It's unlikely that companies would look to outsource such a critical component and also it would be near impossible to create trust around 3rd parties accessing their data especially via an intermediary service.
I don't have a book recommendation but I will suggest reading everything by Matthew Carroll on Quora. http://www.quora.com/Matthew-Carroll/answers/E-Commerce He's brilliant when it comes to financial modelling and biz models
It's never too early to bring in experienced people. At an early stage company you're operating with limited resources and you can't afford to waste time making other people's mistakes again. Bring in experienced people as soon as possible. If you think you can't afford them, try to find peopl...
If you're looking for Ruby folks, go where they go - local meetups. Second would be online but you will need to mine Stackoverflow, Github and similar sites and realize that they get approached regularly so start engaging early (at least 3 months before projected start date.)
You mentioned they were a new client. What type of company are you? With that info we could help more. “However, they have also produced hundreds of copy-written material on their blog that are replicated all over the web ( other dental sites mostly.. ). Some of the content has been taken direct...
Maybe hire a freelance market researcher to find out? ;) Generally, something like this is going to appeal to fortune 500 companies. Smaller companies and entrepreneurs are going to be doing market research themselves. From the question it is difficult to tell if you have come into possession ...
I'm both an active angel investor and entrepreneur who has recently raised capital. I'll start with what is standard in Silicon Valley and then apply various multiples and discounts where relevant. For an angel or early seed round, the current going rate is $3m-$5m pre-money via a capped note ...
I'd avoid the cold email. The best way to get inside big companies like distributors is to "social engineer" a connection to someone there. Find a 2nd or 3rd degree connection on LinkedIn. Hang out at a restaurant near their HQ and look for people with the right badge on. Ask your potential a...
If you and this person, *know* they won't be the CTO, then absolutely not. If there's an understanding that the engineer you are working with is going to "cap out" soon beyond the MVP, why would you ruin your cap table? This *should* help you get a reasonable amount of equity. http://foundrs.c...
Culture of any company is defined by its leadership. Allowing an employee to speak disrespectfully or act in a way that demoralizes other contributors has to be dealt with quickly and specifically. This person must be given specific examples of behaviour that leadership is saying is not accepta...