Anyone interested in entrepreneurship who has been to Pittsburgh has likely seen the renaissance in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood. Known as Bakery Square, the area was once home to a large Nabisco factory and now offices some of the best and the brightest who work for the high-tech behemoth known as Google.
The whir and high-pitched screech draw my ear, but the flashing specks of bright light shooting up from a work station across the garage force me to look away. The mentor and student working around the station do not flinch. They’re both used to all the excitement by now. MINDDRIVE has become their second home on Saturdays, as it has to all the other mentors and students participating in the program that teaches kids how to build cars–from scratch.
When you think about Seattle, what may come to mind are coffee shops, grunge music and scores of Generation-Xers. But Seattle offers so much more. It is a hub for fostering entrepreneurship and is especially supportive of women who break out on their own. In fact, NerdWallet ranked Seattle as the third best city in the U.S. for women entrepreneurs, just behind Washington D.C and San Francisco.
When you hear the term “genome,” it might take you back to your high school biology class, where your teacher talked about the many zillions of pieces of data that are contained in DNA. You can think of a Startup Genome a bit the same way.
Last August, I had the chance to spend time with Tony Carbajo, co-founder of Title Boxing. From admiring the sport as a child to becoming a Golden Gloves champion in his younger years, Tony’s head has always been in the ring. His story is a fascinating one, and is a testament to the importance of passion when it comes to building a business.
The smell is potent. It’s apparent as soon as you walk in. The tinge of distilled mash is unavoidable, and a pleasant reminder that this building is more than just a beautiful space that people now host weddings and events in. It’s also a startup. A startup craft distillery, that is.
Believe it or not, you don’t need a big budget or an army of people to market a product successfully. In today’s marketplace, a startup can, with “a little ingenuity, some hustle, curiosity, and hard work” achieve myriad marketing goals, according to Kauffman Founders School expert Anita Newton. Kauffman Founders School is dedicated to providing entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge they need to create and develop successful startups.
If when you look at the endless options for marketing your business and feel overwhelmed, you are certainly not alone. Take the traditional marketing venues–newspaper, radio, TV, direct mail–and combine them with the almost limitless opportunities presented on the Internet today, and the task of identifying a marketing mix that can produce the best results for your business can seem near impossible.