Startup Tips Day 11: Tara Hunt / Chris Messina from Citizen Agency

Day #11 in the CenterNetworks Startup Tips Month come from Tara Hunt and Chris Messina from Citizen Agency.

The Citizen's Tips

Tip 1 - Define your own success.

If you're going after a million bucks with your own startup, you've already failed yourself. Instead, do something because it's interesting, challenging, it offers you the chance to learn something new or gives you the chance to work with really interesting people. Most startups that are designed to make money, especially in this environment, don't.

Tip 2 - Pick the right people.

Work with people who you trust, who inspire you, who surprise and challenge you, and who you can count on. Also think about ways of trying out low-risk engagements before going whole-hog into startup mode. Starting up a business is incredibly stressful; you need to know how you and your partners function under pressure -- don't wait for the real deal to experience the weaknesses in your team, instead, work on a smaller scale project under a deadline and see how the fault-lines emerge. It's not about avoiding difficulties; instead to how people handle conflict and how the team stays on target. That should prepare you when issues come up later (and believe me, they will!).

Tip 3 - Diversity is essential.

I've talked about this a bit on my blog, and Tara has really helped open my eyes to this. I've always felt that diversity was important, but never really was aware of how I had my own blind spots where I'd overlook certain people or make assumptions about how they wouldn't work out... but what I've come to see is the value of diverse perspectives, experiences and backgrounds to really round out and solidify the foundation of any good idea. No matter how much you think you know about the world, there's nothing better than testing it against what people really do. Surrounding yourself with people unlike yourself is a great way to ensure that you don't only cater to folks hip to the latest and greatest geek fads but who also exist outside of your startup bubble.

Tip 4 - Put community first.

This is something that in practice is very hard to do when you have budgets and bills to deal with, but for the long term viability of your project, you really do need to put community in the lead of all your decision. Now, to be sure, that doesn't necessarily mean that you bend to every whim of your community, but that instead, you act as a gatekeeper to what gets in and what experiences your community has. You are your community's first and last line of defense and if you side with anyone *but* your community, you'll shortly thereafter have no community to advocate for.

Tip 5 - Don't reinvent the wheel.

Do find nooks to add real value. There's a lot of infrastructure already out there that people are both using and familiar with. Don't build just another event or photo sharing site ... thinking about how you can leverage open web services and existing platforms to build something of real value... and make it really easy for people to get their data in -- and out. It's just good practice.

Tip 6 - Communicate, communicate, communicate.

If anything, make sure to communicate what you're doing, what you're up to, what's going on and what issues your facing as often as you can -- even if [you think] no one's listening. This serves both as a log of your activities and a personal record that you can refer to later but also opens the possibility that someone might just come along and be able to help you in some unexpected but totally necessary way!

Chris Messina (aka Factory Joe) has spent many years as an Open Source Ambassador. From his work on the Spread Firefox campaign (he was the dude who designed the two page ad spread in the New York Times), to his work on Civic Space to holding the title of Open Source Ambassador at open source browser startup Flock, Citizen Joe dedicates his time and energy to making the world a better place through spreading open source and open source principles. Chris is a co-founder and Citizen Executive Officer at Citizen Agency.

Celebrated as Marketing 2.0, Tara Hunt has worked in a plethora of industries, from non-profit to consumer beverages to technology for over the past 7 years, winning awards and seeing many successes with her creative, community focused campaigns. She is a frequent speaker at technology conferences on the subject of marketing and community building, including Mesh, the Future of Web Apps and the upcoming ETech and Web 2.0 Expo. Tara is a co-founder and Citizen Marketing Officer at Citizen Agency.