13 tips from Web Entrepreneur Heavyweights

A few days a go I was invited to attend a seminar at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Speaking that night were five heavyweights in the online business world: Josh Berman - COO & CoFounder, MySpace.com Matt Coffin - CEO & Founder, LowerMyBills.com Ted Meisel - Former CEO, Overture.com John Phelps - President, Shopzilla.com Steve Wadsworth - Pres., Disney Internet Group All had interesting stories about how their businesses started and evolved. I'm going to share with you some of the more memorable and meaningful nuggets of information. I know many of them are common sense, but it's all good advice nonetheless:

1. Networking with others is vital. More contacts mean more opportunities.
2. Surround yourself with a team that can open up doors for you not necessarily whose the best at a particular skill.
3. The "vibe" is important early on. If everyone on the team is feeling it, then those long hours don't seem as long and energy levels are high.
4. Public Relations is important when starting. You need to generate interest fast to get the vital early adopters and jump on market share.
5. Don't be afraid to deliver bad news
6. When times are tough, sometimes you have to keep a smiling public face to keep investor and employee confidence.
7. Get cash flow positive early. This allows you to control your destiny.
8. Not all good ideas should be implemented. Focus on what will separate you from the pack.
9. Focus on your demographics. If Myspace was targeting the 35+ year olds it would not have been successful.
10. Let the market tell you what it wants. Many times the market tells you what it doesn't want as well. Listen to them.
11. Do it better than everyone else. Someone else might have more resources but you can steal their shine by doing it better.
12. Study your competitors intensely.
13. Use of metric is invaluable.