13 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Startup Before You Start It- Valutrics

In a previous post, I explained that investors are now, or will soon be, using big data–including browsing and purchasing history–to decide whether you’re worth betting on.

I asked the source for that post, Steve Goodman, founder and CEO of Restless Bandit, for some pointers for protecting yourself in this brave new world of Big (Brother) Data.

Here are some common activities that he recommends you avoid:

1. Posting your resume on public job boards.

If you’re on a job board, it shows that you’re hunting for a job rather than serious about starting a company.

2. Posting complaints of current or past employers.

The satisfaction of venting about your bosses isn’t worth the blowback: a reputation for being difficult to work with.

3. Posting any proprietary information.

Forget about getting investors. Posting company secrets, even places you think are private, can land you in jail.

4. Posting the year you graduated from college.

Age discrimination is just as real among investors as it is inside corporations. Being “too young” or “too old” can keep you from being shortlisted for a meeting.

5. Posting your birth date.

Same thing, only worse.

6. Posting your home address.

Identity thieves can use your home address to get access to your bank accounts. The money they steal could be the money you need for your startup.

7. Posting political opinions (regardless of your politics).

Today’s politics are virulent and ugly. Once you establish yourself as belonging to one “camp” you just torpedoed at least half your investors, partners and customers.

8. Posting publicly about your family and hobbies.

As harmless as such posts might seem, either a family that looks likely to expand or a hobby that seems off-the-wall can make you seem uncommitted.

9. Posting anything illegal (or letting someone else do so).

Once you’re identified as somebody who’s broken the law, nobody will want to invest in you. Remember: it’s not just your own posts. If you’re tagged, you’re out.

10. Posting anything salacious (or letting someone else do so).

Photos showing you scantily clad, even at beach, prom or party, immediately flag you as somebody who’s not serious. Women more so than men, unfairly.

11. Giving apps permission to post to your social media.

Do you really want anybody to know that you spent hours of your free time “achieving” level 100 of Candy Crush?

12. Posting angry Yelp or Amazon reviews.

While it may feel good at the time to “stick it” to the people who served you poorly, such posts mark you as a complainer.

13. Posting anything “anonymously.”

Unless you’re deeply buried in TOR and the Dark Web, there is no such thing as “anonymously” on the Web. If you don’t want your name on it, don’t post it.