Banking Relationships - For this amount of money in emerging economies, a bank loan (or other form of debt) is your best option. There may be some private equity funds with an eastern european outlook. I may also be able to connect you to some investors, send me a message to tell me more.
Do you have anything to show him? Find out what his timeline is and what his goals are and see if you can deliver Also make sure this fits your own goals (Have you set any?) What are the delays in your development pipeline? Will this interest help resolve any?
I did a quick web search for you and came up with Jeremiah Owyang's blog. I have met him and he's a genius. http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/09/22/checklist-develop-a-successful-advocacy-program/ Should answer all your questions. Re: tracking and measurement I'd say "PR mentions" is a...
Great question, I've dealt with this exact same issue. I've found the best way to look at this problem is by analyzing the problem you are solving for this "lighthouse." Is this something they would build anyway? If so, how much would it cost? Anything less than that is probably a win for them. I...
If you have something that outperforms SEO or PPC for generating sales, then you have something special on your hands. SEO, Email Marketing, and Paid Search generally dominate online marketing as it relates to driving sales. This is true across most, but not all verticals. It is generally the c...
I think it makes total sense. If you provide some standard dashboards with number of messages over time and similar, you can get everybody started. And it will give you a platform to interact with the subscribers. In my view, that is the cheapest and most low-risk way of developing it - to work w...
First of all: good luck. Seeing how you have a limited budget, I would select the following 3 strategies: 1. Affiliate marketing: offer affiliates a fee for every referral that converts into an actual ‘sale’. This way, you aren’t really paying anything out of pocket, but rather the payment is co...
I have in the past developed cost-savings calculators and they can be one of the most effective tools in moving an enterprise software prospect through the sales funnel to a closed deal. So I understand why you are so keen to get a handle on these numbers. Unfortunately, you are in a bit of a ch...
I don't live in Chicago, but there is a Co-Founders Lab there that provides networking opportunities to find fellow entrepreneurs and co-founders. Here's a link for more info: http://www.1871.com/cofounderslab-comes-to-chicago/
Wow, this is sort of the penultimate question. I answer this not as a founder, but as a co-founder that watched several other founders and investors wrestle with this dilemma. I've seen the pattern repeat as a consultant as well. It's an issue! The problem with this common situation, is all abou...