100 Websites To See Before You Die (Part 1)

Shape the Hive

What are humans, really, but so many bees, buzzing away? That’s the question (we think) asked by Shape The Hive, a visual “experiment in digital collaboration.”

In more concrete terms, Shape The Hive is a massive, color-coded hex grid, where anyone can use a sort of virtual kaleidoscope to fill in hexes with distorted images or videos. It’s fun to have a look around, and easy if you’re inclined to participate, so have a look.

Get The Glass 

We’re not the biggest fans of blurring the line between advertisement and gaming, but we’re willing to make exceptions in two instances: 1) When it comes to frosty, delicious milk. 2) When the game in question is a beautifully imagined and well thought-out virtual board game, with graphics that still look amazing three years after the fact.

And what do you know—Get The Glass succeeds on both of those counts! It’s almost like we planned it that way.

The Wilderness Downtown 

The Wilderness Downtown is a collaboration between Arcade Fire, director Chris Milk, and Google that uses the media capabilities of HTML 5 to create an internet music video that’s personalized to the viewer. Even if you’re not a fan of the music, it’s worth checking out as a technology demo for HTML 5 from some of the crack engineers at Google.

False.jp

What we have here is a collection of simple visualizations (most respond only to the movement of your mouse cursor, and the left mouse button) from a Japanese graphic designer. You won’t find any deep content on this page, but we suspect these mesmerizing visualizations will keep you entertained for longer than you’d like to admit.

Pretty Loaded 

Adobe (née Macromedia) Flash technology has allowed for a boom of rich media on the web, but it’s brought its share of problems as well. One such problem is the vile loading period, keeping you from enjoying your web content or video game. Thankfully, some designers realize that it’s important to keep users engaged during this period, and have elevated the preloader progress bar to an art form. PrettyLoaded celebrates these unsung heroes of web development, showcasing the very best of preloaders from around the web.

HubbleSite

Sometimes, you need to be reminded that—no matter how big your personal problems might seem—you’re just an insignificant mote in an unfathomably large universe. Other times, you just want to see kick-ass images from the most righteous piece of optics we’ve ever blasted into the cosmos. In either case, hubblesite.org has you covered.

We Feel Fine 

Say what you will about the touchy-feely sentiment behind WeFeelFine, the site is an interesting technological experiment in extracting data from the far-flung corners of the internet. Just click the big pink heart for a swirling, up-to-the-minute graph of how everybody’s feeling on the internet. Click a particle to read the sentence in question, and click the question to visit the blog it came from.

Line Rider 

For some, Line Rider is a canvas. For others, it’s a way of life. But for most, Line Ride is just a flash game—where you draw out a course for a little sledder guy to ride on.  It’s a kick, and something everyone should try, if for no other reason than to understand the effort it takes to make the kind of Line Rider videos that get passed around on sites like Reddit and Digg.

EyezMaze

EyezMaze may not sound familiar to you, but if you’re a fan of browser games you’ve probably played on of their internet-famous GROW series. If you haven’t, you should check them out right away. The basic conceit is this: You have to place a set number of elements into a scene, in a certain order. The order matters, so you have to follow the clues in the impossibly-charming animations to figure out the optimal order and win the game. We recommend you start with GROW v.3

Anasomnia 

The first thing that’s amazing about Anasomnia: The densely-packed, surreal dreamscape animations that only play when the lights in your room are out (although you can trick it if you cover up your webcam with your hand).

The second thing that’s amazing about Anasomnia: Every dream is different. Through some sort of procedural generation trickery, Anasomnia will be a different show every time you turn your lights out.

BLU 

If you’re in the kind of mood to have your mind blown, allow us to suggest that you visit the website of the street-artist BLU. Street art like graffiti? Sort of, but in motion. Check out the “Video” tab on the BLU website for a collection of four stop-motion street animations that are as insane as they are long. To see the craziest one first, start with “Big Bang Big Boom.”

Mr. Wong’s Soup’Partments 

In another testament to the fact that nobody wastes time as spectacularly as hundreds of people wasting time together, Mr. Wong’s Soup’Parments is a collaborative pixel-art image of a tower—each individual floor drawn and submitted by a different person. The final product is the “tallest virtual tower in the world” and a great way to kill a few minutes. Prepare to wear out that scroll wheel!

Blue Ball Machine 

Another example of community-driven pixel art, the Blue Ball Machine consists of tiled animated gifs representing the Rube Goldberg-esque workings of a giant blue-ball-processing facility. Originally spawned as part of a challenge on the Something Awful forums, the original Blue Ball Machine image became a popular YTMND site, and spawned a number of follow-ups.

The Million Dollar Homepage

The Million Dollar Homepage contains only a single image. That image is a giant, ugly, expensive advertisement. And that giant, ugly advertisement made some college kid in the UK one MILLION dollars.

The idea is simple: Create a 1,000,000 pixel image, and sell those pixels off for a dollar each (in blocks of 100). People are free to use those pixels to link to advertise whatever they want (online casinos and scams mostly, it seems). Every single pixel sold out, and Alex Tew of Wilshire England made a cool milli. How could he make so much off of something so dumb? Because he thought of it first

80 Gigapixel London 

It can be hard to keep up with who’s currently winning the “world’s largest photo” race, but right now the king is this360-degree panorama of London. Clocking in at 80 Gigapixels (that’s 8,000 times the resolution of your average point-n-shoot camera, for reference) this panaroma is detailed enough to read the license plate on a faraway bus.

Waybackmachine 

Another piece of internet history (both itself, and as a tool for exploring internet history) is the Wayback Machine. Simply put, the Wayback Machine will take any URL, and create a gallery of historical versions of that website for you to explore. Check out some of your favorite websites, and marvel at how far we’ve come in just 5 or 10 years.

Cleverbot 

You can’t call yourself a true connoisseur of internet curios until you’ve attempted to have a full-fledged conversation with a chatbot. People have been trying to make convincing Chatbots since the 70s, and even though we’re still far from something that’ll pass the Turing Test, it can be a real kick to try talking to one of these. Like it’s predecessor Jaberwocky, Cleverbot learns more with each conversation it has.

After you’ve fooled around for a while, check out the “cleverness” section for a collection of funny or impressive conversations between Chatbot and other people.

Rules For My Unborn Son 

We don’t have a whole lot of blogs on this list because—by their very nature—they’re not really a single-serving kind of thing. All the same, Rules For My Unborn Son’s been getting regularly updated for long enough that pretty much anyone can get a healthy dose of awesome advice just by spending an hour or two paging through the archives.

Demoscene.tv 

If you’re not familiar with the demoscene, here’s what you need to know: there’s a subset of computer programs, musicians and artists who engage in competitions to fit the most impressive and extravagant visual displays (and sometimes even games) into teeny-tiny chunks of script. We’re talking whole music videos crammed down into 64K or smaller. At Demoscene.tv, you can get a feel for what the demoscene is all about without having to run any strange code on your computer—all the demos are streamed, a la YouTube.

Perry Bible Fellowship

One of the few truly classic webcomics, The Perry Bible Fellowship is a pitch-perfect mixture of whimsical art, extra-dark humor and good, old-fashioned surrealism. The author Nicholas Gurewitch still updates sporadically, but you can absorb the whole archive in one sitting (if you’ve got an afternoon to spare). 

Zombo.com

What is Zombo.com? 

You can do anything at Zombo.com.

You’re The Man Now Dog 

From the “know your internet history” department, every nerdling worth their salt should visit Yourethemannowdog.com at least once. If you’re a newcomer to this whole internet thing, you might find yourself a bit confused.

“What is this?” you might ask. “Is this supposed to be funny?”

Well it is, or it was, and more importantly it spawned a wave of text-on-image imitators that became known as “YTMNDs.” The meme’s seen better days, but you can still find a never-ending stream of new YTMNDs at www.ytmnd.com.

Canabalt 

Sometimes the simplest games are the best. That’s the case with Canabalt, a game that only uses two buttons—and they both do the same thing. Canabalt’s running-and-jumping action might seem shallow at first, but the high speed, satisfying physics and gorgeous pixel art make it hard to stop playing.

Dino Run

Another running/jumping type of game, Dino Run has more features than Canabalt, and also the added melodrama of running from the end of the world itself.

Keep your eyes open to collect all the hidden eggs.

LMGTFY

A truly brilliant web-burn, LMGTFY.com delivers a one-two punch of snark and technological superiority to anyone stupid or unfortunate enough to ask you for help online.

Wait, you want to know what LMGTFY.com is? Well, how about we take care of that for you?

Protip: Combine with a URL shortener like bit.ly for extra effectiveness.

Let’s Play Archive 

Ever wanted know what all the fuss about a game is, but don’t have the time or willpower to actually play it? Head to the Lets Play Archive, where you can check out tons of archived “let’s play” threads from the Something Awful forum—where people post guided walkthroughs of video games, frequently accompanied with hilarious commentary and illustrations.

Desktop Tower Defense

You’re not going to find any shortage of flash games in the Tower Defense genre online, but Desktop Tower Defense is THE classic. It’s a open-field-style tower defense, so you have to create and update a maze of defensive structures to  fight off wave after wave of bad guys. Careful—VERY addictive.

TV Tropes

You might check out TVTropes and think “Hey, this isn’t a single-serving site, this is an amazing resource that I’ll come back to again and again!”

Well it’s not. The diabolic thing about TVTropes is that any actual utility is an illusion—your life will never be enriched because you know what a “Woobie” is, or who the members of a Five Man Band are. It’s an elaborately designed trap, meant to capture all your free time.

Therefore, go once, waste a day, and then never look back. You’ll thank us later.

Globe Genie

If you ask us, the coolest thing about Google Maps is the street view, which allows you to get a like-you’re-really-there 360-degree view of any location that Google’s vans have trawled. It’s an awesome way to get some perspective on places you’ve never been, but it can be hard to choose where you want to “visit.”

Globe Genie takes the work out your Google Maps globetrotting. Just select which continents you’d like in the running, and then click the Teleport button.

For added fun, uncheck the “Current Location” button and try to guess what country you’re in based on just your surroundings.

Autotopsy

Who knew an educational site about auto insurance could be so interesting? In this dramatic simulation, you tag along as insurance company investigator surveys the scene of a horrific accident. Suprisingly solid visual effects and live-action cutscenes combine to give you a morbidly entertaining look into the way that insurance companies determine who gets paid and who doesn’t.

The Best Page In the Universe

As much as anything on the internet can be considered “old school,” The Best Page In the Universe (better known as the home of Maddox’s epic rants) is old school. Online and semi-regularly updated since 1997, anyone who’s been on the internet long should have visited it at least once by now. If you haven’t, now’s the time to catch up on some comedy and net history.

Cyrkam Airtos

What happens when you take a normal timekilling activity and turn it into a flash timekiller? You get a veritable vortex of timekilling—A vortex named Cyrkam Airtos.

If you haven’t played it before, Cyrkam Airtos is a surprisingly challenging flash game about tossing crumpled-up paper into a garbage can. Sounds easy? Give it a try and tell us your high score.

Star Wars Weather 

We’ve had about enough of weather websites that just tell you boring, useless details like the “temperature” and the “humidity” and “whether or not it will rain.” Star Wars Weather cuts through all the BS and tells you what you really want to know: what Star Wars planet does the weather outside most closely resemble right now.

The F***ing Weather 

Ok, so Star Wars isn’t your thing. We’ve still got you covered. In the same vein as http://whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com/, http://www.thefuckingweather.com/ gives you just the facts about the weather—and it doesn’t sugarcoat them. NSFW if someone in your office is offended by large, Times New Roman profanity.

I Love Bees

I Love Bees was not the first ARG (Alternate Reality Game) or the last, but it was definitely the largest and most well publicized. Designed as marketing for Halo 2, it’s way too late to participate in the sci-fi mystery story, but you can still visit the site’s original entry point at ilovebees.com for a bit of internet history. If you want to know more about the I Love Bees story, check out its entry on the Halopedia.

Google Building Maker 

Google’s built a lot of cool tools and toys over the years, but for sheer “oh, neat” value, this one’s our favorite. The Google Building Maker allows you to pick a building from any of dozens of cities, and build a 3D model of it. If your model is any good, it’ll even get displayed for everyone to see on Google Earth.

What’s that you say? “I don’t know how to make 3D Models?” Well, that’s the real beauty of this site—it makes it so easy that anyone can do it, and it’s fun. Give it a try—we think you’ll have a hard time stopping after just one building.

Hero Machine

A Time waster with a capitol T, the Hero Machine lets you put together comic-book-style superheroes from an astonishingly large list of possible parts. You can try and make the coolest hero possible, or you can just hit the random button until you find something that makes you laugh.

Photosynth 

Photosynth is a project from Microsoft that allows you to take collections of digital photos and stitch them together into a kind of 3D panorama. Unlike a normal panorama, which is a large, flat image, in a Photosynth you can move through the scene and see objects from different angles. There’s an enormous gallery of user-submited Photosynths to browse through, and more are added every day.

Pandemic 2

Pandemic 2 is simultaneously a seriously-addicting flash game, and the best reason to move to Madagascar. In the game, you play the role of a disease, and you make decisions about how you evolve (do I want to cause a fever, or renal failure?) in order to wreak havoc across the globe. Counteracting you are the world’s governments, who can do things like shut down airports and develop vaccines. Virulent disease has never been this much fun!

Crimson Room 

The premise or Crimson Room is simple: you’re in a room, its crimson, and you’re trying to escape. You’ll have to make use of everything in your environment and solve some seriously fiendish puzzles to get out. Crimson Room was so well received that it spawned an entire genre of “escape the room” adventures that now includes dozens of games.

Free Web Tools For Your Small Business

We first researched and posted this list over two years ago, and it was one of the most popular articles we've ever created. Over that time, new, powerful free tools have become avaialable, and some of the old ones have changed or eliminated their free account options.  The following are the latest, FREE, high quality online services and software downloads available for business.

Windows Live Admin Center- Business Email Hosting

Microsoft offers a free

 

service that allows you to have the features of Outlook.com (email, calendar and contact management) attached to your own domain. The primary benefit of this service is that you can have an email that looks like this: yourname@businessdomain.com rather than:businessname@outlook.com. Having an email address with a custom domain is MUCH more professional and inspires more confidence in your potential customers.  You can create up to fifty custom email addresses for your domain.

 

In order to take advantage of this service, you'll need toregister your domain name.  We've explained the process for this here (the information is free, but registering a domain isn't- prices start around $6/ year).

LogMeIn Free- Remote Desktop Access

LogMeIn Free allows you to remotely access your computer from another computer using a standard browser or a mobile device using one of LogMeIn's free apps. All you have to do is download and install LogMeIn's free software onto the computer that you wish to access remotely, create an account and you're good to go. Once you're set up, you'll be able to see your desktop and remotely access and control your PC or Mac from anywhere. This can be really helpful in a lot of situations. If you need to access a particular program from home that is installed on your office computer, LogMeIn Free makes this simple. If you forgot to save a file, before you left your house, you can login from your iPad, pull up your computer and save the file. LogMeIn offers several paid services, but this free one is extremely valuable as well.

Dropbox- Digital File Sharing

Dropbox is a digital file sharing service that allows you to syncronize and share digital files across multiple computers. When you create an account and install the Dropbox software onto your computer, it creates a folder called "Dropbox," and everything inside this folder is uploaded automatically into Dropbox's data servers (aka: The Cloud).  When you install the Dropbox software on a second computer (if the first one was your office computer, let's say this one is your home computer) and set it up using the same account, it will automatically download every file in the Dropbox folder.  The software runs in the background and keeps every file in these folders in sync. You can also share individual folders and files inside the Dropbox folder with other people (e.g.: share your "new home" folder with your contractor or your "wedding" folder with your soon-to-be mother-in-law). Dropbox lets you keep up to 2GB of files syncronized for free.  If you want more room, they have paid plans as well.

EchoSign- Digital Signature Service

EchoSign (owned by Adobe) is an online tool that lets you email documents in a format that others can sign electronically without having any special tools. This simplifies the process of getting a signed contract, because people don't need to print then scan or fax the document- they can sign the document using only their computer or mobile device.  EchoSign also allows you to see if your recipient has viewed the document and also stores the agreements online. EchoSign's free plan is for one user and allows up to five contracts per month. If you need more, they have paid plans for multiple users and unlimited contract signing.

HelloSign- Digital Signature Service (great for self signing)

Hellosign is a competitor to EchoSign, and offers a similar free plan limited to three signatures per month, but HelloSign also offers a "Self-signing" tool that allows you to electronically sign an unlimited number of documents. If you are a Google Apps or Gmail user, HelloSign has a very useful browser plugin that allows you to sign documents directly in the Gmail interface and stores your signed documents in the cloud under your account. 

WaveAccounting- Cloud-Based Bookkeeping Software

WaveAccounting is excellent online accounting software for small businesses and has the ability to handle complex accounting entries if necessary. Wave Accounting is extremely user friendly and is designed for the small business owner who has little accounting knowledge. This tool is easy to understand and offers a very easy setup process. The Wave Accounting tool can import your bank and credit card transactions and supports almost 10,000 financial institutions, such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo. While this tool isn’t as feature-rich as Quickbooks, Wave Accounting can handle many of the needs of businesses with fewer than 10 employees and, of course, it's free!

Orange Human Resource Management Software- HR Software

OrangeHRM is a free human resource solution that works great for small to medium-sized businesses. Downloading the software is very easy, and a setup wizard is provided, as well as video tutorials for those who need further assistance. Download options are available for Windows and Linux systems and should also work on Mac OS once you set the AMP stack properly. The interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate, which makes setting up your employee information very easy. It also gives you the option to import/export your data. This tool is feature-rich and offers features like time tracking, personal information management, benefit management, and customized reports.  You can transfer information in and out using other applications. The only feature this tool lacks is the ability to do any payroll or accounting tasks.

IDrive Online Backup Software- Online Backup

IDrive Online Backup Software is another great, free tool that gives you up to 5 GB of free space to back up your data online. This software runs on Windows and Mac OS, and the download process is quick and easy. IDrive has a very intuitive and easy-to-use interface. You have the option of setting up your backup on a timed schedule, continuous/automatic schedule, or manually selected schedule. The free account also includes a search function, a “timeline restore” to view and restore data from a certain timeline, mobile phone access, and secure file sharing, among many others.  The tool is compatible with iPhones and Androids. If you need more space, IDrive offers reasonably priced paid plans starting at $49.50/ year for 150GB of storage. You can also read our detailed review of IDrive's paid plans.

OpenOffice.org Office Software- MS Office Alternative

OpenOffice.org is a great free alternative to Microsoft Office and runs on both Windows and Mac operating systems. The software comes with the whole Office-like package that includes a word processor, spreadsheet tool, presentations creator, database manager and a drawing feature. Installation and setup is straightforward and painless and requires very little time. The interface is very similar to that of Microsoft Office, and it’s very easy to learn and manipulate. If you are looking for an option to save you some serious cash, OpenOffice Office Suite is a great tool to use.

  

MailChimp Email Marketing Software- Email Marketing Service

MailChimp offers a free, online email marketing software option that we recommend using for your small business or startup. The free plan is limited to 2,000 contacts and up to 12,000 emails per month, which is enough for any small business getting started with email marketing. Since the tool is online, you don’t need to download or install anything and only need to create an account on their website. You are able to import contacts from Excel, Salesforce, and Outlook as a CSV file. Mailchimp's paid service (reviewed here) is as robust as it gets, and the free version includes all those features except autoresponders, spam filter diagnostics, email client testing, and deliver by time zone options. MailChimp offers a mobile application for smartphone users, and they provide a forum and FAQs for further help.

Yola Website Builder Software- Website Builder

If you are a small business owner who needs to build a business website, then Yola is an excellent option for you. Yola’s free website builder provides an extremely intuitive and easy-to-use interface, which makes setting up your website quick and easy. This builder comes with over 100 professionally designed website templates and lets you publish up to 2 websites using their excellent on-screen guidance and setup help. While the free version does not let you select your own domain name, you can host your website using a sub-domain of Yola. For example, instead of yourwebsite.com, you would have yourwebsite.yola.com. Yola provides 1 GB of total file storage and allows you to upload file sizes of up to 5MB per individual file upload.

ClickBook Appointment Scheduler- Appointment Scheduler

ClickBook Appointment Scheduler is a great scheduling tool for small business owners, especially dentists, doctors, therapists, hair stylists, and spa/beauty salon owners. In addition to scheduling clients appointments, ClickBook's free account includes a three month record of your appointments, a customer database with history and session notes, a booking widget for your website, custom forms, integration with popular calendars like Outlook, and Google Calendar, repeating appointments, etc.  The free version is ad supported, so they will be running ads on your interface. If you're interested in eliminating the adds, adding additional staff members to schedule or features like the ability to accept payments online through PayPal or customer history exporting, you can upgrade to the paid version of the service.

  

Rock The Post Online Investment Platform- Fundraising Resource

Rock The Post is a resource for entrepreneurs and investors similar to the popular crowdfunding site, Kickstarter. RTP connects high quality entrepreneurs with accredited investors interested in exciting new start-up companies.

 

Rock The Post screens each project and investor and only accepts campaigns that are likely to generate revenue, setting you apart from companies funded through Kickstarter or Indiegogo.

 

 

https://indinero.com/

Read more: http://www.choosewhat.com/free-web-tools#ixzz2d828ca1j
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial

6 Ways to Make Your Own Luck BY NICOLE CARTER

While luck isn't an exact science, there are certainly ways to make yourself more open to opportunity. Here are six easy ways.

Many entrepreneurs believe their success is in part due to a little bit of luck-- that chance meeting with a potential investor or that dinner conversation that sparks a new idea. In fact, a new study by networking site LinkedIn found that 84 percent of 7,000 professionals they surveyed say they believe in career luck.

But let's face it: There isn't an exact science to luck. You can't predict it. However, there have been plenty of successful entrepreneurs, authors, and even researchers who've tried to map out just what makes someone lucky.

Here are a few of the top tips for cultivating your own luck. 

1. Be humble. Part of cultivating luck, writes author and venture capitalist Athony Tjan for Harvard Business Review, is increasing your influence. And the best way to do that is through cultivating something counterintuitive: humility. He added: "People can mistake humility for weakness and avoid it so as not to lose perceived power...You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

2. Roll up your sleeves. This seems pretty obvious to those who consider themselves lucky. According to the LinkedIn survey, a whopping 70 percent of those surveyed said a strong work ethic was the number one thing that makes someone lucky. But to work hard, you also have to be skilled. Nearly half of the respondents in the same survey said that skills were another contributor to career luck.

3. Be generous. Tjan also writes, "Never lose the spirit of generosity; instead, allocate it appropriately. Remaining a mentor to others, connecting with community activities, simply saying more 'thank-yous,' and doing more things without over-thinking the potential 'value-exchange' equation, is a pay-it-forward attitude that in the long-run usually pays off in spades. Plus, it just feels good to be generous."

4. Be ready. Good to Great author Jim Collins has said that if one cannot predict luck, the question to then ask is: "Do you have a high return on luck?" In a New York Times essay he revealed this concept using Bill Gates as an example. He wrote: "Thousands of people could have done the same thing that Mr. Gates did, at the same time. But they didn't...How many of them changed their life plans--and cut their sleep to near zero, essentially inhaling food so as not to let eating interfere with work--to throw themselves into writing Basic for the Altair? How many defied their parents, dropped out of college and moved to Albuquerque to work with the Altair? That’s not luck--that's return on luck."

5. Go with your gut. Who better than the late Steve Jobs to describe why trusting in your gut instincts may be the best way to ensure your luck in the future? In his famous speech to a graduating class at Stanford he said, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." Add to that, according to the LinkedIn survey, nearly half of the respondents said that "using your intuition" has been an important factor in their career luck.

6. Simply believe that you are lucky. A recent study from psychologist and University of Hertfordshire Professor Richard Wiseman found that simply believing you are lucky can create positive outcomes. He took two groups of people: one that considered themselves "lucky," and another that considered themselves "unlucky." He gave both groups newspapers and asked everyone to report back how many photos were in the issue as quickly as possible. The lucky people came back with the answer in seconds, much faster than the unlucky group. Why? Because on page two of the paper, there was an ad that read "Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper."

Wiseman concluded: "Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner, and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through the newspaper determined to find certain job advertisements and, as a result, miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there, rather than just what they are looking for."

Raising Money On AngelList: 21 Tips From Two Active Angels

The following is the result of a collaboration between Ty Danco and Dharmesh Shah. Ty is an angel investor and startup mentor (you should be reading his blog). Dharmesh is founder and CTO of HubSpot, runs OnStartups.com and is an advisor to AngelList. [Note: All the smart useful stuff in the article is Ty, all the feeble attempts at humor are Dharmesh]

AngelList (AL) connects promising startups to a sterling network of early stage investors. AL has been getting a blizzard of well-deserved press of late after Venture Hacks released the networks 18 month statistics. But not a lot has been written for startups on how to best use the service. Here's our take in small, bite-sized pieces.

1. The Fundamentals Still Apply As Time Goes By

AngelList may be a game-changer, but most of the same rules are still in place. Angels still look for the same elements in a startup as always: a strong team; meaningful milestones; a differentiated product in a big potential market; capital efficiency and so on. Therefore, the excellent advice listed inOnStartups, Venture Hacks, AVC, Ask the VC, Both Sides of the Table, and the like still applies. What for now is unique to AngelList is the speed and efficiency with which they can harness an all-star network of active investors in front of a breathtakingly large, qualified stream of startups. Whereas B.A.L. (Before AngelList) you could mess up a presentation in front of an investor group and not worry too much (there's always another potential investor around the corner if you look,) putting in a half-baked effort on AngelList is a cardinal sin. First impressions count, so make sure you crush it!

2. There's a great primer already

"How to Hustle with AngelList", by Brendan Baker is the definitive how-to guide discussing how to make it onto AngelList, how to set up profiles, etc. It covers all the basic mechanics and throws in a few proven tactics. If you have time to read only one article on AngeList, that's the one.

3. Talk to People Who Have Had Success

With over 400 companies having raised money on AngelList in its first 18 months, this is easy. As Alex Cook of Rentabilities mentioned in this Boston Globe article, there's a learning curve involved, so make a point of talking to entrepreneurs who have previously used the site before you list. Who has been successful? Here are a few notable companies.

Quora has many dozens of questions on AngelList, as does OnStartups Answers and of course Venture Hacks, whose founders run AL. By the way, there is a high overlap between people who are active on Quora and the community of investors you want to attract.

4. Get a champion first

The first anchor investor is the hardest. Always has been, always will be. And for Angel List, it is important enough to be ranked #1 in Nathan Beckfords excellent post entitled Hacking Angel List. For instance, Rentabilities already was a winner of the 2010 MassChallenge, but they waited until they had won over Dharmesh as an investor/endorser before tackling Angel List. Nivi of AngelList will argue that it is not necessary to have a champion if one has a great team and traction, and he has several examples of this. But we respectfully disagree: just as your odds of success drop dramatically if you pitch to an angel group without already having a champion in the room, the same applies here. So don't launch prematurely. And, even if Nivi is right that you don't absolutely need a champion if you have enough traction and an awesome team, it can't hurt.

5. Don't wait too late in your rounds fund raise before you apply

Localmind is a company I invested in which had no trouble raising money, but they wanted to attract a few more angels with domain expertise and geographical diversity. Within days of listing on AngelList, they had identified 8 strong, deep-pocketed angels, all of whom could have strengthened the company. With only limited $dollars left in the round space left, they could only squeeze in 2. When I asked Lenny Rachitsky, the CEO about what he learned from the experience, he said he had wished he had started working with AngelList earlier.

Whens the best time? Others may disagree, but Id suggest getting your application in when your round is anywhere from 20% to 40% subscribed. With that head start, it should attract interest pretty quickly. If you get oversubscribed, thats a good problem to have.

6. Before launching on AL, mentally assemble your dream team of investors

If you cant dream it, you cant build it. Your ideal team may be 100% angels, you may wish to have some local micro-VC or it might be as simple as a pair of massive VCs and an industry insider. But rRegardless, the majority of investors should already have complementary holdings in your sector.

More importantly, assess what elements you need besides money, because the AL membership has their tentacles everywhere. Knowing what you need but dont yet have not only helps you get it, but it also sends a strong positive signal to angels that you understand your needs. Approaching investors who clearly dont invest in your sector is the telltale sign of a rookie.

7. Research the network, and target your angels

You can use filters to look for angels who have invested in your sector or in complementary companies. I invested in HealthRally because its CEO did just that and found me. While I don't always monitor the AngelList feed (just as you might not stay current with Facebook traffic or a Twitter stream), I got a very targeted letter from Zach Lynch, the CEO of HealthRally. He noted my investment in GreenGoose and other health tech firms, and then made the connection that one of the other GreenGoose co-investors, Esther Dyson, also had committed to HealthRally. Besides showing excellent progress to date on a shoestring budget, Zach demonstrated to me the type of targeted, "rifle not shotgun" marketing discipline that his company will need to land a few strategic partners and megaclients.

8. Get Personalized Intros

Ask all of the angels who are backing you to endorse you to their own followers. If they are not already on AngelList, ask them to sign on and do so. Helping syndicate a round is what angels do, and AL has found that personalized intros from an AL investor get opened far more than a generic profile. This is the original angel skill, (after all, Howard Lindzon calls his fund "Social Leverage" for a reason,) but now it's so simple it can be done to all of an investors AL followers with one mouse click. Using the Rentabilities example, Dharmesh has many people watching his recommendations, and when he gave the company a thumbs up, more than 100 people followed the company, and over 30 asked for introductions. Clout (and Klout) matters.

9. Spend a few calories (and maybe dollars) a good name.

For many of you, AngelList might be one of the biggest initial exposures your startup will have. And, theyre some very powerful people. Its worth spending a little bit of time and energy getting it right (it gets harder to change it later). This is particularly true if you have a consumer (B2C) startup. I guarantee you that folks like Jason Calacanis care a lot about your brand and domain name. I do too. Here are some quick tips on naming a startup. Dont obsess over the name, but its worth investing a little time on this.

10. A video is worth 1,000 slides

No one can tell your story better than you. Make a short killer, video and include it in your profile. I made my first AngelList investment in UpNext after I saw the link to the companys interview on Untethered.tv. If you can, include one. Especially if it can showcase a quick demo.

11. Get your website right first

This should be obvious. Even if you just have a well-done landing page with a good design and a good URL name, it's a plus. Every angel is going to click through, and most won't go further if your website sucks.

12. Remember Inbound Marketing, baby!

Yeah, I know that going through AngelList qualifies as traditional outbound marketing, but sophisticated angels will check on their own to assess your knowledge of the basics. Do you show up in Google search results at all? Do you have mentions in social media? Do you own the company name on twitter and have you tweeted recently? Do you have followers? Do you have an engaging blog that tells your story and has a point of view? Have you checked out your traffic graph on Compete.com and made sure its pointing in the right direction? Face it: AngelList exists because of the Net. You may be able to get away with a sloppy web presence and strategy at a traditional angel group presentation, but that won't fly with the AngelList crowd.

13. Advisors are huge.

Social proof is hugely important in Angel List. I invested through AngelList in Saygent. Why? Not only did I like the schtick, I really liked that they had sought out and won Sid Viswanathan (co-founder ofCardMunch and a master at using Mechanical Turk) as an advisor. Currently Im doing due diligence on a company which landed Jason Calacanis as an advisor. Having an advisor like Jason, who is an indefatigable promoter of his portfolio companies (via his interests in the Launch Conference, Open Angel Forum, and This Week in Startups, he sees a TON of companies), shows instant credibility and is a harbinger of future success.

14. Clearly list your price

If you haven't figured out what you want to raise at what valuation, do so now. If you're going to raise convertible debt (although I'm personally not a fan,) say what your cap is going to be. There's no upside in wasting both your time and that of the investor if you're asking a price where the investor is unwilling to go. If you're unsure and you haven't already figured this out with the anchor investor, the AL team can help point to some comparables. Speaking of comparables, if this is your first startup and you're a rookie, try not to over-reach with respect to terms. Just because everyone you talked to so far thinks you are brilliant and your idea is spectacular, don't push for a really high cap on your convertible note. Going from a $4 million cap to a $8 million cap might seem like a 100% increase in valuation, but the math doesn't work that way. Such a move might decrease the number of investors interested in your deal.

15. Use a standard termsheet

Resist the temptation to introduce clever, non-standard terms into the termsheet — even if you think you can get away with them. Two reasons for this: 1) You'll come off as naive or greedy. 2) Even if you somehow manage to sneak these in now, you'll have issues when you need to do your next round. Save your creativity for your product and keep your termsheet clean. If you need an example, you could do worse than the standard financing docs that Y Combinator provides. But, there are others. Ask around.

16. Be ready to pitch on short notice via videoconferencing

This could be via Skype, Gmail video chat, Go2meeting, etc. But you should have perfected all of the logistics and have accounts and slide share materials ready on quick notice. With investors no longer being local, you need to find ways to let them see you and your pitch. Insider secret: Some investors have found a strong pattern that suggests entrepreneurs that respond to late night emails quickly have an edge over those that don't. Lets save the “but work-life balance is important” debate for another article. Meanwhile, you better be working your butt off.

16. Think one round ahead.

Listing on AL now will give you a giant head-start on your next round, as investors who aren't ready for this round may step up for next round. As Mark Suster says, VCs invest in lines, not in dots. Establish the connection for the next round now, and rethink if there are others you may wish to add to your initial target list.

17. Use the AngelList team

Who is more wired in than Nivi and Naval? Who's seen more pitches and knows what works? Once they accept you, get their advice and give it great weight.

18. Know how investors will use AngelList

Here's a similar list of techniques investors use that work especially well via AngelList.

19. Get your backers to register on AL

You want them to comment on you and endorse you. Any angel should volunteer to do this for the good of the company, and they get to build their brand too.

20. Don't game the system

You're smart and love to hustle. We get that. You should do all manner of hustling to make sure your startup gets the visibility it needs. But, don't abuse the community or take advantage of it. It's ashared resource. Just like you, there are many other entrepreneurs looking to connect with great investors on AngelList. Many of them are just as deserving. It's fine to stand-out, but make sure you are adding value to the group, not taking away from it.

21. The best thing you can do is get traction

You should invest time in your fundraising process — it's important. The basics don't take that long. But, don't get too obsessed. Your primary goal is to build a business not build this phenomenal profile and network on Angel List. The most helpful thing you can do to get the right angels on board is to make measurable, meaningful progress with your business.

I'm sure a few of you that are already in the Angel List process are likely reading this.  What other tips would you like to share with the community?  What questions do you have that haven't quite been answered yet?  

Posted by Dharmesh Shah 

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