10 Tips For Starting A Startup10 Tips For Starting A Startup

Budding entrepreneurs mingled with startup veterans at a meeting this week hosted by the Pittsburgh chapter of TiE, a national association that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation. You could read volumes on how to start a company, but nothing's more valuable than talking to people who have done it. Here are some do's and don'ts from the TiE meeting.The event took place on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University, which is among the local institutions and businesses behind Pittsburgh's emergence as a center of innovation in software, life sciences/medicine, and robotics. Apple, Intel, and Google are just some of the tech companies with offices in the area.

TiE's roundtable discussions were organized around eight topics, ranging from fund raising to intellectual property to exit strategies. I gravitated toward two topics for people who are just getting started: "day zero" planning and seed money. Thus, my 10 Tips list is geared toward the very beginning of the process.