How Do You Overcome The Fear of Entrepreneurial Failure?

[Note: This is the Epilogue chapter from my book: Entrepreneur Journeys: Bootstrapping: Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction]

In January 2009, in the midst of raging financial crisis and a deep global recession, I hosted an online entrepreneurship forum for laid-off engineers who were considering a switch to entrepreneurship. There were 220 people registered for the event, and 130 attended. About 145 questions were submitted, from which we synthesized some of the most commonly asked. Among those was one I want to close this volume with: How do you overcome the fear of failure?

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Innovations in Financial Technology: Wisdom of the Crowd

It is of particular interest to me when an established industry begins to innovate and move in new directions. Financial technology has been an active area of innovation all along, but the advent of social media and crowd sourcing has infused new life to the sector. Aside from crowdfunding, here at 1M/1M we are also tracking innovations in the crowd sourced trading sector.

A perfect example is TradeKing, an online-broker dealer founded in 2005. When we first met in 2011, chief information officer Dan Raju described the Charlotte, NC-based company as the first consumer trading platform to introduce social media to online brokerage. Sourcing from over 20,000 customers and over 250,000 individual investors, TradeKing provides users with personalized insights regarding successful trading experiences. TradeKing supplements these discussions with curated Web content. Customers can then make informed decisions for their portfolio based on real market data.

According to Dan, this different kind of financial platform is driven by “self-directed investors” who make informed decisions about their capital rather than casually shopping around. The strong emphasis placed on social media creates an active online community where investors provide feedback for one another as well as for the site. As a result, the TradeKing model is entirely user-driven.

In August 2012, 1M/1M further developed its relationship with TradeKing by partnering to launch the Financial Entrepreneur Pitch-fest competition. Designed to encourage continued growth in the financial sector, the competition drew submissions from various types of innovators. The winners selected were provided one year’s sponsored admission to the 1M/1M program to build their platforms using the TradeKing API.

Competition winners support a growing trend toward user-focused financial apps. The two mentioned here, OmniVest and TheTradeStreet, base their platforms on user-defined trading strategies and networking within the trading community, respectively.

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1M/1M Finds New Friends At The SAP Startup Focus

It is with great pleasure that we welcome SAP Startup Focus entrepreneurs to the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) program. This new partnership will offer extensive incubation support to entrepreneurs developing products and services on the SAP HANA platform. We are launching this effort by inviting a first set of entrepreneurs working with HANA through the SAP Startup Focus program to apply for one of twelve scholarships to the 1M/1M program (valued at $1000 for the annual membership fee) that SAP is awarding.

1M/1M is a virtual incubation program that will work closely with scholarship winners for one year to help their ventures achieve their potential.

You can find the application form here.

You can learn more about the application process here.
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2013 1M/1M Internships: Geo-Specific Social Media Marketing

Students, as you are gearing up to apply for 2013 internships, here is an overview of what 1M/1M has in store in 2013. As you know, our mission is to help a million entrepreneurs build $1 million and beyond in annual revenue. This internship comes with a 1 year 1M/1M Premium Membership to those interns who complete 100 hours of successful projects, as follows:

The bulk of the internships this year will be around our work with social media. Over the past year we built a high volume social media platform [try it by following us on Twitter @sramana and @1Mby1M] with 200 messages a day. As we reach into newer and diverse geographies, we are working to devise and execute culturally and geographically nuanced strategies of social media engagement.

This is an opportunity to learn critical lessons in communication and marketing in the real world. Further you will provide crucial feedback that will help us refine 1M/1M’s marketing model. The internship and the scholarship together would equip you with knowledge of critical aspects of entrepreneurship.

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Women ARE Running Startups

There has been tremendous sensationalizing of the women and entrepreneurship issue. Self-proclaimed (male) pundits pontificate on how women entrepreneurs face tremendous obstacles and huge prejudice.

I disagree.

A blog post that I wrote on the subject in October 2010 still garners readership and discussions. Meanwhile, our 1M/1M virtual incubator continues to work with women entrepreneurs actively, and I am happy to report that women are starting up companies, and building interesting businesses ranging from healthcare IT to e-commerce, and everything in between. >>>

1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2013: Insane Logic, United Kingdom

The educational technology sector, or “edutech,” is seeing both advances in and greater attention to niche markets. The growing integration of technology into people’s daily lives has provided a great opportunity for better learning and developmental apps. One such product comes from Zoe Peden, a co-founder of Insane Logic, a 1M/1M premium member company. >>>

1M/1M Profile: The TradeStreet

By guest author Punit Gupta

Another Milestone: The TradeStreet Posts 10,000 Trades

The TradeStreet, a social platform for traders, has been growing fast and attracting a lot of top-notch traders since its inception. Less than four weeks ago, the company released a press release announcing it had effected 5,000 trades. It is excited to report that as of last week, The TradeStreet Community has reached the 10,000 trades milestone. It remains committed to providing the best traders network.  The active community shares tips and trading ideas, and there are debates among proven traders as well as those who are new to the trading world. >>>

Using QR Codes for Sweepstakes Entry: Easy for Marketers, but Hard for Consumers!

Momares, a 1M/1M Premium member, is a mobile marketing company that helps brands and agencies reach their customers via mobile phone to increase participation in sweepstakes and contests to engage customers and drive sales. It does this by providing an online mobile sweepstakes management and text (SMS) marketing platform along with mobile sweepstakes marketing planning and execution services. In this guest post, Marcos Menendez, the company’s founder and CEO, describes his experience of trying to enter a product sweepstakes using QR codes. >>>