Rule 10. A coach can do more than strategize

Every web business could use some coaching. A coach is someone who understands your idea and helps you take the steps necessary to turn your idea into a company your friends might read about on pages like these. A coach may be a retired tech executive, a CEO or company president, one of your angel investors, or a lawyer with contacts among high-tech venture capitalists and lots of entrepreneurial know-how.

 

A coach's role is akin to that of an agent. You want someone with a network -- maybe among investors, maybe in a particular industry, maybe within the technology community to help you break through the ever-present buzz of eager startups vying for attention. You need someone inside the system to teach you how to do it.

 

If someone with credibility is behind you, VCs and other insiders have a choice: Either they decide the idea is a viable one, thereby agreeing with a professional or they question it and are left to wonder, "What am I missing?"