Benjamin Yoskovitz

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• What would make you invest in a nice email newsletter startup; something similar to DailyCandy or Thrillist, but in a different vertical?

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    I’d want to look at the key metrics – revenue per user, cost to acquire users, growth … and understand competition, where the business is going, what are its competitive advantages.

• What is the best and relevant revenue model for job listings website? and How can i differentitate it from others, any tips? I am from Turkey by the way.Thanks

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    Pay per post. That’s the model HR people understand and that’s how they budget. You don’t necessarily need to innovate on the business model for job web sites.

• Hey Benjamin, I've read your blog post on Zombie companies here: http://www.instigatorblog.com/we-must-kill-zombie-companies/2010/12/15/ I've built a startup that's doing ok, but not amazingly. Through testing and talking to customers, I've figured out that it's probably going to be a medium sized company with reasonable profits, but it's always going to be just ok and not likely going to grow bigger than that. In your opinion, should someone kill this type of company and try bigger things?

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    It depends on what you want. Do you want to be running a small/medium-sized business? Or do you want to go for something bigger?

    It depends on your definition of success – for yourself and for your business. If a business is consistently profitable, you make a good living (suitable to your needs) and you’re happy – that’s not a zombie. It might not be enough for you personally, but it’s not a zombie.

• What do you feel is the single most important quality in an entrepreneur? What sort of founders do you like to fund? Hustlers? Technical? Balanced teams?

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    There’s a difference between an entrepreneur and a team.

    I do think teams need to be balanced, but I don’t believe in putting founders into silos.

    http://www.instigatorblog.com/the-death-of-the-business-founder/2010/11/24/

    http://www.instigatorblog.com/startup-founders-in-silos/2010/05/19/

    As for an entrepreneur – as an individual – irrespective of whether they’re a technical person or not – it’s about hustle and passion. Then it’s about strategic ability to think and problem solve. Passion alone isn’t enough. It’s a balance between passion/dreaming/hustle and clarity/execution/getting shit done.

• What are the most important questions an entrepreneur should the answers to when seeking funding? (unit economics, team strengths, cash flow needs...)

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    All of the above. Depending on the business, unit economics / business model may not be as relevant. But if you look at what most investors expect when you pitch them (and many have blogs and have written about this stuff) … you can very quickly understand the questions they’ll have.

• I am at the stage of validating the problem with users via face-to-face and email interviews. I still need more feedback and am finding the process slow, I'm considering starting a blog in the parent + technology + learning space to potentially find more people to interview (and eventually beta test). My questions are: -Is it worth starting a blog unless your 100% committed? -other than a landing page with a sign-up form what else would you recommend for finding early users/adopters? E

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    Have you tried advertising (Facebook, elsewhere) to drive traffic?

    I’m a big fan of blogging, I think it can have a significant impact on a company’s brand, attention, lead generation, etc. but it sounds like it’s still a bit early. And a blog is a very long-term strategy, using it to try and get 10-30 more interviews doesn’t make sense. It’d be better to find a more direct approach.

• We're three co-founders of an enterprise oriented healthcare startup. We're all doing sales now because 1) we're bootstrapping it and 2) we want to understand customer pain points and the process as a whole. We've been successful so far but us doing high touch sales is not sustainable. Are there places we could go to find contract salespeople? Our platform sort of sells itself, so it's really a matter of just getting in front of the right people.

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    If you’re at the point where you understand the customer pain, you understand why and how they buy (how long it takes, etc.) and the lifetime value of the customer (what they’re worth to you), it’s a good time to bring on salespeople.

    Like any recruiting, it involves networking, researching people, and figuring out who might be worth trying. There are contract salespeople that work for multiple customers that you can find, or commissioned sales guys willing to “dial for dollars” with a formula (which it sounds like you have, or almost have defined.)

    1. Make a list of all the companies in and around your space.
    2. Make a list of all the salespeople at those companies.
    3. Figure out how well those companies are doing, and rank the people (there can be multiple criteria here)
    4. Reach out and recruit.

• What's your opinion on crowdfunding?

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    I think it’s cool. I’ve seen it work for certain projects, and Kickstarter is clearly onto something. It clearly depends on the project, and the expected outcome. But I imagine it will continue to grow…

• We've been gaining considerable traction over the last 3 years, but have been struggling with how to effectively (and consistently) monetize. Any tips on how to monetize a niche social network?

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    I don’t know enough to really say. If it’s a niche around a category (dogs for example) there may be very specific advertising or sponsorship opportunities. Affiliate sales could be another option if the niche/category is really specific and the sellable products into the niche are obvious.

    Recruiting services is another option if that fits well with the particular niche/category.

• What questions should we ask the investor at our first meeting?

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    Ask them about their experience, other deals they’ve done, what they look for … get feedback on your product, idea, etc. Brainstorm with them and see how that communication goes.