ReadWriteStart

Go Daddy wants to be known for more than domain names and racy Superbowl ads. The company has built large businesses around Web hosting and other services for companies of all sizes. But can it really have it both ways?

For a technology startup company to launch an initial product and survive long enough to gauge its success, requires two-orders-of-magnitude less money today than at the start of the previous decade. This from a man who knows from having made bigger investments that are smaller: Duncan Davidson, Managing Director of Menlo Park-based Bullpen Capital.

It's the plight of every startup: mucho trabajo, poco dinero. What to do?

Steve Davis packed his laptop and his Spanish phrasebook and moved to Chile. On arrival, a government program called Start-Up Chile handed him $40,000, no equity required. He also got a visa, office space, mentoring, help with networking and fundraising, and connections to potential clients.

What's in a name? For startups, not as much as you might think. For example, you might expect a company called whorepresents.com to quickly hit the skids. But the online database of talent agents has been around since 2001 (capitialized as WhoRepresents?com, natch). And the fashion site Fashism is thriving. (Maybe its followers were too obsessed with clothes to bother with history class in high school.)

Then again, if your new company is deep into a brainstorming session and somebody suggests Fartronics, you should probably keep thinking. (Besides, that name's already taken.)

An ill-timed technology meltdown can be catastrophic for a vulnerable startup. Perhaps you are about to blast an email marketing message, or just trying to find an important file. And then it happens: frozen computers, corrupted files, wireless blackouts.

Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed fast. That much is easy to figure out. Much harder to answer is what's the best, most efficient way to prevent and cure these kinds of potential catastrophes.

A brilliant idea. A great team to work on it. A fridge full of Red Bull. Those are the first three items on every tech startup's checklist (more or less). Much farther down the list - if it's there at all - is the security plan the startup needs to protect its brilliant idea from theft.

That needs to change.

Why didn't he call? You dressed to impress, you were witty and intelligent, but still the phone isn't ringing.

When you think you've made the perfect pitch to an investor (Yes, an investor. What did you think we were talking about?) and shockingly, the person leaves you hanging without a clue why you've been rejected, what do you do next?

"A lot of the noise in the market right now is about bringing back irresponsible IPOs. That is a short-lived strategy, and a wrong-headed strategy." This from Kate Mitchell, the former chair of the National Venture Capital Association, and current Managing Director of Scale Venture Partners. "Our objective is to bring back quality IPOs, the kind that we had in the late '80s and the early '90s."

Mitchell is responding to criticism that a bill based on her own work may undo some of the benefits of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, which tightened reporting regulations and increased transparency for businesses. But she's making these comments while taking a victory lap. In fact, today she's at the White House, watching President Obama sign the bill her task force put in motion.

Did you hear about the "green" startup that touted how environmentally conscious it was by sending reporters five identical copies of its press kit, each one filled with nonrecyclable package "popcorn" and a small forest's worth of paper? Needless to say, the startup didn't get any press coverage.

In the era of social media, you may think public relations doesn't play a role in your marketing plans. Think again. In fact, thanks to social media, committing PR blunders can sink your startup even faster than ever, no matter if you're selling the coolest products or offering killer services. To make sure that doesn't happen to your company, we asked marketing maven Gini Dietrich to share six regrettably common PR mistakes today's startups must avoid.

On April 5, President Obama will sign the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Among other things, the new law will allow privately held startups with a fundraising goal of $1 million or less to sell unregistered stock to the public through approved crowdfunding sites. And that means startups seeking money from the public will now be able to offer investors a cash return, not just a promotional gimme, a token service or a hearty "Thanks a lot!" in exchange for their largesse.

How can companies giving away T-shirts compete with that? With a perfect pitch and cool perks. Like a phone call from a celebrity - it worked for George "Dr. Funkenstein" Clinton!