One of the most common requests from entrepreneurs that I meet is for help finding a co-founder. Sometimes they have an idea but know that they don’t have all of the skills needed to pull it over. Other times they know they want to be an entrepreneur but aren’t inspired by a problem yet. More often than not I meet business co-founders (“Hustlers”) looking for technical co-founders (“Hackers”) but occasionally I see the other way around too.

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Sales professionals are a different breed, so you’ve got to understand how they think in order to best motivate them and keep them aligned with company strategy.  And if you don’t do it correctly, don’t blame the sales rep for doing things that put the most money in their pocket.  In fact, never break these basic rules when setting compensation plans for your sales team.

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It finally happened.  You’ve been trying to get the attention of a huge strategic alliance partner and finally they gave you a chance to explain the value you can bring them.  Not only do they get it but after a couple of subsequent meetings they utter the “exclusivity” word.  You’ve heard from your advisors and read in books to avoid exclusive relationships if at all possible.  But you don’t want to bring the positive momentum to a grinding halt by immediately saying “no”.  Where do you go from here?

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Welcome to Bernie as our newest Capital Factory Partner.  See Bernie’s biography here: http://capitalfactory.com/mentor/bernie-brenner/

As you’re getting started with your new company, possibly the last thing on your mind will be defining the principles you want to run your company by.  You don’t even know if your product will work or if customers will pay money for it.  So why waste time on company principles?  The answer is because the moment you start hiring your first few employees, the culture of your company will start to get defined.  Many people think a culture is something that just naturally develops from the collection of personalities and actions taken by the employees.  And for sure there is a lot of truth to that.  But what can you do as a founder to set a foundation upon which the culture develops?  The answer lies in founding company principles.  These are things you declare and are almost never willing to deviate from.  They serve as the litmus test for critical decisions.  And they serve as the mantras employees will voice later and the bar they will try to always reach for personal recognition.

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Our Move Your Startup to Austin competition just keeps getting better and better!

I’m excited to announce that the Central Texas Angel Network is providing a $35,000 convertible note investment to the winning company!

In addition to that, Rackspace is providing $24,000 worth of server hosting!

That brings our grand total well over $100,000 in cash, rent and services for one lucky startup that moves to Austin at SXSW!

Apply before February 24 on AngelList. 

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I’m happy to announce that we have two new prizes for the startup that gets moved to Austin at SXSW.

On Friday, March 8 at 5pm we’ll be in the SXSW Interactive Startup Village where 5 startups will be pitching on stage. One lucky winner will win more than $50,000 in prizes including a house to live in, office space and groceries.

Austin startup Outbox is working hard to revolutionize your postal mail. Rather than handling stacks of mail, Outbox scans your letters and you browse them on a beautiful iPad app. The winning startup will get 1 year of Outbox service for all of it’s employees.

SXSW is already generous to host our event but they have taken it one step farther… the winning startup will also get 2 badges for SXSW Interactive 2014 ($2,000 value!).

There are more exciting prizes that will be announced this week. If you know any startups that are considering the move to Austin, or should be, tell them to apply to pitch at SXSW.

Meet 10 tech startups that have a clear path to being profitable on less than $1 million in funding. That doesn’t mean they aren’t big ideas, it just means they are capital efficient and the entrepreneurs are scrappy. They have customer traction and now they are ready to put the pedal to the metal. Read more about our investment thesis.

12 of the 14 companies that presented at our last Demo Day in October received funding.

First we’ll give an intro to angel investing. Then we’ll showcase 5 of the hottest startups in Austin. Finally we’ll showcase 5 startups that are not from Austin and pick one winner to move here for free!

We’re kicking off SXSW Interactive! This is the main event of the SXSW Startup Village on Friday afternoon. We have Salon A, B & C on the 4th floor of the Hilton Hotel with room for 1,000 people and a few dozen startups.

2:00pm Getting Started with Angel Investing
3:30pm 5 Austin Startups That Can Get Profitable on <$1M
5:00pm Move Your Startup to Austin… For Free!

You can also RVSP on Facebook and Plancast.

One winner will receive a “relocation” package* to bring them to Austin with more than $50,000 worth of benefits including:

• $35,000 convertible note investment from CTAN (new!)
• $15,000 for rent from HomeAway
• 6 months of co-working at Capital Factory
• $24,000 of server hosting from Rackspace
• Moving expenses from uShip
• 6 months of a storage unit from Sparefoot
• 6 months of local and organic groceries from Greenling
• 2 badges for SXSW Interactive 2014 (new!)
• 1 year worth of postal mail scanning from Outbox (new!)
• 6 months of Ramen noodles
• and many more benefits…

Apply to Pitch by February 24

If your startup can get profitable on less than $1 million, you can apply to pitch at SXSW from our AngelList profile. Applications are due by February 24. If you are accepted, you will receive one complimentary SXSW Interactive badge.
http://angel.co/capitalfactory

* some limitations apply