Image by Getty Images via @daylifeGoboson
What do you do or make?
Our team has an idea that would revolutionize the way people recognized in the publishing industry. In 2006, as a college sophomore, I wanted to create a document-sharing online platform for college students. This will be a place where students may upload their creative writings, mid-term and final reports, admissions essays, poems, and others. I collaborated with several Regis students and faculty members to realize this idea for several semesters, but never fully executed the idea. A year later, a website functioning under the same mentality has launched. Today, community document-sharing websites are some of the most visited venues online. With my team of 3, we have come up with new twists to the document-sharing to include the publishing market. With this marriage of Web 2.0 user-to-user collaboration with online publishing, we will create an online community where lovers of the written word will unite. "Our website uses a Web 2.0 user-to-user interface functionality to help users achieve a set goal of sharing, marketing, and/or publishing their work. Our superiority arises from paying for electronic publishing services for authors of Gobosonians’ choosing (Gobosonian is a term used to describe a goboson.com user). Our community of users will be able to upload their own writings and vote, comment, and rate work uploaded by other Gobosonians. Authors that gain immense popularity at Goboson.com will benefit from our financial and expert resources on their road to publication.
What's new, interesting, or different about what your company does?*
Gobosonians may also edit one another’s work. This function allows authors to obtain feedback from the Goboson.com community and improve their skills and thought processes. Translation is also a service offered; because our community purchases translations in bulk, we offer very competitive prices.
Goboson.com is a venue for writing and reading enthusiasts. Gobosonians may upload and publically view most document types, including movie scripts, short stories, poems, inspirational life autobiographies, academic term papers, unpublished research papers, and much more. We have created a mechanism for users to dynamically communicate with each other, form interest groups, and critically comment and vote on the work of other Gobosonians. Our service is about collaboration, networking and self-marketing. We open up the door of opportunity for all who have a fire within to have their written work be recognized. " "When our team started this venture, we were three people who were full of optimism, ambition, and motivation to create an online platform for writing and reading enthusiasts. We wanted to open up the door of opportunity for anyone with a library of personal and academic written work to be shared among others. Each of our team members had a role in building the company, from establishing the website, developing the business plan, checking out legal aspects of the trade, and much more. Our ultimate resources were the Work Wide Web and our network of professional mentors in various fields, such as lawyers and engineers. In addition to the research, development, and connections we maintained, we feel that we could have done things a better way by dedicating more time to our venture. Each of us has full time schooling or careers, and time was spread very thinly for each of us. We could have taken on less school and work hours and allocated that extra time towards building the company.
Given 20-20 hindsight, what would you do differently? *
Our best advice for entrepreneurs is this: research all aspects of the market, use the findings to refine your plan, and allocate time to quickly execute your idea. Remember that careful planning and mechanisms for quick execution are your two best friends.
What is your most memorable fund-raising experience?
" "The most memorable fund-raising experience for our team has been asking friends and family members for seed funding money. One friend replied, “Are you crazy? How will you ever make money from having people share documents?” A family member said, “This concept is too confusing.”
We believe we are in luck because ventures with ideas others consider to be outrageous will not have much lose competition. Our team, contrary to these comments, has a very clear vision of what is ahead for our company. The concept that goboson.com is crazy or confusing is incomprehensible to us. To our team, goboson.com is logical, exciting, collaborative, user-friendly, dynamic, and universal. "
