My Armenian origin is something I am very proud of, which is why I felt privileged when asked to present at the revolutionary technology house in Yerevan, called TUMO.

TUMO is a center for creative technologies, teaching the next generations of talented Armenian kids the way forward in IT.

I presented "FROM STARTUP TO BUSINESS" to a packed house and I hope you enjoy the following videos.

Airbnb, the shared accommodation startup currently valued at $24 billion and raking in $850 million in revenue this year, was once rejected by investors for funding.

On his blog, the company's CEO Brian Chesky revealed 7 rejection letters from their early days with an aim to motivate startups currently getting rejected when pitching to investors.

At the time, they were trying to raise $150,000 at a $1.5 million valuation, which would have meant an ownership of 10% of Airbnb. At today's valuation, 10% would be worth $240 million.

Check out the blog with the rejection letters below or by clicking here.

7 Rejections

I wrote a blog today for KAYWEB, about tips for businesses (in particular) who post links to their own website on social media.

"The theory goes something like this: these social media sites are much more popular than most business websites. So if people click from these sites to a link on your website, the popularity of the website will increase, hence will its ranking on Google and other search engines."

Click here to read "Get more clicks from Social Media posts".

As an active angel investor in the New York technology scene, I have had the pleasure of sitting on many 'investors' panels at events for entrepreneurs. And, without fail, I am always asked:

"What do investors want?"

The answer is easy.

"Investors want what you should want."

I typically go through the key questions my board at KAYWEB Angels asks when assessing applications.

However, these are questions that every entrepreneur should be able to answer for themselves before pursuing a startup venture.


DOES A PROBLEM EXIST? REALLY?

Every business needs to be solving a problem. Sometimes, entrepreneurs are so entrenched in their business idea, they convince themselves that a problem exists without validating it. If it exists, prove to yourself that it exists, and if it does exist, prove to yourself that it exists for enough people that would command a market.

If you have proven that to yourself, genuinely, then investors will believe you. We will assess your validation techniques and results, and likely agree. If we don't agree, and we are people who typically invest in your type of business, then you should start asking yourself serious questions.

Remember, investors want what you should want.

ARE YOU SOLVING THIS PROBLEM?

If you feel your prescribed solution will solve your defined problem, it is easy to ask your potential customers and tabulate the results of your research.

For example, if it is a consumer and business application, like Open Table, you must ask restaurants if they are happy to upload their open tables to your web application. And, you must check with restaurant-frequenting customers if they are happy to use your application.

This validation shouldn't just be done for investors. It should also be done for you, before you spend your time and money pursuing an idea that may or may not fly.

Remember, investors want what you should want.

WHAT IS YOUR MARKET?

I often come across entrepreneurs who exaggerate their market. And sometimes, I come across entrepreneurs who under-rate their market.

Neither of these are good. If you exaggerate, investors will find you out. If they don't, you will spend their money and still be where you are. If you underrate, you may take less money than required... either way, you don't get anywhere.

Remember, investors want what you should want.

WHO IS YOUR COMPETITION AND HOW ARE YOU BETTER?

This is key. Every entrepreneur believes they are better than their competition. But this needs to be more than merely a 'belief'. It needs to be evidenced.

If your competition is clear, ask their users if they will come over to your product if you implemented your proposed solution. If it is a yes, both you and your potential investors will be pleased.

If your competition is not clear because you are truly first to market, you will be relying on people who currently spend their time doing something... to give up some of that time to do something else. Talk to these people, and prove to yourself, and to us, that enough of these people are ready to jump on board once you are live.

Remember, investors want what you should want.

WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS MODEL?

Sometimes, entrepreneurs have pitched ideas which tick all of the above boxes... but they do not have a sustainable business model. How will you make money out of this? How will you charge? How much will you charge? Are people ready to pay? Prove it.

If you rely on advertising to make money... talk to ad agencies or potential advertisers and get their responses.

Prove your business model otherwise your idea will fall over. For yourself, and for your investors.

Remember, investors want what you should want.

WHY ARE YOU THE RIGHT PERSON TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN? IS YOUR TEAM THE RIGHT FIT?

If you have done all of the above, chances are you are somebody worth taking a risk on. Unfortunately, on occasions, we have taken the punt on people based on this fact. But then we have realized that they are uncoachable, or their skills are more in putting a business together rather than leading a business.

In these circumstances, the business has to adjust. This results in loss of time and money.

You are the best judge of your own abilities. If you are not equipped with all the right skills, find those skills early in other people and make them part of your team. There is no shame in being the co-founder, but not the CEO or the COO. The earlier this is realized, the less momentum the business is likely to lose, which is good for you and your business.

Remember, investors want what you should want.


There you have it. These are some key categories that investors judge when assessing your startup applications for investment. But, as shown above, these should also be key categories that you judge - honestly - prior to jumping into a venture.

Keep in mind, investors want what you should want.

The stats don't lie. We are living in a world where browsing the web from mobile devices (smartphones and tablet) has become prevalent.

Depending on which report you read, and which country you live in, between 10-25% of all unique website visits are happening via mobile devices. That is unique visits (different IP addresses), which means when this percentage is applied to total web page views, mobile device browsers will soon account for 40-50% of visits.

The problem is that many businesses do not have mobile optimized websites.

When the iPhone first revolutionized the smartphone industry, web experts realized that at the very least, we shouldn't have dense websites filled with flash (flv) if we wanted to be seen at all on mobile web browsers.

It seems this message has made its way to a large number of businesses. However, most business websites still require the mobile visitor to pinch their screens and move their fingers in many curious directions to get to a good view of their desired section of a page.

Enter Responsive Web Design. KAYWEB (my web design company with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, New York and Manila) defines Responsive Web Design (RWD) as:

"...a technique used to attain and provide clients with an easy to use and well designed website across different computer platforms (i.e. viewing the website from a desktop, phone or tablet).

Responsive Web Design aims to reduce scrolling, panning and resizing, by utilizing the new CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheets ver.3) standard, which allows querying a device for its characteristics to determine how the website should be presented, this provides a more intuitive and easy to use website.

Responsive Web Design caters for visitors using any browser, including mobile phone browsers like the iPhone, tablet browser like the iPad and desktop browsers. Responsive Web Design uses an approach whereby it responds to the characteristic of the browser, which allows cross platform compatibility of the site.

As regular websites are developed for large monitors, they are not friendly when trying to be viewed on mobile devices which have considerably smaller screens, however Responsive Web Design rectifies this issue by being able to respond to the characteristics of the browser and delivering an effective and user-friendly website."

It is a mobile browsing world and Responsive Web Design is the new, necessary norm.

CLICK HERE for a case study on how Responsive Web Design has benefited one of my eCommerce clients.

I came across an awesome resource for the tech company-interested folks out there, courtesy of Seer Interactive.

CLICK HERE to see an interactive table showing how leading tech companies make... or don't make... money!

The screenshot below of Instagram's result is particularly bleak, as the photo sharing app doesn't even fit into one of the key revenue-generation categories... yet.