Startups’ top needs right now: talent, funding and cofounders

The crowd at Demo Day during Baltimore Startup Weekend.
An informal survey put together by AngelList, a website that connects new startups with investors and potential employees, shows that startups need talented workers the most right now, according to ReadWrite.

Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList, said that startups used to struggle to find enough funding. While funding continues to be something that many new companies seek, now that startups no longer require the huge sums that were necessary to launch a business during the dot-com era, a dearth of employable, talented people is the new hurdle for entrepreneurs.
What that means, reports ReadWrite, is that more new companies search for cofounders instead: people with necessary skills who are willing to work for an equity stake in a startup. As Ravikant told ReadWrite, “In a frothy environment it becomes so hard to recruit people that you start having to expand your cofounding team.”
AngelList’s list of what startups need most right now:

1. Talent
2. Funding
3. Advisers
4. Social-media marketing
5. Press
6. Cofounders
7. Board members
8. Salespeople
9. PR help
10. Office space, lawyers, accountants

For Baltimore-area startups looking for help with marketing and press, there’s Evolve Communications, the Pikesville-based PR agency that works primarily with startups and small businesses, as Technically Baltimore reported in October.
And for those in need of a cofounder, there’s Rockville-based CoFoundersLab, one of the eight Pitch Across Maryland finalists, the self-described “matchmaking” service for entrepreneurs.
Efforts to connect to more seed stage funding opportunities — angel networks and AccelerateBaltimore among them — exist alongside networking and other efforts dedicated to advising too.