. Maybe 1 even, if everything bounces the right way. Until then, I would focus on changing the business model to be more self sustaining, less dependent on "investors".

By: Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:05:20 +0000

Hey Penelope – I'm going to be short and blunt.

Lately I've heard a lot of blog posts from you complaining about start up, CEO troubles. I can appreciate you sharing those thoughts and being very open an transparent about it, even admitting things many would not.

But when considering a start up, far before your list of 7 items, I think a person needs to think about whether they are ridiculously passionate and ready to be ridiculously persistent about their idea. Passion, persistence and leadership wins.

"Tribes" is a quick read with that thought. I'm sure you've read it before though.

So Penelope, I'd like to see a little more passion come through soon.

By: Kat Argonza | Tough Girl 101

Kat Argonza | Tough Girl 101 — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:19:51 +0000

I'm getting a little frustrated reading all of these comments. "Emotionally unstable"? That's actually the excuse the government has kept giving women about why we shouldn't be allowed in combat roles.

I actually think the "Emotionally unstable" remark is a little sexist in this case. I have only started reading your blog since Employee Evolution linked to it, but from what I see, you're less emotional, more analytical – you just happen to also be very candid and people are confusing that with being emotional.

As for your business model, I am a self-employed blogger(and want to stay that way) and I'm feeling the pinch in the recession. Brazen C is actually helping me a lot. I know it's more than a "blog community" but that aspect of it has probably saved my ass these last few months. I really like BC and would love to see it succeed.