Five to Follow on Twitter for Startups Sometimes in business it actually helps to follow the crowd. Here are five tweeters to follow if you're just getting started up.
By Kara Ohngren Prior •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Jason Nazar has made serving small businesses his business. He's the founder and CEO of Docstoc, an online community for small-business owners to find and share professional documents. It serves as a vast repository of free and for purchase legal, business, financial, technical and educational docs -- making it a key tool for startups.
Prior to launching Santa Monica-Calif.,-based Docstoc in 2007, Nazar was a partner in a venture consulting firm in Los Angeles where he worked with dozens of startups. He continues to foster innovation through his personal blog, where he regularly posts articles like "10 Lessons Startups Can Learn From Superheroes," and his monthly "Startups Uncensored" series.
Nazar who tweets under the handle @jasonnazar recognizes Twitter to be a powerful tool for startups. Here's his list of the top five people to follow for priceless startup insight.
- @msuster
Followers: 33,731
Tweets: 9,859
After selling one of his two startups to Salesforce.com, Mark Suster became a venture capitalist and joined GRP Partners where he focuses on early-stage tech companies. He also founded Launchpad LA, a mentorship program designed to help the most promising Los Angeles-based companies get funding. His tweets give an insider's look into the world of VC; he also offers tech and advertising tips for startups.
Sample Tweet: Fun to read a short, real world example of integrated advertising lessons from @seanalex http://bit.ly/kVUYiP
- @jason
Followers: 111,578
Tweets: 26,395
Jason Calacanis is founder of the popular how-to site, Mahalo.com. Based in Santa Monica, Calif., he also founded the Open Angel Forum, an event that connects early stage startups with angel investors. His Twitter feed is chock full of useful tech and gadget news for startups.
Sample Tweet: If you bought your iMac in last 12 months there's no reason to upgrade to new iMac correct @gdgt? http://techme.me/BVVE
- @mattcutts
Followers: 111,957
Tweets: 12,705
Matt Cutts is the head of Google's Webspam team and a search-engine optimization pro. Based in San Francisco, he primarily tweets about the latest Google product news, gadgets and SEO for startups.
Sample Tweet: The new version of Gingerbread has video chat built into Google Talk: http://goo.gl/ewEPc (Landscape mode is nice.)
- @stevestrauss
Followers: 5,644
Tweets: 967
Steve Strauss is a Portland-based lawyer, USA Today columnist and author of The Small Business Bible. He's also the founder of MrAllBiz.com, a resource for all things small business. Strauss consistently tweets useful small business startup advice and news.
Sample Tweet: Finding the funding for your small business - USATODAY.com http://usat.ly/gR6vk8 via @USATODAY
- @johnbattelle
Followers: 58,824
Tweets: 6,052
A journalist from Marin, Calif., John Battelle is one of the original founders of Wired magazine and the founder of The Industry Standard, a now shuttered biz-tech publication. He's also an authority on Web 2.0 and pens the popular tech and media resource, Searchblog. He treats his Twitter followers to a constant flow of startup, tech and social media news -- along with a healthy dose of photos documenting his life.
Sample Tweet: Amex OPEN and FBook teaming up to help sm. biz - I'm judging. Submit your business for a Big Break here: http://on.fb.me/ieUjaZ
What Twitter feeds do you follow to keep up with Startups? Leave a comment and let us know.
- Ohngren is a freelance writer in Long Beach, Calif.
