It is true that all you really need to catch a fish is a hook and something to use as line. But if your survival depends on it—and you’re trying and land a marlin on a fly fishing lure or a trout on a deep sea lure—you’ll probably end up starving to death. You need to have the right equipment for every situation: different types of lures for different types of fish, etc. And it isn’t enough just to have a box with the right tool. They’re all useless unless you know how to use them… or you have somebody in your boat who does.

This is a follow-up to my post from a couple weeks ago, Here’s the Deadliest Catch: Hiring an Agency to Build Your Startup, where I advocated against startup entrepreneurs hiring agencies to help them build their sites. I gave a few reasons why, but what I didn’t do in that post was give any other options—what if you know you shouldn’t hire an agency but don’t know how to start or what to do next? I’ll do my best to provide some answers. Gather, Learn, Network, Do.

Don’t Commit Information Suicide

If you want to start an internet company, you should at the very least have a basic understanding of what powers the web—the technologies, the trends, the personalities, the power brokers, etc. It is a time-consuming process to stay up to date with all of this. There are enough posts, tweets, and emails flying around at any given time that you could commit information suicide if you tried to digest it all. What you need to do is build yourself an information gathering and learning filter. Figure out what sites, blogs, books, and magazines you want to get your information from and dedicate a little time each day to learning something new. Organize your filter, make your plan, and then execute it.

Social Media Surfing

Social media makes it a lot easier for you to stay up to date with what’s going on in any specific industry. Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, HackerNews and the other “rate it if you like it” sites provide a people-powered feed of what’s the most important news of the day. Although every system is abusable, these sites help you create a filter from the billion bits of data that get uploaded daily and help you narrow it down to thousands of bits. Don’t just surf these sites, register and participate. It will only take you a little bit more time than you’ll already be spending surfing the news, and the relationships you can build will be very valuable to you when you launch your sites.

Tools to Use:

popurls
A site I visit easily 100 times a day—a simple site and a powerful tool. Thomas Marban has executed the idea of aggregating the top stories from dozens of sources in a super easy-to-use format.

Books… You Know, Those Things With All the Paper

Photo by MorBCN

Reading technology or startup books more than a few years old can be equal parts informative and entertaining. Some books are classics and have eternal messages while others seem dated only after a few years. Like any info stream, there are thousands of books that you could read, but we only have a limited about of free time every day. So here are some suggestions of books I’ve actually taken the time to read cover-to-cover and can recommend.

Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
This is all-around a solid book for any startup entrepreneur. Guy has a great way of breaking ideas down into easy-to-understand concepts and there are tons of nuggets of wisdom in this book.

The Dip by Seth Godin
Seth has dozens of books with great messages, but this one was especially powerful for me as it helped me see what I needed to stick through and ride out and what I needed to quit in order to make my main goal achievable.

Wikinomics by Don Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams
An interesting read about how wikis and how people-powered information is working in our wired world—and how it will continue to be a driving force into the future.

Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good by Sarah Lacy
To be honest, I’m only half way done with this book, but even at this point I can say it is worth a read… plus I had the pleasure of talking with Sarah while she was here in town and she’s a smart lady.

The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
I’m writing a post about the 160 Hour Work Week and why you should love it, but Tim’s book has some great principles for making your time as productive as possible. He’s also a super driven guy and creative problem solver… skills that any startup entrepreneur should respect.

iCon Steve Jobs by Jeffrey S. Young & William L. Simon
This is a great candid story of Steve Jobs’s life and how he built Pixar and Apple into what they are today. It was interesting to see how inspiring he could be and at the same time be such a dick.

That seems like a good place to start…

Any books you recommend? Let me know in the comments.

Tools to Use:

Audible.com
It still kills me that a digital book costs me as much as a physically printed book… but this site is the deal and service I’ve found for audiobooks. I pay for a monthly account that allows me to download a new book every month. I load them up on my iPod and listen to them when I’m at the gym or on long drives.

A Library with Good Coffee
I’m lucky enough to live in the city with one of the world’s best bookstores: Powell’s. But you can find a Barnes & Noble or Borders in most cities, and these places are great place to spend an afternoon. Think of them as your public library, but with newer books and better coffee. I like to drop in, grab a couple dozen books, and spend the next few hours speed reading them. Then I buy the best ones.

People You Need On Your Team

Photo by NASA

There is a chance you could fill a few of the roles on this team, but you can’t fill them all. Finding partners is a very challenging thing… it can be uncomfortable giving up control of your ideas. But with the right people, giving up control will feel like a relief of some of the burden you carry and will allow your idea to grow faster and stronger. Here are a few of the people you should have on your team:

You’re going to have to give up some control and some equity to build the right team. 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing—and if you can’t program a website, you’re not going to get very far. Also, everybody has ideas and everybody thinks their idea is the big money-maker.

Geek
A geek knows about everything the moment it happens. They pretty much have RSS feeds syndicated directly to their brains. They have the latest tech gadgets and have signed up for almost every service to check it out. This person is useful because they’ll help you stay in touch with the latest trends without your having to suffer through some of the pains of being a super early adopter.

Programmer
What some people have paid to agencies to get their sites built they could have used to hire a great programmer for the entire year… and if they would have given him equity as partial compensation, they could have launched on even more of a bootstrapping budget. I recommend finding a local programmer. Offshore developers have worked for some people, but if you’re not a tech expert and you’re not able to sit down and have a conversation or two with your developer, you could end up in totally the wrong direction. Network locally and find out who is a great programmer.

I’m working on creating a resource list of quality programmers, so if you are one make sure to send me your information… or if you’re looking for one, stay tuned to the RSS feed.

Designer
I’ve actually had a harder time finding great designers in Portland than developers… which is a little odd considering we have such powerhouse creative agencies in town. But like a quality developer, you need a designer on your team. They often aren’t a fulltime role—you can get away with having them do a lot of the heavy lifting up front to help you polish your brand and create a UIX, but after that they’re a here-and-there team member… unless you luck out and find one with the ability to code, write or help you build your business. Check out www.refreshpdx.com for networking events with great designers.

Socializer
Need an introduction? Want and invite to the events you should be at? There are social butterflies who are amazing at networking and knowing everybody. You should know one of these people and befriend them. These are great people to know because there is a chance that they’ll be at most events, and if you show up alone you can figure that you’ll know at least one person—that person will do a great job of introducing you to other people. Hit up some local events a few times, and you’ll quickly notice who these people are.

Marketer
Not everybody is a great salesperson… and selling is 90% of what a startup entrepreneur has to do. You have to sell your idea to your friends and family, potential team members, investors, users, etc. It is hard work and it can take a toll on you. Having a friend who is great at marketing and sales can help you polish your messages and learn what you can be doing better.

Banker
Spreadsheets and financial projections don’t make sense to everyone. Having a friend who is a whiz with numbers will help you organize your thoughts, build the right budget, and present your data in easy-to-understand ways to potential investors or partners. You might need to hire this person to look over your work, but having a little bit of a personal relationship won’t hurt.

Lawyer
Legal work is one of the best examples of “you get what you pay for.” I’ve paid the couple hundred dollars to have my incorporation papers done online and I’ve hired a cheap attorney to do it… I’ve also seen what it looks like to have a high-quality lawyer draw up your papers. It made me realize that my incorporations are not much better than Charmin double-ply. Good legal work will cost a ridiculous amount of money, so don’t get it until you need it… but get it when you need it. In other words, you don’t need to have a corporation set-up to start a targeted niche blog that you hope to build into a mini-empire. Build the blog, start producing the content, and if it starts going really well, talk to a lawyer. There are some firms in town that will be your first investors and will give you some legal fee credits for a small equity share in your company. This is a great way to get expert advice on a tight budget.

Meet Real People: Network at Local Events

Photo by Josh Bancroft

There is no substitute for sitting down and having a face-to-face conversation with another person. Local events and get-togethers are a great way to stay plugged into what your local community is working on, make useful connections, and find the team members you’re looking for. Portland is lucky to have a very busy social tech scene. But a word of caution… don’t get caught up in socializing and talking about tech more than you’re working on it. I would recommend you check out a few different events and find the ones that match your style—then try to make a couple events a month.

Have a Networking Objective

Your objective could simply be to have a beer and talk about tech—but make sure you have a specific objective or networking events can turn into a huge waste of time. If you’re really interested in learning more about iPhone application development, find the events that would be relevant and make sure to chat people up at the event and find out who knows their stuff. Then get their contact info and follow up with a coffee and conversation.

Portland Tech Events

Beer & Blog
Refresh Portland
Legion of Talk
Lunch 2.0
SEM PDX

Tools to Use:

Upcoming.org
Follow your local tech journalists and leaders. I pretty much just check to see whatever Rick Turoczy is planning on going to, but follow Amber Case and Bram Pitoyo and you’ll pretty much know about every tech get-together in Portland.

Tap the Blogosphere for Knowledge and Ideas

There really are some great blogs out there. Some post a few times a day and others only few per week. I’m still working on the perfect list of startup and tech blogs to follow in our feeds section, so if you know of any great blogs I’m not following please let me know in the comments below. Here are some great places to start:

www.readwriteweb.com

www.thestandard.com

www.undertheradarblog.com

www.techcrunch.com

www.mashable.com

sethgodin.typepad.com

www.siliconflorist.com

blog.guykawasaki.com

www.chrisbrogan.com

scobleizer.com

blogmaverick.com

wired.com/techbiz

fastcompany.com/topics/technology

alleyinsider.com

Networking in the Digital World

Link all your profiles and share your interests. Make sure you cross-promote all your different profiles: your Digg profile should link to your StumblUpon, your blog, your IMs, your Twitter, etc. And each one of those should link back to the others. I killed my myspace account several months ago when the number of “hot cam girls” outnumbered real people 10 to 1. The two general social network profiles I maintain now are Facebook for everything and LinkedIn for the more professional side of things.

I’m still fine tuning the perfect email signature, but this feels like enough without being too much:
—-
Darius A Monsef IV
Internet Astronaut | www.InternetAstronauts.com
Executive Editor | www.COLOURlovers.com

ph: xxx.xxx.xxxx
em: darius@monsef.com
tw: @dariusmonsef
im: darius.monsef@gmail.com or DariusMonsef (AIM)
iw: Facebook, LinkedIn
—-

Share your Instant Messenger IDs. The noise from IM can be distracting as all hell… but in terms of connecting with web people from around the world, it is one of the quickest ways to share some ideas or thoughts. Make sure to organize your contacts into groups so you know who is contacting you about what.

Tools to Use:

Adium
Mac IM client that allows you to group your contacts and plug in several different IM services like gTalk, MSNM, AIM, Yahoo, and even Facebook.
Trillium
The PC equivalent to Adium. You’ll need a pro version in order to get gTalk working, but if you’re a PC person it is well worth the small investment.

Carefully Engage the Twitterverse

Photo by action datsun

Twitter is either a great way to stay in touch with lots of smart and talented people, or a ridiculously loud noise in my information channel—I haven’t fully decided yet. I will say that I check it a few times a day and find it to be a useful way to keep up with what people are up to… and what are the hot topics on people’s minds. Be careful with how many people you follow and how often they tweet. I honestly have no idea how somebody follows a thousand people—I can hardly keep up with 100 or so.

Indigio Blog: 10 People You Should Follow on Twitter

10 Journalists you should follow on Twitter

31 (Wordpress) People To Follow On Twitter

50+ Designers to Follow on Twitter

35 Web Analytics & Internet Marketing Experts You Should Be Following

Web 2.0: Top 8 People to Follow

9 Web Developers That MUST Be Followed On Twitter

Tools to Use:

Summize aka Twitter Search
Use this handy tool to find out if anybody has replied @ you that you don’t follow… or see if the twitterverse is talking about your or your sites.

Twitterific
I don’t love it on my computer, but it is great on the iPhone.

Two Final Points About Failing and Sketching

Fail Often. You’ll never learn more than what you’ll learn from failing. Don’t put everything into your first had of cards at the poker table… plan to be there for a while and learn a little from the failures of your first few hands. Constantly be making small efforts to build something or try something out. Too many people fear failure, but you didn’t learn to walk without falling on your face a few times.

Sketch Often. Literally sketch out your ideas. Keep a sketch pad or Moleskine notebook with you at all times and always be writing down your ideas. This will help you build the skill sets of thinking ideas through: Who would use it. How? Why? What value does it add? Like how an artist sketches to flesh out ideas, your sketches aren’t meant to be final works of art… they are your practice ground to keep your creative glands pumping and your critical analysis skills in check.

Launch well,
-Darius