Scott Rutherford

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• I filed for bankruptcy in 2009. My company was hit by the economy shift and it was a hard choice to make. I am now a start up and it is difficult to find funding because of the bankruptcy. I have products ready for market. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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    Well, it sounds like you will need to demonstrate a bit of traction to give people belief in the products. Although depending on where you are people are currently a bit risk adverse so you may find it an uphill struggle. Beg, steal and borrow whatever it takes to get something out there and gain a bit of traction

• I need to get small, local bike shops signed up for what is essentially an email list that they'd be highly interested in. Can you recommend any creative ways to target them other than the usual advertising routes? Thanks!

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    I would of thought the best way to engage small local companies is to go and visit them. Other than that, I can’t think of any magic tricks to get people to sign up.

• Hi Scott, I have a polished design concept for a new SaaS product that appeals to the same type of market as UserVoice (it addresses a different problem however). How can I get potential users to help fund the development?

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    Well you can try KickStarter? Or you release it as open source and a please donate button? Or you get a MVP up and running and charge :)

• We are a small operation with 2 Founders and 3 10-99 Contractors. We would like to move our Contractors to Full Time W 2 employees. How do you go about doing this? Is it necessary at this point?

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    I think its a good idea to have early people as employees, it provides more of an engagement (give them equity) and prevents early brain drain. The transfer itself should be pretty simple.

• Hi Scott! I'm going to a Chamber mixer tonight and want to pass out business card sized "Free Sessions" for my new biz dev. service to get some more leads. Any ideas or imput?

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    Sounds like a fun idea, don’t have any illusions about the % uptake from things like that though. People tend to take a lot of cards and stuff at events but rarely follow up.

• Hi, I have created a website for selling handmade stuff a few months ago and I would like to know how could it go viral until the end of November. There are currently around 100 visitiors every day, but I would like to target to 500 or more. Is this possible? THanks

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    Well that sounds like you are an Etsy competitor. I would figure out how they are driving traffic and where they are on the web. For an ecommerce site like yours SEM is probably going to be a big thing so looking at adwords and the like would be a good place to start. Other than that, find out where people who buy crafts hang out online and go talk to them. Try and build awareness of your brand, perhaps start a blog on crafts and making a living from selling your goods. This is called inbound marketing – check out Hubspot.

• At one point of a start up do you think its best to seek out working partners as well angels and VCs? At the idea stage? Prototype stage? Working product?

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    It’s never to early to start a conversation, asking for advice is a great way to get a foot in the door and also get some genuine feedback on what you are thinking about.

    I wouldn’t be out calling VC’s at the idea stage but go to events and bounce your ideas of a few angels and investors – see if they grimace……

• Hello Scott, nice to see you there? How does an Englishman feel to make business in Silicon Valley?!

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    Awesome, its all sunny and stuff. I love it here, home….

• Hi Scott, I have a business idea but don't know how to implement it. How do I approach a company to sell them my idea? I don't want to be stuck in a situation where I tell them my idea, they say ok, I walk away, and then they implement it. Thanks in advance!

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    I would say that you don’t try and sell your idea. Try implementing it. It’s very unlikely that you are the only person to think of it, so it comes down to what can you create.

• I just joined a startup which is fully funded by my partner ($300K+). Solid business plan, pre-launch (1 year) worth of work and developed site which will be launched in 2 wks. I will lead all biz dev and mktg. I was offered an ok monthly salary + 5% of the biz in 6 months. Additional 1% every 6 months up to 10% of the company. Does this sound fair? Any ideas and or suggestions for other ways to structure this partnership?

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    That sounds very fair. All the employment contracts I have seen have a 12 month cliff before you would receive anything. The remaining 5% of yours is then vested over a 2.5 year period which is a year shorter than the standard contracts I’ve seen