SALON DANIEL CONGRATULATES NEW PAUL MITCHELL GRADUATE
Sarah Wiese, New Hairstylist at Local McLean Salon

Sarah Wiese of Falls Church, Va. recently graduated from a 1500-hour cosmetology program at Paul Mitchell the School in Tysons Corner, Va. Wiese has been a part of the Salon Daniel team since 2008, and is currently a hairstylist and make-up artist at Salon Daniel in McLean, Va. specializing in color. First-time clients of Wiese will receive 20 percent off their first visit. For more information, contact 703.893.5000 or visit www.salondaniel.com.

Local entrepreneurs got the skinny on what it takes to get funded at Seed Stage Capital Outlook 2011, yesterday morning’s Potomac Techwire breakfast roundtable. Two panels—one with funders and one with entrepreneurs—generously shared their time and expertise with those of us engaged in the hunt for money.

The panels provided invaluable (and sometimes contradictory) insight. There’s too much to share in one posting, so we’ll focus on the top 10 tips from each group starting with the entrepreneurs today. They advised:

The differences between larger companies and smaller ones are many and varied. In a large company, the fundamental truths are well known. The established company knows things like who the customers are, how much they will pay for the product, what they like about the product, etc. In a start up company, not so much. Discovery is key. Communication is vital. In a start up company, the potential customers and price are unanswered questions. And not only are things unknown, there is usually a limited time to determine the answers. All this mystery can be quite confusing to employees new to the start up environment. These formerly large company employees can enter a small business ill-prepared to succeed even though they’re fully capable of doing so. To change that, here are 5 things you should tell them.